poverty, his believing mother asked the Lord, again and again--on her
knees, with tears streaming from her eyes, and with absolute faith in
Jesus' ability to keep His promise,--to give her starving children
their daily bread. But the more fervently she prayed the heavier grew
the burden of her life. A stone or wooden idol could not have been
more indifferent to a mother's tears. "My mind aches as I think of
those days," writes Mr. Holyoake. One day he went to see the Rev. Mr.
Cribbace, who had invited inquirers to his house. "Do you really
believe," asked young Holyoake to the clergyman, "that what we ask in
faith we shall receive?" "It never struck me," continues Mr. Holyoake,
"that the preacher's threadbare dress, his half-famished look, and
necessity of taking up a collection the previous night to pay expenses
showed that faith was not a source of income to him. It never struck
me that if help could be obtained by prayer no church would be needy,
no believer would be poor." What answer did the preacher give to
Holyoake's earnest question? The same which the preachers of today
give: "He parried his answer with many words, and at length said that
the promise was to be taken with the provision that what we asked for
would be given, _if God thought it for our good."_ Why then, did not
Jesus explain that important _proviso_ when he made the promise? Was
Jesus only making a half statement, the other half of which he would
reveal later to protect himself against disappointed petitioners. But
he said: "If ye ask anything in my name, I will do it," and "If it
were not so, I would have told you." Did he not mean just what he
said? The truth is that no historical person in his senses ever made
such extraordinary, such impossible promises, and the report that
Jesus made them only goes to confirm that their author is only a
legendary being.

When this truth dawned upon Mr. Holyoake he ceased to petition Heaven,