Prayer and Praise

FRANCES ETTINGE

WHEN it seems that our light flickers and inspiration wanes; when it seems impossible to pray, yet the heart yearns heavenward, then let us put on "the garment of praise." For is not praise prayer? Are not they inseparable?

The words are closely related, and in several instances Mrs. Eddy uses them conjointly. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 331) she writes, "Abiding in Truth, the warmth and sunlight of prayer and praise and understanding will ripen the fruits of Spirit, and goodness will have its spring-tide of freedom and greatness." Again, in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 170) she speaks of "sacred silence in blest communion—unity of faith, understanding, prayer, and praise."

Our Leader perceived the true nature and power of prayer, and in the chapter on Prayer in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and elsewhere, she shows how the understanding and application of prayer yield the "signs following"—practical proofs of a true knowledge of God.

In every genuine prayer there are, necessarily, the elements of praise and thanksgiving. Careful analysis of the Psalms shows three forms of prayer prevailing throughout—that of petition, that of affirmation, and that of praise. With what triumph does the Psalmist proclaim the goodness, the majesty, and the power of God!

Obviously, prayer without praise might fall to the level of mere pleading, asking God to be what He already is—infinite good, Life, Truth, Love. But to rejoice because He is God—Love—protecting, guiding, and lighting the way to a higher spiritual understanding of His goodness, admits the light that frees from mental darkness and depression.

Did not Jesus combine affirmation, thanksgiving, and praise in his prayer, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always," and then raise Lazarus from the dead?

In the personal experience of one student, the revelation of right prayer came as a direct leading from Mind. As she earnestly endeavored to break through a dense cloud of darkness and depression, and yearned for some sign of God's care, yet was seemingly unable to pray, there came to her thought this message on the wings of Spirit: Put on "the garment of praise"! What a rebuke to material sense! What a rebuke to her understanding of Christian Science! At once she recognized the lesson Love was teaching her. She had been making a false god, one who knew something besides the grandeur and majesty of God's true being and spiritual creation; a god who knew a joyless, spiritless, and depressed man; a god who withheld good. And what a revelation followed of the one true God, the only God, the God of love, of untiring patience and devotion, ever imparting the spiritual light of joy and freedom and maintaining man's eternally perfect state and possession of all good!

Humbly she acknowledged her ingratitude, her neglect to thank God for His provision and care during a trying period. She now realized, out of a grateful heart, the unacknowledged divine presence which had hovered over her during this trial. She was assured He was on the field, though invisible. There was nothing to fear. The self-imposed mist of doubt and separation from good was dispelled. A childlike prayer for forgiveness ascended to the Father, who is unchanging Love. No longer could she pray without the unction of Spirit, which she now knew included praise.

Peter clearly indicates the essential complement to prayer and faith when he speaks of rejoicing, even though "in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory." No evil suggestion or temptation can reach the thought pinnacled in praise. Such thought is the realizing of spiritual perfection—the basis of demonstration in Christian Science.

Where discouragement and depression obscure spiritual realization, the unspoken desire for holiness and unceasing praise establish the conviction of God's allness. Thought humbly held Spiritward in steadfast praise breaks the binding beliefs of human sense and abides in present realization and demonstration of good.

Need we mourn, then, believing any good has been lost, when God reveals Himself to spiritual sense as ever-present good? Therefore let us put on "the garment of praise" and "enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise."

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