The Necessity of Prayer

Edward M. Bounds

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FOREWORD

EDWARD McKENDREE BOUNDS did not merely pray well that he might write well about prayer. He prayed because the needs of the world were upon him. He prayed, for long years, upon subjects which the easy-going Christian rarely gives a thought, and for objects which men of less thought and faith are always ready to call impossible. From his solitary prayer-vigils, year by year, there arose teaching equaled by few men in modern Christian history. He wrote transcendently about prayer, because he was himself, transcendent in its practice.

As breathing is a physical reality to us so prayer was a reality for Bounds. He took the command, "Pray without ceasing" almost as literally as animate nature takes the law of the reflex nervous system, which controls our breathing.

Prayer-books -- real text-books, not forms of prayer -- were the fruit of this daily spiritual exercise. Not brief articles for the religious press came from his pen -- though he had been experienced in that field for years -- not pamphlets, but books were the product and result. He was hindered by poverty, obscurity, loss of prestige, yet his victory
was not wholly reserved until his death.

In 1907, he gave to the world two small editions. One of these was widely circulated in Great Britain. The years following up to his death in 1913 were filled with constant labour and he went home to God leaving a collection of manuscripts. His letters carry the request that the present editor should publish these products of his gifted pen.

The preservation of the Bounds manuscripts to the present time has clearly been providential. The work of preparing them for the press has been a labour of love, consuming years of effort.

These books are unfailing wells for a lifetime of spiritual water-drawing. They are hidden treasures, wrought in the darkness of the dawn and the heat of the noon, on the anvil of experience, and beaten into wondrous form by the mighty stroke of the Divine. They are living voices whereby he, being dead, yet speaketh. -- C.C.

The above Foreword was written by Claude Chilton, Jr., an ardent admirer of Dr. Bounds, and to whom we owe many obligations for suggestions in editing the Bounds Spiritual Life Books. We buried Claude L. Chilton February 18, 1929. What a meeting of these two great saints of God, of shining panoply and knightly grace!

HOMER W. HODGE.

Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
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I. PRAYER AND FAITH

"A dear friend of mine who was quite a lover of the chase, told me the following story: 'Rising early one morning,' he said, 'I heard the baying of a score of deerhounds in pursuit of their quarry. Looking away to a broad, open field in front of me, I saw a young fawn making its way across, and giving signs, moreover, that its race was well-nigh
run. Reaching the rails of the enclosure, it leaped over and crouched within ten feet from where I stood. A moment later two of the hounds came over, when the fawn ran in my direction and pushed its head between my legs. I lifted the little thing to my breast, and, swinging round and round, fought off the dogs. I felt, just then, that all the dogs in the West could not, and should not capture that fawn after its weakness had appealed to my strength.' So is it, when human helplessness appeals to Almighty God. Well do I remember when the hounds of sin were after my soul, until, at last, I ran into the arms of Almighty God." -- A. C. DIXON.

IN any study of the principles, and procedure of prayer, of its activities and enterprises, first place, must, of necessity, be given to faith. It is the initial quality in the heart of any man who essays to talk to the Unseen. He must, out of sheer helplessness, stretch forth hands of faith. He must believe, where he cannot prove. In the ultimate issue, prayer is simply faith, claiming its natural yet marvellous prerogatives -- faith taking possession of its illimitable inheritance. True godliness is just as true, steady, and persevering in
the realm of faith as it is in the province of prayer. Moreover: when faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.

Faith does the impossible because it brings God to undertake for us, and nothing is impossible with God. How great -- without qualification or limitation -- is the power of faith! If doubt be banished from the heart, and unbelief made stranger there, what we ask of God shall surely come to pass, and a believer hath vouchsafed to him "whatsoever
he saith."

Prayer projects faith on God, and God on the world. Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God. In His cursing of the fig-tree our Lord demonstrated His power. Following that, He proceeded to declare, that large powers were committed to faith and prayer, not in order to kill but to make alive, not to blast but to bless.

At this point in our study, we turn to a saying of our Lord, which there is need to emphasize, since it is the very keystone of the arch of faith and prayer.

"Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."

We should ponder well that statement -- "Believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Here is described a faith which realizes, which appropriates, which takes. Such faith is a consciousness of the Divine, an experienced communion, a realized certainty.

Is faith growing or declining as the years go by? Does faith stand strong and four square, these days, as iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold? Does faith maintain its hold, as religion tends to become a mere formality and worldliness increasingly prevails? The enquiry of our Lord, may, with great appropriateness, be ours. "When
the Son of Man cometh," He asks, "shall He find faith on the earth?" We believe that He will, and it is ours, in this our day, to see to it that the lamp of faith is trimmed and burning, lest He come who shall come, and that right early.

Faith is the foundation of Christian character and the security of the soul. When Jesus was looking forward to Peter's denial, and cautioning him against it, He said unto His disciple:

"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, to sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fall not."

Our Lord was declaring a central truth; it was Peter's faith He was seeking to guard; for well He knew that when faith is broken down, the foundations of spiritual life give way, and the entire structure of religious experience falls. It was Peter's faith which needed guarding. Hence Christ's solicitude for the welfare of His disciple's soul and His determination to fortify Peter's faith by His own all-prevailing prayer.

In his Second Epistle, Peter has this idea in mind when speaking of growth in grace as a measure of safety in the Christian life, and as implying fruitfulness.

"And besides this," he declares, "giving diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness."

Of this additioning process, faith was the starting-point -- the basis of the other graces of the Spirit. Faith was the foundation on which other things were to be built. Peter does not enjoin his readers to add to works or gifts or virtues but to faith. Much depends on starting right in this business of growing in grace. There is a Divine order, of which Peter was aware; and so he goes on to declare that we are to give diligence to making our calling and election sure, which election is rendered certain adding to faith which, in turn, is done by constant, earnest praying. Thus faith is kept alive by prayer, and every step taken, in this adding of grace to grace, is accompanied by prayer.

The faith which creates powerful praying is the faith which centres itself on a powerful Person. Faith in Christ's ability to do and to do greatly, is the faith which prays greatly. Thus the leper lay hold upon the power of Christ. "Lord, if Thou wilt," he cried, "Thou canst make me clean." In this instance, we are shown how faith centered in Christ's ability to do, and how it secured the healing power.

It was concerning this very point, that Jesus questioned the blind men who came to Him for healing:

"Believe ye that I am able to do this?" He asks. "They said unto Him, Yea, Lord. Then touched He their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you."

It was to inspire faith in His ability to do that Jesus left behind Him, that last, great statement, which, in the final analysis, is a ringing challenge to faith. "All power," He declared, "is given unto Me in heaven and in earth."

Again: faith is obedient; it goes when commanded, as did the nobleman, who came to Jesus, in the day of His flesh, and whose son was grievously sick.

Moreover: such faith acts. Like the man who was born blind, it goes to wash in the pool of Siloam when told to wash. Like Peter on Gennesaret it casts the net where Jesus commands, instantly, without question or doubt. Such faith takes away the stone from the grave of Lazarus promptly. A praying faith keeps the commandments of God and does those things which are well pleasing in His sight. It asks, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" and answers quickly, "Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth." Obedience helps faith, and faith, in turn, helps obedience. To do God's will is essential to true faith, and faith is necessary to implicit obedience.

Yet faith is called upon, and that right often to wait in patience before God, and is prepared for God's seeming delays in answering prayer. Faith does not grow disheartened because prayer is not immediately honoured; it takes God at His Word, and lets Him take what time He chooses in fulfilling His purposes, and in carrying on His work. There is bound to be much delay and long days of waiting for true faith, but faith accepts the conditions -- knows there will be delays in answering prayer, and regards such delays as times of testing, in the which, it is privileged to show its mettle, and the stern stuff of which it is made.

The case of Lazarus was an instance of where there was delay, where the faith of two good women was sorely tried: Lazarus was critically ill, and his sisters sent for Jesus. But, without any known reason, our Lord delayed His going to the relief of His sick friend. The plea was urgent and touching -- "Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick," -- but the Master is not moved by it, and the women's earnest request seemed to fall on deaf ears. What a trial to faith! Furthermore: our Lord's tardiness appeared to bring about hopeless disaster. While Jesus tarried, Lazarus died.

But the delay of Jesus was exercised in the interests of a greater good. Finally, He makes His way to the home in Bethany.

"Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes, that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him."

Fear not, O tempted and tried believer, Jesus will come, if patience be exercised, and faith hold fast. His delay will serve to make His coming the more richly blessed. Pray on. Wait on. Thou canst not fail. If Christ delay, wait for Him. In His own good time, He will come, and will not tarry.

Delay is often the test and the strength of faith. How much patience is required when these times of testing come! Yet faith gathers strength by waiting and praying. Patience has its perfect work in the school of delay. In some instances, delay is of the very essence of the prayer. God has to do many things, antecedent to giving the final answer --
things which are essential to the lasting good of him who is requesting favour at His hands.

Jacob prayed, with point and ardour, to be delivered from Esau. But before that prayer could be answered, there was much to be done with, and for Jacob. He must be changed, as well as Esau. Jacob had to be made into a new man, before Esau could be. Jacob had to be converted to God, before Esau could be converted to Jacob.

Among the large and luminous utterances of Jesus concerning prayer, none is more arresting than this:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My Name, I will do it."

How wonderful are these statements of what God will do in answer to prayer! Of how great importance these ringing words, prefaced, as they are, with the most solemn verity! Faith in Christ is the basis of all working, and of all praying. All wonderful works depend on wonderful praying, and all praying is done in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amazing
lesson, of wondrous simplicity, is this praying in the name of the Lord Jesus! All other conditions are depreciated, everything else is renounced, save Jesus only. The name of Christ -- the Person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ -- must be supremely sovereign, in the hour and article of prayer.

If Jesus dwell at the fountain of my life; if the currents of His life have displaced and superseded all self-currents; if implicit obedience to Him be the inspiration and force of every movement of my life, then He can safely commit the praying to my will, and pledge Himself, by an obligation as profound as His own nature, that whatsoever is asked
shall be granted. Nothing can be clearer, more distinct, more unlimited both in application and extent, than the exhortation and urgency of Christ, "Have faith in God."

Faith covers temporal as well as spiritual needs. Faith dispels all undue anxiety and needless care about what shall be eaten, what shall be drunk, what shall be worn. Faith lives in the present, and regards the day as being sufficient unto the evil thereof. It lives day by day, and dispels all fears for the morrow. Faith brings great ease of mind
and perfect peace of heart.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusted in Thee."

When we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," we are, in a measure, shutting tomorrow out of our prayer. We do not live in tomorrow but in today. We do not seek tomorrow's grace or tomorrow's bread. They thrive best, and get most out of life, who live in the living present. They pray best who pray for today's needs, not for tomorrow's, which may render our prayers unnecessary and redundant by not existing at all!

True prayers are born of present trials and present needs. Bread, for today, is bread enough. Bread given for today is the strongest sort of pledge that there will be bread tomorrow. Victory today, is the assurance of victory tomorrow. Our prayers need to be focussed upon the present, We must trust God today, and leave the morrow entirely with
Him. The present is ours; the future belongs to God. Prayer is the task and duty of each recurring day -- daily prayer for daily needs.

As every day demands its bread, so every day demands its prayer. No amount of praying, done today, will suffice for tomorrow's praying. On the other hand, no praying for tomorrow is of any great value to us today. To-day's manna is what we need; tomorrow God will see that our needs are supplied. This is the faith which God seeks to inspire. So leave tomorrow, with its cares, its needs, its troubles, in God's hands. There is no storing tomorrow's grace or tomorrow's praying; neither is there any laying-up of today's grace, to meet tomorrow's necessities. We cannot have tomorrow's grace, we cannot eat tomorrow's bread, we cannot do tomorrow's praying. "Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof;" and, most assuredly, if we possess faith, sufficient also, will be the good.
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II. PRAYER AND FAITH (Continued)

"The guests at a certain hotel were being rendered uncomfortable by repeated strumming on a piano, done by a little girl who possessed no knowledge of music. They complained to the proprietor with a view to having the annoyance stopped. 'I am sorry you are annoyed,' he said. 'But the girl is the child of one of my very best guests. I can
scarcely ask her not to touch the piano. But her father, who is away for a day or so, will return tomorrow. You can then approach him, and have the matter set right.' When the father returned, he found his daughter in the reception-room and, as usual, thumping on the piano. He walked up behind the child and, putting his arms over her shoulders,
took her hands in his, and produced some most beautiful music. Thus it may be with us, and thus it will be, some coming day. Just now, we can produce little but clamour and disharmony; but, one day, the Lord Jesus will take hold of our hands of faith and prayer, and use them to bring forth the music of the skies." -- ANON

GENUINE, authentic faith must be definite and free of doubt. Not simply general in character; not a mere belief in the being, goodness and power of God, but a faith which believes that the things which "he saith, shall come to pass." As the faith is specific, so the answer likewise will be definite: "He shall have whatsoever he saith." Faith
and prayer select the things, and God commits Himself to do the very things which faith and persevering prayer nominate, and petition Him to accomplish.

The American Revised Version renders the twenty-fourth verse of the eleventh chapter of Mark, thus: "Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Perfect faith has always in its keeping what perfect prayer asks for. How large and unqualified is the area of operation --
the "All things whatsoever!" How definite and specific the promise -- "Ye shall have them!"

Our chief concern is with our faith, -- the problems of its growth, and the activities of its vigorous maturity. A faith which grasps and holds in its keeping the very things it asks for, without wavering, doubt or
fear -- that is the faith we need -- faith, such as is a pearl of great
price, in the process and practise of prayer.

The statement of our Lord about faith and prayer quoted above is of
supreme importance. Faith must be definite, specific; an unqualified,
unmistakable request for the things asked for. It is not to be a vague,
indefinite, shadowy thing; it must be something more than an abstract
belief in God's willingness and ability to do for us. It is to be a
definite, specific, asking for, and expecting the things for which we
ask. Note the reading of Mark 11:23:

"And shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things
which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatever he saith."

Just so far as the faith and the asking is definite, so also will the
answer be. The giving is not to be something other than the things
prayed for, but the actual things sought and named. "He shall have
whatsoever he saith." It is all imperative, "He shall have." The
granting is to be unlimited, both in quality and in quantity.

Faith and prayer select the subjects for petition, thereby determining
what God is to do. "He shall have whatsoever he saith." Christ holds
Himself ready to supply exactly, and fully, all the demands of faith
and prayer. If the order on God be made clear, specific and definite,
God will fill it, exactly in accordance with the presented terms.

Faith is not an abstract belief in the Word of God, nor a mere mental
credence, nor a simple assent of the understanding and will; nor is it
a passive acceptance of facts, however sacred or thorough. Faith is an
operation of God, a Divine illumination, a holy energy implanted by the
Word of God and the Spirit in the human soul -- a spiritual, Divine
principle which takes of the Supernatural and makes it a thing
apprehendable by the faculties of time and sense.

Faith deals with God, and is conscious of God. It deals with the Lord
Jesus Christ and sees in Him a Saviour; it deals with God's Word, and
lays hold of the truth; it deals with the Spirit of God, and is
energized and inspired by its holy fire. God is the great objective of
faith; for faith rests its whole weight on His Word. Faith is not an
aimless act of the soul, but a looking to God and a resting upon His
promises. Just as love and hope have always an objective so, also, has
faith. Faith is not believing just anything; it is believing God,
resting in Him, trusting His Word.

Faith gives birth to prayer, and grows stronger, strikes deeper, rises
higher, in the struggles and wrestlings of mighty petitioning. Faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the assurance and realization of the
inheritance of the saints. Faith, too, is humble and persevering. It
can wait and pray; it can stay on its knees, or lie in the dust. It is
the one great condition of prayer; the lack of it lies at the root of
all poor praying, feeble praying, little praying, unanswered praying.

The nature and meaning of faith is more demonstrable in what it does,
than it is by reason of any definition given it. Thus, if we turn to
the record of faith given us in that great honour roll, which
constitutes the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we see something of the
wonderful results of faith. What a glorious list it is -- that of these
men and women of faith! What marvellous achievements are there
recorded, and set to the credit of faith! The inspired writer,
exhausting his resources in cataloguing the Old Testament saints, who
were such notable examples of wonderful faith, finally exclaims:

"And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of
Gideon and Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and
Samuel, and of the prophets."

And then the writer of Hebrews goes on again, in a wonderful strain,
telling of the unrecorded exploits wrought through the faith of the men
of old, "of whom the world was not worthy." "All these," he says,
"obtained a good report through faith."

What an era of glorious achievements would dawn for the Church and the
world, if only there could be reproduced a race of saints of like
mighty faith, of like wonderful praying! It is not the intellectually
great that the Church needs; nor is it men of wealth that the times
demand. It is not people of great social influence that this day
requires. Above everybody and everything else, it is men of faith, men
of mighty prayer, men and women after the fashion of the saints and
heroes enumerated in Hebrews, who "obtained a good report through
faith," that the Church and the whole wide world of humanity needs.

Many men, of this day, obtain a good report because of their
money-giving, their great mental gifts and talents, but few there be
who obtain a "good report" because of their great faith in God, or
because of the wonderful things which are being wrought through their
great praying. Today, as much as at any time, we need men of great
faith and men who are great in prayer. These are the two cardinal
virtues which make men great in the eyes of God, the two things which
create conditions of real spiritual success in the life and work of the
Church. It is our chief concern to see that we maintain a faith of such
quality and texture, as counts before God; which grasps, and holds in
its keeping, the things for which it asks, without doubt and without
fear.

