01 - General Observations on Prayer

Chapter 1 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER The Mercy Seat was the covering of the ark of the covenant. At each end of this overshadowing oracle was a cherub of pure and massive gold, stretching out its wings, each toward the other, and forming a sort of throne. There was the visible emblem of the divine presence, and "God appeared in the cloud." There the high priest took of the blood of the bullock of the sin-offering, " and sprinkled it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward, seven times." The book of the Law was there, protected by the ark of the covenant, and bearing the marks of atoning blood. It was God’s throne of grace, and where the thrilling words were often addressed, " O thou who art seated between the cherubim!" It was the place of prayer: "There will I meet thee," says God to Moses, "and I will commune with thee from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony."

We wish the reader to go with us to that mercy seat. We doubt not he has often been there, and listened to the instructions, as well as been comforted by the hopes uttered from the holy oracle. We are not introducing him to new scenes, nor do we profess to interest him with novel truths. There is nothing new on the subject of prayer. How can there be ? It is addressed to the same Being, by creatures of the same fallen character; it is expressive of the same affections, and under the influence of the same Spirit ; it utters, for the most part, the same precious thoughts, and for the same ends.

There are men who have questioned the propriety of prayer; but they are those who, though they need the most, are most slow to ask. There are those who feel insuperable objections to it; but they are only the objections of a prayerless heart. There are those who feel strong temptations to neglect it ; but it is because Satan, that great deceiver, is well aware that the man whose home is the mercy seat is no longer the victim of his delusions. And there are those who have no comfort in it, and therefore restrain prayer before God. Yet is there no duty the Scriptures more explicitly enforce; no source of consolation which they more abundantly magnify.

Prayer is the language of desire ; it is " the offering up of our desires to God." It is the devotional thoughts and affections of the soul expressed in words. No spiritual emotions enter more intimately into the experience of the Christian, or more truly form the character of his piety, than those which are felt and expressed in his habitual intercourse with God. If he has adoring views of his Maker, and humbling views of himself; if he hungers and thirsts after righteousness ; if he has strong confidence and joy; if his desires go out toward the enlargement and beautifying of the church of God on the earth, and the salvation of men ; nowhere do these internal emotions and desires find utterance so truly as in prayer. Where these devout affections exist with anything like ardor and intensity, they are uttered by a sort of necessity. Such persons cannot help praying. It is not possible that emotions thus deep and spiritual, thus high-born and heaven imparted, should remain silent and smothered within the bosom. The heart is too deeply affected by them not to seek this relief.

Prayer is the language of nature, because it is the language of desire and want. Even the "young lions, when they wander for lack of meat, cry unto God !’ The veriest infidel, the vile atheist, in seasons of great public calamity, or personal danger and suffering, forget their infidelity and atheism, and pray. Emphatically then is it true of the Christian, that he is a man of prayer. Though he knows that his neglect of prayer will not prevent the Father of mercies from causing his sun to shine upon the evil and upon the good, nor his rain from descending on the just and the unjust ; his own heart will not allow him to live in that neglect. The divine bounty may still deck the earth with verdure and clothe it with fertility, and he may be a partaker of this, God’s impartial goodness, while it is unsolicited ; yet is there something within his own heart that constrains him to pray. He has wants which nothing but prayer can supply ; spiritual necessities, wants of the soul, which without prayer feeds on husks. Just as the plant strikes its roots into the ground to draw thence its vigor and nutriment ; just as the flower opens its bosom to the sunlight and the dew ; so the soul, by prayer, has communication with the God of all grace, and places itself under the kind influences of his love. It is like the stream cut off from its fountain, when it ceases to pray. It is like the plant that grows in the shade, pale and sickly ; the sport of the winds, and blown about by the tempests of passion and the storms of earth, because it seeks not this heavenly protection and aliment.

