Editorial October 21, 1922 Issue

Prayer

Duncan Sinclair

"Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." These words of Jesus, simple as they are, yet based on profound spiritual understanding, give a vivid insight into the rationale of prayer. The Master was aware of the allness of God, knew that the Father possessed all knowledge and all power, and was therefore able to, and actually did, supply all the needs of His creation. Putting this understanding into practice, he healed all manner of sin and disease through prayer, and used no other means in the performing of his wonderful works, thereby demonstrating to mankind beyond cavil the superiority of spiritual power over every so-called material method of healing.

Mrs. Eddy rediscovered the method of spiritual healing by scientific prayer as practiced by Christ Jesus. Men have prayed, before and after Jesus' day; and sometimes, when thought was pure and spiritualized enough, and faith in God became strong and clear, their prayers have been answered, even to the extent of the healing of disease, or, maybe, the overcoming of some difficulty which had threatened to overwhelm them completely. But until the discovery of Christian Science—the Science of being, which teaches the absolute knowledge of God and His creation,—the function and rationale of prayer lay, to a great extent, hidden beneath dogma, ritual, and creed. Prayer was practiced, indeed, before this discovery; but it seemed to many as if it were perpetually being lost in the unknown, which appeared to separate them from God.

Whenever one opens the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, one becomes initiated into the Science of prayer. The first chapter of the book is the most erudite and accurate exposition of prayer ever written. Mrs. Eddy takes one into the very heart of the subject at once, exposing with unerring logic the fallacies of the so-called human mind with regard to it, establishing the facts of God's eternal goodness and infinite love, declaring the truth about His unerring wisdom and unlimited knowledge, and showing how God, Love and Truth and Life, can be so understood by mankind as to become immediately available in meeting their needs, whatever they may be,—even to the extent of healing their diseases, destroying their sins, raising them above the false beliefs of lack and woe, and even overcoming the belief of death. The very first sentence of the first chapter begins (Science and Health, p. 1), "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." Spiritual understanding of God, purifying from material sense, establishes faith in God on an absolute basis, thereby promoting "unselfed love" or the love of Love; and so, spiritual understanding makes it possible for the law of Spirit—spiritual law—to operate in the healing of all untoward conditions.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Prayer

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access