PRAYER is the soul's sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed;
The motion of a hidden fire,
That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of the eye
When none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;

Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high.

Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice

Returning from his ways,

While angels in their songs rejoice,
And cry, Behold he prays!

Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,
The Christian's native air;
His watchword at the gates of death;
He enters heaven with prayer.

The saints in prayer appear as one
In word, and deed, and mind;
While with the Father and the Son
Sweet fellowship they find.

Nor prayer is made by man alone :
The Holy Spirit pleads,

And Jesus, on the eternal throne,
For mourners intercedes.

O Thou by whom we come to God!
The Life, the Truth, the Way!
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod :
Lord! teach us how to pray!

JAMES MONTGOMERY, 1819

CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE PRAYER.

Acquiescence in the Will of God, the highest attainment in Prayer.-Prayer for specific blessings is a very different thing from communion with God. Prayer is one thing, petition is quite another. Indeed, hints are given us which make it seem that a time will come when spirituality shall be so complete, and acquiescence in the will of God so entire, that petition shall be superseded. "In that day ye shall ask Me nothing." "Again, I say not I will pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loveth you." And to the same purpose are all those passages in which He discountenances the heathen idea of prayer, which consists in urging, prevailing upon God. “They think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him."

Practically then, I say, Pray as He did, till prayer makes you cease to pray. Pray till prayer makes you forget your own wish, and leave it or merge it in God's will. The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape the evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it. "There appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him." That was the true reply to His prayer.

And so, in the expectation of impending danger, our prayer has won the victory, not when we have warded off the trial, but when, like Him, we have learned to say, "Arise, let us go to meet the evil."

Rev. F. W. ROBERTSON, M.A., Sermons, 4th Series, p. 31.

Ancient Definition of Prayer.-The ancients ably defined prayer as Ascensus mentis ad Deum, a climbing up of the heart unto God. LUTHER'S Table Talk, cccxxviii.

Asking and Receiving: the Essence of Prayer.-Yet into such labyrinths of confusion, and such mazes of perplexity, has theological thinking brought itself, that a stark rejection of this doctrine is no very rare phenomenon in modern theology, so called. Prayer, instead of that distinct, specific blessed thing,—an asking for the sake of receiving, is—what shall we say? or rather, what do some men not say it is? A convenient name for almost any reputable deed or any innocent state: prayer is want; prayer is well-doing, or well-wishing; a good life is prayer; to work morally is prayer; to have a general sense of subjection to the Infinite is to pray. There is no enumerating these loose rhetorical, paradoxical, and superficial definitions. The only radical feature in which they are all agreed, is in shading off prayer into some other thing that is not prayer, and should have another name; in confounding things that differ; in destroying that one essential ingredient without which no prayer can be,—an asking on the part of man for a granting on the part of God.

one.

F. D. HUNTINGDON, D.D., Sermons for the People, p. 37

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Calmness of Spirit in Prayer.-Prayer is in all ordinary cases, and it ought to be, a calm and peaceful exercise, not an agitating Some persons waste the hour of prayer in trying to feel deep agitation, imagining that sincere and acceptable prayer cannot be offered without it. You must be sincere when you pray, but you may be calm. Read our Saviour's model of prayer. What a peaceful, quiet spirit it breathes! The only question in regard to your prayer being acceptable is this:-Do you wish for anything which you know no one but God can grant, and are you willing to ask Him in the name of Jesus Christ? If so come at once and ask Him. That is what is necessary to constitute prayer. Ask with that degree of feeling which your interest in the request prompts, and no more. If you wish to increase your feeling, you cannot do it in any way except by seeking deeper interest in the request. You may obtain a much more correct estimate of the value of the object sought, by thinking of it, and considering how great a blessing it would be to you if granted, and thus you may increase your ardour in prayer. But all direct attempts to produce this ardour by effort will fail, or if they succeed in producing some sort of excitement, it is not a healthy state of mind.

JACOB ABBOTT, The Young Christian, chap. iii.

Definition of Prayer.-Prayer is that blessed messenger between heaven and earth, holding a correspondence with both worlds, and by a happy intercourse and sure conveyance carrying up the necessities of the one, and bringing down the bounties of the other. ROBERT SOUTH, D.D., Sermons, vol. iii., p. 384.

Definition of Prayer.-Prayer and the answer of prayer, according to the popular and we shall even say the natural understanding, are simply, the preferring of a request upon the one side, and compliance with that request upon the other. Man applies, God complies. Man asks a favour, God bestows it. These are conceived to be the two terms of a real interchange that takes place between the parties-the two terms of a sequence, in fact, whereof the antecedent is a prayer lifted up from the earth, and the consequent is the fulfilment of that prayer by virtue of a mandate from heaven.

T. CHALMERS, D.D., Natural Theology, book v. chap. iii. p. 321.

Definition of Prayer.-Prayer is the application of want to Him who alone can relieve it, the voice of sin to Him who alone can pardon it. It is the urgency of poverty, the prostration of humility, the fervency of penitence, the confidence of trust. It is not eloquence, but earnestness; not figures of speech, but compunction of soul. It is the "Lord, save, I perish" of drowning Peter.... It is not a mere conception of the mind nor an effort of the intellect, nor an act of the memory, but an elevation of the soul towards its Maker. It is the devout breathing of a creature struck with a sense of its own misery and of the infinite holiness of Him whom it is addressing, experimentally convinced of its own emptiness and of the abundant fulness of God, of His readiness to hear, of His power to help, of His willingness to save. . . . Prayer is right in itself as the most powerful means of resisting sin and advancing in holiness. It is above all might, as everything is, which has the authority of Scripture, the command of God, and the example of Christ.

HANNAH MORE, Reflections on Prayer.

Nature of Prayer.-Prayer is not a consultation with the highest wisdom which this world can supply. It is not intercourse with

an angel or a spirit made perfect. But it is an approach to the living God. It is access to the high and holy One who inhabiteth eternity. It is detailing in the ear of Divine sympathy every sorrow. It is consulting with Divine wisdom on every difficulty. It is asking from Divine resources the supply of every want. And this not once in a lifetime, or for a few moments on a stated day of each year, but at any moment, at every time of need.

JAMES HAMILTON, D.D., Mount of Olives, p. 70.

Dependence, the Foundation of Prayer. -The feeling of dependence is the instinct which urges us to pray. It is the feeling that our existence and welfare are in the hands of a superior Power ;-not of an inexorable fate or immutable law; but of a Being having at least so far the attributes of personality, that He can show favour or severity to those dependent upon Him, and can be regarded by them with the feelings of hope and fear, and reverence and gratitude. It is a feeling similar in kind, though higher in degree, to that which is awakened in the mind of the child towards his parent, who is first manifested to his mind as the giver of such things as are needful, and to whom the first language he addresses is that of entreaty. . . With the first development of consciousness, there grows up, as a part of it, the innate feeling that our life, natural and spiritual, is not in our power to sustain or to prolong;—that there is One above us on whom we are dependent, whose existence we learn, and whose presence we realize, by the sure instinct of Prayer.

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Dean MANSEL, The Limits of Religious Thought, p. 72.

Desire, the Soul of Prayer.-It is of the greatest moment to bear in mind that prayer is the uplifting of desire; and nothing else is prayer. No amount of supplicatory word-grinding is of the nature of prayer. No amount of solemn toning is of the nature of prayer. No mere reading of David's prayers, or Paul's prayers or any other man's prayers is prayer. No mere hearing of prayer is prayer. No mere utterance of the words that are the appropriate vehicles of prayer is prayer. Without desire there can be no real prayer to any being. Without desire lifted up to God, there can be and there is no real prayer to God.