I propose to write an article on the subject indicated by the single word which I have placed at the top of this page. A firm belief that the subject of prayer is not so well or generally understood as it should be is my only apology, if an apology be thought necessary, for introducing it at this time to the attention of the courteous reader. I hold, furthermore, and think it proper to avow the fact right here, that the sacred composition, commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer, is the pattern for all true prayer; and that to be ignorant of the full scope and meaning of the various petitions in this model prayer, is to be ignorant of the very nature and design of prayer generally. Oh, that men would, in point of brevity, if in nothing else, learn to imitate the dear Lord! O ye wordy petitioners, when will ye not read that men are not heard for their much speaking? Then why, if ye have any regard for the authority of the Lord, do ye make long prayers? But I anticipate. No wonder, however. My soul has been so sickened and my poor body so exhausted under the regime of those everlasting harangues falsely called prayers, that patience, that patience has well-nigh died in my heart. But I promise these gentry that, before I am done with this present writing, I will pay my respects to them fully. It is the purpose of this paper to deal more especially with the nature of prayer; and under this head to include not only the various acts of the soul in devotion, but also some of the things to be guarded against in prayer.
First, then, the nature of prayer. Prayer has been well defined, I know not by whom, the offering up of our desires to God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in harmony with this definition, Paul holds the following language in his letter to the Philippians: “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Still more to our purpose are the words of John: “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us; and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask [according to his will], we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”
Prayer is in itself a becoming acknowledgment of the all-sufficiency of God and of our dependence upon him. It is his appointed means to us—the enabling cause—by which we may obtain both temporal and spiritual blessings. He could, indeed, for aught we know, bless his creatures in another way; but this is not a question of what God [46] can do, but of what he does. Of one thing I am profoundly certain, namely, He will be inquired of, to do for man the things of which he stands in need. Prayer, then, is the act of an indigent creature seeking relief from the Fountain of mercy. A deep sense of impoverishment and want excites desire, and this heart-felt desire is the very essence of prayer.
“One thing have I desired of the Lord,” says the Psalmist, “that will I seek after.” Prayer without desire is like an altar without a sacrifice; or, if there be a sacrifice, without the fire from heaven to consume it. When all our wants are satisfied, then will prayer be converted into praise. “I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness.” Till then, Christians must live by prayer or with a vow. Within certain limitations and restrictions as it respects the heavenly Father, this binding may be called mutual—God and man uniting themselves in vows together. God promising that, upon certain conditions be complied with on our part, he will grant certain blessings.
The word also means to pour out, pour out vows to God, in allusion to the offerings or libations anciently poured out upon the altar at the time of prayer. The ancient worshipper, conscious of his guilt, brought an offering to make atonement, and with his offering joined a prayer to God that it might be accepted. So, then, prayer is something more than mere words, even though the words spring from the heart. Sacrifice must ever accompany prayer, for sacrifice is to prayer, I repeat, what fire was to the altar. In prayer, prayer that avails anything, we must offer Jesus, our victim, to God as an atonement for our past sins. And then we offer ourselves, as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service. Giving ourselves away to God as literally and fully, to be used by him, as did the Jew give up his victim, and as freely as he poured out its blood upon the altar. This is prayer; nothing else is.
The nature of prayer, therefore, seems to be that of covenant and sacrifice. Covenant as it respects God; sacrifice as it respects ourselves. This teaches us clearly what we ought to pray for. As we have entered into covenant with God and given ourselves up to him in sacrifice, our first prayer now, as before our covenant relations existed, or at least before they were consummated by obedience to his authority, will be: Lord, what wilt thou have us to do? About the first thing we fairly and clearly realize is, that God our Father has a work for all his children to do. And why not? Why should not this fact be the very first to press itself upon our attention? All the work there is to be done this side of the final judgment must be done by the [47] children of God! Positively, there is not one moment to be lost! The building of churches, the founding of colleges, the education of the people, the preaching of the gospel, the administration of the ordinances, the printing and dissemination of Bibles and religious literature, must all be done by man.
Since time began, the Lord has not of himself alone built a church, founded a college, taught letters, preached the gospel, administered the ordinances, or printed and disseminated Bibles and other literature. And what a lesson is taught us here! We do not, as Christians, always choose our own pursuits in life. We do not fly in the face of Providence, and then labor and reason with God and conscience to satisfy them that we are right.
