All these things show that the deeps of the fountains of natural religion have been broken up in wondrous fashion.

Our question to-day is:  How shall we discipline that spirit which enables us to realise religion as a fact?

Let us try to get to the root of the matter.

There are two chief derivations of the word religion.  One comes from the verb which means “to go through, or over again, in reading, speech, or thought.”  Hence religion is the regular or constant habit of revering the gods, and would be represented by the word devotion—­an aspect most important to bear in mind.

The other derivation, and the more usual, derives religion from the idea of binding together, and tells of communion between man and God.  For us Christians this thought finds its highest ideal and fulfilment in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The great characteristic action of religion is prayer; varying in its methods and degrees from merely mechanical performances, like the praying wheels of the Chinese up to the heart devotion of the Christian, poured out when commemorating, in the Holy Communion, the death and resurrection of His Lord.

The first essential of any prayer which is to be of value in the discipline of the spirit is regularity.  No words can exaggerate the importance of morning prayer.  Yet, alas! tens of thousands of professing Christians are content with evening prayer alone.  The one who goes forth in the morning prayerless is just as ill-equipped to do his duty, and meet his temptations, as the foodless man is to perform physical work.

The whole story of the saintly life, alike in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Church, is that of diligence in prayer.  It was to promote that spirit that the Church of Christ, following on the lines of the Jewish Church, from very early days adopted special hours for stated devotions, with the daily offering of the Holy Eucharist linking the whole system together.

The lowest standard to aim at is private prayer morning and evening, midday too if possible, and regular attendances at God’s House on Sundays and Feast Days.  The guiding principle, to be kept ever in mind, is not what my own inclinations suggest, but what the glory of God demands.  Were this always the case, what magnificent congregations there would be.

Prayer represents a real business of the spirit into which we put the whole endowment of our being, intellect, memory, emotion, will.

Oh! those wandering thoughts, how they do distress us; and just in proportion as we wish to pray and are learning to pray, so we feel our deficiencies the more keenly.

A few moments before we commence our prayers spent in saying very quietly, “Thou God seest me,” or “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,” coupled with a simple yet earnest act of the realisation of God’s presence, will be of infinite use.