Doubt and fear are the twin foes of faith. Sometimes, they actually
usurp the place of faith, and although we pray, it is a restless,
disquieted prayer that we offer, uneasy and often complaining. Peter
failed to walk on Gennesaret because he permitted the waves to break
over him and swamp the power of his faith. Taking his eyes from the
Lord and regarding the water all about him, he began to sink and had to
cry for succour -- "Lord, save, or I perish!"

Doubts should never be cherished, nor fears harboured. Let none cherish
the delusion that he is a martyr to fear and doubt. It is no credit to
any man's mental capacity to cherish doubt of God, and no comfort can
possibly derive from such a thought. Our eyes should be taken off self,
removed from our own weakness and allowed to rest implicitly upon God's
strength. "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great
recompence of reward." A simple, confiding faith, living day by day,
and casting its burden on the Lord, each hour of the day, will
dissipate fear, drive away misgiving and deliver from doubt:

"Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by supplication and prayer,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God."

That is the Divine cure for all fear, anxiety, and undue concern of
soul, all of which are closely akin to doubt and unbelief. This is the
Divine prescription for securing the peace which passeth all
understanding, and keeps the heart and mind in quietness and peace.

All of us need to mark well and heed the caution given in Hebrews:
"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief, in departing from the living God."

We need, also, to guard against unbelief as we would against an enemy.
Faith needs to be cultivated. We need to keep on praying, "Lord,
increase our faith," for faith is susceptible of increase. Paul's
tribute to the Thessalonians was, that their faith grew exceedingly.
Faith is increased by exercise, by being put into use. It is nourished
by sore trials.

"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honour and glow at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

Faith grows by reading and meditating upon the Word of God. Most, and
best of all, faith thrives in an atmosphere of prayer.

It would be well, if all of us were to stop, and inquire personally of
ourselves: "Have I faith in God? Have I real faith, -- faith which
keeps me in perfect peace, about the things of earth and the things of
heaven?" This is the most important question a man can propound and
expect to be answered. And there is another question, closely akin to
it in significance and importance -- "Do I really pray to God so that
He hears me and answers my prayers? And do I truly pray unto God so
that I get direct from God the things I ask of Him?"

It was claimed for Augustus Caesar that he found Rome a city of wood,
and left it a city of marble. The pastor who succeeds in changing his
people from a prayerless to a prayerful people, has done a greater work
than did Augustus in changing a city from wood to marble. And after
all, this is the prime work of the preacher. Primarily, he is dealing
with prayerless people -- with people of whom it is said, "God is not
in all their thoughts." Such people he meets everywhere, and all the
time. His main business is to turn them from being forgetful of God,
from being devoid of faith, from being prayerless, so that they become
people who habitually pray, who believe in God, remember Him and do His
will. The preacher is not sent to merely induce men to join the Church,
nor merely to get them to do better. It is to get them to pray, to
trust God, and to keep God ever before their eyes, that they may not
sin against Him.

The work of the ministry is to change unbelieving sinners into praying
and believing saints. The call goes forth by Divine authority, "Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." We catch a glimpse
of the tremendous importance of faith and of the great value God has
set upon it, when we remember that He has made it the one indispensable
condition of being saved. "By grace are ye saved, through faith." Thus,
when we contemplate the great importance of prayer, we find faith
standing immediately by its side. By faith are we saved, and by faith
we stay saved. Prayer introduces us to a life of faith. Paul declared
that the life he lived, he lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved
him and gave Himself for him -- that he walked by faith and not by
sight.

Prayer is absolutely dependent upon faith. Virtually, it has no
existence apart from it, and accomplishes nothing unless it be its
inseparable companion. Faith makes prayer effectual, and in a certain
important sense, must precede it.

"For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

Before prayer ever starts toward God; before its petition is preferred,
before its requests are made known -- faith must have gone on ahead;
must have asserted its belief in the existence of God; must have given
its assent to the gracious truth that "God is a rewarder of those that
diligently seek His face." This is the primary step in praying. In this
regard, while faith does not bring the blessing, yet it puts prayer in
a position to ask for it, and leads to another step toward realization,
by aiding the petitioner to believe that God is able and willing to
bless.

Faith starts prayer to work -- clears the way to the mercy-seat. It
gives assurance, first of all, that there is a mercy-seat, and that
there the High Priest awaits the pray-ers and the prayers. Faith opens
the way for prayer to approach God. But it does more. It accompanies
prayer at every step she takes. It is her inseparable companion and
when requests are made unto God, it is faith which turns the asking
into obtaining. And faith follows prayer, since the spiritual life into
which a believer is led by prayer, is a life of faith. The one
prominent characteristic of the experience into which believers are
brought through prayer, is not a life of works, but of faith.

Faith makes prayer strong, and gives it patience to wait on God. Faith
believes that God is a rewarder. No truth is more clearly revealed in
the Scriptures than this, while none is more encouraging. Even the
closet has its promised reward, "He that seeth in secret, shall reward
thee openly," while the most insignificant service rendered to a
disciple in the name of the Lord, surely receives its reward. And to
this precious truth faith gives its hearty assent.

Yet faith is narrowed down to one particular thing -- it does not
believe that God will reward everybody, nor that He is a rewarder of
all who pray, but that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. Faith rests its care on diligence in prayer, and gives assurance
and encouragement to diligent seekers after God, for it is they, alone,
who are richly rewarded when they pray.

We need constantly to be reminded that faith is the one inseparable
condition of successful praying. There are other considerations
entering into the exercise, but faith is the final, the one
indispensable condition of true praying. As it is written in a
familiar, primary declaration: "Without faith, it is impossible to
please Him."

James puts this truth very plainly.

"If any of you lack wisdom," he says, "let him ask of God, that giveth
to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth (or
doubteth) is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.
For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the
Lord."

Doubting is always put under the ban, because it stands as a foe to
faith and hinders effectual praying. In the First Epistle to Timothy
Paul gives us an invaluable truth relative to the conditions of
successful praying, which he thus lays down: "I will therefore that men
pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting."

All questioning must be watched against and eschewed. Fear and
peradventure have no place in true praying. Faith must assert itself
and bid these foes to prayer depart.

Too much authority cannot be attributed to faith; but prayer is the
sceptre by which it signalizes its power. How much of spiritual wisdom
there is in the following advice written by an eminent old divine.

"Would you be freed from the bondage to corruption?" he asks. "Would
you grow in grace in general and grow in grace in particular? If you
would, your way is plain. Ask of God more faith. Beg of Him morning,
and noon and night, while you walk by the way, while you sit in the
house, when you lie down and when you rise up; beg of Him simply to
impress Divine things more deeply on your heart, to give you more and
more of the substance of things hoped for and of the evidence of things
not seen."

Great incentives to pray are furnished in Holy Scriptures, and our Lord
closes His teaching about prayer, with the assurance and promise of
heaven. The presence of Jesus Christ in heaven, the preparation for His
saints which He is making there, and the assurance that He will come
again to receive them -- how all this helps the weariness of praying,
strengthens its conflicts, sweetens its arduous toil! These things are
the star of hope to prayer, the wiping away of its tears, the putting
of the odour of heaven into the bitterness of its cry. The spirit of a
pilgrim greatly facilitates praying. An earth-bound, earth-satisfied
spirit cannot pray. In such a heart, the flame of spiritual desire is
either gone out or smouldering in faintest glow. The wings of its faith
are clipped, its eyes are filmed, its tongue silenced. But they, who in
unswerving faith and unceasing prayer, wait continually upon the Lord,
do renew their strength, do mount up with wings as eagles, do run, and
are not weary, do walk, and not faint.
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III. PRAYER AND TRUST

"One evening I left my office in New York, with a bitterly cold wind in
my face. I had with me, (as I thought) my thick, warm muffler, but when
I proceeded to button-up against the storm, I found that it was gone. I
turned back, looked along the streets, searched my office, but in vain.
I realized, then, that I must have dropped it, and prayed God that I
might find it; for such was the state of the weather, that it would be
running a great risk to proceed without it. I looked, again, up and
down the surrounding streets, but without success. Sudden]y, I saw a
man on the opposite side of the road holding out something in his hand.
I crossed over and asked him if that were my muffler? He handed it to
me saying, 'It was blown to me by the wind.' He who rides upon the
storm, had used the wind as a means of answering prayer." -- WILLIAM
HORST.

PRAYER does not stand alone. It is not an isolated duty and independent
principle. It lives in association with other Christian duties, is
wedded to other principles, is a partner with other graces. But to
faith, prayer is indissolubly joined. Faith gives it colour and tone,
shapes its character, and secures its results.

Trust is faith become absolute, ratified, consummated. There is, when
all is said and done, a sort of venture in faith and its exercise. But
trust is firm belief, it is faith in full flower. Trust is a conscious
act, a fact of which we are sensible. According to the Scriptural
concept it is the eye of the new-born soul, and the ear of the renewed
soul. It is the feeling of the soul, the spiritual eye, the ear, the
taste, the feeling -- these one and all have to do with trust. How
luminous, how distinct, how conscious, how powerful, and more than all,
how Scriptural is such a trust! How different from many forms of modern
belief, so feeble, dry, and cold! These new phases of belief bring no
consciousness of their presence, no "Joy unspeakable and full of glory"
results from their exercise. They are, for the most part, adventures in
the peradventures of the soul. There is no safe, sure trust in
anything. The whole transaction takes place in the realm of Maybe and
Perhaps.

Trust like life, is feeling, though much more than feeling. An unfelt
life is a contradiction; an unfelt trust is a misnomer, a delusion, a
contradiction. Trust is the most felt of all attributes. It is all
feeling, and it works only by love. An unfelt love is as impossible as
an unfelt trust. The trust of which we are now speaking is a
conviction. An unfelt conviction? How absurd!

Trust sees God doing things here and now. Yea, more. It rises to a
lofty eminence, and looking into the invisible and the eternal,
realizes that God has done things, and regards them as being already
done. Trust brings eternity into the annals and happenings of time,
transmutes the substance of hope into the reality of fruition, and
changes promise into present possession. We know when we trust just as
we know when we see, just as we are conscious of our sense of touch.
Trust sees, receives, holds. Trust is its own witness.

Yet, quite often, faith is too weak to obtain God's greatest good,
immediately; so it has to wait in loving, strong, prayerful, pressing
obedience, until it grows in strength, and is able to bring down the
eternal, into the realms of experience and time.

To this point, trust masses all its forces. Here it holds. And in the
struggle, trust's grasp becomes mightier, and grasps, for itself, all
that God has done for it in His eternal wisdom and plenitude of grace.

In the matter of waiting in prayer, mightiest prayer, faith rises to
its highest plane and becomes indeed the gift of God. It becomes the
blessed disposition and expression of the soul which is secured by a
constant intercourse with, and unwearied application to God.

Jesus Christ clearly taught that faith was the condition on which
prayer was answered. When our Lord had cursed the fig-tree, the
disciples were much surprised that its withering had actually taken
place, and their remarks indicated their in credulity. It was then that
Jesus said to them, "Have faith in God."

"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this
mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith
shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore, I say
unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them."

Trust grows nowhere so readily and richly as in the prayer-chamber. Its
unfolding and development are rapid and wholesome when they are
regularly and well kept. When these engagements are hearty and full and
free, trust flourishes exceedingly. The eye and presence of God give
vigorous life to trust, just as the eye and the presence of the sun
make fruit and flower to grow, and all things glad and bright with
fuller life.

"Have faith in God," "Trust in the Lord" form the keynote and
foundation of prayer. Primarily, it is not trust in the Word of God,
but rather trust in the Person of God. For trust in the Person of God
must precede trust in the Word of God. "Ye believe in God, believe also
in Me," is the demand our Lord makes on the personal trust of His
disciples. The person of Jesus Christ must be central, to the eye of
trust. This great truth Jesus sought to impress upon Martha, when her
brother lay dead, in the home at Bethany. Martha asserted her belief in
the fact of the resurrection of her brother:

"Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the
resurrection at the last day."

Jesus lifts her trust clear above the mere fact of the resurrection, to
His own Person, by saying:

"I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he
were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me,
shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord: I
believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come
into the world."

Trust, in an historical fact or in a mere record may be a very passive
thing, but trust in a person vitalizes the quality, fructifies it,
informs it with love. The trust which informs prayer centres in a
Person.

Trust goes even further than this. The trust which inspires our prayer
must be not only trust in the Person of God, and of Christ, but in
their ability and willingness to grant the thing prayed for. It is not
only, "Trust, ye, in the Lord," but, also, "for in the Lord Jehovah, is
everlasting strength."

The trust which our Lord taught as a condition of effectual prayer, is
not of the head but of the heart. It is trust which "doubteth not in
his heart." Such trust has the Divine assurance that it shall be
honoured with large and satisfying answers. The strong promise of our
Lord brings faith down to the present, and counts on a present answer.

Do we believe, without a doubt? When we pray, do we believe, not that
we shall receive the things for which we ask on a future day, but that
we receive them, then and there? Such is the teaching of this inspiring
Scripture. How we need to pray, "Lord, increase our faith," until doubt
be gone, and implicit trust claims the promised blessings, as its very
own.

This is no easy condition. It is reached only after many a failure,
after much praying, after many waitings, after much trial of faith. May
our faith so increase until we realize and receive all the fulness
there is in that Name which guarantees to do so much.

Our Lord puts trust as the very foundation of praying. The background
of prayer is trust. The whole issuance of Christ's ministry and work
was dependent on implicit trust in His Father. The centre of trust is
God. Mountains of difficulties, and all other hindrances to prayer are
moved out of the way by trust and his virile henchman, faith. When
trust is perfect and without doubt, prayer is simply the outstretched
hand, ready to receive. Trust perfected, is prayer perfected. Trust
looks to receive the thing asked for -- and gets it. Trust is not a
belief that God can bless, that He will bless, but that He does bless,
here and now. Trust always operates in the present tense. Hope looks
toward the future. Trust looks to the present. Hope expects. Trust
possesses. Trust receives what prayer acquires. So that what prayer
needs, at all times, is abiding and abundant trust.

Their lamentable lack of trust and resultant failure of the disciples
to do what they were sent out to do, is seen in the case of the lunatic
son, who was brought by his father to nine of them while their Master
was on the Mount of Transfiguration. A boy, sadly afflicted, was
brought to these men to be cured of his malady. They had been
commissioned to do this very kind of work. This was a part of their
mission. They attempted to cast out the devil from the boy, but had
signally failed. The devil was too much for them. They were humiliated
at their failure, and filled with shame, while their enemies were in
triumph. Amid the confusion incident to failure Jesus draws near. He is
informed of the circumstances, and told of the conditions connected
therewith. Here is the succeeding account:

"Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how
long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither
to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him and the
child was cured from that very hour. And when He was come into the
house, His disciples asked Him privately, Why could not we cast him
out? And He said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing but by
prayer and fasting."

Wherein lay the difficulty with these men? They had been lax in
cultivating their faith by prayer and, as a consequence, their trust
utterly failed. They trusted not God, nor Christ, nor the authenticity
of His mission, or their own. So has it been many a time since, in many
a crisis in the Church of God. Failure has resulted from a lack of
trust, or from a weakness of faith, and this, in turn, from a lack of
prayerfulness. Many a failure in revival efforts has been traceable to
the same cause. Faith had not been nurtured and made powerful by
prayer. Neglect of the inner chamber is the solution of most spiritual
failure. And this is as true of our personal struggles with the devil
as was the case when we went forth to attempt to cast out devils. To be
much on our knees in private communion with God is the only surety that
we shall have Him with us either in our personal struggles, or in our
efforts to convert sinners.

Everywhere, in the approaches of the people to Him, our Lord put trust
in Him, and the divinity of His mission, in the forefront. He gave no
definition of trust, and He furnishes no theological discussion of, or
analysis of it; for He knew that men would see what faith was by what
faith did; and from its free exercise trust grew up, spontaneously, in
His presence. It was the product of His work, His power and His Person.
These furnished and created an atmosphere most favourable for its
exercise and development. Trust is altogether too splendidly simple for
verbal definition; too hearty and spontaneous for theological
terminology. The very simplicity of trust is that which staggers many
people. They look away for some great thing to come to pass, while all
the time "the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart."

When the saddening news of his daughter's death was brought to Jairus
our Lord interposed: "Be not afraid," He said calmly, "only believe."
To the woman with the issue of blood, who stood tremblingly before Him,
He said:

"Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of
thy plague."

As the two blind men followed Him, pressing their way into the house,
He said:

"According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened."

When the paralytic was let down through the roof of the house, where
Jesus was teaching, and placed before Him by four of his friends, it is
recorded after this fashion:

"And Jesus seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy: Son, be
of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."

When Jesus dismissed the centurion whose servant was seriously ill, and
who had come to Jesus with the prayer that He speak the healing word,
without even going to his house, He did it in the manner following:

"And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast
believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the
selfsame hour."

When the poor leper fell at the feet of Jesus and cried out for relief,
"Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean," Jesus immediately
granted his request, and the man glorified Him with a loud voice. Then
Jesus said unto him, "Arise, go thy way; thy faith hath made thee
whole."

