p. 317 | Only Pray

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 19, 1883

Only Pray.

IF a little child should come up to its father and commence addressing him thus: "O father, I acknowledge thee to be my parent—very strong, exceedingly wise, wondrously good; thou ownest all this house and rulest thy family with equity; thou hast brought me up from infancy, furnished my food and clothing," etc.; and, finally, after going on, thus, telling his father what he was and what he had done, could do and would do, to the extent of about ten minutes or more, would end by asking for a penny—that child would be very likely to have its ears boxed. And it can be nothing but the infinite grace and long-suffering of our Father in Heaven that saves some of the long-winded, pompous, theological propounders of prayer, that are frequently heard from pulpit and pew, from receiving merited rebuke and chastisement from him. It can be nothing else. Therefore, when you pray, do not air your theology, do not display your oratory, do not do anything else than pray.—Moravian.