There is deep significance in the fact that in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, the initial chapter is a treatise on prayer; for however mistaken the thought may be, or however dim the vision, it is through prayer that men seek to know God.
Too often, however, prayer has been regarded as a means or method by which some personal desire may be fulfilled or some event be brought to pass. When it is so regarded confusion is sure to result, and perhaps even skepticism regarding the entire subject of prayer.
Human opinions differ, and when questions arise as to what policies in national or international affairs it is best to adopt, those in positions of trust who are desirous of knowing what is best often find themselves divided on the issue. And if these differences develop into conflicts, as they have done many times in the past, earnest individuals have been found on each side, and prayers have been offered for the success of each. It was only a year before the discovery of Christian Science that Abraham Lincoln, speaking of the opposing political parties into which the country had been divided by the Civil War, said: "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. . . . The prayer of both could not be answered." The inconsistency so evident in such a situation has often caused men to abandon all thought of prayer as of practical benefit to mankind.
