06. Inward and Outward Conditions

Inward and Outward Conditions

Having examined the contents of Biblical prayer, and its relations to the faith which creates it, but does not supersede it, we shall now consider the mode of the worshipper’s approach to God, the spirit in which he offers his prayer, the other religious exercises or practices which occasionally accompany it, the place in which and the time at which prayer was wont to be made. In earlier times, as we have seen, the man who prays is often on surprisingly familiar terms with his God. A penalty had to be paid for that anthropomorphic view of God which makes Biblical religion so attractive to us. God was much like man himself. Like a man, He had to leave His home to acquaint Himself with facts which he was anxious to ascertain (Genesis 18:21; cf. Genesis 11:5); like a man, He worked and rested from His labors; like a man, He walked in the garden in the cool of the day. It is not surprising, therefore, that the language ad­dressed to Him by men was occasionally lacking in that reverence which was His due, that it was some­times defiant (Genesis 4:9; cf. Genesis 3:12), and sometimes familiar even to the point of impertinence. Many of the early prayers are beautiful (Genesis 24:12 ff.); but on the whole it is true, here as elsewhere that when Israel was a child, he spoke as a child. But it is also true that when Israel became a man he put away—by no means all, but many—of his childish things. Some of the latest prayers in the Old Testament breathe a spirit which shows how much Israel had yet to learn (Psalms 149:6-7); but, speaking broadly, experience had wrought wisdom, and wisdom rever­ence. Men approached God with the knowledge that He was the high and lofty One that inhabited eternity (Isaiah 57:15), that life was a mystery before which it was wisdom to bow, that, as we receive good at the hand of God, we should also unmurmuringly receive evil (Job 2:10). Such a God must be approached in a spirit of humility, as by servants who come into the presence of their lord. In prayers of every age, the speakers call themselves “thy servant” and “thy handmaid,” (2 Samuel 7:25-27, etc.; in 1 Samuel 1:11, three times in one verse) and even a very early worshipper acknowledges that he is not worthy of the least of all the love and of all the faith­fulness that God had shown him” (Genesis 32:10).

Sometimes, as in the case of Job, men might be tempted to address God in words of bitter and almost irreverent audacity; but it must not be forgotten that the daring and awful speeches of Job are spoken “in the anguish of his spirit and in the bitterness of his soul” (Job 7:11; Job 10:1). Such prayers may be models of intensity, but not of devotion. Jonah’s foolish and impudent prayer has a somewhat similar excuse. “Was this not just what I told Thee, while I was yet in my own country?” he prays in the petulance of his disappoint­ment. “So kill me, for I would rather die than live” (Jonah 4:2-3). This was a prayer offered by the prophet when he was “exceedingly displeased and angry” (Jonah 4:1). That is not the mood in which to pray. Besides, men could only pray thus who had not had an adequate vision of God. After Job had truly seen Him, and not merely heard of Him with the hearing of the ear (Job 42:5), humbled and overwhelmed he laid his hand upon his mouth and would proceed no further (Job 40:4 f.). Without the humility inspired by such a vision, one may pray, like the Pharisee, a prayer of gratitude, when one ought to cry, like the publican, for mercy (Luke 18:11; Luke 18:13). When a mortal comes before the heavenly throne, he will pray as a man who remembers that he has need to be forgiven (Mark 11:25), and whatever else his prayer contains, it is likely to be, like the publican’s, for mercy, and for grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). The throne is a throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), and the holy mountain is not a mountain that bums with fire and blackness and storm and tempest. The God whom man approaches in prayer is not, as Job imagined in his despair, a God of devastating and unscrupulous omnipotence (Job 9). He is one whose tender mercies are over all His works; and though in His presence man may, in certain moods, consider himself but “dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27), yet it is not forgotten that He pities His children like a father; and, rejoicing in that loving kindness which endureth for ever, His worshippers may enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise—not only the gates and courts of His spacious house where brethren meet together to worship Him in unity, but also the door of the quiet inner chamber where the spirit is alone with Him. The man whose heart has been searched by Christ, will never indeed, like Job, with loud declaration of innocence, approach his God with the proud bearing of a prince (Job 31:37); but, though reverent and humble, he will be unafraid. God is the Lord of men, but He is also their Father. They are His servants, but they are also His sons; and as sons, they are not bondmen, but free. How well the lesson of the Fatherhood had been learned may be seen from the frequency of the word “boldness” in the New Testament allusions to prayer. It was men of unimpeachable reverence who urged that we should “draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16) and enter with boldness into the holy place (Hebrews 10:19), and who spoke of the boldness which those may have towards Him (1 John 5:14), whose hearts condemn them not (1 John 3:21).

Another condition of prayer is sincerity. It is “with a true heart” that we are to draw near with boldness (Hebrews 10:2). Men must not only honor God with their lips (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8), they must cry unto Him with their hearts (Hosea 7:14; Jeremiah 29:13). It is the prayer of the upright that is His delight (Proverbs 15:8), the prayer of the righteous that He hears (Proverbs 15:29). “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Psalms 66:18). “No evil man can be a guest of Thine” (Psalms 5:4). The prayer at the festival that Jehovah should look down from heaven and bless the people and the land was only to be offered after the tithes had been reserved for the father­less and the widow (Deuteronomy 26:12-15), and it contains an explicit confession that the divine commandments had been kept and all the obligations met (Deuteronomy 26:13 f.). It is significant of the difference made by Jesus that a very similar con­fession is used to pillory the Pharisee in the parable (Luke 18:12).

