sends to us in prayer, to pour a soothing drop into our bitter chalice!

In communion with God the energies of our will are invigorated, and our moral courage is strengthened. Observe with what confidence the child, when conscious of danger, rushes into the arms of its mother. There it reposes as in an ark of safety. Within its mother's warm embrace, its courage is renewed, and its heart loses its fears. And so, when we flee with confidence to the arms of our Heavenly Father, we go forth from His presence renewed in strength and resolved to do what human weakness could not of itself accomplish.

With the Apostle of the Gentiles, the man of prayer can exclaim: "I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me."1

Before entering the Cenacle, in Jerusalem, to pray, the Apostles were weak, timid, vacillating men. In the supreme hour of trial, they all fled from their Master, leaving Him in the hands of His enemies. Their leader, when questioned by a maid, denied with an oath that he knew his Master. But, after spending ten days in prayer, these same Apostles are filled with the Holy Ghost and armed with superhuman courage. They boldly proclaim themselves the disciples of Him whom they had before forsaken or denied, and they go "from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." 2

1 Phil. IV., 13. 41.

2 Acts V.,

It was after fervent prayer that Judith undertook the hazardous mission of entering the camp of Holofernes, and rescuing the children of Israel from impending danger. It was after prayer and fasting, that Esther, at the risk of her life, saved the Jewish race from the sentence of death pronounced against them by King Assuerus. It was prayer that inspired the foundation of every religious Community that has existed in the Church, and these Communities have usually encountered at their birth, poverty, privations, and formidable opposition.

The same spirit of prayer which has inspired apostolic men and women in every age to undertake herculean works in the cause of religion and humanity, has also nerved the soldier with martial prowess and endued him with superhuman courage. He knew that "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,"1 and that God is called "the Lord of hosts," or armies, as well as "the God of peace," because it is He that gives victory to the warrior, as well as peace to the troubled spirit. Josue and Gedeon and Judas Machabeus were men of military renown, and they accomplished deeds of valor superior to human strength, because they were men of prayer and invoked the Lord of hosts.

Who was more daring and courageous in war than David? David, who, when a boy, strangled a lion and a bear; who, when yet a young man, slew the giant Goliath; David, of whom the daughters of Israel sang: "Saul slew his thousands, and David

1 Eccles. IX., 11.

his ten thousands;"1 David, who conquered the Philistines, the Amalecites, the Syrians, the Moabites, and the Ammonites, and who crowned his victories by conquering his resentment and sparing the life of his unrelenting persecutor Saul.

And who surpassed David in piety and the spirit of prayer? He habitually invokes the God of battles before engaging in war. He blesses the Lord who nerved his arm for the contest: "Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hand to fight, and my fingers to war." And when his enemy is overcome, he humbly ascribes the victory not to his own prowess, but to the Lord of hosts.

2

Many Christian heroes have emulated the devotion of the pious King of Juda. From a host of Christian warriors, I may select one representative, John Sobieski. In 1683, the city of Vienna was besieged by a Turkish army numbering 300,000 men. After a siege of forty-five days, the city was on the eve of surrendering, and a secret message was sent to Sobieski, urging him to hasten to the relief of the beleaguered city. His troops together with the German allies numbered about 70,000 men. Before descending from the heights of Calemberg, the army of Sobieski assembled to pray, the leader himself serving the Mass. So successful was the attack that the besiegers were utterly routed, leaving 20,000 Moslems dead outside of the walls. The next day, the Te Deum was sung in thanksgiving

1 I. Kings XVIII., 7.

2 Ps. CXLIII., 1.

for the victory, Sobieski intoning the anthem. His letter to the Pope announcing the victory, was a modest paraphrase of the memorable words of Cæsar: "I came, I saw, God conquered."

Happening to be in Paris at the opening of the Franco-Prussian war, I was grieved to hear some of the French soldiers so far forgetful of the faith and chivalry of their heroic forefathers as to avow that their god was the mitrailleuse. They soon discovered to their cost that their idol proved as impotent and treacherous to them, as Dagon was to the Philistines. The German Emperor, on the contrary, was accustomed to invoke the aid of Heaven on the eve of an engagement, and to thank God for victories won. On the evening before the battle of Sedan, the chant that filled the air from every German camp, was not the song of ribaldry, but the glorious hymn, "Now let us all thank God."

The light, comfort, and strength which prayer imparts to our intellectual and moral nature, is not the only benefit resulting from this exercise; its blessing is still more enhanced by the assurance of our Saviour that God will grant us what we fervently ask, provided that the object of our petition redounds to our spiritual welfare. If a man of unbounded wealth, of large benevolence, and unimpeachable veracity, pledged himself to do you a great favor, how gladly would you have recourse to him! But here you have the Giver of all good gifts, the Father of all

1 Nun danket Alle Gott.

consolation, the God of truth, promising in the most explicit manner to grant you all your reasonable petitions: "Ask," He says, "and it shall be given you : seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth : and he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there among you of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone? Or if he shall ask him a fish, will he reach him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more will your Father, who is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?"1

Again, He solemnly inculcates the duty and advantage of prayer: "Amen, amen, I say to you: If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you." He even reproaches His disciples for their neglect to pray: "Hitherto you have not asked anything in My name: Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full."2

The obligation to pray becomes still more imperative and its neglect is more inexcusable, when we consider the sovereign majesty of Him whom we address, and the facility with which we can have recourse to the throne of grace.

To have a private audience with a distinguished crowned head is always deemed a great honor and a privilege, although certain formalities must be observed before the audience can be obtained. You are

1 Matt. VII., 7-11.

2 John XVI., 23, 24.