Tag: John R. Mott

“Prayer, the Presence of Christ, and a Power to See: “The Morning Watch” by John R. Mott

The Morning Watch is Mott’s dynamic publication that reveals the practices of abiding in Christ at the start of every day, a personal discipline which transformed his life, fueled a fruitful ministry, and inspired thousands upon thousands of young global Christian leaders to answer the call of God to rise up and serve in the power of the Holy Spirit.

You are invited to read and take to heart the compelling implications of keeping The Morning Watch – a simple set of habits – a subversive set of habits – a sustainable set of habits for building a healthy spirit that makes available through you the transformational energy of God.

“The true object should be – and it is necessary to remind ourselves of this constantly – to meet God, to hear His voice, to receive guidance and strength from Him which will enable me to please Him today in thought, in word, in activity.”

What do you think you are doing when you pray? Who are you becoming when you pray? What happens when we pray? Does it matter?

John R. Mott is one of the most influential Christian leaders in the 20th century; yet now largely forgotten – by the YMCA and the Church.

John R. Mott

Prayer and attending to the presence of Christ Jesus were central to Mott’s powerful accomplishments for the Kingdom of God with the YMCA.

It’s my hope that many of us will look up again to this respected visionary as a model for high-integrity, high-influence spiritual leadership.

Enjoy this extended and practical invitation to pray by Mott, written to young Christian leaders to be alert, ready, able to do God’s will by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we might join in the unceasing work of Christ Jesus. Especially in and through the YMCA. Not just in the 1890s, but in these days too.

The high-capacity legendary accomplishments of Mott are attributed by him to the keeping of The Morning Watch.

First edition printed 1893 by The International Committee Young Men’s Christian Association

“The Morning Watch”

There is no more encouraging fact in the life of the Church at the present time than the increase in the number of Christians who observe the morning watch. This tendency is most marked among students in all parts of the world.

By the observance of the morning watch is commonly meant the spending of at least the first half hour of every day alone with God in personal devotional Bible study and prayer.

What are the advantages of keeping the morning watch?

Without dwelling at all upon the general helpful results which come form the devotional study of the Bible and from communion with God, it should be emphasized that at the very beginning of the day the soul is in its most receptive state.

The mind has been refreshed by the rest of the night, and is also much less occupied than it will be at any subsequent hour of the day. Moreover, the outer conditions in the early morning are most favorable.

The first hour is preeminently the still hour, the noises of yesterday have receded, and the din of the world of today has not yet broken in upon us.

It is easier to say, “My soul be thou silent unto God.” It is easier to heed the command, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Furthermore, by having secret prayer and Bible study for spiritual growth the very first thing, we make certain of them.

By assigning these important exercise to a later hour in the day, we multiply the chances of the being abridged, interrupted or crowded out entirely.

In this connection we should heeds the words of McCheyne: “I ought to spend the best hours of every day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is no, therefore, to be thrust into any corner.”

The morning watch prepares us for the days conflict with the forces of evil with in us and around us.

We do not wait until the enemy is upon us before we gird on the armor and grasp the sword.

We fortify ourselves before any avenue is opened through which Satan might assail us; for example before reading the morning paper, before entering into conversation with others, before turning our own thought currents upon the plans and work of the day. It is always wise to gain a march upon the enemy.

The keeping of the morning watch is the credit of largest and most enduring achievement in life and in service.

Without doubt our failure to prevail with man and against evil in the world during the day is too often due to our more fundamental failure to prevail with God at the beginning of the day.

When Miss Havergal was asked to explain why the Church does not accomplish more, she attributed it to the fact the Christians are not spending the first hour of the day alone with God.

Let us never forget the vital truth expressed by Faber that “the supernatural value of our actions depends upon the degree of our union with God at the time we do them.”

Therefore, if our lives and words and acts throughout the busy day are to possess supernatural value, we must take the earliest opportunity in the day to establish a vital and complete union with God.

Why delay the forming of this union a single hour?

Why be satisfied with having man alone work a part of the day if the energy of God may be manifested all the hours of the day?

