To be near unto God - pagina 444

prayer must be breathed from the soul. The voice here avails nothing. We can compel a hearing with men by speaking more loudly and boldly;

but when we would speak to ''our Father in heaven" the voice loses absolutely all significance. Then the stentorian voice of the orator has no advantage whatever over the weakest voice of a And whether the shipwrecked man in his child. extremity cries out his "0 God, help me" in the face of the howling tempest, it is all the same.

Whether strong

or weak, our voice avails nothing bleating of the lost sheep can make the shepherd hear. Our voice can never move God to hear us. The voice in prayer is for our own sake and for the sake of those who pray with us. Even on our knees in solitude we feel impelled to express our prayer in words. Clearness only comes into our prayer by the means of words. It brings relief, The undulation of sensait unburdens the soul. tions within comes to rest in the whispered or spoken word of prayer. A prayer without words can cry out from the soul after God, but that takes place instinctively and we do not even call that prayer. Real prayer goes through our conhere.

The

He who prays must know what he sciousness. wants to pray for. ELis memory must be active. He must think of the needs, for which he prays. He must know the mercies for which he gives thanks. He must be fully aware of the task in behalf of which he invokes Divine help. From the mysticism of the heart the praying soul must come to be clearly conscious, and this comes to pass in the word and through the voice, and this makes prayer perfect. This shows itself still more 436

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen