"Do you think you could learn to say it, too?" I asked.
"I say it after him sometimes; but I don't know what it means."
"I have heard of many gods, of Isis and Osiris and Set, and of Horus, the son of Osiris."
"And is it to one of these that he says, 'Thy will be done'?"
"Oh, no! It is not to any of the gods that he used to call upon in his magical working. This is some new god that he has found."
"Or the oldest of all gods that he has returned to," I suggested. "What does he call Him?"
"If you also should learn to say 'Thy will be done' to our Father who is in heaven," I said, "it might help you toward the attainment of that soul you were wanting and waiting for, when last we met in Paris."
"It was He who gave souls to men," I said.
The eyes of the sylph were brilliant with something almost human.
"But to ask Him for a soul," I said, "is not to pray the prayer your friend prays."
"Yes, I know. Suppose you say it after him."
"I will, if you will tell me what it means. I like to do what my friend does."
"'Thy will be done,'" I said, "when addressed to the Father in heaven, means that we give up all our desires, whether for pleasure or love or happiness, or anything else, and lay all those desires at His feet, sacrificing all we have or hope for to Him, because we love Him more than ourselves."
"That is a strange way to get what one desires," she said.
"It is not done to get what one desires," I answered.
"But I do not know the Father in heaven. What is He?"
"He is the Source and the Goal of the being of your friend. He is the One that your friend will re-become some day, if he can forever say to Him, Thy will be done."
"Yes, for when he blends his will with that of the Father in heaven, the Father in heaven dwells in his heart and the two become one."
"Then is the Father in heaven really the Self of my friend?"
"The greatest philosopher could not have expressed it more truly," I said.
"Then indeed do I love the Father in heaven," breathed the sylph, "and I will say now every day and all day, 'Thy will be done' to Him."
"Even if it separates you from your friend?"
"How can it separate me from my friend, if the Father is the Self of him?"
"I would that all angels were your equal in learning," I said.