Article March 9, 1946 Issue

Answered Prayer

MORRIS WISNER LEE

Before the discovery of Christian Science, God's dealings with mankind, except for supposedly miraculous interpositions, were quite generally thought to be handled at long distance. Looking upon their surroundings, the majority of human beings accepted as God's creation what they saw and correlatively accepted the concept of God as restricted by human attributes.

Unanswered prayers to such a God were laid to various causes, such as lack of virtue in the suppliant or an unwilling ear on the part of Deity. People believed that God was able to help them, but they explained His seeming lack of response by saying that what He was besought to do He considered unworthy to do, or for some unknown reason did not wish to do. Human beings in general declared that they knew God to be infinite, but their actions discredited their statements. God might be near at hand temporarily to comfort the sorrowing, they thought, but His answer to prayer was decidedly uncertain.

The Science of Christianity, named Christian Science, is redeeming Christian theology. In a word, it is changing prayer from unreasoning supplication to understanding petition and affirmation. It is changing the attitude of humanity from being a "have not" to a "have"—an attitude of mind described by Jesus when he said (Mark 11:24). "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Notwithstanding the Master's clear-cut statement (Matt. 6:8), "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him," mankind is still hesitant to accept it and to act as though God's goodness was changeless and inevitably present, The consecrated labors of Christian Scientists are greatly needed to clear away the mist which would obscure the beauty, power, and presence of God as ever-present Love and His willingness and ability to meet every human need.

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