St.

during His suffering scene was prayer, the most sincere, repeated from the recesses of His heart. He prayed for deliverance, for strength, and for resignation. Paul commenced his religious life by asking, "Lord, what wilt thou. have me to do?" St. Stephen closed his ministry by praying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." How similar to the last prayer of Christ before His death, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit." The last words of the Prophet Joseph expressed the same thought, "O Lord, my God." The last distinct words of the Prophet Brigham Young have the same. definition, which were, "Joseph, Joseph, Joseph, Joseph." We are enjoined to "pray without ceasing." King David said: "From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, wherever I am, I'll find thee out; prison me, banish me, or do with me what thou wilt, thou shall never be rid of me; I will abide in thy tabernacle forever."

Says Christ, "What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father who is in heaven give good things." The condition is to "ask." "They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." We are divinely admonished to "enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father

which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray use not vain repetitions as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." Long prayers, that tell God what He is, are miscalled prayers. Man is not authorized nor qualified to teach Him. All the poor publican said was, "God be merciful to me a sinner." He went down to his house justified. Jesus prayed, "Father, I will that thy saints be with me where I am." The Psalmist prayed, "Order my steps in thy word, and let no iniquity have dominion over

me." Daniel prayed, "O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem." These are short prayers, and their scope is limited by the

favors asked. A voice from the Eternal is heard to direct our meditations upwards, "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth." The shepherd-king, while meditating sang, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork." "When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mind

ful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him?" We may here meditate, also, on the divine. care towards the people of God, seeing that these innumerable orbs are all numbered and sustained by Almighty power. Isaiah said: "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God. Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength."

Dear reader, in addition to your temporal mercies, you have had access to the revelations of God, and to the throne of grace, and you may have "walked in the light of His countenance all the day long;" surely, then, to your grateful meditations you will add your daily prayers, that such mercies may be daily improved, and "in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make known your requests unto God."

At times it is dark and cloudy, the iron grasp of adversity is felt. Many are weary and exhausted by the ill-requited toils of industry; some are pained by the pangs of bereavement, wrung with anguish by the treachery of false friends, or broken-hearted by the unsympathizing heedlessness of others. The spirit has been jaded, the the bosom temper tried, torn, and it may be the smiles of God are concealed by the clouds of trouble, so that the enemy has

tauntingly whispered, "Where is now thy God?" That was the

case with righteous Job, but he calmly said, calmly said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.' His faith saw a bow on that dark cloud, and in meek submission, he makes no mention of the Sabeans that drove away his oxen, and killed his servants; of the fire which burned up the sheep; of the Chaldeans that robbed him of his camels; or of the whirlwind which buried his children in the ruins of their house. He recognized the hand of the Lord, bowed to the desolating tempest, and, looking on the bow of the covenant, that stormy day ended in the peaceful exercise of holy meditation and prayer. Even so, ye "companions in tribulation," if you would not lay your aching heads on a sleepless pillow, take down your harp and tune it

to

the patriarch's submissive strain; and then, with a conscience purified by the truth, and some precious promise received by faith, a sense of forgiving love, and an earnest prayer you may say with the Psalmist, "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety."

Delightful hour of sweet repose,

Of hallowed thoughts, of love and prayer,
I love thy deep and tranquil close,
Foretastes of heavenly rest are there.

By prayer and meditation we should close our Sabbath exercises and not under the name of social intercourse scatter them to the

winds. But you say, "We like society," and so you may; but you should like spirituality better. And knowing what an influence. for good or evil the Sabbath has upon the weak, ourselves and others we should be desirous of guarding its hallowed hours from all unprofitable, intrusion and especially to secure its calm and peaceful close.

The shadows are already gathering around some of the readers of the JOURNAL. The day is far spent and the night is at hand. What matter have such for grateful meditation! They may survey the promises fulfilled, ordinances and Sabbaths enjoyed, deliverances wrought out, prayers answered and the rich reward anticipated. For ourselves dare not look wistfully back again. We think of the patriarchs who, "if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out might have had opportunity to have returned, but they desired a better country, that is a heavenly."

