Daily Early Prayer

Jun 06, 2016
William Law

I take it for granted that every Christian that is in health is up early in the morning, for it is much more reasonable to suppose a person up early because he is a Christian than because he is a labourer, or a tradesman, or a servant, or has business that wants him.
We naturally conceive some abhorrence of a man that is in bed when he should be at his labour or in his shop. We cannot tell how to think anything good of him who is such a slave to drowsiness as to neglect his business for it.
Let this, therefore, teach us to conceive how odious we must appear in the sight of heaven if we are in bed, shut up in sleep and darkness, when we should be praising God, and are such slaves to drowsiness as to neglect our devotions for it.
For if he is to be blamed as a slothful drone that rather chooses the lazy indulgence of sleep than to perform his proper share of worldly business, how much is he to be reproached that had rather lie folded up in a bed than be raising up his heart to God in acts of praise and adoration?

Romans 13.11: And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Proverbs 26.14: As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.
Prayer is the nearest approach to God, and the highest enjoyment of Him that we are capable of in this life.
It is the noblest exercise of the soul, the most exalted use of our best faculties, and the highest imitation of the blessed inhabitants of heaven.
When our hearts are full of God, sending up holy desires to the throne of grace, we are then in our highest state, we are upon the utmost heights of human greatness; we are not before kings and princes, but in the presence and audience of the Lord of all the world, and can be no higher till death is swallowed up in glory.
On the other hand, sleep is the poorest, dullest refreshment of the body, that is so far from being intended as an enjoyment that we are forced to receive it either in a state of insensibility, or in the folly of dreams.
Sleep is such a dull, stupid state of existence that even amongst mere animals we despise them most which are most drowsy. He, therefore, that chooses to enlarge the slothful indulgence of sleep rather than be early at his devotions to God chooses the dullest refreshment of the body before the highest, noblest employment of the soul; he chooses that state which is a reproach to mere animals rather than that exercise which is the glory of angels. You will perhaps say, though you rise late, yet you are always careful of your devotions when you are up.
It may be so; but what then? Is it well done of you to rise late because you pray when you are up? Is it pardonable to waste great part of the day in bed because some time after you say your prayers?
It is as much your duty to rise to pray as to pray when you are risen. And if you are late at your prayers, you offer to God the prayers of an idle, slothful worshipper, that rises to prayers as idle servants rise to their labour.

Colossians 3.5: Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Now he that turns sleep into an idle indulgence does as much to corrupt and disorder his soul, to make it a slave to bodily appetites, and keep it incapable of all devout and heavenly tempers as he that turns the necessities of eating into a course of indulgence.
A person that eats and drinks too much does not feel such effects from it as those do who live in notorious instances of gluttony and intemperance; but yet his course of indulgence, though it be not scandalous in the eyes of the world, nor such as torments his own conscience, is a great and constant hinderance to his improvement in virtue; it gives him “ eyes that see not,” and “ ears that hear not”; it creates a sensuality, increases the power of bodily passions, and makes him incapable of entering into the true spirit of religion.
Now this is the case of those who waste their time in sleep; it does not disorder their lives, or wound their consciences, as notorious acts of intemperance do; but, like any other more moderate course of indulgence, it silently, and by smaller degrees, wears away the spirit, and sinks the soul into a state of dulness and sensuality.
If you consider devotion only as a time of so much prayer, you may perhaps perform it, though you live in this daily indulgence; but if you consider it as a state of the heart, as a lively fervour of the soul, that is deeply affected with a sense of its own misery and infirmities, and desiring the spirit of God more than all things in the world, you will find that the spirit of indulgence, and the spirit of prayer cannot subsist together. Mortification of all kinds is the very life and soul of piety; but he that has not so small a degree of it, as to be able to be early at his prayers, can have no reason to think that he has taken up his cross, and is following Christ.