Those who know most of the power of prayer, are themselves the witnesses of the strength and fervor of its desires. None have felt more deeply than they, that they cannot break the bondage of sin, nor, when once broken, can they enjoy the liberty of God’s children, without strong crying and many tears. " Having escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of God their Saviour," they are sure to be again " entangled in them and overcome," if they live without prayer. Those periods of their history in which their faith has been the most weak, their love cold, their zeal relaxed and wearied ; when their relish for heavenly contemplation became dull and insipid, and they " savored not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men;" and when they cast their eye backward upon the world and its pleasures; were seasons in which their lukewarmness, if it did not shut them out of their closets, shut them out from all communion with God. The degree of interest which men take in this religious service, may be uniformly looked upon as a sort of moral barometer by which they may ascertain the elevations and depressions of their spiritual state. The mercy seat is the place where the Shekinah dwells, and where, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, the suppliant is transformed into the same image, from glory to glory. It is the mountain-top, which catches the last rays of the sun when it no longer shines on the vale below. The examples of prayer furnished in the Bible are exemplifications of true, sincere, and strong desire. The only rebukes to prayer ever uttered in the sacred volume are against those supplications in which the desires of the soul have no part, where the heart is wanting, and where the most solemn offerings are but " vain oblations."

Every gracious affection has both its aliment and expression in prayer. Its adoring love is there uttered, sometimes breaking out in the ecstasy of joy, and exclaiming, " Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on the earth that I desire beside thee !" There too are the expressions of its penitence, weeping at the feet of mercy, sorrowing for the past, covering its face, and in prostration of soul before the offended majesty of heaven, uttering its purposes of new obedience. There are the acting’s of its confidence, the simplicity of its trust in God, as well as the frequent renewal of that endearing and joyful submission to the divine claims which was the turning point in the sinner’s progress from darkness to light. There too are the more abundant utterances of his gratitude. A thankful acknowledgment of God’s mercies forms no small part of prayer. No man has received so few mercies, that he has nothing to thank his Maker for when he approaches his throne in acts of worship. A sinner has reason for songs of praise as long as he is out of hell. Not returning thanks to God, is one great reason why our prayers are not more frequently answered. Christians sometimes pray as though they had nothing to do but mourn. Ministers sometimes appear before God as the mouth of his church, as if she was in a state of condemnation. This is unwarranted, and characterizes a spirit of bondage. " Be careful for nothing," says the Apostle, "but in everything, by prayer, and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." We would not offend against the generation of God’s children, much less would we depreciate the sighs of a broken, contrite heart, when we say, that grief and mourning are not the only emotions which become the mercy seat. There is no fear of our ever being too penitent and humble. " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart he will not despise." The prayer of the publican when he stood afar off and smote upon his breast, and said " God be merciful to me a sinner," is a strong rebuke to the spirit of self-righteousness and Pharisaic self-complacency in prayer. There are seasons when the heart is so burdened with a sense of sin, that it can do little else than mourn. But, while these things are true, and important truths, we are not to forget, that " the fruit of the spirit is love, peace and joy’ There may be self-righteous tears, as well as hopes of self-righteousness. It is not unfitting in a sinner to call upon God " with joyful lips." The meek and subdued cheerfulness, the holy joy of piety, greatly honor the God of our salvation. If I mistake not, those are the most acceptable offerings, and those the most profitable seasons of prayer, and the most invigorating for duty and trial, when the soul most rejoices in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer is an humble, but not a servile spirit. There is more cheerful thanksgiving in the heart of a praying man, than in all the men of the world put together. ’’ I will bless the Lord," says the Psalmist, ’’ at all times ; his praise shall be continually in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord ; the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together !"

