Prayer Empowerings

 

 We kneel how weak, we rise how full of power!

  Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong,

  Or others -- that we are not always strong;

  That we are ever overborne with care;

  That we should ever weak or heartless be,

  Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,

  And joy, and strength, and courage, are with Thee?

  -- Richard Chenevix Trench

 (Note:  I discovered in the back of an old book I inherited from my father's library:  How to Pray by Reuben Archer Torrey (1916).  The poem had been handwritten by the previous owner, Belle McMillan, a mighty prayer warrior and holy woman.)