Welcome to five minutes in church history hosted by Dr Stephen Nichols, where we take a little break from the present to go exploring the past.

Travel back in time as we look at the people, events, and even the places that have shaped the story of Christianity.

This is our story, our family history. Let's get started.

Words fail to explain how necessary prayer is and in how many ways the exercise of prayer is

profitable. It is therefore by the benefit of prayer that we reach those riches which are laid up for us with

the Heavenly Father.

These are the words of John Calvin on the necessity of prayer and they come to us from his institutes.

In Calvin's institutes he gets at theology through the structure of four books.

The first book is on the knowledge of God, the Creator, and the second book is on the knowledge of God the Creator and the knowledge of God the Redeemer in

Christ. When he gets to the third book Calvin turns his attention to the way in

which we receive the grace of Christ and what benefits come to us from it.

The very beginnings of Book 3, Calvin talks about the Holy Spirit.

So if Book 1 is about God and book 2 is about Christ.

Well, book 3 is about the Holy Spirit and the Christian life.

Book 4, then, is about the Church,

and life in the Spirit in the community of the Church.

But back in book 3, is Calvin's talking about the Christian life,

he does so in 25 chapters.

And chapter 20 is on prayer.

And he begins his discussion of prayer by talking about the necessity of prayer.

We need prayer because this is how God's benefits reach us.

Of course Calvin raises the question, why pray?

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