"More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day,
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round world is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
--_Tennyson._
"MARLOW, September, ----.
"Dear Husband:
"Your letter was so full of interest. How glad, oh how rejoiced I am
that we are privileged to know this beautiful truth. Don't you ever feel
like stopping in the midst of your work and giving thanks that you were
born in this age? As my eyes open more and more to God's goodness and
love and power, I am so full of thanks, there is no room for petitions;
indeed, I should feel as though I were begging, to ask God for what He
has already given me, and of course He gives every child alike, being
'no respecter of persons.' Just think of it: 'Eye hath not seen nor ear
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive the
things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' Negative
thought, carnal mind _can not_ know these things, but as we are
cleansed and purified, the new baptism 'creates in us a new heart,' the
loving child's heart turned to its father, and love shall teach us more
and more to read the signs of love.
"Oh, divine mystery of childhood, of parenthood, that brings us into
closer and sweeter knowledge of our Father whose love is infinite. Out
of the deep silence around us, filled as it is with the all-abiding
presence of God, may we ask for a manifestation of whatever gift we
choose to have. These thoughts filled my mind as I went to class this
afternoon, and what was my surprise and pleasure to find the lesson to
be on the subject of prayer.
"There is no theme or word so constantly in the mind and on the lips of
the Christ follower as prayer. The oft-repeated injunction of Jesus was,
'watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation.' 'Pray without ceasing.'
As we study more closely into the life of the Master, we find him on all
occasions communing with the Father in prayer. Thus we find that this is
the most sacred and necessary of all branches of our daily work.
"Prayer is the natural turning of the better self to God, in the
attitude of thankfulness, praise, supplication or voiceless desire. 'It
must be the spontaneous and almost irrepressible outpouring of the
thoughts and feelings of the soul into the listening ear of a present
God,' said an earnest thinker.
"To what wonderful depths and heights our prayers lead us when they are
thus spontaneous and irrepressible! How well David has expressed the
gratitude, the holy trust and majestic praise common to every devout
child of God. 'The Lord is my shepherd,' is blessed affirmation of
supreme trust, the naming of God's glorious gifts, the gratitude for
peace, life, love, protection, friendship, all the heavenly blessings of
God's presence in God's house. In this wonderful psalm we find, no
doubt, no thought of waiting for future blessings, but a grand
outpouring of thankfulness for the present. There are no petitions, no
supplications, no reserves of praise, but simply the glad recognition
and appreciation of the omnipresence and omnipotence of Good.
"It was the same feeling, tempered with a deeper solemnity, that
prompted Jesus to say 'Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me,' as
he was about to perform the mighty miracle of raising Lazarus.
"Thanks signify the accomplishment of the desire. His request of the
Father was granted before he had even preferred it, for he knew the law
and realized it--that God is life and knows not death--but the form of
words was observed because that makes the law a visible fact.
"Father is the human naming for this divine Love that ever waits for the
spoken word in order to be revealed. To Jesus it was the dearest and
best name of all by which to address or speak to the one great Helper,
Guide, Friend. 'Father, I thank thee,' was often on his lips, and it was
to the 'Father who seeth in secret' that he bade his disciples pray.
"In the secret consciousness of oneness with the Father there may be no
reservations, no concealments, no hypocritical bigotry, no thought of
self, only a glad going out with all our heart and soul to the Father, a
trustful acknowledgment of the Good. This is the attitude of true
prayer.
"The devout soul is always praying, because it _consciously_ lives with
God. There are times of praise, adoration, extolment, when thankfulness
is more exuberant, runs over into bursting joy, and times when longing
desire carries us into the very bosom of God. We long for comfort, for
love, for peace, with an unutterable agony of longing, and are met with
an unutterable joy of satisfaction, if we but turn to Him and
acknowledge, but an indispensable preliminary to prayer is fasting. The
power of accomplishment in fasting and prayer equals a decree.
"The conditions upon which hinge our use of the divine power are,
first,'putting away iniquity'--fasting; second, turning to God--prayer.
