The Discipline of prayer - Chambers, Oswald
Introduction
The following quotation will suggest the right back- ground for this introduction:
In the east the following phenomenon is often observed. Where the desert touches a river-valley or oasis, the sand is in a continual state of drift from the wind, and it is this drift which is the real cause of the barrenness of such portions of the desert at least as abut upon the fertile land. For under the rain, or by infiltration of the river, plants often spring through the sand, and there is sometimes promise of considerable fertility. It never lasts. Down comes the periodic drift, and life is stunted or choked out. But set down a rock on the sand, and see the difference its presence makes. After a few showers, to the lee-ward side of this some blades will spring up; if you have patience, you will see in time a garden. How has the boulder produced this? Simply by arresting the drift.
George Adam Smith 1
And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Isaiah 32:2
Our lord Jesus Christ is just that rock to gods children.
He personally stays the drift of arduous christian activities, of insidious mental scepticisms, of intuitive uncertainties, and produces a sanctuary within which abide perennial inspiration and wonderful ways to imitate.
How many cease from praying by indiscernible, unconscious ways! They are not those who because of intellectual barriers have determined on prayerlessness, or who have abandoned praying in favour of a cherished sin, but those who have ceased praying by more indecipherable ways. The life of god in us is manifested by spiritual concentration, not by pious self-consciousness; pious self-consciousness produces the worship of prayer, which is anti-christian. This unscriptural piety fixes itself on the actual incidents in such verses as mark 1:35and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed, and disproportionately emphasises rising up a great while before day, implying that if this actual early rising were imitated it would produce Christ-likeness in us; whereas our lord prayed because he was concentrated on god; that is, he did not worship prayer.
There are sure to be resurgent, periodic drifts of scepticism destructive of all such unrobust, pious sentimentality, because the worshiping of prayer is not of the nature of reality, for spiritual effects are thus construed into spiritual causes; as if a gift of prayer were the cause of Christ-likeness, it may be the cause of devotion, but it is the gift from prayer that matters, and this is the outcome of christian concentration.
The intellectual desire to explain and thereby command is part of our natural inheritance, but it will turn into a tyrannic dictator if not kept strictly in its place as an instrument of the life of man and not the life itself; this can only be done by obedience (see Romans 12:2). The intellectual desire to dominate by explanation has so largely prevailed that prayer has become a mere borderland exercise of natural intelligence, wherein it is explained that prayer is the reflex action of a particular individual with the God of all.
It is absurd to imagine anyone trying to think how they will live before they are born, yet it is this absurdity which the intellect tries to perform in connection with prayer. If the dominion of intellectual explanation is the characteristic of a naturally cultured life, dominion by obedience is the characteristic of the spiritually disciplined life. Intellectual expression in life is the effect of a naturally educated life, but is not the cause of the life; and the christian experience of prayer is not its own cause, but the effect of the life of god in me. Prayer is the instrument of the life of worship, it is not worship itself. Intellect and prayer are united in the saint in the consciousness of Christ which we share, consequently the consciousness of self-realisation is a perversion and a snare. Our spiri- tual certainty in prayer is gods divine certainty, not a side eddy of sanctimoniousness.
O patient, patient god,
misprized, profaned god,
grieved and wounded god,
dooming and quickening god,
we weary of the victim faint,
the hero martyr, peasant saint,
who stirs our love but leaves our taint,
is balm but never rod, nor rends our last green sod,
Or tombs restraint.
We crave the eternal holy son,
earths lord and hells, the living one,
straight from his cross, his grave, his throne.
With a world-pardon all our own;
with sacramental immanence
transcending our abased sense;
with eyes of flame at which we fall
dead men, till he out life recall,
and be our life, our all in all.
With all the churchs faithful folk,
this lord, this spirit, we invoke.
In order to present this study on the discipline of prayer in as direct a way as possible, it is put under headings.
The position of prayer
Also, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they like to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street-corners, so as to be seen by men; i tell you truly, they do get their reward. When you pray, go into your room and shut the door, pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees what is secret will reward you. Do not pray by idle rote like pagans, for they suppose they will be heard the more they say; you must not copy them; your father knows your needs before you ask him. (Matthew 6:59 moffatt)
This general heading indicates that it is important to notice that in the new testament, and in the life of our lord, prayer is not so much an acquired culture as the implicit nature of the spiritual life itself. Out- side the new testament prayer is apt to be presented as something entirely acquired, something placed in the position of a meritorious decoration for valiant service in piety. In other words, the position we are apt to give to prayer is too consciously an attainment of communion, and thus it is presented out of all pro- portion, so that in times of spiritual declension we are inclined to place the need of prayer instead of penitent approach to god in the forefront.
Yet thou art oft most present, lord,
In weak distracted prayer;
A sinner out of heart with self
Most often finds thee there.
For prayer that humbles, sets the soul
From all illusions free,
And teaches it how utterly,
Dear lord, it hangs on thee.
Frederick w. Faber
The place of prayer
Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
There is a quietism of devotional self-indulgence which takes the place spiritually that loafing does socially. It is easy to call it meditative prayer, but meditation is only attained in actual life by the strenuous discipline of brooding in the center of a subject. God gives of his abundant grace and the divine fire of instinctive inspiration, but we must acquire the tech- nical skill of expressing that genius of god in our life. There are spiritual loafers who are painfully impressionable about tones and moods and places, and they remind one of the aesthetic affectation of many persons who have not enough of the artist in them to work arduously and overcome technical difficulties, so they live a life of self-indulgent sentimental artistic indolence. An artist is never consciously artistic, and a saint is never consciously a praying one. A saint endeavours consciously and strenuously to master the technical means of expressing gods life in himself. The place of prayer in the new testament is just this one of severe technical trying in which spiritual sympathies are sustained in unsecular strength, and manifested in the vulgar details of actual life.
