Matthew 6:6

Matthew 6:6

I. By the word "closet" our Saviour is understood to convey an allusion to the room in the ancient Jewish dwelling which was set apart for the office of lonely prayer. Yet as

"Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage,"

for the soul, neither are they, nor any material boundaries answering to them, essential to make the soul's closet of devotion. Even the Jew who lived in the dullest age of ceremony felt this. "The angel said unto me," writes Esdras, "Go into a field of flowers where no house is builded, and pray unto the Highest continually" (2 Esther 9:24 Esther 9:24). Abraham found a closet when, arched in the wavering twilight of the grove, "he called upon the name of the Lord." Jesus found a closet when, high up in the tranquil mountain air, the morning star found Him where the evening star left Him, "alone, yet not alone." A closet for the spirit is whatever helps to closethe spirit in from all distraction, and thus makes it feel alone with God.

II. But the phrase "thy closet" conveys an additional meaning. It means more than mental seclusion in some unexpected place and time. "Thy closet" is the soul's own fixed familiar place of resort for communion with God. It may be hill or hollow, chamber or secret wood-path, or the walk over the sheet of seaside sand no matter, but it must be thine own.The Saviour assumes that each disciple has some such habitual retreat, the shrine of his most blessed recollections, the place where the soul feels most at home, enjoys its Sabbaths, its home of vision, and its walks with God. This is what He means by "thy closet."

C. Stanford, Family Treasury,July, 1861.

Our Lord a Pattern of Private Prayer.

I. Our Lord's example teaches us the great necessity of prayer. The mind of Christ is the mind of heaven, and none ever prayed like Christ. Does not this show most clearly that he who would be ever fit for heaven must begin by learning to delight in his prayers? Ought it not with reason to alarm those to whom prayer is a burden and weariness? It is not only that they lose the blessing they ask that God will not hear them for that time: their loss is far greater than that; they are living and are like to die, without any practice of that temper which must be practised if they would be happy in heaven.

II. Our Lord's example teaches us the best way of praying, so that one's prayers may be heard. If we knew it no other way, we might be sure from our blessed Lord's pattern that God is never so well pleased with us as when we approach Him with the deepest reverence of heart. This, we may believe, was one reason of His withdrawing Himself as we read that He did repeatedly to places where He might be least interrupted, and where He might unreservedly pour out His Divine soul. This made Him fall down in so lowly postures, sometimes kneeling, sometimes lying prostrate. This breathed over all His prayers, of which there are several in the Gospels, that unspeakable mixture of majesty and humility, which no words can describe, but of which surely one effect ought to be to make every Christian man very fearful lest he be found drawing near the High and Holy One with any other than the most serious words and thoughts.

III. One part of this reverence will be, that men will pray to God regularly; not at random, and as it may happen, now performing and now omitting their devotions, just as they may chance to be minded for the time.

IV. Next to regularity in times of prayer, a wise choice of a place to pray in is of no small consequence. "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet" that is, have a set place for prayer.

Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. i., p. 71.

Here is our Saviour's own sanction and blessing vouchsafed to private prayer, in simple, clear, and most gracious words. It is necessary to insist upon the duty of observing private prayer at stated times, because amid the cares and hurry of life men are very apt to, neglect it; and it is a much more important duty than it is generally considered, even by those who perform it. It is important for the two reasons which follow:

I. It brings religious subjects before the mind in regular course. Prayer through the day is indeed the characteristic of a Christian spirit, but we may be sure that in most cases those who do not pray at stated times in a more solemn and direct manner will never pray well at other times. Stated times of prayer put us in that posture in which we ought ever to be; they urge us forward in a heavenly direction, and then the stream carries us on.

II. Besides tending to produce in us lasting religious impressions, stated private prayer is also a more direct means of gaining from God an answer to our requests. We do not know how it is that prayer receives an answer from God at all. It is strange indeed that weak man should have strength to move God; but it is our privilege to know that we can do so. Now, at stated times, when we gather up our thoughts to pray, and draw out our petitions in an orderly and clear manner, the act of faith is likely to be stronger and more earnest; then we realize more perfectly the presence of that God whom we do not see, and Him on whom once all our sins were laid. Then this world is more out of sight, and we more simply appropriate those blessings which we have but to claim humbly, and they are really ours.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons,vol. i., p. 244.

Moral Benefits of Private Prayer. Take our Lord's words in the text, and consider how much, according to them, prayer really offered in secret must mean.

I. God "dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto." To hold any communication with Him is a work of very great faith. Before you can in earnest think a thought of God, or speak a sincere word to Him, your hearts must be lifted up to a height far above whatever you see and know. He who seriously and sincerely thinks of God when he prays must for the time at least lift up his soul far above all earthly things; and doing this, he must be deeply interested in the high thoughts which come over his soul. He must perceive and feel, for the time, that nothing is truly great but what is immortal, and no being worth living and dying for but Him of whom and by whom are all things.

II. To any considerate person the thought is indeed inexpressibly awful that, when he prays, he is speaking to the "Father which is in secret." It is made, however, still more awful by reflecting on what our Lord next adds: "Thy Father which seeth in secretshall reward thee openly." Although He dwells so high in heaven, yet He continually "humbleth Himself" to behold the things that are in this lower earth. Therefore no devout worshipper need fear that any one of his hearty prayers will be lost. Even if he cannot pray in words, God knows the meaning of his heart, and has ways of setting it all down. On the other hand, a person who, being alone, prays carelessly, cannot plead, with the patriarch Jacob, "The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not," for by the very act of praying at all he confesses that "God is in this place." Whoever, then, considers at all must behave well at his prayers, and so doing he gives the strongest pledge of behaving well afterwards when his prayers are over, and the grace then asked for is to be tried in active life. The fragrance of the holy offering will continue some little while with him, and dispose him to live in some measure according to his prayers.

Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times."vol. i., p. 79.

References: Matthew 6:6. A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit,vol. ii., p. 33; Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 35; A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer,p. 16; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 556; vol. vi., p. 15.Matthew 6:7. J. Oswald Dykes, The Laws of the Kingdom,p. 195.