In defence of Christian prayer; a consideration of some of the intellectual difficulties that surround petition

Front matter

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Introduction

THE object of this book is not directly devotional. It does not aim at instruction in the art of prayer. Its aim is humbler, to examine and meet various objections brought against the practice of prayer from the side of science, psychology and philosophy, which, if admitted, would render prayer intellectually impossible or at the least seriously limit its scope. Many are seriously hindered and weakened in their prayers by intellectual difficulties, often but not always of a vague kind. The only remedy is to drag them out into the - open and examine them by the light of reason. Such a process, however, even if successful, cannot by itself prove the value of prayer. The value of prayer can only be proved by praying. But it can at least make it possible for a man to give himself to prayer with his whole mind. In short this book does not attempt, as it were, to lead its readers into the sanctuary, but only to show them that the door is still open and to dust the hassocks on which they can kneel. It lies with them to enter or not to enter. Only by venturing within can they prove for themselves what the sanctuary really contains and whether the venture is worth while.

vi INTRODUCTION

If little is said about adoration or thanksgiving as elements in worship, that is not because they are considered as of secondary importance, but because the most serious intellectual difficulties centre round petition. If the reality and value of petition is once granted, little difficulty will be found, on the intellectual side, about the rest of Christian worship.

It may be added that this book is not written primarily for the expert psychologist or philosopher but for the ordinary educated man or woman. While the author believes all the arguments in it to be true, they would have been expressed somewhat differently if addressed to a professional audience. The dogmatic tone of certain passages demands some apology. It is due to limitations of space, not to blindness to the enormous complexity of the problems discussed.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE I. THE EVOLUTION OF PRAYER - - I

II, CHRISTIAN PRAYER - . ee tee III. PRAYER AND RELIGION - San ae IV. PRAYER AND SCIENCE - - agit ts: V. PSYCHOLOGY AND PRAYER~ - - 68 VI. PHILOSOPHY AND PRAYER - - 96

VII. PRAYER AND TRUTH - - BELO

Chapter II

\ S we saw, the history of prayer is the history of religion, but there have been in history | many forms and kinds of prayer. They v cannot all be equally true and satisfactory expressions of the impulse to pray. The Christian believes that in the life and example and teaching of Jesus Christ we see the disclosure of what prayer can be at its highest and best. He took the universal human /impulse to pray and developed it and raised it to a new plane. All prayer must be tested and judged by the possibilities of prayer as revealed in and by Christ. It is, let us remember, only Christian prayer that we believe to be capable of a full and rational defence.

For our study of Christian prayer we turn first to the human example of Christ, then to His teaching on the practice of prayer and thirdly to His own response to those who made requests to Himself.

As we examine the records of His life we are struck by the surprisingly large proportion of time that He devoted to prayer. Throughout that life prayer alternated with His active labours for men. At all moments of crisis He turned to conscious communion with the Father. At His baptism, when He deliberately left behind the life of home and set Himself to embrace His vocation, He prayed (Luke iii, 21). The reception of the Holy Spirit was followed by a long period apart in the wilderness alone with the Father in prayer and fasting, while He prepared Himself for the approaching ministry and overcame in advance the temptations to action which would conflict with the Father’s will. In the strenuous days of the opening of the Galilean ministry, He deliberately turned His back on the work of teaching and healing and went apart for prayer. (e.g., Mark i, 35; vi, 46. Luke v, 15-16; ix, 18.) Before the new venture of choosing and sending out the Twelve, He spent all night in prayer (Luke vi, 12. Cp. Matthew ix, 38-39). It was while He prayed at a turning-point in His ministry, that He was transfigured. His own prayers were of such a nature that when His disciples overheard them, they asked Him to teach them to pray. (Luke xi, 1.) The evidence suggests that His miracles - were in some sense answers to prayer. (Mark vi, 41 ; villi, 6; vii, 34; ix, 29. John xi, 41-42.) In one case He mentions that He has been interceding by namnte for an individual apostle. (Luke xxii, 32.) In the Gospel of St. John the so-called High-priestly prayer sums up in a characteristic act His whole attitude to the Father. Even on the Cross three at least of His utterances are prayers.

