The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2/Chapter 11
XI
PRAYER AND WORSHIP.
(1882)
"No prayer, no religion," observed Carlyle. Such is the great importance of prayer or worship to religious life. 'Should I pray ; need I pray ?' is substantially the question asked by every person who professes to be earnest about religion. This question arises in the mind spontaneously and repeatedly ; and it has to be answered by every enquirer after religious truth.
There are certain desires and longings Which arise in the human heart instinctively; they require no conscious effort to be brought into view ; no process of logical reasoning is a prerequisite to their recognition. They spring right from the centre of our nature, and they seem to be based upon instincts or intuitions deeper and firmer than logical processes. Prayer is one involuntary craving of this class. It is induced by a "felt want;" it is an appeal to One infinitely higher than man for the removal of a need of the spirit. As it springs from a pressing sense of an urgent want, it is but natural that the soul should turn and look up to a Power above for help and guidance. The hungry-child turns to its mother for food; the hungry soul turns to its benign Mother for spiritual food. The beggar "writhing under the inclemencies of weather" knocks at the hospitable door; the sinner "smarting day and night under the compunctions of conscience" knocks at the merciful door of God. The seeker of knowledge resorts to the teacher for instruction; the soul in quest of wisdom seeks the feet of Him who is the Supreme Teacher of all. The patient implores the aid of the physician; the sick soul implores the aid of the AH-wise Doctor, who alone can cure the dreadful malady of sin. In all these cases the action is instinctive and spontaneous, the natural outcome of a deep-felt want. The child, the beggar, the student or the patient does mt act in consequence of elaborate and accurate reasoning, but from the promptings of native instinct. Nothing can successfully prevent him from seeking the aid; likewise it is impossible to prevent the yearning soul from supplicating the help and guidance of Him who has created the soul and has been mercifully showering invaluable blessings upon it. Both are acts of spontaneity; and set reasoning cannot influence them materially either way.
Nor is there anything opposed to reason in the several elements of Divine worship. Worship is generally divided into adoration and thanksgiving, confession and supplication, repentance and self -surrender. Is there anything unreasonable or improper in these religious exercises? To adore Him who is supreme and to praise His excellences and celebrate His glory can never be improper. There can be nothing unbecoming in man humbling himself before his Creator and imploring His help and guidance. When will man be acting more in accordance with his sense of gratitude than when he thankfully acknowledges the countless blessings of his ever-merciful Father? Is it a superfluous act to own our faults and follies before the all-witnessing God and implore His saving help to recall us from the paths of disobedience and thanklessness? No man can really deem it unnecessary or unimportant to beseech God to draw the pen of forgiveness over his sins and to cast upon him the eye of mercy—to implore God to treat man not as he deserves but as His Love prompts. Aware of our weaknesses and alive to our shortcomings, what other safe way can we discover for our life than that of completely surrendering ourselves to Him, who is infinitely wise, powerful and merciful? Thus worship is imperatively necessary for every believer in God. Again, there is something very remarkable in the fact that in all ages and among all nations Divine protection and Divine guidance have always been supplicated. Systems of religion at mutual discord in other respects stand side by side in defending the practice of prayer and in commending that practice to the world. All the different faiths, from sublime Theism to primitive Fetichsm, are at one in their advocacy of prayer. It cannot be that they are all mistaken, that they have all been imposed upon, or that they have all entered into a conspiracy, as regards this important matter. It would, therefore be perfectly reasonable to recognise the practice of worship as based upon a fundamental truth of human nature.
Again, the objections generally urged against prayer are, in our view, not so strong as to shake the position of believers in prayer. No doubt, God's purposes have been providentially planned; and it is idle to dream of disturbing them by our solicitation. But true prayer does not ask for those gifts which God does not want to give us, but it implores those very gifts which He specially means to grant unto us. Our appeal for them only marks our hearty appreciation of them. The value of spiritual riches lies large]y in our spirit eagerly craving for them; our very asking indicates our strong^felt need of them. Even because we knock at the door eagerly, the time comes for opening the gates of the store-house of spirituality. The soul seeks and God reveals; the soul asks and God grants; the soul knocks and God opens : thus man's desires and God's designs come into line. Furthermore, it is the faithful heart, it is the firm resolve that is the real requisite; there is no need of choice expressions. Undoubtedly the value of worship lies in its utter sincerity; 'Words without thoughts never to heaven go.' Nevertheless, 'out of t he abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.' There is a relief or a satisfaction in the tongue uttering forth what the heart strongly feels. If a sense of thankfulness is kindled in the heart, it will come out spontaneously. Whenever the soul throbs with devotion, words will flow out of their own accord. Moreover, by the very act of prayer we bind ourselves to work assiduously either for uprooting a vice or for implanting a virtue, Also, earnest prayer and beep meditation clear our ideas of God and bring us into closer touch with Him. As a consequence, we pray in a more fervent spirit, we meditate with deeper concentration; and thus we are taken nearer to God. Thus the practice grows; and in the final result, worship comes to be recognised as the very soul of our religious existence; but for this communion with our Father, religion would be found to be a mere skeleton without any vitality.
