Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898)/10 Prayer

by Mary Baker G. Eddy

CHAPTER X.

PRAYER.

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. — Jesus.

Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him. — Jesus.

THOUGHTS unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no Definition. loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in word and deed.

What are the motives of prayer? Do we pray to make ourselves better, or to benefit those who hear us, — to Motives. enlighten the ignorance of the Infinite, or to be heard of men? Are we benefited by praying? The desire which goes forth hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and does not return unto us void.

God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more than He has already done; nor can the Infinite do less Deity unchangeable. than bestow all good, since He is unchanging Wisdom and Love. We can perhaps do more for ourselves by petitions; but the All-perfect does not grant them simply on the ground of lip-service, for He already knows all.

Prayer cannot change the Science of Being. Goodness alone reaches the demonstration of Truth. A request that another may work for us never does our work. The habit of pleading with the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as humanly circumscribed, — an error which impedes spiritual growth.

God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is Intelligence. Can we inform the infinite Mind, or tell Him Perfection. anything He does not already comprehend? Do we hope to change perfection? Shall we plead for more at the open fount, which always pours forth more than we receive? Does spoken prayer bring us nearer the Source of all existence and blessedness?

Asking God to be God is a “vain repetition.” God is “the same yesterday and to-day and forever;” and He who is immutably right will do right, without being reminded of His province. The wisdom of man is not sufficient to warrant him in advising God.

Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to work out the problem? The spiritual mathematics. The rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own work? That work was finished long ago; and we have only to avail ourselves of God's rule, in order to receive the blessing.

The Divine Being must be reflected by man; else man is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the one “altogether lovely;” but to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought and energy.

How empty are our conceptions of Deity! We admit theoretically that God is good, omnipotent, and Prayerful ingratitude. omnipresent; and then we try to give information to this infinite Mind, and we plead for unmerited pardon, and a liberal outpouring of benefactions. Are we really grateful for the good already received! Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.

If we are ungrateful for Life, Truth, and Love, and yet return thanks to God for all blessings, we are insincere, and incur the sharp censure our Master pronounces on hypocrites. In such a case the only acceptable prayer is to put the finger on the lips and remember our blessings. While the heart is far from divine Truth and Love, we cannot conceal the ingratitude of barren lives, for God knoweth all things.

What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, Efficacious petitions. and good deeds. To keep the commandments of our Master, and follow his example, is our proper debt to him, and the only worthy evidence of our gratitude for all he has done. Outward worship is not of itself sufficient to express loyal and heartfelt gratitude, since he has said: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

The habitual struggle to be always good is unceasing prayer. Its motives are made manifest in the blessings they bring, — which, if not acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness to be made partakers of Love.

Simply asking that we may love God will never make us love Him; but the longing to be better and holier, — Patience. expressed in daily watchfulness, and in striving to assimilate more of the divine character, — this will mould and fashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness. We reach the Science of Christianity through demonstration of the divine nature; but in this world goodness will “be evil spoken of,” and patience must work experience.

Audible prayer can never do the works of divine understanding, which regenerates; but silent prayer, Veritable devotion. watchfulness, and devout obedience enable us to follow Jesus' example. Long prayers, ecclesiasticism, and creeds have clipped the divine pinions of Love, and clad religion in human robes. They materialize worship, hinder the Spirit, and keep man from demonstrating his power over error.

Sorrow for wrong-doing is but one step towards reform, and the very easiest step. The next and great Sorrow and reformation. step required by Wisdom is the test of our sincerity, — namely, reformation. To this end we are placed under the stress of circumstances. Temptation bids us repeat the offence, and woe comes in return for what is done. So it will ever be, till we learn that there is no discount in the law of justice, and that we must pay “the uttermost farthing.” The measure ye mete “shall be measured to you again,” and it will be full “and running over.”

Saints and sinners get their full award, but not always in this world. The followers of Christ must drink his cup. Ingratitude and persecution will fill it to the brim; but God pours the riches of His love into the understanding and affections, giving us strength according to our day. Sinners flourish “like a green bay-tree;” but, looking farther, the Psalmist could see their end, — namely, destruction.

Prayer is sometimes used, like the Roman Catholic confessional, to cancel sin. This error impedes true Cancellation of human sin. religion. Sin is forgiven, only as it is destroyed by Christ, — Truth and Love. If prayer nourishes the belief that sin is cancelled, and that man is made better by merely praying, it is an evil. He grows worse, who continues in sin because he thinks himself forgiven.

