The Second Musings of an Old Imperfect Christian

By Alec Hall

The Musings is mainly a precis of an old wonderful book on the Lord's Prayer written many years ago by Dr. F. W. Farrar plus a few 'musings'.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Aug 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665591973

Alec Hall

Alec’s working life has been mainly in Retail Banking then teaching bankers in a College and finally becoming Deputy Head of Business and Management for about nine years. He is now 89 years old and has led an Over 60s Friendship Club for nearly 25 years for the Salvation Army. He has been married to Diane for 24 years and they have six children between them and loads of grandchildren and one great grandchild who are all lovely.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

WORSHIP

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We are told that one of the greatest definitions of ‘worship’ ever laid down was given by William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 1940s. He said:

To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.

I hope William Temple, who died in 1944, would forgive me, but I would like to add some thoughts.

To quicken the conscience by the holiness of God: confession.

To feed the mind with the truth of God: enlightenment.

To purge the imagination by the beauty of God: adoration and thanksgiving.

To open the heart to the love of God: accepting His love.

To devote the will to the purpose of God: action.

And I might change the order a little.

For adoration and thanksgiving: ‘O Worship the King’, by Robert Grant.

For confession: ‘Saviour, If My Feet Have Faltered’, by Albert Orsborn.

For enlightenment, ‘Break Thou the Bread of Life’, by Mary Lathbury.

For love, ‘O to be like Thee! Blessed Redeemer’, by Thomas Chisholm.

For action, ‘What Can I Do to Justify My Living’, by Miriam Richards.

It is obvious to use Holy Scripture in our devotions, but many, I find, also like to use the hymnal or songbook, where great and perhaps lesser-known poets express just how we feel.

CHAPTER 2

THE LORD’S PRAYER

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This chapter is mainly based on The Lord’s Prayer by F. W. Farrar, DD, FRS, a book of sermons preached in Westminster Abbey, except for a couple at the end of the nineteenth century. BiblioLife have recently republished this book and many others to protect, preserve, and promote the world’s literature. F.W.F. (to describe him briefly) had no intention to publish his sermons, which were taken down in shorthand and lack some element of accuracy, but he was persuaded to allow their publication. I, for one, am so glad, as the book contains spiritual guidance which, I am sure, will help many.

The original was about three hundred pages, so this just a flavour of the challenging commentary and deep significance of Jesus’ prayer. There is also a little of me in the text—not much, though!

The disciples, after the experience of John the Baptist, asked Jesus to teach them to pray. F.W.F. says, ‘A Christian who does not pray is a dead Christian.’ That is why, he continues,

we see so much evil, so many disordered, so many absolutely depraved lives; that is the reason why the world is so full of misery and wickedness and the church so full of pettiness and malice …. Prayer needs no ceremonies. The whole function is simply this; a child, a wandering child, comes to its Father and pleads for grace and pity, for forgiveness and for help.

The most effectual prayers are the briefest: ‘God be merciful to me the sinner!’ and ‘Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?’ and ‘Lord, receive my spirit.’

Satan trembles when he sees not only the weakest saint but even the vilest sinner on his knees.

I heard someone say, ‘We do not pray to move God to do something. We pray that God will move us.’

Our Father Which Art in Heaven

‘Our Father which art in Heaven’—oh, how often these words are gabbled without the deepest meaning or desire. F.W.F. says, ‘My friends, I doubt whether the greatest and most learned of us has mastered so much as a fragment of what we may learn from it.’ We are praying to the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and we are as dust.

When Jesus taught us to pray, He used the phrase ‘Our Father’. He never used that phrase Himself. He spoke of God as the Father or your Father or my Father simply because He is the only Son of God. The significance of ‘Our Father’ is to include everyone. There are those who hate you without a cause; there are those who slander or undermine you. There are those who are wrongdoers who make the life of men most miserable. You cannot speak for yourself without also speaking for them. ‘Our Father’ is a plea for the universal brotherhood of all men.

Hallowed Be Thy Name

F.W.F. says that we would selfishly and naturally put this prayer somewhere at the end, because we are so selfish. Jesus, however, says, ‘You are not to live for yourselves, your chief aim is to glorify God.’

The imperfect patriarch, using poor bargaining, says, ‘If thou wilt give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, then shall the Lord be my God.’ The imperfect Muslim says, ‘Oh, Allah, give