The World on Its Knees 4.

The temples of the false gods are dark inside, or at best dimly lighted with the flickering lamps which must die when the oil is consumed. But in God's temple there is no need of artificial lighting, for the face of the Deity penetrates into every nook and corner, flooding the whole edifice with its warmth and illumination. The very fact that so many worshippers have been inveigled, by lies and by the sinful urge of their own passions, to pay tribute to the false gods, is the most powerful incentive to the Catholic to adore the God of light and truth.

Prayer is a lifting up of the mind and heart to God. For this God to know Him and love Him there is a famine so widespread as to include the whole world. Those who frequent the temples of false gods seek to case the hunger and they are doomed to disappointment. But the very fact that so many are led astray makes the loving duty to pray all the more incumbent on the Catholic.

Prayer is a light that imparts truths and reveals secrets that can be discovered nowhere else. Prayer is a weapon indispensable in the modern war against God's enemies. "The world despises prayer," writes Sir Laurence Shipley, "it cannot be calculated on the Stock Exchange and in Parliament it is of little account. But prayer moves an arm that is almighty, and that arm moves the world."

Lord, "I will come into Thy house, I will worship towards Thy holy temple, in Thy fear." It is good for me to be here, where I find truth and reality, where I can preserve perspective in a crazy world or have it restored should it have been lost. But no selfish motive brings me here or keeps me. I would do my part to bring the whole world to its knees, before Your altar, in Your temple. How to do this You must deign to tell me.

Summary:

1. The god of pleasure.
2. The idol of materialism.
3. The god of money.
4. The true God, to Whom the whole world owes allegiance.

Thought:

Men who neglect God and build up a worship of a false god are raising another tower of Babel that is doomed to destruction.