Chapter Five: The Secret Way to Abundance

I send my dream ships gayly
   Out on the mind's broad sea;
O Thought Winds, treat them kindly
   And give them back to me.

And, O Winds, speed them onward
   Around their circling, track,
And, O Sea, bear them safely;
   And may they nothing, lack.

And Captain, guide my choosing
   That what I ask of Thee
May make a worthy cargo,
   As it returns to me.

   —e. a w.

PRAYER is the key that unlocks the stores of abundance and blessing. The secret of effectual prayer is belief. When we pray, we get not necessarily what we ask for, but what we expect.

If we pray for some good thing, expecting its realization to be deferred, it will be.

If we pray for a thousand dollars, expecting only a hundred, we shall get only a hundred.

If we pray expecting a more satisfying answer than we can foresee, that, too, will be realized.

If we pray expecting immediate response, we will get immediate fulfillment or some sign or token to indicate that our prayer is in process of being fulfilled.

The reason for this is not that our belief will change what actually is true. The reason is that what is true is the perfect, the harmonious, the ideal; and that the perfect, the harmonious, and the ideal manifest for us according to the measure of our faith. Jesus recognized this law when He

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said, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."

Here is a case in point. One time I was called upon to deliver an important series of lectures in another city. By a misunderstanding, I missed my train. It was late at night. I was to be at my destination the next morning. There was no other train. It was too late to drive my car, and an all-night drive would not be conducive to a spirited address at its end. No other transportation was available. There was a storm that would prevent my taking an airplane, even if one could have been had. What to do? There seemed to be no answer to the problem but to wire a cancellation of the first address. I prayed about it, with the full belief that in some way, perhaps unknown to me, my prayer would be answered; that it was not in divine order for me to miss my appointment; that one error (missing the train) did not entail another (missing the appointment); that I was in God's service, doing His work; that He did not hold me under condemnation, and that therefore I would not hold myself, under condemnation; that my part was to be still, get my leading, and follow it unhesitatingly, with full assurance that I was acting under the grace of God, not under the adverse law of human error.

Another train, reaching my destination by a roundabout route, but arriving there too late to be of service to me, was to leave within a few minutes. My leading was to take it as far as L------, and that from there I would find some

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means, possibly automobile, by which I could arrive at my destination on time. I gave thanks, rechecked my baggage, and hurried aboard this train. Placing my affairs in the Father's hands, I was soon sound asleep. I awoke in the morning, refreshed and renewed: in confidence, to find that the train was late; too late for me to complete my journey by auto. I glanced at the sky. It was cloudy and murky, with just a little ray of sunlight. That sunlight became my good omen. I thought of Elijah, praying and preparing for rain when there was not a cloud in the sky larger than a man's hand. The sun in my sky was no larger than Elijah's cloud, but I would pray for sunshine and a clear sky. And I would dig my ditches. I went to a telephone and called the airport. There were no planes scheduled for my destination. Even if there were, said the dispatcher, they would not leave. The air was too "tricky."

"Isn't there some way I could charter a plane?" I asked.

"No. No one would go up."

"But if some one would go up—" I persisted.

"You might call this number," he said, giving it to me.

I did so at once, and arranged for a pilot who was willing to take the risk. I got a taxi for the airport, and prayed all the way there, watching the sky for the first sign of response. Instead it seemed to get blacker and more threatening. When I got to the field the pilot greeted me.

"Are you the chap who insists on getting to C------this morning?" he asked.

"Yes," I answered firmly.

"Well, I'm willing to try it, but we probably will have to come down in

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some field, and then you'd be worse off than you would be here."

"I'm willing to chance it if you are," I answered. "And I'm sure we'll get through all right."

We took off in a stormy sky. After a while the sun broke through for just a few moments. Halfway we stopped for a weather report. It was, "Closing in, but still navigable." "We'll try it," said my pilot. "Good," said I; "I'll telegraph my friends."

