Article November 26, 1966 Issue

"After this manner therefore pray ye"

JEAN M. SNYDER

Anyone with a hungry heart and a childlike receptive attitude can learn how to pray successfully. Christian Science conforms to Jesus' counsel regarding the way to pray. He said to his disciples, "After this manner therefore pray ye," ^{Matt. 6:9;} and he taught them what is known as the Lord's Prayer, the prayer of Soul. In his prayer Jesus uttered truths concerning God and man, and what God would do and was doing for mankind; and he included in it right petitions. This prayer uplifts thought as we repeat, "Our Father," for it instills a broad love for mankind and awakes a fervent desire to help the world.

Jesus' deep concern for his disciples was that they might know God, and thus know eternal Life; that they should be conscious of their true being in Spirit. Once he prayed that they might lie where he was in the understanding of God. His words were, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." ^{John 17:24;} God, eternal Mind, must be understood in order to be demonstrated in answered prayer. God hears and helps us when we have the right idea of Him.

In speaking to his disciples, Jesus remarked, "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath."^{Matt. 13:12;} To him who has the correct idea of God there will be evidence of having the human need met. He who knows not God will have but little proof of His goodness. The satisfaction of knowing God and of how to pray to Him and then receive a practical answer is the experience of every Christian Scientist who earnestly follows the teachings of Jesus as interpreted by Christian Science. Also, increased spiritual understanding comes from the assimilation of the chapter on Prayer in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.