likely to worship at any time. We appoint times and places so that we
may do what something deep in us yearns to do, yet which we all too
rarely engage in because most often we are caught up in the current of
contrary or irrelevant events. Set times of worship not only aid us to
worship at those times but at others too; and, of course, the more often
we try to worship at other times, the more able we become to make good
use of the established occasions.

Among the people of our day, Mahatma Gandhi is an outstanding example of
applied religion. It might seem that he, of all people, would feel no
need of special times of prayer; yet this is not the case. There are
appointed times each day when he and those around him engage in prayer.
Whenever possible he attends a Friends meeting for worship. The
following quotation from the _Friends Intelligencer_ gives his view of
this matter. "Discussing the question whether one's whole life could not
be a hymn of praise and prayer to one's Maker, so that no separate time
of prayer is needed, Gandhi observed, 'I agree that if a man could
practice the presence of God all the twenty-four hours, there would be
no need for a separate time of prayer.' But most people, he pointed out,
find that impossible. For them silent communion, for even a few minutes
a day, would be of infinite use."

Each of us individually should daily prepare for worship and, now and
again, go off by himself in solitude. Fresh stimulus and challenge are
experienced when a man puts himself utterly on his own and seeks to come
face to face with his God. Aloneness may release the spirit. So may
genuine togetherness. Group or corporate worship is also necessary
because, as already mentioned, we need each other's help to quiet the
body-mind, to lay down the ordinary self, to lift up the spiritual
nature. Many a person finds it possible to become still in a meeting for
worship as nowhere else. Peace settles over us. Many a person is
inwardly kindled in a meeting for worship as nowhere else. The creative
forces begin to stir. When a number of people assemble reverently, and
all engage in similar inward practices with the same aim and expectancy,
life-currents pass between them; a spiritual atmosphere is formed; and
in this atmosphere things are possible that are impossible without it.
More particularly, we may have opportunity in a meeting for coming close
to a person more quickened than we are. By proximity with him or h