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In this age of awakening in regard to the realities of the Spiritual Universe, there is no subject that should more engross the thoughts of the earnest inquirer than that of Prayer. Many, happily for themselves and for others, engage in the exercises of Prayer; but few, perhaps, rise to the realization of how much is involved in it. Most of us regard Prayer as little more than a means appointed by God, a condition laid down by Him, whereby certain required blessings will be bestowed upon us. We pray because we want something, and God has said, "Ask, and ye shall receive." Some of us pray but a little, or pray not at all, because this sense of need is not experienced.
But Prayer is far more than a requirement which God has attached to His blessing of us. It is an exercise to which pertains an astonishing and an all but incredible possibility. It is a means by which we can literally and actually come into contact with the World of Spirit.
By Prayer, we may put ourselves in direct communication with God, in such a way as to really speak to Him, and touch Him with our vital self. By Prayer, we can cause our spirit, while encased in the flesh, to project itself, so as to transcend the finite, and soar into the infinite. By Prayer, men and women may get closer to the great All-Father of the vast Universe than they can get to any dear one on this earth.
Oh! yes, the possibility connected with Prayer is, assuredly, a startling one. It may be we have never paused to think about it. It may be it has not struck us, that it is on account of this possibility that men have been so urged to pray, that the Bible lays such stress on the importance of this exercise, and that the Saviour Christ as He passed across the stage of earth-life was so pre-eminently a Man of Prayer. I said the possibility attached to Prayer is a startling one; and is it not so? At first thought, it does seem incredible that we, poor, feeble, faulty creatures, who are such tiny specks in the immensity around us, who know so very little, and are so hemmed in by the restrictions of the Physical, may, nevertheless, by Prayer, soar above the limitations of Time and Space, and the laws that condition Matter, and may literally transport our vital self into a realm that is Spiritual, and cause that self to function in the same way as the Being of God and the beings of angels are functioning. But such is the possibility of Prayer; and our realization of that possibility will re-color and give definiteness to the whole of our religious ideas. Our knowledge of what we can do by Prayer will lead us to better understand the complexity and greatness of our own being. The words of the Psalmist, in speaking of man, will not appear to us a pious exaggeration—"Thou hast made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honor" (Ps. 8: 5, Revised Version). The knowledge of what our spirit self is capable of doing in the act of Prayer will enable us also to view more complacently the incident of dying. If we be conscious that our vital and essential self has constantly projected itself from its "earthly tabernacle," and has actually energized in the realm of spirit, the thought of leaving that tabernacle more completely and forever will not appal us. If my self has been able to touch the Spiritual, in spite of my having been heavily handicapped by a coarse physical body, what a reasonable thought that my contact with God and spiritual things will be closer—much closer, when that body shall have been left behind! Thus, the consciousness of the possibility of Prayer gives us a magnificent foundation for our hope of continued life after death.
Before we pass on to consider more particularly this subject, it will not be out of place to note a fact that is very suggestive.
Mankind has always had an ineradicable conviction that in some way or another great possibilities are bound up in Prayer. With respect to every Religion, of whatsoever age, and under whatsoever conditions of human life. Prayer has always been considered an indispensable adjunct. Not only Christians and Jews, but Mohammedans, Parsees, Buddhists, Hindoos, and even Pagans have felt, and felt intensely, that they must pray. They have felt that some great end is attainable by Prayer. They, or many of them, not acquainted with the facts of scientific research with which we are familiar—the demonstrated facts of Telepathy and Telaesthesia—may not have been able to fully gauge the possibilities of Prayer; but, at all events, they have felt that Prayer has possibilities linked with it. They have believed that by Prayer they, in some way or another, could get into contact with God and spiritual realities.
This all but universal instinct points, surely, to the possibility of such a contact. The great All-Father is no heartless mocker of His creatures. He would never have implanted in men this desire to pray, unless communion with them and Him could be established. Here, then, in the persistent prayers of mankind, we have an indication that God means us to be in touch with the Spiritual.
We face now the question—In what way does Prayer put us into direct communication with God? In what sense do we actually ''touch" the Great Father-Spirit when we pray? This is a very important question, and if we answer it correctly, we shall be enabled to determine whether our devotional exercises be really Prayers, or merely semblances of Prayer.