Prayer is a very different thing from saying a prayer. As the language of desire, it is marked by great tenderness, great sincerity, and great simplicity. God who searches the heart has said, that he acknowledges not the worship of the lips. One great reason why the divine presence is so little felt in our devotional exercises is, that our hearts are not in our prayers. Prayer brings the soul of man into contact with his Maker. How unlike that cold, formal, listless manner in which both those who pray, and those who concur in this service, often draw nigh to the mercy seat, and practice their mockeries before God, even in his sanctuary ! The object of prayer is the living God. Nor let this be deemed too common-place a thought; would that it had a place more common in the mind of every worshiper. There is no truth the Scriptures teach more frequently than that God is the only object of religious worship. To no mere creature on earth, or in heaven, may men bend the knee in prayer. " Thou shalt have no other gods before me." It is written, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." The Bible knows nothing of the idolatries of that anti-Christian system of worship, which justifies the use of images, and prayers offered to saints and angels. Notwithstanding the frivolous distinctions insisted on by the advocates of this system, as to the different kinds and degrees of religious homage thus paid to creatures, the minds of the great mass of the people are unaffected by these refinements. The practical influence of such worship is a positive encroachment on the honors of the Supreme Being, who is a jealous God, and will not give his glory to another. It is difficult to see how any mind, however constituted, can preserve the simplicity of its devotion and dependence unimpaired, amidst these external symbols and multiplied objects of adoration.

Such is not the worship of the only living and true God. Of all this bowing at the shrines of departed saints, this reverence of the consecrated wafer, and this adoration of the host, these votive offerings, and fervent, solemn invocations addressed to the Virgin, this entire machinery of the crucifix, the statues, the paintings, and all the apparatus by which theatrical effect is produced, and the imagination and senses captivated and enslaved, we may well say, " What meaneth this device ?" The voice of God demands of all such idolaters, ’’ Who hath required this at your hands?" Prayer is an act of worship. " Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God ; for unto thee will I pray." God only is omnipresent to see the worshipers, and to hear their worship. "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ear is open to their cry." He only can accept and answer their prayers. " The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him; that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him ; he will also hear their cry, and will save them." But if God is the only object of prayer, what is the way of access to him ? Is it through men ? or through the ministration of angels ? or by martyred saints ? or by our own merit and righteousness ? These inquiries suggest solemn and affecting thoughts. The character of the suppliants is sufficiently humbling; the Being they address ineffably great and exalted. It is a most wonderful fact that abject man, man that is "fallen by his iniquity," should have intercourse with the high and holy One. On the lips of a sinning creature, that fearful name, the Lord thy God, is a name of solemn import. O weigh the vast meaning of these words! Well may a holy fear take possession of the heart, and awe it into reverence as it approaches the King Eternal, Immortal, and Invisible. His greatness knows no bounds ; his perfections are infinite ; his spirituality is unmingled and pure ; his existence has no beginning and will have no end. He is all-seeing, yet unseen; the most distant yet the most near; comprehending all, and comprehended by none ; containing all. while nothing contains him. There is nothing but he controls by his power; nothing but what lives and moves within the compass of his immensity. Spotless cherubim, when they worship him, cover their faces with their wings, and " say one to another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory !" " The wicked shall not stand in his sight, he hateth all the workers of iniquity.’ The nearer the sinful and polluted come to him, the nearer do they come to " a consuming fire." To the perverse, rebellious, and guilty children of an apostate race, his throne might well be overshadowed with clouds and darkness, and made repulsive and inaccessible. The glory of man is fallen ; he is sunk in the dust ; he has no wings to soar to the high privilege of communing’ with a holy God.

Yet even man, fallen, aspires after this ; his desires, corrupted as they are, have a sort of inbred tendency toward something above and beyond this narrow world. He is not satisfied without God ; nor can he ever be happy, until he returns to the bosom of his aggrieved and forsaken Father. And, wondrous fact, men thus polluted and vile, instead of cringing as slaves before his throne under the terrifying expressions of his omnipotent justice, are drawn to it as sons, and by the attractions of his love.

