If immortal existence means the possibility of unceasing growth, then every reason which prompts prayer for those who are bodily present remains a motive when they have entered the state which is purely spiritual.

But what efficacy will prayers for the dead have?  My answer is two-fold.  All the efficacy that prayer ever has.  If death is relative only to a single state of existence, and if those whom we call dead are living, and still free agents, then they may still choose good and evil, and they may still grow toward virtue.  Choice always implies a possibility of freedom; and freedom is a necessity when there is moral responsibility.  If prayer helps any one, why not those who have passed from our sight?  Surely we must believe them still to possess the power of choice and, therefore, that of choosing evil as well as good.

You ask why pray at all.  My answer is simple and free from all attempts at casuistry:  simply because we must.  Prayer is not so much a Christian doctrine as a human necessity.  It is as natural as breathing.  By prayer I mean not only spoken petitions but, equally, the longing and pleading of the soul, either blindly or intelligently, for things which are beyond our reach, and which only a higher Power can provide.  Those longings may have formal expression, and they may not.  Prayer so far as it is petition is the soul pleading with the Unseen for what it deeply desires.  I do not suppose that God needs light from any mortal man, but all men do need many things from Him, and, as naturally as children present their desires to earthly parents, even though they know them to be already favorable, we go with our deeper needs to our Heavenly Father.

Much time has been wasted in trying to formulate a rational basis for prayer.  When a child in the smaller family no longer asks his father to accede to his wishes, when he no more pleads with his father for his brother or his sister, then it will be time enough to inquire if, in the larger family which we call humanity, we may do without prayer.  Until then let us believe,

    “More things are wrought by prayer
    Than this world dreams of.”

Leaving now the apologetic side of the subject, which is alluring, we observe one evident blessing which always attends praying for the dead.  It keeps ever before our minds the thought that they are actually alive.  It makes the doctrine of the communion of saints a sacred reality.  If I may in this essay be allowed to assume a hortatory tone I will say, if you have been in the habit of praying for your friend, do not give it up simply because he has ceased to breathe.  As regularly as ever continue to pray for him, and he will be to you more than a memory.  What would have been but an occasional remembrance will then be a daily communion; and what would have been only formal praying to God will be an hour, or a moment, of association with those who will grow nearer and dearer, and not farther and vaguer,