But first of all, bringing our sacrifice to the altar, we will pray God to direct us in the way in which he sees we ought to go. The sacrifice will most probably consist in a cheerful and hearty acquiescence in the appointments of his will. I firmly believe that God will direct the humble and sincere Christian in the way in which he can accomplish most good. In that way let him walk, and in that vineyard let him work. Let not men, on the one hand, try to run away from God and their appointed work, as did Jonah; or, on the other, seek to thrust themselves into places and employments where they are not needed. Both alike will live and die unblessed. Some men, under a mistaken sense of duty, go lame and blind through life. Others, with equal obduracy, pass their pilgrimage in one unceasing struggle with conscience and the obvious indications of Providence. Is it your duty to preach the gospel? Perhaps it is your duty not to preach it; but then I am supposing a case.
Is it, then, your duty to preach the gospel? Why, now, do you expect God to hear one solitary petition till you begin your work? This is the cause of your spiritual leanness and barrenness. God is not hearing your prayers. Or, rather, you are not praying at all! Of course, you imagine that you are a praying man; but then you are practically living a prayerless life. Tell me, my brother, has not your life as a Christian been a failure? Is it not one dreary, dead blank; unfruitful alike as it respects your own good and happiness and the good and happiness of others? Wake up, my brother; in the name of the Master, wake up, and betake yourself to some employment for Christ, with an earnestness that shall prove a sure guarantee of your success! Or is it your duty to do more pecuniarily for the cause of Christ? Is your conscience exactly easy on the question of your former stewardship? Do you expect, then, to prosper as a Christian till you have discharged this duty? You never will, whatever you may think. As a man of the world, and in the things of the world, you may; but as a Christian you never will. You must show God, I speak after the manner of men, that you are in earnest about [48] fulfilling your part of the covenant and making your full share of the sacrifice. Whenever this is done, and done faithfully, you may expect the Father to astonish you with the glorious fullness and richness of his blessings. “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse; for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, If I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed; for you shall be a delightful land, saith the Lord of hosts.” Has God ever thus been “proved” by any people? Now I am simple enough to believe that if God were so proved by the whole world, or even by the so-called Christian world, that all this picture would be realized. That there would be neither war, pestilence, nor famine till the end of time.
But once more. Having received our allotted work from the Father, we must pray for the grace to perform it. And by the word grace I mean all that is implied in the word favor; by which, again, I mean disposition, heart, enthusiasm, opportunity, etc. I hold it to be a settled fact that God will do nothing for us that we can do for ourselves. We know this to be true with reference to things temporal. Can any man show that it is not equally true when applied to things spiritual? Prayer and enlightened conscience are powers in this world. They hold thousands of men at their work who would else abandon it. A praying man will never abandon his work. A praying man will never backslide. Prayer will fan the coals upon the altar of his heart into a living flame, as with the breath of the Lord. “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.”
I will now notice briefly some of the acts of the soul in devotion before God. These acts are various, and may be classified thus: 1. Invocation, or the act of addressing in prayer. 2. Adoration, or the act of paying honors to Jehovah. 3. Confession, or the act of acknowledgment of our sins. 4. Petition, or the act of formal supplication to God. 5. Intercession, or the act of interceding with God in behalf of both ourselves and others. 6. Pleading, or the act of offering in defense; supporting by arguments and reasons. 7. Dedication, or the act of consecrating to God, or to sacred use; solemn appropriation. 8. Thanksgiving, or the act of rendering thanks, or expressing gratitude for favors and mercies. 9. Blessing, or the act of praising or extolling the name of God; wishing honor, glory, reward; benediction. [49]
I do not assert that these are all the acts of the soul in prayer; nor that I have made the best possible classification and arrangement of them. But I do assert that the various acts here indicated are sufficiently exhaustive and comprehensive; and, moreover, that they are based upon the divine model. Now let any man pray with an intelligent appreciation of this chart before his mind, and he will at once perceive the difference between praying according to the word of the Lord, and like a blinded pugilist striking out wildly and beating the air. But as I do not intend to exhaust, but only to suggest, I will now pass to a consideration of some things to be guarded against in prayer.
