As one gains an understanding of Christian Science, prayer takes on a bright, new interest for him through his recognition of it as a scientific as well as a religious procedure. However much prayer may have meant to him previously, it means more when he sees that, like the turning of a radio dial and many another familiar human action, it can be based on known conditions and can be definite in method and certain of results. He sees of course that its scope far surpasses that of any material process and, in fact, that along with the action which naturally flows from it, it can accomplish anything that needs to be done. He is heartened also by learning that the single requirement for effectiveness in it is conviction of the truth on which it is based.
The student of Christian Science readily recognizes that this is what Christ Jesus taught about prayer, but he sees the Master's instruction as though with new eyes when he begins to think of it as scientific. These are Jesus' words (Mark 11:23,24): "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says that "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 313). Her measure of the importance of the words just quoted from him is indicated by the fact that she placed them at the beginning of the first chapter of her principal work, Science and Health. She then proceeds to make plain the wholly reasonable and practical character of this teaching. The explanation is both radical and simple. It challenges the testimony of the physical senses, as one must do even in the light of modern physical science, but it goes further than physical science by showing that this testimony is not only inaccurate but illusory and unreal, supplying only hints of reality.