The platform of prayer
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. (Hebrews 10:19)
Prayer does not bring us into contact with the rationality of human existence but into accordance with eternal reality. The great reality is redemption, and redemption is the platform of prayer. The historic fact of the death of Jesus is redemptive reality brought to us as a fact which creates belief in itself. Let Hebrews 10:19 be realised, and many pietistic perils of the devotional life will never appear again. Reality is not in intellect, or intuitions, but in the conscience reacting to redemption, that is, through the whole nature. We are based on the platform of reality in prayer by the atonement of our lord Jesus Christ. It is not our earnestness that brings us into touch with god, nor our devotedness, nor our times of prayer, but our lord Jesus Christs vitalising death; and our times of prayer are evidences of reaction on the reality of redemption, so we have confidence and boldness of access into the holiest. What an unspeakable joy it is to know that we each have the right of approach to god in confidence, that the place of the ark is our place, having therefore, brethren, boldness. What an awe and what a wonder of privilege, to enter into the holiest, in the perfectness of the atonement, by the blood of Jesus.
The purpose of prayer
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto god. (Philippians 4:6)
To forebode is to forbid communion with god. The child of god can never think of anything the Heavenly father will forget; then to worry is spiri- tual irritability with our lord. Prayer is the evidence that i am spiritually concentrated on god, when to fore-think is but to pray about everything, and to live in actual conditions is to be thankful in anything. Prayer is not to be used as the petted privilege of a spoiled child seeking for ideal conditions in which to indulge his spiritual propensities ad lib. , the purpose of prayer is the maintenance of fitness in an ideal relationship with god amid conditions which ought not to be merely ideal but really actual. Actualities are not here to be idealised, but to be realised, while by prayer we lay hold on god and he unites us into his consciousness. The purpose of prayer is to reveal the presence of god equally present all the time in every condition.
For perfect childlike confidence in thee;
For childlike glimpses of the life to be;
For trust akin to my childs trust in me;
For hearts at rest through confidence in thee;
For hearts triumphant in perpetual hope;
For hope victorious through past hopes fulfilled;
For mightier hopes born of the things we know;
For faith born of the things we may not know;
For hope of powers increased ten thousand fold;
For that last hope of likeness to thyself,
When hope shall end in glorious certainty;
With quickened hearts
That find thee everywhere,
We thank thee, lord!
The particulars of prayer
It is of the greatest importance to think of prayer as our lord taught in regard to it. Our lord never referred to unanswered prayer; he taught that prayers were always answered, for every one that asketh receiveth (luke 11:10). He ever implied that prayers were answered rightly because of the heavenly fathers wisdom, your father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. (mat- thew 6:8). In regard to prayer, we are apt to be apologetic and apathetic, complex and confused; yet what a splendid audacity a childlike child has! And that is what our lord taught us to have.
I thank thee, o father, lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. (Matthew 11:25)
Verily i say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)
We may be converted, but obviously we have too often not become as little children.
Our motive
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be 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 unto you, they have their reward. (Matthew 6:5)
Surely there is a great glow of humour in our lords words, verily, i say unto you, they have their reward, as one who should say, that is all there is to it. Their motive is to be seen of men; they are seen of men, and that is their reward, placarded piness! Watch your motive; is it a pose arising from a real enchantment? (the word hypocrites here is really play-actors). You very earnestly and solemnly tax your resources to be a praying person; people call at your house but cannot see you because it is your time for prayer. You perhaps have not noticed before that you always take care to tell those to whom it matters how early you rise in the morning to pray, how many all nights of prayer you spend; you have great zealousness in proclaiming your protracted meetings. This is all pious play-acting. Jesus says, don’t do it. Our lord did not say it was wrong to pray in the corners of the street, but he did say it was wrong to have the motive to be seen of men. It is not wrong to pray in the early morning, but it is wrong to have the motive that it should be known. Avoid every tendency away from the simplicity of relationship to god in Christ Jesus, and then prayer will be as the breath of the lungs in a healthy body. It is at first difficult to learn a new and better way of breathing, consequently we are conscious of it for a time, but it is merely consciousness of what will by habit become an unconscious possession. So in the better and new way of breathing spiritually in prayer, we shall be conscious of forming the habit, but it will soon pass into normal spiritual health, and it must never be worshiped as a conscious process.
Our method
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. (Matthew 6:7)
Beware of the trick of exposition which externalises scripture so that we teach but never learn its lessons. That means just this we take a description from missionary literature of the heathen prayer roll with its yards of prayers that wind and unwind, and we dextrously show how futile and pathetic this is, and so on, and by our very method remove it from its home-coming benefit. Let the words come home to us personally in their new testament setting, but when ye pray, use not vain repetitions. Our lord prayed the same prayer, using the same words, three times in the garden of Gethsemane, and he gave the disciples a form of prayer which he knew would be repeated throughout the christian centuries; so it cannot be mere repetition or the form of words that he is referring to. The latter half of the verse comes home better for personal purposes for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking that is, do not rely on your earnestness as the ground for being heard. This is a much-needed caution because it is so subtle a thing, this thing called earnestness. As the rev. John McNeil, 2 the great Scottish evangelist, said about the student of Elisha after he had lost the axe-head (2 kings 6:17): if he had been of the modern school, Elisha would have said, whack awaw i the stump, Mon; earnestness is everything! Earnestness is not by any means everything; it is very often a subtle form of pious self- idolatry, because it is obsessed with the method and not with the master. The phrase pray through often means working ourselves up into a frenzy of earnestness in which perspiration is taken for inspiration. It is a mistake to think we are heard on the ground of our earnestness; we are heard on the ground of the evangelical basis, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19).
