Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that.
Interpretation
Public prayer has greater power than individual prayer, just as bundled straw creates a larger fire.
This quote signifies the importance and strength of communal prayer over solitary practices. Just as individual straws provide little warmth or light when scattered alone, private prayers can seem weak. However, when gathered together in a collective effort, they can create a powerful force, symbolized by the mighty fire, representing the amplified energy and intent generated through public prayer and unity.
In practice
During a church service when encouraging the congregation to pray together.
We put pride into everything like salt. We like to see that our good works are known. If our virtues are seen, we are pleased; if our faults are perceived, we are sad. I remark that in a great many people; if one says anything to them, it disturbs them, it annoys them. The saints were not like that - they were vexed if their virtues were known, and pleased that their imperfections should be seen.
Oh, how I like those little mortifications that are seen by nobody, such as rising a quarter of an hour sooner, rising for a little while in the night to pray!
A beggar's book outworths a noble's blood.
Return to Shaoshan I regret the passing, the dying, of the vague dream: my native orchards thirty-two years ago. Yet red banners roused the serfs, who seized three-pronged lances when the warlords raised whips in their black hands. We were brave and sacrifice was easy and we asked the sun, the moon, to alter the sky. Now I see a thousand waves of beans and rice and am happy. In the evening haze heroes are coming home.
I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
You cannot sift out the poor from the community. The poor are indispensable to the rich.
Liberty is always freedom from the government.
The Great Spirit Chief who rules above all will smile upon this land... and this time the Indian race is waiting and praying.
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