What but silent prayer can meet the demand, “Pray without ceasing”?  The apostle James said:  “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, to consume it on your lusts.”  Because of vanity and self-righteousness, mortals seek, and expect to receive, a material sense of approval; and they expect also what is impossible,—­a material and mortal sense of spiritual and immortal Truth.

It is sometimes wise to hide from dull and base ears the pure pearls of awakened consciousness, lest your pearls be trampled upon.  Words may belie desire, and pour forth a hypocrite’s prayer; but thoughts are our honest conviction.  I have no objection to audible prayer of the right kind; but the inaudible is more effectual.

I instruct my students to pursue their mental ministrations very sacredly, and never to touch the human thought save to issues of Truth; never to trespass mentally on individual rights; never to take away the rights, but only the wrongs of mankind.  Otherwise they forfeit their ability to heal in Science.  Only when sickness, sin, and fear obstruct the harmony of Mind and body, is it right for one mind to meddle with another mind, and control aright the thought struggling for freedom.

It is Truth and Love that cast out fear and heal the sick, and mankind are better because of this.  If a change in the religious views of the patient comes with the change to health, our Father has done this; for the human mind and body are made better only by divine influence.

SHOULD CHRISTIANS BEWARE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE?

History repeats itself.  The Pharisees of old warned the people to beware of Jesus, and contemptuously called him “this fellow.”  Jesus said, “For which of these works do ye stone me?” as much as to ask, Is it the work most derided and envied that is most acceptable to God?  Not that he would cease to do the will of his Father on account of persecution, but he would repeat his work to the best advantage for mankind and the glory of his Father.

There are sinners in all societies, and it is vain to look for perfection in churches or associations.  The life of Christ is the perfect example; and to compare mortal lives with this model is to subject them to severe scrutiny.  Without question, the subtlest forms of sin are trying to force the doors of Science and enter in; but this white sanctuary will never admit such as come to steal and to rob.  Through long ages people have slumbered over Christ’s commands, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel;” “Heal the sick, cast out devils;” and now the Church seems almost chagrined that by new discoveries of Truth sin is losing prestige and power.