But the most illuminating study of what prayer meant to Jesus is to be found in the record of the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The struggle lay in the moral effort to lift up His human will into complete union with the Father’s will. At first He prayed that the cup of suffering might pass away from Him, subject to the Father’s will being done. (Mark xiv, 36. Matthew xxvi, 39.) Thereswas nothing of disobedience in this desire. In the Old Testament story of the sacrifice of Isaac, when Abraham’s will had been surrendered, the actual sacrifice of his son was no longer demanded. It could not be in accordance with the will of a God of righteousness that the priests and Pharisees out of spite and cruelty should put an innocent man to death and bring to a close His life of kindness and teaching. So He could in perfect loyalty appeal to the Father’s love and power to deliver Him. The answer that He received to His first petition was the clear discernment that it was the Father’s will that the cup should be drunk, that the suffering due to the wickedness of men should be endured not averted. In the light of this deepened knowledge of the Father’s will the desire is readjusted and the prayer changed to the simple petition that the Father’s purpose as now apprehended should be accomplished. The repetition of the same prayer aimed only at deepening the surrender of the will. Clearly Christ regarded the fulfilment of the Father’s will as the best thing, not as the second best. The _ answer to the prayer as a whole lay first in the increased insight into the Father’s will and then in the calmness and strength that it brought. He won new power to overcome the natural shrinking of the flesh. The spirit was strengthened. He was enabled to go forth to face the long hours of the passion and the Cross. Nowhere in the story of suffering, insult and apparent failure is there any trace of further moral struggle.} His will was throughout in full sympathy with the Father’s purpose. His desire was solely for the Father’s glory.

When we turn to the second source of light on the mind of Christ concerning prayer, namely His direct teaching, we naturally begin with the Lord’s prayer. We may regard it as expressing the true Christian outlook in prayer. The order and proportion of the clauses is most instructive. The fulfilment of God’s

+ Except perhaps in the cry of desolation on the Cross (Mark , 34) which however as its context in the psalm shows is a cry of faith.

will and purpose fills the first place. The dominant desire is to be for the actualization on earth of a new order in which God’s name or character is hallowed and in which His will is done both corporately and individually. In subordination to this follow petitions for the supplying of men’s needs that they may have the strength to do the work that God has given them to do in forwarding His will: for the forgiveness of all that hinders them from fellowship with God which is the condition of such a life of service: and for. spiritual power to remain faithful to God’s purpose under trial. It is significant that the whole prayer is social. Throughout it is in the plural, not the singular. Elsewhere He sets no limit to the power of prayer (Mark xi, 23-24. Matthew vii, 7-I1; xvii, 21; Xvi, 19-20). On the other hand He encourages persistence in petition till an answer is gained. Ifa friend in bed can be compelled to get up by repeated requests or an unjust judge can be worried onto doing justice, a fortiori a loving and righteous Father will answer His children’s prayers. (Luke xi, 5-13; xviii, _ 1-8.) God is always waiting to give the best that He can give, but certain conditions must be fulfilled. The chief of these is faith, that is, a willingness to trust God unreservedly as a little child trusts its parents. This alone makes the full filial relation possible. Words like ‘courage’ and ‘fear not’ were always on His lips (e.g., Mark v, 36; ix, 23). His optimism and confidence were based on the character of God. Another condition of true prayer is the spirit of love and forgiveness towards fellow men, which follows from the social nature of true prayer. It is made by members of a family who are striving to live up to the conditions of family life. (Mark iii, 25. Matthew v, 23-24.) Nor is prayer a substitute for effort of

1For a fuller study of the Lord’s Prayer cp. Gore’s Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer.

mind or body. It must be accompanied by watchfulness and obedience. God always calls for co-operation. He strengthens man by His fellowship that man may put forth the greater effort. He bestows more that He may expect more. Nowhere is there any suggestion of the false view that prayer will save trouble. (cp., Mark xiv, 38. Luke vi, 46 ff; xu, 48 ff.)

We may now consider Christ’s own behaviour towards those who made requests to Himself as disclosing in terms of human life something of God’s dealing with men. He loved all men without exception but His conduct towards the individual was determined by the possibilities of the case. We never hear of Him as refusing to heal the sick or comfort the sorrowful, _ however busy He was. At the same time in the

majority of cases He seems to have waited to have been asked to heal. On no occasion is it clear that He sought out a sufferer. At most He took the initiative when confronted with a case during His ministry. Always He required faith in Himself. At Nazareth itis actually recorded that ‘‘ He could do no mighty work there because of their unbelief.’’ (Mark vi, 5-6.) It is significant in this connection to note that in the earliest record the process of His cures is described as being gradual in certain cases. (Marki, 26; viii, 23-26; ix, 26-27.) On one occasion He did not hesitate to delay an answer till the woman’s faith had been so to say educated. (Mark vii, 24-30.) On another He did not shrink from causing the pain of a public avowal of a shameful disease and its cure. (Mark v, 33-34.) Often He sought surroundings favourable to concentration of thought. In one case He led the sufferer to frame a definite instead of a general request (Mark x, 51). All these features combine to show that prayer is based

