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Teach Us To Pray
Joyous Prayer
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[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
THERE are vibrations in space that our men of science have
not yet discerned or measured. These undiscovered
quantities are related to the Mind of Being and must be
apprehended through the unfolding in man of supermind
faculties. When the trained Christian metaphysician prays
he can, with a disciplined consciousness, make contact with
these forces in the ether and through them gain a certain
unity with the Mind of Being. The consciousness thus
attained is usually designated as the Christ consciousness
or the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the union is
attained an increase in spiritual power is felt and one has
the assurance of the activity of spiritual principles
within of which one has had hitherto no awareness.
But no man yet knows all of life's joys, nor will he until
he has come into the full understanding of spiritual
communion with God. No man knows the fullness of life, nor
its joys, until he has prayed in meekness and thanksgiving
and has received the sweet, pure realizations of Jesus
Christ. True and lasting joy arises from within. The nature
of the deep inner life is revealed only to those who
spiritually penetrate into its source.
Would you feed the soul on the joys of the scientific
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Christian? If you would you must realize them and give
thanks in prayer for the more abundant life. Then you will
find that a great subconscious well of living water will
begin to bubble up in your soul, and you will come to know
that hitherto you have been living in the shallows of life
instead of in its mighty depths. You will be blessed with a
knowledge of the unity of all things, and a great peace and
harmony will well up within.
Man must know spiritual harmony, and therein is the source
of a great secret. Musical geniuses say that they first
hear their compositions before they are given outer form.
Poets clothe in words and give local habitation and a name
to what to the practical mind seems airy nothings.
Pythagoras, the ancient philosopher, wrote that God was
singing the universe into expression and that the suns and
planets were the musical notes on a grand universal staff.
Shakespeare in "The Merchant of Venice" had one of his
characters say:
"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
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But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."
The realization of God as a great wooing, all-knowing
presence, an everywhere present sustaining strength,
wherein each man functions and works out his own salvation
is to be established in a mighty stronghold that fortifies
us against all adverse beliefs.
It is said that on the ocean of life a joyful man makes a
good sailor. This is true. The strong, joyful nature will
make its way where others fall by the wayside. Joy,
spiritual joy, is ours by divine right, and buoys us up and
urges us onward to accomplishment.
It is impossible to found a lasting stronghold within on
anything less than the understanding that God is a God of
joy. It is through our realization of this truth that we
drink heartily of the wine of life. Often even during
serene, yes, sober moments, the inner man, the inner woman,
is athrill with some newborn, joyful anticipation. In
prayer every high realization that comes to us is to
strengthen us for greater achievements.
And when we pray, let us pray with a purpose. Purpose gives
life a real meaning. Purpose gives joy and zest to living.
When our eye is on the goal we are not so easily perturbed.
Purpose awakens new trains of thought; purpose directs
these trains of thought into new fields of achievement.
Really to succeed we must have some great purpose in mind,
some goal toward which we are to work. But
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above all, we must always purpose in our heart to achieve
spiritually.
As we study the one great Presence and Power, we come to
know that there is no chapter in our life that is such a
failure but has back of it a grand purpose, which purpose
must eventually somewhere, somehow work itself out in a
most ennobling manner, well pleasing in the sight of God.
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[Go forward to How to Handle the Psychic Forces of Consciousness ->]
[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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