Article December 16, 1950 Issue

"MORE GRACE, OBEDIENCE, AND LOVE"

RUTH M. BARING-GOULD

Christian Science teaches that God is All, that He is infinite Life, Truth, and Love, allwise, all-loving, and ever present. True prayer is not telling God what we want, for our Father-Mother God already knows all our needs and supplies them. Prayer unites thought to God and thus enables us to know and do His will. Through prayer we understand the goodness of God and His love for His children. Thus we see that there can be no disappointment, no frustration, and no lack of good for those who trust their desires to God.

A young woman one day called to see a Christian Science practitioner. With tears in her eyes she told her that something she had very much hoped and planned for now seemed impossible. She was tempted to feel she was losing faith in God, for her prayers did not seem to have been answered. The practitioner lovingly explained that when praying in Christian Science we do not outline how we want our prayers answered, but we pray to be guided by God and to follow the design which the all-wise, all-loving Father has planned for each of His children. Through prayer, spiritualization of thought, we become aware of the good that is already ours as Love's idea. With meek and penitent heart we turn from selfwill to find pardon, comfort, and strength in divine Love. We no longer fear that we shall lose anything good, for we know that in our "Father's house are many mansions" (John 14:2).

Opening "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mary Baker Eddy, the practitioner read aloud from page 127. One sentence in this beautiful passage particularly helped the young woman: "When a hungry heart petitions the divine FatherMother God for bread, it is not given a stone,—but more grace, obedience, and love."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

THE HORSE AND THE MULE