It is a singular and very interesting feature of the Old Testament that confessions of integrity are nearly as common as confessions of sin. Doubtless this is largely due to the fact that religion is conceived some­what externally. Where it is supposed to consist in the outward observance of laws, the man who observes them is free to count himself innocent. Of course, Old Testament religion is a much profounder thing than that; but there was a great deal, especially in the elaborate ecclesiastical regulations of post- exilic life, to encourage this view (Psalms 44:18; Psalms 19; Psalms 119). Even apart from this, however, a certain rugged honesty led men to assert their innocence before God in a way no longer possible, when religion has learned to make the in­finite demand which it makes in Christianity. Along­side of the beautiful prayer of Jacob that he is un­worthy of all the love God has shown him, is Hezekiah’s appeal to God to remember how he had walked before Him in truth and with a perfect heart, and had done that which was good in his sight (2 Kings 20:3), Jere­miah’s appeal to God’s knowledge of His heart (Jeremiah 11:20; Jeremiah 12:3), and Job’s violent and repeated protestations of his inno­cence (Cf. Job 10:7; Job 13:23). Whatever objections theology might make to statements of this kind, they are indicative of a rare and splendid sincerity. We may not imitate these prayers, but we may well imitate the lives which; made such prayers possible. But sincerity will also show itself in its willingness to confess the sins of which it is conscious and to translate penitence into action. On behalf of the people Ezra confesses, “Thou, O Jehovah, art right­eous; we are before Thee in our guiltiness. None can stand before Thee because of this” (Ezra 9:15); and the prayer is followed by an attempt to remove the cause of guilt (Ezra 10). The promise made by the people to Jere­miah that they would obey the will of God as soon as he made it clear to them was easier to make than to keep (Jeremiah 42:3; Jeremiah 42:20-21). Without sincerity, it is impossible to pray.

Besides humility towards God, there must, in prayer, be love towards man. The link that binds us to Him binds us also to each other, and the deepest interests of men lie among the things that all can pray for. The temple is the house of prayer for all nations. Whatever may be their political differences, in the interests represented by the house of prayer all nations are one. And this sense of community, of brotherhood in the deepest things, ought to be implied, if not ex­pressed in prayer. It is to our Father that we pray. The opening word of the Lord’s prayer compels us to acknowledge our brotherhood. This is one of the per­manent lessons of the Old Testament, that the in­dividual is not the only unit. He lives and moves and has his being in the nation of which he is a member, and his prayer is to the God of Israel. True, He is also my God (Ezra 9:6; Nehemiah 5:19; Daniel 9:8); but the men who address Him with the understanding as well as with the heart, also call Him our God (Ezra 9:10; Ezra 9:13; Daniel 9:17).

Further, God must be approached in a spirit of absolute and implicit confidence. The earth is full of His glory, and the past of His mercy; and, though man cannot by searching fully find Him out, he knows enough to trust Him. On the lower levels of Biblical religion, men doubt—for example, Gideon and Heze­kiah (Judges 6:36 ff.; 2 Kings 20:9; 2 Chronicles 32:24) — and have, as the stories go, to be reassured by a sign; but the best need no sign, and the bad need look for none (Matthew 12:39). Job, as his heart is torn by the dreadful conflict between the God of tradition and the God of his conscience, has, in one of his pro­founder moments, the clear assurance of a vindication somewhere, somehow; for “my Witness is in heaven and my Sponsor is on high” (Job 16:19). In one of the sayings of Jesus, prayer is compared to the knocking at a closed door, behind which is a Person—a Person with a gracious will—who can and will open. But that will must be trusted: the heavenly Father knows what the kingdom and its subjects need. A sublime illustration of this confidence in God is Elijah’s com­mand to drench the bullock and the wood upon the altar, before calling down upon it fire from heaven (1 Kings 18:33 f.). Isaiah’s offer to the skeptical Ahaz of any sign in the height above or in the depth beneath, though not in a prayer context, is another illustration of the same daring—one had almost said reckless—faith (Isaiah 7:10). Very beautiful is the confidence, on which we have already commented, of Ezra, before starting for Palestine, that his God would protect him from the perils of the way (Ezra 8:21-23). This leads us to ask what is meant by an answer to prayer, what sort of prayers are answered, and what is the condition of an answer to prayer. These prob­lems begin to find an approximate solution, as soon as it begins to be understood that man’s chief end is to discover the will of God, and to learn to do it gladly. In prayer, the heart’s desire is turned into a supplica­tion to God (Romans 10:1), and is purified of all selfishness and worldliness, by having His white and searching light thrown upon it. The only true prayers are those that can live in His presence. The moment prayer is realized as contact with a holy God, all merely selfish desires are burnt up; and if “ye ask and re­ceive not,” it is “because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures” (James 4:3).

