For we may be sure that the Prayer of Dedication is for our instruction o.nd i.niitation, otherwise it would hardly have been recorded, o.nd recorded o.t such length, in Scripture. " After this manner therefore pray ye" (Matt. vi. 9). I. LAYMEN MAY OFFER PUBLIC PRAYER. This is no monopoly of priests. The Hebrew king might not sacrifice or burn incense (2 Chron. xxvi. 18), but he might lead the prayers both of priests and people, and that on the greatest day in the history of Israel. Even so, though " we give not to our r.rinces the ministering either of God's word or of the sacraments" (Art. xxxvii.), still we do not deny them any "prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly princes in Holy Scripture " (ib.), and least of all the prerogative of prayer exercised by David, Solomon, Asa (2 Chron. xiv. 11), Jehoshaphat (ib., xx. 6-12), o.nd Hezekiah (ib., xxx. 18-20). It was Constantine, a byman, presided at the Council of Nice. II. RINGS SHOULD BE PROUD TO TAKE PA.RT IN RELIGIOUS FUNCTIONS. Whatever din.nity doth hedge them about, they are not greater or wiser than Solomon and the proudest moment of his life was when he led the ark to its resting-place ; the happiest, when he "blessed all the congregation of Israel" (ver. 14). Never is king so great as when he takes his proper place before God. Alas I that religion should have ever been brought into such contempt that kings should be ashamed or afraid to be the "nursing fathers " of the Church (Isa. xlix. 28). Solomon's prayer is "a testimony that a wisdom which can no longer pray is folly" (Biihr). III. PRAYER srrouLD DE PRECEDED BY PRAISE. It was not until Solomon had "blessed God" (ver. 15) that he prayed to God (vers. 28-58). "Praernissa laude, invocatio sequi solel." This was the rule of the early Church (see Psa. lxv.1, 2 for the scriptural order; cf. Phil. i 8, 4 ; iv. 6, and see Howson's Hulsean Lectures, No. iv., for the combination of thanksgiving and prayer in St. Paul's Epistles). And Solomon not only began but ended with blessing (ver. 56). IV. TRUE PRAYER IS ASKING GoD FOB WHAT WE NEED. Not rhetorical display, not sesquepedalia verba, not a mere string of texts and hymns, but the simplest, humblest cry of the heart. Which of us has not heard prayers like the Pharisee's- without one word of prayer (i.e., petition) in them? And how many prayers are made painful by their pretentiousness. Perhaps a child has been ordained our pattern (Matt. :x:nii. 2--4), that from it we should learn to pray. "In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart" (Bunyan). V. PRAYER SHOULD BE OFFERED FOR ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF MEN. Not for self only. It is not "my Father," but "our Father." Perhaps selfishness is nowhere more conspicuous or more hateful than in our prayers. We are members one of another. It is in the Pharisee's prayer that we find so much "I." Notice how varied were Solomon's petitions, and cf. 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2, 8. Tennyson says-
"For what a.re men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands in prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend 1 '' And he does not stop there, but adds that thus "the whole round world Is bound by golden cha.ins a.round the feet of God."
This prayer of dedication was a veritable Litany (vers. 81, 88, 87, 41, 44, &a.) VI. PRAYER s110ULD DE SCRIPTURAL, i.e., conceived in the spirit and expressed in the words of Scripture. This prayer was pre-eminently so (see notes on vers. 22 sqq.) What St. Cyprian says of the Lord's prayer," Quanta efficacius impetramua quod pctimus in Christi 11omine, si petamua ipsiua oratione," may suggest to us that that prayer is most likely to move God's hand which is baaed on God's Word. Supplication should be shaped by revelation. VII. PRAYERS MAY BE LITURGICAL. The Scripture references, its artificial structure, and indeed its very preservation, prove that this prayer wo.a a pre• OJI, Vlll, 1--60.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 169