Article January 17, 1983 Issue

Shut the door—then pray!

JUDITH ANN HARDY

With energy costs and crime mounting, people are more careful than ever about keeping their doors shut. Would that we were as careful about keeping our mental doors closed to material sense— its claims masquerading as law, its conditions claiming to be fact, its appraisals and opinions insisting there is no alternative but submission to material limitations. This kind of door-shutting is an essential element of Christian prayer.

Christ Jesus instructs us how to pray: "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret."^{Matt. 6:6.} Christian Science explains that it is our Christian privilege and duty to demonstrate the Father's kingdom on earth by shutting material sense testimony out of thought and realizing divine Love's caring, creating, and controlling. "The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit," states Science and Health, "the door of which shuts out sinful sense but lets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to error, it is open to Truth, and vice versa." In the same paragraph of the Christian Science textbook Mrs. Eddy instructs, "To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error."^{Science and Health, p. 15.}

Aren't we sometimes so busy telling God what is wrong (human opinion) and what He needs to do to correct it (human will) that we can't possibly hear His "still small voice" (spiritual sense) reassuring us that in reality all is already well (spiritual fact), and we can prove it?

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