Editorial January 26, 1952 Issue

THE VALUE AND MEANING OF SILENT PRAYER

Richard J. Davis

Those attending a Christian Science service for the first time may have remarked that the only public prayer we have is a few moments of silent communion with God, followed by the audible repetition of the Lord's Prayer alone, or of that prayer with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy.

People sometimes ask why our prayers are silent. Christian Scientists pray silently both publicly and in private. In her book "No and Yes" (p. 39) Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, writes: "Prophet and apostle have glorified God in secret prayer, and He has rewarded them openly. Prayer can neither change God, nor bring His designs into mortal modes; but it can and does change our modes and our false sense of Life, Love, and Truth, uplifting us to Him. Such prayer humiliates, purifies, and quickens activity, in the direction that is unerring. Trueprayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection."

The Apostle James wrote (5:16), "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." For centuries people have repeated audibly day after day and year after year the same prayers, many of them written ages ago, until they have begun to realize that often true fervency is no longer there and, most of all, that they are neither effectual nor available.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

SCIENTIFIC MODESTY