The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-01-22
THE MEANING OF
, PRAYER IS TOLD
IN THIS LESSON
Dr.. GiIroy Says Prayer
Should Be Related to
Spiritual Ends.
The International Uniform
Sunday School Lesson for JAN
uary %: What Jesus Taught
About Prayer.-Mark 1885, IA:
1896; Matt. 6:9-13.
BY VIM. +. GiIrOy, ID. ID.
Editor OF The COngregatiOnaliSt. j

Few subjects are more difficult
to expoun1 than the subject of
prayer. 1t may also be said that
while there is no more important
thing in life. there is no point at
which we may more easily go astray.
The other day 1 heard the story
of little boy who urged his mother
very persistently to wind up a clock
which had been set aside because
1t had refused to go. ? The woman
finally responded to the childs plea
and wound up the clock, which, to
her surprise, actually did go. The
child was not surprised. He told
his mother that he had prayed to
God about the clock and he evil
IDENTIFY expected it to go. =
Childish Prayers
Such anecdotes are often quoted
to indicate the place of prayer in
life, and it's efficacy. We question
very much the wisdom of this proc
ess or its Christian validity. AS
matter OF fact. how many of us
cannot recall innumerable such
childish prayers that were never
answered?
And we may, perhaps, recall the
fact that the great preacher, Fred
erick w. Robertson of Brighton
once emphasized the wisdom of God
in not answering such petitions. He
referred to such a prayer that he
had made III his childhood and to
the great doubt and disappointment
that came when the prayer of his
childish faith was not answered: but
he came afterwards to see that the
answer of that prayer would have
been the worst possible thing that
could have happened to him.
1t would have given him a sort of
childish confidence in a magic
power by which he could accomplish
things that We're not possible for
others. We might well give heed
to that danger for it may be said
that nothing is so inimical to the
practice and power of prayer as the
divorcing of prayer from its true
place and purpose.
Prayer. it should always be re-
membered. should be definitely re-
lated to righteous and spiritual ends.
1t is, not a means of magic, but a
means of grace. 1t is a means of
discovering and adapting our lives
to Gods will, not a magic power
that bends Gods will to our feeble,
and possibly selfish desires.
There is no better place to study
prayer both in its power and in its
limitations than in the life Of Jesus
Himself. Jesus felt the need OF
prayer. He went into the desert to
pray; He prayed in the garden. In
one. place we are told that He con-
tinued all night in prayer. What
was this prayer? Was 1t asking
God to give him certain things or
to do certain things for Him or was
IL a seeking Of full communion with
God, a coming into that nearness
with the Father that would give. Him
strength to do the Fathers will?
If Jesus, the pure and true, the
Savior of man, needed prayer in His
earthly life. how much more do we
need prayer? But power. if it is
to accomplish its purpose in our
lives. must be for us what it was
for Jesus. The spiritual promises
are true only upon a spiritual plane.
Spiritual Petitions
God does not offer us wealth and
pleasure. immunity from pain and
suffering. There is nothing in the
lives of the saints to indicate that
mere possessions are ours for the
asking. But, on the other hand,
there is everything in the lives of
the saints and in the records of the
Scriptures to show that there is no
limit to the willingness and readi-
ness of God to fulfill all our spirit
ual longings and petitions.
The man who prays for the deep
est things may pray with the full
assurance that his spiritual long,
ings will be satisfied. Does this
seem to lessen the place and power
of prayer? Only to those whose
vision of God and Of their own life
and of the world is still largely ma
terial, who have not found that the
supreme thing in life, what was in
the mind of Jesus in all His teach
ing concerning prayer; namely, the
doing of the will Of God.
Prayer is not only a discipline,
not only a means Of communion, but
a power of supreme accomplishment
In hrirn n,ir lirrnr 10 LII