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How to Pray

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 15, 1875

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 45, No. 3.

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How to Pray.

An article found among the unpublished papers of the late Dr. J. A. Alexander, on “Circumlocution in Prayer,” closes with the following “practical suggestions to young men who are forming their habits” in respect to prayer. They are equally applicable to all who pray in public, and especially to those who pray in Sabbath-school.
  1. Let your prayers be composed of thanksgiving, praise, confession, and petition, without any argument or exhortation addressed to those who are supposed to be praying with you.
  2. Adopt no fixed forms of expression, except such as you obtain from Scripture.
  3. Express your desires in the briefest, simplest form without circumlocution.
  4. Avoid the use of compound terms in place of the imperative mood.
  5. Hallow God’s name by avoiding its unnecessary repetition.
  6. Adopt the simple devotional phrases of Scripture; but avoid the free use of its figures, and all quaint and doubtful application of its terms to foreign subjects.
  7. Pray to God, and not to men.