"Oh, I don't know," I answered; "I think everything has been too smooth and nice lately; somehow, it is easier to do right when the road is rather rough; don't you think it is, Miss Irvine?"
"Yes," she said; "when things go wrong, and all seems against us, we are driven to prayer, May—we feel we must pray then; but we ought not to need driving into our dear Lord's presence."
"Oh no," I said; "I know we ought not."
"And oh, May," she said, earnestly, "if we get self-confident, and leave off prayer, we shall soon have a fall; we are not safe for a single moment if we are not strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. You will be having a fall if you do not come back to Him, May."
"I wish I could come back, Miss Irvine," I said, "but it is easier to get wrong than to get right again. I got up this morning rather earlier, and tried to pray, but I could not fix my thoughts on what I was saying; all sorts of things kept coming into my mind, and I gave it up at last."
"Yes," she said, "I know what that is; heart answers to heart. I have often found it so; when I have left God, and have been pleasing myself, I have lost the power to pray."
"How is it, Miss Irvine?" I asked.
"I think," she said, "that the Holy Spirit has been grieved, and without His help we cannot pray."
"Then what do you think I should do?" I asked.
"I think," she said, "you should go back to the Lord, just in the same spirit in which you first came to Him. Go to Him, and ask Him to receive you—to take away all the sin which is separating you from Him, and to give you the comfort of His presence again. And then I think you should especially pray that you may once more have the help of the Holy Spirit. I like that old hymn so much: