Did Eddy ask students to pray for themselves each day?

We are sometimes asked if Mary Baker Eddy expected adherents of her teachings to prioritize daily prayer. She did indeed make that request in her 1896 message that was read aloud during the 1896 Annual Meeting by the then President of The Mother Church Septimus J. Hanna:

One thing I have greatly desired, and again earnestly request, namely: that Christian Scientists here, and elsewhere, pray daily for themselves. Not verbally, nor on bended knees, but mentally, meekly, and importunately. When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God, for bread, it is not given a stone, but more grace, obedience, and love. If this heart, humble and trustful, faithfully asks divine Love to feed it with the Bread of Heaven, health, holiness, it will be conformed to a fitness to receive the answer to its desire; then will flow into it the “river of His pleasure,” the tributary of divine Love, and great growth in Christian Science will follow, — even that joy which finds one’s own in another’s good.¹

Eddy made related requests in the By-Laws of the Church Manual, including this, found in the book’s most recent edition, under the heading “Daily Prayer”:

It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to pray each day: ‘Thy kingdom come;’ let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!”²

On the following page she also included this By-Law, under the heading “Alertness to Duty”:

It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind. By his works he shall be judged, — and justified or condemned.”³

The first chapter in the current version of Eddy’s textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, is titled “Prayer.” It introduces the centrality of prayer to Christian Science not as a ritual but as heartfelt communion with God.

In addition to Eddy’s many references to prayer in her published writings, her letters include instructions to individuals about prayer for themselves, based on their specific needs. She emphasized that genuine prayer is not rote or formulaic; these instructions serve as examples, not prescriptions. Here are several from her correspondence.

In an 1893 letter, Eddy counseled her student Clara Shannon on her work as a Christian Scientist:

Trust Him dear, read daily the Bible and Science and Health and pray the prayer of our Lords’ in your own words, ask for His Kingdom to come, for Love Truth and Life to govern all your desires aims and motives, to feed you with faith and a clear knowledge of Good, to make you patient, forgiving, long suffering, and merciful, compassionate, even as the dear God is thus to you and you desire Him to be, and thus reflect this God, Good, in all His qualities etc. etc.⁴

In early 1897, Eddy included this in a letter to her student James Neal:

Pray daily, never miss praying, no matter how often: “Lead me not into temptation,” ― scientifically rendered, ― Leave me not to lose sight of strict purity, clean pure thoughts; let all my thoughts and aims be high, unselfish, charitable, meek, ― spiritually minded. With this altitude of thought your mind is losing materiality and gaining spirituality and this is the state of mind that heals the sick.⁵

Later that same year, Eddy wrote to Neal and asked him to complete a task for her. She ended her letter with this advice for her student:

Now dear one, watch that worldliness and the natural mortal love of human applause or any possible pride or vanity creep not into your thought, for these are among the thieves that would steal into the good man’s house and spoil his goods ― take away the riches of purer and higher thoughts ― which weigh in God’s scale helping you to heal the sick and reform the sinner. To this end pray to divine Love daily; for if the good man watch his house will not be broken open.⁶

In August 1897, Eddy wrote to Hanna, who was then serving as both Editor of The Christian Science Journal and as First Reader of The Mother Church, and he still also held the role of President of The Mother Church. He had told her that he was seriously overworked.⁷ She offered the following advice:

My beloved Student

 

You are now taking the right steps. Go into your secret “upper chamber” (observatory) shut out observation and the world since the kingdom of good cometh not thereby — and pray. No better possible place hath earth for prayer than that[.] But to reap the reward take up your cross overcome the fear of man that bringeth a snare. Tell your wife and her servants never to disturb you at those hours of prayer fix them at four hours each day for reading prayer and meditation alone with God. Let your rule for this have no more exception than if you were on an island in the sea. Be strong and firm on this basis till you are ready to feel “I have had my vacation I am ready for harder work”. Life is not rest it is action doing good is Life, rest, and action….⁸

The following year, in November 1898, Hanna and his wife Camilla studied with Eddy.

Also, in 1902, Eddy wrote to her student Joseph Mann, who at the time was serving on her household staff:

… every day pray for daily bread, the bread of Heaven, the Truth that enables you to have dominion over the earth or mortal mind …. ⁹