Then comes the power to decree; then we see the truth of Jesus' promise:
'All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have
received them, and ye shall have them.' Then we look into the face of
the Almighty and reflect the same power, are able to do a like work,
make visible the things of His creation by speaking the word of
acknowledgment, that they are already established.
"It was this kind of prayer that enabled the disciples to heal the sick,
cast out demons and do all the wonderful works. Failure was simply a
sign of unfaithfulness in prayer. 'Oh, ye of little faith!' was the
Master's explanatory exclamation.
"Here was a most essential requisite--faith in the Father, who alone is
the power; faith and trust in the invisible All. Why do we pray so much
with no answer to even our most devout aspirations? Because, like the
disciples, we have too little faith.
"The heart-weary mother has prayed for her son, and he still goes the
'broad way that leadeth to destruction,' as she thinks; but for her
heart-weariness, which is but lack of faith, he might have been turned
into 'paths of righteousness.' With her mind continually burdened with
fear, dire forebodings and anxious doubts, she has asked, begged,
beseeched the mighty Ruler of destinies to soften the heart of her
wayward boy. Thankfulness that God has given to her child the common
inheritance to all possible blessings, a pure spiritual nature, the
reflection of the All-Good, has never entered her thought to express.
Her mind is divided between a conception of good and a conception of its
opposite--evil. The result is years of hopeless praying, years of
hopeless waiting. 'A house divided against itself can not stand.'
"'Pray, believing that ye have received.' Thus, 'I thank Thee, Father,
for the perfect reflection of Thyself in my son. He is whole because he
lives in and of Thy wholeness. I thank Thee that Thou hast already done
more than I could ask. 'It is finished.' Into Thy hands I commend my
all.'
"In this is the simple recognition of the All-Father, His love and His
omnipotence. And after this, what? Trust--unwavering, childlike trust.
So the burden is truly 'cast upon the Lord,' evil is overcome, swallowed
up in the Good.
"With such mighty faith, what a cleansing there would be! what a
sincere, glad rejoicing that the true relation between God and man were
proven, for faith is the bond between the invisible and the visible, a
'basis of things hoped for, a conviction of things unseen.'
"With what devoutness, then, would we name the needs and aspirations?
With what certainty would we assert that we have 'already received?' Not
far off in the intangible somewhere, but here, there, everywhere may we
find the Good, and 'he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.'
"To dwell in the secret place, in the pure and righteous thought, is to
be always under the protection of the Most High. To be able to say, 'He
is my refuge and my fortress,' is the grand privilege given to the heir
of the King, the heir that has come to the full knowledge of his
inheritance and thankfully uses it.
"'The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,' wrote
the wise and righteous James. There is an infinite promise of the
fulfillment of righteousness in these words. They contain the key to all
accomplishment or all failure. The righteous man is one who 'walketh
righteously, speaketh uprightly, stoppeth his ears from hearing of
blood, shutteth his eyes from seeing evil' (prayer and fasting). The
righteous man decrees magnificently and trusts infinitely. He does not
approach God like a cringing servant, licking the dust at his master's
feet, but like a Prince who enters his Father's presence with the simple
statement of his wants, and knowing his Father's will takes the
glorious gift with thanksgiving and praise.
"Is it health he would have manifested for himself or his neighbor? He
confidently acknowledges the health, even though he can not see it, the
health with which all humanity is endowed, if it would claim its
endowment. Is it peace, power, strength he desires, he again goes to the
royal treasury. With the right word he climbs the stair of heaven; with
the right faith he enters his Father's house, where all things abound.
"The righteous man is of one mind, the divine Mind that works through
him. Were all the praying world of one mind, think you a Lincoln would
have been martyred, a Garfield sacrificed, or tender little children
lost to our sight?
"God is the same forever. There is no inharmony to come from Harmony. Be
of one mind; let the divine Mind work through you; acknowledge only the
divine creation, and then all beliefs in the opposite of God will be
destroyed. The immaculate Christ (Truth) destroys the works of the evil
(error) to-day, even as in the far away centuries of the past, 'if so be
you let the Mind that was in Christ Jesus be in you.'
