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Show y KNOWLEDGE OF SIN" BY PRAYER, 5 While we need not expect that God will reveal to I us in prayer, as he' did to St. Paul and St. Thomas, the mysteries of the kingdom, he will enlighten us I on a subject far more useful and profitable to us. i He will send his searchlight into the hidden recess j of our souls and disclose to us our hidden sins and. t I transgressions, our imperfections and shortcom- : f ings. our vanities and illusions..- He will "search ' ' I Jerusalem with lamps." as he said by his prophet. i t He will make his lamp shine within the temple of ; f our hearts and lay bare before us the dust of smaller vices which had accumulated there unob- i -. served for months aye, for years. He will give us ' 1 " a knowledge the most practical and essential, the knowledge of ourselves. . j Prayer is a sovereign remedy for dejection of , I spirits. Is any one sad among you? Let him pray. - j Prayer is a source of comfort to our hearts. How j. ; I can we as children approach our Heavenly Father. f the Father of mercies and the God of all consola- I I tion. without feeling a sense of security and confi- ; . j I dence! . '; You are not obliged to have a friend to present you at court, for no one knows you better than if your Creator. lie who fashioned. you knows tho r clay of which yo are made. v : I You are not compelled to wait for an audience. - f Your Heavenly Father never nods or sleeps. He t j j is never pre-occupied or engaged. Tie is always at I 1 home and ready to receive you. The eyes of the ' ; Lord are upon the just, and his ears are open to ' their prayers. You can speak to him in church l , I and out of church, at home and abroad, by day and ' , by night. And when you enter into the presence of the ; Most High you are not required to present your ' petition in choice language and well-sounding J I periods. Those so-called eloquent prayers of which -we sometimes read in the papers I fear do not go farther than their authors intended them to reach. f They tickle the ears of men, but do not pierce the ! clouds. The prayer that moves our Heavenly Fa-' ? ther is that which spontaneously flows from tho ! hearts, such as the prayer of the publican when ho . j exclaimed: "O God. be merciful to me, a sinner!" or the prayer of David: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy." To sum up, prayer is the noblest and most. -. sublime act in which man can be engaged because it exercises the highest faculties of the soul, the - ' intellect and the will. It brings us in oommuniea- i tion with the greatest of beings God himself. It is the mythical ladder which. Jacob saw reaching I from earth to heaven, angels ascending, with our ; petitions and descending with heavenly gifts. i ; : i 4 |