Article February 23, 1946 Issue

"Neither pray I for these alone"

ALICE LILLIAN SMILLIE

A Mother, troubled because she had not heard in many weeks from a son stationed in the battle zone, prayed daily to see that in reality he, as God's son, was safe. In furtherance of this effort she turned to her Bible for comfort and was led to read the seventeenth chapter of John. Therein she found the same tender solicitude expressed in Jesus' prayer for his disciples that she had felt in praying for her son. The sense of unselfed love underlying Jesus' prayer impressed her, and her attention was drawn to the twentieth verse, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." Immediately the mesmerism of personal sense was broken. She extended her prayer to include all mankind in her affirmations of Love's care and protection.

She saw in this exalted sense of prayer the opportunity and the necessity to sweep away the barriers of race, nationality, boundaries, language, and creed. When these were obliterated from consciousness, she was enabled to behold in some degree the man of God's creating, held in the warmth of divine Love, fed, sheltered, and complete. She knew that this spiritual man, the only real man, is never at the mercy of an enemy, whether that enemy seems to come in the form of fear, disease, hunger, accident, or death. She recognized and rebuked evil as the mistiness of mortal mind, which could no more interfere with man, the individualized expression of God, than it could touch God Himself. As she earnestly reasoned in this manner, false beliefs were soon reduced to nothingness, having no identity with person, place, or thing. The conviction that her prayer was blessing humanity filled her consciousness, concern for her son melted away, and in its place poise and calm reigned once more.

Some time later, long-delayed letters arrived attesting to the efficacy of her all-embracing prayer. The son's letters reported safe passage by himself and his comrades through mined roads and danger zones during intensive enemy drives. Unspeakable gratitude was felt for the answer to the personal problem, but the joyous glimpse of universal brotherhood and of her direct responsibility to recognize it was precious beyond measure.

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