To think as God would have us is prayer. Constantly to receive His angels into the temple of consciousness and there let them remain is to abide with Him in love and prayer. Intellectual reasoning is not prayer, but humbleness of mind is, whether we are walking in the street, following the plow, or singing a song. We do not have to be in any certain place or position in order to pray aright, but our thoughts must be in a loving attitude if we are to receive the blessing.
Are we in a conflict* with some one? Then if we can put away pride, examine the heart, and see if we can find the wrong in ourselves, we are doing well. If we can then say when we are wrong, "I am sorry," is this not prayer of the humble kind? Can we say with the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner"? Jesus said that the publican went down to his house benefited rather than the Pharisee. Are we in trouble with some deep-set sin that seems to be gnawing at the very vitals of our happiness and of our health? If so, can we look within at the raging devils of nothingness, of the belief of pleasure in matter, sensitiveness, and greed, and consign them all to their own nothingness? Can we not realize that Love enables us to awake and rise above the seething sea of sin? Is not this prayer? Has one some sorrow, some great grief that seems to be about to engulf him? Does it seem to be just a little heavier than that of anyone else, and a little more than he can bear? Then he can turn to Christianly scientific prayer and let God's angels bear him away from these troubles into the realm of divine Love where the sorrow and the grief will be blotted out.
Prayer is indeed the heart's sincere desire. It is the desire to be better and to do better. It is the desire to have God's thoughts lift us into health and happiness. This desire may go out to God in any manner that brings us closer to Him and makes us realize His presence. It is better expressed by affirmation of the truth than by petitions to God. It is true that the Lord's Prayer seems to be partly m the form of petition, but it is beautifully explained in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, in affirmation of the truth and denial of error; and the "scientific statement of being," as given on page 468 of Science and Health, is a model of affirmation and denial solely, without any pleading with God to do what He otherwise might not do. This is a prayer which can be used, like the Lord's Prayer, at any time. The contemplation of it is good for the beginner in Christian Science who may be tempted to doubt his ability to give a scientific treatment. It affirms the nothingness of the material and declares that the spiritual is all. When one knows that there is no substance in matter, then he understands that there is no substance in hate or anger, sensitiveness or resentment, no pain or pleasure in matter, or in any phase of mortal mind whatever.
