Let us learn this lesson well.  Let it be the rule and habit of our lives to connect prayer with everything we do.  This will make us happy in our own souls, and useful to those about us.

How full the Bible is of the wonders that have been wrought by prayer!  Just think for a moment of some of them.

Abraham prays, and Lot is delivered from the fiery flood that overwhelmed Sodom and Gomorrah.  Gen. xix:  29.  Jacob prays, and he wrestles with the angel, and obtains the blessing; his brother Esau’s mind is wonderfully turned away from the wrath he had cherished for twenty years.  Moses prays and Amalek is discomfited.  Joshua prays and Achan is discovered.  Hannah prays and Samuel is born.  David prays and Ahithophel hangs himself.  Elijah prays and a famine of three years comes upon Israel.  He prays again, and the rain descends, and the famine ends.  Elisha prays, and Jordan is divided.  He prays again, and the dead child’s soul is brought back from the invisible world.  Isaiah and Hezekiah pray, and a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers are slain in one night by the unseen sword of the angel.  These are Bible illustrations of the help God gives to his people in answer to prayer.  And the Bible rule for prayer, as given by our Saviour, is, “that men ought always to pray,” Luke xviii:  1.  St. Paul’s way of stating it is—­“Praying always, with all prayer,” Ephes. vi:  18.  In another place he says—­“Pray without ceasing,” I. Thess. v:  17.  And even the heathen teach the same rule about prayer.  Among the rules of Nineveh, an inscription on a tablet has been found, which, on being translated, proved to contain directions about prayer.  It may be entitled: 

“An Assyrian Call to Prayer.”  These are the words of the call: 

    “Pray thou! pray thou! 
    Before the couch, pray! 
    Before the throne, pray! 
    Before the canopy, pray! 
    Before the building of the lofty head, pray! 
    Before the rising of the dawn, pray! 
    Before the fire, pray! 
    By the tablets and papyri, pray! 
    By the side of the river, pray! 
    By the side of a ship, or riding in a ship, or leaving the ship, pray! 
    At the rising of the sun, or the setting of the sun, pray! 
    On coming out of the city, on entering the city, pray! 
    On coming out of the great gate, on entering the great gate, pray! 
    On coming out of the house, pray! on entering the house, pray! 
    In the place of judgment, pray! 
    In the temple, pray!”

This is like the Bible rule of—­“praying always.”

“Praying for a Dinner.”  “Grandma, aren’t we going to church this morning?” asked a little girl.

“My child, we have had no breakfast, and have no dinner to eat when we come back,” said her grandma.

“But the Lord Jesus can give it to us if we ask him,” said the little girl.  “Let’s ask him.”  So they kneeled down, and asked that God, “who feedeth the young ravens when they cry,” to remember them, and help them.