PRAYER
Prayer is only a particular form given to the will, aspiration and faith. . Its
forms are
very often crude and
not only childlike, which is in itself no defect, but childish; but still it has a real power and significance.
Its power and sense is to put the will, aspiration and faith of man into touch with the divine Will as that of
a conscious Being with whom we can enter into conscious and living relations...
Prayer helps to prepare this relation for us at first on the lower plane even while it is there consistent with much that is mere egoism and self-delusion; but afterwards we can draw towards the spiritual truth which is behind it. It is not then the giving of the thing asked for that matters, but the relation itself, the contact of man’s life with God, the conscious interchange. In spiritual matters and in the seeking of spiritual gains, this conscious relation is a great power.; it is a much greater power than our own entirely self-reliant struggle and effort and it brings a fuller spiritual growth and experience...
In the unapproachable stillness of his soul,
Intense, one-pointed, monumental, lone,
Patient he sat like an incarnate hope
Motionless on a pedestal of prayer.
A Srength he sought that was not yet on earth,
Help from a Power too great for mortal will,
The Light of a Truth now only seen afar,
A sanction from his high omnipotent Source.
