BAD PRAYERS by Hartford Times

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · May 3, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 18.

BAD PRAYERS.

By Hartford Times

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 orphans' weal, By him who sees him crushed by wrong, And only with his lips doth feel.

I do not like to hear her pray, With jeweled ear and silken dress, Whose washerwoman toils all day, And then is asked to work for less.

Such pious sinners I despise; With folded hands and face demure, They lift their "angel eyes," And steal the earnings of the poor.

I do not like such soulless prayers; If wrong, I hope to be forgiven. No angel wing them upward bears; They're lost a million miles from heaven. —Hartford Times.