Intermediate Topic: PRAYER A PRIVILEGE and a DUTY.

Additional Material: Gen. 18: 23-33; Ex. 32:31, 32; John 17: 20, 21;
Jas. 5

16-18.

Senior and Adult Topic: THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION Of Prayer. Additional Material: Luke 11: 1-13; John 16: 23, 24; 1 Thes. 5: 17; Jas. 5:16-18.

THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS.

THE PLAN OF THE LESSON. SUBJECT: Prayer the Christian's Privilege and Duty.

I. THE MODEL PRAYER, Matt. 6: 5-15.
The prayer in the upper room.

II. EARNEST PRAYER, Luke 18: 1-8.
Prayer that stopped short.

Pupils of all ages need to learn more about prayer. Teach the youngest pupils the meaning of the Lord's Prayer, which they use SO often. Illustrate this with the two parables of prayer. With the intermediate pupils gather up many of the Bible teachings on prayer, conducting a text-hunt that will be III. rich and rewarding. In the older classes deal with the philosophy of prayer, and fix the principle on the most solid IV. OTHER BIBLE TEACHINGS ON foundations of reason.

HUMBLE PRAYER, Luke 18:9-14.
"I am not worthy."
"Not as I will."

PRAYER.

Universal prayer.

Intercessory prayer.
Constant prayer.
Confident prayer.

THE TEACHER'S LIBRARY. Books on the Lord's Prayer by J. D. Jones (The Model Prayer), Washington Gladden (The Lord's Prayer), Farrar, Maurice, Stanford, McNeile, Boardman, Dods, etc. Books on prayer, especially the volume on prayer in The Great Christian Doctrines, edited by Hastings. Chapters on Luke 18: 1-14 in Goodell's Pathways to the Best, Morrison's The Unlighted Lustre, Maurice's Sermons Preached in Country Churches, Hodges's The Heresy of Cain, Mandell's The Heritage of the Spirit, John McNeill's Sermons, Vol. III.

I. THE MODEL PRAYER, Matt. 6: 5-15; compare Luke 11: 1-4. Prayer is any communion of the human soul with God. It is not mere petition, any more than the conversation of two human friends is; at its highest, it is not petition at all, but adoration, thanksgiving, and quiet listening for what our Father has to say. Prayer is the noblest and most blessed activity of man. It is better to be mighty in prayer than to rule a nation; it is better to be a genius in prayer than to write Of course our Saviour, who lived the prayer life completely and perfectly, would put much about prayer into the Sermon on the Mount. We can have no wiser teacher in the School of Prayer.

Hamlet.'

5. When ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites. The Greek word means, literally, an actor. Christ pierced to the foul reality back of all shams; and no sham is worse than the pretence of religion when the heart is far from God. The Pharisees loved to pray standing (the usual Jewish attitude in prayer) in the synagogues or in the streets, facing the Holy Place of the Temple. Thus Moslems to-day, when the hour for prayer arrives, drop their business and kneel in prayer, no matter how public the place. Of course Christ did not condemn public prayer, for he and his disciples prayed in public. What he condemned was prayer whose motive is to be seen of men. Such prayer is rewarded, to be sure, but only with the praise of thoughtless men, not with the approval and blessing of God.

6. Enter into thine inner chamber. "The store-room, Luke 12:3, 24; Matt. 24 26, where a man's treasure was kept, and his most private affairs were trans

acted." New Century Bible. A regular place for prayer, as quiet and retired as possible, is a help that every Christian should secure if he can. The accustomed surroundings will put him into the spirit of prayer as soon as he enters the place, and he will carry from his prayer-room a consciousness of God's presence which will lead to prayer all through the day and wherever he may be.

7. Use not vain repetitions (the Greek word refers to stammerers), as the Gentiles do, all that are not Jews. The heathen of to-day, as of Christ's time, think that their gods can be wearied into compliance by the persistent dinning of petitions. This is shown most strikingly, perhaps, in the Buddhist prayer wheel, in which written prayers are placed, and every rotation of the swiftly revolving wheel is supposed to have the efficacy of a prayer. Thus with the endless repetitions of "Pater-nosters," and other prayers in the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, there are few Christians that do not, occasionally at least, find

themselves relying on the mere form of prayer, which is as useless as the empty chrysalis of a butterfly.

8. Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of,. before ye ask him. Why ask him, then? Because, just as any human father wants his child to ask him for what he wants, that he may keep in touch with the child and the child may realize the father's love, so God is glad to hear us putting into words our desires and longings, our gratitude and reverence. Man needs to pray, not that God may know man, but that man may know God. At the same time, even the clumsiest turning of his children toward him is a joy to the heart of our loving Father.

