Weed their hearts of weariness
Scatter every care
Down a wake of angel-wings
Winnowing the air.
Bring unto the sorrowing
All release from pain;
Let the lips of laughter
Overflow again;
And with all the needy
O divide, I pray,
This vast treasure of content
That is mine to-day! (Text.)
—The Reader Magazine.
(2450)
Prayer for the Devil—See Readiness in Retort.
PRAYER IN SECRET
After I became interested in religion, in
seeking a place for retirement for my secret
devotions, I thought of a large closet out
of the spare chamber. That closet was a
place where my mother kept her blankets,
comforters and various kinds of bed-clothes.
It was large and without a window. When
the door was shut it was total darkness; no
eye but that of Him who "seeth in secret"
could behold any one who there sought retirement
from the world.
In that closet I erected my altar for secret prayer. It was my Bethel; and none but God can ever know the Bethel seasons I there enjoyed in communing with the Savior in that time of my first love, and until I left my home to prepare for the work of the gospel ministry. (Text.)—Asa Bullard, "Incidents in a Busy Life."
(2451)
See Service, Unseen.
PRAYER MEDIA
The ether is the medium not only of light,
electric and other force-vibrations, but of
thought-vibrations also. The two souls at
the ends of the two thousand miles of distance
are something like two wireless telegraphic
stations. One sends up its cry for
help, its prayer-vibration, into the ether; the
whole celestial hemisphere quivers with that
cry, that soul-vibration. The soul of the
friend at this end of the line, being sympathetic,
or keyed in unison, picks out of the
ether its own; it hears and reads the cry
of the beloved soul yonder, and sends back,
through the ether, its answer of comforting
thought and suggestion. Now, grant that
that sort of thing is a fact in human experience,
and we have what is very nearly a
demonstration of the possibility and nature
of prayer. If two human souls can hear
and answer each other irrespective of space
and time, then the human soul and the divine
soul can do likewise. We have only to think
God immanent in the universal ether, filling
it as a soul fills the body, and our case is
complete.—James H. Ecob.
(2452)
Prayer-meeting Maintained—See Immigration.
Prayer Only in Name—See Diplomacy,
Cowardly.
Prayer, Power of—See Persecution and
Prayer.
PRAYER, TAKING TIME FOR
"One might as well rush into the street
unclothed," said Mr. Spurgeon, "because he
had no time to dress, or into battle unarmed
because he had no time to secure his
weapons, as to go forth to the experiences
of any day without taking time to pray."
(2453)
PRAYER, THE CALL TO
The call to prayer heard from minarets
five times daily in all Moslem lands is as
follows: The muezzin cries it in a loud voice
and always in the Arabic language: "God
is most great! God is most great! God
is most great! God is most great! I testify
that there is no god but God! I testify
that there is no god but God! I testify that
Mohammed is the apostle of God! I testify
that Mohammed is the apostle of God! Come
to prayer! Come to prayer! Come to prosperity!
Come to prosperity! God is most
great! God is most great! There is no
god but God!" In the call to early morning
prayer the words "prayer is better than sleep"
are added twice after the call to prosperity.
(Text.)—Samuel M. Zwemer, "The Moslem
World."
(2454)
PRAYER, VIEWS OF
The Christian conception of prayer is "enter into thine inner chamber and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father, who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee."
With the Moslems the first requirement of
correct prayer is that it be in the right
direction; that is, toward the Kaaba at Mecca.
Because of this, private houses, as well as