** not on mechanical but on personal relations. It is far more than an isolated or casual request to one who else may be a stranger. It is conditioned throughout by moral factors. On the one hand it must express the inward character and intention of the man who prays. On the other hand, God does not dispense favours automatically. He gives Himself in all that He gives. It is a personal donation and He can only give Himself to those who are spiritually disposed to receive Him. Prayer is governed by those laws of mutual sympathy which govern the intercourse of friends. |

Two special instances call for particular attention. | The first is Christ’s response to the request that in imitation of Elijah, He would call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritan village which refused | to receive Him and His disciples on their way to Jerusalem. (Lukeix, 51-56.) Itcalled forth a rebuke. The suggestion was in a line with the temptation to use His power to compel obedience and spare Himself the suffering involved in choosing the Father’s methods for establishing the kingdom. Further it displayed a strange ignorance of Christ’s character and of His unfailing love to His fellow men. Thus it contradicted ' the spirit of all true prayer. The only possible reply was such a reproof as might lead to a re-education of the disciples’ mind.

The second instance is the petition also made by the Sons of Zebedee, perhaps under the influence of their mother that He would promise them then and there the two chief places in His kingdom. (Mark x, 35-45. Matthew xx, 20-28.) It was based on a real faith in His coming kingship just when the loyalty of many was failing. It was from one point of view a noble request, reflecting an ambition after the highest good that they could then conceive. This is reflected in the surprising gentleness of Christ’s answer. But | the faith was unintelligent and the form of the request

«The uncertainty of the text does not affect the lesson. Cp. R.V. ad loc.

betrayed a misunderstanding of the methods and nature of the coming kingdom. ‘“‘ Ye know not what ye ask.” The places in the Kingdom of God are not bestowed arbitrarily but in accordance with the Father’s law of righteousness. They can only be won by selfsacrifice and service. The petition was not refused but reinterpreted. The desire was re-educated and lifted up to a new level. The promise was given that on that level it would be satisfied. The early martyrdom of James and the long life and labours of John, if Church tradition can be trusted, were the true answer to the original request, an answer far beyond the spiritual imagination of those who made it at the moment of utterance but yet an answer charged with far greater and more abiding values than the literal fulfilment of the desires of which they were then conscious. God’s will for James and John was fulfilled and that was something far bigger than the capricious bestowal of any temporary and earthly dignity. As they looked back, they would be able to see that their request had been more truly answered than if it had met with an immediate and literal success. The real and inner meaning of their highest desires found expression in the receiving of ability to discharge their vocation and fill their place in the purpose of God.

What then are the leading principles that emerge from this survey of Christian prayer as disclosed in the life and teaching of Christ ? First of all it rests on a belief that behind all that exists and all the processes of the universe is the will of an all-wise and all-loving Father. He has called into being all persons and things, and wills for each and all their highest good. No man can love himself more than God loves him. No man can love even his nearest and dearest more than God does. There can be no more worthy object of desire than that God’s kingdom in all its fulness should come and that His will should be done. In this and in this alone all men and all communities alike can find their true satisfaction. Hence all Christian prayer has for its primary_aim © the direction of desire towards the fulfilment of God’s will. From this it follows that no Christian can even wish, much less attempt to persuade or cajole God to change His mind or lend His divine power to forward some merely selfish end. Rather prayer is one great means for learning more truly the divine will and for co-operating with God in carrying forward that will. Its goal is the realizing of what God desires to be realized because He knows it to be best. For the carrying out of many of His purposes for this present world it would seem that God has willed to make Himself dependent on human intelligence and human effort. Further, God formed this world to be a training ground for a higher life, to be a ‘‘ vale of soul-making.”’ Men and women are to develop here the capacity for a life in conscious fellowship with God, which will find its consummation hereafter.

