and keeping it there. So long as our attention is fixed on God, just so long will our thoughts travel up the ladder thus set up.
Those whose powers of attention and thought-control are so weak as to be almost entirely lacking should repeat prayers. This is not as good as praying oneself, but it is a beginning and a step in the right direction. One who “says” or repeats his prayers, night and morning, possesses a connecting link between himself and Heaven that others who never make any such attempt lack. But really to pray by directing the attention and thoughts towards God is a very different thing. It is a much greater thing; it is a spiritual exercise of the highest order. It is not an easy thing to do, however, for until our thoughts have become disciplined they wander away. The cares of life, or its ambitions, lure our thoughts away, so that we soon find ourselves thinking of things material, instead of things spiritual. Our thoughts must, of course, be brought back, again and again, until a habit is set up which then makes real prayer possible.
There are many grades of real prayer. There is supplicatory prayer; there is the prayer of praise and thanksgiving; there is
