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A short method of prayer, and Spiritual torrents, tr. by A.W. Marston

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A SHORT METHOD OF PRAYER. 3

ones, who believe yourselves incapable of prayer; it is you who are the most fitted for it. Come all without exception ; Jesus Christ calls you all.

Let those only refuse to come who have no heart. The invitation is not for them ; for we must have a heart in order to love. But who is indeed without heart ? Oh, come and give that heart to God, and learn in the place of prayer how to do it ! All those who long for prayer are capable of it, who have ordinary grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is freely promised to all who ask it.

Prayer is the key of perfection and of sovereign happiness ; it is the efficacious means of getting rid of all vices and of acquiring all virtues ; for the way to become perfect is to live in the presence of God. He tells us this Himself: '*Walk before me, and be thou perfect" (Gen. xvii. i). Prayer alone can bring you into His presence, and keep you there contin-ually.

What we need, then, is an attitude of prayer, in which we can constantly abide, and out of which ex-terior occupations cannot draw us ; a prayer which