r service; if we are half-hearted they will
surely be.

V

"_And the host ran, and cried and fled._" What hosts are against us
to-day?

First: As individuals there may be coming constantly to our minds a
question of doubt, of pride, or of secret sin, and we wonder if these
are evidences that we are not Christians. Not at all. They are but
the fruit of our old nature, and are the hosts encamped against us. We
have only to take our stand with Christ, right with him, and we shall
win the victory.

Second: In the Church we meet with indifference, worldliness,
infidelity, and we wonder how we may win the victory. The answer is
simply, "We have but to be right with God and to walk with God," and
three hundred such followers of his could put the enemy to rout quickly.

Third: There is also a battle which those of us who are Christians are
obliged to fight. It has to do with the unsaved man. Men are not
Christians to-day not because they do not believe, not because they are
without interest in the future, but simply because they have put off
and put off, and I know of no way to overcome this difficulty except by
taking one's stand with Christ and with those who are like-minded with
Christ. Having first concern for the lost, then his intense
earnestness in their salvation, the proscrastination of the sinner will
flee away. For such a victory as this we plead and pray.

PAUL A PATTERN OF PRAYER

TEXT: "_If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it._"--John 14:14.

Jesus testified in no uncertain way concerning prayer, for not alone in
this chapter does he speak but in all his messages to his disciples he
is seeking to lead them into the place where they may know how to pray.

In this fourteenth chapter of John, where he is coming into the shadow
of the cross and is speaking to his disciples concerning those things
which ought to have the greatest weight with them, the heart of his
message seems to be prayer. What an encouragement it is to his
disciples to pray when they remember that he said, "Verily, verily, I
say unto you. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do
also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my
Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that
the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:12-13).

Jesus was himself a pattern of prayer. He had prayed under all
circumstances; with him the day was born in prayer, went al