THE PRAYING MOTHER.

CAN we pray too much? No, we can not. God likes to hear us pray; he is never tired of listening to us. Is he not kind? Men are soon tired of hearing beggars ask for money, but men are not like God.

When Jesus the Son of God was in this world, he cured a great many people who were sick; he just spoke, and they were made well. Sometimes he wished to be alone, for Jesus was a man as well as God, and he had need of food and sleep. One day he went into a house and he did not want any body to know where he was gone. But people soon asked each other where he was, and they found out the place.

There was one poor woman who longed very much to see him. I do not think she had ever seen him, but she had heard of him. She had been brought up to worship idols; she did not belong to the people of Israel, who worshipped the true God. No, she was a poor heathen, but Jesus cares for the poor heathen, and you will see how kind he was at last to this woman.

She had a little girl very sick at home. A wicked spirit, called a devil, tormented her. The mother knew that Jesus could make her little daughter well, so she went to the house where he was. I do not know whether Jesus was still in the house. I think he had come out of it, and was walking. His friends were with him. There were twelve men who went about with Jesus from place to place, and he called them his friends and his disciples.

When the poor woman saw Jesus she cried out, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil." Why did she call Jesus the son of David? David was a great king, who had long been dead, and Jesus was one of his children's children. Jesus liked to hear people call him the son of David.

What did he say to this poor woman, when she seemed so unhappy? He said nothing at all; so she went on crying out for mercy. The disciples did not like to hear the poor woman crying out, "Have mercy on me! As they walked along with Jesus, the poor woman followed them with her cries. So the disciples went to Jesus, and said, "Send her away, for she crieth after us." How unkind this was! How selfish the disciples were ! Instead of begging their Master to have mercy on the poor mother, they wanted him to tell her to go away. They knew she was a poor heathen, so they despised her.

But Jesus did not despise her; he loved her very much indeed. Yet at first he seemed unkind, for he said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." This poor woman was not an Israelite. Did she go away when she heard Jesus speak in this way? No, she did not; she came nearer than before; she fell at his feet and worshipped him, saying, "Lord, help me." What a short prayer -only three words! but it came from the heart; it was such a prayer as God likes to hear. Yet Jesus still seemed unkind, for he said, "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." Did he mean, that this poor woman was a dog, and that the people of Israel were his children? Oh, no, he did not really think this woman was a dog; he only spoke so that she might go on praying. She made a very sweet answer this time. She said, "The dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs." Was not that a meek answer, and a wise answer? She did not say she was not a dog; she meant to say, "If I am a dog, may I not have crumbs? Though you love the people of Israel best, yet you will have pity on a poor heathen like me. This is what she meant to say.

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Jesus left her waiting no longer. He said to her, "O woman, great is thy faith; go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter." So the woman went home, and found her daughter lying on the bed. The devil had