If then, the desire to have the will of God fulfilled in us and by us be the sovereign impulse of our lives, on the one hand, our petitions, whatever their concrete contents may be, will always be controlled and in­spired by a passion for the will of God, and will always, in their essence, be a prayer that that will be done; and on the other hand, the answer to that prayer will be conditioned by a sincere and earnest desire to have that will fulfilled. This is the great circle from which there is no escape. In other words, the man who would pray with the hope of an answer must love the will of God, and that for which he prays must ulti­mately be the realization of the will of God. God must be an end and not a means. The place which the desire for the glory of God should occupy in prayer is illustrated, in a way that is somewhat superficial, but here adequate for our purpose, by Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance from Sennacherib. “Incline Thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open Thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and hear the words of Senna­cherib. . . . Save us, I beseech Thee, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou,Jehovah, art God alone” (2 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 19:19; cf. 1 Kings 8:60). Jerusalem was to be de­livered, and through that deliverance the God of Israel was to be glorified.

It will always be with a humbling consciousness of the infinite complexity of life and of our own infinite foolishness, that we approach God with specific peti­tions affecting the concrete details of our life; for though our Father knows the things that we have need of, we do not. Therefore specific petitions must be begun, continued, and ended with the prayer, “Thy will be done.” The answer to this prayer, at least, is, in one sense, inevitable. If we ask anything accord­ing to His will, then assuredly in some sense He heareth us (1 John 5:14). Ask, and—in the asking—ye receive; for the prayer, if it be sincere, is itself a sign that the human will is, in its deepest depths, in harmony with the divine. True prayer is not the desire to determine the divine will, but to be at one with it; and the eternal answer to all true prayer is, “Be not afraid, for I am with thee.” The question might even be raised whether, in view of our pathetic and inevitable ignorance, specific petitions are worth while, and whether the simple prayer, “Thy will be done,” does not more wisely and safely express the ultimate and only real long­ing of the devout soul. But the examples of Jesus and Paul would seem to justify a negative answer to this question. Jesus said, “Take away this cup from me: yet Thy will be done”; and he said it again and again (Matthew 26:44). And Paul, like his Master, also prayed three times, that the thorn be removed from his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:8). It is of the profoundest religious interest and importance to note that, in the ordinary sense, neither of these prayers was answered. The cup had to be drained to the dregs—My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? — and the thorn was not removed. But it is of equal interest and importance to note that, in the profoundest sense, these prayers were both answered. The will of God was done. With fine in­sight, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews re­marks that Jesus “in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, was heard for His godly fear” (Hebrews 5:7); and Paul was so strengthened by the grace of Christ that he actually learned to glory in his weakness, because in it he was conscious that the power of Christ rested Upon him (2 Corinthians 12:9). The prayers that are answered are prayers for the fulfillment of the will of God, though, as we have seen, the answer may come in a form very different from that entreated by the speaker. Jeremiah prays for deliverance from one distress, and for answer he learns that he has to face another. Wearied in his race with the footmen, he is divinely summoned to contend with the horses (Jeremiah 12:5). Sometimes, indeed, the answer may come at once, before he had done speaking (Genesis 24:15); sometimes only after many days, and sometimes, to all seeming, not at all. Habakkuk thought he had found an answer in his own day (Habakkuk 1:5) to his prayer for divine intervention; but, after years of disappoint­ment, he begins to learn that the purpose of God, though sure, may be slow. The will of God is ulti­mately done in history, but not as and when we will; therefore “though it tarry, wait for it” (Habakkuk 2:3). But if it is slow, it is sure. It has its appointed time. “It is sure to come, it will not lag behind” (Habakkuk 2:3). The most comprehensive petition is “Thy will be done.” But how may this will be known, and where is it expressed? Contrary to the genius of the Chris­tian religion, the ordinary man longs for definite statements. Like the perplexed people who came to consult Jeremiah, his prayer is, “Show us the way wherein we should walk and the thing that we should do” (Jeremiah 42:3). It is astonishing how often in the Old Testa­ment the will of God is identified with social justice, and how often this is made a condition of answered prayer. This is the whole burden of the Book of Amos; but all prophecy is weighty with the message that the only man to whom God listens is the man whose dealings with his fellows are governed by principles of justice and mercy. Seeking God is equivalent to seeking good (Amos 5:4; Amos 5:6; Amos 5:14; cf. Zephaniah 2:3), and the good is the “establishing of justice in the gate” (Amos 5:15). He who would be a friend of God must be a friend of the poor. Those who “eat the flesh of My people and flay their skin from off them, when they cry to Jehovah He will not answer them” (Micah 3:3-4). If thou feed the hungry, and shelter the poor and cover the naked, “then thou shalt call and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry, and He will say, ‘ Here I am’” (Isaiah 58:7; Isaiah 58:9). Those who crush the widow, the father­less and the poor, and make their hearts like an adamant stone, “when they cry, I will not hear” (Zechariah 7:10; Zechariah 7:12-13). The iniquities which separated the people from their God, so that He would not hear, were cruelty, treachery, and in general, social injustice (Isaiah 59:2-3; Isaiah 59:12-15). And just as, for the men of wealth and influence, the will of God would have been fulfilled in the discharge of social obligations in a spirit of justice and mercy, so, for the poor, it lay in that meekness and humility which the hard discipline of life was calculated to produce in pious natures. The poor in this world’s resources were very often, in the nature of the case, the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20), and theirs was the kingdom of heaven.

