August 2

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.—PHIL. iv, 6.

No answer comes to those that pray

And idly stand,

And wait for stones to roll away

At God's command;

He will not break the binding cords

Upon us laid,

If we depend on pleading words

And will not aid.

ANONYMOUS.

Prayer was never meant to be a substitute for labor—an easy way of throwing our responsibilities upon God. The old classic story of the teamster whose cart stuck in the mud, and who fell to crying to Hercules for help instead of using every effort himself, and was told by the god he invoked to put his own shoulder to the wheel, shows that even a heathen mind could see that faith was never meant to exclude works.

ANONYMOUS.