True prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to
include all mankind in one affection. Prayer is the utilization of the love
wherewith He loves us. Prayer begets an awakened desire to be and do good.
It makes new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power.
It shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are;
and most of all, it shows us what God is. Advancing in this light, we
reflect it; and this light reveals the pure Mind-pictures, in silent
prayer, even as photography grasps the solar light to portray the face of
pleasant thought.
What but silent prayer can meet the demand, "Pray without ceasing"? The
apostle James said: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, to
consume it on your lusts." Because of vanity and self-righteousness,
mortals seek, and expect to receive, a material sense of approval; and they
expect also what is impossible,--a material and mortal sense of spiritual
and immortal Truth.
It is sometimes wise to hide from dull and base ears the pure pearls of
awakened consciousness, lest your pearls be trampled upon. Words may belie
desire, and pour forth a hypocrite's prayer; but thoughts are our honest
conviction. I have no objection to audible prayer of the right kind; but
the inaudible is more effectual.
I instruct my students to pursue their mental ministrations very sacredly,
and never to touch the human thought save to issues of Truth; never to
trespass mentally on individual rights; never to take away the rights, but
only the wrongs of mankind. Otherwise they forfeit their ability to heal in
Science. Only when sickness, sin, and fear obstruct the harmony of Mind and
body, is it right for one mind to meddle with another mind, and control
aright the thought struggling for freedom.
It is Truth and Love that cast out fear and heal the sick, and mankind are
better because of this. If a change in the religious views of the patient
comes with the change to health, our Father has done this; for the human
mind and body are made better only by divine influence.
SHOULD CHRISTIANS BEWARE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE?
History repeats itself. The Pharisees of old warned the people to beware of
Jesus, and contemptuously called him "this fellow." Jesus said, "For which
of these works do ye stone me?" as much as to ask, Is it the work most
derided and envied that is most acceptable to God? Not that he would cease
to do the will of his Father on account of persecution, but he would repeat
his work to the best advantage for mankind and the glory of his Father.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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