Notwithstanding the great importance of the morning watch, there are Christians who say that they do not have the time to devote a full half hour or more of every day to such a spiritual exercise.

It is a striking fact that the busiest Christians, both among laymen and among those who are devoting their lives to direct Christian work, constitute the class who pleads this excuse the least and who most generally observe the morning watch.

It may be questioned seriously whether there is any Christian who will not, after honestly and persistently following this plan for a month or two, become convinced that it is the best possible use of the time, and that it does not interfere with his regular work.

He will find the time that the morning watch promotes the wisest economy of his time.

It makes him more conscientious in the use of time. He learns to redeem it. It helps him to see things in true perspective.

He enters the day well poised, under the control of the Spirit, not distracted; and thus he works without friction, strain, uncertainty and waste.

This suggests an adequate and satisfying reason for the oft-mentioned custom of Luther, who, if he had a peculiarly busy or trying day before him, would double or treble the amount of time which he ordinarily spent in prayer.

To promote the most profitable observance of the morning watch, certain points should be borne in mind and incorporated into practice.

First of all, form an inflexible resolution to keep the morning watch.

It will prove most dangerous and disastrous to permit any exceptions. Special caution and foresight should be exercised, therefore, to guard against such possible exceptions.

Nothing but the unmistakable will of God should be permitted to prevent us form the beginning the day with conscious and unhurried communion with God.

Be sure to be thoroughly awake before entering upon the observance of the morning watch. If necessary, first take a brisk walk in the open air. Let us present unto God for this all-important exercise not only the body, but also the mind, as a living sacrifice.

Have some general plan to follow in this devotional hour.

Many persons begin with a few moments of prayer, follow this with a season of Bible study, then spend some time in meditation, and close with special prayer.

It is possible, however to be over methodical. Beware of formalism at such a time above all times. It is also wise not to attempt to crowd too much into this hour.

Make sure at the very outset of the devotional hour each morning that you are right with God.

If there be any unconfessed sin, wrong motive, or spirit contrary to Christ, it must be made right before we can receive what God has in store for us for the day.

Sin is a terrible thing. It completely insulates us from God. It is vain, then, to expect real spiritual help from Bible study and prayer unless we are willing to give up any known sin.

Happy is the man who closes each day in fellowship with God, and who is able to say with David, “When I awake I am still with Thee.”

Recollect morning by morning the real object of the morning watch. What is it?

It is not simply to enable me to say that I have observed it. It is not to satisfy conscience by observing it because I had formed a resolution to do so. It is not to enable me to prepare Bible studies and spiritual meditations with which to help others.

The true object should be – and it is necessary to remind ourselves of this constantly – to meet God, to hear His voice, to receive guidance and strength from Him which will enable me to please Him today in thought, in word, in activity.

Select and arrange in advance the portions of the Scripture upon which to meditate at the time of the morning watch.

We should keep as much purely mechanical work as possible out of the devotional hour.

The portions selected should be taken from the more devotional and practical parts of the Bible.

They should be brief.

They should, so far as possible, be complete in themselves; and yet often it will be desirable to have portions which, though each is complete in itself, will be related to some common theme.

The follwing examples are meant to be suggestive:

  • the best thirty or sixty Psalms; thirty or more biographical portions; selected Epistles, especially some of the shorter ones; thirty of the exceeding great promises of the Bible; thirty portions bearing on each of such topics as prayer, faith, the Holy Spirit, temptation, our conversation; thirty commands of Christ; thirty or sixty portions of the Gospels bearing on the character of Christ as our example.
  • If a person will take a few hours on three or four Sabbaths during the year, he will be able to outline subject enough for use throughout the entire year.
  • He will then come to his Bible each morning with something definite. It will prevent drifting around and loss of time. It will also promote a more symmetrical spiritual development.
  • The pamphlet “Bible Study for Spiritual Growth” gives many suggestions as to the manner and spirit in which the Bible should be studied for the greatest devotional profit.

Give prayer a large place in the morning watch.

There needs to be prayer not only at the beginning and close of the hour, but the Bible study, meditation, and self-examination also should be conducted in the spirit of prayer.

As this aspect of the subject is treated so fully in teh pamphlet “The Secret Prayer Life” it is not enlarged upon here.