Our Savior mentions particularly three things as being especially objectionable and offensive. And first in the list he places hypocrisy. “When you pray be not as the hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say to you, they have their reward.” I need not inform the scholar that hypocrite is a Greek word, and means to assume a false appearance. Literally, the actor on the stage is a hypocrite, though not in the bad sense that attaches to the word when used in a religious sense. He assumes to be Macbeth, when we know that he is plain Peter Thompson; his hypocrisy, therefore, is harmless. But not so when a man is religiously a hypocrite. Now the sin of these Pharisees consisted in the fact of their assuming to pray to God, whereas they were only praying to men. And as when out of sincere hearts we pray to God we have our reward from him, so when we pray to men we have reward from them. We bid for their applause, and we get it. Verily, what a reward! But there is still another phase to this question of hypocrisy in prayer. Some persons try to pray themselves into an agony. They make some prodigious effort to work up the emotional nature. They sometimes assume to feel a great deal, and to be wondrously wrought upon by some abstract or extraneous power, whereas they are really cheating none but themselves. Poor silly creatures! They seem not to know that of all the calm, measured, temperate addresses this side of heaven, a prayer should be the very type of them all. Any other style may be properly enough denominated ranting, howling, or bunkum; but it is certainly not prayer. I repeat, in prayer we should be calm—not dull and inane,—temperate, and dignified. When praying before men we should stand perfectly still, with the head slightly bowed, and scrupulously avoid all gesticulation. And then our thoughts should be clothed in the most chaste and simple language within our power to use. Other necessary concomitants will naturally suggest themselves to the intelligent mind, and it is therefore, needless to add more to this head. [50]
The second thing against which our Savior guards us is dissipation of mind while engaged in prayer. “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret. And thy Father, who sees in secret, shall reward thee openly.” Now nothing can be plainer than this. Comparatively but few men, and I grieve to say it, ever pray before the public; but they are by no means absolved from private prayer, whatever may be said of more public duties. Consequently, the Savior here lays down a rule to govern all men in prayer, the preacher as well as the private Christian. We are to avoid the sight and sound of everything that is calculated to divide the mind or distract the thoughts. We would desire a clear mind in addressing the throne of an earthly monarch; how much more when we address the Lord of lords and King of kings!
I know of nothing more offensive to my spirit than distraction and tumult while engaged in prayer. Especially is this true with reference to family and social prayer. The family should have a stated time to come together for prayer, just as the church does. All business and domestic duties should for the time be laid aside. Every servant and inmate of the family should be summoned and required to attend, and then reverently, humbly, and cheerfully all should engage in the worship. Let the service be so spiced with variety and interest as not to pall upon the spiritual appetite. Our enjoyment of the prayer meeting in the church has often been destroyed in consequence of the brutal and inexcusable vulgarity of some in attendance, and—shall I say it?—even of some members. During prayer some will stand and gaze listlessly and indifferently around. Others, with sharpened and eager vision, will apparently be engaged in a desperate effort to ascertain who is present. Others will yawn till they can be heard over the whole house; which performance invariably produces a giggle and titter from all the young people present. Others will occasionally expectorate on the floor with such energy as to make one fairly bounce with fright. And others still, some preachers among them, will be constantly employed in turning and rustling the leaves of the hymn-books, seeking for that hymn most probably, just as though the great Author of life were not being addressed! Oh, my dying fellow mortals, let me plead with you to forsake all these wicked ways! If even the angels vail their faces when addressing the Father, with what reverence, humility, and awe ought we to come into his presence!