9. After this manner therefore pray ye. The Lord's Prayer is given us, not as a ritual but as a model. We need not use these words, but we are to use the spirit of the prayer. Like it, our prayers are to be simple, direct, brief. Like it, they are to be spiritual, not neglecting our physical necessities but emphasizing our spiritual needs. The elements of the Lord's Prayer are as follows:

1. REVERENCE. Our Father which art in heaven. The fatherhood of God was recognized by the Old Testament writers, but not in the warm, personal way in which the doctrine is taught in the New Testament. The Greeks and Romans thought of Jupiter as father of gods and of men," but he was not a god of love, he was the Thunderer. Note also the " our, which unites all men as brothers, children of the same Father in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. God's name sums up his character: to hallow it is to revere it, count it sacred. True reverence implies imitation; whoever hallows God in his heart becomes Godlike in his life. This opening of the Lord's Prayer is the key to the whole.

2. EXPECTATION. 10. Thy kingdom come. God's kingdom is his rule, outwardly in the nations, inwardly in human hearts. Christ came to establish it. He expected its complete triumph, and he teaches us to expect no less. Every prayer should be a pæan of victory. We are not the despairing adherents of a losing cause, but we are the glad and proud followers of a King who is sure to reign over all the earth.

3. SUBMISSION. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. We have seen the Father-love of God. We have revered the majestic power and wisdom of God. We expect the royal triumph of God. What is more reasonable, then, than complete submission to the will of God? Nothing can be safer, for it is a loving will. Nothing can be more prudent, for it is an all-wise will. Nothing can be more profitable, for it is an all-powerful will. Christ set us an example when he prayed in Gethsemane, Thy will, not mine, be done." To offer this prayer in sincerity is not to abase humanity; it is to exalt it to the loftiest heights it is capable of reaching.

66

4. TRUST. II. Give us this day our daily bread (R. V. margin, " bread for the coming day "). This is not a prayer for daily cake, but for daily bread; for the

I. AND he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

needful things of life, not the luxuries. Christians are to live a simple life, but a life that is rich in sublime trust. The humblest Christian is as sure of his daily bread as the richest man in the world can be. 5. LOVE. 12. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. We ask God to love us enough to forgive our great debt toward him, our mounting sins. God can do this only if we also have the spirit of love, and show it to our erring brothers. See verses 14, 15, and Christ's parable of the ungrateful debtor, Matt. 18:21-35.

6. PURITY. 13. Bring us not into temptation, into circumstances which would tempt us to evil. God tempts no one (Jas. I : 13); but he allowed even his own Son to be tempted (Heb. 4: 15), and often sees fit to strengthen his children by submitting them to severe tests. But deliver us from the evil one; from Satan, the embodiment of wickedness, who spends his time in tempting men and leading his attendant demons in the same abominable work. This is the fitting conclusion of the prayer, because all the rest of it depends upon our purity. The doxology, "For thine is the kingdom," etc., is omitted from the R.V. because it is not found in the early manuscripts. It was added by later writers when the Lord's Prayer became part of the formal service of the church.

THE PRAYER IN THE UPPER ROOM. It is most interesting and profitable to compare the Lord's Prayer with our Saviour's last prayer with his disciples, John 17: I-26. Does it contain the six elements of the model prayer, reverence, expectation, submission, trust, love, and purity? It does, in rich abundance. (1) The prayer is all conceived in the relation of a Son to his Father. It is full of the thought of the glory of God (vs. 1, 4, 5, 10, 22, 24, 26). (2) The prayer looks forward confidently to the final triumph of Christ's Hofmann. kingdom (vs. 2, 10, 13, 21, 26). (3) The prayer seeks in lowly submission the will of God (vs. 4, 8, 17, 23, 25). (4) The prayer is one of absolute trust in God's goodness and power (vs. 3, 7, 10, 24). (5) The prayer is born in love and finds its climax in love (vs. 23-26). (6) Finally, the prayer seeks purity for the disciples, that they may be kept from the evil one (vs. 11-19).

Head of Christ

II. EARNEST PRAYER, Luke 18: 1-8 (compare Luke 11: 5-8). There are two charateristics without which true prayer is impossible: earnestness and humility. To each of these Christ devotes a pointed parable.

1. They ought always to pray. Pray without ceasing," said Paul (1 Thess. 5 17). All times, all places, all circumstances, are appropriate for prayer. And not to faint. The answer may be long in coming, or it may be so different from what we expected that we do not recognize it. But true prayer never despairs. It rests not on answers but on the character of God. If we faint," give up praying, it amounts to distrust of God's goodness.

2. A judge. Being a judge, it was his duty to fear God and revere God's laws; but he did not do this. It was his duty to be independent in his judgments, but to

2. Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither

regarded man:

3. And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

4. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

5. Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

respect the opinions of the best people; this also he did not do. He was a poor sort of judge.

3. A widow. She was too poor to bribe the judge, too weak to threaten him; "only a woman." Yet with the persistence of despair and in the freedom of Eastern courts she often visited the judge, clamoring for justice (a better translation than avenge") against her wicked enemy.

4. It is a vivid picture: the judge's contemptuous indifference, his growing weariness of her clamors and complaints (for Eastern women can make a terrible outcry), his final yielding lest she wear me out.

