A SNIPPET OUT OF THE OLD DAYS

PRAYER IS THE SOUL’S SINCERE DESIRE

James Montgomery (1771–1854) When the Reverend Edward Bickersteth had written his Treatise on Prayer, he turned to newspaper editor James Montgomery to write a hymn about prayer that he could use in his book. Today Rev. Bickersteth’s volume has been long forgotten, but the newspaperman’s hymn is still being sung. This hymn is a theological definition in poetic form. What is prayer? Bickersteth may have said it more completely, but Montgomery defined it simply. (Montgomery later said he received more praise for this hymn than anything else he had written.) Many years after he retired, Montgomery continued to conduct family prayer meetings in his home. After he closed one such meeting of prayer, he walked quietly to his room. The next day he was found unconscious on the floor and later died. As he had written in this hymn, prayer is the Christian’s “watchword at the gates of death; he enters heaven with prayer.” This is what he wrote:

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.
Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high.
Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice,
Returning from his ways,
While angels in their songs rejoice
And cry, “Behold, he prays!”
Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
The Christian’s native air,
His watchword at the gates of death;
He enters heaven with prayer.
O Thou, by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way;
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray!