This utter misunderstanding of the true function of prayer has caused many earnest souls to sorrow over lost faith in what should have been to them a source of strength and uplifting.  Jesus said:  “Ask, and ye shall receive,” and as all his teachings referred to things of the spirit, he must have meant to indicate to his followers that whatever was sought for in the line of true spiritual enlightenment would surely be given.  No one prays for houses and lands, for gold and other forms of material wealth, “for Jesus Christ’s sake.  Amen.”

All through the teachings of Jesus run the mention of his and our Heavenly Parent, “Our Father,” and since much of our knowledge of spiritual things comes through our perception of the law of correspondences, we naturally feel and believe that we have not only a Father but also a Mother in heaven.  The recognition of the mother element—­the Divine Mother—­has always been a most potent factor in the power of the Roman Catholic Church to retain the unchanging devotion of its faithful adherents.

The reaction from a bigoted belief in, and a blind reliance upon a jealous and tyrannical Overseer sitting in state to judge and condemn to everlasting torment all but a few of earth’s children—­a terror-inspiring God—­has naturally turned the minds of many from recognition of any sort of relationship between humanity and a superior, divine and beneficent Power.  The atheist glories in his disbelief, and calls exultingly upon those whose faith has become the stepping-stone to knowledge for proofs that he is not right in assuming to occupy the superior attitude of mind.  Suppose for a moment, that all the world were brought to coincide with him.  How would it benefit the race to prove it to be wholly orphaned—­utterly left out of all consideration for its future care and happiness?

“Like as an earthly father pitieth his children,” Jesus affirmed, is the love of our Father, God, for the human-race.  “I and my Father are one.”  “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”  These are some of the references made by Jesus to the relationship that he constantly asserted was established between his own soul and that of his Father, in the supernal world, and thus he taught his followers to pray: 

“Our Father which art in Heaven.”  This is the first recorded utterance of the modern shibboleth:  “The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.”  In this now universally employed invocation, Jesus claimed for himself no other mention than that in which he instructed all of earth’s children to join.

“Hallowed be thy name.”  In a sacred name there is power to hold the wavering thought; so may thy name be hallowed! i. e., held sacred.  It is affirmed that every created thing has a real appellation, a name given to it by its Creator.  We pass through this rudimentary state of existence known as John or Mary, or by some other of the thousand or more titles in vogue that are indicative of different personalities; but it was long ago shown to an inspired teacher that, at a given point of development, each soul should be given its true name, a new one that should be “written in the forehead.”  Our Puritan progenitors had a dim perception of a higher and inner meaning to names.  By calling their children Grace, Mercy, Patience, Charity, etc., they sought to embody spiritual principles.