however secular, however small, however irritating they may be, however
monotonous, into all our daily duties it is possible to bring Him.

'A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine,
Who sweeps a room, as by Thy laws,
Makes that and the calling fine.'

But if that is our aim, our conscious aim, our honest aim, we shall
recognise that a help to it is _words of_ prayer. I do not believe in
silent adoration, if there is nothing but silent; and I do not believe
in a man going through life with the conscious presence of God with him,
unless, often, in the midst of the stress of daily life, he shoots
little arrows of two-worded prayers up into the heavens, 'Lord! be with
me.' 'Lord! help me.' 'Lord! stand by me now'; and the like. 'They
cried unto God in the battle,' when some people would have thought they
would have been better occupied in trying to keep their heads with their
swords. It was not a time for very elaborate supplications when the
foemen's arrows were whizzing round them, but 'they cried unto the Lord,
and He was entreated of them.' 'Pray without ceasing.'

Further, if we honestly try to obey this precept we shall more and more
find out, the more earnestly we do so, that set seasons of prayer are
indispensable to realising it. I said that I do not believe in silent
adoration unless it sometimes finds its tongue, nor do I believe in a
diffused worship that does not flow from seasons of prayer. There must
be, away up amongst the hills, a dam cast across the valley that the
water may be gathered behind it, if the great city is to be supplied
with the pure fluid. What would become of Manchester if it were not for
the reservoirs at Woodhead away among the hills? Your pipes would be
empty. And that is what will become of you Christian professors in
regard to your habitual consciousness of God's presence, if you do not
take care to have your hours of devotion sacred, never to be interfered
with, be they long or short, as may have to be determined by family
circumstances, domestic duties, daily avocations, and a thousand other
causes. But, unless we pray at set seasons, there is little likelihood
of our praying without ceasing.

II. The duty of continual rejoicing.

If we begin with the central duty of continual prayer, then these other
two which, as it were, flow from it on either side, will be possible to
us; and of these two the Apostle sets first, 'Rejoice eve