Text: Rule Three. A positive demand accomplishes more and better results than a request or a petition.   The mental attitude while making a demand should always be reverential but very positive. The Lord's Prayer is an excellent example of the proper attitude of mind to be assumed while demanding and we will analyze that prayer. Jesus said: "After this manner therefore pray ye:   "Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven." The attitude of mind manifested by the Nazarene while making the first part of this prayer was reverential, and His words expressed His desire for perfect harmony between Himself and the Father. Having established harmony between His individual mind and the Universal Mind He proceeded to make His demands in this manner:   "Give us this day our daily bread: And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." After this manner therefore pray ye."   There is not one negative thought in this prayer. There is a positive demand for everything desired rather than a petition. We can almost say that the demand was a respectful command that the things desired should come, and you will find that those of you who ask of the Universal in this manner and with this mental attitude will always receive what you ask for.   Now contrast that mental attitude that the Nazarene Occultist had when He prayed, with the mental attitude of His so-called followers of the present day. He said: "When thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing (kneeling) in the synagogues" (churches and cathedrals) * * * "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking" (chanting, litanies and masses). If you wish to witness the contrast between the Master's and the modern forms of worship, go into some of the Churches on or near Fifth Avenue and listen to the words of the modern prayers. On Sunday you will hear Public Confessions of sins something like this:   "We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done: And these is no health in us." "Health" is defined by the Century Dictionary as meaning in this connection, "natural vigor of the faculties, moral or intellectual soundness."   If we were to say about these same good citizens what they publicly admit about themselves - that they are morally and intellectually depraved and are secretly doing things they ought not to do - we should very likely be sued for slander. But we do not wish to say or to believe that these good people are guilty of what they unthinkingly say with their lips in their forms of worship. The illustration given is but a type of modern prayers, for they are all more or less self-depreciatory if not self-condemnatory. The thoughts behind them are negative and the prayers are repeated as a matter of form more than of faith. Many of these same good persons have their prayers answered, but the answered ones were not the formal prayers read from prayer books. They are those that were sent forth from the heart and were expressed in a positive form; they were whispered in the silence of the night when there was no one near to hear but God to whom they were addressed. These are the prayers that are efficious, for prayer to be efficious must be a mental and not an emotional act.

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