There is " a new and living way into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus Christ." Access to God as the hearer of prayer is the effect only of that great work of redeeming mercy in which the second person of the ever-blessed and adorable Trinity came to seek and save those which were lost, and advance them to the privileges of children. We have nothing of our own to plead ; yet in his name may our prayer go up as incense, and the lifting up of our hands as an acceptable sacrifice. Humbling and prostrating as the consideration is, we have not a rag of righteousness left us, in which we may appear before the throne. The worthiness is not in us. Christ’s name, Christ’s sacrifice, Christ’s righteousness, Christ’s work, Christ’s entire mediation as the atoning, interceding High Priest, form the center and channel of all God’s communications with apostate men, and the medium of their access to God. ’’For through him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father." It is not possible for a sinner to find any other way of access. In the religion of a sinner, the mediation of the Son of God is the great elementary principle. Natural religion is of no use to him, and only leads to the neglect of that which is revealed. Natural religion is only for beings that are sinless. As sinners, we can have nothing to do with God, except through Christ. We have freedom of access only in that way which he has consecrated by his blood. We have no other. " I," saith he, " am the way, and the truth, and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by me’’ He is the altar whence the hallowed incense arises which is expressive of the purity and ardor of a true devotion. We have " an altar," says the Apostle, " whereof they have no right to eat which serve at the tabernacle :" an altar that abolishes all other altars ; a sacrifice that abolishes all other sacrifices ; a name that is above every name. " The altar sanctifies the gift." And well it may sanctify it. It was erected not by the hands of men; the invisible God erected it on holy ground, in the center of this perishing world. There, " without the gate" of the Holy City, where God laid on him the iniquity of us all, and the fires of eternal justice consumed the priest, the altar, and the sacrifice, that way to the mercy seat was opened, without which all amicable intercourse between heaven and earth had been forever suspended.

We dwell on the thought, that prayer is offered in the name of Christ, because, obvious as it is, it is both in theory and in practice a very important thought. Men have no more access to God than the devils have, save in this "new way which he hath consecrated through the veil, that is to say, his flesh." It is no small matter for a man whose conscience is burdened by a sense of guilt, to find access. He who has never experienced this embarrassment, has yet to learn that he is a sinner. We may be almost certain, that if our prayers are put up in the name of Christ, and not answered, there is something wrong about them ; and we may be quite certain there is everything wrong about them, if they are not offered in the name of Christ. The promise is absolute, ’’ Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." Yet to pray in the name of Christ, is not simply to use the words. There is no spiritual spell in the mere words. They cannot charm away guilt, nor charm answers to our supplications. To pray in the name of Christ, comprises a heart-felt acknowledgment of him as the only appointed and accepted way to the throne. The mere intellectual perception of this truth, is not enough. It must be believed and felt ; with all its humbling, encouraging import, it must be received into the heart. The soul must have an immediate and direct reference to it in all her prayers; it must be confided in, and carried into the chamber of audience.

Prayer has power and influence. The spirit of prayer and the blessing of God have ever stood abreast, and gone hand in hand in his government of the world. " For all these things I will be inquired of by the house of Israel," says he, " to do it for them." A prayerless man is an unblest man ; a prayerless Church is languid, inert, and unblest. Those portions of God’s heritage which have been most distinguished for the spirit of prayer, have known most of the power and presence of God, and been most distinguished for the effusions of his Spirit. Whenever he is about to do great things for his people, he rouses them from their lukewarmness, and stirs them up to prayer. There is no surer criterion by which to judge if God is about to do great things for them, than an unusual spirit of prayer. It was so in the days of the Old Testament dispensation, and it is so under the New. It was so on the day of Pentecost, and it will be so when the scattered families of that same people are gathered in. " I will pour out upon them," says God, ’’the spirit of grace and supplication, and they shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn." He " hath not said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face, in vain." O thou that hearest prayer, is one of the usual appellations by which he is addressed in the Holy Scriptures. This is one of the names by which he is known, and this is his memorial to all generations. No small part of the Scriptural history is employed in recounting the achievements of prayer. A selection of the prayers recorded in the Scriptures, with a detailed account of the manner in which they were answered, would form an instructive and edifying volume to the people of God. He has pledged his faithfulness as the hearer of prayer, both to his Son and to his people ; and facts there recorded show, and facts hereafter to be recorded will show also, that he is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. There is perhaps no more impressive proof of the power of prayer than the fact that God represents himself as embarrassed by the prayers of his people when he is about to make bare his arm in judgment against his enemies. " Let me alone," said He to Moses, " that I may destroy this people." " I do not say that he shall pray for it," is a limitation confined to the unpardonable sin. It is indeed a marvelous truth, which God himself has revealed, that " the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much." The men of prayer look for answers to their supplications, and they are warranted in so doing. One of the differences between the prayers of Christians and the prayers of other men, is that the latter pray without minding the answers, while the former wait for an answer, and in substance if not in form, and in God’s own time, they get it.

