ture hospitable and self-denying. Mary, contemplative and more
spiritually inclined, showed her devotion through the service of
companionship and appreciation.[915]

By inattention to household duties, the little touches that make or mar
the family peace, many a woman has reduced her home to a comfortless
house; and many another has eliminated the essential elements of home by
her self-assumed and persistent drudgery, in which she denies to her
dear ones the cheer of her loving companionship. One-sided service,
however devoted, may become neglect. There is a time for labor inside
the home as in the open; in every family time should be found for
cultivating that better part, that one thing needful--true, spiritual
development.

ASK, AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU.[916]

"And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when
he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray."
Our Lord's example and the spirit of prayer manifest in His daily life
moved the disciples to ask for instruction as to how they should pray.
No form of private prayer was given in the law, but formal prayers had
been prescribed by the Jewish authorities, and John the Baptist had
instructed his followers in the mode or manner of prayer. Responding to
the disciples' request, Jesus repeated that brief epitome of soulful
adoration and supplication which we call the Lord's Prayer. This He had
before given in connection with the Sermon on the Mount.[917] On this
occasion of its repetition, the Lord supplemented the prayer by
explaining the imperative necessity of earnestness and enduring
persistency in praying.

The lesson was made plain by the _Parable of the Friend at Midnight_:

"And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and
shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me
three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me,
and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall
answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my
children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say
unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is
his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give
him as many as he needeth."

The man to whose home a friend had come at midnight could not let his
belated and weary guest go hungry, yet there was no bread in the house.
He made his visitor's wants his ow