Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

I suppose the grossly absurd and perfectly ungodly custom of sitting
during prayer is out of the question. It was so perfectly unlike every thing
that was becoming in divine worship, and so expressive of a total want
of reverence in the worshipper, and of that consciousness of his wants
and deep sense of his own worthlessness which he ought to have, that the
church of God never tolerated it: a custom that even heathenism itself had
too much light either to practise or sanction. Among the most ancient and
most enlightened nations, kneeling was ever considered to be the proper
posture of supplication; as it expressed humility, contrition, and
subjection.
At a public meeting a pious brother went to prayer; I kneeled on the
floor, having nothing to lean against, or to support me. He prayed fortyeight
minutes. I was unwilling to rise, and several times was nigh
fainting. What I suffered I cannot describe. After the meeting was over,
I ventured to expostulate with the good man; and, in addition to the injury
I sustained by his unmerciful prayer, I had the following reproof: "My
brother, if your mind had been more spiritual, you would not have felt the
prayer too long." More than twenty years have elapsed since this
transaction took place, but the remembrance of what I then suffered still
rests on my mind with a keen edge. The good man is still alive, will
probably read this paper, will no doubt recollect the circumstance, and I
hope will feel that he has since learned more prudence and more charity.
What satisfaction must it be to learn from God himself, with what
words, and in what manner, he would have us pray to him, so as not to
pray in vain!
Even they who use the Lord's Prayer in their public devotions, seem to
use it in the wrong place. Should we not begin our addresses to God with
this prayer? and then after that manner continue our requests to a
reasonable length? But whether used in the beginning, middle, or end, let
it never be forgotten.