Prayer, therefore, is an unspeakable privilege. For a creature, like fallen man, to be allowed to draw nigh to the Holy God, and express all the desires of his heart, in the name, and plead the full merits of Him in whom the Eternal Father is well pleased, is indeed the privilege of sons. Abject man, man that is fallen by his iniquity, enjoys this privilege. The hour of prayer is the appointed hour of this communion. Here the Father of mercies meets his offending creature with the smile of reconciliation ; and here the creature, with a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, meets his offended, but gracious and reconciled Father. There are few declarations in the Bible, which, in the entire range of their instructions, are more richly fraught with the consolation which a sinner needs, than the declaration made by God to Moses, when he said, " And thou shalt make the mercy seat above upon the ark ; and in the ark shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there will I meet thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat." It is the communion of the created, with the uncreated mind ; a creature of yesterday holding converse with him who is from everlasting ; a creature who knows nothing, in intimate and unembarrassed intercourse with him who knows all things ; one, who for his abjectness is as a worm. and who for his sinfulness might make sackcloth his covering, tranquil and comforted in the presence of that holy Lord God, Nor is there any longer any one appointed place of prayer. ’’ In all places where I record my name," says He, " I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." Territorial divisions, secular and ecclesiastical demarcations, earthly distinctions, are all banished here. It is God’s communion with the king and the beggar, with those who are near on the land, and those who are afar off upon the sea. True piety is the same thing everywhere, because God is everywhere the same object of worship, and the same hearer of prayer. To different climes, and all the different classes of men, to men of the various habits of thought, to men of manual toil and men of intellectual study, to the cool and tranquil philosopher, the patient historian, and the imaginative and ardent poet, the throne of grace brings substantially the same consolations, and calls forth the same warm emotions of grateful and adoring love, melting penitence, and implicit faith. The duty of prayer is itself a delightful duty. It ordinarily presents the most lovely assemblage of those spiritual graces, and those intellectual perceptions and moral qualities of soul, in which true religion has been universally found to exist. There is no sweeter assemblage of gracious affections ever presented to that all-seeing eye which looketh on the heart, and of which the renewed nature of man is conscious. And for this reason it presents the most lovely and most enviable assemblage of spiritual joys. If there is true blessedness anywhere, it is in the indulgence of such affections. They give pleasure to the mind; they are happy feelings so long as they exist, and afford the purest, the highest satisfaction of which sinful man is capable. There is additional joy, too, in the discovery of them; for though all may not be alike conscious of them, nor the same persons equally conscious at all times, there is a discovery of them at the throne of grace which is ordinarily made only there.

If there are good men who do not always enjoy the delightful conviction of their own gracious state in prayer, there are none who do not sometimes there enjoy it. No man should depreciate it because he cannot come so near the throne as Abraham came; or because he cannot converse with God face to face, as Moses did; or because he cannot, like John, lean on the bosom of his Divine Lord ; or because he may not, like Paul, be caught up into the third heavens. It is proof of the reality of his faith, if he may there but lament its weakness. And if it is delightful to feel gracious affections at the throne of heaven’s mercy; if it is delightful to be conscious of them; still more delightful is it to express them. It were bondage and misery to express them unfelt ; but to feel and express them, to be conscious of them and offer them to God, to make the offering in the name and on the merits of the Great Atoning High Priest, poor and humble as the offering is, it is itself adapted to gratify and invigorate these affections themselves, to increase and accumulate them. It is thus they become the consecrated conductors of spiritual blessings from God’s high throne to many an otherwise depressed and mourning spirit on this low earth.

