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Read Matt. 5:21-26.
The altar represents a fixed, definite center in the consciousness of man. It is a place within where
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we meet the Lord face to face and are willing to give up our sins, give up the lower for the higher, the personal for the impersonal, the animal for the divine.
The altar, mentioned in Rev. 11:1 symbolizes the consciousness of full consecration that takes place in the temple of worship, the body. "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service."
The altar to the unknown God is a yearning to know the unrevealed Spirit, and a reaching out of the mind for a fuller realization of its source.
Prayer does not change God — it changes us. Sincere desire is a form of prayer. Deep desire is essential for spiritual growth. It is desire — earnest, intense desire — that draws the whole being up out of mortality and its transient joys into the power to appreciate and receive real spiritual blessings. This is a demonstration, the proving of a Truth principle in one's body and affairs. It is the manifestation of an ideal when its accomplishment has been brought about by one's conformity in thought, word, and act, to the creative principle of God.
Kneeling at the altar I take my statement of Truth and hold it steadily in mind until I get my realization, the logic of my mind is satisfied, and there is the lifting up and expanding of soul consciousness.
To this end I affirm:
"It is not I, 'but the Father abiding in me doeth his works.'"
