CHRIST the PRAYER INSTRUCTOR: “Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples’” (Lk 11:1). Sir Thomas Abney, knighted by William III, was one of the original Directors of the Bank of England. He was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1700. This included his responsibility of presiding over various official banquets, which often lasted into the evening hours. But early on in his married life, Sir Thomas had established a regular evening time of prayer in his home for his family and servants. So it became his known practice to beg to be excused for a while from the dinner, explaining that he “had an urgent engagement with a special friend.” Then, gathering his household together, he would, as Spurgeon put it, “quit the table for the altar and his guests for his God.” Well might we ask in deep sincerity today, “Lord, teach us to pray.”