as a rule, has little or no idea of any other answer to his
prayer than the attainment of his wish.

As such petitions, however, more frequently fail than succeed in their
direct object, and as the alternative of considering them impotent is
not open to the votary, some other explanation of their failure was
taught in very early day. At first, it was that the god was angered, and
refused the petition out of revenge. Later, the indirect purpose of such
a prayer asserted itself more clearly, and aided by a nobler conception
of Divinity, suggested that the refusal of the lower is a preparation
for a higher reward. Children, in well-ordered households, are
frequently refused by parents who love them well; this present analogy
was early seized to explain the failure of prayer. Unquestioning
submission to the divine will was inculcated. Some even went so far as
to think it improper to define any wish at all, and subsumed all prayer
under the one formula, "Thy will be done." Such was the teaching of St.
Augustine, whose favorite prayer was _Da quod jubes, et jube quod vis_,
a phrase much criticized by Pelagius and others of his time as too
quietistic.[128-1] The usual Christian doctrine of resignation proceeds
in theory to this extent. Such a notion of the purpose of prayer leads
to a cheerful acceptance of the effects of physical laws, effects which
an enlightened religious mind never asks to be altered in its favor, for
the promises and aims of religion should be wholly outside the arena of
their operation. The ideal prayer has quite other objects than to work
material changes.

To say, as does Mr. Hodgson, that its aim is the increase of the joyful
emotions is far from sufficient. The same may be said of most human
effort, the effort to make money, for instance. The indirect object of
money-making is also the increase of the agreeable feelings. The
similarity of purpose might lead to a belief that the aims of religion
and business are identical.

Before we can fully decide on what, in the specifically religious sense
of the word, is the answer to prayer, we should inquire as a matter of
fact what effect it actually exerts, and to do this we should understand
what it is as a psychological process. The reply to this is that prayer,
in its psychological definition, is a form of Expectant Attention. It is
always urged by religious teachers that it must be very earnest and
continuous to be successful. "Importunity is of the e