But I wasn't long dressing; for I didn't want to lose a minute of the time I might have out here with you." "Did you do nothing but put on your clothes after leaving your bed ?" he asked, gravely.
"I washed my hands and face and smoothed my hair." "And was that all ?" She glanced up at him in surprise at the deep gravity of his tone; then suddenly comprehending what his questioning meant, hung her head, while her cheek flushed hotly.

"Yes, papa," she replied, in a low, abashed tone.
"I am very, very sorry to hear it," he said.

"If my little girl begins the day without a prayer to God for help to do right, without thanking Him for His kind care over her while she slept, she can hardly expect to escape sins and sorrows which will make it anything but a happy day." "Papa, I do 'most always say my prayers in the morning and at night; but I didn't feel like doing it this time.

Do you think people ought to pray when they don't feel like it ?" "Yes; I think that is the very time when they most need to pray; they need to ask God to take away the hardness of their hearts; the evil in them that is hiding His love and their own needs; so that they have no gratitude to express for all His great goodness and mercy to them, no petitions to offer up for strength to resist temptation and to walk steadily in His ways; no desire to confess their sins and plead for pardon for Jesus' sake.

Ah! that is certainly the time when we have most urgent need to pray.
"Jesus taught that men (and in the Bible men stand for the whole human race) 'ought always to pray and not to faint.' And we are commanded to pray without ceasing." "Papa, how can we do that ?" she asked.