We make speeches on public men and on public events in
our public prayers. We see the reporters all the time in our public
prayers. We do everything but pray in our public prayers. And to get
away alone,--what an escape that is from the temptations and defeats of
public prayer! No; public prayer is no test whatever of a hypocrite. A
hypocrite revels in public prayer. It is secret prayer that finds him
out. And even secret prayer will sometimes deceive us. We are crushed
down on our secret knees sometimes, by sheer shame and the strength of
conscience. Fear of exposure, fear of death and hell, will sometimes
make us shut our door. A flood of passing feeling will sometimes make us
pray for a season in secret. Job had all that before him when he said,
'Will the hypocrite delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call
upon God?' No, he will not. And it is just here that the hypocrite and
the true Christian best discover themselves both to God and to
themselves. The true Christian will, as Job again says, pray in secret
till God slays him. He will pray in his dreams; he will pray till death;
he will pray after he is dead.
Pages:
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191