In Christian Science we learn that through prayer man's unity with God is realized. Perplexed humanity, conscious of the feebleness of this realization, is continually crying out: Teach us how to pray. Nothing can be of more assistance in learning how to pray than an earnest study of the life of our Master, for he proved his unity with God by his works; he showed that he understood the true meaning, reality, and power of prayer. The one outstanding fact which characterized the prayers of Jesus was his knowledge that they would be answered. At the grave of Lazarus he prayed: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always."' Then with the authority of divine Truth he cried, "Lazarus, come forth," and the one who was in the tomb obeyed.
How are we to acquire this certainty that our prayers will be answered? Plainly, by being like Jesus in thought and deed. When we can say with confidence and understanding. "I and my Father are one," we can speak "as one having authority," for in the last analysis a prayer answered is nothing less than divine power made manifest through man, God's image and likeness. Only in proportion as we see this image and likeness in our own consciousness can we rise to the true understanding of prayer and realize its power. Impossible of attainment, some one may say. Then why did Jesus declare, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you"?
On one occasion Jesus told the disciples about two men who went up into the temple to pray. One of them thanked God that he was not as other men; the other smote his breast saying, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Jesus concluded, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