Our manner
After this manner therefore pray ye. (Matthew 6:9)
(at this particular point we are not dealing with what is known as the lords prayer; that is dealt with subsequently).
Our lord wishes us to understand that all morbid excesses must be cut off, and the simple personal relationship allowed to react. When we pray, remember we pray to a person, our father, not to a tendency, or for the resulting reflex action; and we pray for particular personal needs, which are universal. Daily bread, debts, debtors, deliverances (verses 1113), and we pray as citizens of a universal spiritual kingdom thine is the kingdom (verse 13), and the manner is bald, simple, but absolutely spiritual.
All through our lord implies discipleship, or what we understand by an experience of regeneration. In other words, his death is the gateway for us into the life he lives and to which his teaching applies. Therefore to take our lords teaching and deny the need to be born from above (rv mg), is to produce a mockery, born of the very desire to do the opposite.
This section is presented as a stirring up and away from sentimental religiosity which is injurious to a degree that becomes immoral, because it unfits for life instead of equipping for life, the life that is ever the result of our lords life in us.
The pattern prayer
Let this be how you pray: our father in heaven, thy name be revered, thy reign begin, thy will be done on earth as in heaven! Give us to-day our bread for the morrow, and forgive us our debts as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:913 moffatt)
(This translation may serve to rouse complacent attention to re-examine the very familiar form of words. )
This pattern prayer is our lords lesson on prayer in answer to a prayer: Luke 11:1one of his disciples said unto him, lord, teach us to pray. It is well to remember that our lords disciples were used to prayer and religious exercises from their earliest childhood, but contact with Jesus produced in them the realisation of the reality of free prayer other and beyond the liturgical form. How similar is our condition: after we have received spiritual quickening and illumination from our lord, our eloquence falters, our coherent praying falters into an unsyllabled lack of utterance, and in utter confusion of mind and chaos of spirit we come as helpless babes to our father with the first prayer, lord, teach us to pray, and he teaches us the alphabet of all possible prayer. This sense of utter impoverishment spiritually is a blessed pain because it is pain that takes us to god and his gracious rule and kingdom. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).
Presentation of ideas
After this manner therefore pray ye. (Matthew 6:9)
How blessed it is to begin at the beginning, spiritual minors, stripped of our rich and verbal devotional language, and impoverished into receptive teachableness. Let our minds, made fertile by reason of genuine humility, receive the ideas our lord presents in this familiar pattern prayer; receive in wonder and reverence the simple idea of gods personal relation- ship to us, our father. Your father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him (verse 8). Our father gathers us near him in the secret place alone with our fears and apprehensions and foolishnesses and aspirations, and he rewards us. When we talk about the fatherhood of god, let us remember that the lord jesus is the exclusive way to the father. That is not an idea to be inferred, but to be received:
No man cometh unto the father, but by me ( john 14:6). We can get to god as creator apart from Jesus Christ (see Romans 1:20), but never to god as our father saving through him. Let us receive this inspired idea of our lords right into our inmost willing heart, believe it, and pray in the confidence of it.
Again, let us receive the idea of praying about our personal requirements. What topics our lord suggests! What emancipation and joy come to us when we receive the revelation from our lord himself that we pray about things which naturally we take as animals, trusting to our wits and instinct and intuition. How many of us are like the psalmist of old who wrote a paragraph of autobiography in the words, so foolish was i, and ignorant: i was as a beast before thee (psalm 73:22). He does not mean an immoral beast, but just as a beast of the field taking its fill with- out the slightest apprehension of god. When we ask grace before meat let us remember that it is not to be a mere pious custom, but a real reception of the idea of Jesus that god enables us to receive our daily bread from him. I sometimes wonder if there would be as much chronic indigestion as there is if we received our ideas from god as Jesus would have us do.
Again, let us receive the idea of the personal rule of our lord, thy kingdom come (verse 10). This does not mean bringing to christian disciple- ship our natural ideas of the kingdom, but receiving our lords idea of the kingdom, or rule, or realm of god, a heavenly and eternal kingdom, which will only be established on earth as it is in heaven by our willing reception and reverence.
Presentation of language
When ye pray, say, our father which art in heaven. . . . (Luke 11:2)
Words are full of revelation when we do not simply recall or memorise them but receive them. Receive these words from Jesus father, heaven, hal- lowed be thy name, kingdom, will, there is all the vocabulary of the deity and dominion and disposition of almighty god in relation to men in these words. Or take the words bread, forgiveness, debts, temptation, deliverance, evil, in these words the primary psychological colour which portray the perplexing puzzles and problems of personal life, are all spelled out before our father.
Or, lastly, look at such words as power, glory, for ever, amen, in them there sounds the transcendent triumphant truth that all is well, that god reigns and rules and rejoices, and his joy is our strength. What a rapturous grammar class our lord Jesus conducts when we go to his school of prayer and learn of him!
