Cultivating the Gift of Public Prayer, Part 2

Guidelines for the Linguistic Form of Public Prayers

0:02 After a rather lengthy introduction with three areas of concern, we then began to take up some of the guidelines with respect to cultivating the gift of public prayer, and we addressed the fundamental intention of our public prayers, the essential content of our public prayers, and now the third general guideline, C, under Roman numeral II, guidelines with respect to the linguistic form of our public prayers. Guidelines with respect to the linguistic form of our public prayers.

0:46 What we express to God as the mouthpiece of His people must have words as the vehicle of thought, and perhaps the best way to do so is to use words as the vehicle of thought. The way to express the guidelines is in terms of six very simple but much-needed warnings.

1:06 First of all, avoid all mixed use of contemporary English and Elizabethan English. Avoid all mixed use of contemporary and Elizabethan English. If, for reasons of conscience and familiarity, with the old authorized version and early habits of prayer, you feel more comfortable praying in Elizabethan English, then master the forms of Elizabethan English.

1:42 It simply is sloppy grammar to say, O Lord, we approach Thee this morning and ask You. Either He's Thee or He's You. He's not both from the same mouth at the same time. So avoid all mixed use of contemporary English and Elizabethan English.

2:00 Secondly, avoid all meaningless repetition of pet phrases. Now notice I did not say avoid all repetition. I have rejected some of the counsel on public prayers because I'm too familiar with the Psalms and with the prayers of the Bible. And there are prayers in the Psalms and other parts of the Bible where God is addressed repeatedly.

2:32 O Lord, hearken and do. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. And therefore it is right and proper that at times we should repeat the name of God quite frequently in intense prayers.

2:47 But what I've said is avoid all meaningless repetition of pet phrases. Listen to Dabney on page 347 as he observed this. In his day, it is a grave fault to repeat frequently and mechanically any formula of words as interjections, the names and titles of God, or favorite phrases. Inordinate repetition grates on every ear.

3:22 These words, of course, betray either odious mannerisms or a vacuity of heart in the sacred service, which is utterly proletarian. We sometimes hear the name of the majestic being to whom prayer is addressed repeated so heedlessly that it is literally taking the name of God in vain. And then he goes on to elaborate on this sin of public prayer. Avoid all meaningless repetition of pet phrases.

3:58 Thirdly, avoid all the language of indecent familiarity with God. Avoid all the language of indecent familiarity with God. Spurgeon on page 56 addresses this matter as follows. Another fault equally to be avoided in prayer is an unhallowed and sickening superabundance of endearing words.

4:36 When dear Lord, and blessed Lord, and sweet Lord come over and over again as vain repetitions, they are among the worst of blots. I must confess I should feel no revulsion in my mind to the words, Dear Jesus, if they fell from the lips of a Rutherford or a Herbert. But when I hear fond and familiar expressions hackneyed by persons not at all remarkable for spirituality, I am inclined to wish that they could in some way or another come to a better understanding of the true relation existing between God and man. And then Spurgeon goes on to enlarge upon this common fault of public prayers. Avoid all the language of indecent familiarity with God. Fourthly, avoid all glaring grammatical mistakes and vulgarisms. Avoid all glaring grammatical mistakes and vulgarisms.

5:47 Would our people speak as we do, or feel uncomfortable speaking as we do? We are their mouthpiece. Let us give them the credit of seeking to address God in a manner, when public, that does not grate on people's sense of culture and refinement. Vulgarisms, or coarse expressions, terms that may be appropriate in our common speech in private with close friends, may not be appropriate in our public prayers.

6:23 And then fifthly, avoid all meaningless phraseology, even if it is biblical. Avoid all meaningless phraseology, even if it is biblical.

6:42 And then sixthly, avoid all suggestions of personal devotions in the sanctuary. It is rarely appropriate to pray in the first person. Do your praying in the first person in the closet. Lord, I pray that.

7:04 Well, are you having your devotions? Then go off and have them. But I'm in the congregation. Are you my mouthpiece?

7:10 Then it's, Lord, we beseech you. We plead with you. We confess to you. Avoid all suggestions of personal devotions in the sanctuary.

