Habits of public prayer.
The Lord Jesus set the example of regular attendance on the synagogue services; and both he and his apostles seem to have daily attended at the temple at the appointed "hours of prayer," when they were resident in the "holy city." Some illustrations may be given of the prayer-habits of both Jews and Mohammedans; and the value, but also peril, of customs of public prayer may be pointed out. "We read in Scripture of three specified hours of prayer, in accordance with which the psalmist speaks of his own custom (Psalms 55:17). In like manner Daniel prayed 'three times a day' (Daniel 6:10). The hour of morning prayer was the third hour; and Peter went up to the house-top to pray (Acts 10:9) about the sixth hour, which was noon; and the evening prayer was this to which Peter and John were going up." We fix attention on the fact that, though the apostles had the new personal "life in Christ," they found public religious service and duties still demanded their attention. Soul-life, spiritual life, still needs for its culture "public prayer" and "united worship."
I. THE TWO SIDES OF THE DEVOTIONAL LIFE. The private and the public. Both are necessary. Each helps the other. Since men are not isolated individuals, their personal and private devotions cannot satisfy all their needs and claims. And since the individual can never be lost in the crowd, public devotions can never adequately express the precise personal needs. Our Lord taught us the duty and value of private prayer (Matthew 6:6).
II. THE RELATION OF PUBLIC PRAYER TO PERSONAL CULTURE, AND TO THE DUTY OF WITNESSING FOR GOD. Take first to "personal culture." In private devotion there is danger of morbid introspection; public prayer fills our thought with Clod rather than man. When alone the self-sphere may become too prominent; when we join with others we are helped to forget self in common sympathies, desires, and prayers. At home communion and petition are prominent in our prayers; in the assembly of God's people the prominent thing is intercession. Besides this, in public worship we are influenced by holy sentiment, and swayed by high emotions, and realize the joy of the Divine life. These things bear most directly on healthy soul-culture. Further, it is our bounden duty to make solemn public declaration of our belief in God, and submission to his authority and rule. Such a declaration we make in the act of going to and joining in public prayer and worship. Our "houses of prayer," and our "hours of prayer," and our "millions of worshippers," still attest England's belief in God; and every one should feel jealous lest the fullness and clearness of that testimony should be in the least degree impaired. Deal with modern neglect of worship, and the custom of half. day worshipping.
III. THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD HABITS IN RELATION TO PUBLIC PRAYER. Herein we have the example of our Lord, of his apostles, and of the saints through all the ages. It would be difficult to find the case of one eminently holy man or woman, in all the Christian history, who held lightly or neglected the public worship and ordinances of the Church. Such habits should be formed and welt watched over in early life. Those united together as friends, as husbands and wives, should help each other to maintain the habits. For they bear good influence on family life, on social life, and on national life. The constant association with Divine things has a gracious and hallowing influence, and renews every earnest purpose to live the godly life. The formation and maintenance of such good habits is, further, a sign of self-mastery in the spirit of loyalty and obedience to God. And such self-mastery is the very beginning and necessary foundation of all high morality and virtue. It guarantees that effort will be made to enthrone God and duty over bodily passion, and over all life-associations.
IV. THE PERILS OF FORMALITY IN PUBLIC DEVOTIONS. We may come to share in worship "to be seen of men." We may put the sensual (or sensuous) above the spiritual. We may find our hearts satisfied with the ceremonial. We may pride ourselves upon our regularity. Our very familiarity with worship-forms may lead to repetition without thought or feeling. The Judaism of the time of our Lord presents a painful instance of how sadly the life may go out of a national religion, leaving only the formal observance of ever-multiplying rites and ceremonies. And the Mohammedan, dropping prostrate at the sound of the muezzin, and incoherently muttering words of prayer, warns us of the insidious and fatal peril of formalism in public religion.
In conclusion, explain and impress the close and direct relation that exists between private devotion and public devotion. The life we can put into public worship must be the life which has been touched, quickened, and cultured by God into strength, in our prayer-chamber at home. We cannot, with any surety, get life at public worship; but we can always bring it with us to the worship. The law works broadly, and it may be thus briefly stated: The nourished and kept soul has life for worship. Then "forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is," and see to it that you carry to the sanctuary of God hearts beating high with love and reverence and trust.—R.T.