Margaret Matters, C.S.B., of New York, New York
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Margaret Matters, C.S.B., of New York City lectured on "Scientific Prayer as Revealed by Christian Science" in Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Monday evening. The speaker was introduced by William L. Phillips.
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
A discovery implies the unveiling of something which already exists. Small incidents may reveal to the thinker hitherto unknown laws. Sometimes discoveries are made through study and research, or experimentation may bring to light facts that have always existed but of which mankind has been ignorant. The discovery of Christian Science came about through prayer — not through that prayer which is supplication or entreaty, but through the prayer which the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, describes (No and Yes, p. 39) as making "new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power. It shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are; and most of all, it shows us what God is." It was through loving, intelligent, logical thinking about God and man that Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science, and this scientific thinking was prayer.
Her prayers consisted not only in scientifically understanding the truth about God and man, but in proving or demonstrating this truth. She tells us in the Christian Science textbook (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 16): "The highest prayer is not one of faith merely; it is demonstration. Such prayer heals sickness, and must destroy sin and death." The full burden of proof that her discovery was scientific, and that it healed the sick, rested on her, the Discoverer. In an article entitled "To the Christian World," she writes of this proving time as follows (The First Church of Christ. Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 105, 106): "After my discovery of Christian Science, I healed consumption in its last stages, a case which the M.D.'s, by verdict of the stethoscope and the schools, declared incurable because the lungs were mostly consumed. I healed malignant diphtheria and carious bones that could be dented by the finger, saving the limbs when the surgeon's instruments were lying on the table ready for their amputation. I have healed at one visit a cancer that had eaten the flesh of the neck and exposed the jugular vein so that it stood out like a cord. I have physically restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and have made the lame walk. . . . The list of
cases healed by me could be made to include hopeless organic diseases of almost every kind."
A physician who witnessed the healing by Mrs. Eddy of one of his own patients, whom he had pronounced dying of pneumonia, asked her if there was no work published that described her system of healing, and on learning that there was no such book he urged her to write one. In speaking of this incident Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 105), "In the ranks of the M.D.'s are noble men and women, and I love them." Thus it was she began her next great task, the writing of the Christian Science textbook, now entitled "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Only through consecrated prayer was she able to accomplish this truly wonderful work, thus making it possible for students of this Science to heal the sick through Christianly scientific thinking, or through that prayer which attributes to Mind, God, all power. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 112), "The earnest student of this book, understanding it, demonstrates in some degree the truth of its statements, and knows that it contains a Science which is demonstrable when understood, and which is fully understood when demonstrated." She states that in writing this book she "was only a scribe echoing the harmonies of heaven in divine metaphysics" (ibid., p. 115).
Many seekers came to her to learn better how to use the Science stated in her book. And so she began teaching them. As their numbers grew, she was impelled to found and organize a church. She became the pastor of this church, and during her pastorate the church membership greatly increased, but she says that "its spiritual growth kept pace with its increasing popularity" (Retrospection and Introspection p. 44). She later ordained the Bible and the Christian Science textbook to be its Pastor. As this Church of Christ, Scientist, developed, a Metaphysical College and a Publishing Society were added to its activities. Many who had been blessed by the healing power of this great movement, but who understood little of its Science, joined its ranks. Mrs. Eddy's wise counsel and guidance, based on the leadings of divine Mind, God, whom she sought in prayer, were necessary at this juncture, and thus she became the Leader of the Christian Science movement.
Humanly it was impossible for one
person to accomplish in a lifetime all that Mrs. Eddy accomplished, but she
gave proof that the humanly impossible can be made possible through prayer to
God. When on May 21st, 1894, the cornerstone of The First Church of Christ,
Scientist, in Boston, was laid, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian
Science, the beloved Leader of thousands who had been blessed by her glorious
work, said to her followers (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 144), "To-day I
pray that divine Love, the life-giving Principle of Christianity, shall
speedily wake the long night of materialism, and the universal dawn shall break
upon the spire of this temple."