"The practical naming of daily prayer is denial and affirmation, denying
evil or undesirable conditions, and acknowledging the Good or absolute.
"'Being is the vast affirmative excluding negation, self-balanced and
swallowing up all relations, parts and times within itself. Nature,
truth, virtue, are the influx from thence,' said Emerson, noting the
absoluteness of that which is. To become one with this affirmative
Allness, is to manifest the affirmative condition of Being.
"Paul says in Titus: 'The grace of God hath appeared to all men,
teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live
soberly, righteously and godly in this present world;' and in the next
chapter, referring to the same subject: 'This is a faithful saying, and
these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which hath
believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.'
"There is no ceasing of this most necessary process. It is only by
denying and affirming constantly that we fast and pray, thus fitting
ourselves for the cleansing ministry. It is to 'be diligent in season
and out of season,' if we would gain the true reflection from
Omnipotence.
What the sun is to the flower,
Thou to us art every hour;
Like the dew on lily's breast
Fall all blessings from the Best.
Not alone in day would we
Turn our faces, Lord, to Thee,
But through lowering clouds of night
Would reflect Thy radiant light;
Thanking Thee for all Thy care,
May our lives be filled with prayer.
"What an outpouring there was in the silence after this. Such a flood of
reverence and trustfulness filled my heart, and instantly it flashed
upon me that God requires no outward forms or ceremonies of His
children, except they be the spontaneous and involuntary expression of
an overflowing heart.
"Kneeling in prayer was first prompted by reverence and not the servile
form into which it has too much degenerated. A form is only a sign at
best. If there is nothing to prompt the sign, what a mockery it is!
Truly, 'the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.'
"Exactly how these thoughts came to me I can not tell, but after the
silence I knew by a great and sudden wave of understanding, things that
I had never thought of before, and to attempt to tell them would be like
trying to catch the sunshine. The hint I have tried to give seems very
far from the reality of my experience--but what are words compared to
thoughts, anyway!... My heart is too full. I know now what
'inexpressible' means.
"Good bye, with love to all.
"MARION.
"P. S. I had just finished my letter when Mrs. Dawn and Miss Singleton
came in. They too, had something wonderful in the silence. It seems too
sacred to tell, but to you three who are so earnestly seeking the way of
Truth, I can say what might seem sacrilege to the thoughtless world.
Miss Singleton had realized in those few moments the inexpressible
meaning of the Lord's prayer. 'Why,' she said, 'why, if we could realize
what it means, there would be no more sickness, sin or death. It seemed
to me the very heavens opened, and I looked upon a broad white shining
light like a path, only it was broadened and broadened as I looked, till
it became wide enough to cover the whole earth. This is to be wherever
the kingdom has come upon earth. Wherever the thoughts are heavenly and
pure there the Father is, there heaven, wholeness, health are, and I
could realize that the light is here, but ignorance keeps it veiled, so
that verily the 'light shineth in darkness but the darkness
comprehendeth it not.' Talk of sickness, trouble, sorrow, why, they are
nothing! The _light_ is here, the kingdom of heaven _has_ come, and been
here all the time. Jesus knew it, but he had to use language they could
understand. He knew if they prayed faithfully in that spirit, bye and
bye the spiritual meanings would flash upon them. Oh, how much, how much
it means! I can never lose this, for it means unutterable things, and I
_know_ there is no reality in sickness for I am _well_!'
"Miss Singleton is, or has been troubled for years with heart disease
and a slight curvature of the spine.
"It was not very light in the room, and I had not noticed her figure
particularly, but as she spoke, her face fairly shone with a heavenly
light (I can think of nothing else to describe it), and she was straight
as any one! She declared over and over that she was well, but more than
all else she appreciated the spiritual uplifting and knowledge that had
come.
"Mrs. Dawn had no special revelation to-day, but she seems to be
unfolding most beautifully. We talked a long time, and then sat in the
silence. They have just gone. How I wish I could see you, but it is late
and I must again close. Give my love to Grace and Kate. I am so glad
Kate is getting into the light. I felt she would be all right after she
begun. Of course, Kate, you will read this, but you will not care, I am
sure.
"M. H."