Editorial May 5, 1928 Issue

Constant prayers"

Albert F. Gilmore

In a characteristically concise sentence Mrs. Eddy, on page 15 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," defines the substance of prayer. "Self-forgetfulness," she writes, "purity, and affection are constant prayers." How unlike the commonly accepted concept of prayer is this description of it! Not a petition, not a supplication, not even an affirmation, but "self-forgetfulness, purity, and affection"! These states of consciousness, as understood by our Leader, are constant prayers: that is to say, when the mentality is freed from self-love and is transformed thereby from selfishness to selflessness; is pure, free from all material beliefs, from all claims arising from the fundamental error that matter is substance, having life and intelligence; is affectionate, in a purified love for one's fellow-men, for all good—then are established the mental states which constitute constant prayer.

In the light of this explication, prayer becomes a state of purified consciousness, approaching the divine idea, the perfect man. It is the Mind of Christ made manifest in selflessness, purity, and love for mankind, and seeking further purification through laying off all material sense. It is the mental state for which all mortals strive when seeking freedom from the bondage of materiality, from all that is false. It is the spiritual state of man, to which Christ Jesus referred when he admonished his hearers, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

Our Leader implies that the purified consciousness, which is a complete transparency for Truth, is a state of constant prayer. All who are engaged in the holy task of purifying thought, of eliminating all unlike spiritual truth, are righteously seeking that state; their very desire is prayer. Obedience to divine will is the way. And God's purpose for all His children is being wrought out in accordance with His will, for all His ideas are in reality doing precisely that for which He created them.

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