THERE are many ways of praying, all of which help us to live truly Christian lives. Among these are the prayer of affirmation, the prayer of petition; and there are others. We should constantly affirm our perfection and health as God's very image and likeness. We should petition Deity often for more humility, more receptivity, more Christian grace, for all that daily ration of bread which our Master told us to ask for. It is essential to put into practice in our daily lives the blessings we have received through prayer. True study, or the search for Truth, is also a form of prayer, for without it we should lack ideas as well as words in which to clothe our prayers.
The principal object of study for the Christian Scientist is the weekly Lesson sermonn set out in the Christian Science Quarterly. These Lesson-Sermons, which expound fixed subjects each week, are God derived and meet the immediate needs of every individual, whether those needs may appear to be bodily, financial, or circumstantial, whether they be personal, national, or international. Being composed solely of excerpts from the Bible and from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, the lessons have the pure power of Truth with which to impart and sustain their messages.
In studying the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's books, we shall find that it is wise to consider what we are bringing to this study. Are we bringing a number of preconceived notions, thereby setting up an argument in mortal mind, or are we bringing the receptive heart of a little child? The writer finds it helpful and rewarding, when he opens the Bible or one of our Leader's books, to see that he first clears his thought and asks, "What has God to tell me of my relation to Him, and of His love for His ideas?" Such an approach gives the truth an opportunity to unfold in individual consciousness, and the truth thus acknowledged and entertained will be unrestricted and unresisted in its government of our lives.