It is very significant for the post-exilic period that a discharge of ceremonial obligation is sometimes regarded as a condition of the presence of God. The apathy of the people towards the rebuilding of the temple (Haggai 1:4), and their contemptible offerings after it was built (Malachi 1:13), had hindered a blessing. When the tithes were paid, the blessing would pour down from the windows of heaven (Malachi 3:10). This view is not without re­lative justification. Indifference to the formal ordi­nances and obligations of religion, meant for those days, and very frequently means for these, indifference to religion itself. And as the will of God in the Old Testament ex­pressed itself chiefly in the commandment to love the brethren (Cf. Deuteronomy, passim.), so it is also essentially in the New. The conscience is infinitely searched and quickened by the royal words of Jesus, but the new commandment, no less than the old, is that we should love one another. This is the demand alike of James (James 2:15 f.) and John (1 John 3:17), as well as of Jesus. He who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and “he prayeth best who loveth best.”

We shall now consider briefly a few illustrations of answers to prayers for external things. After the previous discussion, it will be no surprise to find that these cases are much more numerous in the Old Testa­ment than in the New. It has to be remembered, of course, that the former literature is much more extensive than the latter, and further that, in the nature of the case, the tone of the latter is much more severely spiritual, and its literary records much more exclusively and intimately related to the king­dom of God. The more private and personal prayers of the early Church remain, for the most part, un­recorded. But even so, the difference is striking and suggestive. The prayers of prophets, or of men who were re­garded as prophets, were believed, as we have seen, to be peculiarly efficacious (Jeremiah 52:2 ff.), though Moses’ request to cross the Jordan was not granted (Deuteronomy 3:26). Abraham’s prayer for Ahimelech (Genesis 20:17) and Moses’ for Miriam (Numbers 12:13) were heard. But no continuous section so thoroughly illus­trates the efficacy of prophetic prayer as the career of Elijah and Elisha, especially the latter. Elijah’s prayer for the dead child (1 Kings 17:21 f.) and for fire from heaven upon the altar on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18), Elisha’s curse in the name of Jehovah upon the youths who mocked him (2 Kings 2:24), his prayer for the Shunammite’s dead son (2 Kings 4:35), his prayer that his servant’s eyes should be opened to see the horses and chariots of fire upon the moun­tain (2 Kings 6:17), his prayer that the Aramean army should be smitten with blindness (2 Kings 6:18) and afterwards recover their sight (2 Kings 6:20) —these prayers, according to the historian, were all answered; and all this goes to illustrate the idea that the prophets were believed to speak as power­fully with God as with man. Their note of authority they probably owed in large measure to prayer. But the prayers heard are as various as the worship­pers who offer them: witness Isaac’s (Genesis 25:21) and Hannah’s (1 Samuel 1:27) prayer for a child, Hezekiah’s prayer for recovery from illness (2 Kings 20:5), and Paul’s for the father of Publius (Acts 28:8) —for the prayer of faith shall save the sick (James 5:15) —Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance from Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:20), Ezra’s for safe conduct to Palestine (Ezra 8:23), the prayer of the Church for Peter in prison (Acts 12:5-7). Answered prayers for the restoration of the dead are naturally rare: note the prayer of Elijah (1 Kings 17:21) and the similar prayer of Elisha (2 Kings 4:35) for a dead child, and that of Peter for Tabitha (Acts 9:40). Most of the miraculous answers to prayer, however, occur in docu­ments or sections which are either late, or whose historicity has, with more or less justice, been doubted. |To this class belongs the story of Gideon’s fleece (Judges 6:36 ff.) and of the sundial on which the shadow went backward (2 Kings 20:11). The story of the healing of Jeroboam’s hand by a prophet occurs in a chapter which is demonstrably very late (1 Kings 13:6), and the interpretation put upon Joshua’s appeal to the sun and moon (Joshua 10:13 f.) rests on a misunder­standing of the poem cited. The spirit of worship is infinitely more important than the rules by which it is hedged about, and the ceremonies that accompany it; but this is a lesson that is learned late in religion and seldom learned perfectly. The inward attitude of the man who approaches God in prayer has already been considered: we shall now discuss the concomitants, the place, and the time of prayer.

