This is quite
consistent with the assertion that prayer does not change God; it only
affords Him opportunity. It is impossible to improve on what God
already desires for us before we pray, but upon our prayer depends the
realisation of that desire. Everything that the soul can possibly need
is present beforehand in the eternal reality, and the prayer of faith
is like going into a treasure-house and bringing forth from what is
contained therein all that the soul needs day by day. Prayer,
therefore, cannot be too definite, but it should be as unselfish as the
worshipper can make it in order that the highest can operate in
response. The same law holds good in this as in all other activities
of the soul; selfishness draws away from the source of life, whereas
love is instantly at one with infinity. I question whether many people
realise the enormous value of definite and systematic prayer; it is the
secret of all spiritual power. Everything that we can possibly want is
waiting for us in the bounty of God, and what we have to do is to go
and take it. "Believe that ye have received them and ye shall have
them."

+The Bible and the young.+--One thing that urgently needs to be done
for the young people in our Sunday-schools and various Christian
societies all over the world is to issue a series of well-written
popular manuals presenting in succinct form the best results of
Biblical Criticism. The way the Bible is taught to young people at
present is most regrettable, for in after years it leads them to doubt
and distrust the very foundations of Christianity. If the teachers
only had a little more intelligent acquaintance with the sources of the
scriptures, this danger would be avoided and the Bible would become a
far more interesting and helpful book both to young and old. At
present it is interpreted by many people in a way which is an insult to
the intelligence and harmful to the moral sense. Will anyone seriously
maintain that the trickeries of Jacob and the butcheries following the
Israelitish invasion of Canaan, not to speak of the obscenities which
are to be found in so many parts of the Old Testament, are healthy
reading for children or a mark of divine inspiration? Is it not time
we adopted the more excellent way of facing the truth about the Bible
records and presenting what is valuable in such a way as to help and
not to hinder the growth of a true knowledge of the relations of God
and man?

In conclusi