The Syrophenician woman came to Jesus with the case of her afflicted
daughter, making the case her own, with the prayer, "Lord, help me,"
making a fearful and heroic struggle. Jesus honours her faith and
prayer, saying:

"O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And
her daughter was made whole from that very hour."

After the disciples had utterly failed to cast the devil out of the
epileptic boy, the father of the stricken lad came to Jesus with the
plaintive and almost despairing cry, "If Thou canst do anything, have
compassion on us and help us." But Jesus replied, "If thou canst
believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."

Blind Bartimaeus sitting by the wayside, hears our Lord as He passes
by, and cries out pitifully and almost despairingly, "Jesus, Thou son
of David, have mercy on me." The keen ears of our Lord immediately
catch the sound of prayer, and He says to the beggar:

"Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he
received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way."

To the weeping, penitent woman, washing His feet with her tears and
wiping them with the hair of her head, Jesus speaks cheering,
soul-comforting words: "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace."

One day Jesus healed ten lepers at one time, in answer to their united
prayer, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us," and He told them to go and
show themselves to the priests. "And it came to pass as they went, they
were cleansed."
__________________________________________________________________

IV. PRAYER AND DESIRE

"There are those who will mock me, and tell me to stick to my trade as
a cobbler, and not trouble my mind with philosophy and theology. But
the truth of God did so burn in my bones, that I took my pen in hand
and began to set down what I had seen." -- JACOB BEHMEN.

DESIRE is not merely a simple wish; it is a deep seated craving; an
intense longing, for attainment. In the realm of spiritual affairs, it
is an important adjunct to prayer. So important is it, that one might
say, almost, that desire is an absolute essential of prayer. Desire
precedes prayer, accompanies it, is followed by it. Desire goes before
prayer, and by it, created and intensified. Prayer is the oral
expression of desire. If prayer is asking God for something, then
prayer must be expressed. Prayer comes out into the open. Desire is
silent. Prayer is heard; desire, unheard. The deeper the desire, the
stronger the prayer. Without desire, prayer is a meaningless mumble of
words. Such perfunctory, formal praying, with no heart, no feeling, no
real desire accompanying it, is to be shunned like a pestilence. Its
exercise is a waste of precious time, and from it, no real blessing
accrues.

And yet even if it be discovered that desire is honestly absent, we
should pray, anyway. We ought to pray. The "ought" comes in, in order
that both desire and expression be cultivated. God's Word commands it.
Our judgment tells us we ought to pray -- to pray whether we feel like
it or not -- and not to allow our feelings to determine our habits of
prayer. In such circumstance, we ought to pray for the desire to pray;
for such a desire is God-given and heaven-born. We should pray for
desire; then, when desire has been given, we should pray according to
its dictates. Lack of spiritual desire should grieve us, and lead us to
lament its absence, to seek earnestly for its bestowal, so that our
praying, henceforth, should be an expression of "the soul's sincere
desire."

A sense of need creates or should create, earnest desire. The stronger
the sense of need, before God, the greater should be the desire, the
more earnest the praying. The "poor in spirit" are eminently competent
to pray.

Hunger is an active sense of physical need. It prompts the request for
bread. In like manner, the inward consciousness of spiritual need
creates desire, and desire breaks forth in prayer. Desire is an inward
longing for something of which we are not possessed, of which we stand
in need -- something which God has promised, and which may be secured
by an earnest supplication of His throne of grace.

Spiritual desire, carried to a higher degree, is the evidence of the
new birth. It is born in the renewed soul:

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may
grow thereby."

The absence of this holy desire in the heart is presumptive proof,
either of a decline in spiritual ecstasy, or, that the new birth has
never taken place.

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for
they shall be filled."

These heaven-given appetites are the proof of a renewed heart, the
evidence of a stirring spiritual life. Physical appetites are the
attributes of a living body, not of a corpse, and spiritual desires
belong to a soul made alive to God. And as the renewed soul hungers and
thirsts after righteousness, these holy inward desires break out into
earnest, supplicating prayer.

In prayer, we are shut up to the Name, merit and intercessory virtue of
Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. Probing down, below the
accompanying conditions and forces in prayer, we come to its vital
basis, which is seated in the human heart. It is not simply our need;
it is the heart's yearning for what we need, and for which we feel
impelled to pray. Desire is the will in action; a strong, conscious
longing, excited in the inner nature, for some great good. Desire
exalts the object of its longing, and fixes the mind on it. It has
choice, and fixedness, and flame in it, and prayer, based thereon, is
explicit and specific. It knows its need, feels and sees the thing that
will meet it, and hastens to acquire it.

Holy desire is much helped by devout contemplation. Meditation on our
spiritual need, and on God's readiness and ability to correct it, aids
desire to grow. Serious thought engaged in before praying, increases
desire, makes it more insistent, and tends to save us from the menace
of private prayer -- wandering thought. We fail much more in desire,
than in its outward expression. We retain the form, while the inner
life fades and almost dies.

One might well ask, whether the feebleness of our desires for God, the
Holy Spirit, and for all the fulness of Christ, is not the cause of our
so little praying, and of our languishing in the exercise of prayer? Do
we really feel these inward pantings of desire after heavenly
treasures? Do the inbred groanings of desire stir our souls to mighty
wrestlings? Alas for us! The fire burns altogether too low. The flaming
heat of soul has been tempered down to a tepid lukewarmness. This, it
should be remembered, was the central cause of the sad and desperate
condition of the Laodicean Christians, of whom the awful condemnation
is written that they were "rich, and increased in goods and had need of
nothing," and knew not that they "were wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind."

Again: we might well inquire -- have we that desire which presses us to
close communion with God, which is filled with unutterable burnings,
and holds us there through the agony of an intense and soul-stirred
supplication? Our hearts need much to be worked over, not only to get
the evil out of them, but to get the good into them. And the foundation
and inspiration to the incoming good, is strong, propelling desire.
This holy and fervid flame in the soul awakens the interest of heaven,
attracts the attention of God, and places at the disposal of those who
exercise it, the exhaustless riches of Divine grace.

The dampening of the flame of holy desire, is destructive of the vital
and aggressive forces in church life. God requires to be represented by
a fiery Church, or He is not in any proper sense, represented at all.
God, Himself, is all on fire, and His Church, if it is to be like Him,
must also be at white heat. The great and eternal interests of
heaven-born, God-given religion are the only things about which His
Church can afford to be on fire. Yet holy zeal need not to be fussy in
order to be consuming. Our Lord was the incarnate antithesis of nervous
excitability, the absolute opposite of intolerant or clamorous
declamation, yet the zeal of God's house consumed Him; and the world is
still feeling the glow of His fierce, consuming flame and responding to
it, with an ever-increasing readiness and an ever-enlarging response.

A lack of ardour in prayer, is the sure sign of a lack of depth and of
intensity of desire; and the absence of intense desire is a sure sign
of God's absence from the heart! To abate fervour is to retire from
God. He can, and does, tolerate many things in the way of infirmity and
error in His children. He can, and will pardon sin when the penitent
prays, but two things are intolerable to Him -- insincerity and
lukewarmness. Lack of heart and lack of heat are two things He loathes,
and to the Laodiceans He said, in terms of unmistakable severity and
condemnation:

"I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and
neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth."

This was God's expressed judgment on the lack of fire in one of the
Seven Churches, and it is His indictment against individual Christians
for the fatal want of sacred zeal. In prayer, fire is the motive power.
Religious principles which do not emerge in flame, have neither force
nor effect. Flame is the wing on which faith ascends; fervency is the
soul of prayer. It was the "fervent, effectual prayer" which availed
much. Love is kindled in a flame, and ardency is its life. Flame is the
air which true Christian experience breathes. It feeds on fire; it can
withstand anything, rather than a feeble flame; and it dies, chilled
and starved to its vitals, when the surrounding atmosphere is frigid or
lukewarm.

True prayer, must be aflame. Christian life and character need to be
all on fire. Lack of spiritual heat creates more infidelity than lack
of faith. Not to be consumingly interested about the things of heaven,
is not to be interested in them at all. The fiery souls are those who
conquer in the day of battle, from whom the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and who take it by force. The citadel of God is taken only by
those, who storm it in dreadful earnestness, who besiege it, with
fiery, unabated zeal.

Nothing short of being red hot for God, can keep the glow of heaven in
our hearts, these chilly days. The early Methodists had no heating
apparatus in their churches. They declared that the flame in the pew
and the fire in the pulpit must suffice to keep them warm. And we, of
this hour, have need to have the live coal from God's altar and the
consuming flame from heaven glowing in our hearts. This flame is not
mental vehemence nor fleshy energy. It is Divine fire in the soul,
intense, dross-consuming -- the very essence of the Spirit of God.

No erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no
flowers of eloquence, no grace of person, can atone for lack of fire.
Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings,
acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no
prayer without flame.

Ardent desire is the basis of unceasing prayer. It is not a shallow,
fickle inclination, but a strong yearning, an unquenchable ardour,
which impregnates, glows, burns and fixes the heart. It is the flame of
a present and active principle mounting up to God. It is ardour
propelled by desire, that burns its way to the Throne of mercy, and
gains its plea. It is the pertinacity of desire that gives triumph to
the conflict, in a great struggle of prayer. It is the burden of a
weighty desire that sobers, makes restless, and reduces to quietness
the soul just emerged from its mighty wrestlings. It is the embracing
character of desire which arms prayer with a thousand pleas, and robes
it with an invincible courage and an all-conquering power.

The Syrophenician woman is an object lesson of desire, settled to its
consistency, but invulnerable in its intensity and pertinacious
boldness. The importunate widow represents desire gaining its end,
through obstacles insuperable to feebler impulses.

Prayer is not the rehearsal of a mere performance; nor is it an
indefinite, widespread clamour. Desire, while it kindles the soul,
holds it to the object sought. Prayer is an indispensable phase of
spiritual habit, but it ceases to be prayer when carried on by habit
alone. It is depth and intensity of spiritual desire which give
intensity and depth to prayer. The soul cannot be listless when some
great desire fires and inflames it. The urgency of our desire holds us
to the thing desired with a tenacity which refuses to be lessened or
loosened; it stays and pleads and persists, and refuses to let go until
the blessing has been vouchsafed.

"Lord, I cannot let Thee go, Till a blessing Thou bestow; Do not turn
away Thy face; Mine's an urgent, pressing case."

The secret of faint heartedness, lack of importunity, want of courage
and strength in prayer, lies in the weakness of spiritual desire, while
the non-observance of prayer is the fearful token of that desire having
ceased to live. That soul has turned from God whose desire after Him no
longer presses it to the inner chamber. There can be no successful
praying without consuming desire. Of course there can be much seeming
to pray, without desire of any kind.

Many things may be catalogued and much ground covered. But does desire
compile the catalogue? Does desire map out the region to be covered? On
the answer, hangs the issue of whether our petitioning be prating or
prayer. Desire is intense, but narrow; it cannot spread itself over a
wide area. It wants a few things, and wants them badly, so badly, that
nothing but God's willingness to answer, can bring it easement or
content.

Desire single-shots at its objective. There may be many things desired,
but they are specifically and individually felt and expressed. David
did not yearn for everything; nor did he allow his desires to spread
out everywhere and hit nothing. Here is the way his desires ran and
found expression:

"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I
may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple."

It is this singleness of desire, this definiteness of yearning, which
counts in praying, and which drives prayer directly to core and centre
of supply.

In the Beatitudes Jesus voiced the words which directly bear upon the
innate desires of a renewed soul, and the promise that they will be
granted: "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled."

This, then, is the basis of prayer which compels an answer -- that
strong inward desire has entered into the spiritual appetite, and
clamours to be satisfied. Alas for us! It is altogether too true and
frequent, that our prayers operate in the arid region of a mere wish,
or in the leafless area of a memorized prayer. Sometimes, indeed, our
prayers are merely stereotyped expressions of set phrases, and
conventional proportions, the freshness and life of which have departed
long years ago.

Without desire, there is no burden of soul, no sense of need, no
ardency, no vision, no strength, no glow of faith. There is no mighty
pressure, no holding on to God, with a deathless, despairing grasp --
"I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me." There is no utter
self-abandonment, as there was with Moses, when, lost in the throes of
a desperate, pertinacious, and all-consuming plea he cried: "Yet now,
if Thou wilt forgive their sin; if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of
Thy book." Or, as there was with John Knox when he pleaded: "Give me
Scotland, or I die!"

God draws mightily near to the praying soul. To see God, to know God,
and to live for God -- these form the objective of all true praying.
Thus praying is, after all, inspired to seek after God. Prayer-desire
is inflamed to see God, to have clearer, fuller, sweeter and richer
revelation of God. So to those who thus pray, the Bible becomes a new
Bible, and Christ a new Saviour, by the light and revelation of the
inner chamber.

We iterate and reiterate that burning desire -- enlarged and ever
enlarging -- for the best, and most powerful gifts and graces of the
Spirit of God, is the legitimate heritage of true and effectual
praying. Self and service cannot be divorced -- cannot, possibly, be
separated. More than that: desire must be made intensely personal, must
be centered on God with an insatiable hungering and thirsting after Him
and His righteousness. "My soul thirsteth for God, the living God." The
indispensable requisite for all true praying is a deeply seated desire
which seeks after God Himself, and remains unappeased, until the
choicest gifts in heaven's bestowal, have been richly and abundantly
vouchsafed.
__________________________________________________________________

V. PRAYER AND FERVENCY

"St. Teresa rose off her deathbed to finish her work. She inspected,
with all her quickness of eye and love of order the whole of the house
in which she had been carried to die. She saw everything put into its
proper place, and every one answering to their proper order, after
which she attended the divine offices of the day. She then went back to
her bed, summoned her daughters around her . . . and, with the most
penitential of David's penitential prayers upon her tongue, Teresa of
Jesus went forth to meet her Bridegroom." -- ALEXANDER WHYTE.

PRAYER, without fervour, stakes nothing on the issue, because it has
nothing to stake. It comes with empty hands. Hands, too, which are
listless, as well as empty, which have never learned the lesson of
clinging to the Cross.

Fervourless prayer has no heart in it; it is an empty thing, an unfit
vessel. Heart, soul, and life, must find place in all real praying.
Heaven must be made to feel the force of this crying unto God.

Paul was a notable example of the man who possessed a fervent spirit of
prayer. His petitioning was all-consuming, centered immovably upon the
object of his desire, and the God who was able to meet it.

Prayers must be red hot. It is the fervent prayer that is effectual and
that availeth. Coldness of spirit hinders praying; prayer cannot live
in a wintry atmosphere. Chilly surroundings freeze out petitioning; and
dry up the springs of supplication. It takes fire to make prayers go.
Warmth of soul creates an atmosphere favourable to prayer, because it
is favourable to fervency. By flame, prayer ascends to heaven. Yet fire
is not fuss, nor heat, noise. Heat is intensity -- something that glows
and burns. Heaven is a mighty poor market for ice.

God wants warm-hearted servants. The Holy Spirit comes as a fire, to
dwell in us; we are to be baptized, with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
Fervency is warmth of soul. A phlegmatic temperament is abhorrent to
vital experience. If our religion does not set us on fire, it is
because we have frozen hearts. God dwells in a flame; the Holy Ghost
descends in fire. To be absorbed in God's will, to be so greatly in
earnest about doing it that our whole being takes fire, is the
qualifying condition of the man who would engage in effectual prayer.

Our Lord warns us against feeble praying. "Men ought always to pray,"
He declares, "and not to faint." That means, that we are to possess
sufficient fervency to carry us through the severe and long periods of
pleading prayer. Fire makes one alert and vigilant, and brings him off,
more than conqueror. The atmosphere about us is too heavily charged
with resisting forces for limp or languid prayers to make headway. It
takes heat, and fervency and meteoric fire, to push through, to the
upper heavens, where God dwells with His saints, in light.

Many of the great Bible characters were notable examples of fervency of
spirit when seeking God. The Psalmist declares with great earnestness:

"My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto Thy judgments at
all times."

What strong desires of heart are here! What earnest soul longings for
the Word of the living God!

An even greater fervency is expressed by him in another place:

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after
Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall
I come and appear before God?"

That is the word of a man who lived in a state of grace, which had been
deeply and supernaturally wrought in his soul.

Fervency before God counts in the hour of prayer, and finds a speedy
and rich reward at His hands. The Psalmist gives us this statement of
what God had done for the king, as his heart turned toward his Lord:

"Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the
request of his lips."

At another time, he thus expresses himself directly to God in
preferring his request:

"Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and my groaning is not hid from
Thee."

What a cheering thought! Our inward groanings, our secret desires, our
heart-longings, are not hidden from the eyes of Him with whom we have
to deal in prayer.

The incentive to fervency of spirit before God, is precisely the same
as it is for continued and earnest prayer. While fervency is not
prayer, yet it derives from an earnest soul, and is precious in the
sight of God. Fervency in prayer is the precursor of what God will do
by way of answer. God stands pledged to give us the desire of our
hearts in proportion to the fervency of spirit we exhibit, when seeking
His face in prayer.

Fervency has its seat in the heart, not in the brain, nor in the
intellectual faculties of the mind. Fervency therefore, is not an
expression of the intellect. Fervency of spirit is something far
transcending poetical fancy or sentimental imagery. It is something
else besides mere preference, the contrasting of like with dislike.
Fervency is the throb and gesture of the emotional nature.

