Spurgeon's Lectures to My Students - Our Public Prayer (Pt 1)

Mr. Spurgeon boldly says “Be assured that free prayer is the most scriptural…” He questions – “Where in the writings of the apostles meet we with the bare idea of a liturgy?”

He is critical of – “slovenly, lifeless talk in the guise of prayer, made to fill up a certain space in the service.” Mr. Spurgeon explains that “we may speak boldly with God,” but we should remember, “He is in heaven and we are upon earth.”

We must beware of “becoming rhetorical in an effort to try and please the listeners.” “Prayer,” he says “must not be transformed into an oblique sermon.” “Remember the people in your prayers …. but do not mould your supplications to win their esteem.”

In our public prayer we should avoid all vulgarities, as well as the “unhallowed and sickening superabundance of endearing words.”

He urged his students to “plead for the needs of the church” … “Let the sick, the dying, the heathen, the Jew, and all forgotten classes of people, be mentioned in your prayers.”

He advised his students … “if called upon to preach, conduct the prayer yourself.” It seems that he was not in favour of delegating the prayer to someone “unprepared.” “I would,” he said, “sooner yield up the sermon than the prayer.”

Prayer must be “a matter of the heart … It must be “appropriate,” and not just “a gazette of the week's events.”

“Do not let your (public) prayers be long,” or they will be “wearisome in length.” “It is not necessary,” he said, “to rehearse the Westminster Assembly's Catechism … or string together a long selection of texts … under the title “Thy servant of old.”

“Never appear to be closing, and then start off again for another five minutes.”