Christian Science teaches that true worship of God is shown forth in an explicit understanding of divine Love accompanied by good deeds. Our love for God can always be measured by our love for man, and it is by deeds that men find access to heaven, harmony. Consecration calls for unceasing prayer, and the more consecrated we are the more we shall hallow our lives, resist evil, and be satisfied with that which is spiritual.
It behooves us, therefore, as the result of scientific prayer to entertain right ideas, not ineffectual, erroneous beliefs. We have the choice either to welcome a divine idea and be thereby blessed or to accept and be controlled by belief in unreality. It is desirable to be alert to accept only that which is real, that which God gives. Prayer is right desire, and it is more natural to desire good than evil, though mortal mind insists that it is difficult to be good and easy to be sinful. We are not, however, bound by any such assertion of mortal mind, which never tells the truth. We may rightly have our innocent pleasures, our happy homes, and our periods of relaxation without talking, listening to, or believing error. However, each time we descend into gossip or into the purposeless relating of evil, we lend ourselves to evil witnessing, and we cannot at the same time sanctify our lives to the service of Love.
In the seventeenth chapter of his Gospel, the beloved John has given us a keen discernment of the relationship of our Master with his Father. There we find truths especially applicable to Christian Scientists and to their present tasks in the working out of world problems, and in the unfolding of divine Love to all mankind. First, Jesus prayed for himself and his work on earth; secondly, he prayed for his apostles and their work, the promotion and continuation of his teachings; and lastly, he prayed for all mankind, "for them also which shall believe on me through their word." The significance of this remarkable chapter, which is indeed a prayer, is clearly defined in the word "unity." Unity, obedience, and unselfed love, expressed in service, gratitude, and loyalty, are among the spiritual qualities called for in the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy.
