In the Christian sense, prayer is any voluntary expression of communion with God, whether formal or informal, brief or prolonged, individual or collective. Adoration, thanksgiving, confes sion. intercession, are all joined with petition in Christian prayer. It is fundamental that the praying Christian must be perfectly submitted to the will of God and desirous of finding more completely what is its application to his own conduct and affairs. His petitions may then embrace the supply of all his wants. physical and spiritual; and he may be sure that he will he heard and answered as God's infinite wisdom shall see best for him and all concerned in his \NT] fare.
Prayer being regarded by Christians as an ordinance of God, it follows that they must seek to be guided in prayer by the rules of Ills revealed will, in so far as His will has been revealed. It is therefore held by Christians in general, in accordance with their doctrine of the atonement (q.v.) and of the intercession of Jesus Christ (see INTERCESSION, DOCTRINE OF), that the only true way of access to God is through the media tion of Jesus Christ, and that prayer must be made in the exercise of faith in Him, the wor shiper taking his stand upon the ground of the obedience or "finished work and accepted sacri fice" of Christ, and looking up to Christ as now interceding iii heaven. It is also held. in accord
ance with the doctrine of man's corruption. that prayer can he truly made. in faith, and for things agreeable to God's will, only by the help of the Holy Spirit.
The best, discussions of prayer from the Chris tian standpoint will be found in the treatises on systematic theology and apologetics. The fol lowing works may also be consulted: Bicker steth, A Treatise on Prayer (18th ed., London. 1853) ; Liddon, Rome ElemeiLs of Religion (Lon don. 1873) ; Clarke. The Christian Doctrine of Prayer (Boston. 1874) ; Monrad, The World of Prayer (Eng. trans.. Edinburgh, 1879). For modern objections to prayer, consult: Tyndall, On Prayer (New York, 1874) ; Romanes, Christian Prayer and General Law (London, 1874).