It might, again, be asked whether worship—prayer and communion—is indispensable for a religious life, apart from the argument that prayer is spontaneous or reasonable. Strictly abstaining from wickedness, vigorously practising goodness, faithfully serving humanity, may not man lead a religious life? Against this question, we can only appeal to the experience of those that have prayed and communed for the best part of their lives. We believe that, according to them, only to abstain from wicked deeds, merely to perform good acts and simply to render kind offices to those around us, do not constitute a truly religious life. Him we regard as religious whose soul, turning away from all that is worldly, draws nearer and nearer unto Him who is supreme over us all. Him we recognise as a pious man whose words, thoughts and deeds have God for their goal and proceed from Him as their prime source. Him we esteem as a devout man who centres his whole interest in things of enduring goodness and loves them, not with a utilitarian calculation, but for their own dear sake as God's self-manifestations. Now, is it possible for anyone to be religious in this sense without being in direct touch with the great Fountain-head of all holiness? Does it He within the power of a frail mortal to fight the strenuous battle of life except with the aid of the Omnipotent? Can any one except Him who has created land and sea and rules them with unquestioned supremacy sustain weak man against the buffets of "the formidable waves of world lines"? Worship is the very life-blood of our religious constitution, it is the very foundation of the whole edifice of human faith. Prayer is the royal road to heaven; it is the cypher-key for opening the gates of the City of God; it is the passport for prompt admission into the abodes of Immortality. Prayer is a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire to guide us across the wilderness of this world; it is the unerring clue to the perplexing labyrinth of this life. Divine worship enables us to present an invincible front to all the temptations of the flesh, to overcome with an irresistible force all the allurements of the world, and to face unflinchingly all the threats of ungodly power. In the religious life of man prayer is a nurse in infancy, a comrade in manhood, a consoler in sorrow, a healer in ailment, a companion in adversity. Dashed about by the merciless waves of worldliness, we find in prayer the sole plank of safety and escape. Given up by helpless physicians, wept over by sorrowing relations, we find in prayer the only true friend that stands by and imparts hope and comfort. Prayer is the lovely angel that fetches the flowers of peace and hope and spreads them on the death-bed. It is prayer that inspires the trust and faith to depart "swan-like and sweet"; it is prayer that ferries the soul across the unknown main and lands it in the haven of the great Beyond; and it is prayer, again, that ushers the suppliant spirit into the august presence of Him who is Immortality itself. Therefore, gentle reader, pray incessantly and find your true happiness in the blessings that prayer brings. Take refuge in prayer, carry with you the companionship of prayer; and you will illustrate in yourself Bunyan's Pilgrim;s Progress. Find your prime duty, your chief occupation, your supreme joy in prayer; and you will be led, almost involuntarily, to exclaim,
"If there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this ! It is this!"
For, when are we, when can we be, half so happy as at that blessed hour when our great Creator and loving Father stands before us with the smile of love, and we bow down before Him in extreme trust and supreme hope? When do we, when can we,, feel half so comforted and cheered as at that blessed hour when God turns His gracious ear, as a tender and benign Mother, towards us, and we freely pour forth, in sighs and groans, the tale of our sins and transgressions, and tears, penitent tears, rush up and wash away the dust of worldliness and wickedness that has enveloped and bedimmed the light of conscience in us? Truly and verily, enviable is the position of him who prayeth incessantly and hopefully. Let us all repair to, and fall down upon, the hallowed feet of our Father, tender our humble tribute of gratitude to our Lord, praise and glorify the gracious Saviour who has vouch-safed unto us the invaluable boon of free communion even with Himself, the Eternal and the Absolute; since this privilege of directlv speaking to the Immortal One is in itself the pledge of our own immortality in Him.