We arrived on time. We had made remarkable speed due to that rarity, a tail wind. My friends had been told that no plane could possibly make it. They had gone ahead with the making of other plans for the lecture. But I arrived in the midst of their plans. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."

But why should all that happen, you ask. I thought of that, too. Into my mind came the picture of Christ in a boat in the storm on the Sea of Galilee. I remembered that He did not ask, "What have I done that this should come upon me?" Instead, He rebuked the waves, and said, "Peace, be still," and stilled the storm. Whatever their cause, we, through His conquering power and presence, can still the storms that arise in our affairs.

If I were to look back through my life, even a little way, I could undoubtedly find enough erroneous thoughts, enough mistakes, enough negations, not only to justify the difficulty in which that day I found myself, but a hundred others like it. There

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is a certain profit in thus looking back, if by so doing we learn how to do better the next time. But there is no profit in holding ourselves under condemnation for any past deed. Our chief concern is to be sure that the misdeed is past! We must not cling to it in act, of course; neither must we cling to it in remembrance. God does not hold us under condemnation. The word of Christ is, "Neither do I condemn thee: go . . . sin no more."

To sin is to fall short of the mark. What mark? The mark of the high calling of our attainment in Christ Jesus. We are to place ourselves under the law of His grace. We are to know that with Him all things are possible, and that only the good is true. This is the saving law of grace, which wipes out a thousand fears and errors, and calls forth the light and redemption of the Christ.

Remember, too, that there is no delay in Spirit. God is always ready. If our good does not appear speedily and bountifully to meet our conscious need, it is because we are not ready. The answer to that situation is that the need implies the supply. Why does not the supply appear before the need? Why do we not eat before we are hungry? The supply usually is quite manifest even before we are conscious of needing it, but we usually do not see it beforehand, because we do not give it our attention.

We see that toward which we direct our mind. I had never noticed how many horses there were until one time when I took a position with a wholesale

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house that manufactured horseshoes. Horseshoes, except to pitch them, had never entered my world until then. That was a number of years ago. There are more horses in use now—an odd fact to most of us who live in a motorized world— than there were then. There is enough of almost anything in life to amaze us when our attention is called to it.

We should center our thought and attention upon the things that we desire in life. We should build up our consciousness of the immediacy and abundance of what we desire.

Let us not make the error of postponing our good, of saying, "Oh, I'll have the things that I want when my ship comes in." That implies that our ship is delayed, and consequently that our good is withheld. It may also imply that we have not even sent our ship out upon the broad sea of mind!

Do seemingly adverse things—such as my airplane adventure—come to us as punishments? No, not unless we decree it so, for the Father does not.

Out of what seemed a poor start much good came. I had a thrilling ride. I gained new faith in the love and guidance of Spirit. I arrived on time, and, what was more, my arriving, seemingly miraculously, through a storm believed to be unnavigable, added interest to my lecture series. Public interest in the experience increased attendance at my meetings, and thus enabled me to do more good than otherwise I might have done.

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Moreover, if the law of punishment were the law of life, most of us would attract more adverse experiences than we do. Such experiences come to teach us. One of the things that they quite generally teach is that they are not so adverse as they seem. We have really conquered and mastered them when we know that they are not adverse at all, and prove them to be blessings in disguise. I have one friend who refers to this as making lemonade out of his lemons. But has he really mastered the "lemons" until he takes the sourness out of them by the sweetness of his faith in the loving guidance of Spirit?

My airplane adventure illustrates another point. My own first human reaction was that it was unfortunate. I was inclined to condemn myself severely. I felt humiliated and chagrined to have a plan miscarry. But soon I came out of that foolish mood. Many past lessons prompted me to be still, to look for God's appointment in my disappointment, to praise God and give thanks that once again I should "see the salvation of Jehovah," as indeed I did, out of a (momentarily) clear sky!

If such an experience were going to happen at all, how much better that it should happen to me —since I underwent a minimum of distress and inconvenience—rather than to some one who would have been completely upset by it, as some of my friends assured me they would have been.