Guidelines for Speech Patterns in Public Prayers

7:25 These are some guidelines with respect to the linguistic form of our public prayers. And now the fourth area of guidelines. It is guidelines with respect to speech patterns in our public prayers. Guidelines with respect to speech patterns in our public prayers.

7:46 In this division of our subject, we're concerned with the vocal apparatus and its usage. The fundamental rule, 1 Corinthians 14, 9 and 16. You get this when we come to the use of the voice in preaching, but it's appropriate here as well. So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken?

8:18 For you will be speaking into the air. Verse 16, excuse me. Else if you bless with the Spirit, how shall he that fills the place of the unlearned say the amen at the giving of thanks, seeing he knows not what you say? And here again, let me couch this concern in some warnings.

8:43 Avoid run-on thoughts and sentences devoid of pauses. When only a very unusually skilled mind can keep the subject and predicate together, because the whole thing is just run-on with so many ellipses and parenthetical thoughts. You are not praying in a linguistic form that is easy to be understood. So avoid run-on thoughts and sentences devoid of pauses.

9:17 Secondly, avoid the assumption of a praying voice, which is qualitatively different from your normal speaking voice.

9:34 Some people take on a praying tremor. Some people take on a praying guttural tone in their voices. In the article by Newton that you've received, printed in the Banner of Truth, Newton says the tone of the voice is likewise to be regarded. Some have a tone in prayer so very different from their usual way of speaking that their nearest friends, if not accustomed to them, could hardly know them by their voice.

10:07 Sometimes the tone is changed perhaps more than once. So if our eyes did not give us more certain information than our ears, we might think two or three different people had been speaking by turns. It is a pity when we approve what is spoken, we should be so easily disconcerted by an awkwardness of delivery. Yet so it often is, and probably so it will be, in the present weak and imperfect state of human nature.

10:40 Now, that does not mean, you see, that in normal speaking there are not different ranges and intensity in the use of our voice. There is a pleading element that is very natural in the use of the voice. There is a fearful, there is an entreating, there is a brokenness that can come through, and all of those things may be expressed in prayer. I am not talking about praying in a monotone.

11:07 But what I am saying is that all of the full range of the voice that is appropriate in ordinary speech should find its expression when we are addressing God, but not a qualitatively different form of the voice when we are praying. Avoid the assumption of a praying voice which is qualitatively different from your normal speaking voice. Then thirdly, avoid monotone in prayer. A metronome can put you to sleep.

11:42 It has a very soporific effect. Don't let your voice drone on like a monotone. Oh, dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum. You may as well be repeating a ritual in Latin.

11:56 De-dum-de-dum. De-dum-de-dum. Avoid a monotone. Whether the monotone is intense and sustained at a high level or is sustained at a low level, avoid a monotone.

12:09 Fourthly, avoid overly sustained intensity. And here is a fundamental difference between praying in the closet and praying in the pulpit. It may be perfectly appropriate in the closet because you are wrestling with God over an issue. You cannot sustain unusual intensity for a long period of time in prayer.

12:33 But remember, you are the voice of the congregation in public. And most of God's people cannot sustain highly intensified feeling for very long. Be conscious of that. The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.

12:51 And there may be times when your own heart begins to be enlarged and you could very easily, affecting anything, go on for five or ten minutes in great intensity. But remember, you are not having your private devotions. Remember the poor lambs. Remember the new believers.

13:09 Remember those that are just beginning to know what it is to pray with felt passion. And conscious of them, avoid overly sustained periods of intensity in your prayers. And then, if there is anything I want to shout from the rooftops, avoid indistinctness and insufficient volume in your prayers. Unless you utter by the mouth words easy to be understood.

13:41 And that not only has to do with articulation, with pronunciation and enunciation, it has to do with volume. Listen to Newton. The other extreme of speaking too low is not so frequent, but if we are not heard, we might as well all together hold our peace. It exhausts the spirits and wearies the attention to be listening for any length of time to a very low voice.

14:11 Some words or sentences will be lost, which will render what is heard less intelligible and agreeable. I find one of the most irritating things is to have to strain to listen to someone pray or preach. I can get as carnal as I can. I want to say, man, speak up!

14:30 I'm not dying! She's not going to die, my friend! Get your voice out of your tie and out of your bib. And if you've got a microphone, keep your head up enough so it picks it up.

