Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1917 — PRAYER AND HOW TO PRAY [ARTICLE]

PRAYER AND HOW TO PRAY

Firm in the Belief That God Loves Him la How the Christian Should Approach the Throne. But you say: “God la omniscient and needeth not that I should tell you my need.” Why do you hot also say: “God is omnipotent and needeth not that I should sow my field”? He chooses to use means, and prayer is one of them. If my little boy can influence his father, then ! can influence mine. Do you suppose that the only being in the universe who cannot answer prayer is the one who made the universe —the one who alonehas all power at his command? No! No! I tell you that I am not going to live without a God, and: a God who is better to me than l am to mychildren. He has told me to call him my Father, and so I will. And when I cannot see him because of the dark, I will trust him in the dark, and pray just the same. I do not believe that it wttl do anybody any harm to feel that God loves us, that his ear is always open to our cry, and that, while he would have us use all the agencies within our power, he is ready to help us our need. And though he may not always grant my prayer he will always answer it; though sometimes because he loves me, he may answer “No.” “My Will, not thine, be dona!” That is not prayer. That is dictation, not supplication. That is the demand of the rebel; “Thy will, not mine, be done!” That is the breathing of Jesus. And that is prayer—Rev. George Live with men aS if God saw you; converse with God as if men heard' you.—Seneca.