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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:41:34 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:41:34 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13196-0.txt b/13196-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96964d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/13196-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5226 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13196 *** + +Quiet Talks on Prayer + +by + +S. D. Gordon + + + + +Copyright, 1904, by +Fleming H. Revell Company + + + + +Contents + + + +I. The Meaning and Mission of Prayer + 1. Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power + 2. Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict + 3. The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer + 4. Does Prayer Influence God? + +II. Hindrances to Prayer + 1. Why the Results Fail + 2. Why the Results are Delayed + 3. The Great Outside Hindrance + +III. How to Pray + 1. The "How" of Relationship + 2. The "How" of Method + 3. The Listening Side of Prayer + 4. Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer + 5. May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones + +IV. Jesus' Habits of Prayer + 1. A Pen Sketch + 2. Dissolving Views + 3. Deepening Shadows + 4. Under the Olive Trees + 5. A Composite Picture + + + + +I. The Meaning And Mission Of Prayer + + +1. Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power. +2. Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict. +3. The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer. +4. Does Prayer Influence God? + + + + +Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power + + + +<u>Five Outlets of Power.</u> + + +A great sorrow has come into the heart of God. Let it be told only in +hushed voice--one of His worlds is _a prodigal_! Hush your voice yet +more--_ours_ is that prodigal world. Let your voice soften down still +more--_we_ have _consented_ to the prodigal part of the story. But, in +softest tones yet, He has won some of us back with His strong tender love. +And now let the voice ring out with great gladness--we won ones may be the +pathway back to God for the others. That is His earnest desire. That +should be our dominant ambition. For that purpose He has endowed us with +peculiar power. + +There is one inlet of power in the life--anybody's life--any kind of +power: just one inlet--the Holy Spirit. He is power. He is in every one +who opens his door to God. He eagerly enters every open door. He comes in +by our invitation and consent. His presence within is the vital thing. + +But with many of us while He is in, He is not in control: in as guest; not +as host. That is to say He is hindered in His natural movements; tied up, +so that He cannot do what He would. And so we are not conscious or only +partially conscious of His presence. And others are still less so. But to +yield to His mastery, to cultivate His friendship, to give Him full +swing--that will result in what is called power. One inlet of power--the +Holy Spirit in control. + +There are five outlets of power: five avenues through which this One +within shows Himself, and reveals His power. + +First: through the life, what we are. Just simply what we are. If we be +right the power of God will be constantly flowing out, though we be not +conscious of it. It throws the keenest kind of emphasis on a man being +right in his life. There will be an eager desire to serve. Yet we may +constantly do more in what we are than in what we do. We may serve better +in the lives we live than in the best service we ever give. The memory of +that should bring rest to your spirit when a bit tired, and may be +disheartened because tired. + +Second: through the lips, what we say. It may be said stammeringly and +falteringly. But if said your best with the desire to please the Master it +will be God-blest. I have heard a man talk. And he stuttered and blushed +and got his grammar badly tangled, but my heart burned as I listened. And +I have heard a man talk with smooth speech, and it rolled off me as easily +as it rolled out of him. Do your best, and leave the rest. If we are in +touch with God His fire burns whether the tongue stammer or has good +control of its powers. + +Third: through our service, what we do. It may be done bunglingly and +blunderingly. Your best may not be the best, but if it be your best it +will bring a harvest. + +Fourth: through our money, what we do not keep, but loosen out for God. +Money comes the nearest to omnipotence of anything we handle. + +And, fifth: through our prayer, what we claim in Jesus' name. + +And by all odds the greatest of these is the outlet through prayer. The +power of a life touches just one spot, but the touch is tremendous. What +is there we think to be compared with a pure, unselfish, gently strong +life. Yet its power is limited to one spot where it is being lived. Power +through the lips depends wholly upon the life back of the lips. Words that +come brokenly are often made burning and eloquent by the life behind them. +And words that are smooth and easy, often have all their meaning sapped by +the life back of them. Power through service may be great, and may be +touching many spots, yet it is always less than that of a life. Power +through money depends wholly upon the motive back of the money. Begrudged +money, stained money, soils the treasury. That which comes nearest to +omnipotence also comes nearest to impotence. But the power loosened out +through prayer is as tremendous, at the least, to say no more just now, is +as tremendous as the power of a true fragrant life and, mark you, _and_, +may touch not one spot but wherever in the whole round world you may +choose to turn it. + +The greatest thing any one can do for God and for man is to pray. It is +not the only thing. But it is the chief thing. A correct balancing of the +possible powers one may exert puts it first. For if a man is to pray +right, he must first _be_ right in his motives and life. And if a man _be_ +right, and put the practice of praying in its right place, then his +serving and giving and speaking will be fairly fragrant with the presence +of God. + +The great people of the earth to-day are the people who pray. I do not +mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in +prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean these +people who _take_ time and _pray_. They have not time. It must be taken +from something else. This something else is important. Very important, and +pressing than prayer. There are people that put prayer first, and group +the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer. + +These are the people to-day who are doing the most for God; in winning +souls; in solving problems; in awakening churches; in supplying both men +and money for mission posts; in keeping fresh and strong these lives far +off in sacrificial service on the foreign field where the thickest +fighting is going on; in keeping the old earth sweet awhile longer. + +It is wholly a secret service. We do not know who these people are, though +sometimes shrewd guesses may be made. I often think that sometimes we pass +some plain-looking woman quietly slipping out of church; gown been turned +two or three times; bonnet fixed over more than once; hands that have not +known much of the softening of gloves; and we hardly giver her a passing +thought, and do not know, nor guess, that perhaps _she_ is the one who is +doing far more for her church, and for the world, and for God than a +hundred who would claim more attention and thought, _because she prays_; +truly prays as the Spirit of God inspires and guides. + +Let me put it this way: God will do as a result of the praying of the +humblest one here what otherwise He _would_ not do. Yes, I can make it +stronger than that, and I must make it stronger, for the Book does. +Listen: God will do in answer to the prayer of the weakest one here what +otherwise he _could_ not do. "Oh!" someone thinks, "you are getting that +too strong now." Well, you listen to Jesus' own words in that last long +quiet talk He had with the eleven men between the upper room and the +olive-green. John preserves much of that talk for us. Listen: "Ye did not +choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear +fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that"--listen, a part of the +purpose why we have been chosen--"that whatsoever ye shall ask of the +Father in My name, He _may_ give it you."[1] Mark that word "may"; not +"shall" this time but _may_. "Shall" throws the matter over on God--His +purpose. "May" throws it over upon us--our cooperation. That is to say our +praying makes it possible for God to do what otherwise He could not do. + +And if you think into it a bit, this fits in with the true conception of +prayer. In its simplest analysis prayer--all prayer--has, must have, two +parts. First, a God to give. "Yes," you say, "certainly, a God wealthy, +willing, all of that." And, just as certainly, there must be a second +factor, _a man to receive_. Man's willingness is God's channel to the +earth. God never crowds nor coerces. Everything God does for man and +through man He does with man's consent, always. With due reverence, but +very plainly, let it be said that God can do nothing for the man with shut +hand and shut life. There must be an open hand and heart and life +_through_ which God can give what He longs to. An open life, an open hand, +open upward, is the pipe line of communication between the heart of God +and this poor befooled old world. Our prayer is God's opportunity to get +into the world that would shut Him out. + + + +<u>In touch with a planet.</u> + + +Prayer opens a whole planet to a man's activities. I can as really be +touching hearts for God in far away India or China through prayer, as +though I were there. Not in as many ways as though there, but as truly. +Understand me, I think the highest possible _privilege_ of service is in +those far off lands. There the need is greatest, the darkness densest, and +the pleading call most eloquently pathetic. And if one _may_ go +there--happy man!--if one be _privileged_ to go to the honoured place of +service he may then use all five outlets direct in the spot where he is. + +Yet this is only one spot. But his relationship is as wide as his Master's +and his sympathies should be. A man may be in Africa, but if his heart be +in touch with Jesus it will be burning for _a world_. Prayer puts us into +direct dynamic touch with a world. + +A man may go aside to-day, and shut his door, and as really spend a +half-hour in India--I am thinking of my words as I say them, it seems so +much to say, and yet it is true--as really spend a half hour of his life +in India for God as though he were there in person. _Is_ that true? If it +be true, surely you and I must get more half-hours for this secret +service. Without any doubt he may turn his key and be for a bit of time as +potentially in China by the power of prayer, as though there in actual +bodily form. I say _potentially_ present. Of course not consciously +present. But in the _power exerted upon men_ he may be truly present at +the objective point of his prayer. He may give a new meaning to the +printed page being read by some native down in Africa. He may give a new +tongue of flame to the preacher or teacher. He may make it easier for men +to accept the story of Jesus, and then to yield themselves to +Jesus--yonder men swept and swayed by evil spirits, and by prejudices for +generations--make it easier for them to accept the story, and, if need be, +to cut with loved ones, and step out and up into a new life. + +Some earnest heart enters an objection here, perhaps. You are thinking +that if you were there you could influence men by your personal contact, +by the living voice. So you could. And there must be the personal touch. +Would that there were many times more going for that blessed personal +touch. But this is the thing to mark keenly both for those who may go, and +for those who must stay: no matter where you are you do more through your +praying than through your personality. If you were in India you could _add +your personality to your prayer_. That would be a great thing to do. But +whether there or here, you must first win the victory, every step, every +life, every foot of the way, in secret, in the spirit-realm, and then add +the mighty touch of your personality in service. You can do _more _ than +pray, _after_ you have prayed. But you can _not_ do more than pray _until_ +you have prayed. And just there is where we have all seemed to make a +slip at times, and many of us are yet making it--a bad slip. We think we +can do more where we are through our service: then prayer to give power to +service. _No_--with the blackest underscoring of emphasis, let it be +said--NO. We can do no thing of real power until we have done the prayer +thing. + +Here is a man by my side. I can talk to him. I can bring my personality to +bear upon him, that I may win him. But before I can influence his will a +jot for God, I must first have won the victory in the secret place. +Intercession is winning the victory over the chief, and service is taking +the field after the chief is driven off. Such service is limited by the +limitation of personality to one place. This spirit-telegraphy called +prayer puts a man into direct dynamic touch with a planet. + +There are some of our friends who think themselves of the practical sort +who say, "the great thing is work: prayer is good, and right, but the +great need is to be doing something practical." The truth is that when one +understands about prayer, and puts prayer in its right place in his life, +he finds a new motive power burning in his bones to be _doing_; and +further he finds that it is the doing that grows out of praying that is +mightiest in touching human hearts. And he finds further yet with a great +joy that he may be _doing_ something for an entire world. His service +becomes as broad as his Master's thought. + + + +<u>Intercession is Service.</u> + + +It helps greatly to remember that intercession is service: the chief +service of a life on God's plan. It is unlike all other forms of service, +and superior to them in this: that it has fewer limitations. In all other +service we are constantly limited by space, bodily strength, equipment, +material obstacles, difficulties involved in the peculiar differences of +personality. Prayer knows no such limitations. It ignores space. It may be +free of expenditure of bodily strength, where rightly practiced, and one's +powers are under proper control. It goes directly, by the telegraphy of +spirit, into men's hearts, quietly passes through walls, and past locks +unhindered, and comes into most direct touch with the inner heart and will +to be affected. + +In service, as ordinarily understood, one is limited to the space where +his body is, the distance his voice can reach, the length of time he can +keep going before he must quit to eat, or rest, or sleep. He is limited by +walls, and locks, by the prejudices of men's minds, and by those peculiar +differences of temperament which must be studied in laying siege to men's +hearts. + +The whole circle of endeavour in winning men includes such an infinite +variety. There is speaking the truth to a number of persons, and to one at +a time; the doing of needed kindly acts of helpfulness, supplying food, +and the like; there is teaching; the almost omnipotent ministry of money; +the constant contact with a pure unselfish life; letter writing; printer's +ink in endless variety. All these are in God's plan for winning men. But +the intensely fascinating fact to mark is this:--that the real victory in +all of this service is won in secret, beforehand, by prayer, and these +other indispensable things are the moving upon the works of the enemy, and +claiming the victory already won. And when these things are put in their +proper order, prayer first, and the other things second; _second_, I say, +not omitted, not slurred over; done with all the earnestness and power of +brain and hand and heart possible; but done _after_ the victory has been +won in secret, against the real foe, and done _while_ the winner is still +claiming the victory already assured,--then will come far greater +achievements in this outer open service. + +Then we go into this service with that fine spirit of expectancy that +sweeps the field at the start, and steadily sticks on the stubbornly +contested spots until the whipped foe turns tail, and goes. Prayer is +striking the winning blow at the concealed enemy. Service is gathering up +the results of that blow among the men we see and touch. Great patience +and tact and persistence are needed in the service because each man must +be influenced in his own will. But the shrewd strategy that wins puts the +keen stiff secret fighting first. + + + +<u>The Spirit Switchboard.</u> + + +Electricity is a strange element. It is catalogued in the study of +physics. It is supposed to be properly classed among the forces of nature. +Yet it seems to have many properties of the spirit world. Those who know +most of it say they know least of what it is. Some of the laws of its +being have been learned, and so its marvellous power harnessed for man's +use, but in much ignorance of what it is. It seems almost to belong +somewhere in between the physical and spirit realms. It furnishes many +similes of graphic helpfulness in understanding more nearly much truth of +the Spirit life. + +In the power-house where the electricity is being wooed into man's +harnessing, or generated, as the experts say, is found a switchboard, or +switch-room with a number of boards. Here in a large city plant a man may +go and turn a switch, that is, move a little handle, a very short +distance. It is a very simple act, easily performed, involving almost no +strength. But that act has loosened the power in the house back of the +switchboard out along the wires, and perhaps lighted a whole section of +the city. He goes in again at another hour, and turns _this_ set of +switches, and _this_, and sets in motion maybe scores of cars, carrying +swiftly, hundreds of passengers. Again he goes in, and moves the little +handles and sets in motion the wheels in some factory employing hundreds +of operatives. + +It is a secret service, usually as far as any observers are concerned. It +is a very quiet, matter of fact service. But the power influenced is +unmeasured and immeasurable. And no one, seemingly, thus far, can explain +the mysterious but tremendous agent involved. Does the fluid--it a fluid? +or, what?--pass _through_ the wire? or, _around_ the wire? The experts say +they do not know. But the laws which it obeys are known. And as men comply +with them its almost omnipotence is manifested. + +Just such a switch-room in the spirit realm is one's prayer-room. Every +one who will may have such a spirit switching-board in his life. There he +may go and in compliance with the laws of the power used loosen out the +gracious persuasive irresistible power of God _where he wills to_; now in +Japan; now in China; among the hungry human hearts of India's plains and +mountains; again in Africa which is full as near to where Jesus sits as is +England or America; and now into the house across the alley from your +home; and down in the slum district; and now into your preacher's heart +for next Sunday's work; and now again unto the hearts of those you will be +meeting in the settlement house, or the mission school. + +Children are not allowed at the electrical switchboard, nor any unskilled +hand. For misuse means possibility of great damage to property and life. +And the spirit switchboard does not yield to the unskilled touch. Though +sometimes there seems to be much tampering by those with crude fingers, +and with selfish desire to turn this current to personal advantage merely. + +It takes skill here. Yet such is our winsome God's wondrous plan that +skill may come to any one who is willing; simply that--who is willing; and +it comes _very simply_ too. + +Strange too, as with the electrical counterpart, the thing is beyond full +or satisfying explanation. + +How does it come to pass that a man turns a few handles, and miles away +great wheels begin to revolve, and enormous power is manifested? Will some +one kindly explain? Yet we know it is so, and men govern their actions by +that knowledge. + +How does it come to pass that a woman in Iowa prays for the conversion of +her skeptical husband, and he, down in the thick of the most absorbing +congress Washington has known since the civil war, and in full ignorance +of her purpose becomes conscious and repeatedly conscious of the presence +and power of the God in whose existence he does not believe; and months +afterwards with his keen, legally trained mind, finds the calendar to fit +together the beginning of her praying with the beginning of his unwelcome +consciousness? Will some one kindly explain? Ah! who can, adequately! Yet +the facts, easy ascertainable, are there, and evidenced in the complete +change in the life and calling of the man. + +How comes it to pass that a woman in Missouri praying for a friend of keen +intellectual skeptically in Glasgow, who can skillfully measure and parry +argument, yet finds afterwards that the time of her praying is the time of +his, at first decidedly unwelcome, but finally radical change of +convictions! Yet groups of thoughtful men and women know these two +instances to be even so though unable to explain how. + +And as the mysterious electrical power is being used by obedience to its +laws, even so is the power of prayer being used by many who understand +simply enough of its laws to obey, and to bring the stupendous results. + + + +<u>The Broad Inner Horizon.</u> + + +This suggests at once that the rightly rounded Christian life has two +sides; the _out_-side, and the _inner_ side. To most of us the outer side +seems the greater. The living, the serving, the giving, the doing, the +absorption in life's work, the contact with men, with the great majority +the sheer struggle for existence--these take the greater thought and time +of us all. They seem to be the great business of life even to those of us +who thoroughly believe in the inner life. + +But when the real eyes open, the inner eyes that see the unseen, the +change of perspective is first ludicrous, then terrific, then pathetic. +Ludicrous, because of the change of proportions; terrific, because of the +issues at stake; pathetic, because of strong men that see not, and push on +spending splendid strength whittling sticks. The outer side is narrow in +its limits. It has to do with food and clothing, bricks and lumber, time +and the passing hour, the culture of the mind, the joys of social contact, +the smoothing of the way for the suffering. And it needs not to be said, +that these are right; they belong in the picture; they are its physical +background. + +The inner side _includes all of these_, and stretches infinitely beyond. +Its limits are broad; broad as the home of man; with its enswathing +atmosphere added. It touches the inner spirit. It moves in upon the +motives, the loves, the heart. It moves out upon the myriad spirit-beings +and forces that swarm ceaselessly about the earth staining and sliming +men's souls and lives. It moves up to the arm of God in cooperation with +His great love-plan for a world. + +Shall we follow for a day one who has gotten the true perspective? Here is +the outer side: a humble home, a narrow circle, tending the baby, +patching, sewing, cooking, calling; _or_, measuring dry goods, chopping a +typewriter, checking up a ledger, feeding the swift machinery, endless +stitching, gripping a locomotive lever, pushing the plow, tending the +stock, doing the chores, tiresome examination papers; and all the rest of +the endless, endless, doing, day by day, of the commonplace treadmill +things, that must be done, that fill out the day of the great majority of +human lives. This one whom we are following unseen is doing quietly, +cheerily his daily round, with a bit of sunshine in his face, a light in +his eye, and lightness in his step, and the commonplace place becomes +uncommon by reason of the presence of this man with the uncommon spirit. +He is working for God. No, better, he is working with God. He has an +unseen Friend at his side. That changes all. The common drudgery ceases to +be common, and ceases to be drudgery because it is done for such an +uncommon Master. That is the outer, the narrow side of this life: not +narrow in itself but in its proportion to the whole. + +Now, hold your breath, and look, for here is the inner side where the +larger work of life is being done. Here is the quiet bit of time alone +with God, with the Book. The door is shut, as the Master said. Now it is +the morning hour with a bit of made light, for the sun is busy yet farther +east. Now it is the evening hour, with the sun speeding towards western +service, and the bed invitingly near. There is a looking up into God's +face; then keen but reverent reading, and then a simple intelligent +pleading with its many variations of this--"Thy will be done, in the +Victor's name." God Himself is here, in this inner room. The angels are +here. This room opens out into and is in direct touch with a spirit space +as wide as the earth. The horizon of this room is as broad as the globe. +God's presence with this man makes it so. + +To-day a half hour is spent in China, for its missionaries, its native +Christians, its millions, the printed page, the personal contact, the +telling of the story, the school, the dispensary, the hospital. And in +through the petitions runs this golden thread--"Victory in Jesus' name: +victory in Jesus' name; to-day: to-day: Thy will be being done: the other +will undone: victory in Jesus' name." Tomorrow's bit of time is largely +spent in India perhaps. And so this man with the narrow outer horizon and +the broad inner horizon pushes his spirit-way through Japan, India, +Ceylon, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Africa, Europe's papal lands, the South +American States, the home land, its cities, frontiers, slums, the home +town, the home church, the man across the alley; in and out; out and in; +the tide of prayer sweeps quietly, resistlessly day by day. + +This is the true Christian life. This man is winning souls and refreshing +lives in these far-off lands and in near-by places as truly as though he +were in each place. This is the Master's plan. The true follower of Jesus +has as broad a horizon as his Master. Jesus thought in continents and +seas. His follower prays in continents and seas. This man does not know +what is being accomplished. Yes! He _does_ know, too. He knows by the +inference of faith. + +This room where we are meeting and talking together might be shut up so +completely that no light comes in. A single crack breaking somewhere lets +in a thin line of light. But that line of light shining in the darkness +tells of a whole sun of light flooding the outer world. + +There comes to this man occasional, yes frequent, evidences of changes +being wrought, yet he knows that these are but the thin line of glory +light which speaks of the fuller shining. And with a spirit touched with +glad awe that he can and may help God, and a heart full alike of peace and +of yearning, and a life fragrant with an unseen Presence he goes steadily +on his way, towards the dawning of the day. + + + + +Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict + + + +<u>A Prehistoric Conflict.</u> + + +In its simplest meaning prayer has to do with a conflict. Rightly +understood it is the deciding factor in a spirit conflict. The scene of +the conflict is the earth. The purpose of the conflict is to decide the +control of the earth, and its inhabitants. The conflict runs back into the +misty ages of the creation time. + +The rightful prince of the earth is Jesus, the King's Son. There is a +pretender prince who was once rightful prince. He was guilty of a breach +of trust. But like King Saul, after his rejection and David's anointing in +his place, he has been and is trying his best by dint of force to hold the +realm and oust the rightful ruler. + +The rightful Prince is seeking by utterly different means, namely by +persuasion, to win the world back to its first allegiance. He had a fierce +set-to with the pretender, and after a series of victories won the great +victory of the resurrection morning. + +There is one peculiarity of this conflict making it different from all +others; namely, a decided victory, and the utter vanquishing of the +leading general has not stopped the war. And the reason is remarkable. The +Victor has a deep love-ambition to win, not merely against the enemy, but +_into men's hearts, by their free consent_. And so, with marvellous +love-born wisdom and courage, the conflict is left open, for men's sake. + +It is a spirit conflict. The earth is swung in a spirit atmosphere. There +are unnumbered thousands of spirit beings good and evil, tramping the +earth's surface, and filling its atmosphere. They are splendidly organized +into two compact organizations. + +Man is a spirit being; an embodied spirit being. He has a body and a mind. +He is a spirit. His real conflicts are of the spirit sort; in the spirit +realm, with other spirit beings. + +Satan is a spirit being; an unembodied spirit being. That is, unembodied, +save as in much cunning, with deep, dark purpose he secures embodiment in +human beings. + +The only sort of power that influences in the spirit realm is _moral_ +power. By which is not meant _goodness_, but that sort of power either bad +or good which is not of a physical sort: that higher, infinitely higher +and greater power than the mere physical. Moral power is the opposite of +violent or physical power. + +God does not use force, violent physical force. There are some exceptions +to this statement. There have been righteous wars, righteous on one side. +Turning to the Bible record, in emergencies, in extreme instances God has +ordered war measures. The nations that Israel was told to remove by the +death of war would have inevitably worn themselves out through their +physical excesses, and disobedience of the laws of life. But a wide view +of the race revealed an emergency which demanded a speedier movement. And +as an exception, for the sake of His plan for the ultimate saving of a +race, and a world, God gave an extermination order. The emergency makes +the exception. There is one circumstance under which the taking of human +life is right, namely, when it can be clearly established that God the +giver and sovereign of life has so directed. But the rule clearly is that +God does not use force. + +But note sharply in contrast with this that physical force is one of +Satan's chief weapons. But mark there two intensely interesting facts: +first, he can use it only as he secures man as his ally, and uses it +through him. And, second, in using it he has with great subtlety sought to +shift the sphere of action. He knows that in the sphere of spirit force +pure and simple he is at a disadvantage: indeed, worse yet, he is +defeated. For there is a moral force on the other side greater than any at +his command. The forces of purity and righteousness he simply _can_not +withstand. Jesus is the personification of purity and righteousness. It +was on this moral ground, in this spirit sphere that He won the great +victory. He ran a terrific gauntlet of tests, subtle and fierce, through +those human years, and came out victor with His purity and righteousness +unstained. + + + +<u>Prayer is Projecting One's Spirit Personality.</u> + + +Now prayer is a spirit force, it has to do wholly with spirit beings and +forces. It is an insistent claiming, by a man, an embodied spirit being, +down on the contested earth, that the power of Jesus' victory over the +great evil-spirit chieftain shall extend to particular lives now under his +control. The prayer takes on the characteristic of the man praying. He is +a spirit being. It becomes a spirit force. It is a projecting into the +spirit realm of his spirit personality. Being a spirit force it has +certain qualities or characteristics of unembodied spirit beings. An +unembodied spirit being is not limited by space as we embodied folk are. +It can go as swiftly as we can think. If I want to go to London it will +take at least a week's time to get my body through the intervening space. +But I can think myself into London more quickly than I can say the words, +and be walking down the Strand. Now a spirit being can go as quickly as I +can think. + +Further, spirit beings are not limited by material obstructions such as +the walls of this building. When I came in here to-day I came in by this +door. You all came in by these doors. We were obliged to come in either by +doors or windows. But the spirit beings who are here listening to us, and +deeply concerned with our discussion did not bother with the doors. They +came in through the walls, or the roof, if they were above us, or through +the floor here, if they happened to be below this level. + +Prayer has these qualities of spirit beings of not being limited by space, +or by material obstacles. Prayer is really projecting my spirit, that is, +my real personality to the spot concerned, and doing business there with +other spirit beings. For example there is a man in a city on the Atlantic +seaboard for whom I pray daily. It makes my praying for him very tangible +and definite to recall that every time I pray my prayer is a spirit force +instantly traversing the space in between him and me, and going without +hindrance through the walls of the house where he is, and influencing the +spirit beings surrounding him, and so influencing his own will. + +When it became clear to me some few years ago that my Master would not +have me go yet to those parts of the earth where the need is greatest, a +deep tinge of disappointment came over me. Then as I realized the wisdom +of His sovereignty in service, it came to me anew that I could exert a +positive influence in those lands for Him by prayer. As many others have +done, I marked out a daily schedule of prayer. There are certain ones for +whom I pray by name, at certain intervals. And it gives great simplicity +to my faith, and great gladness to my heart to remember that every time +such prayer is breathed out, my spirit personality is being projected +yonder, and in effect I am standing in Shanghai, and Calcutta and Tokyo in +turn and pleading the power of Jesus' victory over the evil one there, and +on behalf of those faithful ones standing there for God. + +It is a fiercely contested conflict. Satan is a trained strategist, and an +obstinate fighter. He refuses to acknowledge defeat until he must. It is +the fight of his life. Strange as it must seem, and perhaps absurd, he +apparently hopes to succeed. If we knew all, it might seem less strange +and absurd, because of the factors on his side. There is surely much down +in the world of the sort which we can fully appreciate to give colour to +his expectations. Prayer is insisting upon Jesus' victory, and the retreat +of the enemy on each particular spot, and heart and problem concerned. + +The enemy yields only what he must. He yields only what is taken. +Therefore the ground must be taken step by step. Prayer must be definite. +He yields only when he must. Therefore the prayer must be persistent. He +continually renews his attacks, therefore the ground taken must be _held_ +against him in the Victor's name. This helps to understand why prayer +must be persisted in after we have full assurance of the result, and even +after some immediate results have come, or, after the general results have +commenced coming. + + + +<u>Giving God a Fresh Footing.</u> + + +The Victor's best ally in this conflict is the man, who while he remains +down on the battle-field, puts his life in full touch with his +Saviour-Victor, and then incessantly, insistently, believingly claims +_victory in Jesus' name_. He is the one foe among men whom Satan cannot +withstand. He is projecting an irresistible spirit force into the spirit +realm. Satan is obliged to yield. We are so accustomed through history's +long record to seeing victories won through force, physical force, alone, +that it is difficult for us to realize that moral force defeats as the +other never can. Witness the demons in the gospels, and in modern days in +China,[2] clearly against their own set purpose, notwithstanding intensest +struggle on their part obliged to admit defeat, and even to ask favours of +their Conqueror. The records of personal Christian service give +fascinating instances of fierce opposition utterly subdued and individuals +transformed through such influence. + +Had we eyes to see spirit beings and spirit conflicts we would constantly +see the enemy's defeat in numberless instances through the persistent +praying of some one allied to Jesus in the spirit of his life. Every time +such a man prays it is a waving of the red-dyed flag of Jesus Christ above +Satan's head in the spirit world. Every such man who freely gives himself +over to God, and gives himself up to prayer is giving God a new spot in +the contested territory on which to erect His banner of victory. + +The Japanese struggled for weeks to get a footing on the Port Arthur +peninsula, even after the naval victories had practically rendered Russia +helpless on the seas. It was an unusual spectacle to witness such +difficulty in getting a landing after such victories. But with the bulldog +tenacity that has marked her fighting Japan fought for a footing. Nothing +could be done till a footing was gotten. + +Prayer is man giving God a footing on the contested territory of this +earth. The man in full touch of purpose with God praying, insistently +praying--that man is God's footing on the enemy's soil. The man wholly +given over to God gives Him a new sub-headquarters on the battle-field +from which to work out. And the Holy Spirit within that man, on the new +spot, will insist on the enemy's retreat in Jesus the Victor's name. That +is prayer. Shall we not, every one of us, increase God's footing down upon +His prodigal earth! + + + + +The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer + + + +<u>Prayer a War Measure.</u> + + +This world is God's prodigal son. The heart of God's bleeds over His +prodigal. It has been gone so long, and the home circle is broken. He has +spent all the wealth of His thought on a plan for winning the prodigal +back home. Angels and men have marvelled over that plan, its sweep, its +detail, its strength and wisdom, its tenderness. He needs man for His +plan. He will _use_ man. That is true. He will _honour_ man in service. +That is true. But these only touch the edge of the truth. The pathway from +God to a human heart is through a human heart. When He came to the great +strategic move in His plan, He Himself came down as a man and made that +move. _He needs man for His plan._ + +The greatest agency put into man's hands is prayer. To understand that at +all fully one needs to define prayer. And to define prayer adequately one +must use the language of war. Peace language is not equal to the +situation. The earth is in a state of war. It is being hotly besieged and +so one must use war talk to grasp the facts with which prayer is +concerned. _Prayer from God's side is communication between Himself and +His allies in the enemy's country_. Prayer is not persuading God. It does +not influence God's purpose. It is not winning Him over to our side; never +that. He is far more eager for what we are rightly eager for than we ever +are. What there is of wrong and sin and suffering that pains you, pains +Him far more. He knows more about it. He is more keenly sensitive to it +than the most sensitive one of us. Whatever of heart yearning there may be +that moves you to prayer is from Him. God takes the initiative in all +prayer. It starts with Him. True prayer moves in a circle. It begins in +the heart of God, sweeps down into a human heart upon the earth, so +intersecting the circle of the earth, which is the battle-field of prayer, +and then it goes back again to its starting point, having accomplished its +purpose on the downward swing. + + + +<u>Three Forms of Prayer.</u> + + +Prayer is the word commonly used for all intercourse with God. But it +should be kept in mind that that word covers and includes three forms of +intercourse. All prayer grows up through, and ever continues in three +stages. + +The first form of prayer is _communion_. That is simply being on good +terms with God. It involves the blood of the cross as the basis of our +getting and being on good terms. It involves my coming to God through +Jesus. Communion is fellowship with God. Not request for some particular +thing; not asking, but simply enjoying Himself, loving Him, thinking about +Him, how beautiful, and intelligent, and strong and loving and lovable He +is; talking to Him without words. That is the truest worship, thinking how +worthy He is of all the best we can possibly bring to Him, and infinitely +more. It has to do wholly with God and a man being on good terms with each +other. Of necessity it includes confession on my part and forgiveness upon +God's part, for only so can we come into the relation of fellowship. +Adoration, worship belong to this first phase of prayer. Communion is the +basis of all prayer. It is the essential breath of the true Christian +life. It concerns just two, God and myself, yourself. Its influence is +directly subjective. _It affects me._ + +The second form of prayer is _petition_. And I am using that word now in +the narrower meaning of asking something for one's self. Petition is +definite request of God for something I need. A man's whole life is +utterly dependent upon the giving hand of God. Everything we need comes +from Him. Our friendships, ability to make money, health, strength in +temptation, and in sorrow, guidance in difficult circumstances, and in all +of life's movements; help of all sorts, financial, bodily, mental, +spiritual--all come from God, and necessitate a constant touch with Him. +There needs to be a constant stream of petition going up, many times +wordless prayer. And there will be a constant return stream of answer and +supply coming down. The door between God and one's own self must be kept +ever open. The knob to be turned is on our side. He opened His side long +ago, and propped it open, and threw the knob away. The whole life hinges +upon this continual intercourse with our wondrous God. This is the second +stage or form of prayer. It concerns just two: God and the man dealing +with God. It is subjective in its influence: _its reach is within_. + +The third form of prayer is _intercession_. True prayer never stops with +petition for one's self. It reaches out for others. The very word +intercession implies a reaching out for some one else. It is standing as a +go-between, a mutual friend, between God and some one who is either out of +touch with Him, or is needing special help. Intercession is the climax of +prayer. It is the outward drive of prayer. It is the effective end of +prayer _outward_. Communion and petition are upward and downward. +Intercession rests upon these two as its foundation. Communion and +petition store the life with the power of God; intercession lets it out on +behalf of others. The first two are necessarily for self; this third is +for others. They ally a man fully with God: it makes use of that alliance +for others. Intercession is the full-bloomed plant whose roots and +strength lie back and down in the other two forms. _It_ is the form of +prayer that helps God in His great love-plan for winning a planet back to +its true sphere. It will help through these talks to keep this simple +analysis of prayer in mind. For much that will be said will deal chiefly +with this third form, intercession, the outward movement of prayer. + + + +<u>The Climax of Prayer.</u> + + +To God man is first an objective point, and then, without ceasing to be +that, he further becomes a distributing centre. God ever thinks of a man +doubly: first for his own self, and then for his possible use in reaching +others. Communion and petition fix and continue one's relation to God, and +so prepare for the great outreaching form of prayer--intercession. Prayer +must begin in the first two but reaches its climax in the third. Communion +and petition are of necessity self-wide. Intercession is world-wide in its +reach. And all true rounded prayer will ever have all three elements in +it. There must be the touch with God. One's constant needs make constant +petition. But the heart of the true follower has caught the warm contagion +of the heart of God and reaches out hungrily for the world. Intercession +is the climax of prayer. + +Much is said of the subjective and objective value of prayer; its +influence upon one's self, and its possible influence upon persons and +events quite outside of one's self. Of necessity the first two sorts of +prayer here named are subjective; they have to do wholly with one's self. +Of equal necessity intercessory prayer is objective; it has to do wholly +with others. There is even here a reflex influence; in the first two +directly subjective; here incidentally reflex. Contact with God while +dealing with Him for another of necessity influences me. But that is the +mere fringe of the garment. The main driving purpose is outward. + +Just now in certain circles it seems quite the thing to lay great stress +upon the subjective value of prayer and to whittle down small, or, deny +entirely its value in influencing others. Some who have the popular ear +are quite free with tongue and pen in this direction. From both without +and within distinctly Christian circles their voices come. One wonders if +these friends lay the greater emphasis on the subjective value of prayer +so as to get a good deep breath for their hard drive at the other. Yet the +greater probability is that they honestly believe as they say, but have +failed to grasp the full perspective of the picture. In listening to such +statements one remembers with vivid distinctness that the scriptural +_standpoint_ always is this: that things quite outside of one's self, that +in the natural order of prevailing circumstances would not occur, are made +to occur through prayer. Jesus constantly so _assumed_. The first-flush, +commonsense view of successful prayer is that some actual result is +secured through its agency. + +It is an utter begging of the question to advance such a theory as a +sufficient explanation of prayer. For prayer in its simplest conception +supposes something changed that is not otherwise reachable. Both from the +scriptural, and from a rugged philosophical standpoint the objective is +the real driving point of all full prayer. The subjective is in order to +the objective, as the final outward climactic reach of God's great +love-plan for a world. + + + +<u>Six Facts Underlying Prayer.</u> + + +It will help greatly to step back and up a bit for a fresh look at certain +facts that underlie prayer. Everything depends on a right point of view. +There may be many view-points, from which to study any subject; but of +necessity any one view-point must take in all the essential facts +concerned. If not, the impression formed will be wrong, and a man will be +misled in his actions. In these talks I make no attempt to prove the +Bible's statements, nor to suggest a common law for their interpretation. +That would be a matter for quite a separate series of talks. It clears the +ground to assume certain things. I am assuming the accuracy of these +scriptural statements. And I am glad to say I have no difficulty in doing +so. + +Now there are certain facts constantly stated and assumed in this old +Book. They are clearly stated in its history, they are woven into its +songs, and they underlie all these prophetic writings, from Genesis clear +to the end of John's Patmos visions. Possibly they have been so familiar +and taken for granted so long as to have grown unfamiliar. The very old +may need stating as though very new. Here is a chain of six facts: + +First:--The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.[3] His by +creation and by sovereign rule. The Lord sat as King at the flood.[4] + +Second:--God gave the dominion of the earth to man. The kingship of its +life, the control and mastery of its forces.[5] + +Third:--Man, who held the dominion of the earth in trust from God, +transferred his dominion to somebody else, by an act which was a double +act. He was deceived into doing that act. It was an act of disobedience +and of obedience. Disobedience to God, and obedience to another one, a +prince who was seeking to get the dominion of the earth into his own +hands. That act of the first man did this. The disobedience broke with +God, and transferred the allegiance from God. The obedience to the other +one transferred the allegiance, and through that, the dominion to this +other one. + +The fourth fact is this:--The dominion or kingship of this earth so far +as given to man, is now not God's, for He gave it to man. And it is not +man's, for he has transferred it to another. It is in the control of that +magnificent prince whose changed character supplies his name--Satan, the +hater, the enemy. Jesus repeatedly speaks of "the prince"--that is the +ruling one--"of this world."[6] John speaks in his vision-book of a time +coming when "the kingdom (not kingdoms, as in the old version) of the +world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ."[7] By clear +inference previous to that time it is somebody's else kingdom than His. +The kingship or rulership of the earth which was given to man is now +Satan's. + +The fifth fact:--God was eager to swing the world back to its original +sway: for His own sake, for man's sake, for the earth's sake. You see, we +do not know God's world as it came from His hand. It is a rarely beautiful +world even yet--the stars above, the plant life, the waters, the exquisite +colouring and blending, the combinations of all these--an exquisitely +beautiful world even yet. But it is not the world it was, nor that some +coming day it will be. It has been sadly scarred and changed under its +present ruler. Probably Eve would not recognize in the present world her +early home-earth as it came fresh from the hand of its Maker. + +God was eager to swing the old world back to its original control. But to +do so He must get a man, one of the original trustee class through whom He +might swing it back to its first allegiance. It was given to man. It was +swung away by man. It must be swung back by man. And so a Man came, and +while Jesus was perfectly and utterly human, we spell that word Man with a +capital M because He was a man quite distinct from all men. Because He was +more truly human than all other men He is quite apart from other men. This +Man was to head a movement for swinging the world back to its first +allegiance. + +The sixth fact is this:--These two, God's Man, and the pretender-prince, +had a combat: the most terrific combat ever waged or witnessed. From the +cruel, malicious cradle attack until Calvary's morning and two days longer +it ran. Through those thirty-three years it continued with a terrificness +and intensity unknown before or since. The master-prince of subtlety and +force did his best and his worst, through those Nazareth years, then into +the wilderness,--and Gethsemane--and Calvary. And that day at three +o'clock and for a bit longer the evil one thought he had won. And there +was great glee up in the headquarters of the prince of this world. They +thought the victory was theirs when God's Man lay in the grave under the +bars of death, within the immediate control of the lord of death. But the +third morning came and the bars of death were snapped like cotton thread. +_Jesus rose a Victor._ For it was not possible that such as _He_ could be +held by death's lord. And then Satan knew that he was defeated. Jesus, +God's Man, the King's rightful prince, had gotten the victory. + +But, please mark very carefully four sub-facts on Satan's side. First, he +refuses to acknowledge his defeat. Second, he refuses to surrender his +dominion until he must. He yields only what he must and when he must. +Third, he is supported in his ambitions by man. He has man's consent to +his control. The majority of men on the earth to-day, and in every day, +have assented to his control. He has control only through man's consent. +(Satan _can_not get into a man's heart without his consent, and God _will_ +not.) And, fourth, he hopes yet to make his possession of the earth +permanent. + + + +<u>The Victor's Great Plan.</u> + + +Now, hold your breath and note, on the side of the Victor-prince, this +unparalleled and unimitated action: He has left the conflict open, and the +defeated chief on the field that He may win not simply against the chief, +but through that victory may win the whole prodigal race back to His +Father's home circle again. But the great pitched battle is yet to come. I +would better say _a_ pitched battle, for the greatest one is past. Jesus +rides into the future fight a Victor. Satan will fight his last fight +under the shadow and sting of a defeat. Satan is apparently trying hard to +get a Jesus. That is to say Jesus was God's Man sent down to swing the +world back. Satan is trying his best to get _a man_--one of the original +trustee class, to whom the dominion of the earth was intrusted--a man who +will stand for him even as Jesus stood for God. Indeed a man who will +personify himself even as Jesus was the personification of God, the +express image of His person. When he shall succeed in that the last +desperate crisis will come. + +_Now prayer is this: A man_, one of the original trustee class, who +received the earth in trust from God, and who gave its control over to +Satan; a man, _on the earth_, the poor old Satan-stolen, sin-slimed, +sin-cursed, contested earth; a man, on the earth, _with his life in full +touch with the Victor, and sheer out of touch with the pretender-prince, +insistently claiming that Satan shall yield before Jesus'-victory, step by +step, life after life_. Jesus is the victor. Satan knows it, and fears +Him. He must yield before His advance, and he must yield before this man +who stands for Jesus down on the earth. And he _will_ yield. Reluctantly, +angrily, as slowly as may be, stubbornly contesting every inch of ground, +his clutches will loosen and he will go before this Jesus-man. + +Jesus said "the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me."[8] +When you and I say, as we may say, very humbly depending on His grace, +very determinedly in the resolution of our own imperial will, "though the +prince of this world come he shall have nothing in me, no coaling station +however small on the shores of my life," then we shall be in position +where Satan must yield as we claim--victory in the Victor's Name. + + + + +Does Prayer Influence God? + + + +<u>How God Gives.</u> + + +Some one may object to all this that the statements of God's word do not +agree with this point of view. + +At random memory brings up a few very familiar passages, frequently +quoted. "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and will shew thee great +things, and difficult, that thou knowest not."[9] "And call upon Me in the +day of trouble; I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me."[10] "Ask, +and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be +opened unto you."[11] Here it seems, as we have for generations been +accustomed to think, that our asking is the thing that influences God to +do. And further, that many times persistent, continued asking is necessary +to induce God to do. And the usual explanation for this need of +persistence is that God is testing our faith, and seeking to make certain +changes in us, before granting our requests. This explanation is without +doubt quite true, _in part_. Yet the thing to mark is that it explains +_only_ in part. And when the whole circle of truth is brought into view, +this explanation is found to cover only a small part of the whole. + +We seem to learn best about God by analogies. The analogy never brings all +there is to be learned. Yet it seems to be the nearest we can get. From +what we know of ourselves we come to know Him. + +Will you notice how men give? Among those who give to benevolent +enterprises there are three sorts of givers, with variations in each. + +There is the man who gives because he is influenced by others. If the +right man or committee of men call, and deftly present their pleas, +playing skillfully upon what may appeal to him; his position; his egotism; +the possible advantage to accrue; what men whom he wants to be classed +with are doing, and so on through the wide range that such men are +familiar with; if they persist, by and by he gives. At first he seems +reluctant, but finally gives with more or less grace. That is one sort of +giver. + +There is a second sort: the man of truly benevolent heart who is desirous +of giving that he may be of help to other men. He listens attentively when +pleas come to him, and waits only long enough to satisfy himself of the +worth of the cause, and the proper sort of amount to give, and then gives. + +There is a third sort, the rarest sort. This second man a stage farther +on, who _takes the initiative_. He looks about him, makes inquiries, and +thinks over the great need in every direction of his fellow men. He +decides where his money may best be used to help; and then himself offers +to give. But his gift may be abused by some who would get his money if +they could, and use it injudiciously, or otherwise than he intends. So he +makes certain conditions which must be met, the purpose of which is to +establish sympathetic relations in some particular with those whom he +would help. An Englishman's heart is strongly moved to get the story of +Jesus to the inland millions of Chinese. He requests the China-Inland +Mission to control the expenditure of almost a million dollars of his +money in such a way as best to secure the object in his heart. An American +gives a large sum to the Young Men's Christian Association of his home +city to be expended as directed. His thought is not to build up this +particular organization, but to benefit large numbers of the young men of +his town who will meet certain conditions which he thinks to be for their +good. He has learned to trust this organization, and so it becomes his +trustee. + +Another man feels that if the people of New York City can be given good +reading they can thereby best be helped in life. And so he volunteers +money for a number of libraries throughout that city. And thousands who +yearn to increase their knowledge come into sympathy with him in that one +point through his gift. In all such cases the giver's thought is to +accomplish certain results in those whose purpose in certain directions is +sympathetic with his own. + +Any human illustration of God must seem crude. Yet of these three sorts of +givers there is one and only one that begins to suggest how God gives. It +may seem like a very sweeping statement to make, yet I am more and more +disposed to believe it true that _most persons_ have unthinkingly thought +of God's answering prayer as the first of these three men give. Many +others have had in mind some such thought as the second suggests. Yet to +state the case even thus definitely is to make it plain that neither of +these ways in any manner illustrate God's giving. The third comes the +nearest to picturing the God who hears and answers prayer. Our God has a +great heart yearning after His poor prodigal world, and after each one in +it. He longs to have the effects of sin removed, and the original image +restored. He takes the initiative. Yet everything that is done for man +must of necessity be through man's will; by his free and glad consent. The +obstacles in the way are not numberless nor insurmountable, but they are +many and they are stubborn. There is a keen, cunning pretender-prince who +is a past-master in the fine art of handling men. There are wills warped +and weakened; consciences blurred; minds the opposite of keen, +sensibilities whose edge has been dulled beyond ordinary hope of being +ever made keen again. Sin has not only stained the life, but warped the +judgment, sapped the will, and blurred the mental vision. And God has a +hard time just because every change must of necessity be through that +sapped and warped will. + +Yet the difficulty though great is never complex but very simple. And so +the statement of His purpose is ever exquisitely simple. Listen again: +"Call unto Me, and I will answer thee and shew thee great things and +difficult which thou knowest not." If a man call he has already turned his +face towards God. His will has acted, and acted doubly; away from the +opposite, and _towards_ God, a simple step but a tremendous one. The +calling is the point of sympathetic contact with God where their purposes +become the same. The caller is beset by difficulties and longs for +freedom. The God who speaks to him saw the difficulties long ago and +eagerly longed to remove them. Now they have come to agreement. And +through this willing will God eagerly works out His purpose. + + + +<u>A Very Old Question.</u> + + +This leads to a very old question: Does prayer influence God? No question +has been discussed more, or more earnestly. Skeptical men of fine +scientific training have with great positiveness said "no." And Christian +men of scholarly training and strong faith have with equal positiveness +said "yes." Strange to say both have been right. Not right in all their +statements, nor right in all their beliefs, nor right in all their +processes of thinking, but right in their ultimate conclusions as +represented by these short words, "no," and "yes." Prayer does not +influence God. Prayer surely does influence God. It does not influence His +purpose. It does influence His action. Everything that ever has been +prayed for, of course I mean every right thing, God has already purposed +to do. But He does nothing without our consent. He has been hindered in +His purposes by our lack of willingness. When we learn His purposes and +make them our prayers we are giving Him the opportunity to act. It is a +double opportunity: manward and Satanward. We are willing. Our willingness +checkmates Satan's opposition. It opens the path to God and rids it of the +obstacles. And so the road is cleared for the free action already planned. + +The further question of nature's laws being sometimes set aside is wholly +a secondary matter. Nature's laws are merely God's habit of action in +handling secondary forces. They involve no purpose of God. His purposes +are regarding moral issues. That the sun shall stay a bit longer than +usual over a certain part of the earth is a mere detail with God. It does +not affect His power for the whole affair is under His finger. It does not +affect His purpose for that as concerning far more serious matters. The +emergencies of earth wrought by sin necessitate just such incidents, that +the great purpose of God for man shall be accomplished. + +Emergencies change all habits of action, divine and human. They are the +real test of power. If a man throw down the bundle he is carrying and make +a quick wild dash out into the middle of the street, dropping his hat on +the way, and grasp convulsively for something on the ground when no cause +appears for such action we would quickly conclude that the proper place +for him is an asylum. But if a little toddling child is almost under the +horse's hoofs, or the trolley car, no one thinks of criticising, but +instead admires his courage, and quick action, and breathlessly watches +for the result. Emergencies call for special action. They should control +actions, where they exist. Emergencies explain action, and explain +satisfactorily what nothing else could explain. + +_The world is in a great emergency through sin._ Only as that tremendous +fact grips us shall we be men of prayer, and men of action up to the limit +of the need, and to the limit of the possibilities. Only as that intense +fact is kept in mind shall we begin to understand God's actions in +history, and in our personal experiences. The greatest event of earth, the +cross, was an emergency action. + +The fact that prayer does not make any change in God's thought or +purpose, reveals His marvellous love in a very tender way. + +Suppose I want something very much and _need_ as well as want. And I go to +God and ask for it. And suppose He is reluctant about giving: had not +thought about giving me that thing; and rather hesitates. But I am +insistent, and plead and persist and by and by God is impressed with my +earnestness, and sees that I really need the thing, and answers my prayer, +and gives me what I ask. Is not that a loving God so to listen and yield +to my plea? Surely. How many times just such an instance has taken place +between a child and his father, or mother. And the child thinks to +himself, "How loving father is; he has given me the thing I asked for." + +But suppose God is thinking about me all the time, and planning, with +love-plans for me, and longing to give me much that He has. Yet in His +wisdom He does not give because I do not know my own need, and have not +opened my hand to receive, yes, and, further yet, likely as not, not +knowing my need I might abuse, or misuse, or fail to use, something given +before I had felt the need of it. And now I come to see and feel that need +and come and ask and He, delighted with the change in me, eagerly gives. +Tell me, is not that a very much more loving God than the other conception +suggests? The truth is _that_ is God. Jesus says, "Your Father knoweth +what things ye have need of _before ye ask_." And He is a Father. And +with God the word father means mother too. Then what He _knows_ we need He +has _already planned_ to give. The great question for me then in praying +for some personal thing is this: Do _I_ know what _He_ knows I need? Am I +thinking about what He is thinking about for me? + +And then remember that God is so much more in His loving planning than the +wisest, most loving father we know. Does a mother think into her child's +needs, the food, and clothing and the extras too, the luxuries? That is +God, only He is more loving and wiser than the best of us. I have +sometimes thought this: that if God were to say to me: "I want to give you +something as a special love-gift; an extra because I love you: what would +you like to have?" Do you know I have thought I would say, "Dear God, +_you_ choose. _I_ choose what _you_ choose." He is thinking about me. He +knows what I am thinking of, and what I would most enjoy, and He is such a +lover-God that He would choose something Just a bit finer than I would +think. I might be thinking of a dollar, but likely as not He is thinking +of a double eagle. I am thinking of blackberries, big, juicy blackberries, +but really I do not know what blackberries are beside the sort He knows +and would choose for me. That is our God. Prayer does not and cannot +change the purpose of such a God. For every right and good thing we might +ask for He has already planned to give us. But prayer does change the +action of God. Because He cannot give against our wills, and our +willingness as expressed by our asking gives Him the opportunity to do as +He has already planned. + + + +<u>The Greatest Prayer.</u> + + +There is a greatest prayer, _the_ greatest that can be offered. It is the +substratum of every true prayer. It is the undercurrent in the stream of +all Spirit-breathed prayer. Jesus Himself gives it to us in the only form +of prayer He left for our use. It is small in size, but mighty in power. +Four words--"Thy will be done." Let us draw up our chairs, and _brew_ it +over mentally, that its strength and fragrance may come up into our +nostrils, and fill our very beings. + +"_Thy_": That is God. On one side, He is wise, with all of the +intellectual strength, and keenness and poised judgment that that word +among men brings to us. On another side, He is strong, with all that that +word can imply of might and power irresistible. On still another side He +is good, pure, holy with the finest thought those words ever suggest to us +in those whom we know best, or in our dreams and visions. Then on a side +remaining, the tender personal side, He is--loving? No, that is quite +inadequate. He is _love_. Its personification is He. Now remember that we +do not know the meaning of those words. Our best definition and thought of +them, even in our dreams, when we let ourselves out, but hang around the +outskirts. The heart of them we do not know. Those words mean infinitely +more than we think. Their meaning is a projection along the lines of our +thought of them, but measurelessly beyond our highest reach. + +And then, this God, wise, strong, good, and love, _is kin to us_. We +belong to Him. + + "We are His flock; + He doth us feed. + And for His sheep, + He doth us take." + +We are His children by creation, and by a new creation in Jesus Christ. He +is ours, by His own act. That is the "Thy"--a God wise, strong, pure, who +is love, and who is a Father-mother-God, and is _our_ God. + +"Thy _will_." God's will is His desires, His purposes, that which He +wishes to occur, and that to which He gives His strength that it may +occur. The earth is His creation. Men are His children. Judging from wise +loving parents among men He has given Himself to thinking and studying and +planning for all men, and every man, and for the earth. His plan is the +most wise, pure, loving plan that can be thought of, _and more._ It takes +in the whole sweep of our lives, and every detail of them. Nothing escapes +the love-vigilance of our God. What _can_ be so vigilant and keen as love? +Hate, the exact reverse, comes the nearest. It is ever the extremes that +meet. But hate cannot come up to love for keen watchfulness at every +turn. Health, strength, home, loved ones, friendships, money, guidance, +protecting care, the necessities, the extras that love ever thinks of, +service--all these are included in God's loving thought for us. That is +His will. It is modified by the degree of our consent, and further +modified by the circumstances of our lives. Life has become a badly +tangled skein of threads. God with infinite patience and skill is at work +untangling and bringing the best possible out of the tangle. What is +absolutely best is rarely relatively best. That which is best in itself is +usually not best under certain circumstances, with human lives in the +balance. God has fathomless skill, and measureless patience, and a love +utterly beyond both. He is ever working out the best thing possible under +every circumstance. He could oftentimes do more, and do it in much less +time if our human wills were more pliant to His. He can be trusted. And of +course _trust_ means _trust in the darkest dark_ where you cannot see. And +trust means trust. It does not mean test. Where you trust you do not test. +Where you test you do not trust. Making this our prayer means trusting +God. That is God, and that His will, and that the meaning of our offering +this prayer. "Thy will _be_." A man's will is the man in action, within +the limits of his power. God's will for man is Himself in action, within +the limits of our cooperation. _Be_ is a verb, an action-word, in the +passive voice. It takes some form of the verb to be to express the +passive voice of any action-word. It takes the intensest activity of will +to put this passive voice into human action. The greatest strength is +revealed in intelligent yielding. Here the prayer is expressing the utter +willingness of a man that God's will shall be done in him, and through +him. A man never _loses_ his will, unless indeed he lose his manhood. But +here he makes that will as strong as it can be made, as a bit of steel, +better like the strong oak, strong enough to sway and bend in the wind. +Then he uses all its strength in becoming passive to a higher will. And +that too when the purpose of that higher will is not clear to his own +limited knowledge and understanding. + +"Thy will be _done_." That is, be accomplished, be brought to pass. The +word stands for the action in its perfected, finished state. Thy will be +fully accomplished in its whole sweep and in all its items. It speaks not +only the earnest desire of the heart praying, but the set purpose that +everything in the life is held subject to the doing of this purpose of +God. It means that surrender of purpose that has utterly changed the lives +of the strongest men in order that the purpose of God might be dominant. +It cut off from a great throne earth's greatest jurist, the Hebrew +lawgiver, and led him instead to be allied to a race of slaves. It led +that intellectual giant Jeremiah from an easy enjoyable leadership to +espouse a despised cause and so be himself despised. It led Paul from the +leadership of his generation in a great nation to untold suffering, and to +a block and an ax. It led Jesus the very Son of God, away from a kingship +to a cross. In every generation it has radically changed lives, and +life-ambitions. "Thy will be done" is the great dominant purpose-prayer +that has been the pathway of God in all His great doings among men. + +That will is being done everywhere else in God's great world of worlds, +save on the earth and that portion of the spirit world allied to this +earth. Everywhere else there is the perfect music of harmony with God's +will. Here only is heard the harsh discordant note. + +With this prayer go two clauses that really particularize and explain it. +They are included in it, and are added to make more clear the full intent. +The first of these clauses gives the sweep of His will in its broadest +outlines. The second touches the opposition to that will both for our +individual lives and for the race and the earth. + +The first clause is this, "Thy kingdom come." In both of these short +sentences, "Thy will be done," "Thy kingdom come," the emphatic word is +"Thy." That word is set in sharpest possible contrast here. There is +another kingdom now on the earth. There is another will being done. This +other kingdom must go if God's kingdom is to come. These kingdoms are +antagonistic at every point of contact. They are rivals for the same +allegiance and the same territory. They cannot exist together. Charles II +and Cromwell cannot remain in London together. "Thy kingdom come," of +necessity includes this, "the other kingdom go." "Thy kingdom come" means +likewise "Thy king come," for in the nature of things there cannot be a +kingdom without a king. That means again by the same inference, "the other +prince go," the one who makes pretensions to being rightful heir to the +throne. "Thy will be done" includes by the same inference this:--"the +other will be undone." This is the first great explanatory clause to be +connected with this greatest prayer, "Thy kingdom come." It gives the +sweep of God's will in its broadest outlines. + +The second clause included in the prayer, and added to make clear the +swing of action is this--"deliver us from the evil one." These two +sentences, "Thy will be done," and "deliver us from the evil one," are +naturally connected. Each statement includes the other. To have God's will +fully done in us means emancipation from every influence of the evil one, +either direct or indirect, or by hereditary taint. To be delivered from +the evil one means that every thought and plan of God for our lives shall +be fully carried out. + +There are the two great wills at work in the world ever clashing in the +action of history and in our individual lives. In many of us, aye, in all +of us, though in greatly varying degree, these two wills constantly clash. +Man is the real battle-field. The pitch of the battle is in his will. God +will not do His will in a man without the man's will consenting. And Satan +cannot. At the root the one thing that works against God's will is the +evil one's will. And on the other hand the one thing that effectively +thwarts Satan's plans is a man wholly given up to God's will. + +The greatest prayer then fully expressed, sweeps first the whole field of +action, then touches the heart of the action, and then attacks the +opposition. It is this:--Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done: deliver us +from the evil one. Every true prayer ever offered comes under this simple +comprehensive prayer. It may be offered, it _is_ offered with an infinite +variety of detail. It is greatest because of its sweep. It includes all +other petitions, for God's will includes everything for which prayer is +rightly offered. It is greatest in its intensity. It hits the very +bull's-eye of opposition to God. + + + + +II. Hindrances to Prayer + + +1. Why the Results Fail. 2. Why the Results Are Delayed. 3. The Great +Outside Hindrance, or, the Relation of Prayer to Satan. + + + + +Why the Results Fail + + + +<u>Breaking with God.</u> + + +God answers prayer. Prayer is God and man joining hands to secure some +high end. He joins with us through the communication of prayer in +accomplishing certain great results. This is the main drive of prayer. Our +asking and expecting and God's doing jointly bring to pass things that +otherwise would not come to pass. Prayer changes things. This is the great +fact of prayer. + +Yet a great many prayers are not answered. Or, to put it more accurately, +a great many prayers fail utterly of accomplishing any results. Probably +it is accurate to say that _thousands_ of prayers go up and bring nothing +down. This is certainly true. Let us say it just as bluntly and plainly as +it can be said. As a result many persons are saying: "Well, prayer is not +what you claim for it: we prayed and no answer came: nothing was changed." + +From all sorts of circles, and in all sorts of language comes this +statement. Scholarly men who write with wisdom's words, and thoughtless +people whose thinking never even pricks the skin of the subject, and all +sorts of people in between group themselves together here. And they are +right, quite right. The bother is that what they say is not all there is +to be said. There is yet more to be said, that is right too, and that +changes the final conclusion radically. Partial truth is a very mean sort +of lie. + +The prayer plan like many another has been much disturbed, and often +broken. And one who would be a partner with God up to the limit of his +power must understand the things that hinder the prayer plan. There are +three sorts of hindrances to prayer. First of all there are things in us +that _break off connection_ with God, the source of the changing power. +Then there are certain things in us that _delay, or diminish_ the results; +that interfere with the full swing of the prayer plan of operations. And +then there is a great _outside_ hindrance to be reckoned upon. To-day we +want to talk together of the first of these, namely, the hindrances that +_break off connections_ between God and His human partner. + +Here again there is a division into three. There are three things directly +spoken of in the book of God that hinder prayer. One of these is a +familiar thing. What a pity that repugnant things may become so familiar +as no longer to repel. It is this:--_sin_ hinders prayer. In Isaiah's +first chapter God Himself speaking says, "When you stretch out your +hands"--the way they prayed, standing with outstretched hands--"I will +shut My eyes; when you make many prayers, I will shut My ears."[12] Why? +What's the difficulty? These outstretched hands are _soiled!_ They are +actually holding their sin-soiled hands up into God's face; and He is +compelled to look at the thing most hateful to Him. In the fifty-ninth +chapter of this same book,[13] God Himself is talking again. Listen +"Behold! the _Lord's_ hand is not shortened: _His_ ear is not heavy." +There is no trouble on the _up_ side. God is all right. "But"--listen with +both your ears--"your _iniquities_ ... your _sins_ ... your _hands_ ... +your _fingers_ ... your _lips_ ... your _tongue_ ..." the slime of sin is +oozing over everything! Turn back to that sixty-sixth Psalm[14]--"if I +regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me." How much more if +the sin of the heart get into the hands or the life! And the fact to put +down plainly in blackest ink once for all is this--_sin hinders prayer_. +There is nothing surprising about this. That we can think the reverse is +the surprising thing. Prayer is transacting business with God. Sin is +_breaking with God_. + +Suppose I had a private wire from my apartments here to my home in +Cleveland, and some one should go outside and drag the wire down until it +touches the ground--a good square touch with the ground--the electricians +would call it grounded, could I telegraph over that wire? Almost any child +knows I could not. Suppose some one _cuts_ the wire, a good clean cut; the +two ends are apart: not a mile; not a yard; but distinctly apart. Could I +telegraph on that wire? Of course not. Yet I might sit in my room and tick +away by the hour wholly absorbed, and use most beautiful persuasive +language--what is the good? The wire's cut. All my fine pleading goes into +the ground, or the air. Now _sin cuts the wire;_ it runs the message into +the ground. + +"Well," some one will object, "now you're cutting us all out, are you not? +Are we not all conscious of a sinful something inside here that has to be +fought, and held under all the while?" It certainly seems to be true that +the nearer a man gets to God the more keenly conscious he is of a sinful +tendency within even while having continual victory. But plainly enough +what the Book means here is this:--if I am holding something in my life +that the Master does not like, if I am failing to obey when His voice has +spoken, that to me is sin. It may be wrong in itself. It may _not_ be +wrong in itself. It may not be wrong for another. Sometimes it is not the +thing involved but the One involved that makes the issue. If that faithful +quiet inner voice has spoken and I know what the Master would prefer and I +fail to keep in line, that to me is sin. Then prayer is useless; sheer +waste of breath. Aye, worse, it is deceptive. For I am apt to say or +think, "Well, I am not as good as you, or you, but then I am not so bad; +_I pray._" And the truth is because I have broken with God the +praying--saying words in that form--is utterly worthless. + +You see _sin is slapping God in the face_. It may be polished, cultured +sin. Sin seems capable of taking quite a high polish. Or it may be the +common gutter stuff. A man is not concerned about the grain of a club that +strikes him a blow. How can He and I talk together if I have done that, +and stick to it--not even apologized. And of what good is an apology if +the offense is being repeated. And if we cannot talk together of course +working together is out of the question. And prayer is working together +with God. Prayer is _pulling with God_ in His plan for a world. + +Shall we not put out the thing that is wrong? or put in the thing the +Master wants in? For _Jesus'_ sake? Aye for _men's_ sake: poor befooled +men's sake who are being kept out and away because God cannot get at them +through us! + +Shall we bow and ask forgiveness for our sin, and petty stubbornness that +has been thwarting the Master's love-plan? And yet even while we ask +forgiveness there are lives out yonder warped and dwarfed and worse +because of the hindrance in us; yes, and remaining so as we slip out of +this meeting. May the fact send us out to walk very softly these coming +days. + + + +<u>A Coaling Station for Satan's Fleet.</u> + + +There is a second thing that is plainly spoken of that hinders prayer. +James speaks of it in his letter.[15] "Ye have not because ye _ask_ +not"--that explains many parched up lives and churches and unsolved +problems: no pipe lines run up to tap the reservoir, and give God an +opening into the troubled territory. Then he pushes on to say--"Ye ask, +_and receive not_"--ah! there's just the rub; it is evidently an old +story, this thing of not receiving--why? "because ye ask amiss to spend it +_in your pleasures_." That is to say selfish praying; asking for something +just because I want it; want it for myself. + +Here is a mother praying for her boy. He is just growing up towards young +manhood; not a Christian boy yet; but a good boy. She is thinking, "I want +_my_ boy to be an honour to me; he bears my name; my blood is in his +veins; I don't want my boy to be a prodigal. I want him to be a fine man, +an honour to the family; and if he is a true Christian, he likely will be; +_I wish he were a Christian_." And so she prays, and prays repeatedly and +fervently. God might touch her boy's heart and say, "I want you out here +in India to help win my prodigal world back." _Oh!_ she did not mean that! +_Her_ boy in far, far off _India!_ Oh, no! Not that!! Yes, what _she_ +wanted--that was the whole thought--selfishness; the stream turning in to +a dead sea within her own narrow circle; no thought of sympathy with God +in His eager outreach for His poor sin-befooled world. The prayer itself +in its object is perfectly proper, and rightly offered and answered times +without number; but the _motive_ wholly, uglily selfish and the +selfishness itself becomes a foothold for Satan and so the purpose of the +prayer is thwarted. + +Here is a wife praying that her husband might become a Christian. Perhaps +her thought is: "I wish John _were_ a Christian: it would be so good: it +really seems the proper thing: he would go to church with me, and sit in +the pew Sunday morning: I'd like that." Perhaps she thinks: "He would be +careful about swearing; he would quit drinking; and be nicer and gentler +at home." Maybe she thinks: "He would ask a blessing at the meals; that +would be so nice." Maybe she thinks: "We would have family prayers." +_Maybe_ that does not occur to her these days. This is what I say: _If_ +her thought does not go beyond some such range, of course _you_ would say +it is selfish. She is thinking of herself; not of the loving grieved God +against whom her husband is in rebellion; not of the real significance to +the man. God might touch her husband's heart, and then say: "I want you to +help Me win My poor world back." And the change would mean a reduced +income, and a different social position. _Oh!_ she had not meant _that!_ +Yes--what _she_ wanted for herself! + +Here is a minister praying for a revival in his church. Maybe he is +thinking; no, not exactly thinking; it is just half thinking itself out in +his sub-consciousness--"I wish we had a good revival in our church; +increased membership; larger attendance; easier finances; may be an extra +hundred or two in my own pocket; increased prestige in the denomination; a +better call or appointment: I wish we might have a revival." Now no true +minister ever talked that way even to himself or deliberately thought it. +To do so would be to see the mean contemptibility of it. But you know how +sly we all are in our underneath scarcely-thought-out thoughts. This is +what I say: _if_ that be the sort of thing underneath a man's praying of +course the motive is utterly selfish; a bit of the same thing that brought +Satan his change of name and character. + +Please notice that the reason for the prayer not being answered here is +not an arbitrary reluctance upon God's part to do a desirable thing. He +never fails to work whenever He has a half chance as far as it is possible +to work, even through men of faulty conceptions and mixed motives. The +reason lies much deeper. It is this: selfishness gives Satan a footing. It +gives a coaling station for his fleet on the shore of your life. And of +course he does his best to prevent the prayer, or when he cannot wholly +prevent, to spoil the results as far as he can. + +Prayer may properly be offered--_will_ be properly offered for many wholly +personal things; for physical strength, healing in sickness, about dearly +loved ones, money needed; indeed regarding things that may not be +necessary but only desirable and enjoyable, for ours is a loving God who +would have His dear ones enjoy to the full their lives down here. But the +_motive_ determines the propriety of such requests. Where the whole +purpose of one's life is _for Him_ these things may be asked for freely as +His gracious Spirit within guides. And there need be no bondage of morbid +introspection, no continual internal rakings. _He knows if the purpose of +the heart is to please Him_. + + + +<u>The Shortest Way to God.</u> + + +A third thing spoken of as hindering prayer is an unforgiving spirit. You +have noticed that Jesus speaks much about prayer and also speaks much +about forgiveness. But have you noticed how, over and over again He +_couples_ these two--prayer _and_ forgiveness? I used to wonder why. I do +not so much now. Nearly everywhere evidence keeps slipping in of the sore +spots. One may try to keep his lips closed on certain subjects, but it +seems about impossible to keep the ears entirely shut. And continually the +evidence keeps sifting in revealing the thin skin, raw flesh, wounds +never healed over, and some jaggedly open, almost everywhere one goes. +Jesus' continual references reveal how strikingly alike is the oriental +and the occidental; the first and the twentieth centuries. + +Run through Matthew alone a moment. Here in the fifth chapter:[16] "If +thou are coming to the altar"--that is approaching God; what we call +prayer--"and rememberest that thy brother hath aught _against thee_"--that +side of it--"leave there thy gift and go thy way, _first_ be reconciled," +and so on. Here comes a man with a lamb to offer. He approaches solemnly, +reverently, towards the altar of God. But as he is coming there flashes +across his mind the face of _that man_, with whom he has had difficulty. +And instantly he can feel his grip tightening on the offering, and his +teeth shutting closer at the quick memory. Jesus says, "If that be so lay +your lamb right down." What! go abruptly away! Why! how the folks around +the temple will talk! "Lay the lamb right down, and go thy way." The +shortest way to God for that man is not the way to the altar, but around +by that man's house. "_First_, be reconciled"--keep your perspective +straight--follow the right order--"_first_ be reconciled"--not _second; +"then_ come and offer thy gift." + +In the sixth chapter[17] He gives the form of prayer which we commonly +call the Lord's prayer. It contains seven petitions. At the close He +stops to emphasize just one of the seven. You remember which one; the one +about forgiveness. In the eighteenth chapter[18] Jesus is talking alone +with the disciples about prayer. Peter seems to remember the previous +remarks about forgiveness in connection with prayer; and he asks a +question. It is never difficult to think of Peter asking a question or +making a few remarks. He says, "Master, how many times _must_ I forgive a +man? _Seven_ times!" Apparently Peter thinks he is growing in grace. He +can actually _think_ now of forgiving a man seven times in succession. But +the Master in effect says, "Peter, you haven't caught the idea. +Forgiveness is not a question of mathematics; not a matter of _keeping +tab_ on somebody: not seven times but _seventy times seven._" And Peter's +eyes bulge open with an incredulous stare--"four hundred and ninety +times!... one man--straightway!!" Apparently the Master is thinking, that +he will lose count, or get tired of counting and conclude that forgiveness +is preferable, or else by practice _breathe in the spirit of +forgiveness--the_ thing He meant. + +Then as He was so fond of doing Jesus told a story to illustrate His +meaning. A man owed his lord a great debt, twelve millions of dollars; +that is to say practically an _unpayable_ amount. By comparison with money +to-day, in the western world, it would be about twelve billions. And he +went to him and asked for time. He said: "I'm short just now; but I mean +to pay; I don't mean to shirk: be easy with me; and I'll pay up the whole +sum in time." And his lord generously forgave him the whole debt. That is +Jesus' picture of God, as He knows Him who knows Him best. Then this +forgiven man went out and found a fellow servant who owed him--how much do +you think? Have you ever thought that Jesus had a keen sense of the +ludicrous? Surely it shows here. He owed him about sixteen dollars and +a-quarter or a-half! And you can almost feel the clutch of this fellow's +fingers on the other's throat as he sternly demands:--"Pay me that thou +owest." And his fellow earnestly replies, "Please be easy with me; I mean +to pay; I'm rather short just now: but I'm not trying to shirk; be easy +with me." Is it possible the words do not sound familiar! But he would +not, but put him in the jail. The last place to pay a debt! That is Jesus' +picture of man as He knows him who knows him best. And in effect He says +what we have been forgiven by God is as an unpayable amount. And what are +not willing to forgive is like sixteen dollars and a fraction by contrast. +What little puny folks some of us are in our thinking and feeling! + +"Oh, well," some one says, "you do not know how hard it is to forgive." +You think not? I know this much:--that some persons, and some things you +_can_not forgive of yourself. But I am glad to say that I know this too +that if one allows the Spirit of Jesus to sway the heart He will make you +love persons you _can_not like. No natural affinity or drawing together +through disposition, but a real yearning love in the heart. Jesus' love, +when allowed to come in as freely as He means, fills your heart with pity +for the man who has wounded you. An infinite, tender pity that he has sunk +so low as to be capable of such actions. + +But the fact to put down in the sharpest contrast of white and black is +that we must forgive freely, frankly, generously, "_even as God_," if we +are to be in prayer touch with God. + +And the reason is not far to find; a double reason, Godward and Satanward. +If prayer be partnership in the highest sense then the same spirit must +animate both partners, the human and the divine, if the largest results +are to come. And since unforgiveness roots itself down in hate Satan has +room for both feet in such a heart with all the leeway in action of such +purchase. That word _unforgiving_! What a group of relatives it has, near +and far! Jealousy, envy, bitterness, the cutting word, the polished shaft +of sarcasm with the poisoned tip, the green eye, the acid saliva--what +kinsfolk these! + + + +<u>Search Me.</u> + + +Sin, selfishness, an unforgiving spirit--what searchlights these words +are! Many a splendid life to-day is an utter cipher in the spirit +atmosphere because of some such hindrance. And God's great love-plan for +His prodigal world is being held back; and lives being lost even where +ultimately souls shall be saved because of the lack of human prayer +partners. + +May we not well pray:--Search me, oh God, and know my heart and help me +know it; try me and know my innermost, undermost thoughts and purposes and +ambitions, and help me know them; and see what way there be in me that is +a grief to Thee; and then lead me--and here the prayer may be a purpose as +well as a prayer--lead me out of that way unto _Thy_ way, _the_ way +everlasting. For Jesus' sake; aye for men's sake, too. + + + + +Why the Results are Delayed + + + +<u>God's Pathway to Human Hearts.</u> + + +God touches men through men. The Spirit's path to a human heart is through +another human heart. With reverence be it said, yet with blunt plainness +that in His plan for winning men to their true allegiance God is limited +by the human limitations. That may seem to mean more than it really does. +For our thought of the human is of the scarred, warped, shrivelled +humanity that we know, and great changes come when God's Spirit controls. +But the fact is there, however limited our understanding of it. + +God needs man for His plan. That is the fact that stands out strong in +thinking about prayer. God's greatest agency; man's greatest agency, for +defeating the enemy and winning men back is intercession. God is counting +mightily upon that. And He can count most mightily upon the man that +faithfully practices that. + +The results He longs for are being held back, and made smaller because so +many of us have not learned how to pray simply and skilfully. We need +training. And God understands that. He Himself will train. But we must be +willing; actively willing. And just there the great bother comes in. A +strong will perfectly yielded to God's will, or perfectly willing to be +yielded, is His mightiest ally in redeeming the world. + +Answers to prayer are delayed, or denied, out of kindness, _or_, that more +may be given, _or_, that a far larger purpose may be served. But deeper +down by far than that is this: _God's purposes are being delayed_; delayed +because of our unwillingness to learn how to pray, _or_, our slowness--I +almost said--our stupidity in learning. It is a small matter that my +prayer be answered, or unanswered; not small to me; everything perhaps to +me; but small in proportion. It is a tremendous thing that _God's purpose_ +for a world is being held back through my lack. The thought that prayer is +_getting things_ from God; chiefly that, is so small, pitiably small, and +yet so common. The true conception understands that prayer is partnership +with God in His planet-sized purposes, and includes the "all things" +beside, as an important detail of the whole. + +The real reason for the delay or failure lies simply in the difference +between God's view-point and ours. In our asking either we have not +reached the _wisdom_ that asks best, _or_, we have not reached the +_unselfishness_ that is willing to sacrifice a good thing, for a better, +or the best; the unselfishness that is willing to sacrifice the smaller +personal desire for the larger thing that affects the lives of many. + +We learn best by pictures, and by stories which are pen or word pictures. +This was Jesus' favourite method of teaching. There are in the Bible four +great, striking instances of delayed, or qualified answers to prayer. +There are some others; but these stand out sharply, and perhaps include +the main teachings of all. Probably all the instances of hindered prayer +with which we are familiar will come under one of these. That is to say, +where there are good connections upward as suggested in our last talk, +_and_, excepting those that come under the talk succeeding this, namely, +the great outside hindrance. These four are Moses' request to enter +Canaan; Hannah's prayer for a son; Paul's thorn; and Jesus' prayer in +Gethsemane. + +Let us look a bit at these in turn. + + + +<u>For the Sake of a Nation.</u> + + +First is the incident of Moses' ungranted petition. Moses was the leader +of his people. He is one of the giants of the human race from whatever +standpoint considered. His codes are the basis of all English and American +jurisprudence. From his own account of his career, the secret of all his +power as a maker of laws, the organizer of a strangely marvellous nation, +a military general and strategist--the secret of all was in his direct +communication with God. He was peculiarly a man of prayer. Everything was +referred to God, and he declared that everything--laws, organization, +worship, plans--came to him from God. In national emergencies where moral +catastrophe was threatened he petitioned God and the plans were changed in +accordance with his request. He makes personal requests and they are +granted. He was peculiarly a man who dealt directly with God about every +sort of thing, national and personal, simple and complex. The record +commonly credited to him puts prayer as the simple profound explanation of +his stupendous career and achievements. He prayed. God worked along the +line of his prayer. The great things recorded are the result. That is the +simple inferential summary. + +Now there is one exception to all this in Moses' life. It stands out the +more strikingly that it is an exception; the one exception of a very long +line. Moses asked repeatedly for one thing. It was not given him. God is +not capricious nor arbitrary. There must be a reason. _There is._ And it +is fairly luminous with light. + +Here are the facts. These freed men of Egypt are a hard lot to lead and to +live with. Slow, sensuous, petty, ignorant, narrow, impulsive, strangers +to self-control, critical, exasperating--what an undertaking God had to +make a nation, _the_ nation of history, about which centred His deep +reaching, far-seeing love ambition for redeeming a world out of such +stuff! Only paralleled by the church being built upon such men as these +Galilean peasants! What victories these! What a God to do such things! +Only a God could do either and both! What immense patience it required to +shape this people. What patience God has. Moses had learned much of +patience in the desert sands with his sheep; for he had learned much of +God. But the finishing touches were supplied by the grindstone of friction +with the fickle temper of this mob of ex-slaves. + +Here are the immediate circumstances. They lacked water. They grew very +thirsty. It was a serious matter in those desert sands with human lives, +and young children, and the stock. No, it was not serious: really a very +small matter, for _God was along_, and the enterprise was of His starting. +It was His affair, all this strange journey. And they knew Him quite well +enough in their brief experience to be expecting something fully equal to +all needs with a margin thrown in. There was that series of stupendous +things before leaving Egypt. There was the Red Sea, and fresh food daily +delivered at every man's tent door, and game, juicy birds, brought down +within arms' reach, yes, and--surely this alone were enough--there was +living, cool water gushing abundantly, gladly out of the very heart of a +flinty rock--if such a thing can be said to have a heart! Oh, yes it was a +very small matter to be lacking anything with such a lavish God along. + +_But they forgot._ Their noses were keener than their memories. They had +better stomachs than hearts. The odorous onions of Egypt made more +lasting impressions than this tender, patient, planning God. Yet here +even their stomachs forgot those rock-freed waters. These people must be +kinsfolk of ours. They seem to have some of the same family traits. + +Listen: they begin to complain, to criticise. God patiently says nothing +but provides for their needs. But Moses has not yet reached the high level +that later experiences brought him. He is standing to them for God. Yet he +is very un-Godlike. Angrily, with hot word, he _smites_ the rock. Once +smiting was God's plan; then the quiet word ever after. How many a time +has the once smitten Rock been smitten again in our impatience! _The +waters came_! Just like God! They were cared for, though He had been +disobeyed and dishonoured. And there are the crowds eagerly drinking with +faces down; and up yonder in the shadow standeth God _grieved_, deeply +grieved at the false picture this immature people had gotten of Him that +day through Moses. Moses' hot tongue and flashing eye made a deep moral +scar upon their minds, that it would take years to remove. Something must +be done for the people's sake. Moses disobeyed God. He dishonoured God. +Yet the waters came, for _they needed water_. And God is ever +tender-hearted. But they must be taught the need of obedience, the evil of +disobedience. Taught it so they never could forget. + +Moses was a leader. Leaders may not do as common men. And leaders may not +be dealt with as followers. They stand too high in the air. They affect +too many lives. So God said to Moses:--"You will not go into Canaan. You +may lead them clear up to the line; you may even see over, but you may not +go in." That hurt Moses deep down. It hurt God deeper down, in a heart +more sensitive to hurt than was Moses'. Without doubt it was said with +_reluctance_, for _Moses'_ sake. But _it was said_, plainly, irrevocably, +for _their_ sakes. Moses' petition was for a reversal of this decision. +Once and again he asked. He wanted to see that wondrous land of God's +choosing. He felt the sting too. The edge of the knife of discipline cut +keenly, and the blood spurted. But God said:--"Do not speak to Me again of +this." The decision was not to be changed. For Moses' sake only He would +gladly have changed, judging by His previous conduct. For the sake of the +nation--aye, for the sake of the prodigal world to be won back through +this nation, the petition might not be granted. That ungranted petition +taught those millions the lesson of obedience, of reverence, as no +command, or smoking mount, or drowning Egyptians had done. It became +common talk in every tent, by every camp-fire of the tented nation. "Moses +disobeyed,--he failed to reverence God;--he cannot enter Canaan."--With +hushed tones, and awed hearts and moved, strangely moved faces it passed +from lip to lip. Some of the women and children wept. They all loved +Moses. They revered him. How gladly they would have had him go over. The +double-sided truth--obedience--disobedience--kept burning in through the +years. + +In after years many a Hebrew mother told her baby, eager for a story, of +Moses their great leader; his appearance, deep-set eyes, long beard, +majestic mien, yet infinite tenderness and gentleness, the softness of +strength; his presence with God in the mount, the shining face. And the +baby would listen so quietly, and then the eyes would grow so big and the +hush of spirit come as the mother would repeat softly, "but he could not +come over into the land of promise because _he did not obey God_." And +strong fathers reminded their growing sons. And so it was woven into the +warp and woof of the nation--_obedience, reverent obedience to God_. And +one can well understand Moses looking down from above with grateful heart +that he had been denied for _their_ sakes. The unselfishness and wisdom of +later years would not have made the prayer. _The prayer of a man was +denied that a nation might be taught obedience_. + + + +<u>That More Might be Given and Gotten.</u> + + +Now let us look a bit at the second of these, the portrait of Hannah the +Hebrew woman. First the broader lines for perspective. This peculiar +Hebrew nation had two deep dips down morally between Egypt and Babylon; +between the first making, and the final breaking. The national tide ebbed +very low twice, before it finally ran out in the Euphrates Valley. Elijah +stemmed the tide the second time, and saved the day for a later night. The +Hannah story belongs in the first of these ebb-tides; the first bad sag; +the first deep gap. + +The giant lawgiver is long gone. His successor, only a less giant than +himself is gone too, and all that generation, and more. The giants gave +way to smaller-sized leaders. Now they are gone also. The mountain peaks +have been lost in the foothills, and these have yielded to dunes, and +levels; mostly levels; dead levels. These mountains must have had long +legs. The foothills are so far away, and are running all to toes. Now the +toes have disappeared. + +It is a leaderless people, for the true Leader as originally planned has +been, first ignored, then forgot. The people have no ideals. They grub in +the earth content. There is a deep, hidden-away current of good. But it +needs leadership to bring it to the surface. A leaderless people! This is +the niche of the Hannah story. + +The nation was rapidly drifting down to the moral level of the lowest. At +Shiloh the formal worship was kept up, but the very priests were tainted +with the worst impurity. A sort of sleepy, slovenly anarchy prevailed. +Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, with every indication +of a gutter standard. "There was none in the land possessing power of +restraint that might put them to shame in anything." No government; no +dominant spirit. Indeed the actual conditions of Sodom and her sister +cities of the plain existed among the people. This is the setting of the +simple graphic incident of Hannah. One must get the picture clearly in +mind to understand the story. + +Up in the hill country of Ephraim there lived a wise-hearted religious +man, a farmer, raising stock, and grain; and fruit, too, likely. He was +earnest but not of the sort to rise above the habit of his time. His farm +was not far from Shiloh, the national place of worship, and he made yearly +trips there with the family. But the woman-degrading curse of Lamech was +over his home. He had two wives. Hannah was the loved one. (No man ever +yet gave his heart to two women.) She was a gentle-spoken, thoughtful +woman, with a deep, earnest spirit. But she had a disappointment which +grew in intensity as it continued. The desire of her heart had been +withheld. She was childless. + +Though the thing is not mentioned the whole inference is that she prayed +earnestly and persistently but to her surprise and deep disappointment the +desired answer came not. To make it worse her rival--what a word, for the +other one in the home with her--her rival provoked her sore to make her +fret. And that thing _went on_ year after year. That teasing, nagging, +picking of a small nature was her constant prod. What an atmosphere for a +home! Is it any wonder that "she was in bitterness of soul" and "wept +sore"? Her husband tenderly tries to comfort her. But her inner spirit +remains chafed to the quick. And all this goes on for years; the yearning, +the praying, the failure of answer, the biting, bitter atmosphere,--for +_years_. And she wonders why. + +Why was it? Step back and up a bit and get the broader view which the +narrow limits of her surroundings, and shall I say, too, though not +critically, of her spirit, shut out from her eyes. Here is what she saw: +her fondest hope unrealized, long praying unanswered, a constant ferment +at home. Here is what she wanted:--_a son_. That is her horizon. Beyond +that her thought does not rise. + +Here is what God saw:--a nation--no, much worse--_the_ nation, in which +centred His great love-plan for winning His prodigal world, going to +pieces. The messenger to the prodigal was being slyly, subtly seduced by +the prodigal. The saviour-nation was being itself lost. The plan so long +and patiently fostered for saving a world was threatened with utter +disaster. + +Here is what He wanted--_a leader_! But there were no leaders. And, worse +yet, there were no men out of whom leaders might be made, no men of +leader-size. And worse yet _there were no women_ of the sort to train and +shape a man for leadership. That is the lowest level to which a people +ever gets, aye, ever _can_ get. God had to get a woman before He could get +a man. Hannah had in her the making of the woman He needed. God honoured +her by choosing her. But she must be changed before she could be used. And +so there came those years of pruning, and sifting, and discipline. Shall +we spell that word discipline with a final g instead of e--discipling, so +the love of it may be plainer to our near-sightedness? And out of those +years and experiences there came a new woman. A woman with vision +broadened, with spirit mellowed, with strength seasoned, with will so +sinewy supple as to yield to a higher will, to sacrifice the dearest +_personal pleasure_ for the world-wide purpose; willing that he who was +her dearest treasure should be the nation's _first_. + +Then followed months of prayer while the man was coming. Samuel was born, +no, farther back yet, was conceived in the atmosphere of prayer and +devotion to God. The prenatal influences for those months gave the sort of +man God wanted. And a nation, _the_ nation, the _world-plan,_ was saved! +This man became a living answer to prayer. The romantic story of the +little boy up in the Shiloh tabernacle quickly spread over the nation. His +very name--Samuel, God hears--sifted into people's ears the facts of a +God, and of the power of prayer. The very sight of the boy and of the man +clear to the end kept deepening the brain impression through eyeballs that +God answers prayer. And the seeds of that re-belief in God that Samuel's +leadership brought about were sown by the unusual story of his birth. + +_The answer was delayed that more might be given and gotten_. And Hannah's +exultant song of praise reveals the fineness to which the texture of her +nature had been spun. And it tells too how grateful she was for a God who +in great patience and of strong deliberate purpose delayed the answer to +her prayer. + + + +<u>The Best Light for Studying a Thorn.</u> + + +The third great picture in this group is that of Paul and his +needle-pointed thorn. Talks about the certainty of prayer being answered +are very apt to bring this question: "What about Paul's thorn?" Sometimes +asked by earnest hearts puzzled; _some_times with a look in the eye almost +exultant as though of gladness for that thorn because it seems to help out +a theory. These pictures are put into the gallery for our help. Let us +pull up our chairs in front of this one and see what points we may get to +help our hearts. + +First a look at Paul himself. The best light on this thorn is through the +man. The man explains the thorn. We have a halo about Paul's head; and +rightly, too. What a splendid man of God he was! God's chosen one for a +peculiar ministry. One of the twelve could be used to open the door to the +great outside world, but God had to go aside from this circle and get a +man of different training for this wider sphere. Cradled and schooled in a +Jewish atmosphere, he never lost the Jew standpoint, yet the training of +his home surroundings in that outside world, the contact with Greek +culture, his natural mental cast fitted him peculiarly for his appointed +task to the great outside majority. His keen reasoning powers, his vivid +imagination, his steel-like will, his burning devotion, his unmovable +purpose, his tender attachment to his Lord,--what a man! Well might the +Master want to win such a man for service' sake. But Paul had some weak +traits. Let us say it very softly, remembering as we instinctively will, +that where we think of one in him there come crowding to memory's door +many more in one's self. A man's weak point is usually the extreme +opposite swing of the pendulum on his strong point. Paul had a tremendous +will. He was a giant, a Hercules in his will. Those tireless journeys with +their terrific experiences, all spell out _will_ large and black. But, +gently now, he went to extremes here. Was it due to his overtired nerves? +Likely enough. He was obstinate, _sometimes;_ stubborn; set in his way: +_sometimes_ head down, jaw locked, driving hard. Say it all _softly_, for +we are speaking of dear old saintly Paul; but, to help, _say_ it, for it +is true. + +God had a hard time holding Paul to _His_ plans. Paul had some of his own. +We can all easily understand that. Take a side glance or two as he is +pushing eagerly, splendidly on. Turn to that sixteenth chapter of +Acts,[19] and listen: "Having been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak +the word in (the province of) Asia," coupled with the fact of sickness +being allowed to overtake him in Galatia where the "forbidding" message +came. And again this, "they assayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of +Jesus suffered them not."[20] Tell me, is this the way the Spirit of God +leads? That I should go driving ahead until He must pull me up with a +sharp turn, and twist me around! It is the way He is obliged to do many +times, no doubt, with most of us. But His chosen way? His own way? Surely +not. Rather this, the keeping close, and quiet and listening for the next +step. Rather the "I go not up yet unto this feast" of Jesus.[21] And then +in a few days going up, evidently when the clear intimation came. These +words, "assayed to go," "forbidden," "suffered not"--what flashlights they +let into this strong man's character. + +But there is much stronger evidence yet. Paul had an ambition to preach to +the _Jerusalem Jews_. It burned in his bones from the early hours of his +new life. The substratum of "_Jerusalem_" seemed ever in his thoughts and +dreams. If _he_ could just get to those Jerusalem Jews! He knew them. He +had trained with them. He was a leader among the younger set. When they +burned against these Christians he burned just a bit hotter. They knew +him. They trusted him to drive the opposite wedge. If only _he_ could have +a chance down there he felt that the tide might be turned. But from that +critical hour on the Damascene road "_Gentiles--Gentiles_" had been +sounded in his ears. And he obeyed, of course he obeyed, with all his +ardent heart. _But, but_--those _Jerusalem Jews_! If he might go to +Jerusalem! Yet very early the Master had proscribed the Jerusalem service +for Paul. He made it a matter of a special vision,[22] in the holy temple, +kindly explaining why. "They will not receive of _thee_ testimony +concerning Me." Would that not seem quite sufficient? Surely. Yet this +astonishing thing occurs:--Paul attempts to argue with the Master _why_ he +should be allowed to go. This is going to great lengths; a subordinate +arguing with his commanding general after the orders have been issued! The +Master closes the vision with a peremptory word of command, "_depart_. I +will send thee _far hence_ (from Jerusalem, where you long to be), to the +Gentiles." That is a picture of this man. It reveals the weak side in +this giant of strength and of love. And _this_ is the man God has to use +in His plan. He is without doubt the best man available. And in his +splendour he stands head and shoulders above his generation and many +generations. Yet (with much reverence) God has a hard time getting Paul to +work always along the line of _His_ plans. + +That is the man. Now for the thorn. Something came into Paul's life that +was a constant irritation. He calls it a thorn. What a graphic word! A +sharp point prodding into his flesh, ever prodding, sticking, sticking in; +asleep, awake, stitching tent canvas, preaching, writing, that thing ever +cutting its point into his sensitive flesh. Ugh! It did not disturb him so +much at first, because _there was God_ to go to. He went to God and said, +"_Please_ take this away." But it stayed and stuck. A second time the +prayer; a bit more urgent; the thing sticks so. The time test is the +hardest test of all. Still no change. Then praying the third time with +what earnestness one can well imagine. + +Now note three things: First, _There was an answer_. God answered _the +man_. Though He did not grant the petition, He answered the man. He did +not ignore him nor his request. Then God told Paul frankly that it was not +best to take the thorn away. It was in the lonely vigil of a sleepless +night, likely as not, that the wondrous Jesus-Spirit drew near to Paul. +Inaudibly to outer ear but very plainly to his inner ear, He spoke in +tones modulated into tender softness as of dearest friend talking with +dear friend. "Paul," the voice said, "I know about that thorn--and how it +hurts--it hurts Me, too. For _your_ sake, I would quickly, so quickly +remove it. But--Paul"--and the voice becomes still softer--"it is a bit +better for _others_' sake that it remain: the plan in My heart _through +you_ for thousands, yes, unnumbered thousands, Paul, can so best be worked +out." That was the first part of what He said. And Paul lies thinking with +a deep tinge of awe over his spirit. Then after a bit in yet quieter voice +He went on to say, "I will be so close to your side; you shall have such +revelations of My glory that the pain will be clear overlapped, Paul; the +glory shall outstrip the eating thorn point." + +I can see old Paul one night in his own hired house in Rome. It is late, +after a busy day; the auditors have all gone. He is sitting on an old +bench, slowing down before seeking sleep. One arm is around Luke, dear +faithful Doctor Luke, and the other around young Timothy, not quite so +young now. And with eyes that glisten, and utterance tremulous with +emotion he is just saying:--"And dear old friends, do you know, I would +not have missed this thorn, for the wondrous glory"--and his heart gets +into his voice, there is a touch of the hoarseness of deep emotion, and a +quavering of tone, so he waits a moment--"the wondrous _glory-presence of +Jesus_ that came with it." + +And so out of the experience came a double blessing. There was a much +fuller working of God's plan for His poor befooled world. And there was an +unspeakable nearness of intimacy with his Lord for Paul. _The man was +answered and the petition denied that the larger plan of service might be +carried out_. + + + +<u>Shaping a Prayer on the Anvil of the Knees.</u> + + +The last of these pictures is like Raphael's Sistine Madonna in the +Dresden gallery; it is in a room by itself. One enters with a holy hush +over his spirit, and, with awe in his eyes, looks at _Jesus in +Gethsemane_. There is the Kidron brook, the gentle rise of ground, the +grove of gnarled knotty old olive trees. The moon above is at the full. +Its brightness makes these shadowed recesses the darker; blackly dark. +Here is a group of men lying on the ground apparently asleep. Over yonder +deeper in among the trees a smaller group reclines motionless. They, too, +sleep. And, look, farther in yet is that lone figure; all alone; nevermore +alone; save once--on the morrow. + +There is a foreshadowing of this Gethsemane experience in the requested +interview of the Greeks just a few intense days before. In the vision +which the Greeks unconsciously brought the agony of the olive grove began. +The climax is among these moon-shadowed trees. How sympathetic those inky +black shadows! It takes bright light to make black shadows. Yet they were +not black enough. Intense men can get so absorbed in the shadows as to +forget the light. + +This great Jesus! Son of God: God the Son. The Son of Man: God--a man! No +draughtsman's pencil ever drew the line between His divinity and humanity; +nor ever shall. For the union of divine and human is itself divine, and +therefore clear beyond human ken. Here His humanity stands out, +pathetically, luminously stands out. Let us speak of it very softly and +think with the touch of awe deepening for this is holiest ground. The +battle of the morrow is being fought out here. Calvary is in Gethsemane. +The victory of the hill is won in the grove. + +It is sheer impossible for man with sin grained into his fibre through +centuries to understand the horror with which a sinless one thinks of +actual contact with sin. As Jesus enters the grove that night it comes in +upon His spirit with terrific intensity that He is actually coming into +contact--with a meaning quite beyond us--coming into contact with sin. In +some way all too deep for definition He is to be "made sin."[23] The +language used to describe His emotions is so strong that no adequate +English words seem available for its full expression. An indescribable +horror, a chill of terror, a frenzy of fright seizes Him. The poisonous +miasma of sin seems to be filling His nostrils and to be stifling Him. And +yonder alone among the trees the agony is upon Him. The extreme grips Him. +May there not yet possibly be some other way rather than _this--this!_ A +bit of that prayer comes to us in tones strangely altered by deepest +emotion. "_If it be possible--let this cup pass_." There is still a +clinging to a possibility, some possibility other than that of this +nightmare vision. The writer of the Hebrews lets in light here. The strain +of spirit almost snaps the life-thread. And a parenthetical prayer for +strength goes up. And the angels come with sympathetic strengthening. With +what awe must they have ministered! Even after that some of the red life +slips out there under the trees. By and by a calmer mood asserts itself, +and out of the darkness a second petition comes. It tells of the tide's +turning, and the victory full and complete. _A changed, petition_ this! +"_Since this cup may not pass_--since only thus _can_ Thy great plan for a +world be wrought out--_Thy--will_"--slowly but very distinctly the words +come--"_Thy--will--be--done._" + +_The changed prayer was wrought out upon His knees!_ With greatest +reverence, and a hush in our voices, let us say that there alone with the +Father came the clearer understanding of the Father's actual will under +these circumstances. + + "Into the woods my Master went + Clean forspent, forspent; + Into the woods my Master came + Forspent with love and shame. + But the olives they were not blind to Him, + The little gray leaves were kind to Him; + The thorn-tree had a mind to Him + When into the woods He came. + + "Out of the woods my Master went + And He was well content; + Out of the woods my Master came + Content with death and shame. + When death and shame would woo Him last + From under the trees they drew Him last + 'Twas on a tree they slew Him--last + When out of the woods He came."[24] + +True prayer is wrought out upon the knees alone with God. With deepest +reverence, and in awed tones, let it be said, that _that was true of +Jesus_ in the days of His humanity. How infinitely more of us! + +Shall we not plan to meet God alone, habitually, with the door shut, and +the Book open, and the will pliant so we may be trained for this holy +partnership of prayer. Then will come the clearer vision, the broader +purpose, the truer wisdom, the real unselfishness, the simplicity of +claiming and expecting, the delights of fellowship in service with Him; +then too will come great victories for God in His world. Although we +shall not begin to know by direct knowledge a tithe of the story until the +night be gone and the dawning break and the ink-black shadows that now +stain the earth shall be chased away by the brightness of His presence. + + + + +The Great Outside Hindrance + + + +<u>The Traitor Prince.</u> + + +There remains yet a word to be said about hindrances. It is a most +important word; indeed the climactic word. What has been said is simply +clearing the way for what is yet to be said. A very strange phase of +prayer must be considered here. Strange only because not familiar. Yet +though strange it contains the whole heart of the question. Here lies the +fight of the fight. One marvels that so little is said of it. For if there +were clear understanding here, and then faithful practicing, there would +be mightier defeats and victories: defeats for the foe; victories for our +rightful prince, Jesus. + +The intense fact is this: _Satan has the power to hold the answer +back--for awhile; to delay the result--for a time_. He has not the power +to hold it back finally, _if_ some one understands and prays with quiet, +steady persistence. The real pitch of prayer therefore is Satanward. + +Our generation has pretty much left this individual Satan out. It is +partly excusable perhaps. The conceptions of Satan and his hosts and +surroundings made classical by such as Dante and Milton and Doré have +done much to befog the air. Almost universally they have been taken +literally whether so meant or not. One familiar with Satan's +characteristics can easily imagine his cunning finger in that. He is +willing even to be caricatured, or to be left out of reckoning, if so he +may tighten his grip. + +These suggestions of horns and hoofs, of forked tail and all the rest of +it seek to give material form to this being. They are grotesque to an +extreme, and therefore caricatures. A caricature so disproportions and +exaggerates as to make hideous or ridiculous. In our day when every +foundation of knowledge is being examined there has been a natural but +unthinking turning away from the very being of Satan through these +representations of him. Yet where there is a caricature there must be a +true. To revolt from the true, hidden by a caricature, in revolting from +the caricature is easy, but is certainly bad. It is always bad to have the +truth hid from our eyes. + +It is refreshing and fascinating to turn from these classical caricatures +to the scriptural conception of Satan. In this Book he is a being of great +beauty of person, of great dignity of position even yet, endowed with most +remarkable intellectual powers, a prince, at the head of a most +remarkable, compact organization which he has wielded with phenomenal +skill and success in furthering his ambitious purposes. + +And he is not chained yet. I remember a conversation with a young +clergyman one Monday morning in the reading-room of a Young Men's +Christian Association. It was in a certain mining town in the southwest, +which is as full of evil resorts as such places usually are. The day +before, Sunday, had been one of special services, and we had both been +busy and were a bit weary. We were slowing down and chatting leisurely. I +remarked to my friend, "What a glad day it will be when the millennium +comes!" He quickly replied, "I think this is the millennium." "But," I +said, "I thought Satan was to be chained during that time. Doesn't it say +something of that sort in the Book?" "Yes," he replied, "it does. But I +think he is chained now." And I could not resist the answer that came +blurting its way out, "Well, if he is chained, he must have a fairly long +chain: it seems to permit much freedom of action." From all that can be +gathered regarding this mighty prince he is not chained yet. We would do +well to learn more about him. The old military maxim, "Study the enemy," +should be followed more closely here. + +It is striking that the oldest of the Bible books, and the latest, Job and +Revelation, the first word and the last, give such definite information +concerning him. These coupled with the gospel records supply most of the +information available though not all. Those three and a half years of +Jesus' public work is the period of greatest Satanic and demoniac +activity of which any record has been made. Jesus' own allusions to him +are frequent and in unmistakable language. There are four particular +passages to which I want to turn your attention now. Let it not be +supposed, however, that this phase of prayer rests upon a few isolated +passages. Such a serious truth does not hinge upon selected proof texts. +It is woven into the very texture of this Book throughout. + +There are two facts that run through the Bible from one end to the other. +They are like two threads ever crossing in the warp and woof of a finely +woven fabric. Anywhere you run your shears into the web of this Book you +will find these two threads. They run crosswise and are woven inextricably +in. One is a black thread, inky black, pot-black. The other is a bright +thread, like a bit of glory light streaming across. These two threads +everywhere. The one is this--the black thread--there is an enemy. Turn +where you will from Genesis to Revelation--always an enemy. He is keen. He +is subtle. He is malicious. He is cruel. He is obstinate. He is a master. +The second thread is this: the leaders for God have always been men of +prayer above everything else. They are men of power in other ways, +preachers, men of action, with power to sway others but above all else men +of prayer. They give prayer first place. There is one striking exception +to this, namely, King Saul. And most significantly a study of this +exception throws a brilliant lime light upon the career of Satan. King +Sauls seems to furnish the one great human illustration in scripture of +heaven's renegade fallen prince. These special paragraphs to be quoted are +like the pattern in the cloth where the colours of the yarn come into more +definite shape. The gospels form the central pattern of the whole where +the colours pile up into sharpest contrast. + + + +<u>Praying is Fighting.