Prayer for Today





We can each of us support the agencies of goodwill at work in the world. Chief among these is the Church of Christ, whose business is the ministry of reconciliation. And chief among the activities of the Church in the interest of world peace is the work of the foreign missionary whose task is by word and life to interpret the nations to each other: magnificent the work he has done and is doing to this end.

We can each of us pray for world-peace, and there is nothing which needs more constantly and more earnestly to be done by all men of goodwill. For prayer, let us remember, is not a formula, it is a life. It is not merely petition, it is a covenant and a program. One cannot offer the Lord's Prayer sincerely without becoming a daring adventurer in the world of goodwill. Our most constant and persistent prayer may well be that of Elisha. As we think today of the young men and women who are to be the makers of the new world, as with ever-broadening horizon we think of the multitudes confused by false values, sheep without a shepherd, shall we not pray with the prophet, 'Lord, open the eyes of the young man that he may see, Lord, open the eyes of all the peoples of the world that they may see.' Then in the records of eternity it may be written as of old, 'And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw. And behold the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire round about'---the invisible but invincible resources that are ever theirs whose hands are in the hand of the living God.

Tim