Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/174

168 They cannot believe that the purpose of the infinitely Wise and Good, is ever changed by the prayers of feeble and erring mortals. They require a different explanation of it to satisfy the demands of their reason. And the New Church has a different explanation to offer.

According to its teaching, the essence of genuine prayer is the heart's sincere desire for such things as the Lord is ever ready and waiting to give. It effects no change of purpose in the Divine Being, but changes the disposition and feelings of the suppliant, bringing him into a higher and holier state. It opens the interior avenues of the soul to a freer influx of the divine wisdom and love, and so makes it appear as if a change had actually been wrought in God himself—as if He felt differently toward the suppliant from what He otherwise would have felt. When the earth's atmosphere is laden with smoke, the sun appears dim or fiery red; but when the smoke is dissipated and the atmosphere purified, he appears in all his native brightness. A change appears to have taken place in the sun; but this appearance is caused by the change in our own atmosphere. In respect to the earth, it is as if the sun itself had changed. And so the apparent changes in the Divine Being, are all caused by the real changes in our own minds and hearts.