It is not in our power, perhaps, to create fervency of spirit at will,
but we can pray God to implant it. It is ours, then, to nourish and
cherish it, to guard it against extinction, to prevent its abatement or
decline. The process of personal salvation is not only to pray, to
express our desires to God, but to acquire a fervent spirit and seek,
by all proper means, to cultivate it. It is never out of place to pray
God to beget within us, and to keep alive the spirit of fervent prayer.

Fervency has to do with God, just as prayer has to do with Him. Desire
has always an objective. If we desire at all, we desire something. The
degree of fervency with which we fashion our spiritual desires, will
always serve to determine the earnestness of our praying. In this
relation, Adoniram Judson says:

"A travailing spirit, the throes of a great burdened desire, belongs to
prayer. A fervency strong enough to drive away sleep, which devotes and
inflames the spirit, and which retires all earthly ties, all this
belongs to wrestling, prevailing prayer. The Spirit, the power, the
air, and food of prayer is in such a spirit."

Prayer must be clothed with fervency, strength and power. It is the
force which, centered on God, determines the outlay of Himself for
earthly good. Men who are fervent in spirit are bent on attaining to
righteousness, truth, grace, and all other sublime and powerful graces
which adorn the character of the authentic, unquestioned child of God.

God once declared, by the mouth of a brave prophet, to a king who, at
one time, had been true to God, but, by the incoming of success and
material prosperity, had lost his faith, the following message:

"The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to
shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward
Him. Herein hast thou done foolishly; therefore, from henceforth thou
shalt have wars."

God had heard Asa's prayer in early life, but disaster came and trouble
was sent, because he had given up the life of prayer and simple faith.

In Romans 15:30, we have the word, "strive," occurring, in the request
which Paul made for prayerful cooperation.

In Colossians 4:12, we have the same word, but translated differently:
"Epaphras always labouring fervently for you in prayer." Paul charged
the Romans to "strive together with him in prayer," that is, to help
him in his struggle of prayer. The word means to enter into a contest,
to fight against adversaries. It means, moreover, to engage with
fervent zeal to endeavour to obtain.

These recorded instances of the exercise and reward of faith, give us
easily to see that, in almost every instance, faith was blended with
trust until it is not too much to say that the former was swallowed up
in the latter. It is hard to properly distinguish the specific
activities of these two qualities, faith and trust. But there is a
point, beyond all peradventure, at which faith is relieved of its
burden, so to speak; where trust comes along and says: "You have done
your part, the rest is mine!"

In the incident of the barren fig tree, our Lord transfers the
marvellous power of faith to His disciples. To their exclamation, "How
soon is the fig tree withered alway!" He said:

"If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is
done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be
thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all
things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall
receive."

When a Christian believer attains to faith of such magnificent
proportions as these, he steps into the realm of implicit trust. He
stands without a tremor on the apex of his spiritual outreaching. He
has attained faith's veritable top stone which is unswerving,
unalterable, unalienable trust in the power of the living God.
__________________________________________________________________

VI. PRAYER AND IMPORTUNITY

"How glibly we talk of praying without ceasing! Yet we are quite apt to
quit, if our prayer remained unanswered but one week or month! We
assume that by a stroke of His arm or an action of His will, God will
give us what we ask. It never seems to dawn on us, that He is the
Master of nature, as of grace, and that, sometimes He chooses one way,
and sometimes another in which to do His work. It takes years,
sometimes, to answer a prayer and when it is answered, and we look
backward we can see that it did. But God knows all the time, and it is
His will that we pray, and pray, and still pray, and so come to know,
indeed and of a truth, what it is to pray without ceasing." -- ANON.

OUR Lord Jesus declared that "men ought always to pray and not to
faint," and the parable in which His words occur, was taught with the
intention of saving men from faint-heartedness and weakness in prayer.
Our Lord was seeking to teach that laxity must be guarded against, and
persistence fostered and encouraged. There can be no two opinions
regarding the importance of the exercise of this indispensable quality
in our praying.

Importunate prayer is a mighty movement of the soul toward God. It is a
stirring of the deepest forces of the soul, toward the throne of
heavenly grace. It is the ability to hold on, press on, and wait.
Restless desire, restful patience, and strength of grasp are all
embraced in it. It is not an incident, or a performance, but a passion
of soul. It is not a want, half-needed, but a sheer necessity.

The wrestling quality in importunate prayers does not spring from
physical vehemence or fleshly energy. It is not an impulse of energy,
not a mere earnestness of soul; it is an inwrought force, a faculty
implanted and aroused by the Holy Spirit. Virtually, it is the
intercession of the Spirit of God, in us; it is, moreover, "the
effectual, fervent prayer, which availeth much." The Divine Spirit
informing every element within us, with the energy of His own striving,
is the essence of the importunity which urges our praying at the
mercy-seat, to continue until the fire falls and the blessing descends.
This wrestling in prayer may not be boisterous nor vehement, but quiet,
tenacious and urgent. Silent, it may be, when there are no visible
outlets for its mighty forces.

Nothing distinguishes the children of God so clearly and strongly as
prayer. It is the one infallible mark and test of being a Christian.
Christian people are prayerful, the worldly-minded, prayerless.
Christians call on God; worldlings ignore God, and call not on His
Name. But even the Christian had need to cultivate continual prayer.
Prayer must be habitual, but much more than a habit. It is duty, yet
one which rises far above, and goes beyond the ordinary implications of
the term. It is the expression of a relation to God, a yearning for
Divine communion. It is the outward and upward flow of the inward life
toward its original fountain. It is an assertion of the soul's
paternity, a claiming of the sonship, which links man to the Eternal.

Prayer has everything to do with moulding the soul into the image of
God, and has everything to do with enhancing and enlarging the measure
of Divine grace. It has everything to do with bringing the soul into
complete communion with God. It has everything to do with enriching,
broadening and maturing the soul's experience of God. That man cannot
possibly be called a Christian, who does not pray. By no possible
pretext can he claim any right to the term, nor its implied
significance. If he do not pray, he is a sinner, pure and simple, for
prayer is the only way in which the soul of man can enter into
fellowship and communion with the Source of all Christlike spirit and
energy. Hence, if he pray not, he is not of the household of faith.

In this study however, we turn our thought to one phase of prayer --
that of importunity; the pressing of our desires upon God with urgency
and perseverance; the praying with that tenacity and tension which
neither relaxes nor ceases until its plea is heard, and its cause is
won.

He who has clear views of God, and Scriptural conceptions of the Divine
character; who appreciates his privilege of approach unto God; who
understands his inward need of all that God has for him -- that man
will be solicitous, outspoken and importunate. In Holy Writ, the duty
of prayer, itself, is advocated in terms which are only barely stronger
than those in which the necessity for its importunity is set forth. The
praying which influences God is declared to be that of the fervent,
effectual outpouring of a righteous man. That is to say, it is prayer
on fire, having no feeble, flickering flame, no momentary flash, but
shining with a vigorous and steady glow.

The repeated intercessions of Abraham for the salvation of Sodom and
Gomorrah present an early example of the necessity for, and benefit
deriving from importunate praying. Jacob, wrestling all night with the
angel, gives significant emphasis to the power of a dogged perseverance
in praying, and shows how, in things spiritual, importunity succeeds,
just as effectively as it does in matters relating to time and sense.

As we have noted, elsewhere, Moses prayed forty days and forty nights,
seeking to stay the wrath of God against Israel, and his example and
success are a stimulus to present-day faith in its darkest hour. Elijah
repeated and urged his prayer seven times ere the raincloud appeared
above the horizon, heralding the success of his prayer and the victory
of his faith. On one occasion Daniel though faint and weak, pressed his
case three weeks, ere the answer and the blessing came.

Many nights during His earthly life did the blessed Saviour spend in
prayer. In Gethsemane He presented the same petition, three times, with
unabated, urgent, yet submissive importunity, which involved every
element of His soul, and issued in tears and bloody sweat. His life
crises were distinctly marked, his life victories all won, in hours of
importunate prayer. And the servant is not greater than his Lord.

The Parable of the Importunate Widow is a classic of insistent prayer.
We shall do well to refresh our remembrance of it, at this point in our
study:

"And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to
pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, which
feared not God, neither regarded man; and there was a widow in that
city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary. And he
would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, Though I
fear not God nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I
will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the
Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge
His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long
with them? I tell you He will avenge them speedily."

This parable stresses the central truth of importunate prayer. The
widow presses her case till the unjust judge yields. If this parable
does not teach the necessity for importunity, it has neither point nor
instruction in it. Take this one thought away, and you have nothing
left worth recording. Beyond all cavil, Christ intended it to stand as
an evidence of the need that exists, for insistent prayer.

We have the same teaching emphasized in the incident of the
Syrophenician woman, who came to Jesus on behalf of her daughter. Here,
importunity is demonstrated, not as a stark impertinence, but as with
the persuasive habiliments of humility, sincerity, and fervency. We are
given a glimpse of a woman's clinging faith, a woman's bitter grief,
and a woman's spiritual insight. The Master went over into that
Sidonian country in order that this truth might be mirrored for all
time -- there is no plea so efficacious as importunate prayer, and none
to which God surrenders Himself so fully and so freely.

The importunity of this distressed mother, won her the victory, and
materialized her request. Yet instead of being an offence to the
Saviour, it drew from Him a word of wonder, and glad surprise. "O
woman, great is thy faith! Be it unto thee, even as thou wilt."

He prays not at all, who does not press his plea. Cold prayers have no
claim on heaven, and no hearing in the courts above. Fire is the life
of prayer, and heaven is reached by flaming importunity rising in an
ascending scale.

Reverting to the case of the importunate widow, we see that her
widowhood, her friendlessness, and her weakness counted for nothing
with the unjust judge. Importunity was everything. "Because this widow
troubleth me," he said, "I will avenge her speedily, lest she weary
me." Solely because the widow imposed upon the time and attention of
the unjust judge, her case was won.

God waits patiently as, day and night, His elect cry unto Him. He is
moved by their requests a thousand times more than was this unjust
judge. A limit is set to His tarrying, by the importunate praying of
His people, and the answer richly given. God finds faith in His praying
child -- the faith which stays and cries -- and He honours it by
permitting its further exercise, to the end that it is strengthened and
enriched. Then He rewards it by granting the burden of its plea, in
plenitude and finality.

The case of the Syrophenician woman previously referred to is a notable
instance of successful importunity, one which is eminently encouraging
to all who would pray successfully. It was a remarkable instance of
insistence and perseverance to ultimate victory, in the face of almost
insuperable obstacles and hindrances. But the woman surmounted them all
by heroic faith and persistent spirit that were as remarkable as they
were successful. Jesus had gone over into her country, "and would have
no man know it." But she breaks through His purpose, violates His
privacy, attracts His attention, and pours out to Him a poignant appeal
of need and faith. Her heart was in her prayer.

At first, Jesus appears to pay no attention to her agony, and ignores
her cry for relief. He gives her neither eye, nor ear, nor word.
Silence, deep and chilling, greets her impassioned cry. But she is not
turned aside, nor disheartened. She holds on. The disciples, offended
at her unseemly clamour, intercede for her, but are silenced by the
Lord's declaring that the woman is entirely outside the scope of His
mission and His ministry.

But neither the failure of the disciples to gain her a hearing nor the
knowledge -- despairing in its very nature -- that she is barred from
the benefits of His mission, daunt her, and serve only to lend
intensity and increased boldness to her approach to Christ. She came
closer, cutting her prayer in twain, and falling at His feet,
worshipping Him, and making her daughter's case her own cries, with
pointed brevity -- "Lord, help me!" This last cry won her case; her
daughter was healed in the self-same hour. Hopeful, urgent, and
unwearied, she stays near the Master, insisting and praying until the
answer is given. What a study in importunity, in earnestness, in
persistence, promoted and propelled under conditions which would have
disheartened any but an heroic, a constant soul.

In these parables of importunate praying, our Lord sets forth, for our
information and encouragement, the serious difficulties which stand in
the way of prayer. At the same time He teaches that importunity
conquers all untoward circumstances and gets to itself a victory over a
whole host of hindrances. He teaches, moreover, that an answer to
prayer is conditional upon the amount of faith that goes to the
petition. To test this, He delays the answer. The superficial pray-er
subsides into silence, when the answer is delayed. But the man of
prayer hangs on, and on. The Lord recognizes and honours his faith, and
gives him a rich and abundant answer to his faith-evidencing,
importunate prayer.
__________________________________________________________________

VII. PRAYER AND IMPORTUNITY (Continued)

"Two-thirds of the praying we do, is for that which would give us the
greatest possible pleasure to receive. It is a sort of spiritual
self-indulgence in which we engage, and as a consequence is the exact
opposite of self-discipline. God knows all this, and keeps His children
asking. In process of time -- His time -- our petitions take on another
aspect, and we, another spiritual approach. God keeps us praying until,
in His wisdom, He deigns to answer. And no matter how long it may be
before He speaks, it is, even then, far earlier than we have a right to
expect or hope to deserve." -- ANON.

THE tenor of Christ's teachings, is to declare that men are to pray
earnestly -- to pray with an earnestness that cannot be denied. Heaven
has harkening ears only for the whole-hearted, and the deeply-earnest.
Energy, courage, and persistent perseverance must back the prayers
which heaven respects, and God hears. All these qualities of soul, so
essential to effectual praying, are brought out in the parable of the
man who went to his friend for bread, at midnight. This man entered on
his errand with confidence. Friendship promised him success. His plea
was pressing: of a truth, he could not go back empty-handed. The flat
refusal chagrined and surprised him. Here even friendship failed! But
there was something to be tried yet -- stern resolution, set, fixed
determination. He would stay and press his demand until the door was
opened, and the request granted. This he proceeded to do, and by dint
of importunity secured what ordinary solicitation had failed to obtain.

The success of this man, achieved in the face of a flat denial, was
used by the Saviour to illustrate the necessity for insistence in
supplicating the throne of heavenly grace. When the answer is not
immediately given, the praying Christian must gather courage at each
delay, and advance in urgency till the answer comes which is assured,
if he have but the faith to press his petition with vigorous faith.

Laxity, faint-heartedness, impatience, timidity will be fatal to our
prayers. Awaiting the onset of our importunity and insistence, is the
Father's heart, the Father's hand, the Father's infinite power, the
Father's infinite willingness to hear and give to His children.

Importunate praying is the earnest, inward movement of the heart toward
God. It is the throwing of the entire force of the spiritual man into
the exercise of prayer. Isaiah lamented that no one stirred himself, to
take hold of God. Much praying was done in Isaiah's time, but it was
too easy, indifferent and complacent. There were no mighty movements of
souls toward God. There was no array of sanctified energies bent on
reaching and grappling with God, to draw from Him the treasures of His
grace. Forceless prayers have no power to overcome difficulties, no
power to win marked results, or to gain complete victories. We must win
God, ere we can win our plea.

Isaiah looked forward with hopeful eyes to the day when religion would
flourish, when there would be times of real praying. When those times
came, the watchmen would not abate their vigilance, but cry day and
night, and those, who were the Lord's remembrancers, would give Him no
rest. Their urgent, persistent efforts would keep all spiritual
interests engaged, and make increasing drafts on God's exhaustless
treasures.

Importunate praying never faints nor grows weary; it is never
discouraged; it never yields to cowardice, but is buoyed up and
sustained by a hope that knows no despair, and a faith which will not
let go. Importunate praying has patience to wait and strength to
continue. It never prepares itself to quit praying, and declines to
rise from its knees until an answer is received.

The familiar, yet heartening words of that great missionary, Adoniram
Judson, is the testimony of a man who was importunate at prayer. He
says:

"I was never deeply interested in any object, never prayed sincerely
and earnestly for it, but that it came at some time, no matter how
distant the day. Somehow, in some shape, probably the last I would have
devised, it came."

"Ask, and ye shall receive. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it
shall be opened unto you." These are the ringing challenges of our Lord
in regard to prayer, and His intimation that true praying must stay,
and advance in effort and urgency, till the prayer is answered, and the
blessing sought, received.

In the three words ask, seek, knock, in the order in which He places
them, Jesus urges the necessity of importunity in prayer. Asking,
seeking, knocking, are ascending rounds in the ladder of successful
prayer. No principle is more definitely enforced by Christ than that
prevailing prayer must have in it the quality which waits and
perseveres, the courage that never surrenders, the patience which never
grows tired, the resolution that never wavers.

In the parable preceding that of the Friend at Midnight, a most
significant and instructive lesson in this respect is outlined.
Indomitable courage, ceaseless pertinacity, fixity of purpose, chief
among the qualities included in Christ's estimate of the highest and
most successful form of praying.

Importunity is made up of intensity, perseverance, patience and
persistence. The seeming delay in answering prayer is the ground and
the demand of importunity. In the first recorded instance of a miracle
being wrought upon one who was blind, as given by Matthew, we have an
illustration of the way in which our Lord appeared not to hearken at
once to those who sought Him. But the two blind men continue their
crying, and follow Him with their continual petition, saying, "Thou Son
of David, have mercy on us." But He answered them not, and passed into
the house. Yet the needy ones followed Him, and, finally, gained their
eyesight and their plea.

