Editorial May 12, 1951 Issue

THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRAYER

Richard J. Davis

Obedient to the Master's injunction to preach the gospel, the good news of Truth, and demonstrate it in healing, the Apostle James wrote (5:13–16): "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. ...The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him... The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

If prayer heals the sick, redeems the sinner, and saves men and women morally, physically, and even financially, it must admittedly be reasonable and practical; and this we understand and declare is the prayer of Christian Science, the prayer that was employed by Christ Jesus and his faithful and professed followers. But some, in fact many, may say: "Yes, prayer perhaps should heal the sick. I believe that, although I do not really understand just how and why prayer becomes effective. I have prayed most earnestly to God. I have asked Him to deliver me from my sickness, but nothing has happened. I am still suffering. Why am I not healed?"

From the standpoint of Christian Science let us consider this prayer for a moment. What kind of prayer was it? A begging petition to a distant entity or God, asking Him to take cognizance of our trouble and make a sick man well? If prayer is based on the belief that disease is real and that man is actually ill, in all logic how can it heal? How can a real disease be made unreal? Can pleading be the true nature of prayer? Does God as a personal and a possibly remote being look down on suffering humanity, recognize disease, and heal it? Is that the process? Not as we understand it in Christian Science.

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