An apostle says that the Son of God [Christ] came to “destroy the works of the Devil.” We should follow Diabolism destroyed. our divine exemplar, and seek the destruction of all evil works, error and disease included. We cannot escape the penalty due for sin. The Scripture says, that if we deny Christ, “he will also deny us.”

The divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may pardon, but this divine Principle alone reforms the Pardon and amendment. sinner. God is not separate from the wisdom He bestows. The talents He gives we must improve. Calling on Him to forgive our work, badly done or left undone, implies the vain supposition that we have nothing to do but ask pardon, and that afterwards we shall be free to repeat the offence.

To cause suffering, as the result of sin, is the means of destroying sin. Every supposed pleasure in sin will furnish more than its equivalent in pain, until belief in material life and intelligence is destroyed. To reach Heaven, the harmony of Being, we must understand the divine Principle of Being.

“God is Love.” More than this we cannot ask; higher we cannot look; farther we cannot go. To Mercy. suppose that God forgives or punishes sin, accordingly as His mercy is sought or unsought, is to misunderstand Love, and make prayer the safety-valve for wrong-doing.

Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before he cast it out. Of a sick woman he said that Satan had bound her; Divine severity. and to Peter he said, “Thou art an offence unto me.” He came teaching and showing men how to destroy sin, sickness, and death. He said of the fruitless tree, “Cut it down.”

It is believed by many that a certain magistrate, who lived in the time of Jesus, left this record: “His rebuke is fearful.” The strong language of our Master confirms this description.

The only civil sentence which he had for error was, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Still stronger evidence that Jesus' reproof was pointed and pungent is his own words, showing the necessity for such forcible utterance, when he cast out devils and healed the sick and sinful. The relinquishment of error deprives material sense of its false claims.

Audible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary solemnity and elevation to thought; but does it Audible praying. produce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply into these things, we find that “zeal, not according to knowledge,” gives occasion for reaction unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober resolve, and a wholesome perception of God's requirements. The motives for verbal prayer may embrace too much love of applause to induce or encourage Christian sentiment.

Physical sensation, not Soul, produces ecstasy and emotions. If spiritual sense always guided men at Emotional utterances. such times, there would grow out of those ecstatic moments a higher experience and better life, with more devout self-abnegation and purity. A self-satisfied ventilation of fervent sentiments never makes a Christian. God is not influenced by man. The “divine ear” is not an auditorial nerve. It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom each want of man is always known, and by whom it will be supplied.

The danger from audible prayer is, that it may lead us into temptation. By it we may become involuntary Hypocrisy. hypocrites, uttering desires which are not real, and consoling ourselves, in the midst of sin, with the recollection that we have prayed over it, or mean to ask forgiveness at some later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to religion.

A wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of self-justification, though it makes the sinner a hypocrite. We never need despair of an honest heart; but there is little hope for those who only come spasmodically face to face with their wickedness, and then seek to hide it.

Such prayers are indexes which do not correspond with the character. They hold secret fellowship with sin. Such hypocrites are spoken of by Jesus as “whited sepulchres, full of uncleanness.”

If a man, though apparently fervent and prayerful, is impure, and therefore insincere, what must be the Insincerity. comment upon him? If he had reached the loftiness of his prayer, there would be no occasion for such comment. If we feel the aspiration, humility, gratitude, and love which our words express, this God accepts; and it is wise not to try to deceive ourselves or others, for “there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed.” Professions and audible prayers are like charity in one respect, — they “cover a multitude of sins.” Praying for humility, with whatever fervency of expression, does not always mean a desire for it. If we turn away from the poor, we are not ready to receive the reward of Him who blesses the poor. We confess to having a very wicked heart, and ask that it may be laid bare before us; but do we not already know more of this heart than we are willing our neighbor should see?

We ought to examine ourselves, and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart; for this alone can Searching the heart. show us what we honestly are. If a friend informs us of a fault, do we listen to the rebuke patiently, and credit what is said? Do we not rather give thanks that we are “not as other men”? During many years the author has been most grateful for merited rebuke. The sting lies in unmerited censure, — the falsehood which does no one any good.

