Prayer, in its relation to God and the divine laws; its practical effect
upon the immediate events of life, and its power to transform the
spiritual self, is one of the great problems of the intellectual and the
scientific as well as of the religious life. One day a prayer seems
absolutely and undoubtedly answered,--the relation between the prayer
and the fulfilment being too direct to admit of classing it under
coincidence; and again the purpose that is made a continual supplication
perhaps recedes from the realm of the possible to that of the
impossible, and the more fervent the entreaty, the more absolute and
hopeless seems the denial. By means of which, it may be, one learns a
very high spiritual lesson,--that of not desiring any specific event or
fulfilment, but of praying, instead, to be kept in harmony with the
divine laws, to be enabled to make his life a means of aid and true
service to others, and to think as little as possible about any special
conditions for himself. "He that loseth his life shall find it," is the
affirmation of a very deep philosophy as well as of sacred truth. To
entirely emancipate one's mind from thoughts of himself, and to fill it
with the inspiration and the sweetness and exhilaration of making his
life a quest after every good, and an increasing means for service to
humanity, is the only way to find it in the truest and largest sense.
So, for the most part, the highest use of prayer is not to ask for the
specific gift or event.

In a work entitled "Esoteric Christianity" by Annie Besant there is a
chapter on prayer in which we find Mrs. Besant saying:--

"In the invisible world there exist many kinds of Intelligences,
which come into relationship with man,--a veritable Jacob's ladder,
on which the Angels of God ascend and descend, and above which
stands the Lord Himself. Some of these Intelligences are mighty
spiritual Powers, others are exceedingly limited beings, inferior
in consciousness to man. This occult side of Nature is a fact
recognized by all religions. All the world is filled with living
things, invisible to fleshy eyes. The invisible worlds
interpenetrate the visible, the crowds of intelligent beings throng
round us on every side. Some of these are accessible to human
requests and others are amenable to the human will. Christianity
recognizes the existence of the higher classes of Intelligences
under the ge