Editorial January 22, 1927 Issue

God Answers Prayer

Duncan Sinclair

How often men have wondered—yes, doubted—the moment after they had uttered their prayers, whether they would be answered! Prayer to the unenlightened thought has always seemed vague and uncertain. And why? Because the true nature of God and His creation has not been known. To the thought uninstructed in spiritual reality God is like unto a mortal; and this thought believes that Deity must be pleaded with after the manner of men, before He will answer prayer, if He answers it at all. Christian Science corrects this erroneous view by instructing its students in the true method of prayer.

Now although, speaking generally, men have been ignorant of the truth about God and have in consequence often failed to benefit by prayer, there have been those throughout religious history, as it is set forth in the Scriptures, who most assuredly have benefited by prayer. These have had their needs met by God, their sicknesses healed, their sorrows comforted, their sins pardoned, unquestionably through petitionary approach to the Most High. The Psalmist exquisitely touches the secret of their success when he writes, "The meek will he [God] guide in judgement: and the meek will he teach his way."

Meekness, or humility, then, is the first great essential in the correct approach to God. As Mrs. Eddy puts it in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 1): "Humility is the stepping-stone to a higher recognition of Deity." And this higher recognition of God is necessary if one would enter into the understanding of true prayer—prayer, that is, which is answered. What, then, does Christian Science teach about God that is of such vital importance? It teaches that God is perfect Mind and that His creation consists of perfect ideas; that man is the idea of divine Mind, and is therefore spiritual, not material. Thus it shows that God and His idea, man, are not like imperfect mortals. As these truths are perceived, it becomes clear that man, Mind's perfect idea, is ever at-one with and supported by infinite power and wisdom.

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