changing conditions of thought and life, has she not equal need to remint the forms of her prayers?

When non-liturgical churches decline in spirituality, and the extemporaneous prayers of the pulpit become stale and commonplace, the remedy is frequently sought in what is called "the enrichment of the services," said enrichment consisting in the adoption of certain liturgic features, instead of the enrichment of the souls of the worshipers. These additions are not made because the life within is at the bursting point, and requires new vehicles of expression, but because it is at low ebb and needs fostering. They are a tacit confession that the spontaneous expression of religious feeling can no longer be relied upon, and that some external prop is therefore needed to hold up the tottering wall of the temple of prayer.

Touching the question of direct preparation for public prayer, there is much to be said on both sides. Premeditation, earnest brooding there ought to be. The prayer leader should cultivate a feeling for the people; he should think of them one by one; his mind should sweep the circle of their needs. But whether or not the preparation should extend to phrase-making is another matter. Some one has said, "You can write about God, but you cannot write to God." Prayer is a direct address to God, and not a literary composition, nor a mere rhetorical performance. A newspaper reporter once described the prayer of a noted divine as "the most eloquent prayer ever addressed to a Boston audi

ence." It may safely be said of such prayer that it does not get higher than the roof.

If the value of prayer does not lie in its correct form, much less does it lie in the official position of the one who prays. It lies in the character of him who prays. Only when the heart is right before God does prayer avail. Hence the best preparation for prayer is the preparation of the heart. When a young preacher asked the venerable Dr. Alexander McLaren for counsel on the question of preparation for public prayer, he answered, "The best way to prepare your prayers is by preparing yourself." That was certainly sound advice. Cultivate a feeling for God, or what Eucken calls "a susceptibility of God"; bring yourself consciously into his presence; open the heart to him; keep the inward life clean and pure, and the fountain of prayer will flow freely; and although your prayer may come short in rhetorical finish, it will not lack in spiritual effectiveness.

Whether, therefore, prayer be liturgical or extemporaneous; whether it be spontaneous or premeditated; whether it be memorized or self-originated, the important thing is that it be real. It is reality that God seeks-"truth in the inward parts." We can pray "by rote as well as by book." The danger of formality belongs to every method. The argument of Paul regarding circumcision may be applied to prayer. Neither stately liturgies, nor free and informal prayer availeth anything, but a heart that is right with God; a heart that pierces

through the outward form of words and looks upon the face of God; a heart that cuts loose from surrounding things and fixes its thought, and trust, and hope on God alone.

CHAPTER V

PRAYER IN THE GREAT ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH

In her Councils, Convocations, and Conferences, where the church has met to consider religious, missionary, and social questions, she has always been thrown back upon God. Unable to find fitting expression for her faith, or to remove the barriers which lie in the way to union; unable to meet the pressing demands of the rapidly enlarging fields of work; unable to cope with the forces of evil which were making for social ruin, she has been forced to make her appeal to heaven for help.

A study of the history of the great Councils, in the furnace heat of whose enthusiasm the creeds of the church were forged, and by whose deliberations the course of the church, in reference to things political and social was shaped, shows that formally, at least, all their discussions were begun, continued, and ended in prayer. In the tangle of perplexing problems, the direction of the Great Head of the church was eagerly sought. Controversial antagonists rested on their arms to invoke heaven's aid in the prosecution of their respective claims. And if they were sometimes more eager to have God on their side than to make sure of being on God's side,

still it was to God that they made their final appeal.

A striking modern instance of a great gathering being filled and swayed by the spirit of prayer is furnished by the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, at which the daily prayer meeting was the culminating point of interest and power. Who can imagine what might have happened had the proportion of time given to speaking and prayer been reversed. It is the profound conviction of John R. Mott that "the missionary leaders have not put prayer first," and he adds, "It is much less difficult to give to missions than to pray for them." Dr. Arthur H. Smith, the veteran missionary of China, declares that "the problem of foreign missions is how to use the buried talent of intercessory prayer." Shortly before his lamented death in the wreck of the Titanic, William T. Stead, when prevented from addressing a mass meeting of men in Liverpool, sent this message: "Tell the men of Liverpool there is no power like prayer. Twenty thousand praying men in Liverpool would revolutionize the world. Get your men to pray, and you will get them to live." Every crisis on the mission field, at home or abroad, has to be met by prayer; every advance is preceded by prayer. The great hopes of missionary conquest which now beat within the breast of the church can find their fulfillment only by prayer. To the end of time the church suppliant will be the church militant, and the church militant will be the church triumphant.