Since the dawn of history prayer has been humanity's common mode and method of communing with its varied concepts of a higher power. The noblest and most comprehensive prayer ever given mankind was uttered by Jesus and is generally known as the Lord's Prayer. Mrs. Eddy characterizes it as the "prayer which covers all human needs" (Science and Health, p. 16); and she continues, "Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick." In this prayer the first step necessary in order to "rise above all material sensuousness and sin" is to recognize our oneness with God, which we do when we pray, "Our Father which art in heaven." In the Christian Science textbook this is spiritually interpreted by Mrs. Eddy in these words: "Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious" (ibid., p. 16).
In Jesus' parable of the prodigal son we find that "when he came to himself," to an understanding of his perfect spiritual nature as the son of God, he then rose above material sensuousness and sin and went to his Father. This illustrates how we should rise above material sensuousness and sin and go to God, which we do when we understandingly pray, "Our Father which art in heaven." The true and only selfhood of all creation is our Father-Mother God, so that whenever we come to ourselves, to our true selfhood, we find ourselves at one with the source, cause, and origin of our being, namely, with God.
Whatever the human mind claims to create becomes separated from its origin and is outside of and apart from the individual who conceived and created it. Take, for instance, a work of art. It is conceived mentally by the artist, but it is brought forth materially and immediately becomes something outside and apart from him. The same is true of the creation of an architect, a composer, a writer, or a human parent. This is the material conception of creation. But we find given in the first chapter of Genesis the true sense of creation, which shows that the "seed is in itself," is forever in the divine Mind which created and conceived it, for that Mind is its eternal selfhood. All true creation is God's expression of Himself, Soul's reflection of itself, Mind's idea of itself, Life's living of itself, Love's loving of itself, Truth's outcome of itself.
As we "rise above all material sensuousness and sin," by going to our Father-Mother God, we find, as did the prodigal, that our true selfhood is ever conscious of the angel message from the Father, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." Instead of two sons, one a mortal who departs from his true selfhood, from the consciousness or home of his father, and who has to return to it, there is but one son who is ever with his Father-Mother God, as divine Love's eternal expression of itself. To human sense we may seem to arise and go to the Father, but, actually, the truth of Love's statement is always present "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." The oneness of God and man is not the unity of two, but the oneness of the infinite One, of Principle and its idea.
Divine fatherhood and motherhood mean Love expressing itself to and through its offspring, its children, its ideas. In this loving relationship of parent and child the parent always supports its offspring. Our Father-Mother God holds us forever as His own, and man's eternal unity with Him can never be disrupted. Discordant world conditions will be overcome by praying, "Our Father which art in heaven, Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious."
In reply to the question, "Is there more than one God or Principle?" Mrs. Eddy answers: "There is not. Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and the universe" (Science and Health, p. 465). When in human experience we face the beliefs called opposing persons, nations, races, let us rise and go to the Father, divine Mind, and behold the man of God's creating loving us. Let us not feed on the husks of false beliefs that there are opposing races, nations, persons, and creeds, but let us know one God, one universe, one race, lovely, loving, lovable, and greatly beloved of the Father, and recognize that every concept of divine Mind is God revealing Himself, expressing Himself, bringing forth His own nature, being, individuality, and law. Mrs. Eddy writes of this oneness and unity in a beautiful poem entitled "The New Century," one verse of which reads (Poems, p. 22):
"'Tis writ on earth, on leaf and flower:
Love hath one race, one realm, one power.
Dear God! how great, how good Thou art
To heal humanity's sore heart;
To probe the wound, then pour the balm —
A life perfected, strong and calm.
The dark domain of pain and sin
Surrenders — Love doth enter in,
And peace is won, and lost is vice:
Right reigns, and blood was not its price."
The next line of that prayer which meets every human need, "Hallowed be Thy name," has been interpreted by Mrs. Eddy with two words, "Adorable One" (Science and Health, p. 16). God's name or nature is One — adorable one Spirit, adorable one Mind, adorable one Soul, adorable one Principle, adorable one Life, one Truth, one Love. That which is hallowed is made holy, blessed, consecrated, and, according to the dictionary, the word "adorable" also means deserving to be worshiped, worthy of divine honors, worthy of intense regard and love, or fervent devotion. These two words "Adorable One" express our praise and recognition of God's sacred, holy, pure nature, as well as our devotion and consecration to all that is spiritual, good, and true. Mrs. Eddy tells us (Miscellany, p. 226), "Beloved students, in this you learn to hallow His name, even as you value His all-power, all-presence, all-Science, and depend on Him for your existence." It is divine Love that enables us to glimpse the purity, infinitude, omnipotence, and glory of the divine name or nature, and thus adore Him.
