JESUS TEACHES THE LORD'S PRAYER

JESUS WAS URGING US TO ASK THE FATHER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Luke 11:11 Whatfather among you, if his son asks for
a fish, will give him a snake instead?
Luke 11:12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him
a scorpion?
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The Argument From The Human FatherhoodTo The Divine
Luke 11:11-13
W. Clarkson
Jesus Christ revealedthe Father to men, and he revealedhim as the Fatherof
men. He taught us to address him as such (ver. 2), and to feeltoward him.as
such. He would have us realize that God sustains to us a relationship very
closelyindeed corresponding to that which a human father sustains to his
child. In the text he teaches us that this analogyis so close and so real that we
may draw practicalinferences from the lower to the higher one. The
particular conclusionwhich our Lord draws is -

I. FROM OUR GIVING TO HIS. No human father would give his son a stone
when appeal was made to him for bread, etc.; would put him off with a
response which would only be a bitter disappointment. Such a one would be
not only an exceptionto his kind, but would be guilty of an act that would be
simply monstrous in generalregard. If, then, we, "being evil," cannot
withhold "goodgifts" from our children, how much less will the heavenly
Father deny his blessings to us, his sons and daughters! What we, with our
finite and limited love, could not refuse, it is certain that he, in his infinite
goodness andboundless pity, will readily bestow. There are two blessings
which we particularly want of God our heavenly Father. - provision for our
temporal well-being, and succorfor our soul. We cannot live without these.
Our bodily nature craves the one, our spiritual nature needs the other. Bread
we must have, and all that "bread" stands for, that we may live happily and
serviceablyas those that tread the path of mortal life. But "man cannot live on
bread alone;" he needs those higher and holier gifts which nourish the soul,
which feed the flame of piety and zeal, which strengthen him for spiritual
conflict, and give him the victory over his worstenemies. Forthese two great
blessings we may confidently ask God, and he will assuredlygrant them. It is
much more certain that God our Fatherwill provide for our real necessities,
and will strengthenour souls with all needful Divine influences, than it is
certain that the kindest human father will not mock his beloved children when
they appealfor his bounty. With holy boldness, then, may we go to the throne
of grace, and pray for all those things that are requisite alike for the body as
for the soul. But we may carry this argument with which our Lord has
supplied us into other spheres, and may thus "assure ourhearts" concerning
him.
II. FROM OUR FORGING TO HIS. We may have a difficulty in realizing the
greattruth that God is willing to forgive us all our sin and to reinstate us fully
in his favor. But if as sons we have been forgiven by our parents, or if as
parents we have forgiven our children and takenthem back into the fullness
of our favor, we may argue safely from the human fatherhood to the Divine. If
we, "being evil," with such small and scanty magnanimity as we possess, can

forgive freely, how much more can he - he whose ways of mercy are as much
higher than ours as the heaven is higher than the earth!
III. FROM OUR GUIDANCE TO HIS. How impossible it is for any of us that
is a father to refuse guidance to one of our children when he comes to ask it of
us! Only the most heartless, the most unfatherly, could think of declining it.
And since that is so with us, in all our human imperfection, how positive it is
that the Divine Father will guide us by the shaping of his providence, or by the
prompting of his Spirit, when we see not our way, but make known our
request unto him to "leadus all our journey through"!
IV. FROM OUR SOLICITUDE TO HIS. One of the very greatestquestions
we propose to ourselves is this - Does Godcare enoughfor eachone of us to
renew our life in another realm when we leave this world? Jesus Christ's
declarationis the answer to this question (John 5:24-29). But we find strong,
reassuring help here. How much do we care for the continuance of the life of
our children? How much do we not care? Whatwords will express our
parental solicitude that death should not strike them down, that they should
live, and that their life should be large, free, blessed? If that is our concernfor
them, what will not God our Fatherdesire for us? What will he not care that
we do not perish in the arms of death, but have everlasting life in the embrace
of his own heavenly love? - C.

Biblical Illustrator
Lord, teachus to pray.
Luke 11:1
The Christian taught to pray
G. Bradley, M. A.
I. WHAT THE REQUEST IMPLIES.
1. A convictionof the importance of prayer. This, in this ease, seems to have
had its origin in the habits and example of Christ. He prayed often and much;
in sorrow, and in joy; alone, and with His disciples.
2. This requestimplies also some knowledge ofthe realnature of prayer. The
disciples had heard their Masterpray. They had witnessedHis fervour, the
seriousness, the abasement, and perhaps something of the elevation, of His
spirit in His supplications, and their understandings were opened. Prayer
appearedto them in a new light. Before, it was a ceremony;it was now an
inward, spiritual service. Theyregardedit for the first time as the work of the
heart, and consciousthat their own hearts had hitherto been but little engaged
in it, their request was, "Lord, teach us to pray." They wished their prayers to
be in future of a higher and more spiritual character, and, beyond this, they
scarcelyknew, perhaps, their ownmeaning or object.
3. An impression, too. of the difficulty of prayer is plainly to be traced in the
disciples'words. And this undoubtedly sprung out of their conviction of its

importance, and their newly-acquired knowledge ofits real nature. That
which is so important must, they concluded, be done aright; and that which is
so spiritual, they were conscious theycould not do at all; and thus they were
constrainedto seek help and instruction.
4. Besides intimating a conviction of the importance, the real nature, and the
difficulty of prayer, it plainly indicates also a desire for an increasedability to
pray.
II. How MAY WE EXPECT SUCH A PETITION AS THIS TO BE
ANSWERED?In the instance before us, it was answeredat once. We owe to it
the well-knownprayer we callthe Lord's prayer — a model of supplication,
which claims at once our admiration and gratitude. But with all its
excellenciesit is in itself powerless. It could not teachthese disciples to pray. It
showedthem indeed what their prayers ought to be, but it did not
communicate to them the power of making their prayers like it. Our Lord
well knew this. Accordingly, as soonas He had given His disciples a pattern
for their supplications, we find Him immediately directing them where to go
for the ability to follow it. He sends them to the Holy Spirit for the inward
principle of prayer, urging them to importunity in their petitions for His
grace, and assuring them at the same time that their importunity shall not be
lost. How then does this Holy Spirit teach us to pray? In many ways. Among
others, in these four:
1. By discovering to us our spiritual poverty; showing us our wants and
helplessness, orgiving us a more lively sense of them.
2. Affliction, too, is often made to answerthe same gracious end.

3. At other times Christ stirs up the soul to prayer, by glving it an enlarged
view of the Divine promises and goodness.
4. Sometimes the Holy Spirit carries us yet farther. He teaches us to pray by
giving us clearerviews of Christ as a Mediatorand Intercessor. Youare
aware, brethren, that I might still go on. I might say, Christ teaches us to pray
by much that is passing around us, by what we call accidents — events that
make, perhaps, a whole parish or nation start; crushing, and crushing in an
hour, the hopes and prospects and happiness that seemedalmostout of the
reachof decay or change. And He teaches us by deliverances, by bringing us
to the edge of some precipice, and then, as our foot goes overit, snatching us
awayfrom it; showing us in the same moment our dangerand our
deliverance.
(G. Bradley, M. A.)
Christ the Teacherofprayer
B. Beddome, M. A.
I. THE DISCIPLES'REQUEST:—
1. This was a pertinent request, considering them as dependent, needy, sinful,
and dying creatures.
2. A seasonable request, as Christ had been just now praying before them, and
was shortly to be takenfrom them.
3. A short and comprehensive request, much being containedin a few words.

4. It would also appear to have been an acceptable request, for it was
immediately answered, and that in a very gracious manner.
II. WHAT WAS IMPLIED IN THE REQUEST.
1. A consciousnessofthe importance and necessityofprayer. The breath of
the newborn soul. Prayer softens our affections, sweetens ourenjoyments, and
is the principal means of keeping up an intercourse with heaven. God
approves of it, and the soulis every way benefited by
2. A sense ofweaknessandinability, and that this duty cannot be performed
aright without Divine assistance.
3. It also implies that those who are appointed of God to instruct others, will,
among other things, teachthem to pray.
III. THE PROPRIETYOF THIS APPLICATION, AS MADE TO CHRIST:
—
1. None ever prayed like Christ — so pertinently, fervently, and effectually.
2. As none ever prayed, so none ever taught like Christ.
3. It was Christ who taught John to pray, else He could not have taught His
disciples. He teaches those who are teachers ofothers.

(B. Beddome, M. A.)
The disciples'request
T. Kidd.
I. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THIS REQUEST? Clearlyit implies —
1. A convictionof the propriety of prayer.
2. It implies a sense oftheir need of being taught.
3. It implies a sincere desire to learn.
4. It implies something of the true spirit or disposition of prayer already
possessed.
5. The request implies a high opinion of the ability and grace ofChrist.
II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE REQUEST WAS REGARDED. We may
observe, in the general, it was answered. The disciples said, "Lord, teach us to
pray." The Lord Jesus did teachthem.
1. By convincing us more clearly of the necessityofprayer,
2. By giving us more impressive views of our wants.

