Excerpt:
All religions pray. God and prayer are inseparable. Belief in God and belief in prayer are elemental and
intuitive. The ideas may be crude and cruel in primitive and pagan peoples, but they belong to the universal
intuitions of the human race. The teaching of the Old Testament is full of the subject of prayer. Everywhere
there are commands and inducements to pray, and the great stories of deliverance and victory, experience and
vision, are all examples of prevailing prayer. All the crises in the life of our Lord were linked with special
seasons of prayer, and His teaching set forth wonderful assurances to those who pray. He laid down the laws
of prayer, though He never sought to explain its mystery. Prayer was not a problem to Him. The two parables
He spake about prayer are not very acceptable to those who pray. There is something alien to the spirit of
prayer in likening God to a heartless judge or a churlish friend. God is neither. The parables were not spoken
as representative of God, but to illustrate the reward of importunity. The basis of prayer is sonship. Prayer is
possible and reasonable because it is filial. It is natural for a child to ask of its father, and it is reasonable for
the father to listen to the request of his child. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"
(Matthew 7: 11; I Thessalonians 2:11). There are many problems about prayer, but they lie outside the fact
and experience of prayer, and apart from praying there is no solution of them. Prayer is a fact of experience,
and through all the ages the testimony of those who prayed has been that God hears and answers the prayers
of His children.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: The Sign of Prayer
Chapter 2: Learning to Pray
Chapter 3: Praying in Secret
Chapter 4: The Inner Room and the Closed Door
Chapter 5: The Word of God and Prayer
Chapter 6: Praying in the Name
All religions pray. God and prayer are inseparable. Belief in God and belief in prayer are elemental and
intuitive. The ideas may be crude and cruel in primitive and pagan peoples, but they belong to the universal
intuitions of the human race. The teaching of the Old Testament is full of the subject of prayer. Everywhere
there are commands and inducements to pray, and the great stories of deliverance and victory, experience and
vision, are all examples of prevailing prayer. All the crises in the life of our Lord were linked with special
seasons of prayer, and His teaching set forth wonderful assurances to those who pray. He laid down the laws
of prayer, though He never sought to explain its mystery. Prayer was not a problem to Him. The two parables
He spake about prayer are not very acceptable to those who pray. There is something alien to the spirit of
prayer in likening God to a heartless judge or a churlish friend. God is neither. The parables were not spoken
as representative of God, but to illustrate the reward of importunity. The basis of prayer is sonship. Prayer is
possible and reasonable because it is filial. It is natural for a child to ask of its father, and it is reasonable for
the father to listen to the request of his child. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"
(Matthew 7: 11; I Thessalonians 2:11). There are many problems about prayer, but they lie outside the fact
and experience of prayer, and apart from praying there is no solution of them. Prayer is a fact of experience,
and through all the ages the testimony of those who prayed has been that God hears and answers the prayers
of His children.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: The Sign of Prayer
Chapter 2: Learning to Pray
Chapter 3: Praying in Secret
Chapter 4: The Inner Room and the Closed Door
Chapter 5: The Word of God and Prayer
Chapter 6: Praying in the Name
Chapter 7: Praying in the Spirit
Chapter 8: Praying to God our Father
Chapter 9: The Importunity of Prayer
Chapter 10: The Recompense of Prayer
Chapter 11: The Power of Prayer
Chapter 12: Praying and the Commonplace Chapter 13: The Prayer of Faith
Chapter 14: Praying "One For Another" Chapter 15: Praying for Divine Healing
Chapter 16: The Problem of Unanswered Prayer
Chapter 8: Praying to God our Father
Chapter 9: The Importunity of Prayer
Chapter 10: The Recompense of Prayer
Chapter 11: The Power of Prayer
Chapter 12: Praying and the Commonplace Chapter 13: The Prayer of Faith
Chapter 14: Praying "One For Another" Chapter 15: Praying for Divine Healing
Chapter 16: The Problem of Unanswered Prayer