Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-06-10
&eadiug fur the Sabbath.
CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
Original
PUBLIC PRAYERS.

he v. kEo Is Isl LA
[Orlglnal.l
PUBLIC PRAYERS.
1t is not our intention to write an essay
on the nature OF prayer, neither is it our pur-
pose to undertake to prove that prayer is a
great privilege and a commanded duty.
Every individual who has read the Bible
with any dgree of care knows that we are
commanded to pray, and pray without
ceasing; and every individual, who has
ever reflected for a moment on the subject,
will admit that to be permitted to ask God
for blessings, is a most gracious privilege.
Our object at present is simply to call the
attention of our readers to the prevailing
.incongruity of public prayers. Sophomore
defamation and bombastic sentences are
pardonable in a school-boy at the close of a
school session or a country picnic, but dec
lamation in a petition, or a petition declaim-
ed, and the petition itself a string of bom-
bastic sentences is not bearable. Multitudes
of Cody persons refuse to pray in public
because, they say, they cannot pray. This
is not true. Every child of God can pray
duu uOcS pay, UuG VI oiO OSoo
men and women cannot declaim in prayer
and it is a good thing that they cannot.
Multitudes of saints cannot get up a petition
in high-sounding words and far-fetched fig
ures, and it would be a glorious thing if no
such so-called prayers ever were offered up.
The fact that plain Christians cannot get up
a prayer full of classic references discour-
ages plain Christians from attempting to
pray in public. It ought not to have this
effect. Learning is good thing in it's place,
but its place is not in prayer. What may
with propriety be called learned prayers are
abominable. The man who makes known
his wants, or the wants of others, in Latin
and Greek quotations must have a strange
notion of God. The impression he seems to
be ~endeavoring to make on the mind of his
maker is, that he is a learned mana fine
classical scholar. The language of prayer
prayer in the proper sense-is always elo-
quent, touchingly eloquent, but it is the elo-
quence of simplicity. There is not a more
touchingly eloquent sentence than the petit
ton of the publican, "God be merciful to
me a sinner"
Another glazing %incongruity in many
perhaps the most of public prayers-is that
they sound more like lectures on theology
than anything else. The whole plan of sal
walton is acclaimed. The fall Of man and
it's dreadful consequences-the doctrine of
justification by characterization by the
Holy Spirit, and everything else connected
with the scheme of redemption is fully and
Lo,;,t,.olI, l., cko{ol opI avn1oinnI RI Cod 90
if he had never heard of it before. All this
would be we'll enough in a sermon or a lee
ture but in what part Of it is there the
%faintest resemblance to prayer proper?
Speaking after the fame of men, might
not GOO say at the conclusion Of such an Or
thodox harangue, "What you say is all true.
I knew it long %ago-before you mad an act
ual existence but what do you want?
Why attempt to tell me what l fully un-
derstand, and you do not understands" 1t
is surely exceedingly unbecoming, not to
say very sinful, to convert a prayer into a
sermon or a lecture. It is just as silly to re-
peat in the introduction to our prayers a
long string of Gods attributes. This may
sound very learned, but in fact it shows the
want of something better than learning.
The introduction or preface, as it is often
called, to the Lords prayer is sour Father,
who art in heaven" This is marvelously
simple when compared with the introduce
tions to prayers which are sometimes
heard.
Another incongruity in many public pray
ers, and it may be in many private prayers,
too, is that while they are long, unreasona-
bly, long, the idea of petition scarcely en-
ters into them from beginning to end. In
other words, God is not asked to give any
thing. This, no doubt, is one reason why
what is called prayer is so seldom answered.
The fact is, God was not asked to give or
bestow anything, only in a vague or gener-
al way. In fact the petitioner often seems
to address God as if he was not asking for
something, but as if he was anxious to let
his hearers know that he was a very learned
man by telling God all that he knows about
a variety of subjects, some sacred, but most
of them profane.
There is something very suggestive in the
message which the sisters of Lazarus sent to
Jesus when Lazarus was sick. "Lord, he
whom thou lowest is sick Possibly this
cannot be regarded as a prayer, for at that
time, probably, Martha and Mary did not
know that Jesus was the Messiah. 1t how
ever, is certain that they regarded him as
one who was able to have influence with
God. The thing suggested is that prayer is
often too dictatorial. 1t is true that for
some things we have the privilege in prayer
to command God, but in others we must not
20 beyond the bare statement of the facts
in the case. Lord, he whom the lowest is
sick" isas far as theydare safely go. When
we know through the revelation which IS
contained in the Scriptures what is the will
of God, then, in the language of the Scrip
lures, we are permitted to command God,
but when the will of God is not revealed as
it was in the case of Lazarus sickness as
how it would terminate, then we must be
careful lest We dictate to God. All that we
dare do safely is such cases is to make known
the state of the case to God, and let him dis
pose of it as he sees fit. Strange as it may
seem, those things which are only promised
50 far as shall be for Gods glory are the
things which are most earnestly sought in
prayer, and those things which God has
promised to give every one who will ask for
them in the name of Jesus, are nearly passed
by in silence.
AS rule public prayers should be short
and the language Scriptural, not Ciceronlan
or Vergilian. Cicero's style and language
are beautiful and sometimes his thoughts
are sensible and moral. Vergil's lines run