Page 182 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

If you pray for a thing, but have fear as you pray, that you may not receive it, or
that your prayer will not be acted upon by Infinite Intelligence, your prayer will
have been in vain.

Prayer does, sometimes, result in the realization of that for which one prays. If
you have ever had the experience of receiving that for which YOU prayed, go
back in your memory, and recall your actual STATE OF MIND, while you were
praying, and you will know, for sure, that the theory here described is more than
a theory.

The time will come when the schools and educational institutions of the coun-
try will teach the "science of prayer." Moreover, then prayer may be, and will be
reduced to a science. When that time comes, (it will come as soon as mankind
is ready for it, and demands it), no one will approach the Universal Mind in a
state of fear, for the very good reason that there will be no such emotion as fear.
Ignorance, superstition, and false teaching will have disappeared, and man will
have attained his true status as a child of Infinite Intelligence. A few have already
attained this blessing.

If you believe this prophesy is far-fetched, take a look at the human race
in retrospect. Less than a hundred years ago, men believed the lightning to be
evidence of the wrath of God, and feared it. Now, thanks to the power of FAITH,
men have harnessed the lightning and made it turn the wheels of industry. Much
less than a hundred years ago, men believed the space between the planets to be
nothing but a great void, a stretch of dead nothingness. Now, thanks to this same
power of FAITH, men know that far from being either dead or a void, the space
between the planets is very much alive, that it is the highest form of vibration
known, excepting, perhaps, the vibration of THOUGHT. Moreover, men know
that this living, pulsating, vibratory energy which permeates every atom of mat-
ter, and fills every niche of space, connects every human brain with every other
human brain.

What reason have men to believe that this same energy does not connect every
human brain with Infinite Intelligence? There are no toll-gates between the finite
mind of man and Infinite Intelligence. The communication costs nothing except
Patience, Faith, Persistence, Understanding, and a SINCERE DESIRE to commu-
nicate. Moreover, the approach can be made only by the individual himself. Paid
prayers are worthless. Infinite Intelligence does no business by proxy. You either
go direct, or you do not communicate.

You may buy prayer books and repeat them until the day of your doom, without
avail. Thoughts which you wish to communicate to Infinite Intelligence, must un-

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NAPOLEON HILL THINK AND GROW RICH