With what part of our being do we pray? "With the lips," says some one. Not necessarily so. Undoubtedly, God intends that the physical part of our constitution should co-operate in the exercise of Prayer. The lips should speak to Him, the knees be bent to Him, and the body should assume an attitude in keeping with the fact that a suppliant creature is approaching the Creator. But it must always be remembered that these seemly accessories of Prayer do not constitute Prayer, nor are they that which will ever achieve the possibility of Prayer. One may pray without using the lips. By training our spirit, we can speak to God, and come into the closest possible touch with Him, although the lips be unmoved and the eyes unclosed.
We must not, however, infer from this that there is no advantage in an audible expression of Prayer. I am convinced that there is a very great advantage in employing our lips when we pray. The part of our being that unites itself to God will be helped thereby. If, in our private devotions, we softly utter the thoughts we direct to God, so that we can hear the words, I am certain that we shall be more likely to really pray, than in remaining silent, and merely mentally picturing the words.
Only we must remember that it is not by our lips we establish communication with our Father-God. It is the spiritual, not the physical, that prays. The lips are only a temporary vehicle through which the greater part of us may express itself. It is only our interior spiritual self—the "inner-man," as St. Paul calls it—that can pray. That is why he said, "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the mind also."
It is important, then, to understand the truth about that "inner-man," and the way in which it functions in the act of Prayer.
Our "inner-man" is a spirit, as God is; and as such it is the essence of us, and also the formative principle of all that in this world and in after life constitutes manhood. This spirit is our real self. It is not a shapeless, bodiless entity. It is encased in, and never dissociated from, a spiritual or etheric body. This is what St. Paul meant when he wrote —"There is a physical body, and there is (at the present time) a spiritual body" (1 Cor. I5:44)
The spirit plus its etheric body is what we term the "soul." A great many religious teachers speak of the soul as if it were a formless essence. They are wrong. The soul is a spiritual entity indissolubly united to an ethereal form. Our ethereally encased spirit—our soul—is within the physical body during earth-life, in order that we may be brought into relationship with the Physical, as the kindergarten school of our training. At death, this soul— our self—leaves its physical "tabernacle," not merely as a surviving essence, an indefinite life-principle; but as a spiritual being invested with a spiritual body.
We must realize this truth, if we would rise to a full conception of Prayer, and also rob dying of its horrors. It will not suffice to convince one that a something of him will survive the incident of Death. He will be appalled at the experience, unless he is confident that, apart from his physical body, he will be a being in the shape of manhood.
Now, in our soul there exists Mind—that mysterious, spiritual principle in which are centred all our ideas, feelings, emotions and aspirations.
Our spiritual self functions and expresses itself through Mind. If, therefore, Prayer be a contact between us, as spiritual beings, and the great Father-Spirit-God, it follows that Mind must play an all-important part in the transaction. And so it is. There can be no real Prayer in which Mind is not energizing.
Then, again, Thought, as the manifestation of Mind, is not merely a set of abstract ideas, as so many suppose it to be. It is an intense reality; as much so as our spirit itself. Thought is an emanation, a force, from our spirit, as light and heat are emanations from the sun, and electrical energy is a force which proceeds from the source that generates it. Consequently, Thought is spiritual. It is an outflowing of man's spirit, in the same way as the imparted power of the Holy Ghost is an outflowing of God, and a beam of sunshine is an outpouring of the sun. Moreover, because Thought is spiritual, the powers that pertain to spirit pertain also to Thought. Thought transcends the restrictions of the Physical. Time and space are annihilated in regard to it. Thought, in the case of God, can leap across the gulfs of past aeons, and be conscious of everything as a continual Present. Thought, in the case of man, as yet a not fully developed spirit, can project itself, and instantaneously transport itself anywhere, and can, when his spirit has been trained to it, sensibly touch a fellow-spirit in such a way as to make that fellow-spirit conscious that between him and the thought-transmitting spirit a real contact has been effected.
Science bears witness to the marvelous possibilities of Thought. Telepathy and Telaesthesia (i. e., the communication from a distance of impressions and perceptions from one mind to another, independently of the recognized channels of sense) are facts which will help us to rightly understand the nature of Prayer.