14:46 But it's inexcusable, brethren. If I ever happen to sneak in the back row where you're ministering and you're mumbling in your beard, I just may break into the midst of it and say, speak up, man, and get your tongue out of your beard! So you can edify as you pray. Avoid indistinctness and insufficient volume.

15:07 And then, and this is a necessary caution, avoid a nervous haste, particularly in the beginning of your prayers. Often, as with preaching, so with praying, there comes a thaw in the actual act of praying. Well, don't try to push things with a nervous haste until that thaw comes. And there is a more natural flow of utterance.

Guidelines for the Length of Public Prayers

15:38 If your words are coming slowly, pray slowly. Don't force a nervous haste and end up then just spilling out meaningless verbiage. Alright then, I want to give you some guidelines with respect to the length of our public prayers. This is the fifth category of general guidelines.

16:02 Guidelines with respect to the length of our public prayers. To answer the question, how long should one pray in any given public prayer, demands a multifaceted sensitivity to many variables. How's that for saying nothing? It demands a multifaceted sensitivity to many variables.

16:28 You see, it's parallel to the question in relationship to how long should someone preach. Well, for some men to preach longer than 20 minutes, is the height of folly, as well as of torture to their hearers. For other men to preach less than an hour, is to cheat the souls of the listeners. So therefore, in answer to such questions as these, you will have to be sensitive to your own state as a Christian man, your relationship to your people, your experience, your knowledge, the measure of unction that God is giving you, many, many variables.

17:11 Also, there are factors arising from your people. What are they accustomed to? What is their present situation? If they've only been accustomed to public prayers that are a maximum of three or four minutes, for you to jump right in and pray for ten minutes is to be insensitive.

17:30 Lead them along. Pray for the three or four minutes, but so structure and plan those prayers, and pray down the Spirit of God upon those prayers, before you ever enter the sanctuary, that you get a groundswell from your people saying, Pastor, why do you cut your prayers so short? Oh, you mean you'd like me to pray a little longer? Yes, you just began to pray and you were done.

17:53 Okay, now the signals are coming out. Then you find, after a year or two, they're very comfortable with you leading them for seven or eight minutes in prayer. But be sensitive then to those variables, not only in yourself, but in your people. Well, let me give you a few warnings with respect to this matter of the length of your public prayers.

18:16 First warning is, avoid at all costs being too long. Far better to cut off your prayer wishing your people, your people wishing you would go on, than to go on a minute beyond the point at which they wish you had stopped. Because they'll remember that last minute, and forget everything that went before. Spurgeon says, then by way of a negative canon, verse 60, I say, do not let your prayer be long.

18:52 I think it was John McDonald who used to say, if you're in the spirit of prayer, do not be long, because other people will not be able to keep pace with you in such unusual spirituality. And if you're not in the spirit of prayer, do not be long, because you will surely then weary the listeners. Isn't that wise advice? He says, if you're in the spirit of prayer, don't be long, because other people will probably not keep pace with your unusual heightened state of spiritual liberty and unction and fire.

19:27 And if you're not in the spirit of prayer, don't be long, because you'll weary the listeners. Livingstone says of Robert Bruce of Edinburgh, the famous co-temporary of Andrew Melville, no man in his time spoke with such evidence and power of the Spirit. No man had so many seals of conversion. Many of his hearers thought no man since the Apostles spoke with such power.

19:51 He was short in prayer when others were present, but every sentence was like a strong bolt shot up to heaven. I've heard him say that he wearied when others were long in prayer, but being alone, he spent much time in wrestling and in prayer. And then Spurgeon goes on to give some very, very helpful advice with regard to the length of our prayers. Avoid being too long.

20:20 Secondly, with regard to the length of our prayers, avoid a predictable length to your prayers. Avoid a predictable length to your public prayers. And here again, I can advise you to consult Spurgeon, page 67, and then I'll just give you this little choice quote from Blakey, page 178. Nothing is more clearly shown by experience than the impossibility of continuing to join heartily in very long prayers.

20:54 For people to throw themselves into the current of another man's devotion involves great mental effort, and in proportion to the greatness of the effort, a liability to fatigue. Whitefield is said to have remarked to an excellent minister whose prayer was unreasonably long, quote, You prayed me into a good frame, and you prayed me out of it. End quote. A minister is not, of course, to have regard to the outcry of every worldly-minded person who sighs for short prayers, short sermons, short services, and, as someone proposed to add, short religion in general.

