us how to pray, it may be asked why there is any need for even those few words with regard to Him who knows all things before they come to pass, and who, as has been said, knows what is needful for us before we ask Him. In the first place, the answer is that in order to obtain our petitions from God we ought to plead our cause with Him, not by means of words, but by the truths which we cherish in our mind and by the application of thought, with pure love and single affection. Through the medium of