Article December 27, 1919 Issue

Watch and Pray

ETHEL MUNRO GOSS

Toward the close of a day that had gone sadly awry, a student of Christian Science was impelled to seek earnestly for the cause of her seeming confusion. The day had been strewn with failures, a bitter thought here, an impatient word there, self-pity, and now self-condemnation—all had combined to form a troubled mist of discouragement. She realized that she had allowed her day to begin without any spiritual preparation and so had been found defenseless. An earnest study of the Manual which followed led to the humble realization that she had not been obedient to its by-laws.

Mrs. Eddy says of our Manual (Art. XXXV, Sect. 1), "It stands alone, uniquely adapted to form the budding thought and hedge it about with divine Love." A careful perusal of these by-laws in their special reference to daily prayer will reveal to the student that in Article VIII, Sections 1, 4, and 6, Mrs. Eddy has given us loving instruction which will be found to apply to every phase of mortal existence, for they cover our duty to God, our duty to man, to our organization, and to ourselves. Also, in the last tenet of our church "we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus" (Manual, p.16), and when we become members of The Mother Church we subscribe to these tenets and by-laws.

The wise tenderness manifested in these by-laws which bid us daily to watch and pray, is unfolded to us more and more as we realize our need of this alertness. There are various phases of human thought which need to be awakened to the necessity for this daily obedience. One is the claim of an active, capable, human self that has been accustomed to do all that is demanded of it and to do it well, but which in this daily watchfulness is reminded that it must lay aside a sense of human achievement to find strength in the allness of divine Mind. Another claim is an apathy toward the things of Spirit, which causes us to be "cumbered about much serving" and to be neglectful of our daily spiritual nourishment and protection until a more convenient season. Again, in ministering to others, one is often apt to forget to minister to one's self. Here the self-abnegation and consecration necessary for one's work needs to be daily strengthened and nourished so that the weeds of mortal mind do not come in and hinder growth. How subtly the enemy plants the seed when we mentally sleep,—seed which may spring up into self-glorification, self-will, unless we defend ourselves daily from all evil, and pray that only God's kingdom be established in us. Surely the budding thought is here protected if we but heed and obey these loving laws.

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