The Discipline of War

pline of

SUNDAY

uke v

all night in P

th animals; to-day we pass on to consider, under the title of spirit, the higher endowment by w

special powers it brings, he has gone one step further than the animal, but has utterly failed of his true purpose. The supreme objec

produce a vast amount of testimony to the fact t

he land have been multiplied, intercession is be

gments of God's providence, prayer for His help, or requests for the prayers of others. Sometimes, in the strange double-sidedness of human nature, accompanied by ex

f the fountains of natural religion ha

e discipline that spirit which enab

get to the roo

h, or over again, in reading, speech, or thought." Hence religion is the regular or constant habit of r

together, and tells of communion between man and God. For us Christians this thought

y mechanical performances, like the praying wheels of the Chinese up to the heart devotion of the Ch

ance of morning prayer. Yet, alas! tens of thousands of professing Christians are content with evening prayer alone. The one who goes forth

ayer. It was to promote that spirit that the Church of Christ, following on the lines of the Jewish Church, from very early da

t God's House on Sundays and Feast Days. The guiding principle, to be kept ever in mind, is not what my own inclinatio

rit into which we put the whole endowment of

and just in proportion as we wish to pray and are learn

st me," or "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," coupled wit

gradually slows down. So with us; we cannot come out of our rushing live

her; scrappy reading, talking, thinking; then, as a natural consequence, scrappy praying. A great master of the spiritual life used to say, "You will g

ayer, of which the stated devotions only form a natural part. It is comparatively easy for suc

thanksgiving for Confession or Communion, but should never be allowed to take the entire place of the Chri

inner attitude towards truth only tends to formality; the effort to force a kind of artificial conformity, because you think you ought to feel this or that, invariably ends in

on must be performed, and that not perfunctorily, but with real intention of repentance and strictness of living. Self-examination

ise teaching of the Prayer Book should be followed; "the grief"-for such it ought to be-open

power to His Church to absolve, ... forgive thee ... and by His authority ... I absolve thee." The source of all pardon and the right to exercise it rest in God alone, but the message declaring the fact is part of the "ministry of reconciliation," committed, in the infinite condescension of God

make them feel the reality of His pardoning blood in a way they never could have believed possible. How strange that the very thing which by so many pious and thoroughly honest souls

l Confession which is obviously contemplated by the Pr

me words from the firs

fying, the auricular and secret confession to the priest; nor those which think needful or convenient to open their sins to the p

our Communion, once said, "We cannot ignore the fact that the giants of old owed much of that saintline

s experience in the matter. Not, on the one hand, the man who will tell you that it is the greatest

which leaves absolute freedom, so long as the individual "follows and

scipline of the spirit comes the Holy Comm

down into their right, and subordinate, place. They are sometimes very delightful, sometimes very depressing, but always liable to be misleading. A gr

he Son, and God the Holy Ghost have done, and are doing, for us; the f

as there an actual need for Him to pray; yet His whole life was punctuated with prayer: first because the glor

ry of God that I should have salvation; therefor

tations during the