Chapter 13 - A Secret of Secrets: Humility the Soul of True Prayer

A secret of secrets, humility, the soul of true prayer. 

Until the spirit of the heart is renewed, until it is emptied of earthly desires and filled with a constant hunger and thirst for God, which is the true spirit of prayer, all our prayers will remain in part like lessons recited by students. 

We will say them more because we dare not leave them undone than because they rise freely from within. 

But do not be discouraged. 

Take this counsel and you may go to church without fear of mere lip service or hypocrisy. 

Even if the hymns or prayers rise higher than your heart feels.

 Go as the publican went into the temple. Stand in your spirit as he stood outwardly casting down his eyes and saying only,"God, be merciful to me a sinner." 

Hold yourself firmly, at least in desire, in this posture of heart. It will give life to every petition you utter. 

And whenever something is read, sung, or prayed that seems too lofty for you, use it as an occasion to sink even lower into the spirit of the publican. 

 In this way, you will be blessed and helped even by those prayers that appear to belong only to holier hearts. 

This, my friend, is a secret of secrets. 

 It will enable you to reap where you have not sown and to find a continual spring of grace within. 

For everything, whether inward stirrings or outward events, becomes a true good to the soul that dwells in this humble state. 

Nothing is wasted on the humble heart. 

It grows continually as everything that touches it becomes like the dew of heaven. Therefore, hide yourself within this humility.

All good is contained in it. It is like water from heaven that quenches the fire of the fallen soul and changes it into the meekness of the divine life. Out of it comes the holy oil that feeds the flame of love to God and man. 

Be clothed with humility always as with a garment. 

Bind it around you as your girdle. 

Breathe only its spirit. 

See with its eyes. Hear with its ears. 

Then whether in church or out of it, whether hearing God's praises or suffering wrongs from men, everything will serve to build you up and carry you forward in the life of God. 

Here is an unfailing test to prove all things by the truth. 

Do this. Withdraw from the world and from all conversation for one month. Do not write. Do not read. Do not argue even with yourself. 

Cease from all the former workings of your heart and mind with all the strength of your heart. 

Spend the month in this one form of prayer to God. 

Pray it often on your knees. 

But whether sitting, walking, or standing, let your soul be always reaching upward with this single desire, that of his great goodness. 

He would show you and take from your heart every kind and degree of pride, whether from evil spirits or your own corrupt nature, and that He would awaken in you the deepest depth and truth of that humility, which alone can make you fit to receive His Light and His Holy Spirit. 

Reject every thought but this, waiting and praying in it from your whole heart, with the same truth and earnestness that those in torment would pray to be delivered. 

If you give yourself honestly and sincerely to this spirit of prayer,  I dare affirm that though you had twice as many evil spirits in you as Mary Magdalene, they would all be cast out   and you like her would be brought to weep tears of love at the feet of the holy Lord Jesus Christ. 

 You have finished listening to humility, the beauty of holiness.