BIBLE HISTORY OF PRAYER. OLD TESTAMENT. GENESIS. THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD BEGUN. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos; then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.-Gen. iv. 26. THIS is the first passage in the Inspired Volume, in which prayer is mentioned. But, was it the design of the sacred historian to teach us, that now, in the 235th year of the world, the date of the birth of Enos, men began for the first time since the fall, to worship God by prayer and other acts of devotion? This is incredible. The worship of the Supreme Being commenced, we must believe, in the garden of Eden. The "morning stars" were not alone in their songs of praise in view of the new born world. Adam and Eve would naturally and instinctively lift their voices, in expressions of homage and praise to their Creator. Did their fall obliterate the remembrance of that homage and praise? Did their expulsion from that happy abode efface their sense of dependence upon Him, who had given them being? As They hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow, Had they no desire to ask pardoning mercy at the hand of the Lord? Whatever may be the proper answer to these particular questions, it cannot be doubted, that the fallen and now unhappy pair were taught, where and in what manner to worship their displeased, but forgiving Sovereign. They might not, indeed, again enter that beautiful temple of nature, where first they inhaled the breath of life; a flaming sword guarded its entrance; but, if the oriental writers be credited, a Shekinah, or visible manifestation of the Divine Being, revived their expiring hopes, and from that glory, softened by rays of mercy, they received instructions adapted to their circumstances of dependence and guilt. Learned Jews have affected to give us the several forms of prayer, which Adam addressed to God, for pardon. To the same purpose, Milton introduces Adam, after a melancholy soliloquy, proposing to Eve this appropriate advice: What better can we do, than to the place I cannot say, that either Milton, or the oriental writers have given us the precise truth; but it were most unreasonable to conclude, that the parents of our race did not early and habitually pray. If circumstances of dependence and anxiety ever rendered prayer appropriate, and prompted to it, Adam and Eve must early have become praying persons. That they offered divine worship is apparent from the sacred narrative, which records a memorable instance, in which Cain and Abel presented an offering to Jehovah. This was no other than an act of worship, and an expression of dependence and obligation. Whether they were thus taught by their parents directly, or received instruction from God, is immaterial. Surely, the parents would not neglect a service, which had been enjoined, either by God, or by themselves, upon the sons. Surprise, however, has been expressed by some, that a duty, thought to be so clear and important as that of prayer, should not have been enjoined in the earliest pages of the Divine Oracles. No such passage of injunction or institution, it is well known, is to be found in the Pentateuch. And why should there be, if from the beginning of the world, men were accustomed to pray, having been so taught, either from their sense of want and dependence, which continued after their apostacy, or by express revelation from God? A late eminent divine confirms these views. "It was not the intention of the scriptures," he observes, "to institute this duty anew, in any passage whatever; there being no passage in which it is thus instituted. They took up the subject, in the only way, which was natural or proper. Men had always prayed from the beginning, and on all occasions confessed prayer to be a duty. Nothing more, therefore, was necessary, natural, or proper, than to regulate it as a duty already begun, acknowledged, and practiced by mankind." "Particular directions," he adds, "concerning the three divisions of this duty, customarily made in modern times, viz. secret, family, and public prayer ought never to have been expected. The question, whether prayer in secret, in the family, or in public, is a duty of man, was probably never asked, nor the obligation to perform it in either case doubted, during the whole period from the beginning of the world to the completion of the Scripture Canon. Men always prayed on every solemn and proper occasion; in public, in private, and in secret." 99* If the preceding views be correct, we must look for some other interpretation of the passage, "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord," than that which here dates the commencement of the practice, or the institution of prayer. What then is the import of the passage? Jewish interpreters, for the most part, understand the words as indicating the origin, or commencement of idolatry. The Hebrew term for "began," will admit of being rendered profaned, or profanely began to worship God, i. e., they worshiped him by means of idols; and thus began that degeneracy "Dwight's Theology, Vol. V. p. 29. which finally led to the destruction of the earth, and its guilty inhabitants by the flood. It cannot be denied that this interpretation has respectable advocates. And it must be conceded, that the heavenly bodies were early worshiped, from which to inferior objects, the descent was easy; so that, at length, such worship prevailed over nearly the whole earth. But whether this passage marks the precise era, when such idolatry began, may well be questioned. Previous to this, Cain and his family had withdrawn from the pious portion of mankind. They were a guilty race, and would early fall into the worship of other objects, than the one great and glorious Lord of all. According to other expositors, the marginal reading is the correct one. "Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord" i. e. then began a portion of men, (viz.; the children of Seth) to be distinguished from the descendants of Cain, by an open and special profession of God's holy name, and by being recognized as his true worshipers. Perhaps the distinction of, "sons of God," and "sons of men," to which allusion is made in the following chapter, then began more generally to prevail. The more common interpretation, however, is, and it is one which, to say the least, gives us intelligence of a delightful advance of piety in that far off, but alienated, and perhaps, impious age of the world, "that about that time began a more complete separation of the pious from the ungodly; that the name of God began to be invoked in a more open and public manner, and the ceremonies of his worship to be more solemnly observed. Adam and his pious offspring had doubtless at an earlier day maintained the worship of God in their families, and in their closets; but, till the human race was considerably multiplied, no occasion existed for what may be denominated public worship. But when families became so numerous, that they were obliged to separate, then it was necessary to call them together, at stated times and seasons, that they might collectively receive instruction, and keep up an habitual reverence for God."* Thus the more public worship of God began. GENESIS. THE WORSHIP OF ABRAHAM. Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first; and there Abraham called on the name of the Lord.-Gen. xiii. 4. THE "place of the altar," to which allusion is here made, was Bethel, which signifies "house of God." It was a name given to it by Jacob, in after times, when on his journey from Beersheba to Haran; but, in the days of Abraham it was called Luz. It was situated some fifteen, or twenty miles north of Jerusalem. Moses, the author of the Pentateuch, often speaks of places by the appellation they bore at the time he wrote, instead of their original names. At Bethel the Lord had appeared to Abraham soon after he reached the promised land, a distance from Haran, in Mesopotamia, of some five or six hundred miles. Here he had pitched his tent; builded an altar, and "called upon the name of the Lord." This, indeed, would seem to have been his constant practice, wherever he sojourned (12. 7: 13. 18.) "Wherever he had a tent," says Henry, "God had an altar, and an altar sanctified by prayer. He erected his own altar that he might not participate with idolators in the worship offered upon theirs." While sojourning at Bethel, or in its vicinity, a "grievous famine" occurred, which compelled the patriarch to remove with his household. Accordingly, turning south, he directed his course towards the fertile country of the Nile. At this time, he was poor; but after a residence in Egypt for some time, his temporal condition had greatly improved; since, ac Bush's Notes, in loco. |