FAITH 91 



Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, 

 Uttered or unexpressed, 



and although we have probably never doubted the truth 

 of that statement, we may never have realised its 

 implications. If prayer is the desire, and not the words 

 in which that desire may or may not be expressed, then 

 are our lives a constant prayer* We all have sincere 

 desires and according as our desires are pure and noble, 

 or selfish and degraded, so are our prayers directed to 

 heaven or to helL Of a truth God is not the only Hearer 

 and Answerer of Prayer, How easy it is for us to petition 

 God for spiritual and heavenly blessings, when all our 

 sincere desires are of the earth, earthy ! How easy it 

 is to ask God for a blessing on others, when all our desires 

 centre around self and selfishness. How easy it is for 

 us to ask that we may be made good and holy, when 

 goodness and holiness we neither love nor desire ! 



So perhaps our prayers are not so futile after alL 

 May it not be that our prayers are answered, when our 

 petitions are not. We all know the old Latin proverb, 

 ** Lahore est orare *' ; and so it is. What a man sincerely 

 desires he will work for. The prayer that finds expression 

 in words alone is not worth the breath expended on it. 

 It is stillborn, like faith without works. If we want 

 to know what a man is really praying for, let us look 

 at what he is working for. Here, for example, is a man 

 who daily petitions God that His Kingdom may come. 

 But is he working for that Kingdom ? Far otherwise. 

 He is spending all his time and energy in making money, 

 and we are not surprised that he becomes inordinately 

 rich. His prayer has been answered, though his 

 petition has not. Moreover, his prayer has been answered, 

 not by any supernatural interference with the Laws of 

 God, but in strict conformity with them. 



Or again, here is a great nation which sends up from 

 thousands of Churches and Chapels the petition that 



