I THE ENRICHMENT OF PRAYER I It is hoped that this collection of prayers and meditations may be of help to those who want to learn to pray. We have to learn to pray. In the heart of the youngest there is an instinct of prayer—a longing for God and a reaching out of our nature to God. Prayer is as much of an instinct as breathing. It is breathing: the vital, sustaining breath of the soul. It is of little value, therefore, to argue with a man that he ought to pray. All men do pray, or at least did so in youth before they stifled their natural desire for fellowship with God. But much of this kind of prayer is crude and uninformed. There is an infinite difference between this and Christian prayer, as revealed to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is well to remember that He who knew more about prayer than anyone did not argue about prayer; He prayed. When the disciples saw Jesus pray, they recalled their own wandering, superficial, selfish, resultless prayers and they came to Him in private with the earnest request, "Lord, teach us to pray." II One of the most helpful devotional books is called "With Christ in the School of Prayer." This title is suggestive. It suggests that if we make earnest with our prayer life—as we should with the most serious work in the world-we must take more than one lesson in prayer. It should be a daily and sustained exercise. Do we not all continually need fresh and enriching lessons? Who of us is not ashamed of the irregularity and poverty of his prayer life? This title suggests also that Christ is the great teacher of prayer. We can have no more profitable task than making a careful study in the gospels of His teaching and practice in prayer. If He could not live His life and do His work without constant and unreserved prayer, how foolish of us to attempt it. He needed prayer less than anyone who has ever lived, but He knew such deep experiences with God that He is our best example and teacher. There are many other ways in which we may learn to pray better: by reading devotional books, by personal Bible study, and most of all simply by praying. But the association with those who have learned |