Since Christ Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "Thy will be done," submission to the Divine will has been regarded as a Christian duty. The prayers of the faithful throughout the centuries have arisen for light, guidance, and a knowledge of God's will. How to heed Paul's advice, "Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is," has been a difficult problem. Without such an understanding, how could one be sure that a mistaken sense of right might not hold sway and so misguide thought? The voiceless prayers of many might have found utterance in these words of Whittier:—
Blow, winds of God; awake and blow
The mists of earth away!
Shine out, O light divine, and show
How wide and far we stray!
Because of the prevalent conception of God as an enlarged finite person instead of divine Principle, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient intelligence, the human mind has conceived of the Divine will as similar to the human will, variable and susceptible to influence, and therefore uncertain in action. This has been the practical conception, if not the acknowledged one. This misconception of the Divine will has pervaded mortal man's entire experience, and is evidenced in a lack of the dominion given the man made in God's likeness; in ignorance of man's relation to God, and therefore in an ineffectual method of prayer. Because of this false concept mortal man in time of need seeks to influence his God by petitions to do what otherwise He might not do. With the belief that he himself is possessed of a will in no way identified with spiritual law, and often in antagonism to what he considers God's will, mortal man attempts to govern himself and work out his life-problem, and in working on such a basis he sooner or later cries out in despair that so much evil should enter human experience.
