When this and several other hymns equally inspiring had been sung,
Evangelist Blank arose and said, "Let us pray." At this the audience
began to make arrangements to stand, for it was the custom in Mount
Olivet Church in those days to stand while the preacher "made" his
prayer, as Deacon Gramps expressed it. But the Evangelist had the notion
that when the heart is humbled before God the body should be in a like
position, so he reverently and unpretentiously knelt beside the rough
board pulpit. The four singers on the platform knelt simultaneously with
the Evangelist. This placed the members of Mount Olivet in a rather
embarrassing position. They disliked the idea of being so unreligious as
to sit erect during prayer, and they could not bear the humiliation of
kneeling at a holiness meeting. A few of them under the press of the
circumstance did kneel. A few stood up. Most of them sat with bowed
heads. "Spooky" Crane easily adjusted himself to the situation and
promptly knelt in the straw, and with his face in his hands peeped
between his fingers at the Evangelist. Jim Peabody, the infidel, sat
arrogantly erect with an impish snarl on his lip. To him the whole
business of praying was a huge piece of foolishness--except, of course,
when under the wagon-box. Aunt Sally Perkins knelt beside the front
bench and clapped her hands hysterically during the prayer. And Deacon
Gramps had slipped under the outer edge of the arbor, where he sat on a
low bench with his elbows on his knees and chewed his tobacco most
vigorously.

Evangelist Blank, himself, led in prayer. His prayer, like himself, was
simple, but mighty. It ran something like this:

"O Lord of heaven and earth, we thank thee for this hour. We have come
here in thy name; we plead no worthiness and no efficiency of our own.
Thy blood and thy grace is all our plea. We would not thrust ourselves