They are to learn to love and live. But man’s full life can only be developed by active communion with God and of this communion prayer is a necessary part. By working with God in dependence on His wisdom and power man can grow into his full stature. Because this relationship is a personal one it must involve more than work and action and obedience to rules. It should include conscious fellowship and sympathy and right direction of desire. To use the analogy that underlies the whole attitude and teaching of Christ, we are children in the home of a loving Father. We come to know Him by working with and for Him, but just because we are sons and daughters and not tools or slaves mere work is insufficient. There must be the mutual interplay of affection, the sharing of desire, the unity of heart and will. In all this too the social side of religion is maintained and perfected without neglecting the worth of the individual. In the ideal family there can be no favourites, but yet the needs of every member receive due satisfaction. The working out of the world purpose is not the task of a number of separate individuals in personal dependence upon God but of the whole family making a joint effort in co-operation with the Father. His will includes the highest welfare of each and all. For the individual member to attempt to find his own good apart or outside this is to contradict the divine method. Only as he gives himself to the biggest cause in the world can he find himself.

There remains one vital consideration. God ‘has given to man the power of choice. Love must be free’ or it is no longer love. ‘True freedom can only be won by self-determination. Accordingly man is able within certain limits to thwart or hamper the divine purpose. He may refuse the moral and spiritual effort of sympathy and service and the consequences of this cannot be limited to his own life. We are members one of another. So we are confronted with the melancholy fact of sin, the alienation of will and mind and heart from God. There are corporate and national sins as well as individual sins. Hence, as in the family children must express their sorrow for disobedience and promise amendment before the old happy relation can be restored, so in the divine family there must be repentance. There is the need for prayers not only of dependence and co-operation but of penitence and amendment. In short from first to last the whole conception and scope of Christian prayer springs from and is conditioned by the Christian belief that God is a righteous and loving Father and all men are brethren. In Christ human life has been revealed as God meant it to be, and there we see a demonstration of the truth and power of prayer. As Christians we go to school with Him to learn the possibilities of prayer.

When we turn to the rest of the New Testament, we meet everywhere the same ideal of Christian prayer, namely the identifying of all the energies and powers of the self with the good purpose of God, in dependence on His loving guidance and help and in fellowship with all men and women of good will. The universal human duty and privilege of prayer is always assumed. It is regarded as unnecessary to argue about its value. There is no need to develop the point. St. Paul, for instance, shows himself unceasing in prayer both for individuals and for churches, including those which he had never visited (Phil. i, 3-11. Romans 1, 9-12. Col. i, 3-4 and 9-12, etc.). In turn he counted on their prayers for himself and his work. (Phil.i, 19. Romans xv, 30-32. II Thess. i, 1-5, etc.) He teaches that prayer and thanksgiving are a test of what is good. If anything cannot be the subject of these, it must be evil (I Cor. x, 30. Romans xiv, 6 and 23.) Men are bidden to “ pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks’”’ (I Thess. v, 17) because all life, both inward desire and outward action, is to be lifted up to _the prayer level, that is, inspired by a single and consistent ambition for the glory of God. Even the satisfying of the needs of the body can be thus “ done moroeod. a) (Col. ain r7Jand\23.. “Ll Cox. 2. 538:) So, too, in I John v, 14-16 the magical idea of prayer is expressly excluded. If we find then in the New Testament only exhortations to prayer and an entire absence of arguments about it or limitations of its scope, that is only a reflection of the vigorous and whole-hearted spiritual life of the primitive Christian community.

There are two further points connected with the Christian theology of prayer, both prominent in the Epistles and in the Gospel of St. John, which should be stated, though this is not the place for a full exposition or discussion of them.

First, Christian prayer is not a bare imitation of the prayers of Jesus Christ. For Christians He is not a dead teacher but is still living and active. His life beyond the veil is a continual prayer. He is eternally giving Himself in will to the Father. So when prayer is offered ‘“‘in His name”’ or a petition ends with the words, “‘ through Jesus Christ our Lord,” these are no barren formulas. They express even more than the wish that the prayers may represent the mind of Christ, though this is included. Christians are not only disciples but are joined to the living Christ by such closeness of union that they may be said in a real sense to be members or parts of Christ. They are “‘in Christ ’’ as sharing His life, and do all things in Him. As His members they pray, and their prayers so far as their wills are one with His will, are united to _ and integrated with the prayer that He is ever offering. He as He lives in His heavenly activity takes them and identifies Himself with them, and, to use the language of the New Testament, as the great High _ Priest presents them as His own before the Father. | We cannot develop the idea here. For our present purpose it is sufficient to insist that all Christian prayer is in a real sense a continuance of the prayer of Christ Himself.

