"Prayer is the heart's sincere desire." What we long for and hope for we pray for by our very longing and hope. The real prayer may be struggling in the heart without words, it may be a n.o.ble desire, a heart longing which no language can express. It may be voiceless or it may not, but the true prayer always comes from the heart, and it is always answered.

A remarkable ill.u.s.tration of this is afforded in a story told by John Wesley. He was once riding through a dark wood, carrying with him a large sum of money intrusted to his safe keeping. All at once a sense of fear came over him, and dismounting from his horse, he offered up a prayer for protection. Years afterward Wesley was called to see a dying man. This man told the preacher that at the time he had pa.s.sed through the wood, so many years before, he, the robber, had been lying in wait to rob him of the money he carried. He told Wesley that he had noticed him dismounting and how, on his remounting and resuming his journey, the appearance of an armed attendant riding beside him had so filled him with awe and a great fear that he had abandoned his purpose.

Balzac said truly: "When we are enabled to pray without weariness, with love, with certainty, with intelligence, we will find ourselves in instant accord with power, and like a mighty roaring wind, like a thunderbolt, our will will cut its way through all things and share the power of G.o.d."

Everybody prays, because everybody hopes and desires, has longings and yearnings which he hopes will be realized. In a sense the atheist, the agnostic, the unbeliever, although they may not know it, pray just as much as do believers, for every longing of the heart, every n.o.ble aspiration, is a prayer. We pray as naturally as we breathe, for the desire for a better, n.o.bler life, for grander and higher attainment, is an unconscious prayer. Prayer is really our heart hunger for oneness with the Divine, with the Eternal. It is the union of the soul with its Maker. It is literally what Phillips Brooks described it to be, the sluice gate between G.o.d and the soul.

Many people mistake the very nature of prayer, and complain that it is no use to pray, because their prayers are never answered.

The reason is clear, and is admirably expressed in Irving Bach.e.l.ler's pithy verses on "Faith."

"Now, don't expect too much o' G.o.d, it wouldn't be quite fair If fer anything ye wanted ye could only swap a prayer; I'd pray fer yours, an' you fer mine, an' Deacon Henry Hospur He wouldn't hev a thing t' do but lay abed an' prosper.

"If all things come so easy, Bill, they'd hev but little worth, An' some one with a gift o' prayer 'u'd mebbe own the earth.

It's the toil ye give t' git a thing--the sweat an' blood an' care-- That makes the kind o' argument that ought to back yer prayer."

If your prayers come back to you unanswered it is because they are not backed by the conditions on which the answer to prayer depends,--faith and work. You don't get the thing you pray for either because you don't really believe you will get it, or you don't back your prayer with the necessary effort, or because you fail in both requisites.

To pray for a thing and not work for it, not strive and do our level best to obtain it, is a mockery. To ask G.o.d to give us that which we long for, but are too lazy to help get ourselves, is begging. In answer to our prayers and longings and efforts we get that which we call out of the universal supply, which is everywhere. Every day some prayer is made visible, something is wrought out of the invisible, manifested in the actual by those two mighty instruments--prayer and work. But if you think your stumbling block will be removed, or your desire realized without raising a finger to help yourself, you may pray until doomsday without ever getting an answer. Prayer without faith is of no avail. And faith without work is a barren virtue.

In the second stanza of a little poem ent.i.tled "G.o.d's Answer," Ella Wheeler Wilc.o.x gives us the answer to the plaint of the discouraged, unsuccessful soul, who cries that his prayers are not heard, and that no hand is stretched out to lead him to the heights he would attain.

"Then answered G.o.d: 'Three things I gave to thee-- Clear brain, brave will and strength of mind and heart, All implements divine to shape the way; Why shift the burden of the toil on Me?

Till to the utmost he has done his part With all his might, let no man _dare_ to pray.'"

The answer to your prayers is right inside of yourself. They are answered by your obeying the natural as well as the spiritual law of all supply. If you don't do your part in the actual working world down to the minutest detail your prayer is bound to come back to you unanswered.

Everything in the universe has its price, a perfectly legitimate one.

You can realize what you desire if you are willing to pay the price, and that is honest, earnest, persistent effort to make it yours. The Creator answers your prayer by fitting you to answer it yourself, by enabling you to put into practice the law of demand and supply, the fundamental principle on which answer to prayer is based. You must put yourself in absolute harmony with the thing you pray for. It cannot be forced. You must attract it. Answer to prayer comes only to a receptive mind in a positive condition, that is, in a condition to create, to achieve.

The law of affirmation and the law of prayer are one and the same.

