Article October 16, 1926 Issue

Spiritual Enrichment

RUTH POWELL WENBAN

As a friendly guide and unfailing source of wise direction, the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy grows daily in the appreciation of the Christian Scientist. As he peruses it he learns to use and understand more comprehensively the Rules and Bylaws which his Leader has there given him, and to feel increasing gratitude for the prayerful wisdom which surely prompted their publication. If, before his acquaintance with the Science of being, one had been an earnest Christian, he no doubt was in the habit of praying daily for himself and others. Sometimes his prayers were answered; at other times, they seemed all unavailing; and searchingly he may have asked himself, What is wrong with my prayers?

In taking up the systematic study of Christian Science, he finds that the first chapter of its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, has as its subject, "Prayer." He has not progressed very far in the perusal of this chapter before he finds his concepts of prayer undergoing a change. He realizes gratefully that no longer does he need to grope in the darkness of materiality, and blindly, albeit trustingly, to petition, as he has believed, a far-off Deity, for human favors. On pages 16 and 17 of this chapter our Leader has given, in remarkably lucid phraseology, the scientific interpretation of that prayer beloved of all Christians, the Lord's Prayer. In growing wonder and joy, the student finds that this interpretation of the prayer which he has used, perhaps for years, without deep revelation of its true and inward meaning, has revised his attitude toward God and his fellowmen, and so broadened and sweetened his sphere of thought that healing and helpfulness have resulted for himself and others.

Continuing his studies, he searches the Manual in the endeavor to demonstrate a higher and more intelligent obedience to the demands of Science. And again does Mrs. Eddy illumine his understanding; for on page 41 of the Manual he finds Section 4 of Article VIII, entitled "Daily Prayer," which reads, "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to pray each day: 'Thy kingdom come;' let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!" Through the habitual use of this unselfish petition be puts himself in line with universal progress, and becomes an active and effective worker for the Christianization of the whole world. Earnestly searching its depths of meaning, fulfilling its obligations, and utilizing its privileges, he joins the household of God; he becomes a faithful servant in the establishment of God's kingdom, a wise representative of the government of God's Word, a loving ministrant and neighbor in the community of God's people. With the establishment, first, of the kingdom within, he knows that his capacity for helpful citizenship in the universal realm of Truth, Life, and Love will be strengthened. And one day he may ask himself a new question, a question unthought of in the old days of blind faith and hopeless prayers: What am I, as an individual Christian Scientist, doing, that His Word may "enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them"?

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