Throughout the Old Testament, sacrifice is very frequently and naturally associated with prayer. One of the ideas underlying the practice was that God, like a human lord, had to be approached by His suppliants with gifts as well as words. At the festivals celebrated in the various sanctuaries scattered throughout the land, and afterwards in the Temple (Ezra 6:21 f.) exclusively, sacri­fice played an important part, and was accompanied by prayer. In the exile, sacrifice was not possible, and men learned then that it was not indispensable: “the lifting up of the hands” in prayer could be “as the evening sacrifice” (Psalms 141:2). But the close connection between seeking God and sacrifice is indicated in the request of the “people of the land” to be allowed to share with the returned Jews in the work of rebuilding the Temple; for “we seek your God as ye do, and we sacrifice unto Him” (Ezra 4:2). The intimate relation between sacrifice and prayer must have been of very ancient origin. Abra­ham called upon the name of Jehovah, after building an altar (Genesis 12:18; cf. Genesis 26:25). The practice was shared by the sister religions. The Philistines accompanied their song of praise to Dagon for the capture of Samson with a sacrifice (Judges 16:23 f.). Sacrifice is also mentioned in connection with intercessory prayer. Job’s intercession for his friends (Job 42:8) and Samuel’s for the people (1 Samuel 7:9) were accom­panied by sacrifice, the latter also by a libation (1 Samuel 7:6). In Revelation 8:4 the smoke of incense ascends with the prayers of the saints unto God. In prison, Paul and Silas sang hymns as well as prayed (Acts 16:25).

Fasting is also a frequent accompaniment of prayer, especially, though not exclusively, in later times. It is mentioned in connection with the prayer of Samuel just alluded to (1 Samuel 7:6), but its importance increased after the exile. The later view is represented in the saying, “Prayer is good, with fasting and alms and righteous­ness” (Tob 12:8). Ezra proclaims a fast before his prayer for the Divine protection on the way home (Ezra 8:21), and Nehe­miah (Nehemiah 1:4) and Daniel (Daniel 9:3) before their intercession for the desolate Jerusalem. The custom lasted into New Testament times—“the disciples of John fast and make supplications, likewise also the disciples of the Phari­sees” (Luke 5:33) — and was adopted by Christians (Acts 13:3; Acts 14:23). The earliest disciples of Jesus, however, had not fasted (Mark 2:18), and the best texts in Mark 9:29 which simply read, “This kind cometh out by nothing save by prayer,” give no reason to suppose that Jesus laid any stress upon fasting, though apparently He did not positively discountenance it, but regarded it as legitimate so long as it was the spontaneous and unostentatious expres­sion of the religious mood (Matthew 6:16). Prayers and alms are co­ordinated in the case of Cornelius (Acts 10:4), as in the passage quoted from Tobit. As an expression of the speaker’s earnestness a prayer is sometimes supported by a vow; for example, Jacob’s prayer for guidance (Genesis 28:20 ff.), Hannah’s for a child (1 Samuel 1:11), and Absalom’s for a safe return to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 15:8). Even in New Testament times, the lot is once used in connection with prayer (Acts 1:26). The healthy spirit of the Bible is indicated by the fact that prayer is usually accompanied by work. The Biblical men of prayer are not hermits. Like Moses, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Paul, they are also mighty in word or deed or both. Under God, Moses created, and Jeremiah may be almost said to have recreated Hebrew religion: Nehemiah reorganized the nation, and Paul, by his practical genius, laid the foundations of the Christianity that was to be. Faith does not supersede effort. The foreign sailors in the Book of Jonah “cried every man unto his god, and then they cast forth the tackling to lighten the ship” (Jonah 1:5) They prayed their gods to help them, and then they helped themselves. The union of work and prayer is splen­didly illustrated by the career of the pious and practical Nehemiah. We made our prayer unto God and set a watch against the enemy day and night” (Nehemiah 4:9). Instinc­tively this statement recalls the injunction of Jesus to “watch and pray” (Mark 13:33; Matthew 26:41). This insistence upon the use of means and the exertion of effort is just as characteristic of the Bible as its insistence upon faith. The prayer of faith that was to save the sick was to be accom­panied by an anointing with oil (James 5:14 f.). Those who continued steadfastly in prayer were no less to communicate to the necessities of the saints (Romans 12:12 f.): and “praying in the spirit” did not exempt those whom Jude (Jude 1:20) addressed from building themselves up on their most holy faith. The intense earnestness of Biblical prayer is often suggested by the emotion which accompanied it. There is frequent reference, for example, to tears. Hezekiah wept sore as he prayed for recovery from his illness (2 Kings 20:3), Nehemiah weeps as he prays for Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:4), and Ezra, as he makes his confession for the people (Ezra 10:1); and the priests in Joel 2:17 are called upon to weep while they intercede for the people. Other signs of mourning occasionally accompany prayer. The elders throw dust upon their heads after the defeat at Ai (Joshua 7:6), and Job utters his noble words of resignation, prostrate upon the ground, after rending his robe and shaving his head (Job 1:20-21). After Paul’s farewell prayer with his friends at Miletus, they wept and kissed him (Acts 20:36 f.). The prayer scenes of the Bible are occasionally dramatic and exciting. The most exciting of all occurs in connection with a heathen prayer, where the Baal priests, as they frantically shout for hours, “O Baal, hear us,” cut themselves with knives and lances till the blood gushed out upon them (1 Kings 18:26; 1 Kings 18:28). Equally terrible and more tragic must have been the scene in which the king of Moab upon the battle-field offered up his eldest son—undoubtedly with a prayer to his god— to secure the victory over Israel (2 Kings 3:27).