"Affirm that which you wish, work for it, and it will be manifest in your life." Affirm it confidently, with the utmost faith, without any doubt of what you affirm. Say to yourself, "I am that which I think I am--and I can be nothing else." But if you affirm, "I am health; I am prosperity; I am this or that," and do not believe it, you will not be helped by affirmation. You must believe what you affirm; you must constantly strive to be what you a.s.sert you are, or your affirmations are but idle breath.

Make yourself a New Thought rosary, not of set formal prayers, but an original one whose beads shall be your heart's aspirations, your desires to e-volve the strong, radiant, successful happy man or woman the Creator has in-volved in you.

If you are unhappy, crushed by repeated failures and disappointment, suffering the pangs of thwarted ambition, put this bead in your rosary and say it over to yourself frequently: "The being G.o.d made was never intended for this sort of life. Mary (or John)," addressing yourself by name, "G.o.d made you for success, not failure. He never made any one to be a failure. You are perverting the great object of your existence by giving way to discouragement, going about among your fellows with a long, sad, dejected face, as though you were a misfit, as though there were no place for you in this great glad world of abundance. You were made to express gladness, to go through life with a victorious att.i.tude, like a conqueror. The image of G.o.d is in you; you must bring it out and exhibit it to the world. Don't disgrace your Maker by violating His image, by being anything but the magnificent man or woman He intended you to be."

Back up every "bead," or prayer you put in your rosary by action during the day, otherwise you might as well save yourself the trouble of stringing your beads, for

"It's the toil ye give t' get a thing--the sweat an' blood an' care-- That makes the kind o' argument that ought to back yer prayer."

Don't be afraid of thinking too highly of yourself, not in the egotistical sense, but because (the Creator having made you in His image) you must have inherited divine qualities, omnipotent possibilities. It is an insult to G.o.d to depreciate what He has made and has p.r.o.nounced good.

If you are a victim of timidity and self-depreciation, afraid to say your soul is your own; if you creep about the world as though you thought you were taking up room which belonged to somebody else; if you shrink from responsibility, from everything which draws attention to yourself; if you are bashful, timid, confused, tongue-tied, when you ought to a.s.sert yourself, turn to your rosary and add another bead.

Say to yourself, "I am a child of the King of kings. I will no longer suffer this cowardly timidity to rule me,--a prince of heaven. I am made by the same Creator who has made all other human beings. They are my brothers and sisters. There is no more reason why I should be afraid to express what I feel or think before them than if they were in my own family. I have just as much right on this earth as any potentate, as much right to hold up my head and a.s.sert myself as any monarch. I am my Father's heir, and have all the rights of a prince. I have inherited the wealth of the universe. The earth and the stars and the sun are mine. I will quit this everlasting self-depreciation, this self-effacement, this cringing habit of forever appearing to apologize for being alive. It is a crime against my Maker and myself. Henceforth I shall carry myself like a prince. I will act like one, and will walk the earth as a conqueror. I will let no opportunity pa.s.s to-day for a.s.suming any responsibility which will enlarge me, for expressing my opinion, for a.s.serting myself whenever and wherever necessary.

"This specter, this shadow of self-depreciation which has held me back so long, which has darkened my path in life must go, for I shall walk henceforth with my face toward the sun so that the shadows of life will fall behind me, and not across my path as before. I am going to face life with a self-respecting, victorious att.i.tude, with a hopeful outlook, for I know that I am victory organized. Hereafter I am going to think more of myself. I am not going to put myself on the bargain counter any longer by going around as though I had a skim milk opinion of myself. No more of the poorhouse att.i.tude of inferiority for me. I know that I was born for victory, born to conquer. I am going to win out in this great inspiring game of life."

If you feel that you lack initiative, if you are not a self-starter, boldly a.s.sert the opposite and add the a.s.sertion to your rosary. Stoutly affirm your ability to begin things, to do them as well as they can be done, and to push them through to a complete finish. Learn to trust the G.o.d in you. This trust is a divine force which will carry you through.

Never again allow yourself to harbor thoughts of your inferiority or deficiency. Say to yourself, "I am going to a.s.sert my manhood or womanhood and stand for something. I am going to be a force in the world and not a weakling. I was made to make my life a masterpiece and not a botch; I was created for a great end, and I am going to realize that end. There are forces inside of me which if aroused and put into action would revolutionize my life, and I am going to get control of them, to use them. I am going to find myself and use a hundred per cent. instead of a miserable little fraction of my ability."