The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these questions: Do we love our neighbor better because of this Summit of aspiration. asking? Do we pursue the old selfishness, satisfied with having prayed for something better, though we give no evidence of the sincerity of our requests, by living consistently with our prayer? If selfishness has given place to kindness, we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless them that curse us; but we shall never meet this great duty by simply asking that it may be done. There is a cross to be taken up, before we can enjoy the fruition of our hope and faith.

Dost thou “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”? This Practical religion. command includes much, — even the surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the divine control of Spirit, wherein Soul is our master, and sensation has no place.

Are you willing to leave all for Christ, for Truth, and so he counted among sinners? No! Do you really desire The chalice sacrificial. to attain this point? No! Then why make long prayers about it, and ask to be Christ-like, since you care not to tread in the footsteps of our dear Master? If unwilling to drink his cup, wherefore pray with the lips that you may be partakers of it? Consistent prayer is the desire to do right. Prayer means that we desire to, and will, walk in the light, so far as we receive it, even though with bleeding footsteps, and, waiting patiently on the Lord, will leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him.

The world must grow to the spiritual understanding of prayer. If good enough to share Jesus' cup of earthly sorrows, we shall endure them. Until we are thus divinely qualified, and willing to drink his cup, millions of vain repetitions will never pour into prayer the unction of Spirit, in demonstration of power, and “with signs following.” Christian Science reveals the necessity of overcoming the world, the flesh, and evil, and thus destroying all error.

Seeking is not sufficient. It is striving which enables us to enter. Spiritual attainments open the door to a higher understanding of the divine Life.

One of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a praying-machine through the streets, and stop at the Perfunctory genuflections. doors to earn a penny by grinding out a prayer; whereas civilization pays for prayers by the clergy, in lofty edifices. Is the difference very great, after all?

Experience teaches us that we do not always receive the blessings we ask for in audible prayer. There is some Asking amiss. misapprehension of the source and means of all goodness and blessedness, or we should certainly receive what we ask for. The Scriptures say: “Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” What we desire and ask for, it is not always best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will not grant the request. Do you ask Wisdom to be merciful, and not punish sin? Then “ye ask amiss.” Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus' prayer, “forgive us our debts,” specified also the terms of forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he said, “Go and sin no more.”

A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this may be no moral benefit to the criminal; and at best, it Remission of penalty. only saves him from one form of punishment, The moral law, which alone has the right to acquit or condemn, always demands restitution, before mortals can “go up higher.” Broken law brings penalty, in order to compel this progress.

Mere legal pardon (and there is no other, for Principle never pardons our sins or mistakes) leaves the Principle unforgiving. offender free to repeat the offence; if, indeed, he has not already suffered sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it with loathing. Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the most effectual manner. Jesus suffered for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence against wrong, but to check the sin, and show that it must bring inevitable suffering.

Petitions only bring mortals the results of their own faith. We know that a desire for holiness is requisite Foregone conclusion. in order to gain it; but if we desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it. We must be willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only practical road to holiness. Audible prayer cannot change the unalterable Truth, or give us an understanding of it; but a fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God will bring us into all Truth. Such a desire has little need of any expression from the lips. Its very best expression is in thought and life.

“The prayer of faith shall save the sick,” says the Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere Prayer for the sick. request that God will heal the sick has no power to gain more of the divine presence than is always at hand. The only beneficial effect of such prayer for the sick is on the human mind, making it act more powerfully on the body, through a blind faith in God. This, however, is one belief casting out another, — a belief in the unknown, casting out a belief in sickness. It is not Truth itself which does this; nor is it the human understanding of the divine healing Principle, as manifested in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of man's unity with Truth and Love.

Prayer to a corporeal God affects the sick like a drug, having no efficacy of its own, but borrowing its power from human faith and belief. The drug does nothing, because it has no intelligence. It is faith, not divine Principle or Love, which causes a drug apparently to be either poisonous or sanative.

This common custom, of praying for the recovery of the sick, finds help in blind belief; whereas help should come from the enlightened understanding. Changes in belief may go on indefinitely; but they are the merchandise of human thought, and not the outgrowth of Divine Science.