</u> + + +But let us turn to the Book at once. For we _know_ only what it tells. The +rest is surmise. The only authoritative statements about Satan seem to be +these here. Turn first to the New Testament. + +The Old Testament is the book of illustrations; the New of explanations, +of teaching. In the Old, teaching is largely by kindergarten methods. The +best methods, for the world was in its child stage. In the New the +teaching is by precept. There is precept teaching in the Old; very much. +There is picture teaching in the New; the gospels full of it. But picture +teaching, acted teaching, is the characteristic of the Old, and precept +teaching of the New. There is a wonderfully vivid picture in the Old +Testament, of this thing we are discussing. But first let us get the +teaching counterpart in the new, and then look at the picture. + +Turn to Ephesians. Ephesians is a prayer epistle. That is a very +significant fact to mark. Of Paul's thirteen letters Ephesians is +peculiarly the prayer letter. Paul is clearly in a prayer mood. He is on +his knees here. He has much to say to these people whom he has won to +Christ, but it comes in the parenthesis of his prayer. The connecting +phrase running through is--"for this cause I pray.... I bow my knees." +Halfway through this rare old man's mind runs out to the condition of +these churches, and he puts in the always needed practical injunctions +about their daily lives. Then the prayer mood reasserts itself, and the +epistle finds its climax in a remarkable paragraph on prayer. From praying +the man goes urging them to pray. + +We must keep the book open here as we talk: chapter six, verses ten to +twenty inclusive. The main drive of all their living and warfare seems +very clear to this scarred veteran:--"that ye may be able to withstand the +wiles of the devil." This man seems to have had no difficulty in believing +in a personal devil. Probably he had had too many close encounters for +that. To Paul Satan is a cunning strategist requiring every bit of +available resource to combat. + +This paragraph states two things:--who the real foe is, against whom the +fight is directed; and, then with climactic intensity it pitches on the +main thing that routs him. Who is the real foe? Listen:--"For our +wrestling is not against flesh and blood"--not against men; never that; +something far, subtler--"but against the principalities"--a word for a +compact organization of individuals,--"against powers"--not only organized +but highly endowed intellectually, "against the world-rulers of this +darkness,"--they are of princely kin; not common folk--"against the hosts +of wicked spirits in the heavenlies"--spirit beings, in vast numbers, +having their headquarters somewhere above the earth. _That_ is the foe. +Large numbers of highly endowed spirit beings, compactly organized, who +are the sovereigns of the present realm or age of moral darkness, having +their _headquarters_ of activity somewhere above the earth, and below the +throne of God, but concerned with human beings upon the earth. In chapter +two of the epistle the head or ruler of this organization is referred to, +"the prince of the powers of the air."[25] That is the real foe. + +Then in one of his strong piled up climactic sentences Paul tells how the +fight is to be won. This sentence runs unbroken through verses fourteen to +twenty inclusive. There are six preliminary clauses in it leading up to +its main statement. These clauses name the pieces of armour used by a +Roman soldier in the action of battle. The loins girt, the breastplate on, +the feet shod, the shield, the helmet the sword, and so on. A Roman +soldier reading this or, hearing Paul preach it, would expect him to +finish the sentence by saying "_with all your fighting strength +fighting_." + +That would be the proper conclusion rhetorically of this sentence. But +when Paul reaches the climax with his usual intensity he drops the +rhetorical figure, and puts in the thing with which in our case the +fighting is done--"with all prayer _praying_." In place of the +expected word fighting is the word praying. The thing with which the +fighting is done is put in place of the word itself. Our fighting is +praying. Praying is fighting, spirit-fighting. That is to say, this old +evangelist-missionary-bishop says, we are in the thick of a fight. There +is a war on. How shall we best fight? First get into good shape to pray, +and then with all your praying strength and skill _pray_. That word +_praying_ is the climax of this long sentence, and of this whole epistle. +This is the sort of action that turns the enemy's flank, and reveals his +heels. He simply _cannot_ stand before persistent knee-work. + +Now mark the keenness of Paul's description of the man who does most +effective work in praying. There are six qualifications under the figure +of the six pieces of armour. A clear understanding of truth, a clean +obedient life, earnest service, a strongly simple trust in God, clear +assurance of one's own salvation and relation to God, and a good grip of +the truth for others--these things prepare a man for the real conflict of +prayer. _Such a man_--_praying_--_drives back these hosts of the traitor +prince_. Such a man praying is invincible in his Chief, Jesus. The +equipment is simple, and in its beginnings comes quickly to the willing, +earnest heart. + +Look a bit at how the strong climax of this long sentence runs. It is +fairly bristling with points. Soldier-points all of them; like bayonet +points. Just such as a general engaged in a siege-fight would give to his +men. "With all prayer and supplication"--there is _intensity_; +"praying"--that is _the main drive_; "at all seasons"--_ceaselessness_, +night and day; hot and cold; wet and dry; "in the Spirit"--as _guided by +the Chief;_ "and watching thereunto"--_sleepless vigilance;_ watching is +ever a fighting word; watch the enemy; watch your own forces; "with all +perseverance"--_persistence_; cheery, jaw-locked, dogged persistence, +bulldog tenacity; "and supplication"--_intensity again_; "for all the +saints"--_the sweep of the action_, keep in touch with the whole army; +"and on my behalf"--the human leader, rally around _the immediate leader._ +This is the foe to be fought. And this the sort of fighting that defeats +this foe. + + + +<u>A double Wrestling Match.</u> + + +Now turn back to the illustration section of our Book for a remarkably +graphic illustration of these words. It is in the old prophecy of Daniel, +tenth chapter. The story is this: Daniel is an old man now. He is an +exile. He has not seen the green hills of his fatherland since boyhood. In +this level Babylon, he is homesick for the dear old Palestinian hills, and +he is heartsick over the plight of his people. He has been studying +Jeremiah's prophecies, and finds there the promise plainly made that after +seventy years these exiled Hebrews are to be allowed to return. Go back +again! The thought of it quickens his pulse-beats. He does some quick +counting. The time will soon be up. So Daniel plans a bit of time for +special prayer, a sort of siege prayer. + +Remember who he is--this Daniel. He is the chief executive of the land. He +controls, under the king, the affairs of the world empire of his time. He +is a giant of strength and ability--this man. But he plans his work so as +to go away for a time. Taking a few kindred spirits, who understand +prayer, he goes off into the woods down by the great Tigris River. They +spend a day in fasting, and meditation and prayer. Not utter fasting, but +scant eating of plain food. I suppose they pray awhile; maybe separately, +then together; then read a bit from the Jeremiah parchment, think and talk +it over and then pray some more. And so they spend a whole day reading, +meditating, praying. + +They are expecting an answer. These old-time intercessors were strong in +expectancy. But there is no answer. A second day, a third, a fourth, a +week, still no answer reaches them. They go quietly on without hesitation. +Two weeks. How long it must have seemed! Think of fourteen days spent +_waiting_; waiting for something, with your heart on tenter hooks. There +is no answer. God might have been dead, to adapt the words of Catharine +Luther, so far as any answer reaching them is concerned. But you cannot +befool Daniel in that way. He is an old hand at prayer. Apparently he has +no thought of quitting. He goes quietly, steadily on. Twenty days pass, +with no change. Still they persist. Then the twenty-first day comes and +there is an answer. It comes in a vision whose glory is beyond human +strength to bear. By and by when they can talk, his visitor and he, this +is what Daniel hears: "Daniel, the first day you began to pray, your +prayer was heard, and I was sent with the answer." And even Daniel's eyes +open big--"the _first_ day--three weeks ago?" "Yes, three weeks ago I left +the presence of God with the answer to your prayer. But"--listen, here is +the strange part--"the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, +resisted me, one and twenty days: but Michael, your prince, came to help +me, and I was free to come to you with the answer to your prayer." + +Please notice four things that I think any one reading this chapter will +readily admit. This being talking with Daniel is plainly a spirit being. +He is opposed by some one. This opponent plainly must be a spirit being, +too, to be resisting a spirit being. Daniel's messenger is from God: that +is clear. Then the opponent must be from the opposite camp. And here comes +in the thing strange, unexpected, the evil spirit being _has the power to +detain, hold back God's messenger_ for three full weeks by earth's +reckoning of time. Then reenforcements come, as we would say. The evil +messenger's purpose is defeated, and God's messenger is free to come as +originally planned. + +There is a double scene being enacted. A scene you can see, and a scene +you cannot see. An unseen wrestling match in the upper spirit realm, and +two embodied spirit beings down on their faces by the river. And both +concerned over the same thing. + +That is the Daniel story. What an acted out illustration it is of Paul's +words. It is a picture glowing with the action of real life. It is a +double picture. Every prayer action is in doubles; a lower human level; an +upper spirit level. Many see only the seen, and lose heart. While we look +at the things that are seen, let us gaze intently at the things unseen; +for the seen things are secondary, but the unseen are chief, and the +action of life is being decided there. + +Here is the lower, the seen;--a group of men, led by a man of executive +force enough to control an empire, prone on their faces, with minds clear, +quiet, alert, persistently, ceaselessly _praying_ day by day. Here is the +upper, the unseen:--a "wrestling," keen, stubborn, skilled, going on +between two spirit princes in the spirit realm. And by Paul's explanation +the two are vitally connected. Daniel and his companions are wrestlers +too, active participants in that upper-air fight, and really deciding the +issue, for they are on the ground being contested. These men are indeed +praying with all prayer and supplication at all times, in the Spirit, and +watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication, and _at length +victory comes_. + + + +<u>Prayer Concerns Three.</u> + + +Now a bit of a look at the central figure of the pattern. Jesus lets in a +flood of light on Satan's relation to prayer in one of His prayer +parables. There are two parables dealing distinctively with prayer: "the +friend at midnight,"[26] and "the unjust judge."[27] The second of these +deals directly with this Satan phase of prayer. It is Luke through whom we +learn most of Jesus' own praying who preserves for us this remarkable +prayer picture. + +It comes along towards the end. The swing has been made from plain talking +to the less direct, parable-form of teaching. The issue with the national +leaders has reached its acutest stage. The culmination of their hatred, +short of the cross, found vent in charging Him with being inspired by the +spirit of Satan. He felt their charge keenly and answered it directly and +fully. His parable of the strong man being bound before his house can be +rifled comes in here. _They_ had no question as to what that meant. That +is the setting of this prayer parable. The setting is a partial +interpretation. Let us look at this parable rather closely, for it is full +of help for those who would become skilled in helping God win His world +back home again. + +Jesus seems so eager that they shall not miss the meaning here that He +departs from His usual habit and says plainly what this parable is meant +to teach:--"that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." The great +essential, He says, is _prayer_. The great essential in prayer is +_persistence_. The temptation in prayer is that one may lose heart, and +give up, or give in. "Not-to-faint" tells how keen the contest is. + +There are three persons in the parable; a judge, a widow, and an +adversary. The judge is utterly selfish, unjust, godless, and reckless of +anybody's opinion. The worst sort of man, indeed, the last sort of man to +be a judge. Inferentially he knows that the right of the case before him +is with the widow. The widow--well, she is a _widow_. Can more be said to +make the thing vivid and pathetic! A very picture of friendlessness and +helplessness is a widow. A woman needs a friend. This woman has lost her +nearest, dearest friend; her protector. She is alone. There is an +adversary, an opponent at law, who has unrighteously or illegally gotten +an advantage over the widow and is ruthlessly pushing her to the wall. She +is seeking to get the judge to join with her against her adversary. Her +urgent, oft repeated request is, "avenge me of mine adversary." That is +Jesus' pictorial illustration of persistent prayer. + +Let us look into it a little further. "Adversary" is a common word in +scripture for Satan. He is the accuser, the hater, the enemy, the +adversary. Its meaning technically is "an opponent in a suit at law." It +is the same word as used later by Peter, "Your adversary the devil as a +roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour."[28] The word +"avenge" used four times really means, "do me justice." It suggests that +the widow has the facts on her side to win a clear case, and that the +adversary has been bully-ragging his case through by sheer force. + +There is a strange feature to this parable, which must have a meaning. _An +utterly godless unscrupulous man is put in to represent God!_ This is +startling. In any other than Jesus it would seem an overstepping of the +bounds. But there is keenness of a rare sort here. Such a man is chosen +for judge to bring out most sharply this:--the sort of thing required to +win this judge is certainly not required _with God_. The widow must +persist and plead because of the sort of man she has to deal with. But God +is utterly different in character. Therefore while persistence is urged in +prayer plainly it is not for the reason that required the widow to +persist. And if that reason be cut out it leaves only one other, namely, +that represented by the adversary. + +Having purposely put such a man in the parable for God, Jesus takes pains +to speak of the real character of God. "And He is _long-suffering_ over +them." _That_ is God. That word "long-suffering" and its equivalent on +Jesus' lips suggests at once the strong side of love, namely, _patience_, +gentle, fine patience. It has bothered the scholars in this phrase to know +with whom or over what the long-suffering is exercised. "Over them" is the +doubtful phrase. Long-suffering over these praying ones? _Or_, +long-suffering in dealing righteously with some stubborn adversary--which? +The next sentence has a word set in sharpest contrast with this one, +namely "speedily." "Long-suffering" yet "speedily." + +Here are gleams of bright light on a dark subject with apparently more +light obscured than is allowed to shine through. Jesus always spoke +thoughtfully. He chooses His words. Remembering the adversary against whom +the persistence is directed the whole story seems to suggest this: that +there is _a great conflict on_ in the upper spirit world. Concerning it +our patient God is long-suffering. He is a just and righteous God. These +beings in the conflict are all His creatures. He is just in His dealings +with the devil and this splendid host of evil spirits even as with all His +creation. He is long-suffering that no unfairness shall be done in His +dealings with these creatures of His. Yet at the same time He is doing His +best to bring the conflict to a speedy end, for the sake of His loyal +loved ones, and that right may prevail. + +The upshot of the parable is very plain. It contains for us two +tremendous, intense truths. First is this: _prayer concerns three_, not +two but three. God to whom we pray, the man on the contested earth who +prays, and the evil one against whom we pray. And the purpose of the +prayer is not to persuade or influence God, but to join forces with Him +against the enemy. Not towards God, but with God against Satan--that is +the main thing to keep in mind in prayer. The real pitch is not Godward +but Satanward. + +The second intense truth is this:--the winning quality in prayer is +_persistence_. The final test is here. This is the last ditch. Many who +fight well up to this point lose their grip here, and so lose all. Many +who are well equipped for prayer fail here, and doubtless fail because +they have not rightly understood. With clear, ringing tones the Master's +voice sounds in our ears again to-day, "always to pray, _and_ not to +faint." + + + +<u>A Stubborn Foe Routed.</u> + + +That is the parable teaching. Now a look at a plain out word from the +Master's lips. It is in the story of the demonized boy, the distressed +father, and the defeated disciples, at the foot of the transfiguration +mountain.[29] Extremes meet here surely. The mountain peak is in sharpest +contrast with the valley. The demon seems to be of the superlative degree. +His treatment of the possessed boy is malicious to an extreme. His purpose +is "to destroy" him. Yet there is a limit to his power, for what he would +do he has not yet been able to do. He shows extreme tenacity. He fought +bitterly against being disembodied again. (Can it be that embodiment eases +in some way the torture of existence for these prodigal spirits!) And so +far he fought well, and with success. The disciples had tried to cast him +out. They were expected to. They expected to. They had before. They +failed!--dismally--amid the sneering and jeering of the crowd and the +increasing distress of the poor father. + +Then Jesus came. Was some of the transfiguring glory still lingering in +that great face? It would seem so. The crowd was "amazed" when they saw +Him, and "saluted" Him. His presence changed all. The demon angrily left, +doing his worst to wreck the house he had to vacate. The boy is restored; +and the crowd astonished at the power of God. + +Then these disciples did a very keen thing. They made some bad blunders +but this is not one of them. They sought a private talk with Jesus. No +shrewder thing was ever done. When you fail, quit your service and get +away for a private interview with Jesus. With eyes big, and voices +dejected, the question wrung itself out of their sinking hearts, "Why +could not _we_ cast it out?" Matthew and Mark together supply the full +answer. Probably first came this:--"because of your little faith." They +had quailed in their hearts before the power of this malicious demon. And +the demon knew it. They were more impressed with the power of the demon +than with the power of God. And the demon saw it. They had not prayed +victoriously against the demon. The Master says, "faith only as big as a +mustard seed (you cannot measure the strength of the mustard seed by its +size) will say to this mountain--'Remove.'" Mark keenly:--the direction of +the faith is towards the obstacle. Its force is against the enemy. It was +the demon who was most directly influenced by Jesus' faith. + +Then comes the second part of the reply:--"This kind can come out by +nothing but by prayer." Some less-stubborn demons may be cast out by the +faith that comes of our regular prayer-touch with God. This extreme sort +takes special prayer. This kind of a demon goes out by prayer. It can be +put out by nothing less. The real victory must be in the secret place. The +exercise of faith in the open battle is then a mere pressing of the +victory already won. These men had the language of Jesus on their lips, +but they had not gotten the victory first off somewhere alone. This demon +is determined not to go. He fights stubbornly and strongly. He succeeds. +Then this _Man of Prayer_ came. The quiet word of command is spoken. The +demon must go. These disciples were strikingly like some of us. They had +not _realized_ where the real victory is won. They had used the word of +command to the demon, doubtless coupling Jesus' name with it. But there +was not the secret touch with God that gives victory. Their eyes showed +their fear of the demon. + +Prayer, real prayer, intelligent prayer, it is this that routs Satan's +demons, for it routs their chief. David killed the lion and bear in the +secret forests before he faced the giant in the open. These disciples were +facing the giant in the open without the discipline in secret. "This kind +can be compelled to come out by nothing but by prayer," means this:--"this +kind comes out, and must come out, before the man who prays." This thing +which Jesus calls prayer casts out demons. Would that we knew better by +experience what He meant by prayer. It exerts a positive influence upon +the hosts of evil spirits. They fear it. They fear the man who becomes +skilled in its use. + +There are yet many other passages in this Bible fully as explicit as +these, and which give on the very surface just such plain teaching as +these. The very language of scripture throughout is full of this truth. +But these four great instances are quite sufficient to make the present +point clear and plain. This great renegade prince is an actual active +factor in the lives of men. He believes in the potency of prayer. He fears +it. He can hinder its results for a while. He does his best to hinder it, +and to hinder as long as possible. + +_Prayer overcomes him._ It defeats his plans and himself. He cannot +successfully stand before it. He trembles when some man of simple faith in +God prays. Prayer is insistence upon God's will being done. It needs for +its practice a man in sympathetic touch with God. Its basis is Jesus' +victory. It overcomes the opposing will of the great traitor-leader. + + + + +III. How to Pray + + +1. The "How" of Relationship. +2. The "How" of Method. +3. The Listening Side of Prayer. +4. Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer. +5. May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones? + + + + +The "How" of Relationship + + + +<u>God's Ambassadors.</u> + + +If I had an ambition to be the ambassador of this country to our +mother-country, there would be two essential things involved. The first +and great essential would be to receive the appointment. I would need to +come into certain relation with our president, to possess certain +qualifications considered essential by him, and to secure from his hand +the appointment, and the official credentials of my appointment. That +would establish my relationship to the foreign court as the representative +of my own country, and my right to transact business in her name. + +But having gotten that far I might go over there and make bad mistakes. I +might get our diplomatic relations tangled up, requiring many +explanations, and maybe apologies, and leaving unpleasant memories for a +long time to come. Such incidents have not been infrequent. Nations are +very sensitive. Governmental affairs must be handled with great nicety. +There would be a second thing which if I were a wise enough man to be an +ambassador I would likely do. I would go to see John Hay and Joseph H. +Choate, and have as many interviews with them as possible, and learn all I +possibly could from them of London official life, court etiquette, +personages to be dealt with, things to do, and things to avoid. How to be +a successful diplomat and further the good feeling between the two +governments, and win friends for our country among the sturdy Britons +would be my one absorbing thought. And having gotten all I could in that +way I would be constantly on the alert with all the mental keenness I +could command to practice being a successful ambassador. + +The first of these would make me technically an ambassador. The second +would tend towards giving me some skill as an ambassador. Now there are +the same two how's in praying. First the relationship must be established +before any business can be transacted. Then skill must be acquired in the +transacting of the business on hand. + +Just now, we want to talk about the first of these, the how of +relationship in prayer. The basis of prayer is right relationship with +God. Prayer is representing God in the spirit realm of this world. It is +insisting upon His rights down in this sphere of action. It is standing +for Him with full powers from Him. Clearly the only basis of such +relationship to God is _Jesus_. We have been outlawed by sin. We were in +touch with God. We broke with Him. The break could not be repaired by us. +Jesus came. He was God _and_ Man. He touches both. We get back through +Him, and only so. The blood of the cross is the basis of all prayer. +Through it the relationship is established that underlies all prayer. Only +as I come to God through Jesus to get the sin score straightened, and only +as I keep in sympathy with Jesus in the purpose of my life can I practice +prayer. + + + +<u>Six Sweeping Statements.</u> + + +Jesus' own words make this very clear. There are two groups of teachings +on prayer in those three and a half years as given by the gospel records. +The first of these groups is in the Sermon on the Mount which Jesus +preached about half-way through the second year of His ministry. The +second group comes sheer at the end. All of it is in the last six months, +and most of it in the last ten days, and much of that on the very eve of +that last tragic day. + +It is after the sharp rupture with the leaders that this second series of +statements is made. The most positive, and most sweeping utterances on +prayer are here. Of Jesus' eight promises regarding prayer six are here. I +want to ask you please to notice these six promises or statements; and +then, to notice their relation to our topic of to-day. + +In Matthew 18:19, 20, is the first of these. "Again I say unto you, that +if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they Shall +ask, it shall be done for them of My Father who is in heaven." Notice the +place of prayer--"on earth"; and the sweep--"anything"; and the +positiveness--"it shall be done." Then the reason why is given. "For where +two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of +them." That is to say, if there are two persons praying, there are three. +If three meet to pray, there are four praying. There is always one more +than you can see. And if you might perhaps be saying to yourself in a bit +of dejection, "He'll not hear me: I'm so sinful: so weak"--you would be +wrong in thinking and saying so, but then we do think and say things that +are not right--_if_ you might be thinking that, you could at once fall +back upon this: the Father always hears Jesus. And wherever earnest hearts +pray Jesus is there taking their prayer and making it His prayer. + +The second of these: Mark 11:22-24, "Jesus answering saith unto them, have +faith in God"--with the emphasis double-lined under the word "God." The +chief factor in prayer is God. "Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say +unto this mountain, be thou taken up and cast into the sea--" Choosing, do +you see the unlikeliest thing that might occur. Such a thing did not take +place. We never hear of Jesus moving an actual mountain. The need for such +action does not seem to have arisen. But He chooses the thing most +difficult for His illustration. Can you imagine a mountain moving off into +the sea--the Jungfrau, or Blanc, or Rainier? If you know mountains down in +your country you cannot imagine it actually occurring. "--And shall not +doubt in his heart--" That is Jesus' definition of faith. "--But shall +believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore, I +say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye +receive them, and ye shall have them." How utterly sweeping this last +statement! And to make it more positive it is preceded by the emphatic +"therefore--I--say--unto--you." Both whatsoever and whosoever are here. +Anything, and anybody. We always feel instinctively as though these +statements need careful guarding: a few fences put up around them. Wait a +bit and we shall see what the Master's own fence is. + +The last four of the six are in John's gospel. In that last long quiet +talk on the night in which He was betrayed. John preserves much of that +heart-talk for us in chapters thirteen to seventeen. + +Here in John 14:13, 14: "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, that will I do." The repetition is to emphasize the +unlimited sweep of what may be asked. + +John 15:7: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you--" That word +abide is a strong word. It does not mean to leave your cards; nor to hire +a night's lodging; nor to pitch a tent, or run up a miner's shanty, or a +lumberman's shack. It means moving in to stay. "--Ask whatsoever ye +will--" The Old Version says, "ye shall ask." But here the revised is more +accurate: "Ask; please ask; I ask you to ask." There is nothing said +directly about God's will. There is something said about our wills. "--And +it shall be done unto you." Or, a little more literally, "I will bring it +to pass for you." + +I remember the remark quoted to me by a friend one day. His church +membership is in the Methodist Church of the North, but his service +crosses church lines both in this country and abroad. He was talking with +one of the bishops of that church whose heart was in the foreign mission +field. The bishop was eager to have this friend serve as missionary +secretary of his church. But he knew, as everybody knows, how difficult +appointments oftentimes are in all large bodies. He was earnestly +discussing the matter with my friend, and made this remark: "If you will +allow the use of your name for this appointment, _I will lay myself out_ +to have it made." Now if you will kindly not think there is any lack of +reverence in my saying so--and there is surely none in my thought--that is +the practical meaning of Jesus' words here. "If you abide in Me, and My +words sway you, you please ask what it is your will to ask. And--softly, +reverently now--I will lay Myself out to bring that thing to pass for +you." That is the force of His words here. + +This same chapter, sixteenth verse: "Ye did not choose Me, but I chose +you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your +fruit should abide; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, +He may give it you." God had our prayer partnership with Himself in His +mind in choosing us. And the last of these, John 16:23, 24, second clause, +"Verily, verily, I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father, +He will give it you in My name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: +ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled." + +These statements are the most sweeping to be found anywhere in the +Scriptures regarding prayer. There is no limitation as to who shall ask, +nor the kind of thing to be asked for. There are three limitations +imposed: the prayer is to be _through Jesus_; the person praying is to be +in fullest sympathy with Him; and this person is to have faith. + + + +<u>Words With a Freshly Honed Razor-Edge.</u> + + +Now please group these six sweeping statements in your mind and hold them +together there. Then notice carefully this fact. These words are not +spoken to the crowds. They are spoken to the small inner group of twelve +disciples. Jesus talks one way to the multitude. He oftentimes talks +differently to these men who have separated themselves from the crowd and +come into the inner circle. + +And notice further that before Jesus spoke these words to this group of +men He had said something else first. Something very radical; so radical +that it led to a sharp passage between Himself and Peter, to whom He +speaks very sternly. This something else fixes unmistakably their relation +to Himself. Remember that the sharp break with the national leaders has +come. Jesus is charged with Satanic collusion. The death plot is +determined upon. The breach with the leaders is past the healing point. +And now the Master is frequently slipping away from the crowd with these +twelve men, and seeking to teach and train them. That is the setting of +these great promises. It must be kept continually in mind. + +Before the Master gave Himself away to these men in these promises He said +this something else. It is this. I quote Matthew's account: "If any man +would come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross (daily, +Luke's addition) and follow Me[30]." _These words should be written +crosswise over those six prayer statements_. Jesus never spoke a keener +word. Those six promises are not meant for all. Let it be said very +plainly. They are meant only for those who will square their lives by +these razor-edged words. + +I may not go fully into the significance of these deep-cutting words here. +They have been gone into at some length in a previous set of talks as +suggesting the price of power. To him whose heart burns for power in +prayer I urge a careful review of that talk in this new setting of it. "If +any man would come after Me" means a rock-rooted purpose; the jaw locked; +the tendrils of the purpose going down around and under the gray granite +of a man's will, and tying themselves there; and knotting the ties; sailor +knots, that you cannot undo. + +"Come after Me" means all the power of Jesus' life, and has the other +side, too. It means the wilderness, the intense temptation. It may mean +the obscure village of Nazareth for you. It may mean that first Judean +year for you--lack of appreciation. It may mean for you that last six +months--the desertion of those hitherto friendly. It will mean without +doubt a Gethsemane. Everybody who comes along after Jesus has a Gethsemane +in his life. It will never mean as much to you as it meant to Him. That is +true. But, then, it will mean everything to you. And it will mean too +having a Calvary in your life in a very real sense, though different from +what that meant to Him. This sentence through gives the process whereby +the man with sin grained into the fibre of his will may come into such +relationship with God as to claim without any reservation these great +prayer promises. And if that sound hard and severe to you let me quickly +say that it is an easy way for the man who is _willing._ The presence of +Jesus in the life overlaps every cutting thing. + +If a man will go through Matthew 16:24, and habitually live there he may +ask what he wills to ask, and that thing will come to pass. The reason, +without question, why many people do not have power in prayer is simply +because they are unwilling--I am just talking very plainly--they are +unwilling to bare their breasts to the keen-edged knife in these words of +Jesus. And on the other side, if a man will quietly, resolutely follow the +Master's leading--nothing extreme--nothing fanatical, or morbid, just a +quiet going where that inner Voice plainly leads day by day, he will be +startled to find what an utterly new meaning prayer will come to have for +him. + + + +<u>The Controlling Purpose.</u> + + +Vital relationship is always expressed by purpose. The wise ambassador has +an absorbing purpose to further the interests of his government. Jesus +said, and it at once reveals His relationship to God, "I do always those +things that are well pleasing to him." + +The relationship that underlies prayer has an absorbing purpose. Its +controlling purpose is to please Jesus. That sentence may sound simple +enough. But, do you know, there is no sentence I might utter that has a +keener, a more freshly honed razor-edge to it than that. That the purpose +which _controls_ my action in every matter be this: to please Him. If you +have not done so, take it for a day, a week, and use it as a touch stone +regarding thought, word and action. Take it into matters personal, home, +business, social, fraternal. It does not mean to ask, "Is this right? is +this wrong?" Not that. Not the driving of a keen line between wrong and +right. There are a great many things that can be proven to be not wrong, +but that are not best, that are not His preference. + +It will send a business man running his eye along the shelves and counter +of his store. "The controlling purpose to please Jesus ... hm-m-m, I guess +maybe that stuff there ought to come out. Oh, it is not wrong: I can prove +that. My Christian brother-merchants handle it here, and over the country: +but _to please Him_: a good, clean sixty per cent, profit too, cash money, +but _to please Him_--" and the stuff must go down and out. + +It would set some woman to thinking about the next time the young people +are to gather in her home for a delightful social evening with her own +daughters. She will think about some forms of pastime that are found +everywhere. They are not wrong, that has been conclusively proven. But _to +please Him_. Hm-m. And these will go out. And then it will set her to +work with all her God-given woman-wit and exquisite tact to planning an +evening yet more delightful. It will make one think of his personal +habits, his business methods, and social intercourse, the organizations he +belongs to, with the quiet question cutting it razor-way into each. + +And if some one listening may ask: Why put the condition of prayer so +strongly as that? I will remind you of this. The true basis of prayer is +sympathy, oneness of purpose. Prayer is not extracting favours from a +reluctant God. It is not passing a check in a bank window for money. That +is mandatory. The roots of prayer lie down in oneness of purpose. God up +yonder, His Victor-Son by His side, and a man down here, in _such +sympathetic touch_ that God can think His thoughts over in this man's +mind, and have His desires repeated upon the earth as this man's prayer. + + + +<u>The Threefold Cord of Jesus' Life.</u> + + +Think for a moment into Jesus' human life down here. His marvellous +activities for those few years over which the world has never ceased to +wonder. Then His underneath hidden-away prayer-life of which only +occasional glimpses are gotten. Then grouping around about that sentence +of His--"I do always the things that are pleasing to Him"--in John's +gospel, pick out the emphatic negatives on Jesus' lips, the "not's": not +My will, not My works, not My words. Jesus came to do somebody's else +will. The controlling purpose of His life was to please His Father. That +was the secret of the power of His earthly career. Right relationship to +God; a secret intimate prayer-life: marvellous power over men and with +men--those are the strands in the threefold cord of His life. + +There is a very striking turn of a word in the second chapter of John's +gospel down almost at its close. The old version says that "Many believed +on His name beholding His signs which He did, but Jesus did not commit +Himself unto them" because He knew them so well. The word "believed," and +the word "commit" are the same word underneath our English. The sentence +might run "many _trusted_ Him beholding what He did; but He did not +_trust_ them for He knew them." I have no doubt most, or all of us here +to-day, trust Him. Let me ask you very softly now: Can He trust you? While +we might all shrink from saying "yes" to that, there is a very real sense +in which we may say "yes," namely, in the purpose of the life. Every life +is controlled by some purpose. What is yours? To please Him? If so He +knows it. It is a great comfort to remember that God judges a man not by +his achievements, but by his purposes: not by what I am, actually, but by +what I would be, in the yearning of my inmost heart, the dominant purpose +of my life. God will fairly flood your life with all the power He can +trust you to use wholly for Him. + +Commercial practice furnishes a simple but striking illustration here. A +man is employed by a business house as a clerk. His ability and honesty +come to be tested in many ways constantly. He is promoted gradually, his +responsibilities increased. As he proves himself thoroughly reliable he is +trusted more and more, until by and by as need arises he becomes the +firm's confidential clerk. He knows its secrets. He is trusted with the +combination to the inner box in the vault. Because it has been proven by +actual test that he will use everything only for the best interests of his +house, and not selfishly. + +Here, where we are dealing, the whole thing moves up to an infinitely +higher level, but the principle does not change. If I will come into the +relationship implied in these words:--it shall be the one controlling +desire and purpose of my life to do the things that please Him--then I may +ask for what I will, and it shall be done. That is how to pray: the how of +relationship. The man who will live in Matthew 16:24, and follow Jesus as +He leads: simply that: no fanaticism, no morbidism, no extremism, just +simply follow as He leads, day by day,--then those six promises of Jesus +with their wonderful sweep, their limitless sweep are his to use as he +will. + + + + +The "How" of Method + + + +<u>Touching the Hidden Keys.</u> + + +One of the most remarkable illustrations in recent times of the power of +prayer, may be found in the experience of Mr. Moody. It explains his +unparalleled career of world-wide soul winning. One marvels that more has +not been said of it. Its stimulus to faith is great. I suppose the man +most concerned did not speak of it much because of his fine modesty. The +last year of his life he referred to it more frequently as though impelled +to. + +The last time I heard Mr. Moody was in his own church in Chicago. It was, +I think, in the fall of the last year of his life. One morning in the old +church made famous by his early work, in a quiet conversational way he +told the story. It was back in the early seventies, when Chicago had been +laid in ashes. "This building was not yet up far enough to do much in," he +said; "so I thought I would slip across the water, and learn what I could +from preachers there, so as to do better work here. I had gone over to +London, and was running around after men there." Then he told of going +one evening to hear Mr. Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle; and +understanding that he was to speak a second time that evening to dedicate +a chapel, Mr. Moody had slipped out of the building and had run along the +street after Mr. Spurgeon's carriage a mile or so, so as to hear him the +second time. Then he smiled, and said quietly, "I was running around after +men like that." + +He had not been speaking anywhere, he said, but listening to others. One +day, Saturday, at noon, he had gone into the meeting in Exeter Hall on the +Strand; felt impelled to speak a little when the meeting was thrown open, +and did so. At the close among others who greeted him, one man, a +minister, asked him to come and preach for him the next day morning and +night, and he said he would. Mr. Moody said, "I went to the morning +service and found a large church full of people. And when the time came I +began to speak to them. But it seemed the hardest talking ever I did. +There was no response in their faces. They seemed as though carved out of +stone or ice. And I was having a hard time: and wished I wasn't there; and +wished I hadn't promised to speak again at night. But I had promised, and +so I went. + +"At night it was the same thing: house full, people outwardly respectful, +but no interest, no response. And I was having a hard time again. When +about half-way through my talk there came a change. It seemed as though +the windows of heaven had opened and a bit of breath blew down. The +atmosphere of the building seemed to change. The people's faces changed. +It impressed me so that when I finished speaking I gave the invitation for +those who wanted to be Christians to rise. I thought there might be a few. +And to my immense surprise the people got up in groups, pew-fulls. I +turned to the minister and said, 'What does this mean?' He said, 'I don't +know, I'm sure.' Well," Mr. Moody said, "they misunderstood me. I'll +explain what I meant." So he announced an after-meeting in the room below, +explaining who were invited: only those who wanted to be Christians; and +putting pretty clearly what he understood that to mean, and dismissed the +service. + +They went to the lower room. And the people came crowding, jamming in +below, filling all available space, seats, aisles and standing room. Mr. +Moody talked again a few minutes, and then asked those who would be +Christians to rise. This time he knew he had made his meaning clear. They +got up in clumps, in groups, by fifties! Mr. Moody said, "I turned and +said to the minister, 'What _does_ this mean?' He said, 'I'm sure I don't +know.'" Then the minister said to Mr. Moody, "What'll I do with these +people? I don't know what to do with them; this is something new." And he +said, "Well. I'd announce a meeting for to-morrow night, and Tuesday +night, and see what comes of it; I'm going across the channel to Dublin." +And he went, but he had barely stepped off the boat when a cablegram was +handed him from the minister saying, "Come back at once. Church packed." +So he went back, and stayed ten days. And the result of that ten days, as +I recall Mr. Moody's words, was that four hundred were added to that +church, and that every church near by felt the impulse of those ten days. +Then Mr. Moody dropped his head, as though thinking back, and said: "I had +no plans beyond this church. I supposed my life work was here. But the +result with me was that I was given a roving commission and have been +working under it ever since." + +Now what was the explanation of that marvellous Sunday and days following? +It was not Mr. Moody's doing, though he was a leader whom God could and +did mightily use. It was not the minister's doing; for he was as greatly +surprised as the leader. There was some secret hidden beneath the surface +of those ten days. With his usual keenness Mr. Moody set himself to ferret +it out. + +By and by this incident came to him. A member of the church, a woman, had +been taken sick some time before. Then she grew worse. Then the physician +told her that she would not recover. That is, she would not die at once, +so far as he could judge, but she would be shut in her home for years. +And she lay there trying to think what that meant: to be shut in for +years. And she thought of her life, and said, "How little I've done for +God: practically nothing: and now what can I do shut in here on my back." +And she said, "I can pray." + +May I put this word in here as a parenthesis in the story--that God +oftentimes allows us to be shut in--He does not shut us in--He does not +need to--simply take His hand off partly--there is enough disobedience to +His law of our bodies all the time to shut us aside--no trouble on that +side of the problem--_with pain to Himself_, against His own first will +for us, He allows us to be shut in, because only so _can_ He get our +attention from other things to what He wants done; get us to see things, +and think things His way. I am compelled to think it is so. + +She said, "I _will_ pray." And she was led to pray for her church. Her +sister, also a member of the church, lived with her, and was her link with +the outer world. Sundays, after church service, the sick woman would ask, +"Any special interest in church to-day?" "No," was the constant reply. +Wednesday nights, after prayer-meetings, "Any special interest in the +service to-night? there must have been." "No; nothing new; same old +deacons made the same old prayers." + +But one Sunday noon the sister came in from service and asked, "Who do you +think preached to-day?" "I don't know, who?" "Why, a stranger from +America, a man called Moody, I think was the name." And the sick woman's +face turned a bit whiter, and her eye looked half scared, and her lip +trembled a bit, and she quietly said: "I know what that means. There's +something coming to the old church. Don't bring me any dinner. I must +spend this afternoon in prayer." And so she did. And that night in the +service that startling change came. + +Then to Mr. Moody himself, as he sought her out in her sick room, she told +how nearly two years before there came into her hands a copy of a paper +published in Chicago called the _Watchman_ that contained a talk by Mr. +Moody in one of the Chicago meetings, Farwell Hall meetings, I think. All +she knew was that talk that made her heart burn, and there was the name +M-o-o-d-y. And she was led to pray that God would send that man into their +church in London. As simple a prayer as that. + +And the months went by, and a year, and over; still she prayed. Nobody +knew of it but herself and God. No change seemed to come. Still she +prayed. And of course her prayer wrought its purpose. Every +Spirit-suggested prayer does. And that is the touchstone of true prayer. +And the Spirit of God moved that man of God over to the seaboard, and +across the water and into London, and into their church. Then a bit of +special siege-prayer, a sort of last charge up the steep hill, and that +night the victory came. + +Do you not believe--I believe without a doubt, that some day when the +night is gone and the morning light comes up, and we know as we are known, +that we shall find that the largest single factor, in that ten days' work, +and in the changing of tens of thousands of lives under Moody's leadership +is that woman in her praying. Not the only factor, mind you. Moody a man +of rare leadership, and consecration, and hundreds of faithful ministers +and others rallying to his support. But behind and beneath Moody and the +others, and to be reckoned with as first this woman's praying. + +Yet I do not know her name. I know Mr. Moody's name. I could name scores +of faithful men associated with him in his campaigns, but the name of this +one in whom humanly is the secret of it all I do not know. Ah! It is a +secret service. We do not know who the great ones are. They tell me she is +living yet in the north end of London, and still praying. Shall we pray! +Shall we not pray! If something else must slip out, something important, +shall we not see to it that intercession has first place! + + + +<u>Making God's Purpose Our Prayer.</u> + + +With that thought in mind let me this evening suggest a bit of how to +pray. As simple a subject as that: how to pray: the how of method. + +The first thing in prayer is to find God's purpose, the trend, the swing +of it; the second thing to make that purpose our prayer. We want to find +out what God is thinking, and then to claim that that shall be done. God +is seated up yonder on the throne. Jesus Christ is sitting by His side +glorified. Everywhere in the universe God's will is being done except in +this corner, called the earth, and its atmosphere, and that bit of the +heavens above it where Satan's headquarters are. + +It has been done down here by one person--Jesus. He came here to this +prodigal planet and did God's will perfectly. He went away. And He has +sought and seeks to have men down upon the earth so fully in touch with +Himself that He may do in them and through them just what He will. That He +may reproduce Himself in these men, and have God's will done again down on +the earth. Now prayer is this: finding out God's purpose for our lives, +and for the earth and insisting that that shall be done here. The great +thing then is to find out and insist upon God's will. And the "how" of +method in prayer is concerned with that. + +Many a time I have met with a group of persons for prayer. Various special +matters for prayer are brought up. Here is this man, needing prayer, and +this particular matter, and this one, and this. Then we kneel and pray. +And I have many a time thought--not critically in a bad sense--as I have +listened to their prayers, as though this is the prayer I must +offer:--"Blessed Holy Spirit, Thou knowest this man, and what the lacking +thing is in him. There is trouble there. Thou knowest this sick woman, and +what the difficulty is there. This problem, and what the hindrance is in +it. Blessed Spirit, pray in me the prayer Thou art praying for this man, +and this thing, and this one. The prayer Thou art praying, I pray that, in +Jesus' name. Thy will be done here under these circumstances." + +Sometimes I feel clear as to the particular prayer to offer, but many a +time I am puzzled to know. I put this fact with this, but I may not know +_all_ the facts. I know this man who evidently needs praying for, a +Christian man perhaps, his mental characteristics, his conceptions of +things, the kind of a will he has, but there may be some fact in there +that I do not know, that seriously affects the whole difficulty. And I am +compelled to fall back on this: I don't know how to pray as I ought. But +the Spirit within me will make intercession for this man as I allow Him to +have free swing in me as the medium of His prayer. And He who is listening +above as He hears His will for this man being repeated down on the +battle-field will recognize His own purpose, of course. And so that thing +will be working out because of Jesus' victory over the evil one. + +But I may become so sensitive to the Spirit's thoughts and presence, that +I shall know more keenly and quickly what to pray for. In so far as I do +I become a more skillful partner of His on the earth in getting God's will +done. + + + +<u>The Trysting Place.</u> + + +There are six suggestions here on how to pray. First--we need _time_ for +prayer, unhurried time, daily time, time enough to forget about how much +time it is. I do not mean now: rising in the morning at the very last +moment, and dressing, it may be hurriedly, and then kneeling a few moments +so as to feel easier in mind: not that. I do not mean the last thing at +night when you are jaded and fagged, and almost between the sheets, and +then remember and look up a verse and kneel a few moments: not that. That +is good so far as it goes. I am not criticising that. Better sweeten and +sandwich the day with all of that sort you can get in. But just now I mean +this: _taking time_ when the mind is fresh and keen, and the spirit +sensitive, to thoughtfully pray. We haven't time. Life is so crowded. It +must be taken from something else, something important, but still less +important than this. + +Sacrifice is the continual law of life. The important thing must be +sacrificed to the more important. One needs to cultivate a mature +judgment, or his strength will be frizzled away in the less important +details, and the greater thing go undone, or be done poorly with the +fag-ends of strength. If we would become skilled intercessors, and know +how to pray simply enough, we must take quiet time daily to get off alone. + +The second suggestion: we need a _place_ for prayer. Oh! you can pray +anywhere, on the street, in the store, travelling, measuring dry goods, +hands in dishwater,--where not. But you are not likely to unless you have +been off in some quiet place shut in alone with God. The Master said: +"Enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door": that door is +important. It shuts out, and it shuts in. "Pray to thy Father who is in +secret." God is here in this shut-in spot. One must get alone to find out +that he never is alone. The more alone we are as far as men are concerned +the least alone we are so far a; God is concerned. + +The quiet place and time are needful to train the ears for keen hearing. A +mother will hear the faintest cry of her babe just awaking. It is +up-stairs perhaps; the tiniest bit of a sound comes; nobody else hears; +but quick as a flash the mother's hands are held quiet, the head alert, +then she is off. Her ears are trained beyond anybody's else; love's +training. We need trained ears. A quiet place shuts out the outer sounds, +and gives the inner ear a chance to learn other sounds. + +A man was standing in a telephone booth trying to talk, but could not make +out the message. He kept saying, "I can't hear, I can't hear." The other +man by and by said sharply, "If you'll shut that door you can hear." _His_ +door was shut and he could hear not only the man's voice but the street +and store noises too. Some folks have gotten their hearing badly confused +because their doors have not been shut enough. Man's voice and God's voice +get mixed in their ears. They cannot tell between them. The bother is +partly with the door. If you'll shut that door you can hear. + +The third suggestion needs much emphasis to-day: _give the Book of God its +place in prayer._ Prayer is not talking to God--simply. It is listening +first, then talking. Prayer needs three organs of the head, an ear, a +tongue and an eye. First an ear to hear what God says, then a tongue to +speak, then an eye to look out for the result. Bible study is the +listening side of prayer. The purpose of God comes in through the ear, +passes through the heart taking on the tinge of your personality, and goes +out at the tongue as prayer. It is pathetic what a time God has getting a +hearing down here. He is ever speaking but even where there may be some +inclination to hear the sounds of earth are choking in our ears the sound +of His voice. God speaks in His Word. The most we know of God comes to us +here. This Book is God in print. It was inspired, and it _is_ inspired. +God Himself speaks in this Book. That puts it in a list by itself, quite +apart from all others. Studying it keenly, intelligently, reverently will +reveal God's great will. What He says will utterly change what you will +say. + + + +<u>Our Prayer Teacher.</u> + + +The fourth suggestion is this: _Let the Spirit teach you how to pray_. The +more you pray the more you will find yourself saying to yourself, "I don't +know how to pray." Well God understands that. Paul knew that out of his +own experience before he wrote it down. And God has a plan to cover our +need there. There is One who is a master intercessor. He understands +praying perfectly. He is the Spirit of prayer. God has sent Him down to +live inside you and me, partly for this, to teach us the fine art of +prayer. The suggestion is this: let Him teach you. + +When you go alone in the quiet time and place with the Book quietly pray: +"blessed Prayer-Spirit, Master-Spirit, teach me how to pray," and He will. +Do not be nervous, or agitated, wondering if you will understand. Study to +be quiet; mind quiet, body quiet. Be still and listen. Remember Luther's +version of David's words,[31] "Be silent to God, and let Him mould thee." + +You will find your praying changing. You will talk more simply, like a man +transacting business or a child asking, though of course with a reverence +and a deepness of feeling not in those things. You will quit asking for +some things. Some of the old forms of prayer will drop from your lips +likely enough. You will use fewer words, maybe, but they will be spoken +with a quiet absolute faith that this thing you are asking is being worked +out. + +This thing of _letting the Spirit teach_ must come first in one's praying, +and remain to the last, and continue all along as the leading dominant +factor. He is a Spirit of prayer peculiarly. The highest law of the +Christian life is obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. There needs +to be a cultivated judgment in reading His leading, and not mistaking our +haphazard thoughts as His voice. He should be allowed to teach us how to +pray and more, to dominate our praying. The whole range and intensity of +the spirit conflict is under His eye. He is God's General on the field of +action. There come crises in the battle when the turn of the tide wavers. +He knows when a bit of special praying is needed to turn the tide and +bring victory. So there needs to be special seasons of persistent prayer, +a continuing until victory is assured. Obey His promptings. Sometimes +there comes an impulse to pray, or to ask another to pray. And we think, +"Why, I have just been praying," _or_, "he does pray about this anyway. It +is not necessary to pray again. I do not just like to suggest it." Better +obey the impulse quietly, with fewest words of explanation to the other +one concerned, or no words beyond simply the request. + +Let Him, this wondrous Holy Spirit teach you how to pray. It will take +time. You may be a bit set in your way, but if you will just yield and +patiently wait, He will teach what to pray, suggest definite things, and +often the very language of prayer. + +You will notice that the chief purpose of these four suggestions is to +learn God's will. The quiet place, the quiet time, the Book, the +Spirit--this is the schoolroom as Andrew Murray would finely put it. Here +we learn His will. Learning that makes one eager to have it done, and +breathes anew the longing prayer that it may be done. + +There is a fine word much used in the Psalms, and in Isaiah for this sort +of thing--_waiting_. Over and over again that is the word used for that +contact with God which reveals to us His will, and imparts to us anew His +desires. It is a word full of richest and deepest meaning. Waiting is not +an occasional nor a hurried thing. It means _steadfastness_, that is +holding on; _patience_, that is holding back; _expectancy_, that is +holding the face up to see; _obedience_, that is holding one's self in +readiness to go or do; it means _listening_, that is holding quiet and +still so as to hear. + + + +<u>The Power of a Name.</u> + + +The fifth suggestion has already been referred to, but should be repeated +here. Prayer must be _in Jesus' name_. The relationship of prayer is +through Jesus. And the prayer itself must be offered in His name, because +the whole strength of the case lies in Jesus. I recall distinctly a +certain section of this country where I was for awhile, and very rarely +did I hear Jesus' name used in prayer. I heard men, that I knew must be +good men, praying in church, in prayer-meeting and elsewhere with no +mention of Jesus. Let us distinctly bear in mind that we have no standing +with God except through Jesus. + +If the keenest lawyer of London, who knew more of American law, and of +Illinois statute and of Chicago ordinance--suppose such a case--were to +come here, could he plead a case in your court-house? you know he could +not. He would have no legal standing here. Now you and I have no standing +at yonder bar. We are disbarred through sin. Only as we come through one +who has recognized standing there can we come. + +But turn that fact around. As we do come in Jesus' name, it is the same as +though Jesus prayed. It is the same as though--let me be saying it very +softly so it may seem very reverent--as though Jesus put His arm in yours +and took you up to the Father, and said, "Father, here is a friend of +mine; we're on good terms. Please give him anything he asks, for My sake." +And the Father would quickly bend over and graciously say, "What'll you +have? You may have anything you ask when My Son asks for it." That is the +practical effect of asking in Jesus' name. + +But I am very, very clear of this, and I keep swinging back to it that in +the ultimate analysis the force of using Jesus' name is that He is the +victor over the traitor prince. Prayer is repeating the Victor's name into +the ears of Satan and insisting upon his retreat. As one prays +persistently in Jesus' name, the evil one must go. Reluctantly, angrily, +he must loosen his clutches, and go back. + + + +<u>The Birthplace of Faith.</u> + + +The sixth suggestion is a familiar one, and yet one much misunderstood. +Prayer must be _in faith_. But please note that faith here is not +believing that God _can_, but that He _will_. It is kneeling and making +the prayer, and then saying, "Father, I thank Thee for this; that it will +be so, I thank Thee." Then rising and going about your duties, saying, +"that thing is settled." Going again and again, and repeating the prayer +with the thanks, and then saying as you go off, "that matter is assured." +Not going repeatedly to persuade God. But because prayer is the deciding +factor in a spirit conflict and each prayer is like a fresh blow between +the eyes of the enemy, a fresh broadside from your fleet upon the fort. + +"Well," some one will say, "now you are getting that keyed up rather high. +Can we all have faith like that? Can a man _make_ himself believe?" There +should be no unnatural mechanical insisting that you do believe. Some +earnest people make a mistake there. And we will not all have faith like +that. That is quite true, and I can easily tell you why. The faith that +believes that God _will_ do what you ask is not born in a hurry; it is not +born in the dust of the street, and the noise of the crowd. But I can tell +where that faith will have a birthplace and keep growing stronger: in +every heart that takes quiet time off habitually with God, and listens to +His voice in His word. Into that heart will come a simple strong faith +that the thing it is led to ask shall be accomplished. + +That faith has four simple characteristics. It is _intelligent_. It finds +out what God's will is. Faith is never contrary to reason. Sometimes it is +a bit higher up; the reasoning process has not yet reached up to it. +Second, it is _obedient_. It fits its life into God's will. There is apt +to be a stiff rub here all the time. Then it is _expectant_. It looks out +for the result. It bows down upon the earth, but sends a man to keep an +eye on the sea. And then it is _persistent_. It hangs on. It says, "Go +again seven times; seventy times seven." It reasons that having learned +God's will, and knowing that He does not change, the delay must be caused +by the third person, the enemy, and that stubborn persistence in the +Victor's name routs him, and leaves a clear field. + + + + +The Listening Side of Prayer + + + +<u>A Trained Ear.</u> + + +In prayer the ear is an organ of first importance. It is of equal +importance with the tongue, but must be named first. For the ear leads the +way to the tongue. The child hears a word before it speaks it. Through the +ear comes the use of the tongue. Where the faculties are normal the tongue +is trained only through the ear. This is nature's method. The mind is +moulded largely through the ear and eye. It reveals itself, and asserts +itself largely through the tongue. What the ear lets in, the mind works +over, and the tongue gives out. + +This is the order in Isaiah's fiftieth chapter[32] in those words, +prophetic of Jesus. "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that +are taught.... He wakeneth my ear to hear as they that are taught." Here +the taught tongue came through the awakened ear. One reason why so many of +us do not have taught tongues is because we give God so little chance at +our ears. + +It is a striking fact that the men who have been mightiest in prayer have +known God well. They have seemed peculiarly sensitive to Him, and to be +overawed with the sense of His love and His greatness. There are three of +the Old Testament characters who are particularly mentioned as being +mighty in prayer. Jeremiah tells that when God spoke to him about the deep +perversity of that nation He exclaimed, "Though Moses and Samuel stood +before Me My heart could not be towards this people."[33] When James wants +an illustration of a man of prayer for the scattered Jews, he speaks of +Elijah, and of one particular crisis in his life, the praying on Carmel's +tip-top. These three men are Israel's great men in the great crises of its +history. Moses was the maker and moulder of the nation. Samuel was the +patient teacher who introduced a new order of things in the national life. +Elijah was the rugged leader when the national worship of Jehovah was +about to be officially overthrown. These three men, the maker, the +teacher, the emergency leader are singled out in the record as peculiarly +men of prayer. + +Now regarding these men it is most interesting to observe what _listeners_ +they were to God's voice. Their ears were trained early and trained long, +until great acuteness and sensitiveness to God's voice was the result. +Special pains seem to have been taken with the first man, the nation's +greatest giant, and history's greatest jurist. There were two distinct +stages in the training of his ears. First there were the forty years of +solitude in the desert sands, alone with the sheep, and the stars, +and--God. His ears were being trained by silence. The bustle and confusion +of Egypt's busy life were being taken out of his ears. How silent are +God's voices. How few men are strong enough to be able to endure silence. +For in silence God is speaking to the inner ear. + + "Let us then labour for an inward stillness-- + An inward stillness and an inward healing; + That perfect silence where the lips and heart + Are still, and we no longer entertain + Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions, + But God alone speaks in us, and we wait + In singleness of heart, that we may know + His will, and in the silence of our spirits, + That we may do His will, and do that only."[34] + +A gentleman was asked by an artist friend of some note to come to his +home, and see a painting just finished. He went at the time appointed, was +shown by the attendant into a room which was quite dark, and left there. +He was much surprised, but quietly waited developments. After perhaps +fifteen minutes his friend came into the room with a cordial greeting, and +took him up to the studio to see the painting, which was greatly admired. +Before he left the artist said laughingly, "I suppose you thought it queer +to be left in that dark room so long." "Yes," the visitor said. "I did." +"Well," his friend replied, "I knew that if you came into my studio with +the glare of the street in your eyes you could not appreciate the fine +colouring of the picture. So I left you in the dark room till the glare +had worn out of your eyes." + +The first stage of Moses' prayer-training was wearing the noise of Egypt +out of his ears so he could hear the quiet fine tones of God's voice. He +who would become skilled in prayer must take a silence course in the +University of Arabia. Then came the second stage. Forty years were +followed by forty days, twice over, of listening to God's speaking voice +up in the mount. Such an ear-course as that made a skilled famous +intercessor. + +Samuel had an earlier course than Moses. While yet a child before his ears +had been dulled by earth sounds they were tuned to the hearing of God's +voice. The child heart and ear naturally open upward. They hear easily and +believe readily. The roadway of the ear has not been beaten down hard by +much travel. God's rains and dews have made it soft, and impressionable. +This child's ear was quickly trained to recognize God's voice. And the +tented Hebrew nation soon came to know that there was a man in their midst +to whom God was talking. O, to keep the heart and inner ear of a child as +mature years come! + +Of the third of these famous intercessors little is known except of the +few striking events in which he figured. Of these, the scene that finds +its climax in the opening on Carmel's top of the rain-windows, occupies by +far the greater space. And it is notable that the beginning of that long +eighteenth chapter of first Kings which tells of the Carmel conflict +begins with a message to Elijah from God: "The word of the Lord came to +Elijah: ... I will send rain upon the earth." That was the foundation of +that persistent praying and sevenfold watching on the mountaintop. First +the ear heard, then the voice persistently claimed, and the eye +expectantly looked. First the voice of God, then the voice of man. That is +the true order. Tremendous results always follow that combination. + + + +<u>Through the Book to God.</u> + + +With us the training is of the _inner_ ear. And its first training, after +the early childhood stage is passed, must usually be through the eye. What +God has spoken to others has been written down for us. We hear through our +eyes. The eye opens the way to the inner ear. God spoke in His word. He is +still speaking in it and through it. The whole thought here is to get _to +know God._ He reveals Himself in the word that comes from His own lips, +and through His messengers' lips. He reveals Himself in His dealings with +men. Every incident and experience of these pages is a mirror held up to +God's face. In them we may come to see Him. + +This is studying the Bible not for the Bible's sake but for the purpose of +knowing God. The object aimed at is not the Book but the God revealed in +the Book. A man may go to college and take lectures on the English Bible, +and increase his knowledge, and enrich his vocabulary, and go away with +utterly erroneous ideas of God. He may go to a law school and study the +codes of the first great jurist, and get a clear understanding and firm +grasp of the Mosaic enactments, as he must do to lay the foundation of +legal training, yet he may remain ignorant of God. + +He may even go to a Bible school, and be able to analyze and synthesize, +give outlines of books, and contents of chapters and much else of that +invaluable and indispensable sort of knowledge and yet fail to understand +God and His marvellous love-will. It is not the Book with which we are +concerned here but the God through the Book. Not to learn truth but +through truth to know Him who is Himself the Truth. + +There is a fascinating bit of story told of one of David's mighty men.[35] +One day there was a sudden attack upon the camp by the Philistines when +the fighting men were all away. This man alone was there. The Philistines +were the traditional enemy. The very word "Philistines" was one to strike +terror to the Hebrew heart. But this man was reckoned one of the first +three of David's mighty men because of his conduct that day. He quietly, +quickly gripped his sword and fought the enemy single-handed. Up and down, +left and right, hip and thigh he smote with such terrific earnestness and +drive that the enemy turned and fled. And we are told that the muscles of +his hand became so rigid around the handle of his sword that he could not +tell by the feeling where his hand stopped, and the sword began. Man and +sword were one that day in the action of service against the nation's +enemy. When we so absorb this Book, and the Spirit of Him who is its life +that people cannot tell the line of division between the man, and the God +within the man, then shall we have mightiest power as God's intercessors +in defeating the foe. God and man will be as one in the action of service +against the enemy. + + + +<u>A Spirit Illumined Mind.</u> + + +I want to make some simple suggestions for studying this Book so as to get +to God through it. There will be the emphasis of doubling back on one's +tracks here. For some of the things that should be said have already been +said with a different setting. First there must be the _time_ element. +One must get at least a half hour daily when the mind is fresh. A tired +mind does not readily _absorb_. This should be persisted in until there is +a habitual spending of at least that much time daily over the Book, with a +spirit at leisure from all else, so it can take in. Then the time should +be given to _the Book itself_. If other books are consulted and read as +they will be let that be _after_ the reading of this Book. Let God talk to +you direct, rather than through somebody else. Give Him first chance at +your ears. This Book in the central place of your table, the others +grouped about it. First time given to it. + +A third suggestion brings out the circle of this work. _Read prayerfully._ +We learn how to pray by reading prayerfully. This Book does not reveal its +sweets and strength to the keen mind merely, but to the Spirit enlightened +mind. All the mental keenness possible, _with the bright light of the +Spirit's illumination_--that is the open sesame. I have sometimes sought +the meaning of some passage from a keen scholar who could explain the +orientalisms, the fine philological distinctions, the most accurate +translations, and all of that, who yet did not seem to know the simple +spiritual meaning of the words being discussed. And I have asked the same +question of some old saint of God, who did not know Hebrew from a hen's +tracks, but who seemed to sense at once the deep spiritual truth taught. +The more knowledge, the keener the mind, the better _if_ illumined by the +Spirit that inspired these writings. + +There is a fourth word to put in here. We must read _thoughtfully_. +Thoughtfulness is in danger of being a lost art. Newspapers are so +numerous, and literature so abundant, that we are becoming a bright, but a +_not thoughtful_ people. Often the stream is very wide but has no depth. +Fight shallowness. Insist on reading thoughtfully. A very suggestive word +in the Bible for this is "_meditate_." Run through and pick out this word +with its variations. The word underneath that English word means to +mutter, as though a man were repeating something over and over again, as +he turned it over in his mind. We have another word, with the same +meaning, not much used now--ruminate. We call the cow a ruminant because +she chews the cud. She will spend hours chewing the cud, and then give us +the rich milk and cream and butter which she has extracted from her food. +That is the word here--ruminate. Chew the cud, if you would get the +richest cream and butter here. + +And it is remarkable how much chewing this Book of God will stand, in +comparison with other books. You chew a while on Tennyson, or Browning, or +Longfellow. And I am not belittling these noble writings. I have my own +favourite among these men. But they do not yield the richest and yet +richer cream found here. This Book of God has stood more of that sort of +thing than any other, yet it is the freshest book to be found to-day. You +read a passage over the two hundredth time and some new fine bit of +meaning comes that you had not suspected to be there. + +There is a fifth suggestion, that is easier to make than to follow. _Read +obediently._ As the truth appeals to your conscience _let it change your +habit and life_. + + "Light obeyed, increased light: + Light resisted, bringeth night + Who shall give us power to choose + If the love of light we lose?"[36] + +Jesus gives the law of knowledge in His famous words, "If any man willeth +to do His will he shall know of the teaching."[37] If we do what we know +to do, we will know more. If we know to do, and hesitate and hold back, +and do not obey, the inner eye will surely go blind, and the sense of +right be dulled and lost. Obedience to truth is the eye of the mind. + + + +<u>Wide Reading.</u> + + +Then one needs to have a _plan_ of reading. A consecutive plan gathers up +the fragments of time into a strong whole. Get a good plan, and stick to +it. Better a fairly good plan faithfully followed, than the best plan if +used brokenly or only occasionally. Probably all the numerous methods of +study may be grouped under three general heads, wide reading, topical +study, and textual. We all do some textual study in a more or less small +way. Digging into a sentence or verse to get at its true and deep meaning. +We all do some topical study probably. Gathering up statements on some one +subject, studying a character. The more pretentious name is Biblical +Theology, finding and arranging all that is taught in the whole range of +the Bible on any one theme. + +But I want especially to urge _wide reading_, as being the basis of all +study. It is the simple, the natural, the scientific method. It is adapted +to all classes of persons. I used to suppose it was suited best to college +students, and such; but I was mistaken. It is _the_ method of all for all. +It underlies all methods of getting a grasp of this wonderful Book, and so +coming to as full and rounded an understanding of God as is possible to +men down here. + +By wide reading is meant a _rapid reading through_ regardless of verse, +chapter, or book divisions. Reading it as _a narrative_, a story. As you +would read any book, "The Siege of Pekin," "The Story of an Untold Love," +to find out the story told, and be able to tell to another. There will be +a reverence of spirit with this book that no other inspires, but with the +same intellectual method of running through to see what is here. No book +is so fascinating as the Bible when read this way. The revised version is +greatly to be preferred here simply because it is a _paragraph_ version. +It is printed more like other books. Some day its printed form will be yet +more modernized, and so made easier to read. + +To illustrate, begin at the first of Genesis, and read rapidly through _by +the page_. Do not try to understand all. You will not. Never mind that +now. Just push on. Do not try to remember all. Do not think about that. +Let stick to you what will. You will be surprised to find how much will. +You may read ten or twelve pages in your first half hour. Next time start +in where you left off. You may get through Genesis in three or four times, +or less or more, depending on your mood, and how fast your habit of +reading may be. You will find a whole Bible in Genesis. A wonderfully +fascinating book this Genesis. For love stories, plotting, swift action, +beautiful language it more than matches the popular novel. + +But do not stop at the close of Genesis. Push on into Exodus. The +connection is immediate. It is the same book. And so on into Leviticus. +Now do not try to understand Leviticus the first time. You will not the +hundredth time perhaps. But you can easily group its contents: these +chapters tell of the offerings: these of the law of offerings: here is an +incident put in: here sanitary regulations: get the drift of the book. And +in it all be getting the picture of God--_that is the one point_. And so +on through. + +A second stage of this wide reading is fitting together the parts. You +know the arrangement of our Bible is not chronological wholly, but +topical. The Western mind is almost a slave to chronological order. But +the Oriental was not so disturbed. For example, open your Bible to the +close of Esther, and again at the close of Malachi. This from Genesis to +Esther we all know is the historical section: and this second section the +poetical and prophetical section. There is some history in the prophecy, +and some prophecy and poetry in the historical part. But in the main this +first is historical, and this second poetry and prophecy. These two parts +belong together. This first section was not written, and then this second. +The second belongs in between the leaves of the first. It was taken out +and put by itself because the arrangement of the whole Book is topical +rather than chronological. + +Now the second stage of wide reading is this: fit these parts together. +Fit the poetry and the prophecy into the history. Do it on your own +account, as though it had never been done. It has been done much better +than you will do it. And you will make some mistakes. You can check those +up afterwards by some of the scholarly books. And you cannot tell where +some parts belong. But meanwhile the thing to note is this: you are +absorbing the Book. It is becoming a part of you, bone of your bone, and +flesh of your flesh, mentally, and spiritually. You are drinking in its +spirit in huge draughts. There is coming a new vision of God, which will +transform radically the reverent student. In it all seek to acquire _the +historical sense_. That is, put yourself back and see what this thing, or +this, meant to these men, as it was first spoken, under these immediate +circumstances. + +And so push on into the New Testament. Do not try so much to fit the four +gospels into one connected story, dovetailing all the parts; but try +rather to get a clear grasp of Jesus' movements those few years as told by +these four men. Fit Paul's letters into the book of Acts, the best you +can. The best book to help in checking up here is Conybeare and Howson's +"Life and Letters of St. Paul." That may well be one of the books in your +collection. + +You see at once that this is a method not for a month, nor for a year, but +for years. The topical and textual study grow naturally out of it. And +meanwhile you are getting an intelligent grasp of this wondrous classic, +you are absorbing the finest literature in the English tongue, and +infinitely better yet, you are breathing into your very being a new, deep, +broad, tender conception of _God_. + + + +<u>A Mirror Held up to God's Face.</u> + + +It is simply fascinating too, to find what light floods these pages as +they are read back in their historical setting, so far as that is +possible. For example turn to the third Psalm, fifth verse, + + "I laid me down and slept; + I awaked; for the Lord sustaineth me." + +I was brought up in an old-fashioned church where that was sung. I knew it +by heart. As a boy I supposed it meant that night-time had come, and David +was sleepy; he had his devotions, and went to bed, and had a good night's +sleep. That was all it had suggested to me. + +But on my first swing through of the wide reading, my eye was caught, as +doubtless yours has often been, by the inscription at the beginning of the +psalm: "A psalm of David, _when he fled from Absalom his son_." Quickly I +turned back to Second Samuel to find that story. And I got this picture. +David, an old white-haired man, hurrying one day, barefooted, out of his +palace, and his capital city, with a few faithful friends, fleeing for his +life, because Absalom his favourite son was coming with the strength of +the national army to take the kingdom, and his own father's life. And that +night as the king lay down to try to catch some sleep, it was upon the +bare earth, with only heaven's blue dome for a roof. And as he lay he +could almost hear the steady tramp, tramp of the army, over the hills, +seeking his throne and his life. Let me ask you, honestly now; do you +think you would have slept much that night? I fear I would have been +tempted sorely to lie awake thinking: "here I am, an old man, driven from +my kingdom, and my home, by my own boy, that I have loved better than my +own life." Do you think _you_ would have slept much? Tell me. + +But David speaking of that night afterwards wrote this down:--"I laid me +down, and _slept; I awaked_; (the thought is, I awaked _refreshed_) for +the Lord sustaineth me." And I thought, as first that came to me, "I never +will have insomnia again: I'll trust." And so you see a lesson of trust in +God came, in my wide reading, out of the historical setting, that greatly +refreshed and strengthened, and that I have never forgotten. What a God, +to give sleep under such circumstances! + +A fine illustration of this same thing is found in the New Testament in +Paul's letter to the Philippians. At one end of that epistle is this +scene: Paul, lying in the inner damp cell of a prison, its small creeping +denizens familiarly examining this newcomer, in the darkness of midnight, +his back bleeding from the stripes, his bones aching, and his feet fast in +the stocks. That is one half of the historical setting of this book. And +here is the other half: Paul, a prisoner in Rome. If he tries to ease his +body by changing his position, swinging one limb over the other, a chain +dangling at his ankle reminds him of the soldier by his side. As he picks +up a quill to put a last loving word out of his tender heart for these old +friends, a chain pulls at his wrist. That is Philippians, the prison +epistle, resounding with clanking chain. + +What is the keyword of the book, occurring oftener than any other? +Patience? Surely that would be appropriate. Long-suffering? Still more +fitting would that seem. But, no, the keyword stands in sharpest contrast +to these surroundings. Paul used clouds to make the sun's shining more +beautiful. Joy, rejoice, rejoicing, is the music singing all the way +through these four chapters. What a wondrous Master, this Jesus, so to +inspire His friend doing His will! + +Every incident and occurrence of these pages becomes a mirror held up to +God's face that we may see how wondrous He is. + + "Upon Thy Word I rest + Each pilgrim day. + This golden staff is best + For all the way. + What Jesus Christ hath spoken, + Cannot be broken! + + "Upon Thy Word I rest; + So strong, so sure, + So full of comfort blest, + So sweet, so pure: + The charter of salvation: + Faith's broad foundation. + + "Upon Thy Word I stand: + That cannot die. + Christ seals it in my hand. + He cannot lie. + Thy Word that faileth never: + Abiding ever."[38] + + + + +Something about God's Will in Connection With Prayer + + + +<u>He Came to His Own.</u> + + +The purpose of prayer is to get God's will done. What a stranger God is in +His own world! Nobody is so much slandered as He. He comes to His own, and +they keep Him standing outside the door, like a pilgrim of the night, +staff in hand, while they peer suspiciously at Him through the crack of +the hinges. + +Some of us shrink back from making a full surrender of life to God. And if +the real reason were known it would be found to be that we are _afraid_ of +God. We fear He will put something bitter in the cup, or some rough thing +in the road. And without doubt the reason we are afraid of God is because +we do not _know_ God. The great prayer of Jesus' heart that night with the +eleven was, "that they may _know_ Thee the only true God, and Jesus +Christ whom Thou didst send." + +To understand God's will we must understand something of His character, +Himself. There are five common every-day words I want to bring you to +suggest something of who God is. They are familiar words, in constant use. +The first is the word _father_. "Father" stands for strength, loving +strength. A father plans, and provides for, and protects his loved ones. +All fathers are not good. How man can extract the meaning out of a fine +word, and use the word without its meaning. If you will think of the +finest father ever you knew that anybody ever had; think of him now. Then +remember this, God is a father, only He is so much finer a father than the +finest father you ever knew of. And His will for your _life_--I am not +talking about heaven, and our souls just now, that is in it too--His will +for your life down here these days is a father's will for the one most +dearly loved. + +The second word is a finer word. Because woman is finer than man, and was +made, and meant to be, this second word is finer than the first. I mean +the word _mother_. If father stands for strength, mother stands for +love,--great, patient, tender, fine-fibred, enduring love. What would she +not do for her loved one! Why, not unlikely she went down into the valley +of the shadow that that life might come; and did it gladly with the +love-light shining out of her eyes. Yes, and would do it again, that the +life may remain if need be. That is a mother. You think of the finest +mother ever you knew. And the suggestion brings the most hallowed memories +to my own heart. Then remember this: God is a mother, only He is so much +finer a mother than the finest mother you ever knew. + +The references in scripture to God as a mother are numerous. "Under His +wings" is a mother figure. The mother-bird gathers her brood up under her +wings to feel the heat of her body, and for protection. The word mother is +not used for God in the Bible. I think it is because with God "father" +includes "mother." It takes more of the human to tell the story than of +the divine. With God, all the strength of the father and all the fine love +of the mother are combined in that word "father." And His will for us is a +mother's will, a wise loving mother's will for the darling of her heart. + +The third word is _friend_. I do not mean to use it in the cheaper +meaning. There is a certain kindliness of speech in which all +acquaintances are called friends. Tupper says, we call all men friends who +are not known to be enemies. But I mean to use the word in its finer +meaning. Here, a friend is one who loves you for your sake only and +steadfastly loves without regard to any return, even a return-love. The +English have a saying that you may fill a church with your acquaintances, +and not fill the pulpit seats with your friends. If you may have in your +life one or two real friends you are very wealthy. If you will think for a +moment of the very best friend you ever knew anybody to have. Then +remember this: God is a friend. Only He is ever so much better a friend +than the best friend you ever knew of. And the plan He has thought out for +your life is such a one as that word would suggest. + +The fourth word, I almost hesitate to use, yet I am sure I need not here. +The hesitancy is because the word and its relationship are spoken of +lightly, frivolously, so much, even in good circles. I mean that rare fine +word _lover_. Where two have met, and acquaintance has deepened into +friendship, and that in turn into the holiest emotion, the highest +friendship. What would he not do for her! She becomes the new human centre +of his life. In a good sense he worships the ground she treads upon. And +she--she will leave wealth for poverty if only so she may be with him in +the coming days. She will leave home and friends, and go to the ends of +the earth if his service calls him there. You think of the finest lover, +man or woman, you ever knew anybody to have. Then remember this, and let +me say it in soft, reverent tones, God is a lover--shall I say in yet more +reverent voice, a sweetheart-lover. Only He is so much finer a lover than +the finest lover you ever knew of. And His will, His plan for your life +and mine--it hushes my heart to say it--is a lover's plan for his only +loved one. + +The fifth word is this fourth word a degree finer spun, a stage farther +on, and higher up, the word _husband_. This is the word on the man side +for the most hallowed relationship of earth. This is the lover +relationship in its perfection stage. With men husband is not always a +finer word than lover. The more's the pity. How man does cheapen God's +plan of things; leaves out the kernel, and keeps only an empty shell +sometimes. In God's thought a husband is a lover _plus_. He is all that +the finest lover is, and more; more tender, more eager, more thoughtful. +Two lives are joined, and begin living one life. Two wills, yet one. Two +persons, yet one purpose. Duality in unity. Will you call to mind for a +moment the best husband you ever knew any woman to have. Then remember +this that God is a husband; only He is an infinitely more thoughtful +husband than any you ever knew. And His will for your life is a husband's +will for his life's friend and companion. + +Now, please, do not _you_ take one of these words, and say, "I like that"; +and _you_ another and say, "That conception of God appeals to me," and +_you_ another. How we do whittle God down to our narrow conceptions! You +must take all five words, and think the finest meaning into each, and then +put them all together, to get a close up idea of God. He is all that, _and +more_. + +You see God is so much that it takes a number of earth's relationships put +together to get a good suggestion of what He is. He is a father, a +mother, a friend, a lover, a husband. I have not brought book, and +chapter, and verse. But you know I could spend a long time with you +reading over the numerous passages giving these conceptions of God. + +And God's will for us is the plan of such a God as that. It includes the +body, health and strength; the family and home matters; money and business +matters; friendships, including the choice of life's chief friend; it +includes service, what service and where; and constant guidance; it +includes the whole life, and the world of lives. All this He has thought +into, lovingly, carefully. Does a wise mother think of her child's needs +into the details, the necessities and the loving extras? That is God. + + + +<u>The One Purpose of Prayer.</u> + + +Now, the whole thought in prayer is to get the will of a God like that +done in our lives and upon this old earth. The greatest prayer any one can +offer is, "Thy will be done." It will be offered in a thousand different +forms, with a thousand details, as needs arise daily. But every true +prayer comes under those four words. There is not a good desirable thing +that you have thought of that He has not thought of first, and probably +with an added touch not in your thought. Not to grit your teeth and lock +your jaw and pray for grace to say, "Thy will be _endured_: it is bitter, +but I must be resigned; that is a Christian grace; Thy will be +_endured_." Not that, please. Do not slander God like that. There is a +superficial idea among men that charges God with many misfortunes and ills +for which He is not at all responsible. He is continually doing the very +best that can be done under the circumstances for the best results. He has +a bad mixture of stubborn warped human wills to deal with. With infinite +patience and skill and diplomacy and success too He is ever working at the +tangled skein of human life, through the human will. + +It may help us here to remember that God has a first and a second will for +us: a first choice and a second. He always prefers that His first will +shall be accomplished in us. But where we will not be wooed up to that +height, He comes down to the highest level we will come up to, and works +with us there. For instance, God's first choice for Israel was that He +Himself should be their king. There was to be no human, visible king, as +with the surrounding nations. He was to be their king. They were to be +peculiar in this. But to Samuel's sorrow and yet more to God's, they +insisted upon a king. And so God gave them a king. And David the great +shepherd-psalmist-king was a man after God's own heart, and the world's +Saviour came of the Davidic line. God did His best upon the level they +chose and a great best it was. Yet the human king and line of kings was +not God's first will, but a second will yielded to because the first +would not be accepted. God is ever doing the best for human lives that can +be done through the human will. + +His first will for our bodies, without doubt, is that there should be a +strong healthy body for each of us. But there is a far higher thing being +aimed at in us than that. And with keen pain to His own heart, He oft +times permits bodily weakness and suffering because in the conditions of +our wills only so can these higher and highest things be gotten at. And +where the human will comes into intelligent touch with Himself, and the +higher can so be reached, with great gladness and eagerness the bodily +difficulty is removed by Him. + +There are two things, at least, that modify God's first will for us. First +of all the degree of our intelligent willingness that He shall have His +full sway. And second, the circumstances of one's life. Each of us is the +centre of a circle of people, an ever changing circle. If we be in touch +with Him God is speaking through each of us to his circle. Our experiences +with God: His dealings with us, under the varying circumstances are a part +of His message to that circle. God is trying to win men. It takes +marvellous diplomacy on His part. And God is a wondrous tactician. +But--very reverently--He is a needy God. He needs us to help Him, each in +his circle. We must be perfectly willing to have His will done; and more, +we must trust Him to know what is best to do in us and with us in the +circle of our circumstances. God is a great economist. He wastes no +forces. Every bit is being conserved towards the great end in view. + +There may be a false submission to His supposed will in some affliction; a +not reaching out after _all_ that He has for us. And at the other swing of +the pendulum there may be a sort of _logical praying_ for some desirable +thing because a friend tells us we should claim it. By logical praying I +mean the studying of a statement of God's word, and possibly some one's +explanation of it, and hearing or knowing how somebody else has claimed a +certain thing through that statement and then concluding that therefore we +should so claim. The trouble with that is that it stops too soon. Praying +in the Spirit as opposed to logical praying is doing this logical +thinking: _then_ quietly taking all to God, to learn what His will is for +_you_, under your circumstances, and in the circle of people whom He +touches through you. + + + +<u>The Spirit's Prayer Room.</u> + + +There is a remarkable passage in Paul's Roman letter about prayer and +God's will.[39] "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: +for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh +intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that +searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, that He +maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." + +Please notice: these words connect back with the verses ending with verse +seventeen. Verses eighteen to twenty-five are a parenthesis. As the Spirit +within breathes out the "Father" cry of a child, which is the prayer-cry, +so He helps us in praying. It is our infirmity that we do not know how to +pray _as we ought_. There is willingness and eagerness too. No bother +there. But a lack of knowledge. We don't know how. But the Spirit knows +how. He is the Master-prayor. He knows God's will perfectly. He knows what +best to be praying under all circumstances. And He is within you and me. +He is there as a prayer-spirit. He prompts us to pray. He calls us away to +the quiet room to our knees. He inclines to prayer wherever we are. He is +thinking thoughts that find no response in us. They cannot be expressed in +our lips for they are not in our thinking. He prays with an intensity +quite beyond the possibility of language to express. And the +heart-searcher--God listening above--knows fully what this praying Spirit +is thinking within me, and wordlessly praying, for they are one. He +recognizes His own purposes and plans being repeated in this man down on +the earth by His own Spirit. + +And the great truth is that the Spirit within us prays God's will. He +teaches us God's will. He teaches us how to pray God's will. And He +Himself prays God's will in us. And further that He seeks to pray God's +will--that is to pray for the thing God has planned--in us before we have +yet reached up to where we know ourselves what that will is. + +We should be ambitious to cultivate a healthy sensitiveness to this +indwelling Spirit. And when there comes that quick inner wooing away to +pray let us faithfully obey. Even though we be not clear what the +particular petition is to be let us remain in prayer while He uses us as +the medium of His praying. + +Oftentimes the best prayer to offer about some friend, or some particular +thing, after perhaps stating the case the best we can is this: "Holy +Spirit, be praying in me the thing the Father wants done. Father, what the +Spirit within me is praying, that is my prayer in Jesus' name. Thy will, +what Thou art wishing and thinking, may that be fully done here." + + + +<u>How to Find God's Will.</u> + + +We should make a study of God's will. We ought to seek to become skilled +in knowing His will. The more we know Him the better shall we be able to +read intelligently His will. + +It may be said that God has two wills for each of us, or, better, there +are two parts to His will. There is His will of grace, and His will of +government. His will of grace is plainly revealed in His Word. It is that +we shall be saved, and made holy, and pure, and by and by glorified in his +own presence. His will of government is His particular plan for my life. +God has every life planned. The highest possible ambition for a life is to +reach God's plan. He reveals that to us bit by bit as we need to know. If +the life is to be one of special service He will make that plain, what +service, and where, and when. Then each next step He will make plain. + +Learning His will here hinges upon three things, simple enough but +essential. I must keep _in touch_ with Him so He has an open ear to talk +into. I must _delight_ to do His will, _because it is His_. The third +thing needs special emphasis. Many who are right on the first two stumble +here, and sometimes measure their length on the ground. _His Word must be +allowed to discipline my judgment as to Himself and His will_. Many of us +stumble on number one and on number two. And very many willing earnest men +sprawl badly when it comes to number three. The bother with these is the +lack of a disciplined judgment about God and His will. If we would +prayerfully _absorb_ the Book, there would come a better poised judgment. +We need to get a broad sweep of God's thought, to breathe Him in as He +reveals Himself in this Book. The meek man--that is the man willing to +yield his will to a higher will--will He guide in his judgment, that is, +in his mental processes.[40] + +This is John's standpoint in that famous passage in his first epistle.[41] +"And this is the boldness that we have towards Him, that, if we ask +anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He +heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we +have asked of Him." These words dovetail with great nicety into those +already quoted from Paul in the eighth of Romans. The whole supposition +here is that we have learned His will about the particular matter in hand. +Having gotten that footing, we go to prayer with great boldness. For if He +wants a thing and I want it and we join--that combination cannot be +broken. + + + + +May we Pray With Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones + + + +<u>God's Door into a Home.</u> + + +The heart of God hungers to redeem the world. For that He gave His own, +only Son though the treatment He received tore that father's heart to the +bleeding. For that He sent the Holy Spirit to do in men what the Son had +done for them. For that He placed in human hands the mightiest of all +forces--prayer, that so we might become partners with Him. + +For that too He set man in the relationships of kinship and friendship. He +wins men through men. Man is the goal, and he is also the road to the +goal. Man is the object aimed at. And he is the medium of approach, +whether the advance be by God or by Satan. God will not enter a man's +heart without his consent, and Satan _can_not. God would reach men through +men, and Satan must. And so God has set us in the strongest relation that +binds men, the relation of love, that He may touch one through another. +Kinship is a relation peculiar to man, and to the earth. + +I have at times been asked by some earnest sensitive persons if it is not +selfish to be especially concerned for one's own, over whom the heart +yearns much, and the prayer offered is more tender and intense and more +frequent. Well, if _you_ do not pray for them who will? Who _can_ pray for +them with such believing persistent fervour as you! God has set us in the +relationship of personal affection and of kinship for just such a purpose. +He binds us together with the ties of love that we may be concerned for +each other. If there be but one in a home in touch with God, that one +becomes God's door into the whole family. + +Contact means opportunity, and that in turn means responsibility. The +closer the contact the greater the opportunity and the greater too the +responsibility. Unselfishness does not mean to exclude one's self, and +one's own. It means right proportions in our perspective. Humility is not +whipping one's self. It is forgetting one's self in the thought of others. +Yet even that may be carried to a bad extreme. Not only is it not selfish +so to pray, it is a part of God's plan that we should so pray. I am most +responsible for the one to whom I am most closely related. + + + +<u>A Free Agent Enslaved.</u> + + +One of the questions that is more often asked in this connection than any +other perhaps is this: may we pray with assurance for the conversion of +our loved ones? No question sets more hearts in an audience to beating +faster than does that. I remember speaking in the Boston noonday meeting, +in the old Broomfield Street M. E. Church on this subject one week. +Perhaps I was speaking rather positively. And at the close of the meeting +one day a keen, cultured Christian woman whom I knew came up for a word. +She said, "I do not think we can pray like that." And I said, "Why not?" +She paused a moment, and her well-controlled agitation revealed in eye and +lip told me how deeply her thoughts were stirred. Then she said quietly, +"I have a brother. He is not a Christian. The theatre, the wine, the club, +the cards--that is his life. And he laughs at me. I would rather than +anything else that my brother were a Christian. But," she said, and here +both her keenness and the training of her early teaching came in, "I do +not think I can pray positively for his conversion, for he is a free +agent, is he not? And God will not save a man against his will." + +I want to say to you to-day what I said to her. Man _is_ a free agent, to +use the old phrase, so far as God is concerned; utterly, wholly free. +_And_, he is the most enslaved agent on the earth, so far as sin, and +selfishness and prejudice are concerned. The purpose of our praying is not +to force or coerce his will; never that. It is to _free_ his will of the +warping influences that now twist it awry. It is to get the dust out of +his eyes so his sight shall be clear. And once he is free, able to see +aright, to balance things without prejudice, the whole probability is in +favour of his using his will to choose the only right. + +I want to suggest to you the ideal prayer for such a one. It is an +adaptation of Jesus' own words. It may be pleaded with much variety of +detail. It is this: deliver him from the evil one; and work in him _Thy +will_ for him, by Thy power to Thy glory in Jesus, the Victor's name. And +there are three special passages upon which to base this prayer. First +Timothy, second chapter, fourth verse (American version), "God our +Saviour, who would have all men to be saved." That is God's will for your +loved one. Second Peter, third chapter, ninth verse, "not wishing (or +willing) that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." +That is God's will, or desire, for the one you are thinking of now. The +third passage is on our side who do the praying. It tells who may offer +this prayer with assurance. John, fifteenth chapter, seventh verse, "If ye +abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you ask what it is your will to +ask, and I will bring it to pass for you." + +There is a statement of Paul's in second Timothy that graphically pictures +this:[42] "The Lord's servant must not strive "--not argue, nor +combat--"but be gentle towards all, apt to teach"--ready and skilled in +explaining, helping--"in meekness correcting (or, instructing) them that +oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the +knowledge of the truth, and _they may recover themselves out of the snare +of the devil_, having been taken captive by him unto his will." + +That word "deliver" in this prayer, as used by Jesus, the word under our +English, has a picturesque meaning. It means _rescue_. Here is a man taken +captive, and in chains. But he has become infatuated with his captor, and +is befooled regarding his condition. Our prayer is, "rescue him from the +evil one," and because Jesus is Victor over the captor, the rescue will +take place. + +Without any doubt we may assure the conversion of these laid upon our +hearts by such praying. The prayer in Jesus' name drives the enemy off the +battle-field of the man's will, and leaves him free to choose aright. +There is one exception to be noted, a very, very rare exception. There may +be _extreme_ instances where such a prayer may not be offered; where the +spirit of prayer is withdrawn. But such are very rare and extreme, and the +conviction regarding that will be unmistakable beyond asking any +questions. + +And I cannot resist the conviction--I greatly dislike to say this, I would +much rather not if I regarded either my own feelings or yours. But I +cannot resist the conviction--listen very quietly, so I may speak in +quietest tones--that there are people ... in that lower, lost world ... +who are there ... because some one failed to put his life in touch with +God, and pray. + + + +<u>The Place Where God is Not.</u> + + +Having said that much let me go on to say this further, and please let me +say it all in softest sobbing voice--there is a hell. There must be a +hell. You may leave this Bible sheer out of your reckoning in the matter. +Still there must be a place for which that word of ugliest associations is +the word to use. _Philosophically_ there must be a hell. That is the name +for the place where God is not; for the place where they will gather +together who insist on leaving God out. God out! There can be no worse +hell than that! God away! Man held back by no restraints! + +I am very clear it is _not_ what men have pictured it to be. It is not +what my childish fancy saw and shrank from terrified. And, please let us +be very careful that we never consign anybody there, in our thinking or +speaking about them. When that life whose future might be questioned has +gone the most we can say is that we leave it with a God infinitely just +and the personification of love. + +There has been in some quarters an unthinking consigning of persons to a +lost world. And there has been in our day a clean swing of the pendulum +to the other extreme. Both drifts are to be dreaded. Let us deal very +tenderly here, yet with a right plainness in our tenderness. We are to +warn men faithfully. We know the Book's plain teaching that these who +prefer to leave God out "shall go away." The going is of their own accord +and choice. Regarding particular ones we do not know and are best silent. +The grave is closing. Let us deal with the living. + +One day at the close of the morning hour at a Bible conference in the +Alleghany Mountains a young woman came up for a moment's conversation. She +spoke about a friend, not a professing Christian, for whom she had prayed +much, and who had died unexpectedly. He had passed away during +unconsciousness, with no opportunity for exchange of words. She was much +agitated as the facts were recited, and then said as she finished, "he is +lost and in hell: and I can never pray again." + +We talked quietly awhile and I gathered the following facts. He was of a +Christian family, perfectly familiar with the Bible, was a thoughtful man, +of outwardly correct life in the main, had talked about these matters with +others but had never either in conversation or more openly confessed +personal faith in Christ. He was not in good health. Then came the sudden +end. One other fact came out. She had prayed for his conversion for a long +time. She was herself an earnest Christian woman, solicitous for others. +There were four facts to go upon regarding him. He knew the way to God. He +was thoughtful. He had never openly accepted. Some one had prayed. + +Can one _know_ anything certainly about that man's condition? There are +two sorts of knowledge, direct and inferential. I know there is such a +city as London for I have walked its streets. That is direct knowledge. I +know there is such a city as St. Petersburg because though I have never +been there, yet through my reading, pictures I have seen, and friends who +have been there I am clear of its existence to the point of _knowledge_. +That is inferential knowledge. + +Now regarding this man after he slipped from the grasp of his friends, I +have no direct knowledge. But I have very positive inferential knowledge +based upon these four facts. Three of the facts, namely, the first, +second, and fourth were favourable to the end desired. The third swings +neither way. The great dominant fact in the case is the fourth, and a +great and dominating fact it is in judging--some one in touch with God had +been persistently, believingly praying up to the time of the quick end. +That fact with the others gives strong inferential knowledge regarding the +man. It is sufficient to comfort a heart, and give one renewed faith in +praying for others. + + + +<u>Saving the Life.</u> + + +We cannot know a man's mental processes. This is surely true, that if in +the very last half-twinkling of an eye a man look up towards God +longingly, that look is the turning of the will to God. And that is quite +enough. God is eagerly watching with hungry eyes for the quick turn of a +human eye up to Himself. Doubtless many a man has so turned in the last +moment of his life when we were not conscious of his consciousness, nor +aware of the movements of his outwardly unconscious sub-consciousness. One +may be unconscious of outer things, and yet be keenly conscious towards +God. + +At another of these summer gatherings this incident came to me. A man +seemingly of mature mind and judgment told me of a friend of his. That was +as close as I got to the friend himself. This friend was not a professing +Christian, was thrown from a boat, sank twice and perhaps three times, and +then was rescued, and after some difficulty resuscitated. He told +afterwards how swiftly his thoughts came as they are said to do to one in +such circumstances. He thought surely he was drowning, was quiet in his +mind, thought of God and how he had not been trusting Him, and in his +thought he prayed for forgiveness. He lived afterwards a consistent +Christian life. This illustrates simply the possibilities open to one in +his keen inner mental processes. + +Here is surely enough knowledge to comfort many a bereft heart, and +enough too to make us pray persistently and believingly for loved ones +because of prayer's uncalculated and incalculable power. Be sure the +prayer-fact is in the case of _your_ friend, _and in strong_. + +Yet let us be wary, very wary of letting this influence us one bit +farther. That man is nothing less than a fool who presumes upon such +statements to resist God's gracious pleadings for his life. And on our +side, we must not fail to warn men lovingly, tenderly yet with plainness +of the tremendous danger of delay, in coming to God. A man may be so +stupefied at the close as to shut out of his range what has been suggested +here. And further even if a man's soul be saved he is responsible to God +for his life. We want men to _live_ for Jesus, and win others to Him. And +further, yet, reward, preferment, honour in God's kingdom depends upon +faithfulness to Him down here. Who would be saved by the skin of his +teeth! + +The great fact to have burned in deep is that we may assure the coming to +God of our loved ones with their lives, as well as for their souls if we +will but press the battle. + + + +<u>Giving God a Clear Road for Action.</u> + + +Out in one of the trans-Mississippi states I ran across an illustration of +prayer in real life that caught me at once, and has greatly helped me in +understanding prayer. + +Fact is more fascinating than fiction. If one could know what is going on +around him, how surprised and startled he would be. If we could get _all_ +the facts in any one incident, and get them colourlessly, and have the +judgment to sift and analyze accurately, what fascinating instances of the +power of prayer would be disclosed. + +There is a double side to this story. The side of the man who was changed, +and the side of the woman who prayed. He is a New Englander, by birth and +breeding, now living in this western state: almost a giant physically, +keen mentally, a lawyer, and a natural leader. He had the conviction as a +boy that if he became a Christian he was to preach. But he grew up a +skeptic, read up and lectured on skeptical subjects. He was the +representative of a district of his western home state in congress; in his +fourth term or so I think at this time. + +The experience I am telling came during that congress when the +Hayes-Tilden controversy was up, the intensest congress Washington has +known since the Civil War. It was not a time specially suited to +meditation about God in the halls of congress. And further he said to me +that somehow he knew all the other skeptics who were in the lower house +and they drifted together a good bit and strengthened each other by their +talk. + +One day as he was in his seat in the lower house, in the midst of the +business of the hour, there came to him a conviction that God--the God in +whom he did not believe, whose existence he could keenly disprove--God was +right there above his head thinking about him, and displeased at the way +he was behaving towards Him. And he said to himself: "this is ridiculous, +absurd. I've been working too hard; confined too closely; my mind is +getting morbid. I'll go out, and get some fresh air, and shake myself." +And so he did. But the conviction only deepened and intensified. Day by +day it grew. And that went on for weeks, into the fourth month as I recall +his words. Then he planned to return home to attend to some business +matters, and to attend to some preliminaries for securing the nomination +for the governorship of his state. And as I understand he was in a fair +way to securing the nomination, so far as one can judge of such matters. +And his party is the dominant party in the state. A nomination for +governor by his party has usually been followed by election. + +He reached his home and had hardly gotten there before he found that his +wife and two others had entered into a holy compact of prayer for his +conversion, and had been so praying for some months. Instantly he thought +of his peculiar unwelcome Washington experience, and became intensely +interested. But not wishing them to know of his interest, he asked +carelessly when "this thing began." His wife told him the day. He did some +quick mental figuring, and he said to me, "I knew almost instantly that +the day she named fitted into the calendar with the coming of that +conviction or impression about God's presence." + +He was greatly startled. He wanted to be thoroughly honest in all his +thinking. And he said he knew that if a single fact of that sort could be +established, of prayer producing such results, it carried the whole +Christian scheme of belief with it. And he did some stiff fighting within. +Had he been wrong all those years? He sifted the matter back and forth as +a lawyer would the evidence in any case. And he said to me, "As an honest +man I was compelled to admit the facts, and I believe I might have been +led to Christ that very night." + +A few nights later he knelt at the altar in the Methodist meeting-house in +his home town and surrendered his strong will to God. Then the early +conviction of his boyhood days came back. He was to preach the gospel. And +like Saul of old, he utterly changed his life, and has been preaching the +gospel with power ever since. + +Then I was intensely fascinated in getting the other side, the +praying-side of the story. His wife had been a Christian for years, since +before their marriage. But in some meetings in the home church she was +led into a new, a full surrender to Jesus Christ as Master, and had +experienced a new consciousness of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. +Almost at once came a new intense desire for her husband's conversion. The +compact of three was agreed upon, of daily prayer for him until the change +came. + +As she prayed that night after retiring to her sleeping apartment she was +in great distress of mind in thinking and praying for him. She could get +no rest from this intense distress. At length she rose, and knelt by the +bedside to pray. As she was praying and distressed a voice, an exquisitely +quiet inner voice said, "will you abide the consequences?" She was +startled. Such a thing was wholly new to her. She did not know what it +meant. And without paying any attention to it, went on praying. Again came +the same quietly spoken words to her ear, "will you abide the +consequences?" And again the half frightened feeling. She slipped back to +bed to sleep. But sleep did not come. And back again to her knees, and +again the patient, quiet voice. + +This time with an earnestness bearing the impress of her agony she said, +"Lord, I will abide any consequence that may come if only my husband may +be brought to Thee." And at once the distress slipped away, and a new +sweet peace filled her being, and sleep quickly came. And while she prayed +on for weeks and months patiently, persistently, day by day, the distress +was gone, the sweet peace remained in the assurance that the result was +surely coming. And so it was coming all those days down in the thick air +of Washington's lower house, and so it did come. + +What _was_ the consequence to her? She was a congressman's wife. She would +likely have been, so far as such matters may be judged, the wife of the +governor of her state, the first lady socially of the state. She is a +Methodist minister's wife changing her home every few years. A very +different position in many ways. No woman will be indifferent to the +social difference involved. Yet rarely have I met a woman with more of +that fine beauty which the peace of God brings, in her glad face, and in +her winsome smile. + +Do you see the simple philosophy of that experience. Her surrender gave +God a clear channel into that man's will. When the roadway was cleared, +her prayer was a spirit-force traversing instantly the hundreds of +intervening miles, and affecting the spirit-atmosphere of his presence. + +Shall we not put our wills fully in touch with God, and sheer out of +sympathy with the other one, and persistently plead and claim for each +loved one, "deliver him from the evil one, and work in him Thy will, to +Thy glory, by Thy power, in the Victor's name." And then add amen--so it +_shall_ be. Not so _may_ it be--a wish, but so it _shall_ be--an +expression of confidence in Jesus' power. _And these lives shall be won, +and these souls saved_. + + + + +IV. Jesus' Habits of Prayer + + +1. A Pen Sketch. +2. Dissolving Views. +3. Deepening Shadows. +4. Under the Olive Trees. +5. A Composite Picture. + + + + +Jesus' Habits of Prayer + + + +<u>A Pen Sketch.