Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/128

 art evil tendency in you. It is impossible that we should succeed in this fight single- handed, without God's help and inspiration. Prayer has a double effect : it helps you to ward off the temptations; and : as if by a mysterious law, it brings you an illumining response from on high; so that you are enabled to see the purer and finer aspects of the same old thing. The second requisite is Self-examination. Sit you down, alone with the Alone, as witness, in your closet at the day's end and honestly review what you have done and been all the day long. Many a sad tale our con-science tells against us. For your part, however, avoid these two opposite mistakes. On the one hand, condemn not yourself to an undue degree; never despair; never throw up your cap and say, 'It is not possible for man to win!' God never assigns to us any duty that we cannot cope with. He always squares our strength to our task. Hence alone it has been possible for our weak race to be striving and crawling upwards all along. If