elements of prayer, acknowledgment of God’s mercy, self-dedication and prayer for future blessing.
To this may perhaps be added the threefold blessing of (Numbers 6:24-26) couched as it is in a
precatory form, and the short prayer of Moses, (Numbers 10:35,36) at the moving and resting of
the cloud the former of which was the germ of the 68th Psalm. But of the prayers recorded in the
Old Testament the two most remarkable are those of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, ( 1
Kings 8:23-58) and of Joshua the high priest, and his colleagues, after the captivity. (Nehemiah
9:5-38) It appears from the question of the disciples in (Luke 11:1) and from Jewish tradition, that
the chief teachers of the day gave special forms of prayer to their disciples as the badge of their
discipleship and the best fruits of their learning. All Christian prayer is, of course, based on the
Lord’s Prayer; but its spirit is also guided by that of his prayer in Gethsemane and of the prayer
recorded by St. John, (John 17:1) ... the beginning of Christ’s great work of intercession. The
influence of these prayers is more distinctly traced in the prayers contained in the epistles, see
(Romans 16:25-27; Ephesians 3:14-21; Philemon 1:3-11; Colossians 1:9-15; Hebrews 13:20,21;
1 Peter 5:10,11) etc., than in those recorded in the Acts. The public prayer probably in the first
instance took much of its form and style from the prayers of the synagogues. In the record on
prayer accepted and granted by God, we observe, as always, a special adaptation to the period of
his dispensation to which they belong. In the patriarchal period, they have the simple and childlike
tone of domestic application for the ordinary and apparently trivial incidents of domestic life. In
the Mosaic period they assume a more solemn tone and a national bearing, chiefly that of direct
intercession for the chosen people. More rarely are they for individuals. A special class are those
which precede and refer to the exercise of miraculous power. In the New Testament they have a
more directly spiritual hearing. It would seem the intention of Holy Scripture to encourage all
prayer more especially intercession, in all relations and for all righteous objects.
Presents
[Gift]
President
(sarac or sareca, only used (Daniel 6:1) ... the Chaldee equivalent for Hebrew shter, probably
from sara, Zend. a “head”), a high officer in the Persian court, a chief, a president, used of the three
highest ministers.
Priest
The English word is derived from the Greek presbyter, signifying an “elder” (Heb. cohen).
Origin.—The idea of a priesthood connects itself in all its forms, pure or corrupted, with the
consciousness, more or less distinct of sin. Men feel that they have broken a law. The power above
them is holier than they are, and they dare not approach it. They crave for the intervention of some
one of whom they can think as likely to be more acceptable than themselves. He must offer up their
prayers, thanksgivings, sacrifices. He becomes their representative in “things pertaining unto God.”
He may become also (though this does not always follow) the representative of God to man. The
functions of the priest and prophet may exist in the same person. No trace of a hereditary or caste
priesthood meets us in the worship of the patriarchal age. Once and once only does the word cohen
meet us as belonging to a ritual earlier than the time of Abraham. Melchizedek is “the priest of the
most high God.” (Genesis 14:18) In the worship of the patriarchs themselves, the chief of the family,
as such, acted as the priest. The office descended with the birthright, and might apparently he
transferred with it. When established.—The priesthood was first established in the family of Aaron,
and all the sons of Aaron were priests. They stood between the high priest on the one hand and the
frankie
(Frankie)
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