Prayer is the means whereby men commune with God and receive His answer. It is instinctive with men to pray. Feeling their own insufficiency and weakness in the face of life's difficulties, and the need of divine guidance, they turn to Him whom they acknowledge to be their creator, desiring Him to help them and to bless them. Everywhere men pray. They have at all times prayed, even when their gods were idols, because prayer is the cry of human helplessness. Inadequate, immature, weak as it is when God is unknown or but feebly defined, still its effect is always salutary on him who prays; and it always tends to reduce the sum total of materiality.
If one studies the Bible, it becomes clear that men have prayed more consistently and most efficaciously as their understanding of and faith in God have increased. "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord," and "Noah walked with God," and he and his household were saved when "every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground." Throughout his life faithful Abraham communed with God, ultimately receiving the promise, "I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." Jacob's experience at Peniel, when "there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day," was the result of his desire, his prayer for God's help to enable him to meet Esau, whom he feared. The outcome of the mental struggle was Jacob's victory over fear. Thereafter, he was called Israel, "for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." Purified and exalted, he met Esau in love. Similarly, "the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy," finally making him ruler of Egypt. It was Moses' constant communion with God, likewise, that enabled him to deliver the children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt, and to give to the world the Ten Commandments, without obedience to which in some degree mankind would cease to exist. Without prayer there would have been neither prophet nor prophecy, neither miracle of healing nor the saving of nation or individual, during the long period preceding the appearing of the Messiah.
Prayer was the very breath of life to Christ Jesus. It revealed divine Truth to him; it sustained him in his duties; it enabled him to heal sickness and sin of all kinds; it gave him power over every form of matter and over every material phenomenon. It was through unceasing prayer that he was enabled to raise the dead, and ultimately to destroy the belief in "the last enemy" in his own case. Jesus' power was all derived from prayer. He acknowledged the fact, and instructed others how to pray, teaching them what is known as the Lord's Prayer,—the prayer which, spiritually interpreted, covers every human need. It will be remembered that after the disciples had failed to heal a lunatic boy, brought to them by his father, they, the disciples, asked the Master the reason for their failure. He replied, "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." Greater self-abnegation was required; thought must become more spiritual, less material,—then their prayer would meet the case.
