A SHORT time ago one who takes a warm interest in our Magazines, sent the following: “An anecdote is related of Ralph Erskine when a little boy at school, how he and his companions often amused themselves rolling stones from the summit of a hill near his father’s house. One day when thus employed, he was seized with a violent pain in his arm. His conscience undoubtedly smote him, for he had neglected prayer that morning; so without delay he returned home, and shutting himself up in his room, prayed that if God would pardon him and heal his arm, he would live a better life in future. Before he was done praying, his arm was healed, and the pain relieved, no doubt from natural causes, still the incident so ‘endear’d the Throne of Grace to Ralph that it induced him ever after to pour out all his complaints and cast all his cares on God, who is the hearer of prayer.’ That prayer was an exercise in which he delighted in these early days, is seen from an entry on the boards of a note-book; ‘Lord, put Thy fear in my heart. Let my thoughts be holy, and let me do for Thy glory, all that I do. Bless me in my lawful work. Give a good judgment and memory—a firm belief in Jesus Christ, and an assured token of Thy love.'”
My friends, do you pray? or, do you merely say your prayers? To say one’s prayer is to repeat a form of prayer, the words of which may be quite good, but without realising their meaning. One may use such a form in so careless a way that while the words are on one’s lips the mind may be away at some distant part of the world, or planning what you are to do to-morrow. Those who are satisfied with a mere form of prayer are not realising what a solemn thing it is to approach God; nor do they realise their own needs. This raises the question, What, then, is prayer? I cannot do better in this connection than remind you of the beautiful answer given to that question in that splendid little booklet, the Shorter Catechism: “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.” There we have a beautiful directory given us as to how to pray to God, and in praying to Him along these lines we ought to pray that He would give us the real spirit of prayer. We have need that God would give us true humility in approaching Him, a sense of the evil of our sin, and a looking to the finished work of Christ as the only ground upon which God can forgive sin. It is not the amount of words that we may use that will avail. What we need is a God-given prayer, such as the Publican in the Parable had, when he could not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
In the anecdote given above we read that the incident recorded there endear’d the Throne of Grace to Ralph Erskine. That shows us the great pleasure he had in prayer. To men and women, boys and girls, as they are by nature, prayer is a very irksome matter, but where the Holy Spirit works, prayer is a delightful thing.