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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
November, 1940
is any value in using a prayer form of words, surely there is value in a right form. I am not unwilling to pray ' the petitions of this prayer, if and when they represent the needs of my soul, but as a Christian I decline to join in any prayer which is not in the name o f Christ. And the longer I study • this, prayer, the more I am in clined to believe that the chief reason for not completing the prayer as orig inally given was that our Lord had not finished’His instruction regarding Chris tian prayer at that time. For the Christian, therefore, who knows the Lord’s command about praying in His name, to go back to a form which omits that blessed name, is like going back from the cross to the animal sacrifices which, I w(ould remind the reader, were still being offered with the approval of Christ when He gave the prayer orig inally. D. L. Moody tells of his little boy who called to him one day, “Papa, I want a drink,” and then went on With his play. The father thoughtlessly kept on with his reading. Soon the child spoke again, “Papa, I want a drink,” but he still kept on unconcernedly with his play, and Mr. Moody continued to read. Presently the boy left his play, came and took hold of his father’s knee, and said earnestly, “Papa, I am thirsty. I must have a drink.” “As soon as I saw that the child meant what he said, I granted his re quest speedily,” Mr. Moody concluded. When a man leaves his toys or his Golden Text Illustration L uke 11:9
teaching (Matt. 5:1; 6:9-13). The sec ond occasion came at another time when the Lord “was praying in a cer tain place” (Lk. 11:1-4),. Now 'the value of a prayer form is that it contains a certain set of petitions which are ex pressed in certain words, thus enabling the worshipers to memorize and to be able to repeat the form in unison. The change of merely one word introduces confusion, as for example when two groups of Christians try to use the Lord’s Prayer together, the one having learned the petition for forgiveness with the word “trespasses,” and the other having learned it with the word “debts.” Now surely our Lord understood mat ters of this kind, and the fact that when He gave this prayer on two separate, occasions to the same men He did it with different words, shows that He never intended the prayer to be used in the formal way that it is used gen erally. 2. Before our Lord gave the prayer originally, He was careful to warn men against its use in “vain repetitions, as the heathen do” (Matt. 6:7). The cus tomary formula, heard so often, “Let us repeat the Lord’s Prayer,” shows that men have given little or no at tention to what Christ said. 3. Upon both occasions w h e n our Lord gave the prayer, He left it un finished. In the Luke account, this fact is very clear. As to the Matthew ac count, all scholars agree that the dox- ology, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and -the glory, for ever. Amen,” did not appear in the original manuscripts, but was added by human copyists in some ancient manuscripts, and that w&ere it does appear, the form of words varies (Matt. 6:13, R. V. mar gin). Now, it should be clear that if the Lord had intended this prayer to be used as a form, He would have com pleted it, instead of leaving this im portant matter to uninspired writers. 4. The most conclusive argument against the notion that Christ intended this prayer to be used by the church, in the words of its present form, is the very o b v i o u s fact that the name of Christ does not appear in it. At a later time, just as He was about to go to His death at Calvary, our Lord gave His people some v e r y definite instruction about how they should pray: “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full . . . At that day ye shall ask in’ my name” (John 16:24-26). In the light of this clear command, those who call themselves Christians should see that they have no right to utter any prayer which is not offered in the name of Christ. If some one should say that he can pray in Christ’s name without using the verbal form, we gladly admit the possibility, but we further insist that one also may pray without using any , kind of verbal form. And if there
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