Throughout the centuries poets, philosophers, religionists, and lexicographers have attempted to define prayer with more or less indifferent success because nearly all have regarded it and its effects inversely; that is to say, most of these definitions are based upon a belief in a Supreme Being whose intentions and activities may be changed to conform to the material wishes or demands of the supplicant. Through such misapprehension importunate prayer, synonymous with repetition, savoring largely of self-will and fear, has been justified and offered to hungry hearts yearning to find the way to true communion. Some years ago, when the writer knew nothing whatever of the teachings of Christian Science, while sojourning in a city whose name is always associated with erudition she went, with the highest hope of learning more of God, to hear a noted divine preach. His subject was, "Importunate Prayer," and his opinion—even then it seemed to the eager listener nothing more than that—appeared to be that we must be prepared to beg and beg and beg, and if we begged long enough we might get that for which we begged. As his model he told the story of a young girl who had wanted a certain something very much indeed. Shutting herself in her room for three days and nights, without any interruption except an occasional meal, she had prayed until she had received what she wanted. Much to the surprise of the young girl who was listening, this was the substance of the sermon. Even in thought she scarcely dared to criticize such a scholarly and undoubtedly pious man, yet she felt that an injustice had been done that other girl's sacrifice of self, that somehow some one could surely elucidate the subject, using the same illustration, until the enlightenment to those who heard would become "the Sun of righteousness...with healing in his wings." The question also arose as to whether she could really adore a God who would require such a course of action. She for instance, was a very busy person who could not possibly find time for such a proceeding, and her life was so normal that presumably those who could do as this girl had done were few. Besides, if the petitioner had been given only that one material thing, it did seem that it had very nearly approximated vain repetition, for it was so circumscribed in its effects as to border on the futile.
In the light of Christian Science, with its promise to make possible our obedience to the injunctions given us in the Word of God, we begin to gain a glimpse of what true prayer really is, and to perceive that this enlightenment is in itself the activity of spiritual sense which purifies desire and purpose until these become one with divine intelligence and Love. At this point man as reflection is revealed and constitutes the spontaneous proof of the presence and power of all-pervading Mind. It was such a dawning sense of the Almighty's loving care for His idea that came to Abraham when he held his colloquy with God which resulted in the saving of Lot and his family from the destruction which came to Sodom. In this contemplation of the spirit of Truth, Abraham progressed, step by step, from a belief in a vengeful Deity to the sure realization that God could and would bring more good into human experience than Abraham himself then knew or thought.
Only a little later in the history of mankind, Jacob in his turn wrestled with an angel until, having spent the night in combat with material sense, with the dawn he saw that the circumstance was not afflictive but one which could give him the blessing of enlarged spiritual activity, and with this unfoldment of thought came the great determination. "I. will not let thee go, except thou bless me," and the immediate reward of being named Israel— prevailer with God—ensued. The lawgiver, Moses, importuned, at various times and in various ways, as he led the children of Israel forth from Egypt and through the wilderness, and this importuning changed not his God, whom he had understood from the day of the burning bush as divine Principle, I am, but Moses himself was indeed being purified and corrected, counting it no hardship to fast forty days in order to gain a higher concept of the preserver of man, and to continue in self-denials and firm adherence to the absolute, so that he found his promised land long before his followers had reached the shores of Jordan. Samson, Hannah, Elijah, Hezekiah, Asa, Ezra. Nehemiah, Isaiah, Daniel. Habakkuk, make up a partial list of the strong ones of a wonderful nation who saw clearly the necessity for the correction of their thought to the point where, in perfect accord with the divine nature, they were enabled to accept and show forth divine power.
