Many of you have heard me repeat a portion of this classic from J. Vernon McGee. What a surprise to find it while perusing Nelson's Personal Handbook on Prayer! Here's the full excerpt (which should be read with McGee's voice in mind if you have ever heard him!):
“I have often wondered why the church in the past has not been divided on the subject of the posture of prayer. This is an issue that could divide the church, as it seems just about everything else has. The mode of baptism has certainly divided the church. There are those who believe sprinkling is the correct mode, a few believe pouring (that means getting a pitcher of water and dousing the head) is the correct mode, and others believe immersion is the correct mode. Still others believe you should be immersed not just one time, but three times. Then some say you should go down headfirst, and others say backwards. There are even some today who believe that if it’s not done by running water then you haven’t really been baptized. As you can see, baptism has certainly divided the church.
That’s why I say it’s a wonder that the posture of prayer hasn’t divided the church. I’m surprised we don’t have a group today known as 'standers'. They believe in standing up when you pray. Then it’s a wonder that we don’t have a group of 'kneelers' who believe you should kneel down when you pray. Then there ought to be a group of 'sitters'. They believe you should sit when you pray. Then there’s another group that
believes you ought to lie down—they’re the 'liars'. That would really be a large group! I didn’t realize anyone else had considered this issue before, but then I discovered this poem called 'The Prayer of Cyrus Brown'.
'The proper way for a man to pray,' said Deacon Lemuel Keyes,
'and the only proper attitude is down upon his knees.'
'No, I should say the way to pray,' said Reverend Doctor Wise,
'is standing straight with outstretched arms and rapt and upturned eyes.'
'Oh, no, no, no!” said Elder Sloe. 'Such posture is too proud.
A man should pray with eyes fast closed and head contritely bowed.'
'It seems to me his hands should be austerely clasped in front,
with both thumbs pointing toward the ground,' said Reverend Doctor Blunt.
'Last year I fell in Hodkin’s well, head first,' said Cyrus Brown.
'With both my heels a-stickin’ up, my head apointin’ down.
And I made a prayer right then and there, the best prayer I ever said,
the prayenist prayer I ever prayed was astandin’ on my head.'“
— Sam Walter Foss (1858–1911)
J. Vernon McGee,
On Prayer: Praying and Living in the Father’s Will (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002), 21–24.