Editorial December 30, 1950 Issue

CONCERNING STUDY AND PRACTICE

ROBERT ELLIS KEY

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE treatment is given by means of prayer. The young student of this Science who is seeking to understand how to pray the effective healing prayer will find it continuously necessary to study the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. When pointing out the best way to progress in Christian Science, our Leader writes (Science and Health, p. 495), "Study thoroughly the letter and imbide the spirit."

The disciples of Jesus healed the sick, reformed the sinner, and raised the dead by means of prayer. It is conceivable that the prayer which they used and through which they healed was the prayer given to them by the Master and known to us as the Lord's Prayer. It is not reasonable to believe that the mere repetition of the words of this prayer can heal the sick. Jesus did not instruct them merely to repeat the words, but to frame their prayers in the manner or mode of the prayer he had given them. He said (Matt. 6:9), "After this manner therefore pray ye." The Lord's Prayer contains certain vital truths concerning God and man, and it is in the manner of these truths that the effective healing prayer must be given.

In order to understand the vast and absorbing subject of prayer the student of Christian Science must become familiar with the foundational truths of this Science as revealed in the Bible and our textbook. He must live and love these truths and be assiduous in demonstrating them. Study and practice should keep pace with each other. The purpose of study is not to provide an intellectual exercise, but to strengthen our understanding of Christian Science so that our convictions of the power and presence of Life, Truth, and Love are so clear that we readily demonstrate the truth.

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