All acknowledge the duty, and some of us know the privilege, of prayer. We feel that we ought to pray, and sometimes we love to do so. Indeed, in times of sore distress, prayer becomes the spontaneous outburst, because the imperative need, of our souls. We teach our children to pray, and tell them that God will not only hear but answer them.

Now, it is just upon this answer, or rather upon the answering voice of God, that I would solicit your earnest, and I might say prayerful, attention. May there not be in prayer a step which some of us have hardly tried? May we not be too busy with our own words to listen, in the silence of our souls, if God may have a word for us? Shall we expend our soul's strength in the many utterances of our requests, and not open our ears to the answers? Oh! if our Father should wish to speak as well as to listen, and should find no spiritual ear open, no waiting upon His gracious words! Does the servant address his master and not wait to hear the master's own voice? Does the courtier make known his request to the King and then go his way without listening for a reply? Does the loving child open his heart to his loving father and not feel that the father has a heart answering to his own? And, with our heavenly Father, is not the answer ready even before we speak, for can we realize Him too near?

Does any one ask how can we wait upon God, and watch unto prayer, so that we may hear the Father's voice? If one, who knows but little of the way, yet, loves the little known, may reach a heart seeking for the Father's voice in answer to prayer, the following hints suggested:

You come to Him who loves a still and waiting heart. Keep then silence in your spirit, and let its activities be concentrated in the one impulse of attention. Expect to hear God's voice to your soul. It may be that this searching, teaching voice will so kindle your own spirit, that you too shall find words to speak again, living words such as you have never known before, because they are the voice of the unhindered Spirit of God within. Thus you shall experience real communion with your Father. If you have not before sought this means of spiritual growth, try it, and may God greatly bless the effort. C.