bout it
for four Sundays. Then I saw how much the people who had helped the
world had prayed and how much it did for them. She made Christ seem so
beautiful and sympathetic that though I can't explain it I wanted to
pray myself. That afternoon out in the hammock I did. I shall never
forget how wonderful the world seemed.... In a few weeks three of us
joined the church and we prayed for the other girls. That year eight of
us joined."

The testimony speaks for itself. She taught them what prayer had done
for others; she made them want to pray. I do not know that teacher but I
feel sure she knew by experience what she taught.

I know another teacher who is very successful in cultivating the
spiritual life of every class of girls as it comes to her. I find that
each new class has been asked to join with her at night in using wisely
selected prayers written by Stevenson, Rauschenbusch, Phillips Brooks,
and others taken from religious journals and from calendars. Each
prayer is used daily for two weeks. After about six months the teacher
asks that a committee be appointed to write a prayer for the class, this
committee being changed every two weeks.

Some of the prayers were very helpful and all had a crude, simple
sincerity that was fine. I saw a letter written to this teacher by a
seventeen-year-old girl away from home and out on a strike. It was a
pathetic letter but one sentence cheered the teacher's heart--"The
prayer that Midge and Kate wrote keeps coming to my mind and it helps me
to keep a level head when we all git kinder wild."

When girls see that prayer is not beseeching an unwilling God for
_things_ the desire for which may be born of pure selfishness, but is
the way by which help to keep steady and strong, power to love one's
fellows and to live courageously and well comes to many, it will make a
difference in what they think about prayer and the way they pray. But
most girls do not know these things intuitively. They must be helped to
know them. The spirit within them must be cultivated. Prayer and
seeking the Bible for courage and help are largely matters of
cultivation. The great Teacher prayed Himself in such a wonderful way
that the disciples listening cried--"Lord, teach us how to pray." And he
answered their request, giving them _the words to say_ until they should
find words for themselves. He made them _want_ to pray.

If the girl herself chances to read this chapter let her be assured that
there