If you are obsessed with the idea that you are not as bright, that you have not as much ability as most other people; if you have been called dull, dense, stupid by your parents and teachers, until you have lost confidence in yourself; if you have been dwarfed by the suggestion of inferiority, either through what others have said of you, or the thought you have held of yourself, you must change all this. You must a.s.sert your ability and hold tenaciously the ideal of the able, efficient man or woman you long to be and that it is in you to become. You must not only affirm your power to be that which you wish, but you must replace the picture of your inferiority with the ideal of wholeness, of completeness, of the man or woman the Creator intended you to be. Cling to this ideal of yourself, a.s.sert your superiority, and you will soon drive out the dwarfed, inferior, defective image which others, or your own false thoughts, have established in your subconsciousness. Holding the truth, the perfect ideal, in mind will give you confidence, a.s.surance to do the thing you are capable of doing.

Thousands of students have failed to pa.s.s examinations not because of inability to answer test questions, but because of fear, loss of self-confidence engendered by the blighting suggestion of inferiority.

This is especially true of highstrung, sensitive natures.

If you brood over the failure suggestion, if you visualize an inferior picture of yourself, you will become obsessed with the failure idea, with the thought of your inefficiency, and make it wellnigh impossible for you to succeed in any undertaking. If for any reason you have dropped into the failure habit, you will have to make a very determined effort to break away from it, or your life will indeed be a failure.

I know a young man who is both efficient and ambitious, but when the opportunity for which, perhaps, he has been working a long time comes, he wilts. His courage fails and he does not feel equal to it. He can see how somebody else can do the thing required, but he fears it is too much for him. He has never done anything like it before; and he is afraid to make the attempt because he might fail.

Now, if you feel this way about yourself, just add another bead to your rosary. Cut "I can't" out of your vocabulary and subst.i.tute "I can,"--for he can who thinks he can. Napoleon, one of the greatest achievers the world has ever seen, hated the word "can't" and would never use it if it could be avoided. He did not believe in the "impossible." When he was praised for his daring and genius in crossing the Alps in the dead of winter, he said, "I deserve no credit except for refusing to believe those who said it could not be done."

Did you ever think that every time you say "I can't" you weaken your confidence in yourself and your power to do things? Did you ever know a person who has a great many "I cant's," and excuses in his vocabulary to accomplish very much? Some people are always using the words, "Oh, I can't do that;" "I can't afford this;" "I can't afford to go there;" "I can't undertake such a hard task, let somebody else do that." These negative a.s.sertions undermine power. Have nothing to do with them. In all questions of achievement, let your rosary deal in affirmations.

Instead of "I can't," say "_I can_," "_I must_," "_I will_." Begin what you fear to undertake, and half its difficulties will vanish.

If you are vexed, worried, and like Martha, "troubled about many things;" if you are suffering from all sorts of discord; if you are not feeling well, you will get great comfort from turning to your rosary and repeating some of the blessed Biblical promises. "Neither shall any plagues (discord or harm) come nigh thy dwelling. This is the promise to him that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High. I will restore health into thinking and I will heal thee of thy wounds." "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty," "The Lord is my refuge, my fortress. In Him will I trust." "Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day," "Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, from the pestilence that walketh in darkness," "He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust."

The contemplation of G.o.d and the frequent repet.i.tion of these beautiful Bible pa.s.sages will increase your faith and your consciousness of oneness with the Infinite.

Make it a rule never to affirm of your health, your success, or yourself what you do not wish to be true. Don't say that you feel "rocky," that you are used up, played out, that you feel miserable, that you don't feel like doing anything. Never tell people of your aches and pains, for every repet.i.tion means etching the black pictures of these conditions deeper and deeper into your consciousness. Instead of thus intensifying them, say to yourself, "The Power that created, and that sustains me every instant of my life, repairs, renews, restores, cures me. I am health, I am vigor, I am power, I am that which I think I am." Refuse to see or to hold for an instant an imperfect, discordant sin or disease-marred image of yourself. Do not harbor a suggestion of your inferiority, physically or mentally. Always picture yourself as a great, strong, splendid man or woman, clean, true, beautiful--a sublime specimen of humanity. Do not allow yourself to harbor a thought of physical or mental weakness. Think health, power, perfection at every breath. Persist in holding the thought of yourself as you long to be, the ideal which your Creator saw ahead of you when he fashioned you.

Cling to your vision of health without taint, weakness or defect.

Have you a hair-trigger temper, and do you fly all to pieces over the least provocation, starting raging fires in your brain that are as destructive to your mental and physical forces as are the great forest fires to the vast tracts of territory over which they sweep? If you have you are minimizing all your powers and seriously endangering your success, your happiness, your life itself. Ask Sing Sing what the hot tempers, the fires of uncontrolled anger, of jealous rage, of revenge, of hate, of all the explosive pa.s.sions have done. Ask the poorhouses, the insane asylums, the morgues, ask the records of human wreckage everywhere, what the fruits of uncontrolled pa.s.sions of every sort are.