Secondly, in the closest connexion with the above is the teaching that all Christian prayer is prayer in the Holy Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that Christ works in Christians. And the Holy Spirit is represented as prompting and inspiring prayer. (See especially Romans vili, 26-28. Eph. vi, 18.) In other words the very impulse to pray and the increased insight into the meaning of prayer which comes through praying are to be assigned to the action of God Himself in our minds. The initiative throughout lies with Him and not with us. Prayer is not the searching for a God who is reluctant to be known. The very desire to pray is God Himself in us drawing us to approach

Him. He created us for fellowship with Himself and Himself stimulates us to seek that fellowship. Here again much might be said but the subject belongs rather to the field of Christian theology.

To sum up, though the Christian doctrine of prayer has often been caricatured and though under the influence of strong passions Christians have often fallen below its standard, it is perfectly consistent both with itself and with the highest conceptions that we can form of the character of God. We must now consider objections that have been brought against it, and first those which have been brought from the side of and in the name of religion itself.

tA full bibliography will be found at the end of the Walker Trust Essays. Two simple books on Christian Prayer are: Fosdick, The Meaning of Prayer and Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer. See also, E. Herman, Creative Prayer.

Chapter III Prayer And Religion

E will now proceed to develop the Christian idea of prayer by examining certain objections urged against it on the plane of

religion. We hope to show that these rest largely on misunderstandings or else that they involve difficulties that are not really religious at all.

Why do we need to pray, it is often asked, if God is both wise and good ? He knows our needs better than we know them ourselves. He has power to supply them and, being good, will do so. To ask for benefits shows not faith but doubt. The only kind of prayer that is possible for a Christian who believes in a good God is one of simple resignation to His will. This objection, however pious it may appear, misreads God’s purpose for our life here. Let us examine it. It is perfectly true that prayer isnot made to teach God what we need. ‘“‘ Your heavenly Father knoweth what ye have need of before ye ask him.” Our true needs are often very different from what we suppose and God often sees needs of which we are unaware. Nor does God’s love towards us require to be stimulated by requests, like that of a selfish and sluggish parent. Nor again is God an oriental despot who must be carefully humoured into a good temper and is very insistent that his authority and his beneficence should be properly and publicly recognised.

Certain types of prayer used by some Christians may Suggest these false ideas but that is because they are bad prayers not because they are Christian prayers. They gain no support from the New Testament. Rather, if God requires prayer from us as a condition of bestowing certain of His best gifts, that is for our sakes not for His. The first blessing that all prayer brings is that it takes us into the conscious presence of God and into active personal relations with Him. Prayer is first and foremost “the ascent of the soul to God.” It induces a filial intimacy with our heavenly Father. Without such personal contact our sonship would remain unrealized. Human friendships need to be kept in repair by intercourse and the same applies to friendship with God. Without prayer of some kind our relation towards Him would degenerate into one that was less than personal. Further the limitation of Christ’s power of beneficence by the faith of those to whom He ministered, shows us that God can only bestow many of His blessings in response to faith. He is waiting and _ willing to give them as soon as we fulfil the necessary moral conditions, but we must do our part. Prayer embodies at once the active desire of the petitioner and the sense of trust and dependence upon God which are required. Our faith does not in the least create or stimulate God’s love. It is rather a response of such a kind that His love can become active towards us in new and deeper ways without infringing the moral rights of our personality, without any danger of degrading us to the level of the merely automatic. It is because we are men and women, not mere instruments or tools or receptacles, that the prayer of faith is required of us as the condition of receiving benefits, especially such as belong to our higher nature. If it be objected that there is no need for prayer to be put into words and that a silent faith should suffice, we may fairly reply that even if we pass over the obscure psychological question, whether thought is possible without the use of words, it is quite clear that all the thoughts and rational desires of ordinary people can only become definite and active by being expressed in words. Words are, as it were, fortresses of thought. A faith that is merely a vague and diffused feeling falls below the standard of Christian faith. It is necessary for us that our intercourse with God should be put into words in some measure at least, if it is to be real to us. Otherwise, unless we have advanced far in mystical devotion, our attention will flag. We do not deny that God reads the heart or that He can discern the true desire where prayer is badly expressed or even absent, but that does not excuse us from making our best effort to express ourselves. We want to give ourselves at our best and highest in our intercourse with Him and that, for most of us, cannot be done without words.