The Reason for This Book"After this manner therefore pray ye" (Matthew 6:9)
SHALL I PRAY aloud or silently? Must I always kneel when I talk to GOD? Is it reverent to pray at odd moments? How should I begin a prayer?
These and a hundred other questions clamored for answers when I, at twenty-seven years of age, accepted CHRIST as my Saviour and began really to pray.
True, I had repeated prayers as a child, couplets which I had been taught; and in times of stress I had cried, "GOD, if there is a GOD, prove Thyself by helping me out of this trouble!"
Both are forms of prayer, the same as drinking from a bottle is eating to a baby; but they did not satisfy the one eager to know the Lord.
I read many excellent books which inspired me and encouraged me to pray, but they did not answer my simple questions about the ABC's of praying.
Nor, as I learned later, was I the only one with childlike questions about prayer. As I taught in the church Bible school and as I sought to win others to my Lord, questions similar to and simpler than mine were raised. I could and did tell my own experiences in answer, but I longed for a simple book which I might place in their hands.
I have written this book, therefore, for the young Christian of any age who wants practical answers to the what, when, and how of prayer.