20. Prayer as Divine Service and Sacrifice

Prayer ought to be both Divine Service and Sacrifice. According to St. John’s account of it, it is an incense whose sweet-smelling savor ascends to God; therefore the angel in the book of Revelation held a censer, in which was the incense of the prayers of the saints. Revelation 8:3.

Prayer is the pouring out of the heart in the presence of God. Thus Samuel’s mother said, “I have poured out my heart in the presence of the Lord.” 1 Samuel 1:15. Therefore the prayer which the Royal Magi poured forth at the feet of the child Jesus in the stable of Bethlehem, was signified by the incense which they offered. Prayer is nothing other than a warmth of love which, as it melts and dissolves the soul, causes it to ascend even to God as it melts, it gives forth its sweet aroma, and this aroma comes from the love that burns in it.

This is what the bride means when she says, “While my beloved was on his couch, my spikenard sent forth the fragrance thereof.” Song of Solomon 1:12. The couch is the ground or center of the soul. While God is there and one knows how to dwell with Him and keep in His presence, this presence gradually melts and dissolves the hardness of the soul; as it is melted it sends forth its aroma. Therefore the Beloved, seeing that “his bride was thus melted as soon as he had spoken,” (Song of Solomon 5:6), said to her, “Who is this that ascends out of the wilderness as a little cloud of perfume?” Chapter 3:6.

Thus does the soul ascend to her God. But to this end it must suffer its own self-will to be destroyed by the power of divine love. This is a state of sacrifice essential to the Christian religion, wherein the soul permits the destruction of its own will, that thereby it may render true homage to the sovereignty of God. As it is written, “God alone is great, and He is honored only by the humble.” Ecclesiasticus 3:20. We must cease to live in ourselves, that the mind of the Word may live in us. We must yield our life to Him and die to ourselves so that He Himself may live in us: so that our own will (or the life of self) being “dead, our life may be hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3. This is the true adoration which gives all “honor, glory, and power, to God and our Redeemer for ever and ever.”

This is the prayer of truth; this “to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23. In spirit, because we are thereby drawn from our human and carnal manner of prayer, to enter into the purity of the Spirit, who prays in us. And in truth, because the soul is thereby placed into the truth of the “All” of God, and of the “Nothing” of the creature.

There are only these two truths: the All and the Nothing; everything else is a counterfeit. We cannot honor God’s All but by our own nothingness; and we are no sooner emptied of ourselves, than God, who allows nothing to remain void, replenishes us with Himself.

O did we know the infinite good which accrues to the soul from this prayer, we would scarce do anything else! This is “the pearl of great price;” this is “the hidden treasure.” Matthew 13:44-46. He that finds it, cheerfully sells all that he has to purchase it. This is “the river of living water, rising up into eternal life.” John 4:14. This is to worship God in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23. And this is to practice the purest precepts of the Gospel.

Does not Jesus Christ assure us that the kingdom of God is within us? Luke 17:21. This kingdom is understood in two ways. One is when God is so much a master of us that we no longer resist Him; then our inward life is truly His kingdom. The other is when, possessing God, who is the sovereign good, we possess the kingdom of God which is the height of well-being and the end for which we were created; according to the proverb, as it is said, “To serve God is to reign.” The end for which we were created is to enjoy God, even in this life; yet alas, how few think about this.