Politics Even in Prayer

● The chief librarian at Dagenham, England, recently investigated the history of an area on which there now stands an immense Ford factory. One of the first purchasers of the site was a certain John Ward, a member of parliament, who bought it when it was flooded and therefore cheap, and then had a bill passed to drain it at the public expense. After his death there was found among his papers this extraordinary prayer: “O Lord, Thou knowest I have mine estates in the City of London, and likewise that I have recently purchased an estate in fee simple in the County of Essex. I beseech Thee to preserve the two counties of Middlesex and Essex from fire and earthquake, and as I have a mortage in Hertfordshire, I beg of Thee likewise to have an eye of compassion on that county; for the rest of the counties, Thou mayest deal with them as Thou art pleased.”—Questions People Ask, by Robert J. McCracken.