New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-03-27
THOUGHTS UPON PRAYER.
LECTURE BY THE REV HENRY WARD
BRECHKR
TILE PUIPu's DAY NOT GONE Byte BALM OF


second of his theological
students of Yale. at the College Chapel. Ssw-Hssen.
yesterday afternoon. Promptly Mr, Beecher began
IN tins way:
Many an enthusiast when hc begins hts csTrer ~
preacher subject to disenotantment the rudest
kind He has been brought up think Of the Chrtau
ministry the DObes profession which occupy and
task the human mind. He has looked IL IN it, ideal
perfection. BE bias thought of sprnging from the
viii Of God through Jesus Christ ana standing there
fore upon the highest place Of sAncty and he loves
perhaps altogether from selfish reasonstO surround
1t his thought with Divine authority, with pre6mi-
nence, with all that shall give him the right the rep
resenative OF the Lord. to stand in the community 20
make known the law OF God to enforce that law and TO
| secure obedience.
But will 90 into the field to-day and not find
himself very stripped OF much Of this by practical
experience He will find the pulpit subject to the
Law other institutions. The strong will be-
strong and the weak will be weak the poor Will be poor
! and the rich viii be rich. 10 Is not worth our
while 70 take into consideration the question
as TO how Christianity stands. but how the
Christian ministry stands to-day, and the Christian
Church. what their relation is to the community. Ger
tsniy ii is not such it in the beginnings before
the Christian Church born. while IL was yet
RED Oins of the Jewish Church. Still ess Is Il
twas in those ages in which 1t was the rival of the
State itself dominated nations and held the univer
| sal conscience in awe and fear.
That time past IL VIII prODaDly never come fgan
on earth. There are other people in the community
that have ranged up alongside. and in respects
overtop the Christian ministry. Once the church
the main repository of learning and the Minister'S
were the whole in advance In solid learning OF the
great community The Christian ministry in I think
almost every land may still be said TO DO soiufdly
educated. ana TO compare favOrablY with any Of
the learned professions but 1t has lost the distinction Of
prominence this regard 1t net looked up to any
being the master OF knowledge. Not that II has
lost any that it has not gained but that two things
have come TO pass viz, other professions, from
larger and liberal method Of education have gained
in knowledge and the whole community has gained
both in intelligence and knowledge. and the distance
between the top and the bottom Of society is growing
less and less; much because the top does not
grow, but because the bottom growing ali the time,
and the relative distance between. therefore. the
preacher and the hearer is essened continually.
We speak once in days, but there newspa-
pers with $1,000 tongues that times in
days. We speak what little in but maga-
zines being poured out all tho land books
flying everywhere and penetrating the hooks and cor
Of society Therefore, say the pulpit has had
its day. 1t has just been begun
say all this business Of digging ont ore and
smelling IL and manufacturing H. and all this business
Of dispensing knowledge and carrying II about as Il
were commercially. has been in some an incum-
brance Il has been altogether auxiliary. IL has
given distinction and authority TO the church which
has wrought pride and vanity and unwarrantabie
claims winch the church is better without than with.
And here shall speak Of prayer as being one Of the
au1iiares by which the Ministry perform the work
for which the Church Is ordained among men. know
that there prayer great deal none than question
and answer. / know in prayer there Is some
thing beside simply those questions about which
philosophers are dawding II prayer was a mere
70 market expected 10 bring back 50 much IN
basket time. If that all that wac prayed for
,ba barre sofD 4 am
posed BY this very thing. and the low estate in which It
exists too often. don't propose 20 enter INTO that
other question profoundly exciting ana interesting
10 thousands of ARE these answers 10 prayers OF
faith ," regard that Of the questions OF the
future II there be anything It 10 me that IS sure
il Is that Jesus believed there power into which
the human mind could up, which gave TO man not
only control over himself and his spirit, but
a participation in the Divine nature that his
will would have control physical laws and forces
There are powers promised and limited at repeatedly in
the life OF the Savior. There is everywhere 20 certain
nanrcs-not perhaps every person, because all gifts
are not to a-which with 1t the nascent power Of
Divinity itself. shall discuss that now.
What Is prayer the conscious lifting of mans sou
inre the invisible presence Of the Father, in
visible realml What is it but dropping for moment
all conscious sensuousness all conscious secuary, all
present time and rising by the effort through silence up
into the region where God sits, and dwelling though
hat for moment in the presence OF the
Eternal God. The habit OF prayer, looked at IN
this way lifts the individual, lifts the household II
oiyIzes sptualizes, ethcralizes the community ITSELF
and Won cannot pray poorly you be sincere IN that
single thing It be the real thought that is going up,
and YOU have the conception Of God the sOulbath
which one gets IN things unseen, the mere lifting
Of the wings in the great Beyond is OF itself
worth all that anybody ever claimed for anything
in prayer and of the very first things that the
Christian church and minister should do would be to DO
what the Savior ddteaen the disciples 10 pray Teach
them 10 pray One OF the subtle and secret arts OF
tho ministry IA not didActica demOnsrave TO make
men pray but by knowledge Of how 10 teach the
heart the thought the feeling, 10 inspire them with
the desire OF such utterance. II man all the time
secuarzes ais If they are ethcazed 70 death.
IL they lack Savior the something higher the some
thing nobler will scarcely learn 20 pray except as
Autv but the secret OF praying is wanting pray
and the secret wanting pray 10 have excited in
our souls certain aspratOns-cerain desires. The con-
science hungers and thrsts the imagination yearns and
longs the affections above all the bounds Of orti
nary experience IN hfe.
There 10 the sense Of wings in every soul that Is
touehed with east OF Ideally, aud It is 50 TO preach
IN men that thsy shall have upward yearnng.
Freak up base content Infuse into men noble dis
content with things thoy are. Etherisize every
shing SO preach that the common things the necessary
.hings-al Of tbem-shan have halo about them
suggestion OF something higher and nobler, until the
soul is in state Of exhalaton tending 70 pray always
I feel in my own ministry the constant need OF t.
The other point, and the only one which, shall deal
with this afternoon, ghis praying among your people
uis very difficult speak this subject because it is
40 much matter of constitutional depends SO much
on temr4rament and education think may say that
no mart of ministerial preparation Is noble than
thai O: singing and praying We are indoctrnated very
thoropshly We are taught in the history Of the
hureh and its order and discipline, but now much OF
,netrnction do we get the subject Of
nrayeri think the most sacred part OF
ninsfry is prsyng bear his witness that IN the
,d IN the most absorbing moments the street, IN
% cna noe inspirations which everybody subject 10,
-, Iifted nothing that