7. And shall not God avenge (vindicate, do justice to) his elect, his chosen and beloved people, applied to Israel in the Old Testament and to Christians in the New Testament. Of course God is not likened to the unrighteous judge, but contrasted with him. If even a bad man may be forced by persistent pleading to do the just deed that he does not want to do, how much more will our prayers avail with our Father in heaven, who loves us and desires nothing so much as our good and our joy?

"Divine delay does not mean inactivity. God is not idle when he does not answer us; he is busier preparing the answer than we think. The sunshine of May comes, and all the world is green, yet on God's loom of January that robe was being spun. And the morning breaks when at last some prayer is answered, and the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose, yet the answer was being fashioned in these very years when we said there was no eye to pity and no arm to save. Perhaps God, like some of the busiest men I know, is doing most when he seems to be doing nothing."-- - Rev. G. H. Morrison.

Which cry to him day and night. This is the point of the parable, the need of earnestness in prayer, prayer that continues in spite of all delays, prayer that persists day and night, prayer so sure of its accordance with the will of God that it does not dare cease till it has won the desired blessing. Keep praying, keep crying, keep urging, keep clamorous, keep importunate, find your strength in your weakness." John Mc Neill.

8. He will avenge them speedily. That is, there will be no real delay, no matter what we in our ignorance may think. The answer will come the very instant it can come wisely. Howbeit when the Son of man cometh, in the last day or on any day of his visitation, shall he find faith on the earth? Perseverance in prayer, in the face of God's apparent delays, requires much faith. If we lack it, Christ will help us to get it.

THE IMPORTUNATE FRIEND. Christ's desire that his followers shall be earnest in prayer is shown by his frequent repetitions of the exhortation. An illustration is the parable of the importunate friend (Luke 11: 5-8), which is exactly parallel to the parable of the importunate widow. Ask, seek, knock," Christ urges, for the blessing is there, awaiting your earnestness.

PRAYER THAT STOPPED SHORT. Abraham's prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18: 23-33) was sincere and earnest; he was horrified at the threatened destruction of those beautiful cities with their many inhabitants; but the patriarch underestimated the divine mercy. "Wilt thou save Sodom if there are fifty righteous in "Yes." 66 it ?" "Yes." Forty-five ?" 66 "Yes." Forty?" Thirty?" "Yes." 66 Twenty?" "Yes." "Ten ?" "Yes." And here Abraham's faith and courage stopped. Why did he not go on to one, and beg the safety of the city for the sake of a single just one? He had every reason to think that even this incredible forgiveness would be exercised, but he did not dare urge it. Thus often our own prayers stop far short of the blessings that God is yearning to give us, and also to others on our intercession.

9. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

10. Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

II. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

12. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

13. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

III. HUMBLE PRAYER, Luke 18: 9-14. Earnest prayer magnifies the one who is praying, but we must not stop there; humble prayer magnifies the One to whom we pray. The need of this is brought out by Jesus in one of the most graphic of the parables.

9. Trusted in themselves. That is the essence of Pharisaism, to trust in one's self for righteousness. This leads to scorn of other men and to alienation from God, who knows well the sinfulness and weakness of all men. True prayer is impossible for those that trust in themselves.

10. Two men went up into the temple. It was situated on Mount Moriah, and a splendid flight of steps led up to it. To pray, perhaps at noon or 3 P.M., regular hours

of prayer. The one a Pharisee, member of a Jewish party which abstained from politics, separated themselves proudly from the common people, and professed extreme piety. The other a publican, a collector of Roman taxes, member of a class bitterly hated and despised by the Jews because of their wicked extortions. "The true Pharisee of our Lord's time had divine light in his head but wholly lacked divine love in his heart." E. B. Pusey.

II. The Pharisee stood. The Jews usually prayed standing. Prayed thus with himself. Trusting in himself (v. 9), he prayed with himself. His socalled prayer was only self-congratulation. I thank thee, that I am not as the rest of men. He fasted every Monday and Thursday, though the law prescribed fasting only for the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16: 29). He gave tithes of all his possessions, though most Jews understood the law (Num. 18:21) to apply only to farm crops. He was thoroughly satisfied with himself. "When a man is content with himself he has met his second death. Only the man with a divine unrest can be God's man. For him the world is waiting. For him all hearts cry out. Jesus gives his approval to the publican because he is on the march." Goodell, D.D. Illustration. "Content is a sign of spiritual stagnation. Thorwaldsen carves a statue in which he finds no fault, and he drops his chisel in despair, because he is satisfied. He has gone now as far in his art as he is likely to go. For content discourages further endeavor; and when endeavor stops, growth stops, and the end of growth is the end of life." Dean George Hodges, D.D.

The Pharisee and the Publican.

Dore.

Charles L.

13. But the publican, standing afar off from the Pharisee, fearing to pollute the holy man with his evil presence, smote his breast, over and over, as the Greek implies. God, be merciful to me a sinner, literally, the sinner. Here is no comparing of himself with others. This is the prayer which must underlie all true prayers.