The case of blind Bartimaeus is a notable one in many ways. Especially
is it remarkable for the show of persistence which this blind man
exhibited in appealing to our Lord. If it be -- as it seems -- that his
first crying was done as Jesus entered into Jericho, and that he
continued it until Jesus came out of the place, it is all the stronger
an illustration of the necessity of importunate prayer and the success
which comes to those who stake their all on Christ, and give Him no
peace until He grants them their hearts' desire.

Mark puts the whole incident graphically before us. At first, Jesus
seems not to hear. The crowd rebukes the noisy clamour of Bartimaeus.
Despite the seeming unconcern of our Lord, however, and despite the
rebuke of an impatient and quick-tempered crowd, the blind beggar still
cries, and increases the loudness of his cry, until Jesus is impressed
and moved. Finally, the crowd, as well as Jesus, hearken to the
beggar's plea and declare in favour of his cause. He gains his case.
His importunity avails even in the face of apparent neglect on the part
of Jesus, and despite opposition and rebuke from the surrounding
populace. His persistence won where half-hearted indifference would
surely have failed.

Faith has its province, in connection with prayer, and, of course, has
its inseparable association with importunity. But the latter quality
drives the prayer to the believing point. A persistent spirit brings a
man to the place where faith takes hold, claims and appropriates the
blessing.

The imperative necessity of importunate prayer is plainly set forth in
the Word of God, and needs to be stated and re-stated today. We are apt
to overlook this vital truth. Love of ease, spiritual indolence,
religious slothfulness, all operate against this type of petitioning.
Our praying, however, needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy
that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage
which never fails.

We have need, too, to give thought to that mysterious fact of prayer --
the certainty that there will be delays, denials, and seeming failures,
in connection with its exercise. We are to prepare for these, to brook
them, and cease not in our urgent praying. Like a brave soldier, who,
as the conflict grows sterner, exhibits a superior courage than in the
earlier stages of the battle; so does the praying Christian, when delay
and denial face him, increase his earnest asking, and ceases not until
prayer prevail. Moses furnishes an illustrious example of importunity
in prayer. Instead of allowing his nearness to God and his intimacy
with Him to dispense with the necessity for importunity, he regards
them as the better fitting him for its exercise. When Israel set up the
golden calf, the wrath of God waxed fierce against them, and Jehovah,
bent on executing justice, said to Moses when divulging what He
purposed doing, "Let Me alone!" But Moses would not let Him alone. He
threw himself down before the Lord in an agony of intercession in
behalf of the sinning Israelites, and for forty days and nights, fasted
and prayed. What a season of importunate prayer was that!

Jehovah was wroth with Aaron, also, who had acted as leader in this
idolatrous business of the golden calf. But Moses prayed for Aaron as
well as for the Israelites; had he not, both Israel and Aaron had
perished, under the consuming fire of God's wrath.

That long season of pleading before God, left its mighty impress on
Moses. He had been in close relation with God aforetime, but never did
his character attain the greatness that marked it in the days and years
following this long season of importunate intercession.

There can be no question but that importunate prayer moves God, and
heightens human character! If we were more with God in this great
ordinance of intercession, more brightly would our face shine, more
richly endowed would life and service be, with the qualities which earn
the goodwill of humanity, and bring glory to the Name of God.
__________________________________________________________________

VIII. PRAYER AND CHARACTER AND CONDUCT

"General Charles James Gordon, the hero of Khartum, was a truly
Christian soldier. Shut up in the Sudanese town he gallantly held out
for one year, but, finally, was overcome and slain. On his memorial in
Westminster Abbey are these words, 'He gave his money to the poor; his
sympathy to the sorrowing; his life to his country and his soul to
God.'" -- HOMER W. HODGE.

PRAYER governs conduct and conduct makes character. Conduct, is what we
do; character, is what we are. Conduct is the outward life. Character
is the life unseen, hidden within, yet evidenced by that which is seen.
Conduct is external, seen from without; character is internal --
operating within. In the economy of grace conduct is the offspring of
character. Character is the state of the heart, conduct its outward
expression. Character is the root of the tree, conduct, the fruit it
bears.

Prayer is related to all the gifts of grace. To character and conduct
its relation is that of a helper. Prayer helps to establish character
and fashion conduct, and both for their successful continuance depend
on prayer. There may be a certain degree of moral character and conduct
independent of prayer, but there cannot be anything like distinctive
religious character and Christian conduct without it. Prayer helps,
where all other aids fail. The more we pray, the better we are, the
purer and better our lives.

The very end and purpose of the atoning work of Christ is to create
religious character and to make Christian conduct.

"Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

In Christ's teaching, it is not simply works of charity and deeds of
mercy upon which He insists, but inward spiritual character. This much
is demanded, and nothing short of it, will suffice.

In the study of Paul's Epistles, there is one thing which stands out,
clearly and unmistakably -- the insistence on holiness of heart, and
righteousness of life. Paul does not seek, so much, to promote what is
termed "personal work," nor is the leading theme of his letters deeds
of charity. It is the condition of the human heart and the
blamelessness of the personal life, which form the burden of the
writings of St. Paul.

Elsewhere in the Scriptures, too, it is character and conduct which are
made preeminent. The Christian religion deals with men who are devoid
of spiritual character, and unholy in life, and aims so to change them,
that they become holy in heart and righteous in life. It aims to change
bad men into good men; it deals with inward badness, and works to
change it into inward goodness. And it is just here where prayer enters
and demonstrates its wonderful efficacy and fruit. Prayer drives toward
this specific end. In fact, without prayer, no such supernatural change
in moral character, can ever be effected. For the change from badness
to goodness is not wrought "by works of righteousness which we have
done," but according to God's mercy, which saves us "by the washing of
regeneration." And this marvellous change is brought to pass through
earnest, persistent, faithful prayer. Any alleged form of Christianity,
which does not effect this change in the hearts of men, is a delusion
and a snare.

The office of prayer is to change the character and conduct of men, and
in countless instances, has been wrought by prayer. At this point,
prayer, by its credentials, has proved its divinity. And just as it is
the office of prayer to effect this, so it is the prime work of the
Church to take hold of evil men and make them good. Its mission is to
change human nature, to change character, influence behaviour, to
revolutionize conduct. The Church is presumed to be righteous, and
should be engaged in turning men to righteousness. The Church is God's
manufactory on earth, and its primary duty is to create and foster
righteousness of character. This is its very first business. Primarily,
its work is not to acquire members, nor amass numbers, nor aim at
money-getting, nor engage in deeds of charity and works of mercy, but
to produce righteousness of character, and purity of the outward life.

A product reflects and partakes of the character of the manufactory
which makes it. A righteous Church with a righteous purpose makes
righteous men. Prayer produces cleanliness of heart and purity of life.
It can produce nothing else. Unrighteous conduct is born of
prayerlessness; the two go hand-in-hand. Prayer and sinning cannot keep
company with each other. One, or the other, must, of necessity, stop.
Get men to pray, and they will quit sinning, because prayer creates a
distaste for sinning, and so works upon the heart, that evil-doing
becomes repugnant, and the entire nature lifted to a reverent
contemplation of high and holy things.

Prayer is based on character. What we are with God gauges our influence
with Him. It was the inner character, not the outward seeming, of such
men as Abraham, Job, David, Moses and all others, who had such great
influence with God in the days of old. And, today, it is not so much
our words, as what we really are, which weighs with God. Conduct
affects character, of course, and counts for much in our praying. At
the same time, character affects conduct to a far greater extent, and
has a superior influence over prayer. Our inner life not only gives
colour to our praying, but body, as well. Bad living means bad praying
and, in the end, no praying at all. We pray feebly because we live
feebly. The stream of prayer cannot rise higher than the fountain of
living. The force of the inner chamber is made up of the energy which
flows from the confluent streams of living. And the weakness of living
grows out of the shallowness and shoddiness of character.

Feebleness of living reflects its debility and langour in the praying
hours. We simply cannot talk to God, strongly, intimately, and
confidently unless we are living for Him, faithfully and truly. The
prayer-closet cannot become sanctified unto God, when the life is alien
to His precepts and purpose. We must learn this lesson well -- that
righteous character and Christlike conduct give us a peculiar and
preferential standing in prayer before God. His holy Word gives special
emphasis to the part conduct has in imparting value to our praying when
it declares:

"Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He
shall say, Here I am; if thou take away from the midst of thee the
yoke, the putting forth the finger, and speaking vanity."

The wickedness of Israel and their heinous practices were definitely
cited by Isaiah, as the reason why God would turn His ears away from
their prayers:

"And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you:
yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of
blood."

The same sad truth was declared by the Lord through the mouth of
Jeremiah:

"Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or
prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry
unto Me for their trouble."

Here, it is plainly stated, that unholy conduct is a bar to successful
praying, just as it is clearly intimated that, in order to have full
access to God in prayer, there must be a total abandonment of conscious
and premeditated sin.

We are enjoined to pray, "lifting up holy hands, without wrath and
doubting," and must pass the time of our sojourning here, in a rigorous
abstaining from evil if we are to retain our privilege of calling upon
the Father. We cannot, by any process, divorce praying from conduct.

"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His
commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in His sight."

And James declares roundly that men ask and receive not, because they
ask amiss, and seek only the gratification of selfish desires.

Our Lord's injunction, "Watch ye, and pray always," is to cover and
guard all our conduct, so that we may come to our inner chamber with
all its force secured by a vigilant guard kept over our lives.

"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be
overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,
and so that day come upon you unawares."

Quite often, Christian experience founders on the rock of conduct.
Beautiful theories are marred by ugly lives. The most difficult thing
about piety, as it is the most impressive, is to be able to live it. It
is the life which counts, and our praying suffers, as do other phases
of our religious experience, from bad living.

In primitive times preachers were charged to preach by their lives, or
not to preach at all. So, today, Christians, everywhere, ought to be
charged to pray by their lives, or not to pray at all. The most
effective preaching, is not that which is heard from the pulpit, but
that which is proclaimed quietly, humbly and consistently; which
exhibits its excellencies in the home, and in the community. Example
preaches a far more effective sermon than precept. The best preaching,
even in the pulpit, is that which is fortified by godly living, in the
preacher, himself. The most effective work done by the pew is preceded
by, and accompanied with, holiness of life, separation from the world,
severance from sin. Some of the strongest appeals are made with mute
lips -- by godly fathers and saintly mothers who, around the fireside,
feared God, loved His cause, and daily exhibited to their children and
others about them, the beauties and excellencies of Christian life and
conduct.

The best-prepared, most eloquent sermon can be marred and rendered
ineffective, by questionable practices in the preacher. The most active
church worker can have the labour of his hands vitiated by worldliness
of spirit and inconsistency of life. Men preach by their lives, not by
their words, and sermons are delivered, not so much in, and from a
pulpit, as in tempers, actions, and the thousand and one incidents
which crowd the pathway of daily life.

Of course, the prayer of repentance is acceptable to God. He delights
in hearing the cries of penitent sinners. But repentance involves not
only sorrow for sin, but the turning away from wrong-doing, and the
learning to do well. A repentance which does not produce a change in
character and conduct, is a mere sham, which should deceive nobody. Old
things must pass away, all things must become new.

Praying, which does not result in right thinking and right living, is a
farce. We have missed the whole office of prayer if it fail to purge
character and rectify conduct. We have failed entirely to apprehend the
virtue of prayer, if it bring not about the revolutionizing of the
life. In the very nature of things, we must quit praying, or our bad
conduct. Cold, formal praying may exist side by side, with bad conduct,
but such praying, in the estimation of God, is no praying at all. Our
praying advances in power, just in so far as it rectifies the life.
Growing in purity and devotion to God will be a more prayerful life.

The character of the inner life is a condition of effectual praying. As
is the life, so will the praying be. An inconsistent life obstructs
praying and neutralizes what little praying we may do. Always, it is
"the prayer of the righteous man which availeth much." Indeed, one may
go further and assert, that it is only the prayer of the righteous
which avails anything at all -- at any time. To have an eye to God's
glory; to be possessed by an earnest desire to please Him in all our
ways; to possess hands busy in His service; to have feet swift to run
in the way of His commandments -- these give weight and influence and
power to prayer, and secure an audience with God. The incubus of our
lives often breaks the force of our praying, and, not unfrequently, are
as doors of brass, in the face of prayer.

Praying must come out of a cleansed heart and be presented and urged
with the "lifting up of holy hands." It must be fortified by a life
aiming, unceasingly, to obey God, to attain conformity to the Divine
law, and to come into submission to the Divine will.

Let it not be forgotten, that, while life is a condition of prayer,
prayer is also the condition of righteous living. Prayer promotes
righteous living, and is the one great aid to uprightness of heart and
life. The fruit of real praying is right living. Praying sets him who
prays to the great business of "working out his salvation with fear and
trembling;" puts him to watching his temper, conversation and conduct;
causes him to "walk circumspectly, redeeming the time;" enables him to
"walk worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called, with all lowliness
and meekness;" gives him a high incentive to pursue his pilgrimage
consistently by "shunning every evil way, and walking in the good."
__________________________________________________________________

IX. PRAYER AND OBEDIENCE

"An obedience discovered itself in Fletcher of Madeley, which I wish I
could describe or imitate. It produced in him a ready mind to embrace
every cross with alacrity and pleasure. He had a singular love for the
lambs of the flock, and applied himself with the greatest diligence to
their instruction, for which he had a peculiar gift. . . . All his
intercourse with me was so mingled with prayer and praise, that every
employment, and every meal was, as it were, perfumed therewith." --
JOHN WESLEY.

UNDER the Mosaic law, obedience was looked upon as being "better than
sacrifice, and to harken, than the fat of lambs." In Deuteronomy 5:29,
Moses represents Almighty God declaring Himself as to this very quality
in a manner which left no doubt as to the importance He laid upon its
exercise. Referring to the waywardness of His people He cries:

"O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and
keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and
with their children after them."

Unquestionably obedience is a high virtue, a soldier quality. To obey
belongs, preeminently, to the soldier. It is his first and last lesson,
and he must learn how to practice it all the time, without question,
uncomplainingly. Obedience, moreover, is faith in action, and is the
outflow as it is the very test of love. "He that hath My commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me."

Furthermore: obedience is the conserver and the life of love.

"If ye keep My commandments," says Jesus, "ye shall abide in My love,
even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."

What a marvellous statement of the relationship created and maintained
by obedience! The Son of God is held in the bosom of the Father's love,
by virtue of His obedience! And the factor which enables the Son of God
to ever abide in His Father's love is revealed in His own statement,
"For I do, always, those things that please Him."

The gift of the Holy Spirit in full measure and in richer experience,
depends upon loving obedience:

"If ye love Me, keep My commandments," is the Master's word. "And I
will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He
may abide with you for ever."

Obedience to God is a condition of spiritual thrift, inward
satisfaction, stability of heart. "If ye be willing and obedient, ye
shall eat the fruit of the land." Obedience opens the gates of the Holy
City, and gives access to the tree of life.

"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to
the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates, into the city."

What is obedience? It is doing God's will: it is keeping His
commandments. How many of the commandments constitute obedience? To
keep half of them, and to break the other half -- is that real
obedience? To keep all the commandments but one -- is that obedience?
On this point, James the Apostle is most explicit: "Whosoever shall
keep the whole law," he declares, "and yet offend in one point, he is
guilty of all."

The spirit which prompts a man to break one commandment is the spirit
which may move him to break them all. God's commandments are a unit,
and to break one strikes at the principle which underlies and runs
through the whole. He who hesitates not to break a single commandment,
would -- it is more than probable -- under the same stress, and
surrounded by the same circumstances, break them all.

Universal obedience of the race is demanded. Nothing short of implicit
obedience will satisfy God, and the keeping of all His commandments is
the demonstration of it that God requires. But can we keep all of God's
commandments? Can a man receive moral ability such as enables him to
obey every one of them? Certainly he can. By every token, man can,
through prayer, obtain ability to do this very thing.

Does God give commandments which men cannot obey? Is He so arbitrary,
so severe, so unloving, as to issue commandments which cannot be
obeyed? The answer is that in all the annals of Holy Scripture, not a
single instance is recorded of God having commanded any man to do a
thing, which was beyond his power. Is God so unjust and so
inconsiderate as to require of man that which he is unable to render?
Surely not. To infer it, is to slander the character of God.

Let us ponder this thought, a moment: Do earthly parents require of
their children duties which they cannot perform? Where is the father
who would think, even, of being so unjust, and so tyrannical? Is God
less kind and just than faulty, earthly parents? Are they better and
more just than a perfect God? How utterly foolish and untenable a
thought!

In principle, obedience to God is the same quality as obedience to
earthly parents. It implies, in general effect, the giving up of one's
own way, and following that of another; the surrendering of the will to
the will of another; the submission of oneself to the authority and
requirements of a parent. Commands, either from our heavenly Father or
from our earthly father, are love-directing, and all such commands are
in the best interests of those who are commanded. God's commands are
issued neither in severity nor tyranny. They are always issued in love
and in our interests, and so it behooves us to heed and obey them. In
other words, and appraised at its lowest value -- God having issued His
commands to us, in order to promote our good, it pays, therefore, to be
obedient. Obedience brings its own reward. God has ordained it so, and
since He has, even human reason can realize that He would never demand
that which is out of our power to render.