</u> + + +When God would win back His prodigal world He sent down a Man. That Man +while more than man insisted upon being truly a man. He touched human life +at every point. No man seems to have understood prayer, and to have prayed +as did He. How can we better conclude these quiet talks on prayer than by +gathering about His person and studying His habits of prayer. + +A habit is an act repeated so often as to be done involuntarily; that is, +without a new decision of the mind each time it is done. + +Jesus prayed. He loved to pray. Sometimes praying was His way of resting. +He prayed so much and so often that it became a part of His life. It +became to Him like breathing--involuntary. + +There is no thing we need so much as to learn how to pray. There are two +ways of receiving instruction; one, by being told; the other, by watching +some one else. The latter is the simpler and the surer way. How better can +we learn how to pray than by watching how Jesus prayed, and then trying +to imitate Him. Not, just now, studying what He _said_ about prayer, +invaluable as that is, and so closely interwoven with the other; nor yet +how He received the requests of men when on earth, full of inspiring +suggestion as that is of His _present_ attitude towards our prayers; but +how He Himself prayed when down here surrounded by our same circumstances +and temptations. + +There are two sections of the Bible to which we at once turn for light, +the gospels and the Psalms. In the gospels is given chiefly the _outer_ +side of His prayer-habits; and in certain of the Psalms, glimpses of the +_inner_ side are unmistakably revealed. + +Turning now to the gospels, we find the picture of the praying Jesus like +an etching, a sketch in black and white, the fewest possible strokes of +the pen, a scratch here, a line there, frequently a single word added by +one writer to the narrative of the others, which gradually bring to view +the outline of a lone figure with upturned face. + +Of the fifteen mentions of His praying found in the four gospels, it is +interesting to note that while Matthew gives three, and Mark and John each +four, it is Luke, Paul's companion and mirror-like friend, who, in eleven +such allusions, supplies most of the picture. + +Does this not contain a strong hint of the explanation of that other +etching plainly traceable in the epistles which reveals Paul's own +marvellous prayer-life? + +Matthew, immersed in the Hebrew Scriptures, writes to the Jews of their +promised Davidic King; Mark, with rapid pen, relates the ceaseless +activity of this wonderful servant of the Father. John, with imprisoned +body, but rare liberty of vision, from the glory-side revealed on Patmos, +depicts the Son of God coming on an errand from the Father into the world, +and again, leaving the world and going back home unto the Father. But Luke +emphasizes the _human_ Jesus, a _Man_--with reverence let me use a word in +its old-fashioned meaning--a _fellow_, that is, one of ourselves. And the +Holy Spirit makes it very plain throughout Luke's narrative that the _man_ +Christ Jesus _prayed_; prayed _much; needed_ to pray; _loved_ to pray. + +Oh! when shall we men down here, sent into the world as He was sent into +the world, with the same mission, the same field, the same Satan to +combat, the same Holy Spirit to empower, find out that power lies in +keeping closest connection with the Sender, and completest insulation from +the power-absorbing world! + + + +<u>Dissolving Views.</u> + + +Let me rapidily sketch those fifteen mentions of the gospel writers, +attempting to keep their chronological order. + +_The first mention_ is by Luke, in chapter three. The first three gospels +all tell of Jesus' double baptism, but it is Luke who adds, "and praying." +It was while waiting in prayer that He received the gift of the Holy +Spirit. He _dared_ not begin His public mission without that anointing. It +had been promised in the prophetic writings. And now, standing in the +Jordan, He waits and prays until the blue above is burst through by the +gleams of glory-light from the upper-side and the dove-like Spirit wings +down and abides upon Him. _Prayer brings power._ Prayer _is_ power. The +time of prayer is the time of power. The place of prayer is the place of +power. Prayer is tightening the connections with the divine dynamo so that +the power may flow freely without loss or interruption. + +_The second mention_ is made by Mark in chapter one. Luke, in chapter +four, hints at it, "when it was day He came out and went into a desert +place." But Mark tells us plainly "in the morning a great while before the +day (or a little more literally, 'very early while it was yet very dark') +He arose and went out into the desert or solitary place and there prayed." +The day before, a Sabbath day spent in His adopted home-town Capernaum, +had been a very busy day for Him, teaching in the synagogue service, the +interruption by a demon-possessed man, the casting out amid a painful +scene; afterwards the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, and then at +sun-setting the great crowd of diseased and demonized thronging the +narrow street until far into the night, while He, passing amongst them, by +personal touch, healed and restored every one. It was a long and +exhausting day's work. One of us spending as busy a Sabbath would probably +feel that the next morning needed an extra hour's sleep if possible. One +must rest surely. But this man Jesus seemed to have another way of resting +in addition to sleep. Probably He occupied the guest-chamber in Peter's +home. The house was likely astir at the usual hour, and by and by +breakfast was ready, but the Master had not appeared yet, so they waited a +bit. After a while the maid slips to His room door and taps lightly, but +there's no answer; again a little bolder knock, then pushing the door ajar +she finds the room unoccupied. Where's the Master? "Ah!" Peter says; "I +think I know. I have noticed before this that He has a way of slipping off +early in the morning to some quiet place where He can be alone." And a +little knot of disciples with Peter in the lead starts out on a search for +Him, for already a crowd is gathering at the door and filling the street +again, hungry for more. And they "tracked Him down" here and there on the +hillsides, among clumps of trees, until suddenly they come upon Him +quietly praying with a wondrous calm in His great eyes. Listen to Peter as +he eagerly blurts out, "Master, there's a big crowd down there, all asking +for you." But the Master's quiet decisive tones reply, "Let us go into +the next towns that I may preach there also; for to this end came I +forth." Much easier to go back and deal again with the old crowd of +yesterday; harder to meet the new crowds with their new skepticism, but +there's no doubt about what _should_ be done. Prayer wonderfully clears +the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; +sweetens and strengthens the spirit. The busier the day for Him the more +surely must the morning appointment be kept,[43] and even an earlier start +made, apparently. The more virtue went forth from Him, the more certainly +must He spend time, and even _more_ time, alone with Him who is the source +of power. + +_The third mention_ is in Luke, chapter five. Not a great while after the +scene just described, possibly while on the trip suggested by His answer +to Peter, in some one of the numerous Galilean villages, moved with the +compassion that ever burned His heart, He had healed a badly diseased +leper, who, disregarding His express command, so widely published the fact +of His remarkable healing that great crowds blocked Jesus' way in the +village and compelled Him to go out to the country district, where the +crowds which the village could not hold now throng about Him. Now note +what the Master does. The authorized version says, "He withdrew into the +wilderness and prayed." A more nearly literal reading would be, "He was +retiring in the deserts and praying"; suggesting not a single act, but +rather _a habit of action_ running through several days or even weeks. +That is, being compelled by the greatness of the crowds to go into the +deserts or country, districts, and being constantly thronged there by the +people, He had _less opportunity_ to get alone, and yet more need, and so +while He patiently continues His work among them He studiously seeks +opportunity to retire at intervals from the crowds to pray. + +How much His life was like ours. Pressed by duties, by opportunities for +service, by the great need around us, we are strongly tempted to give less +time to the inner chamber, with door shut. "Surely this work must be +done," we think, "though it does crowd and flurry our prayer time some." +"_No_," the Master's practice here says with intense emphasis. Not work +first, and prayer to bless it. But the _first_ place given to prayer and +then the service growing out of such prayer will be charged with +unmeasured power. The greater the outer pressure on His closet-life, the +more jealously He guarded against either a shortening of its time or a +flurrying of its spirit. The tighter the tension, the more time must there +be for unhurried prayer. + +_The fourth mention_ is found in Luke, chapter six. "It came to pass in +these days that He went out into the mountains to pray, and He continued +all night in prayer to God." The time is probably about the middle of the +second year of His public ministry. He had been having very exasperating +experiences with the national leaders from Judea who dogged His steps, +criticising and nagging at every turn, sowing seeds of skepticism among +His simple-minded, intense-spirited Galileans. It was also the day +_before_ He selected the twelve men who were to be the leaders after His +departure, and preached the mountain sermon. Luke does not say that He +_planned_ to spend the entire night in prayer. Wearied in spirit by the +ceaseless petty picking and Satanic hatred of His enemies, thinking of the +serious work of the morrow, there was just one thing for Him to do. He +knew where to find rest, and sweet fellowship, and a calming presence, and +wise counsel. Turning His face northward He sought the solitude of the +mountain not far off for quiet meditation and prayer. And as He prayed and +listened and talked without words, daylight gradually grew into twilight, +and that yielded imperceptibly to the brilliant Oriental stars spraying +down their lustrous fire-light. And still He prayed, while the darkness +below and the blue above deepened, and the stilling calm of God wrapped +all nature around, and hushed His heart into a deeper peace. In the +fascination of the Father's loving presence He was utterly lost to the +flight of time, but prayed on and on until, by and by, the earth had once +more completed its daily turn, the gray streaks of dawnlight crept up the +east, and the face of Palestine, fragrant with the deep dews of an +eastern night, was kissed by a sun of a new day. And then, "when it was +day"--how quietly the narrative goes on--"He called the disciples and +_chose_ from them twelve,--and a great multitude of disciples and of the +people came,--and He _healed_ all--and He opened His mouth and _taught_ +them--_for power came forth from Him."_ Is it any wonder, after such a +night! If all our exasperations and embarrassments were followed, and all +our decisions and utterances preceded, by unhurried prayer, what power +would come forth from us, too. Because as He is even so are we in this +world. + +_The fifth mention_ is made by Matthew, chapter fourteen, and Mark, +chapter six, John hinting at it in chapter six of his gospel. It was about +the time of the third passover, the beginning of His last year of service. +Both He and the disciples had been kept exceedingly busy with the great +throng coming and going incessantly. The startling news had just come of +the tragic death of His forerunner. There was need of bodily rest, as well +as of quiet to think over the rapidly culminating opposition. So taking +boat they headed towards the eastern shore of the lake. But the eager +crowds watched the direction taken and spreading the news, literally "ran" +around the head of the lake and "out-went them," and when He stepped from +the boat for the much-needed rest there was an immense company, numbering +thousands, waiting for Him. Did some feeling of impatience break out among +the disciples that they could not be allowed a little leisure? Very +likely, for they were so much like us. But _He_ was "moved with +compassion" and, wearied though He was, patiently spent the entire day in +teaching, and then, at eventime when the disciples proposed sending them +away for food, He, with a handful of loaves and fishes, satisfied the +bodily cravings of as many as five thousand. + +There is nothing that has so appealed to the masses in all countries and +all centuries as ability to furnish plenty to eat. Literally tens of +thousands of the human race fall asleep every night hungry. So here. At +once it is proposed by a great popular uprising, under the leadership of +this wonderful man as king, to throw off the oppressive Roman yoke. +Certainly if only His consent could be had it would be immensely +successful, they thought. Does this not rank with Satan's suggestion in +the wilderness, and with the later possibility coming through the visit of +the Greek deputation, of establishing the kingdom without suffering? It +was a temptation, even though it found no response within Him. With the +over-awing power of His presence so markedly felt at times He quieted the +movement, "constrained"[44] the disciples to go by boat before Him to the +other side while He dismissed the throng. "And after He had _taken leave +of them_"--what gentle courtesy and tenderness mingled with His +irrevocable decision--"He went up in the mountain _to pray_," and +"_continued in prayer_" until the morning watch. A second night spent in +prayer! Bodily weary, His spirit startled by an event which vividly +foreshadowed His own approaching violent death, and now this vigorous +renewal of His old temptation, again He had recourse to His one unfailing +habit of getting off alone _to pray._ Time alone _to pray; more_ time to +pray, was His one invariable offset to all difficulties, all temptations, +and all needs. How much more there must have been in prayer as He +understood and practiced it than many of His disciples to-day know. + + + +<u>Deepening Shadows.</u> + + +We shall perhaps understand better some of the remaining prayer incidents +if we remember that Jesus is now in the last year of His ministry, the +acute state of His experiences with the national leaders preceding the +final break. The awful shadow of the cross grows deeper and darker across +His path. The hatred of the opposition leader gets constantly intenser. +The conditions of discipleship are more sharply put. The inability of the +crowds, of the disciples, and others to understand Him grows more marked. +Many followers go back. He seeks to get more time for intercourse with +the twelve. He makes frequent trips to distant points on the border of the +outside, non-Jewish world. The coming scenes and experiences--_the_ scene +on the little hillock outside the Jerusalem wall--seem never absent from +His thoughts. _The sixth mention_ is made by Luke, chapter nine. They are +up north in the neighbourhood of the Roman city of Cæsarea Philippi. "And +it came to pass as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him." +Alone, so far as the multitudes are concerned, but seeming to be drawing +these twelve nearer to His inner life. Some of these later incidents seem +to suggest that he was trying to woo them into something of the same love +for the fascination of secret prayer that He had. How much they would need +to pray in the coming years when He was gone. Possibly, too, He yearned +for a closer fellowship with them. He loved human fellowship, as Peter and +James and John, and Mary and Martha and many other gentle women well knew. +And there is no fellowship among men to be compared with fellowship _in +prayer_. + + "There is a place where _spirits blend_, + Where _friend holds fellowship with friend_, + A place than all beside more sweet, + It is the blood-bought mercy-seat." + +_The seventh mention_ is in this same ninth chapter of Luke, and records a +third night of prayer. Matthew and Mark also tell of the transfiguration +scene, but it is Luke who explains that He went up into the mountain _to +pray_, and that it was _as He was praying_ that the fashion of His +countenance was altered. Without stopping to study the purpose of this +marvellous manifestation of His divine glory to the chosen three at a time +when desertion and hatred were so marked, it is enough now to note the +significant fact that it was while _He was praying_ that the wondrous +change came. _Transfigured while praying! _ And by His side stood one who +centuries before on the earth had spent so much time alone with God that +the glory-light of that presence transfigured _his_ face, though he was +unconscious of it. A shining face caused by contact with God! Shall not +we, to whom the Master has said, "follow Me," get alone with Him and His +blessed Word, so habitually, with open or uncovered face, that is, with +eyesight unhindered by prejudice or self-seeking, that mirroring the glory +of His face we shall more and more come to bear His very likeness upon our +faces?[45] + + "And the face shines bright + With a glow of light + From His presence sent + Whom she loves to meet. + + "Yes, the face beams bright + With an inner light + As by day so by night, + In shade as in shine, + With a beauty fine, + That she wist not of, + From some source within. + And above. + + "Still the face shines bright + With the glory-light + From the mountain height. + Where the resplendent sight + Of His face + Fills her view + And illumines in turn + First the few, + Then the wide race." + +_The eighth mention_ is in the tenth chapter of Luke. He had organized a +band of men, sending them out in two's into the places he expected to +visit. They had returned with a joyful report of the power attending their +work; and standing in their midst, His own heart overflowing with joy, He +looked up and, as though the Father's face was visible, spake out to Him +the gladness of His heart. He seemed to be always conscious of His +Father's presence, and the most natural thing was to speak to Him. They +were always within speaking distance of each other, and always on speaking +terms. + +_The ninth mention_ is in the eleventh chapter of Luke, very similar to +the sixth mention, "It came to pass as He was praying in a certain place +that when He ceased one of His disciples said unto Him, 'Lord, teach us +to pray.'" Without doubt these disciples were praying men. He had already +talked to them a great deal about prayer. But as they noticed how large a +place prayer had in His life, and some of the marvellous results, the fact +came home to them with great force that there must be some fascination, +some power, some secret in prayer, of which _they were ignorant._ This Man +was a master in the fine art of prayer. _They_ really did not know how to +pray, they thought. How their request must have delighted Him! At last +they were being aroused concerning _the_ great secret of power. May it be +that this simple recital of His habits of prayer may move every one of us +to get alone with Him and make the same earnest request. For the first +step in _learning_ to pray is to pray,--"Lord, teach me to pray." And who +_can_ teach like Him? + +_The tenth mention_ is found in John, chapter eleven, and is the second of +the four instances of ejaculatory prayer. A large company is gathered +outside the village of Bethany, around a tomb in which four days before +the body of a young man had been laid away. There is Mary, still weeping, +and Martha, always keenly alive to the proprieties, trying to be more +composed, and their personal friends, and the villagers, and the company +of acquaintances and others from Jerusalem. At His word, after some +hesitation, the stone at the mouth of the tomb is rolled aside. And Jesus +lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me; +and I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the multitude that +standeth around I said it that they may believe that Thou didst send Me!" +Clearly before coming to the tomb He had been praying in secret about the +raising of Lazarus, and what followed was in answer to His prayer. How +plain it becomes that all the marvellous power displayed in His brief +earthly career _came through prayer_. What inseparable intimacy between +His life of activity at which the multitude then and ever since has +marvelled, and His hidden closet-life of which only these passing glimpses +are obtained. Surely the greatest power entrusted to man is prayer-power. +But how many of us are untrue to the trust, while this strangely +omnipotent power put into our hands lies so largely unused. + +Note also the certainty of His faith in the Hearer of prayer: "I thank +Thee that Thou heardest Me." There was nothing that could be _seen_ to +warrant such faith. There lay the dead body. But He trusted as _seeing_ +Him who is _invisible_. Faith is blind, except upward. It is blind to +impossibilities and deaf to doubt. It listens only to God and sees only +His power and acts accordingly. Faith is not believing that He _can_ but +that He _will_. But such faith comes only of close continuous contact with +God. Its birthplace is in the secret closet; and time and the open Word, +and an awakened ear and a reverent quiet heart are necessary to its +growth. + +_The eleventh mention_ is found in the twelfth chapter of John. Two or +three days before the fated Friday some Greek visitors to the Jewish feast +of Passover sought an interview with Him. The request seemed to bring to +His mind a vision of the great outside world, after which His heart +yearned, coming to Him so hungry for what only He could give. And +instantly athwart that vision like an ink-black shadow came the other +vision, never absent now from His waking thoughts, _of the cross_ so +awfully near. Shrinking in horror from the second vision, yet knowing that +only through its realization could be realized the first,--seemingly +forgetful for the moment of the by-standers, as though soliloquizing, He +speaks--"now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Shall I say, +Father _save_ Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour: +_this_ is what I will say (and the intense conflict of soul merges into +the complete victory of a wholly surrendered will) _Father, glorify Thy +name_." Quick as the prayer was uttered, came the audible voice out of +heaven answering, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." +How near heaven must be! How quickly the Father hears! He must be bending +over, intently listening, eager to catch even faintly whispered prayer. +Their ears, full of earth-sounds, unaccustomed to listening to a heavenly +voice, could hear nothing intelligible. He had a _trained ear_. Isaiah +50:4 revised (a passage plainly prophetic of Him), suggests how it was +that He could understand this voice so easily and quickly. "He wakeneth +morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught." +A taught ear is as necessary to prayer as a taught tongue, and the daily +morning appointment with God seems essential to both. + + + +<u>Under the Olive Trees.</u> + + +_The twelfth mention_ is made by Luke, chapter twenty-two. It is Thursday +night of Passion week, in the large upper room in Jerusalem where He is +celebrating the old Passover feast, and initiating the new memorial feast. +But even that hallowed hour is disturbed by the disciples' self-seeking +disputes. With the great patience of great love He gives them the +wonderful example of humility of which John thirteen tells, speaking +gently of what it meant, and then turning to Peter, and using his old +name, He says, "Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you that he might +sift you as wheat, but I made supplication for thee that thy faith fail +not." _He had been praying for Peter by name!_ That was one of His +prayer-habits, praying for others. And He has not broken off that blessed +habit yet. He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near to God +through Him _seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them_. His +occupation now seated at His Father's right hand in glory is _praying for +each of us_ who trust Him. By name? Why not? + +_The thirteenth mention_ is the familiar one in John, chapter seventeen, +and cannot be studied within these narrow limits, but merely fitted into +Us order. The twelfth chapter contains His last words to the world. In the +thirteenth and through to the close of this seventeenth He is alone with +His disciples. If this prayer is read carefully in the revised version it +will be seen that its standpoint is that of one who thinks of His work +down in the world as already done (though the chief scene is yet to come) +and the world left behind, and now He is about re-entering His Father's +presence to be re-instated in glory there. It is really, therefore, a sort +of specimen of the praying for us in which He is _now_ engaged, and so is +commonly called the intercessory or high-priestly prayer. For thirty years +He lived a perfect life. For three and a half years He was a prophet +speaking to men for God. For nineteen centuries He has been high priest +speaking to God for men. When He returns it will be as King to reign over +men for God. + +_The fourteenth mention_ brings us within the sadly sacred precincts of +Gethsemane garden, one of His favourite prayer-spots, where He frequently +went while in Jerusalem. The record is found in Matthew twenty-six, Mark +fourteen, and Luke twenty-one. Let us approach with hearts hushed and +heads bared and bowed, for this is indeed hallowed ground. It is a little +later on that same Thursday night, into which so much has already been +pressed and so much more is yet to come. After the talk in the upper room, +and the simple wondrous prayer, He leads the little band out of the city +gate on the east across the swift, muddy Kidron into the inclosed grove of +olive trees beyond. There would be no sleep for Him that night. Within an +hour or two the Roman soldiers and the Jewish mob, led by the traitor, +will be there searching for Him, and He meant to spend the intervening +time in _prayer_. With the longing for sympathy so marked during these +latter months, He takes Peter and James and John and goes farther into the +deeply-shadowed grove. But now some invisible power tears him away and +plunges Him alone still farther into the moonlit recesses of the garden; +and there a strange, awful struggle of soul ensues. It seems like a +renewal of the same conflict He experienced in John twelve when the Greeks +came, but immeasurably intenser. He who in Himself knew no sin was now +beginning to realize in His spirit what within a few hours He realized +_actually_, that He was in very deed to be made sin for us. And the awful +realization comes in upon Him with such terrific intensity that it seems +as though His physical frame cannot endure the strain of mental agony. The +_actual_ experience of the next day produced such mental agony that His +physical strength gave way. For He died not of His physical suffering, +excruciating as that was, but literally of a broken heart, its walls burst +asunder by the strain of soul. It is not possible for a sinning soul to +appreciate with what nightmare dread and horror the sinless soul of Jesus +must have approached the coming contact with the sin of a world. With +bated breath and reverent gaze one follows that lonely figure among the +trees; now kneeling, now falling upon His face, lying prostrate, "He +prayed that _if_ it were possible the hour might pass away from Him." One +snatch of that prayer reaches our ears: "Abba, Father, all things are +possible unto Thee--_if_ it be possible let this cup pass away from Me; +nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." How long He remained so in +prayer we do not know, but so great was the tension of spirit that a +messenger from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. Even after that +"being in an agony He prayed more earnestly (literally, more stretched +out, more strainedly) and His sweat became as it were great clots of blood +falling down upon the ground." When at length He arises from that season +of conflict and prayer, the victory seems to be won, and something of the +old-time calm reasserts itself. He goes to the sleeping disciples, and +mindful of their coming temptation, admonishes them to pray; then returns +to the lonely solitude again for more prayer, but the change in the form +of prayer tells of the triumph of soul, "O My Father, if this cup +_cannot_ pass away except I drink it, Thy will be done." The victory is +complete. The crisis is past. He yields Himself to that dreaded experience +through which alone the Father's loving plan for a dying world can be +accomplished. Again He returns to the poor, weak disciples, and back again +for another bit of strengthening communion, and then the flickering glare +of torches in the distance tells Him that "the hour is come." With steady +step and a marvellous peace lighting His face He goes out to meet His +enemies. He overcame in this greatest crisis of His life _by prayer_. + +_The fifteenth mention_ is the final one. Of the seven sentences which He +spake upon the cross, three were prayers. Luke tells us that while the +soldiers were driving the nails through His hands and feet and lifting the +cross into place, He, thinking even then not of self, but of others, said, +"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." + +It was as the time of the daily evening sacrifice drew on, near the close +of that strange darkness which overcast all nature, after a silence of +three hours, that He loudly sobbed out the piercing, heart-rending cry, +"My God, My God, why didst Thou forsake Me?" A little later the triumphant +shout proclaimed His work done, and then the very last word was a prayer +quietly breathed out, as He yielded up His life, "Father, into Thy hands +I commend My spirit." And so His expiring breath was vocalized into +prayer. + + + +<u>A Composite Picture.</u> + + +It may be helpful to make the following summary of these allusions. + +1. _His times of prayer_: His regular habit seems plainly to have been to +devote the early morning hour to communion with His Father, and to depend +upon that for constant guidance and instruction. This is suggested +especially by Mark 1:35; and also by Isaiah 50:4-6 coupled with John 7:16 +l.c., 8:28, and 12:49. + +In addition to this regular appointment, He sought other opportunities for +secret prayer as special need arose; late at night after others had +retired; three times He remained in prayer all the night; and at irregular +intervals between times. Note that it was usually a _quiet_ time when the +noises of earth were hushed. He spent special time in prayer _before_ +important events and also _afterwards_. (See mentions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 +and 14.) + +2. _His places of prayer_: He who said, "Enter into thine inner chamber +and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret," Himself +had no fixed inner chamber, during His public career, to make easier the +habitual retirement for prayer. Homeless for the three and a half years of +ceaseless travelling, His place of prayer was a desert place, "the +deserts," "the mountains," "a solitary place." He loved nature. The +hilltop back of Nazareth village, the slopes of Olivet, the hillsides +overlooking the Galilean lake, were His favourite places. Note that it was +always a _quiet_ place, shut away from the discordant sounds of earth. + +3. _His constant spirit of prayer_: He was never out of the spirit of +prayer. He could be alone in a dense crowd. It has been said that there +are sorts of solitude, namely, of time, as early morning, or late at +night; solitude of place, as a hilltop, or forest, or a secluded room; and +solitude of spirit, as when one surrounded by a crowd may watch them +unmoved, or to be lost to all around in his own inner thought. Jesus used +all three sorts of solitude for talking with His Father. (See mentions 8, +10, 11 and 15.) + +4. _He prayed in the great crises of His life_: Five such are mentioned: +Before the awful battle royal with Satan in the Quarantanian wilderness at +the outset; before choosing the twelve leaders of the new movement; at the +time of the Galilean uprising; before the final departure from Galilee for +Judea and Jerusalem; and in Gethsemane, the greatest crisis of all. (See +mentions 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14.) + +5. He prayed for others by name, and still does. (See mention 13.) + +6. _He prayed with others_: A habit that might well be more widely copied. +A few minutes spent in quiet prayer by friends or fellow-workers before +parting wonderfully sweetens the spirit, and cements friendships, and +makes difficulties less difficult, and hard problems easier of solution. +(See mentions 7, 9 and 13.) + +7. _The greatest blessings of His life came during prayer_: Six incidents +are noted: while praying, the Holy Spirit came upon Him; He was +transfigured; three times a heavenly voice of approval came; and in His +hour of sorest distress in the garden a heavenly messenger came to +strengthen Him. (See mentions 1, 7, 11 and 14.) + +How much prayer meant to Jesus! It was not only His _regular habit_, but +His resort in _every emergency_, however slight or serious. When perplexed +He _prayed_. When hard pressed by work He _prayed_. When hungry for +fellowship He found it in _prayer_. He chose His associates and received +His messages _upon His knees_. If tempted, He _prayed_. If criticised, He +_prayed_. If fatigued in body or wearied in spirit, He had recourse to His +one unfailing habit of _prayer. Prayer_ brought Him _unmeasured power_ at +the beginning, and _kept_ the flow unbroken and undiminished. There was no +emergency, no difficulty, no necessity, no temptation that would not yield +to prayer, as He practiced it. Shall not we, who have been tracing these +steps in His prayer life, go back over them again and again until we +breathe in His very spirit of prayer? And shall we not, too, ask Him daily +to teach us how to pray, and then plan to get alone with Him regularly +that He may have opportunity to teach us, and we the opportunity to +practice His teaching? + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] John 15:16. + +[2] "Demon Possession," by J. L. Nevius. + +[3] Psalm 24:1. + +[4] Psalm 29:10. + +[5] Genesis 1:26, 28. Psalms 8:6. See quotations of this, referring to the +Man who will restore original conditions, in 1 Cor. 15:27. Ephesians 1:32, +Hebrews 2:8. Psalms 115:16. + +[6] John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. + +[7] Revelation 11:15. + +[8] John 14:30. + +[9] Jeremiah 33:3. + +[10] Psalm 50:15. + +[11] Matthew 7:7. + +[12] Isaiah 1:15. + +[13] Isaiah 59:1-3. + +[14] Psalm 66:18. + +[15] James 4:2, 3. + +[16] Matthew 5:23, 24. + +[17] Matthew 6:9-15. + +[18] Matthew 18:19-35. + +[19] Acts 16:6. + +[20] Acts 16:7. + +[21] John 7:8. + +[22] Acts 22:17-21. + +[23] 2 Cor. 5:21. + +[24] Sidney Lanier. + +[25] Ephesians 2:2. + +[26] Luke 11:5-13. + +[27] Luke 18:1-8. + +[28] 1 Peter 5:8. + +[29] Matthew 17:14-20; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43. + +[30] Matthew 16:24. + +[31] Psalm 37:7. + +[32] Isaiah 50:4. + +[33] Jeremiah 15:1. + +[34] Longfellow. + +[35] 2 Samuel 23:9, 10. + +[36] Joseph Cook. + +[37] John 7:17. + +[38] Frances Ridley Havergal. + +[39] Romans 8:26-28. + +[40] Psalm 25:9. + +[41] 1 John 5:14, 15. + +[42] 2 Timothy 2:24-26. + +[43] Isaiah 50:4, Revised. + +[44] Does not this very strong language suggest that possibly the +disciples had been conferred with by the revolutionary leaders? + +[45] 2 Cor. 3:18. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Quiet Talks on Prayer +by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13196 *** diff --git a/13196-h/13196-h.htm b/13196-h/13196-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cad0623 --- /dev/null +++ b/13196-h/13196-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5298 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>Project Gutenberg's Quiet Talks on Prayer, by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon</title> +<style type="text/css" title="Default"> + <!-- + + body { + margin: 5%; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + font-variant: small-caps; + } + + h1.title { margin-top: 5em; } + + .sec h4 { + text-decoration: underline; + font-variant: normal; + text-align: left; + } + + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + + a { text-decoration: none; } + a:hover { background-color: #ffffcc } + + div.chapter, #preface, #toc { + margin-top: 4em; + padding: 5px; + } + + hr { + height: 1px; + width: 80%; + } + + p.byline { + text-align: center; + font-variant: small-caps; + } + + .poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; + } + + abbr, acronym { + cursor: help; + border: none; + } + + cite { + font-variant: small-caps; + font-style: normal; + } + + #tp, #verso { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 3em; + } + + #toc ol { + list-style-type: upper-roman; + } + + #toc ol ol { + list-style-type: decimal; + } + + #toc ul li:hover { + list-style-type: disc; + } +--> +</style> + +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13196 ***</div> + +<div id="tp"> +<h1 class="title">Quiet Talks on Prayer</h1> + +<p class="byline">by</p> + +<h2 class="author">S. D. Gordon</h2> +</div> + + +<div id="verso"> +<div class="copyright"><div class="line">Copyright, 1904, by</div> +<div class="line">Fleming H. Revell Company</div></div> +</div> + + +<div id="toc"> +<h2>Contents</h2> + + +<ol> +<li><a href="#ch01">The Meaning and Mission of Prayer</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch01-1">Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-2">Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-3">The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-4">Does Prayer Influence God?</a></li> + </ol> +</li> + +<li><a href="#ch02">Hindrances to Prayer</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch02-1">Why the Results Fail</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02-2">Why the Results are Delayed</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02-3">The Great Outside Hindrance</a></li> + </ol> +</li> + +<li><a href="#ch03">How to Pray</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch03">The "How" of Relationship</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-1">The "How" of Method</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-2">The Listening Side of Prayer</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-3">Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-4">May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones</a></li> + </ol> +</li> + +<li><a href="#ch04">Jesus' Habits of Prayer</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch04-1">A Pen Sketch</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-2">Dissolving Views</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-3">Deepening Shadows</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-4">Under the Olive Trees</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-5">A Composite Picture</a></li> + </ol> +</li> +</ol> +</div> + +<div class="chapter" id="ch01"> +<h2>I. The Meaning And Mission Of Prayer</h2> + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch01-1">Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-2">Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-3">The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-4">Does Prayer Influence God?</a></li> +</ol> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch01-1"> +<h3>Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power</h3> + + + +<h4>Five Outlets of Power.</h4> + + +<p>A great sorrow has come into the heart of God. Let it be told only in +hushed voice—one of His worlds is <i>a prodigal</i>! Hush your voice yet +more—<i>ours</i> is that prodigal world. Let your voice soften down still +more—<i>we</i> have <i>consented</i> to the prodigal part of the story. But, in +softest tones yet, He has won some of us back with His strong tender love. +And now let the voice ring out with great gladness—we won ones may be the +pathway back to God for the others. That is His earnest desire. That +should be our dominant ambition. For that purpose He has endowed us with +peculiar power.</p> + +<p>There is one inlet of power in the life—anybody's life—any kind of +power: just one inlet—the Holy Spirit. He is power. He is in every one +who opens his door to God. He eagerly enters every open door. He comes in +by our invitation and consent. His presence within is the vital thing.</p> + +<p>But with many of us while He is in, He is not in control: in as guest; not +as host. That is to say He is hindered in His natural movements; tied up, +so that He cannot do what He would. And so we are not conscious or only +partially conscious of His presence. And others are still less so. But to +yield to His mastery, to cultivate His friendship, to give Him full +swing—that will result in what is called power. One inlet of power—the +Holy Spirit in control.</p> + +<p>There are five outlets of power: five avenues through which this One +within shows Himself, and reveals His power.</p> + +<p>First: through the life, what we are. Just simply what we are. If we be +right the power of God will be constantly flowing out, though we be not +conscious of it. It throws the keenest kind of emphasis on a man being +right in his life. There will be an eager desire to serve. Yet we may +constantly do more in what we are than in what we do. We may serve better +in the lives we live than in the best service we ever give. The memory of +that should bring rest to your spirit when a bit tired, and may be +disheartened because tired.</p> + +<p>Second: through the lips, what we say. It may be said stammeringly and +falteringly. But if said your best with the desire to please the Master it +will be God-blest. I have heard a man talk. And he stuttered and blushed +and got his grammar badly tangled, but my heart burned as I listened. And +I have heard a man talk with smooth speech, and it rolled off me as easily +as it rolled out of him. Do your best, and leave the rest. If we are in +touch with God His fire burns whether the tongue stammer or has good +control of its powers.</p> + +<p>Third: through our service, what we do. It may be done bunglingly and +blunderingly. Your best may not be the best, but if it be your best it +will bring a harvest.</p> + +<p>Fourth: through our money, what we do not keep, but loosen out for God. +Money comes the nearest to omnipotence of anything we handle.</p> + +<p>And, fifth: through our prayer, what we claim in Jesus' name.</p> + +<p>And by all odds the greatest of these is the outlet through prayer. The +power of a life touches just one spot, but the touch is tremendous. What +is there we think to be compared with a pure, unselfish, gently strong +life. Yet its power is limited to one spot where it is being lived. Power +through the lips depends wholly upon the life back of the lips. Words that +come brokenly are often made burning and eloquent by the life behind them. +And words that are smooth and easy, often have all their meaning sapped by +the life back of them. Power through service may be great, and may be +touching many spots, yet it is always less than that of a life. Power +through money depends wholly upon the motive back of the money. Begrudged +money, stained money, soils the treasury. That which comes nearest to +omnipotence also comes nearest to impotence. But the power loosened out +through prayer is as tremendous, at the least, to say no more just now, is +as tremendous as the power of a true fragrant life and, mark you, <i>and</i>, +may touch not one spot but wherever in the whole round world you may +choose to turn it.</p> + +<p>The greatest thing any one can do for God and for man is to pray. It is +not the only thing. But it is the chief thing. A correct balancing of the +possible powers one may exert puts it first. For if a man is to pray +right, he must first <i>be</i> right in his motives and life. And if a man <i>be</i> +right, and put the practice of praying in its right place, then his +serving and giving and speaking will be fairly fragrant with the presence +of God.</p> + +<p>The great people of the earth to-day are the people who pray. I do not +mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in +prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean these +people who <i>take</i> time and <i>pray</i>. They have not time. It must be taken +from something else. This something else is important. Very important, and +pressing than prayer. There are people that put prayer first, and group +the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer.</p> + +<p>These are the people to-day who are doing the most for God; in winning +souls; in solving problems; in awakening churches; in supplying both men +and money for mission posts; in keeping fresh and strong these lives far +off in sacrificial service on the foreign field where the thickest +fighting is going on; in keeping the old earth sweet awhile longer.</p> + +<p>It is wholly a secret service. We do not know who these people are, though +sometimes shrewd guesses may be made. I often think that sometimes we pass +some plain-looking woman quietly slipping out of church; gown been turned +two or three times; bonnet fixed over more than once; hands that have not +known much of the softening of gloves; and we hardly giver her a passing +thought, and do not know, nor guess, that perhaps <i>she</i> is the one who is +doing far more for her church, and for the world, and for God than a +hundred who would claim more attention and thought, <i>because she prays</i>; +truly prays as the Spirit of God inspires and guides.</p> + +<p>Let me put it this way: God will do as a result of the praying of the +humblest one here what otherwise He <i>would</i> not do. Yes, I can make it +stronger than that, and I must make it stronger, for the Book does. +Listen: God will do in answer to the prayer of the weakest one here what +otherwise he <i>could</i> not do. "Oh!" someone thinks, "you are getting that +too strong now." Well, you listen to Jesus' own words in that last long +quiet talk He had with the eleven men between the upper room and the +olive-green. John preserves much of that talk for us. Listen: "Ye did not +choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear +fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that"—listen, a part of the +purpose why we have been chosen—"that whatsoever ye shall ask of the +Father in My name, He <i>may</i> give it you."<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> Mark that word "may"; not +"shall" this time but <i>may</i>. "Shall" throws the matter over on God—His +purpose. "May" throws it over upon us—our cooperation. That is to say our +praying makes it possible for God to do what otherwise He could not do.</p> + +<p>And if you think into it a bit, this fits in with the true conception of +prayer. In its simplest analysis prayer—all prayer—has, must have, two +parts. First, a God to give. "Yes," you say, "certainly, a God wealthy, +willing, all of that." And, just as certainly, there must be a second +factor, <i>a man to receive</i>. Man's willingness is God's channel to the +earth. God never crowds nor coerces. Everything God does for man and +through man He does with man's consent, always. With due reverence, but +very plainly, let it be said that God can do nothing for the man with shut +hand and shut life. There must be an open hand and heart and life +<i>through</i> which God can give what He longs to. An open life, an open hand, +open upward, is the pipe line of communication between the heart of God +and this poor befooled old world. Our prayer is God's opportunity to get +into the world that would shut Him out.</p> + + + +<h4>In touch with a planet.</h4> + + +<p>Prayer opens a whole planet to a man's activities. I can as really be +touching hearts for God in far away India or China through prayer, as +though I were there. Not in as many ways as though there, but as truly. +Understand me, I think the highest possible <i>privilege</i> of service is in +those far off lands. There the need is greatest, the darkness densest, and +the pleading call most eloquently pathetic. And if one <i>may</i> go +there—happy man!--if one be <i>privileged</i> to go to the honoured place of +service he may then use all five outlets direct in the spot where he is.</p> + +<p>Yet this is only one spot. But his relationship is as wide as his Master's +and his sympathies should be. A man may be in Africa, but if his heart be +in touch with Jesus it will be burning for <i>a world</i>. Prayer puts us into +direct dynamic touch with a world.</p> + +<p>A man may go aside to-day, and shut his door, and as really spend a +half-hour in India—I am thinking of my words as I say them, it seems so +much to say, and yet it is true—as really spend a half hour of his life +in India for God as though he were there in person. <i>Is</i> that true? If it +be true, surely you and I must get more half-hours for this secret +service. Without any doubt he may turn his key and be for a bit of time as +potentially in China by the power of prayer, as though there in actual +bodily form. I say <i>potentially</i> present. Of course not consciously +present. But in the <i>power exerted upon men</i> he may be truly present at +the objective point of his prayer. He may give a new meaning to the +printed page being read by some native down in Africa. He may give a new +tongue of flame to the preacher or teacher. He may make it easier for men +to accept the story of Jesus, and then to yield themselves to +Jesus—yonder men swept and swayed by evil spirits, and by prejudices for +generations—make it easier for them to accept the story, and, if need be, +to cut with loved ones, and step out and up into a new life.</p> + +<p>Some earnest heart enters an objection here, perhaps. You are thinking +that if you were there you could influence men by your personal contact, +by the living voice. So you could. And there must be the personal touch. +Would that there were many times more going for that blessed personal +touch. But this is the thing to mark keenly both for those who may go, and +for those who must stay: no matter where you are you do more through your +praying than through your personality. If you were in India you could <i>add +your personality to your prayer</i>. That would be a great thing to do. But +whether there or here, you must first win the victory, every step, every +life, every foot of the way, in secret, in the spirit-realm, and then add +the mighty touch of your personality in service. You can do <i>more </i> than +pray, <i>after</i> you have prayed. But you can <i>not</i> do more than pray <i>until</i> +you have prayed. And just there is where we have all seemed to make a +slip at times, and many of us are yet making it—a bad slip. We think we +can do more where we are through our service: then prayer to give power to +service. <i>No</i>—with the blackest underscoring of emphasis, let it be +said—NO. We can do no thing of real power until we have done the prayer +thing.</p> + +<p>Here is a man by my side. I can talk to him. I can bring my personality to +bear upon him, that I may win him. But before I can influence his will a +jot for God, I must first have won the victory in the secret place. +Intercession is winning the victory over the chief, and service is taking +the field after the chief is driven off. Such service is limited by the +limitation of personality to one place. This spirit-telegraphy called +prayer puts a man into direct dynamic touch with a planet.</p> + +<p>There are some of our friends who think themselves of the practical sort +who say, "the great thing is work: prayer is good, and right, but the +great need is to be doing something practical." The truth is that when one +understands about prayer, and puts prayer in its right place in his life, +he finds a new motive power burning in his bones to be <i>doing</i>; and +further he finds that it is the doing that grows out of praying that is +mightiest in touching human hearts. And he finds further yet with a great +joy that he may be <i>doing</i> something for an entire world. His service +becomes as broad as his Master's thought.</p> + + + +<h4>Intercession is Service.</h4> + + +<p>It helps greatly to remember that intercession is service: the chief +service of a life on God's plan. It is unlike all other forms of service, +and superior to them in this: that it has fewer limitations. In all other +service we are constantly limited by space, bodily strength, equipment, +material obstacles, difficulties involved in the peculiar differences of +personality. Prayer knows no such limitations. It ignores space. It may be +free of expenditure of bodily strength, where rightly practiced, and one's +powers are under proper control. It goes directly, by the telegraphy of +spirit, into men's hearts, quietly passes through walls, and past locks +unhindered, and comes into most direct touch with the inner heart and will +to be affected.</p> + +<p>In service, as ordinarily understood, one is limited to the space where +his body is, the distance his voice can reach, the length of time he can +keep going before he must quit to eat, or rest, or sleep. He is limited by +walls, and locks, by the prejudices of men's minds, and by those peculiar +differences of temperament which must be studied in laying siege to men's +hearts.</p> + +<p>The whole circle of endeavour in winning men includes such an infinite +variety. There is speaking the truth to a number of persons, and to one at +a time; the doing of needed kindly acts of helpfulness, supplying food, +and the like; there is teaching; the almost omnipotent ministry of money; +the constant contact with a pure unselfish life; letter writing; printer's +ink in endless variety. All these are in God's plan for winning men. But +the intensely fascinating fact to mark is this:—that the real victory in +all of this service is won in secret, beforehand, by prayer, and these +other indispensable things are the moving upon the works of the enemy, and +claiming the victory already won. And when these things are put in their +proper order, prayer first, and the other things second; <i>second</i>, I say, +not omitted, not slurred over; done with all the earnestness and power of +brain and hand and heart possible; but done <i>after</i> the victory has been +won in secret, against the real foe, and done <i>while</i> the winner is still +claiming the victory already assured,—then will come far greater +achievements in this outer open service.</p> + +<p>Then we go into this service with that fine spirit of expectancy that +sweeps the field at the start, and steadily sticks on the stubbornly +contested spots until the whipped foe turns tail, and goes. Prayer is +striking the winning blow at the concealed enemy. Service is gathering up +the results of that blow among the men we see and touch. Great patience +and tact and persistence are needed in the service because each man must +be influenced in his own will. But the shrewd strategy that wins puts the +keen stiff secret fighting first.</p> + + + +<h4>The Spirit Switchboard.</h4> + + +<p>Electricity is a strange element. It is catalogued in the study of +physics. It is supposed to be properly classed among the forces of nature. +Yet it seems to have many properties of the spirit world. Those who know +most of it say they know least of what it is. Some of the laws of its +being have been learned, and so its marvellous power harnessed for man's +use, but in much ignorance of what it is. It seems almost to belong +somewhere in between the physical and spirit realms. It furnishes many +similes of graphic helpfulness in understanding more nearly much truth of +the Spirit life.</p> + +<p>In the power-house where the electricity is being wooed into man's +harnessing, or generated, as the experts say, is found a switchboard, or +switch-room with a number of boards. Here in a large city plant a man may +go and turn a switch, that is, move a little handle, a very short +distance. It is a very simple act, easily performed, involving almost no +strength. But that act has loosened the power in the house back of the +switchboard out along the wires, and perhaps lighted a whole section of +the city. He goes in again at another hour, and turns <i>this</i> set of +switches, and <i>this</i>, and sets in motion maybe scores of cars, carrying +swiftly, hundreds of passengers. Again he goes in, and moves the little +handles and sets in motion the wheels in some factory employing hundreds +of operatives.</p> + +<p>It is a secret service, usually as far as any observers are concerned. It +is a very quiet, matter of fact service. But the power influenced is +unmeasured and immeasurable. And no one, seemingly, thus far, can explain +the mysterious but tremendous agent involved. Does the fluid—it a fluid? +or, what?—pass <i>through</i> the wire? or, <i>around</i> the wire? The experts say +they do not know. But the laws which it obeys are known. And as men comply +with them its almost omnipotence is manifested.</p> + +<p>Just such a switch-room in the spirit realm is one's prayer-room. Every +one who will may have such a spirit switching-board in his life. There he +may go and in compliance with the laws of the power used loosen out the +gracious persuasive irresistible power of God <i>where he wills to</i>; now in +Japan; now in China; among the hungry human hearts of India's plains and +mountains; again in Africa which is full as near to where Jesus sits as is +England or America; and now into the house across the alley from your +home; and down in the slum district; and now into your preacher's heart +for next Sunday's work; and now again unto the hearts of those you will be +meeting in the settlement house, or the mission school.</p> + +<p>Children are not allowed at the electrical switchboard, nor any unskilled +hand. For misuse means possibility of great damage to property and life. +And the spirit switchboard does not yield to the unskilled touch. Though +sometimes there seems to be much tampering by those with crude fingers, +and with selfish desire to turn this current to personal advantage merely.</p> + +<p>It takes skill here. Yet such is our winsome God's wondrous plan that +skill may come to any one who is willing; simply that—who is willing; and +it comes <i>very simply</i> too.</p> + +<p>Strange too, as with the electrical counterpart, the thing is beyond full +or satisfying explanation.</p> + +<p>How does it come to pass that a man turns a few handles, and miles away +great wheels begin to revolve, and enormous power is manifested? Will some +one kindly explain? Yet we know it is so, and men govern their actions by +that knowledge.</p> + +<p>How does it come to pass that a woman in Iowa prays for the conversion of +her skeptical husband, and he, down in the thick of the most absorbing +congress Washington has known since the civil war, and in full ignorance +of her purpose becomes conscious and repeatedly conscious of the presence +and power of the God in whose existence he does not believe; and months +afterwards with his keen, legally trained mind, finds the calendar to fit +together the beginning of her praying with the beginning of his unwelcome +consciousness? Will some one kindly explain? Ah! who can, adequately! Yet +the facts, easy ascertainable, are there, and evidenced in the complete +change in the life and calling of the man.</p> + +<p>How comes it to pass that a woman in Missouri praying for a friend of keen +intellectual skeptically in Glasgow, who can skillfully measure and parry +argument, yet finds afterwards that the time of her praying is the time of +his, at first decidedly unwelcome, but finally radical change of +convictions! Yet groups of thoughtful men and women know these two +instances to be even so though unable to explain how.</p> + +<p>And as the mysterious electrical power is being used by obedience to its +laws, even so is the power of prayer being used by many who understand +simply enough of its laws to obey, and to bring the stupendous results.</p> + + + +<h4>The Broad Inner Horizon.</h4> + + +<p>This suggests at once that the rightly rounded Christian life has two +sides; the <i>out</i>-side, and the <i>inner</i> side. To most of us the outer side +seems the greater. The living, the serving, the giving, the doing, the +absorption in life's work, the contact with men, with the great majority +the sheer struggle for existence—these take the greater thought and time +of us all. They seem to be the great business of life even to those of us +who thoroughly believe in the inner life.</p> + +<p>But when the real eyes open, the inner eyes that see the unseen, the +change of perspective is first ludicrous, then terrific, then pathetic. +Ludicrous, because of the change of proportions; terrific, because of the +issues at stake; pathetic, because of strong men that see not, and push on +spending splendid strength whittling sticks. The outer side is narrow in +its limits. It has to do with food and clothing, bricks and lumber, time +and the passing hour, the culture of the mind, the joys of social contact, +the smoothing of the way for the suffering. And it needs not to be said, +that these are right; they belong in the picture; they are its physical +background.</p> + +<p>The inner side <i>includes all of these</i>, and stretches infinitely beyond. +Its limits are broad; broad as the home of man; with its enswathing +atmosphere added. It touches the inner spirit. It moves in upon the +motives, the loves, the heart. It moves out upon the myriad spirit-beings +and forces that swarm ceaselessly about the earth staining and sliming +men's souls and lives. It moves up to the arm of God in cooperation with +His great love-plan for a world.</p> + +<p>Shall we follow for a day one who has gotten the true perspective? Here is +the outer side: a humble home, a narrow circle, tending the baby, +patching, sewing, cooking, calling; <i>or</i>, measuring dry goods, chopping a +typewriter, checking up a ledger, feeding the swift machinery, endless +stitching, gripping a locomotive lever, pushing the plow, tending the +stock, doing the chores, tiresome examination papers; and all the rest of +the endless, endless, doing, day by day, of the commonplace treadmill +things, that must be done, that fill out the day of the great majority of +human lives. This one whom we are following unseen is doing quietly, +cheerily his daily round, with a bit of sunshine in his face, a light in +his eye, and lightness in his step, and the commonplace place becomes +uncommon by reason of the presence of this man with the uncommon spirit. +He is working for God. No, better, he is working with God. He has an +unseen Friend at his side. That changes all. The common drudgery ceases to +be common, and ceases to be drudgery because it is done for such an +uncommon Master. That is the outer, the narrow side of this life: not +narrow in itself but in its proportion to the whole.</p> + +<p>Now, hold your breath, and look, for here is the inner side where the +larger work of life is being done. Here is the quiet bit of time alone +with God, with the Book. The door is shut, as the Master said. Now it is +the morning hour with a bit of made light, for the sun is busy yet farther +east. Now it is the evening hour, with the sun speeding towards western +service, and the bed invitingly near. There is a looking up into God's +face; then keen but reverent reading, and then a simple intelligent +pleading with its many variations of this—"Thy will be done, in the +Victor's name." God Himself is here, in this inner room. The angels are +here. This room opens out into and is in direct touch with a spirit space +as wide as the earth. The horizon of this room is as broad as the globe. +God's presence with this man makes it so.</p> + +<p>To-day a half hour is spent in China, for its missionaries, its native +Christians, its millions, the printed page, the personal contact, the +telling of the story, the school, the dispensary, the hospital. And in +through the petitions runs this golden thread—"Victory in Jesus' name: +victory in Jesus' name; to-day: to-day: Thy will be being done: the other +will undone: victory in Jesus' name." Tomorrow's bit of time is largely +spent in India perhaps. And so this man with the narrow outer horizon and +the broad inner horizon pushes his spirit-way through Japan, India, +Ceylon, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Africa, Europe's papal lands, the South +American States, the home land, its cities, frontiers, slums, the home +town, the home church, the man across the alley; in and out; out and in; +the tide of prayer sweeps quietly, resistlessly day by day.</p> + +<p>This is the true Christian life. This man is winning souls and refreshing +lives in these far-off lands and in near-by places as truly as though he +were in each place. This is the Master's plan. The true follower of Jesus +has as broad a horizon as his Master. Jesus thought in continents and +seas. His follower prays in continents and seas. This man does not know +what is being accomplished. Yes! He <i>does</i> know, too. He knows by the +inference of faith.</p> + +<p>This room where we are meeting and talking together might be shut up so +completely that no light comes in. A single crack breaking somewhere lets +in a thin line of light. But that line of light shining in the darkness +tells of a whole sun of light flooding the outer world.</p> + +<p>There comes to this man occasional, yes frequent, evidences of changes +being wrought, yet he knows that these are but the thin line of glory +light which speaks of the fuller shining. And with a spirit touched with +glad awe that he can and may help God, and a heart full alike of peace and +of yearning, and a life fragrant with an unseen Presence he goes steadily +on his way, towards the dawning of the day.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch01-2"> +<h3>Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict</h3><h4>A Prehistoric Conflict.</h4> + + +<p>In its simplest meaning prayer has to do with a conflict. Rightly +understood it is the deciding factor in a spirit conflict. The scene of +the conflict is the earth. The purpose of the conflict is to decide the +control of the earth, and its inhabitants. The conflict runs back into the +misty ages of the creation time.</p> + +<p>The rightful prince of the earth is Jesus, the King's Son. There is a +pretender prince who was once rightful prince. He was guilty of a breach +of trust. But like King Saul, after his rejection and David's anointing in +his place, he has been and is trying his best by dint of force to hold the +realm and oust the rightful ruler.</p> + +<p>The rightful Prince is seeking by utterly different means, namely by +persuasion, to win the world back to its first allegiance. He had a fierce +set-to with the pretender, and after a series of victories won the great +victory of the resurrection morning.</p> + +<p>There is one peculiarity of this conflict making it different from all +others; namely, a decided victory, and the utter vanquishing of the +leading general has not stopped the war. And the reason is remarkable. The +Victor has a deep love-ambition to win, not merely against the enemy, but +<i>into men's hearts, by their free consent</i>. And so, with marvellous +love-born wisdom and courage, the conflict is left open, for men's sake.</p> + +<p>It is a spirit conflict. The earth is swung in a spirit atmosphere. There +are unnumbered thousands of spirit beings good and evil, tramping the +earth's surface, and filling its atmosphere. They are splendidly organized +into two compact organizations.</p> + +<p>Man is a spirit being; an embodied spirit being. He has a body and a mind. +He is a spirit. His real conflicts are of the spirit sort; in the spirit +realm, with other spirit beings.</p> + +<p>Satan is a spirit being; an unembodied spirit being. That is, unembodied, +save as in much cunning, with deep, dark purpose he secures embodiment in +human beings.</p> + +<p>The only sort of power that influences in the spirit realm is <i>moral</i> +power. By which is not meant <i>goodness</i>, but that sort of power either bad +or good which is not of a physical sort: that higher, infinitely higher +and greater power than the mere physical. Moral power is the opposite of +violent or physical power.</p> + +<p>God does not use force, violent physical force. There are some exceptions +to this statement. There have been righteous wars, righteous on one side. +Turning to the Bible record, in emergencies, in extreme instances God has +ordered war measures. The nations that Israel was told to remove by the +death of war would have inevitably worn themselves out through their +physical excesses, and disobedience of the laws of life. But a wide view +of the race revealed an emergency which demanded a speedier movement. And +as an exception, for the sake of His plan for the ultimate saving of a +race, and a world, God gave an extermination order. The emergency makes +the exception. There is one circumstance under which the taking of human +life is right, namely, when it can be clearly established that God the +giver and sovereign of life has so directed. But the rule clearly is that +God does not use force.</p> + +<p>But note sharply in contrast with this that physical force is one of +Satan's chief weapons. But mark there two intensely interesting facts: +first, he can use it only as he secures man as his ally, and uses it +through him. And, second, in using it he has with great subtlety sought to +shift the sphere of action. He knows that in the sphere of spirit force +pure and simple he is at a disadvantage: indeed, worse yet, he is +defeated. For there is a moral force on the other side greater than any at +his command. The forces of purity and righteousness he simply <i>can</i>not +withstand. Jesus is the personification of purity and righteousness. It +was on this moral ground, in this spirit sphere that He won the great +victory. He ran a terrific gauntlet of tests, subtle and fierce, through +those human years, and came out victor with His purity and righteousness +unstained.</p> + + + +<h4>Prayer is Projecting One's Spirit Personality.</h4> + + +<p>Now prayer is a spirit force, it has to do wholly with spirit beings and +forces. It is an insistent claiming, by a man, an embodied spirit being, +down on the contested earth, that the power of Jesus' victory over the +great evil-spirit chieftain shall extend to particular lives now under his +control. The prayer takes on the characteristic of the man praying. He is +a spirit being. It becomes a spirit force. It is a projecting into the +spirit realm of his spirit personality. Being a spirit force it has +certain qualities or characteristics of unembodied spirit beings. An +unembodied spirit being is not limited by space as we embodied folk are. +It can go as swiftly as we can think. If I want to go to London it will +take at least a week's time to get my body through the intervening space. +But I can think myself into London more quickly than I can say the words, +and be walking down the Strand. Now a spirit being can go as quickly as I +can think.</p> + +<p>Further, spirit beings are not limited by material obstructions such as +the walls of this building. When I came in here to-day I came in by this +door. You all came in by these doors. We were obliged to come in either by +doors or windows. But the spirit beings who are here listening to us, and +deeply concerned with our discussion did not bother with the doors. They +came in through the walls, or the roof, if they were above us, or through +the floor here, if they happened to be below this level.</p> + +<p>Prayer has these qualities of spirit beings of not being limited by space, +or by material obstacles. Prayer is really projecting my spirit, that is, +my real personality to the spot concerned, and doing business there with +other spirit beings. For example there is a man in a city on the Atlantic +seaboard for whom I pray daily. It makes my praying for him very tangible +and definite to recall that every time I pray my prayer is a spirit force +instantly traversing the space in between him and me, and going without +hindrance through the walls of the house where he is, and influencing the +spirit beings surrounding him, and so influencing his own will.</p> + +<p>When it became clear to me some few years ago that my Master would not +have me go yet to those parts of the earth where the need is greatest, a +deep tinge of disappointment came over me. Then as I realized the wisdom +of His sovereignty in service, it came to me anew that I could exert a +positive influence in those lands for Him by prayer. As many others have +done, I marked out a daily schedule of prayer. There are certain ones for +whom I pray by name, at certain intervals. And it gives great simplicity +to my faith, and great gladness to my heart to remember that every time +such prayer is breathed out, my spirit personality is being projected +yonder, and in effect I am standing in Shanghai, and Calcutta and Tokyo in +turn and pleading the power of Jesus' victory over the evil one there, and +on behalf of those faithful ones standing there for God.</p> + +<p>It is a fiercely contested conflict. Satan is a trained strategist, and an +obstinate fighter. He refuses to acknowledge defeat until he must. It is +the fight of his life. Strange as it must seem, and perhaps absurd, he +apparently hopes to succeed. If we knew all, it might seem less strange +and absurd, because of the factors on his side. There is surely much down +in the world of the sort which we can fully appreciate to give colour to +his expectations. Prayer is insisting upon Jesus' victory, and the retreat +of the enemy on each particular spot, and heart and problem concerned.</p> + +<p>The enemy yields only what he must. He yields only what is taken. +Therefore the ground must be taken step by step. Prayer must be definite. +He yields only when he must. Therefore the prayer must be persistent. He +continually renews his attacks, therefore the ground taken must be <i>held</i> +against him in the Victor's name. This helps to understand why prayer +must be persisted in after we have full assurance of the result, and even +after some immediate results have come, or, after the general results have +commenced coming.</p> + + + +<h4>Giving God a Fresh Footing.</h4> + + +<p>The Victor's best ally in this conflict is the man, who while he remains +down on the battle-field, puts his life in full touch with his +Saviour-Victor, and then incessantly, insistently, believingly claims +<i>victory in Jesus' name</i>. He is the one foe among men whom Satan cannot +withstand. He is projecting an irresistible spirit force into the spirit +realm. Satan is obliged to yield. We are so accustomed through history's +long record to seeing victories won through force, physical force, alone, +that it is difficult for us to realize that moral force defeats as the +other never can. Witness the demons in the gospels, and in modern days in +China,<sup><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> clearly against their own set purpose, notwithstanding intensest +struggle on their part obliged to admit defeat, and even to ask favours of +their Conqueror. The records of personal Christian service give +fascinating instances of fierce opposition utterly subdued and individuals +transformed through such influence.</p> + +<p>Had we eyes to see spirit beings and spirit conflicts we would constantly +see the enemy's defeat in numberless instances through the persistent +praying of some one allied to Jesus in the spirit of his life. Every time +such a man prays it is a waving of the red-dyed flag of Jesus Christ above +Satan's head in the spirit world. Every such man who freely gives himself +over to God, and gives himself up to prayer is giving God a new spot in +the contested territory on which to erect His banner of victory.</p> + +<p>The Japanese struggled for weeks to get a footing on the Port Arthur +peninsula, even after the naval victories had practically rendered Russia +helpless on the seas. It was an unusual spectacle to witness such +difficulty in getting a landing after such victories. But with the bulldog +tenacity that has marked her fighting Japan fought for a footing. Nothing +could be done till a footing was gotten.</p> + +<p>Prayer is man giving God a footing on the contested territory of this +earth. The man in full touch of purpose with God praying, insistently +praying—that man is God's footing on the enemy's soil. The man wholly +given over to God gives Him a new sub-headquarters on the battle-field +from which to work out. And the Holy Spirit within that man, on the new +spot, will insist on the enemy's retreat in Jesus the Victor's name. That +is prayer. Shall we not, every one of us, increase God's footing down upon +His prodigal earth!</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch01-3"> +<h3>The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer</h3><h4>Prayer a War Measure.</h4> + + +<p>This world is God's prodigal son. The heart of God's bleeds over His +prodigal. It has been gone so long, and the home circle is broken. He has +spent all the wealth of His thought on a plan for winning the prodigal +back home. Angels and men have marvelled over that plan, its sweep, its +detail, its strength and wisdom, its tenderness. He needs man for His +plan. He will <i>use</i> man. That is true. He will <i>honour</i> man in service. +That is true. But these only touch the edge of the truth. The pathway from +God to a human heart is through a human heart. When He came to the great +strategic move in His plan, He Himself came down as a man and made that +move. <i>He needs man for His plan.</i></p> + +<p>The greatest agency put into man's hands is prayer. To understand that at +all fully one needs to define prayer. And to define prayer adequately one +must use the language of war. Peace language is not equal to the +situation. The earth is in a state of war. It is being hotly besieged and +so one must use war talk to grasp the facts with which prayer is +concerned. <i>Prayer from God's side is communication between Himself and +His allies in the enemy's country</i>. Prayer is not persuading God. It does +not influence God's purpose. It is not winning Him over to our side; never +that. He is far more eager for what we are rightly eager for than we ever +are. What there is of wrong and sin and suffering that pains you, pains +Him far more. He knows more about it. He is more keenly sensitive to it +than the most sensitive one of us. Whatever of heart yearning there may be +that moves you to prayer is from Him. God takes the initiative in all +prayer. It starts with Him. True prayer moves in a circle. It begins in +the heart of God, sweeps down into a human heart upon the earth, so +intersecting the circle of the earth, which is the battle-field of prayer, +and then it goes back again to its starting point, having accomplished its +purpose on the downward swing.</p> + + + +<h4>Three Forms of Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>Prayer is the word commonly used for all intercourse with God. But it +should be kept in mind that that word covers and includes three forms of +intercourse. All prayer grows up through, and ever continues in three +stages.</p> + +<p>The first form of prayer is <i>communion</i>. That is simply being on good +terms with God. It involves the blood of the cross as the basis of our +getting and being on good terms. It involves my coming to God through +Jesus. Communion is fellowship with God. Not request for some particular +thing; not asking, but simply enjoying Himself, loving Him, thinking about +Him, how beautiful, and intelligent, and strong and loving and lovable He +is; talking to Him without words. That is the truest worship, thinking how +worthy He is of all the best we can possibly bring to Him, and infinitely +more. It has to do wholly with God and a man being on good terms with each +other. Of necessity it includes confession on my part and forgiveness upon +God's part, for only so can we come into the relation of fellowship. +Adoration, worship belong to this first phase of prayer. Communion is the +basis of all prayer. It is the essential breath of the true Christian +life. It concerns just two, God and myself, yourself. Its influence is +directly subjective. <i>It affects me.</i></p> + +<p>The second form of prayer is <i>petition</i>. And I am using that word now in +the narrower meaning of asking something for one's self. Petition is +definite request of God for something I need. A man's whole life is +utterly dependent upon the giving hand of God. Everything we need comes +from Him. Our friendships, ability to make money, health, strength in +temptation, and in sorrow, guidance in difficult circumstances, and in all +of life's movements; help of all sorts, financial, bodily, mental, +spiritual—all come from God, and necessitate a constant touch with Him. +There needs to be a constant stream of petition going up, many times +wordless prayer. And there will be a constant return stream of answer and +supply coming down. The door between God and one's own self must be kept +ever open. The knob to be turned is on our side. He opened His side long +ago, and propped it open, and threw the knob away. The whole life hinges +upon this continual intercourse with our wondrous God. This is the second +stage or form of prayer. It concerns just two: God and the man dealing +with God. It is subjective in its influence: <i>its reach is within</i>.</p> + +<p>The third form of prayer is <i>intercession</i>. True prayer never stops with +petition for one's self. It reaches out for others. The very word +intercession implies a reaching out for some one else. It is standing as a +go-between, a mutual friend, between God and some one who is either out of +touch with Him, or is needing special help. Intercession is the climax of +prayer. It is the outward drive of prayer. It is the effective end of +prayer <i>outward</i>. Communion and petition are upward and downward. +Intercession rests upon these two as its foundation. Communion and +petition store the life with the power of God; intercession lets it out on +behalf of others. The first two are necessarily for self; this third is +for others. They ally a man fully with God: it makes use of that alliance +for others. Intercession is the full-bloomed plant whose roots and +strength lie back and down in the other two forms. <i>It</i> is the form of +prayer that helps God in His great love-plan for winning a planet back to +its true sphere. It will help through these talks to keep this simple +analysis of prayer in mind. For much that will be said will deal chiefly +with this third form, intercession, the outward movement of prayer.</p> + + + +<h4>The Climax of Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>To God man is first an objective point, and then, without ceasing to be +that, he further becomes a distributing centre. God ever thinks of a man +doubly: first for his own self, and then for his possible use in reaching +others. Communion and petition fix and continue one's relation to God, and +so prepare for the great outreaching form of prayer—intercession. Prayer +must begin in the first two but reaches its climax in the third. Communion +and petition are of necessity self-wide. Intercession is world-wide in its +reach. And all true rounded prayer will ever have all three elements in +it. There must be the touch with God. One's constant needs make constant +petition. But the heart of the true follower has caught the warm contagion +of the heart of God and reaches out hungrily for the world. Intercession +is the climax of prayer.</p> + +<p>Much is said of the subjective and objective value of prayer; its +influence upon one's self, and its possible influence upon persons and +events quite outside of one's self. Of necessity the first two sorts of +prayer here named are subjective; they have to do wholly with one's self. +Of equal necessity intercessory prayer is objective; it has to do wholly +with others. There is even here a reflex influence; in the first two +directly subjective; here incidentally reflex. Contact with God while +dealing with Him for another of necessity influences me. But that is the +mere fringe of the garment. The main driving purpose is outward.</p> + +<p>Just now in certain circles it seems quite the thing to lay great stress +upon the subjective value of prayer and to whittle down small, or, deny +entirely its value in influencing others. Some who have the popular ear +are quite free with tongue and pen in this direction. From both without +and within distinctly Christian circles their voices come. One wonders if +these friends lay the greater emphasis on the subjective value of prayer +so as to get a good deep breath for their hard drive at the other. Yet the +greater probability is that they honestly believe as they say, but have +failed to grasp the full perspective of the picture. In listening to such +statements one remembers with vivid distinctness that the scriptural +<i>standpoint</i> always is this: that things quite outside of one's self, that +in the natural order of prevailing circumstances would not occur, are made +to occur through prayer. Jesus constantly so <i>assumed</i>. The first-flush, +commonsense view of successful prayer is that some actual result is +secured through its agency.</p> + +<p>It is an utter begging of the question to advance such a theory as a +sufficient explanation of prayer. For prayer in its simplest conception +supposes something changed that is not otherwise reachable. Both from the +scriptural, and from a rugged philosophical standpoint the objective is +the real driving point of all full prayer. The subjective is in order to +the objective, as the final outward climactic reach of God's great +love-plan for a world.</p> + + + +<h4>Six Facts Underlying Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>It will help greatly to step back and up a bit for a fresh look at certain +facts that underlie prayer. Everything depends on a right point of view. +There may be many view-points, from which to study any subject; but of +necessity any one view-point must take in all the essential facts +concerned. If not, the impression formed will be wrong, and a man will be +misled in his actions. In these talks I make no attempt to prove the +Bible's statements, nor to suggest a common law for their interpretation. +That would be a matter for quite a separate series of talks. It clears the +ground to assume certain things. I am assuming the accuracy of these +scriptural statements. And I am glad to say I have no difficulty in doing +so.</p> + +<p>Now there are certain facts constantly stated and assumed in this old +Book. They are clearly stated in its history, they are woven into its +songs, and they underlie all these prophetic writings, from Genesis clear +to the end of John's Patmos visions. Possibly they have been so familiar +and taken for granted so long as to have grown unfamiliar. The very old +may need stating as though very new. Here is a chain of six facts:</p> + +<p>First:—The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.<sup><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> His by +creation and by sovereign rule. The Lord sat as King at the flood.<sup><a href="#fn4">4</a></sup></p> + +<p>Second:—God gave the dominion of the earth to man. The kingship of its +life, the control and mastery of its forces.<sup><a href="#fn5">5</a></sup></p> + +<p>Third:—Man, who held the dominion of the earth in trust from God, +transferred his dominion to somebody else, by an act which was a double +act. He was deceived into doing that act. It was an act of disobedience +and of obedience. Disobedience to God, and obedience to another one, a +prince who was seeking to get the dominion of the earth into his own +hands. That act of the first man did this. The disobedience broke with +God, and transferred the allegiance from God. The obedience to the other +one transferred the allegiance, and through that, the dominion to this +other one.</p> + +<p>The fourth fact is this:—The dominion or kingship of this earth so far +as given to man, is now not God's, for He gave it to man. And it is not +man's, for he has transferred it to another. It is in the control of that +magnificent prince whose changed character supplies his name—Satan, the +hater, the enemy. Jesus repeatedly speaks of "the prince"—that is the +ruling one—"of this world."<sup><a href="#fn6">6</a></sup> John speaks in his vision-book of a time +coming when "the kingdom (not kingdoms, as in the old version) of the +world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ."<sup><a href="#fn7">7</a></sup> By clear +inference previous to that time it is somebody's else kingdom than His. +The kingship or rulership of the earth which was given to man is now +Satan's.</p> + +<p>The fifth fact:—God was eager to swing the world back to its original +sway: for His own sake, for man's sake, for the earth's sake. You see, we +do not know God's world as it came from His hand. It is a rarely beautiful +world even yet—the stars above, the plant life, the waters, the exquisite +colouring and blending, the combinations of all these—an exquisitely +beautiful world even yet. But it is not the world it was, nor that some +coming day it will be. It has been sadly scarred and changed under its +present ruler. Probably Eve would not recognize in the present world her +early home-earth as it came fresh from the hand of its Maker.</p> + +<p>God was eager to swing the old world back to its original control. But to +do so He must get a man, one of the original trustee class through whom He +might swing it back to its first allegiance. It was given to man. It was +swung away by man. It must be swung back by man. And so a Man came, and +while Jesus was perfectly and utterly human, we spell that word Man with a +capital M because He was a man quite distinct from all men. Because He was +more truly human than all other men He is quite apart from other men. This +Man was to head a movement for swinging the world back to its first +allegiance.</p> + +<p>The sixth fact is this:—These two, God's Man, and the pretender-prince, +had a combat: the most terrific combat ever waged or witnessed. From the +cruel, malicious cradle attack until Calvary's morning and two days longer +it ran. Through those thirty-three years it continued with a terrificness +and intensity unknown before or since. The master-prince of subtlety and +force did his best and his worst, through those Nazareth years, then into +the wilderness,—and Gethsemane—and Calvary. And that day at three +o'clock and for a bit longer the evil one thought he had won. And there +was great glee up in the headquarters of the prince of this world. They +thought the victory was theirs when God's Man lay in the grave under the +bars of death, within the immediate control of the lord of death. But the +third morning came and the bars of death were snapped like cotton thread. +<i>Jesus rose a Victor.</i> For it was not possible that such as <i>He</i> could be +held by death's lord. And then Satan knew that he was defeated. Jesus, +God's Man, the King's rightful prince, had gotten the victory.</p> + +<p>But, please mark very carefully four sub-facts on Satan's side. First, he +refuses to acknowledge his defeat. Second, he refuses to surrender his +dominion until he must. He yields only what he must and when he must. +Third, he is supported in his ambitions by man. He has man's consent to +his control. The majority of men on the earth to-day, and in every day, +have assented to his control. He has control only through man's consent. +(Satan <i>can</i>not get into a man's heart without his consent, and God <i>will</i> +not.) And, fourth, he hopes yet to make his possession of the earth +permanent.</p> + + + +<h4>The Victor's Great Plan.</h4> + + +<p>Now, hold your breath and note, on the side of the Victor-prince, this +unparalleled and unimitated action: He has left the conflict open, and the +defeated chief on the field that He may win not simply against the chief, +but through that victory may win the whole prodigal race back to His +Father's home circle again. But the great pitched battle is yet to come. I +would better say <i>a</i> pitched battle, for the greatest one is past. Jesus +rides into the future fight a Victor. Satan will fight his last fight +under the shadow and sting of a defeat. Satan is apparently trying hard to +get a Jesus. That is to say Jesus was God's Man sent down to swing the +world back. Satan is trying his best to get <i>a man</i>—one of the original +trustee class, to whom the dominion of the earth was intrusted—a man who +will stand for him even as Jesus stood for God. Indeed a man who will +personify himself even as Jesus was the personification of God, the +express image of His person. When he shall succeed in that the last +desperate crisis will come.</p> + +<p><i>Now prayer is this: A man</i>, one of the original trustee class, who +received the earth in trust from God, and who gave its control over to +Satan; a man, <i>on the earth</i>, the poor old Satan-stolen, sin-slimed, +sin-cursed, contested earth; a man, on the earth, <i>with his life in full +touch with the Victor, and sheer out of touch with the pretender-prince, +insistently claiming that Satan shall yield before Jesus'-victory, step by +step, life after life</i>. Jesus is the victor. Satan knows it, and fears +Him. He must yield before His advance, and he must yield before this man +who stands for Jesus down on the earth. And he <i>will</i> yield. Reluctantly, +angrily, as slowly as may be, stubbornly contesting every inch of ground, +his clutches will loosen and he will go before this Jesus-man.</p> + +<p>Jesus said "the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me."<sup><a href="#fn8">8</a></sup> +When you and I say, as we may say, very humbly depending on His grace, +very determinedly in the resolution of our own imperial will, "though the +prince of this world come he shall have nothing in me, no coaling station +however small on the shores of my life," then we shall be in position +where Satan must yield as we claim—victory in the Victor's Name.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch01-4"> +<h3>Does Prayer Influence God?</h3><h4>How God Gives.</h4> + + +<p>Some one may object to all this that the statements of God's word do not +agree with this point of view.</p> + +<p>At random memory brings up a few very familiar passages, frequently +quoted. "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and will shew thee great +things, and difficult, that thou knowest not."<sup><a href="#fn9">9</a></sup> "And call upon Me in the +day of trouble; I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me."<sup><a href="#fn10">10</a></sup> "Ask, +and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be +opened unto you."<sup><a href="#fn11">11</a></sup> Here it seems, as we have for generations been +accustomed to think, that our asking is the thing that influences God to +do. And further, that many times persistent, continued asking is necessary +to induce God to do. And the usual explanation for this need of +persistence is that God is testing our faith, and seeking to make certain +changes in us, before granting our requests. This explanation is without +doubt quite true, <i>in part</i>. Yet the thing to mark is that it explains +<i>only</i> in part. And when the whole circle of truth is brought into view, +this explanation is found to cover only a small part of the whole.</p> + +<p>We seem to learn best about God by analogies. The analogy never brings all +there is to be learned. Yet it seems to be the nearest we can get. From +what we know of ourselves we come to know Him.</p> + +<p>Will you notice how men give? Among those who give to benevolent +enterprises there are three sorts of givers, with variations in each.</p> + +<p>There is the man who gives because he is influenced by others. If the +right man or committee of men call, and deftly present their pleas, +playing skillfully upon what may appeal to him; his position; his egotism; +the possible advantage to accrue; what men whom he wants to be classed +with are doing, and so on through the wide range that such men are +familiar with; if they persist, by and by he gives. At first he seems +reluctant, but finally gives with more or less grace. That is one sort of +giver.</p> + +<p>There is a second sort: the man of truly benevolent heart who is desirous +of giving that he may be of help to other men. He listens attentively when +pleas come to him, and waits only long enough to satisfy himself of the +worth of the cause, and the proper sort of amount to give, and then gives.</p> + +<p>There is a third sort, the rarest sort. This second man a stage farther +on, who <i>takes the initiative</i>. He looks about him, makes inquiries, and +thinks over the great need in every direction of his fellow men. He +decides where his money may best be used to help; and then himself offers +to give. But his gift may be abused by some who would get his money if +they could, and use it injudiciously, or otherwise than he intends. So he +makes certain conditions which must be met, the purpose of which is to +establish sympathetic relations in some particular with those whom he +would help. An Englishman's heart is strongly moved to get the story of +Jesus to the inland millions of Chinese. He requests the China-Inland +Mission to control the expenditure of almost a million dollars of his +money in such a way as best to secure the object in his heart. An American +gives a large sum to the Young Men's Christian Association of his home +city to be expended as directed. His thought is not to build up this +particular organization, but to benefit large numbers of the young men of +his town who will meet certain conditions which he thinks to be for their +good. He has learned to trust this organization, and so it becomes his +trustee.</p> + +<p>Another man feels that if the people of New York City can be given good +reading they can thereby best be helped in life. And so he volunteers +money for a number of libraries throughout that city. And thousands who +yearn to increase their knowledge come into sympathy with him in that one +point through his gift. In all such cases the giver's thought is to +accomplish certain results in those whose purpose in certain directions is +sympathetic with his own.</p> + +<p>Any human illustration of God must seem crude. Yet of these three sorts of +givers there is one and only one that begins to suggest how God gives. It +may seem like a very sweeping statement to make, yet I am more and more +disposed to believe it true that <i>most persons</i> have unthinkingly thought +of God's answering prayer as the first of these three men give. Many +others have had in mind some such thought as the second suggests. Yet to +state the case even thus definitely is to make it plain that neither of +these ways in any manner illustrate God's giving. The third comes the +nearest to picturing the God who hears and answers prayer. Our God has a +great heart yearning after His poor prodigal world, and after each one in +it. He longs to have the effects of sin removed, and the original image +restored. He takes the initiative. Yet everything that is done for man +must of necessity be through man's will; by his free and glad consent. The +obstacles in the way are not numberless nor insurmountable, but they are +many and they are stubborn. There is a keen, cunning pretender-prince who +is a past-master in the fine art of handling men. There are wills warped +and weakened; consciences blurred; minds the opposite of keen, +sensibilities whose edge has been dulled beyond ordinary hope of being +ever made keen again. Sin has not only stained the life, but warped the +judgment, sapped the will, and blurred the mental vision. And God has a +hard time just because every change must of necessity be through that +sapped and warped will.</p> + +<p>Yet the difficulty though great is never complex but very simple. And so +the statement of His purpose is ever exquisitely simple. Listen again: +"Call unto Me, and I will answer thee and shew thee great things and +difficult which thou knowest not." If a man call he has already turned his +face towards God. His will has acted, and acted doubly; away from the +opposite, and <i>towards</i> God, a simple step but a tremendous one. The +calling is the point of sympathetic contact with God where their purposes +become the same. The caller is beset by difficulties and longs for +freedom. The God who speaks to him saw the difficulties long ago and +eagerly longed to remove them. Now they have come to agreement. And +through this willing will God eagerly works out His purpose.</p> + + + +<h4>A Very Old Question.</h4> + + +<p>This leads to a very old question: Does prayer influence God? No question +has been discussed more, or more earnestly. Skeptical men of fine +scientific training have with great positiveness said "no." And Christian +men of scholarly training and strong faith have with equal positiveness +said "yes." Strange to say both have been right. Not right in all their +statements, nor right in all their beliefs, nor right in all their +processes of thinking, but right in their ultimate conclusions as +represented by these short words, "no," and "yes." Prayer does not +influence God. Prayer surely does influence God. It does not influence His +purpose. It does influence His action. Everything that ever has been +prayed for, of course I mean every right thing, God has already purposed +to do. But He does nothing without our consent. He has been hindered in +His purposes by our lack of willingness. When we learn His purposes and +make them our prayers we are giving Him the opportunity to act. It is a +double opportunity: manward and Satanward. We are willing. Our willingness +checkmates Satan's opposition. It opens the path to God and rids it of the +obstacles. And so the road is cleared for the free action already planned.</p> + +<p>The further question of nature's laws being sometimes set aside is wholly +a secondary matter. Nature's laws are merely God's habit of action in +handling secondary forces. They involve no purpose of God. His purposes +are regarding moral issues. That the sun shall stay a bit longer than +usual over a certain part of the earth is a mere detail with God. It does +not affect His power for the whole affair is under His finger. It does not +affect His purpose for that as concerning far more serious matters. The +emergencies of earth wrought by sin necessitate just such incidents, that +the great purpose of God for man shall be accomplished.</p> + +<p>Emergencies change all habits of action, divine and human. They are the +real test of power. If a man throw down the bundle he is carrying and make +a quick wild dash out into the middle of the street, dropping his hat on +the way, and grasp convulsively for something on the ground when no cause +appears for such action we would quickly conclude that the proper place +for him is an asylum. But if a little toddling child is almost under the +horse's hoofs, or the trolley car, no one thinks of criticising, but +instead admires his courage, and quick action, and breathlessly watches +for the result. Emergencies call for special action. They should control +actions, where they exist. Emergencies explain action, and explain +satisfactorily what nothing else could explain.</p> + +<p><i>The world is in a great emergency through sin.</i> Only as that tremendous +fact grips us shall we be men of prayer, and men of action up to the limit +of the need, and to the limit of the possibilities. Only as that intense +fact is kept in mind shall we begin to understand God's actions in +history, and in our personal experiences. The greatest event of earth, the +cross, was an emergency action.</p> + +<p>The fact that prayer does not make any change in God's thought or +purpose, reveals His marvellous love in a very tender way.</p> + +<p>Suppose I want something very much and <i>need</i> as well as want. And I go to +God and ask for it. And suppose He is reluctant about giving: had not +thought about giving me that thing; and rather hesitates. But I am +insistent, and plead and persist and by and by God is impressed with my +earnestness, and sees that I really need the thing, and answers my prayer, +and gives me what I ask. Is not that a loving God so to listen and yield +to my plea? Surely. How many times just such an instance has taken place +between a child and his father, or mother. And the child thinks to +himself, "How loving father is; he has given me the thing I asked for."</p> + +<p>But suppose God is thinking about me all the time, and planning, with +love-plans for me, and longing to give me much that He has. Yet in His +wisdom He does not give because I do not know my own need, and have not +opened my hand to receive, yes, and, further yet, likely as not, not +knowing my need I might abuse, or misuse, or fail to use, something given +before I had felt the need of it. And now I come to see and feel that need +and come and ask and He, delighted with the change in me, eagerly gives. +Tell me, is not that a very much more loving God than the other conception +suggests? The truth is <i>that</i> is God. Jesus says, "Your Father knoweth +what things ye have need of <i>before ye ask</i>." And He is a Father. And +with God the word father means mother too. Then what He <i>knows</i> we need He +has <i>already planned</i> to give. The great question for me then in praying +for some personal thing is this: Do <i>I</i> know what <i>He</i> knows I need? Am I +thinking about what He is thinking about for me?</p> + +<p>And then remember that God is so much more in His loving planning than the +wisest, most loving father we know. Does a mother think into her child's +needs, the food, and clothing and the extras too, the luxuries? That is +God, only He is more loving and wiser than the best of us. I have +sometimes thought this: that if God were to say to me: "I want to give you +something as a special love-gift; an extra because I love you: what would +you like to have?" Do you know I have thought I would say, "Dear God, +<i>you</i> choose. <i>I</i> choose what <i>you</i> choose." He is thinking about me. He +knows what I am thinking of, and what I would most enjoy, and He is such a +lover-God that He would choose something Just a bit finer than I would +think. I might be thinking of a dollar, but likely as not He is thinking +of a double eagle. I am thinking of blackberries, big, juicy blackberries, +but really I do not know what blackberries are beside the sort He knows +and would choose for me. That is our God. Prayer does not and cannot +change the purpose of such a God. For every right and good thing we might +ask for He has already planned to give us. But prayer does change the +action of God. Because He cannot give against our wills, and our +willingness as expressed by our asking gives Him the opportunity to do as +He has already planned.</p> + + + +<h4>The Greatest Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>There is a greatest prayer, <i>the</i> greatest that can be offered. It is the +substratum of every true prayer. It is the undercurrent in the stream of +all Spirit-breathed prayer. Jesus Himself gives it to us in the only form +of prayer He left for our use. It is small in size, but mighty in power. +Four words—"Thy will be done." Let us draw up our chairs, and <i>brew</i> it +over mentally, that its strength and fragrance may come up into our +nostrils, and fill our very beings.</p> + +<p>"<i>Thy</i>": That is God. On one side, He is wise, with all of the +intellectual strength, and keenness and poised judgment that that word +among men brings to us. On another side, He is strong, with all that that +word can imply of might and power irresistible. On still another side He +is good, pure, holy with the finest thought those words ever suggest to us +in those whom we know best, or in our dreams and visions. Then on a side +remaining, the tender personal side, He is—loving? No, that is quite +inadequate. He is <i>love</i>. Its personification is He. Now remember that we +do not know the meaning of those words. Our best definition and thought of +them, even in our dreams, when we let ourselves out, but hang around the +outskirts. The heart of them we do not know. Those words mean infinitely +more than we think. Their meaning is a projection along the lines of our +thought of them, but measurelessly beyond our highest reach.</p> + +<p>And then, this God, wise, strong, good, and love, <i>is kin to us</i>. We +belong to Him.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"We are His flock;</div> +<div class="line">He doth us feed.</div> +<div class="line">And for His sheep,</div> +<div class="line">He doth us take."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>We are His children by creation, and by a new creation in Jesus Christ. He +is ours, by His own act. That is the "Thy"—a God wise, strong, pure, who +is love, and who is a Father-mother-God, and is <i>our</i> God.</p> + +<p>"Thy <i>will</i>." God's will is His desires, His purposes, that which He +wishes to occur, and that to which He gives His strength that it may +occur. The earth is His creation. Men are His children. Judging from wise +loving parents among men He has given Himself to thinking and studying and +planning for all men, and every man, and for the earth. His plan is the +most wise, pure, loving plan that can be thought of, <i>and more.</i> It takes +in the whole sweep of our lives, and every detail of them. Nothing escapes +the love-vigilance of our God. What <i>can</i> be so vigilant and keen as love? +Hate, the exact reverse, comes the nearest. It is ever the extremes that +meet. But hate cannot come up to love for keen watchfulness at every +turn. Health, strength, home, loved ones, friendships, money, guidance, +protecting care, the necessities, the extras that love ever thinks of, +service—all these are included in God's loving thought for us. That is +His will. It is modified by the degree of our consent, and further +modified by the circumstances of our lives. Life has become a badly +tangled skein of threads. God with infinite patience and skill is at work +untangling and bringing the best possible out of the tangle. What is +absolutely best is rarely relatively best. That which is best in itself is +usually not best under certain circumstances, with human lives in the +balance. God has fathomless skill, and measureless patience, and a love +utterly beyond both. He is ever working out the best thing possible under +every circumstance. He could oftentimes do more, and do it in much less +time if our human wills were more pliant to His. He can be trusted. And of +course <i>trust</i> means <i>trust in the darkest dark</i> where you cannot see. And +trust means trust. It does not mean test. Where you trust you do not test. +Where you test you do not trust. Making this our prayer means trusting +God. That is God, and that His will, and that the meaning of our offering +this prayer. "Thy will <i>be</i>." A man's will is the man in action, within +the limits of his power. God's will for man is Himself in action, within +the limits of our cooperation. <i>Be</i> is a verb, an action-word, in the +passive voice. It takes some form of the verb to be to express the +passive voice of any action-word. It takes the intensest activity of will +to put this passive voice into human action. The greatest strength is +revealed in intelligent yielding. Here the prayer is expressing the utter +willingness of a man that God's will shall be done in him, and through +him. A man never <i>loses</i> his will, unless indeed he lose his manhood. But +here he makes that will as strong as it can be made, as a bit of steel, +better like the strong oak, strong enough to sway and bend in the wind. +Then he uses all its strength in becoming passive to a higher will. And +that too when the purpose of that higher will is not clear to his own +limited knowledge and understanding.</p> + +<p>"Thy will be <i>done</i>." That is, be accomplished, be brought to pass. The +word stands for the action in its perfected, finished state. Thy will be +fully accomplished in its whole sweep and in all its items. It speaks not +only the earnest desire of the heart praying, but the set purpose that +everything in the life is held subject to the doing of this purpose of +God. It means that surrender of purpose that has utterly changed the lives +of the strongest men in order that the purpose of God might be dominant. +It cut off from a great throne earth's greatest jurist, the Hebrew +lawgiver, and led him instead to be allied to a race of slaves. It led +that intellectual giant Jeremiah from an easy enjoyable leadership to +espouse a despised cause and so be himself despised. It led Paul from the +leadership of his generation in a great nation to untold suffering, and to +a block and an ax. It led Jesus the very Son of God, away from a kingship +to a cross. In every generation it has radically changed lives, and +life-ambitions. "Thy will be done" is the great dominant purpose-prayer +that has been the pathway of God in all His great doings among men.</p> + +<p>That will is being done everywhere else in God's great world of worlds, +save on the earth and that portion of the spirit world allied to this +earth. Everywhere else there is the perfect music of harmony with God's +will. Here only is heard the harsh discordant note.</p> + +<p>With this prayer go two clauses that really particularize and explain it. +They are included in it, and are added to make more clear the full intent. +The first of these clauses gives the sweep of His will in its broadest +outlines. The second touches the opposition to that will both for our +individual lives and for the race and the earth.</p> + +<p>The first clause is this, "Thy kingdom come." In both of these short +sentences, "Thy will be done," "Thy kingdom come," the emphatic word is +"Thy." That word is set in sharpest possible contrast here. There is +another kingdom now on the earth. There is another will being done. This +other kingdom must go if God's kingdom is to come. These kingdoms are +antagonistic at every point of contact. They are rivals for the same +allegiance and the same territory. They cannot exist together. Charles II +and Cromwell cannot remain in London together. "Thy kingdom come," of +necessity includes this, "the other kingdom go." "Thy kingdom come" means +likewise "Thy king come," for in the nature of things there cannot be a +kingdom without a king. That means again by the same inference, "the other +prince go," the one who makes pretensions to being rightful heir to the +throne. "Thy will be done" includes by the same inference this:—"the +other will be undone." This is the first great explanatory clause to be +connected with this greatest prayer, "Thy kingdom come." It gives the +sweep of God's will in its broadest outlines.</p> + +<p>The second clause included in the prayer, and added to make clear the +swing of action is this—"deliver us from the evil one." These two +sentences, "Thy will be done," and "deliver us from the evil one," are +naturally connected. Each statement includes the other. To have God's will +fully done in us means emancipation from every influence of the evil one, +either direct or indirect, or by hereditary taint. To be delivered from +the evil one means that every thought and plan of God for our lives shall +be fully carried out.</p> + +<p>There are the two great wills at work in the world ever clashing in the +action of history and in our individual lives. In many of us, aye, in all +of us, though in greatly varying degree, these two wills constantly clash. +Man is the real battle-field. The pitch of the battle is in his will. God +will not do His will in a man without the man's will consenting. And Satan +cannot. At the root the one thing that works against God's will is the +evil one's will. And on the other hand the one thing that effectively +thwarts Satan's plans is a man wholly given up to God's will.</p> + +<p>The greatest prayer then fully expressed, sweeps first the whole field of +action, then touches the heart of the action, and then attacks the +opposition. It is this:—Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done: deliver us +from the evil one. Every true prayer ever offered comes under this simple +comprehensive prayer. It may be offered, it <i>is</i> offered with an infinite +variety of detail. It is greatest because of its sweep. It includes all +other petitions, for God's will includes everything for which prayer is +rightly offered. It is greatest in its intensity. It hits the very +bull's-eye of opposition to God.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="chapter" id="ch02"> +<h2>II. Hindrances to Prayer</h2> + + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch02-1">Why the Results Fail.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02-2">Why the Results Are Delayed.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02-3">The Great Outside Hindrance, or, the Relation of Prayer to Satan.</a></li> +</ol> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch02-1"> +<h3>Why the Results Fail</h3><h4>Breaking with God.</h4> + + +<p>God answers prayer. Prayer is God and man joining hands to secure some +high end. He joins with us through the communication of prayer in +accomplishing certain great results. This is the main drive of prayer. Our +asking and expecting and God's doing jointly bring to pass things that +otherwise would not come to pass. Prayer changes things. This is the great +fact of prayer.</p> + +<p>Yet a great many prayers are not answered. Or, to put it more accurately, +a great many prayers fail utterly of accomplishing any results. Probably +it is accurate to say that <i>thousands</i> of prayers go up and bring nothing +down. This is certainly true. Let us say it just as bluntly and plainly as +it can be said. As a result many persons are saying: "Well, prayer is not +what you claim for it: we prayed and no answer came: nothing was changed."</p> + +<p>From all sorts of circles, and in all sorts of language comes this +statement. Scholarly men who write with wisdom's words, and thoughtless +people whose thinking never even pricks the skin of the subject, and all +sorts of people in between group themselves together here. And they are +right, quite right. The bother is that what they say is not all there is +to be said. There is yet more to be said, that is right too, and that +changes the final conclusion radically. Partial truth is a very mean sort +of lie.</p> + +<p>The prayer plan like many another has been much disturbed, and often +broken. And one who would be a partner with God up to the limit of his +power must understand the things that hinder the prayer plan. There are +three sorts of hindrances to prayer. First of all there are things in us +that <i>break off connection</i> with God, the source of the changing power. +Then there are certain things in us that <i>delay, or diminish</i> the results; +that interfere with the full swing of the prayer plan of operations. And +then there is a great <i>outside</i> hindrance to be reckoned upon. To-day we +want to talk together of the first of these, namely, the hindrances that +<i>break off connections</i> between God and His human partner.</p> + +<p>Here again there is a division into three. There are three things directly +spoken of in the book of God that hinder prayer. One of these is a +familiar thing. What a pity that repugnant things may become so familiar +as no longer to repel. It is this:—<i>sin</i> hinders prayer. In Isaiah's +first chapter God Himself speaking says, "When you stretch out your +hands"—the way they prayed, standing with outstretched hands—"I will +shut My eyes; when you make many prayers, I will shut My ears."<sup><a href="#fn12">12</a></sup> Why? +What's the difficulty? These outstretched hands are <i>soiled!</i> They are +actually holding their sin-soiled hands up into God's face; and He is +compelled to look at the thing most hateful to Him. In the fifty-ninth +chapter of this same book,<sup><a href="#fn13">13</a></sup> God Himself is talking again. Listen +"Behold! the <i>Lord's</i> hand is not shortened: <i>His</i> ear is not heavy." +There is no trouble on the <i>up</i> side. God is all right. "But"—listen with +both your ears—"your <i>iniquities</i> ... your <i>sins</i> ... your <i>hands</i> ... +your <i>fingers</i> ... your <i>lips</i> ... your <i>tongue</i> ..." the slime of sin is +oozing over everything! Turn back to that sixty-sixth Psalm<sup><a href="#fn14">14</a></sup>—"if I +regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me." How much more if +the sin of the heart get into the hands or the life! And the fact to put +down plainly in blackest ink once for all is this—<i>sin hinders prayer</i>. +There is nothing surprising about this. That we can think the reverse is +the surprising thing. Prayer is transacting business with God. Sin is +<i>breaking with God</i>.</p> + +<p>Suppose I had a private wire from my apartments here to my home in +Cleveland, and some one should go outside and drag the wire down until it +touches the ground—a good square touch with the ground—the electricians +would call it grounded, could I telegraph over that wire? Almost any child +knows I could not. Suppose some one <i>cuts</i> the wire, a good clean cut; the +two ends are apart: not a mile; not a yard; but distinctly apart. Could I +telegraph on that wire? Of course not. Yet I might sit in my room and tick +away by the hour wholly absorbed, and use most beautiful persuasive +language—what is the good? The wire's cut. All my fine pleading goes into +the ground, or the air. Now <i>sin cuts the wire;</i> it runs the message into +the ground.</p> + +<p>"Well," some one will object, "now you're cutting us all out, are you not? +Are we not all conscious of a sinful something inside here that has to be +fought, and held under all the while?" It certainly seems to be true that +the nearer a man gets to God the more keenly conscious he is of a sinful +tendency within even while having continual victory. But plainly enough +what the Book means here is this:—if I am holding something in my life +that the Master does not like, if I am failing to obey when His voice has +spoken, that to me is sin. It may be wrong in itself. It may <i>not</i> be +wrong in itself. It may not be wrong for another. Sometimes it is not the +thing involved but the One involved that makes the issue. If that faithful +quiet inner voice has spoken and I know what the Master would prefer and I +fail to keep in line, that to me is sin. Then prayer is useless; sheer +waste of breath. Aye, worse, it is deceptive. For I am apt to say or +think, "Well, I am not as good as you, or you, but then I am not so bad; +<i>I pray.</i>" And the truth is because I have broken with God the +praying—saying words in that form—is utterly worthless.</p> + +<p>You see <i>sin is slapping God in the face</i>. It may be polished, cultured +sin. Sin seems capable of taking quite a high polish. Or it may be the +common gutter stuff. A man is not concerned about the grain of a club that +strikes him a blow. How can He and I talk together if I have done that, +and stick to it—not even apologized. And of what good is an apology if +the offense is being repeated. And if we cannot talk together of course +working together is out of the question. And prayer is working together +with God. Prayer is <i>pulling with God</i> in His plan for a world.</p> + +<p>Shall we not put out the thing that is wrong? or put in the thing the +Master wants in? For <i>Jesus'</i> sake? Aye for <i>men's</i> sake: poor befooled +men's sake who are being kept out and away because God cannot get at them +through us!</p> + +<p>Shall we bow and ask forgiveness for our sin, and petty stubbornness that +has been thwarting the Master's love-plan? And yet even while we ask +forgiveness there are lives out yonder warped and dwarfed and worse +because of the hindrance in us; yes, and remaining so as we slip out of +this meeting. May the fact send us out to walk very softly these coming +days.</p> + + + +<h4>A Coaling Station for Satan's Fleet.</h4> + + +<p>There is a second thing that is plainly spoken of that hinders prayer. +James speaks of it in his letter.<sup><a href="#fn15">15</a></sup> "Ye have not because ye <i>ask</i> +not"—that explains many parched up lives and churches and unsolved +problems: no pipe lines run up to tap the reservoir, and give God an +opening into the troubled territory. Then he pushes on to say—"Ye ask, +<i>and receive not</i>"—ah! there's just the rub; it is evidently an old +story, this thing of not receiving—why? "because ye ask amiss to spend it +<i>in your pleasures</i>." That is to say selfish praying; asking for something +just because I want it; want it for myself.</p> + +<p>Here is a mother praying for her boy. He is just growing up towards young +manhood; not a Christian boy yet; but a good boy. She is thinking, "I want +<i>my</i> boy to be an honour to me; he bears my name; my blood is in his +veins; I don't want my boy to be a prodigal. I want him to be a fine man, +an honour to the family; and if he is a true Christian, he likely will be; +<i>I wish he were a Christian</i>." And so she prays, and prays repeatedly and +fervently. God might touch her boy's heart and say, "I want you out here +in India to help win my prodigal world back." <i>Oh!</i> she did not mean that! +<i>Her</i> boy in far, far off <i>India!</i> Oh, no! Not that!! Yes, what <i>she</i> +wanted—that was the whole thought—selfishness; the stream turning in to +a dead sea within her own narrow circle; no thought of sympathy with God +in His eager outreach for His poor sin-befooled world. The prayer itself +in its object is perfectly proper, and rightly offered and answered times +without number; but the <i>motive</i> wholly, uglily selfish and the +selfishness itself becomes a foothold for Satan and so the purpose of the +prayer is thwarted.</p> + +<p>Here is a wife praying that her husband might become a Christian. Perhaps +her thought is: "I wish John <i>were</i> a Christian: it would be so good: it +really seems the proper thing: he would go to church with me, and sit in +the pew Sunday morning: I'd like that." Perhaps she thinks: "He would be +careful about swearing; he would quit drinking; and be nicer and gentler +at home." Maybe she thinks: "He would ask a blessing at the meals; that +would be so nice." Maybe she thinks: "We would have family prayers." +<i>Maybe</i> that does not occur to her these days. This is what I say: <i>If</i> +her thought does not go beyond some such range, of course <i>you</i> would say +it is selfish. She is thinking of herself; not of the loving grieved God +against whom her husband is in rebellion; not of the real significance to +the man. God might touch her husband's heart, and then say: "I want you to +help Me win My poor world back." And the change would mean a reduced +income, and a different social position. <i>Oh!</i> she had not meant <i>that!</i> +Yes—what <i>she</i> wanted for herself!</p> + +<p>Here is a minister praying for a revival in his church. Maybe he is +thinking; no, not exactly thinking; it is just half thinking itself out in +his sub-consciousness—"I wish we had a good revival in our church; +increased membership; larger attendance; easier finances; may be an extra +hundred or two in my own pocket; increased prestige in the denomination; a +better call or appointment: I wish we might have a revival." Now no true +minister ever talked that way even to himself or deliberately thought it. +To do so would be to see the mean contemptibility of it. But you know how +sly we all are in our underneath scarcely-thought-out thoughts. This is +what I say: <i>if</i> that be the sort of thing underneath a man's praying of +course the motive is utterly selfish; a bit of the same thing that brought +Satan his change of name and character.</p> + +<p>Please notice that the reason for the prayer not being answered here is +not an arbitrary reluctance upon God's part to do a desirable thing. He +never fails to work whenever He has a half chance as far as it is possible +to work, even through men of faulty conceptions and mixed motives. The +reason lies much deeper. It is this: selfishness gives Satan a footing. It +gives a coaling station for his fleet on the shore of your life. And of +course he does his best to prevent the prayer, or when he cannot wholly +prevent, to spoil the results as far as he can.</p> + +<p>Prayer may properly be offered—<i>will</i> be properly offered for many wholly +personal things; for physical strength, healing in sickness, about dearly +loved ones, money needed; indeed regarding things that may not be +necessary but only desirable and enjoyable, for ours is a loving God who +would have His dear ones enjoy to the full their lives down here. But the +<i>motive</i> determines the propriety of such requests. Where the whole +purpose of one's life is <i>for Him</i> these things may be asked for freely as +His gracious Spirit within guides. And there need be no bondage of morbid +introspection, no continual internal rakings. <i>He knows if the purpose of +the heart is to please Him</i>.</p> + + + +<h4>The Shortest Way to God.</h4> + + +<p>A third thing spoken of as hindering prayer is an unforgiving spirit. You +have noticed that Jesus speaks much about prayer and also speaks much +about forgiveness. But have you noticed how, over and over again He +<i>couples</i> these two—prayer <i>and</i> forgiveness? I used to wonder why. I do +not so much now. Nearly everywhere evidence keeps slipping in of the sore +spots. One may try to keep his lips closed on certain subjects, but it +seems about impossible to keep the ears entirely shut. And continually the +evidence keeps sifting in revealing the thin skin, raw flesh, wounds +never healed over, and some jaggedly open, almost everywhere one goes. +Jesus' continual references reveal how strikingly alike is the oriental +and the occidental; the first and the twentieth centuries.