MR. ALCOTT. Some of you, perhaps, have made this mistake, and thought that we only worshipped God in churches, and on Sundays. How is it,--who has thought so?
Who knew that we could worship God anywhere?
What other worship is there besides that in the church?
NATHAN. We worship God by growing better.
AUGUSTINE. We worship God when we repent of doing wrong.
JOSIAH. I was most interested in this verse: "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." It means that to feel our prayers is more important than to say the words.
LEMUEL. And when we pray and pray sincerely.
MR. ALCOTT. What is to be done in praying the truth? When you think of prayer, do you think of a position of the body--of words?
LEMUEL (_earnestly_). I think of something else, but I cannot express it.
MR. ALCOTT. Josiah is holding up his hand; can he express it?
JOSIAH (_burst out_). To pray, Mr. Alcott, is to be good, really; you know it is better to be bad before people and to be good to God alone, because then we are good for goodness sake, and not to be seen, and not for people's sake. Well, so it is about prayer. There must be nothing outward with prayer; but we must have some words, sometimes; sometimes we need not. If we don't feel the prayer, it is worse than never to say a word of prayer. It is wrong not to pray, but it is more wrong to speak prayer and not pray. We had better do nothing about it, Mr. Alcott! we must say words in a prayer, and we must feel the words we say, and we must do what belongs to the words.
MR. ALCOTT. Oh! there must be doing, must there?
JOSIAH. Oh! yes, Mr. Alcott! doing is the most important part. We must ask God for help, and at the same time try to do the thing we are to be helped about. If a boy should be good all day, and have no temptation, it would not be very much; there would be no improvement; but if he had temptation, he could pray and feel the prayer, and try to overcome it, and would overcome it; and then there would be a real prayer and a real improvement. That would be something. Temptation is always necessary to a real prayer, I think. I don't believe there is ever any real prayer before there is a temptation; because we may think and feel and say our prayer; but there cannot be any doing, without there is something to be done.