PRAGUE, COMPACT AT A OF: FOUR ARTICLES
OF. See Huss, John, Hussites.
PRARTHANA SAMAJ OF BOMBAY. See India, III., 2.
PRATT, WALDO SELDEN: Congregational layman; b. at Philadelphia Nov. 10, 1857. He was educated at Williams College (A.B., 1878) and Johns Hopkins University (1878-80). He was assistant director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1880-82), and since 1882 has been professor of music and hymnology at Hartford Theological Seminary, where he was also registrar in 1888-95. He was instructor in elocution in Trinity College, Hartford, in 1891-1905, and has been lecturer in musical history and science at Smith College since 1895 and at Mount Holyoke College in 1896-99, while since 1905 he has held a similar position at the Institute of Musical Art, New York City. From 1882 to 1891 he was organist of Asylum Hill Congregational Church, Hartford, and conductor of the Hosmer Hall Choral Union in the same city, and in 1884- 1888 he was conductor of the St. Cecilia Club. He has written Musical Ministries in the Church (Chicago, 1901) and edited St. Nicholas Songs (New York, 1885) and Songs of Worship (1887), besides being musical editor of Aids to Common Worship (New York, 1887) and of the Century Dictionary.
PRAXEAS. See Monarchianism, V., 2.
PRAYER.
I. In the Old Testament. Definition (§ 1).
II. In the New Testament. The Element of Experience Source and Characteristics (§ 2).
(§1). Self-seeking Excluded James and Paul (§ 2). (§ 3).
Christocentric (§ 3). Modern Difficulties (§ 4).
III. In the Church. Solution (§ 5).
I. In the Old Testament: The Old Testament places prayer in connection with other religious acts, such as sacrifices, vows, fasts, and mourning ceremonies. " To pray " is expressed in Hebrew by 'athar or Jie'ethir, a verb which in Arabic means
Prayer
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
" to sacrifice," and thus had a cultic meaning from the beginning. This word is found in the older sources of the Pentateuch and in Judges xiii. 8; Job xxii. 27, xxxiii. 26. More frequently hithpallel is used, from a root palal to which Wellhausen, with reference to I Kings xviii. 28, assigns the original meaning " to make incisions." Like the corresponding noun tepkillah, it is found in older and later books of the Old Testament.
The Old Testament prescribes no such external ceremonies or postures in prayer as occur among the later Jews and the Mohammedans. The petitioner stood or prostrated himself as did the subject before the king. The hands were extended to express purity, and were lifted up to heaven or toward the sanctuary in intercession. Prayer as the freest expression of religious life could be performed in any place, although the sanctuary was considered the most appropriate. In early times prayer accompanied the offer of sacrifice; later it is mentioned expressly as an integral part of daily service, partly as a function of the Levites in which the people joined.
It is nowhere directed in the Old Testament because it was regarded as the natural expression of religious life. No definite form is prescribed; the mode of expression was left to the inspiration of the moment; but the prayers contained in the Psalter naturally gained lasting importance as hymns of the congregation. Prayer was called forth by the most varying sentiments; it was an expression of gratitude for gifts, but more frequently it expressed supplication for external well-being, for deliverance from distress, for forgiveness of sins, or for wisdom. It had reference at times to the salvation of the whole people, at other times to purely personal relations. Great importance was attached to the prayer of a prophet if it had reference to the fulfilment of the divine word and the manifestations of the true God. In this respect, Jeremiah was the great example and was imitated by the psalmists; for the Psalms are mostly entreaties for a decisive self-manifestation of God. There occurs frequently in the Old Testament also the intercessory prayer of men who stood in nearer relation to God and were especially heard. It was only in post- Exilic times that prayer was regarded as a meritorious service and practise, a conception which further developed under Pharisaism (see Pharisees