It is no accident that nothing so terrible as the lacerations on Carmel ever occurs in connection with the prayers of the true worshippers of Jehovah. Israel’s conception of God was incomparably more serious and worthy than that of her neighbors; but the Israelites too were Semites, and shared, in their measure, the violence of the Semitic temper. The degenerate worshippers of Hosea’s time, in imitation of their heathen neighbors, “cut themselves (So reads the Greek text, rightly) for the grain and the new wine” (Hosea 7:14) But even on truly noble levels, prayer takes a dra­matic turn. Most conspicuous in this respect is Ezra —all the more that he is a priest. Before the prayer of confession which he made weeping and casting him­self down before the house of God (Ezra 10:1), he tells us that he rent his garment and robe, and plucked off the hair of his head and beard, and sat down confounded. “And at the evening oblation I arose up from my humilia­tion, even with my garment and my robe rent, and I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto Jehovah my God; and I said, ‘O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God’” (Ezra 9:3; Ezra 9:5-6).

It must not, of course, be forgotten that these scenes were not normal. This was not the formal worship of the sanctuary, but a very exceptional occasion. But after making every allowance, it is very probable that, Oriental nature being what it was, prayer was more violent than it normally is with us. The lan­guage of Paul suggests that Christian prayer is, in one aspect, a struggle (Romans 15:30; Colossians 2:1); and while this intensity is in part created by the deadly earnestness of Christianity, it is also in part an inheritance from older Hebrew custom. The publican beat upon his breast (Luke 18:13), and the early Christians groaned in the excess of their emo­tion (Romans 8:26). But by far the greatest illustration of intensity in prayer is that of our Savior as He prayed in Geth­semane. Whether or not the statement, omitted by many of the manuscripts, is literally true, as it well may be, that “His sweat became as it were great drops of blood falling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:44), it is certainly true to the spirit of the situation, and is practically corroborated by the other statement that “He offered up prayer and supplications with strong crying and tears” (Hebrews 5:7). The posture most frequently mentioned in connection with prayer is prostration (Cf. Genesis 24:26). The worshipper approached his God with the same deference that he showed when presenting a petition to an earthly superior. Unfortunately the Hebrew equivalent for “he prostrated himself” is usually rendered in the English Bible by “he worshipped.” The prostration, with the face to the ground (Nehemiah 8:6), was commonly preceded by the bowing of the head (1 Chronicles 29:20; Nehemiah 8:6), and it is sometimes de­scribed as a falling to the earth upon the face (Joshua 7:6); as Ezekiel fell on his face (Ezekiel 3:23) when he saw the glory of Jehovah in the plain, and in this attitude he offered his brief intercessory prayers (Ezekiel 9:8; Ezekiel 11:13). Jesus, too, falls on His face in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39), and it is thus that the angels in Revelation 7:11 offer their praise to God. It is adopted in prayers of gratitude (Genesis 24:26; Revelation 7:11) as well as of suppli­cation. A very peculiar posture is that of Elijah, who, on Mount Carmel, put his head between his knees (1 Kings 18:42). The context suggests that this may have been the attitude of one who prayed for rain.

Prayer could also be offered kneeling (1 Kings 8:54). In point of fact most references to kneeling appear to belong to the later books (Cf. Psalms 95:6). Daniel (Daniel 6:10), Stephen (Acts 7:60), Peter (Acts 9:40), Paul (Acts 20:36; Ephesians 3:14) knelt: these prayers are all petitions or inter­cessions.

Sometimes, however, the worshipper stood. It was standing that Hannah prayed for a son (1 Samuel 1:26), that Solomon blessed the people (1 Kings 8:54; cf. 1 Kings 8:14; 1 Kings 8:22), and that Jeremiah interceded for them (Jeremiah 18:20). The “hypocrites” in Jesus’ time stood at prayer (Matthew 6:5), but He presupposes the same attitude for His own disciples (Mark 11:25). The Pharisee offered his prayer of gratitude standing (Luke 18:11), so also did the publican his for mercy (Luke 18:13); and in Revelation 7:10 a great multitude in heaven stands to praise God. Thus this attitude could be adopted alike in prayers of petition, intercession, and thanksgiving. It has been suggested, with some probability, that ordinarily prayer was offered kneeling or standing, with prostra­tion at the beginning and the end.

Sitting does not seem to be a particularly natural attitude in prayer; but it occurs at least once, in David’s prayer of gratitude (2 Samuel 7:18; 1 Chronicles 17:16), and possibly another time (Cf. Judges 20:26), in a context of sorrow.