3. By strengthening our faith in Divine promises.
4. By instructing us in the greatutility of His ownmediation.
5. By increasing our pleasure and delight in the duty.
(T. Kidd.)
Lord, teachus to pray
W. H. Lewis, D. D.
After listening to a fervent prayer we sometimes say, "We wish we could pray
like the person who has offered it"; how much more should we have thus
wished, if we had heard Jesus Christ pray! No doubt His manner was very
impressive, sincere, fervent, reverent.
1. "Lord, teachus to pray," because we are ignorant in asking. St. Paul says,
"We know not what we should pray for as we ought." A consciousnessof
inability to pray aright grows with a Christian's growth.
2. Again, a sense ofour sinfulness, as well as of our ignorance, should cause us
to offer the petition in our text. Who does not feelat times as if it was a
wonder of mercy that God does not cut us down in anger, even while in the act
of praying, so miserable and defective are our purest offerings! What a gift of
prayer would it be if our God would enable us always to delight in the duty,
restrain every wandering thought, and fix our whole soul in sweetand full
communion with Him! Can you think of many things more desirable in this
world, Christians, than the perfect spirit of prayer? If we could enjoy always

as much as we do in our happiest devotionalseasons,that would be a blessed
privilege; but, alas!our happy seasons are few and far between, and even in
them "there was much imperfection. "Lord, teachus to pray."
3. To make us prevalent in prayer, we have need also to offer the petition in
our text. We might have unnumbered mercies more than we do enjoy if we
prayed for them aright. There are favours in God's right hand for ourselves,
our children, our friends, and fellow-creatures, the bestowalofwhich is
suspended on our faithfulness in asking. Here is more than life, here is eternal
welfare resting on our prayers to God.
4. And who can so well teachus how to pray as that blessedSaviour to whom
the requestof our text was addressed!Prayerwas His frequent work on earth,
intercessionis His employ in heaven. He knows whatpleas will prevail with
God, and He can put them into our hearts and order them aright upon our
tongues.
(W. H. Lewis, D. D.)
Teachus to pray
W . B. Wright.
1. It would be difficult, I think impossible, to prove that our Lord ever
commanded His disciples to pray. He always assumes that they pray; teaches
them plainly that unless they pray they cannot do what they must do. He
moved His disciples to pray, not by telling them to do so, but by exciting in
them desires which compelled them to supplication. You cannot pray by
direct force of resolution. You must put yourself under conditions which will
inspire desire for communion with God.(1)Becauseformost men it is hard to
pray, and easyto pretend, we are warned againstthat easilybesetting sin. The

hypocrites wantedof the king only to be seenin his company. They stood at
his door that they might be mistakenfor his friends. The same temptation
assails us at all times, and is acutely dangerous now. It is insidious as
malaria.(2)Mostof us say grace before our meals. If we realize who feeds us,
we cannot help doing so, unless we are brutes. Mostof us have family worship.
If we are alert to spiritual facts, it will be more natural to omit our meals than
our devotions. But what are the motives we often hear unblushingly advanced
for continuing these spiritual exercises?The children will be surprised if they
do not hear grace attable I For the sake ofthe example upon them, daily
prayers must be inexorably maintained! But is it permitted to pray that we
may be seenof children, and forbidden to pray that .we may be seenof men?
The "closet"is the cure for hypocrisy in prayer.
2. When we pray, we are forbidden to use vain repetitions as the heathen do.
There are men, goodmen, men meaning to be honest, who think their prayers
must be right if couchedin Scriptural phrases. Manysay prayers every night
and morning, who never pray exceptwhen they are scared. Repeating David's
or Isaiah's petitions, or even our Lord's Prayer, is not necessarilypraying
because we do it on our knees. Saying overeven the Lord's Prayeris for us a
vain repetition until we so understand its meaning and so sympathize with its
spirit that the words express our realdesires. For"vain repetitions" are
simply "empty phrases," sayings which do not express whatwe really mean.
The cure for this habit of making vain repetition lies in creating right desires.
We must learn to know what we need, and to desire that. Therefore we are
told —
3. When we pray, to pray after this manner. The prayer tells us what we need,
but rarely crave. If we were sure that one wish, and one only, would be
granted us this day for the asking, wouldthat wish be the petition which
stands first in the Lord's Prayer?(1)We shall not pray effectivelyuntil we
pray according to the mind of God.(2)Few of us do greatly desire the things
God desires for us.(3) We need such a change ofheart as shall make us crave
what God declares we need. And this is only another way of saying —

(a)That we cannot pray effectually until we can sincerelypray in the manner
of our Lord's Prayer,
(b)That few of us can yet do that.
(c)That we need to learn to do so.
(W . B. Wright.)
Barrenness in prayer
Bishop Boyd Carpenter.
There are, no doubt, many who have experiencedat times an intense
dissatisfactionwith their prayers. They seem so lame, so cold, so profitless, till
you are inclined to exclaim, "What a weariness,whata mockeryit is!" You
are constantlydisappointed with yourselves. The heart that seemedso full has
run empty ere you reachedyour knees. You have nothing to say; all your
thoughts have fled from you; and the intense longing comes acrossyour heart
that some one would teachyou how to pray. I do not pretend to supply the
want here indicated; but I wish to touch upon some of the causes ofthis trying
sense ofbarrenness in prayer.
I. SELF-CONCEIT.We are very slow to learn the lessonof our own inability.
We feelat some time, perhaps, that our hearts are prompted by an earnest
desire to pray. We grow keenly alive for the moment to our ownwants; but
when we attempt to pray, we find the edge of that sense of need is gone. The
heart appeared full, but when we knelt we found it empty. Vexed and
disappointed, we murmur at our privation, but are too blind to see its cause.
We cannotsee that our own self-conceitlies at the root of our failure. We

thought we could do it of ourselves — we anticipated rich heart communion;
but we were miserably mistaken, because we did not realize that we are not
sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but that our whole
sufficiency is of God. We need, then, to pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This is the very dawn of spiritual light, the very threshold of prayer.
II. SELF-IGNORANCE. Theytell God that they have sinned, that they have
grievously brokenHis commandments; they ask God to give them true
repentance, and to forgive them for Jesus Christ's sake. Sucha prayer might
be from a certain heart a true and noble expressionof spiritual longing; but
with the persons alluded to this prayer is the stereotypedplate from which all
their prayers for themselves, morning and evening, are struck off. With very
little variation, and in the most conventionalway — though, perhaps, with
very real desire — they confess that they are sinners, unworthy and polluted,
but there is not the confessionofa single definite sin, or if there is, it is
perhaps the result of some very rare circumstance which has impressedsome
specialtransgressionmore vividly upon their minds. To realize our sinfulness,
we must adopt a more particular mode of dealing with our own hearts, taking
them to task;recalling eachspecialsin, and confessing it before God.
III. SELFISHNESS IN PRAYER. By this I mean that spirit in prayer which
confines all our supplications to our ownindividual needs. Often God visits us
with barrenness because we fail to grow in heart-sympathy and Christian
longing for the welfare of others. It is the very law of Christ that His love
should spread, as it is the law of hydrostatics that pressure should circulate in
all directions through a volume of water;and when we in a stingy
forgetfulness of others violate that law, we are met with the punishment of a
straitening in ourselves.
(Bishop Boyd Carpenter.)

Acceptable prayer, the gift of Christ
J. Jowett, M. A.
I. I shall begin by mentioning TWO QUALIFICATIONS THAT ARE
INDISPENSABLYNECESSARY, AS PREPARATORYTO ACCEPTABLE
PRAYER.
1. The first of them is a due sense ofour wants. Christ alone by His Spirit,
teacheththis first preparatory lesson. "Lord, teachus to pray," by revealing
to us our guilt and misery, our vileness and our helplessness.
2. The secondqualification which is indispensable, as preparatory to
acceptable prayer, is an acquaintance with the true way of accessto God.
Alas! the tendency of our corrupt hearts is, to resistthis Divine appointment.
O, then, what need is there to ask of the Lord a right understanding, a cordial
approbation, of that way which He hath appointed.
II. Supposing you, then, to have made some proficiency in these two
preparatory lessons, Iproceed, in the secondplace, to mention SOME
PARTICULARS, WITH RESPECTTO WHICH EVEN THE WELL-
INSTRUCTEDCHRISTIAN WILL HAVE PERPETUAL OCCASION TO
USE THE LANGUAGE OF MY TEXT, "Lord, teach me to pray"
1. The power of devout attention while praying is one of those gifts which we
must obtain by prayer.
2. Spirituality in our devotionalexercises is anothergift, for which we must
often pray.

3. Furthermore, the Christian has need to pray for simplicity and godly
sincerity in his prayers.
4. We must request of the Saviour that a patient confidence in God may
accompanyall our prayers.
(J. Jowett, M. A.)
The rule of direction in prayer
T. Boston, D. D.
I. WE NEED DIRECTION IN PRAYER. This is evident from —
1. God's greatness.
2. Our ownguiltiness.
3. The importance of the subject.
4. Our weaknessand aptness to go wrong.
5. The danger of mistaking and miscarrying in prayer.
II. WHAT RULE GOD HAS GIVEN for our direction in prayer.

1. A generalrule in the whole of the Bible, where His will is revealed.(1)It
furnishes us abundantly with matter of prayer, in all the parts of it —
petition, confession, &c. (Psalm51:4, 5; Philippians 4:6). And whoso has the
Word of God dwelling richly in him, will not want matter for prayer, for
himself or for others. There is a storehouse ofit there, of greatvariety; and we
are welcome to the use of it, agreeable to our own case.(2)It fully directs us as
to the manner of prayer: as, for instance, that we must pray with sincerity
(Hebrews 10:22); with humility (Psalm 10:17); in faith (James 1:6); and with
fervency (James 5:16). And there is no qualification necessaryin prayer, but
what we may learn from the Holy Word.(3) It furnishes us with the most fit
words to be used in prayer. Do ye want words to express your desires before
the Lord? He has given us His own words in the Bible, that we may use them
according to our needs (Hosea 14:2).
2. There is a specialrule given us by Jesus Christfor that end, namely, that
form of words which Christ taught His disciples, commonly called "the Lord's
Prayer."(1)The Lord's Prayeris given us as a directory for prayer, a pattern
and an example, by which we are to regulate our petitions, and make other
prayers.(2)It may also be used as a prayer, so that it be done with
understanding, faith, reverence, and other praying graces.Inferences:
1. How gracious and ready to hear prayer is our God, who has been pleased
Himself to direct us how to pray to Him!
2. Let us acquaint ourselves with the blessedWord, that contains such a full
rule of practice as well as faith; and study the Holy Scriptures, that we may be
the better instructed to pray.
3. See the absolute necessityfor prayer in a Christian life.

(T. Boston, D. D.)
Prayer
John Whitty.
What is prayer?
I. IT IS AN OFFERING UP OF OUR DESIRESTO GOD. These are, as it
were, the soul of prayer, without which the most elegantand warm
expressions that canpossibly be invented and used would not be acceptable to
God.
II. Our request must be FOR SUCH THINGS AS ARE AGREEABLE TO
THE WILL OF GOD. Things which are not so it is not fit we should receive;
and for that reasonwe should not be rash and hasty to utter anything before
God.
III. Our prayers are to be offered up to God IN THE NAME OF CHRIST; for
His sake;in dependence upon the merit and intercessionofthe beloved Sonof
God, in whom the Fatheris wellpleased.
IV. CONFESSION OF SIN IS A BRANCH OF THAT WORSHIP WE CALL
PRAYER.
V. A THANKFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD'S MERCIES justly
claims a place in this part of Divine worship.
(John Whitty.)

Prayer
J. Burns, D. D.
I. WHAT IS PRAYER? The presenting of our requests to God, and breathing
out our desires before Him. In prayer —
1. The heart must be the agent.
2. God is the object.
3. Jesus Christthe medium.
4. Prayermust be our constant exercise.
II. WHY SHOULD WE DESIRE TO BE TAUGHT HOW TO PRAY?
1. Becauseofthe importance of prayer.
2. Becauseofour natural ignorance of this duty.
3. BecauseGoddesires us to be proficient in this duty.
III. WHY SHOULD WE DESIRE THE LORD TO TEACH US HOW TO
PRAY?

