Evening star., 1896-07-10


teach us to pray" He said:
DR.. Works Address.
Luke I'LL. Lord, teach us to pray
Much of Christs time was spent in
prayer. He never begun any special epoch
of his ministry except by a long season of
prayer. He prayed continually. He Is the
best exemplification Of his own exhortation
to pray without ceasing. Those whom
address are no doubt familiar with Christs
method in the matter Of prayer Near the
close Of the third year of Christ's ministry
he WAS accosted by lawyer who wanted
to know who his neighbor was. In re-
sponse to his question, Christ uttered the
parable Of the good Samaritan. Then "as
they went" he entered into a certain VII
lage and certain woman named Martha
received him into her house." The elev-
enth chapter Of Luke begins in such a man
ner as to lead us to believe that this So
cial hour at the home of Martha and Mary
was broken off for the purpose Of prayer
And 1t came to pass that as he was pray
Ing in certain place when he ceased, one
of his disciples said unto him. Lord teach
us to pray Christ Immediately complied
with the request and the result was that
model prayer. called the Lords Prayer"
l am to speak to you today on some
phases of prayer asseen in the Bible. Gods
people are as weak fp the matter Of prayer
as elsewhere, and SO need to be taught
here as elsewhere.
l. There is a school of prayer for Gods
people. If Gods people do not know how
TO pray acceptably. they may learn to do
SO. do not believe that we have prayed
as effectively as 1t is our privilege to pray.
There Is here a magazine of powder to
which many of us are entire strar gers
Prayer is q matter in which to make prog
ress as followers of Christ.
There are several things which indicate
the existence Of this school: (a) Christ 9
conduct when he was asked by his disciples
to teach them to pray. He immedie tely
taught them the Lords Prayer. He thinks
as much Of disciple now as then, and
prayer Is as important now as then. If II
were important that the disciple know how
to pray then 1t is equally as important now /;
just as much depends on prayer now as
then. tb) Again. the work of the Spirit in
connect tion with the matter of prayer leads
US to believe that not all that God intends
to do for his people in this matter has been
| done, and that nothingi now remains 10 be
done. We are directly taught that "the
Spirit helpeth our inf1rmitfes'' Here Ia the
present tense of the word help leading us
to understand that the work is a con:inu-
Gus one. 1t rs interesting here to study the
makeup of the Greek word translated
"helpeth." The word is ''sunantilambane-
tai;'' it is a word made up Of three others
sun" with anti" opposite, and lam
banetai." to take hold Of or to seize. The
idea is that the Spirit takes hold of our
opposite us. as If to look US In the face
and lift the same burden with u.s. It is
the same word used by Martha when she
asked the Lord to bid Mary to come and
help her with her household duties. You
have only to look into the eighth chapter
of Romans to see that this help here mem
toned is In reference to prayer. and you
will also see that the 'infirmites" here
mentioned are inflrmities In connection with
prayer The time never was when Gods