Chapter XXII Be Prayerful
Introduction to Chapter XXII
When I was a youth, I loved to climb Arthur’s Seat early in the morning, for the purpose of breathing the air borne to our inland home from out the mighty seas; and so it is well for every lad each day to seek the summit of highest faith, that he may hold communion with God; that he may inhale something of the atmosphere of eternal worlds.
It is said that Daniel opened his window when he prayed, toward Jerusalem. It was doubtless that he might think of the hallowed city. Better far, however, to open the windows of the soul toward heaven, not merely that we may think of the hereafter, but that the invisible, at the present moment, may stream into our being.
Prayer is the soul’s voice. It is the aspiration of the highest part of man. It is the sublime confidence, that, though foreign, still it is within the range of possibility to hold communion with the Creator of us all. Every time we bend the knee before the Throne of Grace, we declare our belief in our own God-likeness and in our indestructible affinity for the divine. Therefore, pray, my boy, and keep on praying; for it is the true Jacob’s ladder that will lead you, round by round, up to the Everlasting Throne.