Forty-fourth Day
Asking through Jesus Christ: The qualities of a perfect prayer. — John xvi. 23, 37.
WE must learn to ask through Jesus Christ; and to ask through Christ is to ask for what He commands; to ask for His glory; to introduce the Saviour’s name; to place our trust in His goodness and in the infinite merits of His Blood. Whatever we ask through our Saviour ought chiefly to concern our salvation: — anything else should be merely asked as an accessory. When we ask in that Name, to which the Father can refuse nothing, we are sure to obtain what we want, for our Lord has promised it; and to doubt this is to make Jesus Christ a liar. ' Amen, Amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you.’
If, then, we do not get what we ask for, we may take for certain that we have prayed badly,
