Article September 17, 1949 Issue

HOW TO PRAY SUCCESSFULLY

ARNOLD H. EXO

Christ Jesus, whose prayers were so successful that they raised the dead, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, reformed the sinner, and set at nought such cherished mortal laws as those relating to the weather, economics, physics, time, and space, gave very explicit instructions on how all might pray successfully. He said: "When thou prayest, 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. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."

Here we have from the Master himself four definite instructions telling us how to pray successfully. These four instructions are: first, "enter into thy closet;" secondly, "shut thy door;" thirdly, "pray to thy Father ... in secret;" and fourthly, "use not vain repetitions."

The first two instructions, phrased in the metaphor of the closet and the door, have deep spiritual significance. In Jesus' day and country each house usually had an inner room or store chamber. Because of its location, this room was the most private and quiet one in the house. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in regard to the essentials of successful prayer as set forth by the Master (p. 15): "The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but lets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to error, it is open to Truth, and vice versa. The Father in secret is unseen to the physical senses, but He knows all things and rewards according to motives, not according to speech."

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