Article December 4, 1948 Issue

"GIVE US GRACE FOR TO-DAY"

EDITH BAIRD ROBINSON

Prayer is the means of grace and salvation for mankind. To the Christian Scientist, prayer is to a large extent affirmative. Such prayer affirms the spiritual facts, as revealed in Christian Science, about God as Spirit, substance, immortal Truth, and man as His image and likeness, His perfect spiritual idea, the expression of His being.

There are, however, many beautiful and important instances in the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy in which the prayer of petition is helpfully employed. In the Lord's Prayer we petition God (Matt. 6:11), "Give us this day our daily bread." Mrs. Eddy in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," spiritually interprets these words thus (p. 17): "Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections."

Seeking for grace and understanding is the scientific use of prayer as petition. And its importance is emphasized by our Leader in her article "The Deep Things of God" (Unity of Good, p. 14), where she makes this imperative statement: "Christians are commanded to grow in grace."

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