PRAYER

I now assume that my young readers and their parents or teachers have followed me through the previous chapters, and have found for themselves the Lamb of God. I trust you now know that you are Christians, the sons and daughters of God by a living faith in Jesus Christ. The leading duty of your soul is piety -- love for God. This duty is taught in the words of Jesus: "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart" (Mat. 22:37). Foremost among all the obligations of piety is PRAYER -- the duty of worshipping God. Jesus taught his disciples that "men ought always to pray" Luke 18:1). "When thou prayest, enter thy closet" (Mat. 6:6). "And pray for them that despitefully use you" (Mat. 5:44). "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any" (Mark 11:25). Jesus was the man of prayer of the ages. He said a great deal about prayer, and told us how to pray, and what to pray for. He gave us plainly to understand that the Christian life was a life of prayer. For this reason I want to talk to the boys and girls in this chapter about PRAYER.

I. I want you to think of prayer not only as a sweet privilege, but also as a necessary duty. God has commanded us to pray as truly as he has commanded us to obey our parents or to keep the Sabbath. He can not bless us with spiritual blessings unless we pray.

A kind and loving father was about to leave home for a foreign land. He was to be absent all winter. On the evening before he started he said to his four children: "I want you each to write down on a slip of paper your wishes as to what I shall bring you. Ask fur just what you want and all you want." Three of them did as he bade them. They wrote down the names of the things they wanted, and gave the lists to him. But the fourth one said, "I am not going to ask for anything. I will leave papa, who loves me, to choose for me." The others said to her, "Papa bade us ask; and if we do not ask, it will look as if we did not believe him, and will be clearly disobeying him." But she would not be persuaded. And so their father carried away with him only three slips of paper as he went away on his long absence from home. When at last he came back and the presents were all displayed before the eager children, it was found that all their petitions had been more than fulfilled, and their joy knew no bounds. But there was one for whom there was not a single gift, -an abundance for others, but nothing for her. It seemed very hard. There was no joy for her, but only bitter, passionate tears.

Her father took her aside and told her that it was because she did not ask when he had bidden her to do so, that she received nothing. And then with great tenderness he explained to her that he had dealt with her in this manner, not to punish her for refusing to ask of him what she desired, but to impress upon her mind that Jesus must be obeyed when he says, "Ask, and it shall be given you" Luke 11:9).

Let us learn from this simple story that it is the duty even of a child Christian to pray.

II. Notice that there is a difference between secret closet prayer and public prayer in the prayer-meeting or in the Endeavor Society or the Epworth League. In secret prayer you are talking about private matters between you and God, and you use the words "I" and "my" and "me." "I pray thee, bless me." In public prayer you are supposed to be leading others in prayer and voicing the wants and needs of the whole company, and so you use the words "we" and "our" and "us." "We pray thee to bless us." In secret prayer we speak of personal sins and weaknesses and needs, of which it might not be proper to speak before the public; but in public each one is supposed to speak the petitions and longings of all hearts in common.

III. Notice the different elements in prayer. They are adoration, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, intercession. We will explain what these long words mean.

1.Adoration. When we pray, we must remember that we are poor, little, helpless sinners, coming into the presence of an infinite, holy and terrible God. How becoming, therefore, when we come into his presence, to adore and praise him with our lips and in our hearts. Daniel began his wonderful prayer by saying, "O Lord, the great and dreadful God" (Dan. 9:4). David came into God's presence, saying, "I will extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works. And I will declare thy greatness and shall sing of thy righteousness" (Ps. 145:1-7). All that is the spirit of adoration and homage and reverent praise which makes one's prayer pleasing to God.

2. After adoring God, the next most appropriate element in prayer is thanksgiving. All children know what that means. It is thanking God for his past mercies and blessings. How many they are! more than we can number or remember. This is the way David prayed: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies" (Ps. 103:1-4). Again he said: "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: to show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night" (Ps. 92:1-2). (See also Ps. 30, 1-4.) This is thanksgiving in prayer. If we expect God to continue to bless us with his good gifts, let us gratefully thank him for gifts already received.

3. The next most proper element in prayer is confession. David said in prayer: "I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight" (Ps. 51:3-4). Daniel prayed: "We have sinned and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments" (Dan. 9:5). How often we have all done these things that were displeasing to God! And how can we come before him acceptably in prayer without confessing our faults in deep repentance?

4. The next proper element in prayer is supplication. After we have adored and thanked and confessed, we may supplicate, or ask for blessings upon' ourselves, -- ask for pardon and mercy and grace. After confessing sin, David prayed: "Purge me, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Ps. 51:8-10). Daniel, after long confession, prayed: "O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy, fury be turned away" (Dan. 9:16). God is ready to hear reasonable requests from praising, confessing lips and grateful, penitent hearts.

"No, not despairingly,
Come I to Thee;
No, not distrustingly,
Bend I the knee;
Sin hath gone over me,
Yet is this still my plea,
Jesus hath died.

