The Golden Gate of Prayer

M.HE Lord’s Prayer is short, but every word of U is laden with precious meaning. In its Jew petitions it covers the whole field of prefer. It is ea to repeat its we have been saying them from infancy; hut U is hard to say U through as a real prayer, Jbr it means the consecration of our whole life to God, and the submission qfwHl, ctffections, a7ui service to him. These chapters are not eapositions — tJiey are no more than studies. Their aim is to help in a devotional way by calling attention to the meaning of the several petitions, which too often is lost to our thought because of our familiarity with the sacred words.

J. R. M.
Philadelphia.

**My inmost soul, 0 Lord, to thee

Leans Uke a ffrotoinff Jlmoer
Unto the light, I do not know

The day nor blessed hour
When that deepooted, daring growth

We call the hearts desire
Shall burst and blossom to a prayer

Within the sacred fire
Of thy greai patience; grow so pure.

So still, so sweet a thing
As perfect prayer must surely 6«.”

“after tW ^annet”

AY we pray? The question is a very important one. There are some who tell us that we may not, that there is no ear to hear, no one anywhere who cares for us and who could do anjrthing for us if he did care. A great Force at the centre of things cannot hear the cries of human distress on the earth or answer them. If that is the only God there is, prayer is vain and nothing comes from it but mocking echoes.

If, however, we accept the teaching of Jesus Christ concerning God, there is no doubt that we may pray. There is one to hear, and that one is our Father. This is the truest answer to all the perplexities about prayer, to all the questions that arise concerning it. God is our Ct)e ^oinen att of IPtapet

Father, and we axe his children. If we accept this name as a definition of God and as indicating the relation God bears to us and we bear to him, there need be no further question whatever concerning the privilege or the benefit of prayer.

Jesus gave many teachings regarding prayer. The Lords Prayer gathers these teachings together into an example in a few great sentences. This prayer seems to us very simple and easy, but like all of our Lords words its petitions are wide and deep, each one carrying an ocean of meaning.

For one thing, the Lords Prayer teaches us that we all need to pray. Not to pray is to cut ourself off altogether from God, the source of all good, of all blessing, of all life. No doubt there are men who do not pray and who yet seem to live on and to receive mercies and blessings from God. He does not cut them off fix)m his love though they pay him no honor, recognize him not as their Father. This tells us how gracious [2] after tibtsi fanner God is. “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.*” He continues to love even when his love is slighted and rejected. He never shuts the door on his child — it stands open day and night to the last.

Nevertheless he is an infinite loser who does not pray. He is leaving out of his life all the best things. He is gathering the weeds and pebbles that lie at his feet and missing the crowns which hang above him, ready to be taken and worn. He is missing the love, the companionship and the help of God, without which life in the end can be only a poor shrivelled thing, to be cast out to perish. The first thing one begins to do when one comes to ones self, when one has been born from above, is to pray. The Lord said of Saul, an hour ago a fierce persecutor, now a Christian, “Behold, he prayeth.*” That was evidence enough that Saul was no longer a dangerous enemy, that he was now a Christian man. Christs teaching makes prayer very easy. We [3]

0)t (Z^oIDen (tate of Ptapet

do not have to journey far off to some temple of marble and gold to talk with our Father. We do not have to learn a system of theology in order to be able to pray acceptably. It is not necessary for us to approach God in some august way, with elaborate ceremonial, in order to be heard by him. We are to come in the simplest way.

“After this manner*” does not mean saying always even the few words of the form of prayer which our Lord gave to us, but refers rather to the spirit of our praying. We are to pray as children. This makes it easy. It is not hard for a child to tell a loving parent its wants, to open its heart and reveal its inner feelings and desires. The most timid child, who shrinks from strangers, feels no embarrassment in the mother’*s presence. Glorious as God is, overwhelming as is the majesty which bums about his throne, his children should never dread drawing near to him. We may come boldly to his throne, for it is a throne of grace and love. [4] znttemnet’

“To stretch my hand and touch him.
Though he be Jar amay;
To raise nuf eyes aind see him

Through darkness as through day;
To lift my voice and call him — This is to pray!

To feel a hand extended

By One who standeth near;
To view the love that shineth

In eyes serene and clear;
To know that he is calling — This is to hear r

The Lords Prayer tells us what we should pray for. It is very brief, but its petitions are most comprehensive. We should study them in order to learn what we may bring to God in our prayer. We do not know what to pray for as we ought. In nothing else do we need the help of Christ more than in making our requests of Grod. Ofttimes the things we think we need most sorely are not by any means our deepest, most real needs. A man was brought to Jesus €bt (Z^oIDen (tate of Ptapet

to have his paralysis cured. That was the prayer which he and his friends made in coming; it was for this that the four men who carried their helpless burden manifested such earnestness, overcoming so many obstacles and hindrances; they thought that this was the man’s most pressing need. Jesus looked into the mans life and saw that he had another need greater than this, and first forgave his sins, afterwards cming his paralysis. Forgiveness is always a sorer need than the healing of any sickness. We come to God continually with cries for the taking away of some trial or the supplying of some want. Grod looks at us and says, My child, that is not what you need most to have done.“” He then gives us, not what we have asked, but what he sees we ought to have asked. We are apt, in our praying, to give more thought to the things that concern our physical life than to those which concern our higher, spiritual interests. We tell God of our sicknesses, and ask him to heal them. We pray to [6] ‘’after tl)t»90annet’

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