Obedience is love, fulfilling every command, love expressing itself.
Obedience, therefore, is not a hard demand made upon us, any more than
is the service a husband renders his wife, or a wife renders her
husband. Love delights to obey, and please whom it loves. There are no
hardships in love. There may be exactions, but no irk. There are no
impossible tasks for love.

With what simplicity and in what a matter-of-fact way does the Apostle
John say: "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep
His commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in His sight."

This is obedience, running ahead of all and every command. It is love,
obeying by anticipation. They greatly err, and even sin, who declare
that men are bound to commit iniquity, either because of environment,
or heredity, or tendency. God's commands are not grievous. Their ways
are ways of pleasantness, and their paths peace. The task which falls
to obedience is not a hard one. "For My yoke is easy, and My burden is
light."

Far be it from our heavenly Father, to demand impossibilities of His
children. It is possible to please Him in all things, for He is not
hard to please. He is neither a hard master, nor an austere lord,
"taking up that which he lays not down, and reaping that which he did
not sow." Thank God, it is possible for every child of God, to please
his heavenly Father! It is really much easier to please Him than to
please men. Moreover, we may know when we please Him. This is the
witness of the Spirit -- the inward Divine assurance, given to all the
children of God that they are doing their Father's will, and that their
ways are well-pleasing in His sight.

God's commandments are righteous and founded in justice and wisdom.
"Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and
good." "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." God's
commandments, then, can be obeyed by all who seek supplies of grace
which enable them to obey. These commandments must be obeyed. God's
government is at stake. God's children are under obligation to obey
Him; disobedience cannot be permitted. The spirit of rebellion is the
very essence of sin. It is repudiation of God's authority, which God
cannot tolerate. He never has done so, and a declaration of His
attitude was part of the reason the Son of the Highest was made
manifest among men:

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

If any should complain that humanity, under the fall, is too weak and
helpless to obey these high commands of God, the reply is in order
that, through the atonement of Christ, man is enabled to obey. The
Atonement is God's Enabling Act. That which God works in us, in
regeneration and through the agency of the Holy Spirit, bestows
enabling grace sufficient for all that is required of us, under the
Atonement. This grace is furnished without measure, in answer to
prayer. So that, while God commands, He, at the same time, stands
pledged to give us all necessary strength of will and grace of soul to
meet His demands. This being true, man is without excuse for his
disobedience and eminently censurable for refusing, or failing, to
secure requisite grace, whereby he may serve the Lord with reverence,
and with godly fear.

There is one important consideration those who declare it to be
impossible to keep God's commandments strangely overlook, and that is
the vital truth, which declares that through prayer and faith, man's
nature is changed, and made partaker of the Divine nature; that there
is taken out of him all reluctance to obey God, and that his natural
inability to keep God's commandments, growing out of his fallen and
helpless state, is gloriously removed. By this radical change which is
wrought in his moral nature, a man receives power to obey God in every
way, and to yield full and glad allegiance. Then he can say, "I delight
to do Thy will, O my God." Not only is the rebellion incident to the
natural man removed, but a heart which gladly obeys God's Word,
blessedly received.

If it be claimed, that the unrenewed man, with all the disabilities of
the Fall upon him, cannot obey God, there will be no denial. But to
declare that, after one is renewed by the Holy Spirit, has received a
new nature, and become a child of the King, he cannot obey God, is to
assume a ridiculous attitude, and to display, moreover, a lamentable
ignorance of the work and implications of the Atonement.

Implicit and perfect obedience is the state to which the man of prayer
is called. "Lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting," is the
condition of obedient praying. Here inward fidelity and love, together
with outward cleanness are put down as concomitants of acceptable
praying.

John gives the reason for answered prayer in the passage previously
quoted: "And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him because we keep His
commandments and do those things which are pleasing in His sight."

Seeing that the keeping of God's commandments is here set forth as the
reason why He answers prayer, it is to be reasonably assumed that we
can keep God's commandments, can do those things which are pleasing to
Him. Would God make the keeping of His commandments a condition of
effectual prayer, think you, if He knew we could not keep His statutes?
Surely, surely not!

Obedience can ask with boldness at the Throne of grace, and those who
exercise it are the only ones who can ask, after that fashion. The
disobedient folk are timid in their approach and hesitant in their
supplication. They are halted by reason of their wrong-doing. The
requesting yet obedient child comes into the presence of his father
with confidence and boldness. His very consciousness of obedience gives
him courage and frees him from the dread born of disobedience.

To do God's will without demur, is the joy as it is the privilege of
the successful praying-man. It is he who has clean hands and a pure
heart, that can pray with confidence. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
said:

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in
heaven."

To this great deliverance may be added another:

"If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love, even as I have
kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love."

"The Christian's trade," says Luther, "is prayer." But the Christian
has another trade to learn, before he proceeds to learn the secrets of
the trade of prayer. He must learn well the trade of perfect obedience
to the Father's will. Obedience follows love, and prayer follows
obedience. The business of real observance of God's commandments
inseparably accompanies the business of real praying.

One who has been disobedient may pray. He may pray for pardoning mercy
and the peace of his soul. He may come to God's footstool with tears,
with confession, with penitent heart, and God will hear him and answer
his prayer. But this kind of praying does not belong to the child of
God, but to the penitent sinner, who has no other way by which to
approach God. It is the possession of the unjustified soul, not of him
who has been saved and reconciled to God.

An obedient life helps prayer. It speeds prayer to the throne. God
cannot help hearing the prayer of an obedient child. He always has
heard His obedient children when they have prayed. Unquestioning
obedience counts much in the sight of God, at the throne of heavenly
grace. It acts like the confluent tides of many rivers, and gives
volume and fulness of flow as well as power to the prayer chamber. An
obedient life is not simply a reformed life. It is not the old life
primed and painted anew nor a church-going life, nor a good veneering
of activities. Neither is it an external conformation to the dictates
of public morality. Far more than all this is combined in a truly
obedient Christian, God-fearing life.

A life of full obedience; a life settled on the most intimate terms
with God; where the will is in full conformity to God's will; where the
outward life shows the fruit of righteousness -- such a life offers no
bar to the inner chamber but rather, like Aaron and Hur, it lifts up
and sustains the hands of prayer.

If you have an earnest desire to pray well, you must learn how to obey
well. If you have a desire to learn to pray, then you must have an
earnest desire to learn how to do God's will. If you desire to pray to
God, you must first have a consuming desire to obey Him. If you would
have free access to God in prayer, then every obstacle in the nature of
sin or disobedience, must be removed. God delights in the prayers of
obedient children. Requests coming from the lips of those who delight
to do His will, reach His ears with great celerity, and incline Him to
answer them with promptitude and abundance. In themselves, tears are
not meritorious. Yet they have their uses in prayer. Tears should
baptize our place of supplication. He who has never wept concerning his
sins, has never really prayed over his sins. Tears, sometimes, is a
penitent's only plea. But tears are for the past, for the sin and the
wrongdoing. There is another step and stage, waiting to be taken. It is
that of unquestioning obedience, and until it is taken, prayer for
blessing and continued sustenance, will be of no avail.

Everywhere in Holy Scripture God is represented as disapproving of
disobedience and condemning sin, and this is as true in the lives of
His elect as it is in the lives of sinners. Nowhere does He countenance
sin, or excuse disobedience. Always, God puts the emphasis upon
obedience to His commands. Obedience to them brings blessing,
disobedience meets with disaster. This is true, in the Word of God,
from its beginning to its close. It is because of this, that the men of
prayer, in Holy Writ, had such influence with God. Obedient men,
always, have been the closest to God. These are they who have prayed
well and have received great things from God, who have brought great
things to pass.

Obedience to God counts tremendously in the realm of prayer. This fact
cannot be emphasized too much or too often. To plead for a religious
faith which tolerates sinning, is to cut the ground from under the feet
of effectual praying. To excuse sinning by the plea that obedience to
God is not possible to unregenerate men, is to discount the character
of the new birth, and to place men where effective praying is not
possible. At one time Jesus broke out with a very pertinent and
personal question, striking right to the core of disobedience, when He
said: "Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say?"

He who would pray, must obey. He who would get anything out of his
prayers, must be in perfect harmony with God. Prayer puts into those
who sincerely pray a spirit of obedience, for the spirit of
disobedience is not of God and belongs not to God's praying hosts.

An obedient life is a great help to prayer. In fact, an obedient life
is a necessity to prayer, to the sort which accomplishes things. The
absence of an obedient life makes prayer an empty performance, a mere
misnomer. A penitent sinner seeks pardon and salvation and has an
answer to his prayers even with a life stained and debauched with sin.
But God's royal intercessors come before Him with royal lives. Holy
living promotes holy praying. God's intercessors "lift up holy hands,"
the symbols of righteous, obedient lives.
__________________________________________________________________

X. PRAYER AND OBEDIENCE (Continued)

"Many exemplary men have I known, holy in heart and life, within my
four score years. But one equal to John Fletcher -- one so inwardly and
outwardly obedient and devoted to God -- I have not known." -- JOHN
WESLEY.

IT is worthy of note that the praying to which such transcendent
position is given and from which great results are attributable, is not
simply the saying of prayers, but holy praying. It is the "prayers of
the saints," the prayers of the holy men of God. Behind such praying,
giving to it energy and flame are the men and women who are wholly
devoted to God, who are entirely separated from sin, and fully
separated unto God. These are they who always give energy, force and
strength to praying.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was preeminent in praying, because He was
preeminent in saintliness. An entire dedication to God, a full
surrender, which carries with it the whole being, in a flame of holy
consecration -- all this gives wings to faith and energy to prayer. It
opens the door to the throne of grace, and brings strong influence to
bear on Almighty God.

The "lifting up of holy hands" is essential to Christly praying. It is
not, however, a holiness which only dedicates a closet to God, which
sets apart merely an hour to Him, but a consecration which takes hold
of the entire man, which dedicates the whole life to God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners," had full liberty of approach and ready access to God in
prayer. And He had this free and full access because of His
unquestioning obedience to His Father. Right through His earthly life
His supreme care and desire was to do the will of His Father. And this
fact, coupled with another -- the consciousness of having so ordered
His life -- gave Him confidence and assurance, which enabled Him to
draw near to the throne of grace with unbounded confidence, born of
obedience, and promising acceptance, audience, and answer.

Loving obedience puts us where we can "ask anything in His name," with
the assurance, that "He will do it." Loving obedience brings us into
the prayer realm, and makes us beneficiaries of the wealth of Christ,
and of the riches of His grace, through the coming of the Holy Spirit
who will abide with us, and be in us. Cheerful obedience to God,
qualifies us to pray effectually.

This obedience which not only qualifies but fore-runs prayer, must be
loving, constant, always doing the Father's will, and cheerfully
following the path of God's commands.

In the instance of King Hezekiah, it was a potent plea which changed
God's decree that he should die and not live. The stricken ruler called
upon God to remember how that he had walked before Him in truth, and
with a perfect heart. With God, this counted. He hearkened to the
petition, and, as a result, death found his approach to Hezekiah barred
for fifteen years.

Jesus learned obedience in the school of suffering, and, at the same
time, He learned prayer in the school of obedience. Just as it is the
prayer of a righteous man which availeth much, so it is righteousness
which is obedience to God. A righteous man is an obedient man, and he
it is, who can pray effectually, who can accomplish great things when
he betakes himself to his knees.

True praying, be it remembered, is not mere sentiment, nor poetry, nor
eloquent utterance. Nor does it consist of saying in honeyed cadences,
"Lord, Lord." Prayer is not a mere form of words; it is not just
calling upon a Name. Prayer is obedience. It is founded on the
adamantine rock of obedience to God. Only those who obey have the right
to pray. Behind the praying must be the doing; and it is the constant
doing of God's will in daily life which gives prayer its potency, as
our Lord plainly taught:

"Not every one which saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in
heaven. Many will say unto Me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied
in Thy Name, and in Thy Name have cast out devils? And in Thy Name done
many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you; depart from Me, ye that worketh iniquity."

No name, however precious and powerful, can protect and give efficiency
to prayer which is unaccompanied by the doing of God's will. Neither
can the doing, without the praying, protect from Divine disapproval. If
the will of God does not master the life, the praying will be nothing
but sickly sentiment. If prayer do not inspire, sanctify and direct our
work, then self-will enters, to ruin both work and worker.

How great and manifold are the misconceptions of the true elements and
functionings of prayer! There are many who earnestly desire to obtain
an answer to their prayers but who go unrewarded and unblest. They fix
their minds on some promise of God and then endeavour by dint of dogged
perseverance, to summon faith sufficient to lay hold upon, and claim
it. This fixing of the mind on some great promise may avail in
strengthening faith, but, to this holding on to the promise must be
added the persistent and importunate prayer that expects, and waits
till faith grows exceedingly. And who is there that is able and
competent to do such praying save the man who readily, cheerfully and
continually, obeys God?

Faith, in its highest form, is the attitude as well as the act of a
soul surrendered to God, in whom His Word and His Spirit dwells. It is
true that faith must exist in some form, or another, in order to prompt
praying; but in its strongest form, and in its largest results, faith
is the fruit of prayer. That faith increases the ability and the
efficiency of prayer is true; but it is likewise true that prayer
increases the ability and efficiency of faith. Prayer and faith, work,
act and react, one upon the other.

Obedience to God helps faith as no other attribute possibly can. When
obedience -- implicit recognition of the validity, the paramountcy of
the Divine commands -- faith ceases to be an almost superhuman task. It
requires no straining to exercise it. Obedience to God makes it easy to
believe and trust God. Where the spirit of obedience fully impregnates
the soul; where the will is perfectly surrendered to God; where there
is a fixed, unalterable purpose to obey God, faith almost believes
itself. Faith then becomes almost involuntary. After obedience it is,
naturally, the next step, and it is easily and readily taken. The
difficulty in prayer is not with faith, but with obedience, which is
faith's foundation.

We must look well to our obedience, to the secret springs of action, to
the loyalty of our heart to God, if we would pray well, and desire to
get the most out of our praying. Obedience is the groundwork of
effectual praying; this it is, which brings us nigh to God.

The lack of obedience in our lives breaks down our praying. Quite
often, the life is in revolt and this places us where praying is almost
impossible, except it be for pardoning mercy. Disobedient living
produces mighty poor praying. Disobedience shuts the door of the inner
chamber, and bars the way to the Holy of holies. No man can pray --
really pray -- who does not obey.

The will must be surrendered to God as a primary condition of all
successful praying. Everything about us gets its colouring from our
inmost character. The secret will makes character and controls conduct.
The will, therefore, plays an important part in all successful praying.
There can be no praying in its richest implication and truest sense,
where the will is not wholly and fully surrendered to God. This
unswerving loyalty to God is an utterly indispensable condition of the
best, the truest, the most effectual praying. We have "simply got to
trust and obey; there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus -- but to
trust, and obey!"
__________________________________________________________________

XI. PRAYER AND VIGILANCE

"David Brainerd was pursued by unearthly adversaries, who were resolved
to rob him of his guerdon. He knew he must never quit his armour, but
lie down to rest, with his corselet laced. The stains that marred the
perfection of his lustrous dress, the spots of rust on his gleaming
shield, are imperceptible to us; but they were, to him, the source of
much sorrow and ardency of yearning." -- LIFE OF DAVID BRAINERD.

THE description of the Christian soldier given by Paul in the sixth
chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, is compact and comprehensive.
He is depicted as being ever in the conflict, which has many
fluctuating seasons -- seasons of prosperity and adversity, light and
darkness, victory and defeat. He is to pray at all seasons, and with
all prayer, this to be added to the armour in which he is to fare forth
to battle. At all times, he is to have the full panoply of prayer. The
Christian soldier, if he fight to win, must pray much. By this means,
only, is he enabled to defeat his inveterate enemy, the devil, together
with the Evil One's manifold emissaries. "Praying always, with all
prayer," is the Divine direction given him. This covers all seasons,
and embraces all manner of praying.

Christian soldiers, fighting the good fight of faith, have access to a
place of retreat, to which they continually repair for prayer. "Praying
always, with all prayer," is a clear statement of the imperative need
of much praying, and of many kinds of praying, by him who, fighting the
good fight of faith, would win out, in the end, over all his foes.

The Revised Version puts it this way:

"With all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the
Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplications,
for all saints, and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me,
in opening my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the
Gospel, for which I am in bonds."

It cannot be stated too frequently that the life of a Christian is a
warfare, an intense conflict, a lifelong contest. It is a battle,
moreover, waged against invisible foes, who are ever alert, and ever
seeking to entrap, deceive, and ruin the souls of men. The life to
which Holy Scripture calls men is no picnic, or holiday junketing. It
is no pastime, no pleasure jaunt. It entails effort, wrestling,
struggling; it demands the putting forth of the full energy of the
spirit in order to frustrate the foe and to come off, at the last, more
than conqueror. It is no primrose path, no rose-scented dalliance. From
start to finish, it is war. From the hour in which he first draws
sword, to that in which he doffs his harness, the Christian warrior is
compelled to "endure hardness like a good soldier."

What a misconception many people have of the Christian life! How little
the average church member appears to know of the character of the
conflict, and of its demands upon him! How ignorant he seems to be of
the enemies he must encounter, if he engage to serve God faithfully and
so succeed in getting to heaven and receive the crown of life! He seems
scarcely to realize that the world, the flesh and the devil will oppose
his onward march, and will defeat him utterly, unless he give himself
to constant vigilance and unceasing prayer.