Only by filling the quiet hour with prayer can we keep out formalism and make the morning watch a great reality and force in our lives.

Remember that the hour of the morning watch is the still hour.

After praying and during Bible study it is well to pause and listen to what the Lord shall say.

Too often we fill up the devotional hour with our own thoughts and prayers and leave no still place for listening.

Our actual attitude might often be characterized better by the words, “Hear, Lord, for Thy servant speaketh,” than by the words, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”

It is difficult to obey the command “Be still and know and know that I am God.” After we shut out the voices of the world’s turmoil, after we banish the suggestions of the tempter, after we cease to listen to the thoughts about the morrow, after we silence the sound of our own cares, questions, and prayers, then we hear that still, small voice which His true followers always know.

His voice is not like that of the fire, or strong wind, or earthquake, but is like unto “a sound of gentle stillness.”

Do we wonder that Paul exhorted us to study or to be ambitious to be quiet? He knew that it would require study and resolution to learn this great secret.

Who keeps the morning watch?

At once we think of some of the men of Bible times: Moses, who knew God face to face, and to whom in the early morning hours God revealed the Law: Isaiah, whom God wakened morning by morning to hear as a true disciple; Jeremiah, to whom God’s mercies and compassion’s were new every morning; and David, who declared, “In the morning will I order my prayer unto Thee, and will keep watch,” who reiterated, “I myself will awake right early” and “will give thanks,” and who learned from experience that “it is a good thing to show forth Thy loving kindness in the morning.”

The example of Jesus Christ is most impressive.

We are told that “in the morning, a great while before day, He arose up and went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”

Tradition teaches that the observance of the morning watch was widely prevalent among the early Christians. Rev. Web-Peploe has said that “All the great saints have been early risers”; and he might have added that they rose early primarily to begin the day with unhurried communion with God.

There come to mind such men as Rutherford, McCheyne and Andrew Bonar, Wesley and Whitefield, David Brainerd and Henry Martyn, George Mueller and Hudson Taylor. It is said of Joseph Alleine, that wonderful preacher of the seventeenth century, that he devoted the time between four and eight o’clock every morning to prayer and Bible study, and that if he heard a blacksmith at his work before he himself began his morning watch, he would exclaim, “How this noise shames me! Doth not my master deserve more than theirs?”

On our recent journey around the world we were deeply impressed by the large number of young men and women who entered into covenant to keep the morning watch.

All the men and women who have gone out from the universities of America and Britain to lead the Christian movements among the students of India faithfully observe this watch. In Ceylon we were impressed, not so much by the beautiful and luxuriant tropical vegetation, nor by the heathen shrines and temples, as by the sigh which greeted our eyes very early one morning of Tamil students walking under the palms with open Bibles in their hands, and their lips moving in silent prayer.

We visited one college in the Levant where, according to the last report, over two hundred boys and young men keep the morning watch. We know of no college in Christian lands of which this could be said. There are ten great student movements in the World’s Student Christian Federation, but that of China is the only one of them of which we could say last year that practically all of its active members began the day with Bible study and prayer. It was visiting a college, not in America or England, or Scandinavia, but in Japan, that we were wakened over an hour before daybreak, and taken through the city, across the valley, and to the crest of the famous Flowery Hill, to meet with the members of the Christian Association of that institution for special prayer, as was their custom.

The practical question for each one of us is, Why should not I keep the morning watch?

Next to receiving Christ as Saviour, and claiming the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we know of no act attended with larger good to ourselves or to others than the formation of an undiscourageable resolution to keep the morning watch.

Is there anything which an stand before the bar of my own reason or conscience that should be allowed to keep me from forming this life-expanding resolution?

Is there any excuse or reason acceptable to God which I can plead why I would not devote at least the first half hour of every day to secret prayer and devotional Bible study?

What would keep me from it? God? Certainly not.

Is it not far more likely self, with its love of ease and its shrinking from the formation of a difficult habit; or Satan, who, if he cannot keep us from studying the Bible and from prayer altogether, is anxious to have us place them as late in the day as possible, because the only things which have ever defeated him have been prayer and the Word of God?

