p. 71 | Untitled article

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, July 16, 1867

I DO NOT LIKE TO HEAR HIM PRAY.

I do not like to hear him pray, Who loans at twenty-five per cent, For then I think the borrower may Be pressed to pay for food and rent. And in that book we all should heed, Which says the lender shall be blest; As sure as I have eyes to read, It does not say “take interest.”

I do not like to hear him pray On bended knees about an hour, For grace to spend aright the day, Who knows his neighbor has no flour; I’d rather see him go to mill, And buy the luckless brother bread, And see his children eat their fill, And laugh beneath their humble shed

I do not like to hear him pray, “Let blessings on the widow be!” Who never seeks her home to say, “If want o’ertakes you, come to me.” I hate the prayer so loud and long, That’s offered for the orphan’s weal, By him who sees him crushed by wrong, And only with the lips doth feel.

I do not like to hear her pray, With jewelled ear and silken dress, Whose washerwoman toils all day, And then is asked to “work for less.” Such pious shavers I despise; With folded hands and airs demure, They lift to heaven their “angel eyes,” Then steal the earnings of the poor!

I do not like such soulless prayers; If wrong, I hope to be forgiven; No angel’s wing them upward bears— They’re lost a million miles from heaven. I do not like long prayers to hear, And studied from the lips depart; Our Father bends a ready ear, Let words be few, he hears the heart.