WHAT’S THE USE-?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21940, 29 April 1933, Page 17

WHAT’S THE USE-?

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By the Eev. D. Gardner Miller.

I suppose there are very few people in the world who have not, at odd intervals, prayed. It seems inevitable for men and women, when disaster leaps out at them, to cry in agony or despair to some being whom they call God. Far be it from me to suggest that God does not respond to their frenzy. 1 believe Ho does, even (hough, after the disaster has passed and the experience of frenzy has been forgotten, these same people live as though God never existed. Then there is the vast multitude of good people who pray, more or less, every day. Prayer to them has become a habit. And yet their lives seem terribly hum-drum. Prayer evidently has not put a new note in their voices or a new jauntiness in limit step. As a matter of fact, many of them look thoroughly miserable. There is something wrong somewhere. If prayer is not a genuine source of mental and spiritual refreshment and of glad, of quiet, feeling that God knows and understands, then something is in the way. It is-quite possible that what we call prayer is mere automatic mumbling. Prayer does change things—and if things don’t change, look for the reason. You must do your own searching. It is no use whining. God expects you to be, at least, honest. Again and again when I have been called in to deal with some life that has blundered out of the sunshine I have been met with the statement. “What's the use of praying? Nothing ever happens.” That always saddens me, for it reveals to me the sad fact that prayer has merely been a spasmodic and hopeless cry. There is nothing surer under the sun tluyi that prayer is answered. When “nothing happens.” the reason for it lies within ourselves. To all who have found the path of prayer a flinty way I would like very much to say just a few things that may help them.

In the first p'lice, let us never forget that prayer is a great’adventure. Think for a_ moment on what you. do when you pray. You speak to Some One, Whom you have never met, living Somewhere where you have never been. Is there, can there be, any greater adventure than that? Compared with the great adventures of equipped scientists and travellers, the adventure of prayer is the most amazing (and sometimes the most arduous), the most successful and the most humbling that ever any man embarked upon. Is this foolishness? Nay. It is the instinctive urge of the human spirit to seek Someone beyond the known and the tangible. When you pray your faith takes wings and soars into that spiritual realm which is open only, to the adventurous. How many of ua kneel down with a feeling of alertness, a conscious knowledge that our spirit, bearing the story of our shames and needs and longings, will, in the twinkling of an eye, cross the narrow divide and enter the land of heart’s desire!

To far too many prayer is a commonplace thing, a matter of routine, a kind of obligation. No wonder nothing happens; there’s no expectancy in prayers of that kind. And here let me interrupt myself to say this, that prayer is not auto-suggestion. Auto-suggestion is a very valuable mental exercise. I know it, and have taught others this useful, healing method. But auto-suggestion is not prayer. Prayer is a bigger, grander thing. God need not be the concern of auto-suggestion, but He must be ■of prayer, else prayer is a farce. You will always know the difference between auto-suggestion and prayer—when you pray. That, of course, to the discerning is the final word that anyone can write about prayer—namely, the value and the power and the worth of prayer are only known as you (genuinely) pray.

And the second thing I would say to you is this: That when you pray you make contact with God. That sounds very prosaic, dosen’t it? But think jt out quietly for a moment and the wonder of it will fill you with awe and joy. God! And who is a God? He is not the sentimental old gentldmen who cannot be hard on anybody. Oh, that someone could and would sweep away the sentimental inertia that fills the mind of so many Christian people when they think and speak of God!. God is the Holy One, the Maker and sustainer of the universes. He made the mountains and shaped the daisy. The throat of a bird and a baby’s hand were moulded by His fingers. He is the Father who runs down the road in a hurry to meet the returning prodigal. He is the One Who, through Christ, offers pardon and peace and power to every sinner in every age. He knows us each one and He nevet forgets. When you pray, you meet Him. I wish my pea could express adequately what I mean by saying “God.” Is it a surprising thing that you should meet God and that you and He should converse? Surely not! It causes you no surprise when you switch on your wireless and you hear someone speak, perhaps thousands of miles away—someone you don’t know, speaking from somewhere where you have never been.

When yon pray you “ listen-in ” to God. And here let me interrupt myself again. Don’t you think most of us talk too much when we pray? Real prayer is almost silent. Listen in—tune in first, of course, by seeing to it that you are reverent and expectant—and in those quiet places of the life where the moods are and the hopes and tiiat little door that opens but into infinity, there will come, first, the quiet assurance of God’s presence {that contact lias been made); and, secondly, the beginnings of an answer —or an order—that will steady you and strengthen you and make you unafraid of the temporal. There are many other aspects of prayer that must be considered—especially that of. the unanswered prayer, which 1 hope to write about next week—but these two that I have mentioned, the adventure of prayer and the contact of prayer, are the first essentials. When you pray you are setting out on an adventure to meet God. If you don’t meet Him, ask yourself why you, have missed the way;