1. BecauseHe was distinguished for this holy exercise.
2. BecauseHe is our Master, and in all things we are to hear Him.
3. Becausewith Him is the spirit of prayer.
4. BecauseHe is our greatHigh Priest.Application:
1. Let us cultivate the gift of prayer.
2. Covetthe true spirit of prayer (1 Corinthians 7:5).
3. Commence and conduct all our affairs in connectionwith prayer
(Philippians 4:6.)
4. Continue instant in prayer (Luke 18:1).
5. In the exercise offaith look for the returns of prayer.
(J. Burns, D. D.)
Forms of private prayer

J. H. Newman, D. D.
In the case ofpublic prayer the need of forms is evident; but it is not at first
sight so obvious that in private prayer also we need use written forms, instead
of praying extempore (as it is called);so I proceedto show the use of them.
1. Let us bear in mind the preceptof the wise man, "Be not rash with thy
mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God
is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few." Prayers
framed at the moment are likely to become irreverent. What need have we of
humble, sober, and subdued thoughts I as becomes creatures,sustained
hourly by His bounty; as becomes lostsinners who have no right to speak at
all; and still more, as grateful servants of Him who bought us from ruin at the
price of His own blood. Therefore, to avoid the irreverence of many or unfit
words and rude half-religious thoughts, it is necessaryto pray from book or
memory, and not at random.
2. In the next place, forms of prayer are necessaryto guard us againstthe
irreverence of wandering thoughts. A chief use of them is that of fixing the
attention.
3. Next, they are useful in securing us from the irreverence of excited
thoughts. They are accusedof impeding the current of devotion, when, in fact,
that (so called) current is in itself faulty, and ought to be checked. To be
excited is not the ordinary state of the mind, but the extraordinary, the now-
and then state. Nay, more than this, it ought not to be the common state of the
mind; and if we are encouraging within us this excitement, this unceasing rush
and alternation of feelings, and think that this, and this only, is being in
earnestin religion, we are harming our minds, and (in one sense)I may even
say grieving the peacefulSpirit of God, who would silently and tranquilly
work His Divine work in our hearts.

4. Further, forms are useful to help our memory, and to set before us at once,
completely, and in order, what we have to pray for. It does not follow that
when the heart is really full of the thought of God, and alive to the reality of
things unseen, then it is easiestto pray. Rather the deeperinsight we have into
His majesty and our innumerable wants, the less we shall be able to draw out
our thoughts into words.
5. And further, the use of a form as a help to the memory is still more obvious,
when we take into accountthe engagements ofthis world with which most
men are surrounded. The cares and businesses oflife press upon us with a
reality which we cannot overlook. Shallwe trust the matters of the next world
to the chance thoughts of our Own minds, which come this moment, and go
the next, and may not be at hand when the time of employing them arrives,
like unreal visions, having no substance and no permanence?
6. And this use of forms in prayer becomes great, beyond power of estimating,
in the case ofthose multitudes of men, who, after going on well for a while, fall
into sin. Chance words and phrases of the Church's services adhere to their
memories, rising up in moments of temptation or of trouble, to check orto
recoverthem. And hence it happens, that in the most irreligious companies a
distinction is said to be observable betweenthose who have had the
opportunity of using our public forms in their youth, and those whose
religious impressions have not been thus happily fortified; so that, amid their
most recklessmirth, and most daring pretence of profligacy, a sort of secret
reverence has attended the wanderers, restraining them from that impiety
and profaneness in which the others have tried to concealfrom themselves the
guilt and peril of their doings.
7. Such is the force of associationin undoing the evil of past years, and
recalling us to the innocence of children. Nor is this all we may gain from the
prayers we use, nor are penitent sinners the only persons who can profit by it.

Let us recollectfor how long a period our prayers have been the standard
forms of devotion in the Church of Christ, and we shall gain a fresh reasonfor
loving them, and a fresh source of comfort in using them. I know different
persons will feeldifferently here, according to their different turn of mind; yet
surely there are few of us, if we dwelt on the thought, but would feel it a
privilege to use, as we do (for instance, in the Lord's Prayer), the very
petitions which Christ spoke. He gave the prayer and used it. His apostles
used it; all the saints eversince have used it. When we use it we seemto join
company with them. Who does not think himself brought nearerto any
celebratedman in history, by seeing his house, or his furniture, or his
handwriting, or the very books that were his? Thus does the Lord's Prayer
bring us near to Christ, and to His disciples in every age. No wonder, then,
that in past times goodmen thought this form of prayer so sacred, that it
seemedto them impossible to say it too often, as if some especialgracewent
with the use of it. Nor can we use it too often; it con-rains in itself a sort of
plea for Christ's listening to us; we cannot, so that we keepour thoughts fixed
on its petitions, and use our minds as well as our lips when we repeatit. And
what is true of the Lord's Prayer, is in its measure true of most of those
prayers which our Church teaches us to use. It is true of the Psalms also, and
of the Creeds;all of which have become sacred, from the memory of saints
departed who have used them, and whom we hope one day to meet in heaven.
(J. H. Newman, D. D.)
Forms of prayer
J. N. Norton, D. D.
Common sense tells us, that when people unite togetherin public worship, if
their thoughts are to run in the same channel, they must agree beforehand
what is to be the subject of their petitions, and the very words in which they
are to be offered, if there is to be any certainty, satisfaction, andregularity in
devotion. To sing out of a book is the same in principle as praying out of a

book, and if the one is spiritual and right, so is the other also. Public worship
should embrace confession, penitence, implorations, ascription, and
thanksgiving. The prayer offeredto God in His holy place should be sober,
solemn, reverential, filial, scriptural, offeredin faith, through the merits of the
Divine Redeemer. Such, most emphatically, are the devotions of the Prayer
Book. A Presbyterianminister, no less distinguished for his abilities than for
his Christian charity, has lately given this little sketchfrom his pastoral
experience. In looking up scholars for a mission-school,he was led to visit a
poor woman, on her sick-bed, in the upper room of a crowded, comfortless
tenement-house. The room was entirely dark, the only inlet of illumination
being the swinging, twopanedventilator overhead. Waiting until his eyes
became accustomedto the dimness, he discoveredthat the apartment was
merely a small closet, aboutsix feetsquare. A shapeless mass ofhumanity was
buried under a heap of coarse, tumbled coverlets, the victim of rheumatism;
having occupiedthe same comfortless roomfor fourteen years. Although a
member of the Church, no minister of the city knew of her existence, she
having come from another place, and bringing no certificate of membership to
commend her to pastoralcare and oversight. When askedby the visitor
whether she had ever given up her faith and hope, her pale, shrivelled face
lighted up, as she answered, very decidedly, "Never!" She declined his kind
offers of pecuniary aid, but thankfully acceptedhis proposal to pray with her.
He was struck with the fact that, in his repeatedvisits, she avoided speaking
much of herself, and seemedto prefer to spend all the time in talking of God's
love, and the Saviour's abundant grace. Remembering the strong attachment
of Churchmen for the Prayer Book, the Presbyterian minister learned several
of the beautiful collects by heart, and one day, while praying, suffered his
voice quietly to run into the form. The sick womanrecognizedthe first
sentence ofthe dear old words with a start of surprise; then she beganto
repeatthe petitions aloud with him; and when he finished she sobbed aloud,
with humble, grateful tears. It was a repetition of goodGeorge Herbert's
dying expressionof childlike affection for his spiritual mother: "Give me the
prayers of my mother the Church, no other prayers are equal to them!"
(J. N. Norton, D. D.)

How to pray
Would you pray to God in a proper way —
1. Reacta few verses ofthe Bible before you pray. Much of the language of
Scripture is in the form of prayer, and by using it we find help in our
approches to God.
2. Always go to God with faith in Jesus Christ. In His name you may ask for
every blessing;and through His merits, and for His sake, youmay find all that
can make you happy in this world, with a pardon of your sins, and a good
hope of heaven.
3. Seek forthe aid of the Holy Spirit, for He will show us what we need, help
our weakness, put right desires into our hearts, and teachus how to pray
aright.
4. Have something to sayto God. Do not say words in an unmeaning way.
Spend a few minutes in thought before you begin to pray, that you may not
"mock God with a solemn sound."
5. Leave the answerto the love and wisdom of God. He will give to us those
things which it is best for us to receive.
The praying Christ
A. Maclaren, D. D.
We owe our knowledge ofthe prayers of Jesus principally to the Evangelist
Luke. This fact tallies with the many other characteristicsofthe third Gospel
which mark it as eminently the story of the Son of Man. Consider, then —

I. How PRECIOUS THE PRAYERS OF JESUS ARE, AS BRINGING HIM
VERY NEAR TO US IN HIS TRUE MANHOOD.
II. THE HIGHEST, HOLIEST LIFE NEEDS SPECIFIC ACTS AND TIMES
OF PRAYER.
III. CHRIST'S OWN PRAYERS DO, IN A VERY REAL SENSE, TEACH
US TO PRAY.
1. The praying Christ teaches us to pray as a restafter service.
2. The praying Christ teaches us to pray as a preparation for important steps
(Luke 6:12, &c.).
3. The praying Christ teaches us to pray as the condition of receiving the
Spirit and the brightness of God. There were two occasions in the life of
Christ when visible signs showedHis full possessionofthe Divine Spirit and
the lustre of His glorious nature — Baptism, and Transfiguration. Now on
both these occasions,our Gospel, and our Gospelalone, tells us that it was
whilst Christ was in the act of prayer that the sign was given (see Luke 3:21-
22; Luke 9:29).
4. The praying Christ teaches us to pray as the preparation for sorrow.
Gethsemane.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Desire and prayer
D. Davies, D. D.
Prayer is an attestance ofdesire, and desire is so natural to man that no man
who lives is quite without it. Our human life is createdin greatpart by desire.
When men, who have been createdto desire, turn themselves towards a Being
who is supposedto have powerover their destinies, desire naturally renders
itself into prayer. The Son of God imparting to His disciples the true
knowledge ofthe Father, did not fail to teachthem concerning prayer. In His
own practice He sets an example of earnestand sustained prayer. He
deliberately taught His disciples to pray; He bade them pray out of the fulness
of their hearts, and not only so, but He gave His sanction to the use of forms
by prescribing to them a form of words which would show them the desires
they ought to entertain, and be a perpetual encouragementto such desires.
We may derive a double benefit from our Lord's lofty teaching;we may be
delivered from the covetous, self-regarding prayers which dishonour Him to
whom they are offered, and have no healing or exalting influence on the
worshipper who offers them; and at the same time the true spirit of prayer,
which is effectualwith God, and on the wings of which we may rise upwards
towards Him, may through His teaching be breathed into our hearts. The
most Christian kind of prayer will be the utterance of a desire in our souls
which is in harmony with God's purposes, and which we may believe to be
breathed into us by God's Spirit. And though the essenceofprayer is inward
and spiritual, we rightly put it into words, and even use fixed words of prayer,
because it belongs to our nature to translate our thoughts into words, and
because forms are necessarymodes of our life, and especiallyindispensable
for whateverwe are to do jointly or in common.
(D. Davies, D. D.)
Jesus the Teacherofprayer
Dr. Stanford., Dr. Stanford.

