Esoteric Christianity, or The Lesser MysteriesBesant, Annie
Religion
Esoteric Christianity, or The Lesser Mysteries
Besant, Annie
Christianity -- Miscellanea; Mysticism; Theosophy
Let us now take the classes into which we have divided prayers, and see
the methods by which they will be answered.
When a man utters a prayer of Class A there are several means by which
his prayer may be answered. Such a man is simple in his nature, with a
conception of God natural, inevitable, at the stage of evolution in
which he is; he regards Him as the supplier of his own needs, in close
and immediate touch with his daily necessities, and he turns to Him for
his daily bread as naturally as a child turns to his father or mother. A
typical instance of this is the case of George Müller, of Bristol,
before he was known to the world as a philanthropist, when he was
beginning his charitable work, and was without friends or money. He
prayed for food for the children who had no resource save his bounty,
and money always came sufficient for the immediate needs. What had
happened? His prayer was a strong, energetic desire, and that desire
creates a form, of which it is the life and directing energy. That
vibrating, living creature has but one idea, the idea that ensouls
it--help is wanted, food is wanted; and it ranges the subtle world,
seeking. A charitable man desires to give help to the needy, is seeking
opportunity to give. As the magnet to soft iron, so is such a person to
the desire-form, and it is attracted to him. It rouses in his brain
vibrations identical with its own--George Müller, his orphanage, its
needs--and he sees the outlet for his charitable impulse, draws a
cheque, and sends it. Quite naturally, George Müller would say that God
put it into the heart of such a one to give the needed help. In the
deepest sense of the words that is true, since there is no life, no
energy, in His universe that does not come from God; but the
intermediate agency, according to the divine laws, is the desire-form
created by the prayer.
The result could be obtained equally well by a deliberate exercise of
the will, without any prayer, by a person who understood the mechanism
concerned, and the way to put it in motion. Such a man would think
clearly of what he needed, would draw to him the kind of subtle matter
best suited to his purpose to clothe the thought, and by a deliberate
exercise of his will would either send it to a definite person to
represent his need, or to range his neighbourhood and be attracted by a
charitably disposed person. There is here no prayer, but a conscious
exercise of will and knowledge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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