sparrows."--_The Lord Jesus Christ._

THE pages of this little book deal almost wholly with just one phase of
prayer--petition. The record is almost entirely a personal testimony of
what petition to my Heavenly Father has meant in meeting the everyday
crises of my life.

A prominent Christian worker, who read some of these testimonies in The
Sunday School Times, said to the writer: "To emphasize getting things
from God, as you do, is to make prayer too material."

To me this seems far from true. God is my Father, I am his child. As
truly as I delight to be sought for by my child when he is cold or
hungry, ill, or in need of protection, so is it with my Heavenly Father.

Prayer has been hedged about with too many man-made rules. I am
convinced that God has intended prayer to be as simple and natural, and
as constant a part of our spiritual life, as the intercourse between a
child and his parent in the home. And as a large part of that
intercourse between child and parent is simply asking and receiving,
just so is it with us and our Heavenly Parent.

Perhaps, however, the most blessed element in this asking and getting
from God lies in the strengthening of faith which comes when a definite
request has been granted. What more helpful and inspiring than a ringing
testimony of _what God has done_?

As I have recalled the past in writing these incidents, one of the most
precious memories is that of an evening when a number of friends had
gathered in our home. The conversation turned on answered prayer. For
more than two hours we vied with one another in recounting personal
incidents of God's wonderful work; and the inspiration of that evening
still abides.

A Christian minister once said to me: "Is it possible that the great God
of the universe, the Maker and Ruler of mankind, could or would, as you
would make out, take interest in such a trifle as the trimming of a hat!
To me it is preposterous!"

Yet did not our Lord Jesus Christ say: "The very hairs of your head are
all numbered"; and "not one sparrow is forgotten before God"; and again,
"Your heavenly Father knoweth what ye have need of _before_ ye ask
him"?

It is true that "There is nothing too great for God's power"; and it is
just as true that "There is nothing too small for his love!"

If we believe God's Word we must believe, as Dan Crawford has tersely
and beautifully expressed it, that "The God of the infinite is the God
of the infinitesimal." Yes, h