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 ever-ready willingness  to  heal  and  comfort  and  save others, confirms  our  faith  and  reanimates  our  hope. But meditation,  to  be  fruitful,  must  go  deeper  than the mind;  the  heart,  too,  must  be  waked  to  action. The mind  should  minister  to  the  heart  as  does  a  nurse to a  little  child,  collecting  and  preparing  food  for meditation, and  masticating  it  herself  before  feeding it to  her  charge. But if  the  nurse  not  only  masticate but swallow  the  food,  her  charge  will  starve  and  die. The will  is,  as  it  were,  the  customs  officer  at  the  city gate, but  if  instead  of  levying  just  toll  he  confiscate all merchandise,  a  famine  in  the  city,  in  the  heart,  is sure  to  follow. To meditate  with  the  mind  alone  as one  might  ponder  a  mathematical  problem,  would prove as  barren  of  results  as  the  labors  of  a  huntsman whose dog  should  not  only  catch  but  devour  the game, for  the  function  of  the  mind  is  to  discover  and grasp the  truth  and  lay  it  at  the  feet  of  its  master, the heart. Nor can  our  heart's  best  emotions  be elicited  without  much  labor  and  great  patience,  for they are  as  green  wood  and  must  be  set  upon  the fire of  God's  love  long  and  closely  ere  sputtering  resistance and  clouds  of  smoke  give  place  to  clear flame. Yet prayer  without  emotion  is  labor  as  vain as that  Our  Lord  described  when  He  said:  "And some  seed  fell  upon  a  rock  and  as  soon  as  it  was sprung  up  it  withered  away  because  it  had  no  moisture." The fourth  part  should  be  thanksgiving. Be our needs  ever  so  great,  be  our  prayer  answered  or not,  we  must  never  fail  to  return  thanks  to  God,  who knows our  wants  much  better  than  we  do  ourselves.