The Christian soldier wrestles not against flesh and blood, but against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Or, as the Scriptural margin
reads, "wicked spirits in high places." What a fearful array of forces
are set against him who would make his way through the wilderness of
this world to the portals of the Celestial City! It is no surprise,
therefore, to find Paul, who understood the character of the Christian
life so well, and who was so thoroughly informed as to the malignity
and number of the foes, which the disciple of the Lord must encounter,
carefully and plainly urging him to "put on the whole armour of God,"
and "to pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." Wise,
with a great wisdom, would the present generation be if all professors
of our faith could be induced to realize this all-important and vital
truth, which is so absolutely indispensable to a successful Christian
life.

It is just at this point in much present-day Christian profession, that
one may find its greatest defect. There is little, or nothing, of the
soldier element in it. The discipline, self-denial, spirit of hardship,
determination, so prominent in and belonging to the military life, are,
one and all, largely wanting. Yet the Christian life is warfare, all
the way.

How comprehensive, pointed and striking are all Paul's directions to
the Christian soldier, who is bent on thwarting the devil and saving
his soul alive! First of all, he must possess a clear idea of the
character of the life on which he has entered. Then, he must know
something of his foes -- the adversaries of his immortal soul -- their
strength, their skill, their malignity. Knowing, therefore, something
of the character of the enemy, and realizing the need of preparation to
overcome them, he is prepared to hear the Apostle's decisive
conclusion:

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in he power of His
might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. Wherefore, take unto you the whole
armour of God, that ye may be able to stand in the evil day, and having
done all, to stand."

All these directions end in a climax; and that climax is prayer. How
can the brave warrior for Christ be made braver still? How can the
strong soldier be made stronger still? How can the victorious battler
be made still more victorious? Here are Paul's explicit directions to
that end:

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and
watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all
saints."

Prayer, and more prayer, adds to the fighting qualities and the more
certain victories of God's good fighting-men. The power of prayer is
most forceful on the battle-field amid the din and strife of the
conflict. Paul was preeminently a soldier of the Cross. For him, life
was no flowery bed of ease. He was no dress-parade, holiday soldier,
whose only business was to don a uniform on set occasions. His was a
life of intense conflict, the facing of many adversaries, the exercise
of unsleeping vigilance and constant effort. And, at its close -- in
sight of the end -- we hear him chanting his final song of victory, a I
have fought a good fight," and reading between the lines, we see that
he is more than conqueror!

In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul indicates the nature of his
soldier-life, giving us some views of the kind of praying needed for
such a career. He writes:

"Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for
the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers
to God for me, that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in
Judaea."

Paul had foes in Judaea -- foes who beset and opposed him in the form
of "unbelieving men" and this, added to other weighty reasons, led him
to urge the Roman Christians to "strive with him in prayer." That word
"strive" indicated wrestling, the putting forth of great effort. This
is the kind of effort, and this the sort of spirit, which must possess
the Christian soldier.

Here is a great soldier, a captain-general, in the great struggle,
faced by malignant forces who seek his ruin. His force is well-nigh
spent. What reinforcements can he count on? What can give help and
bring success to a warrior in such a pressing emergency? It is a
critical moment in the conflict. What force can be added to the energy
of his own prayers? The answer is -- in the prayers of others, even the
prayers of his brethren who were at Rome. These, he believes, will
bring him additional aid, so that he can win his fight, overcome his
adversaries, and, ultimately, prevail.

The Christian soldier is to pray at all seasons, and under all
circumstances. His praying must be arranged so as to cover his times of
peace as well as his hours of active conflict. It must be available in
his marching and his fighting. Prayer must diffuse all effort,
impregnate all ventures, decide all issues. The Christian soldier must
be as intense in his praying as in his fighting, for his victories will
depend very much more on his praying than on his fighting. Fervent
supplication must be added to steady resolve, prayer and supplication
must supplement the armour of God. The Holy Spirit must aid the
supplication with His own strenuous plea. And the soldier must pray in
the Spirit. In this, as in other forms of warfare, eternal vigilance is
the price of victory; and thus, watchfulness and persistent
perseverance, must mark the every activity of the Christian warrior.

The soldier-prayer must reflect its profound concern for the success
and well-being of the whole army. The battle is not altogether a
personal matter; victory cannot be achieved for self, alone. There is a
sense, in which the entire army of Christ is involved. The cause of
God, His saints, their woes and trials, their duties and crosses, all
should find a voice and a pleader in the Christian soldier, when he
prays. He dare not limit his praying to himself. Nothing dries up
spiritual secretions so certainly and completely; nothing poisons the
fountain of spiritual life so effectively; nothing acts in such deadly
fashion, as selfish praying.

Note carefully that the Christian's armour will avail him nothing,
unless prayer be added. This is the pivot, the connecting link of the
armour of God. This holds it together, and renders it effective. God's
true soldier plans his campaigns, arranges his battle-forces, and
conducts his conflicts, with prayer. It is all important and absolutely
essential to victory, that prayer should so impregnate the life that
every breath will be a petition, every sigh a supplication. The
Christian soldier must needs be always fighting. He should, of sheer
necessity, be always praying.

The Christian soldier is compelled to constant picket-duty. He must
always be on his guard. He is faced by a foe who never sleeps, who is
always alert, and ever prepared to take advantage of the fortunes of
war. Watchfulness is a cardinal principle with Christ's warrior, "watch
and pray," forever sounding in his ears. He cannot dare to be asleep at
his post. Such a lapse brings him not only under the displeasure of the
Captain of his salvation, but exposes him to added danger.
Watchfulness, therefore, imperatively constitutes the duty of the
soldier of the Lord.

In the New Testament, there are three different words, which are
translated "watch." The first means "absence of sleep," and implies a
wakeful frame of mind, as opposed to listlessness; it is an enjoinder
to keep awake, circumspect, attentive, constant, vigilant. The second
word means "fully awake," -- a state induced by some rousing effort,
which faculty excited to attention and interest, active, cautious, lest
through carelessness or indolence, some destructive calamity should
suddenly evolve. The third word means "to be calm and collected in
spirit," dispassionate, untouched by slumberous or beclouding
influences, a wariness against all pitfalls and beguilements.

All three definitions are used by St. Paul. Two of them are employed in
connection with prayer. Watchfulness intensified, is a requisite for
prayer. Watchfulness must guard and cover the whole spiritual man, and
fit him for prayer. Everything resembling unpreparedness or
non-vigilance, is death to prayer.

In Ephesians, Paul gives prominence to the duty of constant
watchfulness, "Watching thereunto with all perseverance and
supplication." Watch, he says, watch, WATCH! "And what I say unto you,
I say unto all, Watch."

Sleepless wakefulness is the price one must pay for victory over his
spiritual foes. Rest assured that the devil never falls asleep. He is
ever "walking about, seeking whom he may devour." Just as a shepherd
must never be careless and unwatchful lest the wolf devour his sheep,
so the Christian soldier must ever have his eyes wide open, implying
his possession of a spirit which neither slumbers nor grows careless.
The inseparable companions and safeguards of prayer are vigilance,
watchfulness, and a mounted guard. In writing to the Colossians Paul
brackets these inseparable qualities together: "Continue in prayer," he
enjoins, "and watch in the same, with thanksgiving."

When will Christians more thoroughly learn the twofold lesson, that
they are called to a great warfare, and that in order to get the
victory they must give themselves to unsleeping watchfulness and
unceasing prayer?

"Be sober, be vigilant," says Peter, "because your adversary, the
devil, walketh about seeking whom he may devour."

God's Church is a militant host. Its warfare is with unseen forces of
evil. God's people compose an army fighting to establish His kingdom in
the earth. Their aim is to destroy the sovereignty of Satan, and over
its ruins, erect the Kingdom of God, which is "righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost." This militant army is composed of
individual soldiers of the Cross, and the armour of God is needed for
its defence. Prayer must be added as that which crowns the whole.

"Stand then in His great might, With all His strength endued; But take,
to arm you for the fight, The panoply of God."

Prayer is too simple, too evident a duty, to need definition. Necessity
gives being and shape to prayer. Its importance is so absolute, that
the Christian soldier's life, in all the breadth and intensity of it,
should be one of prayer. The entire life of a Christian soldier -- its
being, intention, implication and action -- are all dependent on its
being a life of prayer. Without prayer -- no matter what else he have
-- the Christian soldier's life will be feeble, and ineffective, and
constitute him an easy prey for his spiritual enemies.

Christian experience will be sapless, and Christian influence will be
dry and arid, unless prayer has a high place in the life. Without
prayer the Christian graces will wither and die. Without prayer, we may
add, preaching is edgeless and a vain thing, and the Gospel loses its
wings and its loins. Christ is the lawgiver of prayer, and Paul is His
Apostle of prayer. Both declare its primacy and importance, and
demonstrate the fact of its indispensability. Their prayer-directions
cover all places, include all times, and comprehend all things. How,
then, can the Christian soldier hope or dream of victory, unless he be
fortified by its power? How can he fail, if in addition to putting on
the armour of God he be, at all times and seasons, "watching unto
prayer"?
__________________________________________________________________

XII. PRAYER AND THE WORD OF GOD

"How constantly, in the Scriptures, do we encounter such words as
'field,' 'seed,' 'sower,' 'reaper,' 'seed-time,' 'harvest'! Employing
such metaphors interprets a fact of nature by a parable of grace. The
field is the world and the good seed is the Word of God .Whether the
Word be spoken or written, it is the power of God unto salvation. In
our work of evangelism, the whole world is our field, every creature
the object of effort and every book and tract, a seed of God." -- DAVID
FANT, JR.

GOD'S Word is a record of prayer -- of praying men and their
achievements, of the Divine warrant of prayer and of the encouragement
given to those who pray. No one can read the instances, commands,
examples, multiform statements which concern themselves with prayer,
without realizing that the cause of God, and the success of His work in
this world is committed to prayer; that praying men have been God's
vicegerents on earth; that prayerless men have never been used of Him.

A reverence for God's holy Name is closely related to a high regard for
His Word. This hallowing of God's Name; the ability to do His will on
earth, as it is done in heaven; the establishment and glory of God's
kingdom, are as much involved in prayer, as when Jesus taught men the
Universal Prayer. That "men ought always to pray and not to faint," is
as fundamental to God's cause, today, as when Jesus Christ enshrined
that great truth in the immortal settings of the Parable of the
Importunate Widow.

As God's house is called "the house of prayer," because prayer is the
most important of its holy offices; so by the same token, the Bible may
be called the Book of Prayer. Prayer is the great theme and content of
its message to mankind.

God's Word is the basis, as it is the directory of the prayer of faith.
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom," says St.
Paul, "teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."

As this word of Christ dwelling in us richly is transmuted and
assimilated, it issues in praying. Faith is constructed of the Word and
the Spirit, and faith is the body and substance of prayer.

In many of its aspects, prayer is dependent upon the Word of God. Jesus
says:

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you."

The Word of God is the fulcrum upon which the lever of prayer is
placed, and by which things are mightily moved. God has committed
Himself, His purpose and His promise to prayer. His Word becomes the
basis, the inspiration of our praying, and there are circumstances
under which, by importunate prayer, we may obtain an addition, or an
enlargement of His promises. It is said of the old saints that they,
"through faith obtained promises." There would seem to be in prayer the
capacity for going even beyond the Word, of getting even beyond His
promise, into the very presence of God, Himself.

Jacob wrestled, not so much with a promise, as with the Promiser. We
must take hold of the Promiser, lest the promise prove nugatory. Prayer
may well be defined as that force which vitalizes and energizes the
Word of God, by taking hold of God, Himself. By taking hold of the
Promiser, prayer reissues, and makes personal the promise. "There is
none that stirreth up himself to take hold of Me," is God's sad lament.
"Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me," is
God's recipe for prayer.

By Scriptural warrant, prayer may be divided into the petition of faith
and that of submission. The prayer of faith is based on the written
Word, for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." It
receives its answer, inevitably -- the very thing for which it prays.

The prayer of submission is without a definite word of promise, so to
speak, but takes hold of God with a lowly and contrite spirit, and asks
and pleads with Him, for that which the soul desires. Abraham had no
definite promise that God would spare Sodom. Moses had no definite
promise that God would spare Israel; on the contrary, there was the
declaration of His wrath, and of His purpose to destroy. But the
devoted leader gained his plea with God, when he interceded for the
Israelites with incessant prayers and many tears. Daniel had no
definite promise that God would reveal to him the meaning of the king's
dream, but he prayed specifically, and God answered definitely.

The Word of God is made effectual and operative, by the process and
practice of prayer. The Word of the Lord came to Elijah, "Go show
thyself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth." Elijah showed
himself to Ahab; but the answer to his prayer did not come, until he
had pressed his fiery prayer upon the Lord seven times.

Paul had the definite promise from Christ, that he "would be delivered
from the people and the Gentiles," but we find him exhorting the Romans
in the urgent and solemn manner concerning this very matter:

"Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for
the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers
to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in
Judaea, and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted
of the saints."

The Word of God is a great help in prayer. If it be lodged and written
in our hearts, it will form an outflowing current of prayer, full and
irresistible. Promises, stored in the heart, are to be the fuel from
which prayer receives life and warmth, just as the coal, stored in the
earth, ministers to our comfort on stormy days and wintry nights. The
Word of God is the food, by which prayer is nourished and made strong.
Prayer, like man, cannot live by bread alone, "but by every word which
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord."

Unless the vital forces of prayer are supplied by God's Word, prayer,
though earnest, even vociferous, in its urgency, is, in reality,
flabby, and vapid, and void. The absence of vital force in praying, can
be traced to the absence of a constant supply of God's Word, to repair
the waste, and renew the life. He who would learn to pray well, must
first study God's Word, and store it in his memory and thought.

When we consult God's Word, we find that no duty is more binding, more
exacting, than that of prayer. On the other hand, we discover that no
privilege is more exalted, no habit more richly owned of God. No
promises are more radiant, more abounding, more explicit, more often
reiterated, than those which are attached to prayer. "All things,
whatsoever" are received by prayer, because "all things whatsoever" are
promised. There is no limit to the provisions, included in the promises
to prayer, and no exclusion from its promises. "Every one that asketh,
receiveth." The word of our Lord is to this all-embracing effect: "If
ye shall ask anything in My Name, I will do it."

Here are some of the comprehensive, and exhaustive statements of the
Word of God about prayer, the things to be taken in by prayer, the
strong promise made in answer to prayer:

"Pray without ceasing;" "continue in prayer;" "continuing instant in
prayer;" "in everything by prayer, let your request be made known unto
God;" "pray always, pray and not faint;" "men should pray everywhere;"
"praying always, with all prayer and supplication."

What clear and strong statements are those which are put in the Divine
record, to furnish us with a sure basis of faith, and to urge,
constrain and encourage us to pray! How wide the range of prayer, as
given us, in the Divine Revelation! How these Scriptures incite us to
seek the God of prayer, with all our wants, with all our burdens!

In addition to these statements left on record for our encouragement,
the sacred pages teem with facts, examples, incidents, and
observations, stressing the importance and the absolute necessity of
prayer, and putting emphasis on its all-prevailing power.

The utmost reach and full benefit of the rich promises of the Word of
God, should humbly be received by us, and put to the test. The world
will never receive the full benefits of the Gospel until this be done.
Neither Christian experience nor Christian living will be what they
ought to be till these Divine promises have been fully tested by those
who pray. By prayer, we bring these promises of God's holy will into
the realm of the actual and the real. Prayer is the philosopher's stone
which transmutes them into gold.

If it be asked, what is to be done in order to render God's promises
real, the answer is, that we must pray, until the words of the promise
are clothed upon with the rich raiment of fulfilment.

God's promises are altogether too large to be mastered by desultory
praying. When we examine ourselves, all too often, we discover that our
praying does not rise to the demands of the situation; is so limited
that it is little more than a mere oasis amid the waste and desert of
the world's sin. Who of us, in our praying, measures up to this promise
of our Lord:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works
that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do,
because I go to My Father."

How comprehensive, how far reaching, how all-embracing! How much is
here, for the glory of God, how much for the good of man! How much for
the manifestation of Christ's enthroned power, how much for the reward
of abundant faith! And how great and gracious are the results which can
be made to accrue from the exercise of commensurate, believing prayer!

Look, for a moment, at another of God's great promises, and discover
how we may be undergirded by the Word as we pray, and on what firm
ground we may stand on which to make our petitions to our God:

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you."

In these comprehensive words, God turns Himself over to the will of His
people. When Christ becomes our all-in-all, prayer lays God's treasures
at our feet. Primitive Christianity had an easy and practical solution
of the situation, and got all which God had to give. That simple and
terse solution is recorded in John's First Epistle:

"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His
commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in His sight."

Prayer, coupled with loving obedience, is the way to put God to the
test, and to make prayer answer all ends and all things. Prayer, joined
to the Word of God, hallows and makes sacred all God's gifts. Prayer is
not simply to get things from God, but to make those things holy, which
already have been received from Him. It is not merely to get a
blessing, but also to be able to give a blessing. Prayer makes common
things holy and secular things, sacred. It receives things from God
with thanksgiving and hallows them with thankful hearts, and devoted
service.

In the First Epistle to Timothy, Paul gives us these words:

"For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be
received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and
prayer."

