d, the drafts in the coal
stove need readjusting, how noisy the cars are out on the highway
today, the wind howls around the corner and rattles the old
pre-revolutionary glass in the window sashes. Do these rude
interruptions destroy the silent prayer? Well, there was a time when
they did, and there are times still when they interfere somewhat,
but for the most part, I think they help. The late-comers stir me to
a resolve to be more punctual myself--a fault I am all too well
aware of--and I pass directly on to prayer, glad that they have come
today. The little girls remind me of the undiscovered gaiety in
every cell of life that these little "bon-vivants" know ever so
well, and they remind me too that a meeting for worship must be made
to reach these fierce-eyed nine- and ten-year-olds, and I pass on. I
get up and open the draft in the coal stove. Sometimes I pray the
distractions directly into the prayer--"swift, hurrying life of
which these humming motors are the symbol--pass by at your will--I
seek the still water that lies beneath these surface waves," or "the
wind of God is always blowing but I must hoist my sail," and proceed
with my prayer.

WHAT ARE WE TO DO WHEN A MEETING IS UNLIVING? Suffer it. Continue to do
your part to contribute to the life. Continue to pray that God will
quicken the meeting, shake it awake. Suppose you yourself are heavy with
inertia and feel more dead than alive. The only way to overcome inertia
is to become active. Since, in a meeting for worship, our bodies are
still, the only positive action is inner-action. We have already
considered several inward practices that facilitate inner-action. Engage
in one or more of these with renewed determination. See your deadness as
a challenge and resolve not to be overcome by it but to overcome it.
Struggle against it. Persist in the act of turning your mind and heart
Godwards. Kindle your expectancy. Wait before the Lord. Think of Him.
Pray Him to send His life into you, and into the meeting, and into the
people of the world. Should these inward practices prove of no avail, I
sometimes fall back on this device. There is always in us some theme
that the mind wants to think of, some fear, some desire, some problems,
some situation, some prospect. Though the theme is not a fit one for a
meeting for worship, I let my mind run on about it. Once the mind is
well started on this topi