Questions for Our Soul's Answer
By H. E. Rickard
THE coming of the annual week of prayer reminds us that the privileges and opportunities of the past year are gone, never to return to us again. How have we improved these opportunities? Have we always been kind and tender toward our friends? Have we been as thoughtful and patient as we ought toward our enemies? Or have we been standing where the psalmist stood when he said, “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked”? He was in that condition “until,” as he says, “I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedest them down into destruction.” Then have we felt so sorry for them that we could say, as he did, “Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins”? Have our hearts yearned for the perishing as they should?9 Let us answer these questions honestly between ourselves and our God, and, wherein we have failed, let us seek help from Heaven to do better. This special season of prayer is for this very purpose; and we all know, from past experience, that when we faithfully observed the season of prayer, we received a rich blessing, and were much strengthened in the Master's service. H. E. RICKARD, of Quebec.