Secrets may be committed to God that cannot be committed to another. It is relief which the world knows not of, if but to spread before Him the secret wants of the soul ; to tell them one by one ; to tell them all. The conscience, wounded by a sense of sin, finds healing there. Want there finds supply; distrust finds confidence, and depression praise. Ignorance is enlightened there ; poverty is enriched, and weakness becomes strong. Darkness is there dissipated, and trembling hopes encouraged. The bruised reed is not broken there, nor is the smoking flax quenched. Grace there cherishes what it bestows, and completes what it begins.

Spiritual enemies are there disarmed, or if not disarmed, there is the armor for renewed and successful conflict. Not like angels’ visits, that are few and far between, the promises there habitually visit and refresh the soul, cheer its gloom, and comfort it when it is weary.

There are no broken cisterns at the mercy seat ; it is all a fountain of living water, where streams flow from it, without which this earth were a desert. They who are most engaged in the duty of prayer, have tasted most of its consolations. In the hour of trouble especially, it brings the soul near to the only source of comfort. That man is truly wretched, who, when earthly enjoyments fail, has no other to which he can resort; while he who can come to the footstool of God’s mercy is never wretched. It is no barren land, but one where the heavens are opened, and waters are poured upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. It is no place of storms and tempest; but a hiding from the storm, and from the tempest a safe covering. The region is pure, because it is elevated ; it is quiet and serene, where faith, soaring in its flight, looks down upon earth and upward toward heaven. It is the sanctuary of God and where angels dwell. It is the rest of the soul. Ten thousand times ten thousand tongues, in approaching it, have given utterance to the thought, " Return to thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee !" Like the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, they have often exclaimed, " Lord, it is good to be here !"

If. the reader is living in the neglect of prayer, he knows not his loss — he knows not his danger. Many a man whose bosom is not a stranger to hope in God’s mercy, can say. But for this one privilege, I should long ago have perished, and gone down to the sides of the pit! Men know not the power of the sin that dwelleth in them who neglect to pray. Be admonished, O ye thoughtless ones, who " restrain prayer before God !’’ " Their Rock is not as our Rock ; even our enemies themselves being judges." Men may have resources that are out of God ; but they lean upon the same broken reeds which have pierced others through with many sorrows. Everything else will deceive you ; they are " lying vanities, and cannot profit." They are snares, and accomplish nothing more certainly than entice the soul away from God, and deceive it to its undoing. Be ye admonished also, who are careless and remiss in the exercise of prayer. However dissatisfied you may be with yourselves in this exercise, and however little you may have of the gift of prayer, " be faithful in that which is least." However little comfort you have in it, without it you will be left to a far more melancholy abandonment. Though your prayers may seem not to be answered, it is no proof that they are not answered, because it is not in the time and way you prescribe. The old Enemy tempts you when you little think that he is tempting you ; and God is teaching you, when you yourself are not always conscious of his teaching. Prayer is the proper business of a man who is a sinner. He will never know how to live, nor how to die, if he is not a man of prayer. God giveth liberally; he giveth without upbraiding. He is as free to give the best gifts, as the meanest; and to the most needy, as to the least needy. He has no pardon for the sinless, no wisdom for the wise, no courage for the resolute, no strength for the strong, no hope for the presumptuous. " To this man," says he, " will I look, even to him that is of a poor and contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word." " This poor man cried, and the Lord heard, and saved him out of all his troubles." " When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst ; I the Lord will hear them, the God of Israel will not forsake them."