[From an editorial in The New York Times, New York]

It would be surprising in these days ... if men did not pray more than ordinarily. In different times prayer takes different forms. If there is less of the formal saying of grace at meals, it does not mean of necessity that there is less giving of thanks. One pious man, well remembered because when he prayed he sounded as though he were actually talking face to face with God, once said, "Prayer is an attitude, an atmosphere, a state of mind and heart."

"There are times," said Victor Hugo, "when the soul is on its knees whatever may be the attitude of the body."

What can man pray for today? ... Every man and woman and child in this testing time can make one prayer: He can pray to be adequate. To be equal to the exhausting demands upon his courage in the great encounters. To be adequate in his patience for the daily drain of small annoyances. To be equal to the emergencies facing mind and body.

It will be recalled that Lincoln, on that rainy afternoon before lie started from Springfield to Washington, said to his neighbors, "Without the assistance of that Divine Being who attends me I cannot succeed; with that assistance I cannot fail." There is a moving simplicity in the words that followed: "Trusting in Him who can go with me and remain with you and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well." He then bade his neighbors farewell.

So it was with all the great emergencies he met with in the White House. "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nobody else to go to. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."

We can assume that there is some praying going on in Washington today. Some of those prayers are unspoken. Some of them do not wait for the going-to-bed time for saying. They are said at desks, perhaps. But there is no reason to believe that God does not hear prayers said from behind desks.

[Herbert Barnes, in the Evening Chronicle, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northumberland, England]

Men fail. Institutions fail. Ideals never! They are as lighthouses to guide the mariner on the deep.

Let me be specific. Take the ideal of democracy as expressed in the immortal words of Lincoln —"government of the people, by the people, for the people." Should this "perish from the earth," not by any stretch of the imagination could it be truly interpreted either as a condemnation of democracy or as a proof of its failure. It would be the people who would stand condemned—failing because of their inertia and lack of dynamic vigilance.

In the course of our national history we have won great freedoms—freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and freedom of thought and utterance. Should these freedoms become the dead letter they are in the major part of Europe now, not one of them would stand condemned. The rights they express are human rights. The condemnation would be upon ourselves for our failure in their defense.

It is so with the ideals under girding Christianity. They have not failed. They cannot fail. They are founded on spiritual law and written into the moral constitution of the world itself.

It is the Christian ideal which calls the world to judgment in this hour. In its presence it is men who are being judged and condemned —the deeds and desires and thoughts of men. The ideals for which religion stands are the one thing which the war has not disproved. In so far, as a nation, we are committed to them, in so far as we feel that our nation is under God in the cause for which we sacrifice and suffer, we may well lift up our hearts.

I have no note of pessimism or despair to write. I do not know, no man dare say, what may happen in the immediate future. The heavens are still dark and the clouds hanging over mankind are heavy.

Let the church pray without ceasing that the will of God may be done, that His kingdom may come on earth through loyalty to it and service of it. There is a power beyond man working for good—a power whose presence as a moral order in the universe means that evil, whatever may be its present victories, cannot permanently succeed; that truth and right and justice, whatever may be their immediate defeats, are destined at last to prevail.

That is the Christian faith. It can look beyond the news dispatches of the day. In that faith let the church itself take heart. Let it put heart into those many millions of men and women who now desperately need to believe that because there is a God, there is hope for the world.

[From the Christian Advocate, Cincinnati, Ohio]

The Psalmist's faith was not something that had to be supported. On the contrary, it supported David in the midst of the most extreme emergencies of his life. Never had it failed when he put it to the test. He did not spend time building up reasons why he ought to believe; he set his faith to stand guard over his soul, and walked thereafter in peace.

He walked with courage and serenity in the presence of the most direful threats because he trusted in the unseen companion whose power was mighty, and whose integrity was like that of the good shepherd. Even death itself had no power to terrorize him. Faith had conquered, for him, the last dread enemy of peace, the "shadow of death."

[From the Middelburg (Transvaal, South Africa) Observer]

In Psalms 107 we have the story of a people in desperate trouble, who had brought their troubles upon themselves, and it says of them that when they were at their wit's end they began to pray. They had not thought about God for a long time, but in desperation they turned to Him.

And that is true of millions of people in our time. So long as life goes well with them, they have not much use for God or prayer. But there comes a time when their wit fails them and then they begin to think of praying.

True prayer ... is to place God at the center of our thoughts. We would save ourselves a great deal of trouble if we had the wit to recognize two things: first our own inability to direct our lives towards their true goal; and then the fact that God will direct us if we are willing to be directed.

Real prayer is ... the desire to be in harmony with God and to do His will. And it is freedom too.... Prayer is not groveling— it is exaltation. It lifts life to a permanently higher level. Why then take the way which either omits prayer altogether or resorts to it as a last expedient? Why cancel out God when we have to reckon with Him whether we like it or not?

If we are out of practice and feel ashamed to begin, then let us remember the story of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee told God what a good fellow he was. ... The publican smote his breast and cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner." And the Saviour said that this man went home justified.

Thank God we can all begin there. But we must not end there. It is only the first rung of the ladder, the top of which reaches to heaven.

[John H. Muller, in the Evening Sentinel, Holland, Michigan]

"Give us this day our daily bread." There is no doubt that we all have prayed this part of the Lord's Prayer many times. How many times have we sincerely thought about its real meaning? There are two kinds of bread, physical and spiritual. We certainly should pray daily for our spiritual bread. We need spiritual food just as much as we need physical food. It is just as foolish to deny ourselves the reading of God's Word and the privilege of prayer as it is to deny ourselves our regular meals. Let us not forget that every moment spent with God is a great help towards a successful day. Those moments with God are certainly most precious. ... Let us never forget that we receive all that we have from our heavenly Father. May we never cease to show Him our heartfelt gratitude.

[From the Journal-Herald, Dayton, Ohio]

The Christian religion grants strength to its adherents. It is not a mere belief to which humankind can cling desperately in a dark hour. Christianity yields the living water which gives courage and power, and the spring from which it wells is accessible now and forever.

The Christian need not look to a dim future for alleviation of weakness or spiritual impoverishment. He has been told that the kingdom of heaven is present, that it is at hand. He may perceive its nearness through seeking to enter its holy confines and by making use of its abundant resources.

He can do this by stepping through prayer from the kingdom of the world into the domain of God. He can do this by stepping out of the thought of war into the thought of infinite and lasting harmony. He may do this by leaving greed behind him and entering into the realm of unselfishness.

He who leaves the world behind for a moment or for an hour will find himself refreshed when he returns to it, for he shall have partaken of that which is his right through eternity. He shall have drunk at the well where water springs up into "everlasting life."

[Rev. Fred A. Line, as quoted in the Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona]

"I am the door," said Jesus. The spirit of Jesus is essential if we are to be delivered out of our distress and pass through the door of religion into a larger, richer life experience. The door of religion opens upon every area of life and upon every variety of human experience.

Some seem to have the notion that religion must not interfere with business, politics, or pleasure, that it must confine itself to the singing of hymns and the offering of prayers. But Jesus taught that religion has its place in every area of life and is not something which can be labeled and placed in a separate compartment.

Most people think of religion as a wall which shuts out the fuller resources of life; in truth, it is a door by which we enter the abundant life.