It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it.

Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

"Ask and ye shall receive." We grouse before God, we are apologetic or apathetic, but we ask very few things. Yet what a splendid audacity a childlike child has! Our Lord says - "Except ye become as little children." Ask, and God will do. Give Jesus Christ a chance, give Him elbow room, and no man will ever do this unless he is at his wits' end.

When a man is at his wits' end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get into touch with Reality. Be yourself before God and present your problems, the things you know you have come to your wits' end over. As long as you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.

It is not so true that "prayer changes things" as that prayer changes me and I change things. God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of Redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things.

Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man's disposition.

When one of the disciples said, “Teach us to pray,” the Lord raised His eyes to the far horizon of His Father’s world. He brought the ultimate goal of eternal life together with everything God desires to do in the life of humankind and packed it all into a powerful prayer that followed these words: “This, then, is how you should pray” (Matthew 6:9). And what a contrast between His prayer and what we often hear today!

How do we pray when we follow the desires of our own hearts? We say, “Lord, bless me, then my family, my church, my city, and my country.” We start with those closest to us and gradually move outward, ultimately praying for the expansion of God’s kingdom throughout the world.

Our Master’s prayer, however, begins where we end. He taught us to pray for the world first and our personal needs second. Only after our prayer has covered every continent, every remote island of the sea, every person in the last hidden tribe, and every desire and purpose of God for the world are we taught to ask for a piece of bread for ourselves.

Jesus gave Himself for us and to us, paying a holy and precious price on the cross. After giving His all, is it too much for Him to ask us to do the same thing? No man or woman will ever amount to anything in God’s kingdom or ever experience any of His power, until this lesson of prayer is learned—that Christ’s business is the supreme concern of life and that all of our personal considerations, no matter how important or precious to us, are secondary. DR. FRANCIS

When Robert Moffat, the nineteenth-century Scottish explorer and missionary to South Africa, was once asked to write in a young lady’s personal album, he wrote these words:

My album is a savage chest, Where fierce storms brood and shadows rest, Without one ray of light; To write the name of Jesus there, And see the savage bow in prayer, And point to worlds more bright and fair, This is my soul’s delight.

“His kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:33), or as an old Moravian version says, “His Kingdom shall have no frontier.”

Missionary work should never be an afterthought of the church, because it is Christ’s forethought. HENRY JACKSON VAN DYKE

Dr. John Timothy Stone tells of a visit which he paid to the old church of Robert Murray McCheyne. The aged sexton showed him around. Taking Dr. Stone into the study, he pointed to a chair and said, “Sit there; that is where the master used to sit.” Then he said, “Now put your elbows on the table.” This was done. “Now bow your head upon your hands.” Dr. Stone did so. “Now let the tears flow; that is the way the master used to do.”

The visitor was then taken up into the pulpit, and the old sexton said, “Stand there behind the pulpit.” Dr. Stone obeyed. “Now,” said the sexton, “lean your elbows on the pulpit and put your face in your hands.” This having been done, he said, “Now let the tears flow; that is the way the master used to do.”

Then the old man added a testimony which gripped the heart of his hearer. With tearful eyes and trembling voice he said, “He called down the power of God upon Scotland, and it is with us still.”

Oh, that we had a passion to save others! It was a compact between that holy Indian missionary known as “Praying Hyde” and God—that each day He should have at least four souls.

And Brainerd tells us that one Sunday night he offered himself to be used by God and for Him. “It was raining and the roads were muddy; but this desire grew so strong, that I kneeled down by the side of the road, and told God all about it. While I was praying, I told Him that my hands should work for Him, my tongue speak for Him, if He would only use me as His instrument—when suddenly the darkness of the night lit up, and I knew that God had heard and answered my prayer; and I felt that I was accepted into the inner circle of God’s loved ones.”

When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

They . . . called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us.

Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

Lord, teach us to pray.