(RECAP) 5862 .257 To Prayer is and remains the native and deepest impulse of the soul of man. 833265 THOMAS CARLYLE A FOREWORD N eminent divine said to me the other day that he believed it was impossible to instill any spirituality into a boy; that the best thing to do was just to hammer away and hope for results, but that he had grave doubts of any great success. With all due respect to this clergyman, I feel that he is making the mistake, and that we all make the mistake, of judging by appearances and not by inner facts. There is nothing with regard to which the boy shows diffidence and secretiveness more than in his inner spiritual life. He "dries up" at the mere mention of any spirituality. Any reference to the name of Jesus is enough to make a boy, or a crowd of boys, selfconscious and secretive. And yet, dealing with boys, I feel that way down in the hearts of most boys is a purer spiritual longing than in men of older years. It is quite natural, when this world of ours seems so beautiful, when a material success seems so necessary, and when all material things seem so real, that a boy appears to be taken up altogether with the affairs of this world and, therefore, if one |