R.L. Dabney on Public Prayer

Yesterday I quoted from James Jordan's Theses on Worship.  I want to now do several posts on prayer in the public worship of God's people, thus bringing together Jordan's first two points, worship is about prayer and worship is not natural.

Here are some quotes from R.L. Dabney on public prayer. It comes from the final chapter of his excellent book Evangelical Eloquence, which is a book on how to preach. These quotes will focus on the duty of the ministers, and I would add elders, to prepare for public prayer.

"I deem that the minister is as much bound to prepare himself for praying in public as for preaching.  The negligence with which many preachers leave their prayer to accident[chance], while they lay out all their strength on their sermons, is most painfully suggestive of unbelief toward God and indifference to the edification of their brethren."

"The many blemishes which we hear in public prayers are to be traced to two sources: first, deficient piety, and second, deficient preparation."

Here are the six things Dabney believes we should remember about public prayer. The sentence in italics is my summary of Dabney's point.

1. The grace of prayer is to be secured only by a life of personal and private devotion. He who carries a cold heart into the pulpit betrays it not only to God, whose detection of it is inevitable, but almost surely to the hearers also. Powerful prayer in the pulpit comes from a holy life and much time in prayer outside the pulpit.

2. The pastor should remember that he is praying on behalf of the people, therefore his language should be simple, his petitions corporate, not private and he should make sure he is praying, not preaching. The pastor is to pray for the people, not for himself.

3. "The leader of the church's prayers shall present distinct and definite petitions, and these not too numerous....The leader of prayer should therefore speak as one who has an errand at the throne, a point to press to God." The prayers should be filled with specific requests for both the local body and the church at large.

4. "He who leads the devotions of others must study appropriateness of matter.  He should ask himself what would be uppermost in the hearts of Christians at that time"  Pastor should pray about those things which matter most to Christians. 

5. The language of prayer should be well-ordered and considerate. He who speaks to the Searcher of hearts should beware how he indulges any exaggeration of words, lest his tongue should be found to have outrun his mind and to have "offered the sacrifice of fools."The pastor's prayers should be carefully thought out so he does not say things he will later regret or that offend the Lord.

6. "Above all should the minister enrich his prayers with the language of Scripture. Its inimitable beauty and simplicity, it is hallowed and sweet to every pious heart by a thousand associations.  It satisfies the tastes of all; its use effectually protects us against improprieties; it was doubtless given by the Holy Spirit to be a model for our devotions." Pastoral prayers should be filled with language from the Bible.