Presentation of faith
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (mat- thew 6:10)
It is not that our lord gives us original thoughts, but that he gives spontaneous original life to all who receive from him. Our lords very words, repeated by a simple receiver of his tuition, create the faith required for christian perseverance. Receiving from Jesus and requesting almighty god in obedience to him, enables god, so to speak, to create the actual things prayed for. Faith worked out in this way is submissive, but how we miss the meaning of the new testament words if we take them etymologically only, instead of in their evangelical accidence. Submission, for instance, means etymologically, surrender to another, but in the evangelical sense it means that i conduct myself actually among men as the submissive child of my father in heaven.
There is an illustration of this subject in the pat- tern prayer: for if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses (Matthew 6:1415).
The forgiveness of a child of god is not placed on the ground of the atonement of our lord, but on the ground that the child of god shows the same forgiveness to his fellows that god his father has shown to him. This is submission and perseverance and faith all worked into an intensely humble, sensible, actual, human life. We are delivered from sin that we might actually live as saints amongst men who treat us as we once treated our heavenly father. Let us, with chastened and delighted hearts and lips, thank god that he has taught us in the pattern prayer of our father, our fellowship, and our faith.
Oh, long and dark the stairs i trod,
with stumbling feet to find my god:
gaining a foothold bit by bit,
then slipping back and losing it:
never progressing, striving still,
with weakening gasp and fainting will,
bleeding to climb to god: while he
serenely smiled, unnoting me
Hen came a certain time when i
loosened my hold and fell thereby.
Down to the lowest step my fall,
As if i had not climbed at all.
And while i lay despairing thereby.
I heard a footfall on the stair,
In the same path where i, dismayed,
Faltered and fell and lay afraid.
And lo! When hope had ceased to be,
My god came down the stairs to me.
Private prayer
When you pray, go into your room and shut the door, pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees what is secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:6 moffatt)
This verse presents our lords recommendation and his revelation.
Our lords recommendation naturally presents itself in these ways: a disciple should have a spe- cial habit, a selected place, a secret silence, and a disciple should strenuously pray; and our lords revelation naturally presents itself in these ways: the fathers discerning disposition, and delighted doings. So we will construe all we have to consider according to this outline.
A disciple should have a special habit
But thou, when thou prayest .
. . Beware of the impression that could be expressed something like thisbut it is so difficult to get time. Of course it is, we have to make time, and that means effort, and effort makes us conscious of the need to re-organise our general ways. It will facilitate matters to remember, even if it humbles us, that we take time to eat our breakfast and our dinner, etc. Most of the difficulty in forming a special habit is that we will not discipline ourselves. Read carefully this quotation from professor William jamess brilliant textbook of psychology,3 and apply it to the matter of prayer:
The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. It is to fund and capitalise our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund. For this we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. . . . The first (maxim) is that in the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible. . . . The second maxim is: never suffer an exception to occur till the mew habit is securely rooted in your life. . . . A third maxim may be added to the preceding pair: seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habit you aspire to gain.
Let us apply that lesson now right away to ourselves, and take our lords advice home until it becomes character. You say you cannot get up early in the morning; well, a very good thing to do is to get up in order to prove that you cannot! This does not contradict at all what has already been said, viz. , that we must not put earnestness in the place of god; it means that we have to understand that our bodily mechanism is made by god, and that when we are regenerated he does not give us another body, we have the same body, and therefore the way we use our wits in order to learn a secular thing is the way to learn any spiritual thing. But thou, when thou prayestbegin now.
A disciple should have a selected place
Enter into thy closet . . .
Did you ever say anything like this to yourself, it is so difficult to select a place? What about the time when you were in love, was it impossible to select a place to meet in? No, it was far from impossible; and beware of self-indulgence. Think how long our lord has waited for you; you have seen him in your visions, now pray to him; get a place, not a mood, but a definite material place and resort to it constantly, and pray to god as his spirit in you will help you. Bring to earth the promised life you have longed for, curb your impulsive undisciplined wayward nature to his use, and rule in your body like a king where now, even in strength and honesty, you walk sentenced to be a prey to baser and less spiritual things. Do not say, if i only had so and so; you have not got so and so; but you can, if you will, select a place where you are actually. We can always do what we want to do if we want to do it sufficiently keenly. Do it now, enter into thy closet; and remember, it is a place selected to pray in, not to make little addresses in, or for any other purpose than to pray in, never forget that.
A disciple should have a secret silence
and when thou hast shut thy door . . .
It is so difficult to get quiet, you say, what about the time when you were ill? Oh, it can be done, but you must know how to shut the door. Remember the devil may not know what you know until you tell him, so do not say to your friends, or your household, or your landlady, as the case may be, i am just going to pray, that’s too much like the play-acting we have already been warned about. No, it is to be a selected place, a secret shut-in place, where no one ever guesses what you are doing. Quietists and mystics are inclined to grave danger, but they say and write some very fine things. For instance, molinos 4 says this, and it is exactly suitable for being quiet in the shut-in place:
The way of inward peace is in all things to be con- formed to the pleasure and disposition of the divine will. Such as would have all things succeed and come to pass according to their own fancy, are not come to know this way, and therefore lead a harsh and bitter life, always restless or out of humour, without treading in the way of peace which consists in a total conformity to the will of god.
There is another vital moral matter mentioned in Matthew 5:2324: therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
If you have incurred a debt and not paid it, or cared about paying it, or have spoken in the wrong mood to another, or been vindictivethese and similar things produce a wrong temper of soul and you cannot pray in secret, it is no use trying to pray until you do what the lord says. The one thing that keeps us from doing it is pride, and pride has never yet prayed in the history of mankind.
I walk down the valley of silence,
down the dim voiceless valley alone,
and i hear not a sound of a footstep
around me but gods and my own,
and the hush of my heart is as holy
and bowers whence angels have flown.