I. WHY JESUS IS TO BE REGARDED AS THE TEACHER OF PRAYER.
It should be takenfor granted that knowing how to pray is the first of all
essentials.If we want information we may have it. There was once a man in
Palestine who said that He was the Sonof God, and what He did proved that
what He saidwas true. When we would know how to pray, we, like the first
disciples, think that if any one can tell us He can. He is the Teacherofprayer.
That is His business. Now He is ascended, His disciples are always learning to
pray, and He is always teaching. In all our approaches to the Infinite Unseen,
we have first to do with Jesus;every prayer must reachHis ear before we
have the answerto it.
II. How HE TEACHES.
1. Sometimes by means of an overheard prayer. It was so in the chapter of
events to which the text belongs.
2. Jesus teachesus to pray by our troubles. "Nature in an agonyis no atheist."
3. Jesus teachesprayerby revealing Himself as the one medium of prayer.
4. Jesus teachesus to pray by making His own Spirit the spirit of our lives.
5. Jesus teachesto pray by quickening the sense ofdifficulty.
(1)One difficulty is realizing God.
(2)Another is the frequent coldness ofdesire Godward.

(3)Another, the effecton our souls of the atmosphere in which we have to live.
(4)Another, vain thoughts. If, said Philip Henry, "our prayers were written
down and our vain thoughts interlined, what nonsense there would be!"
(5)A kindred difficulty is the restlessnesswe oftenfeel in the actof
prayer.Every one of us can understand the entry made by homely William
Smith of Coalville, in the diary of his soul: "While at prayer my mind was
rather shifting. I had to bring it back and ask it to sit down." We are baffled
and weightedby ignorance, by infirmity, and by countless things, which
togethermake such a total that we feelinclined to think with Coleridge that
"the actof praying, in its most perfect form, is the very highest energyof
which the human mind is capable." The difficulty does not begin when we
begin to pray under the teaching of Christ, but the sense of it does;and this
He uses for carrying on His purpose. When you have made acquaintance with
a thing through difficulties you are more sure of your ground. By quickening
the sense ofdifficulty the Angel wrestles us into strength, and teaches the
suppliant to say, "I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me."
(Dr. Stanford.)It is remarkable that Jesus only teaches prayer, never the
philosophy of prayer. The sentiment of not a few appears to be, that this
philosophy is the very thing that we have first to learn. The first questions,
even of Christians, are too often simply speculative;and in almostevery one
of the many treatises on prayer they have given to the world in recentyears, a
large space is taken up with the discussionof such questions. More than they
are aware, they are influenced in this direction by the spirit of the times. Each
young believer is now likely to be brought more or less in contactwith some
theorist who owns no higher teacherof religion than science,who smiles down
upon him, assures him that the discoveries ofscience prove the allegedpower
of prayer to be impossible; and says, "It is useless foryou to expect that the

laws of nature will be setaside because you pray!" "Who wants the laws of
nature to be set aside?" might be the reply. "AssuredlyI do not. I know very
little about the laws of nature, and even you know very little more. Foraught
your science canshow, it may be quite possible for God to answerprayers,
without in the leastdegree touching the settled constitution of the universe."
Our conviction is that we find wrought into our very nature, as one of its
primary principles, the instinct that prompts to prayer.
(Dr. Stanford.)
A prayer about prayer
T. R. Stevenson.
In this verse there are certain arguments for and encouragements to prayer,
worthy of careful attention.
I. PRAYER IS INSTINCTIVE. Fourclassesofpersons here mentioned. In
some respects very different from eachother. One thing, however, they had in
common, namely, prayer. Christ prayed. His disciples prayed. John prayed.
His followers were like him. The world here in miniature. Man a praying
being.
II. PRAYER IS CHRISTLIKE. Prayer was His habit. "I give myself unto
prayer," was the experience of both David and David's greaterSon. To some
this is perplexing. They cannot understand why our Lord should pray. There
would, however, have been far more mystery had He never prayed at all. The
holier we become, the more frequent and fervent is our communion with our
Heavenly Father.
III. PRAYER IS CONTAGIOUS. The word is used for want of a better. What
led His disciples to say, "Teachus to pray"? Had the Masterbeen speaking of

prayer? Not a word. It was on quite another occasionthat He said, "Men
ought always to pray." How was it, then, that the desire for increasedpower
in devotion was awakened?It was through hearing and seeing our Lord pray.
Prayer begets prayer. One live coalkindles another. There is an Eastern
proverb, as true as it is poetic, "I am not the rose; but I have been with the
rose, and therefore I am sweet."
IV. PRAYER IS EFFECTUAL. "Teachus to pray." That petition was
granted. And realprayer is always answered. It cannotfail. As Bishop Hall
says:"I am sure that I shall receive either what I ask, orwhat I should ask."
V. THE EXPRESSION, "AS JOHN ALSO TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES,"
HAS MORE IN IT THAN AT FIRST SIGHT APPEARS. It is not the cry of
false conservatism. We shall err if we suppose that he who uttered it simply
wanted our Lord to follow in the track of another. Surely there was an
argument, and a fine one, in the words. What did it mean? Something like
this: "Johnwas Thy servant, and he helped the devotion of his followers;wilt
Thou, greatMaster, do less? Johnwas only a herald and a forerunner, but he
watchedover his disciples; wilt not Thou, the promised and predicted One, do
the same to us?" It was goodreasoning. Betterlogic cannotbe imagined. Let
us take the benefit of it. Inspired by the faith which it teaches, be our prayers
both frequent and fervent.
(T. R. Stevenson.)
Influence
Dr. W. Graham.
We have here a simple illustration of the silent involuntary influence of our
Lord. One of His disciples had observed Him praying, and struck with the

grandeur and sweetnessofthe act, he asks to be taught how to pray. Without
a commandment but by the powerof His example, He influenced His disciple.
I. IT IS A REAL INFLUENCE THAT OF EXAMPLE. He who is most a child
of God in faith, hope, and love, is most of a king for God over himself and
over others, wielding an irresistible power, and gaining widest triumphs.
II. EXAMPLE OF THE INFLUENCE OF EXAMPLE. You see it in Christ in
this incident. Teachme to pray, said the disciple; but he had more than half
learned the lessonwhen he had lookedon Christ praying. The evangelists
never pause to extol the life of the Master. To tell the life was best to praise it.
On the way to the cross, Jesus does notrecommend patience — He is patience.
On the cross, He does not speak of love — He is love as He never was before.
III. THE APPLICATION OF THIS TRUTH.
1. TO those who need encouragement. Some feelmuch the uselessnessoftheir
lives — no money, little knowledge, oreloquence. But you are not useless if
you are true to what is pure and gentle and brave — true to Christ. Influence
is not the less powerful because it is silent.
2. This truth speaks to those who need warning. Remember that no one lives
to himself. The influence of selfishaims, unregulated tempers, illiberal gifts,
goes forth where you little think, and does evil you would dread to
acknowledge.Whata minister for evil the very presence ofan unrevered man
is whereverhe goes. Butif you come to Jesus, though with souls most feeble
and most sinful, you may become through Him most magnetic and mighty for
the highestissues and the widestinfluences.
(Dr. W. Graham.)

Prayer necessaryto maintain the spiritual life
T. Guthrie, D. D.
The first true signof spiritual life, prayer, is also the means of maintaining it.
Man can as well live physically without breathing, as spiritually without
praying. There is a class ofanimals — the cetaceous, neitherfish nor sea-fowl,
that inhabit the deep. It is their home; they never leave it for the shore; yet,
though swimming beneath its waves, and sounding its darkestdepths, they
have ever and anon to rise to the surface that they may breathe the air.
Without that these monarchs of the deep could not exist in the dense element
in which they live, and move, and have their being. And something like what is
imposed on them by physical necessity, the Christian has to do by a spiritual
one. It is by ever and anon ascending up to God, by rising through prayer into
a loftier, purer region for supplies of Divine grace, that he maintains his
spiritual life. Prevent these animals from rising to the surface, and they die for
want of breath; prevent him from rising to God, and he dies for want of
prayer. "Give me children," cried Rachel, "orelse I die." "Let me breathe,"
says a man, gasping, "orelse I die." "Let me pray," says the Christian," or
else I die."
(T. Guthrie, D. D.)
The difficulty of true prayer
Ed. Coleridge's Table Talk.
— "I have no difficulty," said he (Coleridge), "in forgiveness;indeed, I know
not how to saywith sincerity the clause in the Lord's Prayerwhich asks
forgiveness as we forgive. I feel nothing answering to it in my heart. Neither
do I find, or reckon, the most solemn faith in God as a real object, the most
arduous act of the reasonand will. Oh no, my dear, it is to pray, to pray as
God would have us; this is what at times makes me turn cold to my soul.
Believe me, to pray with all your heart and strength, with the reasonand the

will, to believe vividly that God will listen to your voice through Christ, and
verily do the thing He pleaseththereupon — this is the last, the greatest
achievementof the Christian's warfare upon earth. Teachus to pray, O
Lord!" And then he burst into a flood of tears, and beggedme to pray for
him.
(Ed. Coleridge's Table Talk.)
Thought in prayer
P. Brookes.
A prayer must have thought in it. The thought may overburden it so that its
wings of devotion are fasteneddown to its sides, and cannotascend. Then it is
no prayer, only a meditation or a contemplation. But to take the thought out
of a prayer does not insure its going up to God. It may be too light as well as
too heavy to ascend. I saw once, in a shop window in London, a placard which
simply announced, "Limp Prayers." It described, I believe, a kind of a
prayer-book in a certainsort of binding, which was for sale within; but it
brought to mind many a prayer to which one had listened, in which he could
not join, out of which had been left the whole backbone ofthought, and to
which he could attachnone of his own heart's desire.
(P. Brookes.)
Forms of prayer
D. Moore, M. A.
I. And, first, on the use of prepared forms of prayer for public worship, or
liturgies as we callthem. That these were of Divine appointment under the
Jewishdispensationthere can be no question. The songs of Mosesand
Miriam, and the titles prefixed to a large number in the Book ofPsalms, bear
evidence of being composedfor congregationaluse. Besides, throughthe
writings of Josephus and other Hebrew historians, no inconsiderable part of