21:37 But if it be the case that from five to ten minutes is the longest period during which the average capacity of a congregation can join in prayer, let the man of God accommodate himself to their capacity, and if more time for prayer be deemed necessary, let him rather increase the number of prayers than the length of any one prayer out of due proportion. And remember, as in the case in our congregation, you've got a lot of children, for whom to be utterly quiet and silent, folded hands and bowed heads a minute is an eternity. You were as a kid once, remember? Long time ago for some of us.

Guidelines for the Spiritual Energy of Public Prayers

22:18 But remember that, and don't set up an unnecessary antagonism to prayer in the children, if you have a lot of children in the congregation. Let all of those factors be taken into consideration. And then the final area in which I want to give some general guidelines to your prayers is what I would call guidelines with respect to the spiritual energy of our public prayers. Guidelines with respect to the spiritual energy of our public prayers.

22:50 First, be convinced of the necessity and availability of the Spirit's aid for your public prayers. I trust every one of you men is convinced of this in connection with public preaching. But what of prayer? Ephesians 6.19 says, Prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Jude 20 says, Praying in the Holy Ghost. Romans 8.26 We know not how to pray, but the Spirit helps our infirmities.

23:25 Now, I don't know if I were pressed to preach on what does it mean to pray in the Spirit that I could do so. But my comfort is this, God knows what He meant when He said it, and therefore I cry to Him whatever He meant, I might know it. It's wonderful to experience more than you can preach on. And one of the joys when we meet for prayer before our services as elders is to hear almost inevitably one of the elders pray specifically for the brother who is leading us in the devotional elements of our worship.

23:59 That the Spirit of God will attend the reading of the Word. That the Spirit of God will attend the prayers. That the Spirit of God will attend the one who leads us in our worship. As well as the one who preaches the Word of God.

24:13 So be convinced of the necessity and availability of the Spirit's aid for our public prayers, and then cry to God for that aid. Luke 11.13 If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? If I'm to pray in the Spirit, then I ask that He will give me copious measures of the Spirit as the Spirit of grace and of supplication.

24:44 And then thirdly, cultivate an attitude of present dependence on the Spirit prior to and in the midst of your public prayers. There'll be times when you have framed your prayers, you've thought them through, you've organized the basic outline and content, but try as you may, you just cannot seem to get on track. Well, if you're coming into your season of prayer in present dependence on the Spirit, it's amazing how times in the midst of a prayer that began like you were trying to wade through quicksand, God enables you to soar as on eagle's wings. His strength is made perfect in our conscious and our felt weakness. Now we come thirdly and finally now, in this lecture division, we had our lengthy introduction, guidelines for the cultivation of the gift of public prayer, now some miscellaneous practical suggestions with respect to cultivating the gift of public prayer. And I have four things I want to say to you in our remaining moments very quickly.

Miscellaneous Practical Suggestions for Cultivating Public Prayer

26:00 Number one, establish, if you've not already done so, establish the habit of praying in the Scriptures. Establish the habit of praying in the Scriptures. And by that I mean in your own devotional exercises, let the very language of your English Bible dictate much of the substance of your prayers, particularly in your reading of the Psalms and of those more devotional portions of the Word of God. Here I commend to you the section in Dabney, pages 358 and 9, where he has an excellent section encouraging this practice. Secondly, establish the practice of preparing the framework or outline of your public prayers. Establish the practice of preparing the framework or outline of your public prayers.

27:04 I find it most helpful, if I'm leading the worship on a Lord's Day morning, to look at the Psalm, to let my opening prayer be framed by the thrust of that Psalm, to think through how the elements in that Psalm can be incorporated into an appropriate opening prayer. Think of the weather, the state of the church, the text in the consecutive reading, the Scripture that you're going to preach upon. Let all of those factors enter into your careful, prayerful preparation of the framework or the outline of your public prayers. Shedd, in his book on homiletics, page 271, writes, he ought to study method in prayer and observe it. A prayer should have a plan as much as a sermon. A prayer should have a plan as much as a sermon. In the recoil from the formalism of written and read prayers, Protestants have not paid sufficient attention to an orderly and symmetrical structure in public supplications.