In the hush of the valley of silence,
i hear all the songs that i sing,
and the notes float down the dim valley
till each finds a word for a wing
that to men like the dove of the deluge,
the message of peace they may bring.
Father Abram Ryan
A disciple should strenuously pray pray
To thy father which is in secret . . . The objection is easily brought forward: it is so difficult to concentrate ones thought, yet what about the time you were working for that position, or to pass that examination? All our excuses arise from some revealing form of self-indulgence. To pray strenuously needs careful cultivation. We have to learn the most natural methods of expressing ourselves to our father. In the beginning we may clamour for presents and for things, and our father encourages us in these elementary petitions until we learn to understand him better; then we begin to talk to him in free reverent intimacy, understanding more and more his wonderful nature. Your father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him (Matthew 6:8).
The real reason for prayer is intimacy of relation with our father. There are many ways that help. Let me give some out of my own experience, although it is unsatisfactory to do this because others are apt to imitate instead of assimilate. To re-write the psalms into a free language of expression of ones own has proved to me a valuable treasure-house of self- expression to god. At times, though very rarely, i like a horology such as bishop Andrews devotions; but i find a most beneficial exercise in secret prayer before the father, is to write things down so that i see exactly what i think and want to say. Only those who have tried these ways know the ineffable benefit of such strenuous times in secret.
Lord, what a change within us one short hour
Spent in thy presence will prevail to make,
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take,
What parched grounds refresh as with a shower!
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;
We rise, and all, the distant and the near
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear;
We kneel, how weak, we rise how full of power.
Why therefore should we do ourselves this wrong
Or others that we are not always strong,
That we are ever overcome with care
That we should ever weak or heartless be
Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer
And joy and strength and courage are with thee?
Such, then, are our lords recommendations for private prayer, now let us look at his revelation regarding private prayer. The fathers discerning disposition and thy father which seeth in secret . . . The revelation here is of the free kingdom of love; there is no blind creaturely subjection to a creator
But the free kingdom in which the one who prays is conscious of limit only through the moral nature of the fathers holiness. It is a revelation of pure joyousness in which the child of god pours into the fathers bosom the cares which give pain and anxiety that he may solve the difficulties. Too often we imagine that god lives in a place where he only repairs our broken treasures, but Jesus reveals that it is quite otherwise; he discerns all our difficulties and solves them before us. We are not beggars on the one hand or spiritual customers on the other; we are gods children, and we just stay before him with our broken treasures or our pain and watch him mend or heal in such a way that we understand him better.
The fathers delighted doings
. . . Shall reward thee openly.
Think of the unfathomable bliss of the revelation that we shall perceive our father solving our problems, and shall understand him; it is the reward of the joyous time of prayer. In all the temptations that contend in our hearts, and amidst the things that meet us in the providence of god which seem to involve a contradiction of his fatherhood, the secret place convinces us that he is our father and that he is righteousness and love, and we remain not only unshaken but we receive our reward with an intimacy that is unspeakable and full of glory.
Give me the lowest place, not that i dare
Ask for the lowest place, but thou hast died
That i might give and share
Thy glory by thy side.
Give me the lowest place, or if for me
That lowest place too high, make one more low
Where i may sit and see my god and love thee so.
Public prayer
I tell you another thing: if two of you agree on earth about anything you pray for, it will be done for you by my father in heaven. For where two or three have gathered in my name, i am there among them. (mat- thew 18:1920 moffatt )
These words are so simple, and so remarkable for guid- ance and instruction regarding public prayer meetings, that our departure from their counsel is a great mys- tery. It is comparatively easy to think or say apt things about private prayer, but it is not so easy to say things about public prayer, the reason probably being that few of us are willing to carry the cross of public prayer, or at least if we do, we repeat aloud to a large extent our own private concerns, which are much better told in secret and alone. It is easier too to evade self- consciousness in private prayer; emancipation from self-consciousness is like a deliverance from a terrible sickness, and one gets rather alarmed at the slightest symptom of it again. Probably this is the reason why many Christians, who ought to be the strength and safeguard of a public prayer meeting in a community of Christians, are not so; they keep silent and just one or two who have merely the gift of devotional language are allowed to dominate the prayer meeting; and the midweek prayer meeting is given up and becomes the midweek service. We must remember that there is a sacrifice of prayer as well as a sacrifice of praise.
In the words of Matthew 18:1920, our lord conveys simple and plain guidance in regard to the arrangement and the atmosphere of a public prayer meeting.
The arrangement of the public prayer meeting
it is never easy to pray in public, and so few of us are willing to have our nervous equilibrium upset for the sake of fulfilling a request of our lords, but why should not our nervous equilibrium be upset? Why should many public prayer meetings be ruined by the long-winded brother who does not really pray but dis- courses on theology and insists on doctrine? We all mourn this abuse of the public prayer meeting, it is a contemptible thing because it usurps the time of the saints; yet the real rebuke ought to lie at the door of the humble saints who should pray when the opportu- nity is given, and thus allow no occasion to the enemy.
Agreement in purpose on earth
Again i say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth . . .
We need to know this simple, direct truth about praying in public. It is perilously easy to make public prayer the mere fringe of devotion to what we are pleased to think of as the real centre of the meeting. Agreement in purpose on earth must not be taken to mean a predetermination to agree together to storm gods fort doggedly till he yields. It is far from right to agree beforehand over what we want, and then go to god and wait, not until he gives us his mind about the matter, but until we extort from him per- mission to do what we had made up our minds to do before we prayed; we should rather agree to ask god to convey his mind and meaning to us in regard to the matter. Agreement in purpose on earth is not a public presentation of persistent begging which knows no limit, but a prayer which is conscious that it is limited through the moral nature of the holy ghost. It is really symphonising on earth with our father who is in heaven.
