SPEAKING of his own ministering acts, Christ Jesus said (John 13:17), "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." The word happy used here comes from a Greek root meaning "supremely blest." A blessing resulting from successful prayer is the joy of realization. If one were to look out on the stellar universe from the standpoint of the sun, he would see no shadows. The sun looks out only upon sunshine. God, good, knows only His own reflection, the perfect man and the perfect universe. Healing prayer lifts human thought to the standpoint of God, Spirit, and from that standpoint spiritual creation is seen as the only reality. This brings a sense of joy. When joy does not follow prayer, this vision has not been gained.
Christian Science teaches that man is maintained by Truth, or God; that he is the beloved manifestation of divine Love, the full and good expression of infinite Soul. God, or divine Principle, is unchanging in His conception of creation, and creation never becomes less than Mind's reflection. The spiritual universe, including man, is established in harmony and well-being and never falls from perfection or changes its nature. To understand this is to have the enduring meat of spiritual comprehension, and is answered prayer. When Jesus said (Matt. 7:7), "Seek, and ye shall find," he certainly implied as a prerequisite to answered prayer the necessity to know what is real. He rebuked those who tried to gain material things, fleshly profit, through prayer to God. He said (John 6:27), "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." The meat which endureth can be nought else but the spiritual understanding of real being. Prayer which has as its motive the awakening of human thought to creation as God sees it is blessed with joy.
A change of matter or material circumstances is not the criterion of successful prayer. Christian Science declares the allness of Spirit and the nothingness of matter. In the words of Mary Baker Eddy (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 264), "When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness." The Christian Scientist learns to enjoy the allness of God, good. When he prays, he is seeking a fuller comprehension of reality; and when he finds it, he rejoices in the spiritual good that appears in his human experience.
