ve that prayer is
only wasted energy, that nothing can possibly come as direct answering
to prayer, that if things do follow which seem to be in response to
earnest and devout petition, they result from some other causes, which
have no connection, except coincidental, with prayer.

Men who talk so don't pray, never did. They don't know what prayer is;
they are wrong in their first principles, and therefore all their
deductions are awry; it is impossible for anyone who discredits prayer
to know what he is talking about. Prayer is a something going on
within the soul, it is something which must be experienced to be
understood; and yet those who have no experience presume to
philosophize on the subject as if they had spent all their life in the
exercise and study of prayer. Just as well might "Little Abe" try to
talk scientifically, as those scientists speak on the merits or worth
of prayer, it is out of their sphere, they are out of their depth, and
therefore it was a sad want of discretion which first tempted them to
venture so far.

"Little Abe" was a much better judge of the value of prayer than these
theorists; he was much further learnt in this direction than any of
them, and therefore his testimony was more reliable than theirs; what
to them was a mystery and impossibility was to him a simple daily
enjoyment. They that would test the value of prayer _must really pray
themselves_, and believe while they pray, otherwise they will be no
wiser. Prayer is not disproved by the failure of improper petitions,
but it is proved by the success attending supplications presented in
the right spirit. If men expect nothing, they get what they expect,
the Bible says so; "But without faith it is impossible to please Him;
for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Heb. xi. 6).

Prayer was an exercise in which Abe was a proficient and spent much
time; at his work he prayed, and in his chamber, long and earnestly,
until he prevailed. Sometimes in the meetings, as Abe would say, "they
gat agaat o' wrestling," and then he often became so importunate in his
intercessions that his whole body prayed as well as his soul, and quite
unconsciously he beat the bench at which he knelt, struck the floor
with his clogs, sweat at every pore, and really wrestled with God in
mighty prayer, and then the glory was sure to come down and fill the
place. Certainly at those time