HEAVENLY WISDOM.

Thou hast spoken well. I am indeed the shield of the righteous, and their exceeding great reward.1 And now I understand what it is which thou didst wish to obtain by thy prayers. Tell me, then, if in asking me to teach thee how to pray, thy purpose was to thank and praise me, or rather, to obtain me as a boon to thyself.

THE SOUL.

Again Thou art pleased to lead me into temptation. Why dost Thou ask that question? Is not my love all that Thou carest for? What else but Thyself dost Thou give us in Thy gifts? and how can a creature laud and praise Thee more than by making Thee the boon for which he craves ?

HEAVENLY WISDOM.

My son, thou sayest what is right, but mark the delusion in which thou wert entangled. When intending, in thy prayers, to laud and praise me as the chief good, it yet was not myself but my gifts that were the object of thy desire.

II.

THE SOUL.

Lord, Thou art to me so high and precious a good, that henceforth I will no longer pray for any earthly good at all, but solely for Thyself.

'Tis well, my son.

THE LORD.

The portion thou needest of the good things of earth will be given to thee by Him into whose hand they are committed.

THE SOUL.

How shall I understand Thee, Lord? Is there, then, any

1 Gen. xv. I.

other hand but Thine own into which good things are committed?

THE LORD.

No, my son, mine is the hand from which all the good things both of earth and heaven are received. Why, then, wilt thou not ask from me the earthly ones, nor thank me for them? Methought I was so dear to thee that thou wouldst accept of no gift unless it came from a Father's hand. Methought that, on that account, all my gifts would seem to thee to be fraught with blessing. When I presented thee with an earthly good, did I not mean by it, no less than by my spiritual gifts, to attest to thee the continuance of my love? And dost thou value an attestation of my love at so low a rate?

THE SOUL.

Lord, now that Thou showest it to me, I see how foolishly I spake. It was, however, only that my whole endeavour might be aimed with a more single eye at Thyself, that I wanted not to have my thoughts diverted by any perishable object, and therefore meant no longer to pray to Thee for earthly blessings.

THE LORD.

Dear soul, thou sayest thou didst not wish to distract thy mind by looking at transitory things, but observe how thou didst divide thy heart; for didst thou not intend to praise me for what my heaven bestows, but to be dumb for every boon that my earth confers?

THE SOUL.

Lord, Thou puttest me to shame. In my desire to be simple-minded I have erred in my own wisdom, and become double-minded. As Thou art the Lord of heaven, and no less also the Lord of earth, I no doubt ought to ask, and likewise thank Thee, for earthly blessings. Forgive me for what I said in my folly; but, inasmuch as I have taken upon me to speak

unto Thee, and fear that my heart may cleave to created things, I now entreat that Thou wouldst Thyself teach me the right way to pray for earthly blessings.

THE LORD.

My son, thou hast said that there is none in heaven or earth whom thou desirest more than me, and that I am thy chief and eternal good. If, then, that be true, I will show thee the way to pray for earthly blessings, and yet to have thy heart wholly detached from them. Thou didst strive with ardent desire to reach my heart; strive therefore after every blessing I bestow, as if it were a path by which my heart may be reached.

THE SOUL.

Full well I know that the spiritual influences emanating so blissfully from Thee are nothing but beams of light, intended to guide us back to the Sun from whence they came. But with Thy permission I would ask if this be also the case with earthly blessings?

THE LORD.

Didst thou ever, at the rising of the sun, observe how its image is reflected, as if it were a miniature sun, in every drop of dew? Such is the relation between my divinity and all this earthly creation. In none of the creatures oughtest thou to enjoy anything save what is gentle, and sweet, and lovely; and whatever is gentle, and sweet, and lovely in any created thing, is my signature and mark. On the contrary, all that is harsh, and hateful, and bitter, belongs to the creature itself. And so, my child, you see how, from every created thing upon the earth, there is a way to the heart of my Godhead.

THE SOUL.

I do see it; but be not angry with me if I once again open my mouth, for there is still something which is strange in my eyes. If every created thing be a way to Thy heart, how comes it that Thy manner has always been to impoverish the

most pious of Thy servants here below more than all others, although they are most accustomed to read Thy signature and mark; while, on the other hand, Thou lavishest the good things of earth on those who are far from Thee?

THE LORD.

For no other cause or reason, dear son, save that I am the Lord, and have ordered all things in weight, number, and measure. As the signature and mark which I impress upon terrestrial blessings are written in large letters, legible even to the simple, it is to the simple that in my wisdom I have allotted terrestrial blessings. But as my wisdom has inscribed a better signature, although in fainter lines, upon poverty and privation, these are the boons I have reserved for them who are the "children of the secret."

THE SOUL.

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in dishes of silver." 2 Lord, this is a hard saying, but Thy Spirit will be to me a light within.

37.

If we ask according to Nis Will, Ne heareth us.

You think our prayers He does not heed,

Because He often answers “Nay;"

And were that all He did, indeed

I scarcely would your plea gainsay.

But if beside the "Nay" there be

Some better boon than what we sought,

Methinks a senseless churl is he

Who says his prayer no answer got.

MATT. xviii. 19. "If two of you shall agree on earth as 2 Prov. xxv. II-Luther's vers.

1 Ecclus. xi. 22.

touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."

JOHN, XV. 7. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

JOHN, xvi. 23. ye shall ask you."

I JOHN, V. 14.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever the Father in my name, He shall give it

"This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us."

THE

HE blessed promises which, in these words, the Lord has given to His children, have in the lives of many Christians, as I know from experience, proved a stone of stumbling on which not a few have fallen, and some have been dashed to pieces. Here the Saviour positively engages that every single prayer which is made in faith shall be answered. Oh how I rejoiced when I first met with this promise in the Holy Scriptures! And afterwards, when with the eye of faith I surveyed the long succession of His servants, from Gideon to Elijah, and from Elijah to Augustus Franke, to all of whom the Lord had redeemed His word, I felt that now my God was indeed a living God, and that as long as I lived He would never balk my trust. I saw the heavens open, and the ladder reaching from heaven to earth, and upon which the angels ascended and descended, that Jacob only dreamt of, was to me a reality. How, I exclaimed, can faith still be called an art, when He who made the heavens and the earth draws near so kindly to His children, and visibly stretches forth His hand from the clouds to take hold of theirs? Here only the half is faith, the other half already vision. I know of many souls who, in the happy hour of their first love, exulted in the same way; and then, oh how contrary did the event prove! They prayed-they rent heaven with their prayers. But heaven closed its doors, and their prayers fell back un