Asking in prayer on earth
As touching any thing that they shall ask . .
It is a very important matter of instruction to be guided in our asking in public, and to facilitate this end it is better to have numbers of short prayers than a few long ones, and numbers of short prayers not on the same subject, but on many subjects, so that the whole meeting may agree with the petitioners. There are many simple helps in this matter, such as the leader of the meeting suggesting topics, or asking the people themselves to quote a verse of scripture, or anything that will enable the people to pronounce aloud the request that is in their heart. It is never necessary in a public prayer meeting for one to pres- ent all the petitions as it is in a public service; there one man has to make the presentation in prayer of the needs of the congregation, and of the much larger sphere of men; but that is public worship. As in pri- vate matters, our lords instruction on public prayer is essentially simple.
Public prayer is answered in particular from heaven
. . . It shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven.
This reminds us very forcibly of our lords state- ment, viz. , that every one that asketh receiveth (Luke 11:10). Prayer to the natural man who has not been born from above (RV mg) is so simple, so stupid, and so supernatural as to be at once taboo. Strange to say, the reasons he gives for objecting to prayer are the very reasons that give it its true nature. Prayer is simple, as simple as a child making known its wants to its parents (see Matthew 11:25); prayer is stupid, because it is not according to common sense; it is certain that god does things in answer to prayer, and this, common sense naturally says, is ridiculous (see James 5:16); prayer is supernatural because it relies entirely on god (1 john 5:1415).
Let us then go into the hearty cultivation of public prayer, making our requests known before one another as well as before god, and thus securing the answers in particular from heaven.
The atmosphere of the public prayer meeting
Atmosphere is not only something assimilated, but something we help to produce, and is both subjective and objective. To ask the spirit of god to take up his abode in the atmosphere of a meeting is not at all unnecessary; the idea of sacred places can be easily abused, but it does not follow that there is no such thing as a sacred place. For instance, it is easier to pray in a place used only for prayer than it is to pray in a theater.
For where two or three are gathered together . . . Christian secrecy when made a conscious effort is a snare and a delusion because it leads to segregation, not congregation. The together aspect of the christian life is continually insisted on in the new testament. We are raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6); we attain together, . . . Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13), and the writer to the Hebrews warns us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews 10:25). There is nothing of the special coterie about the christian prayer meeting, it is not a hole-and-corner secret society, but a public meeting for one purpose, assembling together to pray, and the assembly must be akin to each other.
In my name . . . This oft-repeated phrase means, in my nature. It is a sad fact that through pique or self-opinionatedness a man sometimes finds him- self and his self-love wounded in the prayer meeting with his brethren, so he separates himself and has a little prayer meeting in his own home. That is certainly not assembling together in my name, but is assembling together from a motive of defiance. In my name refers to those who are born of the spirit of god; the nature of god is imparted to the recipient so that when we pray in his name we pray in his nature (cf. Romans 5:5).
. . . There am i in the midst of them. A wonderful picturea group of our lords children around the knees of the heavenly father, making their requests known in familiarity, in awe and reverence, in simplicity and confidence in him, and in humble certainty that he is there.
Our prayers should be in accordance with the nature of god, therefore the answers are not in accordance with our nature but with his. We are apt to forget this and to say without thinking that god does not answer prayer; but he always answers prayer, and when we are in close communion with him we know that we have not been misled.
Stir me, oh! Stir me, lord, i care not how,
But stir my heart in passion for the world!
Stir me to give, to gobut most to pray;
Stir, till the blood-red banner is unfurled
Oer lands that still in heathen darkness lie,
Oer deserts where no cross is lifted high.
Stir me, oh! Stir me, lord, till prayer is pain
Till prayer is joytill prayer turns into praise!
Stir me, till heart and will and mindyea,
All is wholly thine to use through all the day.
Stir, till i learn to pray exceedingly: stir,
Till i learn to wait expectantly.
Patient and prevailing prayer
So far we have been dealing with the aspects of prayer which are more or less easy of statement; we enter now into an aspect which is more difficult to state.
Prayer is the outcome of our apprehension of the nature of god, and the means whereby we assimilate more and more of his mind.
We must here remind ourselves again of the fundamental matters of our christian relationship, viz. , that in a christian, faith and common sense are moulded in one person by devotion to the mastership of Jesus Christ. This necessitates not conscious adherence to principles, but concentrated obedience to the master. Faith does not become its own object, that produces fanaticism; but it becomes the means whereby god unveils his purposes to us (see Romans 12:2).
Our lord in instructing the disciples in regard to prayer presented them with three pictures (see Luke 11:113; 18:18), and strangely puzzling pictures they are until we understand their meaning. They are the pictures of an unkind friend, an unnatural father, and an unjust judge. Like many of our lords answers, these pictures seem no answer at all at first, they seem evasions, but we find that in answering our inarticulate questions our lord presents his answer to the reality discernible to conscience, and not to logic.
The unkind friend (Luke 11:58)
This is plainly a picture of what the heavenly father does sometimes seem to be like, and the problem our lord faced in the minds of his disciples has to be faced by us at all times. He says, in effect, i know that to your mind the heavenly father will appear at times as an unkind friend, but let me assure you he is not; and even if he were, if you went on praying long enough, he would answer you. There is a reason which he cannot explain to you just now, because the explanation only comes through the experience of discipline which you will understand some day.
