The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-16
THE FARMER: NOVEMBER 1e, 1915

Il | Il use. So simple is it, yet so reverent in it's phraseology, so direct, yet uni versaI in its inclusions, so free from every suggestion of sect or doctrine, that it can be unreservedly. used by any sincere man or woman of any church or of no church. Here it is as Mrs. Eddy has given it to us:
 'Thy kingdom come:" let the l reign of divine Truth, Life, and | Love be established in me, and | rule out of me all sin; ana may Thy Word enrich the affections l of all mankind anu govern i them! (Manua1, Art. VIII, Sec.
 The day that is begun with this prayer, or any other equally unselfsh and uplifting, is sure to be a better, happier, healthier, and holier day be- cause of it.
 1 Strictly speaking, there is but one kind of prayer. We are praying alright, or we are praying amiss. The prayers that men classify as Method ist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal a ian, Christian Science, or what not, are either good prayers or poor ones. The labels they bear cannot make them good. if poor,Tor poor if good. The prayer that ascended to Him who knows our needs before we ask, is not i ality. The Christian Science prayer results in the healing of sickness and i the destruction of sin, not because of it's name but because it is based upon a right knowledge of God and His :! eternal laws.
 i From the narrow, gloomy aisles of i prejudice sometimes come these com blaming words: Why indeed should ask a, Christian Scientist to pray for
 me when my prayers are just as sin cere and earnest as his can be ?' Sin tcerity and earnestness without knowl- edge are not enough. There is as great need today as there was two thousand years ago for the. words of Jesus dis cip1es,s Lord, teach us to pray.,' i Briefly to consider what constitutes prayer in Christian Science, let us take a few extracts from its text book, Science and Health. On the fourth page of the remarkable chapter on Prayer, Mrs Eddy uses these words: 1 "The habitua1 struggle to be
 always good is unceasing
 prayer-' ssse
 ! What we most need is the | prayer of fervent desire for 7
 growth in grace, -expre essed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds.''
 | And again on page 15:
 'Se1f-forgetful purity, and 1
 srs'
 f Indeed this whole cha pter is such a complete and conn nprehensive exposi- l ton of true prayer that the few ex- ] tracts I have read you can only serve as glimpse of it's helpfulness. They 1 will suffice, however, to, show that prayer in Christian Science, is not an affair of words but of living, not of eloquence but Of character, It is not the man who bets the hardest or the 1 loudest, or with the greatest huency, whose prayers are answered. It has been wisely said that:
 tThe things which men most ad-
 nire in public prayer are tke things i that God least regards
 1 God has given to every one of His children all good things, hence we must do more than merely beg and be- seech Him to favor us. We must study l to know His laws and then do our best to live in accordance with them. x
 1 So it is with those who follow the | teachings of Christian Science about to do something for us that we would greatly like to have done, but we are striving to learn what He would have us do, and then to do it joyously. i We can ask no better evidence that a. prayer is answered than afterwards to feel so near to the Giver of all good as to. have lost sight of what we asked Him to- give us. The prayer that l brings the child closer to the Father, that brings man closer to his God, the divine Principle of his being, and leaves him there. is not a barren one, whether it was uttered in the silence | of ones thought, in the sanctuary, in the noisy street. on the rushing train, or on the rolling sea Neither time T1rlT f.aT -fra sir iof # unsettled love, for, after all, love for God and man is the essence of prayer. Co1eridge has truly said:
 1 tHe prayeth best who Ioveth best ! All things.5 both great and small. l For the dear God who loveth us He made and 1oveth aIl.''
 I The prayer that results in no dis ipointment1 is the prayer that carries our. highest. desires to God and con l tentedly leaves them. in His hands. IWhen we bring more of God and less of man into our thinking, we will get more of happiness out of our praying.
 The Founder of Christian Science attributes to prayer combined with vigilance and diligence, the abundant blessings which have accompanied the progress of Christianity wherever it has been manifested in healing the sick and saving the sinner.
 The worlds progress>in civilization, in so far as it embraces "the enduring. the good, and the true'' (S. & H. f261-4) is due to Christianity, and, < without prayer. Christianity is incon- cefvab1e. Mankind in general, and even that portion of it which is ac- counted Christian. has little coneep- I tion of the part that Christianity sci entif1c prayer has taken in. the better ment of humanity, and of what it is yet to accom- plish.
 Mrs. Eddy is by no means alone in the acknowledgment of the power of prayer. j z l Tennyson caught the same great truth, and expressed it simply as fol- lows:
 More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of''
 which dfscIoses his recognition of a fact we should keep beforeu s in our