The service of daily prayer consisted of three parts: the repetition of a numbet of psalms, the saying of the Shema with its introductory and concluding prayers, and the Prayer of the Eighteen Benedictions. It is quite certain that Jesus and the apostles maintained this prayer discipline and that in the earliest Christian church daily prayer was maintained much as it was in the synagogue. In fact, when the apostle Paul tells us to pray continually or to pray without ceasing, he surely has in mind that we are to maintain the daily discipline of morning and evening prayer (Rom. 12:12; 1 Thess.
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