It appears as if god were sometimes most unnatural; we ask him to bless our lives and bring benedictions, and what immediately follows turns everything into actual ruin. The reason is that before god can make the heart into a garden of the lord, he has to plough it, and that will take away a great deal of natural beauty. If we interpret gods designs by our desires, we will say he gave us a scorpion when we asked an egg and a serpent when we asked a fish, and a stone when we asked for bread. But our lord indi- cates that such thinking and speaking is too hasty, it is not born of faith or reliance on god. Every one that asketh receiveth. Our lord says that god the father will give the holy spirit much more readily than we would give good gifts to our children, and the holy spirit not only brings us into the zone of gods influence but into intimate relationship with him personally, so that by the slow discipline of prayer the choices of our free will become the preordinations of his almighty order. When we say we have no faith, we simply betray our own case, viz. , that we have no confidence in god at all, for faith is born of confidence in him.
The unjust judge (Luke 18:18)
In this illustration our lord recognises by implication that god does seem at times utterly powerless and unjust, but he says, in effect, god is not unjust, he is long-suffering. Our lord does not attempt to answer our questions on our level, he lifts us up to his level and allows us to make no excuse for not continuing in prayer. The battle in prayer is against two things in the earthlies: wandering thoughts, and lack of intimacy with gods character as revealed in his word. Neither can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline. In mental work it takes time to gain the victory over wandering thoughts; they do not come necessarily through supernatural agents, but through lack of concentration. Concentration is only learned little by little, and the more impulsive you are, the less con- centrated you will be. So when wandering thoughts come in in prayer, don’t ask god to forgive you, but stop having them. It is not a bit of use to ask god to keep out wandering thoughts, you must keep them out. And in regard to gods word, see you take time to know it; gods spirit will give you an understanding of his nature, and make his word spirit and life to you.
Our counsel for patient prayer is to note the importunity which our lord insists on in each of these illustrations, and to remember it is importu- nity on behalf of another, not on our own account. Our importunity must be intercessory, and the whole power of our intercession lies in the certainty that prayer will be answered. Intercessory prayer based on the redemption enables god to create that which he can create in no other way; it is a strenuous business demanding the undivided energy of mind and heart. The effect of prayer on ourselves is the building up of our character in the understanding of the character of god, that is why we need patience in prayer. We cannot by one wild bound, clear the numberless ascensions of starry stairs. Prayer is not logical, it is a mysterious moral working of the holy spirit.
The unnatural father (Luke 11:913)
Just here at the conclusion of these pictures the case of job is of peculiar significance. In jobs case there was every element to make him conceive of god as an unkind friend, an unnatural father, and an unjust judge; but through everything job stuck to his belief in the character of god. Job lost his hereditary creed, which was that god blessed and prospered physically and materially the man who trusted in him, but his words, though he slay me, yet will i trust in him, prove how tenaciously he clung to god.
At the conclusion of the book of job these striking words occur, and the lord turned the captivity
Of job, when he prayed for his friends: also the lord gave job twice as much as he had before ( job 42:10). So the question to ask yourself, which, though it may be ungrammatical, is very pointed, ishave you come to when yet? Have you entered into the high- priestly union of praying for your friends? When you do, god will turn your captivity.
Go thou into thy closet; shut thy door,
And pray to him in secret: he will hear.
But think not thou, by one wild bound, to clear
The numberless ascensions, more and more,
Of starry stairs that must be climbed, before
Thou comest to the fathers likeness near;
And bendest down to kiss the feet so dear
That, step by step, their mounting flights passed oer.
Be thou content, if on thy weary need
There falls a sense of showers and of the spring;
A hope that makes it possible to fling
Sickness aside, and go and do the deed:
For highest aspiration will not lead
Unto the calm beyond all questioning.
Subconscious prayer under the heading of prevailing prayer we come really to the subject of subconscious prayer. We mean by subconscious prayer the prayer that goes on in our unconscious mind, only occasionally bursting up into the conscious. Romans 8:2628 is the classical example of this:
Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of god. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love god, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit (Ephesians 6:18). Prayer in the spirit is not meditation, it is not reverie; it is being filled with the holy ghost who brings us as we pray into perfect union before god, and this union manifests itself in perseverance and supplication for all saints. Every saint of god knows those times when in closest communion with god nothing is articulated, and yet there seems to be an absolute intimacy not so much between gods mind and their mind as between gods spirit and their spirit.
The conscious and the subconscious life of our lord is explained perhaps in this way. Our lords sub- conscious life was deity, and only occasionally when he was on earth did the subconscious burst up into his conscious life. The subconscious life of the saint is the holy ghost, and in such moments of prayer as are alluded to in Romans 8:2628, there is an uprush of communion with god into the consciousness of the saint, the only explanation of which is that the holy ghost in the saint communicating prayers which can- not be uttered, acquaints us with the
Unrealised particulars of prayer
Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26)
This verse details for us our infirmities, our inability and our intercessor. The holy spirit has special prayers in every individual saint which bring him or her at times under the powerful searching of god to find out what is the mind of the spirit.
This searching of the heart is bewildering at first because we are tortured by our unsyllabled lack of utterance, but we are soon comforted by the realisation that god is searching our hearts not for the convicting of sin, but to find out what is the mind of the spirit. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh inter- cession for the saints according to the will of god. (verse 27)
Unrivalled power of prayer
This verse describes the spirits intercession before god, and identification with god going on in the personality of the saint, apart altogether from the saints conscious power of understanding. This can safely be called speechless prayer; we wait before god, lying fallow, as it were, while he answers the prayer the holy spirit is praying in us. The prayer of our lord in john 17 is closely allied with the intercession of the holy ghost, and this high-priestly prayer explains many, if not all, of the mysterious things a saint has to go through.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love god, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
This verse presents the unrecognised providence of prayer.
