solely a virtue of perfection, and reserved for certain purer and more holy souls; it is, like charity, an indispensable virtue, requisite to the perfect as to the imperfect, within the capacity of the illiterate equally as of the learned, commanded to the simple as to the most enlightened: it is the virtue of all men; it is the science of every believer; it is the perfection of every creature. Whoever has a heart, and is capable of loving the Author of his being, — whoever has a reason capable of knowing the nothingness of the creature, and the greatness of God, must know how to adore, to return him thanks, and to have recourse to him, to appease him when offended, to call upon him when turned away, to thank him when favourable, to humble himself when he strikes, to lay his wants before him, or to entreat his countenance and protection.
Thus, when the disciples ask of Jesus Christ to teach them to pray, he doth not unfold to them the height, the sublimity, the depth of the mysteries of God; he solely informs them, that, in order to pray, it is necessary to consider God as a tender, bountiful, and careful father; to address themselves to him with a respectful familiarity, and with a confidence blended with fear and love; to speak to him the language of our weakness and of our wretchedness; to borrow no expressions but from our heart; to make no attempt of rising to him, but rather to draw him nearer to us: to lay our wants before him, and to implore his aid; to wish that all men bless and worship him; that his reign be established in all hearts; that his will be done, as in heaven, so on earth; that sinners return to the paths of righteousness; that believers attain to the knowledge of the truth; that he forgive us our sins; that he preserve us from temptation; that he assist our weakness; that he deliver us from our miseries. All is simple, but all is grand in this divine prayer; it recalls man to himself, and, in order to adopt it as a model, nothing more is required than to feel our wants, and to wish deliverance from them.
And behold, why I have said that the second iniquitous disposition, from whence the pretext, founded upon not knowing how to pray proceeded, is, that they do not sufficiently feel the infinite wants of their soul: for, I ask you, my brethren, is it necessary to teach a sick person to entreat relief? Is a man pressed with hunger difficulted how to solicit food? Is an unfortunate person, beaten with the tempest, and on the point of perishing, at a loss how to implore assistance? Alas! doth the urgent necessity alone not amply furnish expressions? In the sole sense of our evils, do we not find that animated eloquence, those persuasive emotions, those pressing remonstrances which solicit their cure? Has a suffering heart occasion for any master to teach it to complain? In it every thing speaks, every thing expresses its affliction, every thing announces its sufferings, and every thing solicits relief: even its silence is eloquent.
You yourself, who complain that you know not what method to take in praying, in your temporal afflictions, from the instant that a dangerous malady threatens your life, that an unlooked-for event
