Article November 3, 1951 Issue

LET GOD'S REIGN BE ESTABLISHED

ETHEL MUNRO GOSS

In a message to the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church in 1896 our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, said (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 127): "One thing I have greatly desired, and again earnestly request, namely, that Christian Scientists, here and elsewhere, pray daily for themselves; not verbally, nor on bended knee, but mentally, meekly, and importunately. When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone,—but more grace, obedience, and love."

Christian Science reveals the healing efficacy of prayer. In all her writings Mrs. Eddy sets forth the spiritual sense of prayer as an urgent hunger and thirst for righteousness which is never expressed in a mechanical routine of words, but in implicit faith in and an affirmation of the power and presence of God, the all-knowing Mind. It was therefore natural that our Leader should have included in the Manual of The Mother Church a By-Law which reads (Art. VIII, Sect. 4): "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to pray each day: 'Thy kingdom come;' let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!"

This "Daily Prayer," rightly understood and utilized, will aid us in obeying other requirements in our Manual, for it expresses the spiritual desire to be wholly governed by God, by Truth, Life, and Love, in thought and action. It includes our duty to ourselves and our duty to our neighbor. It involves self-correction for ourselves and leaves our neighbor to the loving correction of the Word of God. This prayer should never be used as a daily ritual, but as an affirmation of a sincere desire to let the reign of righteousness be established in human consciousness. To utter this prayer with honesty and sincerity demands a lifting up of thought, a turning away from the material to the spiritual sense of existence, a willingness to subordinate the human to the divine.

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