"Thou hearest me always"

Duncan Sinclair

Standing by the tomb of Lazarus before he raised him from the dead, Christ Jesus uttered these memorable words: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." We read the Master's words after all these years, and are grateful that for the people's sake who stood by he expressed himself as he did; for they enable us to see how profound, how scientific, was his understanding of God and of man's relationship to Him.

"Thou hearest me always"! Was God, then, always listening for the prayers of the Nazarene? Obviously, else He would not always have heard him. And if God was always listening for the prayers of His well-beloved Son, and was always hearing them, can the same be said of the prayers of others? The answer is one in which mankind is intensely interested, because of the value it places on prayer.

Now, many have sought in vain for an answer to this very question. They have been unable to understand how God, who is Spirit, could hear their words or even their thoughts. They have been unable to understand how it was possible to inform God, who is infinite Mind; for being infinite in intelligence, did He not know all that was true already? And what were they, the puny sons of men, to call on Deity, on Him who eternally sustains the universe and to whom creation is known in its entirety? It was surely expecting too much, some of them have thought, that the Supreme Being should deign to bend His ear towards them, to say nothing of hearing them always! Not an easy question, seemingly, to the unenlightened thought! Not a simple question to one uninstructed in divine Science!

The Christian world was struggling with the problem of prayer, as it had done ever since Jesus' time, when Christian Science came healing the sick and cleansing the sinner and doing so through prayer; for Christian Science actually enables men to do works similar to those performed by Jesus, and by the method he used. Does God, then, hear the prayers of the Christian Scientist? Can it be said that He is always listening for his prayers and always hearing them? It certainly looks like it, since his prayers are so often answered by unmistakable healings.

Christian Science has swept away many erroneous beliefs about God and replaced them with spiritual understanding which is genuine. And one of these erroneous beliefs was that God's nature is like unto that of a mortal; that He is liable to be influenced as is a mortal; that He may act otherwise than in an altogether righteous manner; that He hears, weighs evidence, and decides upon it like a mortal: in other words, men have thought of God too often after the pattern of their own imperfections. But God, as Christian Science reveals Him, is divine Principle, perfect Spirit, eternal Love, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient Mind; and His creation, man, is His unchangeable reflection.

In considering the question of prayer, then, one has first of all to become cognizant of the nature of God and of the real man; for then one understands perfect being, and that there is nothing in it which needs readjusting or healing. The real universe, including individual spiritual man, is absolutely perfect. It is mortal man, so called, who believes in imperfection and who therefore needs to pray. Mrs. Eddy writes on page 7 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "God is not influenced by man. The 'divine ear' is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is always known and by whom it will be supplied." The Christian Scientist knows this. He knows that his real spiritual self is ever under the protection of "the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind," that the needs of this spiritual self are always supplied; and it is this understanding which meets his human needs.

What mortals require more than aught else is correct knowledge of God and of His creation, man. They must come to know God as the Mind who knows all, as divine Love who loves all. Then they will be able to approach Him in prayer assured that their prayers will be answered, not because God hears them after the manner of men, but because they have prayed with enlightened understanding; with faith proportionately enlightened, and conscious of the truth that man, as the idea of God, is infinitely blessed.

How beautifully Mrs. Eddy depicts (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 81) the divine hearing and answering of the human cry! She writes: "In the desolation of human understanding, divine Love hears and answers the human call for help; and the voice of Truth utters the divine verities of being which deliver mortals out of the depths of ignorance and vice. This is the Father's benediction." Let us not fail, then, to pray, whatever the extent of our spiritual understanding, remembering that, as it is written in Isaiah, "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them."

Duncan Sinclair

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