the ancientJewishliturgies have been preserved to us, and a remarkable
coincidence has been discoveredbetweenthe order and method of these early
compositions with our own Book ofCommon Prayer. The forms of which we
know the most are two — one for the service of the Temple, and the other for
that of the Synagogue.In the synagogue form the order of public worship was
prayer, reading of the Scriptures, and preaching. Their prayers, though not
always the same, were always pre-composed, the most commonly used being
eighteen, said to have been composedby Ezra at the time of the Captivity, all
containing many sentences outof his Book. Theseforms were in use among
the Jews in our Lord's time, and both Jesus and His apostles joined in them.
Unsafe, therefore, as it might be, as a rule, to base an argument on the silence
of Scripture, yet we can hardly suppose, that if our Lord had intended that in
such an important particular the Christian worship was to differ from the
Jewish, He would not have told His disciples so plainly, rather than first join
in such pre-composeddevotions Himself, and then institute a form, which
from being expressedthroughout in the plural number, must have been
supposedto have been intended for public and socialuse. Here, then, is good
reasonto believe that the only recitedcongregationalprayer preservedin the
New Testament — I mean that containedin the 4th chapter of the Acts — was
a form commonly used by the early Christians as suited to a time of
persecution, for the whole assemblyrecited it together — "Then lifted up they
their voice to God with one accord." The scriptural evidence, therefore, as far
as it goes, is clearly in favour of setand prepared forms of public prayer. If we
join to this the testimony of ecclesiasticalhistory, there is no more doubt
about the apostolic usage as a question of fact, than there is as a question of
fact about the persecutionof Domitian or the siege ofJerusalem. Even Pliny's
letter to Trajan, at the beginning of the secondcentury, alludes
(contemptuously, of course)to these Christians meeting for daily worship, and
reciting, as he says, a composedform; whilst the liturgies attributed to St.
Mark, St. Peter, and St. James, respectively, from which a gooddeal of our
own liturgy is taken, whether really composedby those apostles ornot, canbe
tracedto a period sufficiently early to make the allegedauthorship by no
means impossible. Other testimonies might be cited, more convincing, because
merely incidental, all assuming the usage itselfto be one of common notoriety.

II. Let me advert to a point which we shall all feel to be of greatimportance,
namely, the use of prepared forms in our private devotions. Let me proceed,
then, to point out some objections to prepared forms of private prayer,
howeverspiritual and excellentthey may be, if they be used exclusively. Thus
it is obvious we are thereby confined in regard to the matter of our prayers,
we restrict our conversationwith heaven to a fixed routine of subjects, and
preclude the mention of those hourly spiritual experiences, whichthough
unseen, and unknown to the world, make up the greatincidents of the soul's
life, and may give, day by day, a new complexion to its prayers. We live in a
world of change, and in the countless vicissitudes to which mind, body, and
estate are alike exposed;the soul is subjectto infinite varieties of emotion, for
.which no prepared form can provide corresponding expression. Again, there
is a danger lestthe exclusive use of forms should have a tendency to deaden
the spirit of prayer. Let me conclude with a few practicaldirections which,
whether with or without forms, cannot be neglectedby those who would be
taught how to pray.
1. As first, when you enter your closet, be composed, and reverent, and
thoughtful.
2. Again, be honest and faithful with yourselves;let there be a greatsearching
both of heart and life.
3. I say, aim to be comprehensive and yet specific.
4. Lastly, we must be earnestand persevering. The confessionis humiliating,
but it must be made.
(D. Moore, M. A.)

The instructions of the Bible as to the matter and manner of prayer
G. Spring, D. D.
The best of men need direction in prayer. Who may not adopt the language,
"Teachus what we shall sayunto Him: for we cannot order our speechby
reasonof darkness"?The Bible is a sufficient rule of conduct in all things
pertaining to life and godliness. The subject-matter for prayer is to be found
in the Word of God. There is not one of its doctrines, in all their richness and
variety, that does not contain truths which the lips of prayer may make use of,
and turn to goodaccountat the throne of grace. The point is too plain to
require either illustration or proof, that the mind must be furnished with the
truth of God in order to be furnished with matter for prayer. The precepts of
the Bible also teachus how to pray. They describe the spirit of prayer; while
they teachus what gracesto ask for, and for what duties we need strength.
The promises of the Bible are revealedfor our instruction and encouragement
in prayer. They teachus what blessings Godis willing to bestow, and how
willing He is to bestow them. The threatenings of the Bible teachus what we
have reasonto fear and deprecate;while the very sins that are there recorded
teachwhat we should pray againstand deplore. God has also recordeda
multitude of facts in His Word, that are comments upon its truths, its
promises, and its threatenings, of which He condescends to permit His people
to remind Him, and which furnish them with powerful considerations in
pleading at His mercy-seat. There are instances of prayer, too, there recorded,
which show us its spirit, its comprehensiveness, its appropriateness to times,
and places, and circumstances,and men, as well as its fruit and power; and
which show us for what it is to be offered, and God's readiness to hear and
answer. More than this; the Bible teaches us where to go for assistance in
prayer. "Forthrough Him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father." In
every act of true devotion, there is a concurrence ofthe Spirit's influence. Let
your mind be richly furnished with all God's truth, and let your bosom be
filled with devotional emotions, and then freely utter your requests before
God. There is thought in prayer; strong thought, and often close, compact,
and connectedthought. There is emotion, too, heavenly emotion. There is

memory, too, in prayer; and there is conscienceand evenimagination. This
formula, commonly called the Lord's Prayer, contains the substance ofprayer
for His disciples. A question arises here, if we may not use this form in our
supplications at the throne of grace? The Christian ought not to be so much
the enemy of forms, as to depreciate this most beautiful form of prayer; nor so
much of a formalist, as not to pray without it. Jesus Christ has nowhere
authorized a restrictionto any set form of prayer. The prayers of Abraham
were not written prayers. Nor was the prayer of Eleazarat Haran; nor the
prayer of JacobatPeniel; nor the prayers of Moses and Aaron for Egypt and
Israel. The prayer of Joshua at the defeat of Ai, the prayer of Manoah, of
Samson, of Hannah, of Samuel at Mizpeh, of Elijah at Mount Carmel, of
HezekiahagainstSennacherib, of Jabez, of Ezra, of Nehemiah, of Job, of
Daniel, of Jonah, and of Habakkuk, were none of them dictated by the pen.
Nor was the prayer of Zacharias, nor that of the publican, nor that of the
disciples in any one exigence oftheir history. In the next place, forms of
prayer invert the order of prayer; they make the words lead the heart, and
not the heart the words. True prayer flows from the heart; the heart is the
seatof supplication. Another objectionto forms is, that they check the
teachings of the Holy Spirit. Still another objectionto forms of prayer is, that
no set of prayers is, or ever can be, adequate to the necessities ofthe Church.
It has been said that the example of the Primitive Christians is in favour of
forms. Much has been written to prove the antiquity of liturgies, and Bishop
Bull has strongly urged the probability of their being of Apostolic origin. The
posture of the primitive Christians in prayer was such as to render it
impossible to read prayers. They stoodwith their arms crossedontheir
breasts, their heads back, and their eyes often closed. It is confidently asserted
by those who have made close search, that there is not such an expressionas
"reading prayers," to be found in the history of the first four centuries. In
favour of forms, it is also said, that it is important to have matter to ponder
upon, to pray with intelligence. We have only to reply, most certainly it is so;
but then there is more matter in the Bible than in a Book ofCommon Prayer.
It is further urged, and we confess the objectionhas some weightthat in
extempore prayers, too much latitude is given to the speaker, that, on the one
hand, his prayers may often be barren and dry; and on the other, they may be
redundant, and sometimes filled even with wild and extravagantnotions. This

is true; it is an evil to be guarded against:and we have only to say, that we
expecttoo much, when we expectperfect prayers from imperfect men. Once
more, it is objectedto prayers that are not thus formed, that the people cannot
join in them.
(G. Spring, D. D.)
The abridgment of the whole Gospel
ArchdeaconKing.
Such plentiful rivers streamfrom this seven-headedfountain. So that as the
sevenarms of Nilus wateredand made fertile all Egypt; so doth this prayer,
springing from sevenpetitions, which are deprecative or optative, water the
whole Christian world, preventing and deprecating all mishaps, and supplying
our wants. So that in this short prayer, as in a little orb, the Sun of
Righteousnessmoves;from hence doth every star, every faithful servantand
counsellorof Christ (for they are incarnate stars)borrow a ray of light to
illuminate and sanctify the body of his meditations. The Church in her liturgy
and the preacher both enjoined to use it. A small quantity of this leaven
seasonsa greatlump of devotion, and a few spirits give taste and quickness to
much liquor. This prayer is a quintessence extractedby the greatestchemist
that ever was, from Him that brought nature out of chaos, separatedlight
from darkness, and extractedthe four elements out of nothing. All parts of it
are spirits. Quae enim spiritualior oratio? And the mixture of a few grains
thereof with our prayers proves the strongestand best Christian antidote.
(ArchdeaconKing.)
Giving God His own in prayer
ArchdeaconKing.

It is a familiar and friendly tribute to present God with His own; a petition
clothed in Christ's words, will find the ready wayto heaven, and a speedy
access into the ears of God.
(ArchdeaconKing.)
The parts of the Lord's Prayer
ArchdeaconKing.
So considerthis prayer as it now lies all together, the plates and joints and
severalmatters make but one Christian bucklerto ward and avert all
necessitiesthatmay befall us; yet resolvedinto parcels, everylimb and
member, and gradation, is a perfectbuckler to bear off our particular wants.
It is like that famous targetof Ajax that was Clypeus Septemplex, consistedof
sevenfolds; this is Oratio Septemplex, a prayer consisting of sevenrequests.
That buckler was dart-proof, impenetrable, and this prayer an impenetrable
shield to resistthe fiery darts of Satan. If I would insist upon the allusion to
the number of these petitions, I might compare this whole prayer to the
constellationof the Pleiades, orsevenstars in heaven; or to the sevenstars in
the right hand of the Sonof Man, being fit lights and tapers for the seven
golden candlesticksthere mentioned, to be setup in those sevenChurches,
and not in them alone, but in all the Churches of the world, where Christ's
name is known and adored. Or I may liken the parts of this prayer to the
sevenplanets, eminent above all other stars of the firmament. Foras some of
those planets move nearer to the earth, others higher and farther off, so is the
motion of these sevenpetitions; some of them move and solicitGod for earthly
things, as the four last of them; others for heavenly and eternal, as the three
first, "Hallowedbe Thy name, and Thy kingdom come," &c. Saint hath taken
their just height and motion, Tres petitiones superiores aternac sunt, quatuor
sequentes ad hanc vitam pertinent.
(ArchdeaconKing.)