</p> + +<p>Run through Matthew alone a moment. Here in the fifth chapter:<sup><a href="#fn16">16</a></sup> "If +thou are coming to the altar"—that is approaching God; what we call +prayer—"and rememberest that thy brother hath aught <i>against thee</i>"—that +side of it—"leave there thy gift and go thy way, <i>first</i> be reconciled," +and so on. Here comes a man with a lamb to offer. He approaches solemnly, +reverently, towards the altar of God. But as he is coming there flashes +across his mind the face of <i>that man</i>, with whom he has had difficulty. +And instantly he can feel his grip tightening on the offering, and his +teeth shutting closer at the quick memory. Jesus says, "If that be so lay +your lamb right down." What! go abruptly away! Why! how the folks around +the temple will talk! "Lay the lamb right down, and go thy way." The +shortest way to God for that man is not the way to the altar, but around +by that man's house. "<i>First</i>, be reconciled"—keep your perspective +straight—follow the right order—"<i>first</i> be reconciled"—not <i>second; +"then</i> come and offer thy gift."</p> + +<p>In the sixth chapter<sup><a href="#fn17">17</a></sup> He gives the form of prayer which we commonly +call the Lord's prayer. It contains seven petitions. At the close He +stops to emphasize just one of the seven. You remember which one; the one +about forgiveness. In the eighteenth chapter<sup><a href="#fn18">18</a></sup> Jesus is talking alone +with the disciples about prayer. Peter seems to remember the previous +remarks about forgiveness in connection with prayer; and he asks a +question. It is never difficult to think of Peter asking a question or +making a few remarks. He says, "Master, how many times <i>must</i> I forgive a +man? <i>Seven</i> times!" Apparently Peter thinks he is growing in grace. He +can actually <i>think</i> now of forgiving a man seven times in succession. But +the Master in effect says, "Peter, you haven't caught the idea. +Forgiveness is not a question of mathematics; not a matter of <i>keeping +tab</i> on somebody: not seven times but <i>seventy times seven.</i>" And Peter's +eyes bulge open with an incredulous stare—"four hundred and ninety +times!... one man—straightway!!" Apparently the Master is thinking, that +he will lose count, or get tired of counting and conclude that forgiveness +is preferable, or else by practice <i>breathe in the spirit of +forgiveness—the</i> thing He meant.</p> + +<p>Then as He was so fond of doing Jesus told a story to illustrate His +meaning. A man owed his lord a great debt, twelve millions of dollars; +that is to say practically an <i>unpayable</i> amount. By comparison with money +to-day, in the western world, it would be about twelve billions. And he +went to him and asked for time. He said: "I'm short just now; but I mean +to pay; I don't mean to shirk: be easy with me; and I'll pay up the whole +sum in time." And his lord generously forgave him the whole debt. That is +Jesus' picture of God, as He knows Him who knows Him best. Then this +forgiven man went out and found a fellow servant who owed him—how much do +you think? Have you ever thought that Jesus had a keen sense of the +ludicrous? Surely it shows here. He owed him about sixteen dollars and +a-quarter or a-half! And you can almost feel the clutch of this fellow's +fingers on the other's throat as he sternly demands:—"Pay me that thou +owest." And his fellow earnestly replies, "Please be easy with me; I mean +to pay; I'm rather short just now: but I'm not trying to shirk; be easy +with me." Is it possible the words do not sound familiar! But he would +not, but put him in the jail. The last place to pay a debt! That is Jesus' +picture of man as He knows him who knows him best. And in effect He says +what we have been forgiven by God is as an unpayable amount. And what are +not willing to forgive is like sixteen dollars and a fraction by contrast. +What little puny folks some of us are in our thinking and feeling!</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," some one says, "you do not know how hard it is to forgive." +You think not? I know this much:—that some persons, and some things you +<i>can</i>not forgive of yourself. But I am glad to say that I know this too +that if one allows the Spirit of Jesus to sway the heart He will make you +love persons you <i>can</i>not like. No natural affinity or drawing together +through disposition, but a real yearning love in the heart. Jesus' love, +when allowed to come in as freely as He means, fills your heart with pity +for the man who has wounded you. An infinite, tender pity that he has sunk +so low as to be capable of such actions.</p> + +<p>But the fact to put down in the sharpest contrast of white and black is +that we must forgive freely, frankly, generously, "<i>even as God</i>," if we +are to be in prayer touch with God.</p> + +<p>And the reason is not far to find; a double reason, Godward and Satanward. +If prayer be partnership in the highest sense then the same spirit must +animate both partners, the human and the divine, if the largest results +are to come. And since unforgiveness roots itself down in hate Satan has +room for both feet in such a heart with all the leeway in action of such +purchase. That word <i>unforgiving</i>! What a group of relatives it has, near +and far! Jealousy, envy, bitterness, the cutting word, the polished shaft +of sarcasm with the poisoned tip, the green eye, the acid saliva—what +kinsfolk these!</p> + + + +<h4>Search Me.</h4> + + +<p>Sin, selfishness, an unforgiving spirit—what searchlights these words +are! Many a splendid life to-day is an utter cipher in the spirit +atmosphere because of some such hindrance. And God's great love-plan for +His prodigal world is being held back; and lives being lost even where +ultimately souls shall be saved because of the lack of human prayer +partners.</p> + +<p>May we not well pray:—Search me, oh God, and know my heart and help me +know it; try me and know my innermost, undermost thoughts and purposes and +ambitions, and help me know them; and see what way there be in me that is +a grief to Thee; and then lead me—and here the prayer may be a purpose as +well as a prayer—lead me out of that way unto <i>Thy</i> way, <i>the</i> way +everlasting. For Jesus' sake; aye for men's sake, too.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch02-2"> +<h3>Why the Results are Delayed</h3><h4>God's Pathway to Human Hearts.</h4> + + +<p>God touches men through men. The Spirit's path to a human heart is through +another human heart. With reverence be it said, yet with blunt plainness +that in His plan for winning men to their true allegiance God is limited +by the human limitations. That may seem to mean more than it really does. +For our thought of the human is of the scarred, warped, shrivelled +humanity that we know, and great changes come when God's Spirit controls. +But the fact is there, however limited our understanding of it.</p> + +<p>God needs man for His plan. That is the fact that stands out strong in +thinking about prayer. God's greatest agency; man's greatest agency, for +defeating the enemy and winning men back is intercession. God is counting +mightily upon that. And He can count most mightily upon the man that +faithfully practices that.</p> + +<p>The results He longs for are being held back, and made smaller because so +many of us have not learned how to pray simply and skilfully. We need +training. And God understands that. He Himself will train. But we must be +willing; actively willing. And just there the great bother comes in. A +strong will perfectly yielded to God's will, or perfectly willing to be +yielded, is His mightiest ally in redeeming the world.</p> + +<p>Answers to prayer are delayed, or denied, out of kindness, <i>or</i>, that more +may be given, <i>or</i>, that a far larger purpose may be served. But deeper +down by far than that is this: <i>God's purposes are being delayed</i>; delayed +because of our unwillingness to learn how to pray, <i>or</i>, our slowness—I +almost said—our stupidity in learning. It is a small matter that my +prayer be answered, or unanswered; not small to me; everything perhaps to +me; but small in proportion. It is a tremendous thing that <i>God's purpose</i> +for a world is being held back through my lack. The thought that prayer is +<i>getting things</i> from God; chiefly that, is so small, pitiably small, and +yet so common. The true conception understands that prayer is partnership +with God in His planet-sized purposes, and includes the "all things" +beside, as an important detail of the whole.</p> + +<p>The real reason for the delay or failure lies simply in the difference +between God's view-point and ours. In our asking either we have not +reached the <i>wisdom</i> that asks best, <i>or</i>, we have not reached the +<i>unselfishness</i> that is willing to sacrifice a good thing, for a better, +or the best; the unselfishness that is willing to sacrifice the smaller +personal desire for the larger thing that affects the lives of many.</p> + +<p>We learn best by pictures, and by stories which are pen or word pictures. +This was Jesus' favourite method of teaching. There are in the Bible four +great, striking instances of delayed, or qualified answers to prayer. +There are some others; but these stand out sharply, and perhaps include +the main teachings of all. Probably all the instances of hindered prayer +with which we are familiar will come under one of these. That is to say, +where there are good connections upward as suggested in our last talk, +<i>and</i>, excepting those that come under the talk succeeding this, namely, +the great outside hindrance. These four are Moses' request to enter +Canaan; Hannah's prayer for a son; Paul's thorn; and Jesus' prayer in +Gethsemane.</p> + +<p>Let us look a bit at these in turn.</p> + + + +<h4>For the Sake of a Nation.</h4> + + +<p>First is the incident of Moses' ungranted petition. Moses was the leader +of his people. He is one of the giants of the human race from whatever +standpoint considered. His codes are the basis of all English and American +jurisprudence. From his own account of his career, the secret of all his +power as a maker of laws, the organizer of a strangely marvellous nation, +a military general and strategist—the secret of all was in his direct +communication with God. He was peculiarly a man of prayer. Everything was +referred to God, and he declared that everything—laws, organization, +worship, plans—came to him from God. In national emergencies where moral +catastrophe was threatened he petitioned God and the plans were changed in +accordance with his request. He makes personal requests and they are +granted. He was peculiarly a man who dealt directly with God about every +sort of thing, national and personal, simple and complex. The record +commonly credited to him puts prayer as the simple profound explanation of +his stupendous career and achievements. He prayed. God worked along the +line of his prayer. The great things recorded are the result. That is the +simple inferential summary.</p> + +<p>Now there is one exception to all this in Moses' life. It stands out the +more strikingly that it is an exception; the one exception of a very long +line. Moses asked repeatedly for one thing. It was not given him. God is +not capricious nor arbitrary. There must be a reason. <i>There is.</i> And it +is fairly luminous with light.</p> + +<p>Here are the facts. These freed men of Egypt are a hard lot to lead and to +live with. Slow, sensuous, petty, ignorant, narrow, impulsive, strangers +to self-control, critical, exasperating—what an undertaking God had to +make a nation, <i>the</i> nation of history, about which centred His deep +reaching, far-seeing love ambition for redeeming a world out of such +stuff! Only paralleled by the church being built upon such men as these +Galilean peasants! What victories these! What a God to do such things! +Only a God could do either and both! What immense patience it required to +shape this people. What patience God has. Moses had learned much of +patience in the desert sands with his sheep; for he had learned much of +God. But the finishing touches were supplied by the grindstone of friction +with the fickle temper of this mob of ex-slaves.</p> + +<p>Here are the immediate circumstances. They lacked water. They grew very +thirsty. It was a serious matter in those desert sands with human lives, +and young children, and the stock. No, it was not serious: really a very +small matter, for <i>God was along</i>, and the enterprise was of His starting. +It was His affair, all this strange journey. And they knew Him quite well +enough in their brief experience to be expecting something fully equal to +all needs with a margin thrown in. There was that series of stupendous +things before leaving Egypt. There was the Red Sea, and fresh food daily +delivered at every man's tent door, and game, juicy birds, brought down +within arms' reach, yes, and—surely this alone were enough—there was +living, cool water gushing abundantly, gladly out of the very heart of a +flinty rock—if such a thing can be said to have a heart! Oh, yes it was a +very small matter to be lacking anything with such a lavish God along.</p> + +<p><i>But they forgot.</i> Their noses were keener than their memories. They had +better stomachs than hearts. The odorous onions of Egypt made more +lasting impressions than this tender, patient, planning God. Yet here +even their stomachs forgot those rock-freed waters. These people must be +kinsfolk of ours. They seem to have some of the same family traits.</p> + +<p>Listen: they begin to complain, to criticise. God patiently says nothing +but provides for their needs. But Moses has not yet reached the high level +that later experiences brought him. He is standing to them for God. Yet he +is very un-Godlike. Angrily, with hot word, he <i>smites</i> the rock. Once +smiting was God's plan; then the quiet word ever after. How many a time +has the once smitten Rock been smitten again in our impatience! <i>The +waters came</i>! Just like God! They were cared for, though He had been +disobeyed and dishonoured. And there are the crowds eagerly drinking with +faces down; and up yonder in the shadow standeth God <i>grieved</i>, deeply +grieved at the false picture this immature people had gotten of Him that +day through Moses. Moses' hot tongue and flashing eye made a deep moral +scar upon their minds, that it would take years to remove. Something must +be done for the people's sake. Moses disobeyed God. He dishonoured God. +Yet the waters came, for <i>they needed water</i>. And God is ever +tender-hearted. But they must be taught the need of obedience, the evil of +disobedience. Taught it so they never could forget.</p> + +<p>Moses was a leader. Leaders may not do as common men. And leaders may not +be dealt with as followers. They stand too high in the air. They affect +too many lives. So God said to Moses:—"You will not go into Canaan. You +may lead them clear up to the line; you may even see over, but you may not +go in." That hurt Moses deep down. It hurt God deeper down, in a heart +more sensitive to hurt than was Moses'. Without doubt it was said with +<i>reluctance</i>, for <i>Moses'</i> sake. But <i>it was said</i>, plainly, irrevocably, +for <i>their</i> sakes. Moses' petition was for a reversal of this decision. +Once and again he asked. He wanted to see that wondrous land of God's +choosing. He felt the sting too. The edge of the knife of discipline cut +keenly, and the blood spurted. But God said:—"Do not speak to Me again of +this." The decision was not to be changed. For Moses' sake only He would +gladly have changed, judging by His previous conduct. For the sake of the +nation—aye, for the sake of the prodigal world to be won back through +this nation, the petition might not be granted. That ungranted petition +taught those millions the lesson of obedience, of reverence, as no +command, or smoking mount, or drowning Egyptians had done. It became +common talk in every tent, by every camp-fire of the tented nation. "Moses +disobeyed,—he failed to reverence God;—he cannot enter Canaan."—With +hushed tones, and awed hearts and moved, strangely moved faces it passed +from lip to lip. Some of the women and children wept. They all loved +Moses. They revered him. How gladly they would have had him go over. The +double-sided truth—obedience—disobedience—kept burning in through the +years.</p> + +<p>In after years many a Hebrew mother told her baby, eager for a story, of +Moses their great leader; his appearance, deep-set eyes, long beard, +majestic mien, yet infinite tenderness and gentleness, the softness of +strength; his presence with God in the mount, the shining face. And the +baby would listen so quietly, and then the eyes would grow so big and the +hush of spirit come as the mother would repeat softly, "but he could not +come over into the land of promise because <i>he did not obey God</i>." And +strong fathers reminded their growing sons. And so it was woven into the +warp and woof of the nation—<i>obedience, reverent obedience to God</i>. And +one can well understand Moses looking down from above with grateful heart +that he had been denied for <i>their</i> sakes. The unselfishness and wisdom of +later years would not have made the prayer. <i>The prayer of a man was +denied that a nation might be taught obedience</i>.</p> + + + +<h4>That More Might be Given and Gotten.</h4> + + +<p>Now let us look a bit at the second of these, the portrait of Hannah the +Hebrew woman. First the broader lines for perspective. This peculiar +Hebrew nation had two deep dips down morally between Egypt and Babylon; +between the first making, and the final breaking. The national tide ebbed +very low twice, before it finally ran out in the Euphrates Valley. Elijah +stemmed the tide the second time, and saved the day for a later night. The +Hannah story belongs in the first of these ebb-tides; the first bad sag; +the first deep gap.</p> + +<p>The giant lawgiver is long gone. His successor, only a less giant than +himself is gone too, and all that generation, and more. The giants gave +way to smaller-sized leaders. Now they are gone also. The mountain peaks +have been lost in the foothills, and these have yielded to dunes, and +levels; mostly levels; dead levels. These mountains must have had long +legs. The foothills are so far away, and are running all to toes. Now the +toes have disappeared.</p> + +<p>It is a leaderless people, for the true Leader as originally planned has +been, first ignored, then forgot. The people have no ideals. They grub in +the earth content. There is a deep, hidden-away current of good. But it +needs leadership to bring it to the surface. A leaderless people! This is +the niche of the Hannah story.</p> + +<p>The nation was rapidly drifting down to the moral level of the lowest. At +Shiloh the formal worship was kept up, but the very priests were tainted +with the worst impurity. A sort of sleepy, slovenly anarchy prevailed. +Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, with every indication +of a gutter standard. "There was none in the land possessing power of +restraint that might put them to shame in anything." No government; no +dominant spirit. Indeed the actual conditions of Sodom and her sister +cities of the plain existed among the people. This is the setting of the +simple graphic incident of Hannah. One must get the picture clearly in +mind to understand the story.</p> + +<p>Up in the hill country of Ephraim there lived a wise-hearted religious +man, a farmer, raising stock, and grain; and fruit, too, likely. He was +earnest but not of the sort to rise above the habit of his time. His farm +was not far from Shiloh, the national place of worship, and he made yearly +trips there with the family. But the woman-degrading curse of Lamech was +over his home. He had two wives. Hannah was the loved one. (No man ever +yet gave his heart to two women.) She was a gentle-spoken, thoughtful +woman, with a deep, earnest spirit. But she had a disappointment which +grew in intensity as it continued. The desire of her heart had been +withheld. She was childless.</p> + +<p>Though the thing is not mentioned the whole inference is that she prayed +earnestly and persistently but to her surprise and deep disappointment the +desired answer came not. To make it worse her rival—what a word, for the +other one in the home with her—her rival provoked her sore to make her +fret. And that thing <i>went on</i> year after year. That teasing, nagging, +picking of a small nature was her constant prod. What an atmosphere for a +home! Is it any wonder that "she was in bitterness of soul" and "wept +sore"? Her husband tenderly tries to comfort her. But her inner spirit +remains chafed to the quick. And all this goes on for years; the yearning, +the praying, the failure of answer, the biting, bitter atmosphere,—for +<i>years</i>. And she wonders why.</p> + +<p>Why was it? Step back and up a bit and get the broader view which the +narrow limits of her surroundings, and shall I say, too, though not +critically, of her spirit, shut out from her eyes. Here is what she saw: +her fondest hope unrealized, long praying unanswered, a constant ferment +at home. Here is what she wanted:—<i>a son</i>. That is her horizon. Beyond +that her thought does not rise.</p> + +<p>Here is what God saw:—a nation—no, much worse—<i>the</i> nation, in which +centred His great love-plan for winning His prodigal world, going to +pieces. The messenger to the prodigal was being slyly, subtly seduced by +the prodigal. The saviour-nation was being itself lost. The plan so long +and patiently fostered for saving a world was threatened with utter +disaster.</p> + +<p>Here is what He wanted—<i>a leader</i>! But there were no leaders. And, worse +yet, there were no men out of whom leaders might be made, no men of +leader-size. And worse yet <i>there were no women</i> of the sort to train and +shape a man for leadership. That is the lowest level to which a people +ever gets, aye, ever <i>can</i> get. God had to get a woman before He could get +a man. Hannah had in her the making of the woman He needed. God honoured +her by choosing her. But she must be changed before she could be used. And +so there came those years of pruning, and sifting, and discipline. Shall +we spell that word discipline with a final g instead of e—discipling, so +the love of it may be plainer to our near-sightedness? And out of those +years and experiences there came a new woman. A woman with vision +broadened, with spirit mellowed, with strength seasoned, with will so +sinewy supple as to yield to a higher will, to sacrifice the dearest +<i>personal pleasure</i> for the world-wide purpose; willing that he who was +her dearest treasure should be the nation's <i>first</i>.</p> + +<p>Then followed months of prayer while the man was coming. Samuel was born, +no, farther back yet, was conceived in the atmosphere of prayer and +devotion to God. The prenatal influences for those months gave the sort of +man God wanted. And a nation, <i>the</i> nation, the <i>world-plan,</i> was saved! +This man became a living answer to prayer. The romantic story of the +little boy up in the Shiloh tabernacle quickly spread over the nation. His +very name—Samuel, God hears—sifted into people's ears the facts of a +God, and of the power of prayer. The very sight of the boy and of the man +clear to the end kept deepening the brain impression through eyeballs that +God answers prayer. And the seeds of that re-belief in God that Samuel's +leadership brought about were sown by the unusual story of his birth.</p> + +<p><i>The answer was delayed that more might be given and gotten</i>. And Hannah's +exultant song of praise reveals the fineness to which the texture of her +nature had been spun. And it tells too how grateful she was for a God who +in great patience and of strong deliberate purpose delayed the answer to +her prayer.</p> + + + +<h4>The Best Light for Studying a Thorn.</h4> + + +<p>The third great picture in this group is that of Paul and his +needle-pointed thorn. Talks about the certainty of prayer being answered +are very apt to bring this question: "What about Paul's thorn?" Sometimes +asked by earnest hearts puzzled; <i>some</i>times with a look in the eye almost +exultant as though of gladness for that thorn because it seems to help out +a theory. These pictures are put into the gallery for our help. Let us +pull up our chairs in front of this one and see what points we may get to +help our hearts.</p> + +<p>First a look at Paul himself. The best light on this thorn is through the +man. The man explains the thorn. We have a halo about Paul's head; and +rightly, too. What a splendid man of God he was! God's chosen one for a +peculiar ministry. One of the twelve could be used to open the door to the +great outside world, but God had to go aside from this circle and get a +man of different training for this wider sphere. Cradled and schooled in a +Jewish atmosphere, he never lost the Jew standpoint, yet the training of +his home surroundings in that outside world, the contact with Greek +culture, his natural mental cast fitted him peculiarly for his appointed +task to the great outside majority. His keen reasoning powers, his vivid +imagination, his steel-like will, his burning devotion, his unmovable +purpose, his tender attachment to his Lord,—what a man! Well might the +Master want to win such a man for service' sake. But Paul had some weak +traits. Let us say it very softly, remembering as we instinctively will, +that where we think of one in him there come crowding to memory's door +many more in one's self. A man's weak point is usually the extreme +opposite swing of the pendulum on his strong point. Paul had a tremendous +will. He was a giant, a Hercules in his will. Those tireless journeys with +their terrific experiences, all spell out <i>will</i> large and black. But, +gently now, he went to extremes here. Was it due to his overtired nerves? +Likely enough. He was obstinate, <i>sometimes;</i> stubborn; set in his way: +<i>sometimes</i> head down, jaw locked, driving hard. Say it all <i>softly</i>, for +we are speaking of dear old saintly Paul; but, to help, <i>say</i> it, for it +is true.</p> + +<p>God had a hard time holding Paul to <i>His</i> plans. Paul had some of his own. +We can all easily understand that. Take a side glance or two as he is +pushing eagerly, splendidly on. Turn to that sixteenth chapter of +Acts,<sup><a href="#fn19">19</a></sup> and listen: "Having been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak +the word in (the province of) Asia," coupled with the fact of sickness +being allowed to overtake him in Galatia where the "forbidding" message +came. And again this, "they assayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of +Jesus suffered them not."<sup><a href="#fn20">20</a></sup> Tell me, is this the way the Spirit of God +leads? That I should go driving ahead until He must pull me up with a +sharp turn, and twist me around! It is the way He is obliged to do many +times, no doubt, with most of us. But His chosen way? His own way? Surely +not. Rather this, the keeping close, and quiet and listening for the next +step. Rather the "I go not up yet unto this feast" of Jesus.<sup><a href="#fn21">21</a></sup> And then +in a few days going up, evidently when the clear intimation came. These +words, "assayed to go," "forbidden," "suffered not"—what flashlights they +let into this strong man's character.</p> + +<p>But there is much stronger evidence yet. Paul had an ambition to preach to +the <i>Jerusalem Jews</i>. It burned in his bones from the early hours of his +new life. The substratum of "<i>Jerusalem</i>" seemed ever in his thoughts and +dreams. If <i>he</i> could just get to those Jerusalem Jews! He knew them. He +had trained with them. He was a leader among the younger set. When they +burned against these Christians he burned just a bit hotter. They knew +him. They trusted him to drive the opposite wedge. If only <i>he</i> could have +a chance down there he felt that the tide might be turned. But from that +critical hour on the Damascene road "<i>Gentiles—Gentiles</i>" had been +sounded in his ears. And he obeyed, of course he obeyed, with all his +ardent heart. <i>But, but</i>—those <i>Jerusalem Jews</i>! If he might go to +Jerusalem! Yet very early the Master had proscribed the Jerusalem service +for Paul. He made it a matter of a special vision,<sup><a href="#fn22">22</a></sup> in the holy temple, +kindly explaining why. "They will not receive of <i>thee</i> testimony +concerning Me." Would that not seem quite sufficient? Surely. Yet this +astonishing thing occurs:—Paul attempts to argue with the Master <i>why</i> he +should be allowed to go. This is going to great lengths; a subordinate +arguing with his commanding general after the orders have been issued! The +Master closes the vision with a peremptory word of command, "<i>depart</i>. I +will send thee <i>far hence</i> (from Jerusalem, where you long to be), to the +Gentiles." That is a picture of this man. It reveals the weak side in +this giant of strength and of love. And <i>this</i> is the man God has to use +in His plan. He is without doubt the best man available. And in his +splendour he stands head and shoulders above his generation and many +generations. Yet (with much reverence) God has a hard time getting Paul to +work always along the line of <i>His</i> plans.</p> + +<p>That is the man. Now for the thorn. Something came into Paul's life that +was a constant irritation. He calls it a thorn. What a graphic word! A +sharp point prodding into his flesh, ever prodding, sticking, sticking in; +asleep, awake, stitching tent canvas, preaching, writing, that thing ever +cutting its point into his sensitive flesh. Ugh! It did not disturb him so +much at first, because <i>there was God</i> to go to. He went to God and said, +"<i>Please</i> take this away." But it stayed and stuck. A second time the +prayer; a bit more urgent; the thing sticks so. The time test is the +hardest test of all. Still no change. Then praying the third time with +what earnestness one can well imagine.</p> + +<p>Now note three things: First, <i>There was an answer</i>. God answered <i>the +man</i>. Though He did not grant the petition, He answered the man. He did +not ignore him nor his request. Then God told Paul frankly that it was not +best to take the thorn away. It was in the lonely vigil of a sleepless +night, likely as not, that the wondrous Jesus-Spirit drew near to Paul. +Inaudibly to outer ear but very plainly to his inner ear, He spoke in +tones modulated into tender softness as of dearest friend talking with +dear friend. "Paul," the voice said, "I know about that thorn—and how it +hurts—it hurts Me, too. For <i>your</i> sake, I would quickly, so quickly +remove it. But—Paul"—and the voice becomes still softer—"it is a bit +better for <i>others</i>' sake that it remain: the plan in My heart <i>through +you</i> for thousands, yes, unnumbered thousands, Paul, can so best be worked +out." That was the first part of what He said. And Paul lies thinking with +a deep tinge of awe over his spirit. Then after a bit in yet quieter voice +He went on to say, "I will be so close to your side; you shall have such +revelations of My glory that the pain will be clear overlapped, Paul; the +glory shall outstrip the eating thorn point."</p> + +<p>I can see old Paul one night in his own hired house in Rome. It is late, +after a busy day; the auditors have all gone. He is sitting on an old +bench, slowing down before seeking sleep. One arm is around Luke, dear +faithful Doctor Luke, and the other around young Timothy, not quite so +young now. And with eyes that glisten, and utterance tremulous with +emotion he is just saying:—"And dear old friends, do you know, I would +not have missed this thorn, for the wondrous glory"—and his heart gets +into his voice, there is a touch of the hoarseness of deep emotion, and a +quavering of tone, so he waits a moment—"the wondrous <i>glory-presence of +Jesus</i> that came with it."</p> + +<p>And so out of the experience came a double blessing. There was a much +fuller working of God's plan for His poor befooled world. And there was an +unspeakable nearness of intimacy with his Lord for Paul. <i>The man was +answered and the petition denied that the larger plan of service might be +carried out</i>.</p> + + + +<h4>Shaping a Prayer on the Anvil of the Knees.</h4> + + +<p>The last of these pictures is like Raphael's Sistine Madonna in the +Dresden gallery; it is in a room by itself. One enters with a holy hush +over his spirit, and, with awe in his eyes, looks at <i>Jesus in +Gethsemane</i>. There is the Kidron brook, the gentle rise of ground, the +grove of gnarled knotty old olive trees. The moon above is at the full. +Its brightness makes these shadowed recesses the darker; blackly dark. +Here is a group of men lying on the ground apparently asleep. Over yonder +deeper in among the trees a smaller group reclines motionless. They, too, +sleep. And, look, farther in yet is that lone figure; all alone; nevermore +alone; save once—on the morrow.</p> + +<p>There is a foreshadowing of this Gethsemane experience in the requested +interview of the Greeks just a few intense days before. In the vision +which the Greeks unconsciously brought the agony of the olive grove began. +The climax is among these moon-shadowed trees. How sympathetic those inky +black shadows! It takes bright light to make black shadows. Yet they were +not black enough. Intense men can get so absorbed in the shadows as to +forget the light.</p> + +<p>This great Jesus! Son of God: God the Son. The Son of Man: God—a man! No +draughtsman's pencil ever drew the line between His divinity and humanity; +nor ever shall. For the union of divine and human is itself divine, and +therefore clear beyond human ken. Here His humanity stands out, +pathetically, luminously stands out. Let us speak of it very softly and +think with the touch of awe deepening for this is holiest ground. The +battle of the morrow is being fought out here. Calvary is in Gethsemane. +The victory of the hill is won in the grove.</p> + +<p>It is sheer impossible for man with sin grained into his fibre through +centuries to understand the horror with which a sinless one thinks of +actual contact with sin. As Jesus enters the grove that night it comes in +upon His spirit with terrific intensity that He is actually coming into +contact—with a meaning quite beyond us—coming into contact with sin. In +some way all too deep for definition He is to be "made sin."<sup><a href="#fn23">23</a></sup> The +language used to describe His emotions is so strong that no adequate +English words seem available for its full expression. An indescribable +horror, a chill of terror, a frenzy of fright seizes Him. The poisonous +miasma of sin seems to be filling His nostrils and to be stifling Him. And +yonder alone among the trees the agony is upon Him. The extreme grips Him. +May there not yet possibly be some other way rather than <i>this—this!</i> A +bit of that prayer comes to us in tones strangely altered by deepest +emotion. "<i>If it be possible—let this cup pass</i>." There is still a +clinging to a possibility, some possibility other than that of this +nightmare vision. The writer of the Hebrews lets in light here. The strain +of spirit almost snaps the life-thread. And a parenthetical prayer for +strength goes up. And the angels come with sympathetic strengthening. With +what awe must they have ministered! Even after that some of the red life +slips out there under the trees. By and by a calmer mood asserts itself, +and out of the darkness a second petition comes. It tells of the tide's +turning, and the victory full and complete. <i>A changed, petition</i> this! +"<i>Since this cup may not pass</i>—since only thus <i>can</i> Thy great plan for a +world be wrought out—<i>Thy—will</i>"—slowly but very distinctly the words +come—"<i>Thy—will—be—done.</i>"</p> + +<p><i>The changed prayer was wrought out upon His knees!</i> With greatest +reverence, and a hush in our voices, let us say that there alone with the +Father came the clearer understanding of the Father's actual will under +these circumstances.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Into the woods my Master went</div> +<div class="line">Clean forspent, forspent;</div> +<div class="line">Into the woods my Master came</div> +<div class="line">Forspent with love and shame.</div> +<div class="line">But the olives they were not blind to Him,</div> +<div class="line">The little gray leaves were kind to Him;</div> +<div class="line">The thorn-tree had a mind to Him</div> +<div class="line">When into the woods He came.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Out of the woods my Master went</div> +<div class="line">And He was well content;</div> +<div class="line">Out of the woods my Master came</div> +<div class="line">Content with death and shame.</div> +<div class="line">When death and shame would woo Him last</div> +<div class="line">From under the trees they drew Him last</div> +<div class="line">'Twas on a tree they slew Him—last</div> +<div class="line">When out of the woods He came."<sup><a href="#fn24">24</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>True prayer is wrought out upon the knees alone with God. With deepest +reverence, and in awed tones, let it be said, that <i>that was true of +Jesus</i> in the days of His humanity. How infinitely more of us!</p> + +<p>Shall we not plan to meet God alone, habitually, with the door shut, and +the Book open, and the will pliant so we may be trained for this holy +partnership of prayer. Then will come the clearer vision, the broader +purpose, the truer wisdom, the real unselfishness, the simplicity of +claiming and expecting, the delights of fellowship in service with Him; +then too will come great victories for God in His world. Although we +shall not begin to know by direct knowledge a tithe of the story until the +night be gone and the dawning break and the ink-black shadows that now +stain the earth shall be chased away by the brightness of His presence.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch02-3"> +<h3>The Great Outside Hindrance</h3><h4>The Traitor Prince.</h4> + + +<p>There remains yet a word to be said about hindrances. It is a most +important word; indeed the climactic word. What has been said is simply +clearing the way for what is yet to be said. A very strange phase of +prayer must be considered here. Strange only because not familiar. Yet +though strange it contains the whole heart of the question. Here lies the +fight of the fight. One marvels that so little is said of it. For if there +were clear understanding here, and then faithful practicing, there would +be mightier defeats and victories: defeats for the foe; victories for our +rightful prince, Jesus.</p> + +<p>The intense fact is this: <i>Satan has the power to hold the answer +back—for awhile; to delay the result—for a time</i>. He has not the power +to hold it back finally, <i>if</i> some one understands and prays with quiet, +steady persistence. The real pitch of prayer therefore is Satanward.</p> + +<p>Our generation has pretty much left this individual Satan out. It is +partly excusable perhaps. The conceptions of Satan and his hosts and +surroundings made classical by such as Dante and Milton and Doré have +done much to befog the air. Almost universally they have been taken +literally whether so meant or not. One familiar with Satan's +characteristics can easily imagine his cunning finger in that. He is +willing even to be caricatured, or to be left out of reckoning, if so he +may tighten his grip.</p> + +<p>These suggestions of horns and hoofs, of forked tail and all the rest of +it seek to give material form to this being. They are grotesque to an +extreme, and therefore caricatures. A caricature so disproportions and +exaggerates as to make hideous or ridiculous. In our day when every +foundation of knowledge is being examined there has been a natural but +unthinking turning away from the very being of Satan through these +representations of him. Yet where there is a caricature there must be a +true. To revolt from the true, hidden by a caricature, in revolting from +the caricature is easy, but is certainly bad. It is always bad to have the +truth hid from our eyes.</p> + +<p>It is refreshing and fascinating to turn from these classical caricatures +to the scriptural conception of Satan. In this Book he is a being of great +beauty of person, of great dignity of position even yet, endowed with most +remarkable intellectual powers, a prince, at the head of a most +remarkable, compact organization which he has wielded with phenomenal +skill and success in furthering his ambitious purposes.</p> + +<p>And he is not chained yet. I remember a conversation with a young +clergyman one Monday morning in the reading-room of a Young Men's +Christian Association. It was in a certain mining town in the southwest, +which is as full of evil resorts as such places usually are. The day +before, Sunday, had been one of special services, and we had both been +busy and were a bit weary. We were slowing down and chatting leisurely. I +remarked to my friend, "What a glad day it will be when the millennium +comes!" He quickly replied, "I think this is the millennium." "But," I +said, "I thought Satan was to be chained during that time. Doesn't it say +something of that sort in the Book?" "Yes," he replied, "it does. But I +think he is chained now." And I could not resist the answer that came +blurting its way out, "Well, if he is chained, he must have a fairly long +chain: it seems to permit much freedom of action." From all that can be +gathered regarding this mighty prince he is not chained yet. We would do +well to learn more about him. The old military maxim, "Study the enemy," +should be followed more closely here.</p> + +<p>It is striking that the oldest of the Bible books, and the latest, Job and +Revelation, the first word and the last, give such definite information +concerning him. These coupled with the gospel records supply most of the +information available though not all. Those three and a half years of +Jesus' public work is the period of greatest Satanic and demoniac +activity of which any record has been made. Jesus' own allusions to him +are frequent and in unmistakable language. There are four particular +passages to which I want to turn your attention now. Let it not be +supposed, however, that this phase of prayer rests upon a few isolated +passages. Such a serious truth does not hinge upon selected proof texts. +It is woven into the very texture of this Book throughout.</p> + +<p>There are two facts that run through the Bible from one end to the other. +They are like two threads ever crossing in the warp and woof of a finely +woven fabric. Anywhere you run your shears into the web of this Book you +will find these two threads. They run crosswise and are woven inextricably +in. One is a black thread, inky black, pot-black. The other is a bright +thread, like a bit of glory light streaming across. These two threads +everywhere. The one is this—the black thread—there is an enemy. Turn +where you will from Genesis to Revelation—always an enemy. He is keen. He +is subtle. He is malicious. He is cruel. He is obstinate. He is a master. +The second thread is this: the leaders for God have always been men of +prayer above everything else. They are men of power in other ways, +preachers, men of action, with power to sway others but above all else men +of prayer. They give prayer first place. There is one striking exception +to this, namely, King Saul. And most significantly a study of this +exception throws a brilliant lime light upon the career of Satan. King +Sauls seems to furnish the one great human illustration in scripture of +heaven's renegade fallen prince. These special paragraphs to be quoted are +like the pattern in the cloth where the colours of the yarn come into more +definite shape. The gospels form the central pattern of the whole where +the colours pile up into sharpest contrast.</p> + + + +<h4>Praying is Fighting.</h4> + + +<p>But let us turn to the Book at once. For we <i>know</i> only what it tells. The +rest is surmise. The only authoritative statements about Satan seem to be +these here. Turn first to the New Testament.</p> + +<p>The Old Testament is the book of illustrations; the New of explanations, +of teaching. In the Old, teaching is largely by kindergarten methods. The +best methods, for the world was in its child stage. In the New the +teaching is by precept. There is precept teaching in the Old; very much. +There is picture teaching in the New; the gospels full of it. But picture +teaching, acted teaching, is the characteristic of the Old, and precept +teaching of the New. There is a wonderfully vivid picture in the Old +Testament, of this thing we are discussing. But first let us get the +teaching counterpart in the new, and then look at the picture.</p> + +<p>Turn to Ephesians. Ephesians is a prayer epistle. That is a very +significant fact to mark. Of Paul's thirteen letters Ephesians is +peculiarly the prayer letter. Paul is clearly in a prayer mood. He is on +his knees here. He has much to say to these people whom he has won to +Christ, but it comes in the parenthesis of his prayer. The connecting +phrase running through is—"for this cause I pray.... I bow my knees." +Halfway through this rare old man's mind runs out to the condition of +these churches, and he puts in the always needed practical injunctions +about their daily lives. Then the prayer mood reasserts itself, and the +epistle finds its climax in a remarkable paragraph on prayer. From praying +the man goes urging them to pray.</p> + +<p>We must keep the book open here as we talk: chapter six, verses ten to +twenty inclusive. The main drive of all their living and warfare seems +very clear to this scarred veteran:—"that ye may be able to withstand the +wiles of the devil." This man seems to have had no difficulty in believing +in a personal devil. Probably he had had too many close encounters for +that. To Paul Satan is a cunning strategist requiring every bit of +available resource to combat.</p> + +<p>This paragraph states two things:—who the real foe is, against whom the +fight is directed; and, then with climactic intensity it pitches on the +main thing that routs him. Who is the real foe? Listen:—"For our +wrestling is not against flesh and blood"—not against men; never that; +something far, subtler—"but against the principalities"—a word for a +compact organization of individuals,—"against powers"—not only organized +but highly endowed intellectually, "against the world-rulers of this +darkness,"—they are of princely kin; not common folk—"against the hosts +of wicked spirits in the heavenlies"—spirit beings, in vast numbers, +having their headquarters somewhere above the earth. <i>That</i> is the foe. +Large numbers of highly endowed spirit beings, compactly organized, who +are the sovereigns of the present realm or age of moral darkness, having +their <i>headquarters</i> of activity somewhere above the earth, and below the +throne of God, but concerned with human beings upon the earth. In chapter +two of the epistle the head or ruler of this organization is referred to, +"the prince of the powers of the air."<sup><a href="#fn25">25</a></sup> That is the real foe.</p> + +<p>Then in one of his strong piled up climactic sentences Paul tells how the +fight is to be won. This sentence runs unbroken through verses fourteen to +twenty inclusive. There are six preliminary clauses in it leading up to +its main statement. These clauses name the pieces of armour used by a +Roman soldier in the action of battle. The loins girt, the breastplate on, +the feet shod, the shield, the helmet the sword, and so on. A Roman +soldier reading this or, hearing Paul preach it, would expect him to +finish the sentence by saying "<i>with all your fighting strength +fighting</i>."</p> + +<p>That would be the proper conclusion rhetorically of this sentence. But +when Paul reaches the climax with his usual intensity he drops the +rhetorical figure, and puts in the thing with which in our case the +fighting is done—"with all prayer <i>praying</i>." In place of the +expected word fighting is the word praying. The thing with which the +fighting is done is put in place of the word itself. Our fighting is +praying. Praying is fighting, spirit-fighting. That is to say, this old +evangelist-missionary-bishop says, we are in the thick of a fight. There +is a war on. How shall we best fight? First get into good shape to pray, +and then with all your praying strength and skill <i>pray</i>. That word +<i>praying</i> is the climax of this long sentence, and of this whole epistle. +This is the sort of action that turns the enemy's flank, and reveals his +heels. He simply <i>cannot</i> stand before persistent knee-work.</p> + +<p>Now mark the keenness of Paul's description of the man who does most +effective work in praying. There are six qualifications under the figure +of the six pieces of armour. A clear understanding of truth, a clean +obedient life, earnest service, a strongly simple trust in God, clear +assurance of one's own salvation and relation to God, and a good grip of +the truth for others—these things prepare a man for the real conflict of +prayer. <i>Such a man</i>—<i>praying</i>—<i>drives back these hosts of the traitor +prince</i>. Such a man praying is invincible in his Chief, Jesus. The +equipment is simple, and in its beginnings comes quickly to the willing, +earnest heart.</p> + +<p>Look a bit at how the strong climax of this long sentence runs. It is +fairly bristling with points. Soldier-points all of them; like bayonet +points. Just such as a general engaged in a siege-fight would give to his +men. "With all prayer and supplication"—there is <i>intensity</i>; +"praying"—that is <i>the main drive</i>; "at all seasons"—<i>ceaselessness</i>, +night and day; hot and cold; wet and dry; "in the Spirit"—as <i>guided by +the Chief;</i> "and watching thereunto"—<i>sleepless vigilance;</i> watching is +ever a fighting word; watch the enemy; watch your own forces; "with all +perseverance"—<i>persistence</i>; cheery, jaw-locked, dogged persistence, +bulldog tenacity; "and supplication"—<i>intensity again</i>; "for all the +saints"—<i>the sweep of the action</i>, keep in touch with the whole army; +"and on my behalf"—the human leader, rally around <i>the immediate leader.</i> +This is the foe to be fought. And this the sort of fighting that defeats +this foe.</p> + + + +<h4>A double Wrestling Match.</h4> + + +<p>Now turn back to the illustration section of our Book for a remarkably +graphic illustration of these words. It is in the old prophecy of Daniel, +tenth chapter. The story is this: Daniel is an old man now. He is an +exile. He has not seen the green hills of his fatherland since boyhood. In +this level Babylon, he is homesick for the dear old Palestinian hills, and +he is heartsick over the plight of his people. He has been studying +Jeremiah's prophecies, and finds there the promise plainly made that after +seventy years these exiled Hebrews are to be allowed to return. Go back +again! The thought of it quickens his pulse-beats. He does some quick +counting. The time will soon be up. So Daniel plans a bit of time for +special prayer, a sort of siege prayer.</p> + +<p>Remember who he is—this Daniel. He is the chief executive of the land. He +controls, under the king, the affairs of the world empire of his time. He +is a giant of strength and ability—this man. But he plans his work so as +to go away for a time. Taking a few kindred spirits, who understand +prayer, he goes off into the woods down by the great Tigris River. They +spend a day in fasting, and meditation and prayer. Not utter fasting, but +scant eating of plain food. I suppose they pray awhile; maybe separately, +then together; then read a bit from the Jeremiah parchment, think and talk +it over and then pray some more. And so they spend a whole day reading, +meditating, praying.</p> + +<p>They are expecting an answer. These old-time intercessors were strong in +expectancy. But there is no answer. A second day, a third, a fourth, a +week, still no answer reaches them. They go quietly on without hesitation. +Two weeks. How long it must have seemed! Think of fourteen days spent +<i>waiting</i>; waiting for something, with your heart on tenter hooks. There +is no answer. God might have been dead, to adapt the words of Catharine +Luther, so far as any answer reaching them is concerned. But you cannot +befool Daniel in that way. He is an old hand at prayer. Apparently he has +no thought of quitting. He goes quietly, steadily on. Twenty days pass, +with no change. Still they persist. Then the twenty-first day comes and +there is an answer. It comes in a vision whose glory is beyond human +strength to bear. By and by when they can talk, his visitor and he, this +is what Daniel hears: "Daniel, the first day you began to pray, your +prayer was heard, and I was sent with the answer." And even Daniel's eyes +open big—"the <i>first</i> day—three weeks ago?" "Yes, three weeks ago I left +the presence of God with the answer to your prayer. But"—listen, here is +the strange part—"the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, +resisted me, one and twenty days: but Michael, your prince, came to help +me, and I was free to come to you with the answer to your prayer."</p> + +<p>Please notice four things that I think any one reading this chapter will +readily admit. This being talking with Daniel is plainly a spirit being. +He is opposed by some one. This opponent plainly must be a spirit being, +too, to be resisting a spirit being. Daniel's messenger is from God: that +is clear. Then the opponent must be from the opposite camp. And here comes +in the thing strange, unexpected, the evil spirit being <i>has the power to +detain, hold back God's messenger</i> for three full weeks by earth's +reckoning of time. Then reenforcements come, as we would say. The evil +messenger's purpose is defeated, and God's messenger is free to come as +originally planned.</p> + +<p>There is a double scene being enacted. A scene you can see, and a scene +you cannot see. An unseen wrestling match in the upper spirit realm, and +two embodied spirit beings down on their faces by the river. And both +concerned over the same thing.</p> + +<p>That is the Daniel story. What an acted out illustration it is of Paul's +words. It is a picture glowing with the action of real life. It is a +double picture. Every prayer action is in doubles; a lower human level; an +upper spirit level. Many see only the seen, and lose heart. While we look +at the things that are seen, let us gaze intently at the things unseen; +for the seen things are secondary, but the unseen are chief, and the +action of life is being decided there.</p> + +<p>Here is the lower, the seen;—a group of men, led by a man of executive +force enough to control an empire, prone on their faces, with minds clear, +quiet, alert, persistently, ceaselessly <i>praying</i> day by day. Here is the +upper, the unseen:—a "wrestling," keen, stubborn, skilled, going on +between two spirit princes in the spirit realm. And by Paul's explanation +the two are vitally connected. Daniel and his companions are wrestlers +too, active participants in that upper-air fight, and really deciding the +issue, for they are on the ground being contested. These men are indeed +praying with all prayer and supplication at all times, in the Spirit, and +watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication, and <i>at length +victory comes</i>.</p> + + + +<h4>Prayer Concerns Three.</h4> + + +<p>Now a bit of a look at the central figure of the pattern. Jesus lets in a +flood of light on Satan's relation to prayer in one of His prayer +parables. There are two parables dealing distinctively with prayer: "the +friend at midnight,"<sup><a href="#fn26">26</a></sup> and "the unjust judge."<sup><a href="#fn27">27</a></sup> The second of these +deals directly with this Satan phase of prayer. It is Luke through whom we +learn most of Jesus' own praying who preserves for us this remarkable +prayer picture.</p> + +<p>It comes along towards the end. The swing has been made from plain talking +to the less direct, parable-form of teaching. The issue with the national +leaders has reached its acutest stage. The culmination of their hatred, +short of the cross, found vent in charging Him with being inspired by the +spirit of Satan. He felt their charge keenly and answered it directly and +fully. His parable of the strong man being bound before his house can be +rifled comes in here. <i>They</i> had no question as to what that meant. That +is the setting of this prayer parable. The setting is a partial +interpretation. Let us look at this parable rather closely, for it is full +of help for those who would become skilled in helping God win His world +back home again.</p> + +<p>Jesus seems so eager that they shall not miss the meaning here that He +departs from His usual habit and says plainly what this parable is meant +to teach:—"that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." The great +essential, He says, is <i>prayer</i>. The great essential in prayer is +<i>persistence</i>. The temptation in prayer is that one may lose heart, and +give up, or give in. "Not-to-faint" tells how keen the contest is.</p> + +<p>There are three persons in the parable; a judge, a widow, and an +adversary. The judge is utterly selfish, unjust, godless, and reckless of +anybody's opinion. The worst sort of man, indeed, the last sort of man to +be a judge. Inferentially he knows that the right of the case before him +is with the widow. The widow—well, she is a <i>widow</i>. Can more be said to +make the thing vivid and pathetic! A very picture of friendlessness and +helplessness is a widow. A woman needs a friend. This woman has lost her +nearest, dearest friend; her protector. She is alone. There is an +adversary, an opponent at law, who has unrighteously or illegally gotten +an advantage over the widow and is ruthlessly pushing her to the wall. She +is seeking to get the judge to join with her against her adversary. Her +urgent, oft repeated request is, "avenge me of mine adversary." That is +Jesus' pictorial illustration of persistent prayer.</p> + +<p>Let us look into it a little further. "Adversary" is a common word in +scripture for Satan. He is the accuser, the hater, the enemy, the +adversary. Its meaning technically is "an opponent in a suit at law." It +is the same word as used later by Peter, "Your adversary the devil as a +roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour."<sup><a href="#fn28">28</a></sup> The word +"avenge" used four times really means, "do me justice." It suggests that +the widow has the facts on her side to win a clear case, and that the +adversary has been bully-ragging his case through by sheer force.</p> + +<p>There is a strange feature to this parable, which must have a meaning. <i>An +utterly godless unscrupulous man is put in to represent God!</i> This is +startling. In any other than Jesus it would seem an overstepping of the +bounds. But there is keenness of a rare sort here. Such a man is chosen +for judge to bring out most sharply this:—the sort of thing required to +win this judge is certainly not required <i>with God</i>. The widow must +persist and plead because of the sort of man she has to deal with. But God +is utterly different in character. Therefore while persistence is urged in +prayer plainly it is not for the reason that required the widow to +persist. And if that reason be cut out it leaves only one other, namely, +that represented by the adversary.</p> + +<p>Having purposely put such a man in the parable for God, Jesus takes pains +to speak of the real character of God. "And He is <i>long-suffering</i> over +them." <i>That</i> is God. That word "long-suffering" and its equivalent on +Jesus' lips suggests at once the strong side of love, namely, <i>patience</i>, +gentle, fine patience. It has bothered the scholars in this phrase to know +with whom or over what the long-suffering is exercised. "Over them" is the +doubtful phrase. Long-suffering over these praying ones? <i>Or</i>, +long-suffering in dealing righteously with some stubborn adversary—which? +The next sentence has a word set in sharpest contrast with this one, +namely "speedily." "Long-suffering" yet "speedily."</p> + +<p>Here are gleams of bright light on a dark subject with apparently more +light obscured than is allowed to shine through. Jesus always spoke +thoughtfully. He chooses His words. Remembering the adversary against whom +the persistence is directed the whole story seems to suggest this: that +there is <i>a great conflict on</i> in the upper spirit world. Concerning it +our patient God is long-suffering. He is a just and righteous God. These +beings in the conflict are all His creatures. He is just in His dealings +with the devil and this splendid host of evil spirits even as with all His +creation. He is long-suffering that no unfairness shall be done in His +dealings with these creatures of His. Yet at the same time He is doing His +best to bring the conflict to a speedy end, for the sake of His loyal +loved ones, and that right may prevail.</p> + +<p>The upshot of the parable is very plain. It contains for us two +tremendous, intense truths. First is this: <i>prayer concerns three</i>, not +two but three. God to whom we pray, the man on the contested earth who +prays, and the evil one against whom we pray. And the purpose of the +prayer is not to persuade or influence God, but to join forces with Him +against the enemy. Not towards God, but with God against Satan—that is +the main thing to keep in mind in prayer. The real pitch is not Godward +but Satanward.</p> + +<p>The second intense truth is this:—the winning quality in prayer is +<i>persistence</i>. The final test is here. This is the last ditch. Many who +fight well up to this point lose their grip here, and so lose all. Many +who are well equipped for prayer fail here, and doubtless fail because +they have not rightly understood. With clear, ringing tones the Master's +voice sounds in our ears again to-day, "always to pray, <i>and</i> not to +faint."</p> + + + +<h4>A Stubborn Foe Routed.</h4> + + +<p>That is the parable teaching. Now a look at a plain out word from the +Master's lips. It is in the story of the demonized boy, the distressed +father, and the defeated disciples, at the foot of the transfiguration +mountain.<sup><a href="#fn29">29</a></sup> Extremes meet here surely. The mountain peak is in sharpest +contrast with the valley. The demon seems to be of the superlative degree. +His treatment of the possessed boy is malicious to an extreme. His purpose +is "to destroy" him. Yet there is a limit to his power, for what he would +do he has not yet been able to do. He shows extreme tenacity. He fought +bitterly against being disembodied again. (Can it be that embodiment eases +in some way the torture of existence for these prodigal spirits!) And so +far he fought well, and with success. The disciples had tried to cast him +out. They were expected to. They expected to. They had before. They +failed!--dismally—amid the sneering and jeering of the crowd and the +increasing distress of the poor father.</p> + +<p>Then Jesus came. Was some of the transfiguring glory still lingering in +that great face? It would seem so. The crowd was "amazed" when they saw +Him, and "saluted" Him. His presence changed all. The demon angrily left, +doing his worst to wreck the house he had to vacate. The boy is restored; +and the crowd astonished at the power of God.</p> + +<p>Then these disciples did a very keen thing. They made some bad blunders +but this is not one of them. They sought a private talk with Jesus. No +shrewder thing was ever done. When you fail, quit your service and get +away for a private interview with Jesus. With eyes big, and voices +dejected, the question wrung itself out of their sinking hearts, "Why +could not <i>we</i> cast it out?" Matthew and Mark together supply the full +answer. Probably first came this:—"because of your little faith." They +had quailed in their hearts before the power of this malicious demon. And +the demon knew it. They were more impressed with the power of the demon +than with the power of God. And the demon saw it. They had not prayed +victoriously against the demon. The Master says, "faith only as big as a +mustard seed (you cannot measure the strength of the mustard seed by its +size) will say to this mountain—'Remove.'" Mark keenly:—the direction of +the faith is towards the obstacle. Its force is against the enemy. It was +the demon who was most directly influenced by Jesus' faith.</p> + +<p>Then comes the second part of the reply:—"This kind can come out by +nothing but by prayer." Some less-stubborn demons may be cast out by the +faith that comes of our regular prayer-touch with God. This extreme sort +takes special prayer. This kind of a demon goes out by prayer. It can be +put out by nothing less. The real victory must be in the secret place. The +exercise of faith in the open battle is then a mere pressing of the +victory already won. These men had the language of Jesus on their lips, +but they had not gotten the victory first off somewhere alone. This demon +is determined not to go. He fights stubbornly and strongly. He succeeds. +Then this <i>Man of Prayer</i> came. The quiet word of command is spoken. The +demon must go. These disciples were strikingly like some of us. They had +not <i>realized</i> where the real victory is won. They had used the word of +command to the demon, doubtless coupling Jesus' name with it. But there +was not the secret touch with God that gives victory. Their eyes showed +their fear of the demon.</p> + +<p>Prayer, real prayer, intelligent prayer, it is this that routs Satan's +demons, for it routs their chief. David killed the lion and bear in the +secret forests before he faced the giant in the open. These disciples were +facing the giant in the open without the discipline in secret. "This kind +can be compelled to come out by nothing but by prayer," means this:—"this +kind comes out, and must come out, before the man who prays." This thing +which Jesus calls prayer casts out demons. Would that we knew better by +experience what He meant by prayer. It exerts a positive influence upon +the hosts of evil spirits. They fear it. They fear the man who becomes +skilled in its use.</p> + +<p>There are yet many other passages in this Bible fully as explicit as +these, and which give on the very surface just such plain teaching as +these. The very language of scripture throughout is full of this truth. +But these four great instances are quite sufficient to make the present +point clear and plain. This great renegade prince is an actual active +factor in the lives of men. He believes in the potency of prayer. He fears +it. He can hinder its results for a while. He does his best to hinder it, +and to hinder as long as possible.</p> + +<p><i>Prayer overcomes him.</i> It defeats his plans and himself. He cannot +successfully stand before it. He trembles when some man of simple faith in +God prays. Prayer is insistence upon God's will being done. It needs for +its practice a man in sympathetic touch with God. Its basis is Jesus' +victory. It overcomes the opposing will of the great traitor-leader.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="chapter" id="ch03"> +<h2>III. How to Pray</h2> + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch03-1">The "How" of Relationship.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-2">The "How" of Method.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-3">The Listening Side of Prayer. </a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-4">Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-5">May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones?</a></li> +</ol> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-1"> +<h3>The "How" of Relationship</h3><h4>God's Ambassadors.</h4> + + +<p>If I had an ambition to be the ambassador of this country to our +mother-country, there would be two essential things involved. The first +and great essential would be to receive the appointment. I would need to +come into certain relation with our president, to possess certain +qualifications considered essential by him, and to secure from his hand +the appointment, and the official credentials of my appointment. That +would establish my relationship to the foreign court as the representative +of my own country, and my right to transact business in her name.</p> + +<p>But having gotten that far I might go over there and make bad mistakes. I +might get our diplomatic relations tangled up, requiring many +explanations, and maybe apologies, and leaving unpleasant memories for a +long time to come. Such incidents have not been infrequent. Nations are +very sensitive. Governmental affairs must be handled with great nicety. +There would be a second thing which if I were a wise enough man to be an +ambassador I would likely do. I would go to see John Hay and Joseph H. +Choate, and have as many interviews with them as possible, and learn all I +possibly could from them of London official life, court etiquette, +personages to be dealt with, things to do, and things to avoid. How to be +a successful diplomat and further the good feeling between the two +governments, and win friends for our country among the sturdy Britons +would be my one absorbing thought. And having gotten all I could in that +way I would be constantly on the alert with all the mental keenness I +could command to practice being a successful ambassador.</p> + +<p>The first of these would make me technically an ambassador. The second +would tend towards giving me some skill as an ambassador. Now there are +the same two how's in praying. First the relationship must be established +before any business can be transacted. Then skill must be acquired in the +transacting of the business on hand.</p> + +<p>Just now, we want to talk about the first of these, the how of +relationship in prayer. The basis of prayer is right relationship with +God. Prayer is representing God in the spirit realm of this world. It is +insisting upon His rights down in this sphere of action. It is standing +for Him with full powers from Him. Clearly the only basis of such +relationship to God is <i>Jesus</i>. We have been outlawed by sin. We were in +touch with God. We broke with Him. The break could not be repaired by us. +Jesus came. He was God <i>and</i> Man. He touches both. We get back through +Him, and only so. The blood of the cross is the basis of all prayer. +Through it the relationship is established that underlies all prayer. Only +as I come to God through Jesus to get the sin score straightened, and only +as I keep in sympathy with Jesus in the purpose of my life can I practice +prayer.</p> + + + +<h4>Six Sweeping Statements.</h4> + + +<p>Jesus' own words make this very clear. There are two groups of teachings +on prayer in those three and a half years as given by the gospel records. +The first of these groups is in the Sermon on the Mount which Jesus +preached about half-way through the second year of His ministry. The +second group comes sheer at the end. All of it is in the last six months, +and most of it in the last ten days, and much of that on the very eve of +that last tragic day.</p> + +<p>It is after the sharp rupture with the leaders that this second series of +statements is made. The most positive, and most sweeping utterances on +prayer are here. Of Jesus' eight promises regarding prayer six are here. I +want to ask you please to notice these six promises or statements; and +then, to notice their relation to our topic of to-day.</p> + +<p>In Matthew 18:19, 20, is the first of these. "Again I say unto you, that +if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they Shall +ask, it shall be done for them of My Father who is in heaven." Notice the +place of prayer—"on earth"; and the sweep—"anything"; and the +positiveness—"it shall be done." Then the reason why is given. "For where +two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of +them." That is to say, if there are two persons praying, there are three. +If three meet to pray, there are four praying. There is always one more +than you can see. And if you might perhaps be saying to yourself in a bit +of dejection, "He'll not hear me: I'm so sinful: so weak"—you would be +wrong in thinking and saying so, but then we do think and say things that +are not right—<i>if</i> you might be thinking that, you could at once fall +back upon this: the Father always hears Jesus. And wherever earnest hearts +pray Jesus is there taking their prayer and making it His prayer.</p> + +<p>The second of these: Mark 11:22-24, "Jesus answering saith unto them, have +faith in God"—with the emphasis double-lined under the word "God." The +chief factor in prayer is God. "Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say +unto this mountain, be thou taken up and cast into the sea—" Choosing, do +you see the unlikeliest thing that might occur. Such a thing did not take +place. We never hear of Jesus moving an actual mountain. The need for such +action does not seem to have arisen. But He chooses the thing most +difficult for His illustration. Can you imagine a mountain moving off into +the sea—the Jungfrau, or Blanc, or Rainier? If you know mountains down in +your country you cannot imagine it actually occurring. "—And shall not +doubt in his heart—" That is Jesus' definition of faith. "—But shall +believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore, I +say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye +receive them, and ye shall have them." How utterly sweeping this last +statement! And to make it more positive it is preceded by the emphatic +"therefore—I—say—unto—you." Both whatsoever and whosoever are here. +Anything, and anybody. We always feel instinctively as though these +statements need careful guarding: a few fences put up around them. Wait a +bit and we shall see what the Master's own fence is.</p> + +<p>The last four of the six are in John's gospel. In that last long quiet +talk on the night in which He was betrayed. John preserves much of that +heart-talk for us in chapters thirteen to seventeen.</p> + +<p>Here in John 14:13, 14: "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, that will I do." The repetition is to emphasize the +unlimited sweep of what may be asked.</p> + +<p>John 15:7: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you—" That word +abide is a strong word. It does not mean to leave your cards; nor to hire +a night's lodging; nor to pitch a tent, or run up a miner's shanty, or a +lumberman's shack. It means moving in to stay. "—Ask whatsoever ye +will—" The Old Version says, "ye shall ask." But here the revised is more +accurate: "Ask; please ask; I ask you to ask." There is nothing said +directly about God's will. There is something said about our wills. "—And +it shall be done unto you." Or, a little more literally, "I will bring it +to pass for you."</p> + +<p>I remember the remark quoted to me by a friend one day. His church +membership is in the Methodist Church of the North, but his service +crosses church lines both in this country and abroad. He was talking with +one of the bishops of that church whose heart was in the foreign mission +field. The bishop was eager to have this friend serve as missionary +secretary of his church. But he knew, as everybody knows, how difficult +appointments oftentimes are in all large bodies. He was earnestly +discussing the matter with my friend, and made this remark: "If you will +allow the use of your name for this appointment, <i>I will lay myself out</i> +to have it made." Now if you will kindly not think there is any lack of +reverence in my saying so—and there is surely none in my thought—that is +the practical meaning of Jesus' words here. "If you abide in Me, and My +words sway you, you please ask what it is your will to ask. And—softly, +reverently now—I will lay Myself out to bring that thing to pass for +you." That is the force of His words here.</p> + +<p>This same chapter, sixteenth verse: "Ye did not choose Me, but I chose +you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your +fruit should abide; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, +He may give it you." God had our prayer partnership with Himself in His +mind in choosing us. And the last of these, John 16:23, 24, second clause, +"Verily, verily, I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father, +He will give it you in My name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: +ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled."</p> + +<p>These statements are the most sweeping to be found anywhere in the +Scriptures regarding prayer. There is no limitation as to who shall ask, +nor the kind of thing to be asked for. There are three limitations +imposed: the prayer is to be <i>through Jesus</i>; the person praying is to be +in fullest sympathy with Him; and this person is to have faith.</p> + + + +<h4>Words With a Freshly Honed Razor-Edge.</h4> + + +<p>Now please group these six sweeping statements in your mind and hold them +together there. Then notice carefully this fact. These words are not +spoken to the crowds. They are spoken to the small inner group of twelve +disciples. Jesus talks one way to the multitude. He oftentimes talks +differently to these men who have separated themselves from the crowd and +come into the inner circle.</p> + +<p>And notice further that before Jesus spoke these words to this group of +men He had said something else first. Something very radical; so radical +that it led to a sharp passage between Himself and Peter, to whom He +speaks very sternly. This something else fixes unmistakably their relation +to Himself. Remember that the sharp break with the national leaders has +come. Jesus is charged with Satanic collusion. The death plot is +determined upon. The breach with the leaders is past the healing point. +And now the Master is frequently slipping away from the crowd with these +twelve men, and seeking to teach and train them. That is the setting of +these great promises. It must be kept continually in mind.</p> + +<p>Before the Master gave Himself away to these men in these promises He said +this something else. It is this. I quote Matthew's account: "If any man +would come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross (daily, +Luke's addition) and follow Me<sup><a href="#fn30">30</a></sup>." <i>These words should be written +crosswise over those six prayer statements</i>. Jesus never spoke a keener +word. Those six promises are not meant for all. Let it be said very +plainly. They are meant only for those who will square their lives by +these razor-edged words.</p> + +<p>I may not go fully into the significance of these deep-cutting words here. +They have been gone into at some length in a previous set of talks as +suggesting the price of power. To him whose heart burns for power in +prayer I urge a careful review of that talk in this new setting of it. "If +any man would come after Me" means a rock-rooted purpose; the jaw locked; +the tendrils of the purpose going down around and under the gray granite +of a man's will, and tying themselves there; and knotting the ties; sailor +knots, that you cannot undo.</p> + +<p>"Come after Me" means all the power of Jesus' life, and has the other +side, too. It means the wilderness, the intense temptation. It may mean +the obscure village of Nazareth for you. It may mean that first Judean +year for you—lack of appreciation. It may mean for you that last six +months—the desertion of those hitherto friendly. It will mean without +doubt a Gethsemane. Everybody who comes along after Jesus has a Gethsemane +in his life. It will never mean as much to you as it meant to Him. That is +true. But, then, it will mean everything to you. And it will mean too +having a Calvary in your life in a very real sense, though different from +what that meant to Him. This sentence through gives the process whereby +the man with sin grained into the fibre of his will may come into such +relationship with God as to claim without any reservation these great +prayer promises. And if that sound hard and severe to you let me quickly +say that it is an easy way for the man who is <i>willing.</i> The presence of +Jesus in the life overlaps every cutting thing.</p> + +<p>If a man will go through Matthew 16:24, and habitually live there he may +ask what he wills to ask, and that thing will come to pass. The reason, +without question, why many people do not have power in prayer is simply +because they are unwilling—I am just talking very plainly—they are +unwilling to bare their breasts to the keen-edged knife in these words of +Jesus. And on the other side, if a man will quietly, resolutely follow the +Master's leading—nothing extreme—nothing fanatical, or morbid, just a +quiet going where that inner Voice plainly leads day by day, he will be +startled to find what an utterly new meaning prayer will come to have for +him.</p> + + + +<h4>The Controlling Purpose.</h4> + + +<p>Vital relationship is always expressed by purpose. The wise ambassador has +an absorbing purpose to further the interests of his government. Jesus +said, and it at once reveals His relationship to God, "I do always those +things that are well pleasing to him."</p> + +<p>The relationship that underlies prayer has an absorbing purpose. Its +controlling purpose is to please Jesus. That sentence may sound simple +enough. But, do you know, there is no sentence I might utter that has a +keener, a more freshly honed razor-edge to it than that. That the purpose +which <i>controls</i> my action in every matter be this: to please Him. If you +have not done so, take it for a day, a week, and use it as a touch stone +regarding thought, word and action. Take it into matters personal, home, +business, social, fraternal. It does not mean to ask, "Is this right? is +this wrong?" Not that. Not the driving of a keen line between wrong and +right. There are a great many things that can be proven to be not wrong, +but that are not best, that are not His preference.</p> + +<p>It will send a business man running his eye along the shelves and counter +of his store. "The controlling purpose to please Jesus ... hm-m-m, I guess +maybe that stuff there ought to come out. Oh, it is not wrong: I can prove +that. My Christian brother-merchants handle it here, and over the country: +but <i>to please Him</i>: a good, clean sixty per cent, profit too, cash money, +but <i>to please Him</i>—" and the stuff must go down and out.</p> + +<p>It would set some woman to thinking about the next time the young people +are to gather in her home for a delightful social evening with her own +daughters. She will think about some forms of pastime that are found +everywhere. They are not wrong, that has been conclusively proven. But <i>to +please Him</i>. Hm-m. And these will go out. And then it will set her to +work with all her God-given woman-wit and exquisite tact to planning an +evening yet more delightful. It will make one think of his personal +habits, his business methods, and social intercourse, the organizations he +belongs to, with the quiet question cutting it razor-way into each.</p> + +<p>And if some one listening may ask: Why put the condition of prayer so +strongly as that? I will remind you of this. The true basis of prayer is +sympathy, oneness of purpose. Prayer is not extracting favours from a +reluctant God. It is not passing a check in a bank window for money. That +is mandatory. The roots of prayer lie down in oneness of purpose. God up +yonder, His Victor-Son by His side, and a man down here, in <i>such +sympathetic touch</i> that God can think His thoughts over in this man's +mind, and have His desires repeated upon the earth as this man's prayer.</p> + + + +<h4>The Threefold Cord of Jesus' Life.</h4> + + +<p>Think for a moment into Jesus' human life down here. His marvellous +activities for those few years over which the world has never ceased to +wonder. Then His underneath hidden-away prayer-life of which only +occasional glimpses are gotten. Then grouping around about that sentence +of His—"I do always the things that are pleasing to Him"—in John's +gospel, pick out the emphatic negatives on Jesus' lips, the "not's": not +My will, not My works, not My words. Jesus came to do somebody's else +will. The controlling purpose of His life was to please His Father. That +was the secret of the power of His earthly career. Right relationship to +God; a secret intimate prayer-life: marvellous power over men and with +men—those are the strands in the threefold cord of His life.</p> + +<p>There is a very striking turn of a word in the second chapter of John's +gospel down almost at its close. The old version says that "Many believed +on His name beholding His signs which He did, but Jesus did not commit +Himself unto them" because He knew them so well. The word "believed," and +the word "commit" are the same word underneath our English. The sentence +might run "many <i>trusted</i> Him beholding what He did; but He did not +<i>trust</i> them for He knew them." I have no doubt most, or all of us here +to-day, trust Him. Let me ask you very softly now: Can He trust you? While +we might all shrink from saying "yes" to that, there is a very real sense +in which we may say "yes," namely, in the purpose of the life. Every life +is controlled by some purpose. What is yours? To please Him? If so He +knows it. It is a great comfort to remember that God judges a man not by +his achievements, but by his purposes: not by what I am, actually, but by +what I would be, in the yearning of my inmost heart, the dominant purpose +of my life. God will fairly flood your life with all the power He can +trust you to use wholly for Him.</p> + +<p>Commercial practice furnishes a simple but striking illustration here. A +man is employed by a business house as a clerk. His ability and honesty +come to be tested in many ways constantly. He is promoted gradually, his +responsibilities increased. As he proves himself thoroughly reliable he is +trusted more and more, until by and by as need arises he becomes the +firm's confidential clerk. He knows its secrets. He is trusted with the +combination to the inner box in the vault. Because it has been proven by +actual test that he will use everything only for the best interests of his +house, and not selfishly.</p> + +<p>Here, where we are dealing, the whole thing moves up to an infinitely +higher level, but the principle does not change. If I will come into the +relationship implied in these words:—it shall be the one controlling +desire and purpose of my life to do the things that please Him—then I may +ask for what I will, and it shall be done. That is how to pray: the how of +relationship. The man who will live in Matthew 16:24, and follow Jesus as +He leads: simply that: no fanaticism, no morbidism, no extremism, just +simply follow as He leads, day by day,—then those six promises of Jesus +with their wonderful sweep, their limitless sweep are his to use as he +will.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-2"> +<h3>The "How" of Method</h3><h4>Touching the Hidden Keys.</h4> + + +<p>One of the most remarkable illustrations in recent times of the power of +prayer, may be found in the experience of Mr. Moody. It explains his +unparalleled career of world-wide soul winning. One marvels that more has +not been said of it. Its stimulus to faith is great. I suppose the man +most concerned did not speak of it much because of his fine modesty. The +last year of his life he referred to it more frequently as though impelled +to.</p> + +<p>The last time I heard Mr. Moody was in his own church in Chicago. It was, +I think, in the fall of the last year of his life. One morning in the old +church made famous by his early work, in a quiet conversational way he +told the story. It was back in the early seventies, when Chicago had been +laid in ashes. "This building was not yet up far enough to do much in," he +said; "so I thought I would slip across the water, and learn what I could +from preachers there, so as to do better work here. I had gone over to +London, and was running around after men there." Then he told of going +one evening to hear Mr. Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle; and +understanding that he was to speak a second time that evening to dedicate +a chapel, Mr. Moody had slipped out of the building and had run along the +street after Mr. Spurgeon's carriage a mile or so, so as to hear him the +second time. Then he smiled, and said quietly, "I was running around after +men like that."</p> + +<p>He had not been speaking anywhere, he said, but listening to others. One +day, Saturday, at noon, he had gone into the meeting in Exeter Hall on the +Strand; felt impelled to speak a little when the meeting was thrown open, +and did so. At the close among others who greeted him, one man, a +minister, asked him to come and preach for him the next day morning and +night, and he said he would. Mr. Moody said, "I went to the morning +service and found a large church full of people. And when the time came I +began to speak to them. But it seemed the hardest talking ever I did. +There was no response in their faces. They seemed as though carved out of +stone or ice. And I was having a hard time: and wished I wasn't there; and +wished I hadn't promised to speak again at night. But I had promised, and +so I went.</p> + +<p>"At night it was the same thing: house full, people outwardly respectful, +but no interest, no response. And I was having a hard time again. When +about half-way through my talk there came a change. It seemed as though +the windows of heaven had opened and a bit of breath blew down. The +atmosphere of the building seemed to change. The people's faces changed. +It impressed me so that when I finished speaking I gave the invitation for +those who wanted to be Christians to rise. I thought there might be a few. +And to my immense surprise the people got up in groups, pew-fulls. I +turned to the minister and said, 'What does this mean?' He said, 'I don't +know, I'm sure.' Well," Mr. Moody said, "they misunderstood me. I'll +explain what I meant." So he announced an after-meeting in the room below, +explaining who were invited: only those who wanted to be Christians; and +putting pretty clearly what he understood that to mean, and dismissed the +service.</p> + +<p>They went to the lower room. And the people came crowding, jamming in +below, filling all available space, seats, aisles and standing room. Mr. +Moody talked again a few minutes, and then asked those who would be +Christians to rise. This time he knew he had made his meaning clear. They +got up in clumps, in groups, by fifties! Mr. Moody said, "I turned and +said to the minister, 'What <i>does</i> this mean?' He said, 'I'm sure I don't +know.'" Then the minister said to Mr. Moody, "What'll I do with these +people? I don't know what to do with them; this is something new." And he +said, "Well. I'd announce a meeting for to-morrow night, and Tuesday +night, and see what comes of it; I'm going across the channel to Dublin." +And he went, but he had barely stepped off the boat when a cablegram was +handed him from the minister saying, "Come back at once. Church packed." +So he went back, and stayed ten days. And the result of that ten days, as +I recall Mr. Moody's words, was that four hundred were added to that +church, and that every church near by felt the impulse of those ten days. +Then Mr. Moody dropped his head, as though thinking back, and said: "I had +no plans beyond this church. I supposed my life work was here. But the +result with me was that I was given a roving commission and have been +working under it ever since."</p> + +<p>Now what was the explanation of that marvellous Sunday and days following? +It was not Mr. Moody's doing, though he was a leader whom God could and +did mightily use. It was not the minister's doing; for he was as greatly +surprised as the leader. There was some secret hidden beneath the surface +of those ten days. With his usual keenness Mr. Moody set himself to ferret +it out.</p> + +<p>By and by this incident came to him. A member of the church, a woman, had +been taken sick some time before. Then she grew worse. Then the physician +told her that she would not recover. That is, she would not die at once, +so far as he could judge, but she would be shut in her home for years. +And she lay there trying to think what that meant: to be shut in for +years. And she thought of her life, and said, "How little I've done for +God: practically nothing: and now what can I do shut in here on my back." +And she said, "I can pray."</p> + +<p>May I put this word in here as a parenthesis in the story—that God +oftentimes allows us to be shut in—He does not shut us in—He does not +need to—simply take His hand off partly—there is enough disobedience to +His law of our bodies all the time to shut us aside—no trouble on that +side of the problem—<i>with pain to Himself</i>, against His own first will +for us, He allows us to be shut in, because only so <i>can</i> He get our +attention from other things to what He wants done; get us to see things, +and think things His way. I am compelled to think it is so.</p> + +<p>She said, "I <i>will</i> pray." And she was led to pray for her church. Her +sister, also a member of the church, lived with her, and was her link with +the outer world. Sundays, after church service, the sick woman would ask, +"Any special interest in church to-day?" "No," was the constant reply. +Wednesday nights, after prayer-meetings, "Any special interest in the +service to-night? there must have been." "No; nothing new; same old +deacons made the same old prayers."</p> + +<p>But one Sunday noon the sister came in from service and asked, "Who do you +think preached to-day?" "I don't know, who?" "Why, a stranger from +America, a man called Moody, I think was the name." And the sick woman's +face turned a bit whiter, and her eye looked half scared, and her lip +trembled a bit, and she quietly said: "I know what that means. There's +something coming to the old church. Don't bring me any dinner. I must +spend this afternoon in prayer." And so she did. And that night in the +service that startling change came.</p> + +<p>Then to Mr. Moody himself, as he sought her out in her sick room, she told +how nearly two years before there came into her hands a copy of a paper +published in Chicago called the <i>Watchman</i> that contained a talk by Mr. +Moody in one of the Chicago meetings, Farwell Hall meetings, I think. All +she knew was that talk that made her heart burn, and there was the name +M-o-o-d-y. And she was led to pray that God would send that man into their +church in London. As simple a prayer as that.</p> + +<p>And the months went by, and a year, and over; still she prayed. Nobody +knew of it but herself and God. No change seemed to come. Still she +prayed. And of course her prayer wrought its purpose. Every +Spirit-suggested prayer does. And that is the touchstone of true prayer. +And the Spirit of God moved that man of God over to the seaboard, and +across the water and into London, and into their church. Then a bit of +special siege-prayer, a sort of last charge up the steep hill, and that +night the victory came.</p> + +<p>Do you not believe—I believe without a doubt, that some day when the +night is gone and the morning light comes up, and we know as we are known, +that we shall find that the largest single factor, in that ten days' work, +and in the changing of tens of thousands of lives under Moody's leadership +is that woman in her praying. Not the only factor, mind you. Moody a man +of rare leadership, and consecration, and hundreds of faithful ministers +and others rallying to his support. But behind and beneath Moody and the +others, and to be reckoned with as first this woman's praying.</p> + +<p>Yet I do not know her name. I know Mr. Moody's name. I could name scores +of faithful men associated with him in his campaigns, but the name of this +one in whom humanly is the secret of it all I do not know. Ah! It is a +secret service. We do not know who the great ones are. They tell me she is +living yet in the north end of London, and still praying. Shall we pray! +Shall we not pray! If something else must slip out, something important, +shall we not see to it that intercession has first place!</p> + + + +<h4>Making God's Purpose Our Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>With that thought in mind let me this evening suggest a bit of how to +pray. As simple a subject as that: how to pray: the how of method.</p> + +<p>The first thing in prayer is to find God's purpose, the trend, the swing +of it; the second thing to make that purpose our prayer. We want to find +out what God is thinking, and then to claim that that shall be done. God +is seated up yonder on the throne. Jesus Christ is sitting by His side +glorified. Everywhere in the universe God's will is being done except in +this corner, called the earth, and its atmosphere, and that bit of the +heavens above it where Satan's headquarters are.</p> + +<p>It has been done down here by one person—Jesus. He came here to this +prodigal planet and did God's will perfectly. He went away. And He has +sought and seeks to have men down upon the earth so fully in touch with +Himself that He may do in them and through them just what He will. That He +may reproduce Himself in these men, and have God's will done again down on +the earth. Now prayer is this: finding out God's purpose for our lives, +and for the earth and insisting that that shall be done here. The great +thing then is to find out and insist upon God's will. And the "how" of +method in prayer is concerned with that.</p> + +<p>Many a time I have met with a group of persons for prayer. Various special +matters for prayer are brought up. Here is this man, needing prayer, and +this particular matter, and this one, and this. Then we kneel and pray. +And I have many a time thought—not critically in a bad sense—as I have +listened to their prayers, as though this is the prayer I must +offer:—"Blessed Holy Spirit, Thou knowest this man, and what the lacking +thing is in him. There is trouble there. Thou knowest this sick woman, and +what the difficulty is there. This problem, and what the hindrance is in +it. Blessed Spirit, pray in me the prayer Thou art praying for this man, +and this thing, and this one. The prayer Thou art praying, I pray that, in +Jesus' name. Thy will be done here under these circumstances."</p> + +<p>Sometimes I feel clear as to the particular prayer to offer, but many a +time I am puzzled to know. I put this fact with this, but I may not know +<i>all</i> the facts. I know this man who evidently needs praying for, a +Christian man perhaps, his mental characteristics, his conceptions of +things, the kind of a will he has, but there may be some fact in there +that I do not know, that seriously affects the whole difficulty. And I am +compelled to fall back on this: I don't know how to pray as I ought. But +the Spirit within me will make intercession for this man as I allow Him to +have free swing in me as the medium of His prayer. And He who is listening +above as He hears His will for this man being repeated down on the +battle-field will recognize His own purpose, of course. And so that thing +will be working out because of Jesus' victory over the evil one.</p> + +<p>But I may become so sensitive to the Spirit's thoughts and presence, that +I shall know more keenly and quickly what to pray for. In so far as I do +I become a more skillful partner of His on the earth in getting God's will +done.</p> + + + +<h4>The Trysting Place.</h4> + + +<p>There are six suggestions here on how to pray. First—we need <i>time</i> for +prayer, unhurried time, daily time, time enough to forget about how much +time it is. I do not mean now: rising in the morning at the very last +moment, and dressing, it may be hurriedly, and then kneeling a few moments +so as to feel easier in mind: not that. I do not mean the last thing at +night when you are jaded and fagged, and almost between the sheets, and +then remember and look up a verse and kneel a few moments: not that. That +is good so far as it goes. I am not criticising that. Better sweeten and +sandwich the day with all of that sort you can get in. But just now I mean +this: <i>taking time</i> when the mind is fresh and keen, and the spirit +sensitive, to thoughtfully pray. We haven't time. Life is so crowded. It +must be taken from something else, something important, but still less +important than this.</p> + +<p>Sacrifice is the continual law of life. The important thing must be +sacrificed to the more important. One needs to cultivate a mature +judgment, or his strength will be frizzled away in the less important +details, and the greater thing go undone, or be done poorly with the +fag-ends of strength. If we would become skilled intercessors, and know +how to pray simply enough, we must take quiet time daily to get off alone.</p> + +<p>The second suggestion: we need a <i>place</i> for prayer. Oh! you can pray +anywhere, on the street, in the store, travelling, measuring dry goods, +hands in dishwater,—where not. But you are not likely to unless you have +been off in some quiet place shut in alone with God. The Master said: +"Enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door": that door is +important. It shuts out, and it shuts in. "Pray to thy Father who is in +secret." God is here in this shut-in spot. One must get alone to find out +that he never is alone. The more alone we are as far as men are concerned +the least alone we are so far a; God is concerned.</p> + +<p>The quiet place and time are needful to train the ears for keen hearing. A +mother will hear the faintest cry of her babe just awaking. It is +up-stairs perhaps; the tiniest bit of a sound comes; nobody else hears; +but quick as a flash the mother's hands are held quiet, the head alert, +then she is off. Her ears are trained beyond anybody's else; love's +training. We need trained ears. A quiet place shuts out the outer sounds, +and gives the inner ear a chance to learn other sounds.</p> + +<p>A man was standing in a telephone booth trying to talk, but could not make +out the message. He kept saying, "I can't hear, I can't hear." The other +man by and by said sharply, "If you'll shut that door you can hear." <i>His</i> +door was shut and he could hear not only the man's voice but the street +and store noises too. Some folks have gotten their hearing badly confused +because their doors have not been shut enough. Man's voice and God's voice +get mixed in their ears. They cannot tell between them. The bother is +partly with the door. If you'll shut that door you can hear.</p> + +<p>The third suggestion needs much emphasis to-day: <i>give the Book of God its +place in prayer.</i> Prayer is not talking to God—simply. It is listening +first, then talking. Prayer needs three organs of the head, an ear, a +tongue and an eye. First an ear to hear what God says, then a tongue to +speak, then an eye to look out for the result. Bible study is the +listening side of prayer. The purpose of God comes in through the ear, +passes through the heart taking on the tinge of your personality, and goes +out at the tongue as prayer. It is pathetic what a time God has getting a +hearing down here. He is ever speaking but even where there may be some +inclination to hear the sounds of earth are choking in our ears the sound +of His voice. God speaks in His Word. The most we know of God comes to us +here. This Book is God in print. It was inspired, and it <i>is</i> inspired. +God Himself speaks in this Book. That puts it in a list by itself, quite +apart from all others. Studying it keenly, intelligently, reverently will +reveal God's great will. What He says will utterly change what you will +say.</p> + + + +<h4>Our Prayer Teacher.</h4> + + +<p>The fourth suggestion is this: <i>Let the Spirit teach you how to pray</i>. The +more you pray the more you will find yourself saying to yourself, "I don't +know how to pray." Well God understands that. Paul knew that out of his +own experience before he wrote it down. And God has a plan to cover our +need there. There is One who is a master intercessor. He understands +praying perfectly. He is the Spirit of prayer. God has sent Him down to +live inside you and me, partly for this, to teach us the fine art of +prayer. The suggestion is this: let Him teach you.</p> + +<p>When you go alone in the quiet time and place with the Book quietly pray: +"blessed Prayer-Spirit, Master-Spirit, teach me how to pray," and He will. +Do not be nervous, or agitated, wondering if you will understand. Study to +be quiet; mind quiet, body quiet. Be still and listen. Remember Luther's +version of David's words,<sup><a href="#fn31">31</a></sup> "Be silent to God, and let Him mould thee."</p> + +<p>You will find your praying changing. You will talk more simply, like a man +transacting business or a child asking, though of course with a reverence +and a deepness of feeling not in those things. You will quit asking for +some things. Some of the old forms of prayer will drop from your lips +likely enough. You will use fewer words, maybe, but they will be spoken +with a quiet absolute faith that this thing you are asking is being worked +out.</p> + +<p>This thing of <i>letting the Spirit teach</i> must come first in one's praying, +and remain to the last, and continue all along as the leading dominant +factor. He is a Spirit of prayer peculiarly. The highest law of the +Christian life is obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. There needs +to be a cultivated judgment in reading His leading, and not mistaking our +haphazard thoughts as His voice. He should be allowed to teach us how to +pray and more, to dominate our praying. The whole range and intensity of +the spirit conflict is under His eye. He is God's General on the field of +action. There come crises in the battle when the turn of the tide wavers. +He knows when a bit of special praying is needed to turn the tide and +bring victory. So there needs to be special seasons of persistent prayer, +a continuing until victory is assured. Obey His promptings. Sometimes +there comes an impulse to pray, or to ask another to pray. And we think, +"Why, I have just been praying," <i>or</i>, "he does pray about this anyway. It +is not necessary to pray again. I do not just like to suggest it." Better +obey the impulse quietly, with fewest words of explanation to the other +one concerned, or no words beyond simply the request.</p> + +<p>Let Him, this wondrous Holy Spirit teach you how to pray. It will take +time. You may be a bit set in your way, but if you will just yield and +patiently wait, He will teach what to pray, suggest definite things, and +often the very language of prayer.</p> + +<p>You will notice that the chief purpose of these four suggestions is to +learn God's will. The quiet place, the quiet time, the Book, the +Spirit—this is the schoolroom as Andrew Murray would finely put it. Here +we learn His will. Learning that makes one eager to have it done, and +breathes anew the longing prayer that it may be done.</p> + +<p>There is a fine word much used in the Psalms, and in Isaiah for this sort +of thing—<i>waiting</i>. Over and over again that is the word used for that +contact with God which reveals to us His will, and imparts to us anew His +desires. It is a word full of richest and deepest meaning. Waiting is not +an occasional nor a hurried thing. It means <i>steadfastness</i>, that is +holding on; <i>patience</i>, that is holding back; <i>expectancy</i>, that is +holding the face up to see; <i>obedience</i>, that is holding one's self in +readiness to go or do; it means <i>listening</i>, that is holding quiet and +still so as to hear.</p> + + + +<h4>The Power of a Name.</h4> + + +<p>The fifth suggestion has already been referred to, but should be repeated +here. Prayer must be <i>in Jesus' name</i>. The relationship of prayer is +through Jesus. And the prayer itself must be offered in His name, because +the whole strength of the case lies in Jesus. I recall distinctly a +certain section of this country where I was for awhile, and very rarely +did I hear Jesus' name used in prayer. I heard men, that I knew must be +good men, praying in church, in prayer-meeting and elsewhere with no +mention of Jesus. Let us distinctly bear in mind that we have no standing +with God except through Jesus.</p> + +<p>If the keenest lawyer of London, who knew more of American law, and of +Illinois statute and of Chicago ordinance—suppose such a case—were to +come here, could he plead a case in your court-house? you know he could +not. He would have no legal standing here. Now you and I have no standing +at yonder bar. We are disbarred through sin. Only as we come through one +who has recognized standing there can we come.</p> + +<p>But turn that fact around. As we do come in Jesus' name, it is the same as +though Jesus prayed. It is the same as though—let me be saying it very +softly so it may seem very reverent—as though Jesus put His arm in yours +and took you up to the Father, and said, "Father, here is a friend of +mine; we're on good terms. Please give him anything he asks, for My sake." +And the Father would quickly bend over and graciously say, "What'll you +have? You may have anything you ask when My Son asks for it." That is the +practical effect of asking in Jesus' name.</p> + +<p>But I am very, very clear of this, and I keep swinging back to it that in +the ultimate analysis the force of using Jesus' name is that He is the +victor over the traitor prince. Prayer is repeating the Victor's name into +the ears of Satan and insisting upon his retreat. As one prays +persistently in Jesus' name, the evil one must go. Reluctantly, angrily, +he must loosen his clutches, and go back.</p> + + + +<h4>The Birthplace of Faith.</h4> + + +<p>The sixth suggestion is a familiar one, and yet one much misunderstood. +Prayer must be <i>in faith</i>. But please note that faith here is not +believing that God <i>can</i>, but that He <i>will</i>. It is kneeling and making +the prayer, and then saying, "Father, I thank Thee for this; that it will +be so, I thank Thee." Then rising and going about your duties, saying, +"that thing is settled." Going again and again, and repeating the prayer +with the thanks, and then saying as you go off, "that matter is assured." +Not going repeatedly to persuade God. But because prayer is the deciding +factor in a spirit conflict and each prayer is like a fresh blow between +the eyes of the enemy, a fresh broadside from your fleet upon the fort.</p> + +<p>"Well," some one will say, "now you are getting that keyed up rather high. +Can we all have faith like that? Can a man <i>make</i> himself believe?" There +should be no unnatural mechanical insisting that you do believe. Some +earnest people make a mistake there. And we will not all have faith like +that. That is quite true, and I can easily tell you why. The faith that +believes that God <i>will</i> do what you ask is not born in a hurry; it is not +born in the dust of the street, and the noise of the crowd. But I can tell +where that faith will have a birthplace and keep growing stronger: in +every heart that takes quiet time off habitually with God, and listens to +His voice in His word. Into that heart will come a simple strong faith +that the thing it is led to ask shall be accomplished.</p> + +<p>That faith has four simple characteristics. It is <i>intelligent</i>. It finds +out what God's will is. Faith is never contrary to reason. Sometimes it is +a bit higher up; the reasoning process has not yet reached up to it. +Second, it is <i>obedient</i>. It fits its life into God's will. There is apt +to be a stiff rub here all the time. Then it is <i>expectant</i>. It looks out +for the result. It bows down upon the earth, but sends a man to keep an +eye on the sea. And then it is <i>persistent</i>. It hangs on. It says, "Go +again seven times; seventy times seven." It reasons that having learned +God's will, and knowing that He does not change, the delay must be caused +by the third person, the enemy, and that stubborn persistence in the +Victor's name routs him, and leaves a clear field.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-3"> +<h3>The Listening Side of Prayer</h3><h4>A Trained Ear.</h4> + + +<p>In prayer the ear is an organ of first importance. It is of equal +importance with the tongue, but must be named first. For the ear leads the +way to the tongue. The child hears a word before it speaks it. Through the +ear comes the use of the tongue. Where the faculties are normal the tongue +is trained only through the ear. This is nature's method. The mind is +moulded largely through the ear and eye. It reveals itself, and asserts +itself largely through the tongue. What the ear lets in, the mind works +over, and the tongue gives out.</p> + +<p>This is the order in Isaiah's fiftieth chapter<sup><a href="#fn32">32</a></sup> in those words, +prophetic of Jesus. "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that +are taught.... He wakeneth my ear to hear as they that are taught." Here +the taught tongue came through the awakened ear. One reason why so many of +us do not have taught tongues is because we give God so little chance at +our ears.</p> + +<p>It is a striking fact that the men who have been mightiest in prayer have +known God well. They have seemed peculiarly sensitive to Him, and to be +overawed with the sense of His love and His greatness. There are three of +the Old Testament characters who are particularly mentioned as being +mighty in prayer. Jeremiah tells that when God spoke to him about the deep +perversity of that nation He exclaimed, "Though Moses and Samuel stood +before Me My heart could not be towards this people."<sup><a href="#fn33">33</a></sup> When James wants +an illustration of a man of prayer for the scattered Jews, he speaks of +Elijah, and of one particular crisis in his life, the praying on Carmel's +tip-top. These three men are Israel's great men in the great crises of its +history. Moses was the maker and moulder of the nation. Samuel was the +patient teacher who introduced a new order of things in the national life. +Elijah was the rugged leader when the national worship of Jehovah was +about to be officially overthrown. These three men, the maker, the +teacher, the emergency leader are singled out in the record as peculiarly +men of prayer.</p> + +<p>Now regarding these men it is most interesting to observe what <i>listeners</i> +they were to God's voice. Their ears were trained early and trained long, +until great acuteness and sensitiveness to God's voice was the result. +Special pains seem to have been taken with the first man, the nation's +greatest giant, and history's greatest jurist. There were two distinct +stages in the training of his ears. First there were the forty years of +solitude in the desert sands, alone with the sheep, and the stars, +and—God. His ears were being trained by silence. The bustle and confusion +of Egypt's busy life were being taken out of his ears. How silent are +God's voices. How few men are strong enough to be able to endure silence. +For in silence God is speaking to the inner ear.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Let us then labour for an inward stillness—</div> +<div class="line">An inward stillness and an inward healing;</div> +<div class="line">That perfect silence where the lips and heart</div> +<div class="line">Are still, and we no longer entertain</div> +<div class="line">Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions,</div> +<div class="line">But God alone speaks in us, and we wait</div> +<div class="line">In singleness of heart, that we may know</div> +<div class="line">His will, and in the silence of our spirits,</div> +<div class="line">That we may do His will, and do that only."<sup><a href="#fn34">34</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>A gentleman was asked by an artist friend of some note to come to his +home, and see a painting just finished. He went at the time appointed, was +shown by the attendant into a room which was quite dark, and left there. +He was much surprised, but quietly waited developments. After perhaps +fifteen minutes his friend came into the room with a cordial greeting, and +took him up to the studio to see the painting, which was greatly admired. +Before he left the artist said laughingly, "I suppose you thought it queer +to be left in that dark room so long." "Yes," the visitor said. "I did." +"Well," his friend replied, "I knew that if you came into my studio with +the glare of the street in your eyes you could not appreciate the fine +colouring of the picture. So I left you in the dark room till the glare +had worn out of your eyes."</p> + +<p>The first stage of Moses' prayer-training was wearing the noise of Egypt +out of his ears so he could hear the quiet fine tones of God's voice. He +who would become skilled in prayer must take a silence course in the +University of Arabia. Then came the second stage. Forty years were +followed by forty days, twice over, of listening to God's speaking voice +up in the mount. Such an ear-course as that made a skilled famous +intercessor.</p> + +<p>Samuel had an earlier course than Moses. While yet a child before his ears +had been dulled by earth sounds they were tuned to the hearing of God's +voice. The child heart and ear naturally open upward. They hear easily and +believe readily. The roadway of the ear has not been beaten down hard by +much travel. God's rains and dews have made it soft, and impressionable. +This child's ear was quickly trained to recognize God's voice. And the +tented Hebrew nation soon came to know that there was a man in their midst +to whom God was talking. O, to keep the heart and inner ear of a child as +mature years come!</p> + +<p>Of the third of these famous intercessors little is known except of the +few striking events in which he figured. Of these, the scene that finds +its climax in the opening on Carmel's top of the rain-windows, occupies by +far the greater space. And it is notable that the beginning of that long +eighteenth chapter of first Kings which tells of the Carmel conflict +begins with a message to Elijah from God: "The word of the Lord came to +Elijah: ... I will send rain upon the earth." That was the foundation of +that persistent praying and sevenfold watching on the mountaintop. First +the ear heard, then the voice persistently claimed, and the eye +expectantly looked. First the voice of God, then the voice of man. That is +the true order. Tremendous results always follow that combination.</p> + + + +<h4>Through the Book to God.</h4> + + +<p>With us the training is of the <i>inner</i> ear. And its first training, after +the early childhood stage is passed, must usually be through the eye. What +God has spoken to others has been written down for us. We hear through our +eyes. The eye opens the way to the inner ear. God spoke in His word. He is +still speaking in it and through it. The whole thought here is to get <i>to +know God.</i> He reveals Himself in the word that comes from His own lips, +and through His messengers' lips. He reveals Himself in His dealings with +men. Every incident and experience of these pages is a mirror held up to +God's face. In them we may come to see Him.</p> + +<p>This is studying the Bible not for the Bible's sake but for the purpose of +knowing God. The object aimed at is not the Book but the God revealed in +the Book. A man may go to college and take lectures on the English Bible, +and increase his knowledge, and enrich his vocabulary, and go away with +utterly erroneous ideas of God. He may go to a law school and study the +codes of the first great jurist, and get a clear understanding and firm +grasp of the Mosaic enactments, as he must do to lay the foundation of +legal training, yet he may remain ignorant of God.</p> + +<p>He may even go to a Bible school, and be able to analyze and synthesize, +give outlines of books, and contents of chapters and much else of that +invaluable and indispensable sort of knowledge and yet fail to understand +God and His marvellous love-will. It is not the Book with which we are +concerned here but the God through the Book. Not to learn truth but +through truth to know Him who is Himself the Truth.</p> + +<p>There is a fascinating bit of story told of one of David's mighty men.<sup><a href="#fn35">35</a></sup> +One day there was a sudden attack upon the camp by the Philistines when +the fighting men were all away. This man alone was there. The Philistines +were the traditional enemy. The very word "Philistines" was one to strike +terror to the Hebrew heart. But this man was reckoned one of the first +three of David's mighty men because of his conduct that day. He quietly, +quickly gripped his sword and fought the enemy single-handed. Up and down, +left and right, hip and thigh he smote with such terrific earnestness and +drive that the enemy turned and fled. And we are told that the muscles of +his hand became so rigid around the handle of his sword that he could not +tell by the feeling where his hand stopped, and the sword began. Man and +sword were one that day in the action of service against the nation's +enemy. When we so absorb this Book, and the Spirit of Him who is its life +that people cannot tell the line of division between the man, and the God +within the man, then shall we have mightiest power as God's intercessors +in defeating the foe. God and man will be as one in the action of service +against the enemy.</p> + + + +<h4>A Spirit Illumined Mind.</h4> + + +<p>I want to make some simple suggestions for studying this Book so as to get +to God through it. There will be the emphasis of doubling back on one's +tracks here. For some of the things that should be said have already been +said with a different setting. First there must be the <i>time</i> element. +One must get at least a half hour daily when the mind is fresh. A tired +mind does not readily <i>absorb</i>. This should be persisted in until there is +a habitual spending of at least that much time daily over the Book, with a +spirit at leisure from all else, so it can take in. Then the time should +be given to <i>the Book itself</i>. If other books are consulted and read as +they will be let that be <i>after</i> the reading of this Book. Let God talk to +you direct, rather than through somebody else. Give Him first chance at +your ears. This Book in the central place of your table, the others +grouped about it. First time given to it.</p> + +<p>A third suggestion brings out the circle of this work. <i>Read prayerfully.</i> +We learn how to pray by reading prayerfully. This Book does not reveal its +sweets and strength to the keen mind merely, but to the Spirit enlightened +mind. All the mental keenness possible, <i>with the bright light of the +Spirit's illumination</i>—that is the open sesame. I have sometimes sought +the meaning of some passage from a keen scholar who could explain the +orientalisms, the fine philological distinctions, the most accurate +translations, and all of that, who yet did not seem to know the simple +spiritual meaning of the words being discussed. And I have asked the same +question of some old saint of God, who did not know Hebrew from a hen's +tracks, but who seemed to sense at once the deep spiritual truth taught. +The more knowledge, the keener the mind, the better <i>if</i> illumined by the +Spirit that inspired these writings.</p> + +<p>There is a fourth word to put in here. We must read <i>thoughtfully</i>. +Thoughtfulness is in danger of being a lost art. Newspapers are so +numerous, and literature so abundant, that we are becoming a bright, but a +<i>not thoughtful</i> people. Often the stream is very wide but has no depth. +Fight shallowness. Insist on reading thoughtfully. A very suggestive word +in the Bible for this is "<i>meditate</i>." Run through and pick out this word +with its variations. The word underneath that English word means to +mutter, as though a man were repeating something over and over again, as +he turned it over in his mind. We have another word, with the same +meaning, not much used now—ruminate. We call the cow a ruminant because +she chews the cud. She will spend hours chewing the cud, and then give us +the rich milk and cream and butter which she has extracted from her food. +That is the word here—ruminate. Chew the cud, if you would get the +richest cream and butter here.</p> + +<p>And it is remarkable how much chewing this Book of God will stand, in +comparison with other books. You chew a while on Tennyson, or Browning, or +Longfellow. And I am not belittling these noble writings. I have my own +favourite among these men. But they do not yield the richest and yet +richer cream found here. This Book of God has stood more of that sort of +thing than any other, yet it is the freshest book to be found to-day. You +read a passage over the two hundredth time and some new fine bit of +meaning comes that you had not suspected to be there.</p> + +<p>There is a fifth suggestion, that is easier to make than to follow. <i>Read +obediently.</i> As the truth appeals to your conscience <i>let it change your +habit and life</i>.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Light obeyed, increased light:</div> +<div class="line">Light resisted, bringeth night</div> +<div class="line">Who shall give us power to choose</div> +<div class="line">If the love of light we lose?"<sup><a href="#fn36">36</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>Jesus gives the law of knowledge in His famous words, "If any man willeth +to do His will he shall know of the teaching."<sup><a href="#fn37">37</a></sup> If we do what we know +to do, we will know more. If we know to do, and hesitate and hold back, +and do not obey, the inner eye will surely go blind, and the sense of +right be dulled and lost. Obedience to truth is the eye of the mind.</p> + + + +<h4>Wide Reading.</h4> + + +<p>Then one needs to have a <i>plan</i> of reading. A consecutive plan gathers up +the fragments of time into a strong whole. Get a good plan, and stick to +it. Better a fairly good plan faithfully followed, than the best plan if +used brokenly or only occasionally. Probably all the numerous methods of +study may be grouped under three general heads, wide reading, topical +study, and textual. We all do some textual study in a more or less small +way. Digging into a sentence or verse to get at its true and deep meaning. +We all do some topical study probably. Gathering up statements on some one +subject, studying a character. The more pretentious name is Biblical +Theology, finding and arranging all that is taught in the whole range of +the Bible on any one theme.</p> + +<p>But I want especially to urge <i>wide reading</i>, as being the basis of all +study. It is the simple, the natural, the scientific method. It is adapted +to all classes of persons. I used to suppose it was suited best to college +students, and such; but I was mistaken. It is <i>the</i> method of all for all. +It underlies all methods of getting a grasp of this wonderful Book, and so +coming to as full and rounded an understanding of God as is possible to +men down here.</p> + +<p>By wide reading is meant a <i>rapid reading through</i> regardless of verse, +chapter, or book divisions. Reading it as <i>a narrative</i>, a story. As you +would read any book, "The Siege of Pekin," "The Story of an Untold Love," +to find out the story told, and be able to tell to another. There will be +a reverence of spirit with this book that no other inspires, but with the +same intellectual method of running through to see what is here. No book +is so fascinating as the Bible when read this way. The revised version is +greatly to be preferred here simply because it is a <i>paragraph</i> version. +It is printed more like other books. Some day its printed form will be yet +more modernized, and so made easier to read.</p> + +<p>To illustrate, begin at the first of Genesis, and read rapidly through <i>by +the page</i>. Do not try to understand all. You will not. Never mind that +now. Just push on. Do not try to remember all. Do not think about that. +Let stick to you what will. You will be surprised to find how much will. +You may read ten or twelve pages in your first half hour. Next time start +in where you left off. You may get through Genesis in three or four times, +or less or more, depending on your mood, and how fast your habit of +reading may be. You will find a whole Bible in Genesis. A wonderfully +fascinating book this Genesis. For love stories, plotting, swift action, +beautiful language it more than matches the popular novel.</p> + +<p>But do not stop at the close of Genesis. Push on into Exodus. The +connection is immediate. It is the same book. And so on into Leviticus. +Now do not try to understand Leviticus the first time. You will not the +hundredth time perhaps. But you can easily group its contents: these +chapters tell of the offerings: these of the law of offerings: here is an +incident put in: here sanitary regulations: get the drift of the book. And +in it all be getting the picture of God—<i>that is the one point</i>. And so +on through.</p> + +<p>A second stage of this wide reading is fitting together the parts. You +know the arrangement of our Bible is not chronological wholly, but +topical. The Western mind is almost a slave to chronological order. But +the Oriental was not so disturbed. For example, open your Bible to the +close of Esther, and again at the close of Malachi. This from Genesis to +Esther we all know is the historical section: and this second section the +poetical and prophetical section. There is some history in the prophecy, +and some prophecy and poetry in the historical part. But in the main this +first is historical, and this second poetry and prophecy. These two parts +belong together. This first section was not written, and then this second. +The second belongs in between the leaves of the first. It was taken out +and put by itself because the arrangement of the whole Book is topical +rather than chronological.