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THE' KING’S' BUSINESS
ask Him tp teach them to pray, i He is our example in prayer as in everything. ' Note: in the Gospels how often He prayed, spend ing whole nights in the mountain in prayer, — Lukev6:12; Mark 1:35; Matt. 14:23; John 6:15; Luke 5:15, 16, and many other places. The example set us by Jésus, the Son of God, .is set us also by all the “holy men of old.” See the lives o f Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jere miah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Elijah, Elisha, Heze- kiah, and others recorded in the Old Tes tament; and in the New Testament, the apostles themselves and the early church.. Take the biographies o f the great saintly leaders in the church in her nineteen hun dred years ,o f history, and they are men whq practiced prayer. Take the most Christlike 1 men and women in your com-' munity and they are men and women of prayer. 2." Command. Psa. 122:6; Isa. 62:6, 7; Matt. 5:44; 7 :7 ; Mark 13 :3 3 ;'Luke 18:1; 21:36.; Acts 8:22; 22:16; Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18; Phil.''4:6; Col. 4:2; 1 Thess, 5:17; 1 Tim. 2 :8 ; Heb. 4:16; James 1:5; 5:13; 1 Peter 4:7.. Failure to pray is sin—1 Sam. 12 :23; James 4:17. "3. Need. 2 Chron. 7:14 ; Psa. 18:,3; 32:6; 34:15; 50:15; 56:9; 91:15; 145:18, 19; Joel 2:32; Matt. 7 :7 ; Eph. 3:20; James 1:5; 4:2; 5.T3.' Prayer, which is in itself a confession o f need, has been designated by God as the channel through which every need will be supplied. Is the need spiritual or temporal, individual or national, the solu tion is through prayer. Our President, at the request o f Con gress, embodied in his proclamation regard ing Memorial Day, a calf to a day of national humiliation and prayer. Thank God for arousing us at last to a sense of our need of His omnipotent help, if we arq to win this war. The man in the parable which is our lesson was driven to his neighbor by his sense of need. II. How to Pray. ■ 1. In the spirit o f the child—“Our Father.” “ If a son shall ask . . . o f a father.” W e are “to draw near to God
with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us” — Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 100. No finer exposition o f our Lord’s prayer has ever been penned, that we know of, than that found in “ Paterson on the Shorter Catechism.” ~ 2. In the Holy Spirit. Eph. 6:18; Jude 20 . 3. In love. Rom. 15 :30; John 13:35. 4. In confidence, 1 John 3 :21, 22. 5. For definite things. The petitions in the Lord’s prayer are very definite, The needy friend was very definite—“bread.”' The importunate widow was definite. Every appeal to our Lord recorded in the Gospels was,' definite. . 6 . In faith. Expecting definite answers to definite prayers. I f we. ask for bread, expect bread. I f we ask 1 for fish, expect a fish. I f we ask for an egg, expect an egg. Mark 11:22-24. 7. In the will o f God. Where God has given a plain statement o f His will we need have no doubt as to whether we are pray ing in the will o f God when we ask - for the very thing that He has promised, e. g., the promise o f the Holy Spirit—Luke 11:13. A fuller knowledge o f the specific promises that God has made would lead to. a >fuller praying in His will. Turning His promises into prayers is the triumph o f the prayer life. Where we do not know definitely what His will is, we must wait oh Him to find it, and until we have -done, 'so our attitude must be that o f loving trust in His': wise love—Nevertheless, not my wxill but Thine be done. 8 . In the Name o f Christ. John 14:13, 14. Not just a formal, unappropriating expression at the end o f our prayer; but a glad, confident acceptance'of bur privilege -to present His name as our plea. During the civil war an invalid soldier called on a prominent Chicago business man. He was not very important looking in his worn uniform, and the clerk whom he addressed hesitated to take the envelope he, hekf out into the privatq office. He did so, how ever. and in a minute or two the business
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