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FORMS OF PRAYER.

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• Written words suitable for being offered in prayer, are called forms of prayer.'

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Is Jesus, tender Shepherd "a form of prayer?'

Yes; and a very beautiful one it is. "Our Father which art in heaven, &c.," is a form of prayer, because Jesus taught His disciples these words when they asked Him to teach them to pray. On another occasion, when Jesus was warning His disciples against saying long prayers like the heathen, he said to them, "After this manner therefore pray ye, Our Father." Can you tell me any other forms of prayer given in the Bible?'

'There are a great many prayers in the Bible, mamma; the psalms are full of prayers.'

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Yes, Nelly. There are many prayers in the Bible, especially in the psalms, but there are very few forms of prayer. You will understand the difference when you look at some of these. Read Deut. xxi. 7, 8.

'I have found it;' and Charley read,"And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, O Lord, unto Thy people Israel, whom Thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto Thy people of Israel's charge.'

That was the form of prayer God gave to the Israelites to be used when any person was found slain in the land, and the murderer was not known. In Num. vi. 24-26 you find the form of prayer which the priests were commanded to use when blessing the people. Read it, Nelly.'

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.'

The words which precede this prayer are very like the words of Jesus: "After this manner pray ye." The verse before is, "Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel."

'These introductory words shew that

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the prayer which follows is a form. of the prayers in the Bible are not forms, but prayers offered in the words which the Holy Spirit breathed at the time they were uttered. The only form of prayer Jesus taught His disciples is that beginning, "Our Father which art in heaven."

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In this prayer Jesus does not mention His own name, though He afterwards taught His disciples to ask every blessing for His sake only. His own words are: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name " (John xvi. 23-22). The disciples did not fully understand the meaning of the expression, in My name, or, for My sake, till after Jesus died and rose again.'

'Should we always pray the Lord's prayer rather than any other words, mamma?'

We should often pray in these beautiful words, though we know from other parts of Scripture that Jesus did not give us this form to prevent us from praying in our own words, but rather to teach us for what things we ought to pray. Jesus' disciples often prayed in words taken from other portions of Scripture. Read Acts iv. 24-30.'

That is the prayer Peter and John prayed when they got out of prison.'

The apostles prayed in words which expressed the need they felt at that moment. There is another prayer spoken by Jesus which we should study very carefully. It is not a form, but it is preeminently The Lord's prayer.'

'You mean the prayer in the 17th chapter of John, mamma.'

Yes; that wonderful prayer teaches us what Jesus is now doing for us in heaven, and what are His desires for us. It is sometimes called the Intercessory Prayer, because in it Jesus pleads for His people. What are the things He asks for them?"

'One is that they may be kept from the evil that is in the world.'

Another is that they might love one another.'

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'Yes; that is the meaning of the petition, That they all may be one.'

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And Jesus prayed that His people might be with Him in heaven,' added Charley.

"These are the good things Jesus asks for His people, the things we should ask for ourselves.'

'But, mamma, the Catechism says, The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer. How can that be?'

Because God speaks to us in His word, and we speak to Him by prayer. David says in Psa. xxvii. 8: "When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek."'

'Papa's prayer at worship is always like the chapter he reads,' said Nelly.

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The way to get good from reading the Bible is to turn the portions we read into prayer. When Nathan brought him God's wonderful promise, David immediately turned it into prayer. (2 Sam. vii.) In his prayer at the dedication of the temple, Solomon referred to the same gracious promise, pleading it with God. "And now,

O God of Israel, let Thy word, I pray Thee, be verified, which Thou spakest unto Thy servant David my father" (1 Kings viii. 26).'

'Had we time to study that prayer of Solomon's, you would see that it is composed almost entirely of passages from the earlier books of the Bible. The 119th psalm is specially useful for teaching us how to turn the precepts of God's word into prayers. The fourth verse is, "Thou hast commanded us to keep Thy precepts diligently"; and what immediately follows?'

It is this prayer, mamma: “O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes!"

