of the Church seems to be how best to develop and train in the Christian soul the desire and the capacity for prayer. The Commission would lay special emphasis on the fact that the real problem is not the increase or the improvement of aids to prayer or the multiplication of exhortations to prayer, but the securing of a body of Christian people who by earnest and sustained effort have become proficient in the practice of prayer.

The Catholic Church has from the earliest ages recognised this vital need for her children and has endeavoured to supply it by forms of prayer. The Day Hours of the Church, consisting of Psalms, Bible lections, and prayer devotions, have from the earliest times formed part of the Church's daily worship and devotions. These in many branches and provinces of the Catholic Church have remained in their unaltered form from time immemorial. In the Church of England they have in recent centuries been united into the present offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, which are enjoined to be used daily throughout the year. These devotions serve a double purpose. They are not only a daily prayer meeting, morning by morning, and evening by evening, where praise and thanksgiving, supplication and intercession all find a place, but they are at the same time the training schools of the Christian soul in the holy art of prayer. The constant part which the people are called upon to take in versicle and response, in united repetition of the Psalms, and in the joint devotions by minister and people, all have as their object the training and cultivating of the soul in the practice of prayer; while the intercessions which form a not inconspicuous part of the daily offices, serve in developing in the worshipper the habit of intercession.

Further, the Holy Communion has from apostolic times formed part of the weekly, frequently the daily, worship of the Catholic Church, and the liturgies of East and West which enshrine this Holy Sacrament, abounding as they do in petition, supplication, adora

tion, and intercession, have reared up countless souls in the habit and practice of prayer.

But forms of prayer have their serious dangers, and the formalism of forms has produced in many cases a not unnatural reaction. The majority of those taking part in the Conference are probably connected with branches of the Christian Church which eschew forms of prayer and seek for free and spontaneous expression in the systematic habit of extemporary prayer. There are dangers, it is readily recognised, along this course too, and while those who have in the past laid special stress on extemporary prayer are not indisposed at times to use time-honoured forms, those who have clung perhaps too tenaciously to forms of prayer are recognising the value also of more inspirational and spontaneous devotions.

Where public worship is conducted independently of prescribed forms of prayer, greater freedom and variety are possible in leading the thoughts of the congregation in prayer for missions. It is the experience of many pastors that a genuine missionary spirit in their people can be cultivated by directing their thoughts in prayer to the great missionary task of the Church more than in any other way. If this education is to be successfully carried out, the pastor himself must be possessed of a missionary spirit, and must give special thought to the preparation of his prayers so that he may avoid mere formal petitions and make his people feel that he is giving utterance to a deep and real and urgent need. Whether the form of service be liturgical or follows no prescribed form, there should be, Sunday by Sunday, definite remembrance in prayer of the missionary work of the Christian Church.

Prayer gatherings for intercession on behalf of the missionary work of the Church, whether held monthly or weekly, or at more frequent intervals, serve an invaluable purpose. They are useful occasions for the regular use of the missionary prayer cycles and prayer topics which are now so numerously issued. But more than this,

they are the training schools of prayer, where prayer habits may be fostered, prayer exercises may be practised, and prayer lessons may be learned.

There can be no doubt that side by side with the issue of prayer leaflets, with prayer teachings and prayer exhortations from the pulpit, with the daily services and devotions of the Church, should go the united prayer practice, and the united prayer offerings of weekly prayer meetings. The time has plainly shown. itself to be ripe for increasing and developing such gatherings.

The growing conviction of the necessity of prayer as the one victorious force in the great campaign, the daily calls which come from the advance guards for the reinforcements of prayer, the extreme difficulty and many obstacles which are experienced by all who seek to advance in the holy art, and the inspiration and incentive to be derived from such united acts all these point to the pressing importance of maintaining, developing, and enlarging as occasion offers, these prayer meetings of the Church. Prayer Conventions, whole day prayer gatherings, annual weeks of prayer, all these are possible enlargements and outgrowths which have already been tried, and already proved fruitful in blessing.

It is often forgotten by those who are responsible for the conduct of prayer meetings for missions that careful preparation is needed on the part of those in charge. Prayer is never easy, and cannot be entered into without definite preparation of mind and heart. This is necessary not only for the leader of the meeting, but for all present, if they are to participate in the ministry of intercession. The whole plan of the meetings needs careful thought. The subjects for prayer must be explained and set before the people, so that they feel inwardly stirred to pray, and preparatory exercises are necessary to make vivid to the mind the privilege of prayer and to awaken a sense of God's presence. Pains need to be taken to make all realise that it is a serious business in which they are

engaged, and that in Christ's teaching prayer is not the utterance of vague aspirations, but has been divinely ordained to receive definite and unmistakable

answers.

It is an advantage when on special occasions Christian people can join unitedly in intercession for the missionary work of the Church. In the Church of England, a day of intercession for foreign missions was inaugurated in 1872 at the suggestion of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which was then suffering from a lack of recruits, and the Church Missionary Society cordially accepted an invitation to co-operate. In the first few months following its first observance, both Societies received a large number of offers of service. The movement has been observed with regularity ever since, and has been fruitful in almost every parish in increasing the volume of prayer for foreign missions.

A special opportunity for remembering the world-wide work of the Church is afforded by daily family worship. The use of a missionary prayer cycle at family prayers will daily bring the needs of the world before the household, and will both prove a spiritual education to those who assemble for worship, and afford help and strength to those who are toiling at the front.

That those who love this work and bear it upon their hands and hearts will follow the scriptural injunction to pray unceasingly for its triumph, we take for granted. To such, not only the morning watch and the hours of stated devotions, but all times and seasons will witness an attitude of intercession that refuses to let God go until He crown His workers with victory. Such praying souls impart their life of faith to those with whom they come into contact, and thus the circle of devout and faithful disciples will widen, until all who believe and labour and wait will also pray.

For the accomplishment of the evangelisation of the world the supremely important thing is not a great number of missionaries, nor an unlimited amount of financial support, but spiritual power in the Church.

The Church is not straitened in God. It is implied in our very thought of Him that with Him all things are possible. What paralyses the energies of the Church and allows it to suffer defeat is its own unbelief. The work of evangelising the non-Christian world cannot be done until the Church learns again to believe in the living God-to believe with childlike simplicity and unfaltering trust.

Therefore, as in this Conference the Christian Church looks with a greater seriousness than ever before at the problem of the non-Christian world, the call that is most urgent and most insistent is that Christian men and women should deeply resolve to venture out and make trial of the unexplored depths of the character and the resources of God. The missionary enterprise has led many adventurous spirits to explore unknown territories and tread unbeaten paths. The same spirit of adventure is needed to discover the wealth and resources of life in God. The work of evangelisation must wait until Christian people resolutely set themselves to put to the proof the availability of God for faith. Many who cannot go to the mission field may have a real share in the missionary labours of the Church if they will give themselves to the mighty ministry of prayer.

It is not sufficient in an hour of vision and aspiration to dedicate ourselves to the work of intercession. Prayer is the putting forth of vital energy. It is the highest effort of which the human spirit is capable. Proficiency and power in prayer cannot be attained without patient continuance and much practice. As has already been urged, the primary need is not the multiplication of prayer meetings or the more extensive circulation of prayer calendars, but that individual Christians should learn to pray. If this work is to be taken seriously, the hour of prayer must be definitely set apart and jealously guarded in spite of weariness and many distractions. The secret and art of prayer can only be learned from the teaching of the Master Himself, and by