Modernism and Prayer What is the Result of Liberalism on the Prayer Life? From “Modern Religious Liberalism” By JOHN HORSCH
he exercises in prayer. “ The men tal state of peace, exultation, and resolution which issues upon the exer cise of prayer is due to the release of conscious tension,” says Professor Theo dore Gerald Soares of the University of Chicago. Man’s hope and courage, they say, are heightened by his expectation of help through prayer, therefore he is benefited by it. The modernist prays not with the expectation of being heard but in order that his hope and courage may be increased through the exercise of prayer. Modernists have given some curious definitions of prayer. According to President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, prayer is communion “ with the deeper racial self within us.” An other theological writer thinks, prayer is “ the conversation of the lower with the higher self.” George Burman Poster says: “ The only prayer which we have a moral right to pray is pre cisely the prayer which after all we our selves must answer.” The purpose of prayer, this author thinks, is “ to fill U 3 with hope and confidence and courage, so that we do in our own strength what men so often idly entrusted to the gifts or to the activities of some god-spirit aphrt from life.” The question is here again pertinent. Is there no other way by which modern ists may obtain hope and confidence than by praying, when they admit that there will be no answer to prayer ex cept such as emanates from themselves? Is such prayer not a strange and un reasonable attempt to this end? It is
ETWEEN the Bible doctrine of prayer and the modern con ception of it there is a vital difference. T h e Scriptures
teach that God. the Creator and Ruler of the world, hears and answers prayer. Besides God’s answer to particular peti tions, the greatest benefit is derived from prayer-fellowship with God . Prayer is laying hold of the fountain of strength that is in Him. True prayer not only moves God but it moves man through divine power. Prayer, particu larly the secret prayer,- is, besides the use of God’s Word, the greatest of the means of gra^e. Prayer may consist, then, of petition or praise, or it may be the still, secret prayer of the heart. True prayer is a childlike thing and yet it must be learned in the school of the Holy Spirit. It is communion with God on the ground of the Atonement of Christ, The principal elements of the higher type of prayer are self-surrender,^ th e desire that the self-life cease and God have His way. True prayer is a pesti lence to doubt regarding God’s Word and to spiritual uncertainty. The truly prayerful heart is in a state of blessed experience of the spiritual realities. Modernism, on the other hand, denies the manifestation of supernatural di vine power in prayer. It denies that God is moved by prayer; in fact it denies that there is a God who answers prayer. When modernists tell us that prayer moves-man, they do not mean that man is moved by divine power, but by power which he. himself possesses and which
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