十一月十三日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/11/1113.mp3″]
经文: 要人常常祷告。(路加福音十八:1)
如果一般人都需要常常祈求且不灰心,基督徒更是应多多祷告。耶稣交付祂教会的使命与祂来到世上的使命相同,其中包括代求。教会是世人的祭司。恩典之门总为她的恳求而开,恳求者也永不空手而归。圣殿之帷幕已为她破裂,宝血已为她洒在祭坛上,上帝不断地要她祈求她所希望得着的。她能拒绝这特权吗?甚至天使也会嫉妒呢!她可以每时每刻到王的跟前。她能不善用这宝贵的特权吗?“教会”总有需要祈祷之处。在她之内总会有一些人跌倒犯罪,总有一些羊需要代祷,好教他们能来到基督的胸前。坚强的人需要代祷,他才不致僭越,软弱的人也需要代祷,才不致绝断。即使我们保持二十四小时的祷告聚会,并且天天如此,也不会缺少可以祈求的事项。我们之中不是总有人患病、贫穷、受苦、动摇的吗?我们之中岂不是总有人盼望亲属悔罪、后退者重新振作、堕落的人蒙拯救吗?聚会和传福音虽然不停止,行动虽然从未停止,但是仍有百万罪人死在罪恶过犯之中。在这充满偶像、残暴、和罪恶的世界中。“教会”若不祷告,就等于轻忽了爱祂之主交托给她的使命,如此如何能得到宽恕呢?但愿“教会”不停止祈求,并愿每位信徒将他微小的祷告投入此宝库内。
Evening, November 13
Scripture: “Men ought always to pray.”(Luke 18:1)
If men ought always to pray and not to faint, much more Christian men. Jesus has sent his church into the world on the same errand upon which he himself came, and this mission includes intercession. What if I say that the church is the world’s priest? Creation is dumb, but the church is to find a mouth for it. It is the church’s high privilege to pray with acceptance. The door of grace is always open for her petitions, and they never return empty-handed. The veil was rent for her, the blood was sprinkled upon the altar for her, God constantly invites her to ask what she wills. Will she refuse the privilege which angels might envy her? Is she not the bride of Christ? May she not go in unto her King at every hour? Shall she allow the precious privilege to be unused? The church always has need for prayer. There are always some in her midst who are declining, or falling into open sin. There are lambs to be prayed for, that they may be carried in Christ’s bosom? the strong, lest they grow presumptuous; and the weak, lest they become despairing. If we kept up prayer-meetings four-and-twenty hours in the day, all the days in the year, we might never be without a special subject for supplication. Are we ever without the sick and the poor, the afflicted and the wavering? Are we ever without those who seek the conversion of relatives, the reclaiming of back-sliders, or the salvation of the depraved? Nay, with congregations constantly gathering, with ministers always preaching, with millions of sinners lying dead in trespasses and sins; in a country over which the darkness of Romanism is certainly descending; in a world full of idols, cruelties, devilries, if the church doth not pray, how shall she excuse her base neglect of the commission of her loving Lord? Let the church be constant in supplication, let every private believer cast his mite of prayer into the treasury.