"Ah, mine iniquity
Crimson hath been;
Infinite, infinite
Sin upon sin;
Sin of not loving Thee,
Sin of not trusting Thee
Infinite sin.d, I confess to Thee,
Sadly my sin;
All I am tell I Thee,
All I have been;
Purge Thou my sin away
Wash Thou my soul this day;
Lord, make me clean."

-- Dr. H. Ronar

5. After adoring and thanking God for his goodness, confessing sin, and getting God's pardon, you are now ready to pray for others. That is intercession. Moses was making intercession when he fell on his face' before God and prayed: "O, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written" (Ex. 32:31-32). Samuel interceded for Israel when the people cried, "Pray for thy servants unto the Lord that we die not." And Samuel answered, "God forbid that I should sin against the .Lord in ceasing to pray for you" (1 Sam. 12:19-23). It is the person who is pardoned and right with God that can thus pray for others.

We have now seen what are the five elements in prayer. It still remains to consider

IV. The spirit in which prayer should be offered.

1. To avoid the sin of hypocrisy, we should pray with sincerity and earnestness. A coming before the great God in a careless and indifferent manner or with words which we do not mean, requesting things that we do not desire, would be little less than insulting and mocking God. Some one has said: "As a painted fire is no fire, and a dead man is no man, so a cold prayer is no prayer. In a painted fire there is no heat, in a dead man there is no life -- so in a cold prayer there is no power, no devotion, no blessing. Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as swords without edges, as birds without wings; they pierce not, they cut not, they fly not up to heaven." Let every boy or girl who prays to God say to the Infinite One what he really feels in language that' he really means. Do not mock God It is not the number, nor the length, nor the eloquence, nor the sweetness of our prayers, but their honesty that counts with God.

2. Pray with a submissive spirit. Even. Jesus, when praying in great agony, said: "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Mat. 26:39). We ought to learn to bring a great many requests to God, relating to our daily pursuits, our family and private affairs. Children should bring all their little interests and concerns and lay them before their Friend above. But we are all so ignorant that we do not always know what is best for us nor for those for whom we pray. We should, therefore, pray to our Heavenly Father with a submissive spirit, willing that he should give or withhold as seemeth to him good. David fasted and prayed for the life of his sick child, but God saw that it was not best that the child should live. When it died, David arose and worshipped. Present all your requests to God, and then accept cheerfully the decision of his wisdom and love.

3. Pray with the spirit of faith. God says, "Without faith it is impossible to please him" (Heb. 10:6). "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). Let every boy or girl when he prays believe that God hears and answers prayer. God will hear you, and if the things you ask are in harmony with his will, and you ask in faith and with the right spirit, he will answer your prayer.

"Have faith in God, for he who reigns on high
Hath borne thy grief, and hears the suppliant's sigh;
Still to his arms, thine only refuge, fly!
Have faith in God."

4. Pray with a forgiving spirit. Jesus said, "If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Mat. 6:15). Put away all ill-will and enmity and hatred and grudges out of the heart, and then pray.

5. Ask everything for Jesus' sake, for his honor and glory. Jesus said: "Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name; ask, and ye shall receive. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you" (John 16:23-24). A bank-draft without a name at the bottom is nothing but a worthless bit of paper. The signature gives it all its value. So the prayer of a poor mortal is a feeble thing in itself, but if offered for Jesus' sake and is signed by him, it will be acceptable to God.

Let us now write a simple prayer appropriate for a child, having the elements of prayer in it which we have described. It would be well to commit it to memory.

A CHILD'S PRAYER

ADORATION. -- Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thou art an infinite and holy God, and as such we, thy feeble, unworthy children, reverently approach thee in prayer.

THANKSGIVING. -- We thank thee for all the blessings thou hast given us, for our life and daily mercies, for parents and teachers, for our homes and our Church, for our Sabbath-school and prayer-meeting, and the Bible and all the means of grace. Above all we thank thee for the gift of thy Son to die for us, and the Holy Spirit to lead us and teach us.

CONFESSION. -- We confess, we have not deserved all these blessings.-- We have not loved thee, the giver of them, as we ought. We have not been careful to obey thee and do thy holy will.

SUPPLICATION. -- O forgive us our many sins, and give us clean hearts, and help us to obey thee and love thee, and serve thee. May thy Spirit enable us to do thy will at all times!

INTERCESSION. -- And bless, with us, our friends and those who are dear to us.-Perhaps some of them do not love Jesus. O be merciful unto them, and incline their hearts to forsake their sins and accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord! And this we ask in the name of Jesus and for his sake. Amen.

QUESTIONS

1. Is the Christian life a life of prayer?
2. Is it our duty to pray?
3. What difference is there between public and secret prayer?
4. What are the different elements of prayer?
5. What is it to adore God?
6. What is thanksgiving?
7. What is confession?
8. What is supplication?
9. What is intercession?
10. Are sincerity and submission necessary?
11. Must you have faith and a forgiving spirit?
12. Must everything be asked for Jesus' sake?

Sing with this lesson: 1. "Sweet hour of prayer;" 2. "More about Jesus."