omniscient intellect of God requires no circumlocutions to understand our needs, but His will demands perseverance on our part before it is moved to relieve them. Thus we see Abraham holding back the arm of God's wrath from Sodom and Gomorrha by a simple but oft-repeated request. What variety is there in a holding up of the hands or the blowing of a trumpet? Yet that simple act, persevered in all day, procured for Moses a victory over his enemies, and for Josue the ruin of the walls of Jericho. The stern judge yielding at last to the widow's petition was overcome not by her eloquence but by her importunity. The baker rising in the night to serve his customer yielded not to his arguments but to his monotonous knocking. Of Christ in His agony we read that He went and fell prostrate three times, and three times He prayed the selfsame prayer. Thus you see that the recitation of the Rosary, far from being a vain and tedious repetition, is of all prayers the one best suited to the childlike nature of a true Christian, and most closely resembling the model Christ gave us by His teaching and example.
But if we analyze this devotion we will find in itself still further proof of its excellence. Vocal prayer is good, but it may be rendered void by distractions; mental prayer is better, but it may be defective through lack of vocal expression; but a prayer that is at the same time vocal and mental is, all things being equal, essentially perfect. Now such is the Rosary, the idea of which is to keep the mind engaged in holy meditations, while the lips are singing