Whether kneeling (2 Chronicles 6:13; Ezra 9:5) or standing, the hands were usually stretched out (Exodus 9:29; Exodus 17:11; 1 Kings 8:22), either towards the Temple (1 Kings 8:38; Psalms 5:7; Psalms 134:2) — in particular towards the shrine (Psalms 28:2), where Jehovah was supposed pre-eminently to be—or towards heaven (1 Kings 8:22; 1 Kings 8:54), though when the worshipper was not in the holy land, he could also turn to Jerusalem (1 Kings 8:38; 2 Chronicles 6:34; Daniel 6:10). Jehovah Himself is even represented as spreading forth His hands (Isaiah 65:2); and in public worship, not only the leaders pray thus (1 Kings 8:22), but also the people, when they respond with the Amen (Nehemiah 8:6). So characteristic was this attitude that the lifting up of the hands is synonymous with prayer (Isaiah 1:15; Lamentations 2:19; Lamentations 3:41; Psalms 141:2), and it was a feature also of Christian prayer (1 Timothy 2:8). In prayer the eyes are open, but they are usually turned upwards, as we may infer from the statement that the publican “would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven” (Luke 18:13). Jesus looked up to heaven when saying grace before meat (Mark 6:41; Luke 9:16), and before He healed the deaf and dumb man (Mark 7:34). These are all open-air scenes, where the upturned face of the Master would be strangely impressive. It is not said that He lifted up His eyes in His prayer of gratitude at the institu­tion of the supper, or in the grace which He said before supper at Emmaus (Luke 24:30); but the fact that the high priestly prayer was so delivered (John 17:1) shows that this attitude was not impossible within closed doors.

Women, at least in public, prayed with the head veiled, men with the head bare, though in the Corinth­ian Church there appears to have been a movement among the women for emancipation from this custom (1 Corinthians 11:5; 1 Corinthians 11:13). Job shaved his head (Job 1:20) before prostrating himself in prayer; but that, like the rending of his robe, was a symbolical expression of grief. The prayers of the Bible are nearly all spoken in a loud voice. Nehemiah offers a silent prayer on an. occasion when a spoken prayer was impossible (Nehemiah 2:4), and in Hannah’s prayer for a child “only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard” (1 Samuel 1:13). As a rule, however, the worshipper “cries with a loud voice.” Often this is explained by the nature of the situation. It is thor­oughly in keeping that the Baal priests, who gashed themselves till the blood spurted, should cry aloud (1 Kings 18:28). Oaths made (2 Chronicles 15:14) or praises offered (Revelation 5:12; Revelation 7:10) by a crowd are naturally spoken in a loud voice, and a speaker who is praying before a large assembly also has to exert his voice (1 Kings 8:54). But even private prayers seem, as a rule, to have been spoken loudly. This would be no surprise in the case of so rugged a figure as Elijah (1 Kings 17:20-21), or in the first fresh enthusiasm of conscious sonship (Romans 8:15); but even Ezekiel prays thus, as he lies upon his face, and briefly pleads for “the remnant of Israel” (Ezekiel 11:13). The leper whom Jesus healed glorified God with a loud voice (Luke 17:15); and with a loud voice Jesus (Luke 23:46) and Stephen (Acts 7:60) utter their dying prayer.

Most of the Biblical prayers are short. The origi­nal prayers may, of course, well have been longer than the records would lead us to suppose. The par­ables of Jesus were no doubt texts rather than sermons, and the extant prophecies are summaries rather than addresses. Many of the minor prophets could be read through in half an hour, and one or two in a few minutes. But, as we cannot suppose that these books exhaust the activity of the prophets, so we need not suppose that the prayers were as brief as the records. On the whole, however, there can be no doubt that earlier prayers were brief. “O Baal, hear us”—two Hebrew words—that is the whole prayer of the Baal priests, though it rends the air with weird iteration from morning till noon (1 Kings 18:26). The prayers of their great opponent Elijah are somewhat longer, but still very brief. “Let this child’s soul come into him again” (1 Kings 17:21; 1 Kings 18:36 f.). In the earlier times, at least, the speakers said simply and briefly what they had to say, and then stopped. We have already seen how, in the older dialogues, God speaks much and men comparatively little. Few things can be more impressive than the reticence of Isaiah in his inaugural vision. All he says after his first expression of guilt and confusion, is, “Behold me, send me,” and “Lord, how long?” (Isaiah 6:8; Isaiah 6:11) A man whose eyes have seen the King will not be very garrulous. Ezekiel had also seen the Divine glory, and his prayers are very brief. After his vision of God, Job laid his hand upon his mouth. In the presence of Jehovah silence is wisdom.

Jehovah is in His holy temple, Let all the earth keep silence before Him. (Habakkuk 2:20, cf.; Zechariah 2:13)

If words must be spoken, the fewer the better. “God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2) — whether they be spoken to God or man.

Reverence is hardly compatible with loquacity; but probably the exceptional brevity of Hebrew prayer is connected with the Hebrew view of the perils and responsibilities of all speech.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue. (Proverbs 18:20) Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, Keepeth his soul from troubles. (Proverbs 21:23) In all labor there is profit, But the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. Their wise men were acutely sensitive to the dangers of superfluous speech; and James, a Hebrew prophet-sage in the Christian Church, felt that the taming (James 1:26) of the untamable (James 3:8) tongue is no small part of a man’s religion. Naturally, if care had to be exercised in the daily speech of man to man, how much more in his solemn speech to God!

