Meditations on The Lord's Prayer

How different must prayer have been in Eden from what it is now on earth! Happy in intimate communion with his God, deriving life from its source, and breathing into the bosom of his heavenly Father the feelings of his heart, man “ prayed without ceasing;” to him to live was to pray, and to pray was to live. But, alas! how far otherwise has it been, since sin separated between man and his God, and rendered the Creator a stranger to his creature! Since that time, some have lived altogether without prayer; they have neither known God nor desired to pray to him; others have repeated a set of phrases to accomplish what they felt to be a slavish and burdensome task; and if there have been some who have learned to pray in the school of Jesus Christ, ah! how forcibly do their prayers, yea even their most. fervent prayers, admonish us of our fall and of our deep degradation! Hear those chosen servants of the Lord?