</p> + +<p>Now the second stage of wide reading is this: fit these parts together. +Fit the poetry and the prophecy into the history. Do it on your own +account, as though it had never been done. It has been done much better +than you will do it. And you will make some mistakes. You can check those +up afterwards by some of the scholarly books. And you cannot tell where +some parts belong. But meanwhile the thing to note is this: you are +absorbing the Book. It is becoming a part of you, bone of your bone, and +flesh of your flesh, mentally, and spiritually. You are drinking in its +spirit in huge draughts. There is coming a new vision of God, which will +transform radically the reverent student. In it all seek to acquire <i>the +historical sense</i>. That is, put yourself back and see what this thing, or +this, meant to these men, as it was first spoken, under these immediate +circumstances.</p> + +<p>And so push on into the New Testament. Do not try so much to fit the four +gospels into one connected story, dovetailing all the parts; but try +rather to get a clear grasp of Jesus' movements those few years as told by +these four men. Fit Paul's letters into the book of Acts, the best you +can. The best book to help in checking up here is Conybeare and Howson's +"Life and Letters of St. Paul." That may well be one of the books in your +collection.</p> + +<p>You see at once that this is a method not for a month, nor for a year, but +for years. The topical and textual study grow naturally out of it. And +meanwhile you are getting an intelligent grasp of this wondrous classic, +you are absorbing the finest literature in the English tongue, and +infinitely better yet, you are breathing into your very being a new, deep, +broad, tender conception of <i>God</i>.</p> + + + +<h4>A Mirror Held up to God's Face.</h4> + + +<p>It is simply fascinating too, to find what light floods these pages as +they are read back in their historical setting, so far as that is +possible. For example turn to the third Psalm, fifth verse,</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"I laid me down and slept;</div> +<div class="line">I awaked; for the Lord sustaineth me."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>I was brought up in an old-fashioned church where that was sung. I knew it +by heart. As a boy I supposed it meant that night-time had come, and David +was sleepy; he had his devotions, and went to bed, and had a good night's +sleep. That was all it had suggested to me.</p> + +<p>But on my first swing through of the wide reading, my eye was caught, as +doubtless yours has often been, by the inscription at the beginning of the +psalm: "A psalm of David, <i>when he fled from Absalom his son</i>." Quickly I +turned back to Second Samuel to find that story. And I got this picture. +David, an old white-haired man, hurrying one day, barefooted, out of his +palace, and his capital city, with a few faithful friends, fleeing for his +life, because Absalom his favourite son was coming with the strength of +the national army to take the kingdom, and his own father's life. And that +night as the king lay down to try to catch some sleep, it was upon the +bare earth, with only heaven's blue dome for a roof. And as he lay he +could almost hear the steady tramp, tramp of the army, over the hills, +seeking his throne and his life. Let me ask you, honestly now; do you +think you would have slept much that night? I fear I would have been +tempted sorely to lie awake thinking: "here I am, an old man, driven from +my kingdom, and my home, by my own boy, that I have loved better than my +own life." Do you think <i>you</i> would have slept much? Tell me.</p> + +<p>But David speaking of that night afterwards wrote this down:—"I laid me +down, and <i>slept; I awaked</i>; (the thought is, I awaked <i>refreshed</i>) for +the Lord sustaineth me." And I thought, as first that came to me, "I never +will have insomnia again: I'll trust." And so you see a lesson of trust in +God came, in my wide reading, out of the historical setting, that greatly +refreshed and strengthened, and that I have never forgotten. What a God, +to give sleep under such circumstances!</p> + +<p>A fine illustration of this same thing is found in the New Testament in +Paul's letter to the Philippians. At one end of that epistle is this +scene: Paul, lying in the inner damp cell of a prison, its small creeping +denizens familiarly examining this newcomer, in the darkness of midnight, +his back bleeding from the stripes, his bones aching, and his feet fast in +the stocks. That is one half of the historical setting of this book. And +here is the other half: Paul, a prisoner in Rome. If he tries to ease his +body by changing his position, swinging one limb over the other, a chain +dangling at his ankle reminds him of the soldier by his side. As he picks +up a quill to put a last loving word out of his tender heart for these old +friends, a chain pulls at his wrist. That is Philippians, the prison +epistle, resounding with clanking chain.</p> + +<p>What is the keyword of the book, occurring oftener than any other? +Patience? Surely that would be appropriate. Long-suffering? Still more +fitting would that seem. But, no, the keyword stands in sharpest contrast +to these surroundings. Paul used clouds to make the sun's shining more +beautiful. Joy, rejoice, rejoicing, is the music singing all the way +through these four chapters. What a wondrous Master, this Jesus, so to +inspire His friend doing His will!</p> + +<p>Every incident and occurrence of these pages becomes a mirror held up to +God's face that we may see how wondrous He is.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Upon Thy Word I rest</div> +<div class="line"> Each pilgrim day.</div> +<div class="line">This golden staff is best</div> +<div class="line"> For all the way.</div> +<div class="line">What Jesus Christ hath spoken,</div> +<div class="line"> Cannot be broken!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Upon Thy Word I rest;</div> +<div class="line"> So strong, so sure,</div> +<div class="line">So full of comfort blest,</div> +<div class="line"> So sweet, so pure:</div> +<div class="line">The charter of salvation:</div> +<div class="line"> Faith's broad foundation.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Upon Thy Word I stand:</div> +<div class="line"> That cannot die.</div> +<div class="line">Christ seals it in my hand.</div> +<div class="line"> He cannot lie.</div> +<div class="line">Thy Word that faileth never:</div> +<div class="line"> Abiding ever."<sup><a href="#fn38">38</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-4"> +<h3>Something about God's Will in Connection With Prayer</h3><h4>He Came to His Own.</h4> + + +<p>The purpose of prayer is to get God's will done. What a stranger God is in +His own world! Nobody is so much slandered as He. He comes to His own, and +they keep Him standing outside the door, like a pilgrim of the night, +staff in hand, while they peer suspiciously at Him through the crack of +the hinges.</p> + +<p>Some of us shrink back from making a full surrender of life to God. And if +the real reason were known it would be found to be that we are <i>afraid</i> of +God. We fear He will put something bitter in the cup, or some rough thing +in the road. And without doubt the reason we are afraid of God is because +we do not <i>know</i> God. The great prayer of Jesus' heart that night with the +eleven was, "that they may <i>know</i> Thee the only true God, and Jesus +Christ whom Thou didst send."</p> + +<p>To understand God's will we must understand something of His character, +Himself. There are five common every-day words I want to bring you to +suggest something of who God is. They are familiar words, in constant use. +The first is the word <i>father</i>. "Father" stands for strength, loving +strength. A father plans, and provides for, and protects his loved ones. +All fathers are not good. How man can extract the meaning out of a fine +word, and use the word without its meaning. If you will think of the +finest father ever you knew that anybody ever had; think of him now. Then +remember this, God is a father, only He is so much finer a father than the +finest father you ever knew of. And His will for your <i>life</i>—I am not +talking about heaven, and our souls just now, that is in it too—His will +for your life down here these days is a father's will for the one most +dearly loved.</p> + +<p>The second word is a finer word. Because woman is finer than man, and was +made, and meant to be, this second word is finer than the first. I mean +the word <i>mother</i>. If father stands for strength, mother stands for +love,—great, patient, tender, fine-fibred, enduring love. What would she +not do for her loved one! Why, not unlikely she went down into the valley +of the shadow that that life might come; and did it gladly with the +love-light shining out of her eyes. Yes, and would do it again, that the +life may remain if need be. That is a mother. You think of the finest +mother ever you knew. And the suggestion brings the most hallowed memories +to my own heart. Then remember this: God is a mother, only He is so much +finer a mother than the finest mother you ever knew.</p> + +<p>The references in scripture to God as a mother are numerous. "Under His +wings" is a mother figure. The mother-bird gathers her brood up under her +wings to feel the heat of her body, and for protection. The word mother is +not used for God in the Bible. I think it is because with God "father" +includes "mother." It takes more of the human to tell the story than of +the divine. With God, all the strength of the father and all the fine love +of the mother are combined in that word "father." And His will for us is a +mother's will, a wise loving mother's will for the darling of her heart.</p> + +<p>The third word is <i>friend</i>. I do not mean to use it in the cheaper +meaning. There is a certain kindliness of speech in which all +acquaintances are called friends. Tupper says, we call all men friends who +are not known to be enemies. But I mean to use the word in its finer +meaning. Here, a friend is one who loves you for your sake only and +steadfastly loves without regard to any return, even a return-love. The +English have a saying that you may fill a church with your acquaintances, +and not fill the pulpit seats with your friends. If you may have in your +life one or two real friends you are very wealthy. If you will think for a +moment of the very best friend you ever knew anybody to have. Then +remember this: God is a friend. Only He is ever so much better a friend +than the best friend you ever knew of. And the plan He has thought out for +your life is such a one as that word would suggest.</p> + +<p>The fourth word, I almost hesitate to use, yet I am sure I need not here. +The hesitancy is because the word and its relationship are spoken of +lightly, frivolously, so much, even in good circles. I mean that rare fine +word <i>lover</i>. Where two have met, and acquaintance has deepened into +friendship, and that in turn into the holiest emotion, the highest +friendship. What would he not do for her! She becomes the new human centre +of his life. In a good sense he worships the ground she treads upon. And +she—she will leave wealth for poverty if only so she may be with him in +the coming days. She will leave home and friends, and go to the ends of +the earth if his service calls him there. You think of the finest lover, +man or woman, you ever knew anybody to have. Then remember this, and let +me say it in soft, reverent tones, God is a lover—shall I say in yet more +reverent voice, a sweetheart-lover. Only He is so much finer a lover than +the finest lover you ever knew of. And His will, His plan for your life +and mine—it hushes my heart to say it—is a lover's plan for his only +loved one.</p> + +<p>The fifth word is this fourth word a degree finer spun, a stage farther +on, and higher up, the word <i>husband</i>. This is the word on the man side +for the most hallowed relationship of earth. This is the lover +relationship in its perfection stage. With men husband is not always a +finer word than lover. The more's the pity. How man does cheapen God's +plan of things; leaves out the kernel, and keeps only an empty shell +sometimes. In God's thought a husband is a lover <i>plus</i>. He is all that +the finest lover is, and more; more tender, more eager, more thoughtful. +Two lives are joined, and begin living one life. Two wills, yet one. Two +persons, yet one purpose. Duality in unity. Will you call to mind for a +moment the best husband you ever knew any woman to have. Then remember +this that God is a husband; only He is an infinitely more thoughtful +husband than any you ever knew. And His will for your life is a husband's +will for his life's friend and companion.</p> + +<p>Now, please, do not <i>you</i> take one of these words, and say, "I like that"; +and <i>you</i> another and say, "That conception of God appeals to me," and +<i>you</i> another. How we do whittle God down to our narrow conceptions! You +must take all five words, and think the finest meaning into each, and then +put them all together, to get a close up idea of God. He is all that, <i>and +more</i>.</p> + +<p>You see God is so much that it takes a number of earth's relationships put +together to get a good suggestion of what He is. He is a father, a +mother, a friend, a lover, a husband. I have not brought book, and +chapter, and verse. But you know I could spend a long time with you +reading over the numerous passages giving these conceptions of God.</p> + +<p>And God's will for us is the plan of such a God as that. It includes the +body, health and strength; the family and home matters; money and business +matters; friendships, including the choice of life's chief friend; it +includes service, what service and where; and constant guidance; it +includes the whole life, and the world of lives. All this He has thought +into, lovingly, carefully. Does a wise mother think of her child's needs +into the details, the necessities and the loving extras? That is God.</p> + + + +<h4>The One Purpose of Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>Now, the whole thought in prayer is to get the will of a God like that +done in our lives and upon this old earth. The greatest prayer any one can +offer is, "Thy will be done." It will be offered in a thousand different +forms, with a thousand details, as needs arise daily. But every true +prayer comes under those four words. There is not a good desirable thing +that you have thought of that He has not thought of first, and probably +with an added touch not in your thought. Not to grit your teeth and lock +your jaw and pray for grace to say, "Thy will be <i>endured</i>: it is bitter, +but I must be resigned; that is a Christian grace; Thy will be +<i>endured</i>." Not that, please. Do not slander God like that. There is a +superficial idea among men that charges God with many misfortunes and ills +for which He is not at all responsible. He is continually doing the very +best that can be done under the circumstances for the best results. He has +a bad mixture of stubborn warped human wills to deal with. With infinite +patience and skill and diplomacy and success too He is ever working at the +tangled skein of human life, through the human will.</p> + +<p>It may help us here to remember that God has a first and a second will for +us: a first choice and a second. He always prefers that His first will +shall be accomplished in us. But where we will not be wooed up to that +height, He comes down to the highest level we will come up to, and works +with us there. For instance, God's first choice for Israel was that He +Himself should be their king. There was to be no human, visible king, as +with the surrounding nations. He was to be their king. They were to be +peculiar in this. But to Samuel's sorrow and yet more to God's, they +insisted upon a king. And so God gave them a king. And David the great +shepherd-psalmist-king was a man after God's own heart, and the world's +Saviour came of the Davidic line. God did His best upon the level they +chose and a great best it was. Yet the human king and line of kings was +not God's first will, but a second will yielded to because the first +would not be accepted. God is ever doing the best for human lives that can +be done through the human will.</p> + +<p>His first will for our bodies, without doubt, is that there should be a +strong healthy body for each of us. But there is a far higher thing being +aimed at in us than that. And with keen pain to His own heart, He oft +times permits bodily weakness and suffering because in the conditions of +our wills only so can these higher and highest things be gotten at. And +where the human will comes into intelligent touch with Himself, and the +higher can so be reached, with great gladness and eagerness the bodily +difficulty is removed by Him.</p> + +<p>There are two things, at least, that modify God's first will for us. First +of all the degree of our intelligent willingness that He shall have His +full sway. And second, the circumstances of one's life. Each of us is the +centre of a circle of people, an ever changing circle. If we be in touch +with Him God is speaking through each of us to his circle. Our experiences +with God: His dealings with us, under the varying circumstances are a part +of His message to that circle. God is trying to win men. It takes +marvellous diplomacy on His part. And God is a wondrous tactician. +But—very reverently—He is a needy God. He needs us to help Him, each in +his circle. We must be perfectly willing to have His will done; and more, +we must trust Him to know what is best to do in us and with us in the +circle of our circumstances. God is a great economist. He wastes no +forces. Every bit is being conserved towards the great end in view.</p> + +<p>There may be a false submission to His supposed will in some affliction; a +not reaching out after <i>all</i> that He has for us. And at the other swing of +the pendulum there may be a sort of <i>logical praying</i> for some desirable +thing because a friend tells us we should claim it. By logical praying I +mean the studying of a statement of God's word, and possibly some one's +explanation of it, and hearing or knowing how somebody else has claimed a +certain thing through that statement and then concluding that therefore we +should so claim. The trouble with that is that it stops too soon. Praying +in the Spirit as opposed to logical praying is doing this logical +thinking: <i>then</i> quietly taking all to God, to learn what His will is for +<i>you</i>, under your circumstances, and in the circle of people whom He +touches through you.</p> + + + +<h4>The Spirit's Prayer Room.</h4> + + +<p>There is a remarkable passage in Paul's Roman letter about prayer and +God's will.<sup><a href="#fn39">39</a></sup> "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: +for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh +intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that +searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, that He +maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."</p> + +<p>Please notice: these words connect back with the verses ending with verse +seventeen. Verses eighteen to twenty-five are a parenthesis. As the Spirit +within breathes out the "Father" cry of a child, which is the prayer-cry, +so He helps us in praying. It is our infirmity that we do not know how to +pray <i>as we ought</i>. There is willingness and eagerness too. No bother +there. But a lack of knowledge. We don't know how. But the Spirit knows +how. He is the Master-prayor. He knows God's will perfectly. He knows what +best to be praying under all circumstances. And He is within you and me. +He is there as a prayer-spirit. He prompts us to pray. He calls us away to +the quiet room to our knees. He inclines to prayer wherever we are. He is +thinking thoughts that find no response in us. They cannot be expressed in +our lips for they are not in our thinking. He prays with an intensity +quite beyond the possibility of language to express. And the +heart-searcher—God listening above—knows fully what this praying Spirit +is thinking within me, and wordlessly praying, for they are one. He +recognizes His own purposes and plans being repeated in this man down on +the earth by His own Spirit.</p> + +<p>And the great truth is that the Spirit within us prays God's will. He +teaches us God's will. He teaches us how to pray God's will. And He +Himself prays God's will in us. And further that He seeks to pray God's +will—that is to pray for the thing God has planned—in us before we have +yet reached up to where we know ourselves what that will is.</p> + +<p>We should be ambitious to cultivate a healthy sensitiveness to this +indwelling Spirit. And when there comes that quick inner wooing away to +pray let us faithfully obey. Even though we be not clear what the +particular petition is to be let us remain in prayer while He uses us as +the medium of His praying.</p> + +<p>Oftentimes the best prayer to offer about some friend, or some particular +thing, after perhaps stating the case the best we can is this: "Holy +Spirit, be praying in me the thing the Father wants done. Father, what the +Spirit within me is praying, that is my prayer in Jesus' name. Thy will, +what Thou art wishing and thinking, may that be fully done here."</p> + + + +<h4>How to Find God's Will.</h4> + + +<p>We should make a study of God's will. We ought to seek to become skilled +in knowing His will. The more we know Him the better shall we be able to +read intelligently His will.</p> + +<p>It may be said that God has two wills for each of us, or, better, there +are two parts to His will. There is His will of grace, and His will of +government. His will of grace is plainly revealed in His Word. It is that +we shall be saved, and made holy, and pure, and by and by glorified in his +own presence. His will of government is His particular plan for my life. +God has every life planned. The highest possible ambition for a life is to +reach God's plan. He reveals that to us bit by bit as we need to know. If +the life is to be one of special service He will make that plain, what +service, and where, and when. Then each next step He will make plain.</p> + +<p>Learning His will here hinges upon three things, simple enough but +essential. I must keep <i>in touch</i> with Him so He has an open ear to talk +into. I must <i>delight</i> to do His will, <i>because it is His</i>. The third +thing needs special emphasis. Many who are right on the first two stumble +here, and sometimes measure their length on the ground. <i>His Word must be +allowed to discipline my judgment as to Himself and His will</i>. Many of us +stumble on number one and on number two. And very many willing earnest men +sprawl badly when it comes to number three. The bother with these is the +lack of a disciplined judgment about God and His will. If we would +prayerfully <i>absorb</i> the Book, there would come a better poised judgment. +We need to get a broad sweep of God's thought, to breathe Him in as He +reveals Himself in this Book. The meek man—that is the man willing to +yield his will to a higher will—will He guide in his judgment, that is, +in his mental processes.<sup><a href="#fn40">40</a></sup></p> + +<p>This is John's standpoint in that famous passage in his first epistle.<sup><a href="#fn41">41</a></sup> +"And this is the boldness that we have towards Him, that, if we ask +anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He +heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we +have asked of Him." These words dovetail with great nicety into those +already quoted from Paul in the eighth of Romans. The whole supposition +here is that we have learned His will about the particular matter in hand. +Having gotten that footing, we go to prayer with great boldness. For if He +wants a thing and I want it and we join—that combination cannot be +broken.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-5"> +<h3>May we Pray With Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones</h3><h4>God's Door into a Home.</h4> + + +<p>The heart of God hungers to redeem the world. For that He gave His own, +only Son though the treatment He received tore that father's heart to the +bleeding. For that He sent the Holy Spirit to do in men what the Son had +done for them. For that He placed in human hands the mightiest of all +forces—prayer, that so we might become partners with Him.</p> + +<p>For that too He set man in the relationships of kinship and friendship. He +wins men through men. Man is the goal, and he is also the road to the +goal. Man is the object aimed at. And he is the medium of approach, +whether the advance be by God or by Satan. God will not enter a man's +heart without his consent, and Satan <i>can</i>not. God would reach men through +men, and Satan must. And so God has set us in the strongest relation that +binds men, the relation of love, that He may touch one through another. +Kinship is a relation peculiar to man, and to the earth.</p> + +<p>I have at times been asked by some earnest sensitive persons if it is not +selfish to be especially concerned for one's own, over whom the heart +yearns much, and the prayer offered is more tender and intense and more +frequent. Well, if <i>you</i> do not pray for them who will? Who <i>can</i> pray for +them with such believing persistent fervour as you! God has set us in the +relationship of personal affection and of kinship for just such a purpose. +He binds us together with the ties of love that we may be concerned for +each other. If there be but one in a home in touch with God, that one +becomes God's door into the whole family.</p> + +<p>Contact means opportunity, and that in turn means responsibility. The +closer the contact the greater the opportunity and the greater too the +responsibility. Unselfishness does not mean to exclude one's self, and +one's own. It means right proportions in our perspective. Humility is not +whipping one's self. It is forgetting one's self in the thought of others. +Yet even that may be carried to a bad extreme. Not only is it not selfish +so to pray, it is a part of God's plan that we should so pray. I am most +responsible for the one to whom I am most closely related.</p> + + + +<h4>A Free Agent Enslaved.</h4> + + +<p>One of the questions that is more often asked in this connection than any +other perhaps is this: may we pray with assurance for the conversion of +our loved ones? No question sets more hearts in an audience to beating +faster than does that. I remember speaking in the Boston noonday meeting, +in the old Broomfield Street M. E. Church on this subject one week. +Perhaps I was speaking rather positively. And at the close of the meeting +one day a keen, cultured Christian woman whom I knew came up for a word. +She said, "I do not think we can pray like that." And I said, "Why not?" +She paused a moment, and her well-controlled agitation revealed in eye and +lip told me how deeply her thoughts were stirred. Then she said quietly, +"I have a brother. He is not a Christian. The theatre, the wine, the club, +the cards—that is his life. And he laughs at me. I would rather than +anything else that my brother were a Christian. But," she said, and here +both her keenness and the training of her early teaching came in, "I do +not think I can pray positively for his conversion, for he is a free +agent, is he not? And God will not save a man against his will."</p> + +<p>I want to say to you to-day what I said to her. Man <i>is</i> a free agent, to +use the old phrase, so far as God is concerned; utterly, wholly free. +<i>And</i>, he is the most enslaved agent on the earth, so far as sin, and +selfishness and prejudice are concerned. The purpose of our praying is not +to force or coerce his will; never that. It is to <i>free</i> his will of the +warping influences that now twist it awry. It is to get the dust out of +his eyes so his sight shall be clear. And once he is free, able to see +aright, to balance things without prejudice, the whole probability is in +favour of his using his will to choose the only right.</p> + +<p>I want to suggest to you the ideal prayer for such a one. It is an +adaptation of Jesus' own words. It may be pleaded with much variety of +detail. It is this: deliver him from the evil one; and work in him <i>Thy +will</i> for him, by Thy power to Thy glory in Jesus, the Victor's name. And +there are three special passages upon which to base this prayer. First +Timothy, second chapter, fourth verse (American version), "God our +Saviour, who would have all men to be saved." That is God's will for your +loved one. Second Peter, third chapter, ninth verse, "not wishing (or +willing) that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." +That is God's will, or desire, for the one you are thinking of now. The +third passage is on our side who do the praying. It tells who may offer +this prayer with assurance. John, fifteenth chapter, seventh verse, "If ye +abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you ask what it is your will to +ask, and I will bring it to pass for you."</p> + +<p>There is a statement of Paul's in second Timothy that graphically pictures +this:<sup><a href="#fn42">42</a></sup> "The Lord's servant must not strive "—not argue, nor +combat—"but be gentle towards all, apt to teach"—ready and skilled in +explaining, helping—"in meekness correcting (or, instructing) them that +oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the +knowledge of the truth, and <i>they may recover themselves out of the snare +of the devil</i>, having been taken captive by him unto his will."</p> + +<p>That word "deliver" in this prayer, as used by Jesus, the word under our +English, has a picturesque meaning. It means <i>rescue</i>. Here is a man taken +captive, and in chains. But he has become infatuated with his captor, and +is befooled regarding his condition. Our prayer is, "rescue him from the +evil one," and because Jesus is Victor over the captor, the rescue will +take place.</p> + +<p>Without any doubt we may assure the conversion of these laid upon our +hearts by such praying. The prayer in Jesus' name drives the enemy off the +battle-field of the man's will, and leaves him free to choose aright. +There is one exception to be noted, a very, very rare exception. There may +be <i>extreme</i> instances where such a prayer may not be offered; where the +spirit of prayer is withdrawn. But such are very rare and extreme, and the +conviction regarding that will be unmistakable beyond asking any +questions.</p> + +<p>And I cannot resist the conviction—I greatly dislike to say this, I would +much rather not if I regarded either my own feelings or yours. But I +cannot resist the conviction—listen very quietly, so I may speak in +quietest tones—that there are people ... in that lower, lost world ... +who are there ... because some one failed to put his life in touch with +God, and pray.</p> + + + +<h4>The Place Where God is Not.</h4> + + +<p>Having said that much let me go on to say this further, and please let me +say it all in softest sobbing voice—there is a hell. There must be a +hell. You may leave this Bible sheer out of your reckoning in the matter. +Still there must be a place for which that word of ugliest associations is +the word to use. <i>Philosophically</i> there must be a hell. That is the name +for the place where God is not; for the place where they will gather +together who insist on leaving God out. God out! There can be no worse +hell than that! God away! Man held back by no restraints!</p> + +<p>I am very clear it is <i>not</i> what men have pictured it to be. It is not +what my childish fancy saw and shrank from terrified. And, please let us +be very careful that we never consign anybody there, in our thinking or +speaking about them. When that life whose future might be questioned has +gone the most we can say is that we leave it with a God infinitely just +and the personification of love.</p> + +<p>There has been in some quarters an unthinking consigning of persons to a +lost world. And there has been in our day a clean swing of the pendulum +to the other extreme. Both drifts are to be dreaded. Let us deal very +tenderly here, yet with a right plainness in our tenderness. We are to +warn men faithfully. We know the Book's plain teaching that these who +prefer to leave God out "shall go away." The going is of their own accord +and choice. Regarding particular ones we do not know and are best silent. +The grave is closing. Let us deal with the living.</p> + +<p>One day at the close of the morning hour at a Bible conference in the +Alleghany Mountains a young woman came up for a moment's conversation. She +spoke about a friend, not a professing Christian, for whom she had prayed +much, and who had died unexpectedly. He had passed away during +unconsciousness, with no opportunity for exchange of words. She was much +agitated as the facts were recited, and then said as she finished, "he is +lost and in hell: and I can never pray again."</p> + +<p>We talked quietly awhile and I gathered the following facts. He was of a +Christian family, perfectly familiar with the Bible, was a thoughtful man, +of outwardly correct life in the main, had talked about these matters with +others but had never either in conversation or more openly confessed +personal faith in Christ. He was not in good health. Then came the sudden +end. One other fact came out. She had prayed for his conversion for a long +time. She was herself an earnest Christian woman, solicitous for others. +There were four facts to go upon regarding him. He knew the way to God. He +was thoughtful. He had never openly accepted. Some one had prayed.</p> + +<p>Can one <i>know</i> anything certainly about that man's condition? There are +two sorts of knowledge, direct and inferential. I know there is such a +city as London for I have walked its streets. That is direct knowledge. I +know there is such a city as St. Petersburg because though I have never +been there, yet through my reading, pictures I have seen, and friends who +have been there I am clear of its existence to the point of <i>knowledge</i>. +That is inferential knowledge.</p> + +<p>Now regarding this man after he slipped from the grasp of his friends, I +have no direct knowledge. But I have very positive inferential knowledge +based upon these four facts. Three of the facts, namely, the first, +second, and fourth were favourable to the end desired. The third swings +neither way. The great dominant fact in the case is the fourth, and a +great and dominating fact it is in judging—some one in touch with God had +been persistently, believingly praying up to the time of the quick end. +That fact with the others gives strong inferential knowledge regarding the +man. It is sufficient to comfort a heart, and give one renewed faith in +praying for others.</p> + + + +<h4>Saving the Life.</h4> + + +<p>We cannot know a man's mental processes. This is surely true, that if in +the very last half-twinkling of an eye a man look up towards God +longingly, that look is the turning of the will to God. And that is quite +enough. God is eagerly watching with hungry eyes for the quick turn of a +human eye up to Himself. Doubtless many a man has so turned in the last +moment of his life when we were not conscious of his consciousness, nor +aware of the movements of his outwardly unconscious sub-consciousness. One +may be unconscious of outer things, and yet be keenly conscious towards +God.</p> + +<p>At another of these summer gatherings this incident came to me. A man +seemingly of mature mind and judgment told me of a friend of his. That was +as close as I got to the friend himself. This friend was not a professing +Christian, was thrown from a boat, sank twice and perhaps three times, and +then was rescued, and after some difficulty resuscitated. He told +afterwards how swiftly his thoughts came as they are said to do to one in +such circumstances. He thought surely he was drowning, was quiet in his +mind, thought of God and how he had not been trusting Him, and in his +thought he prayed for forgiveness. He lived afterwards a consistent +Christian life. This illustrates simply the possibilities open to one in +his keen inner mental processes.</p> + +<p>Here is surely enough knowledge to comfort many a bereft heart, and +enough too to make us pray persistently and believingly for loved ones +because of prayer's uncalculated and incalculable power. Be sure the +prayer-fact is in the case of <i>your</i> friend, <i>and in strong</i>.</p> + +<p>Yet let us be wary, very wary of letting this influence us one bit +farther. That man is nothing less than a fool who presumes upon such +statements to resist God's gracious pleadings for his life. And on our +side, we must not fail to warn men lovingly, tenderly yet with plainness +of the tremendous danger of delay, in coming to God. A man may be so +stupefied at the close as to shut out of his range what has been suggested +here. And further even if a man's soul be saved he is responsible to God +for his life. We want men to <i>live</i> for Jesus, and win others to Him. And +further, yet, reward, preferment, honour in God's kingdom depends upon +faithfulness to Him down here. Who would be saved by the skin of his +teeth!</p> + +<p>The great fact to have burned in deep is that we may assure the coming to +God of our loved ones with their lives, as well as for their souls if we +will but press the battle.</p> + + + +<h4>Giving God a Clear Road for Action.</h4> + + +<p>Out in one of the trans-Mississippi states I ran across an illustration of +prayer in real life that caught me at once, and has greatly helped me in +understanding prayer.</p> + +<p>Fact is more fascinating than fiction. If one could know what is going on +around him, how surprised and startled he would be. If we could get <i>all</i> +the facts in any one incident, and get them colourlessly, and have the +judgment to sift and analyze accurately, what fascinating instances of the +power of prayer would be disclosed.</p> + +<p>There is a double side to this story. The side of the man who was changed, +and the side of the woman who prayed. He is a New Englander, by birth and +breeding, now living in this western state: almost a giant physically, +keen mentally, a lawyer, and a natural leader. He had the conviction as a +boy that if he became a Christian he was to preach. But he grew up a +skeptic, read up and lectured on skeptical subjects. He was the +representative of a district of his western home state in congress; in his +fourth term or so I think at this time.</p> + +<p>The experience I am telling came during that congress when the +Hayes-Tilden controversy was up, the intensest congress Washington has +known since the Civil War. It was not a time specially suited to +meditation about God in the halls of congress. And further he said to me +that somehow he knew all the other skeptics who were in the lower house +and they drifted together a good bit and strengthened each other by their +talk.</p> + +<p>One day as he was in his seat in the lower house, in the midst of the +business of the hour, there came to him a conviction that God—the God in +whom he did not believe, whose existence he could keenly disprove—God was +right there above his head thinking about him, and displeased at the way +he was behaving towards Him. And he said to himself: "this is ridiculous, +absurd. I've been working too hard; confined too closely; my mind is +getting morbid. I'll go out, and get some fresh air, and shake myself." +And so he did. But the conviction only deepened and intensified. Day by +day it grew. And that went on for weeks, into the fourth month as I recall +his words. Then he planned to return home to attend to some business +matters, and to attend to some preliminaries for securing the nomination +for the governorship of his state. And as I understand he was in a fair +way to securing the nomination, so far as one can judge of such matters. +And his party is the dominant party in the state. A nomination for +governor by his party has usually been followed by election.</p> + +<p>He reached his home and had hardly gotten there before he found that his +wife and two others had entered into a holy compact of prayer for his +conversion, and had been so praying for some months. Instantly he thought +of his peculiar unwelcome Washington experience, and became intensely +interested. But not wishing them to know of his interest, he asked +carelessly when "this thing began." His wife told him the day. He did some +quick mental figuring, and he said to me, "I knew almost instantly that +the day she named fitted into the calendar with the coming of that +conviction or impression about God's presence."</p> + +<p>He was greatly startled. He wanted to be thoroughly honest in all his +thinking. And he said he knew that if a single fact of that sort could be +established, of prayer producing such results, it carried the whole +Christian scheme of belief with it. And he did some stiff fighting within. +Had he been wrong all those years? He sifted the matter back and forth as +a lawyer would the evidence in any case. And he said to me, "As an honest +man I was compelled to admit the facts, and I believe I might have been +led to Christ that very night."</p> + +<p>A few nights later he knelt at the altar in the Methodist meeting-house in +his home town and surrendered his strong will to God. Then the early +conviction of his boyhood days came back. He was to preach the gospel. And +like Saul of old, he utterly changed his life, and has been preaching the +gospel with power ever since.</p> + +<p>Then I was intensely fascinated in getting the other side, the +praying-side of the story. His wife had been a Christian for years, since +before their marriage. But in some meetings in the home church she was +led into a new, a full surrender to Jesus Christ as Master, and had +experienced a new consciousness of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. +Almost at once came a new intense desire for her husband's conversion. The +compact of three was agreed upon, of daily prayer for him until the change +came.</p> + +<p>As she prayed that night after retiring to her sleeping apartment she was +in great distress of mind in thinking and praying for him. She could get +no rest from this intense distress. At length she rose, and knelt by the +bedside to pray. As she was praying and distressed a voice, an exquisitely +quiet inner voice said, "will you abide the consequences?" She was +startled. Such a thing was wholly new to her. She did not know what it +meant. And without paying any attention to it, went on praying. Again came +the same quietly spoken words to her ear, "will you abide the +consequences?" And again the half frightened feeling. She slipped back to +bed to sleep. But sleep did not come. And back again to her knees, and +again the patient, quiet voice.</p> + +<p>This time with an earnestness bearing the impress of her agony she said, +"Lord, I will abide any consequence that may come if only my husband may +be brought to Thee." And at once the distress slipped away, and a new +sweet peace filled her being, and sleep quickly came. And while she prayed +on for weeks and months patiently, persistently, day by day, the distress +was gone, the sweet peace remained in the assurance that the result was +surely coming. And so it was coming all those days down in the thick air +of Washington's lower house, and so it did come.</p> + +<p>What <i>was</i> the consequence to her? She was a congressman's wife. She would +likely have been, so far as such matters may be judged, the wife of the +governor of her state, the first lady socially of the state. She is a +Methodist minister's wife changing her home every few years. A very +different position in many ways. No woman will be indifferent to the +social difference involved. Yet rarely have I met a woman with more of +that fine beauty which the peace of God brings, in her glad face, and in +her winsome smile.</p> + +<p>Do you see the simple philosophy of that experience. Her surrender gave +God a clear channel into that man's will. When the roadway was cleared, +her prayer was a spirit-force traversing instantly the hundreds of +intervening miles, and affecting the spirit-atmosphere of his presence.</p> + +<p>Shall we not put our wills fully in touch with God, and sheer out of +sympathy with the other one, and persistently plead and claim for each +loved one, "deliver him from the evil one, and work in him Thy will, to +Thy glory, by Thy power, in the Victor's name." And then add amen—so it +<i>shall</i> be. Not so <i>may</i> it be—a wish, but so it <i>shall</i> be—an +expression of confidence in Jesus' power. <i>And these lives shall be won, +and these souls saved</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="chapter" id="ch04"> +<h2>IV. Jesus' Habits of Prayer</h2> + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch04-1">A Pen Sketch.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-2">Dissolving Views. </a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-3">Deepening Shadows. </a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-4">Under the Olive Trees. </a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-5">A Composite Picture.</a></li> +</ol> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch04-1"> +<h3>Jesus' Habits of Prayer</h3><h4>A Pen Sketch.</h4> + + +<p>When God would win back His prodigal world He sent down a Man. That Man +while more than man insisted upon being truly a man. He touched human life +at every point. No man seems to have understood prayer, and to have prayed +as did He. How can we better conclude these quiet talks on prayer than by +gathering about His person and studying His habits of prayer.</p> + +<p>A habit is an act repeated so often as to be done involuntarily; that is, +without a new decision of the mind each time it is done.</p> + +<p>Jesus prayed. He loved to pray. Sometimes praying was His way of resting. +He prayed so much and so often that it became a part of His life. It +became to Him like breathing—involuntary.</p> + +<p>There is no thing we need so much as to learn how to pray. There are two +ways of receiving instruction; one, by being told; the other, by watching +some one else. The latter is the simpler and the surer way. How better can +we learn how to pray than by watching how Jesus prayed, and then trying +to imitate Him. Not, just now, studying what He <i>said</i> about prayer, +invaluable as that is, and so closely interwoven with the other; nor yet +how He received the requests of men when on earth, full of inspiring +suggestion as that is of His <i>present</i> attitude towards our prayers; but +how He Himself prayed when down here surrounded by our same circumstances +and temptations.</p> + +<p>There are two sections of the Bible to which we at once turn for light, +the gospels and the Psalms. In the gospels is given chiefly the <i>outer</i> +side of His prayer-habits; and in certain of the Psalms, glimpses of the +<i>inner</i> side are unmistakably revealed.</p> + +<p>Turning now to the gospels, we find the picture of the praying Jesus like +an etching, a sketch in black and white, the fewest possible strokes of +the pen, a scratch here, a line there, frequently a single word added by +one writer to the narrative of the others, which gradually bring to view +the outline of a lone figure with upturned face.</p> + +<p>Of the fifteen mentions of His praying found in the four gospels, it is +interesting to note that while Matthew gives three, and Mark and John each +four, it is Luke, Paul's companion and mirror-like friend, who, in eleven +such allusions, supplies most of the picture.</p> + +<p>Does this not contain a strong hint of the explanation of that other +etching plainly traceable in the epistles which reveals Paul's own +marvellous prayer-life?</p> + +<p>Matthew, immersed in the Hebrew Scriptures, writes to the Jews of their +promised Davidic King; Mark, with rapid pen, relates the ceaseless +activity of this wonderful servant of the Father. John, with imprisoned +body, but rare liberty of vision, from the glory-side revealed on Patmos, +depicts the Son of God coming on an errand from the Father into the world, +and again, leaving the world and going back home unto the Father. But Luke +emphasizes the <i>human</i> Jesus, a <i>Man</i>—with reverence let me use a word in +its old-fashioned meaning—a <i>fellow</i>, that is, one of ourselves. And the +Holy Spirit makes it very plain throughout Luke's narrative that the <i>man</i> +Christ Jesus <i>prayed</i>; prayed <i>much; needed</i> to pray; <i>loved</i> to pray.</p> + +<p>Oh! when shall we men down here, sent into the world as He was sent into +the world, with the same mission, the same field, the same Satan to +combat, the same Holy Spirit to empower, find out that power lies in +keeping closest connection with the Sender, and completest insulation from +the power-absorbing world!</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch04-2"> +<h3>Dissolving Views.</h3> + + +<p>Let me rapidily sketch those fifteen mentions of the gospel writers, +attempting to keep their chronological order.</p> + +<p><i>The first mention</i> is by Luke, in chapter three. The first three gospels +all tell of Jesus' double baptism, but it is Luke who adds, "and praying." +It was while waiting in prayer that He received the gift of the Holy +Spirit. He <i>dared</i> not begin His public mission without that anointing. It +had been promised in the prophetic writings. And now, standing in the +Jordan, He waits and prays until the blue above is burst through by the +gleams of glory-light from the upper-side and the dove-like Spirit wings +down and abides upon Him. <i>Prayer brings power.</i> Prayer <i>is</i> power. The +time of prayer is the time of power. The place of prayer is the place of +power. Prayer is tightening the connections with the divine dynamo so that +the power may flow freely without loss or interruption.</p> + +<p><i>The second mention</i> is made by Mark in chapter one. Luke, in chapter +four, hints at it, "when it was day He came out and went into a desert +place." But Mark tells us plainly "in the morning a great while before the +day (or a little more literally, 'very early while it was yet very dark') +He arose and went out into the desert or solitary place and there prayed." +The day before, a Sabbath day spent in His adopted home-town Capernaum, +had been a very busy day for Him, teaching in the synagogue service, the +interruption by a demon-possessed man, the casting out amid a painful +scene; afterwards the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, and then at +sun-setting the great crowd of diseased and demonized thronging the +narrow street until far into the night, while He, passing amongst them, by +personal touch, healed and restored every one. It was a long and +exhausting day's work. One of us spending as busy a Sabbath would probably +feel that the next morning needed an extra hour's sleep if possible. One +must rest surely. But this man Jesus seemed to have another way of resting +in addition to sleep. Probably He occupied the guest-chamber in Peter's +home. The house was likely astir at the usual hour, and by and by +breakfast was ready, but the Master had not appeared yet, so they waited a +bit. After a while the maid slips to His room door and taps lightly, but +there's no answer; again a little bolder knock, then pushing the door ajar +she finds the room unoccupied. Where's the Master? "Ah!" Peter says; "I +think I know. I have noticed before this that He has a way of slipping off +early in the morning to some quiet place where He can be alone." And a +little knot of disciples with Peter in the lead starts out on a search for +Him, for already a crowd is gathering at the door and filling the street +again, hungry for more. And they "tracked Him down" here and there on the +hillsides, among clumps of trees, until suddenly they come upon Him +quietly praying with a wondrous calm in His great eyes. Listen to Peter as +he eagerly blurts out, "Master, there's a big crowd down there, all asking +for you." But the Master's quiet decisive tones reply, "Let us go into +the next towns that I may preach there also; for to this end came I +forth." Much easier to go back and deal again with the old crowd of +yesterday; harder to meet the new crowds with their new skepticism, but +there's no doubt about what <i>should</i> be done. Prayer wonderfully clears +the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; +sweetens and strengthens the spirit. The busier the day for Him the more +surely must the morning appointment be kept,<sup><a href="#fn43">43</a></sup> and even an earlier start +made, apparently. The more virtue went forth from Him, the more certainly +must He spend time, and even <i>more</i> time, alone with Him who is the source +of power.</p> + +<p><i>The third mention</i> is in Luke, chapter five. Not a great while after the +scene just described, possibly while on the trip suggested by His answer +to Peter, in some one of the numerous Galilean villages, moved with the +compassion that ever burned His heart, He had healed a badly diseased +leper, who, disregarding His express command, so widely published the fact +of His remarkable healing that great crowds blocked Jesus' way in the +village and compelled Him to go out to the country district, where the +crowds which the village could not hold now throng about Him. Now note +what the Master does. The authorized version says, "He withdrew into the +wilderness and prayed." A more nearly literal reading would be, "He was +retiring in the deserts and praying"; suggesting not a single act, but +rather <i>a habit of action</i> running through several days or even weeks. +That is, being compelled by the greatness of the crowds to go into the +deserts or country, districts, and being constantly thronged there by the +people, He had <i>less opportunity</i> to get alone, and yet more need, and so +while He patiently continues His work among them He studiously seeks +opportunity to retire at intervals from the crowds to pray.</p> + +<p>How much His life was like ours. Pressed by duties, by opportunities for +service, by the great need around us, we are strongly tempted to give less +time to the inner chamber, with door shut. "Surely this work must be +done," we think, "though it does crowd and flurry our prayer time some." +"<i>No</i>," the Master's practice here says with intense emphasis. Not work +first, and prayer to bless it. But the <i>first</i> place given to prayer and +then the service growing out of such prayer will be charged with +unmeasured power. The greater the outer pressure on His closet-life, the +more jealously He guarded against either a shortening of its time or a +flurrying of its spirit. The tighter the tension, the more time must there +be for unhurried prayer.</p> + +<p><i>The fourth mention</i> is found in Luke, chapter six. "It came to pass in +these days that He went out into the mountains to pray, and He continued +all night in prayer to God." The time is probably about the middle of the +second year of His public ministry. He had been having very exasperating +experiences with the national leaders from Judea who dogged His steps, +criticising and nagging at every turn, sowing seeds of skepticism among +His simple-minded, intense-spirited Galileans. It was also the day +<i>before</i> He selected the twelve men who were to be the leaders after His +departure, and preached the mountain sermon. Luke does not say that He +<i>planned</i> to spend the entire night in prayer. Wearied in spirit by the +ceaseless petty picking and Satanic hatred of His enemies, thinking of the +serious work of the morrow, there was just one thing for Him to do. He +knew where to find rest, and sweet fellowship, and a calming presence, and +wise counsel. Turning His face northward He sought the solitude of the +mountain not far off for quiet meditation and prayer. And as He prayed and +listened and talked without words, daylight gradually grew into twilight, +and that yielded imperceptibly to the brilliant Oriental stars spraying +down their lustrous fire-light. And still He prayed, while the darkness +below and the blue above deepened, and the stilling calm of God wrapped +all nature around, and hushed His heart into a deeper peace. In the +fascination of the Father's loving presence He was utterly lost to the +flight of time, but prayed on and on until, by and by, the earth had once +more completed its daily turn, the gray streaks of dawnlight crept up the +east, and the face of Palestine, fragrant with the deep dews of an +eastern night, was kissed by a sun of a new day. And then, "when it was +day"—how quietly the narrative goes on—"He called the disciples and +<i>chose</i> from them twelve,—and a great multitude of disciples and of the +people came,—and He <i>healed</i> all—and He opened His mouth and <i>taught</i> +them—<i>for power came forth from Him."</i> Is it any wonder, after such a +night! If all our exasperations and embarrassments were followed, and all +our decisions and utterances preceded, by unhurried prayer, what power +would come forth from us, too. Because as He is even so are we in this +world.</p> + +<p><i>The fifth mention</i> is made by Matthew, chapter fourteen, and Mark, +chapter six, John hinting at it in chapter six of his gospel. It was about +the time of the third passover, the beginning of His last year of service. +Both He and the disciples had been kept exceedingly busy with the great +throng coming and going incessantly. The startling news had just come of +the tragic death of His forerunner. There was need of bodily rest, as well +as of quiet to think over the rapidly culminating opposition. So taking +boat they headed towards the eastern shore of the lake. But the eager +crowds watched the direction taken and spreading the news, literally "ran" +around the head of the lake and "out-went them," and when He stepped from +the boat for the much-needed rest there was an immense company, numbering +thousands, waiting for Him. Did some feeling of impatience break out among +the disciples that they could not be allowed a little leisure? Very +likely, for they were so much like us. But <i>He</i> was "moved with +compassion" and, wearied though He was, patiently spent the entire day in +teaching, and then, at eventime when the disciples proposed sending them +away for food, He, with a handful of loaves and fishes, satisfied the +bodily cravings of as many as five thousand.</p> + +<p>There is nothing that has so appealed to the masses in all countries and +all centuries as ability to furnish plenty to eat. Literally tens of +thousands of the human race fall asleep every night hungry. So here. At +once it is proposed by a great popular uprising, under the leadership of +this wonderful man as king, to throw off the oppressive Roman yoke. +Certainly if only His consent could be had it would be immensely +successful, they thought. Does this not rank with Satan's suggestion in +the wilderness, and with the later possibility coming through the visit of +the Greek deputation, of establishing the kingdom without suffering? It +was a temptation, even though it found no response within Him. With the +over-awing power of His presence so markedly felt at times He quieted the +movement, "constrained"<sup><a href="#fn44">44</a></sup> the disciples to go by boat before Him to the +other side while He dismissed the throng. "And after He had <i>taken leave +of them</i>"—what gentle courtesy and tenderness mingled with His +irrevocable decision—"He went up in the mountain <i>to pray</i>," and +"<i>continued in prayer</i>" until the morning watch. A second night spent in +prayer! Bodily weary, His spirit startled by an event which vividly +foreshadowed His own approaching violent death, and now this vigorous +renewal of His old temptation, again He had recourse to His one unfailing +habit of getting off alone <i>to pray.</i> Time alone <i>to pray; more</i> time to +pray, was His one invariable offset to all difficulties, all temptations, +and all needs. How much more there must have been in prayer as He +understood and practiced it than many of His disciples to-day know.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch04-3"> +<h3>Deepening Shadows.</h3> + + +<p>We shall perhaps understand better some of the remaining prayer incidents +if we remember that Jesus is now in the last year of His ministry, the +acute state of His experiences with the national leaders preceding the +final break. The awful shadow of the cross grows deeper and darker across +His path. The hatred of the opposition leader gets constantly intenser. +The conditions of discipleship are more sharply put. The inability of the +crowds, of the disciples, and others to understand Him grows more marked. +Many followers go back. He seeks to get more time for intercourse with +the twelve. He makes frequent trips to distant points on the border of the +outside, non-Jewish world. The coming scenes and experiences—<i>the</i> scene +on the little hillock outside the Jerusalem wall—seem never absent from +His thoughts. <i>The sixth mention</i> is made by Luke, chapter nine. They are +up north in the neighbourhood of the Roman city of Cæsarea Philippi. "And +it came to pass as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him." +Alone, so far as the multitudes are concerned, but seeming to be drawing +these twelve nearer to His inner life. Some of these later incidents seem +to suggest that he was trying to woo them into something of the same love +for the fascination of secret prayer that He had. How much they would need +to pray in the coming years when He was gone. Possibly, too, He yearned +for a closer fellowship with them. He loved human fellowship, as Peter and +James and John, and Mary and Martha and many other gentle women well knew. +And there is no fellowship among men to be compared with fellowship <i>in +prayer</i>.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"There is a place where <i>spirits blend</i>,</div> +<div class="line">Where <i>friend holds fellowship with friend</i>,</div> +<div class="line">A place than all beside more sweet,</div> +<div class="line">It is the blood-bought mercy-seat."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p><i>The seventh mention</i> is in this same ninth chapter of Luke, and records a +third night of prayer. Matthew and Mark also tell of the transfiguration +scene, but it is Luke who explains that He went up into the mountain <i>to +pray</i>, and that it was <i>as He was praying</i> that the fashion of His +countenance was altered. Without stopping to study the purpose of this +marvellous manifestation of His divine glory to the chosen three at a time +when desertion and hatred were so marked, it is enough now to note the +significant fact that it was while <i>He was praying</i> that the wondrous +change came. <i>Transfigured while praying! </i> And by His side stood one who +centuries before on the earth had spent so much time alone with God that +the glory-light of that presence transfigured <i>his</i> face, though he was +unconscious of it. A shining face caused by contact with God! Shall not +we, to whom the Master has said, "follow Me," get alone with Him and His +blessed Word, so habitually, with open or uncovered face, that is, with +eyesight unhindered by prejudice or self-seeking, that mirroring the glory +of His face we shall more and more come to bear His very likeness upon our +faces?<sup><a href="#fn45">45</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"And the face shines bright</div> +<div class="line">With a glow of light</div> +<div class="line">From His presence sent</div> +<div class="line">Whom she loves to meet.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Yes, the face beams bright</div> +<div class="line">With an inner light</div> +<div class="line">As by day so by night,</div> +<div class="line">In shade as in shine,</div> +<div class="line">With a beauty fine,</div> +<div class="line">That she wist not of,</div> +<div class="line">From some source within.</div> +<div class="line"> And above.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Still the face shines bright</div> +<div class="line">With the glory-light</div> +<div class="line">From the mountain height.</div> +<div class="line">Where the resplendent sight</div> +<div class="line">Of His face</div> +<div class="line">Fills her view</div> +<div class="line">And illumines in turn</div> +<div class="line">First the few,</div> +<div class="line">Then the wide race."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p><i>The eighth mention</i> is in the tenth chapter of Luke. He had organized a +band of men, sending them out in two's into the places he expected to +visit. They had returned with a joyful report of the power attending their +work; and standing in their midst, His own heart overflowing with joy, He +looked up and, as though the Father's face was visible, spake out to Him +the gladness of His heart. He seemed to be always conscious of His +Father's presence, and the most natural thing was to speak to Him. They +were always within speaking distance of each other, and always on speaking +terms.</p> + +<p><i>The ninth mention</i> is in the eleventh chapter of Luke, very similar to +the sixth mention, "It came to pass as He was praying in a certain place +that when He ceased one of His disciples said unto Him, 'Lord, teach us +to pray.'" Without doubt these disciples were praying men. He had already +talked to them a great deal about prayer. But as they noticed how large a +place prayer had in His life, and some of the marvellous results, the fact +came home to them with great force that there must be some fascination, +some power, some secret in prayer, of which <i>they were ignorant.</i> This Man +was a master in the fine art of prayer. <i>They</i> really did not know how to +pray, they thought. How their request must have delighted Him! At last +they were being aroused concerning <i>the</i> great secret of power. May it be +that this simple recital of His habits of prayer may move every one of us +to get alone with Him and make the same earnest request. For the first +step in <i>learning</i> to pray is to pray,—"Lord, teach me to pray." And who +<i>can</i> teach like Him?</p> + +<p><i>The tenth mention</i> is found in John, chapter eleven, and is the second of +the four instances of ejaculatory prayer. A large company is gathered +outside the village of Bethany, around a tomb in which four days before +the body of a young man had been laid away. There is Mary, still weeping, +and Martha, always keenly alive to the proprieties, trying to be more +composed, and their personal friends, and the villagers, and the company +of acquaintances and others from Jerusalem. At His word, after some +hesitation, the stone at the mouth of the tomb is rolled aside. And Jesus +lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me; +and I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the multitude that +standeth around I said it that they may believe that Thou didst send Me!" +Clearly before coming to the tomb He had been praying in secret about the +raising of Lazarus, and what followed was in answer to His prayer. How +plain it becomes that all the marvellous power displayed in His brief +earthly career <i>came through prayer</i>. What inseparable intimacy between +His life of activity at which the multitude then and ever since has +marvelled, and His hidden closet-life of which only these passing glimpses +are obtained. Surely the greatest power entrusted to man is prayer-power. +But how many of us are untrue to the trust, while this strangely +omnipotent power put into our hands lies so largely unused.</p> + +<p>Note also the certainty of His faith in the Hearer of prayer: "I thank +Thee that Thou heardest Me." There was nothing that could be <i>seen</i> to +warrant such faith. There lay the dead body. But He trusted as <i>seeing</i> +Him who is <i>invisible</i>. Faith is blind, except upward. It is blind to +impossibilities and deaf to doubt. It listens only to God and sees only +His power and acts accordingly. Faith is not believing that He <i>can</i> but +that He <i>will</i>. But such faith comes only of close continuous contact with +God. Its birthplace is in the secret closet; and time and the open Word, +and an awakened ear and a reverent quiet heart are necessary to its +growth.</p> + +<p><i>The eleventh mention</i> is found in the twelfth chapter of John. Two or +three days before the fated Friday some Greek visitors to the Jewish feast +of Passover sought an interview with Him. The request seemed to bring to +His mind a vision of the great outside world, after which His heart +yearned, coming to Him so hungry for what only He could give. And +instantly athwart that vision like an ink-black shadow came the other +vision, never absent now from His waking thoughts, <i>of the cross</i> so +awfully near. Shrinking in horror from the second vision, yet knowing that +only through its realization could be realized the first,—seemingly +forgetful for the moment of the by-standers, as though soliloquizing, He +speaks—"now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Shall I say, +Father <i>save</i> Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour: +<i>this</i> is what I will say (and the intense conflict of soul merges into +the complete victory of a wholly surrendered will) <i>Father, glorify Thy +name</i>." Quick as the prayer was uttered, came the audible voice out of +heaven answering, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." +How near heaven must be! How quickly the Father hears! He must be bending +over, intently listening, eager to catch even faintly whispered prayer. +Their ears, full of earth-sounds, unaccustomed to listening to a heavenly +voice, could hear nothing intelligible. He had a <i>trained ear</i>. Isaiah +50:4 revised (a passage plainly prophetic of Him), suggests how it was +that He could understand this voice so easily and quickly. "He wakeneth +morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught." +A taught ear is as necessary to prayer as a taught tongue, and the daily +morning appointment with God seems essential to both.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch04-4"> +<h3>Under the Olive Trees.</h3> + + +<p><i>The twelfth mention</i> is made by Luke, chapter twenty-two. It is Thursday +night of Passion week, in the large upper room in Jerusalem where He is +celebrating the old Passover feast, and initiating the new memorial feast. +But even that hallowed hour is disturbed by the disciples' self-seeking +disputes. With the great patience of great love He gives them the +wonderful example of humility of which John thirteen tells, speaking +gently of what it meant, and then turning to Peter, and using his old +name, He says, "Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you that he might +sift you as wheat, but I made supplication for thee that thy faith fail +not." <i>He had been praying for Peter by name!</i> That was one of His +prayer-habits, praying for others. And He has not broken off that blessed +habit yet. He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near to God +through Him <i>seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them</i>. His +occupation now seated at His Father's right hand in glory is <i>praying for +each of us</i> who trust Him. By name? Why not?</p> + +<p><i>The thirteenth mention</i> is the familiar one in John, chapter seventeen, +and cannot be studied within these narrow limits, but merely fitted into +Us order. The twelfth chapter contains His last words to the world. In the +thirteenth and through to the close of this seventeenth He is alone with +His disciples. If this prayer is read carefully in the revised version it +will be seen that its standpoint is that of one who thinks of His work +down in the world as already done (though the chief scene is yet to come) +and the world left behind, and now He is about re-entering His Father's +presence to be re-instated in glory there. It is really, therefore, a sort +of specimen of the praying for us in which He is <i>now</i> engaged, and so is +commonly called the intercessory or high-priestly prayer. For thirty years +He lived a perfect life. For three and a half years He was a prophet +speaking to men for God. For nineteen centuries He has been high priest +speaking to God for men. When He returns it will be as King to reign over +men for God.</p> + +<p><i>The fourteenth mention</i> brings us within the sadly sacred precincts of +Gethsemane garden, one of His favourite prayer-spots, where He frequently +went while in Jerusalem. The record is found in Matthew twenty-six, Mark +fourteen, and Luke twenty-one. Let us approach with hearts hushed and +heads bared and bowed, for this is indeed hallowed ground. It is a little +later on that same Thursday night, into which so much has already been +pressed and so much more is yet to come. After the talk in the upper room, +and the simple wondrous prayer, He leads the little band out of the city +gate on the east across the swift, muddy Kidron into the inclosed grove of +olive trees beyond. There would be no sleep for Him that night. Within an +hour or two the Roman soldiers and the Jewish mob, led by the traitor, +will be there searching for Him, and He meant to spend the intervening +time in <i>prayer</i>. With the longing for sympathy so marked during these +latter months, He takes Peter and James and John and goes farther into the +deeply-shadowed grove. But now some invisible power tears him away and +plunges Him alone still farther into the moonlit recesses of the garden; +and there a strange, awful struggle of soul ensues. It seems like a +renewal of the same conflict He experienced in John twelve when the Greeks +came, but immeasurably intenser. He who in Himself knew no sin was now +beginning to realize in His spirit what within a few hours He realized +<i>actually</i>, that He was in very deed to be made sin for us. And the awful +realization comes in upon Him with such terrific intensity that it seems +as though His physical frame cannot endure the strain of mental agony. The +<i>actual</i> experience of the next day produced such mental agony that His +physical strength gave way. For He died not of His physical suffering, +excruciating as that was, but literally of a broken heart, its walls burst +asunder by the strain of soul. It is not possible for a sinning soul to +appreciate with what nightmare dread and horror the sinless soul of Jesus +must have approached the coming contact with the sin of a world. With +bated breath and reverent gaze one follows that lonely figure among the +trees; now kneeling, now falling upon His face, lying prostrate, "He +prayed that <i>if</i> it were possible the hour might pass away from Him." One +snatch of that prayer reaches our ears: "Abba, Father, all things are +possible unto Thee—<i>if</i> it be possible let this cup pass away from Me; +nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." How long He remained so in +prayer we do not know, but so great was the tension of spirit that a +messenger from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. Even after that +"being in an agony He prayed more earnestly (literally, more stretched +out, more strainedly) and His sweat became as it were great clots of blood +falling down upon the ground." When at length He arises from that season +of conflict and prayer, the victory seems to be won, and something of the +old-time calm reasserts itself. He goes to the sleeping disciples, and +mindful of their coming temptation, admonishes them to pray; then returns +to the lonely solitude again for more prayer, but the change in the form +of prayer tells of the triumph of soul, "O My Father, if this cup +<i>cannot</i> pass away except I drink it, Thy will be done." The victory is +complete. The crisis is past. He yields Himself to that dreaded experience +through which alone the Father's loving plan for a dying world can be +accomplished. Again He returns to the poor, weak disciples, and back again +for another bit of strengthening communion, and then the flickering glare +of torches in the distance tells Him that "the hour is come." With steady +step and a marvellous peace lighting His face He goes out to meet His +enemies. He overcame in this greatest crisis of His life <i>by prayer</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The fifteenth mention</i> is the final one. Of the seven sentences which He +spake upon the cross, three were prayers. Luke tells us that while the +soldiers were driving the nails through His hands and feet and lifting the +cross into place, He, thinking even then not of self, but of others, said, +"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."</p> + +<p>It was as the time of the daily evening sacrifice drew on, near the close +of that strange darkness which overcast all nature, after a silence of +three hours, that He loudly sobbed out the piercing, heart-rending cry, +"My God, My God, why didst Thou forsake Me?" A little later the triumphant +shout proclaimed His work done, and then the very last word was a prayer +quietly breathed out, as He yielded up His life, "Father, into Thy hands +I commend My spirit." And so His expiring breath was vocalized into +prayer.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch04-5"> +<h3>A Composite Picture.</h3> + + +<p>It may be helpful to make the following summary of these allusions.</p> + +<p>1. <i>His times of prayer</i>: His regular habit seems plainly to have been to +devote the early morning hour to communion with His Father, and to depend +upon that for constant guidance and instruction. This is suggested +especially by Mark 1:35; and also by Isaiah 50:4-6 coupled with John 7:16 +l.c., 8:28, and 12:49.</p> + +<p>In addition to this regular appointment, He sought other opportunities for +secret prayer as special need arose; late at night after others had +retired; three times He remained in prayer all the night; and at irregular +intervals between times. Note that it was usually a <i>quiet</i> time when the +noises of earth were hushed. He spent special time in prayer <i>before</i> +important events and also <i>afterwards</i>. (See mentions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 +and 14.)</p> + +<p>2. <i>His places of prayer</i>: He who said, "Enter into thine inner chamber +and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret," Himself +had no fixed inner chamber, during His public career, to make easier the +habitual retirement for prayer. Homeless for the three and a half years of +ceaseless travelling, His place of prayer was a desert place, "the +deserts," "the mountains," "a solitary place." He loved nature. The +hilltop back of Nazareth village, the slopes of Olivet, the hillsides +overlooking the Galilean lake, were His favourite places. Note that it was +always a <i>quiet</i> place, shut away from the discordant sounds of earth.</p> + +<p>3. <i>His constant spirit of prayer</i>: He was never out of the spirit of +prayer. He could be alone in a dense crowd. It has been said that there +are sorts of solitude, namely, of time, as early morning, or late at +night; solitude of place, as a hilltop, or forest, or a secluded room; and +solitude of spirit, as when one surrounded by a crowd may watch them +unmoved, or to be lost to all around in his own inner thought. Jesus used +all three sorts of solitude for talking with His Father. (See mentions 8, +10, 11 and 15.)</p> + +<p>4. <i>He prayed in the great crises of His life</i>: Five such are mentioned: +Before the awful battle royal with Satan in the Quarantanian wilderness at +the outset; before choosing the twelve leaders of the new movement; at the +time of the Galilean uprising; before the final departure from Galilee for +Judea and Jerusalem; and in Gethsemane, the greatest crisis of all. (See +mentions 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14.)</p> + +<p>5. He prayed for others by name, and still does. (See mention 13.)</p> + +<p>6. <i>He prayed with others</i>: A habit that might well be more widely copied. +A few minutes spent in quiet prayer by friends or fellow-workers before +parting wonderfully sweetens the spirit, and cements friendships, and +makes difficulties less difficult, and hard problems easier of solution. +(See mentions 7, 9 and 13.)</p> + +<p>7. <i>The greatest blessings of His life came during prayer</i>: Six incidents +are noted: while praying, the Holy Spirit came upon Him; He was +transfigured; three times a heavenly voice of approval came; and in His +hour of sorest distress in the garden a heavenly messenger came to +strengthen Him. (See mentions 1, 7, 11 and 14.)</p> + +<p>How much prayer meant to Jesus! It was not only His <i>regular habit</i>, but +His resort in <i>every emergency</i>, however slight or serious. When perplexed +He <i>prayed</i>. When hard pressed by work He <i>prayed</i>. When hungry for +fellowship He found it in <i>prayer</i>. He chose His associates and received +His messages <i>upon His knees</i>. If tempted, He <i>prayed</i>. If criticised, He +<i>prayed</i>. If fatigued in body or wearied in spirit, He had recourse to His +one unfailing habit of <i>prayer. Prayer</i> brought Him <i>unmeasured power</i> at +the beginning, and <i>kept</i> the flow unbroken and undiminished. There was no +emergency, no difficulty, no necessity, no temptation that would not yield +to prayer, as He practiced it. Shall not we, who have been tracing these +steps in His prayer life, go back over them again and again until we +breathe in His very spirit of prayer? And shall we not, too, ask Him daily +to teach us how to pray, and then plan to get alone with Him regularly +that He may have opportunity to teach us, and we the opportunity to +practice His teaching?</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div id="footnotes"> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> + + + +<p class="fn" id="fn1">1. John 15:16.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn2">2. "Demon Possession," by J. L. Nevius.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn3">3. Psalm 24:1.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn4">4. Psalm 29:10.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn5">5. Genesis 1:26, 28. Psalms 8:6. See quotations of this, referring to the +Man who will restore original conditions, in 1 Cor. 15:27. Ephesians 1:32, +Hebrews 2:8. Psalms 115:16.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn6">6. John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn7">7. Revelation 11:15.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn8">8. John 14:30.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn9">9. Jeremiah 33:3.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn10">10. Psalm 50:15.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn11">11. Matthew 7:7.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn12">12. Isaiah 1:15.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn13">13. Isaiah 59:1-3.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn14">14. Psalm 66:18.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn15">15. James 4:2, 3.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn16">16. Matthew 5:23, 24.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn17">17. Matthew 6:9-15.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn18">18. Matthew 18:19-35.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn19">19. Acts 16:6.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn20">20. Acts 16:7.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn21">21. John 7:8.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn22">22. Acts 22:17-21.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn23">23. 2 Cor. 5:21.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn24">24. Sidney Lanier.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn25">25. Ephesians 2:2.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn26">26. Luke 11:5-13.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn27">27. Luke 18:1-8.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn28">28. 1 Peter 5:8.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn29">29. Matthew 17:14-20; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn30">30. Matthew 16:24.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn31">31. Psalm 37:7.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn32">32. Isaiah 50:4.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn33">33. Jeremiah 15:1.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn34">34. Longfellow.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn35">35. 2 Samuel 23:9, 10.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn36">36. Joseph Cook.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn37">37. John 7:17.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn38">38. Frances Ridley Havergal.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn39">39. Romans 8:26-28.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn40">40. Psalm 25:9.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn41">41. 1 John 5:14, 15.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn42">42. 2 Timothy 2:24-26.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn43">43. Isaiah 50:4, Revised.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn44">44. Does not this very strong language suggest that possibly the +disciples had been conferred with by the revolutionary leaders?</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn45">45. 2 Cor. 3:18.</p> +</div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13196 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + + + diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..182770a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13196 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13196) diff --git a/old/13196-8.txt b/old/13196-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40217fc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13196-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5608 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Quiet Talks on Prayer, by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Quiet Talks on Prayer + +Author: S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon + +Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13196] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUIET TALKS ON PRAYER *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +Quiet Talks on Prayer + +by + +S. D. Gordon + + + + +Copyright, 1904, by +Fleming H. Revell Company + + + + +Contents + + + +I. The Meaning and Mission of Prayer + 1. Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power + 2. Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict + 3. The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer + 4. Does Prayer Influence God? + +II. Hindrances to Prayer + 1. Why the Results Fail + 2. Why the Results are Delayed + 3. The Great Outside Hindrance + +III. How to Pray + 1. The "How" of Relationship + 2. The "How" of Method + 3. The Listening Side of Prayer + 4. Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer + 5. May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones + +IV. Jesus' Habits of Prayer + 1. A Pen Sketch + 2. Dissolving Views + 3. Deepening Shadows + 4. Under the Olive Trees + 5. A Composite Picture + + + + +I. The Meaning And Mission Of Prayer + + +1. Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power. +2. Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict. +3. The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer. +4. Does Prayer Influence God? + + + + +Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power + + + +<u>Five Outlets of Power.</u> + + +A great sorrow has come into the heart of God. Let it be told only in +hushed voice--one of His worlds is _a prodigal_! Hush your voice yet +more--_ours_ is that prodigal world. Let your voice soften down still +more--_we_ have _consented_ to the prodigal part of the story. But, in +softest tones yet, He has won some of us back with His strong tender love. +And now let the voice ring out with great gladness--we won ones may be the +pathway back to God for the others. That is His earnest desire. That +should be our dominant ambition. For that purpose He has endowed us with +peculiar power. + +There is one inlet of power in the life--anybody's life--any kind of +power: just one inlet--the Holy Spirit. He is power. He is in every one +who opens his door to God. He eagerly enters every open door. He comes in +by our invitation and consent. His presence within is the vital thing. + +But with many of us while He is in, He is not in control: in as guest; not +as host. That is to say He is hindered in His natural movements; tied up, +so that He cannot do what He would. And so we are not conscious or only +partially conscious of His presence. And others are still less so. But to +yield to His mastery, to cultivate His friendship, to give Him full +swing--that will result in what is called power. One inlet of power--the +Holy Spirit in control. + +There are five outlets of power: five avenues through which this One +within shows Himself, and reveals His power. + +First: through the life, what we are. Just simply what we are. If we be +right the power of God will be constantly flowing out, though we be not +conscious of it. It throws the keenest kind of emphasis on a man being +right in his life. There will be an eager desire to serve. Yet we may +constantly do more in what we are than in what we do. We may serve better +in the lives we live than in the best service we ever give. The memory of +that should bring rest to your spirit when a bit tired, and may be +disheartened because tired. + +Second: through the lips, what we say. It may be said stammeringly and +falteringly. But if said your best with the desire to please the Master it +will be God-blest. I have heard a man talk. And he stuttered and blushed +and got his grammar badly tangled, but my heart burned as I listened. And +I have heard a man talk with smooth speech, and it rolled off me as easily +as it rolled out of him. Do your best, and leave the rest. If we are in +touch with God His fire burns whether the tongue stammer or has good +control of its powers. + +Third: through our service, what we do. It may be done bunglingly and +blunderingly. Your best may not be the best, but if it be your best it +will bring a harvest. + +Fourth: through our money, what we do not keep, but loosen out for God. +Money comes the nearest to omnipotence of anything we handle. + +And, fifth: through our prayer, what we claim in Jesus' name. + +And by all odds the greatest of these is the outlet through prayer. The +power of a life touches just one spot, but the touch is tremendous. What +is there we think to be compared with a pure, unselfish, gently strong +life. Yet its power is limited to one spot where it is being lived. Power +through the lips depends wholly upon the life back of the lips. Words that +come brokenly are often made burning and eloquent by the life behind them. +And words that are smooth and easy, often have all their meaning sapped by +the life back of them. Power through service may be great, and may be +touching many spots, yet it is always less than that of a life. Power +through money depends wholly upon the motive back of the money. Begrudged +money, stained money, soils the treasury. That which comes nearest to +omnipotence also comes nearest to impotence. But the power loosened out +through prayer is as tremendous, at the least, to say no more just now, is +as tremendous as the power of a true fragrant life and, mark you, _and_, +may touch not one spot but wherever in the whole round world you may +choose to turn it. + +The greatest thing any one can do for God and for man is to pray. It is +not the only thing. But it is the chief thing. A correct balancing of the +possible powers one may exert puts it first. For if a man is to pray +right, he must first _be_ right in his motives and life. And if a man _be_ +right, and put the practice of praying in its right place, then his +serving and giving and speaking will be fairly fragrant with the presence +of God. + +The great people of the earth to-day are the people who pray. I do not +mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in +prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean these +people who _take_ time and _pray_. They have not time. It must be taken +from something else. This something else is important. Very important, and +pressing than prayer. There are people that put prayer first, and group +the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer. + +These are the people to-day who are doing the most for God; in winning +souls; in solving problems; in awakening churches; in supplying both men +and money for mission posts; in keeping fresh and strong these lives far +off in sacrificial service on the foreign field where the thickest +fighting is going on; in keeping the old earth sweet awhile longer. + +It is wholly a secret service. We do not know who these people are, though +sometimes shrewd guesses may be made. I often think that sometimes we pass +some plain-looking woman quietly slipping out of church; gown been turned +two or three times; bonnet fixed over more than once; hands that have not +known much of the softening of gloves; and we hardly giver her a passing +thought, and do not know, nor guess, that perhaps _she_ is the one who is +doing far more for her church, and for the world, and for God than a +hundred who would claim more attention and thought, _because she prays_; +truly prays as the Spirit of God inspires and guides. + +Let me put it this way: God will do as a result of the praying of the +humblest one here what otherwise He _would_ not do. Yes, I can make it +stronger than that, and I must make it stronger, for the Book does. +Listen: God will do in answer to the prayer of the weakest one here what +otherwise he _could_ not do. "Oh!" someone thinks, "you are getting that +too strong now." Well, you listen to Jesus' own words in that last long +quiet talk He had with the eleven men between the upper room and the +olive-green. John preserves much of that talk for us. Listen: "Ye did not +choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear +fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that"--listen, a part of the +purpose why we have been chosen--"that whatsoever ye shall ask of the +Father in My name, He _may_ give it you."[1] Mark that word "may"; not +"shall" this time but _may_. "Shall" throws the matter over on God--His +purpose. "May" throws it over upon us--our cooperation. That is to say our +praying makes it possible for God to do what otherwise He could not do. + +And if you think into it a bit, this fits in with the true conception of +prayer. In its simplest analysis prayer--all prayer--has, must have, two +parts. First, a God to give. "Yes," you say, "certainly, a God wealthy, +willing, all of that." And, just as certainly, there must be a second +factor, _a man to receive_. Man's willingness is God's channel to the +earth. God never crowds nor coerces. Everything God does for man and +through man He does with man's consent, always. With due reverence, but +very plainly, let it be said that God can do nothing for the man with shut +hand and shut life. There must be an open hand and heart and life +_through_ which God can give what He longs to. An open life, an open hand, +open upward, is the pipe line of communication between the heart of God +and this poor befooled old world. Our prayer is God's opportunity to get +into the world that would shut Him out. + + + +<u>In touch with a planet.</u> + + +Prayer opens a whole planet to a man's activities. I can as really be +touching hearts for God in far away India or China through prayer, as +though I were there. Not in as many ways as though there, but as truly. +Understand me, I think the highest possible _privilege_ of service is in +those far off lands. There the need is greatest, the darkness densest, and +the pleading call most eloquently pathetic. And if one _may_ go +there--happy man!--if one be _privileged_ to go to the honoured place of +service he may then use all five outlets direct in the spot where he is. + +Yet this is only one spot. But his relationship is as wide as his Master's +and his sympathies should be. A man may be in Africa, but if his heart be +in touch with Jesus it will be burning for _a world_. Prayer puts us into +direct dynamic touch with a world. + +A man may go aside to-day, and shut his door, and as really spend a +half-hour in India--I am thinking of my words as I say them, it seems so +much to say, and yet it is true--as really spend a half hour of his life +in India for God as though he were there in person. _Is_ that true? If it +be true, surely you and I must get more half-hours for this secret +service. Without any doubt he may turn his key and be for a bit of time as +potentially in China by the power of prayer, as though there in actual +bodily form. I say _potentially_ present. Of course not consciously +present. But in the _power exerted upon men_ he may be truly present at +the objective point of his prayer. He may give a new meaning to the +printed page being read by some native down in Africa. He may give a new +tongue of flame to the preacher or teacher. He may make it easier for men +to accept the story of Jesus, and then to yield themselves to +Jesus--yonder men swept and swayed by evil spirits, and by prejudices for +generations--make it easier for them to accept the story, and, if need be, +to cut with loved ones, and step out and up into a new life. + +Some earnest heart enters an objection here, perhaps. You are thinking +that if you were there you could influence men by your personal contact, +by the living voice. So you could. And there must be the personal touch. +Would that there were many times more going for that blessed personal +touch. But this is the thing to mark keenly both for those who may go, and +for those who must stay: no matter where you are you do more through your +praying than through your personality. If you were in India you could _add +your personality to your prayer_. That would be a great thing to do. But +whether there or here, you must first win the victory, every step, every +life, every foot of the way, in secret, in the spirit-realm, and then add +the mighty touch of your personality in service. You can do _more _ than +pray, _after_ you have prayed. But you can _not_ do more than pray _until_ +you have prayed. And just there is where we have all seemed to make a +slip at times, and many of us are yet making it--a bad slip. We think we +can do more where we are through our service: then prayer to give power to +service. _No_--with the blackest underscoring of emphasis, let it be +said--NO. We can do no thing of real power until we have done the prayer +thing. + +Here is a man by my side. I can talk to him. I can bring my personality to +bear upon him, that I may win him. But before I can influence his will a +jot for God, I must first have won the victory in the secret place. +Intercession is winning the victory over the chief, and service is taking +the field after the chief is driven off. Such service is limited by the +limitation of personality to one place. This spirit-telegraphy called +prayer puts a man into direct dynamic touch with a planet. + +There are some of our friends who think themselves of the practical sort +who say, "the great thing is work: prayer is good, and right, but the +great need is to be doing something practical." The truth is that when one +understands about prayer, and puts prayer in its right place in his life, +he finds a new motive power burning in his bones to be _doing_; and +further he finds that it is the doing that grows out of praying that is +mightiest in touching human hearts. And he finds further yet with a great +joy that he may be _doing_ something for an entire world. His service +becomes as broad as his Master's thought. + + + +<u>Intercession is Service.</u> + + +It helps greatly to remember that intercession is service: the chief +service of a life on God's plan. It is unlike all other forms of service, +and superior to them in this: that it has fewer limitations. In all other +service we are constantly limited by space, bodily strength, equipment, +material obstacles, difficulties involved in the peculiar differences of +personality. Prayer knows no such limitations. It ignores space. It may be +free of expenditure of bodily strength, where rightly practiced, and one's +powers are under proper control. It goes directly, by the telegraphy of +spirit, into men's hearts, quietly passes through walls, and past locks +unhindered, and comes into most direct touch with the inner heart and will +to be affected. + +In service, as ordinarily understood, one is limited to the space where +his body is, the distance his voice can reach, the length of time he can +keep going before he must quit to eat, or rest, or sleep. He is limited by +walls, and locks, by the prejudices of men's minds, and by those peculiar +differences of temperament which must be studied in laying siege to men's +hearts. + +The whole circle of endeavour in winning men includes such an infinite +variety. There is speaking the truth to a number of persons, and to one at +a time; the doing of needed kindly acts of helpfulness, supplying food, +and the like; there is teaching; the almost omnipotent ministry of money; +the constant contact with a pure unselfish life; letter writing; printer's +ink in endless variety. All these are in God's plan for winning men. But +the intensely fascinating fact to mark is this:--that the real victory in +all of this service is won in secret, beforehand, by prayer, and these +other indispensable things are the moving upon the works of the enemy, and +claiming the victory already won. And when these things are put in their +proper order, prayer first, and the other things second; _second_, I say, +not omitted, not slurred over; done with all the earnestness and power of +brain and hand and heart possible; but done _after_ the victory has been +won in secret, against the real foe, and done _while_ the winner is still +claiming the victory already assured,--then will come far greater +achievements in this outer open service. + +Then we go into this service with that fine spirit of expectancy that +sweeps the field at the start, and steadily sticks on the stubbornly +contested spots until the whipped foe turns tail, and goes. Prayer is +striking the winning blow at the concealed enemy. Service is gathering up +the results of that blow among the men we see and touch. Great patience +and tact and persistence are needed in the service because each man must +be influenced in his own will. But the shrewd strategy that wins puts the +keen stiff secret fighting first. + + + +<u>The Spirit Switchboard.</u> + + +Electricity is a strange element. It is catalogued in the study of +physics. It is supposed to be properly classed among the forces of nature. +Yet it seems to have many properties of the spirit world. Those who know +most of it say they know least of what it is. Some of the laws of its +being have been learned, and so its marvellous power harnessed for man's +use, but in much ignorance of what it is. It seems almost to belong +somewhere in between the physical and spirit realms. It furnishes many +similes of graphic helpfulness in understanding more nearly much truth of +the Spirit life. + +In the power-house where the electricity is being wooed into man's +harnessing, or generated, as the experts say, is found a switchboard, or +switch-room with a number of boards. Here in a large city plant a man may +go and turn a switch, that is, move a little handle, a very short +distance. It is a very simple act, easily performed, involving almost no +strength. But that act has loosened the power in the house back of the +switchboard out along the wires, and perhaps lighted a whole section of +the city. He goes in again at another hour, and turns _this_ set of +switches, and _this_, and sets in motion maybe scores of cars, carrying +swiftly, hundreds of passengers. Again he goes in, and moves the little +handles and sets in motion the wheels in some factory employing hundreds +of operatives. + +It is a secret service, usually as far as any observers are concerned. It +is a very quiet, matter of fact service. But the power influenced is +unmeasured and immeasurable. And no one, seemingly, thus far, can explain +the mysterious but tremendous agent involved. Does the fluid--it a fluid? +or, what?--pass _through_ the wire? or, _around_ the wire? The experts say +they do not know. But the laws which it obeys are known. And as men comply +with them its almost omnipotence is manifested. + +Just such a switch-room in the spirit realm is one's prayer-room. Every +one who will may have such a spirit switching-board in his life. There he +may go and in compliance with the laws of the power used loosen out the +gracious persuasive irresistible power of God _where he wills to_; now in +Japan; now in China; among the hungry human hearts of India's plains and +mountains; again in Africa which is full as near to where Jesus sits as is +England or America; and now into the house across the alley from your +home; and down in the slum district; and now into your preacher's heart +for next Sunday's work; and now again unto the hearts of those you will be +meeting in the settlement house, or the mission school. + +Children are not allowed at the electrical switchboard, nor any unskilled +hand. For misuse means possibility of great damage to property and life. +And the spirit switchboard does not yield to the unskilled touch. Though +sometimes there seems to be much tampering by those with crude fingers, +and with selfish desire to turn this current to personal advantage merely. + +It takes skill here. Yet such is our winsome God's wondrous plan that +skill may come to any one who is willing; simply that--who is willing; and +it comes _very simply_ too. + +Strange too, as with the electrical counterpart, the thing is beyond full +or satisfying explanation. + +How does it come to pass that a man turns a few handles, and miles away +great wheels begin to revolve, and enormous power is manifested? Will some +one kindly explain? Yet we know it is so, and men govern their actions by +that knowledge. + +How does it come to pass that a woman in Iowa prays for the conversion of +her skeptical husband, and he, down in the thick of the most absorbing +congress Washington has known since the civil war, and in full ignorance +of her purpose becomes conscious and repeatedly conscious of the presence +and power of the God in whose existence he does not believe; and months +afterwards with his keen, legally trained mind, finds the calendar to fit +together the beginning of her praying with the beginning of his unwelcome +consciousness? Will some one kindly explain? Ah! who can, adequately! Yet +the facts, easy ascertainable, are there, and evidenced in the complete +change in the life and calling of the man. + +How comes it to pass that a woman in Missouri praying for a friend of keen +intellectual skeptically in Glasgow, who can skillfully measure and parry +argument, yet finds afterwards that the time of her praying is the time of +his, at first decidedly unwelcome, but finally radical change of +convictions! Yet groups of thoughtful men and women know these two +instances to be even so though unable to explain how. + +And as the mysterious electrical power is being used by obedience to its +laws, even so is the power of prayer being used by many who understand +simply enough of its laws to obey, and to bring the stupendous results. + + + +<u>The Broad Inner Horizon.</u> + + +This suggests at once that the rightly rounded Christian life has two +sides; the _out_-side, and the _inner_ side. To most of us the outer side +seems the greater. The living, the serving, the giving, the doing, the +absorption in life's work, the contact with men, with the great majority +the sheer struggle for existence--these take the greater thought and time +of us all. They seem to be the great business of life even to those of us +who thoroughly believe in the inner life. + +But when the real eyes open, the inner eyes that see the unseen, the +change of perspective is first ludicrous, then terrific, then pathetic. +Ludicrous, because of the change of proportions; terrific, because of the +issues at stake; pathetic, because of strong men that see not, and push on +spending splendid strength whittling sticks. The outer side is narrow in +its limits. It has to do with food and clothing, bricks and lumber, time +and the passing hour, the culture of the mind, the joys of social contact, +the smoothing of the way for the suffering. And it needs not to be said, +that these are right; they belong in the picture; they are its physical +background. + +The inner side _includes all of these_, and stretches infinitely beyond. +Its limits are broad; broad as the home of man; with its enswathing +atmosphere added. It touches the inner spirit. It moves in upon the +motives, the loves, the heart. It moves out upon the myriad spirit-beings +and forces that swarm ceaselessly about the earth staining and sliming +men's souls and lives. It moves up to the arm of God in cooperation with +His great love-plan for a world. + +Shall we follow for a day one who has gotten the true perspective? Here is +the outer side: a humble home, a narrow circle, tending the baby, +patching, sewing, cooking, calling; _or_, measuring dry goods, chopping a +typewriter, checking up a ledger, feeding the swift machinery, endless +stitching, gripping a locomotive lever, pushing the plow, tending the +stock, doing the chores, tiresome examination papers; and all the rest of +the endless, endless, doing, day by day, of the commonplace treadmill +things, that must be done, that fill out the day of the great majority of +human lives. This one whom we are following unseen is doing quietly, +cheerily his daily round, with a bit of sunshine in his face, a light in +his eye, and lightness in his step, and the commonplace place becomes +uncommon by reason of the presence of this man with the uncommon spirit. +He is working for God. No, better, he is working with God. He has an +unseen Friend at his side. That changes all. The common drudgery ceases to +be common, and ceases to be drudgery because it is done for such an +uncommon Master. That is the outer, the narrow side of this life: not +narrow in itself but in its proportion to the whole. + +Now, hold your breath, and look, for here is the inner side where the +larger work of life is being done. Here is the quiet bit of time alone +with God, with the Book. The door is shut, as the Master said. Now it is +the morning hour with a bit of made light, for the sun is busy yet farther +east. Now it is the evening hour, with the sun speeding towards western +service, and the bed invitingly near. There is a looking up into God's +face; then keen but reverent reading, and then a simple intelligent +pleading with its many variations of this--"Thy will be done, in the +Victor's name." God Himself is here, in this inner room. The angels are +here. This room opens out into and is in direct touch with a spirit space +as wide as the earth. The horizon of this room is as broad as the globe. +God's presence with this man makes it so. + +To-day a half hour is spent in China, for its missionaries, its native +Christians, its millions, the printed page, the personal contact, the +telling of the story, the school, the dispensary, the hospital. And in +through the petitions runs this golden thread--"Victory in Jesus' name: +victory in Jesus' name; to-day: to-day: Thy will be being done: the other +will undone: victory in Jesus' name." Tomorrow's bit of time is largely +spent in India perhaps. And so this man with the narrow outer horizon and +the broad inner horizon pushes his spirit-way through Japan, India, +Ceylon, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Africa, Europe's papal lands, the South +American States, the home land, its cities, frontiers, slums, the home +town, the home church, the man across the alley; in and out; out and in; +the tide of prayer sweeps quietly, resistlessly day by day. + +This is the true Christian life. This man is winning souls and refreshing +lives in these far-off lands and in near-by places as truly as though he +were in each place. This is the Master's plan. The true follower of Jesus +has as broad a horizon as his Master. Jesus thought in continents and +seas. His follower prays in continents and seas. This man does not know +what is being accomplished. Yes! He _does_ know, too. He knows by the +inference of faith. + +This room where we are meeting and talking together might be shut up so +completely that no light comes in. A single crack breaking somewhere lets +in a thin line of light. But that line of light shining in the darkness +tells of a whole sun of light flooding the outer world. + +There comes to this man occasional, yes frequent, evidences of changes +being wrought, yet he knows that these are but the thin line of glory +light which speaks of the fuller shining. And with a spirit touched with +glad awe that he can and may help God, and a heart full alike of peace and +of yearning, and a life fragrant with an unseen Presence he goes steadily +on his way, towards the dawning of the day. + + + + +Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict + + + +<u>A Prehistoric Conflict.</u> + + +In its simplest meaning prayer has to do with a conflict. Rightly +understood it is the deciding factor in a spirit conflict. The scene of +the conflict is the earth. The purpose of the conflict is to decide the +control of the earth, and its inhabitants. The conflict runs back into the +misty ages of the creation time. + +The rightful prince of the earth is Jesus, the King's Son. There is a +pretender prince who was once rightful prince. He was guilty of a breach +of trust. But like King Saul, after his rejection and David's anointing in +his place, he has been and is trying his best by dint of force to hold the +realm and oust the rightful ruler. + +The rightful Prince is seeking by utterly different means, namely by +persuasion, to win the world back to its first allegiance. He had a fierce +set-to with the pretender, and after a series of victories won the great +victory of the resurrection morning. + +There is one peculiarity of this conflict making it different from all +others; namely, a decided victory, and the utter vanquishing of the +leading general has not stopped the war. And the reason is remarkable. The +Victor has a deep love-ambition to win, not merely against the enemy, but +_into men's hearts, by their free consent_. And so, with marvellous +love-born wisdom and courage, the conflict is left open, for men's sake. + +It is a spirit conflict. The earth is swung in a spirit atmosphere. There +are unnumbered thousands of spirit beings good and evil, tramping the +earth's surface, and filling its atmosphere. They are splendidly organized +into two compact organizations. + +Man is a spirit being; an embodied spirit being. He has a body and a mind. +He is a spirit. His real conflicts are of the spirit sort; in the spirit +realm, with other spirit beings. + +Satan is a spirit being; an unembodied spirit being. That is, unembodied, +save as in much cunning, with deep, dark purpose he secures embodiment in +human beings. + +The only sort of power that influences in the spirit realm is _moral_ +power. By which is not meant _goodness_, but that sort of power either bad +or good which is not of a physical sort: that higher, infinitely higher +and greater power than the mere physical. Moral power is the opposite of +violent or physical power. + +God does not use force, violent physical force. There are some exceptions +to this statement. There have been righteous wars, righteous on one side. +Turning to the Bible record, in emergencies, in extreme instances God has +ordered war measures. The nations that Israel was told to remove by the +death of war would have inevitably worn themselves out through their +physical excesses, and disobedience of the laws of life. But a wide view +of the race revealed an emergency which demanded a speedier movement. And +as an exception, for the sake of His plan for the ultimate saving of a +race, and a world, God gave an extermination order. The emergency makes +the exception. There is one circumstance under which the taking of human +life is right, namely, when it can be clearly established that God the +giver and sovereign of life has so directed. But the rule clearly is that +God does not use force. + +But note sharply in contrast with this that physical force is one of +Satan's chief weapons. But mark there two intensely interesting facts: +first, he can use it only as he secures man as his ally, and uses it +through him. And, second, in using it he has with great subtlety sought to +shift the sphere of action. He knows that in the sphere of spirit force +pure and simple he is at a disadvantage: indeed, worse yet, he is +defeated. For there is a moral force on the other side greater than any at +his command. The forces of purity and righteousness he simply _can_not +withstand. Jesus is the personification of purity and righteousness. It +was on this moral ground, in this spirit sphere that He won the great +victory. He ran a terrific gauntlet of tests, subtle and fierce, through +those human years, and came out victor with His purity and righteousness +unstained. + + + +<u>Prayer is Projecting One's Spirit Personality.</u> + + +Now prayer is a spirit force, it has to do wholly with spirit beings and +forces. It is an insistent claiming, by a man, an embodied spirit being, +down on the contested earth, that the power of Jesus' victory over the +great evil-spirit chieftain shall extend to particular lives now under his +control. The prayer takes on the characteristic of the man praying. He is +a spirit being. It becomes a spirit force. It is a projecting into the +spirit realm of his spirit personality. Being a spirit force it has +certain qualities or characteristics of unembodied spirit beings. An +unembodied spirit being is not limited by space as we embodied folk are. +It can go as swiftly as we can think. If I want to go to London it will +take at least a week's time to get my body through the intervening space. +But I can think myself into London more quickly than I can say the words, +and be walking down the Strand. Now a spirit being can go as quickly as I +can think. + +Further, spirit beings are not limited by material obstructions such as +the walls of this building. When I came in here to-day I came in by this +door. You all came in by these doors. We were obliged to come in either by +doors or windows. But the spirit beings who are here listening to us, and +deeply concerned with our discussion did not bother with the doors. They +came in through the walls, or the roof, if they were above us, or through +the floor here, if they happened to be below this level. + +Prayer has these qualities of spirit beings of not being limited by space, +or by material obstacles. Prayer is really projecting my spirit, that is, +my real personality to the spot concerned, and doing business there with +other spirit beings. For example there is a man in a city on the Atlantic +seaboard for whom I pray daily. It makes my praying for him very tangible +and definite to recall that every time I pray my prayer is a spirit force +instantly traversing the space in between him and me, and going without +hindrance through the walls of the house where he is, and influencing the +spirit beings surrounding him, and so influencing his own will. + +When it became clear to me some few years ago that my Master would not +have me go yet to those parts of the earth where the need is greatest, a +deep tinge of disappointment came over me. Then as I realized the wisdom +of His sovereignty in service, it came to me anew that I could exert a +positive influence in those lands for Him by prayer. As many others have +done, I marked out a daily schedule of prayer. There are certain ones for +whom I pray by name, at certain intervals. And it gives great simplicity +to my faith, and great gladness to my heart to remember that every time +such prayer is breathed out, my spirit personality is being projected +yonder, and in effect I am standing in Shanghai, and Calcutta and Tokyo in +turn and pleading the power of Jesus' victory over the evil one there, and +on behalf of those faithful ones standing there for God. + +It is a fiercely contested conflict. Satan is a trained strategist, and an +obstinate fighter. He refuses to acknowledge defeat until he must. It is +the fight of his life. Strange as it must seem, and perhaps absurd, he +apparently hopes to succeed. If we knew all, it might seem less strange +and absurd, because of the factors on his side. There is surely much down +in the world of the sort which we can fully appreciate to give colour to +his expectations. Prayer is insisting upon Jesus' victory, and the retreat +of the enemy on each particular spot, and heart and problem concerned. + +The enemy yields only what he must. He yields only what is taken. +Therefore the ground must be taken step by step. Prayer must be definite. +He yields only when he must. Therefore the prayer must be persistent. He +continually renews his attacks, therefore the ground taken must be _held_ +against him in the Victor's name. This helps to understand why prayer +must be persisted in after we have full assurance of the result, and even +after some immediate results have come, or, after the general results have +commenced coming. + + + +<u>Giving God a Fresh Footing.</u> + + +The Victor's best ally in this conflict is the man, who while he remains +down on the battle-field, puts his life in full touch with his +Saviour-Victor, and then incessantly, insistently, believingly claims +_victory in Jesus' name_. He is the one foe among men whom Satan cannot +withstand. He is projecting an irresistible spirit force into the spirit +realm. Satan is obliged to yield. We are so accustomed through history's +long record to seeing victories won through force, physical force, alone, +that it is difficult for us to realize that moral force defeats as the +other never can. Witness the demons in the gospels, and in modern days in +China,[2] clearly against their own set purpose, notwithstanding intensest +struggle on their part obliged to admit defeat, and even to ask favours of +their Conqueror. The records of personal Christian service give +fascinating instances of fierce opposition utterly subdued and individuals +transformed through such influence. + +Had we eyes to see spirit beings and spirit conflicts we would constantly +see the enemy's defeat in numberless instances through the persistent +praying of some one allied to Jesus in the spirit of his life. Every time +such a man prays it is a waving of the red-dyed flag of Jesus Christ above +Satan's head in the spirit world. Every such man who freely gives himself +over to God, and gives himself up to prayer is giving God a new spot in +the contested territory on which to erect His banner of victory. + +The Japanese struggled for weeks to get a footing on the Port Arthur +peninsula, even after the naval victories had practically rendered Russia +helpless on the seas. It was an unusual spectacle to witness such +difficulty in getting a landing after such victories. But with the bulldog +tenacity that has marked her fighting Japan fought for a footing. Nothing +could be done till a footing was gotten. + +Prayer is man giving God a footing on the contested territory of this +earth. The man in full touch of purpose with God praying, insistently +praying--that man is God's footing on the enemy's soil. The man wholly +given over to God gives Him a new sub-headquarters on the battle-field +from which to work out. And the Holy Spirit within that man, on the new +spot, will insist on the enemy's retreat in Jesus the Victor's name. That +is prayer. Shall we not, every one of us, increase God's footing down upon +His prodigal earth! + + + + +The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer + + + +<u>Prayer a War Measure.</u> + + +This world is God's prodigal son. The heart of God's bleeds over His +prodigal. It has been gone so long, and the home circle is broken. He has +spent all the wealth of His thought on a plan for winning the prodigal +back home. Angels and men have marvelled over that plan, its sweep, its +detail, its strength and wisdom, its tenderness. He needs man for His +plan. He will _use_ man. That is true. He will _honour_ man in service. +That is true. But these only touch the edge of the truth. The pathway from +God to a human heart is through a human heart. When He came to the great +strategic move in His plan, He Himself came down as a man and made that +move. _He needs man for His plan._ + +The greatest agency put into man's hands is prayer. To understand that at +all fully one needs to define prayer. And to define prayer adequately one +must use the language of war. Peace language is not equal to the +situation. The earth is in a state of war. It is being hotly besieged and +so one must use war talk to grasp the facts with which prayer is +concerned. _Prayer from God's side is communication between Himself and +His allies in the enemy's country_. Prayer is not persuading God. It does +not influence God's purpose. It is not winning Him over to our side; never +that. He is far more eager for what we are rightly eager for than we ever +are. What there is of wrong and sin and suffering that pains you, pains +Him far more. He knows more about it. He is more keenly sensitive to it +than the most sensitive one of us. Whatever of heart yearning there may be +that moves you to prayer is from Him. God takes the initiative in all +prayer. It starts with Him. True prayer moves in a circle. It begins in +the heart of God, sweeps down into a human heart upon the earth, so +intersecting the circle of the earth, which is the battle-field of prayer, +and then it goes back again to its starting point, having accomplished its +purpose on the downward swing. + + + +<u>Three Forms of Prayer.</u> + + +Prayer is the word commonly used for all intercourse with God. But it +should be kept in mind that that word covers and includes three forms of +intercourse. All prayer grows up through, and ever continues in three +stages. + +The first form of prayer is _communion_. That is simply being on good +terms with God. It involves the blood of the cross as the basis of our +getting and being on good terms. It involves my coming to God through +Jesus. Communion is fellowship with God. Not request for some particular +thing; not asking, but simply enjoying Himself, loving Him, thinking about +Him, how beautiful, and intelligent, and strong and loving and lovable He +is; talking to Him without words. That is the truest worship, thinking how +worthy He is of all the best we can possibly bring to Him, and infinitely +more. It has to do wholly with God and a man being on good terms with each +other. Of necessity it includes confession on my part and forgiveness upon +God's part, for only so can we come into the relation of fellowship. +Adoration, worship belong to this first phase of prayer. Communion is the +basis of all prayer. It is the essential breath of the true Christian +life. It concerns just two, God and myself, yourself. Its influence is +directly subjective. _It affects me._ + +The second form of prayer is _petition_. And I am using that word now in +the narrower meaning of asking something for one's self. Petition is +definite request of God for something I need. A man's whole life is +utterly dependent upon the giving hand of God. Everything we need comes +from Him. Our friendships, ability to make money, health, strength in +temptation, and in sorrow, guidance in difficult circumstances, and in all +of life's movements; help of all sorts, financial, bodily, mental, +spiritual--all come from God, and necessitate a constant touch with Him. +There needs to be a constant stream of petition going up, many times +wordless prayer. And there will be a constant return stream of answer and +supply coming down. The door between God and one's own self must be kept +ever open. The knob to be turned is on our side. He opened His side long +ago, and propped it open, and threw the knob away. The whole life hinges +upon this continual intercourse with our wondrous God. This is the second +stage or form of prayer. It concerns just two: God and the man dealing +with God. It is subjective in its influence: _its reach is within_. + +The third form of prayer is _intercession_. True prayer never stops with +petition for one's self. It reaches out for others. The very word +intercession implies a reaching out for some one else. It is standing as a +go-between, a mutual friend, between God and some one who is either out of +touch with Him, or is needing special help. Intercession is the climax of +prayer. It is the outward drive of prayer. It is the effective end of +prayer _outward_. Communion and petition are upward and downward. +Intercession rests upon these two as its foundation. Communion and +petition store the life with the power of God; intercession lets it out on +behalf of others. The first two are necessarily for self; this third is +for others. They ally a man fully with God: it makes use of that alliance +for others. Intercession is the full-bloomed plant whose roots and +strength lie back and down in the other two forms. _It_ is the form of +prayer that helps God in His great love-plan for winning a planet back to +its true sphere. It will help through these talks to keep this simple +analysis of prayer in mind. For much that will be said will deal chiefly +with this third form, intercession, the outward movement of prayer. + + + +<u>The Climax of Prayer.