It is characteristic of the growing emphasis placed upon prayer, as we have seen, in the post-exilic period, not only that formal prayers are more numerous, but that they are longer. The national confession, led by Ezra, lasted three hours (Nehemiah 9:3), and this spirit developed till, in the time of Jesus, long prayers are a passion with the offi­cials of the Jewish Church. He, both by precept and example, taught the duty of brevity in prayer, and grounded it upon God’s knowledge of our needs: “In prayer, do not babble like the heathen, for your Father knows” (Matthew 6:7-8). No doubt private prayer could be offered at any time; the time would depend upon the mood or the need of the man who offered it. Any one who was sick or suffering or cheerful (James 5:13-14) could pray then and there. But the needs of an organized religious community would tend to impose a certain regularity upon the hours of prayer, consequently the references to fixed hours practically all belong to the post-exilic period. One Psalmist speaks of praising God seven times a day (Psalms 119:64); but in general prayer was offered three times a day (Daniel 6:10) —evening, morning and noonday (Psalms 55:17)—the even­ing being mentioned first as the Hebrew day began then (Genesis 1:5); and in the Book of Acts, the three hours of prayer—the third hour, (Acts 2:15) the sixth, (Acts 10:9) and the ninth (Acts 3:1; Acts 10:30) —are expressly attested, and observed, not only by the Jews (Acts 2:15), and by Cornelius (Acts 10:30), but also by Christians (Acts 3:1; Acts 10:9). Prayer of course would be offered on the Sabbath day (Acts 16:3). Ezra offers his confessional prayer at the hour of the evening oblation (Ezra 9:5; cf. 1 Kings 18:36; Luke 1:9). Prayer was also offered at mealtime (Romans 14:6). Morning prayers are mentioned in connection with the Temple (Psalms 5:3). Specially earnest private prayer is naturally enough often associated with the night (Lamentations 2:19; cf. Psalms 119:62). That was the time when it was specially easy to commune with one’s own heart (Psalms 58:6; Psalms 77:6), and for more reasons than one it was the favorite time of Jesus (Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12). Nehemiah in one age (Nehemiah 1:6), and Anna in another (Luke 2:37), are represented as praying night and day for the redemp­tion of Jerusalem: they illustrate what Paul means by prayer without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). With that refusal to legis­late which characterized all the ministry of Jesus, He laid down no law concerning the time of prayer. Ye, when ye pray, shut the door (Matthew 6:5-6). With regard to the place of prayer: the local country sanctuaries in early times, and the temple in later, were felt to be places of prayer in a very peculiar sense. Hannah offers a private petition of her own at Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:11), and Hezekiah at the Jerusalem temple (2 Kings 19:14). But prayer could be offered in every place (1 Timothy 2:8) — in the land of exile (1 Kings 8:47; Jeremiah 29:13) as well as in the holy land; in a house (Acts 10:30; Acts 12:12), on a house-top (Acts 10:9), in bed (Psalms 63:6), in prison (Acts 16:25), in the fields by a well of water (Genesis 24:11-12), on the hillside (Genesis 28:18-20; Matthew 14:23), on the battle­field, by a riverside (Acts 16:13), on the sea-shore (Acts 21:5). The hypocrites loved to pray at the street comers (Matthew 6:5), but Jesus taught and practiced secrecy in prayer. If in the house, let the door be shut (Matthew 6:6; cf. 2 Kings 4:33); but He Himself loved the deserts (Luke 5:16), and the mountains, and the great spacious silence of the night, for there and then He could be alone. He went up into the mountain apart to pray; and when even was come, He was there alone (Matthew 14:23). The mountain, the evening, the loneliness—these things are the earthly background of the strength of Christ. A suggestively large place in the gospels is occupied by the word apart. Jesus prays apart (Luke 9:18). “Sit ye here while I go yonder, and pray” (Matthew 26:36). He calls His disciples apart. “‘ Come ye apart into a desert place.’ And they went away in the boat to a desert place apart” (Mark 6:31 f.; cf. Galatians 1:17). He took His three favorite disciples up into a high mountain apart (Matthew 17:1; Luke 9:28). Public prayer is a religious necessity, but it must have its roots in private prayer. To this, loneliness is essential; and that must be secured in the inner chamber, with the door shut, or, best of all, on the mountains or some desert place apart. But to the Jew, the temple was, in an altogether unique sense, the house of prayer (Isaiah 56:7). Prayer was offered before it (Ezra 10:1; in Joel 2:17, “Between the porch and the alter.”) for Jehovah’s name was in it (2 Chronicles 20:9). It is “the beautiful house where our fathers praised Thee” (Isaiah 64:11). To it the publican and the Pharisee go up to pray (Luke 18:10), but also Peter and John (Acts 3:1), for the early Christians regarded it equally with the Jews as the house of prayer (Luke 24:53; Acts 3:1; Acts 22:17). But the great word of Jesus “neither in this moun­tain nor yet in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father” (John 4:21) was the inevitable corollary of His view of God. For “God is spirit,” and the consequences of this for religion are innumerable and inestimable. If God be spirit, and His worshippers must worship Him in spirit, then questions of posture and gesture, time and place, can never be of supreme consequence. The exigencies of practical and ecclesiastical life will compel us to select certain places and times for reli­gious observances; but the soul must not be bound by them or attach to them a fictitious importance. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The only thing of real consequence is that the finite man come face to face with his infinite Friend; and this he may do, as well at midnight as at the third hour or the ninth of the day, as well in the desert place apart as in the holy and beautiful house where our brethren praise Him.