The acknowledgment that God's nature is also the nature of His creation, man and the universe, leads us to deny that we have a nature that is gross, petty, weak, unhappy, and discordant. Because there is only one adorable name or nature, there can be no sensual nature, no obstinate nature, no temperamental nature. If we claim or admit such a belief as true of ourselves or of others, we are not praying, "Hallowed be Thy name," "Adorable One." As one learns to know God's glorious nature, one beholds man's true name or nature as God's likeness or reflection.
Because the one and only name is hallowed, your name or nature can never be opposed, hated, envied, distrusted, or obscured, for it expresses the all-hallowed name of God. Self-condemnation, self-pity, or the other extremes, self-satisfaction and pride, do not hallow or consecrate God's name, but deny it. Your true name or nature can never be perverted, misrepresented, nor falsely influenced, nor has it ever been, for the only nature you have expresses the hallowed name or nature of divine Principle, God.
A most wonderful concept of prayer was imparted to mankind when Jesus gave us what we now call the Lord's Prayer, for it is a prayer that each individual can use to meet his own needs. It expresses the truth of man's relationship to God, praise of God, also the desire to demonstrate God's kingdom on earth. This simple, profound, universal prayer lives in the heart of each Christian, and no matter where he may be or what trial he may be facing, he has its power, comfort, and protection with him. This prayer which our Master gave to us is infinite in its revelation and universal in its application.
An understanding heart is the kingdom of God, where divine Love reigns. Understanding is not a thing of the brain or of the intellect, for without love understanding is impossible. When we pray, "Thy kingdom come," and understandingly use its spiritual interpretation given by Mrs. Eddy, "Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present" (Science and Health, p. 16), our prayer is answered in the assurance, understanding, and love that fill our hearts and that reveal to us and through us, God's presence. The verb "to come" means "to appear." God's kingdom does appear through Christian Science, which reveals Truth and Love as ever-present, and error and fear as never present.
The belief that we are praying for a future state of heaven, or hoping for God's future reign, is completely dispelled by the spiritual interpretation of the line, "Thy kingdom come," namely, "Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present." Thus, this prayer becomes one of realization as well as one of desire. Think what it means to know that God, Love, Life, Truth, is ever present! In business, in the home, in social life, on the battlefield, and in church activities this truth utilized protects us from the belief that confusion, lack, fear, danger, discord, envy, hatred, and dissension reign, have a kingdom, or are anywhere present.
Christian Science shows that a mortal, whose being is a material mentality and whose body is a physical structure, could not possibly be man, who, according to the Bible, is the image and likeness of God. In order to describe man as God's image and likeness, Mrs. Eddy has used the word "reflection." We know the character of the original when we see its reflection, just as we know something of the sun's nature when we see the rays that reflect it. When we know the nature of God we see man; and when we see man, we know God, man's origin. As God cannot be seen with the physical senses but with intelligence, love, purity, and joy, so man, God's reflection or expression of Himself, can be seen only with these spiritual qualities. The morning light may seem to come, but actually, it is always present and the earth but turns towards it, and mortals waken to its presence. In Christian Science, the coming of the light which reveals the true nature of God and of man, and the waking of mortals to this light or understanding of Truth is the appearing in human consciousness of the Christ light — the light which has been forever present.
It was Jesus' awareness of, or awakeness to, this light of Truth, to the Christ, which revealed the perfect nature of God and man; and Jesus' proof of the ever-presence of Truth that enabled him to approximate humanly the perfect man, and prove that man is the individual consciousness, the kingdom where God alone reigns. This so allied him with the Christ that he was known as Christ Jesus.
