Editorial May 19, 1934 Issue

Are We Praying Enough?

Duncan Sinclair

Prayer is the means whereby men receive divine aid. It is a question of recognizing God as supreme and ourselves as dependent upon Him, approaching Him in humility, and then in "the secret place of the most High" affirming the truth about the creator and His creation and denying material sense, whose evidence, when accepted, is responsible for all human problems. "But thou, when thou prayest," said Jesus, "enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

Christian Scientists pray to the Father "in secret." They call it silent prayer, or, perhaps, inaudible treatment. They do not doubt the power of prayer, for they have many times proved its efficacy to heal and bless. Their attitude is expressed in the words of Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 2), when she asks, "Are we benefited by praying?" and answers, "Yes, the desire which goes forth hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return unto us void." Today throughout the world people are coming to Christian Science for the healing of disease and the overcoming of sin; and Christian Scientists are meeting the needs of many of them through their understanding of the perfection of God and man and the unreality of all unlike good—understanding which is often exercised in silent prayer when the patient is either beside them or apart from them.

It is true that healings frequently take place through the spoken or written word. Indeed, it would be difficult to number those who have taken up the study of Science and Health when in sore distress and been healed, even while perusing the first chapter in the book, that on Prayer. Sometimes, also, people who have gained a little understanding of Christian Science have turned to the Bible, maybe to the ninety-first or twenty-third Psalm; and as they have read, the truth of God's protecting love has dawned upon them and they have been healed. Others, again, have been healed as the truth about real being has been audibly declared and evil denied in their presence. Glorious it is to observe the activity of Truth dispelling the errors of material sense!

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