THE VALUE OF PRAYER

　Speculation on the value of prayer is not confined to Spiritualists. In every religion there are those who wonder whether God hears them when they pray to Him. But few understand that prayer is subject to law, that some prayers are efficacious because they conform to law and others are unanswered because a law has been broken. The followin answers to questions will give a more rational view of suppli-cation:

　IS it important to pray?

　That depends on the prayer. The aimless repetition of words merely creates ripples in the atmosphere, but those who pray with their hearts and their souls, seeking in prayer closer unity with the Great White Spirit, seeking to make themselves useful instruments for His manifestations, emerge, because of prayer, stronger and more fitted to be His servants. The act of prayer, the revealing of oneself, the opening of the heart, binds us all together in unity.

　Would you say that prayer produces a result that is only sub-jective and not objective? A prayer may make you a finer character, but would it have any external result?

　True prayer should enable you to equip yourself for service. Prayer is the means by which you attune yourself to higher forces. I do not mean by prayer repeating the words that others have written without a realization of what they mean, but praying with the soul and the mind, with an earnest desire to reach out to the highest the soul can attain. Then, filled with the inspiration that comes as a result of the prayer, you emerge stronger.

　Is it of any use praying for somebody else?

　Yes, true prayer is never wasted, for thought has potency.

　Have the prayers of a healer engaged in absent healing any real effect?

　Yes. I was answering your question as it referred to indi-vidual prayer, but it also has universal application. By prayer you are releasing psychic energy, and this can be used by guides.

　Is it possible through prayer to enlist the help of those in the spirit world when otherwise that help might not be available?

　If you pray with sincerity, you make yourselves, because of the act of prayer, accessible to higher forces. The mere act of prayer opens up the soul. You must pray with your hearts, souls and minds. Mere requests are not prayers. Prayer, truly understood, is a great spiritual exercise. I can best explain it all by saying that prayer should always be regarded as a means to an end, not the end itself.

　There is only one prayerーthat prayer is, "Teach me how to serve." There is no greater work, no greater love, no greater religion, no greater philosophy than that you say "I want to serve the Great White Spirit and His children.” It matters not which way you serve, whether by bringing the truth of the spiritual part of the Law, or whether you feed those who are hungry or take away all the darkness in men's hearts. It does not matter which way, so long as you serve.

　The more you learn how to forget yourself and to serve others, the more you help to develop the spiritーthat is, the Great White Spiritーwithin each one of you. It is all very simple, but they build churches and say many strange things. They use long words that I do not understand, and have ceremonies which they say help religion.

　But all I know is that you must go and lift up those who are falling, give sleep to those who are weary, food to those who are hungry, drink to the thirsty, new light to those who are in darkness. Then the laws of the Great White Spirit are work-ing through you.

　Why is it that often prayers seem to be unanswered?

　In everyone there is always a war going on between that part which is human and that part which is divine. When that part which is divine wins, then you feel at one with the Great Spirit. When the human part triumphs, then you feel disheartened. Often you have to be guided not into the paths for which you think you are fitted, but into those paths where you can be used to give the greatest service.

　Every day and every night there comes into this house a band of spirits. Each one of them has given up his right to progress in order to build here conditions so that one day it will be a circle of light, with its illumination radiating into all the dark places of the earth. Beside that mission, the little troubles of earth are nothing.

　Whilst there are people who have no place to put their heads, who have no homes, and have to sleep under the skies of the Great Spirit, with His stars as their only light, their bodies exposed to the storm and the rain, and others who do not get sufficient food to sustain them, do you think the troubles of any one of you are important in the sight of the Great Spirit?

　I only ask you to remember that you are all helping the Plan of the Great Spirit, that great and wondrous design in which each one of you is helping to weave your own little pattern. One day the whole fabric will be revealed and every race and every colour will have its part. Then it will become a perfect universe.

