Our prayer is the shadow of a coming blessing. As “Coming events cast their shadows before them,” so, when God is about to bless us, He moves us to pray for that very blessing. You, dear teachers in the school, may be teaching Luthers and Melanchthons; you may be instructing in those young girls holy women who shall serve the Lord abundantly. When a man does not pray in the Lord’s appointed way, nor through Jesus Christ, nor in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, he does not pray at all. However fine