</u> + + +To God man is first an objective point, and then, without ceasing to be +that, he further becomes a distributing centre. God ever thinks of a man +doubly: first for his own self, and then for his possible use in reaching +others. Communion and petition fix and continue one's relation to God, and +so prepare for the great outreaching form of prayer--intercession. Prayer +must begin in the first two but reaches its climax in the third. Communion +and petition are of necessity self-wide. Intercession is world-wide in its +reach. And all true rounded prayer will ever have all three elements in +it. There must be the touch with God. One's constant needs make constant +petition. But the heart of the true follower has caught the warm contagion +of the heart of God and reaches out hungrily for the world. Intercession +is the climax of prayer. + +Much is said of the subjective and objective value of prayer; its +influence upon one's self, and its possible influence upon persons and +events quite outside of one's self. Of necessity the first two sorts of +prayer here named are subjective; they have to do wholly with one's self. +Of equal necessity intercessory prayer is objective; it has to do wholly +with others. There is even here a reflex influence; in the first two +directly subjective; here incidentally reflex. Contact with God while +dealing with Him for another of necessity influences me. But that is the +mere fringe of the garment. The main driving purpose is outward. + +Just now in certain circles it seems quite the thing to lay great stress +upon the subjective value of prayer and to whittle down small, or, deny +entirely its value in influencing others. Some who have the popular ear +are quite free with tongue and pen in this direction. From both without +and within distinctly Christian circles their voices come. One wonders if +these friends lay the greater emphasis on the subjective value of prayer +so as to get a good deep breath for their hard drive at the other. Yet the +greater probability is that they honestly believe as they say, but have +failed to grasp the full perspective of the picture. In listening to such +statements one remembers with vivid distinctness that the scriptural +_standpoint_ always is this: that things quite outside of one's self, that +in the natural order of prevailing circumstances would not occur, are made +to occur through prayer. Jesus constantly so _assumed_. The first-flush, +commonsense view of successful prayer is that some actual result is +secured through its agency. + +It is an utter begging of the question to advance such a theory as a +sufficient explanation of prayer. For prayer in its simplest conception +supposes something changed that is not otherwise reachable. Both from the +scriptural, and from a rugged philosophical standpoint the objective is +the real driving point of all full prayer. The subjective is in order to +the objective, as the final outward climactic reach of God's great +love-plan for a world. + + + +<u>Six Facts Underlying Prayer.</u> + + +It will help greatly to step back and up a bit for a fresh look at certain +facts that underlie prayer. Everything depends on a right point of view. +There may be many view-points, from which to study any subject; but of +necessity any one view-point must take in all the essential facts +concerned. If not, the impression formed will be wrong, and a man will be +misled in his actions. In these talks I make no attempt to prove the +Bible's statements, nor to suggest a common law for their interpretation. +That would be a matter for quite a separate series of talks. It clears the +ground to assume certain things. I am assuming the accuracy of these +scriptural statements. And I am glad to say I have no difficulty in doing +so. + +Now there are certain facts constantly stated and assumed in this old +Book. They are clearly stated in its history, they are woven into its +songs, and they underlie all these prophetic writings, from Genesis clear +to the end of John's Patmos visions. Possibly they have been so familiar +and taken for granted so long as to have grown unfamiliar. The very old +may need stating as though very new. Here is a chain of six facts: + +First:--The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.[3] His by +creation and by sovereign rule. The Lord sat as King at the flood.[4] + +Second:--God gave the dominion of the earth to man. The kingship of its +life, the control and mastery of its forces.[5] + +Third:--Man, who held the dominion of the earth in trust from God, +transferred his dominion to somebody else, by an act which was a double +act. He was deceived into doing that act. It was an act of disobedience +and of obedience. Disobedience to God, and obedience to another one, a +prince who was seeking to get the dominion of the earth into his own +hands. That act of the first man did this. The disobedience broke with +God, and transferred the allegiance from God. The obedience to the other +one transferred the allegiance, and through that, the dominion to this +other one. + +The fourth fact is this:--The dominion or kingship of this earth so far +as given to man, is now not God's, for He gave it to man. And it is not +man's, for he has transferred it to another. It is in the control of that +magnificent prince whose changed character supplies his name--Satan, the +hater, the enemy. Jesus repeatedly speaks of "the prince"--that is the +ruling one--"of this world."[6] John speaks in his vision-book of a time +coming when "the kingdom (not kingdoms, as in the old version) of the +world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ."[7] By clear +inference previous to that time it is somebody's else kingdom than His. +The kingship or rulership of the earth which was given to man is now +Satan's. + +The fifth fact:--God was eager to swing the world back to its original +sway: for His own sake, for man's sake, for the earth's sake. You see, we +do not know God's world as it came from His hand. It is a rarely beautiful +world even yet--the stars above, the plant life, the waters, the exquisite +colouring and blending, the combinations of all these--an exquisitely +beautiful world even yet. But it is not the world it was, nor that some +coming day it will be. It has been sadly scarred and changed under its +present ruler. Probably Eve would not recognize in the present world her +early home-earth as it came fresh from the hand of its Maker. + +God was eager to swing the old world back to its original control. But to +do so He must get a man, one of the original trustee class through whom He +might swing it back to its first allegiance. It was given to man. It was +swung away by man. It must be swung back by man. And so a Man came, and +while Jesus was perfectly and utterly human, we spell that word Man with a +capital M because He was a man quite distinct from all men. Because He was +more truly human than all other men He is quite apart from other men. This +Man was to head a movement for swinging the world back to its first +allegiance. + +The sixth fact is this:--These two, God's Man, and the pretender-prince, +had a combat: the most terrific combat ever waged or witnessed. From the +cruel, malicious cradle attack until Calvary's morning and two days longer +it ran. Through those thirty-three years it continued with a terrificness +and intensity unknown before or since. The master-prince of subtlety and +force did his best and his worst, through those Nazareth years, then into +the wilderness,--and Gethsemane--and Calvary. And that day at three +o'clock and for a bit longer the evil one thought he had won. And there +was great glee up in the headquarters of the prince of this world. They +thought the victory was theirs when God's Man lay in the grave under the +bars of death, within the immediate control of the lord of death. But the +third morning came and the bars of death were snapped like cotton thread. +_Jesus rose a Victor._ For it was not possible that such as _He_ could be +held by death's lord. And then Satan knew that he was defeated. Jesus, +God's Man, the King's rightful prince, had gotten the victory. + +But, please mark very carefully four sub-facts on Satan's side. First, he +refuses to acknowledge his defeat. Second, he refuses to surrender his +dominion until he must. He yields only what he must and when he must. +Third, he is supported in his ambitions by man. He has man's consent to +his control. The majority of men on the earth to-day, and in every day, +have assented to his control. He has control only through man's consent. +(Satan _can_not get into a man's heart without his consent, and God _will_ +not.) And, fourth, he hopes yet to make his possession of the earth +permanent. + + + +<u>The Victor's Great Plan.</u> + + +Now, hold your breath and note, on the side of the Victor-prince, this +unparalleled and unimitated action: He has left the conflict open, and the +defeated chief on the field that He may win not simply against the chief, +but through that victory may win the whole prodigal race back to His +Father's home circle again. But the great pitched battle is yet to come. I +would better say _a_ pitched battle, for the greatest one is past. Jesus +rides into the future fight a Victor. Satan will fight his last fight +under the shadow and sting of a defeat. Satan is apparently trying hard to +get a Jesus. That is to say Jesus was God's Man sent down to swing the +world back. Satan is trying his best to get _a man_--one of the original +trustee class, to whom the dominion of the earth was intrusted--a man who +will stand for him even as Jesus stood for God. Indeed a man who will +personify himself even as Jesus was the personification of God, the +express image of His person. When he shall succeed in that the last +desperate crisis will come. + +_Now prayer is this: A man_, one of the original trustee class, who +received the earth in trust from God, and who gave its control over to +Satan; a man, _on the earth_, the poor old Satan-stolen, sin-slimed, +sin-cursed, contested earth; a man, on the earth, _with his life in full +touch with the Victor, and sheer out of touch with the pretender-prince, +insistently claiming that Satan shall yield before Jesus'-victory, step by +step, life after life_. Jesus is the victor. Satan knows it, and fears +Him. He must yield before His advance, and he must yield before this man +who stands for Jesus down on the earth. And he _will_ yield. Reluctantly, +angrily, as slowly as may be, stubbornly contesting every inch of ground, +his clutches will loosen and he will go before this Jesus-man. + +Jesus said "the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me."[8] +When you and I say, as we may say, very humbly depending on His grace, +very determinedly in the resolution of our own imperial will, "though the +prince of this world come he shall have nothing in me, no coaling station +however small on the shores of my life," then we shall be in position +where Satan must yield as we claim--victory in the Victor's Name. + + + + +Does Prayer Influence God? + + + +<u>How God Gives.</u> + + +Some one may object to all this that the statements of God's word do not +agree with this point of view. + +At random memory brings up a few very familiar passages, frequently +quoted. "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and will shew thee great +things, and difficult, that thou knowest not."[9] "And call upon Me in the +day of trouble; I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me."[10] "Ask, +and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be +opened unto you."[11] Here it seems, as we have for generations been +accustomed to think, that our asking is the thing that influences God to +do. And further, that many times persistent, continued asking is necessary +to induce God to do. And the usual explanation for this need of +persistence is that God is testing our faith, and seeking to make certain +changes in us, before granting our requests. This explanation is without +doubt quite true, _in part_. Yet the thing to mark is that it explains +_only_ in part. And when the whole circle of truth is brought into view, +this explanation is found to cover only a small part of the whole. + +We seem to learn best about God by analogies. The analogy never brings all +there is to be learned. Yet it seems to be the nearest we can get. From +what we know of ourselves we come to know Him. + +Will you notice how men give? Among those who give to benevolent +enterprises there are three sorts of givers, with variations in each. + +There is the man who gives because he is influenced by others. If the +right man or committee of men call, and deftly present their pleas, +playing skillfully upon what may appeal to him; his position; his egotism; +the possible advantage to accrue; what men whom he wants to be classed +with are doing, and so on through the wide range that such men are +familiar with; if they persist, by and by he gives. At first he seems +reluctant, but finally gives with more or less grace. That is one sort of +giver. + +There is a second sort: the man of truly benevolent heart who is desirous +of giving that he may be of help to other men. He listens attentively when +pleas come to him, and waits only long enough to satisfy himself of the +worth of the cause, and the proper sort of amount to give, and then gives. + +There is a third sort, the rarest sort. This second man a stage farther +on, who _takes the initiative_. He looks about him, makes inquiries, and +thinks over the great need in every direction of his fellow men. He +decides where his money may best be used to help; and then himself offers +to give. But his gift may be abused by some who would get his money if +they could, and use it injudiciously, or otherwise than he intends. So he +makes certain conditions which must be met, the purpose of which is to +establish sympathetic relations in some particular with those whom he +would help. An Englishman's heart is strongly moved to get the story of +Jesus to the inland millions of Chinese. He requests the China-Inland +Mission to control the expenditure of almost a million dollars of his +money in such a way as best to secure the object in his heart. An American +gives a large sum to the Young Men's Christian Association of his home +city to be expended as directed. His thought is not to build up this +particular organization, but to benefit large numbers of the young men of +his town who will meet certain conditions which he thinks to be for their +good. He has learned to trust this organization, and so it becomes his +trustee. + +Another man feels that if the people of New York City can be given good +reading they can thereby best be helped in life. And so he volunteers +money for a number of libraries throughout that city. And thousands who +yearn to increase their knowledge come into sympathy with him in that one +point through his gift. In all such cases the giver's thought is to +accomplish certain results in those whose purpose in certain directions is +sympathetic with his own. + +Any human illustration of God must seem crude. Yet of these three sorts of +givers there is one and only one that begins to suggest how God gives. It +may seem like a very sweeping statement to make, yet I am more and more +disposed to believe it true that _most persons_ have unthinkingly thought +of God's answering prayer as the first of these three men give. Many +others have had in mind some such thought as the second suggests. Yet to +state the case even thus definitely is to make it plain that neither of +these ways in any manner illustrate God's giving. The third comes the +nearest to picturing the God who hears and answers prayer. Our God has a +great heart yearning after His poor prodigal world, and after each one in +it. He longs to have the effects of sin removed, and the original image +restored. He takes the initiative. Yet everything that is done for man +must of necessity be through man's will; by his free and glad consent. The +obstacles in the way are not numberless nor insurmountable, but they are +many and they are stubborn. There is a keen, cunning pretender-prince who +is a past-master in the fine art of handling men. There are wills warped +and weakened; consciences blurred; minds the opposite of keen, +sensibilities whose edge has been dulled beyond ordinary hope of being +ever made keen again. Sin has not only stained the life, but warped the +judgment, sapped the will, and blurred the mental vision. And God has a +hard time just because every change must of necessity be through that +sapped and warped will. + +Yet the difficulty though great is never complex but very simple. And so +the statement of His purpose is ever exquisitely simple. Listen again: +"Call unto Me, and I will answer thee and shew thee great things and +difficult which thou knowest not." If a man call he has already turned his +face towards God. His will has acted, and acted doubly; away from the +opposite, and _towards_ God, a simple step but a tremendous one. The +calling is the point of sympathetic contact with God where their purposes +become the same. The caller is beset by difficulties and longs for +freedom. The God who speaks to him saw the difficulties long ago and +eagerly longed to remove them. Now they have come to agreement. And +through this willing will God eagerly works out His purpose. + + + +<u>A Very Old Question.</u> + + +This leads to a very old question: Does prayer influence God? No question +has been discussed more, or more earnestly. Skeptical men of fine +scientific training have with great positiveness said "no." And Christian +men of scholarly training and strong faith have with equal positiveness +said "yes." Strange to say both have been right. Not right in all their +statements, nor right in all their beliefs, nor right in all their +processes of thinking, but right in their ultimate conclusions as +represented by these short words, "no," and "yes." Prayer does not +influence God. Prayer surely does influence God. It does not influence His +purpose. It does influence His action. Everything that ever has been +prayed for, of course I mean every right thing, God has already purposed +to do. But He does nothing without our consent. He has been hindered in +His purposes by our lack of willingness. When we learn His purposes and +make them our prayers we are giving Him the opportunity to act. It is a +double opportunity: manward and Satanward. We are willing. Our willingness +checkmates Satan's opposition. It opens the path to God and rids it of the +obstacles. And so the road is cleared for the free action already planned. + +The further question of nature's laws being sometimes set aside is wholly +a secondary matter. Nature's laws are merely God's habit of action in +handling secondary forces. They involve no purpose of God. His purposes +are regarding moral issues. That the sun shall stay a bit longer than +usual over a certain part of the earth is a mere detail with God. It does +not affect His power for the whole affair is under His finger. It does not +affect His purpose for that as concerning far more serious matters. The +emergencies of earth wrought by sin necessitate just such incidents, that +the great purpose of God for man shall be accomplished. + +Emergencies change all habits of action, divine and human. They are the +real test of power. If a man throw down the bundle he is carrying and make +a quick wild dash out into the middle of the street, dropping his hat on +the way, and grasp convulsively for something on the ground when no cause +appears for such action we would quickly conclude that the proper place +for him is an asylum. But if a little toddling child is almost under the +horse's hoofs, or the trolley car, no one thinks of criticising, but +instead admires his courage, and quick action, and breathlessly watches +for the result. Emergencies call for special action. They should control +actions, where they exist. Emergencies explain action, and explain +satisfactorily what nothing else could explain. + +_The world is in a great emergency through sin._ Only as that tremendous +fact grips us shall we be men of prayer, and men of action up to the limit +of the need, and to the limit of the possibilities. Only as that intense +fact is kept in mind shall we begin to understand God's actions in +history, and in our personal experiences. The greatest event of earth, the +cross, was an emergency action. + +The fact that prayer does not make any change in God's thought or +purpose, reveals His marvellous love in a very tender way. + +Suppose I want something very much and _need_ as well as want. And I go to +God and ask for it. And suppose He is reluctant about giving: had not +thought about giving me that thing; and rather hesitates. But I am +insistent, and plead and persist and by and by God is impressed with my +earnestness, and sees that I really need the thing, and answers my prayer, +and gives me what I ask. Is not that a loving God so to listen and yield +to my plea? Surely. How many times just such an instance has taken place +between a child and his father, or mother. And the child thinks to +himself, "How loving father is; he has given me the thing I asked for." + +But suppose God is thinking about me all the time, and planning, with +love-plans for me, and longing to give me much that He has. Yet in His +wisdom He does not give because I do not know my own need, and have not +opened my hand to receive, yes, and, further yet, likely as not, not +knowing my need I might abuse, or misuse, or fail to use, something given +before I had felt the need of it. And now I come to see and feel that need +and come and ask and He, delighted with the change in me, eagerly gives. +Tell me, is not that a very much more loving God than the other conception +suggests? The truth is _that_ is God. Jesus says, "Your Father knoweth +what things ye have need of _before ye ask_." And He is a Father. And +with God the word father means mother too. Then what He _knows_ we need He +has _already planned_ to give. The great question for me then in praying +for some personal thing is this: Do _I_ know what _He_ knows I need? Am I +thinking about what He is thinking about for me? + +And then remember that God is so much more in His loving planning than the +wisest, most loving father we know. Does a mother think into her child's +needs, the food, and clothing and the extras too, the luxuries? That is +God, only He is more loving and wiser than the best of us. I have +sometimes thought this: that if God were to say to me: "I want to give you +something as a special love-gift; an extra because I love you: what would +you like to have?" Do you know I have thought I would say, "Dear God, +_you_ choose. _I_ choose what _you_ choose." He is thinking about me. He +knows what I am thinking of, and what I would most enjoy, and He is such a +lover-God that He would choose something Just a bit finer than I would +think. I might be thinking of a dollar, but likely as not He is thinking +of a double eagle. I am thinking of blackberries, big, juicy blackberries, +but really I do not know what blackberries are beside the sort He knows +and would choose for me. That is our God. Prayer does not and cannot +change the purpose of such a God. For every right and good thing we might +ask for He has already planned to give us. But prayer does change the +action of God. Because He cannot give against our wills, and our +willingness as expressed by our asking gives Him the opportunity to do as +He has already planned. + + + +<u>The Greatest Prayer.</u> + + +There is a greatest prayer, _the_ greatest that can be offered. It is the +substratum of every true prayer. It is the undercurrent in the stream of +all Spirit-breathed prayer. Jesus Himself gives it to us in the only form +of prayer He left for our use. It is small in size, but mighty in power. +Four words--"Thy will be done." Let us draw up our chairs, and _brew_ it +over mentally, that its strength and fragrance may come up into our +nostrils, and fill our very beings. + +"_Thy_": That is God. On one side, He is wise, with all of the +intellectual strength, and keenness and poised judgment that that word +among men brings to us. On another side, He is strong, with all that that +word can imply of might and power irresistible. On still another side He +is good, pure, holy with the finest thought those words ever suggest to us +in those whom we know best, or in our dreams and visions. Then on a side +remaining, the tender personal side, He is--loving? No, that is quite +inadequate. He is _love_. Its personification is He. Now remember that we +do not know the meaning of those words. Our best definition and thought of +them, even in our dreams, when we let ourselves out, but hang around the +outskirts. The heart of them we do not know. Those words mean infinitely +more than we think. Their meaning is a projection along the lines of our +thought of them, but measurelessly beyond our highest reach. + +And then, this God, wise, strong, good, and love, _is kin to us_. We +belong to Him. + + "We are His flock; + He doth us feed. + And for His sheep, + He doth us take." + +We are His children by creation, and by a new creation in Jesus Christ. He +is ours, by His own act. That is the "Thy"--a God wise, strong, pure, who +is love, and who is a Father-mother-God, and is _our_ God. + +"Thy _will_." God's will is His desires, His purposes, that which He +wishes to occur, and that to which He gives His strength that it may +occur. The earth is His creation. Men are His children. Judging from wise +loving parents among men He has given Himself to thinking and studying and +planning for all men, and every man, and for the earth. His plan is the +most wise, pure, loving plan that can be thought of, _and more._ It takes +in the whole sweep of our lives, and every detail of them. Nothing escapes +the love-vigilance of our God. What _can_ be so vigilant and keen as love? +Hate, the exact reverse, comes the nearest. It is ever the extremes that +meet. But hate cannot come up to love for keen watchfulness at every +turn. Health, strength, home, loved ones, friendships, money, guidance, +protecting care, the necessities, the extras that love ever thinks of, +service--all these are included in God's loving thought for us. That is +His will. It is modified by the degree of our consent, and further +modified by the circumstances of our lives. Life has become a badly +tangled skein of threads. God with infinite patience and skill is at work +untangling and bringing the best possible out of the tangle. What is +absolutely best is rarely relatively best. That which is best in itself is +usually not best under certain circumstances, with human lives in the +balance. God has fathomless skill, and measureless patience, and a love +utterly beyond both. He is ever working out the best thing possible under +every circumstance. He could oftentimes do more, and do it in much less +time if our human wills were more pliant to His. He can be trusted. And of +course _trust_ means _trust in the darkest dark_ where you cannot see. And +trust means trust. It does not mean test. Where you trust you do not test. +Where you test you do not trust. Making this our prayer means trusting +God. That is God, and that His will, and that the meaning of our offering +this prayer. "Thy will _be_." A man's will is the man in action, within +the limits of his power. God's will for man is Himself in action, within +the limits of our cooperation. _Be_ is a verb, an action-word, in the +passive voice. It takes some form of the verb to be to express the +passive voice of any action-word. It takes the intensest activity of will +to put this passive voice into human action. The greatest strength is +revealed in intelligent yielding. Here the prayer is expressing the utter +willingness of a man that God's will shall be done in him, and through +him. A man never _loses_ his will, unless indeed he lose his manhood. But +here he makes that will as strong as it can be made, as a bit of steel, +better like the strong oak, strong enough to sway and bend in the wind. +Then he uses all its strength in becoming passive to a higher will. And +that too when the purpose of that higher will is not clear to his own +limited knowledge and understanding. + +"Thy will be _done_." That is, be accomplished, be brought to pass. The +word stands for the action in its perfected, finished state. Thy will be +fully accomplished in its whole sweep and in all its items. It speaks not +only the earnest desire of the heart praying, but the set purpose that +everything in the life is held subject to the doing of this purpose of +God. It means that surrender of purpose that has utterly changed the lives +of the strongest men in order that the purpose of God might be dominant. +It cut off from a great throne earth's greatest jurist, the Hebrew +lawgiver, and led him instead to be allied to a race of slaves. It led +that intellectual giant Jeremiah from an easy enjoyable leadership to +espouse a despised cause and so be himself despised. It led Paul from the +leadership of his generation in a great nation to untold suffering, and to +a block and an ax. It led Jesus the very Son of God, away from a kingship +to a cross. In every generation it has radically changed lives, and +life-ambitions. "Thy will be done" is the great dominant purpose-prayer +that has been the pathway of God in all His great doings among men. + +That will is being done everywhere else in God's great world of worlds, +save on the earth and that portion of the spirit world allied to this +earth. Everywhere else there is the perfect music of harmony with God's +will. Here only is heard the harsh discordant note. + +With this prayer go two clauses that really particularize and explain it. +They are included in it, and are added to make more clear the full intent. +The first of these clauses gives the sweep of His will in its broadest +outlines. The second touches the opposition to that will both for our +individual lives and for the race and the earth. + +The first clause is this, "Thy kingdom come." In both of these short +sentences, "Thy will be done," "Thy kingdom come," the emphatic word is +"Thy." That word is set in sharpest possible contrast here. There is +another kingdom now on the earth. There is another will being done. This +other kingdom must go if God's kingdom is to come. These kingdoms are +antagonistic at every point of contact. They are rivals for the same +allegiance and the same territory. They cannot exist together. Charles II +and Cromwell cannot remain in London together. "Thy kingdom come," of +necessity includes this, "the other kingdom go." "Thy kingdom come" means +likewise "Thy king come," for in the nature of things there cannot be a +kingdom without a king. That means again by the same inference, "the other +prince go," the one who makes pretensions to being rightful heir to the +throne. "Thy will be done" includes by the same inference this:--"the +other will be undone." This is the first great explanatory clause to be +connected with this greatest prayer, "Thy kingdom come." It gives the +sweep of God's will in its broadest outlines. + +The second clause included in the prayer, and added to make clear the +swing of action is this--"deliver us from the evil one." These two +sentences, "Thy will be done," and "deliver us from the evil one," are +naturally connected. Each statement includes the other. To have God's will +fully done in us means emancipation from every influence of the evil one, +either direct or indirect, or by hereditary taint. To be delivered from +the evil one means that every thought and plan of God for our lives shall +be fully carried out. + +There are the two great wills at work in the world ever clashing in the +action of history and in our individual lives. In many of us, aye, in all +of us, though in greatly varying degree, these two wills constantly clash. +Man is the real battle-field. The pitch of the battle is in his will. God +will not do His will in a man without the man's will consenting. And Satan +cannot. At the root the one thing that works against God's will is the +evil one's will. And on the other hand the one thing that effectively +thwarts Satan's plans is a man wholly given up to God's will. + +The greatest prayer then fully expressed, sweeps first the whole field of +action, then touches the heart of the action, and then attacks the +opposition. It is this:--Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done: deliver us +from the evil one. Every true prayer ever offered comes under this simple +comprehensive prayer. It may be offered, it _is_ offered with an infinite +variety of detail. It is greatest because of its sweep. It includes all +other petitions, for God's will includes everything for which prayer is +rightly offered. It is greatest in its intensity. It hits the very +bull's-eye of opposition to God. + + + + +II. Hindrances to Prayer + + +1. Why the Results Fail. 2. Why the Results Are Delayed. 3. The Great +Outside Hindrance, or, the Relation of Prayer to Satan. + + + + +Why the Results Fail + + + +<u>Breaking with God.</u> + + +God answers prayer. Prayer is God and man joining hands to secure some +high end. He joins with us through the communication of prayer in +accomplishing certain great results. This is the main drive of prayer. Our +asking and expecting and God's doing jointly bring to pass things that +otherwise would not come to pass. Prayer changes things. This is the great +fact of prayer. + +Yet a great many prayers are not answered. Or, to put it more accurately, +a great many prayers fail utterly of accomplishing any results. Probably +it is accurate to say that _thousands_ of prayers go up and bring nothing +down. This is certainly true. Let us say it just as bluntly and plainly as +it can be said. As a result many persons are saying: "Well, prayer is not +what you claim for it: we prayed and no answer came: nothing was changed." + +From all sorts of circles, and in all sorts of language comes this +statement. Scholarly men who write with wisdom's words, and thoughtless +people whose thinking never even pricks the skin of the subject, and all +sorts of people in between group themselves together here. And they are +right, quite right. The bother is that what they say is not all there is +to be said. There is yet more to be said, that is right too, and that +changes the final conclusion radically. Partial truth is a very mean sort +of lie. + +The prayer plan like many another has been much disturbed, and often +broken. And one who would be a partner with God up to the limit of his +power must understand the things that hinder the prayer plan. There are +three sorts of hindrances to prayer. First of all there are things in us +that _break off connection_ with God, the source of the changing power. +Then there are certain things in us that _delay, or diminish_ the results; +that interfere with the full swing of the prayer plan of operations. And +then there is a great _outside_ hindrance to be reckoned upon. To-day we +want to talk together of the first of these, namely, the hindrances that +_break off connections_ between God and His human partner. + +Here again there is a division into three. There are three things directly +spoken of in the book of God that hinder prayer. One of these is a +familiar thing. What a pity that repugnant things may become so familiar +as no longer to repel. It is this:--_sin_ hinders prayer. In Isaiah's +first chapter God Himself speaking says, "When you stretch out your +hands"--the way they prayed, standing with outstretched hands--"I will +shut My eyes; when you make many prayers, I will shut My ears."[12] Why? +What's the difficulty? These outstretched hands are _soiled!_ They are +actually holding their sin-soiled hands up into God's face; and He is +compelled to look at the thing most hateful to Him. In the fifty-ninth +chapter of this same book,[13] God Himself is talking again. Listen +"Behold! the _Lord's_ hand is not shortened: _His_ ear is not heavy." +There is no trouble on the _up_ side. God is all right. "But"--listen with +both your ears--"your _iniquities_ ... your _sins_ ... your _hands_ ... +your _fingers_ ... your _lips_ ... your _tongue_ ..." the slime of sin is +oozing over everything! Turn back to that sixty-sixth Psalm[14]--"if I +regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me." How much more if +the sin of the heart get into the hands or the life! And the fact to put +down plainly in blackest ink once for all is this--_sin hinders prayer_. +There is nothing surprising about this. That we can think the reverse is +the surprising thing. Prayer is transacting business with God. Sin is +_breaking with God_. + +Suppose I had a private wire from my apartments here to my home in +Cleveland, and some one should go outside and drag the wire down until it +touches the ground--a good square touch with the ground--the electricians +would call it grounded, could I telegraph over that wire? Almost any child +knows I could not. Suppose some one _cuts_ the wire, a good clean cut; the +two ends are apart: not a mile; not a yard; but distinctly apart. Could I +telegraph on that wire? Of course not. Yet I might sit in my room and tick +away by the hour wholly absorbed, and use most beautiful persuasive +language--what is the good? The wire's cut. All my fine pleading goes into +the ground, or the air. Now _sin cuts the wire;_ it runs the message into +the ground. + +"Well," some one will object, "now you're cutting us all out, are you not? +Are we not all conscious of a sinful something inside here that has to be +fought, and held under all the while?" It certainly seems to be true that +the nearer a man gets to God the more keenly conscious he is of a sinful +tendency within even while having continual victory. But plainly enough +what the Book means here is this:--if I am holding something in my life +that the Master does not like, if I am failing to obey when His voice has +spoken, that to me is sin. It may be wrong in itself. It may _not_ be +wrong in itself. It may not be wrong for another. Sometimes it is not the +thing involved but the One involved that makes the issue. If that faithful +quiet inner voice has spoken and I know what the Master would prefer and I +fail to keep in line, that to me is sin. Then prayer is useless; sheer +waste of breath. Aye, worse, it is deceptive. For I am apt to say or +think, "Well, I am not as good as you, or you, but then I am not so bad; +_I pray._" And the truth is because I have broken with God the +praying--saying words in that form--is utterly worthless. + +You see _sin is slapping God in the face_. It may be polished, cultured +sin. Sin seems capable of taking quite a high polish. Or it may be the +common gutter stuff. A man is not concerned about the grain of a club that +strikes him a blow. How can He and I talk together if I have done that, +and stick to it--not even apologized. And of what good is an apology if +the offense is being repeated. And if we cannot talk together of course +working together is out of the question. And prayer is working together +with God. Prayer is _pulling with God_ in His plan for a world. + +Shall we not put out the thing that is wrong? or put in the thing the +Master wants in? For _Jesus'_ sake? Aye for _men's_ sake: poor befooled +men's sake who are being kept out and away because God cannot get at them +through us! + +Shall we bow and ask forgiveness for our sin, and petty stubbornness that +has been thwarting the Master's love-plan? And yet even while we ask +forgiveness there are lives out yonder warped and dwarfed and worse +because of the hindrance in us; yes, and remaining so as we slip out of +this meeting. May the fact send us out to walk very softly these coming +days. + + + +<u>A Coaling Station for Satan's Fleet.</u> + + +There is a second thing that is plainly spoken of that hinders prayer. +James speaks of it in his letter.[15] "Ye have not because ye _ask_ +not"--that explains many parched up lives and churches and unsolved +problems: no pipe lines run up to tap the reservoir, and give God an +opening into the troubled territory. Then he pushes on to say--"Ye ask, +_and receive not_"--ah! there's just the rub; it is evidently an old +story, this thing of not receiving--why? "because ye ask amiss to spend it +_in your pleasures_." That is to say selfish praying; asking for something +just because I want it; want it for myself. + +Here is a mother praying for her boy. He is just growing up towards young +manhood; not a Christian boy yet; but a good boy. She is thinking, "I want +_my_ boy to be an honour to me; he bears my name; my blood is in his +veins; I don't want my boy to be a prodigal. I want him to be a fine man, +an honour to the family; and if he is a true Christian, he likely will be; +_I wish he were a Christian_." And so she prays, and prays repeatedly and +fervently. God might touch her boy's heart and say, "I want you out here +in India to help win my prodigal world back." _Oh!_ she did not mean that! +_Her_ boy in far, far off _India!_ Oh, no! Not that!! Yes, what _she_ +wanted--that was the whole thought--selfishness; the stream turning in to +a dead sea within her own narrow circle; no thought of sympathy with God +in His eager outreach for His poor sin-befooled world. The prayer itself +in its object is perfectly proper, and rightly offered and answered times +without number; but the _motive_ wholly, uglily selfish and the +selfishness itself becomes a foothold for Satan and so the purpose of the +prayer is thwarted. + +Here is a wife praying that her husband might become a Christian. Perhaps +her thought is: "I wish John _were_ a Christian: it would be so good: it +really seems the proper thing: he would go to church with me, and sit in +the pew Sunday morning: I'd like that." Perhaps she thinks: "He would be +careful about swearing; he would quit drinking; and be nicer and gentler +at home." Maybe she thinks: "He would ask a blessing at the meals; that +would be so nice." Maybe she thinks: "We would have family prayers." +_Maybe_ that does not occur to her these days. This is what I say: _If_ +her thought does not go beyond some such range, of course _you_ would say +it is selfish. She is thinking of herself; not of the loving grieved God +against whom her husband is in rebellion; not of the real significance to +the man. God might touch her husband's heart, and then say: "I want you to +help Me win My poor world back." And the change would mean a reduced +income, and a different social position. _Oh!_ she had not meant _that!_ +Yes--what _she_ wanted for herself! + +Here is a minister praying for a revival in his church. Maybe he is +thinking; no, not exactly thinking; it is just half thinking itself out in +his sub-consciousness--"I wish we had a good revival in our church; +increased membership; larger attendance; easier finances; may be an extra +hundred or two in my own pocket; increased prestige in the denomination; a +better call or appointment: I wish we might have a revival." Now no true +minister ever talked that way even to himself or deliberately thought it. +To do so would be to see the mean contemptibility of it. But you know how +sly we all are in our underneath scarcely-thought-out thoughts. This is +what I say: _if_ that be the sort of thing underneath a man's praying of +course the motive is utterly selfish; a bit of the same thing that brought +Satan his change of name and character. + +Please notice that the reason for the prayer not being answered here is +not an arbitrary reluctance upon God's part to do a desirable thing. He +never fails to work whenever He has a half chance as far as it is possible +to work, even through men of faulty conceptions and mixed motives. The +reason lies much deeper. It is this: selfishness gives Satan a footing. It +gives a coaling station for his fleet on the shore of your life. And of +course he does his best to prevent the prayer, or when he cannot wholly +prevent, to spoil the results as far as he can. + +Prayer may properly be offered--_will_ be properly offered for many wholly +personal things; for physical strength, healing in sickness, about dearly +loved ones, money needed; indeed regarding things that may not be +necessary but only desirable and enjoyable, for ours is a loving God who +would have His dear ones enjoy to the full their lives down here. But the +_motive_ determines the propriety of such requests. Where the whole +purpose of one's life is _for Him_ these things may be asked for freely as +His gracious Spirit within guides. And there need be no bondage of morbid +introspection, no continual internal rakings. _He knows if the purpose of +the heart is to please Him_. + + + +<u>The Shortest Way to God.</u> + + +A third thing spoken of as hindering prayer is an unforgiving spirit. You +have noticed that Jesus speaks much about prayer and also speaks much +about forgiveness. But have you noticed how, over and over again He +_couples_ these two--prayer _and_ forgiveness? I used to wonder why. I do +not so much now. Nearly everywhere evidence keeps slipping in of the sore +spots. One may try to keep his lips closed on certain subjects, but it +seems about impossible to keep the ears entirely shut. And continually the +evidence keeps sifting in revealing the thin skin, raw flesh, wounds +never healed over, and some jaggedly open, almost everywhere one goes. +Jesus' continual references reveal how strikingly alike is the oriental +and the occidental; the first and the twentieth centuries. + +Run through Matthew alone a moment. Here in the fifth chapter:[16] "If +thou are coming to the altar"--that is approaching God; what we call +prayer--"and rememberest that thy brother hath aught _against thee_"--that +side of it--"leave there thy gift and go thy way, _first_ be reconciled," +and so on. Here comes a man with a lamb to offer. He approaches solemnly, +reverently, towards the altar of God. But as he is coming there flashes +across his mind the face of _that man_, with whom he has had difficulty. +And instantly he can feel his grip tightening on the offering, and his +teeth shutting closer at the quick memory. Jesus says, "If that be so lay +your lamb right down." What! go abruptly away! Why! how the folks around +the temple will talk! "Lay the lamb right down, and go thy way." The +shortest way to God for that man is not the way to the altar, but around +by that man's house. "_First_, be reconciled"--keep your perspective +straight--follow the right order--"_first_ be reconciled"--not _second; +"then_ come and offer thy gift." + +In the sixth chapter[17] He gives the form of prayer which we commonly +call the Lord's prayer. It contains seven petitions. At the close He +stops to emphasize just one of the seven. You remember which one; the one +about forgiveness. In the eighteenth chapter[18] Jesus is talking alone +with the disciples about prayer. Peter seems to remember the previous +remarks about forgiveness in connection with prayer; and he asks a +question. It is never difficult to think of Peter asking a question or +making a few remarks. He says, "Master, how many times _must_ I forgive a +man? _Seven_ times!" Apparently Peter thinks he is growing in grace. He +can actually _think_ now of forgiving a man seven times in succession. But +the Master in effect says, "Peter, you haven't caught the idea. +Forgiveness is not a question of mathematics; not a matter of _keeping +tab_ on somebody: not seven times but _seventy times seven._" And Peter's +eyes bulge open with an incredulous stare--"four hundred and ninety +times!... one man--straightway!!" Apparently the Master is thinking, that +he will lose count, or get tired of counting and conclude that forgiveness +is preferable, or else by practice _breathe in the spirit of +forgiveness--the_ thing He meant. + +Then as He was so fond of doing Jesus told a story to illustrate His +meaning. A man owed his lord a great debt, twelve millions of dollars; +that is to say practically an _unpayable_ amount. By comparison with money +to-day, in the western world, it would be about twelve billions. And he +went to him and asked for time. He said: "I'm short just now; but I mean +to pay; I don't mean to shirk: be easy with me; and I'll pay up the whole +sum in time." And his lord generously forgave him the whole debt. That is +Jesus' picture of God, as He knows Him who knows Him best. Then this +forgiven man went out and found a fellow servant who owed him--how much do +you think? Have you ever thought that Jesus had a keen sense of the +ludicrous? Surely it shows here. He owed him about sixteen dollars and +a-quarter or a-half! And you can almost feel the clutch of this fellow's +fingers on the other's throat as he sternly demands:--"Pay me that thou +owest." And his fellow earnestly replies, "Please be easy with me; I mean +to pay; I'm rather short just now: but I'm not trying to shirk; be easy +with me." Is it possible the words do not sound familiar! But he would +not, but put him in the jail. The last place to pay a debt! That is Jesus' +picture of man as He knows him who knows him best. And in effect He says +what we have been forgiven by God is as an unpayable amount. And what are +not willing to forgive is like sixteen dollars and a fraction by contrast. +What little puny folks some of us are in our thinking and feeling! + +"Oh, well," some one says, "you do not know how hard it is to forgive." +You think not? I know this much:--that some persons, and some things you +_can_not forgive of yourself. But I am glad to say that I know this too +that if one allows the Spirit of Jesus to sway the heart He will make you +love persons you _can_not like. No natural affinity or drawing together +through disposition, but a real yearning love in the heart. Jesus' love, +when allowed to come in as freely as He means, fills your heart with pity +for the man who has wounded you. An infinite, tender pity that he has sunk +so low as to be capable of such actions. + +But the fact to put down in the sharpest contrast of white and black is +that we must forgive freely, frankly, generously, "_even as God_," if we +are to be in prayer touch with God. + +And the reason is not far to find; a double reason, Godward and Satanward. +If prayer be partnership in the highest sense then the same spirit must +animate both partners, the human and the divine, if the largest results +are to come. And since unforgiveness roots itself down in hate Satan has +room for both feet in such a heart with all the leeway in action of such +purchase. That word _unforgiving_! What a group of relatives it has, near +and far! Jealousy, envy, bitterness, the cutting word, the polished shaft +of sarcasm with the poisoned tip, the green eye, the acid saliva--what +kinsfolk these! + + + +<u>Search Me.</u> + + +Sin, selfishness, an unforgiving spirit--what searchlights these words +are! Many a splendid life to-day is an utter cipher in the spirit +atmosphere because of some such hindrance. And God's great love-plan for +His prodigal world is being held back; and lives being lost even where +ultimately souls shall be saved because of the lack of human prayer +partners. + +May we not well pray:--Search me, oh God, and know my heart and help me +know it; try me and know my innermost, undermost thoughts and purposes and +ambitions, and help me know them; and see what way there be in me that is +a grief to Thee; and then lead me--and here the prayer may be a purpose as +well as a prayer--lead me out of that way unto _Thy_ way, _the_ way +everlasting. For Jesus' sake; aye for men's sake, too. + + + + +Why the Results are Delayed + + + +<u>God's Pathway to Human Hearts.</u> + + +God touches men through men. The Spirit's path to a human heart is through +another human heart. With reverence be it said, yet with blunt plainness +that in His plan for winning men to their true allegiance God is limited +by the human limitations. That may seem to mean more than it really does. +For our thought of the human is of the scarred, warped, shrivelled +humanity that we know, and great changes come when God's Spirit controls. +But the fact is there, however limited our understanding of it. + +God needs man for His plan. That is the fact that stands out strong in +thinking about prayer. God's greatest agency; man's greatest agency, for +defeating the enemy and winning men back is intercession. God is counting +mightily upon that. And He can count most mightily upon the man that +faithfully practices that. + +The results He longs for are being held back, and made smaller because so +many of us have not learned how to pray simply and skilfully. We need +training. And God understands that. He Himself will train. But we must be +willing; actively willing. And just there the great bother comes in. A +strong will perfectly yielded to God's will, or perfectly willing to be +yielded, is His mightiest ally in redeeming the world. + +Answers to prayer are delayed, or denied, out of kindness, _or_, that more +may be given, _or_, that a far larger purpose may be served. But deeper +down by far than that is this: _God's purposes are being delayed_; delayed +because of our unwillingness to learn how to pray, _or_, our slowness--I +almost said--our stupidity in learning. It is a small matter that my +prayer be answered, or unanswered; not small to me; everything perhaps to +me; but small in proportion. It is a tremendous thing that _God's purpose_ +for a world is being held back through my lack. The thought that prayer is +_getting things_ from God; chiefly that, is so small, pitiably small, and +yet so common. The true conception understands that prayer is partnership +with God in His planet-sized purposes, and includes the "all things" +beside, as an important detail of the whole. + +The real reason for the delay or failure lies simply in the difference +between God's view-point and ours. In our asking either we have not +reached the _wisdom_ that asks best, _or_, we have not reached the +_unselfishness_ that is willing to sacrifice a good thing, for a better, +or the best; the unselfishness that is willing to sacrifice the smaller +personal desire for the larger thing that affects the lives of many. + +We learn best by pictures, and by stories which are pen or word pictures. +This was Jesus' favourite method of teaching. There are in the Bible four +great, striking instances of delayed, or qualified answers to prayer. +There are some others; but these stand out sharply, and perhaps include +the main teachings of all. Probably all the instances of hindered prayer +with which we are familiar will come under one of these. That is to say, +where there are good connections upward as suggested in our last talk, +_and_, excepting those that come under the talk succeeding this, namely, +the great outside hindrance. These four are Moses' request to enter +Canaan; Hannah's prayer for a son; Paul's thorn; and Jesus' prayer in +Gethsemane. + +Let us look a bit at these in turn. + + + +<u>For the Sake of a Nation.</u> + + +First is the incident of Moses' ungranted petition. Moses was the leader +of his people. He is one of the giants of the human race from whatever +standpoint considered. His codes are the basis of all English and American +jurisprudence. From his own account of his career, the secret of all his +power as a maker of laws, the organizer of a strangely marvellous nation, +a military general and strategist--the secret of all was in his direct +communication with God. He was peculiarly a man of prayer. Everything was +referred to God, and he declared that everything--laws, organization, +worship, plans--came to him from God. In national emergencies where moral +catastrophe was threatened he petitioned God and the plans were changed in +accordance with his request. He makes personal requests and they are +granted. He was peculiarly a man who dealt directly with God about every +sort of thing, national and personal, simple and complex. The record +commonly credited to him puts prayer as the simple profound explanation of +his stupendous career and achievements. He prayed. God worked along the +line of his prayer. The great things recorded are the result. That is the +simple inferential summary. + +Now there is one exception to all this in Moses' life. It stands out the +more strikingly that it is an exception; the one exception of a very long +line. Moses asked repeatedly for one thing. It was not given him. God is +not capricious nor arbitrary. There must be a reason. _There is._ And it +is fairly luminous with light. + +Here are the facts. These freed men of Egypt are a hard lot to lead and to +live with. Slow, sensuous, petty, ignorant, narrow, impulsive, strangers +to self-control, critical, exasperating--what an undertaking God had to +make a nation, _the_ nation of history, about which centred His deep +reaching, far-seeing love ambition for redeeming a world out of such +stuff! Only paralleled by the church being built upon such men as these +Galilean peasants! What victories these! What a God to do such things! +Only a God could do either and both! What immense patience it required to +shape this people. What patience God has. Moses had learned much of +patience in the desert sands with his sheep; for he had learned much of +God. But the finishing touches were supplied by the grindstone of friction +with the fickle temper of this mob of ex-slaves. + +Here are the immediate circumstances. They lacked water. They grew very +thirsty. It was a serious matter in those desert sands with human lives, +and young children, and the stock. No, it was not serious: really a very +small matter, for _God was along_, and the enterprise was of His starting. +It was His affair, all this strange journey. And they knew Him quite well +enough in their brief experience to be expecting something fully equal to +all needs with a margin thrown in. There was that series of stupendous +things before leaving Egypt. There was the Red Sea, and fresh food daily +delivered at every man's tent door, and game, juicy birds, brought down +within arms' reach, yes, and--surely this alone were enough--there was +living, cool water gushing abundantly, gladly out of the very heart of a +flinty rock--if such a thing can be said to have a heart! Oh, yes it was a +very small matter to be lacking anything with such a lavish God along. + +_But they forgot._ Their noses were keener than their memories. They had +better stomachs than hearts. The odorous onions of Egypt made more +lasting impressions than this tender, patient, planning God. Yet here +even their stomachs forgot those rock-freed waters. These people must be +kinsfolk of ours. They seem to have some of the same family traits. + +Listen: they begin to complain, to criticise. God patiently says nothing +but provides for their needs. But Moses has not yet reached the high level +that later experiences brought him. He is standing to them for God. Yet he +is very un-Godlike. Angrily, with hot word, he _smites_ the rock. Once +smiting was God's plan; then the quiet word ever after. How many a time +has the once smitten Rock been smitten again in our impatience! _The +waters came_! Just like God! They were cared for, though He had been +disobeyed and dishonoured. And there are the crowds eagerly drinking with +faces down; and up yonder in the shadow standeth God _grieved_, deeply +grieved at the false picture this immature people had gotten of Him that +day through Moses. Moses' hot tongue and flashing eye made a deep moral +scar upon their minds, that it would take years to remove. Something must +be done for the people's sake. Moses disobeyed God. He dishonoured God. +Yet the waters came, for _they needed water_. And God is ever +tender-hearted. But they must be taught the need of obedience, the evil of +disobedience. Taught it so they never could forget. + +Moses was a leader. Leaders may not do as common men. And leaders may not +be dealt with as followers. They stand too high in the air. They affect +too many lives. So God said to Moses:--"You will not go into Canaan. You +may lead them clear up to the line; you may even see over, but you may not +go in." That hurt Moses deep down. It hurt God deeper down, in a heart +more sensitive to hurt than was Moses'. Without doubt it was said with +_reluctance_, for _Moses'_ sake. But _it was said_, plainly, irrevocably, +for _their_ sakes. Moses' petition was for a reversal of this decision. +Once and again he asked. He wanted to see that wondrous land of God's +choosing. He felt the sting too. The edge of the knife of discipline cut +keenly, and the blood spurted. But God said:--"Do not speak to Me again of +this." The decision was not to be changed. For Moses' sake only He would +gladly have changed, judging by His previous conduct. For the sake of the +nation--aye, for the sake of the prodigal world to be won back through +this nation, the petition might not be granted. That ungranted petition +taught those millions the lesson of obedience, of reverence, as no +command, or smoking mount, or drowning Egyptians had done. It became +common talk in every tent, by every camp-fire of the tented nation. "Moses +disobeyed,--he failed to reverence God;--he cannot enter Canaan."--With +hushed tones, and awed hearts and moved, strangely moved faces it passed +from lip to lip. Some of the women and children wept. They all loved +Moses. They revered him. How gladly they would have had him go over. The +double-sided truth--obedience--disobedience--kept burning in through the +years. + +In after years many a Hebrew mother told her baby, eager for a story, of +Moses their great leader; his appearance, deep-set eyes, long beard, +majestic mien, yet infinite tenderness and gentleness, the softness of +strength; his presence with God in the mount, the shining face. And the +baby would listen so quietly, and then the eyes would grow so big and the +hush of spirit come as the mother would repeat softly, "but he could not +come over into the land of promise because _he did not obey God_." And +strong fathers reminded their growing sons. And so it was woven into the +warp and woof of the nation--_obedience, reverent obedience to God_. And +one can well understand Moses looking down from above with grateful heart +that he had been denied for _their_ sakes. The unselfishness and wisdom of +later years would not have made the prayer. _The prayer of a man was +denied that a nation might be taught obedience_. + + + +<u>That More Might be Given and Gotten.</u> + + +Now let us look a bit at the second of these, the portrait of Hannah the +Hebrew woman. First the broader lines for perspective. This peculiar +Hebrew nation had two deep dips down morally between Egypt and Babylon; +between the first making, and the final breaking. The national tide ebbed +very low twice, before it finally ran out in the Euphrates Valley. Elijah +stemmed the tide the second time, and saved the day for a later night. The +Hannah story belongs in the first of these ebb-tides; the first bad sag; +the first deep gap. + +The giant lawgiver is long gone. His successor, only a less giant than +himself is gone too, and all that generation, and more. The giants gave +way to smaller-sized leaders. Now they are gone also. The mountain peaks +have been lost in the foothills, and these have yielded to dunes, and +levels; mostly levels; dead levels. These mountains must have had long +legs. The foothills are so far away, and are running all to toes. Now the +toes have disappeared. + +It is a leaderless people, for the true Leader as originally planned has +been, first ignored, then forgot. The people have no ideals. They grub in +the earth content. There is a deep, hidden-away current of good. But it +needs leadership to bring it to the surface. A leaderless people! This is +the niche of the Hannah story. + +The nation was rapidly drifting down to the moral level of the lowest. At +Shiloh the formal worship was kept up, but the very priests were tainted +with the worst impurity. A sort of sleepy, slovenly anarchy prevailed. +Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, with every indication +of a gutter standard. "There was none in the land possessing power of +restraint that might put them to shame in anything." No government; no +dominant spirit. Indeed the actual conditions of Sodom and her sister +cities of the plain existed among the people. This is the setting of the +simple graphic incident of Hannah. One must get the picture clearly in +mind to understand the story. + +Up in the hill country of Ephraim there lived a wise-hearted religious +man, a farmer, raising stock, and grain; and fruit, too, likely. He was +earnest but not of the sort to rise above the habit of his time. His farm +was not far from Shiloh, the national place of worship, and he made yearly +trips there with the family. But the woman-degrading curse of Lamech was +over his home. He had two wives. Hannah was the loved one. (No man ever +yet gave his heart to two women.) She was a gentle-spoken, thoughtful +woman, with a deep, earnest spirit. But she had a disappointment which +grew in intensity as it continued. The desire of her heart had been +withheld. She was childless. + +Though the thing is not mentioned the whole inference is that she prayed +earnestly and persistently but to her surprise and deep disappointment the +desired answer came not. To make it worse her rival--what a word, for the +other one in the home with her--her rival provoked her sore to make her +fret. And that thing _went on_ year after year. That teasing, nagging, +picking of a small nature was her constant prod. What an atmosphere for a +home! Is it any wonder that "she was in bitterness of soul" and "wept +sore"? Her husband tenderly tries to comfort her. But her inner spirit +remains chafed to the quick. And all this goes on for years; the yearning, +the praying, the failure of answer, the biting, bitter atmosphere,--for +_years_. And she wonders why. + +Why was it? Step back and up a bit and get the broader view which the +narrow limits of her surroundings, and shall I say, too, though not +critically, of her spirit, shut out from her eyes. Here is what she saw: +her fondest hope unrealized, long praying unanswered, a constant ferment +at home. Here is what she wanted:--_a son_. That is her horizon. Beyond +that her thought does not rise. + +Here is what God saw:--a nation--no, much worse--_the_ nation, in which +centred His great love-plan for winning His prodigal world, going to +pieces. The messenger to the prodigal was being slyly, subtly seduced by +the prodigal. The saviour-nation was being itself lost. The plan so long +and patiently fostered for saving a world was threatened with utter +disaster. + +Here is what He wanted--_a leader_! But there were no leaders. And, worse +yet, there were no men out of whom leaders might be made, no men of +leader-size. And worse yet _there were no women_ of the sort to train and +shape a man for leadership. That is the lowest level to which a people +ever gets, aye, ever _can_ get. God had to get a woman before He could get +a man. Hannah had in her the making of the woman He needed. God honoured +her by choosing her. But she must be changed before she could be used. And +so there came those years of pruning, and sifting, and discipline. Shall +we spell that word discipline with a final g instead of e--discipling, so +the love of it may be plainer to our near-sightedness? And out of those +years and experiences there came a new woman. A woman with vision +broadened, with spirit mellowed, with strength seasoned, with will so +sinewy supple as to yield to a higher will, to sacrifice the dearest +_personal pleasure_ for the world-wide purpose; willing that he who was +her dearest treasure should be the nation's _first_. + +Then followed months of prayer while the man was coming. Samuel was born, +no, farther back yet, was conceived in the atmosphere of prayer and +devotion to God. The prenatal influences for those months gave the sort of +man God wanted. And a nation, _the_ nation, the _world-plan,_ was saved! +This man became a living answer to prayer. The romantic story of the +little boy up in the Shiloh tabernacle quickly spread over the nation. His +very name--Samuel, God hears--sifted into people's ears the facts of a +God, and of the power of prayer. The very sight of the boy and of the man +clear to the end kept deepening the brain impression through eyeballs that +God answers prayer. And the seeds of that re-belief in God that Samuel's +leadership brought about were sown by the unusual story of his birth. + +_The answer was delayed that more might be given and gotten_. And Hannah's +exultant song of praise reveals the fineness to which the texture of her +nature had been spun. And it tells too how grateful she was for a God who +in great patience and of strong deliberate purpose delayed the answer to +her prayer. + + + +<u>The Best Light for Studying a Thorn.</u> + + +The third great picture in this group is that of Paul and his +needle-pointed thorn. Talks about the certainty of prayer being answered +are very apt to bring this question: "What about Paul's thorn?" Sometimes +asked by earnest hearts puzzled; _some_times with a look in the eye almost +exultant as though of gladness for that thorn because it seems to help out +a theory. These pictures are put into the gallery for our help. Let us +pull up our chairs in front of this one and see what points we may get to +help our hearts. + +First a look at Paul himself. The best light on this thorn is through the +man. The man explains the thorn. We have a halo about Paul's head; and +rightly, too. What a splendid man of God he was! God's chosen one for a +peculiar ministry. One of the twelve could be used to open the door to the +great outside world, but God had to go aside from this circle and get a +man of different training for this wider sphere. Cradled and schooled in a +Jewish atmosphere, he never lost the Jew standpoint, yet the training of +his home surroundings in that outside world, the contact with Greek +culture, his natural mental cast fitted him peculiarly for his appointed +task to the great outside majority. His keen reasoning powers, his vivid +imagination, his steel-like will, his burning devotion, his unmovable +purpose, his tender attachment to his Lord,--what a man! Well might the +Master want to win such a man for service' sake. But Paul had some weak +traits. Let us say it very softly, remembering as we instinctively will, +that where we think of one in him there come crowding to memory's door +many more in one's self. A man's weak point is usually the extreme +opposite swing of the pendulum on his strong point. Paul had a tremendous +will. He was a giant, a Hercules in his will. Those tireless journeys with +their terrific experiences, all spell out _will_ large and black. But, +gently now, he went to extremes here. Was it due to his overtired nerves? +Likely enough. He was obstinate, _sometimes;_ stubborn; set in his way: +_sometimes_ head down, jaw locked, driving hard. Say it all _softly_, for +we are speaking of dear old saintly Paul; but, to help, _say_ it, for it +is true. + +God had a hard time holding Paul to _His_ plans. Paul had some of his own. +We can all easily understand that. Take a side glance or two as he is +pushing eagerly, splendidly on. Turn to that sixteenth chapter of +Acts,[19] and listen: "Having been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak +the word in (the province of) Asia," coupled with the fact of sickness +being allowed to overtake him in Galatia where the "forbidding" message +came. And again this, "they assayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of +Jesus suffered them not."[20] Tell me, is this the way the Spirit of God +leads? That I should go driving ahead until He must pull me up with a +sharp turn, and twist me around! It is the way He is obliged to do many +times, no doubt, with most of us. But His chosen way? His own way? Surely +not. Rather this, the keeping close, and quiet and listening for the next +step. Rather the "I go not up yet unto this feast" of Jesus.[21] And then +in a few days going up, evidently when the clear intimation came. These +words, "assayed to go," "forbidden," "suffered not"--what flashlights they +let into this strong man's character. + +But there is much stronger evidence yet. Paul had an ambition to preach to +the _Jerusalem Jews_. It burned in his bones from the early hours of his +new life. The substratum of "_Jerusalem_" seemed ever in his thoughts and +dreams. If _he_ could just get to those Jerusalem Jews! He knew them. He +had trained with them. He was a leader among the younger set. When they +burned against these Christians he burned just a bit hotter. They knew +him. They trusted him to drive the opposite wedge. If only _he_ could have +a chance down there he felt that the tide might be turned. But from that +critical hour on the Damascene road "_Gentiles--Gentiles_" had been +sounded in his ears. And he obeyed, of course he obeyed, with all his +ardent heart. _But, but_--those _Jerusalem Jews_! If he might go to +Jerusalem! Yet very early the Master had proscribed the Jerusalem service +for Paul. He made it a matter of a special vision,[22] in the holy temple, +kindly explaining why. "They will not receive of _thee_ testimony +concerning Me." Would that not seem quite sufficient? Surely. Yet this +astonishing thing occurs:--Paul attempts to argue with the Master _why_ he +should be allowed to go. This is going to great lengths; a subordinate +arguing with his commanding general after the orders have been issued! The +Master closes the vision with a peremptory word of command, "_depart_. I +will send thee _far hence_ (from Jerusalem, where you long to be), to the +Gentiles." That is a picture of this man. It reveals the weak side in +this giant of strength and of love. And _this_ is the man God has to use +in His plan. He is without doubt the best man available. And in his +splendour he stands head and shoulders above his generation and many +generations. Yet (with much reverence) God has a hard time getting Paul to +work always along the line of _His_ plans. + +That is the man. Now for the thorn. Something came into Paul's life that +was a constant irritation. He calls it a thorn. What a graphic word! A +sharp point prodding into his flesh, ever prodding, sticking, sticking in; +asleep, awake, stitching tent canvas, preaching, writing, that thing ever +cutting its point into his sensitive flesh. Ugh! It did not disturb him so +much at first, because _there was God_ to go to. He went to God and said, +"_Please_ take this away." But it stayed and stuck. A second time the +prayer; a bit more urgent; the thing sticks so. The time test is the +hardest test of all. Still no change. Then praying the third time with +what earnestness one can well imagine. + +Now note three things: First, _There was an answer_. God answered _the +man_. Though He did not grant the petition, He answered the man. He did +not ignore him nor his request. Then God told Paul frankly that it was not +best to take the thorn away. It was in the lonely vigil of a sleepless +night, likely as not, that the wondrous Jesus-Spirit drew near to Paul. +Inaudibly to outer ear but very plainly to his inner ear, He spoke in +tones modulated into tender softness as of dearest friend talking with +dear friend. "Paul," the voice said, "I know about that thorn--and how it +hurts--it hurts Me, too. For _your_ sake, I would quickly, so quickly +remove it. But--Paul"--and the voice becomes still softer--"it is a bit +better for _others_' sake that it remain: the plan in My heart _through +you_ for thousands, yes, unnumbered thousands, Paul, can so best be worked +out." That was the first part of what He said. And Paul lies thinking with +a deep tinge of awe over his spirit. Then after a bit in yet quieter voice +He went on to say, "I will be so close to your side; you shall have such +revelations of My glory that the pain will be clear overlapped, Paul; the +glory shall outstrip the eating thorn point." + +I can see old Paul one night in his own hired house in Rome. It is late, +after a busy day; the auditors have all gone. He is sitting on an old +bench, slowing down before seeking sleep. One arm is around Luke, dear +faithful Doctor Luke, and the other around young Timothy, not quite so +young now. And with eyes that glisten, and utterance tremulous with +emotion he is just saying:--"And dear old friends, do you know, I would +not have missed this thorn, for the wondrous glory"--and his heart gets +into his voice, there is a touch of the hoarseness of deep emotion, and a +quavering of tone, so he waits a moment--"the wondrous _glory-presence of +Jesus_ that came with it." + +And so out of the experience came a double blessing. There was a much +fuller working of God's plan for His poor befooled world. And there was an +unspeakable nearness of intimacy with his Lord for Paul. _The man was +answered and the petition denied that the larger plan of service might be +carried out_. + + + +<u>Shaping a Prayer on the Anvil of the Knees.</u> + + +The last of these pictures is like Raphael's Sistine Madonna in the +Dresden gallery; it is in a room by itself. One enters with a holy hush +over his spirit, and, with awe in his eyes, looks at _Jesus in +Gethsemane_. There is the Kidron brook, the gentle rise of ground, the +grove of gnarled knotty old olive trees. The moon above is at the full. +Its brightness makes these shadowed recesses the darker; blackly dark. +Here is a group of men lying on the ground apparently asleep. Over yonder +deeper in among the trees a smaller group reclines motionless. They, too, +sleep. And, look, farther in yet is that lone figure; all alone; nevermore +alone; save once--on the morrow. + +There is a foreshadowing of this Gethsemane experience in the requested +interview of the Greeks just a few intense days before. In the vision +which the Greeks unconsciously brought the agony of the olive grove began. +The climax is among these moon-shadowed trees. How sympathetic those inky +black shadows! It takes bright light to make black shadows. Yet they were +not black enough. Intense men can get so absorbed in the shadows as to +forget the light. + +This great Jesus! Son of God: God the Son. The Son of Man: God--a man! No +draughtsman's pencil ever drew the line between His divinity and humanity; +nor ever shall. For the union of divine and human is itself divine, and +therefore clear beyond human ken. Here His humanity stands out, +pathetically, luminously stands out. Let us speak of it very softly and +think with the touch of awe deepening for this is holiest ground. The +battle of the morrow is being fought out here. Calvary is in Gethsemane. +The victory of the hill is won in the grove. + +It is sheer impossible for man with sin grained into his fibre through +centuries to understand the horror with which a sinless one thinks of +actual contact with sin. As Jesus enters the grove that night it comes in +upon His spirit with terrific intensity that He is actually coming into +contact--with a meaning quite beyond us--coming into contact with sin. In +some way all too deep for definition He is to be "made sin."[23] The +language used to describe His emotions is so strong that no adequate +English words seem available for its full expression. An indescribable +horror, a chill of terror, a frenzy of fright seizes Him. The poisonous +miasma of sin seems to be filling His nostrils and to be stifling Him. And +yonder alone among the trees the agony is upon Him. The extreme grips Him. +May there not yet possibly be some other way rather than _this--this!_ A +bit of that prayer comes to us in tones strangely altered by deepest +emotion. "_If it be possible--let this cup pass_." There is still a +clinging to a possibility, some possibility other than that of this +nightmare vision. The writer of the Hebrews lets in light here. The strain +of spirit almost snaps the life-thread. And a parenthetical prayer for +strength goes up. And the angels come with sympathetic strengthening. With +what awe must they have ministered! Even after that some of the red life +slips out there under the trees. By and by a calmer mood asserts itself, +and out of the darkness a second petition comes. It tells of the tide's +turning, and the victory full and complete. _A changed, petition_ this! +"_Since this cup may not pass_--since only thus _can_ Thy great plan for a +world be wrought out--_Thy--will_"--slowly but very distinctly the words +come--"_Thy--will--be--done._" + +_The changed prayer was wrought out upon His knees!_ With greatest +reverence, and a hush in our voices, let us say that there alone with the +Father came the clearer understanding of the Father's actual will under +these circumstances. + + "Into the woods my Master went + Clean forspent, forspent; + Into the woods my Master came + Forspent with love and shame. + But the olives they were not blind to Him, + The little gray leaves were kind to Him; + The thorn-tree had a mind to Him + When into the woods He came. + + "Out of the woods my Master went + And He was well content; + Out of the woods my Master came + Content with death and shame. + When death and shame would woo Him last + From under the trees they drew Him last + 'Twas on a tree they slew Him--last + When out of the woods He came."[24] + +True prayer is wrought out upon the knees alone with God. With deepest +reverence, and in awed tones, let it be said, that _that was true of +Jesus_ in the days of His humanity. How infinitely more of us! + +Shall we not plan to meet God alone, habitually, with the door shut, and +the Book open, and the will pliant so we may be trained for this holy +partnership of prayer. Then will come the clearer vision, the broader +purpose, the truer wisdom, the real unselfishness, the simplicity of +claiming and expecting, the delights of fellowship in service with Him; +then too will come great victories for God in His world. Although we +shall not begin to know by direct knowledge a tithe of the story until the +night be gone and the dawning break and the ink-black shadows that now +stain the earth shall be chased away by the brightness of His presence. + + + + +The Great Outside Hindrance + + + +<u>The Traitor Prince.</u> + + +There remains yet a word to be said about hindrances. It is a most +important word; indeed the climactic word. What has been said is simply +clearing the way for what is yet to be said. A very strange phase of +prayer must be considered here. Strange only because not familiar. Yet +though strange it contains the whole heart of the question. Here lies the +fight of the fight. One marvels that so little is said of it. For if there +were clear understanding here, and then faithful practicing, there would +be mightier defeats and victories: defeats for the foe; victories for our +rightful prince, Jesus. + +The intense fact is this: _Satan has the power to hold the answer +back--for awhile; to delay the result--for a time_. He has not the power +to hold it back finally, _if_ some one understands and prays with quiet, +steady persistence. The real pitch of prayer therefore is Satanward. + +Our generation has pretty much left this individual Satan out. It is +partly excusable perhaps. The conceptions of Satan and his hosts and +surroundings made classical by such as Dante and Milton and Doré have +done much to befog the air. Almost universally they have been taken +literally whether so meant or not. One familiar with Satan's +characteristics can easily imagine his cunning finger in that. He is +willing even to be caricatured, or to be left out of reckoning, if so he +may tighten his grip. + +These suggestions of horns and hoofs, of forked tail and all the rest of +it seek to give material form to this being. They are grotesque to an +extreme, and therefore caricatures. A caricature so disproportions and +exaggerates as to make hideous or ridiculous. In our day when every +foundation of knowledge is being examined there has been a natural but +unthinking turning away from the very being of Satan through these +representations of him. Yet where there is a caricature there must be a +true. To revolt from the true, hidden by a caricature, in revolting from +the caricature is easy, but is certainly bad. It is always bad to have the +truth hid from our eyes. + +It is refreshing and fascinating to turn from these classical caricatures +to the scriptural conception of Satan. In this Book he is a being of great +beauty of person, of great dignity of position even yet, endowed with most +remarkable intellectual powers, a prince, at the head of a most +remarkable, compact organization which he has wielded with phenomenal +skill and success in furthering his ambitious purposes. + +And he is not chained yet. I remember a conversation with a young +clergyman one Monday morning in the reading-room of a Young Men's +Christian Association. It was in a certain mining town in the southwest, +which is as full of evil resorts as such places usually are. The day +before, Sunday, had been one of special services, and we had both been +busy and were a bit weary. We were slowing down and chatting leisurely. I +remarked to my friend, "What a glad day it will be when the millennium +comes!" He quickly replied, "I think this is the millennium." "But," I +said, "I thought Satan was to be chained during that time. Doesn't it say +something of that sort in the Book?" "Yes," he replied, "it does. But I +think he is chained now." And I could not resist the answer that came +blurting its way out, "Well, if he is chained, he must have a fairly long +chain: it seems to permit much freedom of action." From all that can be +gathered regarding this mighty prince he is not chained yet. We would do +well to learn more about him. The old military maxim, "Study the enemy," +should be followed more closely here. + +It is striking that the oldest of the Bible books, and the latest, Job and +Revelation, the first word and the last, give such definite information +concerning him. These coupled with the gospel records supply most of the +information available though not all. Those three and a half years of +Jesus' public work is the period of greatest Satanic and demoniac +activity of which any record has been made. Jesus' own allusions to him +are frequent and in unmistakable language. There are four particular +passages to which I want to turn your attention now. Let it not be +supposed, however, that this phase of prayer rests upon a few isolated +passages. Such a serious truth does not hinge upon selected proof texts. +It is woven into the very texture of this Book throughout. + +There are two facts that run through the Bible from one end to the other. +They are like two threads ever crossing in the warp and woof of a finely +woven fabric. Anywhere you run your shears into the web of this Book you +will find these two threads. They run crosswise and are woven inextricably +in. One is a black thread, inky black, pot-black. The other is a bright +thread, like a bit of glory light streaming across. These two threads +everywhere. The one is this--the black thread--there is an enemy. Turn +where you will from Genesis to Revelation--always an enemy. He is keen. He +is subtle. He is malicious. He is cruel. He is obstinate. He is a master. +The second thread is this: the leaders for God have always been men of +prayer above everything else. They are men of power in other ways, +preachers, men of action, with power to sway others but above all else men +of prayer. They give prayer first place. There is one striking exception +to this, namely, King Saul. And most significantly a study of this +exception throws a brilliant lime light upon the career of Satan. King +Sauls seems to furnish the one great human illustration in scripture of +heaven's renegade fallen prince. These special paragraphs to be quoted are +like the pattern in the cloth where the colours of the yarn come into more +definite shape. The gospels form the central pattern of the whole where +the colours pile up into sharpest contrast. + + + +<u>Praying is Fighting.</u> + + +But let us turn to the Book at once. For we _know_ only what it tells. The +rest is surmise. The only authoritative statements about Satan seem to be +these here. Turn first to the New Testament. + +The Old Testament is the book of illustrations; the New of explanations, +of teaching. In the Old, teaching is largely by kindergarten methods. The +best methods, for the world was in its child stage. In the New the +teaching is by precept. There is precept teaching in the Old; very much. +There is picture teaching in the New; the gospels full of it. But picture +teaching, acted teaching, is the characteristic of the Old, and precept +teaching of the New. There is a wonderfully vivid picture in the Old +Testament, of this thing we are discussing. But first let us get the +teaching counterpart in the new, and then look at the picture. + +Turn to Ephesians. Ephesians is a prayer epistle. That is a very +significant fact to mark. Of Paul's thirteen letters Ephesians is +peculiarly the prayer letter. Paul is clearly in a prayer mood. He is on +his knees here. He has much to say to these people whom he has won to +Christ, but it comes in the parenthesis of his prayer. The connecting +phrase running through is--"for this cause I pray.... I bow my knees." +Halfway through this rare old man's mind runs out to the condition of +these churches, and he puts in the always needed practical injunctions +about their daily lives. Then the prayer mood reasserts itself, and the +epistle finds its climax in a remarkable paragraph on prayer. From praying +the man goes urging them to pray. + +We must keep the book open here as we talk: chapter six, verses ten to +twenty inclusive. The main drive of all their living and warfare seems +very clear to this scarred veteran:--"that ye may be able to withstand the +wiles of the devil." This man seems to have had no difficulty in believing +in a personal devil. Probably he had had too many close encounters for +that. To Paul Satan is a cunning strategist requiring every bit of +available resource to combat. + +This paragraph states two things:--who the real foe is, against whom the +fight is directed; and, then with climactic intensity it pitches on the +main thing that routs him. Who is the real foe? Listen:--"For our +wrestling is not against flesh and blood"--not against men; never that; +something far, subtler--"but against the principalities"--a word for a +compact organization of individuals,--"against powers"--not only organized +but highly endowed intellectually, "against the world-rulers of this +darkness,"--they are of princely kin; not common folk--"against the hosts +of wicked spirits in the heavenlies"--spirit beings, in vast numbers, +having their headquarters somewhere above the earth. _That_ is the foe. +Large numbers of highly endowed spirit beings, compactly organized, who +are the sovereigns of the present realm or age of moral darkness, having +their _headquarters_ of activity somewhere above the earth, and below the +throne of God, but concerned with human beings upon the earth. In chapter +two of the epistle the head or ruler of this organization is referred to, +"the prince of the powers of the air."[25] That is the real foe. + +Then in one of his strong piled up climactic sentences Paul tells how the +fight is to be won. This sentence runs unbroken through verses fourteen to +twenty inclusive. There are six preliminary clauses in it leading up to +its main statement. These clauses name the pieces of armour used by a +Roman soldier in the action of battle. The loins girt, the breastplate on, +the feet shod, the shield, the helmet the sword, and so on. A Roman +soldier reading this or, hearing Paul preach it, would expect him to +finish the sentence by saying "_with all your fighting strength +fighting_." + +That would be the proper conclusion rhetorically of this sentence. But +when Paul reaches the climax with his usual intensity he drops the +rhetorical figure, and puts in the thing with which in our case the +fighting is done--"with all prayer _praying_." In place of the +expected word fighting is the word praying. The thing with which the +fighting is done is put in place of the word itself. Our fighting is +praying. Praying is fighting, spirit-fighting. That is to say, this old +evangelist-missionary-bishop says, we are in the thick of a fight. There +is a war on. How shall we best fight? First get into good shape to pray, +and then with all your praying strength and skill _pray_. That word +_praying_ is the climax of this long sentence, and of this whole epistle. +This is the sort of action that turns the enemy's flank, and reveals his +heels. He simply _cannot_ stand before persistent knee-work. + +Now mark the keenness of Paul's description of the man who does most +effective work in praying. There are six qualifications under the figure +of the six pieces of armour. A clear understanding of truth, a clean +obedient life, earnest service, a strongly simple trust in God, clear +assurance of one's own salvation and relation to God, and a good grip of +the truth for others--these things prepare a man for the real conflict of +prayer. _Such a man_--_praying_--_drives back these hosts of the traitor +prince_. Such a man praying is invincible in his Chief, Jesus. The +equipment is simple, and in its beginnings comes quickly to the willing, +earnest heart. + +Look a bit at how the strong climax of this long sentence runs. It is +fairly bristling with points. Soldier-points all of them; like bayonet +points. Just such as a general engaged in a siege-fight would give to his +men. "With all prayer and supplication"--there is _intensity_; +"praying"--that is _the main drive_; "at all seasons"--_ceaselessness_, +night and day; hot and cold; wet and dry; "in the Spirit"--as _guided by +the Chief;_ "and watching thereunto"--_sleepless vigilance;_ watching is +ever a fighting word; watch the enemy; watch your own forces; "with all +perseverance"--_persistence_; cheery, jaw-locked, dogged persistence, +bulldog tenacity; "and supplication"--_intensity again_; "for all the +saints"--_the sweep of the action_, keep in touch with the whole army; +"and on my behalf"--the human leader, rally around _the immediate leader._ +This is the foe to be fought. And this the sort of fighting that defeats +this foe. + + + +<u>A double Wrestling Match.</u> + + +Now turn back to the illustration section of our Book for a remarkably +graphic illustration of these words. It is in the old prophecy of Daniel, +tenth chapter. The story is this: Daniel is an old man now. He is an +exile. He has not seen the green hills of his fatherland since boyhood. In +this level Babylon, he is homesick for the dear old Palestinian hills, and +he is heartsick over the plight of his people. He has been studying +Jeremiah's prophecies, and finds there the promise plainly made that after +seventy years these exiled Hebrews are to be allowed to return. Go back +again! The thought of it quickens his pulse-beats. He does some quick +counting. The time will soon be up. So Daniel plans a bit of time for +special prayer, a sort of siege prayer. + +Remember who he is--this Daniel. He is the chief executive of the land. He +controls, under the king, the affairs of the world empire of his time. He +is a giant of strength and ability--this man. But he plans his work so as +to go away for a time. Taking a few kindred spirits, who understand +prayer, he goes off into the woods down by the great Tigris River. They +spend a day in fasting, and meditation and prayer. Not utter fasting, but +scant eating of plain food. I suppose they pray awhile; maybe separately, +then together; then read a bit from the Jeremiah parchment, think and talk +it over and then pray some more. And so they spend a whole day reading, +meditating, praying. + +They are expecting an answer. These old-time intercessors were strong in +expectancy. But there is no answer. A second day, a third, a fourth, a +week, still no answer reaches them. They go quietly on without hesitation. +Two weeks. How long it must have seemed! Think of fourteen days spent +_waiting_; waiting for something, with your heart on tenter hooks. There +is no answer. God might have been dead, to adapt the words of Catharine +Luther, so far as any answer reaching them is concerned. But you cannot +befool Daniel in that way. He is an old hand at prayer. Apparently he has +no thought of quitting. He goes quietly, steadily on. Twenty days pass, +with no change. Still they persist. Then the twenty-first day comes and +there is an answer. It comes in a vision whose glory is beyond human +strength to bear. By and by when they can talk, his visitor and he, this +is what Daniel hears: "Daniel, the first day you began to pray, your +prayer was heard, and I was sent with the answer." And even Daniel's eyes +open big--"the _first_ day--three weeks ago?" "Yes, three weeks ago I left +the presence of God with the answer to your prayer. But"--listen, here is +the strange part--"the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, +resisted me, one and twenty days: but Michael, your prince, came to help +me, and I was free to come to you with the answer to your prayer." + +Please notice four things that I think any one reading this chapter will +readily admit. This being talking with Daniel is plainly a spirit being. +He is opposed by some one. This opponent plainly must be a spirit being, +too, to be resisting a spirit being. Daniel's messenger is from God: that +is clear. Then the opponent must be from the opposite camp. And here comes +in the thing strange, unexpected, the evil spirit being _has the power to +detain, hold back God's messenger_ for three full weeks by earth's +reckoning of time. Then reenforcements come, as we would say. The evil +messenger's purpose is defeated, and God's messenger is free to come as +originally planned. + +There is a double scene being enacted. A scene you can see, and a scene +you cannot see. An unseen wrestling match in the upper spirit realm, and +two embodied spirit beings down on their faces by the river. And both +concerned over the same thing. + +That is the Daniel story. What an acted out illustration it is of Paul's +words. It is a picture glowing with the action of real life. It is a +double picture. Every prayer action is in doubles; a lower human level; an +upper spirit level. Many see only the seen, and lose heart. While we look +at the things that are seen, let us gaze intently at the things unseen; +for the seen things are secondary, but the unseen are chief, and the +action of life is being decided there. + +Here is the lower, the seen;--a group of men, led by a man of executive +force enough to control an empire, prone on their faces, with minds clear, +quiet, alert, persistently, ceaselessly _praying_ day by day. Here is the +upper, the unseen:--a "wrestling," keen, stubborn, skilled, going on +between two spirit princes in the spirit realm. And by Paul's explanation +the two are vitally connected. Daniel and his companions are wrestlers +too, active participants in that upper-air fight, and really deciding the +issue, for they are on the ground being contested. These men are indeed +praying with all prayer and supplication at all times, in the Spirit, and +watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication, and _at length +victory comes_. + + + +<u>Prayer Concerns Three.</u> + + +Now a bit of a look at the central figure of the pattern. Jesus lets in a +flood of light on Satan's relation to prayer in one of His prayer +parables. There are two parables dealing distinctively with prayer: "the +friend at midnight,"[26] and "the unjust judge."[27] The second of these +deals directly with this Satan phase of prayer. It is Luke through whom we +learn most of Jesus' own praying who preserves for us this remarkable +prayer picture. + +It comes along towards the end. The swing has been made from plain talking +to the less direct, parable-form of teaching. The issue with the national +leaders has reached its acutest stage. The culmination of their hatred, +short of the cross, found vent in charging Him with being inspired by the +spirit of Satan. He felt their charge keenly and answered it directly and +fully. His parable of the strong man being bound before his house can be +rifled comes in here. _They_ had no question as to what that meant. That +is the setting of this prayer parable. The setting is a partial +interpretation. Let us look at this parable rather closely, for it is full +of help for those who would become skilled in helping God win His world +back home again. + +Jesus seems so eager that they shall not miss the meaning here that He +departs from His usual habit and says plainly what this parable is meant +to teach:--"that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." The great +essential, He says, is _prayer_. The great essential in prayer is +_persistence_. The temptation in prayer is that one may lose heart, and +give up, or give in. "Not-to-faint" tells how keen the contest is. + +There are three persons in the parable; a judge, a widow, and an +adversary. The judge is utterly selfish, unjust, godless, and reckless of +anybody's opinion. The worst sort of man, indeed, the last sort of man to +be a judge. Inferentially he knows that the right of the case before him +is with the widow. The widow--well, she is a _widow_. Can more be said to +make the thing vivid and pathetic! A very picture of friendlessness and +helplessness is a widow. A woman needs a friend. This woman has lost her +nearest, dearest friend; her protector. She is alone. There is an +adversary, an opponent at law, who has unrighteously or illegally gotten +an advantage over the widow and is ruthlessly pushing her to the wall. She +is seeking to get the judge to join with her against her adversary. Her +urgent, oft repeated request is, "avenge me of mine adversary." That is +Jesus' pictorial illustration of persistent prayer. + +Let us look into it a little further. "Adversary" is a common word in +scripture for Satan. He is the accuser, the hater, the enemy, the +adversary. Its meaning technically is "an opponent in a suit at law." It +is the same word as used later by Peter, "Your adversary the devil as a +roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour."[28] The word +"avenge" used four times really means, "do me justice." It suggests that +the widow has the facts on her side to win a clear case, and that the +adversary has been bully-ragging his case through by sheer force. + +There is a strange feature to this parable, which must have a meaning. _An +utterly godless unscrupulous man is put in to represent God!_ This is +startling. In any other than Jesus it would seem an overstepping of the +bounds. But there is keenness of a rare sort here. Such a man is chosen +for judge to bring out most sharply this:--the sort of thing required to +win this judge is certainly not required _with God_. The widow must +persist and plead because of the sort of man she has to deal with. But God +is utterly different in character. Therefore while persistence is urged in +prayer plainly it is not for the reason that required the widow to +persist. And if that reason be cut out it leaves only one other, namely, +that represented by the adversary. + +Having purposely put such a man in the parable for God, Jesus takes pains +to speak of the real character of God. "And He is _long-suffering_ over +them." _That_ is God. That word "long-suffering" and its equivalent on +Jesus' lips suggests at once the strong side of love, namely, _patience_, +gentle, fine patience. It has bothered the scholars in this phrase to know +with whom or over what the long-suffering is exercised. "Over them" is the +doubtful phrase. Long-suffering over these praying ones? _Or_, +long-suffering in dealing righteously with some stubborn adversary--which? +The next sentence has a word set in sharpest contrast with this one, +namely "speedily." "Long-suffering" yet "speedily." + +Here are gleams of bright light on a dark subject with apparently more +light obscured than is allowed to shine through. Jesus always spoke +thoughtfully. He chooses His words. Remembering the adversary against whom +the persistence is directed the whole story seems to suggest this: that +there is _a great conflict on_ in the upper spirit world. Concerning it +our patient God is long-suffering. He is a just and righteous God. These +beings in the conflict are all His creatures. He is just in His dealings +with the devil and this splendid host of evil spirits even as with all His +creation. He is long-suffering that no unfairness shall be done in His +dealings with these creatures of His. Yet at the same time He is doing His +best to bring the conflict to a speedy end, for the sake of His loyal +loved ones, and that right may prevail. + +The upshot of the parable is very plain. It contains for us two +tremendous, intense truths. First is this: _prayer concerns three_, not +two but three. God to whom we pray, the man on the contested earth who +prays, and the evil one against whom we pray. And the purpose of the +prayer is not to persuade or influence God, but to join forces with Him +against the enemy. Not towards God, but with God against Satan--that is +the main thing to keep in mind in prayer. The real pitch is not Godward +but Satanward. + +The second intense truth is this:--the winning quality in prayer is +_persistence_. The final test is here. This is the last ditch. Many who +fight well up to this point lose their grip here, and so lose all. Many +who are well equipped for prayer fail here, and doubtless fail because +they have not rightly understood. With clear, ringing tones the Master's +voice sounds in our ears again to-day, "always to pray, _and_ not to +faint." + + + +<u>A Stubborn Foe Routed.</u> + + +That is the parable teaching. Now a look at a plain out word from the +Master's lips. It is in the story of the demonized boy, the distressed +father, and the defeated disciples, at the foot of the transfiguration +mountain.[29] Extremes meet here surely. The mountain peak is in sharpest +contrast with the valley. The demon seems to be of the superlative degree. +His treatment of the possessed boy is malicious to an extreme. His purpose +is "to destroy" him. Yet there is a limit to his power, for what he would +do he has not yet been able to do. He shows extreme tenacity. He fought +bitterly against being disembodied again. (Can it be that embodiment eases +in some way the torture of existence for these prodigal spirits!) And so +far he fought well, and with success. The disciples had tried to cast him +out. They were expected to. They expected to. They had before. They +failed!--dismally--amid the sneering and jeering of the crowd and the +increasing distress of the poor father. + +Then Jesus came. Was some of the transfiguring glory still lingering in +that great face? It would seem so. The crowd was "amazed" when they saw +Him, and "saluted" Him. His presence changed all. The demon angrily left, +doing his worst to wreck the house he had to vacate. The boy is restored; +and the crowd astonished at the power of God. + +Then these disciples did a very keen thing. They made some bad blunders +but this is not one of them. They sought a private talk with Jesus. No +shrewder thing was ever done. When you fail, quit your service and get +away for a private interview with Jesus. With eyes big, and voices +dejected, the question wrung itself out of their sinking hearts, "Why +could not _we_ cast it out?" Matthew and Mark together supply the full +answer. Probably first came this:--"because of your little faith." They +had quailed in their hearts before the power of this malicious demon. And +the demon knew it. They were more impressed with the power of the demon +than with the power of God. And the demon saw it. They had not prayed +victoriously against the demon. The Master says, "faith only as big as a +mustard seed (you cannot measure the strength of the mustard seed by its +size) will say to this mountain--'Remove.'" Mark keenly:--the direction of +the faith is towards the obstacle. Its force is against the enemy. It was +the demon who was most directly influenced by Jesus' faith. + +Then comes the second part of the reply:--"This kind can come out by +nothing but by prayer." Some less-stubborn demons may be cast out by the +faith that comes of our regular prayer-touch with God. This extreme sort +takes special prayer. This kind of a demon goes out by prayer. It can be +put out by nothing less. The real victory must be in the secret place. The +exercise of faith in the open battle is then a mere pressing of the +victory already won. These men had the language of Jesus on their lips, +but they had not gotten the victory first off somewhere alone. This demon +is determined not to go. He fights stubbornly and strongly. He succeeds. +Then this _Man of Prayer_ came. The quiet word of command is spoken. The +demon must go. These disciples were strikingly like some of us. They had +not _realized_ where the real victory is won. They had used the word of +command to the demon, doubtless coupling Jesus' name with it. But there +was not the secret touch with God that gives victory. Their eyes showed +their fear of the demon. + +Prayer, real prayer, intelligent prayer, it is this that routs Satan's +demons, for it routs their chief. David killed the lion and bear in the +secret forests before he faced the giant in the open. These disciples were +facing the giant in the open without the discipline in secret. "This kind +can be compelled to come out by nothing but by prayer," means this:--"this +kind comes out, and must come out, before the man who prays." This thing +which Jesus calls prayer casts out demons. Would that we knew better by +experience what He meant by prayer. It exerts a positive influence upon +the hosts of evil spirits. They fear it. They fear the man who becomes +skilled in its use. + +There are yet many other passages in this Bible fully as explicit as +these, and which give on the very surface just such plain teaching as +these. The very language of scripture throughout is full of this truth. +But these four great instances are quite sufficient to make the present +point clear and plain. This great renegade prince is an actual active +factor in the lives of men. He believes in the potency of prayer. He fears +it. He can hinder its results for a while. He does his best to hinder it, +and to hinder as long as possible. + +_Prayer overcomes him._ It defeats his plans and himself. He cannot +successfully stand before it. He trembles when some man of simple faith in +God prays. Prayer is insistence upon God's will being done. It needs for +its practice a man in sympathetic touch with God. Its basis is Jesus' +victory. It overcomes the opposing will of the great traitor-leader. + + + + +III. How to Pray + + +1. The "How" of Relationship. +2. The "How" of Method. +3. The Listening Side of Prayer. +4. Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer. +5. May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones? + + + + +The "How" of Relationship + + + +<u>God's Ambassadors.</u> + + +If I had an ambition to be the ambassador of this country to our +mother-country, there would be two essential things involved. The first +and great essential would be to receive the appointment. I would need to +come into certain relation with our president, to possess certain +qualifications considered essential by him, and to secure from his hand +the appointment, and the official credentials of my appointment. That +would establish my relationship to the foreign court as the representative +of my own country, and my right to transact business in her name. + +But having gotten that far I might go over there and make bad mistakes. I +might get our diplomatic relations tangled up, requiring many +explanations, and maybe apologies, and leaving unpleasant memories for a +long time to come. Such incidents have not been infrequent. Nations are +very sensitive. Governmental affairs must be handled with great nicety. +There would be a second thing which if I were a wise enough man to be an +ambassador I would likely do. I would go to see John Hay and Joseph H. +Choate, and have as many interviews with them as possible, and learn all I +possibly could from them of London official life, court etiquette, +personages to be dealt with, things to do, and things to avoid. How to be +a successful diplomat and further the good feeling between the two +governments, and win friends for our country among the sturdy Britons +would be my one absorbing thought. And having gotten all I could in that +way I would be constantly on the alert with all the mental keenness I +could command to practice being a successful ambassador. + +The first of these would make me technically an ambassador. The second +would tend towards giving me some skill as an ambassador. Now there are +the same two how's in praying. First the relationship must be established +before any business can be transacted. Then skill must be acquired in the +transacting of the business on hand. + +Just now, we want to talk about the first of these, the how of +relationship in prayer. The basis of prayer is right relationship with +God. Prayer is representing God in the spirit realm of this world. It is +insisting upon His rights down in this sphere of action. It is standing +for Him with full powers from Him. Clearly the only basis of such +relationship to God is _Jesus_. We have been outlawed by sin. We were in +touch with God. We broke with Him. The break could not be repaired by us. +Jesus came. He was God _and_ Man. He touches both. We get back through +Him, and only so. The blood of the cross is the basis of all prayer. +Through it the relationship is established that underlies all prayer. Only +as I come to God through Jesus to get the sin score straightened, and only +as I keep in sympathy with Jesus in the purpose of my life can I practice +prayer. + + + +<u>Six Sweeping Statements.</u> + + +Jesus' own words make this very clear. There are two groups of teachings +on prayer in those three and a half years as given by the gospel records. +The first of these groups is in the Sermon on the Mount which Jesus +preached about half-way through the second year of His ministry. The +second group comes sheer at the end. All of it is in the last six months, +and most of it in the last ten days, and much of that on the very eve of +that last tragic day. + +It is after the sharp rupture with the leaders that this second series of +statements is made. The most positive, and most sweeping utterances on +prayer are here. Of Jesus' eight promises regarding prayer six are here. I +want to ask you please to notice these six promises or statements; and +then, to notice their relation to our topic of to-day. + +In Matthew 18:19, 20, is the first of these. "Again I say unto you, that +if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they Shall +ask, it shall be done for them of My Father who is in heaven." Notice the +place of prayer--"on earth"; and the sweep--"anything"; and the +positiveness--"it shall be done." Then the reason why is given. "For where +two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of +them." That is to say, if there are two persons praying, there are three. +If three meet to pray, there are four praying. There is always one more +than you can see. And if you might perhaps be saying to yourself in a bit +of dejection, "He'll not hear me: I'm so sinful: so weak"--you would be +wrong in thinking and saying so, but then we do think and say things that +are not right--_if_ you might be thinking that, you could at once fall +back upon this: the Father always hears Jesus. And wherever earnest hearts +pray Jesus is there taking their prayer and making it His prayer. + +The second of these: Mark 11:22-24, "Jesus answering saith unto them, have +faith in God"--with the emphasis double-lined under the word "God." The +chief factor in prayer is God. "Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say +unto this mountain, be thou taken up and cast into the sea--" Choosing, do +you see the unlikeliest thing that might occur. Such a thing did not take +place. We never hear of Jesus moving an actual mountain. The need for such +action does not seem to have arisen. But He chooses the thing most +difficult for His illustration. Can you imagine a mountain moving off into +the sea--the Jungfrau, or Blanc, or Rainier? If you know mountains down in +your country you cannot imagine it actually occurring. "--And shall not +doubt in his heart--" That is Jesus' definition of faith. "--But shall +believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore, I +say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye +receive them, and ye shall have them." How utterly sweeping this last +statement! And to make it more positive it is preceded by the emphatic +"therefore--I--say--unto--you." Both whatsoever and whosoever are here. +Anything, and anybody. We always feel instinctively as though these +statements need careful guarding: a few fences put up around them. Wait a +bit and we shall see what the Master's own fence is. + +The last four of the six are in John's gospel. In that last long quiet +talk on the night in which He was betrayed. John preserves much of that +heart-talk for us in chapters thirteen to seventeen. + +Here in John 14:13, 14: "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, that will I do." The repetition is to emphasize the +unlimited sweep of what may be asked. + +John 15:7: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you--" That word +abide is a strong word. It does not mean to leave your cards; nor to hire +a night's lodging; nor to pitch a tent, or run up a miner's shanty, or a +lumberman's shack. It means moving in to stay. "--Ask whatsoever ye +will--" The Old Version says, "ye shall ask." But here the revised is more +accurate: "Ask; please ask; I ask you to ask." There is nothing said +directly about God's will. There is something said about our wills. "--And +it shall be done unto you." Or, a little more literally, "I will bring it +to pass for you." + +I remember the remark quoted to me by a friend one day. His church +membership is in the Methodist Church of the North, but his service +crosses church lines both in this country and abroad. He was talking with +one of the bishops of that church whose heart was in the foreign mission +field. The bishop was eager to have this friend serve as missionary +secretary of his church. But he knew, as everybody knows, how difficult +appointments oftentimes are in all large bodies. He was earnestly +discussing the matter with my friend, and made this remark: "If you will +allow the use of your name for this appointment, _I will lay myself out_ +to have it made." Now if you will kindly not think there is any lack of +reverence in my saying so--and there is surely none in my thought--that is +the practical meaning of Jesus' words here. "If you abide in Me, and My +words sway you, you please ask what it is your will to ask. And--softly, +reverently now--I will lay Myself out to bring that thing to pass for +you." That is the force of His words here. + +This same chapter, sixteenth verse: "Ye did not choose Me, but I chose +you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your +fruit should abide; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, +He may give it you." God had our prayer partnership with Himself in His +mind in choosing us. And the last of these, John 16:23, 24, second clause, +"Verily, verily, I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father, +He will give it you in My name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: +ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled." + +These statements are the most sweeping to be found anywhere in the +Scriptures regarding prayer. There is no limitation as to who shall ask, +nor the kind of thing to be asked for. There are three limitations +imposed: the prayer is to be _through Jesus_; the person praying is to be +in fullest sympathy with Him; and this person is to have faith. + + + +<u>Words With a Freshly Honed Razor-Edge.</u> + + +Now please group these six sweeping statements in your mind and hold them +together there. Then notice carefully this fact. These words are not +spoken to the crowds. They are spoken to the small inner group of twelve +disciples. Jesus talks one way to the multitude. He oftentimes talks +differently to these men who have separated themselves from the crowd and +come into the inner circle. + +And notice further that before Jesus spoke these words to this group of +men He had said something else first. Something very radical; so radical +that it led to a sharp passage between Himself and Peter, to whom He +speaks very sternly. This something else fixes unmistakably their relation +to Himself. Remember that the sharp break with the national leaders has +come. Jesus is charged with Satanic collusion. The death plot is +determined upon. The breach with the leaders is past the healing point. +And now the Master is frequently slipping away from the crowd with these +twelve men, and seeking to teach and train them. That is the setting of +these great promises. It must be kept continually in mind. + +Before the Master gave Himself away to these men in these promises He said +this something else. It is this. I quote Matthew's account: "If any man +would come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross (daily, +Luke's addition) and follow Me[30]." _These words should be written +crosswise over those six prayer statements_. Jesus never spoke a keener +word. Those six promises are not meant for all. Let it be said very +plainly. They are meant only for those who will square their lives by +these razor-edged words. + +I may not go fully into the significance of these deep-cutting words here. +They have been gone into at some length in a previous set of talks as +suggesting the price of power. To him whose heart burns for power in +prayer I urge a careful review of that talk in this new setting of it. "If +any man would come after Me" means a rock-rooted purpose; the jaw locked; +the tendrils of the purpose going down around and under the gray granite +of a man's will, and tying themselves there; and knotting the ties; sailor +knots, that you cannot undo. + +"Come after Me" means all the power of Jesus' life, and has the other +side, too. It means the wilderness, the intense temptation. It may mean +the obscure village of Nazareth for you. It may mean that first Judean +year for you--lack of appreciation. It may mean for you that last six +months--the desertion of those hitherto friendly. It will mean without +doubt a Gethsemane. Everybody who comes along after Jesus has a Gethsemane +in his life. It will never mean as much to you as it meant to Him. That is +true. But, then, it will mean everything to you. And it will mean too +having a Calvary in your life in a very real sense, though different from +what that meant to Him. This sentence through gives the process whereby +the man with sin grained into the fibre of his will may come into such +relationship with God as to claim without any reservation these great +prayer promises. And if that sound hard and severe to you let me quickly +say that it is an easy way for the man who is _willing._ The presence of +Jesus in the life overlaps every cutting thing. + +If a man will go through Matthew 16:24, and habitually live there he may +ask what he wills to ask, and that thing will come to pass. The reason, +without question, why many people do not have power in prayer is simply +because they are unwilling--I am just talking very plainly--they are +unwilling to bare their breasts to the keen-edged knife in these words of +Jesus. And on the other side, if a man will quietly, resolutely follow the +Master's leading--nothing extreme--nothing fanatical, or morbid, just a +quiet going where that inner Voice plainly leads day by day, he will be +startled to find what an utterly new meaning prayer will come to have for +him. + + + +<u>The Controlling Purpose.</u> + + +Vital relationship is always expressed by purpose. The wise ambassador has +an absorbing purpose to further the interests of his government. Jesus +said, and it at once reveals His relationship to God, "I do always those +things that are well pleasing to him." + +The relationship that underlies prayer has an absorbing purpose. Its +controlling purpose is to please Jesus. That sentence may sound simple +enough. But, do you know, there is no sentence I might utter that has a +keener, a more freshly honed razor-edge to it than that. That the purpose +which _controls_ my action in every matter be this: to please Him. If you +have not done so, take it for a day, a week, and use it as a touch stone +regarding thought, word and action. Take it into matters personal, home, +business, social, fraternal. It does not mean to ask, "Is this right? is +this wrong?" Not that. Not the driving of a keen line between wrong and +right. There are a great many things that can be proven to be not wrong, +but that are not best, that are not His preference. + +It will send a business man running his eye along the shelves and counter +of his store. "The controlling purpose to please Jesus ... hm-m-m, I guess +maybe that stuff there ought to come out. Oh, it is not wrong: I can prove +that. My Christian brother-merchants handle it here, and over the country: +but _to please Him_: a good, clean sixty per cent, profit too, cash money, +but _to please Him_--" and the stuff must go down and out. + +It would set some woman to thinking about the next time the young people +are to gather in her home for a delightful social evening with her own +daughters. She will think about some forms of pastime that are found +everywhere. They are not wrong, that has been conclusively proven. But _to +please Him_. Hm-m. And these will go out. And then it will set her to +work with all her God-given woman-wit and exquisite tact to planning an +evening yet more delightful. It will make one think of his personal +habits, his business methods, and social intercourse, the organizations he +belongs to, with the quiet question cutting it razor-way into each. + +And if some one listening may ask: Why put the condition of prayer so +strongly as that? I will remind you of this. The true basis of prayer is +sympathy, oneness of purpose. Prayer is not extracting favours from a +reluctant God. It is not passing a check in a bank window for money. That +is mandatory. The roots of prayer lie down in oneness of purpose. God up +yonder, His Victor-Son by His side, and a man down here, in _such +sympathetic touch_ that God can think His thoughts over in this man's +mind, and have His desires repeated upon the earth as this man's prayer. + + + +<u>The Threefold Cord of Jesus' Life.</u> + + +Think for a moment into Jesus' human life down here. His marvellous +activities for those few years over which the world has never ceased to +wonder. Then His underneath hidden-away prayer-life of which only +occasional glimpses are gotten. Then grouping around about that sentence +of His--"I do always the things that are pleasing to Him"--in John's +gospel, pick out the emphatic negatives on Jesus' lips, the "not's": not +My will, not My works, not My words. Jesus came to do somebody's else +will. The controlling purpose of His life was to please His Father. That +was the secret of the power of His earthly career. Right relationship to +God; a secret intimate prayer-life: marvellous power over men and with +men--those are the strands in the threefold cord of His life. + +There is a very striking turn of a word in the second chapter of John's +gospel down almost at its close. The old version says that "Many believed +on His name beholding His signs which He did, but Jesus did not commit +Himself unto them" because He knew them so well. The word "believed," and +the word "commit" are the same word underneath our English. The sentence +might run "many _trusted_ Him beholding what He did; but He did not +_trust_ them for He knew them." I have no doubt most, or all of us here +to-day, trust Him. Let me ask you very softly now: Can He trust you? While +we might all shrink from saying "yes" to that, there is a very real sense +in which we may say "yes," namely, in the purpose of the life. Every life +is controlled by some purpose. What is yours? To please Him? If so He +knows it. It is a great comfort to remember that God judges a man not by +his achievements, but by his purposes: not by what I am, actually, but by +what I would be, in the yearning of my inmost heart, the dominant purpose +of my life. God will fairly flood your life with all the power He can +trust you to use wholly for Him. + +Commercial practice furnishes a simple but striking illustration here. A +man is employed by a business house as a clerk. His ability and honesty +come to be tested in many ways constantly. He is promoted gradually, his +responsibilities increased. As he proves himself thoroughly reliable he is +trusted more and more, until by and by as need arises he becomes the +firm's confidential clerk. He knows its secrets. He is trusted with the +combination to the inner box in the vault. Because it has been proven by +actual test that he will use everything only for the best interests of his +house, and not selfishly. + +Here, where we are dealing, the whole thing moves up to an infinitely +higher level, but the principle does not change. If I will come into the +relationship implied in these words:--it shall be the one controlling +desire and purpose of my life to do the things that please Him--then I may +ask for what I will, and it shall be done. That is how to pray: the how of +relationship. The man who will live in Matthew 16:24, and follow Jesus as +He leads: simply that: no fanaticism, no morbidism, no extremism, just +simply follow as He leads, day by day,--then those six promises of Jesus +with their wonderful sweep, their limitless sweep are his to use as he +will. + + + + +The "How" of Method + + + +<u>Touching the Hidden Keys.