attended by certain postures, or even couched in
definite language; it should rather be a constant uplifting of the
heart, a stretching out of the hands to God. I do not think we should
ask for definite things that we desire; I am sure that our definite
desires, our fears, our plans, our schemes, the hope that visits one a
hundred times a day, our cravings for wealth or success or influence,
are as easily read by God, as a man can discern the tiny atoms and
filaments that swim in his crystal globe. But I think we may ask to be
led, to be guided, to be helped; we may put our anxious little
decisions before God; we may ask for strength to fulfil hard duties; we
may put our desires for others' happiness, our hopes for our country,
our compassion for sorrowing or afflicted persons, our horror of
cruelty and tyranny before him; and here I believe lies the force of
prayer; that by practising this sense of aspiration in his presence, we
gain a strength to do our own part. If we abstain from prayer, if we
limit our prayers to our own small desires, we grow, I know, petty and
self-absorbed and feeble. We can leave the fulfilment of our concrete
aims to God; but we ought to be always stretching out our hands and
opening our hearts to the high and gracious mysteries that lie all
about us.

A friend of mine told me that a little Russian peasant, whom he had
visited often in a military hospital, told him, at their last
interview, that he would tell him a prayer that was always effective,
and had never failed of being answered. "But you must not use it," he
said, "unless you are in a great difficulty, and there seems no way
out." The prayer which he then repeated was this: "Lord, remember King
David, and all his grace."

I have never tested the efficacy of this prayer, but I have a thousand
times tested the efficacy of sudden prayer in moments of difficulty,
when confronted with a little temptation, when overwhelmed with
irritation, before an anxious interview, before writing a difficult
passage. How often has the temptation floated away, the irritation
mastered itself, the right word been said, the right sentence written!
To do all we are capable of, and then to commit the matter to the hand
of the Father, that is the best that we can do.

Of course, I am well aware that there are many who find this kind of
help in liturgical prayer; and I am thankful that it is so. But for
myself, I can only say that as long as I pursued