Lectures to my students - Charles Spurgeon - V - Chapter 4 (Our public prayer)

Required reading
Lectures to my students by Charles Spurgeon (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 4 (Our public prayer).

My summary
Now Spurgeon speaks about the public prayer life of the pastor.

Spurgeon teaches us that:
(i) free prayer is the most Scriptural and should be the most excellent form of public supplication;
(ii) it is ours to prove the superiority of extempore prayer by making it more spiritual and earnest than liturgical devotion;
(iii) our prayers must never grovel, they must soar and mount;
(iv) we should let the Lord alone be the object of our prayers;
(v) we should avoid all vulgarities in prayer;
(vi) we should avoid unhallowed and sickening superabundance of endearing words;
(vii) we should avoid that kind of prayer which may be called a sort of peremptory demanding of God;
(viii) we should pray when we profess to pray, and don't talk about it;
(ix) we should conduct the prayer ourselves;
(x) prayer must be a matter of the heart;
(xi) our prayers must be appropriate;
(xii) we should not let our prayer be long;
(xiii) we should not use cant phrases;
(xiv) we should vary the length of our public prayers;
(xv) we should vary the current of our prayers in intercession;
(xvi) we should keep from all attempts to work up spurious fervour in public devotion;
(xvii) we should prepare our prayer.

What grabbed me
Spurgeon makes an excellent point about the importance of the pastor's intercessory prayer: 'As a rule, if called upon to preach, conduct the prayer yourself; and if you should be highly esteemed in the ministry, as I trust you may be, make a point, with great courtesy, but equal firmness, to resist the practice of choosing men to pray with the idea of honoring them by giving them something to do. Our public devotions ought never to be degraded into opportunities for compliment. I have heard prayer and singing now and then called “the preliminary services,” as if they were but a preface to the sermon; this is rare I hope among us— if it were common it would be to our deep disgrace. I endeavor invariably to take all the service myself for my own sake, and I think also for the people’s. I do not believe that “anybody will do for the praying.” No, sirs, it is my solemn conviction that the prayer is one of the most weighty, useful, and honorable parts of the service, and that it ought to be even more considered than the sermon. '

Prayer is not a warm up act for the sermon!

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 5 (Sermons - their matter).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.