Prayer and Breakfast

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 10, 1858

Prayer and Breakfast.

Fresh supplies of spiritual food are needed daily for the soul, quite as urgently as supplies of food for the body. Manna will not keep from day to day, it must be gathered daily. The Christian who neglects prayer in the closet, or in the family, invites the tempter to get an advantage of him. Without prayer, he goes unarmed into the world, and is almost certain to yield to strong temptation. Peter fell asleep in the garden, when he should have been praying, and was frightened into apostasy by the words of a servant-girl. Nearly all backsliding and apostasy begins in neglect of prayer. The following incident from the Central Christian Herald, is worth reading and remembering:

We heard, a few days since, an anecdote which has probably never been in print, but which has more point than many that are widely circulated.

Some years ago, when the country around Cincinnati was newer than it now is, a pious farmer was very busy clearing his land. He had a number of hands employed, and was anxious to accomplish a large amount of work while the weather was favorable. He called them early, and went out with them before breakfast. When breakfast was ready, a horn was blown and they came in and ate, and returned again to their work. The farmer had been accustomed to have prayers every morning in his family. But to keep so many men from chopping and log-rolling while he read and prayed, was more than he could afford—so Satan suggested, and the good man yielded. His pious wife saw with grief that the family altar was neglected—that her husband, in his haste to get rich, was departing from God. She talked with him; she plead with him; but in vain. At last she determined to try another expedient.

The next morning the farmer and his men went out as usual to their work. The sun began to climb up the sky, but no breakfast horn was heard. They grew hungry, and looked anxiously towards the house; they listened, but still the expected summons did not come. After waiting an hour or two beyond the usual time, they went to the house. No table was set, no coffee was boiling on the fire, no food was cooking over or before it. The good wife was knitting quietly, with the big Bible open on her lap.

“What does this mean?” cried her husband; “why isn’t our breakfast ready?”

“I thought you were in such a hurry about your work that you would not have time to eat it.”

“Have time to eat it! Do you think that we can live without eating?”

“You can live without eating as well as without praying. The spirit needs the bread of heaven as much as the body needs the bread of the earth.”

“Well, well,” said the farmer, “get us some breakfast, and we will have prayers again every morning; no matter how busy we are, or how many workmen I have.”

She got the breakfast, and he kept his word. The lesson was a good one, and was never forgotten. Perhaps it saved that farmer from yielding to the spirit of worldliness until he made shipwreck of his soul. Certain it is that he was thenceforth a more faithful Christian than before.—Sel.