Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1860-04-21
$500 PER ANNUM.

sons of this class entertain in regard to prayer,
is, the fact that they have often seen profane
use made of II, by those who placed all their
religion in the observance of external forms Of
worship-who considered the essence of piety
TO consist in going through the outward rou-
tine of religious duties, and wearing grave
countenance, rather than in leading good life
according to the Divine commandments, life
of love to God and their neghbor such men
as "come near unto the Lord with their lips,
but their heart is far from him men, who, like
the Scribes and Pharisees of old, "deyour wild
ows' houses, and for a pretence make long
prayers, and therefore shall receive the greater
also been displeased with the course of a some
what better class-those who though on the
whole well meaning, and striving to lead n
good life, have yet, through misunderstanding
the true nature of the Divine Word and its
commands, formed mistaken views of the ma
ture of the religion, placing too much stress on
the duties of external worship, and giving to
them IN undue proportion of time and thought,
and not enough to resisting their own evils and
doing good to their fellow men. True and gem
uine worship is worship not merely of the lips,
but of the heart. Essential piety is piety of
the life, and consists in having God before our
eyes, not only in time of worship and on the
Sabbath day-but every day, and all the day
long, and in all we do; for the traest way of
giving glory to God is to do good to men as
the Lord said, "Herein is my Father glorifcd,
that ye bear much fruit"-John xy. 8. The
sincerest prayer consists in a life of charity
of love to God and our neighbor; for prayer is
communion with God; and the man, who in
his daily life and conduct, is continually stri-
wing to do right according to the Divine. COM
mandments,-is constantly looking to the Lord,
and communing with Him, and therefore, even
though uncousciously, is always praying
These are truths, and great and important
truths and the doctrine of the New Church, as
well as the Word of God, declares them strong
ly, and insists upon them urgently. But while
we remember these truths, we are not to forget
other truths that are also declared. We may
not substitute one duty for another, when we
ought to perform both. There is danger of
this; there is DANGER in avoiding one extreme,
of going into the other.
II is true that essential piety, essential wor-
ship, and essential prayer, consists in n good
life, according to the Divine commandments.
These are internal things; but there are exter-
nal things to be done ms well as internal; and
internal things depend on external land cannot
fully exist, so as to be permanent, without them.
The one is the essence, and the other is the
form and without the form, the essence can
not exist, or it is soon dissipated and perishes.
External piety is of service as means of indu-
cling internal piety; external worship, if per-
formed from good end leads to internal wor-
ship; and external prayer is means to inter-
nal prayer of the heart and life Now il we
neglect the means, VIC cannot the end land just
so far as we neglect the means, just so far shall
we fall short of the end.
Is not this the fruth2 What is taught by the
Word and the Doctrine of the Church? Do
they command only internal worship and
prayer, or do they direct us to external also?
Let us turn first to the Word. 1t is full Of
prayers prayers, too, that were heard and an
swered by the Lord. Look at Solomons beau
tiful prayer at the dedication of the temple
How full of devout and pathetic supplication
And his prayer too, in Gideon, when the "Lord
appeared to him in dream by night" and
said, task what shall give thee Kings iii.
g. And Solomon asked for wisdom; and, as it is
written ait pleased the Lord that Solomon had
asked this thing;' and he gave him wisdom
and with that internal blessing, all external
blessings, also;-a lesson to us, what we should
ask for in our prayers. Again, what did the
good king Hezekiah, when hewas in fear of the
Assyrians, and distressed by threatening let
ter which he had received from them? We
read that aHezekiah received the letter from
the hand of the messengers, and read iti and
Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord,
and spread it before the Lord j" and he then
uttered brief, but fervent prayer for protec-
tion. "Then Isaiah the son of Amos, sent to
Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of
Israel That which thou hast prayed to me,
against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, have
heard" "And it came to pass that night, that
tne anger VI tHe 1OIu Neub outi anu ohioeS 81
the camp of the Assyrians, a hundred and fore
score and FIVE thousand" Isaiah xxxvii. Does
not the Lord, them hear prayer? and if we
pray to him, will he not protect us, also, from
the ten thousand spiritual foes that encamp
around and beset our souls? and are we safe
without such prayer?
But let us now turn to the New Testament.
Did not the Lord teach his disciples to pray,
and even give them form Of prayer ?-"Watch
and pray he said, that We enter not into
temptation Matt. XVI. Al And in these
words both internal and external prayer is
commanded. And what was the Lords own
example? lie prayed often. It is written in
one place, that he continued all night in
prayer;" Luke vi, l2; and in his agony in the
garden, he "knceled down." Luke xxi. Al she
fell on his face Matt. XVI. 30, in agonized
heart-broken prayers; and his last words on
the cross were prayer for his enemies, his
prosecutors Thus did the Lord, while in his
humanity on earth, set us an example of prayer !;
which we must follow, for he commanded us 10
"follow him in the regeneration;" and prayeri is
one of the means Of our regeneration, as it was
of his glorifieation.
And now, let us turn to the Doctrine of the
New Church, and see what is there declared
concerning the duty of prayer. In various
places throughout the Writings prayer is spo-
ken Of, and the precise nature of il described,