Excerpt from The Open Court, Vol. 20: A Monthly Magazine; March, 1906 If you want to know the greatness of a soul and the true mastery of life, apply to The Open Court Publishing Company for a slip of a. Book by Muriel Strode entitled simply My Little Book of Prayer. The modern progress of sovereign mind and inner divinity from the narrow cell of the ascetic to the open heaven of man, made in God's own image, is triumphantly shown in it. Yet a self-abnegation and sacrifice beyond anything that a St. Francis or 8. Thomas a' Kempis ever dreamed of glorifies the path. To attempt to tell what a treasure-trove for the struggling soul is in this little volume would be im possible without giving it complete, for every paragraph marks a milestone on the higher way. That the best of all modern thought and religion is garnered in it, its very creed proclaims: Not one holy day but seven; Worshiping, not at the call of a bell, but at the call of my soul: Singing, not at the baton's sway, but to the rhythm in my heart Loving because I must; Doing for the joy of it. Some one who has entered in sends back to us this inspiring prayer book, and to seize its spirit and walk in the light of it would still the' moan and bitterness of human lives, as the bay wreath ends the toilsome struggle in the hero's path. Measure the height attained in this one reflection for the weary army of the unsuccessful: He is to rejoice with exceeding great joy who phicks the fruit of his planting, but his the divine anointing who watched and waited, and toiled, and prayed, and failed - and can yet be g Or this, in exchange for the piping cries of the unfortunate: I do not bemoan misfortune. To me there is no misfortune. I welcome whatever comes: I go out gladly to meeti Cover all misfortune, too, with this master prayer: ' Degreeso God, whatever befall, spare me that supreme calamity - let no after bitterness settle down with me. Misfortune is not mine until that hour. Here, too, is the triumph of the unconquerable mind: The earth shall yet surrender to him and the fates shall do his will who marches on, though the promised land proved to be but a mirage and the day of deliverance was canceled. The gods shall yet anoint him and the morning stars shall sing. And this the true prayer for the battlefield: I never doubt my strength to bear whatever fate may bring, but, oh! That I may not go down before that which I bring myself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.