PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER

I cannot tell why there should come to me

A thought of someone miles and miles away!

In swift insistence on the memory,

Unless a need there be that I should pray.

Too hurried oft are we to spare the thought,

For days together, of some friends away;

Perhaps God does it for us, and we ought

To read His signal as a call to pray.

Perhaps, just then, my friend has fiercer fight,

And more appalling weakness and decay

Of courage, darkness, some lost sense of right;

And so, in case he needs my prayer, I pray.

Friend, do the same for me. If I intrude

Unasked upon you, on some crowded day,

Give me a moment’s prayer as interlude;

Be very sure I need it, therefore, pray.

And when you pray, dear friend, I ask of thee,

That thou will seek of God not mine own way;

Not what I want, but His blest thought for me,

Do thou through Jesus Christ implore, I pray.

Marianne Farningham

(the last verse added by James M. Gray)