If neither your reverence for the great truths of religion, nor the majesty of the ever-present Deity, nor the interest of your eternal salvation, have power to arrest your mind and engage it in prayer, at least mourn with me for your infidelity; be ashamed of your weakness, and wish that your thoughts were more under your control; and desire to become less frivolous and inconstant.  Make an effort to subject your mind to this discipline.  You will gradually acquire habit and facility.  What is now tedious will become delightful; and you will then feel, with a peace that the world can not give nor take away, that God is good.  Make a courageous effort to overcome yourself.  There can be no occasion that more demands it.

Secondly.  The peculiar obligation of prayer.  Were I to give all the proofs that the subject affords, I should describe every condition of life, that I might point out its dangers, and the necessity of recourse to God in prayer.  But I will simply state that under all circumstances we have need of prayer.  There is no situation in which it is possible to be placed where we have not many virtues to acquire and many faults to correct.  We find in our temperament, or in our habits, or in the peculiar character of our minds, qualities that do not suit our occupations, and that oppose our duties.  One person is connected by marriage to another whose temper is so unequal that life becomes a perpetual warfare.  Some, who are exposed to the contagious atmosphere of the world, find themselves so susceptible to the vanity which they inhale that all their pure desires vanish.  Others have solemnly promised to renounce their resentments, to conquer their aversions, to suffer with patience certain crosses, and to repress their eagerness for wealth; but nature prevails, and they are vindictive, violent, impatient, and avaricious.

Whence comes it that these resolutions are so frail?  That all these people wish to improve, desire to perform their duty toward God and man better, and yet fail?  It is because our own strength and wisdom, alone, are not enough.  We undertake to do everything without God; therefore we do not succeed.  It is at the foot of the altar that we must seek for counsel which will aid us.  It is with God that we must lay our plans of virtue and usefulness; it is He alone that can render them successful.  Without Him, all our designs, however good they may appear, are only temerity and delusion.  Let us then pray that we may learn what we are and what we ought to be.  By this means we shall not only learn the number and the evil effects of our peculiar faults, but we shall also learn to what virtues we are called, and the way to practise them.  The rays of that pure and heavenly light that visit the humble soul will beam on us and we shall feel and understand that everything is possible to those who put their whole trust in God.  Thus, not only to those who live in retirement, but to those who are exposed to