4 APRIL 1874, Page 13

POETRY.

PRAYER.

'TREY chide us for praying—half in scorn,

And half in sadness—pointing to their light Of newly risen knowledge, whose clear dawn Scatters the ghostly phantoms of our night, Which we have made our gods and knelt before.

And their cold mockery wrongs our praying less 'Than we wrong Prayer, who pray for earthly store Of health and wealth and mortal happiness.

Prayer is no child of fleeting hopes and fears, But of the inmost heart's eternity, That with dim, passionate striving all its years, Yearns after God and cries for light to see.

And there's one prayer no scorn can ever move,

'The endless prayer of a long life of love.

E. G. A. HoLmEs.