s quickly
dropped. The outcome of faith is a task done for God on behalf of
others, when toil will cheerfully be borne, drudgery endured, trials
met with patience, and--through evil report and good report--the work
continued.

V.

PRAYER

By The Very Rev. D. T. Owen, D.D., Dean of Niagara.

I would ask you to think with me as simply and directly as possible
about one of the greatest things in the world. It is something that we
can all do, for it requires no special learning; it is something which
we can all do at once, for it requires, from one point of view, no
special training; and it is something, which if we will do, will bring
guidance, peace and power, into our own lives and into the lives of
others. What is this thing which is so great, and yet so close to
hand, which is so worth while doing, and which we can all do, and do at
once? It is prayer. It is just saying our prayers. "Oh! how humdrum
and commonplace!" we say, or "How difficult and discouraging I have
found it; I know I should pray, and I make resolutions sometimes to
that end, but somehow it gets either formal, or crowded out, or
forgotten". Yes, while we all know about these difficulties and
appreciate their strength, let us think this subject out again.

WHAT IS PRAYER.

In the first place let us set before us quite clearly this great fact.
God, as He has been revealed to us by His Son, wishes us to pray to
Him. Prayer--the privilege, the duty and the value of prayer--is part
of the revelation of God. It goes with His nature, as that nature has
been revealed to us. He is the God Who wishes us to speak to Him, and
to take Him into our confidence,--in a word He is the God Who wishes us
to treat Him as Father. What is prayer? There is God ready to hear
us, ready to heal and guide, to give rest and peace, to give light and
strength, to help carry our cares, to direct our feet into straight
paths. And here are we with our great needs, our cares and
perplexities. Prayer is the point of contact between ourselves and
that great God. Indeed, we can say more than that, for when we pray we
become our true selves. We are spirits of Eternity. For a time we
live upon this earth having many duties to perform, and many important
offices to fulfil,--but when we pray, when we praise God, we are
performing our essential work as spirits. We have dropped for the
moment the outer covering of our lives, and stand forth as being what
we r