Unrecognised providence of prayer
The shrine of our conscious life is placed in a sacredness of circumstances engineered by god whereby he secures our effectual calling. That god engineers our circumstances for us if we accept his purpose in Christ Jesus is a thought of great practical moment.
Allow yourself to think for a little that you are to be a walking, living edition of the prayers of the holy spirit. No wonder god urges us to walk in the light! No wonder his spirit prays in us and makes intercessions with groanings we cannot utter. We may feel burdened or we may not; we may consciously know nothing about it; the point is that god puts us into circumstances where he can answer the prayers of his son and of the holy spirit. Remember the prayer of Jesus is that they may be one, even as we are one. That is a oneness of personality in which individuality is completely trans- figured; it is independence lost and identity revealed.
It is well to remember that it is the together of circumstances that works for good god changes our circumstances; sometimes they are bright, sometimes they are the opposite; but god makes them work together for our good, so that in each particular set of circumstances we are in, the spirit of god has a better chance to pray the particular prayers that suit his designs, and the reason is only known to god, not to us.
In James 5:1618 there is instruction for everyone. This might be called successful prayer. We are told that the great man Elijah is as a little man, Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are (verse 17); and that the great man prayed just as a little man, and he prayed earnestly; and the great man was answered just as a little man will be answered, by god. The phrase he prayed earnestly is literally, he prayed in prayer. Intercessory prayer is part of the sovereign purpose of god. If there were no saints praying for us, our lives would be infinitely balder than they are, consequently the responsibility of those who never intercede and who are withholding blessing from other lives is truly appalling. The subject of intercessory prayer is weakened by the neglect of the idea with which we ought to start. We take for granted that prayer is preparation for work, whereas prayer is the work, and we scarcely believe what the bible reveals, viz. , that through intercessory prayer god creates on the ground of the redemption; it is his chosen way of working. We lean to our own understanding, or we bank on service and do away with prayer, and consequently by succeeding in the external we fail in the eternal, because in the eternal we succeed only by prevailing prayer,
Perils of prayer
In conclusion it is as well to note one or two points in regard to the perils of prayer. Luke 22:31 reveals not only the possibility of Satan praying, but of his prayers being answered, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; and in psalm 106:1315, we have the prayer of sensuality. In both these instances prayer was answered. Satan was allowed to sift peter and the other disciples, with the result that after the resurrection they were ready to receive the holy ghost (see john 20:22), and we read that god gave the children of Israel their request, but sent leanness into their soul.
First john 5:16 deals with prayer and will. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: i do not say that he shall pray for it. Intercessory prayer for one who is sinning prevails, god says so. The will of the man prayed for does not come into question at all, he is connected with god by prayer, and prayer on the basis of the redemption sets the connection working and god gives life. There is, however, a distinct limitation put to intercessioni do not say that he shall pray for it. This is also illustrated in the prayers of Abraham for Sodom (see genesis 18:1633). The only way in which we can discern this limit of inter- cession is by living in continual communion with god and not in any wise leaning to our own understanding.
There are, so to speak, two types of redemptive effect in answer to intercession; the first where souls are saved; yet so as by fire; and the second where they are saved and brought into requisition for god in this life. The intercession for all men is on the former line and the intercession for particular cases is on the second. Beware of the philosophy with regard to the human will bringing factors in here that are distinctly absent in gods revelation about prayer. The fundamental basis of the human will deep down is inclined towards god, and prayer works wonders fundamentally. The prayer of the feeblest saint on earth who lives in the spirit and keeps right with god is a terror to Satan. The very powers of darkness are paralysed by prayer; no spiritualistic seance can succeed in the presence of a humble praying saint. No wonder satan tries to keep our minds fussy in active work till we cannot think in prayer. It is a vital necessity for Christians to think along the lines on which they pray. The philosophy of prayer is that prayer is the work.
Jesus Christ carries on intercession for us in heaven; the holy ghost carries on intercession in us on earth; and we the saints have to carry on intercession for all men.
There remains one further matter it is well to note, viz. , idle prayer.
Idle prayer
This subject of idle prayer is referred to by Charles kingsley5 in a letter written April 25, 1852:
You have said boldly, in words which pleased me much, though i differ from themthat i ought not to ask you to try to cure self-seeking by idle prayeras if a man by taking thought could add one cubit to his stature. I was pleased with the words; because they show me that you have found that there is a sort of prayer which is idle prayer, and that you had sooner not pray at all than in that way. Now of idle prayer i think there are two kinds: one of fetish prayer, when by praying we seek to alter the will of god concerning us. This is, and has been, and will be common enough and idle enough. For if the will of him concerning us be good, why should we alter it? If bad, what use praying to such a being at all? . . . Another, of praying to oneself to change oneself; by which i mean the common method of trying by prayer to excite oneself into a state, a frame, an experience. This too is common enough among protestants and papists, as well as among unitarians and rationalists. Indeed, some folks tell us that the great use of prayer is its reflex action on ourselves, and inform us that we can thus by taking thought add certain cubits to our stature. God knows the temptation to believe it is great. I feel it deeply. Nevertheless i am not of that belief.
The whole letter is well worth reading (Charles Kingsley: his letters and memories of his life).