Article December 15, 1980 Issue

The closet of prayer

DOROTHY F. GRAVES

How should Christians pray? Christ Jesus gives us the answer: "Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Matt. 6:6;

The closet, Christian Science explains, is a spiritually elevated mental state that shuts the door on the physical senses and admits only divine Truth. Entrance to this holy sanctuary is gained not by merely repeating the spiritual facts of being—God's allness and perfection—but by pondering and spiritually discerning them.

To enter the closet is not to become a recluse, reveling in metaphysical truths to escape the unpleasantness of what the material senses report. Rather it is to rise above these false senses with their ignorance, sin, and fear to the consciousness of God—Truth, Life, and Love—and man's indestructible relationship with Him as His spiritual reflection. It is to lift thought above corporeal selfhood to the pure consciousness of spiritual, immortal being. The closet is not a runaway retreat but a hallowed place, where the unreality of the foe, physical sense, is recognized and its intrusive mortal beliefs denied admittance.

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At home in God
December 15, 1980
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