The way that God comes to the flesh is through the revelation of His glorious, perfect, loving nature and of His uninterrupted and ever-present government of man — through the appearing of the fact that His kingdom is come, that it is here and now complete. In the Psalms the distinction between man and mortals is made clear in the following verse: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" God, the divine Mind, is full of the ideas of Himself, that constitute man, but He visits or comes to the son of man, to mortals, with the revelation, the manifestation of His presence, of His power, and of His reign or kingdom on earth. This coming of Truth to human consciousness is the Christ.
God's will is His law of Life and Love, and this law in its operation destroys all that would oppose Life and Love. Opposition to Love and Life may take the form of sin, which is destructive to happiness, peace, and honor, and which ultimately destroys itself; or it may take the form of sickness, which is discordant, depleting, and harmful, and which may lead to what is called death. Christian Science shows that sickness, sin, and death cannot possibly express God's will, for they are opposed to His nature as infinite Principle, Life, Truth, and Love. To attribute to divine Love the cruelty of death, wars, calamities, accidents, — upheavals of nature, or the weaknesses, sufferings, and sorrows of mortals would be to believe in Him as a monster, rather than to know Him as the divine Love which He is.
Prayer is that intelligent, receptive state of thought or consciousness which knows God's law, and demonstrates His will. Prayers in Christian Science do not transfer thought from one person or from one mind to another. They are simply the knowing and demonstration of Truth, of God's loving will. His will enforces itself as law, as the law which moves and holds all creation in perfect harmony. The divine will is effortless, restful, and inexhaustible. It has the quiet permanence of Truth and rests on the sure foundation of divine Principle. When we pray; "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," and use the spiritual interpretation of this as given by Mrs. Eddy, namely, "Enable us to know, — as in heaven, so on earth, — God is omnipotent, supreme" (Science and Health, p. 17), we are desiring to know that the harmony and health of Love, the joy of Soul, the peace of Mind, and the perfection of Principle, which constitutes His will, have all-power or are supreme in our consciousness here and now. Christian Science shows that there is only one will, God's will. This means that there is only good will or benevolence. From this premise we are forced to deduce that there is no evil, hateful, vicious will or malevolence. This understanding will bring to us the manifestation of this omnipresence of divine Love, and we shall find ourselves loved on earth even as we are in heaven.
That which really sustains, comforts, encourages, strengthens, and nourishes us is divine Love. It is love which our Father-Mother gives us as our daily bread. Are we really eating, taking into our consciousness, and expressing by our actions this changeless, ever-patient, ever-present love of our Father-Mother God? If so, we are partaking of the bread for which we ask when we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." In this prayer we are asking God to give us something. That which is given to us, which we have not earned, or may not deserve, is designated as "grace" in the Bible. We would not expect the sun to give us of its warmth merely because we desire warmth, but because we know that it is the nature of the sun to give of itself. And so we turn to God, divine Love, in this prayer, expecting Him to impart His nature, His supporting sustaining, nourishing love to us. Christian Science shows that we receive this love by reflecting it, even as the sun's rays receive the sun by reflecting or giving forth its light.
Mrs. Eddy in her interpretation of this part of the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," uses the word "grace" in the following manner (Science and Health, p, 17): "Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections." And she further states in our textbook (p. 4), "What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds." The grace of divine Love satisfies every longing, quiets every fear, enables us to see through the mists of terrifying, destructive human conditions, and behold the light of Truth, which reveals the ever-presence of God. In another of her books, "Christian Science versus Pantheism," Mrs. Eddy defines "grace" as "the effect of God understood" (p. 10).
Jesus said, "Take therefore
no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself." This counsel, if followed, would overcome the greatest fear that
besets mankind, namely, fear of the future. Fear of lack, fear of sickness,
fear of old age, fear of death, are always fears that deal with the future, and
these fears are a denial of the ever-presence of God. Jesus' teachings and his
works show us that God supplies us daily. Quite evidently he did not worry
about his taxes, nor try to evade them. He paid them. He looked to Mind, God,
not to money, to do this, for he lived his prayer, "Give us this day our
daily bread." Be not afraid of taxes for they will never equal God’s
supply, which is infinite and ever-present. You will be enabled to render unto
Caesar the things that are Caesar's as you render unto God love, gratitude,
praise, understanding, and consecration — which are the things that are God's.