Am I willing to pay what it costs to form this important habit? What will it cost?

Readjusting habits of sleep, which means earlier rising and, it may be, earlier retiring; economizing of time; more than one failure possibly, repeated and persistent efforts; increasing vigilance and real watching unto prayer.

Am I willing to pay the price in order to form this habit, which has so much to do with triumphant life and fruitful service?

If so, when shall I form the resolution?

And how shall a resolution be formed which shall stand?

“It is God that energizeth you, both to will and then to work for His good pleasure.”

For more about Mott, read this inspiring and informative biography by Hopkins

YMCA, Hospitality & Religious Diversity

For Christians in the YMCA, we are called to love one another, our neighbor, strangers and our enemies; they may be of the same faith or not – but we have a responsibility to respect and care in imitation of Christ. This is the heart of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21, of inclusion and equity. “Welcome is the will of God” – to quote my college theology professor Dr. Paul Fetters.

John R. Mott, a legendary YMCA leader, inspiring evangelical Christian missionary, and father of the Christian ecumenical movement, was also an instigator of the multi-faith dialogue – an epitome (though not perfect) of diverse and inclusive Christian mission up until his death in 1955.

Since then the YMCA has sought to embody the Christian faith and loyalty to Jesus in its open membership, community-based programs, and leadership development amidst very tumultuous times – there was nothing easy about navigating the societal upheavals of the 60’s and 70’s, the political and economic swings of the 80’s and 90’s, and the stumbling striving for justice in the first two decades of this second millennium.

In all honesty, diversity and inclusion between different kinds of Christians is not easy, and requires gracious hospitality – this is the heart of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21.

Those same skills are what make interfaith dialogue and mutual understanding possible.

It is obvious that the country has become more diverse in almost every way culturally and religiously.

The YMCA is in the middle of it: so, how do we graciously and generously move forward, especially regarding interfaith relationships, including those members who do not consider themselves religious?

Below is a document produced in 2015 that the Y crafted in seeking to understand it’s membership in this regard. 

Here is an excerpt that introduces it: 

The YMCA of the USA recognizes that in a diverse world, we are stronger when we are inclusive and our doors are open for all.

Interfaith engagement provides an opportunity for the Y to foster empathy, understanding, and awareness.

This document is a summary of a collaborative project on interfaith engagement conducted by the Aspen Institute Justice & Society Program (JSP) and the YMCA of the USA (Y-USA).

Religious Diversity of the Y

And: 

The YMCA of the USA, one of the nation’s leading youth development organizations, has participated in IAP (Inclusive America Project) from its inception.

Neil Nicoll, President and CEO of Y-USA, attended both panel meetings and contributed an essay to the Principled Pluralism report.

As an outgrowth of Mr. Nicoll’s involvement in the Inclusive America Project, the Aspen Institute and Y-USA worked together to examine how religious diversity affects Ys across the nation and explore potential strategies for further engagement.

2015, aspeninstitute.org/publications/religious-diversity-y/
Click here or on pic to access PDF document

I appreciate the practical spirit of this document, crafted by YMCA leaders seeking to put Christian principles into practice.

It seems to me that every generation of the YMCA has to do some contextual digging, discerning what are the forces that have been shaping the times they are living and leading in, and then discern how to be wise, creative, and just in moving forward.

For Christians in the YMCA, we are called to love one another, our neighbor, strangers and our enemies; they may be of the same faith or not – but we have a responsibility to respect and care in imitation of Christ.

That is the heart of John 17:21, of religious diversity and inclusion, of hospitality, of the kingdom of God.

YMCA, Unity & For All – “that they may all be one”

“For all” is a key part of our YMCA mission, and for Christians in the Y we can do our part as the welcoming hands and hospitable heart of Jesus, motivated to do our part in our decades to be ones who unite – and be part of the transformative answer to Christ’s prayer “that they may all be one.”

It’s a week where we are reflecting on the devastating impact of 9/11 on America and the world, and a sentiment that arises is the remembrance of unity that emerged from the chaos.

That moment of unity was costly, but the experience of it lingers in our national memory, the yearning still clings to our conscience.

