hought-power. A ridiculous
claim, a claim not to be tolerated by common sense, a trespassing upon
the Divine prerogative, a claim of unparalleled audacity: thus the
casual objector. But this claim is not without its parallel, for the
same claim was put forward on the same ground by the Great Teacher
Himself as the proper result of "the Son's" recognition of his relation
to "the Father." "Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you";
"Whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive, and
nothing shall be impossible unto you"; "All things are possible to him
that believeth." These statements are absolutely without any note of
limitation save that imposed by the seeker's want of faith in his own
power to move the Infinite. This is as clear a declaration of the
efficacy of mental power to produce outward and tangible results as any
now made by the New Thought, and it is made on precisely the same
ground, namely, the readiness of "the Father" or Spirit in the Universal
to respond to the movement of Spirit in the individual.

In the Bible this movement of individualised Spirit is called "prayer,"
and it is synonymous with Thought, formulated with the intention of
producing this response.

"Prayer is the heart's sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed,"

and we must not let ourselves be misled by the association of particular
forms with particular words, but should follow the sound advice of
Oliver Wendell Holmes, and submit such words to a process of
depolarisation, which brings out their real meaning. Whether we call our
act "prayer" or "thought-concentration," we mean the same thing; it is
the claim of the man to move the Infinite by the action of his own mind.

It may be objected, however, that this definition omits an important
element of prayer, the question, namely, whether God will hear it. But
this is the very element that Jesus most rigorously excludes from his
description of the mental act. Prayer, according to the popular notion,
is a most uncertain matter. Whether we shall be heard or not depends
entirely upon another will, regarding whose action we are completely
ignorant, and therefore, according to this notion, the very essence of
prayer consists of utter uncertainty. Jesus' conception of prayer was
the very opposite. He bids us believe that we have already in fact
received what we ask for, and makes this the condition of receiving; in
other words, he makes the essential factor i