There is no doubt that it is by praying that we learn to pray, and that the more we pray, the better our prayers will be. People who pray in spurts are never likely to attain to the kind of prayer described in the Scriptures as “powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

Great power in prayer is within our reach, but we must work to obtain it. We should never even imagine that Abraham could have interceded so successfully for Sodom if he had not communed with God throughout the previous years of his life. Jacob’s entire night of wrestling at Peniel was certainly not the first encounter he had with his God. And we can even look at our Lord’s most beautiful and wonderful prayer in John 17, before His suffering and death, as the fruit of His many nights of devotion, and of His rising often before daybreak to pray.

If a person believes he can become powerful in prayer without making a commitment to it, he is living under a great delusion. The prayer of Elijah, which stopped the rain from heaven and later opened heaven’s floodgates, was only one example of a long series of his mighty pleadings with God.

Oh, if only we Christians would remember that perseverance in prayer is necessary for it to be effective and victorious!

The great intercessors, who are seldom mentioned in connection with the heroes and martyrs of the faith, were nevertheless the greatest benefactors of the church. Yet their becoming the channels of the blessings of mercy to others was only made possible by their abiding at the mercy seat of God.

Remember, we must pray to pray, and continue in prayer so our prayers may continue. CHARLES H. SPURGEON

Home of our hearts, lest we forget What our redemption meant to Thee, Let our most reverent thought be set Upon Thy Calvary.

When Christ hung on the Cross of Calvary He was, apparently, the biggest failure the world had ever seen; for no other man had even dared to make such astounding claims as He, yet there He hung; nailed to the cross of shame, exposed to the view of a coarse, mocking crowd; cut off in early manhood; betrayed by one of His own personal friends; deserted by all of the other apostles—one of whom, after loud professions of devotion had denied Him with oaths and curses. It seemed as if that most wonderful and touching of all intercessory prayers (recorded in John 17) had never reached the Father’s ear; and as if the words “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son” (John 17:1) were impossible of fulfillment.

Not one soul, even of those who loved the Savior best, understood Him and His lifework; therefore not one friend could really sympathize with the God-man, who, on His human side, so hungered for sympathy.

If you and I are truly following in the Master’s footsteps, we too must be willing to risk apparent failure in the eyes of the world; and, harder still, must often be content to be misunderstood by our fellow-Christians. It is only when we have learned the faith and obedience which leave all consequences with God that we can know the power and deep joy contained in these words, that once sounded so terrible—“I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).

Jesus, Thou living bread, Ground in the mills of death, Let me by Thee be fed; Thy servant hungereth.

Jesus, Thou choicest vine, Nailed to the Cross of woe, Now let Thy life Divine Into my being flow.

Strength for the coming day Thy Body doth impart, Thy Blood doth cleanse away The sins that stain my heart.

Let not my heart be cold, Nor doubt when faith doth prove That in my hand I hold Thy Sacrament of love.

Jesus, be not a guest That tarrieth but a day; Come to my longing breast, Come, and for ever stay.

He reigneth! He reigneth, but let us never forget that it is from the throne on Golgotha!

Jesus . . . lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, . . . Holy Father, . . . O righteous Father.—He said, Abba, Father.—Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.—For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints and of the household of God.

Doubtless thou art our father, . . . thou, O Lord , art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father.

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.

I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Enoch walked with God and he was not; for God took him.

Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.—We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

These words spake Jesus, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.

Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father.—My Father, and your Father.

Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.—Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

These words spake Jesus. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.