Many of us ask the question in some form: how can we be united like that again, but without the destructive evil to prompt it?

For Christians in the USA who reflect on those moments of unity as our country came together, many of us thought of the call Christ Jesus placed upon his disciples.

The unity that America experienced for a few moments after 9/11 is a kind of unity that Jesus prays for – in particular for all who will believe in him throughout each generation in every nation.

Christians yearn for unity among one another in our local congregations, city churches, national denominations, historic branches across the globe.

Jesus prays for unity, “that they may all be one” – and it seems like we are still waiting for this prayer to get answered.

This yearning for Christian unity was desired greatly in the 1840’s during which the YMCA was formed by George Williams and his eleven friends.

The Paris Basis of the 1855 World YMCA Alliance is a practical statement striving to embody this prayer of Jesus for local YMCA’s that desire to be in harmonious relations with Y’s across their countries and the world.

This prayer of Jesus, for awhile, was included in the 1896 logo of the Y, the reference of it – John 17:21 – was printed upon an open Bible, in the middle of a triangle, behind which was a double circle and the Chi Rho symbol.

The current bylaws of many US YMCAs includes explicit commitment to the inclusive and uniting principles of Christ, with an expectation that it would not only shape individual personalities to imitate Jesus’ style of fellowship, but it would influence whole societies.

The Young Men’s Christian Association we regard as being in its essential genius a worldwide fellowship united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of developing Christian personality and building a Christian society.

YMCA of the USA Purpose / Constitution

The present mission of the Y masterfully condenses the soul of Jesus’ prayer, the heart of the Paris Basis, and the essence of the bylaws in their mission statement: to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.

In the life of the Y these days there are crucial conversations around the relevance and connection of “Christian principles” to being “for all” in our mission.

For complex and sometimes ambiguous reasons there is resistance or confusion to the meaning of “Christian principles” in our mission; and others have a similar uncertain take on being “for all.”

It seems to me like it’s worth remembering honestly where we came from, to tell those stories responsibly, to respect those that made it possible in the past for the Y to be here today, and to care enough to pass it on to the next generation even better than when we came into it – that can be a helpful to build up healthy connections between “Christian principles” and being “for all.”

Again, for complex reasons, the “C” in our name has been downplayed in many of our official YMCA branding and historical accounts, a form of interpretation about our context.

Based on observation, it does seem like there is an awkwardness and uncomfortableness publicly talking about the “C” in the YMCA in our movement, which is shaped in various ways by our pluralistic, secular, multi-cultural, multi-faith communities.

And, with the division that has exponentially increased between Christians in the past 200 years, it complicates communication between them in the Y – thus if they talk past each other, or down to those who are different in their following of Christ, how can they speak with united confidence among those who don’t believe in Jesus like them?

One of the elephants in the YMCA room is the uncomfortableness Christians have talking about their own faith – especially with other Christians who believe differently.

If you don’t believe the Y is a safe place to talk about what you believe, then the Y squelches most kinds of Christianity and by default let’s a vague version emerge that might be “safe” but also barely meaningful.

What’s your take on Christians who believe differently than you?

Imagine how Jesus feels when he looks around the world at all the different Christians… is he clicking his tongue, slapping his forehead, rolling his eyes at the diversity of his disciples?

No.

When you read this part of Jesus’ prayer for disciples in the generations to come, there is nothing narrow-minded or small-hearted about it:

My prayer is not for them alone.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.

May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

‭‭John‬ ‭17:20-23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It’s a beautiful, bold, compelling, visionary prayer that, to be frank, we are yearning still for Jesus to fulfill.

This prayer of Jesus was a fueling element for the posture of the YMCA towards different kinds of Christian men they let join and lead in the Y.

For anyone who wants a stronger “C” in the YMCA, it includes ecumenical acceptance of the diverse “C” that’s always been true of us – the fruit of this being God’s love for the world being made known.

The movement started with boundaries, like all must; but the Y kept expanding it through the decades – in London, through the British Isles, then Europe and eventually five more continents.

