"The Lord's prayer, mother! Why, there's nothing there to help a
fellow do his sums."

"O, yes; there is. There is help for every trouble in life in the
Lord's prayer, if we only know how to use it. I was trying a long
time before I found out what the last part of this prayer really
means. I'm no minister, or scholar, Ben, but I'll try and show you.
You know that in this prayer we ask God for our daily bread; we ask
him to keep us from evil; and to forgive us our sins; and then we
say: 'for _thine_ is the _kingdom_, and _the power_, and the glory.'
It's God's power that we rely on--not our own; and it often helps
me, Ben, when I have something hard to do. I say, 'For _thine_ is the
power--this is my duty, heavenly Father; but I can't do it myself;
give me thy power to help me,' and he does it, Ben, he does it."

Ben sat silent. It seemed almost too familiar a prayer. And yet he
remembered when he had to stay home from school because he had no
clothes fit to go in, how he prayed to God about it, and the
minister's wife brought him a suit the very next day. "But a boy's
sums, mother! it seems like such a little thing to ask God about."

"Those sums are not a little thing to you, Ben. Your success at
school depends on your knowing how to do them. _That_, is as much to
you, as many a greater thing to some one else. Now I care a great
deal about that, because I love you. And I know your Father in heaven
loves you more than I do. I would gladly help you, if I could; but he
_can_ help you. His 'is the power;' ask him to help you."

After doing an errand for his mother, Ben picked up his book and
slate and went up to his little room. Kneeling down by the bed he