Praying from a copy
ArchdeaconKing.
I do not deny him a goodartizan that works by the strength of his own
phantasy: yet all will grant he works truest that works from a copy. And
though a voluntary expressedupon an instrument show the sufficiency of the
musician, yet I should think that musician who undervalues all setlessons in
comparisonof his voluntaries hath more of arrogance than skill. Just so is it in
prayer. I prejudice no man's gift, and let me advise no man so much to
prejudice this excellentgift of Christ's Prayer as to exalt his own meditations
above it.
(ArchdeaconKing.)
The Lord's Prayer perfect
William Gouge.
The matter is every way found complete and perfect. Every word in it hath its
weight. There is not a superfluous word in it that could be spared. Noris it
any way defective. Whatsoeveris lawful, needful, and meet to be askedin
prayer is therein contained: yea, whatsoeveris to be believed or practised by a
Christian is therein implied.
(William Gouge.)
The Lord's Prayer little, yes great
ArchdeaconKing.
The sense ofit is as large as the body is little.
(ArchdeaconKing.)

COMMENTARIES
BensonCommentary
Luke 11:11-12. If a son shall ask bread of any of you — Further to assistyour
faith on these occasions, reflectupon the workings ofyour own hearts toward
your offspring. Let any of you, that is a father, and knows the heart of a
father, a father’s affectionto, and care for, a child, say, if his Song of Solomon
ask bread to satisfy his hunger, will he give him a stone — In the shape of a
loaf? or, If he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent — Which has some
resemblance ofa fish; or if he ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion —
Which, instead of nourishing him, might sting him to death?
Naturalists tell us, that the body of a scorpionis very like an egg, especiallyif
the scorpionbe of the white kind, which is the first species mentionedby
Ælian, Avicenna, and others. Bocharthas produced testimonies to prove that
the scorpions in Judea were about the bigness of an egg;and therefore there, a
white scorpionbeing very like an egg, might to children, who were not capable
of distinguishing the one from the other, be offered in place thereof, if the
person so doing meant that it should sting and destroy them. These different
instances are mentioned by Jesus, in order that the doctrine which he is here
inculcating might make the strongerimpression upon his hearers. See on
Matthew 7:9-11.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
11:5-13 Christ encourages fervencyand constancyin prayer. We must come
for what we need, as a man does to his neighbour or friend, who is kind to
him. We must come for bread; for that which is needful. If God does not
answerour prayers speedily, yet he will in due time, if we continue to pray.
Observe what to pray for; we must ask for the Holy Spirit, not only as
necessaryin order to our praying well, but as all spiritual blessings are
included in that one. Forby the influences of the Holy Spirit we are brought
to know God and ourselves, to repent, believe in, and love Christ, and so are

made comfortable in this world, and meet for happiness in the next. All these
blessings our heavenly Father is more ready to bestow on every one that asks
for them, than an indulgent parent is to give food to a hungry child. And this
is the advantage of the prayer of faith, that it quiets and establishes the heart
in God.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
See this explained in the notes at Matthew 7:7-11.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
9-13. (See on [1634]Mt7:7-11.)
Matthew Poole's Commentary
See Poole on"Luke 11:10"
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,.... Our Lord illustrates
and confirms what he had said before by an instance common among men:
the relationbetweena father and a sonis natural, and it is very near; and it is
usual for a son, when hungry, and at the proper times of meals, to ask bread
of his father: and when he does,
will he give him a stone? should he do so, he would show that his heart was as
hard, or harder than the stone he gives:
or if he ask a fish, will he, for a fish, give him a serpent? And endeavour to
deceive him by the likeness of the one to the other, especiallysome sortof fish,
which would poisonor sting him, but not refreshand nourish him: such
inhuman brutish parents are not surely to be found; See Gill on Matthew 7:9,
Matthew 7:10.
Geneva Study Bible

If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?
or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
Luke 11:11-13. Comp. on Matthew 7:9-11. Still on the hearing of prayer, but
now in respectof the objectpetitioned for, which is introduced by the particle
δέ expressing transition from one subject to another.
The constructionhere also is an instance of anacoluthon(comp. on Luke
11:5), so that the sentence is continued by μὴ λίθον κ.τ.λ., as if instead of the
question a conditional protasis (as at Luke 11:12)had preceded.
τὸν πατέρα] Whom of you will his son ask as his father for a loaf?
ὁ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ δώσει] Attraction, instead of ὁ ἐν οὐρανῷ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ δώσει. See
on Luke 9:61, and Buttmann, Neut. Gr. p. 323 [E. T. 377].
πνεῦμα ἅγιον]this highest and best gift; a more definite, but a later form of
the tradition than that which is found in Matthew. Comp. the critical remarks
on Luke 11:2.
Expositor's Greek Testament
Luke 11:11. τίνα δὲ: δὲ introduces a new parabolic saying: which of you, as a
father, shall his sonask? etc. In the T.R. Lk. gives three examples of possible
requests—Mt.’s two:a loaf, and a fish, and a third, an egg. Cod. B omits the
first (W.H[103]put it on the margin).—ᾠόν, σκορπίον: in the two first
instances there is resemblance betweenthe thing askedand supposedto be
given: loaf and stone, fish and serpent; in Lk.’s third instance also, the
σκορπίος being a little round lobster-like animal, lurking in stone walls, with a

sting in its tail. The gift of things similar but so different would be cruel
mockeryof which almostno father would be capable. Hens were not known in
ancient Israel. Probably the Jews brought them from Babylon, after which
eggs wouldform part of ordinary food (Benziger, Heb. Arch., p. 94).
[103]Westcottand Hort.
Bengel's Gnomen
Luke 11:11. Τίνα—τὸνπατέρα)The article τὸν has in this passagea force less
definite: there is an Apposition [Of what man who is a father will his son ask
bread, etc.].—δὲ, but) There is a gradation (ascending climax) from a friend
to a parent: and yet in this case also there is added the How much more, in
Luke 11:13.—ἰχοὺν, a fish) viz. αἰτήσει, shall ask.—ἀντὶ ἰχθύος, fora fish) The
child might take (mistake) a serpent or snake for a fish.[106]
[106]So spiritually also, in estimating things.—ED. and TRANSL.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 11. - If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give
him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? The
Masterkeeps onadducing instances ofthe loving Fatherhoodof God. All the
while men were thinking hard things of him and his sovereignty. "Children,"
urged the Savior, "such things, such a cruel part as you would in your dark
sad thoughts ascribe to the loving heavenly Father, is simply unthinkable in
the case ofearthly parents. They never really turn a deafear to their
children's pleading; think you that your Fatherwhich is in heaven will refuse
to listen to you when you indeed call on him?"
Vincent's Word Studies
Of any of you (τίνα)

The A. V. renders as though the pronoun were indefinite; but it is
interrogative and commences the sentence. Rev., therefore, rightly, of which
of you that is a father, etc.
STUDYLIGHTRESOURCES
Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible
And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a
stone? or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask for an
egg, will give him a scorpion?
The teaching here is that carnalman will honor the request of his children,
and that it must be receivedthat God, whose loving righteousness is infinitely
beyond any loving-kindness of a mere earthly father, will, in a far greater
degree, respondto the just petitions of his spiritual children. The things
contrastedhere: loaf and stone, fish and serpent, egg and scorpion, are
superficially alike. "The scorpionis a small, poisonous, crab-like animal,
which, when at restis round like an egg."[18]Stones, serpents and scorpions
could by no means be acceptable as appropriate gifts in place of food; and the
teaching is that God will not reward the petitions of his children with useless
or dangerous things, but will supply what they truly need and desire.
ENDNOTE:

[18] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 752.
Copyright Statement
James Burton Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. All other rights reserved.
Bibliography
Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on Luke 11:11". "Coffman
Commentaries on the Old and New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/luke-11.html. Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.
Return to Jump List return to 'Jump List'
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,.... Our Lord illustrates
and confirms what he had said before by an instance common among men:
the relationbetweena father and a sonis natural, and it is very near; and it is
usual for a son, when hungry, and at the proper times of meals, to ask bread
of his father: and when he does,
will he give him a stone? should he do so, he would show that his heart was as
hard, or harder than the stone he gives:
or if he ask a fish, will he, for a fish, give him a serpent? And endeavour to
deceive him by the likeness of the one to the other, especiallysome sortof fish,
which would poisonor sting him, but not refreshand nourish him: such

inhuman brutish parents are not surely to be found; See Gill on Matthew 7:9,
Matthew 7:10.
Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernisedand adapted
for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved,
Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard
Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Bibliography
Gill, John. "Commentary on Luke 11:11". "The New JohnGill Exposition of
the Entire Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/luke-
11.html. 1999.
Robertson's WordPictures in the New Testament
Of which of you that is a father (τινα δε εχ υμων τον πατερα — tina de ex
humōn ton patera). There is a decided anacoluthonhere. The MSS. differ a
greatdeal. The text of Westcottand Hort makes τον πατερα — ton patera (the
father) in apposition with τινα — tina (of whom) and in the accusative the
objectof αιτησει — aitēsei(shall ask)which has also anotheraccusative (both
person and thing) “a loaf.” So far so good. But the rest of the sentence is, will
ye give him a stone? (μη λιτονεπιδωσει αυτωι — mē lithon epidōseiautōi̱).
Μη — Mē shows that the answerNo is expected, but the trouble is that the
interrogative τινα — tina in the first clause is in the accusative the objectof
αιτησει — aitēseiwhile here the same man (he) is the subject of επιδωσει —
epidōseiIt is a very awkwardpiece of Greek and yet it is intelligible. Some of
the old MSS. do not have the part about “loaf” and “stone,” but only the two

remaining parts about “fish” and “serpent,” “egg”and “scorpion.”The same
difficult constructionis carried over into these questions also.
Copyright Statement
The Robertson's WordPictures of the New Testament. Copyright �
Broadman Press 1932,33,Renewal1960. All rights reserved. Used by
permission of Broadman Press (Southern BaptistSunday SchoolBoard)
Bibliography
Robertson, A.T. "Commentary on Luke 11:11". "Robertson's WordPictures
of the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rwp/luke-11.html. Broadman
Press 1932,33. Renewal1960.
Vincent's Word Studies
Of any of you ( τίνα )
The A. V. renders as though the pronoun were indefinite; but it is
interrogative and commences the sentence. Rev., therefore, rightly, of which
of you that is a father, etc.
Copyright Statement
The text of this work is public domain.