Eventually they let all the Protestant into the Y, despite some internal protesting; then they let in the Catholics and Orthodox – this ought not to be assumed as natural, but rather a striving based on rigorous efforts and prayer.

This same posture led the Y to take the momentous step of letting in their Jewish and Muslim friends, and eventually they would drop all religious requirements for membership and leadership.

When someone joins the Y, whatever kind of Christian they might be, whatever kind of religious conviction you may or may not hold, there is no denying the truth of the ground and roots which nourish the global YMCA movement.

It is inauthentic of the Y to downplay the religious history of the Y, to shy away from the explicit Christian heart of the Y – it makes our movement less interesting, less compelling, less transformative.

It’s okay to honestly say that it is more complicated now, that there is uncertainty on what to do with religions in the Y, and Christianity in particular.

In light of the religious upheavals we are experiencing globally, no surprise that the Y is also caught up in it.

And the violence that is done in the name of religion is reprehensible. Always.

The solution, though, is not to squelch religion, to ban it or ignore it as a way to stem violence.

People are violent.

Religion can be used as a wise and healing tool in the face of violence, or it can be wielded to destroy with it.

If the goal is to find ways to transform violent people into peacemakers, and if those people are religious, we ought to seek ways to use their religious traditions to fuel ways of reconciliation instead of killing each other.

The YMCA sought to do this in its first hundred years, embodied among many leaders, in particular through the life’s work of John Mott, who is considered the Ecumenical Statesman of the 20th century, and who won a Nobel Peace prize for his war relief work.

With a religious YMCA legacy like that, we have an opportunity now to learn from and draw on this part of our history to foment religious reconciliation as part of our peacemaking, of forging just mercy in our violent communities.

Jesus’ prayer is our prayer, for those that believe in him, which is what then shapes our posture towards one another and the world.

When Christians seek oneness with one another, through Jesus, we end up demonstrating a healing and resonant love for the world.

Within the Orthodox Christian community, which John Mott highly respected, is the word “theosis” to describe the oneness in Jesus’ prayer.

Jesus prays that we would be one with each other and with God like Jesus himself is: this is theosis – a kind of healing communion where we experience the transforming joy of God’s reconciling presence in spirit, mind and body.

Thanks to the rigorous studies by Christian missionaries, we now realize that so much of the Christian division in the world is largely due to complex cultural differences, generational differences (often tied to immigrant communities), and sometimes violent socio-economic differences.

Of course the divisive Seven Deadly Sins are always at work, like entropy, pulling people apart in spirit, mind and body – and these must honestly and care-fully be confronted in a community, no matter what they are going through.

But to miss the larger forces at work is to misattribute to individuals what is happening on a massive scale to millions of individuals- thus being blind to trends which we can learn from, and then miss out on ways to give people more wisdom and truth on how to overcome cultural, generational and social-economic differences with grace.

When reflecting on how expansive, how inclusive, how global, how radical is the mercy of God, of how patient and kind Jesus is in answering his prayer these past twenty centuries, we can exclaim like St. Paul:

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”

For from him and through him and for him are all things.

To him be the glory forever!

Amen.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭11:33-36‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The unity that Christians yearn and strive for is a vision of the future which God is mysteriously and faithfully fulfilling in the world as it really is.

It becomes a matter of faith, of trust, that God is the source, the means, and the purpose of unity, that it is marked by mercy, faithfulness, wisdom, mystery, and glory.

Did Jesus know when he prayed for unity in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal that twenty centuries later we’d still be missing the mark?

Whatever Jesus knew, he wasn’t naive, nor a quitter – rather, motivated by a sacrificial love, an enduring joy, and a glorious hope that God will someday, someway answer his prayer for unity.

This prayer of Jesus, this desire for theosis, this yearning for transforming unity with God and others – past, present, future – it’s part of why the Y was formed, and in part why it has endured, adapted, matured, and kept moving forward, even if it has stumbled along the way.

“For all” is a key part of our YMCA mission, and for Christians in the Y we can do our part as the welcoming hands and hospitable heart of Jesus, motivated to do our part in our decades to be ones who unite – and be part of the transformative answer to Christ’s prayer “that they may all be one.”

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