Do you remember the old story of the little urchin who was taking a long journey afoot with

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his smaller brother? The smaller lad succumbed to sleepiness and fatigue, and his older brother had to carry him part of the way.

"Wasn't he awfully heavy?" some one asked. "No, he wasn't heavy. He's me brudder," the little chap answered.

When you meet, with love, understanding, and forbearance, some experience under which a brother might give way to discouragement and defeat, you are helping to free the world from its self-imposed weight of human sorrow and hardship.

Your first step, then, in the conquest of heavenly riches—which include also abundance to meet all human needs—is to make your at-one-ment with the good. Accept no law as final in your experience, excepting the law of grace. Have more faith in that law, though its operation is unseen, than you have in the obstacles to faith that appear real to you. Be steadfast and constant in your affirmation of the Truth. There is always a way out, always a leading of the Spirit. Your part is to keep so closely in touch with Spirit that you will not miss the way and the leading. Do not be worried about it. God will make the leading plain. His plan is not to make things hard for you, but easy.

"My yoke is easy, and my burden is light," said Christ. If you have not yet grown in faith to the place in consciousness where God's leading is plain to you, trust in God anyway. Even in blind faith you will not go astray. Blind faith may lead

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you by a little different, possibly a little longer, way, but only so that you can come, through your own understanding, in your own good time and way, into His good. It is not given to us to walk far by another's light, lest we fail to let our own light shine. But whether the way seems short or long, dark or filled with light, it is sure. You will arrive; and the knowing of even that one simple fact will hasten your coming into your good and will surely help you to raise your consciousness of abundance.

"Ask . . . believing." Do not hesitate to ask the Father for His help. It is already granted even before you form the words. "Before they call, I will answer." Your asking simply opens up channels by which greater and more abundant good can manifest through your life. Belief determines the size of the channel. Remember, the channel may be limited; the good, never! Ask, then, in all sincerity.

Do not ask for what you do not expect to receive. If your belief and your desire conflict, your prayer will be answered according to your belief rather than your desire. If your belief is adverse to your desire, and every prayer intensifies that belief, then stop praying the prayer of your desire, and pray instead for faith. "Help thou mine unbelief."

Your desire is prophetic of its own fulfillment. It will manifest according to the intensity of your prayer, and according to your relinquishing of false beliefs. Prayer has been defined as the

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soul's sincere desire, but the most intense prayer is the prayer of body, mind, and soul. "Tune up the fine, strong instrument of thy being To chord with thy dear hope."

Desire that is confined to the emotions is little more than wishing. Back up your desire by disciplining your thoughts and your acts to accord with it, and you will hasten the time of your deliverance.

Never say that any prayer you pray, any desire of your heart, is "too good to be true." Actually nothing that we think or dream of. is quite so good as the absolute Truth of Being. Our ideals are a dilution of absolute Truth, filtered through the lens of human vision. So do not limit your good, not even to your highest vision.

If you pray for specific things, always add to your prayers this thought, "either that, or better, according to Thy vision, Thy will, Thy love and wisdom."

The beginning of all true demonstration for prosperity is to seek God. He is the source and the fulfillment of every righteous desire. He it is that inspires the desire, and that fulfills it, too. Take it back to Him, and ask what you can do to help in bringing about its fulfillment, quickly, bountifully and perfectly. It may be that simply your word of faith is sufficient to release into expression the good that the Father has given you. It may be that some change of. thought or action will be demanded of you. If so, having asked God's guidance, do not hesitate to do as He directs.

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In either case rejoice and give thanks, even before the good appears.

It is all-important to bring your desire first to the approval of the Father, before you seek to fulfill it independently of Him. Beware of that voice in you which may say: "I do not need to ask the Father's approval or guidance on this. I know that it is all right." Be even more cautious about acting on any desire of which you are inclined to say, "I must have it, whether it is the Father's will or not." If we hesitate to submit any act or plan or desire to the Fattier, that fact in itself argues against considering it any further. Submit your desires to His wisdom, and trust their fulfillment to His love.