Article July 11, 1925 Issue

Talking to God

CONSTANCE CHOISY

All men at some time or other feel the necessity of prayer. Even the greatest scoffer at religion, or the most materially-minded person, when in great trouble often turns to a Providence he feels exists; and instinctively at such moments there comes a desire for the help of God. It is when the pathway seems strewn with roses that one most frequently forgets his God. But the awakening must come eventually; for material existence has its sorrows as well as its so-called joys. And it is when sorrows assail that the cry most readily goes up, "Lord, save us: we perish."

This cry for help is the beginning of prayer; and the wise man is he who looks to his Bible to find the way of deliverance, in accordance with the words of Jesus, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life." Mary Baker Eddy became the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science after she had devoted her time to this great quest; and she found the truth in those sacred pages, as she tells us in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," on page 110, lines 13 and 14. Throughout her teachings she shows God, not as a far-away despot, sometimes listening to His children's cry but more often oblivious to their sufferings, but as "a very present help in trouble;" and she was able to open for poor storm-tossed humanity the priceless gift of the understanding of spiritual healing, thus following in the footsteps of Christ Jesus, who came to do the Father's works, and who said, "I can of mine own self do nothing."

Jesus was always talking to God. And he talked with Him as his Father who was ever near. Never in his great life's work can we imagine Jesus doubting or mistrusting this tender, loving Father, whose omnipotence he manifested in the healing of the sick and the sinning. The gospels give many beautiful instances of his talking to God. The seventeenth chapter of John is a wonderful example of this practice. And before he raised Lazarus from the dead, how confident were the Master's words as he spoke to his heavenly Father: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always."

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