It is our faith, not our supply, that is being taxed, and as we understand that
man and the universe reflect or express the one self-existent, self-sustaining
God, we shall be able to prove, as did Jesus, divine Love’s support of and
supply to man, the object of
His love. This is God's grace, and thus we are fed by Love, with the bread of
Truth.
When we pray to God, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," we are expressing our deep desire to be right and to do right by ourselves and by our fellowmen. The beautiful spiritual interpretation of this given by Mrs. Eddy, "Love is reflected in love" (Science and Health, p. 17), shows us that by expressing or reflecting divine Love we can demonstrate this deep desire and experience its fulfillment. The word "debt" comes from two Latin words meaning "not to have." This state of lack cannot be part of man, the likeness of all that God is, and who expresses the fact that God is all. Christian Science shows that debt is as impossible for God's man as it is for God.
Among human beings, a great deal of business is carried on through borrowing and lending. God's business is carried on through the reflection or giving forth of divine Love. The sun's rays borrow their light from the sun, and they have nothing of their own apart from the sun. So, as Mrs. Eddy tells us in the Christian Science textbook (p. 511), the divine Mind subdivides and radiates the borrowed light or intelligence of its ideas. All that these ideas borrow is given forth in reflection. This borrowing does not impoverish or limit one. It is only when we borrow fear, hate, resentment, or any other evil that we are destitute and in debt. Love owes nothing, for it gives all. The reason for the debts of individuals and nations is lack of love, which means lack of the understanding of man's perfection and completeness. What another owes us, as well as what we owe him, is love, understanding, patience, tenderness, honesty, and good will. If he seems, or we seem, not to be meeting the obligation, we must deny such evidence and recognize that "Love is reflected in love," beholding right where this debt or lack of love may seem to be the very presence of divine Love pouring forth its love upon us. Without love in our own hearts, we are unable to see others as loving. Love alone is conscious of love. Man, the likeness of divine Love, gives forth or reflects Love; he never owes it.
Sometimes we use the expression, You owe it to yourself to be more loving, or more principled, or a better man. As a matter of fact, we always owe it to ourselves to express perfect Love, for we owe it to our God, our true being or selfhood, to express all of Love's qualities. Then if there is lack of love in our thoughts, made manifest through resentment, fear, impatience, discouragement, discord, or sorrow, we owe it to our God, ourselves, and our fellowman to express understanding, patience, harmony, courage, and joy — those qualities of love that will cancel our debt to Love and Love's idea, man.
In Christian Science we owe it to divine Principle to be principled; to divine Truth to be truthful; to divine Mind to be intelligent; to divine Life to live; and to divine Love to be loving. And what we owe to God we most certainly owe to man, who expresses God. In Christian Science the way to meet our obligations and to pay our debts is so simple that we may have overlooked it. It can be summed up in two words: Love more.
The Bible tells us, "Perfect love casteth out fear." Then fear is the belief in this absence of Love and is destroyed by the realization of Love's presence and by expressing love. Fear believes Love to be absent by believing that something cruel, harmful, or hateful is present.
One of the loveliest illustrations of the fact that the expressing of love forgives or destroys lack is in the Biblical story of the widow of Zarephath, who believed that all she possessed was a handful of meal and a cruse of oil, which she expected to use for herself and her son and then give up and die. When Elijah came, guided by that Love which knows no lack and which casts out fear, he asked her to give him a morsel of bread. By so doing he was really asking her to express her supply of love. But she, moved by the evidence of lack before her senses, told him that this was impossible. So he assured her that her expression of love, through sharing, would not deprive her but that, on the contrary, her supply would never cease. His words were: "Fear not; . . . but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail. . . . And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah." This woman thought she lacked the loving care, provision, support, protection, and strength wherewith to battle the lack which was facing her. But Elijah proved that God's love was at hand, meeting her every need, supporting her, and giving her ceaselessly of divine Love's inexhaustible supply.