　What takes place in the silence, when nothing seems to happen, is but a part of the embroidery being woven. Day after day, and night after night, the work goes on, everyone helping to weave a mighty fabric which will one day cover all the children of the earth.

   Sometimes you ask for things which are not good for your soul, which will only retard your own progress. Those things cannot be given to you. Sometimes you ask for things which your soul has not earned. They cannot be given to you. Sometimes you ask for things which are already in prepara-tion, ready to be poured into your midst when the right time comes. You must understand that the Great Spirit knows already of the unspoken prayers of all your hearts.

　Does prayer, as recited daily in churches, avail anything?

　It depends on the one who prays. If it is a prayer of the lips, then it is but an empty waste of sound. If it is a prayer from the soul, a prayer of earnestness and aspiration, a prayer that desires to reach out to the Great Spirit, then the very desire gives it wings which carry it into the heights of the realms of spirit.

　Would the prayer of a little child, for example, be of any use in curing a drunken parent?

　All sincere praver carries with it a power. How far that power can be transmuted into a material result depends on many conditions. It depends, in the case that you give, upon the soul of the man, whether that power can touch his soul, or whether he is so far removed from spiritual things that no spiritual thing can touch his soul. I cannot say yes or no to that question.

　But it would have some effect?

　All prayer which is prayer, which is aspiration, which is desire for service, for knowledge, for light, for wisdom, for guidance, all that prayer is part of the soul's evolution. Your mind is part, not of the body of matter, but of the spirit, the Great Spirit, and it has powers which belong to the Great Spirit. But before you can use those powers you have to learn through your soul evolution. Otherwise, they cannot be revealed to you.

　Are prayers heard by an individual in spirit, or must we postulate a power which can only respond to vibrations which harmonize with itself?

　Prayer is the expression of the soul. Let me make that clear. It is the yearning of the soul which cries out for light, for guidance. That very act, of itself, brings an answer, because it is setting into motion the power of thought.

　It is the cause which attracts a reply, which is the effect. There is no need for any spirit to wait for you to pray, because the quality of your prayer immediately attracts all those on the spiritual plane which your prayer can reach, according to the evolution of your soul.

　And naturally their powerーbecause they desire to serve your world—adds to the power which you set up. You have set into motion waves of thought which are part of the spirit. This enables the forces of the universe to work in accordance with your evolution. That means that you have made your-self accessible to those forces which you can reach.

　According to the evolution of the people who pray, it may be necessary for them to fix their minds on some ideal. If that helps the soul, I would not deny it. But the Great Spirit, the laws of life, the natural laws of the universe, these are the things that matter.

　Because the Great Spirit is perfection, the laws of the Great Spirit are perfect. That part of the Great Spirit that is within you is perfection, sceking to express itself. As you allow it to express itself, through prayer, through service, you are allow-ing the Great Spirit which is within you to express itself. All things, prayer, service, whatever you seek to do that uplifts a soul, even your own soul, these things are helping in your evolution.

　If everything is governed by inexorable law, what is the use of praying to the Great Spirit, for is not prayer a request that the Great Spirit should interfere with the law of His own ordaining on behalf of the one who prays?

　That is not prayer as I understand it. Prayer is the desire of a soul to reach out to the Great Spirit. Prayer is the desire to express the Great Spirit and that act enables the soul to express itself and to reach out to planes which before it could not reach. There is no injustice. There is no favouritism. It is merely that the soul equips itself so that it can express more of the Great Spirit and thus receive more of the bounty of the Great Spirit. The bounty of the Great Spirit is infinite and your soul is infinite as you learn to express its infinity.

　Why do we ask God to forgive us our sins: for if the Law is broken does not the penalty follow?

　Forgiveness does not enable you to make the adjustment, for you must pay the price. But when you pray for forgive-ness you are beginning to put yourselves into harmony with the laws of the Great Spirit, for you are beginning to look within yourself and to examine yourself, and that is when real progress begins.