Further, Thought, being an effluence of man's spirit, possesses creative power. It can produce shape: it can call into existence thought-forms. The objects of the Physical universe are the thoughts of God materialized. When we shall pass from the earth-life to the higher life of the Spiritual, that which we think will become visibly manifest to others. Our environment then will exactly correspond to the thought-forms we create. Our surroundings will be pleasant or unpleasant, beautiful or ugly, as our own mental condition shall have made them. It is a sobering truth, which, if realized, would make us more careful concerning the way in which we think. Even in this life, the character of our thought determines the character of our environment. The right-thinking man may taste the sweets of heaven even in a peasant's cottage; while the wrong-thinking man may experience the miseries of hell in a palace.
Then, further, our thoughts being spiritual things, do not die. The thought-waves and the thought-forms we project from our spiritual self are all registered. They are impressed on the ethereal and electrical atmosphere of the Spiritual World, as the photograph of an object is delineated on the sensitized-plate. There they stand—those thoughts of ours and the thoughts of those countless millions who have gone hence—fixed and registered for God and others to read, and for ourselves also hereafter to read. That is what is meant in Scripture, when, in referring to God's judgment of men, it is stated—"the books were opened." I have touched upon this subject of the wonderful powers and possibilities of mind in order to show how directly it bears upon Prayer. We think, and in so doing send forth a vital spiritual emanation and force from ourself. The spirit of the man goes out in the thought-wave as literally and as actually as the being of the sun streams forth in its light and heat waves. Only by the action of our interior self— our spirit—can we pray. Prayer means the putting of ourself en rapport with God; and God is a Spirit, and only spirit can touch spirit.
What, then, must I do in order to really pray? I must take hold of my mind, and use it as the force-transmitting instrument of my spirit. I must bring my will-power to bear upon my mind. The mind must be disciplined and coerced, so as to be made to concentrate itself, and thereby collect and focus that vital energy which is to be projected Godward. In this way my mind will become the obedient organ of my spirit, and I shall let loose a great spiritual force, which, sweeping aside the restrictions of Time and Space, will rush forth to its Correspondence—the great Spirit-Receiver, God. My spirit will then kiss the Spirit of the All-Father.
It may be helpful if we consider now some of the conditions necessary for real Prayer.
Our Saviour Christ, in those words—"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret"—has clearly implied that there are conditions in regard to Prayer. Without insisting upon a compliance with the exact letter of His utterance, we can see in those words that He clearly recognized that there must be a rightful disposing of oneself to pray.
But, first of all, we do well to realize that it is not an easy thing to pray. It is not an exercise that can be performed perfunctorily or mechanically, and without effort. We have only to note our Lord's attitude in regard to Prayer to perceive that He accounted earnestness and effort as prerequisites for it. The One who said—"Men ought always to pray, and not to faint"; who spent whole nights in prayer on the uplands of Palestine; and who sweated drops of blood in Gethsemane in His effort to project His Spirit to God's Spirit, was not a Being who regarded Prayer as an exercise that could be lightly performed. No one more emphasized the importance of Prayer than did Jesus. He knew that it was the means by which He, while passing through the earth-life, could keep His spirit in close and vital communion with God.
When we realize the great possibility of Prayer, it becomes the most reasonable of all thoughts that the exercise of it must call for spiritual effort. It is no small thing to be able to connect our mind and spirit with the mind and spirit of the Supreme Head of the universe. To get into "touch" with a fellow-creature is a great achievement. To get into "touch" with God is transcendently greater. This possibility connected with Prayer is the greatest of all possibilities open to man in this world and Beyond. No other possibility can be compared with it. What wonder, then, that its attainment should demand effort and earnestness. Moreover, we know that man does not attain to other great possibilities apart from effort. For example, it is not an easy thing to acquire knowledge. As a rule, it is an exceedingly difficult thing. It calls for concentration of mind and persistent effort. Nor is it an easy thing to develop within us the grace of unselfishness and those other graces that constitute the Christian character. Moral excellence is not attained except by the persistent exercise of will-power, and a struggle to keep the lower side of our nature in subordination to the higher. Is it not unreasonable, therefore, to expect that any human spirit can rise into affinity with the great All-Spirit, unless there be the bending of the mental powers to the accomplishment of so great an end?
