OUR CONCERT OF PRAYER.
It has been our custom for many years to appoint a day and hour in which all who are engaged in the work of the Association might unite in earnest prayer to God for His blessing upon one another and upon the common interests. The notification has been sent to all the workers in the various fields in the South. It has been frequently the case that the time selected has been during the progress of the annual meeting, so that the assembled friends of the Association have united with the officers, missionaries and teachers in this "sweet hour of prayer."
This year, however, our schools were so much delayed in their opening, and our workers from returning to the South, by the yellow fever, that this concert of prayer could not be held before the beginning of the new year. On Monday of the week of prayer an hour was fixed at which the executive committee and officers in New York, the teachers and pupils in the various schools, the pastors and the people of their charge, might all assemble, each in the midst of their own responsibilities, and pray for a blessing on the work begun and to be prosecuted through the year. It was pleasant to feel that we were mingling the incense of our petition and praise with the great cloud which was ascending from all parts of Protestant Christendom during this week of prayer.
We came from this still hour, in the midst of the busy, bustling city, realizing more than we are wont, that after all it is not the drive and tear of eager human life on which we depend for success, but the loving heart of God, which moves with unseen arm the doors of opportunity which swing on noiseless hinges at His touch; that it is He alone who gives the wisdom to direct and the strength to achieve; that He turns the hearts of men as the rivers of water are turned.
We have been accustomed to make our pleas for help to those whom we believed the Lord's heart had touched, that there might not fail us a supply of men and means; and our requests have not been in vain, but have been answered with generous liberality. But, brethren, when we have come to you to ask your help, we have followed the example of the good governor of Jerusalem, and have first prayed to the God of heaven; and when you have responded, we have recognized, as he did, that you have "granted us according to the good hand of our God upon us." Perplexing questions come up from week to week for settlement and wise decision. Thank God we may go to Him and plead His promise to give us light on the way.
With all our need of men and means to carry on the work which the Lord has entrusted to this agency, we recognize still more our constant need of that Divine help which alone can never fail us. Dear fellow-workers in this special field, let the spirit and the practice of this week of prayer go with us through the year. Let those who manage, those who do the detail work, and those who furnish the supplies, all pray for themselves, each other and the work. We shall work better if we pray. We shall give more graciously as well as generously if we pray. We shall pray such prayers as God most willingly will hear and answer, if we give and work for the things for which we ask.
Our dependence for the year to come may well be expressed in the words of the good man, to whom we have referred already, "The God of heaven He will prosper us; therefore, we His servants will arise and build."