"Prayer will be inaudible, and works more than words, as we understand God better." Mary Baker Eddy makes this perceptive declaration regarding prayer on page 15 of her cogent sermon "Christian Healing."
True prayer is Christlike living. It is surrender to God, surrender of evil in the attainment of good. When our silent yearning to be better and holier is expressed in Christly activity, health and harmony are made manifest in our experience and in the experience of those upon whom our thoughts rest. This spiritualized living is found to be "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man," which, the Apostle James assures us (5: 16), "availeth much."
Our prayer becomes increasingly effective as we understand God better. The Bible and our Leader's writings are filled with clear statements regarding God. The Bible refers to God as Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, and implies that God is Mind, Principle, Soul. These individual yet indivisible synonyms of God are used by Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." She explains, for example, that Spirit is animating divine Principle, self-existent Being, the infinite I AM; that Spirit's substance is immutable and imperishable; that Spirit's activity is holy and sinless; and that Spirit's nature is immaculate, incorporeal, and incorruptible. She indicates that Spirit is reflected by man in purity, obedience, poise, sincerity, and unselfed love, and that these and many other spiritual qualities constitute man's individuality as God's idea.