The whole psalm is the pouring out of the believer's heart to God in answer to precepts and promises written in the Word.'

'But, mamma, is the Lord's prayer the best one in the Bible for us to pray?'

'No other words can possibly be better than that form of prayer which Christ taught His disciples,-a prayer so framed as to be suitable at all times. But it is plain from the many other prayers inspired by the Holy Spirit that the words of the Lord's

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On enquiring what it was, he learned that it was a Tartar praying wheel. To save themselves the trouble of repeating their prayers over and over again as the Roman Catholics do, the Chinese got a written form of prayer fixed to the roller of this machine, and every time it was turned round they reckoned that a prayer was said.' 'O, mamma, how could they be so foolish?'

"They are heathens who had been taught in childhood to offer these "useless prayers to blocks of wood and stone." Is it not far worse when those who have been carefully instructed in the knowledge of the true God, and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, repeat words of prayer, while their hearts are far from Him? "God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

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THE CHRISTIAN'S BATTLE CRY.

AR back in Bible story

FA

Sounds a solemn battle cry, Floating through the ages hoary, Seeming strangely wafted nigh,Not with deadly cannon mingling, But frail pitchers crashing loud, Till the foemen fled, affrighted,

In a wild bewildered crowd. Many another cry has sounded

With its import sad since then,
Many to the conflict bounded,

Fought and conquered o'er again;
But the battle cry of Gideon,
With its mystic meaning still,
May be evermore repeated

In the war of good and ill.

For one sword must win the conquest, While two hands the blade must wield: God and man, in mystic union,

Drive the invader from the field. Earthly pitchers must be broken, While the lamps blaze forth abroad With the light of truth eternal

Streaming from the throne of God.
Amid India's teeming millions,

As in Servian wilds afar,
Steals the sword in silence gleaming
For the ever deepening war:
Feeble hands enclasp it boldly,

While the Mightier moves unseen;
But the foe is hard to waken,

For his slumbers deep have been. Many warriors more are needed

Ere the conquest can be won;
And the Lord is calling loudly

To the work He has begun.
Wondrous love and condescension
To admit of human aid!
Little hands of youth and maiden
Linked in His beneath the blade.
So, while other cries are sounding,
As the Koran or the sword,
Are the echoes still rebounding

Of the Moslem's savage horde:
Let the sword of God and Gideon

Be our watch-cry as of yore,
Till His banner floats in triumph
From each gospel gladdened shore!

J. K. M.

IN

LITTLE FRITZ.

He

N the little village of Ebertag, in the beautiful Rhine country, dwelt, many years ago, Hans Zechen, the apothecary of the village, a good and worthy man, who had lived all his days among the people of the place, and been the friend of poor and rich alike. He always made it his rule to sell only what was good, and so the rich never would go to any other shop; and no apothecary had a chance of starting business within twenty miles of Hans Zechen. And then he was kind to the poor. had been a poor man himself. He was the son of a poor widow; and many a long year he often had very little to eat, and hard work to get even that. But he had the blessing of the widow's son upon him: and step by step he had made his way in life, until at the time of my story he was a man of some substance, a notable of the place. If there had been a provost or mayor in Ebertag, I am sure, such was the esteem in which he was held, that Hans would have been promoted to the office. His good wife, Frau Martha, as she was lovingly called, had grown old with him; and as on Sundays they passed along with their family up the hill side to the old church among the trees, many a blessing was given to the man who, in his prosperity, had not forgotten the old days of trial, but was always kind to the poor. Fraulein Rosa, their daughter, was a fair, sweet girl, who took her place on Sundays in the village choir, and helped to swell the notes of praise. But it is not of her that my story is, though if my young readers had seen her, I am sure they would have felt that it was good to love God, and sweet to sing His praises as Rosa did.

One day there came to Hans Zechen's shop, and, after a timid knock, pushed open the door, a curly haired boy. Hans might almost have thought it was himself changed into a boy again. So like was the boy, with his fair hair and blue eyes and open face, to what he had himself been in those old and never to be forgotten days. It was a little time before the boy explained

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