on your heart will go like that, when the day comes for
things to appear which now are numbered amongst things not seen as yet,
and for you to apprehend and participate in the things which God has
laid up for those who love Him.

IX

STRONG CRYING

"The energised prayer of a righteous man is of great force."--JAMES v.
16.

It is strange that we understand so little about prayer: with most
people, including the greater part of the professedly religious, it is
regarded simply as a sort of spiritual safety-valve, adapted to relieve
the soul from strain and over-pressure; is any afflicted, they say, let
him pray; and as for us, who are merry, we will sing psalms.

Now, if we were looking at a steam-engine, and meditating over the
motive power of it, we should scarcely direct our thoughts to the
safety-valve, or say of it, "What a mighty power is stored up in this
little lever." On the contrary, our attention would be fixed on the
piston and the steam at the back of it, and on the laws which govern
its production, expansion, and condensation. And we need scarcely say
that there is not much in common between those who regard prayer simply
as an emotional safety-valve, and those who look upon it as one of the
great moving forces of the spiritual world. It happens often enough
that there are forces in the world of which people generally are
ignorant, or of which they have an idea that is totally inadequate.
As, for instance, we have known cynical politicians deride the
expression of public opinion, as being only valuable as a political
safety-valve, and useful to keep the "many-headed monster," the
populace, from more dangerous courses; but not once or twice have they
been awakened to find that there is nothing to stand before the rush of
a well-formed public sentiment. So that we say rightly public opinion
is of great force.

And certainly the idea which the majority of folk attach to the word
prayer is but very incommensurate to the part which it occupies, not
only in the development of the life of the individual soul, but in the
life and lot of the world at large.

On the other hand, the force of prayer has been understood by the
really spiritual writers of every school and of all time. They knew
that prayer is one of the secrets of life; that he who lives, prays,
and he who prays, lives; that he who prays works, and he who works
prays; and so large a part of the spiritual life is comprised in the
one