Article May 3, 1952 Issue

GOOD LISTENING

ROBERT DOLLING WELLS

John Keble, a nineteenth-century English clergyman, uttered this simple and useful prayer: "Give us grace to listen well." Good listening is opening one's heart to understand. Spiritual alertness and receptivity mark the successful listener at a Christian Science lecture or a service in a Church of Christ, Scientist.

Listening merely to pass time, to accommodate a friend, to find something to criticize, or to be entertained may bear unexpected fruit in the acceptance of some good thing read or spoken. But there are higher and better reasons for being in an audience where the Science of being is set forth. One result of spiritual listening was the response of the two disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Of them Luke says (24:31), "Their eyes were opened." That is, they saw what they had not seen before. They listened well to their Master's discourse.

Attendance at a Christian Science church service or lecture may be considered a continuation of prayer, a pursuance of one's earnest and heartfelt longing for spiritual awakening. And of prayer our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes (No and Yes, p. 39): "It makes new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power. It shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

GOOD LISTENING

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access