lanations, and maybe apologies, and leaving unpleasant memories for a
long time to come. Such incidents have not been infrequent. Nations are
very sensitive. Governmental affairs must be handled with great nicety.
There would be a second thing which if I were a wise enough man to be an
ambassador I would likely do. I would go to see John Hay and Joseph H.
Choate, and have as many interviews with them as possible, and learn all I
possibly could from them of London official life, court etiquette,
personages to be dealt with, things to do, and things to avoid. How to be
a successful diplomat and further the good feeling between the two
governments, and win friends for our country among the sturdy Britons
would be my one absorbing thought. And having gotten all I could in that
way I would be constantly on the alert with all the mental keenness I
could command to practice being a successful ambassador.

The first of these would make me technically an ambassador. The second
would tend towards giving me some skill as an ambassador. Now there are
the same two how's in praying. First the relationship must be established
before any business can be transacted. Then skill must be acquired in the
transacting of the business on hand.

Just now, we want to talk about the first of these, the how of
relationship in prayer. The basis of prayer is right relationship with
God. Prayer is representing God in the spirit realm of this world. It is
insisting upon His rights down in this sphere of action. It is standing
for Him with full powers from Him. Clearly the only basis of such
relationship to God is _Jesus_. We have been outlawed by sin. We were in
touch with God. We broke with Him. The break could not be repaired by us.
Jesus came. He was God _and_ Man. He touches both. We get back through
Him, and only so. The blood of the cross is the basis of all prayer.
Through it the relationship is established that underlies all prayer. Only
as I come to God through Jesus to get the sin score straightened, and only
as I keep in sympathy with Jesus in the purpose of my life can I practice
prayer.

<u>Six Sweeping Statements.</u>

Jesus' own words make this very clear. There are two groups of teachings
on prayer in those three and a half years as given by the gospel records.
The first of these groups is in the Sermon on the Mount which Jesus
preached about half-way through the second year of His ministry. The
second group comes sheer at the