The third evil against which the Savior guards us in prayer is vain repetitions. “When you pray use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be you not, therefore, like them; for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him.” Now, I will [51] unhesitatingly affirm that no other command of our Lord Jesus Christ, a command, too, joined with an example, is so frequently and so utterly disregarded as the one which I have just transcribed. It is not often that the Savior accompanies his commands with arguments and explanations; but when he does, we may be sure that the circumstance is pregnant with meaning. Well, now, it is a significant fact that the Lord has not explained, argued, illustrated, and enforced any other Christian duty to the same extent to which he has prayer, or with anything like the same degree of fullness. And the evils that have followed from this almost universal disregard of the solemn instructions of the Savior of sinners can scarcely be calculated. With watch in hand I have tested the question many times, and the following is about the result of my investigations: Out of twenty prayers, twelve were fifteen minutes long, three were ten minutes in length, and the remaining five ranged from three to nine minutes. And then the subject-matter of these prayers! Absolutely it is a disgrace to civilization and religious culture of the nineteenth century even to speak of it. My cheek burns with shame merely to think of it. The conscience; but when this matter is repeated five or six times in one prayer, it is simply not tolerable. The truth is, that thousands of men who pray before the public never think of what they are to say. They do not think enough of the subject of prayer generally to be impressed with the necessity of varying their petitions. It is with them a sort of slip-shod performance that demands no anxious thought or care. Prayer is of the intellect as well as of the heart. The Savior, not only in his model, but in his instructions as well, clearly indicates an intellectual exercise. He says: “After this manner, therefore, pray ye.” The force of the original does not appear in the translation, as will be seen at a glance: “Outws oun proseucesqe umeis.” The fact is apparent that the Savior was never more specific in any commandment.
Now let us sketch, with great brevity, some of the positive evils that grow out of the habit of long, elaborate, and ornate prayers. And first, the practice has a direct tendency to deter modest but uninstructed men from engaging in public prayer. They have, from all that they have heard, come to regard prayer as a species of finished declamation and oratory. To their simple minds prayer is an intellectual exercise, for the display of literary attainments. It is, to their comprehension, a mysterious performance, deeply involved in the meshes of rhetoric. They have heard preachers and bishops employ metaphors in prayer, and they know nothing of metaphors. They have heard them quote Greek and Latin, and they know themselves to be innocent of any such accomplishments. They have heard them recite whole pages of Milton, Pollok, Shakespeare, and Young, not to [52] say Byron, whereas their own poetical readings have been confined to David, Job, and the hymn-book; and, of course, those poets would not appear well in such respectable company. Now, if these humble, unassuming men had nothing before their minds but such specimens of prayer as are commended by the Lord himself, scarcely one out of a hundred would refuse to pray. Were brethren of this class permitted to attend a prayer meeting composed of Jesus, Peter, John, James, Matthew, and some dozen other church dignitaries that might be mentioned, they would not hesitate for one moment to engage in prayer with them. Is the heart of the Master sorrowful, even unto death? Then we hear him pray: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done.” Is the successorship of the traitor-apostle to be supplied? Then we hear the apostle pray: “Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all, show which of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” Contrast this simple performance and single prayer of fifteen seconds with the heathenish mummeries of a modern “consecration,” and you will be able to see in some measure how closely the “only successors of the apostles” imitate the divinely appointed originals! Who does not feel that he could pray in such a company? Instead of two or three men occupying the whole time allotted to the prayer meeting, a dozen men might employ their gifts in devotional exercises. And were the divine rule rigidly observed, a dozen brethren would be found willing to bear a part in the service of God, where one can not now be prevailed upon to do so. Another evil, directly traceable to the same cause, is a diminishing of general interest in prayer. The majority of people have come to look upon what is popularly called prayer as something rather to be endured than enjoyed. And the writer hereof confesses to sharing largely in this feeling. As a striking example of this everlasting and universal prolixity, observe the manner in which most men offer thanks (?)—save the mark!— for the emblematic loaf and wine. I have carefully noted the style in which this duty is usually performed, and scruple not to say that I have never yet seen it properly done, except in a single instance, and that was the part of a plain old farmer. Next Sunday, when you rise to officiate at the Lord’s table, ask that brother preacher present, who is a graduate of some college, to offer thanks for the loaf; and at once he will launch his bark on the ocean of prayer, and he will pray for everything and everybody, but as for offering thanks, why, he never thinks of such a thing. What right has he to keep the people standing full five minutes to hear him pray, when I politely requested him to offer thanks?
