EXPERIENCE teaches mortals that merely to pray does not of itself bring the desired blessing, although their petitions may be fervent and sincere. The fact that some realize distinct and marked benefits from prayer, while others who are apparently as earnest in their petitions do not, proves that there is a vital condition or element needed to make prayer effective. Seeds which lack vitality decay in the soil, although the labor expended in their sowing may be as arduous and as faithfully done as that bestowed on good seed. It is much the same with prayer. There is a vital kind which demonstrates its power and utility, and there is a lifeless kind which brings nothing to pass except disappointment or indifference. It is evident that the vitalizing element necessary to effective prayer is not dependent upon any outward form, and must be found in the thought of the petitioner.
Prayer understood and used aright is not an idle ceremony; it is the motive power of the Christian's progress Christward. Without it the pilgrim is at a standstill. It is as if one should undertake to run a motor-car with the gasoline-tank empty. The machine might be beautiful to look at, of the latest model, be kept in perfect condition, and the different parts be correctly manipulated, but it would not take one anywhere. Christians should not be satisfied to stand still in their religious experience; they ought to be moving onward and upward to better living. Time is too short to spend in praying or working ineffectively. The motor-car would go if the motive power were supplied, and the Christian's prayer will bring him what he needs if he sees to it that its effective element is supplied.
Men do not judge the value of seed by the lifeless kind, nor the utility of motor-cars by one without gasoline; and neither should they decide as to the efficacy of prayer by the ineffective sort, such as the Scripture speaks of as being offered "amiss." Only good seed is real seed, and effective prayer is the only real prayer; that is, the prayer which avails with God and which meets the needs of men. Christian Scientists have found that their new apprehension of Truth enables them to supply the effectiveness which their prayers formerly lacked, and they have been able, to some extent, to overcome disease and sin and lesser forms of evil. Prayer has become the motive power in their daily experience, lifting thought above and away from the conditions that make human life wretched and sordid and sinful.
