""Twas long ago,

When I was young. Alas! I did not know
A better way. I said, 'It must be so,

Or God cannot be good.'
Alas! alas! weak human pride;

How differently would I have quickly cried
If I had understood.

"And now I bear

A thankful heart for that unanswered prayer, And so I think it will be when, up there

Where all is known,

We look upon the things we longed for so, And see how little were they worth and know How soon they were outgrown.”

66

CHAPTER XXIII

"If Two of You Shall Agree"

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HY two? Would it not be the same for one? Is not the gate of prayer open to every one? May

not a lonely soul anywhere call upon God and be sure of answer? Why then does the Master say two-"If two of you shall agree the prayer will be granted?" Certainly he did not mean that God does not hear one who prays alone. Jesus ofttimes prayed by himself. He went apart from his disciples up the mountain, into the depths of the Garden. Yet there is a special promise when two agree.

For one thing, when two pray together each is drawn out of self to think of something besides his own needs. We are naturally selfish. We easily form the habit of thinking only of our own things, of seeking only our own good of looking only after our own interests. of the tendencies of praying alone is t

only things we need or desire for ourselves. "Forgive my sins, prosper my affairs, heal my sickness, bless my daily bread, make me holy, give me joy," our prayer is apt to run. To pray only thus is to allow ourselves to narrow our life into sheerest selfishness. We may pray alone and yet train ourselves to think of others, to reach out to the needs and experiences of others. Only thus will we make our secret prayers spiritually wholesome.

When we pray together the selfish tendency is corrected. We think of the other and his condition. We are trained to sympathize with him in his trouble, to reach out our hand to strengthen him when he is weak. We forget our own danger in thinking of his. His needs seem so much greater and more pressing than ours that we plead for his deliverance and altogether forget our own; we beseech God to lift away his crushing burden and cease to think at all of our own lesser load. Our own sorrow, which, if there were no other one suffering by our side, would seem immeasurably great, seems too small even to

mention in the presence of our friend's overpowering grief, so we pray for his comforting and only thank God that our affliction is so light.

Another good that comes from two praying together is in the influence of life upon life. We need the impact of others. We cannot reach our best alone. It is a happy thing for one child in a home when another child comes to be its companion. A child living alone is in danger of growing into selfishness and all undiscipline. It never learns to share its possessions, its happiness. When two children are brought up together they are trained to think of each other, each to give up for the other, to seek to make the other happy. One of the blessings of marriage is that the two learn to live for each other. Then they inspire each other. The woman who thinks only of what she can get from her marriage has not begun to learn the real secret of love. Wedded love reaches its true splendor only when it thinks of what it can do for the other.

When we pray together the one quickens the other and both become better Christians. When two love God and then talk about him the love of both grows warmer. One stimulates the other. We need companionship in our Christian life. It is not good for us to be alone. Jesus had a wise purpose in sending out his disciples two and two. They would have been lonely if they had gone out singly, and would not have done their best work. Thus the one supplemented the other. Two together did more than two apart. They had their limitations of capacity and one supplied the other's lack. But perhaps the chief advantage in going out two and two was that each kindled and inspired the `other. We do not know how much we owe to each other. Our unconscious influence on the life and actions of those close to us is immeasurable. Dr. Bushnell has shown us how Peter's rugged force acted on John's sensitive nature at the empty tomb. John hesitated to enter until Peter came up and went in boldly. "Then entered in therefore the other disciples also."