Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📖

would be no

occasion for comment. If we feel the aspiration, hu-8:15 mility, 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 8:18 shall not be revealed.” Professions and audible prayers are like charity in one respect,- they “cover the

multitude of sins.” Praying for humility with what-8:21 ever 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 8:24 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 8:27 willing to have our neighbor see?

 

Searching the heart

 

We should examine ourselves and learn what is the

affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way 8:30 only can we learn what we honestly are. If a

friend informs us of a fault, do we listen patiently to the rebuke and credit what is said? Do we not 9:1 rather give thanks that we are “not as other men”?

During many years the author has been most grateful 9:3 for merited rebuke. The wrong lies in unmerited censure,- in the falsehood which does no one any good.

 

Summit of aspiration

 

The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these 9:6 questions: Do we love our neighbor better because of

this asking? Do we pursue the old selfishness, satisfied with having prayed for some-9:9 thing 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, 9:12 we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless

them that curse us; but we shall never meet this great

duty simply by asking that it may be done. There is 9:15 a cross to be taken up before we can enjoy the fruition

of our hope and faith.

 

Practical religion

 

Dost thou “love the Lord thy God with all thy 9:18 heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”?

This command includes much, even the surrender of all merely material sensation, affec-9:21 tion, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity.

It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the

divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master, 9:24 and material sense and human will have no place.

 

The chalice sacrificial

 

Are you willing to leave all for Christ, for Truth, and

so be counted among sinners? No! Do you really desire 9:27 to attain this point? No! Then why make long

prayers about it and ask to be Christians,

since you do not care to tread in the footsteps of our 9:30 dear Master? If unwilling to follow his example, why

pray with the lips that you may be partakers of his

nature? Consistent prayer is the desire to do right. 10:1 Prayer means that we desire to walk and will walk in

the light so far as we receive it, even though with bleed-10:3 ing footsteps, and that waiting patiently on the Lord,

we will leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him.

 

The world must grow to the spiritual understanding 10:6 of prayer. If good enough to profit by Jesus’ cup of

earthly sorrows, God will sustain us under these sorrows. Until we are thus divinely qualified and are 10:9 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.” 10:12 Christian Science reveals a necessity for overcoming the

world, the flesh, and evil, and thus destroying all error.

 

Seeking is not sufficient. It is striving that enables 10:15 us to enter. Spiritual attainments open the door to a

higher understanding of the divine Life.

 

Perfunctory prayers

 

One of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a 10:18 praying-machine through the streets, and stop at the

doors to earn a penny by grinding out a

prayer. But the advance guard of progress has 10:21 paid for the privilege of prayer the price of persecution.

 

Asking amiss

 

Experience teaches us that we do not always receive

the blessings we ask for in prayer. There is some mis-10:24 apprehension of the source and means of

all goodness and blessedness, or we should

certainly receive that for which we ask. The Scrip-10:27 tures say: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask

amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” That

which we desire and for which we ask, it is not always 10:30 best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will

not grant the request. Do you ask wisdom to be merciful and not to punish sin? Then “ye ask amiss.” 11:1 Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus’ prayer,

“Forgive us our debts,” specified also the terms of 11:3 forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he

said, “Go, and sin no more.”

 

Remission of penalty

 

A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this 11:6 may be no moral benefit to the criminal, and at best, it

only saves the criminal from one form of

punishment. The moral law, which has the 11:9 right to acquit or condemn, always demands restitution before mortals can “go up higher.” Broken law

brings penalty in order to compel this progress.

 

Truth annihilates error

11:12 Mere legal pardon (and there is no other, for divine

Principle never pardons our sins or mistakes till they

are corrected) leaves the offender free to re-11:15 peat 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 11:18 wipes it out in the most effectual manner. Jesus suffered

for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence for an individual’s sin, but because sin brings inevitable suffering.

 

Desire for holiness

11:21 Petitions bring to mortals only the results of mortals’ own faith. We know that a desire for holiness is

requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we 11:24 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 11:27 to holiness. Prayer cannot change the unalterable

Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding

of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual 11:30 desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us

into all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible

expression. It is best expressed in thought and in life.

 

Prayer for the sick

12:1 “The prayer of faith shall save the sick,” says the

Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere re-12:3 quest that God will heal the sick has no

power to gain more of the divine presence

than is always at hand. The beneficial effect of 12:6 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 12:9 another, - a belief in the unknown casting out a belief

in sickness. It is neither Science nor Truth which

acts through blind belief, nor is it the human under-12:12 standing of the divine healing Principle as manifested

in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, - of man’s likeness to 12:15 God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.

 

Prayer to a corporeal God affects the sick like a

drug, which has no efficacy of its own but borrows its 12:18 power from human faith and belief. The drug does

nothing, because it has no intelligence. It is a mortal

belief, not divine Principle or Love, which causes a 12:21 drug to be apparently either poisonous or sanative.

 

The common custom of praying for the recovery of the

sick finds help in blind belief, whereas help should come 12:24 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.

 

Love impartial and universal

12:27 Does Deity interpose in behalf of one worshipper,

and not help another who offers the same measure of

prayer? If the sick recover because they 12:30 pray or are prayed for audibly, only peti—

tioners (/per se/ or by proxy) should get well. In divine

Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail them-13:1 selves of God as “a very present help in trouble.”

Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and 13:3 bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, “Ho,

every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”

 

Public exaggerations

 

In public prayer we often go beyond our convictions, 13:6 beyond the honest standpoint of fervent desire. If we

are not secretly yearning and openly striving for the accomplishment of all we ask, 13:9 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 13:12 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 13:15 sincere, God knows our need before we tell Him or our

fellow-beings about it. If we cherish the desire honestly and silently and humbly, God will bless it, and 13:18 we shall incur less risk of overwhelming our real

wishes with a torrent of words.

 

Corporeal ignorance

 

If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will 13:21 prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and

fears which attend such a belief, and so we

cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infi-13:24 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 13:27 creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely

physical, and are ignorant of man as God’s image or reflection and of man’s eternal incorporeal existence. The 13:30 world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, - blind

to the reality of man’s existence, - for the world of sensation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.

 

Bodily presence

14:1 If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipotence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we 14:3 would gain, we are not “absent from the

body” and “present with the Lord” in the

demonstration of Spirit. We cannot “serve two mas-14:6 ters.” To be “present with the Lord” is to have, not

mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demonstration and understanding of Life as revealed in 14:9 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

14:12 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 14:15 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-14:18 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 14:21 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 14:24 sense.

 

Entirely separate from the belief