To a large and growing number of people in many countries, scientific prayer as taught in Christian Science is the most significant development in the modern world—the one surpassing all others in promise for mankind. Their estimate of it stems partly from the nature of the prayer itself; for even before witnessing any of its results, they have often been much impressed by its definite character, its logic, and its apparent scope. But it is what they have seen of the effects of such prayer that has convinced them of its great value.
In many instances it has healed them of diseases which had been considered incurable. They have found it equally effective in overcoming other types of acute and stubborn distress—lack, limitation, grief, strife, loneliness, and so on. And it has become, typically, a help in all their ordinary affairs, giving them an assurance, a sense of capability and security, and actual evidence of general well-being beyond what they had known or even hoped for before.
They do not claim to be fulfilling all the possibilities of such prayer. They are well aware of their need of learning more about it and making better use of it, but they are in no doubt of its capacity for meeting every kind of need for themselves and others—for individuals everywhere and for mankind as a whole. They see it as capable of attaining the standard set by Christ Jesus when he said (John 16:24), "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." They see it indeed as the kind of prayer to which the Master was pointing.
