It is noteworthy that Christ warns against the danger of making 'long prayer' in public (Matthew 23:14), but he gives no similar counsel with respect to brevity in prayer. Most prayer, as recorded in Scripture, is short and we are never encouraged to think of earnestness in prayer in terms of length. Many of the most memorable prayers that we find in church history were also remarkable for their brevity. Petitions such as Tyndale's, 'Lord, open the king of England's eyes,' and Richard Cameron's, 'Lord, spare the green and take the ripe,' were surely heard in heaven and long remembered on earth.

But, of course, distinctions are to be made. For one thing, private prayer is not the same as public prayer. In public prayer we are praying with others which means that we must carry others with us when we would speak to God on such occasions. Thus a gospel minister, or anyone else who may be conducting a service of public worship, has no business to pray as though he were alone in private — he has to be the mouthpiece for the desires and needs of all who are present. In confession, intercession and thanksgiving he must speak on behalf of all. But the case is different again when it comes to congregational prayer meetings. Here there is the opportunity for a number to pray and there is no surer way to make such meetings wearisome than for each participant to pray the kind of general prayer which one might hear in public worship on the Lord's Day. Perhaps it is natural for people called upon to lead in a congregational prayer meeting to suppose that a minister's prayer should be their model but that is a real mistake and it is to confuse two quite different occasions.

If asked to pray at a prayer meeting we have a responsibility to help those with whom we are gathered, not in trying to cover all their needs in our one prayer but rather in so praying that the company is carried with us. If our prayer fails in that regard, and if it is so prolonged that no one can remember its main petitions, then it is a false piety to justify ourselves in terms of saying that our prayer is above all criticism because addressed to God. To think that is akin to supposing that any lack of profit experienced by others when we pray can only be due to a failure on their part. The truth is that in corporate prayer we have a duty to be mindful of others, indeed it is doubtful whether prayer which lacks a concern that our fellow-worshippers will be blessed is prayer at all.

It is not to be denied that the actual time element is secondary in real prayer, it is the spirit of prayer that is the great thing. A few stumbling words from a burdened heart are likely to do more good than a multitude more easily spoken. It is also true that those with a more than usual anointing of the Spirit are likely to appear to be briefer than others in prayer though in point of time they may be longer. Yet it is observable that men who have known most liberty in prayer have often been those who have urged brevity in public. Robert Bruce is a case in point. Livingston says of him:

Many of his hearers thought that no man since the apostles spake with such power ... He was very short in prayer when others were present, but every sentence was like a strong bolt shot up to heaven.

The same could be said of C. H. Spurgeon who laid it down as a rule for prayer meetings that,

 brethren labour to be short: If each person will offer the petition most laid upon his heart by the Holy Spirit, and then make room for another, the evening will be far more profitable, and the prayers incomparably more fervent than if each brother ran round the whole circle of petition ... Let as many as possible take part in the utterance of the church's desires; the change of voice will prevent weariness. Better to have six pleading earnestly, than two drowsily; far better the whole meeting should be represented by many intercessors, than formally by two or three. Length is a death blow to earnestness, and brevity is an assistant to zeal. When we have had ten prayers in the hour, varied with the singing of a single verse (remember we meet for prayer) we have far oftener been in the Spirit, than when only four persons have engaged in supplication.

In years of unusual blessing experienced in the congregation at Sandfields, Aberavon, in the early 1930s, over forty were known to take part in one church prayer meeting.

One of the spiritual leaders of the Free Church of Scotland at the time of the Disruption was Charles J. Brown. He declared himself to be 'the enemy of long prayers in public,' and gave it as his opinion that as ministers on Sundays, 'we shall probably pray too long if we ordinarily pray in public — of course I mean in a single devotional exercise — more than eight or ten minutes.' If that kind of restriction in length is appropriate for public worship what ought it to be when many are engaged in a prayer meeting? In Spurgeon's opinion for a prayer meeting to maintain 'fervour and life' most will need to pray under five minutes.

The present writer was once the minister of a church where prayer meetings had become more a duty and a routine than a matter of enjoyment and real profit. There was much 'prayer' but, it seemed, little rejoicing in answers received. The sad truth was that praying and preaching had too long been confused and we had much more of the language of prayer than we had of its true spirit. Then a newcomer, an old and sweet Christian, began to attend our meetings. He was unaware of the traditional, cumbersome phraseology with which prayers had long been offered for 'this corner of the vineyard' and such like, and startled everyone by his briefer and hesitant requests. The truth is that this dear man brought so much of the real spirit of prayer with him that our staid meeting was temporarily reduced to some confusion by the newness. Thankfully the 'new' was to prevail and the prayer meetings were never so wearisome as they had been before.

Let us all be more earnest in secret that we shall know more of the Spirit of God attending and directing our public gatherings! Prayers too long and perhaps too lifeless hinder the very blessing which we seek.