Lord, what a change within us one short hour Spent in thy presence will prevail to make; What heavy burdens from our bosoms take; What parched grounds refresh as with a shower! We kneel--and all about us seems to lower; We rise--and all, the distant and the near, Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear. We kneel, how weak! we rise, how full of power! Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong, Or others, that we are not always strong; That we are ever overborne with care, Anxious and troubled, when with us is prayer, And joy and strength and courage are with thee? --Richard Chenevix Trench. Asked and unasked, thy heavenly gifts unfold, And evil, though we ask it, Lord, withhold. --Homer, tr. by Frederic Rowland Marvin. MARY OF BETHANY Her eyes are homes of silent prayer, Nor other thought her mind admits But, he was dead, and there he sits. And he that brought him back is there. Then one deep love doth supersede All other, when her ardent gaze Roves from the living brother's face And rests upon the Life indeed. All subtle thought, all curious fears. Borne down by gladness so complete, She bows, she bathes the Saviour's feet With costly spikenard and with tears. Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers, Whose loves in higher love endure; What souls possess themselves so pure, Or is there blessedness like theirs? --Alfred Tennyson. PRAYER ITS OWN ANSWER "Allah, Allah!" cried the sick man, racked with pain the long night through; Till with prayer his heart was tender, till his lips like honey grew. But at morning came the Tempter; said, "Call louder, child of pain! See if Allah ever hear, or answer 'Here am I' again." Like a stab the cruel cavil through his brain and pulses went; To his heart an icy coldness, to his brain a darkness, sent. Then before him stands Elias; says "My child! why thus dismayed? Dost repent thy former fervor? Is thy soul of prayer afraid?" "Ah!" he cried, "I've called so often; never heard the 'Here am I'; And I thought, God will not pity, will not turn on me his eye." Then the grave Elias answered, "God said, 'Rise, Elias, go, Speak to him, the sorely tempted; lift him from his gulf of woe. "'Tell him that his very longing is itself an answering cry; That his prayer, "Come, gracious Allah," is my answer, "Here am I"'. "Every inmost aspiration is God's angel undefiled; And in every 'O my Father!' slumbers deep a 'Here, my child!'" --Jelal-ed-Deen, tr. by James Freeman Clarke. THE CONTENTS OF PIETY