Page:Prayerbookforrel00lasa 0.djvu/67

 our prayer  will  be  purely  mental;  in  the  second,  in  which we employ  a  set  form  of  words,  it  will  be  vocal  prayer;  in the  third  case,  where  the  prayer  is  chiefly  in  thought, but these  thoughts  are  allowed  to  break  forth  into  words in any  way  that  at  the  moment  seem  best  to  express  the feelings of  the  soul,  it  is  a  mixture  of  mental  and  vocal prayer, but  as  the  words  are  spontaneous  and  not  in  any prescribed form,  it  may  justly  be  considered  as  mental prayer.

In an  audience  with  the  Pope,  we  might  read  a  written address to  his  Holiness,  or  we  might  trust  to  the  words that might  occur  at  the  moment,  to  express  what  we  desired to  convey  to  his  mind. But if  God  were  to  enable the Pope  to  read  the  thoughts  of  our  mind,  we  might then simply  stand  silent  in  his  presence,  and  he  would see all  that  we  wanted  to  express. The formal  address would be  vocal  prayer,  the  silent  standing  before  his throne would  be  purely  mental  prayer,  the  conversation with  unprepared  words  would  be  a  mixture  of  the two, and  might  be  called  mental  prayer  in  a  more  general and  extended  sense. God knows  our  secret  thoughts more clearly  than  we  can  express  them,  more  certainly than we  ourselves  can  know  them,  and  words  therefore are not  necessary  in  our  intercourse  with  Him,  though often a  considerable  help  to  us.

A set  form  of  words  spoken,  or  read,  can  not  be  called prayer at  all,  unless  the  mind  intends  it  as  prayer,  and gives some  kind  of  spiritual  attention,  either  to  the  actual sense of  the  words  themselves,  or  to  God  Himself  while they are  being  uttered. Shakespeare spoke  as  a  theologian when,  in  Hamlet,  he  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  king, who asked  for  pardon  without  repentance:

My words  go  up,  my  thoughts  remain  below, Words without  thoughts  never  to  heaven  go.

God condemned  the  merely  material  homage  of  the Jews by  declaring,  "This  people  honoreth  Me  with  their