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 from the  lions;  the  blind  man,  his  sight;  and the Church,  St.  Peter's  deliverance  from prison and  death. When we  pray,  God  in some  manner  obeys  our  will,  as  He  obeyed that of  Josue  when  by  his  prayer  he  commanded the  sun  to  stand  still:  "The  Lord," says Scripture,  "obeying  the  voice  of  a  man" (Jos. X,  14).

Prayer is,  as  the  Wise  Man  says,  "a  shield wherewith  to  oppose  the  divine  wrath." God is  almighty;  and  yet  to  this  question  of the  Psalmist,  "Thou  art  terrible,  O  God,  and who  shall  resist  Thee?" (Ps. lxxv.  8)  we  can answer: Prayer!"  because  prayer  also  is almighty,  and  in  some  sense  capable  of  overcoming God  Himself.  We  have  a  most  remarkable example  of  this  in  Moses.  Holy Scripture  thus  relates  the  fact:  "The  people, seeing that  Moses  delayed  to  come  down  from the mount  [Sinai],  gathering  together  against Aaron, said:  Arise,  make  us  gods,  that  may go before  us;  for,  as  to  this  Moses,  we  know not what  has  befallen  him. And Aaron  said to them:  Take  the  golden  earrings  from  the ears of  your  wives  and  your  sons  and  daughters, and  bring  them  to  me. And the  people did what  he  had  commanded,  bringing  the earrings to  Aaron. And when  he  had  received them,  he  made  of  them  a  molten  calf;