December 1

God’s power ours through prayer

“Without me, ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).
“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 15:7).

Prayer is the chalice in which we fetch the water from the rock. It is the ladder on which we climb up to pick the grapes hanging over the wall of Heaven. It is the fire that warms the frigid soul. It is the ship that carries away our wants, and comes back with a return cargo of divine help. Archimedes said if he could only find a fulcrum for his lever, he could move the world. Ah! we have found it! Prayer is the lever. The divine promise is the fulcrum. Pushing down on such a lever, we move not only earth, but also Heaven.
—De Witt Talmage.

Prayer is the touch of an infant—but on the arm of the Almighty.
—Thomas Scott.

Say, what is prayer, when it is prayer indeed?
The mighty utterance of a mighty need.
The man is praying who doth press with might
Out of his darkness into God’s own light.

White heat the iron in the furnace won;
Withdrawn from thence ’twas cold and hard anon.
Flowers, from their stalk divided, presently
Droop, fall, and wither in the gazer’s eye.

The greenest leaf, divided from its stem,
To speedy withering doth itself condemn.
The largest river, from its fountain head
Cut off, leaves soon a parched and dusty bed.

All things that live from God their sustenance wait,
And sun and moon are beggars at His gate.
All skirts extended of thy mantle hold,
When angel hands from Heaven are scattering gold.
—Richard Chenevix Trench.

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