</u> + + +One of the most remarkable illustrations in recent times of the power of +prayer, may be found in the experience of Mr. Moody. It explains his +unparalleled career of world-wide soul winning. One marvels that more has +not been said of it. Its stimulus to faith is great. I suppose the man +most concerned did not speak of it much because of his fine modesty. The +last year of his life he referred to it more frequently as though impelled +to. + +The last time I heard Mr. Moody was in his own church in Chicago. It was, +I think, in the fall of the last year of his life. One morning in the old +church made famous by his early work, in a quiet conversational way he +told the story. It was back in the early seventies, when Chicago had been +laid in ashes. "This building was not yet up far enough to do much in," he +said; "so I thought I would slip across the water, and learn what I could +from preachers there, so as to do better work here. I had gone over to +London, and was running around after men there." Then he told of going +one evening to hear Mr. Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle; and +understanding that he was to speak a second time that evening to dedicate +a chapel, Mr. Moody had slipped out of the building and had run along the +street after Mr. Spurgeon's carriage a mile or so, so as to hear him the +second time. Then he smiled, and said quietly, "I was running around after +men like that." + +He had not been speaking anywhere, he said, but listening to others. One +day, Saturday, at noon, he had gone into the meeting in Exeter Hall on the +Strand; felt impelled to speak a little when the meeting was thrown open, +and did so. At the close among others who greeted him, one man, a +minister, asked him to come and preach for him the next day morning and +night, and he said he would. Mr. Moody said, "I went to the morning +service and found a large church full of people. And when the time came I +began to speak to them. But it seemed the hardest talking ever I did. +There was no response in their faces. They seemed as though carved out of +stone or ice. And I was having a hard time: and wished I wasn't there; and +wished I hadn't promised to speak again at night. But I had promised, and +so I went. + +"At night it was the same thing: house full, people outwardly respectful, +but no interest, no response. And I was having a hard time again. When +about half-way through my talk there came a change. It seemed as though +the windows of heaven had opened and a bit of breath blew down. The +atmosphere of the building seemed to change. The people's faces changed. +It impressed me so that when I finished speaking I gave the invitation for +those who wanted to be Christians to rise. I thought there might be a few. +And to my immense surprise the people got up in groups, pew-fulls. I +turned to the minister and said, 'What does this mean?' He said, 'I don't +know, I'm sure.' Well," Mr. Moody said, "they misunderstood me. I'll +explain what I meant." So he announced an after-meeting in the room below, +explaining who were invited: only those who wanted to be Christians; and +putting pretty clearly what he understood that to mean, and dismissed the +service. + +They went to the lower room. And the people came crowding, jamming in +below, filling all available space, seats, aisles and standing room. Mr. +Moody talked again a few minutes, and then asked those who would be +Christians to rise. This time he knew he had made his meaning clear. They +got up in clumps, in groups, by fifties! Mr. Moody said, "I turned and +said to the minister, 'What _does_ this mean?' He said, 'I'm sure I don't +know.'" Then the minister said to Mr. Moody, "What'll I do with these +people? I don't know what to do with them; this is something new." And he +said, "Well. I'd announce a meeting for to-morrow night, and Tuesday +night, and see what comes of it; I'm going across the channel to Dublin." +And he went, but he had barely stepped off the boat when a cablegram was +handed him from the minister saying, "Come back at once. Church packed." +So he went back, and stayed ten days. And the result of that ten days, as +I recall Mr. Moody's words, was that four hundred were added to that +church, and that every church near by felt the impulse of those ten days. +Then Mr. Moody dropped his head, as though thinking back, and said: "I had +no plans beyond this church. I supposed my life work was here. But the +result with me was that I was given a roving commission and have been +working under it ever since." + +Now what was the explanation of that marvellous Sunday and days following? +It was not Mr. Moody's doing, though he was a leader whom God could and +did mightily use. It was not the minister's doing; for he was as greatly +surprised as the leader. There was some secret hidden beneath the surface +of those ten days. With his usual keenness Mr. Moody set himself to ferret +it out. + +By and by this incident came to him. A member of the church, a woman, had +been taken sick some time before. Then she grew worse. Then the physician +told her that she would not recover. That is, she would not die at once, +so far as he could judge, but she would be shut in her home for years. +And she lay there trying to think what that meant: to be shut in for +years. And she thought of her life, and said, "How little I've done for +God: practically nothing: and now what can I do shut in here on my back." +And she said, "I can pray." + +May I put this word in here as a parenthesis in the story--that God +oftentimes allows us to be shut in--He does not shut us in--He does not +need to--simply take His hand off partly--there is enough disobedience to +His law of our bodies all the time to shut us aside--no trouble on that +side of the problem--_with pain to Himself_, against His own first will +for us, He allows us to be shut in, because only so _can_ He get our +attention from other things to what He wants done; get us to see things, +and think things His way. I am compelled to think it is so. + +She said, "I _will_ pray." And she was led to pray for her church. Her +sister, also a member of the church, lived with her, and was her link with +the outer world. Sundays, after church service, the sick woman would ask, +"Any special interest in church to-day?" "No," was the constant reply. +Wednesday nights, after prayer-meetings, "Any special interest in the +service to-night? there must have been." "No; nothing new; same old +deacons made the same old prayers." + +But one Sunday noon the sister came in from service and asked, "Who do you +think preached to-day?" "I don't know, who?" "Why, a stranger from +America, a man called Moody, I think was the name." And the sick woman's +face turned a bit whiter, and her eye looked half scared, and her lip +trembled a bit, and she quietly said: "I know what that means. There's +something coming to the old church. Don't bring me any dinner. I must +spend this afternoon in prayer." And so she did. And that night in the +service that startling change came. + +Then to Mr. Moody himself, as he sought her out in her sick room, she told +how nearly two years before there came into her hands a copy of a paper +published in Chicago called the _Watchman_ that contained a talk by Mr. +Moody in one of the Chicago meetings, Farwell Hall meetings, I think. All +she knew was that talk that made her heart burn, and there was the name +M-o-o-d-y. And she was led to pray that God would send that man into their +church in London. As simple a prayer as that. + +And the months went by, and a year, and over; still she prayed. Nobody +knew of it but herself and God. No change seemed to come. Still she +prayed. And of course her prayer wrought its purpose. Every +Spirit-suggested prayer does. And that is the touchstone of true prayer. +And the Spirit of God moved that man of God over to the seaboard, and +across the water and into London, and into their church. Then a bit of +special siege-prayer, a sort of last charge up the steep hill, and that +night the victory came. + +Do you not believe--I believe without a doubt, that some day when the +night is gone and the morning light comes up, and we know as we are known, +that we shall find that the largest single factor, in that ten days' work, +and in the changing of tens of thousands of lives under Moody's leadership +is that woman in her praying. Not the only factor, mind you. Moody a man +of rare leadership, and consecration, and hundreds of faithful ministers +and others rallying to his support. But behind and beneath Moody and the +others, and to be reckoned with as first this woman's praying. + +Yet I do not know her name. I know Mr. Moody's name. I could name scores +of faithful men associated with him in his campaigns, but the name of this +one in whom humanly is the secret of it all I do not know. Ah! It is a +secret service. We do not know who the great ones are. They tell me she is +living yet in the north end of London, and still praying. Shall we pray! +Shall we not pray! If something else must slip out, something important, +shall we not see to it that intercession has first place! + + + +<u>Making God's Purpose Our Prayer.</u> + + +With that thought in mind let me this evening suggest a bit of how to +pray. As simple a subject as that: how to pray: the how of method. + +The first thing in prayer is to find God's purpose, the trend, the swing +of it; the second thing to make that purpose our prayer. We want to find +out what God is thinking, and then to claim that that shall be done. God +is seated up yonder on the throne. Jesus Christ is sitting by His side +glorified. Everywhere in the universe God's will is being done except in +this corner, called the earth, and its atmosphere, and that bit of the +heavens above it where Satan's headquarters are. + +It has been done down here by one person--Jesus. He came here to this +prodigal planet and did God's will perfectly. He went away. And He has +sought and seeks to have men down upon the earth so fully in touch with +Himself that He may do in them and through them just what He will. That He +may reproduce Himself in these men, and have God's will done again down on +the earth. Now prayer is this: finding out God's purpose for our lives, +and for the earth and insisting that that shall be done here. The great +thing then is to find out and insist upon God's will. And the "how" of +method in prayer is concerned with that. + +Many a time I have met with a group of persons for prayer. Various special +matters for prayer are brought up. Here is this man, needing prayer, and +this particular matter, and this one, and this. Then we kneel and pray. +And I have many a time thought--not critically in a bad sense--as I have +listened to their prayers, as though this is the prayer I must +offer:--"Blessed Holy Spirit, Thou knowest this man, and what the lacking +thing is in him. There is trouble there. Thou knowest this sick woman, and +what the difficulty is there. This problem, and what the hindrance is in +it. Blessed Spirit, pray in me the prayer Thou art praying for this man, +and this thing, and this one. The prayer Thou art praying, I pray that, in +Jesus' name. Thy will be done here under these circumstances." + +Sometimes I feel clear as to the particular prayer to offer, but many a +time I am puzzled to know. I put this fact with this, but I may not know +_all_ the facts. I know this man who evidently needs praying for, a +Christian man perhaps, his mental characteristics, his conceptions of +things, the kind of a will he has, but there may be some fact in there +that I do not know, that seriously affects the whole difficulty. And I am +compelled to fall back on this: I don't know how to pray as I ought. But +the Spirit within me will make intercession for this man as I allow Him to +have free swing in me as the medium of His prayer. And He who is listening +above as He hears His will for this man being repeated down on the +battle-field will recognize His own purpose, of course. And so that thing +will be working out because of Jesus' victory over the evil one. + +But I may become so sensitive to the Spirit's thoughts and presence, that +I shall know more keenly and quickly what to pray for. In so far as I do +I become a more skillful partner of His on the earth in getting God's will +done. + + + +<u>The Trysting Place.</u> + + +There are six suggestions here on how to pray. First--we need _time_ for +prayer, unhurried time, daily time, time enough to forget about how much +time it is. I do not mean now: rising in the morning at the very last +moment, and dressing, it may be hurriedly, and then kneeling a few moments +so as to feel easier in mind: not that. I do not mean the last thing at +night when you are jaded and fagged, and almost between the sheets, and +then remember and look up a verse and kneel a few moments: not that. That +is good so far as it goes. I am not criticising that. Better sweeten and +sandwich the day with all of that sort you can get in. But just now I mean +this: _taking time_ when the mind is fresh and keen, and the spirit +sensitive, to thoughtfully pray. We haven't time. Life is so crowded. It +must be taken from something else, something important, but still less +important than this. + +Sacrifice is the continual law of life. The important thing must be +sacrificed to the more important. One needs to cultivate a mature +judgment, or his strength will be frizzled away in the less important +details, and the greater thing go undone, or be done poorly with the +fag-ends of strength. If we would become skilled intercessors, and know +how to pray simply enough, we must take quiet time daily to get off alone. + +The second suggestion: we need a _place_ for prayer. Oh! you can pray +anywhere, on the street, in the store, travelling, measuring dry goods, +hands in dishwater,--where not. But you are not likely to unless you have +been off in some quiet place shut in alone with God. The Master said: +"Enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door": that door is +important. It shuts out, and it shuts in. "Pray to thy Father who is in +secret." God is here in this shut-in spot. One must get alone to find out +that he never is alone. The more alone we are as far as men are concerned +the least alone we are so far a; God is concerned. + +The quiet place and time are needful to train the ears for keen hearing. A +mother will hear the faintest cry of her babe just awaking. It is +up-stairs perhaps; the tiniest bit of a sound comes; nobody else hears; +but quick as a flash the mother's hands are held quiet, the head alert, +then she is off. Her ears are trained beyond anybody's else; love's +training. We need trained ears. A quiet place shuts out the outer sounds, +and gives the inner ear a chance to learn other sounds. + +A man was standing in a telephone booth trying to talk, but could not make +out the message. He kept saying, "I can't hear, I can't hear." The other +man by and by said sharply, "If you'll shut that door you can hear." _His_ +door was shut and he could hear not only the man's voice but the street +and store noises too. Some folks have gotten their hearing badly confused +because their doors have not been shut enough. Man's voice and God's voice +get mixed in their ears. They cannot tell between them. The bother is +partly with the door. If you'll shut that door you can hear. + +The third suggestion needs much emphasis to-day: _give the Book of God its +place in prayer._ Prayer is not talking to God--simply. It is listening +first, then talking. Prayer needs three organs of the head, an ear, a +tongue and an eye. First an ear to hear what God says, then a tongue to +speak, then an eye to look out for the result. Bible study is the +listening side of prayer. The purpose of God comes in through the ear, +passes through the heart taking on the tinge of your personality, and goes +out at the tongue as prayer. It is pathetic what a time God has getting a +hearing down here. He is ever speaking but even where there may be some +inclination to hear the sounds of earth are choking in our ears the sound +of His voice. God speaks in His Word. The most we know of God comes to us +here. This Book is God in print. It was inspired, and it _is_ inspired. +God Himself speaks in this Book. That puts it in a list by itself, quite +apart from all others. Studying it keenly, intelligently, reverently will +reveal God's great will. What He says will utterly change what you will +say. + + + +<u>Our Prayer Teacher.</u> + + +The fourth suggestion is this: _Let the Spirit teach you how to pray_. The +more you pray the more you will find yourself saying to yourself, "I don't +know how to pray." Well God understands that. Paul knew that out of his +own experience before he wrote it down. And God has a plan to cover our +need there. There is One who is a master intercessor. He understands +praying perfectly. He is the Spirit of prayer. God has sent Him down to +live inside you and me, partly for this, to teach us the fine art of +prayer. The suggestion is this: let Him teach you. + +When you go alone in the quiet time and place with the Book quietly pray: +"blessed Prayer-Spirit, Master-Spirit, teach me how to pray," and He will. +Do not be nervous, or agitated, wondering if you will understand. Study to +be quiet; mind quiet, body quiet. Be still and listen. Remember Luther's +version of David's words,[31] "Be silent to God, and let Him mould thee." + +You will find your praying changing. You will talk more simply, like a man +transacting business or a child asking, though of course with a reverence +and a deepness of feeling not in those things. You will quit asking for +some things. Some of the old forms of prayer will drop from your lips +likely enough. You will use fewer words, maybe, but they will be spoken +with a quiet absolute faith that this thing you are asking is being worked +out. + +This thing of _letting the Spirit teach_ must come first in one's praying, +and remain to the last, and continue all along as the leading dominant +factor. He is a Spirit of prayer peculiarly. The highest law of the +Christian life is obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. There needs +to be a cultivated judgment in reading His leading, and not mistaking our +haphazard thoughts as His voice. He should be allowed to teach us how to +pray and more, to dominate our praying. The whole range and intensity of +the spirit conflict is under His eye. He is God's General on the field of +action. There come crises in the battle when the turn of the tide wavers. +He knows when a bit of special praying is needed to turn the tide and +bring victory. So there needs to be special seasons of persistent prayer, +a continuing until victory is assured. Obey His promptings. Sometimes +there comes an impulse to pray, or to ask another to pray. And we think, +"Why, I have just been praying," _or_, "he does pray about this anyway. It +is not necessary to pray again. I do not just like to suggest it." Better +obey the impulse quietly, with fewest words of explanation to the other +one concerned, or no words beyond simply the request. + +Let Him, this wondrous Holy Spirit teach you how to pray. It will take +time. You may be a bit set in your way, but if you will just yield and +patiently wait, He will teach what to pray, suggest definite things, and +often the very language of prayer. + +You will notice that the chief purpose of these four suggestions is to +learn God's will. The quiet place, the quiet time, the Book, the +Spirit--this is the schoolroom as Andrew Murray would finely put it. Here +we learn His will. Learning that makes one eager to have it done, and +breathes anew the longing prayer that it may be done. + +There is a fine word much used in the Psalms, and in Isaiah for this sort +of thing--_waiting_. Over and over again that is the word used for that +contact with God which reveals to us His will, and imparts to us anew His +desires. It is a word full of richest and deepest meaning. Waiting is not +an occasional nor a hurried thing. It means _steadfastness_, that is +holding on; _patience_, that is holding back; _expectancy_, that is +holding the face up to see; _obedience_, that is holding one's self in +readiness to go or do; it means _listening_, that is holding quiet and +still so as to hear. + + + +<u>The Power of a Name.</u> + + +The fifth suggestion has already been referred to, but should be repeated +here. Prayer must be _in Jesus' name_. The relationship of prayer is +through Jesus. And the prayer itself must be offered in His name, because +the whole strength of the case lies in Jesus. I recall distinctly a +certain section of this country where I was for awhile, and very rarely +did I hear Jesus' name used in prayer. I heard men, that I knew must be +good men, praying in church, in prayer-meeting and elsewhere with no +mention of Jesus. Let us distinctly bear in mind that we have no standing +with God except through Jesus. + +If the keenest lawyer of London, who knew more of American law, and of +Illinois statute and of Chicago ordinance--suppose such a case--were to +come here, could he plead a case in your court-house? you know he could +not. He would have no legal standing here. Now you and I have no standing +at yonder bar. We are disbarred through sin. Only as we come through one +who has recognized standing there can we come. + +But turn that fact around. As we do come in Jesus' name, it is the same as +though Jesus prayed. It is the same as though--let me be saying it very +softly so it may seem very reverent--as though Jesus put His arm in yours +and took you up to the Father, and said, "Father, here is a friend of +mine; we're on good terms. Please give him anything he asks, for My sake." +And the Father would quickly bend over and graciously say, "What'll you +have? You may have anything you ask when My Son asks for it." That is the +practical effect of asking in Jesus' name. + +But I am very, very clear of this, and I keep swinging back to it that in +the ultimate analysis the force of using Jesus' name is that He is the +victor over the traitor prince. Prayer is repeating the Victor's name into +the ears of Satan and insisting upon his retreat. As one prays +persistently in Jesus' name, the evil one must go. Reluctantly, angrily, +he must loosen his clutches, and go back. + + + +<u>The Birthplace of Faith.</u> + + +The sixth suggestion is a familiar one, and yet one much misunderstood. +Prayer must be _in faith_. But please note that faith here is not +believing that God _can_, but that He _will_. It is kneeling and making +the prayer, and then saying, "Father, I thank Thee for this; that it will +be so, I thank Thee." Then rising and going about your duties, saying, +"that thing is settled." Going again and again, and repeating the prayer +with the thanks, and then saying as you go off, "that matter is assured." +Not going repeatedly to persuade God. But because prayer is the deciding +factor in a spirit conflict and each prayer is like a fresh blow between +the eyes of the enemy, a fresh broadside from your fleet upon the fort. + +"Well," some one will say, "now you are getting that keyed up rather high. +Can we all have faith like that? Can a man _make_ himself believe?" There +should be no unnatural mechanical insisting that you do believe. Some +earnest people make a mistake there. And we will not all have faith like +that. That is quite true, and I can easily tell you why. The faith that +believes that God _will_ do what you ask is not born in a hurry; it is not +born in the dust of the street, and the noise of the crowd. But I can tell +where that faith will have a birthplace and keep growing stronger: in +every heart that takes quiet time off habitually with God, and listens to +His voice in His word. Into that heart will come a simple strong faith +that the thing it is led to ask shall be accomplished. + +That faith has four simple characteristics. It is _intelligent_. It finds +out what God's will is. Faith is never contrary to reason. Sometimes it is +a bit higher up; the reasoning process has not yet reached up to it. +Second, it is _obedient_. It fits its life into God's will. There is apt +to be a stiff rub here all the time. Then it is _expectant_. It looks out +for the result. It bows down upon the earth, but sends a man to keep an +eye on the sea. And then it is _persistent_. It hangs on. It says, "Go +again seven times; seventy times seven." It reasons that having learned +God's will, and knowing that He does not change, the delay must be caused +by the third person, the enemy, and that stubborn persistence in the +Victor's name routs him, and leaves a clear field. + + + + +The Listening Side of Prayer + + + +<u>A Trained Ear.</u> + + +In prayer the ear is an organ of first importance. It is of equal +importance with the tongue, but must be named first. For the ear leads the +way to the tongue. The child hears a word before it speaks it. Through the +ear comes the use of the tongue. Where the faculties are normal the tongue +is trained only through the ear. This is nature's method. The mind is +moulded largely through the ear and eye. It reveals itself, and asserts +itself largely through the tongue. What the ear lets in, the mind works +over, and the tongue gives out. + +This is the order in Isaiah's fiftieth chapter[32] in those words, +prophetic of Jesus. "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that +are taught.... He wakeneth my ear to hear as they that are taught." Here +the taught tongue came through the awakened ear. One reason why so many of +us do not have taught tongues is because we give God so little chance at +our ears. + +It is a striking fact that the men who have been mightiest in prayer have +known God well. They have seemed peculiarly sensitive to Him, and to be +overawed with the sense of His love and His greatness. There are three of +the Old Testament characters who are particularly mentioned as being +mighty in prayer. Jeremiah tells that when God spoke to him about the deep +perversity of that nation He exclaimed, "Though Moses and Samuel stood +before Me My heart could not be towards this people."[33] When James wants +an illustration of a man of prayer for the scattered Jews, he speaks of +Elijah, and of one particular crisis in his life, the praying on Carmel's +tip-top. These three men are Israel's great men in the great crises of its +history. Moses was the maker and moulder of the nation. Samuel was the +patient teacher who introduced a new order of things in the national life. +Elijah was the rugged leader when the national worship of Jehovah was +about to be officially overthrown. These three men, the maker, the +teacher, the emergency leader are singled out in the record as peculiarly +men of prayer. + +Now regarding these men it is most interesting to observe what _listeners_ +they were to God's voice. Their ears were trained early and trained long, +until great acuteness and sensitiveness to God's voice was the result. +Special pains seem to have been taken with the first man, the nation's +greatest giant, and history's greatest jurist. There were two distinct +stages in the training of his ears. First there were the forty years of +solitude in the desert sands, alone with the sheep, and the stars, +and--God. His ears were being trained by silence. The bustle and confusion +of Egypt's busy life were being taken out of his ears. How silent are +God's voices. How few men are strong enough to be able to endure silence. +For in silence God is speaking to the inner ear. + + "Let us then labour for an inward stillness-- + An inward stillness and an inward healing; + That perfect silence where the lips and heart + Are still, and we no longer entertain + Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions, + But God alone speaks in us, and we wait + In singleness of heart, that we may know + His will, and in the silence of our spirits, + That we may do His will, and do that only."[34] + +A gentleman was asked by an artist friend of some note to come to his +home, and see a painting just finished. He went at the time appointed, was +shown by the attendant into a room which was quite dark, and left there. +He was much surprised, but quietly waited developments. After perhaps +fifteen minutes his friend came into the room with a cordial greeting, and +took him up to the studio to see the painting, which was greatly admired. +Before he left the artist said laughingly, "I suppose you thought it queer +to be left in that dark room so long." "Yes," the visitor said. "I did." +"Well," his friend replied, "I knew that if you came into my studio with +the glare of the street in your eyes you could not appreciate the fine +colouring of the picture. So I left you in the dark room till the glare +had worn out of your eyes." + +The first stage of Moses' prayer-training was wearing the noise of Egypt +out of his ears so he could hear the quiet fine tones of God's voice. He +who would become skilled in prayer must take a silence course in the +University of Arabia. Then came the second stage. Forty years were +followed by forty days, twice over, of listening to God's speaking voice +up in the mount. Such an ear-course as that made a skilled famous +intercessor. + +Samuel had an earlier course than Moses. While yet a child before his ears +had been dulled by earth sounds they were tuned to the hearing of God's +voice. The child heart and ear naturally open upward. They hear easily and +believe readily. The roadway of the ear has not been beaten down hard by +much travel. God's rains and dews have made it soft, and impressionable. +This child's ear was quickly trained to recognize God's voice. And the +tented Hebrew nation soon came to know that there was a man in their midst +to whom God was talking. O, to keep the heart and inner ear of a child as +mature years come! + +Of the third of these famous intercessors little is known except of the +few striking events in which he figured. Of these, the scene that finds +its climax in the opening on Carmel's top of the rain-windows, occupies by +far the greater space. And it is notable that the beginning of that long +eighteenth chapter of first Kings which tells of the Carmel conflict +begins with a message to Elijah from God: "The word of the Lord came to +Elijah: ... I will send rain upon the earth." That was the foundation of +that persistent praying and sevenfold watching on the mountaintop. First +the ear heard, then the voice persistently claimed, and the eye +expectantly looked. First the voice of God, then the voice of man. That is +the true order. Tremendous results always follow that combination. + + + +<u>Through the Book to God.</u> + + +With us the training is of the _inner_ ear. And its first training, after +the early childhood stage is passed, must usually be through the eye. What +God has spoken to others has been written down for us. We hear through our +eyes. The eye opens the way to the inner ear. God spoke in His word. He is +still speaking in it and through it. The whole thought here is to get _to +know God._ He reveals Himself in the word that comes from His own lips, +and through His messengers' lips. He reveals Himself in His dealings with +men. Every incident and experience of these pages is a mirror held up to +God's face. In them we may come to see Him. + +This is studying the Bible not for the Bible's sake but for the purpose of +knowing God. The object aimed at is not the Book but the God revealed in +the Book. A man may go to college and take lectures on the English Bible, +and increase his knowledge, and enrich his vocabulary, and go away with +utterly erroneous ideas of God. He may go to a law school and study the +codes of the first great jurist, and get a clear understanding and firm +grasp of the Mosaic enactments, as he must do to lay the foundation of +legal training, yet he may remain ignorant of God. + +He may even go to a Bible school, and be able to analyze and synthesize, +give outlines of books, and contents of chapters and much else of that +invaluable and indispensable sort of knowledge and yet fail to understand +God and His marvellous love-will. It is not the Book with which we are +concerned here but the God through the Book. Not to learn truth but +through truth to know Him who is Himself the Truth. + +There is a fascinating bit of story told of one of David's mighty men.[35] +One day there was a sudden attack upon the camp by the Philistines when +the fighting men were all away. This man alone was there. The Philistines +were the traditional enemy. The very word "Philistines" was one to strike +terror to the Hebrew heart. But this man was reckoned one of the first +three of David's mighty men because of his conduct that day. He quietly, +quickly gripped his sword and fought the enemy single-handed. Up and down, +left and right, hip and thigh he smote with such terrific earnestness and +drive that the enemy turned and fled. And we are told that the muscles of +his hand became so rigid around the handle of his sword that he could not +tell by the feeling where his hand stopped, and the sword began. Man and +sword were one that day in the action of service against the nation's +enemy. When we so absorb this Book, and the Spirit of Him who is its life +that people cannot tell the line of division between the man, and the God +within the man, then shall we have mightiest power as God's intercessors +in defeating the foe. God and man will be as one in the action of service +against the enemy. + + + +<u>A Spirit Illumined Mind.</u> + + +I want to make some simple suggestions for studying this Book so as to get +to God through it. There will be the emphasis of doubling back on one's +tracks here. For some of the things that should be said have already been +said with a different setting. First there must be the _time_ element. +One must get at least a half hour daily when the mind is fresh. A tired +mind does not readily _absorb_. This should be persisted in until there is +a habitual spending of at least that much time daily over the Book, with a +spirit at leisure from all else, so it can take in. Then the time should +be given to _the Book itself_. If other books are consulted and read as +they will be let that be _after_ the reading of this Book. Let God talk to +you direct, rather than through somebody else. Give Him first chance at +your ears. This Book in the central place of your table, the others +grouped about it. First time given to it. + +A third suggestion brings out the circle of this work. _Read prayerfully._ +We learn how to pray by reading prayerfully. This Book does not reveal its +sweets and strength to the keen mind merely, but to the Spirit enlightened +mind. All the mental keenness possible, _with the bright light of the +Spirit's illumination_--that is the open sesame. I have sometimes sought +the meaning of some passage from a keen scholar who could explain the +orientalisms, the fine philological distinctions, the most accurate +translations, and all of that, who yet did not seem to know the simple +spiritual meaning of the words being discussed. And I have asked the same +question of some old saint of God, who did not know Hebrew from a hen's +tracks, but who seemed to sense at once the deep spiritual truth taught. +The more knowledge, the keener the mind, the better _if_ illumined by the +Spirit that inspired these writings. + +There is a fourth word to put in here. We must read _thoughtfully_. +Thoughtfulness is in danger of being a lost art. Newspapers are so +numerous, and literature so abundant, that we are becoming a bright, but a +_not thoughtful_ people. Often the stream is very wide but has no depth. +Fight shallowness. Insist on reading thoughtfully. A very suggestive word +in the Bible for this is "_meditate_." Run through and pick out this word +with its variations. The word underneath that English word means to +mutter, as though a man were repeating something over and over again, as +he turned it over in his mind. We have another word, with the same +meaning, not much used now--ruminate. We call the cow a ruminant because +she chews the cud. She will spend hours chewing the cud, and then give us +the rich milk and cream and butter which she has extracted from her food. +That is the word here--ruminate. Chew the cud, if you would get the +richest cream and butter here. + +And it is remarkable how much chewing this Book of God will stand, in +comparison with other books. You chew a while on Tennyson, or Browning, or +Longfellow. And I am not belittling these noble writings. I have my own +favourite among these men. But they do not yield the richest and yet +richer cream found here. This Book of God has stood more of that sort of +thing than any other, yet it is the freshest book to be found to-day. You +read a passage over the two hundredth time and some new fine bit of +meaning comes that you had not suspected to be there. + +There is a fifth suggestion, that is easier to make than to follow. _Read +obediently._ As the truth appeals to your conscience _let it change your +habit and life_. + + "Light obeyed, increased light: + Light resisted, bringeth night + Who shall give us power to choose + If the love of light we lose?"[36] + +Jesus gives the law of knowledge in His famous words, "If any man willeth +to do His will he shall know of the teaching."[37] If we do what we know +to do, we will know more. If we know to do, and hesitate and hold back, +and do not obey, the inner eye will surely go blind, and the sense of +right be dulled and lost. Obedience to truth is the eye of the mind. + + + +<u>Wide Reading.</u> + + +Then one needs to have a _plan_ of reading. A consecutive plan gathers up +the fragments of time into a strong whole. Get a good plan, and stick to +it. Better a fairly good plan faithfully followed, than the best plan if +used brokenly or only occasionally. Probably all the numerous methods of +study may be grouped under three general heads, wide reading, topical +study, and textual. We all do some textual study in a more or less small +way. Digging into a sentence or verse to get at its true and deep meaning. +We all do some topical study probably. Gathering up statements on some one +subject, studying a character. The more pretentious name is Biblical +Theology, finding and arranging all that is taught in the whole range of +the Bible on any one theme. + +But I want especially to urge _wide reading_, as being the basis of all +study. It is the simple, the natural, the scientific method. It is adapted +to all classes of persons. I used to suppose it was suited best to college +students, and such; but I was mistaken. It is _the_ method of all for all. +It underlies all methods of getting a grasp of this wonderful Book, and so +coming to as full and rounded an understanding of God as is possible to +men down here. + +By wide reading is meant a _rapid reading through_ regardless of verse, +chapter, or book divisions. Reading it as _a narrative_, a story. As you +would read any book, "The Siege of Pekin," "The Story of an Untold Love," +to find out the story told, and be able to tell to another. There will be +a reverence of spirit with this book that no other inspires, but with the +same intellectual method of running through to see what is here. No book +is so fascinating as the Bible when read this way. The revised version is +greatly to be preferred here simply because it is a _paragraph_ version. +It is printed more like other books. Some day its printed form will be yet +more modernized, and so made easier to read. + +To illustrate, begin at the first of Genesis, and read rapidly through _by +the page_. Do not try to understand all. You will not. Never mind that +now. Just push on. Do not try to remember all. Do not think about that. +Let stick to you what will. You will be surprised to find how much will. +You may read ten or twelve pages in your first half hour. Next time start +in where you left off. You may get through Genesis in three or four times, +or less or more, depending on your mood, and how fast your habit of +reading may be. You will find a whole Bible in Genesis. A wonderfully +fascinating book this Genesis. For love stories, plotting, swift action, +beautiful language it more than matches the popular novel. + +But do not stop at the close of Genesis. Push on into Exodus. The +connection is immediate. It is the same book. And so on into Leviticus. +Now do not try to understand Leviticus the first time. You will not the +hundredth time perhaps. But you can easily group its contents: these +chapters tell of the offerings: these of the law of offerings: here is an +incident put in: here sanitary regulations: get the drift of the book. And +in it all be getting the picture of God--_that is the one point_. And so +on through. + +A second stage of this wide reading is fitting together the parts. You +know the arrangement of our Bible is not chronological wholly, but +topical. The Western mind is almost a slave to chronological order. But +the Oriental was not so disturbed. For example, open your Bible to the +close of Esther, and again at the close of Malachi. This from Genesis to +Esther we all know is the historical section: and this second section the +poetical and prophetical section. There is some history in the prophecy, +and some prophecy and poetry in the historical part. But in the main this +first is historical, and this second poetry and prophecy. These two parts +belong together. This first section was not written, and then this second. +The second belongs in between the leaves of the first. It was taken out +and put by itself because the arrangement of the whole Book is topical +rather than chronological. + +Now the second stage of wide reading is this: fit these parts together. +Fit the poetry and the prophecy into the history. Do it on your own +account, as though it had never been done. It has been done much better +than you will do it. And you will make some mistakes. You can check those +up afterwards by some of the scholarly books. And you cannot tell where +some parts belong. But meanwhile the thing to note is this: you are +absorbing the Book. It is becoming a part of you, bone of your bone, and +flesh of your flesh, mentally, and spiritually. You are drinking in its +spirit in huge draughts. There is coming a new vision of God, which will +transform radically the reverent student. In it all seek to acquire _the +historical sense_. That is, put yourself back and see what this thing, or +this, meant to these men, as it was first spoken, under these immediate +circumstances. + +And so push on into the New Testament. Do not try so much to fit the four +gospels into one connected story, dovetailing all the parts; but try +rather to get a clear grasp of Jesus' movements those few years as told by +these four men. Fit Paul's letters into the book of Acts, the best you +can. The best book to help in checking up here is Conybeare and Howson's +"Life and Letters of St. Paul." That may well be one of the books in your +collection. + +You see at once that this is a method not for a month, nor for a year, but +for years. The topical and textual study grow naturally out of it. And +meanwhile you are getting an intelligent grasp of this wondrous classic, +you are absorbing the finest literature in the English tongue, and +infinitely better yet, you are breathing into your very being a new, deep, +broad, tender conception of _God_. + + + +<u>A Mirror Held up to God's Face.</u> + + +It is simply fascinating too, to find what light floods these pages as +they are read back in their historical setting, so far as that is +possible. For example turn to the third Psalm, fifth verse, + + "I laid me down and slept; + I awaked; for the Lord sustaineth me." + +I was brought up in an old-fashioned church where that was sung. I knew it +by heart. As a boy I supposed it meant that night-time had come, and David +was sleepy; he had his devotions, and went to bed, and had a good night's +sleep. That was all it had suggested to me. + +But on my first swing through of the wide reading, my eye was caught, as +doubtless yours has often been, by the inscription at the beginning of the +psalm: "A psalm of David, _when he fled from Absalom his son_." Quickly I +turned back to Second Samuel to find that story. And I got this picture. +David, an old white-haired man, hurrying one day, barefooted, out of his +palace, and his capital city, with a few faithful friends, fleeing for his +life, because Absalom his favourite son was coming with the strength of +the national army to take the kingdom, and his own father's life. And that +night as the king lay down to try to catch some sleep, it was upon the +bare earth, with only heaven's blue dome for a roof. And as he lay he +could almost hear the steady tramp, tramp of the army, over the hills, +seeking his throne and his life. Let me ask you, honestly now; do you +think you would have slept much that night? I fear I would have been +tempted sorely to lie awake thinking: "here I am, an old man, driven from +my kingdom, and my home, by my own boy, that I have loved better than my +own life." Do you think _you_ would have slept much? Tell me. + +But David speaking of that night afterwards wrote this down:--"I laid me +down, and _slept; I awaked_; (the thought is, I awaked _refreshed_) for +the Lord sustaineth me." And I thought, as first that came to me, "I never +will have insomnia again: I'll trust." And so you see a lesson of trust in +God came, in my wide reading, out of the historical setting, that greatly +refreshed and strengthened, and that I have never forgotten. What a God, +to give sleep under such circumstances! + +A fine illustration of this same thing is found in the New Testament in +Paul's letter to the Philippians. At one end of that epistle is this +scene: Paul, lying in the inner damp cell of a prison, its small creeping +denizens familiarly examining this newcomer, in the darkness of midnight, +his back bleeding from the stripes, his bones aching, and his feet fast in +the stocks. That is one half of the historical setting of this book. And +here is the other half: Paul, a prisoner in Rome. If he tries to ease his +body by changing his position, swinging one limb over the other, a chain +dangling at his ankle reminds him of the soldier by his side. As he picks +up a quill to put a last loving word out of his tender heart for these old +friends, a chain pulls at his wrist. That is Philippians, the prison +epistle, resounding with clanking chain. + +What is the keyword of the book, occurring oftener than any other? +Patience? Surely that would be appropriate. Long-suffering? Still more +fitting would that seem. But, no, the keyword stands in sharpest contrast +to these surroundings. Paul used clouds to make the sun's shining more +beautiful. Joy, rejoice, rejoicing, is the music singing all the way +through these four chapters. What a wondrous Master, this Jesus, so to +inspire His friend doing His will! + +Every incident and occurrence of these pages becomes a mirror held up to +God's face that we may see how wondrous He is. + + "Upon Thy Word I rest + Each pilgrim day. + This golden staff is best + For all the way. + What Jesus Christ hath spoken, + Cannot be broken! + + "Upon Thy Word I rest; + So strong, so sure, + So full of comfort blest, + So sweet, so pure: + The charter of salvation: + Faith's broad foundation. + + "Upon Thy Word I stand: + That cannot die. + Christ seals it in my hand. + He cannot lie. + Thy Word that faileth never: + Abiding ever."[38] + + + + +Something about God's Will in Connection With Prayer + + + +<u>He Came to His Own.</u> + + +The purpose of prayer is to get God's will done. What a stranger God is in +His own world! Nobody is so much slandered as He. He comes to His own, and +they keep Him standing outside the door, like a pilgrim of the night, +staff in hand, while they peer suspiciously at Him through the crack of +the hinges. + +Some of us shrink back from making a full surrender of life to God. And if +the real reason were known it would be found to be that we are _afraid_ of +God. We fear He will put something bitter in the cup, or some rough thing +in the road. And without doubt the reason we are afraid of God is because +we do not _know_ God. The great prayer of Jesus' heart that night with the +eleven was, "that they may _know_ Thee the only true God, and Jesus +Christ whom Thou didst send." + +To understand God's will we must understand something of His character, +Himself. There are five common every-day words I want to bring you to +suggest something of who God is. They are familiar words, in constant use. +The first is the word _father_. "Father" stands for strength, loving +strength. A father plans, and provides for, and protects his loved ones. +All fathers are not good. How man can extract the meaning out of a fine +word, and use the word without its meaning. If you will think of the +finest father ever you knew that anybody ever had; think of him now. Then +remember this, God is a father, only He is so much finer a father than the +finest father you ever knew of. And His will for your _life_--I am not +talking about heaven, and our souls just now, that is in it too--His will +for your life down here these days is a father's will for the one most +dearly loved. + +The second word is a finer word. Because woman is finer than man, and was +made, and meant to be, this second word is finer than the first. I mean +the word _mother_. If father stands for strength, mother stands for +love,--great, patient, tender, fine-fibred, enduring love. What would she +not do for her loved one! Why, not unlikely she went down into the valley +of the shadow that that life might come; and did it gladly with the +love-light shining out of her eyes. Yes, and would do it again, that the +life may remain if need be. That is a mother. You think of the finest +mother ever you knew. And the suggestion brings the most hallowed memories +to my own heart. Then remember this: God is a mother, only He is so much +finer a mother than the finest mother you ever knew. + +The references in scripture to God as a mother are numerous. "Under His +wings" is a mother figure. The mother-bird gathers her brood up under her +wings to feel the heat of her body, and for protection. The word mother is +not used for God in the Bible. I think it is because with God "father" +includes "mother." It takes more of the human to tell the story than of +the divine. With God, all the strength of the father and all the fine love +of the mother are combined in that word "father." And His will for us is a +mother's will, a wise loving mother's will for the darling of her heart. + +The third word is _friend_. I do not mean to use it in the cheaper +meaning. There is a certain kindliness of speech in which all +acquaintances are called friends. Tupper says, we call all men friends who +are not known to be enemies. But I mean to use the word in its finer +meaning. Here, a friend is one who loves you for your sake only and +steadfastly loves without regard to any return, even a return-love. The +English have a saying that you may fill a church with your acquaintances, +and not fill the pulpit seats with your friends. If you may have in your +life one or two real friends you are very wealthy. If you will think for a +moment of the very best friend you ever knew anybody to have. Then +remember this: God is a friend. Only He is ever so much better a friend +than the best friend you ever knew of. And the plan He has thought out for +your life is such a one as that word would suggest. + +The fourth word, I almost hesitate to use, yet I am sure I need not here. +The hesitancy is because the word and its relationship are spoken of +lightly, frivolously, so much, even in good circles. I mean that rare fine +word _lover_. Where two have met, and acquaintance has deepened into +friendship, and that in turn into the holiest emotion, the highest +friendship. What would he not do for her! She becomes the new human centre +of his life. In a good sense he worships the ground she treads upon. And +she--she will leave wealth for poverty if only so she may be with him in +the coming days. She will leave home and friends, and go to the ends of +the earth if his service calls him there. You think of the finest lover, +man or woman, you ever knew anybody to have. Then remember this, and let +me say it in soft, reverent tones, God is a lover--shall I say in yet more +reverent voice, a sweetheart-lover. Only He is so much finer a lover than +the finest lover you ever knew of. And His will, His plan for your life +and mine--it hushes my heart to say it--is a lover's plan for his only +loved one. + +The fifth word is this fourth word a degree finer spun, a stage farther +on, and higher up, the word _husband_. This is the word on the man side +for the most hallowed relationship of earth. This is the lover +relationship in its perfection stage. With men husband is not always a +finer word than lover. The more's the pity. How man does cheapen God's +plan of things; leaves out the kernel, and keeps only an empty shell +sometimes. In God's thought a husband is a lover _plus_. He is all that +the finest lover is, and more; more tender, more eager, more thoughtful. +Two lives are joined, and begin living one life. Two wills, yet one. Two +persons, yet one purpose. Duality in unity. Will you call to mind for a +moment the best husband you ever knew any woman to have. Then remember +this that God is a husband; only He is an infinitely more thoughtful +husband than any you ever knew. And His will for your life is a husband's +will for his life's friend and companion. + +Now, please, do not _you_ take one of these words, and say, "I like that"; +and _you_ another and say, "That conception of God appeals to me," and +_you_ another. How we do whittle God down to our narrow conceptions! You +must take all five words, and think the finest meaning into each, and then +put them all together, to get a close up idea of God. He is all that, _and +more_. + +You see God is so much that it takes a number of earth's relationships put +together to get a good suggestion of what He is. He is a father, a +mother, a friend, a lover, a husband. I have not brought book, and +chapter, and verse. But you know I could spend a long time with you +reading over the numerous passages giving these conceptions of God. + +And God's will for us is the plan of such a God as that. It includes the +body, health and strength; the family and home matters; money and business +matters; friendships, including the choice of life's chief friend; it +includes service, what service and where; and constant guidance; it +includes the whole life, and the world of lives. All this He has thought +into, lovingly, carefully. Does a wise mother think of her child's needs +into the details, the necessities and the loving extras? That is God. + + + +<u>The One Purpose of Prayer.</u> + + +Now, the whole thought in prayer is to get the will of a God like that +done in our lives and upon this old earth. The greatest prayer any one can +offer is, "Thy will be done." It will be offered in a thousand different +forms, with a thousand details, as needs arise daily. But every true +prayer comes under those four words. There is not a good desirable thing +that you have thought of that He has not thought of first, and probably +with an added touch not in your thought. Not to grit your teeth and lock +your jaw and pray for grace to say, "Thy will be _endured_: it is bitter, +but I must be resigned; that is a Christian grace; Thy will be +_endured_." Not that, please. Do not slander God like that. There is a +superficial idea among men that charges God with many misfortunes and ills +for which He is not at all responsible. He is continually doing the very +best that can be done under the circumstances for the best results. He has +a bad mixture of stubborn warped human wills to deal with. With infinite +patience and skill and diplomacy and success too He is ever working at the +tangled skein of human life, through the human will. + +It may help us here to remember that God has a first and a second will for +us: a first choice and a second. He always prefers that His first will +shall be accomplished in us. But where we will not be wooed up to that +height, He comes down to the highest level we will come up to, and works +with us there. For instance, God's first choice for Israel was that He +Himself should be their king. There was to be no human, visible king, as +with the surrounding nations. He was to be their king. They were to be +peculiar in this. But to Samuel's sorrow and yet more to God's, they +insisted upon a king. And so God gave them a king. And David the great +shepherd-psalmist-king was a man after God's own heart, and the world's +Saviour came of the Davidic line. God did His best upon the level they +chose and a great best it was. Yet the human king and line of kings was +not God's first will, but a second will yielded to because the first +would not be accepted. God is ever doing the best for human lives that can +be done through the human will. + +His first will for our bodies, without doubt, is that there should be a +strong healthy body for each of us. But there is a far higher thing being +aimed at in us than that. And with keen pain to His own heart, He oft +times permits bodily weakness and suffering because in the conditions of +our wills only so can these higher and highest things be gotten at. And +where the human will comes into intelligent touch with Himself, and the +higher can so be reached, with great gladness and eagerness the bodily +difficulty is removed by Him. + +There are two things, at least, that modify God's first will for us. First +of all the degree of our intelligent willingness that He shall have His +full sway. And second, the circumstances of one's life. Each of us is the +centre of a circle of people, an ever changing circle. If we be in touch +with Him God is speaking through each of us to his circle. Our experiences +with God: His dealings with us, under the varying circumstances are a part +of His message to that circle. God is trying to win men. It takes +marvellous diplomacy on His part. And God is a wondrous tactician. +But--very reverently--He is a needy God. He needs us to help Him, each in +his circle. We must be perfectly willing to have His will done; and more, +we must trust Him to know what is best to do in us and with us in the +circle of our circumstances. God is a great economist. He wastes no +forces. Every bit is being conserved towards the great end in view. + +There may be a false submission to His supposed will in some affliction; a +not reaching out after _all_ that He has for us. And at the other swing of +the pendulum there may be a sort of _logical praying_ for some desirable +thing because a friend tells us we should claim it. By logical praying I +mean the studying of a statement of God's word, and possibly some one's +explanation of it, and hearing or knowing how somebody else has claimed a +certain thing through that statement and then concluding that therefore we +should so claim. The trouble with that is that it stops too soon. Praying +in the Spirit as opposed to logical praying is doing this logical +thinking: _then_ quietly taking all to God, to learn what His will is for +_you_, under your circumstances, and in the circle of people whom He +touches through you. + + + +<u>The Spirit's Prayer Room.</u> + + +There is a remarkable passage in Paul's Roman letter about prayer and +God's will.[39] "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: +for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh +intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that +searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, that He +maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." + +Please notice: these words connect back with the verses ending with verse +seventeen. Verses eighteen to twenty-five are a parenthesis. As the Spirit +within breathes out the "Father" cry of a child, which is the prayer-cry, +so He helps us in praying. It is our infirmity that we do not know how to +pray _as we ought_. There is willingness and eagerness too. No bother +there. But a lack of knowledge. We don't know how. But the Spirit knows +how. He is the Master-prayor. He knows God's will perfectly. He knows what +best to be praying under all circumstances. And He is within you and me. +He is there as a prayer-spirit. He prompts us to pray. He calls us away to +the quiet room to our knees. He inclines to prayer wherever we are. He is +thinking thoughts that find no response in us. They cannot be expressed in +our lips for they are not in our thinking. He prays with an intensity +quite beyond the possibility of language to express. And the +heart-searcher--God listening above--knows fully what this praying Spirit +is thinking within me, and wordlessly praying, for they are one. He +recognizes His own purposes and plans being repeated in this man down on +the earth by His own Spirit. + +And the great truth is that the Spirit within us prays God's will. He +teaches us God's will. He teaches us how to pray God's will. And He +Himself prays God's will in us. And further that He seeks to pray God's +will--that is to pray for the thing God has planned--in us before we have +yet reached up to where we know ourselves what that will is. + +We should be ambitious to cultivate a healthy sensitiveness to this +indwelling Spirit. And when there comes that quick inner wooing away to +pray let us faithfully obey. Even though we be not clear what the +particular petition is to be let us remain in prayer while He uses us as +the medium of His praying. + +Oftentimes the best prayer to offer about some friend, or some particular +thing, after perhaps stating the case the best we can is this: "Holy +Spirit, be praying in me the thing the Father wants done. Father, what the +Spirit within me is praying, that is my prayer in Jesus' name. Thy will, +what Thou art wishing and thinking, may that be fully done here." + + + +<u>How to Find God's Will.</u> + + +We should make a study of God's will. We ought to seek to become skilled +in knowing His will. The more we know Him the better shall we be able to +read intelligently His will. + +It may be said that God has two wills for each of us, or, better, there +are two parts to His will. There is His will of grace, and His will of +government. His will of grace is plainly revealed in His Word. It is that +we shall be saved, and made holy, and pure, and by and by glorified in his +own presence. His will of government is His particular plan for my life. +God has every life planned. The highest possible ambition for a life is to +reach God's plan. He reveals that to us bit by bit as we need to know. If +the life is to be one of special service He will make that plain, what +service, and where, and when. Then each next step He will make plain. + +Learning His will here hinges upon three things, simple enough but +essential. I must keep _in touch_ with Him so He has an open ear to talk +into. I must _delight_ to do His will, _because it is His_. The third +thing needs special emphasis. Many who are right on the first two stumble +here, and sometimes measure their length on the ground. _His Word must be +allowed to discipline my judgment as to Himself and His will_. Many of us +stumble on number one and on number two. And very many willing earnest men +sprawl badly when it comes to number three. The bother with these is the +lack of a disciplined judgment about God and His will. If we would +prayerfully _absorb_ the Book, there would come a better poised judgment. +We need to get a broad sweep of God's thought, to breathe Him in as He +reveals Himself in this Book. The meek man--that is the man willing to +yield his will to a higher will--will He guide in his judgment, that is, +in his mental processes.[40] + +This is John's standpoint in that famous passage in his first epistle.[41] +"And this is the boldness that we have towards Him, that, if we ask +anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He +heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we +have asked of Him." These words dovetail with great nicety into those +already quoted from Paul in the eighth of Romans. The whole supposition +here is that we have learned His will about the particular matter in hand. +Having gotten that footing, we go to prayer with great boldness. For if He +wants a thing and I want it and we join--that combination cannot be +broken. + + + + +May we Pray With Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones + + + +<u>God's Door into a Home.</u> + + +The heart of God hungers to redeem the world. For that He gave His own, +only Son though the treatment He received tore that father's heart to the +bleeding. For that He sent the Holy Spirit to do in men what the Son had +done for them. For that He placed in human hands the mightiest of all +forces--prayer, that so we might become partners with Him. + +For that too He set man in the relationships of kinship and friendship. He +wins men through men. Man is the goal, and he is also the road to the +goal. Man is the object aimed at. And he is the medium of approach, +whether the advance be by God or by Satan. God will not enter a man's +heart without his consent, and Satan _can_not. God would reach men through +men, and Satan must. And so God has set us in the strongest relation that +binds men, the relation of love, that He may touch one through another. +Kinship is a relation peculiar to man, and to the earth. + +I have at times been asked by some earnest sensitive persons if it is not +selfish to be especially concerned for one's own, over whom the heart +yearns much, and the prayer offered is more tender and intense and more +frequent. Well, if _you_ do not pray for them who will? Who _can_ pray for +them with such believing persistent fervour as you! God has set us in the +relationship of personal affection and of kinship for just such a purpose. +He binds us together with the ties of love that we may be concerned for +each other. If there be but one in a home in touch with God, that one +becomes God's door into the whole family. + +Contact means opportunity, and that in turn means responsibility. The +closer the contact the greater the opportunity and the greater too the +responsibility. Unselfishness does not mean to exclude one's self, and +one's own. It means right proportions in our perspective. Humility is not +whipping one's self. It is forgetting one's self in the thought of others. +Yet even that may be carried to a bad extreme. Not only is it not selfish +so to pray, it is a part of God's plan that we should so pray. I am most +responsible for the one to whom I am most closely related. + + + +<u>A Free Agent Enslaved.</u> + + +One of the questions that is more often asked in this connection than any +other perhaps is this: may we pray with assurance for the conversion of +our loved ones? No question sets more hearts in an audience to beating +faster than does that. I remember speaking in the Boston noonday meeting, +in the old Broomfield Street M. E. Church on this subject one week. +Perhaps I was speaking rather positively. And at the close of the meeting +one day a keen, cultured Christian woman whom I knew came up for a word. +She said, "I do not think we can pray like that." And I said, "Why not?" +She paused a moment, and her well-controlled agitation revealed in eye and +lip told me how deeply her thoughts were stirred. Then she said quietly, +"I have a brother. He is not a Christian. The theatre, the wine, the club, +the cards--that is his life. And he laughs at me. I would rather than +anything else that my brother were a Christian. But," she said, and here +both her keenness and the training of her early teaching came in, "I do +not think I can pray positively for his conversion, for he is a free +agent, is he not? And God will not save a man against his will." + +I want to say to you to-day what I said to her. Man _is_ a free agent, to +use the old phrase, so far as God is concerned; utterly, wholly free. +_And_, he is the most enslaved agent on the earth, so far as sin, and +selfishness and prejudice are concerned. The purpose of our praying is not +to force or coerce his will; never that. It is to _free_ his will of the +warping influences that now twist it awry. It is to get the dust out of +his eyes so his sight shall be clear. And once he is free, able to see +aright, to balance things without prejudice, the whole probability is in +favour of his using his will to choose the only right. + +I want to suggest to you the ideal prayer for such a one. It is an +adaptation of Jesus' own words. It may be pleaded with much variety of +detail. It is this: deliver him from the evil one; and work in him _Thy +will_ for him, by Thy power to Thy glory in Jesus, the Victor's name. And +there are three special passages upon which to base this prayer. First +Timothy, second chapter, fourth verse (American version), "God our +Saviour, who would have all men to be saved." That is God's will for your +loved one. Second Peter, third chapter, ninth verse, "not wishing (or +willing) that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." +That is God's will, or desire, for the one you are thinking of now. The +third passage is on our side who do the praying. It tells who may offer +this prayer with assurance. John, fifteenth chapter, seventh verse, "If ye +abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you ask what it is your will to +ask, and I will bring it to pass for you." + +There is a statement of Paul's in second Timothy that graphically pictures +this:[42] "The Lord's servant must not strive "--not argue, nor +combat--"but be gentle towards all, apt to teach"--ready and skilled in +explaining, helping--"in meekness correcting (or, instructing) them that +oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the +knowledge of the truth, and _they may recover themselves out of the snare +of the devil_, having been taken captive by him unto his will." + +That word "deliver" in this prayer, as used by Jesus, the word under our +English, has a picturesque meaning. It means _rescue_. Here is a man taken +captive, and in chains. But he has become infatuated with his captor, and +is befooled regarding his condition. Our prayer is, "rescue him from the +evil one," and because Jesus is Victor over the captor, the rescue will +take place. + +Without any doubt we may assure the conversion of these laid upon our +hearts by such praying. The prayer in Jesus' name drives the enemy off the +battle-field of the man's will, and leaves him free to choose aright. +There is one exception to be noted, a very, very rare exception. There may +be _extreme_ instances where such a prayer may not be offered; where the +spirit of prayer is withdrawn. But such are very rare and extreme, and the +conviction regarding that will be unmistakable beyond asking any +questions. + +And I cannot resist the conviction--I greatly dislike to say this, I would +much rather not if I regarded either my own feelings or yours. But I +cannot resist the conviction--listen very quietly, so I may speak in +quietest tones--that there are people ... in that lower, lost world ... +who are there ... because some one failed to put his life in touch with +God, and pray. + + + +<u>The Place Where God is Not.</u> + + +Having said that much let me go on to say this further, and please let me +say it all in softest sobbing voice--there is a hell. There must be a +hell. You may leave this Bible sheer out of your reckoning in the matter. +Still there must be a place for which that word of ugliest associations is +the word to use. _Philosophically_ there must be a hell. That is the name +for the place where God is not; for the place where they will gather +together who insist on leaving God out. God out! There can be no worse +hell than that! God away! Man held back by no restraints! + +I am very clear it is _not_ what men have pictured it to be. It is not +what my childish fancy saw and shrank from terrified. And, please let us +be very careful that we never consign anybody there, in our thinking or +speaking about them. When that life whose future might be questioned has +gone the most we can say is that we leave it with a God infinitely just +and the personification of love. + +There has been in some quarters an unthinking consigning of persons to a +lost world. And there has been in our day a clean swing of the pendulum +to the other extreme. Both drifts are to be dreaded. Let us deal very +tenderly here, yet with a right plainness in our tenderness. We are to +warn men faithfully. We know the Book's plain teaching that these who +prefer to leave God out "shall go away." The going is of their own accord +and choice. Regarding particular ones we do not know and are best silent. +The grave is closing. Let us deal with the living. + +One day at the close of the morning hour at a Bible conference in the +Alleghany Mountains a young woman came up for a moment's conversation. She +spoke about a friend, not a professing Christian, for whom she had prayed +much, and who had died unexpectedly. He had passed away during +unconsciousness, with no opportunity for exchange of words. She was much +agitated as the facts were recited, and then said as she finished, "he is +lost and in hell: and I can never pray again." + +We talked quietly awhile and I gathered the following facts. He was of a +Christian family, perfectly familiar with the Bible, was a thoughtful man, +of outwardly correct life in the main, had talked about these matters with +others but had never either in conversation or more openly confessed +personal faith in Christ. He was not in good health. Then came the sudden +end. One other fact came out. She had prayed for his conversion for a long +time. She was herself an earnest Christian woman, solicitous for others. +There were four facts to go upon regarding him. He knew the way to God. He +was thoughtful. He had never openly accepted. Some one had prayed. + +Can one _know_ anything certainly about that man's condition? There are +two sorts of knowledge, direct and inferential. I know there is such a +city as London for I have walked its streets. That is direct knowledge. I +know there is such a city as St. Petersburg because though I have never +been there, yet through my reading, pictures I have seen, and friends who +have been there I am clear of its existence to the point of _knowledge_. +That is inferential knowledge. + +Now regarding this man after he slipped from the grasp of his friends, I +have no direct knowledge. But I have very positive inferential knowledge +based upon these four facts. Three of the facts, namely, the first, +second, and fourth were favourable to the end desired. The third swings +neither way. The great dominant fact in the case is the fourth, and a +great and dominating fact it is in judging--some one in touch with God had +been persistently, believingly praying up to the time of the quick end. +That fact with the others gives strong inferential knowledge regarding the +man. It is sufficient to comfort a heart, and give one renewed faith in +praying for others. + + + +<u>Saving the Life.</u> + + +We cannot know a man's mental processes. This is surely true, that if in +the very last half-twinkling of an eye a man look up towards God +longingly, that look is the turning of the will to God. And that is quite +enough. God is eagerly watching with hungry eyes for the quick turn of a +human eye up to Himself. Doubtless many a man has so turned in the last +moment of his life when we were not conscious of his consciousness, nor +aware of the movements of his outwardly unconscious sub-consciousness. One +may be unconscious of outer things, and yet be keenly conscious towards +God. + +At another of these summer gatherings this incident came to me. A man +seemingly of mature mind and judgment told me of a friend of his. That was +as close as I got to the friend himself. This friend was not a professing +Christian, was thrown from a boat, sank twice and perhaps three times, and +then was rescued, and after some difficulty resuscitated. He told +afterwards how swiftly his thoughts came as they are said to do to one in +such circumstances. He thought surely he was drowning, was quiet in his +mind, thought of God and how he had not been trusting Him, and in his +thought he prayed for forgiveness. He lived afterwards a consistent +Christian life. This illustrates simply the possibilities open to one in +his keen inner mental processes. + +Here is surely enough knowledge to comfort many a bereft heart, and +enough too to make us pray persistently and believingly for loved ones +because of prayer's uncalculated and incalculable power. Be sure the +prayer-fact is in the case of _your_ friend, _and in strong_. + +Yet let us be wary, very wary of letting this influence us one bit +farther. That man is nothing less than a fool who presumes upon such +statements to resist God's gracious pleadings for his life. And on our +side, we must not fail to warn men lovingly, tenderly yet with plainness +of the tremendous danger of delay, in coming to God. A man may be so +stupefied at the close as to shut out of his range what has been suggested +here. And further even if a man's soul be saved he is responsible to God +for his life. We want men to _live_ for Jesus, and win others to Him. And +further, yet, reward, preferment, honour in God's kingdom depends upon +faithfulness to Him down here. Who would be saved by the skin of his +teeth! + +The great fact to have burned in deep is that we may assure the coming to +God of our loved ones with their lives, as well as for their souls if we +will but press the battle. + + + +<u>Giving God a Clear Road for Action.</u> + + +Out in one of the trans-Mississippi states I ran across an illustration of +prayer in real life that caught me at once, and has greatly helped me in +understanding prayer. + +Fact is more fascinating than fiction. If one could know what is going on +around him, how surprised and startled he would be. If we could get _all_ +the facts in any one incident, and get them colourlessly, and have the +judgment to sift and analyze accurately, what fascinating instances of the +power of prayer would be disclosed. + +There is a double side to this story. The side of the man who was changed, +and the side of the woman who prayed. He is a New Englander, by birth and +breeding, now living in this western state: almost a giant physically, +keen mentally, a lawyer, and a natural leader. He had the conviction as a +boy that if he became a Christian he was to preach. But he grew up a +skeptic, read up and lectured on skeptical subjects. He was the +representative of a district of his western home state in congress; in his +fourth term or so I think at this time. + +The experience I am telling came during that congress when the +Hayes-Tilden controversy was up, the intensest congress Washington has +known since the Civil War. It was not a time specially suited to +meditation about God in the halls of congress. And further he said to me +that somehow he knew all the other skeptics who were in the lower house +and they drifted together a good bit and strengthened each other by their +talk. + +One day as he was in his seat in the lower house, in the midst of the +business of the hour, there came to him a conviction that God--the God in +whom he did not believe, whose existence he could keenly disprove--God was +right there above his head thinking about him, and displeased at the way +he was behaving towards Him. And he said to himself: "this is ridiculous, +absurd. I've been working too hard; confined too closely; my mind is +getting morbid. I'll go out, and get some fresh air, and shake myself." +And so he did. But the conviction only deepened and intensified. Day by +day it grew. And that went on for weeks, into the fourth month as I recall +his words. Then he planned to return home to attend to some business +matters, and to attend to some preliminaries for securing the nomination +for the governorship of his state. And as I understand he was in a fair +way to securing the nomination, so far as one can judge of such matters. +And his party is the dominant party in the state. A nomination for +governor by his party has usually been followed by election. + +He reached his home and had hardly gotten there before he found that his +wife and two others had entered into a holy compact of prayer for his +conversion, and had been so praying for some months. Instantly he thought +of his peculiar unwelcome Washington experience, and became intensely +interested. But not wishing them to know of his interest, he asked +carelessly when "this thing began." His wife told him the day. He did some +quick mental figuring, and he said to me, "I knew almost instantly that +the day she named fitted into the calendar with the coming of that +conviction or impression about God's presence." + +He was greatly startled. He wanted to be thoroughly honest in all his +thinking. And he said he knew that if a single fact of that sort could be +established, of prayer producing such results, it carried the whole +Christian scheme of belief with it. And he did some stiff fighting within. +Had he been wrong all those years? He sifted the matter back and forth as +a lawyer would the evidence in any case. And he said to me, "As an honest +man I was compelled to admit the facts, and I believe I might have been +led to Christ that very night." + +A few nights later he knelt at the altar in the Methodist meeting-house in +his home town and surrendered his strong will to God. Then the early +conviction of his boyhood days came back. He was to preach the gospel. And +like Saul of old, he utterly changed his life, and has been preaching the +gospel with power ever since. + +Then I was intensely fascinated in getting the other side, the +praying-side of the story. His wife had been a Christian for years, since +before their marriage. But in some meetings in the home church she was +led into a new, a full surrender to Jesus Christ as Master, and had +experienced a new consciousness of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. +Almost at once came a new intense desire for her husband's conversion. The +compact of three was agreed upon, of daily prayer for him until the change +came. + +As she prayed that night after retiring to her sleeping apartment she was +in great distress of mind in thinking and praying for him. She could get +no rest from this intense distress. At length she rose, and knelt by the +bedside to pray. As she was praying and distressed a voice, an exquisitely +quiet inner voice said, "will you abide the consequences?" She was +startled. Such a thing was wholly new to her. She did not know what it +meant. And without paying any attention to it, went on praying. Again came +the same quietly spoken words to her ear, "will you abide the +consequences?" And again the half frightened feeling. She slipped back to +bed to sleep. But sleep did not come. And back again to her knees, and +again the patient, quiet voice. + +This time with an earnestness bearing the impress of her agony she said, +"Lord, I will abide any consequence that may come if only my husband may +be brought to Thee." And at once the distress slipped away, and a new +sweet peace filled her being, and sleep quickly came. And while she prayed +on for weeks and months patiently, persistently, day by day, the distress +was gone, the sweet peace remained in the assurance that the result was +surely coming. And so it was coming all those days down in the thick air +of Washington's lower house, and so it did come. + +What _was_ the consequence to her? She was a congressman's wife. She would +likely have been, so far as such matters may be judged, the wife of the +governor of her state, the first lady socially of the state. She is a +Methodist minister's wife changing her home every few years. A very +different position in many ways. No woman will be indifferent to the +social difference involved. Yet rarely have I met a woman with more of +that fine beauty which the peace of God brings, in her glad face, and in +her winsome smile. + +Do you see the simple philosophy of that experience. Her surrender gave +God a clear channel into that man's will. When the roadway was cleared, +her prayer was a spirit-force traversing instantly the hundreds of +intervening miles, and affecting the spirit-atmosphere of his presence. + +Shall we not put our wills fully in touch with God, and sheer out of +sympathy with the other one, and persistently plead and claim for each +loved one, "deliver him from the evil one, and work in him Thy will, to +Thy glory, by Thy power, in the Victor's name." And then add amen--so it +_shall_ be. Not so _may_ it be--a wish, but so it _shall_ be--an +expression of confidence in Jesus' power. _And these lives shall be won, +and these souls saved_. + + + + +IV. Jesus' Habits of Prayer + + +1. A Pen Sketch. +2. Dissolving Views. +3. Deepening Shadows. +4. Under the Olive Trees. +5. A Composite Picture. + + + + +Jesus' Habits of Prayer + + + +<u>A Pen Sketch.</u> + + +When God would win back His prodigal world He sent down a Man. That Man +while more than man insisted upon being truly a man. He touched human life +at every point. No man seems to have understood prayer, and to have prayed +as did He. How can we better conclude these quiet talks on prayer than by +gathering about His person and studying His habits of prayer. + +A habit is an act repeated so often as to be done involuntarily; that is, +without a new decision of the mind each time it is done. + +Jesus prayed. He loved to pray. Sometimes praying was His way of resting. +He prayed so much and so often that it became a part of His life. It +became to Him like breathing--involuntary. + +There is no thing we need so much as to learn how to pray. There are two +ways of receiving instruction; one, by being told; the other, by watching +some one else. The latter is the simpler and the surer way. How better can +we learn how to pray than by watching how Jesus prayed, and then trying +to imitate Him. Not, just now, studying what He _said_ about prayer, +invaluable as that is, and so closely interwoven with the other; nor yet +how He received the requests of men when on earth, full of inspiring +suggestion as that is of His _present_ attitude towards our prayers; but +how He Himself prayed when down here surrounded by our same circumstances +and temptations. + +There are two sections of the Bible to which we at once turn for light, +the gospels and the Psalms. In the gospels is given chiefly the _outer_ +side of His prayer-habits; and in certain of the Psalms, glimpses of the +_inner_ side are unmistakably revealed. + +Turning now to the gospels, we find the picture of the praying Jesus like +an etching, a sketch in black and white, the fewest possible strokes of +the pen, a scratch here, a line there, frequently a single word added by +one writer to the narrative of the others, which gradually bring to view +the outline of a lone figure with upturned face. + +Of the fifteen mentions of His praying found in the four gospels, it is +interesting to note that while Matthew gives three, and Mark and John each +four, it is Luke, Paul's companion and mirror-like friend, who, in eleven +such allusions, supplies most of the picture. + +Does this not contain a strong hint of the explanation of that other +etching plainly traceable in the epistles which reveals Paul's own +marvellous prayer-life? + +Matthew, immersed in the Hebrew Scriptures, writes to the Jews of their +promised Davidic King; Mark, with rapid pen, relates the ceaseless +activity of this wonderful servant of the Father. John, with imprisoned +body, but rare liberty of vision, from the glory-side revealed on Patmos, +depicts the Son of God coming on an errand from the Father into the world, +and again, leaving the world and going back home unto the Father. But Luke +emphasizes the _human_ Jesus, a _Man_--with reverence let me use a word in +its old-fashioned meaning--a _fellow_, that is, one of ourselves. And the +Holy Spirit makes it very plain throughout Luke's narrative that the _man_ +Christ Jesus _prayed_; prayed _much; needed_ to pray; _loved_ to pray. + +Oh! when shall we men down here, sent into the world as He was sent into +the world, with the same mission, the same field, the same Satan to +combat, the same Holy Spirit to empower, find out that power lies in +keeping closest connection with the Sender, and completest insulation from +the power-absorbing world! + + + +<u>Dissolving Views.</u> + + +Let me rapidily sketch those fifteen mentions of the gospel writers, +attempting to keep their chronological order. + +_The first mention_ is by Luke, in chapter three. The first three gospels +all tell of Jesus' double baptism, but it is Luke who adds, "and praying." +It was while waiting in prayer that He received the gift of the Holy +Spirit. He _dared_ not begin His public mission without that anointing. It +had been promised in the prophetic writings. And now, standing in the +Jordan, He waits and prays until the blue above is burst through by the +gleams of glory-light from the upper-side and the dove-like Spirit wings +down and abides upon Him. _Prayer brings power._ Prayer _is_ power. The +time of prayer is the time of power. The place of prayer is the place of +power. Prayer is tightening the connections with the divine dynamo so that +the power may flow freely without loss or interruption. + +_The second mention_ is made by Mark in chapter one. Luke, in chapter +four, hints at it, "when it was day He came out and went into a desert +place." But Mark tells us plainly "in the morning a great while before the +day (or a little more literally, 'very early while it was yet very dark') +He arose and went out into the desert or solitary place and there prayed." +The day before, a Sabbath day spent in His adopted home-town Capernaum, +had been a very busy day for Him, teaching in the synagogue service, the +interruption by a demon-possessed man, the casting out amid a painful +scene; afterwards the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, and then at +sun-setting the great crowd of diseased and demonized thronging the +narrow street until far into the night, while He, passing amongst them, by +personal touch, healed and restored every one. It was a long and +exhausting day's work. One of us spending as busy a Sabbath would probably +feel that the next morning needed an extra hour's sleep if possible. One +must rest surely. But this man Jesus seemed to have another way of resting +in addition to sleep. Probably He occupied the guest-chamber in Peter's +home. The house was likely astir at the usual hour, and by and by +breakfast was ready, but the Master had not appeared yet, so they waited a +bit. After a while the maid slips to His room door and taps lightly, but +there's no answer; again a little bolder knock, then pushing the door ajar +she finds the room unoccupied. Where's the Master? "Ah!" Peter says; "I +think I know. I have noticed before this that He has a way of slipping off +early in the morning to some quiet place where He can be alone." And a +little knot of disciples with Peter in the lead starts out on a search for +Him, for already a crowd is gathering at the door and filling the street +again, hungry for more. And they "tracked Him down" here and there on the +hillsides, among clumps of trees, until suddenly they come upon Him +quietly praying with a wondrous calm in His great eyes. Listen to Peter as +he eagerly blurts out, "Master, there's a big crowd down there, all asking +for you." But the Master's quiet decisive tones reply, "Let us go into +the next towns that I may preach there also; for to this end came I +forth." Much easier to go back and deal again with the old crowd of +yesterday; harder to meet the new crowds with their new skepticism, but +there's no doubt about what _should_ be done. Prayer wonderfully clears +the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; +sweetens and strengthens the spirit. The busier the day for Him the more +surely must the morning appointment be kept,[43] and even an earlier start +made, apparently. The more virtue went forth from Him, the more certainly +must He spend time, and even _more_ time, alone with Him who is the source +of power. + +_The third mention_ is in Luke, chapter five. Not a great while after the +scene just described, possibly while on the trip suggested by His answer +to Peter, in some one of the numerous Galilean villages, moved with the +compassion that ever burned His heart, He had healed a badly diseased +leper, who, disregarding His express command, so widely published the fact +of His remarkable healing that great crowds blocked Jesus' way in the +village and compelled Him to go out to the country district, where the +crowds which the village could not hold now throng about Him. Now note +what the Master does. The authorized version says, "He withdrew into the +wilderness and prayed." A more nearly literal reading would be, "He was +retiring in the deserts and praying"; suggesting not a single act, but +rather _a habit of action_ running through several days or even weeks. +That is, being compelled by the greatness of the crowds to go into the +deserts or country, districts, and being constantly thronged there by the +people, He had _less opportunity_ to get alone, and yet more need, and so +while He patiently continues His work among them He studiously seeks +opportunity to retire at intervals from the crowds to pray. + +How much His life was like ours. Pressed by duties, by opportunities for +service, by the great need around us, we are strongly tempted to give less +time to the inner chamber, with door shut. "Surely this work must be +done," we think, "though it does crowd and flurry our prayer time some." +"_No_," the Master's practice here says with intense emphasis. Not work +first, and prayer to bless it. But the _first_ place given to prayer and +then the service growing out of such prayer will be charged with +unmeasured power. The greater the outer pressure on His closet-life, the +more jealously He guarded against either a shortening of its time or a +flurrying of its spirit. The tighter the tension, the more time must there +be for unhurried prayer. + +_The fourth mention_ is found in Luke, chapter six. "It came to pass in +these days that He went out into the mountains to pray, and He continued +all night in prayer to God." The time is probably about the middle of the +second year of His public ministry. He had been having very exasperating +experiences with the national leaders from Judea who dogged His steps, +criticising and nagging at every turn, sowing seeds of skepticism among +His simple-minded, intense-spirited Galileans. It was also the day +_before_ He selected the twelve men who were to be the leaders after His +departure, and preached the mountain sermon. Luke does not say that He +_planned_ to spend the entire night in prayer. Wearied in spirit by the +ceaseless petty picking and Satanic hatred of His enemies, thinking of the +serious work of the morrow, there was just one thing for Him to do. He +knew where to find rest, and sweet fellowship, and a calming presence, and +wise counsel. Turning His face northward He sought the solitude of the +mountain not far off for quiet meditation and prayer. And as He prayed and +listened and talked without words, daylight gradually grew into twilight, +and that yielded imperceptibly to the brilliant Oriental stars spraying +down their lustrous fire-light. And still He prayed, while the darkness +below and the blue above deepened, and the stilling calm of God wrapped +all nature around, and hushed His heart into a deeper peace. In the +fascination of the Father's loving presence He was utterly lost to the +flight of time, but prayed on and on until, by and by, the earth had once +more completed its daily turn, the gray streaks of dawnlight crept up the +east, and the face of Palestine, fragrant with the deep dews of an +eastern night, was kissed by a sun of a new day. And then, "when it was +day"--how quietly the narrative goes on--"He called the disciples and +_chose_ from them twelve,--and a great multitude of disciples and of the +people came,--and He _healed_ all--and He opened His mouth and _taught_ +them--_for power came forth from Him."_ Is it any wonder, after such a +night! If all our exasperations and embarrassments were followed, and all +our decisions and utterances preceded, by unhurried prayer, what power +would come forth from us, too. Because as He is even so are we in this +world. + +_The fifth mention_ is made by Matthew, chapter fourteen, and Mark, +chapter six, John hinting at it in chapter six of his gospel. It was about +the time of the third passover, the beginning of His last year of service. +Both He and the disciples had been kept exceedingly busy with the great +throng coming and going incessantly. The startling news had just come of +the tragic death of His forerunner. There was need of bodily rest, as well +as of quiet to think over the rapidly culminating opposition. So taking +boat they headed towards the eastern shore of the lake. But the eager +crowds watched the direction taken and spreading the news, literally "ran" +around the head of the lake and "out-went them," and when He stepped from +the boat for the much-needed rest there was an immense company, numbering +thousands, waiting for Him. Did some feeling of impatience break out among +the disciples that they could not be allowed a little leisure? Very +likely, for they were so much like us. But _He_ was "moved with +compassion" and, wearied though He was, patiently spent the entire day in +teaching, and then, at eventime when the disciples proposed sending them +away for food, He, with a handful of loaves and fishes, satisfied the +bodily cravings of as many as five thousand. + +There is nothing that has so appealed to the masses in all countries and +all centuries as ability to furnish plenty to eat. Literally tens of +thousands of the human race fall asleep every night hungry. So here. At +once it is proposed by a great popular uprising, under the leadership of +this wonderful man as king, to throw off the oppressive Roman yoke. +Certainly if only His consent could be had it would be immensely +successful, they thought. Does this not rank with Satan's suggestion in +the wilderness, and with the later possibility coming through the visit of +the Greek deputation, of establishing the kingdom without suffering? It +was a temptation, even though it found no response within Him. With the +over-awing power of His presence so markedly felt at times He quieted the +movement, "constrained"[44] the disciples to go by boat before Him to the +other side while He dismissed the throng. "And after He had _taken leave +of them_"--what gentle courtesy and tenderness mingled with His +irrevocable decision--"He went up in the mountain _to pray_," and +"_continued in prayer_" until the morning watch. A second night spent in +prayer! Bodily weary, His spirit startled by an event which vividly +foreshadowed His own approaching violent death, and now this vigorous +renewal of His old temptation, again He had recourse to His one unfailing +habit of getting off alone _to pray._ Time alone _to pray; more_ time to +pray, was His one invariable offset to all difficulties, all temptations, +and all needs. How much more there must have been in prayer as He +understood and practiced it than many of His disciples to-day know. + + + +<u>Deepening Shadows.</u> + + +We shall perhaps understand better some of the remaining prayer incidents +if we remember that Jesus is now in the last year of His ministry, the +acute state of His experiences with the national leaders preceding the +final break. The awful shadow of the cross grows deeper and darker across +His path. The hatred of the opposition leader gets constantly intenser. +The conditions of discipleship are more sharply put. The inability of the +crowds, of the disciples, and others to understand Him grows more marked. +Many followers go back. He seeks to get more time for intercourse with +the twelve. He makes frequent trips to distant points on the border of the +outside, non-Jewish world. The coming scenes and experiences--_the_ scene +on the little hillock outside the Jerusalem wall--seem never absent from +His thoughts. _The sixth mention_ is made by Luke, chapter nine. They are +up north in the neighbourhood of the Roman city of Cæsarea Philippi. "And +it came to pass as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him." +Alone, so far as the multitudes are concerned, but seeming to be drawing +these twelve nearer to His inner life. Some of these later incidents seem +to suggest that he was trying to woo them into something of the same love +for the fascination of secret prayer that He had. How much they would need +to pray in the coming years when He was gone. Possibly, too, He yearned +for a closer fellowship with them. He loved human fellowship, as Peter and +James and John, and Mary and Martha and many other gentle women well knew. +And there is no fellowship among men to be compared with fellowship _in +prayer_. + + "There is a place where _spirits blend_, + Where _friend holds fellowship with friend_, + A place than all beside more sweet, + It is the blood-bought mercy-seat." + +_The seventh mention_ is in this same ninth chapter of Luke, and records a +third night of prayer. Matthew and Mark also tell of the transfiguration +scene, but it is Luke who explains that He went up into the mountain _to +pray_, and that it was _as He was praying_ that the fashion of His +countenance was altered. Without stopping to study the purpose of this +marvellous manifestation of His divine glory to the chosen three at a time +when desertion and hatred were so marked, it is enough now to note the +significant fact that it was while _He was praying_ that the wondrous +change came. _Transfigured while praying! _ And by His side stood one who +centuries before on the earth had spent so much time alone with God that +the glory-light of that presence transfigured _his_ face, though he was +unconscious of it. A shining face caused by contact with God! Shall not +we, to whom the Master has said, "follow Me," get alone with Him and His +blessed Word, so habitually, with open or uncovered face, that is, with +eyesight unhindered by prejudice or self-seeking, that mirroring the glory +of His face we shall more and more come to bear His very likeness upon our +faces?[45] + + "And the face shines bright + With a glow of light + From His presence sent + Whom she loves to meet. + + "Yes, the face beams bright + With an inner light + As by day so by night, + In shade as in shine, + With a beauty fine, + That she wist not of, + From some source within. + And above. + + "Still the face shines bright + With the glory-light + From the mountain height. + Where the resplendent sight + Of His face + Fills her view + And illumines in turn + First the few, + Then the wide race." + +_The eighth mention_ is in the tenth chapter of Luke. He had organized a +band of men, sending them out in two's into the places he expected to +visit. They had returned with a joyful report of the power attending their +work; and standing in their midst, His own heart overflowing with joy, He +looked up and, as though the Father's face was visible, spake out to Him +the gladness of His heart. He seemed to be always conscious of His +Father's presence, and the most natural thing was to speak to Him. They +were always within speaking distance of each other, and always on speaking +terms. + +_The ninth mention_ is in the eleventh chapter of Luke, very similar to +the sixth mention, "It came to pass as He was praying in a certain place +that when He ceased one of His disciples said unto Him, 'Lord, teach us +to pray.'" Without doubt these disciples were praying men. He had already +talked to them a great deal about prayer. But as they noticed how large a +place prayer had in His life, and some of the marvellous results, the fact +came home to them with great force that there must be some fascination, +some power, some secret in prayer, of which _they were ignorant._ This Man +was a master in the fine art of prayer. _They_ really did not know how to +pray, they thought. How their request must have delighted Him! At last +they were being aroused concerning _the_ great secret of power. May it be +that this simple recital of His habits of prayer may move every one of us +to get alone with Him and make the same earnest request. For the first +step in _learning_ to pray is to pray,--"Lord, teach me to pray." And who +_can_ teach like Him? + +_The tenth mention_ is found in John, chapter eleven, and is the second of +the four instances of ejaculatory prayer. A large company is gathered +outside the village of Bethany, around a tomb in which four days before +the body of a young man had been laid away. There is Mary, still weeping, +and Martha, always keenly alive to the proprieties, trying to be more +composed, and their personal friends, and the villagers, and the company +of acquaintances and others from Jerusalem. At His word, after some +hesitation, the stone at the mouth of the tomb is rolled aside. And Jesus +lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me; +and I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the multitude that +standeth around I said it that they may believe that Thou didst send Me!" +Clearly before coming to the tomb He had been praying in secret about the +raising of Lazarus, and what followed was in answer to His prayer. How +plain it becomes that all the marvellous power displayed in His brief +earthly career _came through prayer_. What inseparable intimacy between +His life of activity at which the multitude then and ever since has +marvelled, and His hidden closet-life of which only these passing glimpses +are obtained. Surely the greatest power entrusted to man is prayer-power. +But how many of us are untrue to the trust, while this strangely +omnipotent power put into our hands lies so largely unused. + +Note also the certainty of His faith in the Hearer of prayer: "I thank +Thee that Thou heardest Me." There was nothing that could be _seen_ to +warrant such faith. There lay the dead body. But He trusted as _seeing_ +Him who is _invisible_. Faith is blind, except upward. It is blind to +impossibilities and deaf to doubt. It listens only to God and sees only +His power and acts accordingly. Faith is not believing that He _can_ but +that He _will_. But such faith comes only of close continuous contact with +God. Its birthplace is in the secret closet; and time and the open Word, +and an awakened ear and a reverent quiet heart are necessary to its +growth. + +_The eleventh mention_ is found in the twelfth chapter of John. Two or +three days before the fated Friday some Greek visitors to the Jewish feast +of Passover sought an interview with Him. The request seemed to bring to +His mind a vision of the great outside world, after which His heart +yearned, coming to Him so hungry for what only He could give. And +instantly athwart that vision like an ink-black shadow came the other +vision, never absent now from His waking thoughts, _of the cross_ so +awfully near. Shrinking in horror from the second vision, yet knowing that +only through its realization could be realized the first,--seemingly +forgetful for the moment of the by-standers, as though soliloquizing, He +speaks--"now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Shall I say, +Father _save_ Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour: +_this_ is what I will say (and the intense conflict of soul merges into +the complete victory of a wholly surrendered will) _Father, glorify Thy +name_." Quick as the prayer was uttered, came the audible voice out of +heaven answering, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." +How near heaven must be! How quickly the Father hears! He must be bending +over, intently listening, eager to catch even faintly whispered prayer. +Their ears, full of earth-sounds, unaccustomed to listening to a heavenly +voice, could hear nothing intelligible. He had a _trained ear_. Isaiah +50:4 revised (a passage plainly prophetic of Him), suggests how it was +that He could understand this voice so easily and quickly. "He wakeneth +morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught." +A taught ear is as necessary to prayer as a taught tongue, and the daily +morning appointment with God seems essential to both. + + + +<u>Under the Olive Trees.</u> + + +_The twelfth mention_ is made by Luke, chapter twenty-two. It is Thursday +night of Passion week, in the large upper room in Jerusalem where He is +celebrating the old Passover feast, and initiating the new memorial feast. +But even that hallowed hour is disturbed by the disciples' self-seeking +disputes. With the great patience of great love He gives them the +wonderful example of humility of which John thirteen tells, speaking +gently of what it meant, and then turning to Peter, and using his old +name, He says, "Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you that he might +sift you as wheat, but I made supplication for thee that thy faith fail +not." _He had been praying for Peter by name!_ That was one of His +prayer-habits, praying for others. And He has not broken off that blessed +habit yet. He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near to God +through Him _seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them_. His +occupation now seated at His Father's right hand in glory is _praying for +each of us_ who trust Him. By name? Why not? + +_The thirteenth mention_ is the familiar one in John, chapter seventeen, +and cannot be studied within these narrow limits, but merely fitted into +Us order. The twelfth chapter contains His last words to the world. In the +thirteenth and through to the close of this seventeenth He is alone with +His disciples. If this prayer is read carefully in the revised version it +will be seen that its standpoint is that of one who thinks of His work +down in the world as already done (though the chief scene is yet to come) +and the world left behind, and now He is about re-entering His Father's +presence to be re-instated in glory there. It is really, therefore, a sort +of specimen of the praying for us in which He is _now_ engaged, and so is +commonly called the intercessory or high-priestly prayer. For thirty years +He lived a perfect life. For three and a half years He was a prophet +speaking to men for God. For nineteen centuries He has been high priest +speaking to God for men. When He returns it will be as King to reign over +men for God. + +_The fourteenth mention_ brings us within the sadly sacred precincts of +Gethsemane garden, one of His favourite prayer-spots, where He frequently +went while in Jerusalem. The record is found in Matthew twenty-six, Mark +fourteen, and Luke twenty-one. Let us approach with hearts hushed and +heads bared and bowed, for this is indeed hallowed ground. It is a little +later on that same Thursday night, into which so much has already been +pressed and so much more is yet to come. After the talk in the upper room, +and the simple wondrous prayer, He leads the little band out of the city +gate on the east across the swift, muddy Kidron into the inclosed grove of +olive trees beyond. There would be no sleep for Him that night. Within an +hour or two the Roman soldiers and the Jewish mob, led by the traitor, +will be there searching for Him, and He meant to spend the intervening +time in _prayer_. With the longing for sympathy so marked during these +latter months, He takes Peter and James and John and goes farther into the +deeply-shadowed grove. But now some invisible power tears him away and +plunges Him alone still farther into the moonlit recesses of the garden; +and there a strange, awful struggle of soul ensues. It seems like a +renewal of the same conflict He experienced in John twelve when the Greeks +came, but immeasurably intenser. He who in Himself knew no sin was now +beginning to realize in His spirit what within a few hours He realized +_actually_, that He was in very deed to be made sin for us. And the awful +realization comes in upon Him with such terrific intensity that it seems +as though His physical frame cannot endure the strain of mental agony. The +_actual_ experience of the next day produced such mental agony that His +physical strength gave way. For He died not of His physical suffering, +excruciating as that was, but literally of a broken heart, its walls burst +asunder by the strain of soul. It is not possible for a sinning soul to +appreciate with what nightmare dread and horror the sinless soul of Jesus +must have approached the coming contact with the sin of a world. With +bated breath and reverent gaze one follows that lonely figure among the +trees; now kneeling, now falling upon His face, lying prostrate, "He +prayed that _if_ it were possible the hour might pass away from Him." One +snatch of that prayer reaches our ears: "Abba, Father, all things are +possible unto Thee--_if_ it be possible let this cup pass away from Me; +nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." How long He remained so in +prayer we do not know, but so great was the tension of spirit that a +messenger from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. Even after that +"being in an agony He prayed more earnestly (literally, more stretched +out, more strainedly) and His sweat became as it were great clots of blood +falling down upon the ground." When at length He arises from that season +of conflict and prayer, the victory seems to be won, and something of the +old-time calm reasserts itself. He goes to the sleeping disciples, and +mindful of their coming temptation, admonishes them to pray; then returns +to the lonely solitude again for more prayer, but the change in the form +of prayer tells of the triumph of soul, "O My Father, if this cup +_cannot_ pass away except I drink it, Thy will be done." The victory is +complete. The crisis is past. He yields Himself to that dreaded experience +through which alone the Father's loving plan for a dying world can be +accomplished. Again He returns to the poor, weak disciples, and back again +for another bit of strengthening communion, and then the flickering glare +of torches in the distance tells Him that "the hour is come." With steady +step and a marvellous peace lighting His face He goes out to meet His +enemies. He overcame in this greatest crisis of His life _by prayer_. + +_The fifteenth mention_ is the final one. Of the seven sentences which He +spake upon the cross, three were prayers. Luke tells us that while the +soldiers were driving the nails through His hands and feet and lifting the +cross into place, He, thinking even then not of self, but of others, said, +"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." + +It was as the time of the daily evening sacrifice drew on, near the close +of that strange darkness which overcast all nature, after a silence of +three hours, that He loudly sobbed out the piercing, heart-rending cry, +"My God, My God, why didst Thou forsake Me?" A little later the triumphant +shout proclaimed His work done, and then the very last word was a prayer +quietly breathed out, as He yielded up His life, "Father, into Thy hands +I commend My spirit." And so His expiring breath was vocalized into +prayer. + + + +<u>A Composite Picture.</u> + + +It may be helpful to make the following summary of these allusions. + +1. _His times of prayer_: His regular habit seems plainly to have been to +devote the early morning hour to communion with His Father, and to depend +upon that for constant guidance and instruction. This is suggested +especially by Mark 1:35; and also by Isaiah 50:4-6 coupled with John 7:16 +l.c., 8:28, and 12:49. + +In addition to this regular appointment, He sought other opportunities for +secret prayer as special need arose; late at night after others had +retired; three times He remained in prayer all the night; and at irregular +intervals between times. Note that it was usually a _quiet_ time when the +noises of earth were hushed. He spent special time in prayer _before_ +important events and also _afterwards_. (See mentions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 +and 14.) + +2. _His places of prayer_: He who said, "Enter into thine inner chamber +and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret," Himself +had no fixed inner chamber, during His public career, to make easier the +habitual retirement for prayer. Homeless for the three and a half years of +ceaseless travelling, His place of prayer was a desert place, "the +deserts," "the mountains," "a solitary place." He loved nature. The +hilltop back of Nazareth village, the slopes of Olivet, the hillsides +overlooking the Galilean lake, were His favourite places. Note that it was +always a _quiet_ place, shut away from the discordant sounds of earth. + +3. _His constant spirit of prayer_: He was never out of the spirit of +prayer. He could be alone in a dense crowd. It has been said that there +are sorts of solitude, namely, of time, as early morning, or late at +night; solitude of place, as a hilltop, or forest, or a secluded room; and +solitude of spirit, as when one surrounded by a crowd may watch them +unmoved, or to be lost to all around in his own inner thought. Jesus used +all three sorts of solitude for talking with His Father. (See mentions 8, +10, 11 and 15.) + +4. _He prayed in the great crises of His life_: Five such are mentioned: +Before the awful battle royal with Satan in the Quarantanian wilderness at +the outset; before choosing the twelve leaders of the new movement; at the +time of the Galilean uprising; before the final departure from Galilee for +Judea and Jerusalem; and in Gethsemane, the greatest crisis of all. (See +mentions 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14.) + +5. He prayed for others by name, and still does. (See mention 13.) + +6. _He prayed with others_: A habit that might well be more widely copied. +A few minutes spent in quiet prayer by friends or fellow-workers before +parting wonderfully sweetens the spirit, and cements friendships, and +makes difficulties less difficult, and hard problems easier of solution. +(See mentions 7, 9 and 13.) + +7. _The greatest blessings of His life came during prayer_: Six incidents +are noted: while praying, the Holy Spirit came upon Him; He was +transfigured; three times a heavenly voice of approval came; and in His +hour of sorest distress in the garden a heavenly messenger came to +strengthen Him. (See mentions 1, 7, 11 and 14.) + +How much prayer meant to Jesus! It was not only His _regular habit_, but +His resort in _every emergency_, however slight or serious. When perplexed +He _prayed_. When hard pressed by work He _prayed_. When hungry for +fellowship He found it in _prayer_. He chose His associates and received +His messages _upon His knees_. If tempted, He _prayed_. If criticised, He +_prayed_. If fatigued in body or wearied in spirit, He had recourse to His +one unfailing habit of _prayer. Prayer_ brought Him _unmeasured power_ at +the beginning, and _kept_ the flow unbroken and undiminished. There was no +emergency, no difficulty, no necessity, no temptation that would not yield +to prayer, as He practiced it. Shall not we, who have been tracing these +steps in His prayer life, go back over them again and again until we +breathe in His very spirit of prayer? And shall we not, too, ask Him daily +to teach us how to pray, and then plan to get alone with Him regularly +that He may have opportunity to teach us, and we the opportunity to +practice His teaching? + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] John 15:16. + +[2] "Demon Possession," by J. L. Nevius. + +[3] Psalm 24:1. + +[4] Psalm 29:10. + +[5] Genesis 1:26, 28. Psalms 8:6. See quotations of this, referring to the +Man who will restore original conditions, in 1 Cor. 15:27. Ephesians 1:32, +Hebrews 2:8. Psalms 115:16. + +[6] John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. + +[7] Revelation 11:15. + +[8] John 14:30. + +[9] Jeremiah 33:3. + +[10] Psalm 50:15. + +[11] Matthew 7:7. + +[12] Isaiah 1:15. + +[13] Isaiah 59:1-3. + +[14] Psalm 66:18. + +[15] James 4:2, 3. + +[16] Matthew 5:23, 24. + +[17] Matthew 6:9-15. + +[18] Matthew 18:19-35. + +[19] Acts 16:6. + +[20] Acts 16:7. + +[21] John 7:8. + +[22] Acts 22:17-21. + +[23] 2 Cor. 5:21. + +[24] Sidney Lanier. + +[25] Ephesians 2:2. + +[26] Luke 11:5-13. + +[27] Luke 18:1-8. + +[28] 1 Peter 5:8. + +[29] Matthew 17:14-20; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43. + +[30] Matthew 16:24. + +[31] Psalm 37:7. + +[32] Isaiah 50:4. + +[33] Jeremiah 15:1. + +[34] Longfellow. + +[35] 2 Samuel 23:9, 10. + +[36] Joseph Cook. + +[37] John 7:17. + +[38] Frances Ridley Havergal. + +[39] Romans 8:26-28. + +[40] Psalm 25:9. + +[41] 1 John 5:14, 15. + +[42] 2 Timothy 2:24-26. + +[43] Isaiah 50:4, Revised. + +[44] Does not this very strong language suggest that possibly the +disciples had been conferred with by the revolutionary leaders? + +[45] 2 Cor. 3:18. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Quiet Talks on Prayer +by S. 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D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon</title> +<style type="text/css" title="Default"> + <!-- + + body { + margin: 5%; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + font-variant: small-caps; + } + + h1.title { margin-top: 5em; } + + .sec h4 { + text-decoration: underline; + font-variant: normal; + text-align: left; + } + + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + + a { text-decoration: none; } + a:hover { background-color: #ffffcc } + + div.chapter, #preface, #toc { + margin-top: 4em; + padding: 5px; + } + + hr { + height: 1px; + width: 80%; + } + + p.byline { + text-align: center; + font-variant: small-caps; + } + + .poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; + } + + abbr, acronym { + cursor: help; + border: none; + } + + cite { + font-variant: small-caps; + font-style: normal; + } + + #tp, #verso { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 3em; + } + + #toc ol { + list-style-type: upper-roman; + } + + #toc ol ol { + list-style-type: decimal; + } + + #toc ul li:hover { + list-style-type: disc; + } +--> +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Quiet Talks on Prayer, by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Quiet Talks on Prayer + +Author: S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon + +Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13196] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUIET TALKS ON PRAYER *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + +<div id="tp"> +<h1 class="title">Quiet Talks on Prayer</h1> + +<p class="byline">by</p> + +<h2 class="author">S. D. Gordon</h2> +</div> + + +<div id="verso"> +<div class="copyright"><div class="line">Copyright, 1904, by</div> +<div class="line">Fleming H. Revell Company</div></div> +</div> + + +<div id="toc"> +<h2>Contents</h2> + + +<ol> +<li><a href="#ch01">The Meaning and Mission of Prayer</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch01-1">Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-2">Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-3">The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-4">Does Prayer Influence God?</a></li> + </ol> +</li> + +<li><a href="#ch02">Hindrances to Prayer</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch02-1">Why the Results Fail</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02-2">Why the Results are Delayed</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02-3">The Great Outside Hindrance</a></li> + </ol> +</li> + +<li><a href="#ch03">How to Pray</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch03">The "How" of Relationship</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-1">The "How" of Method</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-2">The Listening Side of Prayer</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-3">Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-4">May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones</a></li> + </ol> +</li> + +<li><a href="#ch04">Jesus' Habits of Prayer</a> + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch04-1">A Pen Sketch</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-2">Dissolving Views</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-3">Deepening Shadows</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-4">Under the Olive Trees</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-5">A Composite Picture</a></li> + </ol> +</li> +</ol> +</div> + +<div class="chapter" id="ch01"> +<h2>I. The Meaning And Mission Of Prayer</h2> + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch01-1">Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-2">Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-3">The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch01-4">Does Prayer Influence God?</a></li> +</ol> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch01-1"> +<h3>Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power</h3> + + + +<h4>Five Outlets of Power.</h4> + + +<p>A great sorrow has come into the heart of God. Let it be told only in +hushed voice—one of His worlds is <i>a prodigal</i>! Hush your voice yet +more—<i>ours</i> is that prodigal world. Let your voice soften down still +more—<i>we</i> have <i>consented</i> to the prodigal part of the story. But, in +softest tones yet, He has won some of us back with His strong tender love. +And now let the voice ring out with great gladness—we won ones may be the +pathway back to God for the others. That is His earnest desire. That +should be our dominant ambition. For that purpose He has endowed us with +peculiar power.</p> + +<p>There is one inlet of power in the life—anybody's life—any kind of +power: just one inlet—the Holy Spirit. He is power. He is in every one +who opens his door to God. He eagerly enters every open door. He comes in +by our invitation and consent. His presence within is the vital thing.</p> + +<p>But with many of us while He is in, He is not in control: in as guest; not +as host. That is to say He is hindered in His natural movements; tied up, +so that He cannot do what He would. And so we are not conscious or only +partially conscious of His presence. And others are still less so. But to +yield to His mastery, to cultivate His friendship, to give Him full +swing—that will result in what is called power. One inlet of power—the +Holy Spirit in control.</p> + +<p>There are five outlets of power: five avenues through which this One +within shows Himself, and reveals His power.</p> + +<p>First: through the life, what we are. Just simply what we are. If we be +right the power of God will be constantly flowing out, though we be not +conscious of it. It throws the keenest kind of emphasis on a man being +right in his life. There will be an eager desire to serve. Yet we may +constantly do more in what we are than in what we do. We may serve better +in the lives we live than in the best service we ever give. The memory of +that should bring rest to your spirit when a bit tired, and may be +disheartened because tired.</p> + +<p>Second: through the lips, what we say. It may be said stammeringly and +falteringly. But if said your best with the desire to please the Master it +will be God-blest. I have heard a man talk. And he stuttered and blushed +and got his grammar badly tangled, but my heart burned as I listened. And +I have heard a man talk with smooth speech, and it rolled off me as easily +as it rolled out of him. Do your best, and leave the rest. If we are in +touch with God His fire burns whether the tongue stammer or has good +control of its powers.</p> + +<p>Third: through our service, what we do. It may be done bunglingly and +blunderingly. Your best may not be the best, but if it be your best it +will bring a harvest.</p> + +<p>Fourth: through our money, what we do not keep, but loosen out for God. +Money comes the nearest to omnipotence of anything we handle.</p> + +<p>And, fifth: through our prayer, what we claim in Jesus' name.</p> + +<p>And by all odds the greatest of these is the outlet through prayer. The +power of a life touches just one spot, but the touch is tremendous. What +is there we think to be compared with a pure, unselfish, gently strong +life. Yet its power is limited to one spot where it is being lived. Power +through the lips depends wholly upon the life back of the lips. Words that +come brokenly are often made burning and eloquent by the life behind them. +And words that are smooth and easy, often have all their meaning sapped by +the life back of them. Power through service may be great, and may be +touching many spots, yet it is always less than that of a life. Power +through money depends wholly upon the motive back of the money. Begrudged +money, stained money, soils the treasury. That which comes nearest to +omnipotence also comes nearest to impotence. But the power loosened out +through prayer is as tremendous, at the least, to say no more just now, is +as tremendous as the power of a true fragrant life and, mark you, <i>and</i>, +may touch not one spot but wherever in the whole round world you may +choose to turn it.</p> + +<p>The greatest thing any one can do for God and for man is to pray. It is +not the only thing. But it is the chief thing. A correct balancing of the +possible powers one may exert puts it first. For if a man is to pray +right, he must first <i>be</i> right in his motives and life. And if a man <i>be</i> +right, and put the practice of praying in its right place, then his +serving and giving and speaking will be fairly fragrant with the presence +of God.