Models of Prayer | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Apr 29, 1875

Models of Prayer.

We have been interested in looking through the Scriptures for the purpose of comparing the prayers therein recorded with those which we hear from time to time in public, and we are astonished to see how they differ in point, expression, directness, and above all, in length, from those heard in these days in the Christian pulpit. It is not an exaggeration to say that we have listened to a single prayer longer than the whole ten that we find in the Bible put together. The first is in Genesis 24 : 12–14, and contains one hundred and ten words, and it is not more than one minute in length. The next is Exodus 33 : 12–15, and contains one hundred and eleven words, and is not over a minute long. The third is in Joshua 7 : 7–9, and contains ninety words. The fourth is in 2 Kings 19 : 15–19, the prayer of Hezekiah, is composed of one hundred and thirty-four words, and two minutes would be ample time to repeat it. Another is found in Nehemiah 1 : 5–11, and is about two minutes in length; another is in Ezra 9 : 6–15, and is about three minutes long; another is in 1 Kings 8 : 23–61, an important dedicatory prayer offered by Solomon himself, at the dedication of the temple, and it did not occupy more than six minutes; while that of Daniel 9 : 11–19, was probably four minutes long. In the New Testament, the prayer of our Saviour (John 17) is well known; it is contained in twenty-six verses, and is five minutes long, while the model prayer—the Lord's prayer—is far briefer still. Now here are ten prayers from those who certainly knew how to pray, and they are all less than thirty-five minutes long, or an average of three minutes each; and yet we hear men pray thirty and forty minutes, and after wandering all over the moral universe, and wearying their fellow-worshipers with vain repetitions, utterly fail of the prime object of all public prayer—to lift up the hearts of men to commune with Heaven. It must be an extraordinary occasion, equal at least to the dedication of the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem—an occasion that none of us shall ever see—to justify a prayer more than five minutes long. There are few “Ohs” and “Ahs” in these models. Their authors do not often say, “O Lord, Lord,” but tenderly, filially, directly, quietly, simply, they ask the blessing they desire, as though they were children who knew that they were addressing One who was more willing to give them good gifts than they were to ask them at his hand. —Gospel Banner.