we

We are admonished in scripture to "continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds." The faithful prays as naturally as he breathes. It is the effect of divine teaching, and the evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Some are very much tried. One trial seems to tread on the heels

of another, like the messengers of Job. Tried in the soul, tried in the family, tried in the world, and perhaps tried in the Church. Prayer has ascended to the Father. It has been repeated again and again. But no answer has been

sent. The trial continues, strength seems to fail. God has promised to hear and answer, only He has not told us when. He did not come to His disciples on the lake until the fourth watch of the night. You are not out of his thoughts. Jacob had to wrestle all night, until the breaking of the day. Perhaps prayer is to be answered when faith has been tried and tested, patience has been sufficiently exercised, and sincerity thoroughly proved. Deliverance will come in the proper time. There are reasons why we should continue in prayer. Christ said that we "ought always to pray, and not to faint." He then requires it of us as a duty, and approves of it as an act of obed ience. If, like Jacob, we think all things are against us; or even conclude with Jeremiah, "Surely against me is he turned, he turneth his hand against us all the day," still let us pray on, for He has said: "Seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you." It was disheartening to the ancient disciples to toil all night, and catch nothing; nevertheless at their Master's bidding they were ready to let down the net. So, however disheartened we may be with long waiting, yet "in due season we

shall reap, if we faint not." The poor Syrophenician woman cried to Jesus, she fell at his feet, and pleaded, as only a mother could plead. He repulsed her, saying: "Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." She answered, "Yes, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs." Her faith and pleadings prevailed, for He answered her saying: "For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter." Precious instance this of the power of prayer, and of the importance of persevering in prayer.

There was nothing

but love in Joseph's heart when he answered his brethren roughly, in the land of Egypt. So there was nothing but love in the heart of God, when it was said: "By terrible things in righteousness hast thou answered us, O God of our salvation, who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of all them that are afar off upon the sea." When the enemies of the righteous at times prevail against them, it is no

proof of God's displeasure towards them. The enemies of Joseph prevailed against him; and the enemies of Paul prevailed against him. It was said of "Gad, a troop shall overcome him; but he shall overcome at last." The triumphing of the wicked is but short; for God will beat down the unrighteous, and will plague them that hate the truth in the end.

The Lord, may cover Himself with a cloud, as though He was determined that your prayer should not be answered. The disciples at Emmaus, when Jesus made as if He would go further, constrained him, and conquered. He taught them, "he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and

gave to them." Oh, Spirit of | God, rest upon the honest in heart, in every land and clime, fill their hearts with the spirit of prayer, help their infirmities, fire them with holy zeal, impart faith, infuse power, and enable them to continue in prayer, and to watch in the same with thanksgiving.

David John.

NOT MY WILL.

A SENTENCE in the excellent article written for this month's Theological Department by by Brother David John has aroused a train of thought within me. He says, "Prayer is not designed to

bend the will of God as some suppose. How many years I have been learning that one little tiny lesson. And how graciously and kindly has not my Father led me along! I can remember when I was a young woman, one with a

strong rather sceptical mind, and with a great many heartaches; that was when I first began to realize that there was a real God, and that there was spiritual relief to be obtained if sought for. Then I began to pray. How earnestly I did plead with the Lord. I used to beg for this or that, and very oft my prayers were answered to the very letter. Sometimes they would receive no answer at all, as I suppose. However, they were answered often enough for me to get a great degree of confidence in the power of prayer.

This feeling grew and grew for years. Yes, years. I used to pray of course for anything and everything in every day life, and when I wanted anything extra, how faithfully I would pray. On my return from our Sandwich Island mission, I was one day talking with Bishop Whitney, and he asked me if I had experienced the great power to be obtained through fasting and prayer. No, I had not. I had fasted on fast days, and sometimes I had fasted on the Sabbath, just for the general good I obtained. I had never tried fasting for special purposes to any extent, and I knew very little about it. He advised me to try fasting and see what marvelous results would flow from it. I began to do so. But in the midst of my experiences I found that quite frequently I fasted to obtain a certain blessing, which was not given directly, not at all sometimes,

and yet I could always date back some important blessing as having been given to me, after a season of fasting and prayer. Gradually there began to dawn on my mind another principle, which I had always known of through reading and hearing of it, but never had it come directly to my own heart. It was the very point spoken of by Brother John: That I must not seek to bend the will of God to suit my own desires. Lately, there has come to me a most beautiful feeling, that of infinite trust and reliance upon every event that transpires in my life. It is all right; everything is all right. Sickness, thank God for that; health, thank God for that; poverty, thank God for that; wealth and pleasure, thank God for that. If a pleasure comes, thank God for it. Death raps at my door, thank God for that. If only I, this cumbersome, heavy, willful, disobedient I, can keep the laws of God, what is anything that happens to me? Nothing but a providence of God, and therefore to be received joyfully. The only sorrow I have is in contemplating my own backslidings. I sometimes think I can never have the courage to talk to other people again and tell them what is right and wrong, for I fall so far short of my own knowledge, but the Spirit moves me, and I dare not resist. I used to fast and pray that a certain gift or blessing or privilege might be mine. Now I fast and pray that

If