Bibliography
Vincent, Marvin R. DD. "Commentaryon Luke 11:11". "Vincent's Word
Studies in the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/vnt/luke-11.html. Charles
Schribner's Sons. New York, USA. 1887.
The Fourfold Gospel
stone1? ora fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent2?
stone? See .
Or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent? See .
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website. These files
were made available by Mr. Ernie Stefanik. First published online in 1996 at
The RestorationMovementPages.
Bibliography
J. W. McGarveyand Philip Y. Pendleton. "Commentaryon Luke 11:11".
"The Fourfold Gospel".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tfg/luke-11.html. Standard
Publishing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. 1914.
John Trapp Complete Commentary

11 If a sonshall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a
stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
Ver. 11. For every one, &c.]Sozomensaith of Apollonius, that he never asked
anything of God that he obtained not. Hic homo potuit apud Deum quod
voluit, said one concerning Luther; he could have what he would of God.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Trapp, John. "Commentary on Luke 11:11". John Trapp Complete
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/luke-
11.html. 1865-1868.
Expository Notes with PracticalObservations onthe New Testament
The secondparable which our Saviour makes use of, is that of a father to his
children; Christ represents the care and kindness of God towards us by the
affections which earthly parents bear to their natural children, who though
they be many times evil themselves, yet are not wont to deny their children
necessarygoodthings, when they dutifully and decently beg them at their
hands: If ye being evil - how much more shall your heavenly Fathergive his
Holy Spirit; that is, the continual presence and influence of his Holy Spirit to

all the purposes of guidance and direction, of grace and assistance, ofcomfort
and support, in our Christian course.
Learn hence, that the presence and assistance ofGod's Holy Spirit, to enable
us to do what God requires, shall never be wanting to those that desire it, and
endeavorafter it. But we must always remember that the assistanceofGod's
Holy Spirit, though it be offered and tendered to us, yet it is not forced upon
us; for if we beg the Holy Spirit and his assistance, but refuse to make use of
it; or if we cry to him for his help to mortify our lusts, but do not put forth our
own endeavors;we forfeit the divine assistance, and Godwill certainly
withdraw his Holy Spirit from us.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Burkitt, William. "Commentary on Luke 11:11". ExpositoryNotes with
PracticalObservations onthe New Testament.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/wbc/luke-11.html. 1700-1703.
Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament
Luke 11:11. τίνα— τὸν πατέρα)The article τὸν has in this passagea force less
definite: there is an Apposition [Of what man who is a father will his son ask
bread, etc.].— δὲ, but) There is a gradation (ascending climax) from a friend
to a parent: and yet in this case also there is added the How much more, in

Luke 11:13.— ἰχοὺν, a fish) viz. αἰτήσει, shall ask.— ἀντὶ ἰχθύος, for a fish)
The child might take (mistake) a serpentor snake fora fish.(106)
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Bengel, JohannAlbrecht. "Commentary on Luke 11:11". Johann Albrecht
Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jab/luke-11.html. 1897.
Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
See Poole on"Luke 11:10"
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Poole, Matthew, "Commentaryon Luke 11:11". Matthew Poole's English
Annotations on the Holy Bible.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mpc/luke-11.html. 1685.

Cambridge Greek Testamentfor Schools andColleges
11. τὸν πατέρα. ‘Whom of you as a father?’
μὴ … ἐπιδώσει. The constructionis an anakoluthon, as though the sentence
had begun ‘If the son of any of you, &c.’ The word ἐπιδώσει means ‘Will he
go out of his way to give him?’—i.e. will he venture to give him? The son asks
for bread, fish, &c., and the father gives something which looks like the thing
askedfor but is useless andpernicious.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
"Commentary on Luke 11:11". "Cambridge Greek Testamentfor Schools
and Colleges".https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/cgt/luke-
11.html. 1896.
The Expositor's Greek Testament
Luke 11:11. τίνα δὲ: δὲ introduces a new parabolic saying: which of you, as a
father, shall his sonask? etc. In the T.R. Lk. gives three examples of possible
requests—Mt.’s two:a loaf, and a fish, and a third, an egg. Cod. B omits the
first (W.H(103)put it on the margin).— ᾠόν, σκορπίον:in the two first

instances there is resemblance betweenthe thing askedand supposedto be
given: loaf and stone, fish and serpent; in Lk.’s third instance also, the
σκορπίος being a little round lobster-like animal, lurking in stone walls, with a
sting in its tail. The gift of things similar but so different would be cruel
mockeryof which almostno father would be capable. Hens were not known in
ancient Israel. Probably the Jews brought them from Babylon, after which
eggs wouldform part of ordinary food (Benziger, Heb. Arch., p. 94).
STUDYLIGHT ON VERSE 12
Adam Clarke Commentary
Offer him a scorpion? - Σκορπιον . The Greek etymologists derive the name
from σκορπιζειντον ιον, scattering the poison. But is there any similitude
betweena scorpionand an egg, that the one might be given and taken in place
of the other? We know there is the utmost similitude betweensome fish,
especiallythose of the eel kind, and serpents: and that there are stones exactly
similar to bread in their appearance;from which we may conjecture that our
Lord intended to conveythe same idea of similitude betweenan egg and a
scorpion. Perhaps the word scorpionhere may be used for any kind of serpent
that proceeds from an egg, orthe word egg may be understood: the common
snake is oviparous; it brings forth a number of eggs, outof which the young
ones are hatched. If he asks anegg, will he, for one that might nourish him,
give him that of a serpent. But Bochartstates, that the body of a scorpionis
like to an egg, especiallyif it be a white scorpion;which sortNicander, Aelian,
Avicenna, and others, maintain to be the first species. Nordo scorpions differ
much in size from an egg in Judea, if we may credit what the monks of
Messua say, that there are about Jerusalem, and through all Syria, great
scorpions, etc. Hieroz. l. iv. cap. xxix. col. 641, edit. 1692. To this it may be
said, there may be such a similitude, betweena white scorpion and an egg, if
the legs and tail of the former be taken away;but how there can be a

resemblance any other way, I know not. It is, however, a fact, that the
alligatorand crocodile come from eggs;two of those lie now before me,
scarcelyso large as the egg of the goose, longer, but not so thick. Now, suppose
reference be made to one such egg, in which the young crocodile is hatched,
and is ready to burst from its enclosure, would any father give such an egg to
a hungry child? No. If the child askedan egg, he would not, instead of a
proper one, give him that of the crocodile or the alligator, in which the young
serpent was hatched, and from which it was just ready to be separated.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Luke 11:12". "The Adam Clarke
Commentary". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/luke-
11.html. 1832.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion.... Ofwhich there are
three sorts;some are terrestrial, or land scorpions, scorpionsofthe earth, a
kind of serpents, very venomous and mischievous, to whom the wickedJews
are compared, Ezekiel2:6 and the locusts in Revelation9:3 others are airy, or
flying scorpions, a sort of fowl; and others are sea scorpions;of the fish kind:
it is not easyto say which of them is here meant. There is an herb which is
called‫ןינברקע‬ F14, "the scorpion":it leaves are like unto a scorpion, as the
Jewishcommentators sayF15. This is observedwith the same view as the
former. By it may be meant here, either the fish that is so called, since a fish is
mentioned before;or rather, the land scorpion, which is of the serpentkind;

this brings forth little worms, in the form of eggs, asF16Pliny says:and it is
said, that a scorpion put into an empty eggshell, has beenused to be given to
persons, whose deathhas been desired; which it bursting from, at once strikes
and kills: but what father would do so to a child!
Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernisedand adapted
for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved,
Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard
Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Bibliography
Gill, John. "Commentary on Luke 11:12". "The New JohnGill Exposition of
the Entire Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/luke-
11.html. 1999.
The Fourfold Gospel
Or [if] he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion1?
Or [if] he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion? This verse is peculiar
to Luke. The scorpionis an insectsomewhatsimilar to a small lobster. It is
two or three inches long, and has a sting at the end of its tail which is about as
severe as that of a wasp. The old commentators tell us that the white scorpion,
when rolled up, closelyresembledan egg.
Copyright Statement

These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website. These files
were made available by Mr. Ernie Stefanik. First published online in 1996 at
The RestorationMovementPages.
Bibliography
J. W. McGarveyand Philip Y. Pendleton. "Commentaryon Luke 11:12".
"The Fourfold Gospel".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tfg/luke-11.html. Standard
Publishing Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. 1914.
John Trapp Complete Commentary
12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
Ver. 12. See Matthew 7:9-11.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography

Trapp, John. "Commentary on Luke 11:12". John Trapp Complete
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/luke-
11.html. 1865-1868.
Sermon Bible Commentary
Luke 11:12
Short devotions a hindrance to prayer.
I. Our Lord's nights of prayer were not simple exercisesofHis exceeding
spiritual strength; they were also the earnestcleaving of man to God. And if
the infirmities of a sinless being drew him so mightily to God, how much more
ought the sin that is in us to drive us to the Divine Presencefor healing and for
strength! The contrastof our weakness withHis perfection gives us no
discharge from His example; rather, it adds a greaterforce. It brings out a
further and deeperreasonwhich makes the law of prayer to us the very
condition of life. If we do not pray we perish. It is no answerto saywe are
weak and cannot continue in prayer as He. That very weakness is in itself the
necessitywhich forces us to pray.
II. Again, it is said, "It is impossible for those who live an active and busy life
to find time for long private devotions." From the tone in which some people
speak one would think that our blessedMasterhad lived a leisurely and
unimpeded life; that He had nothing else to do but to live alone in retirement
and solitude, in contemplationand prayer; and this of One whose whole life
was toil amid crowds and multitudes, hungry and wayworn, full of calls and
interruptions. It were rather true to say that no man's life was everyet so
broken in upon, and takenfrom him by labour and care, and the importunity

of others, as His; and yet He is to us the perfectExample of devotion. It was
the toil of the day that turned His night into a vigil. Alas for the man that is
too busy to pray! for he is too busy to be saved.
III. But once more. It may be said, "All this proves too much, for if it prove
anything it proves that we ought to give up our natural restand our night's
sleep, and to break the common habits of a regularlife in a way that health
and sound discretion would equally forbid." Is it not true that people who
would without a word, travel many nights togetherfor business or
amusement, would positively resent the notion of spending evena few hours of
Christmas or EasterEve in prayer and self-examination? However, it is
enough for the present purpose to say that whosoeverwould live a life of
prayer, must spend no small part of every day in praying.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 342.
We are not told the exacttime or the particular spot where this prayer was
made. Of the spot, we know only that it was a mountain; it must have been a
mountain near Capernaum. Twice we read of Jesus Christ going out into a
wilderness or solitary place to pray, and twice into a mountain.
I. It is clearthat the place was selectedas helpful. He could not do what He
has told us to do, for how could He, who never had a house, "go into His
closet, and shut the door"? Therefore He made the mountain His closet, and
the rocks shut the door about Him. And there was a grandeur and a fitness
when the Incarnate Creatorof this world found His secretplace in the
stillness of the fastnesses ofnature. It may not be given to us ever to find the
aid of these sublimities, but this is a goodrule—Choose forprayer whatever
most quiets and most raises the mind.