Anger, whatever its cause, is temporary insanity. Are you in the habit of losing your temper, of flying into a rage over trifles? If you could only see what a miserable spectacle, what a fool exhibition, you make of yourself on such occasions, when you go all to pieces and rave like a madman because you miss your train, or because you think some one insults you, when you step down from the throne of your reason and let the brute sit there and rule in your place, you would be so chagrined and mortified that you would leave nothing undone to rid yourself of your fault. Why, nothing could hire you, when in your right mind, to make such a ludicrous and contemptible exhibition of yourself. You only do it when under the stress of angry pa.s.sion, when shorn of your power by this temporary insanity.

To retain self-control, mental poise, equanimity, under all provocations, great or small, is an index of a fine strong character. It is a triumph of strength over weakness, of greatness over littleness.

The habit of conquering ourselves is the habit of victory; it strengthens all the faculties.

You can bring this great force of control to your aid, by calling on the divinity within you, by a.s.serting your oneness with the Divine who is eternal calmness. Say to yourself, "G.o.d's image is in me. I am of divine lineage. I was not intended to be pa.s.sion's slave. It is unworthy of a real man, of a real woman, to be the plaything of temper, or any sort of explosive tearing down pa.s.sion. There is something divine in me and I will not allow my lower nature to get control."

The constant affirmation of your oneness with your Creator, with _the_ One, will give you a wonderful sense of power, and will help you to overcome every handicap. But you must be very positive, very insistent and persistent in your affirmations. No matter what fault you are trying to overcome or what good quality you are anxious to acquire there must be no weakness, indecision or vacillation in your affirmations or your efforts.

If you are cursed with the fatal habit of indecision; if you are a weak vacillator, always taking things up for reconsideration because you are not quite sure that you have done the right thing; if you allow yourself to waver, to doubt the wisdom of your decision, you will be incapable of ever under any circ.u.mstances arriving at an intelligent conclusion.

You can cure the curse of indecision by a.s.serting your power to see clearly, think quickly and act decisively. If you are in doubt as to what career to choose; if you hesitate in regard to what course you should take in any difficulty, which of two or three paths you should follow, whatever your problem may be, ask for light and the divine power within will come to your aid and guide you aright. Repeat the "I am" in every instance. "I am positive." "I can decide vigorously, firmly, finally." Resolve every morning that you will, during that day, decide things without possibility of recall or reconsideration. First go over the matter to be decided very thoroughly and carefully. In making your decision use the best judgment at your command and then close the incident. You will secure yourself against vacillation by refusing, after it is thus closed, to wonder whether you have done the wisest thing, by resisting every temptation to open the matter for reconsideration.

If you feel that you are a coward somewhere in your nature, you can strengthen this deficient faculty wonderfully by holding the courageous ideal, by thinking and reading about heroic people and things, holding the thought of fearlessness, that you are G.o.d's child, that you are not afraid of anything on the earth. Study the stories of heroic lives; think, act, live, the heroic thought. Say, "I am a son of G.o.d, and I was never made to cower, to slink, to be afraid. Fear is not an attribute of divinity. I am brave, courageous; I am a conqueror."

If you are suffering with the poverty disease, if your whole life has been stunted by poverty, saturated with poverty-stricken thoughts and convictions, if you have been heading towards the poverty goal, just turn about face, and put the law of abundance into operation. Face towards prosperity and success instead of poverty and failure. All the good things you need are yours by inheritance. Claim them, expect them, work for them, pray for them, and you will realize them in your life.

Make this last stanza of Ella Wheeler Wilc.o.x's splendid little poem "a.s.sertion" a new bead on your rosary. Repeat it frequently, and work cheerfully, confidently, courageously toward its fulfillment.

"I am success. Though hungry, cold, ill-clad, I wander for a while. I smile and say, 'It is but for a time--I shall be glad To-morrow, for good fortune comes my way.

G.o.d is my father, He has wealth untold, His wealth is mine, health, happiness and gold.'"

If you have made fatal mistakes for which you have been ostracized from society; if you are morbidly worrying over some unfortunate experience, thus making it bigger, blacker and more hideous, just thrust it out of your mind, bury it, forget it, say to it, "You have no power over me; I will not allow you to destroy my peace and thwart my career; you are not the truth of my being; the reality of me is divine, and you cannot touch that. I can and I will rise above all my troubles, make good all my mistakes and errors. From now on I will work with the G.o.d in me. I will not be overcome. I will overcome."

If you are the slave of a demon habit which has blasted your hopes, blighted your happiness, thwarted your ambition, cast its black shadow across your whole life, say to yourself: "I will break away from this vile habit. I will be free and not a slave."