Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-12-14
Social Prayer Meetings.

u. ~. FUttOH IN COHgfegdttOHd(lSt.
Social Prayer Meetings.
There is no meeting of Christians so sus
ceptible, so mercurial, so insusceptible of
precise rules, as the prayer meeting. In
ideal, it is the heart of the church. Gods
truth worked out in the personal eXper-
fence its members, is the substance of its
contents. 1t is the point where the lines
from a multitude of hearts, meeting, give
focal intensity to christian truth The
prayer meeting ought to be the flame that
burns in the temple night and day-the
one light in the church, never extinguish-
ed. But in fact it is too often only an
occasional CLEAN. In times Of revival, it
glows like chandelier; but with the sub
sidence of religious feeling in the commu-
nifty, one candle after another goes out;
until but two or three pickering wicks cast
a dismal twilight through the almost va
cant space.
We shall not go into the matter fully,
bat content ourselves with a single sug-
gestion, viz: the necessity of real familiar
ity and Of real spontaneity at the prayer
meeting. No person win give forth his
secret feelings, his tenderest experiences,
the experience Of his souls innermost
thoughts of Gods grace, if pent up behind
frigid rules and formulas. If the prayer
meeting room is large, the company small,
scattered in twos and threes through the
whole space, with dreary intervals between,
the leader of the meeting formal, the meth
cd regular and interchangeable, and with a
latent understanding among all, that who
ever takes part must do it well, do it in
good grammar, with all prudence, in good
theology, avoiding all disagreeabe topics
in short must be "edifying"-a social
meeting is simply impossible. Now, all
genuine religious intercourse is edifying,
to be sure, but to hold up edifcation be-
fore the eyes all the while, as the chief end,
is to tempt the brotherhood to became
mere pedantic exhorters, everybody trying
to build up somebody else, and after time
nobody wanting to be built with such ma
terials as are furnished.
This very course is ignorantly followed
with the best intentions, by people who
wonder why meetings are not interesting,
when they have been made so anxiously
proper.
People must warm toward each other,
and not toward the prayer meeting. The
smaller the meeting the freer it should be-
Large assemblies must have the rein drawn
firmly, or some impulse gathering force
and head by the swell of many hearts, may
carry the meeting off from its course. But
small meetings need no harness. Every
symptom of spontaneous liberty should be
encouraged. A great meeting is like a
huge bed of Goals under a roaring fire
green wood may be thrown on by armsful
without danger of dampening the fire. But
small meetings are like the embers, every
coal and all of them must be raked togeth-
er, and encouraged, and fed with prepared
fuel, until blaze is secured.
Meetings held in parlors are apt to be
more interesting than meetings in lecture
room or in hall. The social element is
more apt to be developed. The formal
benches or pews, the files of upright chris
tians in long rows, the wide spaces unocu-
pied, the distance at which the leader sits
from the people. the want of any element
of cheerfulness, and general and painful
feeling of emptiness, of wishing, each one
for himself, that he had something to say
or that he had some feeling, together with
hackneyed self condemnatory spirit, how
ering half way between conscience and
discouragement-is not this a true account
of multitudes of what are in grim irony
called Social Prayer Meetings."
1t is true, that when feeling of church
rises high it will overcome all such imped-
imcnts. But what is to be done when the
feeling is not high? What is specially
needed is the art of good social prayer
meetings in small churches, with ordinary
materials, during the long intervals be-
tween revivals of religion. Men enjoy
prayer meetings in large churches, in town.
and cities, but say: "This may be very
possible when you have such material, bu
it cannot be secured in country churches
We know it can be done. We offer the
above suggestions as a beginning. AnC
now, will our readers communicate to u.
their ideas, and, above all, their experience
in developing good prayer meetings il
small churches, and with plain, ordinary
4 materials p Christian Union.