II. Of the time of Christ's prayer we only read that it was "in those days,"
those Capernaum days. But wheneverit was, it was on the eve of the election
of the Twelve. The eves of all events are solemn calls to prayer. How many
days would have been saved their bitter, bitter regrets, if there had been more
praying yesterdays. Life is full of eves. All life is an eve. Few greatevents have
no eve. And we cannot be too thankful to God for those hushes given us for
probation. The secretof a happy life—the secretof eternity—is a well-spent
eve.
III. Our blessedLord did not always pray the livelong night. The manner in
which the fact is mentioned here shows that it was quite exceptional, and He
had the Spirit without measure. The generalrule is, Pray according to the
condition of your heart. Do not let the prayer strain the thoughts, but let the
thoughts determine and regulate the prayer. Pray as you feel drawn in prayer,
or, in other words, as the Spirit of God in you leads and dictates. The great
thing is to have something really to sayto God. Whatever you do, do not pray
on for words' sake,orfor length's sake. Youhonour God in prayer by saying
and leaving, more than by saying and repeating. And be sure that you carry
into prayer the principle which you are to carry into conversation, and never
talk, either to man or to God Himself, above and beyond your real level.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1868, p. 101.
References:Luke 6:12.—W. H. Jellie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 196;
Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 798;Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 289, vol.
vi., p. 270;G. Salmon, Sermons in Trinity College, Dublin, p. 171. Luke 6:12,
Luke 6:13.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 129;Spurgeon, Evening by
Evening, p. 319. Luke 6:12-16.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p.
30. Luke 6:13.—ChristianWorld Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 344;H. P. Liddon, Ibid.,
vol. xxvi., p. 129. Luke 6:13-16.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. x., p. 223;Homilist,
4th series, vol. i., p. 88. Luke 6:13-17.—F.D. Maurice, The Gospelof the

Kingdom of Heaven, p. 97. Luke 6:15.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 639.
Luke 6:15, Luke 6:16.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. xii., p. 43. Luke 6:17-49.—A.
B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 41;F. D. Maurice, The Gospelof the
Kingdom of Heaven, p. 110.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Nicoll, William R. "Commentary on Luke 11:12". "SermonBible
Commentary". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/sbc/luke-
11.html.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible
Luke 11:12. If he shall ask an egg,— Naturalists tellus, that the body of a
scorpionis very like an egg, especiallyif the scorpionbe of the white kind,
which is the first species mentionedby AElian and others. Bocharthas
produced testimonies to prove, that the scorpions were about the bigness of an
egg;and therefore, in Judea a white scorpion, nearly resembling an egg,
might, to children, who were not capable of distinguishing the one from the
other, be offered in the place thereof, if the person so doing meant that it
should sting them to death. The author of the Observations informs us, that
St. Jerome reckons wine, fish, and eggs, togetherwith honey, in his catalogue
of delicacies:so that possibly, on being told that the disciples gave our Lord a
piece of a broiled fish, and of an honey-comb, Ch. Luke 24:42 we, who have
been ready to look upon it as a strange associationofdishes, (if understood of
a proper honeycomb, and not of a sort of bread,) have suffered this surprize

from not entering into the views of the disciples;they probably not attending
to Milton's order,
——— So contrived, as not to mix Tastes notwell joined, inelegant, and bring
Taste aftertaste, upheld by kindliest change;but only designing to express
their greatveneration for their Master, by setting before him the most
grateful things in their power, and leaving it to him to eatof which he pleased.
I am not sure that there was no view, in like manner, to the delicacyof eggs in
the passage before us, where our Lord is speaking of fish and eggs. Onthe
contrary, perhaps it may add to the beauty of the passage, ifwe understand it
as signifying, that, if a child should ask an earthly parent for bread, a
necessaryof life, he will not deny him what is requisite for his support, putting
him off with a stone; and if he should ask him for a sort of food of a more
delicious kind, a fish, or an egg, he will not, we may assure ourselves, give his
child what is hurtful, a serpent or a scorpion. If sinful men then will give good
gifts to their children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the
necessarygifts of his Spirit to them that supplicate for them?—not giving up
to hurtful illusions, those who affectionatelypray for the hallowing of his
name, and the coming of his kingdom, Luke 11:2. But, whatevermight be the
view of our Lord, it is certain that St. Jerome was right in putting eggs into his
list of Easterndelicacies;for nothing is more common than to meet with eggs
in modern entertainments there, when they would treat persons in the most
respectfulmanner. So Dr. Pocock describesa very grand morning collation,
given in Egypt to a person of distinction, as consisting ofthe best sort of
bread, with butter, fried eggs, honey, greensaltedcheese, olives, andseveral
other small things. He mentions also eggs very often in the accounts that he
gives of the entertainments made for him by the Sheiks in the Holy Land:
agreeablyto which, M. D'Arvieux tells us, that a supper prepared by the
peasants ofa village near Mount Carmelfor him and for their governor, and
attended with all the marks of respectwhich they were capable of expressing,
consistedof wine, fried fish, eggs, andsome other things. It must be the
reputed delicacyof eggs also, one would imagine, that occasions them so
frequently to be sent to persons of figure for presents in those countries;fifty

eggs being sent at one time to the Englishconsul, whom Bishop Pocock
attended to Cairo, and a hundred at another. See Observations, p. 168.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
Luke 11:11 "Now suppose one of you fathers is askedby his son for a fish; he
will not give him a snake insteadof a fish, will he?
KJV Luke 11:11 If a sonshall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he
give him a stone? orif he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
(Dark blue not in most modern manuscripts, but in the Textus Receptus used
for translating the KJV).
one of you fathers is askedby his sonfor a fish Isa 49:15; Mt 7:9
Luke 11 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Luke 11:11-13 God's Generous Responseto Boldness in Prayer - John
MacArthur
Matthew's version
“Or what man is there among you who, when his sonasks for a loaf, will give
him a stone? “Orif he asks fora fish, he will not give him a snake, willhe?
(Mt 7:9-10)

Luke 11:11-13 invokes a lesser(giving by earthly fathers to their sons when
they ask)to a greater(giving by our heavenly father when we ask)argument.
Since Lk 11:11-12 are true for earthly fathers, how much more true for our
heavenly Father.
Brian Bell says "Now, I do have one friend who put his glass eye in his son’s
cerealbowl!" No father is going to give a small child a sharp knife or a loaded
gun, no matter how much the child begs. No mother is going to give her pre-
teen the keys to the car for a joyride, or her toddler freedom to pay in the
medicine cabinet. Thus, Godwill not put some things in our hands, until he
1stprepares our hearts. Our heavenly Father knows how to give far better
than we know how to ask!We might think, “I askedGodfor something, & He
did not give it to me.” We should rather say, “I wanted something I did not
need, so my Fatherknew best not to give it to me.” (Luke:11:5-13 Someone’s
Knocking at the Door)
Now suppose one of you fathers is askedby his sonfor a fish - Children
naturally ask their fathers for what they need (and in America too often more
than they need). And why do they ask? Theyknow their fathers love them,
having experiencedtheir care in many ways. And so they have confidence to
petition their papa's!
He will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? - Clearly the answeris
"No!" No father would give his son something that would at best mock his
request or at worst would even harm him.
MacArthur - The obvious answerto Christ’s questions is no, because ofthe
principle that fathers take care of their children and meet their needs.
Knowing their heavenly Father’s care for them and commitment to meet their

needs, believers can confidently ask Him for all that they need. Unlike the
false gods of pagan religions, Godis loving, approachable, and generous.
(MacArthur New TestamentCommentary)
If your child asks for a stone or a snake, will you give it to him? No, no matter
how much he begs. Children often ask for foolishthings, which are withheld.
The same is true with our heavenly Father. As ignorant, willful children we
often ask for things that to us seemlike fish or bread but which God knows
will have the effect (figuratively of course)of a stone or a snake in our lives.
Our Heavenly Father says no, not because He hates us but because he loves
us. God's "No" is a sure signof His wisdom and His love for us. If a five-year-
old asks to play with a sharp knife, most reasonable fathers would respond
with a definitive "No" and even let him cry and pout. His tears only show his
immaturity. And frankly, if the father does give him the knife, it shows he
doesn't really love him at all. In the same way, as God's children, believers
often ask for things that might bring us harm, including even things we think
are good, like a new job, a better salary, a new house, etc. But God Who Alone
knows the beginning from the end, sees throughto the end and knows that
what we have askedforwould harm us more than help us. So in His
omniscient, loving wisdom He says "No".
Spurgeon - The point is, not only that God gives, but that He knows how to
give. If He were always to give according to our prayers, it might be very
injurious to us. He might give us that with which we could do hurt, as when a
father should put a stone into a boy's hand; or he might give us that which
might do us hurt, as if a father were to give his child a serpent. He will do
neither of these things; but He will answerus in discretion, and with prudence
will He fulfill our desires. You know how to give to your children; How much
more shall your infinitely-wise Father, Who from heaven sees allthe
surroundings of men, give goodthings to them that ask Him?
J R Miller - GoodThings from God - No father will answerhis hungry child's
cry for bread with a stone, or give the child a serpent if he asks for a fish.

JESUS TEACHES THE LORD'S PRAYER

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