Christ Jesus voiced a Fundamental fact of creation when he said (John 5:19,20): "The Son can do nothing; of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth." Only the divine, infinite Being is self-created and self-sustained. Out of its boundless self-containment, this Being, which is Life and Mind and Love, maintains its spiritual creation. Of this creation, man is the highest idea by virtue of his power to conceive of all that Mind creates, thus reflecting the self-complete and self-sustaining nature of the infinite.

Although the ability to perceive the things which the Father showeth him is an innate endowment of spiritual man, it has to be attained by mankind. As Paul writes (I Cor. 2:14), "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." In order that a human being may apprehend "the things of the Spirit of God," the spiritual faculties inherent in every individual, together with the qualities which characterize the man of God's creating, must be brought to light and utilized.

To forward this achievement, we have the counsel of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, found in "Miscellaneous Writings." Here she says (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."

The prayer of petition is a means of self-correction by which the dual human self loses its materiality and finds man's at-one-ment with God. In the prayer of petition we seek the awakening within ourselves of the spiritual faculties which enable us to commune with the divine Mind and become aware of its infinite ideas.

This awareness can come to the human consciousness only as the testimony of the material senses is subjugated. While one's attention is focused on the things of the world, one cannot find the way to heaven. So we have the counsel of the Master, reiterated by our Leader, to go into the closet to pray. In Mrs. Eddy's famous chapter on Prayer in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" this counsel is phrased as follows (p. 15): "In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses. In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God's allness."

"The quiet sanctuary of earnest longings" is our house of prayer. It is not a house of stone to which we must travel afar. We take it with us wherever we may go. Right where we are, our sanctuary is at hand, lighted by our faith and perfumed with our gratitude. To this sanctuary we may retire each day to pray as we are guided by our Master and our Leader. In the model given by the Master the petitions for our guidance and correction are followed by the powerful affirmation of God's allness (Matt. 6:13), "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever." Our Leader in the Manual of The Mother Church states (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!"

Because of the universal belief in physical causation it is essential to our freedom and spiritual advance that we daily affirm God's allness with a clear sense of what this means in terms of cause and effect. The allness of God inheres in the fact that He is the only cause and creator. The creator must have a creation, and the cause an effect; but the effect is always effect, although it conforms completely to the nature of its cause.

We need constantly to hold before our thought the supremacy of God as the only creator and our own unbreakable unity with, and undeviating likeness to, this great and only cause. We need to claim for ourselves the qualities which belong to man as the effect of God as cause. Each of the synonyms for God given in Science and Health connotes spiritual qualities which we may realize as inherent in our own true selfhood.

As we thus establish in consciousness our link with our creator and so open the way for the perception of God's ideas, we shall be in a position to voice the affirmations for others which form the basis of Christian Science treatment. If we are conscientiously working out of the belief of life in matter, daily denying sin and pleading God's allness for ourselves, we can undertake to help those who turn to us for aid. Neither the teachings of the Bible nor those of our Leader give authority for relegating prayer to a favored class. We read in James (5:16), "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availcth much."

Besides numerous accounts of the healing of disease the Bible contains many instances of intercessory prayer which brought deliverance in times of national emergency or public disaster. Moses employed it most effectively in the escape of the children of Israel from pursuit by the Egyptians (see Ex. 14:10– 29). Solomon's prayers for his people were recognized as bringing peace and prosperity to his reign (see I Kings 8:37–53 and 10:1–7). In the writer's own experience there have been convincing proofs of the efficacy of intercessory prayer as it is understood in Christian Science. Neighborhood property has been protected when threatened by forest fire and hurricane, and injury and loss of life have been prevented. The persistent affirmation of the allness of God, good, made with the understanding that this allness precludes the possibility of any physical causation or any laws of matter, has brought unmistakable results.

May we not think of our prayers of affirmation as paeans of praise to our creator? Through them we are giving voice to the jubilee of Spirit which John voiced in Revelation (12:10, 11): "I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony."

It is the false accusation that man is material instead of spiritual, with all that this accusation entails of human misery and strife, which our affirmations are putting down. We may know that they are made with power and with signs following.