There are many sincere and good persons who fail to realize the need of this effort in regard to Prayer. They are devout in a perfunctory and mechanical manner. They are to be admired for their attendance at Church Services, and for their scrupulous performance of private devotional exercises, but all the time they fall short of arousing into spiritual activity their "inner-man," whereby their spirit lets loose a vital force which, functioning through the medium of the mind, finds its way to God. In a word, they do not comply with the Apostolic injunction to "pray with the spirit and with the mind also."
Without effort there can be no energizing of the spirit and the mind; and without that energizing there can be no real Prayer—no touching of God. No mere repetition of prescribed forms of devotion, and no listening to the too-often gabbled recitation of the beautiful Offices of our Church, in such a way as to make mental effort an impossibility both to clergyman and people, can ever avail in bringing our interior self into contact with God. Forms, ceremonies and Church ordinances are good and useful, if they help us really to pray; but not otherwise. Have I said aught that is calculated to discourage any one in regard to Prayer? Certainly, I have no intention of doing that. On the contrary, my aim is to incite my readers and myself to become more really praying men and women. I want to make us dissatisfied with mere mechanical praying. I wish to help us to perceive that Prayer is potent with a possibility infinitely greater than many have supposed; and because of that, it calls for earnest and persistent mental effort.
I have words of encouragement for all who desire really to pray.
We can train ourselves to this great exercise. The power to accomplish will come with practice. Men train themselves to think, or to speak, or to sing well, and they attain their object by effort and perseverance. We, too, may so tutor and control our indwelling spirit, as at length to make it possible for it to touch God in the act of Prayer. Let the training be continued, and the end sought will at length be comparatively easily attained. The one who has devoted care upon the cultivation of his mind or voice, at last becomes able to think easily or sing well. It is so in regard to our spirit and Prayer.
For a while our spirit may seem incapable of doing what we wish it to do. Really desiring to set up this vital union between God and ourself, to do so may seem to be beyond our spirit's power. Well, that must not dishearten us, nor cause us to relax our efforts. If, at first, we fail in obtaining the consciousness that we have touched God, we must remember that God Himself will help our efforts to do as He has bidden us. Importing a fuller significance into the words of that petition of the disciples to the Master, we shall cry—"Lord, teach us to pray—teach me so to train my spirit that it may touch Thy Divine Spirit."
Further, we must remember that our spirit may touch God through the medium of our subliminal mind, although our supra-liminal mind may not be wholly conscious of it. Science has demonstrated the existence of two minds within us. The subliminal mind is that which lies below the threshold (limen) of ordinary consciousness, as opposed to the supra-liminal mind which lies above the threshold. There are excitations—thoughts, feelings and faculties—which do not rise into direct notice. They lie beneath that point at which we come into conscious relationship with external physical things. These excitations are termed subliminal; they are kept submerged, not on account of their weakness, but by the constitution of man's personality. This threshold of ordinary consciousness may be likened to a level—a slab washed by the sea—above which the waves of subliminal perception may, but do not always, rise.
Now, in the act of really praying, we cause our spirit to function, and in so doing, the powers of our subliminal mind are brought into action; and our spirit may touch God through the medium of this subliminal mind, although the supra-liminal mind may not be conscious of that touching. Our spirit may have projected itself through a part of us that has not risen above the level of ordinary consciousness.
There is encouragement, surely, in this fact, for those who set themselves really to pray. If we have fulfilled the conditions of real Prayer; i. e., if we have prayed "with the spirit and with the mind," we need not distress ourself because as yet we cannot fully realize what our spirit has done. Our subliminal self, without the consciousness of the supra-liminal self, may have projected itself Godward. Our "inner-man" may have done that which our outer-man fails to realize.
