FOR untold centuries the so-called human mind has been imbued with the belief that God must be implored for His favor, for spiritual understanding,—in fact, for any blessing which is needful or desirable,— until by reason of this self-imposed belief the granting of prayer came to be regarded as a matter of grace on God's part; and seldom, in consequence, has the asking been with that confident expectancy on the part of the seeker which the Master, Christ Jesus, required. The habit of begging God for His favors does not beget confidence in either His willingness or His readiness to grant the petition asked. It is clear, therefore, that our approach to God must include more than suppliance.
Every Sunday, as specified by the Manual of The Mother Church in the order of services for Christian Science churches, there is read a passage from I John in which occurs the statement, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God;" but this assurance does not of itself furnish sufficient means to overcome the erroneous belief referred to. In the eighth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul declares that "we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;" and the application to this statement of the legal meanings of the terms therein employed so illumines consciousness that the erroneous belief as to man's relationship with God, and the consequent mistaken approach of mankind to Him, is clearly demonstrated as false; and the human mind is in this manner freed from that limitation.
It is, of course, the acknowledgment and acceptance of the true relationship between God and His spiritual idea, man, which establishes the recognition that, in absolute Science, we are God's children, "and if children, then heirs"—a recognized spiritual fact whereby we are possessed of certain rights, inalienable and vested—that is, rights subject to no mortal contingency; a fixed interest, complete and consummated.
