themselves very often every day, briefly putting themselves in mind of Almighty God and of His benefits or else of their own sins, and shooting forthwith like a dart a fervent affection up to heaven, or some brief petition for some virtue, saying as it might be thus: — " O Lord, that I had never offended Thee! O my God, that I may love Thee I Oh! that I may obey Thee! Give me, O Lord, purity of soul, humility of heart and poverty of spirit! Pardon my sins, O my Redeemer, because they are exceedingly grievous! "
6. This manner of prayer being short is easy to all, and may be made with very great attention and zeal, as Cassian [1] tells us. And for this cause they usually are very effectual to obtain of our Lord what we require; for (as St. Basil says) [2] it is more available to pray a little and well with attention, than to pray much after another manner; for God is not overcome with the multiplicity of our prayers, but with the weight and fervour of them.
6. The brevity of these prayers is to be recompensed with their frequency, labouring by means thereof to fulfil in some sort that which our Saviour Christ said, " We ought always to pray, and not to faint." [3] That is, not to fail either in the time assigned for prayer or in the fervour thereof, or in confidence, or, if possible, in the frequency thereof; multiplying these ejaculatory prayers, which (as David says) [4] are "the remainders of" those holy thoughts that we had in the morning, making to ourselves a feast, and preserving our devotion all the day.
7. St Chrysostom says that at the least we ought every hour to offer to God one of these prayers: " Ut orandi cursus cursum diei sequet;" [5] that the course of prayer may equally go with the course of the day, so that when the clock