What conquest has he got over himself? what right hand has he cut off? what trials is he prepared for? what sacrifice is he ready to offer unto God, who cannot be so cruel to himself as to rise to pray at such a time as the drudging part of the world are content to rise to their labour?
You must not, therefore, consider how small a crime it is to rise late, but you must consider how great a misery it is to want the spirit, to have a heart not rightly affected with prayer; and to live in such softness and idleness, as makes you incapable of the most fundamental duties of a truly Christian and spiritual life.
This is the right way of judging of the crime of wasting great part of your time in bed.
If our blessed Lord used to pray early before day; if He spent whole nights in prayer; if the devout Anna was day and night in the temple; if St. Paul and Silas at midnight sang praises unto God; is it not certain that these practices showed the state of their hearts? Are they not so many plain proofs of the whole turn of their minds?
And if you live in a contrary state, wasting great part of every day in sleep, thinking any time soon enough to be at your prayers, is it not equally certain that this practice as much shows the state of your heart?
So that, if this indulgence is your way of life, you have as much reason to believe yourself destitute of the true spirit of devotion, as you have to believe the Apostles and were truly devout. For as their way of life was a demonstration of their devotion so a contrary way of life is as strong a proof of a want of devotion.
When you read the Scriptures, you see a life, and spirit, and joy in God; that supposes our souls risen from earthly desires and bodily indulgences to prepare for another body, another world, and other enjoyments. You see Christians represented as temples of the Holy Ghost, as children of the day, as candidates for an eternal crown, as watchful virgins that have their lamps always burning in expectation of the Bridegroom. But can he be thought to have this joy in God, this care of eternity, this watchful spirit, who has not zeal enough to rise to his prayers?
But how far are you from this way of life, or rather how contrary to it, if, instead of imitating their austerity and mortification, you cannot so much as renounce so poor an indulgence as to be able to rise to your prayers? where must we hide our heads that have slumbered away our time in sloth and softness?
Ephesians 5.14: Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Psalm 100.4: Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5: For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Hoping, therefore, that you are now enough convinced of the necessity of rising early to your prayers, I shall proceed to lay before you a method of daily prayer.
The first thing that you are to do when you are upon your knees is to shut your eyes, and, with a short silence, let your soul place itself in the presence of God; that is, you are to use this or some other better method to separate yourself from all common thoughts, and make your hearts as sensible as you can of the living presence.
Now if this recollection of spirit is necessary, as who can say it is not? then how poorly must they perform their devotions who are always in a hurry, who begin them in haste, and hardly allow themselves time with any gravity or attention? Theirs is properly saying prayers, instead of praying.
When you begin your petitions, use such various expressions of attributes of God as may make you most sensible of the greatness and power of the divine nature.
Begin, therefore, in words like these: “O Being of all beings, Fountain of all light and glory, gracious Father of men and angels, Whose universal Spirit is everywhere present, giving life and light and joy to all angels in heaven and all creatures upon earth,” etc.
For these representations of the divine attributes, which show us in some degree the majesty and greatness of God, are an excellent means of raising our hearts into lively acts of worship and adoration.
What is the reason that most people are so much affected with this petition in the burial service: “Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into eternal death”? It is because the joining together so many great expressions gives such a description of the greatness of the Divine Majesty as naturally affects every sensible mind.
Although, therefore, prayer does not consist in fine words or studied expressions, yet as words speak to the soul, as they have a certain power of raising thoughts in the soul, so those words which speak of God in the highest manner, which most fully express the power and presence of God, which raise thoughts in the soul most suitable to the greatness and providence of God, are the most useful, and most edifying in our prayers.

Again, if you ask any particular grace of our blessed Lord, let it be in some manner like this:
“O Holy Jesus, Son of the most high God, Thou that wert scourged at a pillar, stretched and nailed upon a cross for the sins of the world, unite me to Thy cross, and fill my soul with Thy holy, humble, and suffering spirit. O Fountain of Mercy, Thou that didst save the thief upon the cross, save me from the guilt of a sinful life; Thou that didst cast seven devils out of Mary Magdalene, cast out of my heart all evil thoughts and wicked tempers. O Giver of Life, Thou that didst raise Lazarus from the dead, raise up my soul from the death and darkness of sin. Thou that didst appear unto Thy disciples when the doors were shut, do Thou appear to me in the secret apartment of my heart. Thou that didst cleanse the lepers, heal the sick, and give sight to the blind, cleanse my heart, heal the disorders of my soul, and fill me with heavenly light.”
Now these appeals have a double advantage: First, As they are so many proper acts of our faith, whereby we not only show our belief of the miracles of Christ, but turn them at the same time into so many instances of worship and adoration.
Secondly, As they strengthen and increase the faith of our prayers, by presenting to our mind so many instances of that power and goodness, which we call upon for our own assistance.
For he that appeals to Christ, as casting out devils and raising the dead, has then a powerful motive in his mind to pray earnestly and depend faithfully upon His assistance.
When at any time, in reading the Scripture, you meet with a passage that more than ordinarily affects our mind, and seems, as it were, to give your heart a new notion towards God, you should try to turn it into the form of a petition, and then give it a place in your prayers.
by this means you would be often improving your prayers, and storing yourself with proper forms of making the desires of your heart known unto God.
Luke 18.1: And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

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