oes not draw up with a jerk,
but gradually slows down. So with us; we cannot come out of our rushing
lives all in a moment into the quiet of God's presence; we need to slow
down.

But much of the wandering in prayer is the direct result of the habit of
wandering in life. Flitting from one subject, one book, one occupation
to another; scrappy reading, talking, thinking; then, as a natural
consequence, scrappy praying. A great master of the spiritual life used
to say, "You will get far more help in your prayers by leading a more
useful life, than by making tremendous efforts after concentration when
you are actually at prayer."

The one who tries to keep alive the habitual sense of God's presence
makes his whole life a prayer, of which the stated devotions only form a
natural part. It is comparatively easy for such a one to concentrate his
thought and to keep his attention fixed when engaged in his prayers.

Just a word or two about books of devotion. They serve a most useful
purpose, especially in preparation and thanksgiving for Confession or
Communion, but should never be allowed to take the entire place of the
Christian's glorious privilege of pleading the "Abba Father," and
speaking to God in his own words, day by day.

Be careful not to use prayers which are manifestly beyond your own
standpoint or out of harmony with your own feeling. The mere repetition
of phrases that do not represent your inner attitude towards truth only
tends to formality; the effort to force a kind of artificial conformity,
because you think you ought to feel this or that, invariably ends in
unreality. Given these cautions, devotional books may be of great use,
even for regular daily prayer, and often help to call back the thoughts
which are flying off at a tangent.

To speak of discipline without touching upon Confession would be to omit
one of its most essential features. Nightly self-examination must be
performed, and that not perfunctorily, but with real intention of
repentance and strictness of living. Self-examination is nothing more
nor less than spiritual account-keeping; without it the man has no real
idea of how the business of his soul stands.

When it reveals the fact that sin is making headway and the spirit
losing ground, then the wise teaching of the Prayer Book should be
followed; "the grief"--for such it ought to be--opened in Confession to
God, before one of God's ministers, and the benefit of absolution
secured.

M