28:17 Extemporaneous prayer, like extemporaneous preaching, is too often the product of the single instant instead of devout reflection and premeditation. It might at first glance seem that premeditation and supplication are incongruous conceptions, that prayer must be a gush of feeling without distinct reflection. This is an error. No man, no priest, no creature can pray well without knowing what he's praying for and whom he is praying to.

28:48 Everything in prayer, and especially in public prayer, ought to be well considered and well weighed. And in a footnote he says, the great Chalmers was accustomed occasionally to write out the prayer in full which he was to offer up. And then he furnishes the proof of that. And so I would urge you to establish this practice early.

29:14 Thirdly, establish the general practice of joining your own public prayers with your preaching. In other words, who is better fitted to pray before the sermon appropriately than the one who's to preach it and to pray after the sermon than the one who has delivered the burden of the Lord? Spurgeon has a good section on this. It's pages 58 to 60 in his lectures.

29:47 And then, fourthly, this very practical suggestion, establish a framework for constructive criticism of your public prayers. Establish a framework of constructive criticism for your public prayers. Paul told Timothy, Give thyself wholly to these things, that thy progress may be manifest unto all. Well, how are you going to know if your progress is manifest if you have no method of having a readout on your public prayers?

Conclusion: Earnestness, Progress, and the Value of Good Prayer

30:19 And then, in conclusion, I can do no better than read the last brief paragraph in Spurgeon's lectures to his students on this theme. Let your prayers be earnest, full of fire, vehemence, prevalence. I pray the Holy Ghost to instruct every student of this college so to offer public prayer that God shall always be served of his best. Let your petitions be plain and heartfelt.

30:53 And while your people may sometimes feel that the sermon was below the mark, may they also feel that your prayer compensated for all. It's a terrible thing when a man's prayers are vapid and lacking in fire, and then his preaching is the same, but what Spurgeon says, though the sermon may have lacked much, let your people leave, saying, But ah, he led me into the throne of grace when he prayed. I have often found with some men, not often, but enough, with certain men, when I've heard them pray, I've said, Oh Lord, I can't wait to hear them preach. Because their prayers reflected a reality, a livingness, a contact with God in his word that was so refreshing and invigorating that it excited me to hear them, to wait upon them in the ministry of the word. And I trust, brethren, that that would be true of us. And again, if we're thinking as we do in this context of long-haul ministries, it is no little thing to have freshness and unction and variety in your prayers, month in, month out, year in, year out, decade in and decade out, and only freshness in the secret place,

32:17 and constantly working and constantly evaluating and constructively criticizing will keep you in the way of progress. And just as I trust any one of you who has a lengthy ministry will be known as a man whose improvement as a preacher was marked and evident until you went to your grave, so also that it will be said and rightly and legitimately said that as a leader in the devotions of God's people and your public prayers, that they increased in richness, depth, simplicity, earnestness, specificness, all of these matters. But it won't just happen automatically. Any more than improvement as a preacher will just happen automatically. The years will simply lock you into your idiosyncrasies unless you work at it, both in preaching and in prayer. The years have no automatic sanctifying influence. They just case harden you in your oddities and in your weaknesses.

33:22 And it's only grace and prayer and pains that produce improvement. So may God set our hearts upon this vital matter and may we be determined to press on to increasing efficiency. And what I'll do, God willing, is I have a working bibliography. I think what I'll do is have this dictated and have it in print.

33:48 That'll be better for you than trying to have you take everything down. Our time is gone. But I've tried to call out everything I could of what is presently in print and then books not in print, some of which are in our library. And you may want to have some of that stuff Xeroxed.

34:04 I've given you this material that I've picked up along the way. But I would urge you to keep your eyes open. And if you come across anything that's helpful, please let me know. And I'll try to include it.

34:16 Thankfully, as I've mentioned, Miller on public prayer has been reprinted. And it's very interesting. At the end of Dabney's chapter, he says, Let me in conclusion recommend to you the little work of Dr. Samuel Miller on public prayer.

34:31 You will find most of the advices I've given you are borrowed from it. It is a manual of the highest merit for its piety and excellent taste. And I say amen to that. And I would urge you, your copy won't look like this.

34:46 Mine's a rebound copy of an older edition before it got reprinted.