THE LORD'S PRAYER—ITS BREVITY.
By H. A. N.
“OUR Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” How short! Only eight lines. It can be distinctly and deliberately pronounced in less than a minute. How forcibly does this teach us that the worth of prayers is not measured by their length. How seldom does any one in a prayer-meeting offer so short a prayer as this. Would not such short prayers often be better? It is a heathenish notion that God will hear us for our much speaking. Yet do not Christians sometimes study to prolong a prayer instead of simply speaking what is in their hearts, and then just as simply stopping? Yet, though the length of a prayer is not a recommendation of it, so neither is it always a fault. A long prayer may be acceptable to God, and a short prayer may be an abomination. The prayer of the Pharisee was short, though longer than the Publican’s. It was not its length that condemned it. We are told that our Lord on one extraordinary occasion “continued all night in prayer.” A prayer may be short for two reasons: it may be because he who prays is simple hearted, and will not pray more than he feels, and it may be because he is in haste to be about his worldly business or amusements, or does not like to tarry long alone with God. A prayer may also be long for two reasons: either because he who offers it makes a merit of long prayers, or because his heart is so full that it cannot quickly unburden itself. Let not one who goes thus to his closet fear to stay there until he has told all that is in his heart in the indulgent ear of his Father in heaven—until he has spread out the whole detail of his cares, his sins and his wants under the eye of him “who seeth in secret.” There is nothing in the words or in the example of our Lord which forbids you staying alone before the throne of grace just as long as, in the simplicity of your heart, you feel disposed to stop there. But the laborious effort to prolong even secret prayer is to be avoided. The time which you spend in the closet should not all be spent in prayer. Besides reading the Bible, some time should be spent in meditating on its truths; and effort is needed to learn to meditate—to learn to fix and hold the mind in contemplation of God and of his word. Probably we all can be helped in this by reading, besides the Bible, some book of devout meditation, such as Baxter, and Bogatsky, and Jay, and Chalmers, and Hannah More, and many other devout men and women have furnished us. Especially is it well to make specific preparation for the act of prayer, by turning the thoughts directly upon him to whom we are to pray, reminding ourselves of his greatness and majesty, and of our own vileness, and seeking to gain a vivid and solemn impression of his actual presence with us. It is well also to call to mind the specific sins which we have to confess, the particular mercies for which we should thank him, and the new favors that we need to ask. We should not talk at random when we “take it upon us to speak unto Jehovah.” If the result of such reflection be to make your words few, and full of solid and solemn, earnest meaning; if thus your prayer be made short as our Lord’s, or as the publican’s, fear not; if it be humble and sincere it is accepted.—H. A. N. Am. messenger.