“With all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance for all the saints.” Limit it not, I say, to certain times of the day, for hear what he is saying; approach at all times; “pray,” saith he, “without ceasing.” (1 Thess. v. 17.) Hast thou never heard of that widow, how by her importunity she prevailed? (Luke xviii. 1–7.) Hast thou never heard of that friend, who at midnight shamed his friend into yielding by his perseverance? (Luke xi. 5–8.) Hast thou not heard of the Syrophœnician woman (Mark vii. 25–30.), how by the constancy of her entreaty she called forth the Lord’s compassion? These all of them gained their object by their importunity. “Praying at all seasons,” saith he, “in the Spirit.” That is to say, let us seek for the things which are according to God, nothing of this world, nothing pertaining to this life. 170 Therefore, is there need not only that we “pray without ceasing,” but also, that we should do so “watching;—and watching,” saith he, “thereunto.” Whether he is here speaking of vi- gils;498 or of the wakefulness of the soul, I admit both meanings. Seest thou how that Canaanitish woman watched unto prayer? and though the Lord gave her no answer, nay, even shook her off, and called her a dog, she said, “Yea, Lord: for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (Matt. xv. 27.), and desisted not until she ob- tained her request. How, too, did that widow cry, and persist so long, until she was able to shame into yielding that ruler, that neither feared God, nor regarded man (Luke xviii. 1–7.)? And how, again, did the friend persist, remaining before the door in the dead of night, till he shamed the other into yielding by his importunity, and made him arise. (Luke xi. 5–8.) This is to be watchful. Wouldest thou understand what watchfulness in prayer is? Go to Hannah, hearken to her very words, “Adonai Eloi Sabaoth.” (1 Sam. i. 11.) Nay, rather, hear what preceded those words; “they all rose up,” says the history, “from the table” (1 Sam. i. 9.), and she, forthwith, did not betake herself to sleep, nor to repose. Whence she appears to me even when she was sitting at the table to have partaken lightly, and not to have been made heavy with viands. Otherwise never could she have shed so many tears; for if we, when we are fasting and foodless, hardly pray thus, or rather never pray thus, much more would not she ever have prayed thus after a meal, unless even at the meal she had been as they that eat not. Let us be ashamed, us that are men, at the example of this woman; let us be ashamed, that are suing and gasping for a kingdom, at her, praying and weeping for a little child. “And she stood,” it says, “before the Lord” (1 Sam. i. 10.); and what are her words? “Adonai, Lord, Eloi Sabaoth!” and this is, being interpreted, “O Lord, the God of Hosts.” Her tears went before her tongue; by these she hoped to prevail with God to bend to her request. Where tears are, 498 παννυχίδας. St. Chrysostom often speaks of vigils, which were Church Services extending past midnight into the morning; vid. Hom. in Esai. i. 1, iv. 1, etc.; vid. Bingham, Antiqu. xiii. 9, § 4. 314 Ephesians 6:14-17