Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-07-10
MISUSE OF PUBLIC PRAYER.

Whatever may be said, in lightsome
mood, Of personal, or denunciatory.
prayer in public, no intelligent mind
will need more than the fact itself in
order to condemn those indulging
themselves in this most wicked as
we'll as ridiculous excess of spleen
Brethren of a congregation, taking
advantage of brief public audience
with the Lord, to pour out their pers-
onal complaints agains others, in the
presence of a congregation, are making
themselves ridiculous through their
assumption of superior information
to that the Lord may be assumed to
possess. Denunciatory in prayer in pub
Vic seems to a growing vice in church
services. Nobody who wishes the
church we'll will restrain the warming
word That way lies disintegration,
decentralization and ruin.
The latest case in point was re-
ported recently from Neoga, Iii. There,
member of a church, congregation
has filed suit for damages against
the pastor for having DETAINED him in
prayer, before the Lord and the con-
gregation. Whether the preacher WIS
under an impression that the Lord
was in ignorance of the alleged facts
he communicated to him, or whether
he sought only to use the Lord as an
instrument, and a convenience, MAX
ing such alleged facts known to the
congregation, his attitude was 1ncler-
ical, unchurchly and unchristian. 1t
is set up, in his defense, that the man
he assaulted in prayer had assailed him
in like manner few moments earlier.
The brother charged with this offense
insists that he did nothing more than
ask the Lord to be Astounding in his
grace to the preacher, who was much
| in need of it, He intimates that he
can prove, in court, that he asked for
no more grace for the preacher than
that individual needs. He will intro
duce witnesses along that line, We
presume, of course, that no effort will
be made to get testimony from the
throne of grace to the exact words
used and the exact amount of grace
asked for. In such sacrileges, how
ever, the difficulty of getting service,
more than any sense of reverence, can
be depended upon to draw the line Of
exclusion.
Discussing this matter of misuse of
public prayer the st. Louis Globe-Dem-
ocrat says:
zone need not be orthodox, or even
Christian, to mourn these evidences OF
want of saving power. The worldly
man. with mind to comprehend the
great good the church has done in
the world can not but regret these too
frequent evidences of a loss OF fiber
and of stamina in many congrega-
tons. 1t is not long since two ordain-
ed preachers of the world fought a
knife duel to the death in a Kentucky
pulpit. Hideous as that may seem, it
is less so than these hypocritical pray
ers which arraign man before the
throne of God, in the presence OF his
fellow-members of a flock, under a
plea of intercession. If these things
can not be stopped, the church will
have to become Scriptural, according
to the word of him who said that
when we pray we should not, as the
Pharisee, exalt our phylacteries in
public, but should hide ourselves from
all but God. Public prayer threatens
to become an evil which, if it is to be
recognized as a necessary evil, will,
like other necessary evils, have to be
subjected to some sort of regulation
and control"