The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-07
PRAYER AS AN INSTINCT
AN ABLE SERMON PREACHED FES- TERDAYBY REV. DE. PATERSON.

At First Baptist Church-Three Elements
 in Humanity Administered to by Prayer
 Mans Dependence on Nature, the
 World and God-Prayor Not Disease
 of the Will.
 At the First Baptist church yesterday morning Rev. Dr. Pattison of Roches- ter, N. T., former pastor of the church, preached a most able sermon. The congregation was large, all of Dr. Pattison's old parishioners being de- sirous of hearing him again. The text was Matthew vii 6: But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall re- ward thee openly" Dr. Pattison said in part as follows: You may perhaps have noticed how little Christ says i'll His earthly preaching concerning pray CT. This is probably due to two reas- ons: First, that prayer Is an instinctlve act in human beings and so there is no necessity to urge anyone to pray and | it is useless to argue concerning it; or | in the second place 1t may be that | Christ said so little in regard to prayer because he considered it unnecessary l to reason with a man to do what he does naturally or does not at all. Christ strikes the keynote of true prayer when he says Pray in this way, Our Father, etc. All law finds its expres- sion in daily life. Assuming that prayer Is instinctive then the Christian religions administers to three distinct i've elements; in humanity, dependence, purpose and fellowship. In every one there Is an instinct of,fellowship We are all made, not for solitude, but for society. Each of these three elements l is dealt with in the text and at least one of these instincts is met with in every human heart.
 "In the dependence, which we express when we come into Gods presence, is | there anything strange? Is it remark able that we acknowledge depend- ence on being greater than ourselves. l Pascal was right when he said that man was only as a broken reed, We are even yet despite all our progress de- pendent on nature and although we chain electricity to our chariots we are yet powerleSs in combating the light ming. We are also dependent on the whole wide world If then we depend on nature and on the world much more ! are we dependent on God. We are His creatures, His handiwork and He is the supreme master. Our very weakness takes us to Gods strength.
 There are three thoughts in prayer; we shut ourselves in, shut the world out and have communion with God. These are the three essentials of true prayer. Real seclusion in prayer is found in our own souls. Prayer has some connection with the will. Man is never so conscious of his freedom as when he prays. Prayer has been call ed a disease of the will Is this true No, indeed. It is no disease of the human will, which has recently moved an American bishop to issue a book of forms of prayer Instead of consider ing prayer a disease of the will we should think of 1t as the exercise of the will in it's loftiest and noblest power. In the inmost secret place of your heart there is not only your own need, but the fullness of God. There is a special manifestation of God in solitude and so in this act of secret fellowship with God the greatest of human desires is gratified.
 Prayer has been objected to on the ground that 1t Is useless, but the loftiest intellects, the warmest hearts and the most practical natures have found it necessary to pray We must not expect to receive for every prayer instantaneous manifestation of it's hav- ing been heard. Gods time is eternity
 Thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense you Prayer is only Gods response to the instincts which he has placed within us; not to pray is impious and unnatural"
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