When Prayer Is Not Prayer
SAYS a devout writer: "There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees." But there are moments, too, when, though the body be on its knees, the soul is strutting about on rhetorical stilts, parading in lofty self-sufficiency its tinsel glories before a knee-sore audience. Something of this kind might have been seen the other day at an anniversary occasion. The school and audience were told that they would be led in prayer. But, instead, they were led from prayer by the high strutting leader, while he told the Lord, with a flourish of language, the history of the Sunday-school cause from its beginning. He depicted the marvelous growth and accomplishments of that particular school. He lauded the faithfulness and self-sacrifice of its teachers; the punctuality and liberality of its scholars; the energy, ability, and self-denying labors of its superintendent; and a multitude of other things, ending with an eloquent compliment to the pastor of the church and the audience before him. It was, in its way, very striking. It was in some aspects instructive. But it was not prayer, nor any kin to prayer. We wish we could say there was never anything like it before or since.—S. S. Times.