Now that it is well understood that prayer has an important place in Christian Science, may it not be in order to ask whether it can be justly claimed that the prayer of the Bible is the prayer of Christian Science! As the son of a clergyman, and later as a clergyman myself, I was educated to unquestioning belief in the prevailing doctrine of prayer as practised by the modern church.
The study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker G. Eddy, has given me a new view-point of Bible prayer. I now see that the Bible and Christ Jesus enjoin the silent, secret, closet prayer of the individual, by the individual, and unseen by men. I see that the Scriptures not only declare for ceaseless prayer, but acknowledge that unselfish service and loving deeds constitute the highest prayer. I have been helped also to see that true prayer is answered and bears fruit, and that the lack of answers to prayers is due to the lack of understanding of those who pray. I also see that the Scriptural prayer is so Scientific that the sick are healed and the sinful restored thereby. Let us calmly consider, then, if this view of the Bible is warranted by the Scriptures.
Is not the prayer of the Bible solitary?
