SEPTEMBER NINETEENTH
Reading edition
Battle of Poitiers 1356.
Hartley Coleridge born 1796.
President Garfield died 1881.
Be not afraid to pray—to pray is right. Pray if thou canst, with hope; but ever pray Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay; Pray in the darkness, if there be no light. Far is the time, remote from human sight, When war and discord on earth shall cease: Yet every prayer for universal peace Avails the time to expedite. —Hartley Coleridge.
More things are wrought by prayer Than the world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend? For so the whole world is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. —Alfred Tennyson.
Continue stedfastly in prayer, watching therein with thanksgiving.
—Colossians 4. 2.
O Lord, give me the desire to pray, and teach me to pray as thou wouldst have my needs. Sustain me, that I may overcome my weaknesses, and strengthen me, that I may have thine approval. May I be reverent and unselfish as I come to thee in prayer. Amen.