May it not be, moreover, that this inability at times on the part of our supra-liminal mind to realize that there has been this subliminal touching of God, is appointed by Him, in order to teach us that Prayer is no soul exercise that can be listlessly and lackadaisically performed by any one? There have often been times, in my own experience, when, having earnestly set myself to attain the possibility of Prayer, I have arisen from the exercise with no fixed conviction that I have succeeded in so doing. At such times, I may have established a God-contact, although my supra-liminal mind has been unconscious of it. But, if I have not established it, if my spirit has absolutely failed to rise Godward, I do not think the Heavenly Father has been angry or disappointed with me. The good earthly father is not displeased with his boy who sets himself earnestly to accomplish a great task, but fails at first. The desire to unite my spirit with God's Spirit has been put within me by God Himself. He knows my difficulties. He will, assuredly, help me in my efforts. I have but to persistently fix my eye on the goal to which I aspire, and to try and try again. I have but to say to my inner self—" I desire—I mean, to touch God by my spirit through Prayer. I know it to be a great achievement. I am aware it will call for earnest and engrossing effort. I know it will involve a going forth from me of a 'virtue'—a vital energy from my interior manhood—as it did from the Christ when He did great things; but, God helping me, I will attain that possibility."
Any one who assumes this tone of mind has taken the first step in preparing the highway, along which the spirit of man can go forth to meet the Spirit of God.
I. Prayer demands a disciplining of the mind. The mind, as we have seen, is the handmaid of the spirit, and is the medium through which the spirit can project itself to God. Consequently, it must be adapted to the purpose it has to serve. It has to be adjusted in such a way as to make it capable of becoming the vehicle of the spirit. The mind left undisciplined and uncontrolled, renders Prayer an impossibility. It is not acting as the transmitter of the vital force of the spirit, and no communication with God can be set up.
The effort must be made to cause the mind to temporarily lay aside its activities in regard to things pertaining to ordinary life. The concerns of the Physical must be made to recede into the background of the consciousness, in order that the mind may exert its higher energies on the plane of the Spiritual. That is essential to its co-operating with our interior self in the great spiritual act of approaching God. The mind that is permitted to wander to, and be preoccupied by, that which concerns only our lower environment, is of no service to the spirit in Prayer. In the very act of not spiritually disposing itself it renders itself incapable of being the medium of the spirit's impulses and projection.
We have to train our mind, therefore, to think toward the Spiritual.
That is an achievement which may not be easy at first; but it can be done by practice, and by the observance of a few simple rules in regard to praying.
(a) We should pause for a moment or two before commencing to pray. It is a mistake to imagine that we can project our spirit toward God, if our mind be not realizing what it is called upon to do. The effort must be made to cause our supraliminal mind to become for the time being passive. While we are praying, it must cease to be occupied with the things and concerns of our ordinary consciousness. External physical objects must be shut out, and all thoughts not connected with the exercise in which we are engaged must be excluded. The subliminal mind, which is the principal medium through which our spirit functions, must be able to project its spiritual excitations into the supra-liminal mind, so that both minds in the act of Prayer may be acting in concert with the spirit. But the supraliminal mind cannot receive the excitations of the subliminal mind, if the former be absorbed with thoughts that only pertain to the non-spiritual. The one who attempts to pray, but at the same time allows his supra-liminal mind to be engrossed with thoughts about his business, his pleasures, and other mundane concerns, will not be able to pray. The vital force projected by the spirit may pass through the subliminal mind of the man; but it will go no further. It will fail to find a passage through his supra-liminal mind, because that mind is not so adjusted as to receive the impulses of the Spiritual.
Hence, in Prayer, the effort must be made to bring our supra-liminal mind into a condition of passivity. It must stop for a while its energizing on the plane of the Physical and the ordinary, and hold itself in readiness to respond to the promptings of our spirit.
One of the means whereby this* condition of mental passivity can be attained, is by pausing for a moment or two before we commence to pray. To stop our ordinary thinking; to make our mind a blank; and to do nothing and think nothing for a brief space. Perhaps, there is nothing more helpful than this in attuning our mind to pray. The Psalmist, no doubt, perceived the value of this surcease of mental activity in regard to things external, as a means of facilitating spiritual energy, when he wrote—"Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still" (Ps. 4: 4).
