Praying in Public by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 13, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 18.

Praying in Public.

By Editor

WE shouldn’t wonder if Sam Jones struck pretty nearly the truth of the matter when he made the following remarks:—

“That old brother out there says, ‘I don’t pray in public.’ I ask him why. He says because he is timid. It is because you are mean; that is the secret of the whole thing. A fellow doesn’t like to pray before the public when he hasn’t lived right before the public. I heard of a fellow once, and a preacher called on him to pray, and he prayed a little, and directly he said, ‘O Lord, give us soul-saving religion,’ and one of his creditors who was present hollered out, ‘and debt-paying religion,’ and to that the fellow had to say, Amen, and quit. He had him there. And a man that don’t live right before the public don’t like to pray before the public.”