Another evil growing out of the long-prayer system is a lack of [53] uniformity in posture during prayer. Suppose we kneel. Very well; if our knee-caps were made of iron I should not object. But as I am not a superstitious Papist, but, I hope, a reasonably intelligent Christian, I decidedly object to punishing and torturing my body for some supposed benefit that will thereby accrue to my soul. Suppose we stand. Well, I am willing to try every way; but I do not see that this helps matters one whit. Standing perfectly still, as we ought always to do in prayer, is a severe ordeal for the stoutest man, to say nothing of delicate ladies. But Bro. Prosy says: Let us pray; and immediately every one reverently rises. Now watch them. Their intentions are good. Their desires are worthy. Their religious impulses are in the right direction. But flesh and blood are not proof against everything. At first they all assume an exceedingly devotional attitude and demeanor. They evidently desire and intend to maintain such an attitude and demeanor all the way through to the amen. For the first ten minutes they endure it bravely. But now one hand goes down to the top of the pew, to support the aching back; now a foot is shifted, and the burden thereby thrown from one exhausted limb to the other; then a furtive glance is cast at the author of all this misery, but as he has just reached China in his devotional excursion round the world there is but little comfort to be gained in that quarter. Human nature can stand it no longer, and Sister A, aged seventy-two, sits down. “Good!” says Sister B, aged twenty-four, “as Sister A has taken her seat, I will do the same.” And now they go down, down, down, all over the house, till only three or four stout young men, who are fully determined not to be beaten, are left standing. How many prayer meetings have thus been ruined by well-meaning but injudicious brethren!
But, finally, I am asked: How much time should be occupied in prayer? I should say, as a general rule, from one to two minutes. Certainly never over two minutes; rather let it be under one than over two minutes in length. And how much time will you allow us for the offering of thanks? From fifteen to twenty-five seconds; but rather fall below the fifteen than go beyond the twenty-five. Should we study our prayer? By all means. Whenever you go to the prayer or any other kind of meeting, where there is a probability of your being called upon to pray, let a single thought engross your mind and heart; and then with gratitude, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, present your prayer to God. Or, if you adopt the exact model of the Lord’s prayer, you can make a prayer sufficiently comprehensive to embrace everything that a Christian ought to pray for in less than one minute. I can most reverently and measuredly repeat the Lord’s prayer in forty seconds. But some private Christians are like some elders and preachers, namely, they must say [54] everything that is to be said every time they attempt either to preach or pray. Said a brother to me a few Sundays since, as we were walking home from morning service: “Why did you not elaborate and dwell much longer on a certain point, naming it, this morning?” “Oh!” said I, “I expect to preach here again to-night, next Sunday morning and night, and probably all the Sunday mornings and nights of my life.” This incident will fully illustrate my meaning. Let one brother make a comprehensive and exhaustive prayer, like the Lord’s prayer; let another follow with a special petition for the prosperity of their particular congregation; let another pray for peace, another for the sick, another for the bereaved, another for the success of the gospel, etc., etc. But when you are in the privacy of your own closet, fall down or kneel down before the Lord of hosts, and there pour out your heart before him. As we say, unbosom yourself before his presence. Let your full heart, with all its secret experiences, trials, and longings, like a mountain stream, take its own course. But always remember, my dear brother or sister in Christ, that private griefs, and private wants, and private experiences, are for the privacy of the closet, unless are very confident that you could make one or more of them subserve a good purpose by bringing them before the public.
I have often been pained and shocked by witnessing exhibitions before the thoughtless, the giddy, and the worldling, that ought to have been reserved for the eye of God alone. But let us never forget that, while in a certain sense prayer is of the intellect, it is preeminently of the heart. Let us never degenerate into mere lifeless formalism, but strive to make the house of prayer the most charming spot on earth. I believe that a prayer meeting indicates with almost infallible accuracy, like the scale of a thermometer, the spiritual temperature of the church. And this is one of the reasons why I seek to divest it of all that can hurt or mar. “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven and thou upon the earth, therefore let thy words be few.” In a succeeding number I may have something to say concerning the practical benefits of prayer. For the present, God’s benison upon you all!
W.
Refreshing from Missouri.—At no former period in the history of Missouri has the cause been so prosperous as now, and this notwithstanding the diminished number of her preachers. Could she only at present command the labors of her former noble band, now scattered, but still in most cases anxious to return, how soon a State could be taken for the Master! Could not our brethren there, by proper effort, bring this event to pass? Long years to come would reveal the wisdom of such a step. Try it, brethren. [55]
[Volume IV: January, 1867.]