Christian Science enables us to prove the truth of Isaiah's words, "For thy Maker is thine husband," and to demonstrate the fact that the day has come, prophesied by Hosea when he said, "And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi" —which means husband. Christian Science comes to those who believe themselves to be fatherless or widowed, and assures them that their Father-Mother God is ever with them, comforting them with the truth that divine Love is tenderly husbanding them, supporting and supplying them with the truth that "Love is reflected in love."
Mrs. Eddy speaks of the church which she founded as "a Mind-healing church, without a creed, to be called the Church of Christ, Scientist, the first such church ever organized" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 44). This Mind-healing, or God-healing, results from a scientific understanding of that part of the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," the spiritual meaning of which is given by Mrs. Eddy in the following words (Science and Health, p. 17): "God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death."
The unselfed love and the universality presented in the Lord's Prayer are made evident through the desire it expresses for blessings, guidance, and deliverance to be bestowed on us all as a whole, not on you or me singly. Its opening words, "Our Father," establish this universality, for they bring instantly to thought that we are brethren, the offspring of one common parent, God; that we all have the same perfect origin, the same infinite heritage of good, health, and opportunity for progress, the same endowments and possibilities for accomplishment because we are all created for the same purpose, namely, to glorify God.
That institution which affords the greatest opportunity for expressing this universality, this harmonious relationship of the sons or offspring of God, and for proving that we all have one Mind, one Principle, one purpose, and that we are moving forward together, going the one way of Truth, is the church. When Mrs. Eddy founded the Christian Science church she made clear the ways and means whereby all mankind could be most benefited by her discovery of Christian Science, and whereby all could be led of God, not into temptation but delivered from evil, from sin, disease, and death. Our prayerful desire to follow the leadings of divine Love and demonstrate the government of God finds fulfillment in the Church of Christ, Scientist, which stands as a beacon light to the nations of the world. This "Mind-healing church" affords opportunity to be led and governed, not by personalities nor by fallible human theories and doctrines, but by the exact, scientific, universal leadings of divine Principle, Love, which delivers from evil, from sin, disease, and death.
If one were to judge God's kingdom from what is evidenced by the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, one would say that it was indeed a kingdom divided against itself, for the good, the beautiful, and the strong expressed in these three kingdoms is often outweighed and thwarted by the ferocious, poisonous, destructive, and mutable. The only true nature that exists is God's nature and it is good, immutable, and eternal, expressing God's power and radiating His glory. Jesus had that spiritual understanding of God's glorious nature which enabled him to still the storm, the expression of the disturbed, fearful, destructive nature of the carnal mind. Elisha perceived God's power so clearly that he was able to nullify the effects of poisonous herbs, and to overthrow the law of material gravitation downward through demonstrating the gravitation of divine law Spiritward, with the result that an iron axe head was made to float on the water. Mrs. Eddy tells us in the Christian Science textbook, (p. 514): "Understanding the control which Love held over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the viper to be harmless. All of God's creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible." The scientific understanding imparted by Christian Science enables its students to prove, in the degree they understand and utilize this Science, that these same demonstrations are possible today through that prayer which rejoices in the fact that "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever."
In God's kingdom, in the universe of spiritual ideas and thoughts, all creation recognizes the reign of Mind, the power of Truth, the glory of divine Love. Everything in God's universe is glorifying Him through the radiant reflection of His nature and through magnifying divine Mind as all. The jungles, the desert places, stormy, treacherous seas, polar cold, and equatorial heat but express the barrenness, the tempestuous conflicting crosscurrents, the lifeless extremes, the destructive searing heat, the tangled theories of a kingdom divided against itself, which cannot stand because it does not express the fact that "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever," a prayer which has been spiritually interpreted by Mrs. Eddy with the words (Science and Health, p. 17): "For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All."
No matter what your problems may be, nor how incurable your sickness may seem, nor how tragic your grief may appear, you will find that God will banish all difficulties if you but turn to Him through the Lord's Prayer, seeking a greater understanding of its power, striving for a clearer perception of the healing in its wings, reaching out for a larger demonstration of the love it radiates, giving God the glory for the wonderful works which must inevitably result from such prayer. "For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever."
[Delivered March 18, 1946, at Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Indianapolis, Indiana, and published in The Marion County Mail of Indianapolis, March 22, 1946.]