SINCE demonstration in Christian Science is the result of prayer, study in Christian Science is directed toward gaining an understanding of right prayer; and in their daily lives Christian Scientists endeavor to show forth such prayers in right action. If a Christian Scientist has been praying for that Mind to be in him "which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5), he endeavors to express the wisdom and compassion that Jesus expressed to all suffering humanity, and the humility and spiritual love that he exhibited when faced with mortal mind's fiercest opposition. The Christian Scientist watches his thoughts to see that they are based on Principle and his deeds that they manifest the right thinking for which he has been praying.
Christ Jesus, our great Exemplar, was essentially a man of prayer. He lived in constant communion with his Father, whom he invariably recognized and acknowledged as the very source of his being. From beginning to end, his was a life of prayer, not merely a prayer of words, but of demonstration of the power of God.
When asked by the disciples to teach them how to pray, Jesus gave that great universal prayer, the Lord's Prayer. When he told the daughter of Jairus to arise, he was praying—knowing that her real life was eternal because Life is God. When he said to the leper (Matt. 8:3), "Be thou clean," he was praying—realizing that man's true selfhood as the image of God is always clean, pure, and holy. When he commanded Lazarus to come forth from the tomb, he was praying—acknowledging in utter gratitude that Life is omnipresent, and that there is no death. He knew that humble, grateful prayer is always heard and answered by the Father.
