In the first place let us set before us quite clearly this great fact. God, as He has been revealed to us by His Son, wishes us to pray to Him. Prayer--the privilege, the duty and the value of prayer--is part of the revelation of God. It goes with His nature, as that nature has been revealed to us. He is the God Who wishes us to speak to Him, and to take Him into our confidence,--in a word He is the God Who wishes us to treat Him as Father. What is prayer? There is God ready to hear us, ready to heal and guide, to give rest and peace, to give light and strength, to help carry our cares, to direct our feet into straight paths. And here are we with our great needs, our cares and perplexities. Prayer is the point of contact between ourselves and that great God. Indeed, we can say more than that, for when we pray we become our true selves. We are spirits of Eternity. For a time we live upon this earth having many duties to perform, and many important offices to fulfil,--but when we pray, when we praise God, we are performing our essential work as spirits. We have dropped for the moment the outer covering of our lives, and stand forth as being what we really are,--spirits who came from God, who are doing a certain work for God here, and are to return to God. The moment of prayer is a great moment, for then it is that "deep calleth to deep", and spirit calleth to the Father and Source of all spirits. And so it comes to pass that in the moment of prayer it is not merely that this man or woman, called by this name or that here on earth,--a workman, a business man, a housekeeper,--but an eternal spirit of God is calling upon the Author of all Spirits. Such is prayer. "Prayer is that act by which man, conscious alike of his weakness and his immortality, puts himself into real and effective communication with the Eternal, the Self-Existent and the Uplifted God."[1] WHY SHOULD WE PRAY. In trying to answer the question, "What is prayer?" we have, in part, answered this question also, but it is so important that it must have a section to itself.