THE PRAYER.
'TWAS a dark and rainy evening,
And the wind was moaning wild,
While a-near a bright fire sitting,
Were I and our darling child.
"Dear mamma," she sweetly asked me.
Looking up with earnest eye,
"May I kneel and thank 'Our Father'
For this home so warm and dry?
"May I tell him, too, and thank him
That I'm no poor orphan child?
Do you think that he can hear me
Through the rain and wind so wild?"
"Yes," I answered, "and will love thee
For that thankful little heart;
Ever be thus, truly grateful
Choosing, sweet, the 'better part.'
"And remember, too, when kneeling,
To entreat 'Our Father' kind,
For all homeless, friendless children,
Shelterless from rain and wind:
"Who, through poverty and sorrow,
With grim want all stark and pale,
Tread a thorny, weary pathway,
Where temptations oft prevail.
"Ask him, from his bounteous storehouse,
To supply each needy one,
Kindly feeding, sheltering, guiding
And then say, ' Thy will be done.' "
Then our darling knelt beside me,
With her small hands on my knee,
Raising her blue eyes to heaven,
A sweet bud of piety.
SEASONS OF PRAYER.
All night. Luke vi, 12.
Night and day. 1 Thess. iii, 10.
Seven times a day. Ps. cxix, 164.
A great while before day. Mark i,
In the night watches. Ps. Ixiii, 6,
About the sixth hour. Acts x, 9.
The ninth hour. Acts iii, 1.
At the eventide. Gen. xxiv, 63.
By night. Ps. exxxiv, 1.
At midnight. Ps. cxix, 62;35.
YI