Article October 25, 1919 Issue

"Lord, teach us to pray"

EUGENIE PAUL JEFFERSON

THE plea of the disciples to be taught of their Master the right concept of prayer is echoed by the beginner in the study of Christian Science. Before the great fact of an infinite, incorporeal God had been fully accepted, and the understanding of heaven as an eternal condition of spiritual harmony had been attained, there had appeared to one seeker after Truth a feeling that something vital had been taken away from prayer. This seeming loss was afterwards proved to be gain, for with the giving up of the limited concept of God,—a God who, seated upon a great white throne in a material heaven whose streets were paved with gold, judged His children and forgave or punished, blessed or condemned, according to His will,—came the childlike receptivity to the Christian Science teaching of God as infinite good.

Through the study of the chapter on Prayer in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the textbook of Christian Science, the former prayer of beseeching gave place to the prayer of understanding, yea, of gratitude, and the young student rejoiced in the comprehension of the words spoken to the elder son when the prodigal returned to his father's house, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." All good has been the full heritage of the real man forever. Unlike the heir to material possessions, who inherits only his share, each son of the heavenly Father inherits all. Can we ask for more?

To obtain this understanding of prayer, Mrs. Eddy counseled the students of Christian Science to search the Scriptures and ponder upon their message, even as the virgin mother pondered the sweet secret of the angel vision. We do not have to plead to have the loving promises of the Bible fulfilled, but we need to understand the conditions of their fulfillment. Many of the promises have conditions attached to them, and only as we seek in prayer and knock at the heavenly door of understanding, can the fulfillment be demonstrated. Writing upon the subject of prayer, Henry Drummond says, "Men pray for things which they are quite unable to receive, or altogether unwilling to pay the price for."

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