(b) We may further discipline our mind for Prayer by auto-suggestion; i. e., by suggestion made by ourself to ourself. My self is my spirit, and indissolubly linked to my spirit is my subliminal mind. This subliminal mind may, by suggestion, impress the supra-liminal mind in such a way as to bring it into tune with the subliminal mind, which latter is more readily responsive to the impulses of the spirit than is the supra-liminal mind. It is a case of the "inner-man" speaking to and influencing the outer-man. Apart from the question of Prayer, we may easily demonstrate the power and advantage of auto-suggestion. For example. Suppose a person be inclined to allow his mind to become gloomy and pessimistic in regard to the affairs of temporal environment. It will be of the greatest advantage to him, if he can cause the subliminal part of himself to vigorously suggest to his supra-liminal part something better. If that man can bring himself to constantly and emphatically say—"I will not be gloomy and pessimistic; I will be bright and hopeful,"—he will very soon rise into a better condition of mind. The one who has trained himself to cause his inner-self to rightly suggest to that part of his self which is more nearly in contact with things external, will escape no end of evils, mental and physical. Every doctor of the mind or body knows the value of auto-suggestion in regard to therapeutics.
Apply this principle to Prayer. Let the "inner-man" of you speak to that mind of yours which is acting in relation to things external; let it say (and speak the words aloud, so that the physical ears may hear it)—"You must help my spirit in this magnificent possibility of touching the great All-Spirit. I will you to cease, for a while, your energizings on the plane of the ordinary; I will you to forget, for the time being, aught else but that you, who art part of myself, should co-operate with my higher being in this exalted exercise."
Let this be done earnestly and persistently, and it will not be long before the supra-liminal mind will be able, very readily and easily, to co-operate with the higher part of our being in the exercise of Prayer.
(c) It will help us to discipline our mind for Prayer if we set ourself to expect something as the result of the exercise. We too often pray without any real expectation of attaining that for which we pray. For instance, we pray to be able to get into communion with God and to be able to realize that we have done so. But all the time, we do not really expect that our spirit will have the realization of such a communion. What is the result? We do not get that realization. Why? Because we did not actually expect it. We prayed, perhaps, merely from a sense of duty; because it was, we thought, the right thing to do; because in some way or another, we imagined it would be good for us to do so. But we did not expect to be conscious that our spirit had touched God; and as a consequence we did not become conscious of that fact. And so our prayers seemed to us to be barren and profitless exercises. But assume the other tone; confidently expect to realise that we have touched God; and all will be different. We shall rise from prayer feeling and knowing that a direct communication between God and us has been effected.
The influence of this realization upon our supraliminal mind will be great. It will be one of the foremost of incentives to this part of our being to co-operate with our spirit.
2. There is another important condition in regard to real Prayer. We must detach ourselves in spirit and mind from the objects and concerns of physical environment. We can best do this by being quite alone when we pray. The Lord Jesus Christ taught this when He said— "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father."
The presence of others is a distracting influence to the spirit in its effort to project itself to God. The Master, we know, often prayed when others were near Him. He prayed in the Temple-courts, when a crowd of disciples and ecclesiastics and strangers were standing by; He prayed in that Garden of Gethsemane when three Apostles were within sight of Him; He prayed on that cross when the very atmosphere of hell was surrounding Him; but His supremest efforts in Prayer, His grandest touchings of God by His spirit, were when the world was sleeping, and He was quite alone on those uplands of Galilee.
The Christ never said aught to minimize the duty and importance of public Prayer—on the contrary, He promised a special blessing to the two or three gathered together in His name;— but He did show, by action and word, that the greatest achievement of Prayer is only possible when we are quite alone, and the door has been shut on the external. Would we then, after we have so disciplined our mind as to make it the handmaid of the spirit, project our essential self to God? We must go apart, then, as Jesus did. We must be alone with God. Even our nearest and dearest ones, in their bodily presence, must be absent. Anywhere we may be; it matters not where; so long as we be alone. In the quiet and deserted church, in the door-closed chamber, in the still and darkened bedroom, in the seclusion of the country road or lane, on the moorland, in the forest, by the seashore—anywhere, everywhere, where others are not. Then will it be possible for our spiritual self to focus its energies and rise Godward; and Prayer will become an intense reality to us; because by it we shall be conscious that the gulf between the seen and the Unseen; the finite and the Infinite, has been bridged, and our child-spirit has kissed the great Parent-Spirit—God.
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