Prayer by Chrysostom

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Sep 8, 1863

Prayer.

By Chrysostom

A MONARCH vested in gorgeous habiliments is far less illustrious than a kneeling suppliant, ennobled and adorned by communion with God. Consider how august a privilege it is, when angels are present, when cherubim and seraphim encircle with their blaze the throne, that a mortal may approach with unrestrained confidence, and converse with Heaven's dread Sovereign. O! what honor was ever conferred like this? When a Christian stretches forth his hands to pray, and invokes his God, in that moment he leaves all terrestrial pursuits, and traverses on the wings of intellect the realms of light; he contemplates celestial objects only, and knows not of the present state of things during the period of his prayer, provided that prayer be breathed with fervency.

Prayer is a heaven to the shipwrecked mariner, an anchor to them that are sinking in the waves, a staff to the limbs that totter, a mine of jewels to the poor, a security to the rich, a healer of diseases, and a guardian of health. Prayer at once secures the continuance of our blessings, and dissipates the cloud of our calamities. O blessed prayer! thou art the unwearied conqueror of human woes, the firm foundation of human happiness, the source of everlasting joy, the mother of philosophy. The man who can pray truly, though languishing in extremest indigence, is richer than all beside; whilst the wretch who never bowed the knee, though proudly seated as a monarch of a nation, is of all men the most destitute.—Chrysostom.