Chapter I - Prayer
Love impartial and universal
13:1
selves of God as "a very present help in trouble."
selves 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."
Public exaggerations
13:5
In public prayer we often go beyond our convictions,
In public prayer we often go beyond our convictions,
beyond the honest standpoint of fervent desire. If we
are not secretly yearning and openly striv-
ing 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 de-
sires 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 cherish the desire hon-
estly and silently and humbly, God will bless it, and
we shall incur less risk of overwhelming our real
wishes with a torrent of words.
Corporeal ignorance
13:20
If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will
If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will
prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and
fears which attend such a belief, and so we
cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infi-
nite, incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible.
Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle,
Love, the Father of all is represented as a corporeal
creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely
physical, and are ignorant of man as God's image or re-
flection and of man's eternal incorporeal existence. The
world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, – blind
to the reality of man's existence, – for the world of sen-
sation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.
Bodily presence
14:1
If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipo-
If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipo-
tence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we
would gain, we are not "absent from the
body" and "present with the Lord" in the
demonstration of Spirit. We cannot "serve two mas-
ters." To be "present with the Lord" is to have, not
mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demon-
stration 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 divine Love, – by Spirit, not by matter.
Spiritualized consciousness
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Become conscious for a single moment that Life and
Become conscious for a single moment that Life and
intelligence are purely spiritual, – neither in nor of
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 spir-
itual 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 unto 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.
14:25
Entirely separate from the belief and dream of mate-
Entirely separate from the belief and dream of mate-
rial living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual under-
standing and the consciousness of man's dominion
over the whole earth. This understanding casts out
error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak
"as one having authority."
14:31
"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and,
"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and,
when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father