That is a statement which gives a negative to mere asceticism. God's
good gifts are to be holy, not only by God's creative power, but, also,
because they are made holy to us by prayer. We receive them,
appropriate them and sanctify them by prayer.

Doing God's will, and having His Word abiding in us, is an imperative
of effectual praying. But, it may be asked, how are we to know what
God's will is? The answer is, by studying His Word, by hiding it in our
hearts, and by letting the Word dwell in us richly. "The entrance of
Thy word, giveth light."

To know God's will in prayer, we must be filled with God's Spirit, who
maketh intercession for the saints, and in the saints, according to the
will of God. To be filled with God's Spirit, to be filled with God's
Word, is to know God's will. It is to be put in such a frame of mind,
to be found in such a state of heart, as will enable us to read and
interpret aright the purposes of the Infinite. Such filling of the
heart, with the Word and the Spirit, gives us an insight into the will
of the Father, and enables us to rightly discern His will, and puts
within us, a disposition of mind and heart to make it the guide and
compass of our lives.

Epaphras prayed that the Colossians might stand "perfect and complete
in all the will of God." This is proof positive that, not only may we
know the will of God, but that we may know all the will of God. And not
only may we know all the will of God, but we may do all the will of
God. We may, moreover, do all the will of God, not occasionally, or by
a mere impulse, but with a settled habit of conduct. Still further, it
shows us that we may not only do the will of God externally, but from
the heart, doing it cheerfully, without reluctance, or secret
disinclination, or any drawing or holding back from the intimate
presence of the Lord.
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XIII. PRAYER AND THE WORD OF GOD (Continued)

"Some years ago a man was travelling in the wilds of Kentucky. He had
with him a large sum of money and was well armed. He put up at a
log-house one night, but was much concerned with the rough appearance
of the men who came and went from this abode. He retired early but not
to sleep. At midnight he heard the dogs barking furiously and the sound
of someone entering the cabin. Peering through a chink in the boards of
his room, he saw a stranger with a gun in his hand. Another man sat
before the fire. The traveller concluded they were planning to rob him,
and prepared to defend himself and his property. Presently the newcomer
took down a copy of the Bible, read a chapter aloud, and then knelt
down and prayed. The traveller dismissed his fears, put his revolver
away and lay down, to sleep peacefully until morning light. And all
because a Bible was in the cabin, and its owner a man of prayer." --
REV. F. F. SHOUP.

PRAYER has all to do with the success of the preaching of the Word.
This, Paul clearly teaches in that familiar and pressing request he
made to the Thessalonians:

"Finally, brethren, pray for us that the Word of the Lord may have free
course, and be glorified."

Prayer opens the way for the Word of God to run without let or
hindrance, and creates the atmosphere which is favourable to the word
accomplishing its purpose. Prayer puts wheels under God's Word, and
gives wings to the angel of the Lord "having the everlasting Gospel to
preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and
kindred, and tongue, and people." Prayer greatly helps the Word of the
Lord.

The Parable of the Sower is a notable study of preaching, showing its
differing effects and describing the diversity of hearers. The wayside
hearers are legion. The soil lies all unprepared either by previous
thought or prayer; as a consequence, the devil easily takes away the
seed (which is the Word of God) and dissipating all good impressions,
renders the work of the sower futile. No one for a moment believes,
that so much of present-day sowing would go fruitless if only the
hearers would prepare the ground of their hearts beforehand by prayer
and meditation.

Similarly with the stony-ground hearers, and the thorny-ground hearers.
Although the word lodges in their hearts and begins to sprout, yet all
is lost, chiefly because there is no prayer or watchfulness or
cultivation following. The good-ground hearers are profited by the
sowing, simply because their minds have been prepared for the reception
of the seed, and that, after hearing, they have cultivated the seed
sown in their hearts, by the exercise of prayer. All this gives
peculiar emphasis to the conclusion of this striking parable: "Take
heed, therefore, how ye hear." And in order that we may take heed how
we hear, it is needful to give ourselves continually to prayer.

We have got to believe that underlying God's Word is prayer, and upon
prayer, its final success will depend. In the Book of Isaiah we read:

"So shall My word be that goeth out of My mouth; it shall not return
unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

In Psalm 19, David magnifies the Word of God in six statements
concerning it. It converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices
the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures eternally, and is true and
righteous altogether. The Word of God is perfect, sure, right, pure. It
is heart-searching, and at the same time purifying, in its effect. It
is no surprise therefore that after considering the deep spirituality
of the Word of God, its power to search the inner nature of man, and
its deep purity, the Psalmist should close his dissertation with this
passage:

"Who can understand his errors?" And then praying after this fashion:
"Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Keep back Thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Let the words of
my mouth, and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O
Lord, my strength and my redeemer."

James recognizes the deep spirituality of the Word, and its inherent
saving power, in the following exhortation:

"Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness,
and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save
your souls."

And Peter talks along the same line, when describing the saving power
of the Word of God:

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."

Not only does Peter speak of being born again, by the incorruptible
Word of God, but he informs us that to grow in grace we must be like
new-born babes, desiring or feeding upon the "sincere milk of the
Word."

That is not to say, however, that the mere form of words as they occur
in the Bible have in them any saving efficacy. But the Word of God, be
it remembered, is impregnated with the Holy Spirit. And just as there
is a Divine element in the words of Scripture, so also is the same
Divine element to be found in all true preaching of the Word, which is
able to save and convert the soul.

Prayer invariably begets a love for the Word of God, and sets people to
the reading of it. Prayer leads people to obey the Word of God, and
puts into the heart which obeys a joy unspeakable. Praying people and
Bible-reading people are the same sort of folk. The God of the Bible
and the God of prayer are one. God speaks to man in the Bible; man
speaks to God in prayer. One reads the Bible to discover God's will; he
prays in order that he may receive power to do that will. Bible-reading
and praying are the distinguishing traits of those who strive to know
and please God. And just as prayer begets a love for the Scriptures,
and sets people to reading the Bible, so, also, does prayer cause men
and women to visit the house of God, to hear the Scriptures expounded.
Church-going is closely connected with the Bible, not so much because
the Bible cautions us against "forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together as the manner of some is," but because in God's house, God's
chosen minister declares His Word to dying men, explains the
Scriptures, and enforces their teachings upon his hearers. And prayer
germinates a resolve, in those who practise it, not to forsake the
house of God.

Prayer begets a church-going conscience, a church-loving heart, a
church-supporting spirit. It is the praying people, who make it a
matter of conscience, to attend the preaching of the Word; who delight
in its reading; exposition; who support it with their influence and
their means. Prayer exalts the Word of God and gives it preeminence in
the estimation of those who faithfully and wholeheartedly call upon the
Name of the Lord.

Prayer draws its very life from the Bible, and has no standing ground
outside of the warrant of the Scriptures. Its very existence and
character is dependent on revelation made by God to man in His holy
Word. Prayer, in turn, exalts this same revelation, and turns men
toward that Word. The nature, necessity and all-comprehending character
of prayer, is based on the Word of God.

Psalm 119 is a directory of God's Word. With three or four exceptions,
each verse contains a word which identifies, or locates, the Word of
God. Quite often, the writer breaks out into supplication, several
times praying, "Teach me Thy statutes." So deeply impressed is he with
the wonders of God's Word, and of the need for Divine illumination
wherewith to see and understand the wonderful things recorded therein,
that he fervently prays:

"Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy
law."

From the opening of this wonderful Psalm to its close, prayer and God's
Word are intertwined. Almost every phase of God's Word is touched upon
by this inspired writer. So thoroughly convinced was the Psalmist of
the deep spiritual power of the Word of God that he makes this
declaration:

"Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee."

Here the Psalmist found his protection against sinning. By having God's
Word hidden in his heart; in having his whole being thoroughly
impregnated with that Word; in being brought completely under its
benign and gracious influence, he was enabled to walk to and fro in the
earth, safe from the attack of the Evil One, and fortified against a
proneness to wander out of the way.

We find, furthermore, the power of prayer to create a real love for the
Scriptures, and to put within men a nature which will take pleasure in
the Word. In holy ecstasy he cries, "O, how I love Thy law! It is my
meditation all the day." And again: "How sweet are Thy words to my
taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my taste."

Would we have a relish for God's Word? Then let us give ourselves
continually to prayer. He who would have a heart for the reading of the
Bible must not -- dare not -- forget to pray. The man of whom it can be
said, "His delight is in the law of the Lord," is the man who can truly
say, "I delight to visit the place of prayer." No man loves the Bible,
who does not love to pray. No man loves to pray, who does not delight
in the law of the Lord.

Our Lord was a man of prayer, and He magnified the Word of God, quoting
often from the Scriptures. Right through His earthly life Jesus
observed Sabbath-keeping, church-going and the reading of the Word of
God, and had prayer intermingled with them all:

"And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as His
custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day, and stood up
to read."

Here, let it be said, that no two things are more essential to a
spirit-filled life than Bible-reading and secret prayer; no two things
more helpful to growth in grace; to getting the largest joy out of a
Christian life; toward establishing one in the ways of eternal peace.
The neglect of these all-important duties, presages leanness of soul,
loss of joy, absence of peace, dryness of spirit, decay in all that
pertains to spiritual life. Neglecting these things paves the way for
apostasy, and gives the Evil One an advantage such as he is not likely
to ignore. Reading God's Word regularly, and praying habitually in the
secret place of the Most High puts one where he is absolutely safe from
the attacks of the enemy of souls, and guarantees him salvation and
final victory, through the overcoming power of the Lamb.
__________________________________________________________________

XIV. PRAYER AND THE HOUSE OF GOD

"And dear to me the loud 'Amen,' Which echoes through the blest abode
-- Which swells, and sinks, then swells again, Dies on the walls -- but
lives with God! "

PRAYER stands related to places, times, occasions and circumstances. It
has to do with God and with everything which is related to God, and it
has an intimate and special relationship to His house. A church is a
sacred place, set apart from all unhallowed and secular uses, for the
worship of God. As worship is prayer, the house of God is a place set
apart for worship. It is no common place; it is where God dwells, where
He meets with His people, and He delights in the worship of His saints.

Prayer is always in place in the house of God. When prayer is a
stranger there, then it ceases to be God's house at all. Our Lord put
peculiar emphasis upon what the Church was when He cast out the buyers
and sellers in the Temple, repeating the words from Isaiah, "It is
written, My house shall be called the house of prayer." He makes prayer
preeminent, that which stands out above all else in the house of God.
They, who sidetrack prayer or seek to minify it, and give it a
secondary place, pervert the Church of God, and make it something less
and other than it is ordained to be.

Prayer is perfectly at home in the house of God. It is no stranger, no
mere guest; it belongs there. It has a peculiar affinity for the place,
and has, moreover, a Divine right there, being set, therein, by Divine
appointment and approval.

The inner chamber is a sacred place for personal worship. The house of
God is a holy place for united worship. The prayer-closet is for
individual prayer. The house of God is for mutual prayer, concerted
prayer, united prayer. Yet even in the house of God, there is the
element of private worship, since God's people are to worship Him and
pray to Him, personally, even in public worship. The Church is for the
united prayer of kindred, yet individual believers.

The life, power and glory of the Church is prayer. The life of its
members is dependent on prayer and the presence of God is secured and
retained by prayer. The very place is made sacred by its ministry.
Without it, the Church is lifeless and powerless. Without it, even the
building, itself, is nothing, more or other, than any other structure.
Prayer converts even the bricks, and mortar, and lumber, into a
sanctuary, a holy of holies, where the Shekinah dwells. It separates
it, in spirit and in purpose from all other edifices. Prayer gives a
peculiar sacredness to the building, sanctifies it, sets it apart for
God, conserves it from all common and mundane affairs.

With prayer, though the house of God might be supposed to lack
everything else, it becomes a Divine sanctuary. So the Tabernacle,
moving about from place to place, became the holy of holies, because
prayer was there. Without prayer the building may be costly, perfect in
all its appointments, beautiful for situation and attractive to the
eye, but it comes down to the human, with nothing Divine in it, and is
on a level with all other buildings.

Without prayer, a church is like a body without spirit; it is a dead,
inanimate thing. A church with prayer in it, has God in it. When prayer
is set aside, God is outlawed. When prayer becomes an unfamiliar
exercise, then God Himself is a stranger there.

As God's house is a house of prayer, the Divine intention is that
people should leave their homes and go to meet Him in His own house.
The building is set apart for prayer especially, and as God has made
special promise to meet His people there, it is their duty to go there,
and for that specific end. Prayer should be the chief attraction for
all spiritually minded church-goers. While it is conceded that the
preaching of the Word has an important place in the house of God, yet
prayer is its predominating, distinguishing feature. Not that all other
places are sinful, or evil, in themselves or in their uses. But they
are secular and human, having no special conception of God in them. The
Church is, essentially, religious and Divine. The work belonging to
other places is done without special reference to God. He is not
specifically recognized, nor called upon. In the Church, however, God
is acknowledged, and nothing is done without Him. Prayer is the one
distinguishing mark of the house of God. As prayer distinguishes
Christian from unchristian people, so prayer distinguishes God's house
from all other houses. It is a place where faithful believers meet with
their Lord.

As God's house is, preeminently, a house of prayer, prayer should enter
into and underlie everything that is undertaken there. Prayer be longs
to every sort of work appertaining to the Church of God. As God's house
is a house where the business of praying is carried on, so is it a
place where the business of making praying people out of prayerless
people is done. The house of God is a Divine workshop, and there the
work of prayer goes on. Or the house of God is a Divine schoolhouse, in
which the lesson of prayer is taught; where men and women learn to
pray, and where they are graduated, in the school of prayer.

Any church calling itself the house of God, and failing to magnify
prayer; which does not put prayer in the forefront of its activities;
which does not teach the great lesson of prayer, should change its
teaching to conform to the Divine pattern or change the name of its
building to something other than a house of prayer.

On an earlier page, we made reference to the finding of the Book of the
Law of the Lord given to Moses. How long that book had been there, we
do not know. But when tidings of its discovery were carried to Josiah,
he rent his clothes and was greatly disturbed. He lamented the neglect
of God's Word and saw, as a natural result, the iniquity which abounded
throughout the land.

And then, Josiah thought of God, and commanded Hilkiah, the priest, to
go and make inquiry of the Lord. Such neglect of the Word of the Law
was too serious a matter to be treated lightly, and God must be
enquired of, and repentance shown, by himself, and the nation:

"Go enquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel
and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great
is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our
fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is
written in this book."

But that was not all. Josiah was bent on promoting a revival of
religion in his kingdom, so we find him gathering all the elders of
Jerusalem and Judah together, for that purpose. When they had come
together, the king went into the house of the Lord, and himself read in
all the words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in the house
of the Lord.

With this righteous king, God's Word was of great importance. He
esteemed it at its proper worth, and counted a knowledge of it to be of
such grave importance, as to demand his consulting God in prayer about
it, and to warrant the gathering together of the notables of his
kingdom, so that they, together with himself, should be instructed out
of God's Book concerning God's Law.

When Ezra, returned from Babylon, was seeking the reconstruction of his
nation, the people, themselves, were alive to the situation, and, on
one occasion, the priests, Levites and people assembled themselves
together as one man before the water gate.

"And they spake unto Ezra the scribe, to bring the book of the law of
Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest
brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all
that could hear with understanding. And he read therein before the
street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday;
and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the
law."

This was Bible-reading Day in Judah -- a real revival of
Scripture-study. The leaders read the law before the people, whose ears
were keen to hear what God had to say to them out of the Book of the
Law. But it was not only a Bible-reading day. It was a time when real
preaching was done, as the following passage indicates:

"So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly and gave the
sense, and caused them to understand the reading."

Here then is the Scriptural definition of preaching. No better
definition can be given. To read the Word of God distinctly -- to read
it so that the people could hear and understand the words read; not to
mumble out the words, nor read it in an undertone or with
indistinctness, but boldly and clearly -- that was the method followed
in Jerusalem, on this auspicious day. Moreover: the sense of the words
was made clear in the meeting held before the water gate; the people
were treated to a high type of expository preaching. That was true
preaching -- preaching of a sort which is sorely needed, today, in
order that God's Word may have due effect on the hearts of the people.
This meeting in Jerusalem surely contains a lesson which all
present-day preachers should learn and heed.

No one having any knowledge of the existing facts, will deny the
comparative lack of expository preaching in the pulpit effort of today.
And none, we should, at least, imagine, will do other than lament the
lack. Topical preaching, polemical preaching, historical preaching, and
other forms of sermonic output have, one supposes, their rightful and
opportune uses. But expository preaching -- the prayerful expounding of
the Word of God is preaching that is preaching -- pulpit effort par
excellence.

For its successful accomplishment, however, a preacher needs must be a
man of prayer. For every hour spent in his study-chair, he will have to
spend two upon his knees. For every hour he devotes to wrestling with
an obscure passage of Holy Writ, he must have two in the which to be
found wrestling with God. Prayer and preaching: preaching and prayer!
They cannot be separated. The ancient cry was: "To your tents, O
Israel! "The modern cry should be: "To your knees, O preachers, to your
knees!"
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Indexes
__________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture References

Deuteronomy

[1]5:29

Psalms

[2]19 [3]119

Mark

[4]11:23

Romans

[5]15:30

Colossians

[6]4:12
__________________________________________________________________

This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
generated on demand from ThML source.