Does Deity interpose in behalf of one worshipper, and yet not help another, who offers the same measure of Impartiality. prayer? If the sick recover because they pray, or are prayed for audibly, only petitioners (per se or by proxy) should get well. Now in Divine Science, wherein prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God, as “a very present help in trouble.” Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, “Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”

In public prayer we often go beyond our convictions, beyond the honest standpoint of fervent desire. If we Public exaggerations. are not secretly yearning and openly striving for the accomplishment of all we ask, our prayers are “vain repetitions,” such as the heathen use. If our petitions are sincere, we labor for what we ask, and our Father, who seeth in secret, will reward us openly. Can the mere public expression of our desires increase them? Do we gain the omnipotent ear sooner by words than by thoughts? Even if prayer is sincere, God knows our need before we tell Him or our fellow-beings about it. If we bring the desire honestly and silently and humbly before Him, we shall incur less risk of overwhelming our real wishes in a torrent of words.

If we pray to God as a corporeal being, this will prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and fears Corporeal ignorance. which attend such belief; and so we cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infinite Love, to whom all things are possible. Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle, the Father of All is represented as a corporeal creator. Hence men recognize themselves as merely physical, and are ignorant of the origin of man and his eternal incorporeal existence. The world of error is blind to the reality of man's existence, for the world of sensation is ignorant of the Life which is Soul.

If we are sensibly with the body, and regard Omnipotence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we Bodily presence. would gain, we are not “absent from the body and present with the Lord,” in the demonstration of Spirit. We cannot “serve two masters.” To be “present with the Lord” is not to have mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but to have the actual demonstration and understanding of Life, as revealed in Christian Science. To be “with the Lord” is to be in obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed by Spirit, not by matter.

Become conscious, for a single moment, that Life and Intelligence are purely spiritual, — neither in nor of Spiritualized consciousness. matter, — and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow is turned into joy, when the body is controlled by spiritual Life, Truth, and Love. Hence the hope of the promise Jesus bestows: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, . . . because I go to my Father, — [because the Ego is absent from the body, and present with Truth and Love.]” The Lord's Prayer is the prayer of Soul, not of material sense.

Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding, and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth. This understanding casts out error and heals the sick, and with it you may speak “as one having authority.”

When thou prayest, 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.

So spake Jesus. The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit, whose door shuts out sinful sense, but opens to Spiritual sanctuary. Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to error, it is open to Truth, and vice versa. The Father in secret is unseen to the physical senses; but He knows all things, and rewards according to motives, not according to speech. 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 which destroys all error.

In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence Effectual invocation. the material senses. In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God's allness. We must resolve to take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts, to work and watch for Wisdom, Truth, and Love. We must “pray without ceasing.” Such prayer is answered, inasmuch as we put our desires into practice. The Master's injunction is, that we pray in secret, and let our lives attest our sincerity.

Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God. Self-forgetfulness, Trustworthy beneficence. purity, and affection are constant prayers. Practice, not profession, — understanding, not belief, — gain the ear and right hand of Omnipotence, and they assuredly call down infinite blessings. Trustworthiness is the foundation of enlightened faith. Without a fitness for holiness we cannot receive it.

A great sacrifice of material things must precede this advanced spiritual understanding. The highest prayer Loftiest adoration. is not one of faith merely; it is demonstration. Such prayer heals sickness, and must destroy sin and death. It distinguishes between the falsity of sinful sense, and Truth that is sinless.

Our Master taught his disciples one brief prayer, which we name, after him, the Lord's Prayer. Our Master The prayer of Jesus Christ. said, “After this manner therefore pray ye,” and then he gave that prayer which covers all human needs. There is indeed some doubt, among Bible scholars, whether the last line is not an addition to the prayer, by a later copyist; but this does not affect the meaning of the prayer itself.

In the phrase, “Deliver us from evil,” the original properly reads, “Deliver us from the Evil One.” This reading strengthens our Scientific apprehension of the petition; for Christian Science teaches us that the Evil One, or one evil, is but another name for material sensation.

Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the Heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness which is indicated in the Lord's Prayer, and instantaneously heals the sick.

Here let me give what I understand to be the spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer:

Our Father which art in Heaven,

Our Father and Mother God, all-harmonious,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Adorable One.

Thy Kingdom come.

Thy kingdom is come,

Good is ever-present and omnipotent.

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven.

Enable us to know, — as in Heaven, so on earth, — God is All in all.

Give us this day our daily bread;

Give us grace for to-day; feed Thou the famished affections;

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And divine Love is reflected in love;

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;

And leaveth us not in temptation, but delivereth us from evil, — sin, disease, and death.

For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

For God is omnipresent Good, Substance, Life, Truth, Love.