Three Prayers | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 29, 1876

Three Prayers.

We recently heard three noted ministers pray. The first prayed to himself, meditated aloud, soliloquized richly, eloquently, pathetically. In words he addressed God, but tone, sentences and manner, indicated that God was not in his thoughts personally, as the object of his supplications. The second prayed thirty minutes, with remarkable force of voice and language, traversing the same line of thought repeatedly, at right angles, and acute angles, and doubling on his course; pouring out a great volume of eloquence, abounding in figures, and historical and personal allusions; sometimes grand, and then subdued and gentle; sweeping over the field of experience at times, then rushing into the maze of philosophy like a locomotive into a storm or mist; forecasting the glories of heaven, then touching skillfully the conflicts, temptations and sorrows of life. The third prayed direct to God. He spoke like one having great wants which he was urgent to present to a personal friend, evidently before him. His eye was upon him; his faith took hold of him; his heart yearned with a personal love; he seemed to talk to a present being from whom he expected help, and he pleaded as one would plead for his life. Reverence, faith, love and urgency pervaded every sentence. Rhetoric was discarded, yet there was a beautiful eloquence in the simplicity, sincerity and trustfulness of the style. Which was real prayer? The first two left us far away from God; the last brought him very near, and made us feel that his blessing was real and sure in answer to true and humble prayer. —Baptist Union.