asked if he could not have a fur cap, as his
straw hat was very cold and none of the boys at school wore straw hats.
She was without a cent in the world. She gave a hopeful answer to the
boy and sent him out to play, and then went to her bedroom and knelt and
wept in utter desolation of heart before God, praying most earnestly
that God would give her a token that He _was_ her God and was caring for
her by sending her a cap for her boy. While she prayed the peace of God
filled her soul. She was made to feel the presence of her Saviour in
such a way that all doubts as to his love for her and his fulfillment of
all his promises to care for her vanished away, and she went out of her
room, rejoicing in the Lord and singing his praise. She had no burden
about the cap, and was quite content for God to send it or not as it
pleased Him; and, in the afternoon, when a neighbor called, occupied
with the Lord and his wonderful love, the thought of the cap had gone
from her mind. When the neighbor rose to depart, she said, "You know my
little boy died last fall. Just before he died I bought him a fur cap:
he only wore it two or three times. After his death I put away all his
things and thought I could never part with any of them. But, this
morning, as I went to the drawer to look them over, I felt that I should
give you this cap for your little boy. Will you take it of me?" As she
took the cap and told her neighbor of the morning trial, prayer and
blessing, two souls were filled with the sense of the reality of prayer
and the love of God for his children. "My little boy," said the widow,
"wore that cap for three winters. And often, when sorely tried by my
circumstances, has God lifted the burden from my heart, by my just
looking at it, and remembering the blessing that came with it."

Experiences like this God gives to all his children, not for the purpose
of leading them to look to Him for supplying their physical necessities,
as an end, but to make Himself known to them, and to secure their
confidence and love, for "this is life eternal, that they might know
Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." (Jno.
xvii, 8.)

The use of prayer is to bring us into communion with God, for the growth
of the spiritual life, that is ours by faith in Christ Jesus. To leave
it upon any lower plane than this, is to rob it of its highest functions
and to paralyze it of lasting power for good in any direction. The
promises of G