</p> + +<p>The great people of the earth to-day are the people who pray. I do not +mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in +prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean these +people who <i>take</i> time and <i>pray</i>. They have not time. It must be taken +from something else. This something else is important. Very important, and +pressing than prayer. There are people that put prayer first, and group +the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer.</p> + +<p>These are the people to-day who are doing the most for God; in winning +souls; in solving problems; in awakening churches; in supplying both men +and money for mission posts; in keeping fresh and strong these lives far +off in sacrificial service on the foreign field where the thickest +fighting is going on; in keeping the old earth sweet awhile longer.</p> + +<p>It is wholly a secret service. We do not know who these people are, though +sometimes shrewd guesses may be made. I often think that sometimes we pass +some plain-looking woman quietly slipping out of church; gown been turned +two or three times; bonnet fixed over more than once; hands that have not +known much of the softening of gloves; and we hardly giver her a passing +thought, and do not know, nor guess, that perhaps <i>she</i> is the one who is +doing far more for her church, and for the world, and for God than a +hundred who would claim more attention and thought, <i>because she prays</i>; +truly prays as the Spirit of God inspires and guides.</p> + +<p>Let me put it this way: God will do as a result of the praying of the +humblest one here what otherwise He <i>would</i> not do. Yes, I can make it +stronger than that, and I must make it stronger, for the Book does. +Listen: God will do in answer to the prayer of the weakest one here what +otherwise he <i>could</i> not do. "Oh!" someone thinks, "you are getting that +too strong now." Well, you listen to Jesus' own words in that last long +quiet talk He had with the eleven men between the upper room and the +olive-green. John preserves much of that talk for us. Listen: "Ye did not +choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear +fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that"—listen, a part of the +purpose why we have been chosen—"that whatsoever ye shall ask of the +Father in My name, He <i>may</i> give it you."<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> Mark that word "may"; not +"shall" this time but <i>may</i>. "Shall" throws the matter over on God—His +purpose. "May" throws it over upon us—our cooperation. That is to say our +praying makes it possible for God to do what otherwise He could not do.</p> + +<p>And if you think into it a bit, this fits in with the true conception of +prayer. In its simplest analysis prayer—all prayer—has, must have, two +parts. First, a God to give. "Yes," you say, "certainly, a God wealthy, +willing, all of that." And, just as certainly, there must be a second +factor, <i>a man to receive</i>. Man's willingness is God's channel to the +earth. God never crowds nor coerces. Everything God does for man and +through man He does with man's consent, always. With due reverence, but +very plainly, let it be said that God can do nothing for the man with shut +hand and shut life. There must be an open hand and heart and life +<i>through</i> which God can give what He longs to. An open life, an open hand, +open upward, is the pipe line of communication between the heart of God +and this poor befooled old world. Our prayer is God's opportunity to get +into the world that would shut Him out.</p> + + + +<h4>In touch with a planet.</h4> + + +<p>Prayer opens a whole planet to a man's activities. I can as really be +touching hearts for God in far away India or China through prayer, as +though I were there. Not in as many ways as though there, but as truly. +Understand me, I think the highest possible <i>privilege</i> of service is in +those far off lands. There the need is greatest, the darkness densest, and +the pleading call most eloquently pathetic. And if one <i>may</i> go +there—happy man!--if one be <i>privileged</i> to go to the honoured place of +service he may then use all five outlets direct in the spot where he is.</p> + +<p>Yet this is only one spot. But his relationship is as wide as his Master's +and his sympathies should be. A man may be in Africa, but if his heart be +in touch with Jesus it will be burning for <i>a world</i>. Prayer puts us into +direct dynamic touch with a world.</p> + +<p>A man may go aside to-day, and shut his door, and as really spend a +half-hour in India—I am thinking of my words as I say them, it seems so +much to say, and yet it is true—as really spend a half hour of his life +in India for God as though he were there in person. <i>Is</i> that true? If it +be true, surely you and I must get more half-hours for this secret +service. Without any doubt he may turn his key and be for a bit of time as +potentially in China by the power of prayer, as though there in actual +bodily form. I say <i>potentially</i> present. Of course not consciously +present. But in the <i>power exerted upon men</i> he may be truly present at +the objective point of his prayer. He may give a new meaning to the +printed page being read by some native down in Africa. He may give a new +tongue of flame to the preacher or teacher. He may make it easier for men +to accept the story of Jesus, and then to yield themselves to +Jesus—yonder men swept and swayed by evil spirits, and by prejudices for +generations—make it easier for them to accept the story, and, if need be, +to cut with loved ones, and step out and up into a new life.</p> + +<p>Some earnest heart enters an objection here, perhaps. You are thinking +that if you were there you could influence men by your personal contact, +by the living voice. So you could. And there must be the personal touch. +Would that there were many times more going for that blessed personal +touch. But this is the thing to mark keenly both for those who may go, and +for those who must stay: no matter where you are you do more through your +praying than through your personality. If you were in India you could <i>add +your personality to your prayer</i>. That would be a great thing to do. But +whether there or here, you must first win the victory, every step, every +life, every foot of the way, in secret, in the spirit-realm, and then add +the mighty touch of your personality in service. You can do <i>more </i> than +pray, <i>after</i> you have prayed. But you can <i>not</i> do more than pray <i>until</i> +you have prayed. And just there is where we have all seemed to make a +slip at times, and many of us are yet making it—a bad slip. We think we +can do more where we are through our service: then prayer to give power to +service. <i>No</i>—with the blackest underscoring of emphasis, let it be +said—NO. We can do no thing of real power until we have done the prayer +thing.</p> + +<p>Here is a man by my side. I can talk to him. I can bring my personality to +bear upon him, that I may win him. But before I can influence his will a +jot for God, I must first have won the victory in the secret place. +Intercession is winning the victory over the chief, and service is taking +the field after the chief is driven off. Such service is limited by the +limitation of personality to one place. This spirit-telegraphy called +prayer puts a man into direct dynamic touch with a planet.</p> + +<p>There are some of our friends who think themselves of the practical sort +who say, "the great thing is work: prayer is good, and right, but the +great need is to be doing something practical." The truth is that when one +understands about prayer, and puts prayer in its right place in his life, +he finds a new motive power burning in his bones to be <i>doing</i>; and +further he finds that it is the doing that grows out of praying that is +mightiest in touching human hearts. And he finds further yet with a great +joy that he may be <i>doing</i> something for an entire world. His service +becomes as broad as his Master's thought.</p> + + + +<h4>Intercession is Service.</h4> + + +<p>It helps greatly to remember that intercession is service: the chief +service of a life on God's plan. It is unlike all other forms of service, +and superior to them in this: that it has fewer limitations. In all other +service we are constantly limited by space, bodily strength, equipment, +material obstacles, difficulties involved in the peculiar differences of +personality. Prayer knows no such limitations. It ignores space. It may be +free of expenditure of bodily strength, where rightly practiced, and one's +powers are under proper control. It goes directly, by the telegraphy of +spirit, into men's hearts, quietly passes through walls, and past locks +unhindered, and comes into most direct touch with the inner heart and will +to be affected.</p> + +<p>In service, as ordinarily understood, one is limited to the space where +his body is, the distance his voice can reach, the length of time he can +keep going before he must quit to eat, or rest, or sleep. He is limited by +walls, and locks, by the prejudices of men's minds, and by those peculiar +differences of temperament which must be studied in laying siege to men's +hearts.</p> + +<p>The whole circle of endeavour in winning men includes such an infinite +variety. There is speaking the truth to a number of persons, and to one at +a time; the doing of needed kindly acts of helpfulness, supplying food, +and the like; there is teaching; the almost omnipotent ministry of money; +the constant contact with a pure unselfish life; letter writing; printer's +ink in endless variety. All these are in God's plan for winning men. But +the intensely fascinating fact to mark is this:—that the real victory in +all of this service is won in secret, beforehand, by prayer, and these +other indispensable things are the moving upon the works of the enemy, and +claiming the victory already won. And when these things are put in their +proper order, prayer first, and the other things second; <i>second</i>, I say, +not omitted, not slurred over; done with all the earnestness and power of +brain and hand and heart possible; but done <i>after</i> the victory has been +won in secret, against the real foe, and done <i>while</i> the winner is still +claiming the victory already assured,—then will come far greater +achievements in this outer open service.</p> + +<p>Then we go into this service with that fine spirit of expectancy that +sweeps the field at the start, and steadily sticks on the stubbornly +contested spots until the whipped foe turns tail, and goes. Prayer is +striking the winning blow at the concealed enemy. Service is gathering up +the results of that blow among the men we see and touch. Great patience +and tact and persistence are needed in the service because each man must +be influenced in his own will. But the shrewd strategy that wins puts the +keen stiff secret fighting first.</p> + + + +<h4>The Spirit Switchboard.</h4> + + +<p>Electricity is a strange element. It is catalogued in the study of +physics. It is supposed to be properly classed among the forces of nature. +Yet it seems to have many properties of the spirit world. Those who know +most of it say they know least of what it is. Some of the laws of its +being have been learned, and so its marvellous power harnessed for man's +use, but in much ignorance of what it is. It seems almost to belong +somewhere in between the physical and spirit realms. It furnishes many +similes of graphic helpfulness in understanding more nearly much truth of +the Spirit life.</p> + +<p>In the power-house where the electricity is being wooed into man's +harnessing, or generated, as the experts say, is found a switchboard, or +switch-room with a number of boards. Here in a large city plant a man may +go and turn a switch, that is, move a little handle, a very short +distance. It is a very simple act, easily performed, involving almost no +strength. But that act has loosened the power in the house back of the +switchboard out along the wires, and perhaps lighted a whole section of +the city. He goes in again at another hour, and turns <i>this</i> set of +switches, and <i>this</i>, and sets in motion maybe scores of cars, carrying +swiftly, hundreds of passengers. Again he goes in, and moves the little +handles and sets in motion the wheels in some factory employing hundreds +of operatives.</p> + +<p>It is a secret service, usually as far as any observers are concerned. It +is a very quiet, matter of fact service. But the power influenced is +unmeasured and immeasurable. And no one, seemingly, thus far, can explain +the mysterious but tremendous agent involved. Does the fluid—it a fluid? +or, what?—pass <i>through</i> the wire? or, <i>around</i> the wire? The experts say +they do not know. But the laws which it obeys are known. And as men comply +with them its almost omnipotence is manifested.</p> + +<p>Just such a switch-room in the spirit realm is one's prayer-room. Every +one who will may have such a spirit switching-board in his life. There he +may go and in compliance with the laws of the power used loosen out the +gracious persuasive irresistible power of God <i>where he wills to</i>; now in +Japan; now in China; among the hungry human hearts of India's plains and +mountains; again in Africa which is full as near to where Jesus sits as is +England or America; and now into the house across the alley from your +home; and down in the slum district; and now into your preacher's heart +for next Sunday's work; and now again unto the hearts of those you will be +meeting in the settlement house, or the mission school.</p> + +<p>Children are not allowed at the electrical switchboard, nor any unskilled +hand. For misuse means possibility of great damage to property and life. +And the spirit switchboard does not yield to the unskilled touch. Though +sometimes there seems to be much tampering by those with crude fingers, +and with selfish desire to turn this current to personal advantage merely.</p> + +<p>It takes skill here. Yet such is our winsome God's wondrous plan that +skill may come to any one who is willing; simply that—who is willing; and +it comes <i>very simply</i> too.</p> + +<p>Strange too, as with the electrical counterpart, the thing is beyond full +or satisfying explanation.</p> + +<p>How does it come to pass that a man turns a few handles, and miles away +great wheels begin to revolve, and enormous power is manifested? Will some +one kindly explain? Yet we know it is so, and men govern their actions by +that knowledge.</p> + +<p>How does it come to pass that a woman in Iowa prays for the conversion of +her skeptical husband, and he, down in the thick of the most absorbing +congress Washington has known since the civil war, and in full ignorance +of her purpose becomes conscious and repeatedly conscious of the presence +and power of the God in whose existence he does not believe; and months +afterwards with his keen, legally trained mind, finds the calendar to fit +together the beginning of her praying with the beginning of his unwelcome +consciousness? Will some one kindly explain? Ah! who can, adequately! Yet +the facts, easy ascertainable, are there, and evidenced in the complete +change in the life and calling of the man.</p> + +<p>How comes it to pass that a woman in Missouri praying for a friend of keen +intellectual skeptically in Glasgow, who can skillfully measure and parry +argument, yet finds afterwards that the time of her praying is the time of +his, at first decidedly unwelcome, but finally radical change of +convictions! Yet groups of thoughtful men and women know these two +instances to be even so though unable to explain how.</p> + +<p>And as the mysterious electrical power is being used by obedience to its +laws, even so is the power of prayer being used by many who understand +simply enough of its laws to obey, and to bring the stupendous results.</p> + + + +<h4>The Broad Inner Horizon.</h4> + + +<p>This suggests at once that the rightly rounded Christian life has two +sides; the <i>out</i>-side, and the <i>inner</i> side. To most of us the outer side +seems the greater. The living, the serving, the giving, the doing, the +absorption in life's work, the contact with men, with the great majority +the sheer struggle for existence—these take the greater thought and time +of us all. They seem to be the great business of life even to those of us +who thoroughly believe in the inner life.</p> + +<p>But when the real eyes open, the inner eyes that see the unseen, the +change of perspective is first ludicrous, then terrific, then pathetic. +Ludicrous, because of the change of proportions; terrific, because of the +issues at stake; pathetic, because of strong men that see not, and push on +spending splendid strength whittling sticks. The outer side is narrow in +its limits. It has to do with food and clothing, bricks and lumber, time +and the passing hour, the culture of the mind, the joys of social contact, +the smoothing of the way for the suffering. And it needs not to be said, +that these are right; they belong in the picture; they are its physical +background.</p> + +<p>The inner side <i>includes all of these</i>, and stretches infinitely beyond. +Its limits are broad; broad as the home of man; with its enswathing +atmosphere added. It touches the inner spirit. It moves in upon the +motives, the loves, the heart. It moves out upon the myriad spirit-beings +and forces that swarm ceaselessly about the earth staining and sliming +men's souls and lives. It moves up to the arm of God in cooperation with +His great love-plan for a world.</p> + +<p>Shall we follow for a day one who has gotten the true perspective? Here is +the outer side: a humble home, a narrow circle, tending the baby, +patching, sewing, cooking, calling; <i>or</i>, measuring dry goods, chopping a +typewriter, checking up a ledger, feeding the swift machinery, endless +stitching, gripping a locomotive lever, pushing the plow, tending the +stock, doing the chores, tiresome examination papers; and all the rest of +the endless, endless, doing, day by day, of the commonplace treadmill +things, that must be done, that fill out the day of the great majority of +human lives. This one whom we are following unseen is doing quietly, +cheerily his daily round, with a bit of sunshine in his face, a light in +his eye, and lightness in his step, and the commonplace place becomes +uncommon by reason of the presence of this man with the uncommon spirit. +He is working for God. No, better, he is working with God. He has an +unseen Friend at his side. That changes all. The common drudgery ceases to +be common, and ceases to be drudgery because it is done for such an +uncommon Master. That is the outer, the narrow side of this life: not +narrow in itself but in its proportion to the whole.</p> + +<p>Now, hold your breath, and look, for here is the inner side where the +larger work of life is being done. Here is the quiet bit of time alone +with God, with the Book. The door is shut, as the Master said. Now it is +the morning hour with a bit of made light, for the sun is busy yet farther +east. Now it is the evening hour, with the sun speeding towards western +service, and the bed invitingly near. There is a looking up into God's +face; then keen but reverent reading, and then a simple intelligent +pleading with its many variations of this—"Thy will be done, in the +Victor's name." God Himself is here, in this inner room. The angels are +here. This room opens out into and is in direct touch with a spirit space +as wide as the earth. The horizon of this room is as broad as the globe. +God's presence with this man makes it so.</p> + +<p>To-day a half hour is spent in China, for its missionaries, its native +Christians, its millions, the printed page, the personal contact, the +telling of the story, the school, the dispensary, the hospital. And in +through the petitions runs this golden thread—"Victory in Jesus' name: +victory in Jesus' name; to-day: to-day: Thy will be being done: the other +will undone: victory in Jesus' name." Tomorrow's bit of time is largely +spent in India perhaps. And so this man with the narrow outer horizon and +the broad inner horizon pushes his spirit-way through Japan, India, +Ceylon, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Africa, Europe's papal lands, the South +American States, the home land, its cities, frontiers, slums, the home +town, the home church, the man across the alley; in and out; out and in; +the tide of prayer sweeps quietly, resistlessly day by day.</p> + +<p>This is the true Christian life. This man is winning souls and refreshing +lives in these far-off lands and in near-by places as truly as though he +were in each place. This is the Master's plan. The true follower of Jesus +has as broad a horizon as his Master. Jesus thought in continents and +seas. His follower prays in continents and seas. This man does not know +what is being accomplished. Yes! He <i>does</i> know, too. He knows by the +inference of faith.</p> + +<p>This room where we are meeting and talking together might be shut up so +completely that no light comes in. A single crack breaking somewhere lets +in a thin line of light. But that line of light shining in the darkness +tells of a whole sun of light flooding the outer world.</p> + +<p>There comes to this man occasional, yes frequent, evidences of changes +being wrought, yet he knows that these are but the thin line of glory +light which speaks of the fuller shining. And with a spirit touched with +glad awe that he can and may help God, and a heart full alike of peace and +of yearning, and a life fragrant with an unseen Presence he goes steadily +on his way, towards the dawning of the day.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch01-2"> +<h3>Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict</h3><h4>A Prehistoric Conflict.</h4> + + +<p>In its simplest meaning prayer has to do with a conflict. Rightly +understood it is the deciding factor in a spirit conflict. The scene of +the conflict is the earth. The purpose of the conflict is to decide the +control of the earth, and its inhabitants. The conflict runs back into the +misty ages of the creation time.</p> + +<p>The rightful prince of the earth is Jesus, the King's Son. There is a +pretender prince who was once rightful prince. He was guilty of a breach +of trust. But like King Saul, after his rejection and David's anointing in +his place, he has been and is trying his best by dint of force to hold the +realm and oust the rightful ruler.</p> + +<p>The rightful Prince is seeking by utterly different means, namely by +persuasion, to win the world back to its first allegiance. He had a fierce +set-to with the pretender, and after a series of victories won the great +victory of the resurrection morning.</p> + +<p>There is one peculiarity of this conflict making it different from all +others; namely, a decided victory, and the utter vanquishing of the +leading general has not stopped the war. And the reason is remarkable. The +Victor has a deep love-ambition to win, not merely against the enemy, but +<i>into men's hearts, by their free consent</i>. And so, with marvellous +love-born wisdom and courage, the conflict is left open, for men's sake.</p> + +<p>It is a spirit conflict. The earth is swung in a spirit atmosphere. There +are unnumbered thousands of spirit beings good and evil, tramping the +earth's surface, and filling its atmosphere. They are splendidly organized +into two compact organizations.</p> + +<p>Man is a spirit being; an embodied spirit being. He has a body and a mind. +He is a spirit. His real conflicts are of the spirit sort; in the spirit +realm, with other spirit beings.</p> + +<p>Satan is a spirit being; an unembodied spirit being. That is, unembodied, +save as in much cunning, with deep, dark purpose he secures embodiment in +human beings.</p> + +<p>The only sort of power that influences in the spirit realm is <i>moral</i> +power. By which is not meant <i>goodness</i>, but that sort of power either bad +or good which is not of a physical sort: that higher, infinitely higher +and greater power than the mere physical. Moral power is the opposite of +violent or physical power.</p> + +<p>God does not use force, violent physical force. There are some exceptions +to this statement. There have been righteous wars, righteous on one side. +Turning to the Bible record, in emergencies, in extreme instances God has +ordered war measures. The nations that Israel was told to remove by the +death of war would have inevitably worn themselves out through their +physical excesses, and disobedience of the laws of life. But a wide view +of the race revealed an emergency which demanded a speedier movement. And +as an exception, for the sake of His plan for the ultimate saving of a +race, and a world, God gave an extermination order. The emergency makes +the exception. There is one circumstance under which the taking of human +life is right, namely, when it can be clearly established that God the +giver and sovereign of life has so directed. But the rule clearly is that +God does not use force.</p> + +<p>But note sharply in contrast with this that physical force is one of +Satan's chief weapons. But mark there two intensely interesting facts: +first, he can use it only as he secures man as his ally, and uses it +through him. And, second, in using it he has with great subtlety sought to +shift the sphere of action. He knows that in the sphere of spirit force +pure and simple he is at a disadvantage: indeed, worse yet, he is +defeated. For there is a moral force on the other side greater than any at +his command. The forces of purity and righteousness he simply <i>can</i>not +withstand. Jesus is the personification of purity and righteousness. It +was on this moral ground, in this spirit sphere that He won the great +victory. He ran a terrific gauntlet of tests, subtle and fierce, through +those human years, and came out victor with His purity and righteousness +unstained.</p> + + + +<h4>Prayer is Projecting One's Spirit Personality.</h4> + + +<p>Now prayer is a spirit force, it has to do wholly with spirit beings and +forces. It is an insistent claiming, by a man, an embodied spirit being, +down on the contested earth, that the power of Jesus' victory over the +great evil-spirit chieftain shall extend to particular lives now under his +control. The prayer takes on the characteristic of the man praying. He is +a spirit being. It becomes a spirit force. It is a projecting into the +spirit realm of his spirit personality. Being a spirit force it has +certain qualities or characteristics of unembodied spirit beings. An +unembodied spirit being is not limited by space as we embodied folk are. +It can go as swiftly as we can think. If I want to go to London it will +take at least a week's time to get my body through the intervening space. +But I can think myself into London more quickly than I can say the words, +and be walking down the Strand. Now a spirit being can go as quickly as I +can think.</p> + +<p>Further, spirit beings are not limited by material obstructions such as +the walls of this building. When I came in here to-day I came in by this +door. You all came in by these doors. We were obliged to come in either by +doors or windows. But the spirit beings who are here listening to us, and +deeply concerned with our discussion did not bother with the doors. They +came in through the walls, or the roof, if they were above us, or through +the floor here, if they happened to be below this level.</p> + +<p>Prayer has these qualities of spirit beings of not being limited by space, +or by material obstacles. Prayer is really projecting my spirit, that is, +my real personality to the spot concerned, and doing business there with +other spirit beings. For example there is a man in a city on the Atlantic +seaboard for whom I pray daily. It makes my praying for him very tangible +and definite to recall that every time I pray my prayer is a spirit force +instantly traversing the space in between him and me, and going without +hindrance through the walls of the house where he is, and influencing the +spirit beings surrounding him, and so influencing his own will.</p> + +<p>When it became clear to me some few years ago that my Master would not +have me go yet to those parts of the earth where the need is greatest, a +deep tinge of disappointment came over me. Then as I realized the wisdom +of His sovereignty in service, it came to me anew that I could exert a +positive influence in those lands for Him by prayer. As many others have +done, I marked out a daily schedule of prayer. There are certain ones for +whom I pray by name, at certain intervals. And it gives great simplicity +to my faith, and great gladness to my heart to remember that every time +such prayer is breathed out, my spirit personality is being projected +yonder, and in effect I am standing in Shanghai, and Calcutta and Tokyo in +turn and pleading the power of Jesus' victory over the evil one there, and +on behalf of those faithful ones standing there for God.</p> + +<p>It is a fiercely contested conflict. Satan is a trained strategist, and an +obstinate fighter. He refuses to acknowledge defeat until he must. It is +the fight of his life. Strange as it must seem, and perhaps absurd, he +apparently hopes to succeed. If we knew all, it might seem less strange +and absurd, because of the factors on his side. There is surely much down +in the world of the sort which we can fully appreciate to give colour to +his expectations. Prayer is insisting upon Jesus' victory, and the retreat +of the enemy on each particular spot, and heart and problem concerned.</p> + +<p>The enemy yields only what he must. He yields only what is taken. +Therefore the ground must be taken step by step. Prayer must be definite. +He yields only when he must. Therefore the prayer must be persistent. He +continually renews his attacks, therefore the ground taken must be <i>held</i> +against him in the Victor's name. This helps to understand why prayer +must be persisted in after we have full assurance of the result, and even +after some immediate results have come, or, after the general results have +commenced coming.</p> + + + +<h4>Giving God a Fresh Footing.</h4> + + +<p>The Victor's best ally in this conflict is the man, who while he remains +down on the battle-field, puts his life in full touch with his +Saviour-Victor, and then incessantly, insistently, believingly claims +<i>victory in Jesus' name</i>. He is the one foe among men whom Satan cannot +withstand. He is projecting an irresistible spirit force into the spirit +realm. Satan is obliged to yield. We are so accustomed through history's +long record to seeing victories won through force, physical force, alone, +that it is difficult for us to realize that moral force defeats as the +other never can. Witness the demons in the gospels, and in modern days in +China,<sup><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> clearly against their own set purpose, notwithstanding intensest +struggle on their part obliged to admit defeat, and even to ask favours of +their Conqueror. The records of personal Christian service give +fascinating instances of fierce opposition utterly subdued and individuals +transformed through such influence.</p> + +<p>Had we eyes to see spirit beings and spirit conflicts we would constantly +see the enemy's defeat in numberless instances through the persistent +praying of some one allied to Jesus in the spirit of his life. Every time +such a man prays it is a waving of the red-dyed flag of Jesus Christ above +Satan's head in the spirit world. Every such man who freely gives himself +over to God, and gives himself up to prayer is giving God a new spot in +the contested territory on which to erect His banner of victory.</p> + +<p>The Japanese struggled for weeks to get a footing on the Port Arthur +peninsula, even after the naval victories had practically rendered Russia +helpless on the seas. It was an unusual spectacle to witness such +difficulty in getting a landing after such victories. But with the bulldog +tenacity that has marked her fighting Japan fought for a footing. Nothing +could be done till a footing was gotten.</p> + +<p>Prayer is man giving God a footing on the contested territory of this +earth. The man in full touch of purpose with God praying, insistently +praying—that man is God's footing on the enemy's soil. The man wholly +given over to God gives Him a new sub-headquarters on the battle-field +from which to work out. And the Holy Spirit within that man, on the new +spot, will insist on the enemy's retreat in Jesus the Victor's name. That +is prayer. Shall we not, every one of us, increase God's footing down upon +His prodigal earth!</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch01-3"> +<h3>The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer</h3><h4>Prayer a War Measure.</h4> + + +<p>This world is God's prodigal son. The heart of God's bleeds over His +prodigal. It has been gone so long, and the home circle is broken. He has +spent all the wealth of His thought on a plan for winning the prodigal +back home. Angels and men have marvelled over that plan, its sweep, its +detail, its strength and wisdom, its tenderness. He needs man for His +plan. He will <i>use</i> man. That is true. He will <i>honour</i> man in service. +That is true. But these only touch the edge of the truth. The pathway from +God to a human heart is through a human heart. When He came to the great +strategic move in His plan, He Himself came down as a man and made that +move. <i>He needs man for His plan.</i></p> + +<p>The greatest agency put into man's hands is prayer. To understand that at +all fully one needs to define prayer. And to define prayer adequately one +must use the language of war. Peace language is not equal to the +situation. The earth is in a state of war. It is being hotly besieged and +so one must use war talk to grasp the facts with which prayer is +concerned. <i>Prayer from God's side is communication between Himself and +His allies in the enemy's country</i>. Prayer is not persuading God. It does +not influence God's purpose. It is not winning Him over to our side; never +that. He is far more eager for what we are rightly eager for than we ever +are. What there is of wrong and sin and suffering that pains you, pains +Him far more. He knows more about it. He is more keenly sensitive to it +than the most sensitive one of us. Whatever of heart yearning there may be +that moves you to prayer is from Him. God takes the initiative in all +prayer. It starts with Him. True prayer moves in a circle. It begins in +the heart of God, sweeps down into a human heart upon the earth, so +intersecting the circle of the earth, which is the battle-field of prayer, +and then it goes back again to its starting point, having accomplished its +purpose on the downward swing.</p> + + + +<h4>Three Forms of Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>Prayer is the word commonly used for all intercourse with God. But it +should be kept in mind that that word covers and includes three forms of +intercourse. All prayer grows up through, and ever continues in three +stages.</p> + +<p>The first form of prayer is <i>communion</i>. That is simply being on good +terms with God. It involves the blood of the cross as the basis of our +getting and being on good terms. It involves my coming to God through +Jesus. Communion is fellowship with God. Not request for some particular +thing; not asking, but simply enjoying Himself, loving Him, thinking about +Him, how beautiful, and intelligent, and strong and loving and lovable He +is; talking to Him without words. That is the truest worship, thinking how +worthy He is of all the best we can possibly bring to Him, and infinitely +more. It has to do wholly with God and a man being on good terms with each +other. Of necessity it includes confession on my part and forgiveness upon +God's part, for only so can we come into the relation of fellowship. +Adoration, worship belong to this first phase of prayer. Communion is the +basis of all prayer. It is the essential breath of the true Christian +life. It concerns just two, God and myself, yourself. Its influence is +directly subjective. <i>It affects me.</i></p> + +<p>The second form of prayer is <i>petition</i>. And I am using that word now in +the narrower meaning of asking something for one's self. Petition is +definite request of God for something I need. A man's whole life is +utterly dependent upon the giving hand of God. Everything we need comes +from Him. Our friendships, ability to make money, health, strength in +temptation, and in sorrow, guidance in difficult circumstances, and in all +of life's movements; help of all sorts, financial, bodily, mental, +spiritual—all come from God, and necessitate a constant touch with Him. +There needs to be a constant stream of petition going up, many times +wordless prayer. And there will be a constant return stream of answer and +supply coming down. The door between God and one's own self must be kept +ever open. The knob to be turned is on our side. He opened His side long +ago, and propped it open, and threw the knob away. The whole life hinges +upon this continual intercourse with our wondrous God. This is the second +stage or form of prayer. It concerns just two: God and the man dealing +with God. It is subjective in its influence: <i>its reach is within</i>.</p> + +<p>The third form of prayer is <i>intercession</i>. True prayer never stops with +petition for one's self. It reaches out for others. The very word +intercession implies a reaching out for some one else. It is standing as a +go-between, a mutual friend, between God and some one who is either out of +touch with Him, or is needing special help. Intercession is the climax of +prayer. It is the outward drive of prayer. It is the effective end of +prayer <i>outward</i>. Communion and petition are upward and downward. +Intercession rests upon these two as its foundation. Communion and +petition store the life with the power of God; intercession lets it out on +behalf of others. The first two are necessarily for self; this third is +for others. They ally a man fully with God: it makes use of that alliance +for others. Intercession is the full-bloomed plant whose roots and +strength lie back and down in the other two forms. <i>It</i> is the form of +prayer that helps God in His great love-plan for winning a planet back to +its true sphere. It will help through these talks to keep this simple +analysis of prayer in mind. For much that will be said will deal chiefly +with this third form, intercession, the outward movement of prayer.</p> + + + +<h4>The Climax of Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>To God man is first an objective point, and then, without ceasing to be +that, he further becomes a distributing centre. God ever thinks of a man +doubly: first for his own self, and then for his possible use in reaching +others. Communion and petition fix and continue one's relation to God, and +so prepare for the great outreaching form of prayer—intercession. Prayer +must begin in the first two but reaches its climax in the third. Communion +and petition are of necessity self-wide. Intercession is world-wide in its +reach. And all true rounded prayer will ever have all three elements in +it. There must be the touch with God. One's constant needs make constant +petition. But the heart of the true follower has caught the warm contagion +of the heart of God and reaches out hungrily for the world. Intercession +is the climax of prayer.</p> + +<p>Much is said of the subjective and objective value of prayer; its +influence upon one's self, and its possible influence upon persons and +events quite outside of one's self. Of necessity the first two sorts of +prayer here named are subjective; they have to do wholly with one's self. +Of equal necessity intercessory prayer is objective; it has to do wholly +with others. There is even here a reflex influence; in the first two +directly subjective; here incidentally reflex. Contact with God while +dealing with Him for another of necessity influences me. But that is the +mere fringe of the garment. The main driving purpose is outward.</p> + +<p>Just now in certain circles it seems quite the thing to lay great stress +upon the subjective value of prayer and to whittle down small, or, deny +entirely its value in influencing others. Some who have the popular ear +are quite free with tongue and pen in this direction. From both without +and within distinctly Christian circles their voices come. One wonders if +these friends lay the greater emphasis on the subjective value of prayer +so as to get a good deep breath for their hard drive at the other. Yet the +greater probability is that they honestly believe as they say, but have +failed to grasp the full perspective of the picture. In listening to such +statements one remembers with vivid distinctness that the scriptural +<i>standpoint</i> always is this: that things quite outside of one's self, that +in the natural order of prevailing circumstances would not occur, are made +to occur through prayer. Jesus constantly so <i>assumed</i>. The first-flush, +commonsense view of successful prayer is that some actual result is +secured through its agency.</p> + +<p>It is an utter begging of the question to advance such a theory as a +sufficient explanation of prayer. For prayer in its simplest conception +supposes something changed that is not otherwise reachable. Both from the +scriptural, and from a rugged philosophical standpoint the objective is +the real driving point of all full prayer. The subjective is in order to +the objective, as the final outward climactic reach of God's great +love-plan for a world.</p> + + + +<h4>Six Facts Underlying Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>It will help greatly to step back and up a bit for a fresh look at certain +facts that underlie prayer. Everything depends on a right point of view. +There may be many view-points, from which to study any subject; but of +necessity any one view-point must take in all the essential facts +concerned. If not, the impression formed will be wrong, and a man will be +misled in his actions. In these talks I make no attempt to prove the +Bible's statements, nor to suggest a common law for their interpretation. +That would be a matter for quite a separate series of talks. It clears the +ground to assume certain things. I am assuming the accuracy of these +scriptural statements. And I am glad to say I have no difficulty in doing +so.</p> + +<p>Now there are certain facts constantly stated and assumed in this old +Book. They are clearly stated in its history, they are woven into its +songs, and they underlie all these prophetic writings, from Genesis clear +to the end of John's Patmos visions. Possibly they have been so familiar +and taken for granted so long as to have grown unfamiliar. The very old +may need stating as though very new. Here is a chain of six facts:</p> + +<p>First:—The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.<sup><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> His by +creation and by sovereign rule. The Lord sat as King at the flood.<sup><a href="#fn4">4</a></sup></p> + +<p>Second:—God gave the dominion of the earth to man. The kingship of its +life, the control and mastery of its forces.<sup><a href="#fn5">5</a></sup></p> + +<p>Third:—Man, who held the dominion of the earth in trust from God, +transferred his dominion to somebody else, by an act which was a double +act. He was deceived into doing that act. It was an act of disobedience +and of obedience. Disobedience to God, and obedience to another one, a +prince who was seeking to get the dominion of the earth into his own +hands. That act of the first man did this. The disobedience broke with +God, and transferred the allegiance from God. The obedience to the other +one transferred the allegiance, and through that, the dominion to this +other one.</p> + +<p>The fourth fact is this:—The dominion or kingship of this earth so far +as given to man, is now not God's, for He gave it to man. And it is not +man's, for he has transferred it to another. It is in the control of that +magnificent prince whose changed character supplies his name—Satan, the +hater, the enemy. Jesus repeatedly speaks of "the prince"—that is the +ruling one—"of this world."<sup><a href="#fn6">6</a></sup> John speaks in his vision-book of a time +coming when "the kingdom (not kingdoms, as in the old version) of the +world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ."<sup><a href="#fn7">7</a></sup> By clear +inference previous to that time it is somebody's else kingdom than His. +The kingship or rulership of the earth which was given to man is now +Satan's.</p> + +<p>The fifth fact:—God was eager to swing the world back to its original +sway: for His own sake, for man's sake, for the earth's sake. You see, we +do not know God's world as it came from His hand. It is a rarely beautiful +world even yet—the stars above, the plant life, the waters, the exquisite +colouring and blending, the combinations of all these—an exquisitely +beautiful world even yet. But it is not the world it was, nor that some +coming day it will be. It has been sadly scarred and changed under its +present ruler. Probably Eve would not recognize in the present world her +early home-earth as it came fresh from the hand of its Maker.</p> + +<p>God was eager to swing the old world back to its original control. But to +do so He must get a man, one of the original trustee class through whom He +might swing it back to its first allegiance. It was given to man. It was +swung away by man. It must be swung back by man. And so a Man came, and +while Jesus was perfectly and utterly human, we spell that word Man with a +capital M because He was a man quite distinct from all men. Because He was +more truly human than all other men He is quite apart from other men. This +Man was to head a movement for swinging the world back to its first +allegiance.</p> + +<p>The sixth fact is this:—These two, God's Man, and the pretender-prince, +had a combat: the most terrific combat ever waged or witnessed. From the +cruel, malicious cradle attack until Calvary's morning and two days longer +it ran. Through those thirty-three years it continued with a terrificness +and intensity unknown before or since. The master-prince of subtlety and +force did his best and his worst, through those Nazareth years, then into +the wilderness,—and Gethsemane—and Calvary. And that day at three +o'clock and for a bit longer the evil one thought he had won. And there +was great glee up in the headquarters of the prince of this world. They +thought the victory was theirs when God's Man lay in the grave under the +bars of death, within the immediate control of the lord of death. But the +third morning came and the bars of death were snapped like cotton thread. +<i>Jesus rose a Victor.</i> For it was not possible that such as <i>He</i> could be +held by death's lord. And then Satan knew that he was defeated. Jesus, +God's Man, the King's rightful prince, had gotten the victory.</p> + +<p>But, please mark very carefully four sub-facts on Satan's side. First, he +refuses to acknowledge his defeat. Second, he refuses to surrender his +dominion until he must. He yields only what he must and when he must. +Third, he is supported in his ambitions by man. He has man's consent to +his control. The majority of men on the earth to-day, and in every day, +have assented to his control. He has control only through man's consent. +(Satan <i>can</i>not get into a man's heart without his consent, and God <i>will</i> +not.) And, fourth, he hopes yet to make his possession of the earth +permanent.</p> + + + +<h4>The Victor's Great Plan.</h4> + + +<p>Now, hold your breath and note, on the side of the Victor-prince, this +unparalleled and unimitated action: He has left the conflict open, and the +defeated chief on the field that He may win not simply against the chief, +but through that victory may win the whole prodigal race back to His +Father's home circle again. But the great pitched battle is yet to come. I +would better say <i>a</i> pitched battle, for the greatest one is past. Jesus +rides into the future fight a Victor. Satan will fight his last fight +under the shadow and sting of a defeat. Satan is apparently trying hard to +get a Jesus. That is to say Jesus was God's Man sent down to swing the +world back. Satan is trying his best to get <i>a man</i>—one of the original +trustee class, to whom the dominion of the earth was intrusted—a man who +will stand for him even as Jesus stood for God. Indeed a man who will +personify himself even as Jesus was the personification of God, the +express image of His person. When he shall succeed in that the last +desperate crisis will come.</p> + +<p><i>Now prayer is this: A man</i>, one of the original trustee class, who +received the earth in trust from God, and who gave its control over to +Satan; a man, <i>on the earth</i>, the poor old Satan-stolen, sin-slimed, +sin-cursed, contested earth; a man, on the earth, <i>with his life in full +touch with the Victor, and sheer out of touch with the pretender-prince, +insistently claiming that Satan shall yield before Jesus'-victory, step by +step, life after life</i>. Jesus is the victor. Satan knows it, and fears +Him. He must yield before His advance, and he must yield before this man +who stands for Jesus down on the earth. And he <i>will</i> yield. Reluctantly, +angrily, as slowly as may be, stubbornly contesting every inch of ground, +his clutches will loosen and he will go before this Jesus-man.</p> + +<p>Jesus said "the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me."<sup><a href="#fn8">8</a></sup> +When you and I say, as we may say, very humbly depending on His grace, +very determinedly in the resolution of our own imperial will, "though the +prince of this world come he shall have nothing in me, no coaling station +however small on the shores of my life," then we shall be in position +where Satan must yield as we claim—victory in the Victor's Name.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch01-4"> +<h3>Does Prayer Influence God?</h3><h4>How God Gives.</h4> + + +<p>Some one may object to all this that the statements of God's word do not +agree with this point of view.</p> + +<p>At random memory brings up a few very familiar passages, frequently +quoted. "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and will shew thee great +things, and difficult, that thou knowest not."<sup><a href="#fn9">9</a></sup> "And call upon Me in the +day of trouble; I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me."<sup><a href="#fn10">10</a></sup> "Ask, +and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be +opened unto you."<sup><a href="#fn11">11</a></sup> Here it seems, as we have for generations been +accustomed to think, that our asking is the thing that influences God to +do. And further, that many times persistent, continued asking is necessary +to induce God to do. And the usual explanation for this need of +persistence is that God is testing our faith, and seeking to make certain +changes in us, before granting our requests. This explanation is without +doubt quite true, <i>in part</i>. Yet the thing to mark is that it explains +<i>only</i> in part. And when the whole circle of truth is brought into view, +this explanation is found to cover only a small part of the whole.</p> + +<p>We seem to learn best about God by analogies. The analogy never brings all +there is to be learned. Yet it seems to be the nearest we can get. From +what we know of ourselves we come to know Him.</p> + +<p>Will you notice how men give? Among those who give to benevolent +enterprises there are three sorts of givers, with variations in each.</p> + +<p>There is the man who gives because he is influenced by others. If the +right man or committee of men call, and deftly present their pleas, +playing skillfully upon what may appeal to him; his position; his egotism; +the possible advantage to accrue; what men whom he wants to be classed +with are doing, and so on through the wide range that such men are +familiar with; if they persist, by and by he gives. At first he seems +reluctant, but finally gives with more or less grace. That is one sort of +giver.</p> + +<p>There is a second sort: the man of truly benevolent heart who is desirous +of giving that he may be of help to other men. He listens attentively when +pleas come to him, and waits only long enough to satisfy himself of the +worth of the cause, and the proper sort of amount to give, and then gives.</p> + +<p>There is a third sort, the rarest sort. This second man a stage farther +on, who <i>takes the initiative</i>. He looks about him, makes inquiries, and +thinks over the great need in every direction of his fellow men. He +decides where his money may best be used to help; and then himself offers +to give. But his gift may be abused by some who would get his money if +they could, and use it injudiciously, or otherwise than he intends. So he +makes certain conditions which must be met, the purpose of which is to +establish sympathetic relations in some particular with those whom he +would help. An Englishman's heart is strongly moved to get the story of +Jesus to the inland millions of Chinese. He requests the China-Inland +Mission to control the expenditure of almost a million dollars of his +money in such a way as best to secure the object in his heart. An American +gives a large sum to the Young Men's Christian Association of his home +city to be expended as directed. His thought is not to build up this +particular organization, but to benefit large numbers of the young men of +his town who will meet certain conditions which he thinks to be for their +good. He has learned to trust this organization, and so it becomes his +trustee.</p> + +<p>Another man feels that if the people of New York City can be given good +reading they can thereby best be helped in life. And so he volunteers +money for a number of libraries throughout that city. And thousands who +yearn to increase their knowledge come into sympathy with him in that one +point through his gift. In all such cases the giver's thought is to +accomplish certain results in those whose purpose in certain directions is +sympathetic with his own.</p> + +<p>Any human illustration of God must seem crude. Yet of these three sorts of +givers there is one and only one that begins to suggest how God gives. It +may seem like a very sweeping statement to make, yet I am more and more +disposed to believe it true that <i>most persons</i> have unthinkingly thought +of God's answering prayer as the first of these three men give. Many +others have had in mind some such thought as the second suggests. Yet to +state the case even thus definitely is to make it plain that neither of +these ways in any manner illustrate God's giving. The third comes the +nearest to picturing the God who hears and answers prayer. Our God has a +great heart yearning after His poor prodigal world, and after each one in +it. He longs to have the effects of sin removed, and the original image +restored. He takes the initiative. Yet everything that is done for man +must of necessity be through man's will; by his free and glad consent. The +obstacles in the way are not numberless nor insurmountable, but they are +many and they are stubborn. There is a keen, cunning pretender-prince who +is a past-master in the fine art of handling men. There are wills warped +and weakened; consciences blurred; minds the opposite of keen, +sensibilities whose edge has been dulled beyond ordinary hope of being +ever made keen again. Sin has not only stained the life, but warped the +judgment, sapped the will, and blurred the mental vision. And God has a +hard time just because every change must of necessity be through that +sapped and warped will.</p> + +<p>Yet the difficulty though great is never complex but very simple. And so +the statement of His purpose is ever exquisitely simple. Listen again: +"Call unto Me, and I will answer thee and shew thee great things and +difficult which thou knowest not." If a man call he has already turned his +face towards God. His will has acted, and acted doubly; away from the +opposite, and <i>towards</i> God, a simple step but a tremendous one. The +calling is the point of sympathetic contact with God where their purposes +become the same. The caller is beset by difficulties and longs for +freedom. The God who speaks to him saw the difficulties long ago and +eagerly longed to remove them. Now they have come to agreement. And +through this willing will God eagerly works out His purpose.</p> + + + +<h4>A Very Old Question.</h4> + + +<p>This leads to a very old question: Does prayer influence God? No question +has been discussed more, or more earnestly. Skeptical men of fine +scientific training have with great positiveness said "no." And Christian +men of scholarly training and strong faith have with equal positiveness +said "yes." Strange to say both have been right. Not right in all their +statements, nor right in all their beliefs, nor right in all their +processes of thinking, but right in their ultimate conclusions as +represented by these short words, "no," and "yes." Prayer does not +influence God. Prayer surely does influence God. It does not influence His +purpose. It does influence His action. Everything that ever has been +prayed for, of course I mean every right thing, God has already purposed +to do. But He does nothing without our consent. He has been hindered in +His purposes by our lack of willingness. When we learn His purposes and +make them our prayers we are giving Him the opportunity to act. It is a +double opportunity: manward and Satanward. We are willing. Our willingness +checkmates Satan's opposition. It opens the path to God and rids it of the +obstacles. And so the road is cleared for the free action already planned.</p> + +<p>The further question of nature's laws being sometimes set aside is wholly +a secondary matter. Nature's laws are merely God's habit of action in +handling secondary forces. They involve no purpose of God. His purposes +are regarding moral issues. That the sun shall stay a bit longer than +usual over a certain part of the earth is a mere detail with God. It does +not affect His power for the whole affair is under His finger. It does not +affect His purpose for that as concerning far more serious matters. The +emergencies of earth wrought by sin necessitate just such incidents, that +the great purpose of God for man shall be accomplished.</p> + +<p>Emergencies change all habits of action, divine and human. They are the +real test of power. If a man throw down the bundle he is carrying and make +a quick wild dash out into the middle of the street, dropping his hat on +the way, and grasp convulsively for something on the ground when no cause +appears for such action we would quickly conclude that the proper place +for him is an asylum. But if a little toddling child is almost under the +horse's hoofs, or the trolley car, no one thinks of criticising, but +instead admires his courage, and quick action, and breathlessly watches +for the result. Emergencies call for special action. They should control +actions, where they exist. Emergencies explain action, and explain +satisfactorily what nothing else could explain.</p> + +<p><i>The world is in a great emergency through sin.</i> Only as that tremendous +fact grips us shall we be men of prayer, and men of action up to the limit +of the need, and to the limit of the possibilities. Only as that intense +fact is kept in mind shall we begin to understand God's actions in +history, and in our personal experiences. The greatest event of earth, the +cross, was an emergency action.</p> + +<p>The fact that prayer does not make any change in God's thought or +purpose, reveals His marvellous love in a very tender way.</p> + +<p>Suppose I want something very much and <i>need</i> as well as want. And I go to +God and ask for it. And suppose He is reluctant about giving: had not +thought about giving me that thing; and rather hesitates. But I am +insistent, and plead and persist and by and by God is impressed with my +earnestness, and sees that I really need the thing, and answers my prayer, +and gives me what I ask. Is not that a loving God so to listen and yield +to my plea? Surely. How many times just such an instance has taken place +between a child and his father, or mother. And the child thinks to +himself, "How loving father is; he has given me the thing I asked for."</p> + +<p>But suppose God is thinking about me all the time, and planning, with +love-plans for me, and longing to give me much that He has. Yet in His +wisdom He does not give because I do not know my own need, and have not +opened my hand to receive, yes, and, further yet, likely as not, not +knowing my need I might abuse, or misuse, or fail to use, something given +before I had felt the need of it. And now I come to see and feel that need +and come and ask and He, delighted with the change in me, eagerly gives. +Tell me, is not that a very much more loving God than the other conception +suggests? The truth is <i>that</i> is God. Jesus says, "Your Father knoweth +what things ye have need of <i>before ye ask</i>." And He is a Father. And +with God the word father means mother too. Then what He <i>knows</i> we need He +has <i>already planned</i> to give. The great question for me then in praying +for some personal thing is this: Do <i>I</i> know what <i>He</i> knows I need? Am I +thinking about what He is thinking about for me?</p> + +<p>And then remember that God is so much more in His loving planning than the +wisest, most loving father we know. Does a mother think into her child's +needs, the food, and clothing and the extras too, the luxuries? That is +God, only He is more loving and wiser than the best of us. I have +sometimes thought this: that if God were to say to me: "I want to give you +something as a special love-gift; an extra because I love you: what would +you like to have?" Do you know I have thought I would say, "Dear God, +<i>you</i> choose. <i>I</i> choose what <i>you</i> choose." He is thinking about me. He +knows what I am thinking of, and what I would most enjoy, and He is such a +lover-God that He would choose something Just a bit finer than I would +think. I might be thinking of a dollar, but likely as not He is thinking +of a double eagle. I am thinking of blackberries, big, juicy blackberries, +but really I do not know what blackberries are beside the sort He knows +and would choose for me. That is our God. Prayer does not and cannot +change the purpose of such a God. For every right and good thing we might +ask for He has already planned to give us. But prayer does change the +action of God. Because He cannot give against our wills, and our +willingness as expressed by our asking gives Him the opportunity to do as +He has already planned.</p> + + + +<h4>The Greatest Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>There is a greatest prayer, <i>the</i> greatest that can be offered. It is the +substratum of every true prayer. It is the undercurrent in the stream of +all Spirit-breathed prayer. Jesus Himself gives it to us in the only form +of prayer He left for our use. It is small in size, but mighty in power. +Four words—"Thy will be done." Let us draw up our chairs, and <i>brew</i> it +over mentally, that its strength and fragrance may come up into our +nostrils, and fill our very beings.</p> + +<p>"<i>Thy</i>": That is God. On one side, He is wise, with all of the +intellectual strength, and keenness and poised judgment that that word +among men brings to us. On another side, He is strong, with all that that +word can imply of might and power irresistible. On still another side He +is good, pure, holy with the finest thought those words ever suggest to us +in those whom we know best, or in our dreams and visions. Then on a side +remaining, the tender personal side, He is—loving? No, that is quite +inadequate. He is <i>love</i>. Its personification is He. Now remember that we +do not know the meaning of those words. Our best definition and thought of +them, even in our dreams, when we let ourselves out, but hang around the +outskirts. The heart of them we do not know. Those words mean infinitely +more than we think. Their meaning is a projection along the lines of our +thought of them, but measurelessly beyond our highest reach.</p> + +<p>And then, this God, wise, strong, good, and love, <i>is kin to us</i>. We +belong to Him.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"We are His flock;</div> +<div class="line">He doth us feed.</div> +<div class="line">And for His sheep,</div> +<div class="line">He doth us take."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>We are His children by creation, and by a new creation in Jesus Christ. He +is ours, by His own act. That is the "Thy"—a God wise, strong, pure, who +is love, and who is a Father-mother-God, and is <i>our</i> God.</p> + +<p>"Thy <i>will</i>." God's will is His desires, His purposes, that which He +wishes to occur, and that to which He gives His strength that it may +occur. The earth is His creation. Men are His children. Judging from wise +loving parents among men He has given Himself to thinking and studying and +planning for all men, and every man, and for the earth. His plan is the +most wise, pure, loving plan that can be thought of, <i>and more.</i> It takes +in the whole sweep of our lives, and every detail of them. Nothing escapes +the love-vigilance of our God. What <i>can</i> be so vigilant and keen as love? +Hate, the exact reverse, comes the nearest. It is ever the extremes that +meet. But hate cannot come up to love for keen watchfulness at every +turn. Health, strength, home, loved ones, friendships, money, guidance, +protecting care, the necessities, the extras that love ever thinks of, +service—all these are included in God's loving thought for us. That is +His will. It is modified by the degree of our consent, and further +modified by the circumstances of our lives. Life has become a badly +tangled skein of threads. God with infinite patience and skill is at work +untangling and bringing the best possible out of the tangle. What is +absolutely best is rarely relatively best. That which is best in itself is +usually not best under certain circumstances, with human lives in the +balance. God has fathomless skill, and measureless patience, and a love +utterly beyond both. He is ever working out the best thing possible under +every circumstance. He could oftentimes do more, and do it in much less +time if our human wills were more pliant to His. He can be trusted. And of +course <i>trust</i> means <i>trust in the darkest dark</i> where you cannot see. And +trust means trust. It does not mean test. Where you trust you do not test. +Where you test you do not trust. Making this our prayer means trusting +God. That is God, and that His will, and that the meaning of our offering +this prayer. "Thy will <i>be</i>." A man's will is the man in action, within +the limits of his power. God's will for man is Himself in action, within +the limits of our cooperation. <i>Be</i> is a verb, an action-word, in the +passive voice. It takes some form of the verb to be to express the +passive voice of any action-word. It takes the intensest activity of will +to put this passive voice into human action. The greatest strength is +revealed in intelligent yielding. Here the prayer is expressing the utter +willingness of a man that God's will shall be done in him, and through +him. A man never <i>loses</i> his will, unless indeed he lose his manhood. But +here he makes that will as strong as it can be made, as a bit of steel, +better like the strong oak, strong enough to sway and bend in the wind. +Then he uses all its strength in becoming passive to a higher will. And +that too when the purpose of that higher will is not clear to his own +limited knowledge and understanding.</p> + +<p>"Thy will be <i>done</i>." That is, be accomplished, be brought to pass. The +word stands for the action in its perfected, finished state. Thy will be +fully accomplished in its whole sweep and in all its items. It speaks not +only the earnest desire of the heart praying, but the set purpose that +everything in the life is held subject to the doing of this purpose of +God. It means that surrender of purpose that has utterly changed the lives +of the strongest men in order that the purpose of God might be dominant. +It cut off from a great throne earth's greatest jurist, the Hebrew +lawgiver, and led him instead to be allied to a race of slaves. It led +that intellectual giant Jeremiah from an easy enjoyable leadership to +espouse a despised cause and so be himself despised. It led Paul from the +leadership of his generation in a great nation to untold suffering, and to +a block and an ax. It led Jesus the very Son of God, away from a kingship +to a cross. In every generation it has radically changed lives, and +life-ambitions. "Thy will be done" is the great dominant purpose-prayer +that has been the pathway of God in all His great doings among men.</p> + +<p>That will is being done everywhere else in God's great world of worlds, +save on the earth and that portion of the spirit world allied to this +earth. Everywhere else there is the perfect music of harmony with God's +will. Here only is heard the harsh discordant note.</p> + +<p>With this prayer go two clauses that really particularize and explain it. +They are included in it, and are added to make more clear the full intent. +The first of these clauses gives the sweep of His will in its broadest +outlines. The second touches the opposition to that will both for our +individual lives and for the race and the earth.</p> + +<p>The first clause is this, "Thy kingdom come." In both of these short +sentences, "Thy will be done," "Thy kingdom come," the emphatic word is +"Thy." That word is set in sharpest possible contrast here. There is +another kingdom now on the earth. There is another will being done. This +other kingdom must go if God's kingdom is to come. These kingdoms are +antagonistic at every point of contact. They are rivals for the same +allegiance and the same territory. They cannot exist together. Charles II +and Cromwell cannot remain in London together. "Thy kingdom come," of +necessity includes this, "the other kingdom go." "Thy kingdom come" means +likewise "Thy king come," for in the nature of things there cannot be a +kingdom without a king. That means again by the same inference, "the other +prince go," the one who makes pretensions to being rightful heir to the +throne. "Thy will be done" includes by the same inference this:—"the +other will be undone." This is the first great explanatory clause to be +connected with this greatest prayer, "Thy kingdom come." It gives the +sweep of God's will in its broadest outlines.</p> + +<p>The second clause included in the prayer, and added to make clear the +swing of action is this—"deliver us from the evil one." These two +sentences, "Thy will be done," and "deliver us from the evil one," are +naturally connected. Each statement includes the other. To have God's will +fully done in us means emancipation from every influence of the evil one, +either direct or indirect, or by hereditary taint. To be delivered from +the evil one means that every thought and plan of God for our lives shall +be fully carried out.</p> + +<p>There are the two great wills at work in the world ever clashing in the +action of history and in our individual lives. In many of us, aye, in all +of us, though in greatly varying degree, these two wills constantly clash. +Man is the real battle-field. The pitch of the battle is in his will. God +will not do His will in a man without the man's will consenting. And Satan +cannot. At the root the one thing that works against God's will is the +evil one's will. And on the other hand the one thing that effectively +thwarts Satan's plans is a man wholly given up to God's will.</p> + +<p>The greatest prayer then fully expressed, sweeps first the whole field of +action, then touches the heart of the action, and then attacks the +opposition. It is this:—Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done: deliver us +from the evil one. Every true prayer ever offered comes under this simple +comprehensive prayer. It may be offered, it <i>is</i> offered with an infinite +variety of detail. It is greatest because of its sweep. It includes all +other petitions, for God's will includes everything for which prayer is +rightly offered. It is greatest in its intensity. It hits the very +bull's-eye of opposition to God.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="chapter" id="ch02"> +<h2>II. Hindrances to Prayer</h2> + + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch02-1">Why the Results Fail.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02-2">Why the Results Are Delayed.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02-3">The Great Outside Hindrance, or, the Relation of Prayer to Satan.</a></li> +</ol> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch02-1"> +<h3>Why the Results Fail</h3><h4>Breaking with God.</h4> + + +<p>God answers prayer. Prayer is God and man joining hands to secure some +high end. He joins with us through the communication of prayer in +accomplishing certain great results. This is the main drive of prayer. Our +asking and expecting and God's doing jointly bring to pass things that +otherwise would not come to pass. Prayer changes things. This is the great +fact of prayer.</p> + +<p>Yet a great many prayers are not answered. Or, to put it more accurately, +a great many prayers fail utterly of accomplishing any results. Probably +it is accurate to say that <i>thousands</i> of prayers go up and bring nothing +down. This is certainly true. Let us say it just as bluntly and plainly as +it can be said. As a result many persons are saying: "Well, prayer is not +what you claim for it: we prayed and no answer came: nothing was changed."</p> + +<p>From all sorts of circles, and in all sorts of language comes this +statement. Scholarly men who write with wisdom's words, and thoughtless +people whose thinking never even pricks the skin of the subject, and all +sorts of people in between group themselves together here. And they are +right, quite right. The bother is that what they say is not all there is +to be said. There is yet more to be said, that is right too, and that +changes the final conclusion radically. Partial truth is a very mean sort +of lie.</p> + +<p>The prayer plan like many another has been much disturbed, and often +broken. And one who would be a partner with God up to the limit of his +power must understand the things that hinder the prayer plan. There are +three sorts of hindrances to prayer. First of all there are things in us +that <i>break off connection</i> with God, the source of the changing power. +Then there are certain things in us that <i>delay, or diminish</i> the results; +that interfere with the full swing of the prayer plan of operations. And +then there is a great <i>outside</i> hindrance to be reckoned upon. To-day we +want to talk together of the first of these, namely, the hindrances that +<i>break off connections</i> between God and His human partner.</p> + +<p>Here again there is a division into three. There are three things directly +spoken of in the book of God that hinder prayer. One of these is a +familiar thing. What a pity that repugnant things may become so familiar +as no longer to repel. It is this:—<i>sin</i> hinders prayer. In Isaiah's +first chapter God Himself speaking says, "When you stretch out your +hands"—the way they prayed, standing with outstretched hands—"I will +shut My eyes; when you make many prayers, I will shut My ears."<sup><a href="#fn12">12</a></sup> Why? +What's the difficulty? These outstretched hands are <i>soiled!</i> They are +actually holding their sin-soiled hands up into God's face; and He is +compelled to look at the thing most hateful to Him. In the fifty-ninth +chapter of this same book,<sup><a href="#fn13">13</a></sup> God Himself is talking again. Listen +"Behold! the <i>Lord's</i> hand is not shortened: <i>His</i> ear is not heavy." +There is no trouble on the <i>up</i> side. God is all right. "But"—listen with +both your ears—"your <i>iniquities</i> ... your <i>sins</i> ... your <i>hands</i> ... +your <i>fingers</i> ... your <i>lips</i> ... your <i>tongue</i> ..." the slime of sin is +oozing over everything! Turn back to that sixty-sixth Psalm<sup><a href="#fn14">14</a></sup>—"if I +regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me." How much more if +the sin of the heart get into the hands or the life! And the fact to put +down plainly in blackest ink once for all is this—<i>sin hinders prayer</i>. +There is nothing surprising about this. That we can think the reverse is +the surprising thing. Prayer is transacting business with God. Sin is +<i>breaking with God</i>.</p> + +<p>Suppose I had a private wire from my apartments here to my home in +Cleveland, and some one should go outside and drag the wire down until it +touches the ground—a good square touch with the ground—the electricians +would call it grounded, could I telegraph over that wire? Almost any child +knows I could not. Suppose some one <i>cuts</i> the wire, a good clean cut; the +two ends are apart: not a mile; not a yard; but distinctly apart. Could I +telegraph on that wire? Of course not. Yet I might sit in my room and tick +away by the hour wholly absorbed, and use most beautiful persuasive +language—what is the good? The wire's cut. All my fine pleading goes into +the ground, or the air. Now <i>sin cuts the wire;</i> it runs the message into +the ground.</p> + +<p>"Well," some one will object, "now you're cutting us all out, are you not? +Are we not all conscious of a sinful something inside here that has to be +fought, and held under all the while?" It certainly seems to be true that +the nearer a man gets to God the more keenly conscious he is of a sinful +tendency within even while having continual victory. But plainly enough +what the Book means here is this:—if I am holding something in my life +that the Master does not like, if I am failing to obey when His voice has +spoken, that to me is sin. It may be wrong in itself. It may <i>not</i> be +wrong in itself. It may not be wrong for another. Sometimes it is not the +thing involved but the One involved that makes the issue. If that faithful +quiet inner voice has spoken and I know what the Master would prefer and I +fail to keep in line, that to me is sin. Then prayer is useless; sheer +waste of breath. Aye, worse, it is deceptive. For I am apt to say or +think, "Well, I am not as good as you, or you, but then I am not so bad; +<i>I pray.</i>" And the truth is because I have broken with God the +praying—saying words in that form—is utterly worthless.</p> + +<p>You see <i>sin is slapping God in the face</i>. It may be polished, cultured +sin. Sin seems capable of taking quite a high polish. Or it may be the +common gutter stuff. A man is not concerned about the grain of a club that +strikes him a blow. How can He and I talk together if I have done that, +and stick to it—not even apologized. And of what good is an apology if +the offense is being repeated. And if we cannot talk together of course +working together is out of the question. And prayer is working together +with God. Prayer is <i>pulling with God</i> in His plan for a world.</p> + +<p>Shall we not put out the thing that is wrong? or put in the thing the +Master wants in? For <i>Jesus'</i> sake? Aye for <i>men's</i> sake: poor befooled +men's sake who are being kept out and away because God cannot get at them +through us!</p> + +<p>Shall we bow and ask forgiveness for our sin, and petty stubbornness that +has been thwarting the Master's love-plan? And yet even while we ask +forgiveness there are lives out yonder warped and dwarfed and worse +because of the hindrance in us; yes, and remaining so as we slip out of +this meeting. May the fact send us out to walk very softly these coming +days.</p> + + + +<h4>A Coaling Station for Satan's Fleet.</h4> + + +<p>There is a second thing that is plainly spoken of that hinders prayer. +James speaks of it in his letter.<sup><a href="#fn15">15</a></sup> "Ye have not because ye <i>ask</i> +not"—that explains many parched up lives and churches and unsolved +problems: no pipe lines run up to tap the reservoir, and give God an +opening into the troubled territory. Then he pushes on to say—"Ye ask, +<i>and receive not</i>"—ah! there's just the rub; it is evidently an old +story, this thing of not receiving—why? "because ye ask amiss to spend it +<i>in your pleasures</i>." That is to say selfish praying; asking for something +just because I want it; want it for myself.</p> + +<p>Here is a mother praying for her boy. He is just growing up towards young +manhood; not a Christian boy yet; but a good boy. She is thinking, "I want +<i>my</i> boy to be an honour to me; he bears my name; my blood is in his +veins; I don't want my boy to be a prodigal. I want him to be a fine man, +an honour to the family; and if he is a true Christian, he likely will be; +<i>I wish he were a Christian</i>." And so she prays, and prays repeatedly and +fervently. God might touch her boy's heart and say, "I want you out here +in India to help win my prodigal world back." <i>Oh!</i> she did not mean that! +<i>Her</i> boy in far, far off <i>India!</i> Oh, no! Not that!! Yes, what <i>she</i> +wanted—that was the whole thought—selfishness; the stream turning in to +a dead sea within her own narrow circle; no thought of sympathy with God +in His eager outreach for His poor sin-befooled world. The prayer itself +in its object is perfectly proper, and rightly offered and answered times +without number; but the <i>motive</i> wholly, uglily selfish and the +selfishness itself becomes a foothold for Satan and so the purpose of the +prayer is thwarted.</p> + +<p>Here is a wife praying that her husband might become a Christian. Perhaps +her thought is: "I wish John <i>were</i> a Christian: it would be so good: it +really seems the proper thing: he would go to church with me, and sit in +the pew Sunday morning: I'd like that." Perhaps she thinks: "He would be +careful about swearing; he would quit drinking; and be nicer and gentler +at home." Maybe she thinks: "He would ask a blessing at the meals; that +would be so nice." Maybe she thinks: "We would have family prayers." +<i>Maybe</i> that does not occur to her these days. This is what I say: <i>If</i> +her thought does not go beyond some such range, of course <i>you</i> would say +it is selfish. She is thinking of herself; not of the loving grieved God +against whom her husband is in rebellion; not of the real significance to +the man. God might touch her husband's heart, and then say: "I want you to +help Me win My poor world back." And the change would mean a reduced +income, and a different social position. <i>Oh!</i> she had not meant <i>that!</i> +Yes—what <i>she</i> wanted for herself!</p> + +<p>Here is a minister praying for a revival in his church. Maybe he is +thinking; no, not exactly thinking; it is just half thinking itself out in +his sub-consciousness—"I wish we had a good revival in our church; +increased membership; larger attendance; easier finances; may be an extra +hundred or two in my own pocket; increased prestige in the denomination; a +better call or appointment: I wish we might have a revival." Now no true +minister ever talked that way even to himself or deliberately thought it. +To do so would be to see the mean contemptibility of it. But you know how +sly we all are in our underneath scarcely-thought-out thoughts. This is +what I say: <i>if</i> that be the sort of thing underneath a man's praying of +course the motive is utterly selfish; a bit of the same thing that brought +Satan his change of name and character.</p> + +<p>Please notice that the reason for the prayer not being answered here is +not an arbitrary reluctance upon God's part to do a desirable thing. He +never fails to work whenever He has a half chance as far as it is possible +to work, even through men of faulty conceptions and mixed motives. The +reason lies much deeper. It is this: selfishness gives Satan a footing. It +gives a coaling station for his fleet on the shore of your life. And of +course he does his best to prevent the prayer, or when he cannot wholly +prevent, to spoil the results as far as he can.</p> + +<p>Prayer may properly be offered—<i>will</i> be properly offered for many wholly +personal things; for physical strength, healing in sickness, about dearly +loved ones, money needed; indeed regarding things that may not be +necessary but only desirable and enjoyable, for ours is a loving God who +would have His dear ones enjoy to the full their lives down here. But the +<i>motive</i> determines the propriety of such requests. Where the whole +purpose of one's life is <i>for Him</i> these things may be asked for freely as +His gracious Spirit within guides. And there need be no bondage of morbid +introspection, no continual internal rakings. <i>He knows if the purpose of +the heart is to please Him</i>.</p> + + + +<h4>The Shortest Way to God.</h4> + + +<p>A third thing spoken of as hindering prayer is an unforgiving spirit. You +have noticed that Jesus speaks much about prayer and also speaks much +about forgiveness. But have you noticed how, over and over again He +<i>couples</i> these two—prayer <i>and</i> forgiveness? I used to wonder why. I do +not so much now. Nearly everywhere evidence keeps slipping in of the sore +spots. One may try to keep his lips closed on certain subjects, but it +seems about impossible to keep the ears entirely shut. And continually the +evidence keeps sifting in revealing the thin skin, raw flesh, wounds +never healed over, and some jaggedly open, almost everywhere one goes. +Jesus' continual references reveal how strikingly alike is the oriental +and the occidental; the first and the twentieth centuries.</p> + +<p>Run through Matthew alone a moment. Here in the fifth chapter:<sup><a href="#fn16">16</a></sup> "If +thou are coming to the altar"—that is approaching God; what we call +prayer—"and rememberest that thy brother hath aught <i>against thee</i>"—that +side of it—"leave there thy gift and go thy way, <i>first</i> be reconciled," +and so on. Here comes a man with a lamb to offer. He approaches solemnly, +reverently, towards the altar of God. But as he is coming there flashes +across his mind the face of <i>that man</i>, with whom he has had difficulty. +And instantly he can feel his grip tightening on the offering, and his +teeth shutting closer at the quick memory. Jesus says, "If that be so lay +your lamb right down." What! go abruptly away! Why! how the folks around +the temple will talk! "Lay the lamb right down, and go thy way." The +shortest way to God for that man is not the way to the altar, but around +by that man's house. "<i>First</i>, be reconciled"—keep your perspective +straight—follow the right order—"<i>first</i> be reconciled"—not <i>second; +"then</i> come and offer thy gift."</p> + +<p>In the sixth chapter<sup><a href="#fn17">17</a></sup> He gives the form of prayer which we commonly +call the Lord's prayer. It contains seven petitions. At the close He +stops to emphasize just one of the seven. You remember which one; the one +about forgiveness. In the eighteenth chapter<sup><a href="#fn18">18</a></sup> Jesus is talking alone +with the disciples about prayer. Peter seems to remember the previous +remarks about forgiveness in connection with prayer; and he asks a +question. It is never difficult to think of Peter asking a question or +making a few remarks. He says, "Master, how many times <i>must</i> I forgive a +man? <i>Seven</i> times!" Apparently Peter thinks he is growing in grace. He +can actually <i>think</i> now of forgiving a man seven times in succession. But +the Master in effect says, "Peter, you haven't caught the idea. +Forgiveness is not a question of mathematics; not a matter of <i>keeping +tab</i> on somebody: not seven times but <i>seventy times seven.</i>" And Peter's +eyes bulge open with an incredulous stare—"four hundred and ninety +times!... one man—straightway!!" Apparently the Master is thinking, that +he will lose count, or get tired of counting and conclude that forgiveness +is preferable, or else by practice <i>breathe in the spirit of +forgiveness—the</i> thing He meant.</p> + +<p>Then as He was so fond of doing Jesus told a story to illustrate His +meaning. A man owed his lord a great debt, twelve millions of dollars; +that is to say practically an <i>unpayable</i> amount. By comparison with money +to-day, in the western world, it would be about twelve billions. And he +went to him and asked for time. He said: "I'm short just now; but I mean +to pay; I don't mean to shirk: be easy with me; and I'll pay up the whole +sum in time." And his lord generously forgave him the whole debt. That is +Jesus' picture of God, as He knows Him who knows Him best. Then this +forgiven man went out and found a fellow servant who owed him—how much do +you think? Have you ever thought that Jesus had a keen sense of the +ludicrous? Surely it shows here. He owed him about sixteen dollars and +a-quarter or a-half! And you can almost feel the clutch of this fellow's +fingers on the other's throat as he sternly demands:—"Pay me that thou +owest." And his fellow earnestly replies, "Please be easy with me; I mean +to pay; I'm rather short just now: but I'm not trying to shirk; be easy +with me." Is it possible the words do not sound familiar! But he would +not, but put him in the jail. The last place to pay a debt! That is Jesus' +picture of man as He knows him who knows him best. And in effect He says +what we have been forgiven by God is as an unpayable amount. And what are +not willing to forgive is like sixteen dollars and a fraction by contrast. +What little puny folks some of us are in our thinking and feeling!</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," some one says, "you do not know how hard it is to forgive." +You think not? I know this much:—that some persons, and some things you +<i>can</i>not forgive of yourself. But I am glad to say that I know this too +that if one allows the Spirit of Jesus to sway the heart He will make you +love persons you <i>can</i>not like. No natural affinity or drawing together +through disposition, but a real yearning love in the heart. Jesus' love, +when allowed to come in as freely as He means, fills your heart with pity +for the man who has wounded you. An infinite, tender pity that he has sunk +so low as to be capable of such actions.</p> + +<p>But the fact to put down in the sharpest contrast of white and black is +that we must forgive freely, frankly, generously, "<i>even as God</i>," if we +are to be in prayer touch with God.</p> + +<p>And the reason is not far to find; a double reason, Godward and Satanward. +If prayer be partnership in the highest sense then the same spirit must +animate both partners, the human and the divine, if the largest results +are to come. And since unforgiveness roots itself down in hate Satan has +room for both feet in such a heart with all the leeway in action of such +purchase. That word <i>unforgiving</i>! What a group of relatives it has, near +and far! Jealousy, envy, bitterness, the cutting word, the polished shaft +of sarcasm with the poisoned tip, the green eye, the acid saliva—what +kinsfolk these!</p> + + + +<h4>Search Me.</h4> + + +<p>Sin, selfishness, an unforgiving spirit—what searchlights these words +are! Many a splendid life to-day is an utter cipher in the spirit +atmosphere because of some such hindrance. And God's great love-plan for +His prodigal world is being held back; and lives being lost even where +ultimately souls shall be saved because of the lack of human prayer +partners.</p> + +<p>May we not well pray:—Search me, oh God, and know my heart and help me +know it; try me and know my innermost, undermost thoughts and purposes and +ambitions, and help me know them; and see what way there be in me that is +a grief to Thee; and then lead me—and here the prayer may be a purpose as +well as a prayer—lead me out of that way unto <i>Thy</i> way, <i>the</i> way +everlasting. For Jesus' sake; aye for men's sake, too.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch02-2"> +<h3>Why the Results are Delayed</h3><h4>God's Pathway to Human Hearts.</h4> + + +<p>God touches men through men. The Spirit's path to a human heart is through +another human heart. With reverence be it said, yet with blunt plainness +that in His plan for winning men to their true allegiance God is limited +by the human limitations. That may seem to mean more than it really does. +For our thought of the human is of the scarred, warped, shrivelled +humanity that we know, and great changes come when God's Spirit controls. +But the fact is there, however limited our understanding of it.</p> + +<p>God needs man for His plan. That is the fact that stands out strong in +thinking about prayer. God's greatest agency; man's greatest agency, for +defeating the enemy and winning men back is intercession. God is counting +mightily upon that. And He can count most mightily upon the man that +faithfully practices that.</p> + +<p>The results He longs for are being held back, and made smaller because so +many of us have not learned how to pray simply and skilfully. We need +training. And God understands that. He Himself will train. But we must be +willing; actively willing. And just there the great bother comes in. A +strong will perfectly yielded to God's will, or perfectly willing to be +yielded, is His mightiest ally in redeeming the world.</p> + +<p>Answers to prayer are delayed, or denied, out of kindness, <i>or</i>, that more +may be given, <i>or</i>, that a far larger purpose may be served. But deeper +down by far than that is this: <i>God's purposes are being delayed</i>; delayed +because of our unwillingness to learn how to pray, <i>or</i>, our slowness—I +almost said—our stupidity in learning. It is a small matter that my +prayer be answered, or unanswered; not small to me; everything perhaps to +me; but small in proportion. It is a tremendous thing that <i>God's purpose</i> +for a world is being held back through my lack. The thought that prayer is +<i>getting things</i> from God; chiefly that, is so small, pitiably small, and +yet so common. The true conception understands that prayer is partnership +with God in His planet-sized purposes, and includes the "all things" +beside, as an important detail of the whole.</p> + +<p>The real reason for the delay or failure lies simply in the difference +between God's view-point and ours. In our asking either we have not +reached the <i>wisdom</i> that asks best, <i>or</i>, we have not reached the +<i>unselfishness</i> that is willing to sacrifice a good thing, for a better, +or the best; the unselfishness that is willing to sacrifice the smaller +personal desire for the larger thing that affects the lives of many.</p> + +<p>We learn best by pictures, and by stories which are pen or word pictures. +This was Jesus' favourite method of teaching. There are in the Bible four +great, striking instances of delayed, or qualified answers to prayer. +There are some others; but these stand out sharply, and perhaps include +the main teachings of all. Probably all the instances of hindered prayer +with which we are familiar will come under one of these. That is to say, +where there are good connections upward as suggested in our last talk, +<i>and</i>, excepting those that come under the talk succeeding this, namely, +the great outside hindrance. These four are Moses' request to enter +Canaan; Hannah's prayer for a son; Paul's thorn; and Jesus' prayer in +Gethsemane.</p> + +<p>Let us look a bit at these in turn.</p> + + + +<h4>For the Sake of a Nation.</h4> + + +<p>First is the incident of Moses' ungranted petition. Moses was the leader +of his people. He is one of the giants of the human race from whatever +standpoint considered. His codes are the basis of all English and American +jurisprudence. From his own account of his career, the secret of all his +power as a maker of laws, the organizer of a strangely marvellous nation, +a military general and strategist—the secret of all was in his direct +communication with God. He was peculiarly a man of prayer. Everything was +referred to God, and he declared that everything—laws, organization, +worship, plans—came to him from God. In national emergencies where moral +catastrophe was threatened he petitioned God and the plans were changed in +accordance with his request. He makes personal requests and they are +granted. He was peculiarly a man who dealt directly with God about every +sort of thing, national and personal, simple and complex. The record +commonly credited to him puts prayer as the simple profound explanation of +his stupendous career and achievements. He prayed. God worked along the +line of his prayer. The great things recorded are the result. That is the +simple inferential summary.</p> + +<p>Now there is one exception to all this in Moses' life. It stands out the +more strikingly that it is an exception; the one exception of a very long +line. Moses asked repeatedly for one thing. It was not given him. God is +not capricious nor arbitrary. There must be a reason. <i>There is.</i> And it +is fairly luminous with light.</p> + +<p>Here are the facts. These freed men of Egypt are a hard lot to lead and to +live with. Slow, sensuous, petty, ignorant, narrow, impulsive, strangers +to self-control, critical, exasperating—what an undertaking God had to +make a nation, <i>the</i> nation of history, about which centred His deep +reaching, far-seeing love ambition for redeeming a world out of such +stuff! Only paralleled by the church being built upon such men as these +Galilean peasants! What victories these! What a God to do such things! +Only a God could do either and both! What immense patience it required to +shape this people. What patience God has. Moses had learned much of +patience in the desert sands with his sheep; for he had learned much of +God. But the finishing touches were supplied by the grindstone of friction +with the fickle temper of this mob of ex-slaves.</p> + +<p>Here are the immediate circumstances. They lacked water. They grew very +thirsty. It was a serious matter in those desert sands with human lives, +and young children, and the stock. No, it was not serious: really a very +small matter, for <i>God was along</i>, and the enterprise was of His starting. +It was His affair, all this strange journey. And they knew Him quite well +enough in their brief experience to be expecting something fully equal to +all needs with a margin thrown in. There was that series of stupendous +things before leaving Egypt. There was the Red Sea, and fresh food daily +delivered at every man's tent door, and game, juicy birds, brought down +within arms' reach, yes, and—surely this alone were enough—there was +living, cool water gushing abundantly, gladly out of the very heart of a +flinty rock—if such a thing can be said to have a heart! Oh, yes it was a +very small matter to be lacking anything with such a lavish God along.</p> + +<p><i>But they forgot.</i> Their noses were keener than their memories. They had +better stomachs than hearts. The odorous onions of Egypt made more +lasting impressions than this tender, patient, planning God. Yet here +even their stomachs forgot those rock-freed waters. These people must be +kinsfolk of ours. They seem to have some of the same family traits.</p> + +<p>Listen: they begin to complain, to criticise. God patiently says nothing +but provides for their needs. But Moses has not yet reached the high level +that later experiences brought him. He is standing to them for God. Yet he +is very un-Godlike. Angrily, with hot word, he <i>smites</i> the rock. Once +smiting was God's plan; then the quiet word ever after. How many a time +has the once smitten Rock been smitten again in our impatience! <i>The +waters came</i>! Just like God! They were cared for, though He had been +disobeyed and dishonoured. And there are the crowds eagerly drinking with +faces down; and up yonder in the shadow standeth God <i>grieved</i>, deeply +grieved at the false picture this immature people had gotten of Him that +day through Moses. Moses' hot tongue and flashing eye made a deep moral +scar upon their minds, that it would take years to remove. Something must +be done for the people's sake. Moses disobeyed God. He dishonoured God. +Yet the waters came, for <i>they needed water</i>. And God is ever +tender-hearted. But they must be taught the need of obedience, the evil of +disobedience. Taught it so they never could forget.</p> + +<p>Moses was a leader. Leaders may not do as common men. And leaders may not +be dealt with as followers. They stand too high in the air. They affect +too many lives. So God said to Moses:—"You will not go into Canaan. You +may lead them clear up to the line; you may even see over, but you may not +go in." That hurt Moses deep down. It hurt God deeper down, in a heart +more sensitive to hurt than was Moses'. Without doubt it was said with +<i>reluctance</i>, for <i>Moses'</i> sake. But <i>it was said</i>, plainly, irrevocably, +for <i>their</i> sakes. Moses' petition was for a reversal of this decision. +Once and again he asked. He wanted to see that wondrous land of God's +choosing. He felt the sting too. The edge of the knife of discipline cut +keenly, and the blood spurted. But God said:—"Do not speak to Me again of +this." The decision was not to be changed. For Moses' sake only He would +gladly have changed, judging by His previous conduct. For the sake of the +nation—aye, for the sake of the prodigal world to be won back through +this nation, the petition might not be granted. That ungranted petition +taught those millions the lesson of obedience, of reverence, as no +command, or smoking mount, or drowning Egyptians had done. It became +common talk in every tent, by every camp-fire of the tented nation. "Moses +disobeyed,—he failed to reverence God;—he cannot enter Canaan."—With +hushed tones, and awed hearts and moved, strangely moved faces it passed +from lip to lip. Some of the women and children wept. They all loved +Moses. They revered him. How gladly they would have had him go over. The +double-sided truth—obedience—disobedience—kept burning in through the +years.</p> + +<p>In after years many a Hebrew mother told her baby, eager for a story, of +Moses their great leader; his appearance, deep-set eyes, long beard, +majestic mien, yet infinite tenderness and gentleness, the softness of +strength; his presence with God in the mount, the shining face. And the +baby would listen so quietly, and then the eyes would grow so big and the +hush of spirit come as the mother would repeat softly, "but he could not +come over into the land of promise because <i>he did not obey God</i>." And +strong fathers reminded their growing sons. And so it was woven into the +warp and woof of the nation—<i>obedience, reverent obedience to God</i>. And +one can well understand Moses looking down from above with grateful heart +that he had been denied for <i>their</i> sakes. The unselfishness and wisdom of +later years would not have made the prayer. <i>The prayer of a man was +denied that a nation might be taught obedience</i>.</p> + + + +<h4>That More Might be Given and Gotten.</h4> + + +<p>Now let us look a bit at the second of these, the portrait of Hannah the +Hebrew woman. First the broader lines for perspective. This peculiar +Hebrew nation had two deep dips down morally between Egypt and Babylon; +between the first making, and the final breaking. The national tide ebbed +very low twice, before it finally ran out in the Euphrates Valley. Elijah +stemmed the tide the second time, and saved the day for a later night. The +Hannah story belongs in the first of these ebb-tides; the first bad sag; +the first deep gap.</p> + +<p>The giant lawgiver is long gone. His successor, only a less giant than +himself is gone too, and all that generation, and more. The giants gave +way to smaller-sized leaders. Now they are gone also. The mountain peaks +have been lost in the foothills, and these have yielded to dunes, and +levels; mostly levels; dead levels. These mountains must have had long +legs. The foothills are so far away, and are running all to toes. Now the +toes have disappeared.</p> + +<p>It is a leaderless people, for the true Leader as originally planned has +been, first ignored, then forgot. The people have no ideals. They grub in +the earth content. There is a deep, hidden-away current of good. But it +needs leadership to bring it to the surface. A leaderless people! This is +the niche of the Hannah story.</p> + +<p>The nation was rapidly drifting down to the moral level of the lowest. At +Shiloh the formal worship was kept up, but the very priests were tainted +with the worst impurity. A sort of sleepy, slovenly anarchy prevailed. +Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, with every indication +of a gutter standard. "There was none in the land possessing power of +restraint that might put them to shame in anything." No government; no +dominant spirit. Indeed the actual conditions of Sodom and her sister +cities of the plain existed among the people. This is the setting of the +simple graphic incident of Hannah. One must get the picture clearly in +mind to understand the story.</p> + +<p>Up in the hill country of Ephraim there lived a wise-hearted religious +man, a farmer, raising stock, and grain; and fruit, too, likely. He was +earnest but not of the sort to rise above the habit of his time. His farm +was not far from Shiloh, the national place of worship, and he made yearly +trips there with the family. But the woman-degrading curse of Lamech was +over his home. He had two wives. Hannah was the loved one. (No man ever +yet gave his heart to two women.) She was a gentle-spoken, thoughtful +woman, with a deep, earnest spirit. But she had a disappointment which +grew in intensity as it continued. The desire of her heart had been +withheld. She was childless.</p> + +<p>Though the thing is not mentioned the whole inference is that she prayed +earnestly and persistently but to her surprise and deep disappointment the +desired answer came not. To make it worse her rival—what a word, for the +other one in the home with her—her rival provoked her sore to make her +fret. And that thing <i>went on</i> year after year. That teasing, nagging, +picking of a small nature was her constant prod. What an atmosphere for a +home! Is it any wonder that "she was in bitterness of soul" and "wept +sore"? Her husband tenderly tries to comfort her. But her inner spirit +remains chafed to the quick. And all this goes on for years; the yearning, +the praying, the failure of answer, the biting, bitter atmosphere,—for +<i>years</i>. And she wonders why.</p> + +<p>Why was it? Step back and up a bit and get the broader view which the +narrow limits of her surroundings, and shall I say, too, though not +critically, of her spirit, shut out from her eyes. Here is what she saw: +her fondest hope unrealized, long praying unanswered, a constant ferment +at home. Here is what she wanted:—<i>a son</i>. That is her horizon. Beyond +that her thought does not rise.</p> + +<p>Here is what God saw:—a nation—no, much worse—<i>the</i> nation, in which +centred His great love-plan for winning His prodigal world, going to +pieces. The messenger to the prodigal was being slyly, subtly seduced by +the prodigal. The saviour-nation was being itself lost. The plan so long +and patiently fostered for saving a world was threatened with utter +disaster.</p> + +<p>Here is what He wanted—<i>a leader</i>! But there were no leaders. And, worse +yet, there were no men out of whom leaders might be made, no men of +leader-size. And worse yet <i>there were no women</i> of the sort to train and +shape a man for leadership. That is the lowest level to which a people +ever gets, aye, ever <i>can</i> get. God had to get a woman before He could get +a man. Hannah had in her the making of the woman He needed. God honoured +her by choosing her. But she must be changed before she could be used. And +so there came those years of pruning, and sifting, and discipline. Shall +we spell that word discipline with a final g instead of e—discipling, so +the love of it may be plainer to our near-sightedness? And out of those +years and experiences there came a new woman. A woman with vision +broadened, with spirit mellowed, with strength seasoned, with will so +sinewy supple as to yield to a higher will, to sacrifice the dearest +<i>personal pleasure</i> for the world-wide purpose; willing that he who was +her dearest treasure should be the nation's <i>first</i>.</p> + +<p>Then followed months of prayer while the man was coming. Samuel was born, +no, farther back yet, was conceived in the atmosphere of prayer and +devotion to God. The prenatal influences for those months gave the sort of +man God wanted. And a nation, <i>the</i> nation, the <i>world-plan,</i> was saved! +This man became a living answer to prayer. The romantic story of the +little boy up in the Shiloh tabernacle quickly spread over the nation. His +very name—Samuel, God hears—sifted into people's ears the facts of a +God, and of the power of prayer. The very sight of the boy and of the man +clear to the end kept deepening the brain impression through eyeballs that +God answers prayer. And the seeds of that re-belief in God that Samuel's +leadership brought about were sown by the unusual story of his birth.</p> + +<p><i>The answer was delayed that more might be given and gotten</i>. And Hannah's +exultant song of praise reveals the fineness to which the texture of her +nature had been spun. And it tells too how grateful she was for a God who +in great patience and of strong deliberate purpose delayed the answer to +her prayer.</p> + + + +<h4>The Best Light for Studying a Thorn.</h4> + + +<p>The third great picture in this group is that of Paul and his +needle-pointed thorn. Talks about the certainty of prayer being answered +are very apt to bring this question: "What about Paul's thorn?" Sometimes +asked by earnest hearts puzzled; <i>some</i>times with a look in the eye almost +exultant as though of gladness for that thorn because it seems to help out +a theory. These pictures are put into the gallery for our help. Let us +pull up our chairs in front of this one and see what points we may get to +help our hearts.</p> + +<p>First a look at Paul himself. The best light on this thorn is through the +man. The man explains the thorn. We have a halo about Paul's head; and +rightly, too. What a splendid man of God he was! God's chosen one for a +peculiar ministry. One of the twelve could be used to open the door to the +great outside world, but God had to go aside from this circle and get a +man of different training for this wider sphere. Cradled and schooled in a +Jewish atmosphere, he never lost the Jew standpoint, yet the training of +his home surroundings in that outside world, the contact with Greek +culture, his natural mental cast fitted him peculiarly for his appointed +task to the great outside majority. His keen reasoning powers, his vivid +imagination, his steel-like will, his burning devotion, his unmovable +purpose, his tender attachment to his Lord,—what a man! Well might the +Master want to win such a man for service' sake. But Paul had some weak +traits. Let us say it very softly, remembering as we instinctively will, +that where we think of one in him there come crowding to memory's door +many more in one's self. A man's weak point is usually the extreme +opposite swing of the pendulum on his strong point. Paul had a tremendous +will. He was a giant, a Hercules in his will. Those tireless journeys with +their terrific experiences, all spell out <i>will</i> large and black. But, +gently now, he went to extremes here. Was it due to his overtired nerves? +Likely enough. He was obstinate, <i>sometimes;</i> stubborn; set in his way: +<i>sometimes</i> head down, jaw locked, driving hard. Say it all <i>softly</i>, for +we are speaking of dear old saintly Paul; but, to help, <i>say</i> it, for it +is true.</p> + +<p>God had a hard time holding Paul to <i>His</i> plans. Paul had some of his own. +We can all easily understand that. Take a side glance or two as he is +pushing eagerly, splendidly on. Turn to that sixteenth chapter of +Acts,<sup><a href="#fn19">19</a></sup> and listen: "Having been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak +the word in (the province of) Asia," coupled with the fact of sickness +being allowed to overtake him in Galatia where the "forbidding" message +came. And again this, "they assayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of +Jesus suffered them not."<sup><a href="#fn20">20</a></sup> Tell me, is this the way the Spirit of God +leads? That I should go driving ahead until He must pull me up with a +sharp turn, and twist me around! It is the way He is obliged to do many +times, no doubt, with most of us. But His chosen way? His own way? Surely +not. Rather this, the keeping close, and quiet and listening for the next +step. Rather the "I go not up yet unto this feast" of Jesus.<sup><a href="#fn21">21</a></sup> And then +in a few days going up, evidently when the clear intimation came. These +words, "assayed to go," "forbidden," "suffered not"—what flashlights they +let into this strong man's character.</p> + +<p>But there is much stronger evidence yet. Paul had an ambition to preach to +the <i>Jerusalem Jews</i>. It burned in his bones from the early hours of his +new life. The substratum of "<i>Jerusalem</i>" seemed ever in his thoughts and +dreams. If <i>he</i> could just get to those Jerusalem Jews! He knew them. He +had trained with them. He was a leader among the younger set. When they +burned against these Christians he burned just a bit hotter. They knew +him. They trusted him to drive the opposite wedge. If only <i>he</i> could have +a chance down there he felt that the tide might be turned. But from that +critical hour on the Damascene road "<i>Gentiles—Gentiles</i>" had been +sounded in his ears. And he obeyed, of course he obeyed, with all his +ardent heart. <i>But, but</i>—those <i>Jerusalem Jews</i>! If he might go to +Jerusalem! Yet very early the Master had proscribed the Jerusalem service +for Paul. He made it a matter of a special vision,<sup><a href="#fn22">22</a></sup> in the holy temple, +kindly explaining why. "They will not receive of <i>thee</i> testimony +concerning Me." Would that not seem quite sufficient? Surely. Yet this +astonishing thing occurs:—Paul attempts to argue with the Master <i>why</i> he +should be allowed to go. This is going to great lengths; a subordinate +arguing with his commanding general after the orders have been issued! The +Master closes the vision with a peremptory word of command, "<i>depart</i>. I +will send thee <i>far hence</i> (from Jerusalem, where you long to be), to the +Gentiles." That is a picture of this man. It reveals the weak side in +this giant of strength and of love. And <i>this</i> is the man God has to use +in His plan. He is without doubt the best man available. And in his +splendour he stands head and shoulders above his generation and many +generations. Yet (with much reverence) God has a hard time getting Paul to +work always along the line of <i>His</i> plans.</p> + +<p>That is the man. Now for the thorn. Something came into Paul's life that +was a constant irritation. He calls it a thorn. What a graphic word! A +sharp point prodding into his flesh, ever prodding, sticking, sticking in; +asleep, awake, stitching tent canvas, preaching, writing, that thing ever +cutting its point into his sensitive flesh. Ugh! It did not disturb him so +much at first, because <i>there was God</i> to go to. He went to God and said, +"<i>Please</i> take this away." But it stayed and stuck. A second time the +prayer; a bit more urgent; the thing sticks so. The time test is the +hardest test of all. Still no change. Then praying the third time with +what earnestness one can well imagine.</p> + +<p>Now note three things: First, <i>There was an answer</i>. God answered <i>the +man</i>. Though He did not grant the petition, He answered the man. He did +not ignore him nor his request. Then God told Paul frankly that it was not +best to take the thorn away. It was in the lonely vigil of a sleepless +night, likely as not, that the wondrous Jesus-Spirit drew near to Paul. +Inaudibly to outer ear but very plainly to his inner ear, He spoke in +tones modulated into tender softness as of dearest friend talking with +dear friend. "Paul," the voice said, "I know about that thorn—and how it +hurts—it hurts Me, too. For <i>your</i> sake, I would quickly, so quickly +remove it. But—Paul"—and the voice becomes still softer—"it is a bit +better for <i>others</i>' sake that it remain: the plan in My heart <i>through +you</i> for thousands, yes, unnumbered thousands, Paul, can so best be worked +out." That was the first part of what He said. And Paul lies thinking with +a deep tinge of awe over his spirit. Then after a bit in yet quieter voice +He went on to say, "I will be so close to your side; you shall have such +revelations of My glory that the pain will be clear overlapped, Paul; the +glory shall outstrip the eating thorn point."</p> + +<p>I can see old Paul one night in his own hired house in Rome. It is late, +after a busy day; the auditors have all gone. He is sitting on an old +bench, slowing down before seeking sleep. One arm is around Luke, dear +faithful Doctor Luke, and the other around young Timothy, not quite so +young now. And with eyes that glisten, and utterance tremulous with +emotion he is just saying:—"And dear old friends, do you know, I would +not have missed this thorn, for the wondrous glory"—and his heart gets +into his voice, there is a touch of the hoarseness of deep emotion, and a +quavering of tone, so he waits a moment—"the wondrous <i>glory-presence of +Jesus</i> that came with it."</p> + +<p>And so out of the experience came a double blessing. There was a much +fuller working of God's plan for His poor befooled world. And there was an +unspeakable nearness of intimacy with his Lord for Paul. <i>The man was +answered and the petition denied that the larger plan of service might be +carried out</i>.</p> + + + +<h4>Shaping a Prayer on the Anvil of the Knees.</h4> + + +<p>The last of these pictures is like Raphael's Sistine Madonna in the +Dresden gallery; it is in a room by itself. One enters with a holy hush +over his spirit, and, with awe in his eyes, looks at <i>Jesus in +Gethsemane</i>. There is the Kidron brook, the gentle rise of ground, the +grove of gnarled knotty old olive trees. The moon above is at the full. +Its brightness makes these shadowed recesses the darker; blackly dark. +Here is a group of men lying on the ground apparently asleep. Over yonder +deeper in among the trees a smaller group reclines motionless. They, too, +sleep. And, look, farther in yet is that lone figure; all alone; nevermore +alone; save once—on the morrow.</p> + +<p>There is a foreshadowing of this Gethsemane experience in the requested +interview of the Greeks just a few intense days before. In the vision +which the Greeks unconsciously brought the agony of the olive grove began. +The climax is among these moon-shadowed trees. How sympathetic those inky +black shadows! It takes bright light to make black shadows. Yet they were +not black enough. Intense men can get so absorbed in the shadows as to +forget the light.</p> + +<p>This great Jesus! Son of God: God the Son. The Son of Man: God—a man! No +draughtsman's pencil ever drew the line between His divinity and humanity; +nor ever shall. For the union of divine and human is itself divine, and +therefore clear beyond human ken. Here His humanity stands out, +pathetically, luminously stands out. Let us speak of it very softly and +think with the touch of awe deepening for this is holiest ground. The +battle of the morrow is being fought out here. Calvary is in Gethsemane. +The victory of the hill is won in the grove.</p> + +<p>It is sheer impossible for man with sin grained into his fibre through +centuries to understand the horror with which a sinless one thinks of +actual contact with sin. As Jesus enters the grove that night it comes in +upon His spirit with terrific intensity that He is actually coming into +contact—with a meaning quite beyond us—coming into contact with sin. In +some way all too deep for definition He is to be "made sin."<sup><a href="#fn23">23</a></sup> The +language used to describe His emotions is so strong that no adequate +English words seem available for its full expression. An indescribable +horror, a chill of terror, a frenzy of fright seizes Him. The poisonous +miasma of sin seems to be filling His nostrils and to be stifling Him. And +yonder alone among the trees the agony is upon Him. The extreme grips Him. +May there not yet possibly be some other way rather than <i>this—this!</i> A +bit of that prayer comes to us in tones strangely altered by deepest +emotion. "<i>If it be possible—let this cup pass</i>." There is still a +clinging to a possibility, some possibility other than that of this +nightmare vision. The writer of the Hebrews lets in light here. The strain +of spirit almost snaps the life-thread. And a parenthetical prayer for +strength goes up. And the angels come with sympathetic strengthening. With +what awe must they have ministered! Even after that some of the red life +slips out there under the trees. By and by a calmer mood asserts itself, +and out of the darkness a second petition comes. It tells of the tide's +turning, and the victory full and complete. <i>A changed, petition</i> this! +"<i>Since this cup may not pass</i>—since only thus <i>can</i> Thy great plan for a +world be wrought out—<i>Thy—will</i>"—slowly but very distinctly the words +come—"<i>Thy—will—be—done.</i>"</p> + +<p><i>The changed prayer was wrought out upon His knees!</i> With greatest +reverence, and a hush in our voices, let us say that there alone with the +Father came the clearer understanding of the Father's actual will under +these circumstances.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Into the woods my Master went</div> +<div class="line">Clean forspent, forspent;</div> +<div class="line">Into the woods my Master came</div> +<div class="line">Forspent with love and shame.</div> +<div class="line">But the olives they were not blind to Him,</div> +<div class="line">The little gray leaves were kind to Him;</div> +<div class="line">The thorn-tree had a mind to Him</div> +<div class="line">When into the woods He came.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Out of the woods my Master went</div> +<div class="line">And He was well content;</div> +<div class="line">Out of the woods my Master came</div> +<div class="line">Content with death and shame.</div> +<div class="line">When death and shame would woo Him last</div> +<div class="line">From under the trees they drew Him last</div> +<div class="line">'Twas on a tree they slew Him—last</div> +<div class="line">When out of the woods He came."<sup><a href="#fn24">24</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>True prayer is wrought out upon the knees alone with God. With deepest +reverence, and in awed tones, let it be said, that <i>that was true of +Jesus</i> in the days of His humanity. How infinitely more of us!</p> + +<p>Shall we not plan to meet God alone, habitually, with the door shut, and +the Book open, and the will pliant so we may be trained for this holy +partnership of prayer. Then will come the clearer vision, the broader +purpose, the truer wisdom, the real unselfishness, the simplicity of +claiming and expecting, the delights of fellowship in service with Him; +then too will come great victories for God in His world. Although we +shall not begin to know by direct knowledge a tithe of the story until the +night be gone and the dawning break and the ink-black shadows that now +stain the earth shall be chased away by the brightness of His presence.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch02-3"> +<h3>The Great Outside Hindrance</h3><h4>The Traitor Prince.</h4> + + +<p>There remains yet a word to be said about hindrances. It is a most +important word; indeed the climactic word. What has been said is simply +clearing the way for what is yet to be said. A very strange phase of +prayer must be considered here. Strange only because not familiar. Yet +though strange it contains the whole heart of the question. Here lies the +fight of the fight. One marvels that so little is said of it. For if there +were clear understanding here, and then faithful practicing, there would +be mightier defeats and victories: defeats for the foe; victories for our +rightful prince, Jesus.</p> + +<p>The intense fact is this: <i>Satan has the power to hold the answer +back—for awhile; to delay the result—for a time</i>. He has not the power +to hold it back finally, <i>if</i> some one understands and prays with quiet, +steady persistence. The real pitch of prayer therefore is Satanward.</p> + +<p>Our generation has pretty much left this individual Satan out. It is +partly excusable perhaps. The conceptions of Satan and his hosts and +surroundings made classical by such as Dante and Milton and Doré have +done much to befog the air. Almost universally they have been taken +literally whether so meant or not. One familiar with Satan's +characteristics can easily imagine his cunning finger in that. He is +willing even to be caricatured, or to be left out of reckoning, if so he +may tighten his grip.</p> + +<p>These suggestions of horns and hoofs, of forked tail and all the rest of +it seek to give material form to this being. They are grotesque to an +extreme, and therefore caricatures. A caricature so disproportions and +exaggerates as to make hideous or ridiculous. In our day when every +foundation of knowledge is being examined there has been a natural but +unthinking turning away from the very being of Satan through these +representations of him. Yet where there is a caricature there must be a +true. To revolt from the true, hidden by a caricature, in revolting from +the caricature is easy, but is certainly bad. It is always bad to have the +truth hid from our eyes.</p> + +<p>It is refreshing and fascinating to turn from these classical caricatures +to the scriptural conception of Satan. In this Book he is a being of great +beauty of person, of great dignity of position even yet, endowed with most +remarkable intellectual powers, a prince, at the head of a most +remarkable, compact organization which he has wielded with phenomenal +skill and success in furthering his ambitious purposes.</p> + +<p>And he is not chained yet. I remember a conversation with a young +clergyman one Monday morning in the reading-room of a Young Men's +Christian Association. It was in a certain mining town in the southwest, +which is as full of evil resorts as such places usually are. The day +before, Sunday, had been one of special services, and we had both been +busy and were a bit weary. We were slowing down and chatting leisurely. I +remarked to my friend, "What a glad day it will be when the millennium +comes!" He quickly replied, "I think this is the millennium." "But," I +said, "I thought Satan was to be chained during that time. Doesn't it say +something of that sort in the Book?" "Yes," he replied, "it does. But I +think he is chained now." And I could not resist the answer that came +blurting its way out, "Well, if he is chained, he must have a fairly long +chain: it seems to permit much freedom of action." From all that can be +gathered regarding this mighty prince he is not chained yet. We would do +well to learn more about him. The old military maxim, "Study the enemy," +should be followed more closely here.</p> + +<p>It is striking that the oldest of the Bible books, and the latest, Job and +Revelation, the first word and the last, give such definite information +concerning him. These coupled with the gospel records supply most of the +information available though not all. Those three and a half years of +Jesus' public work is the period of greatest Satanic and demoniac +activity of which any record has been made. Jesus' own allusions to him +are frequent and in unmistakable language. There are four particular +passages to which I want to turn your attention now. Let it not be +supposed, however, that this phase of prayer rests upon a few isolated +passages. Such a serious truth does not hinge upon selected proof texts. +It is woven into the very texture of this Book throughout.</p> + +<p>There are two facts that run through the Bible from one end to the other. +They are like two threads ever crossing in the warp and woof of a finely +woven fabric. Anywhere you run your shears into the web of this Book you +will find these two threads. They run crosswise and are woven inextricably +in. One is a black thread, inky black, pot-black. The other is a bright +thread, like a bit of glory light streaming across. These two threads +everywhere. The one is this—the black thread—there is an enemy. Turn +where you will from Genesis to Revelation—always an enemy. He is keen. He +is subtle. He is malicious. He is cruel. He is obstinate. He is a master. +The second thread is this: the leaders for God have always been men of +prayer above everything else. They are men of power in other ways, +preachers, men of action, with power to sway others but above all else men +of prayer. They give prayer first place. There is one striking exception +to this, namely, King Saul. And most significantly a study of this +exception throws a brilliant lime light upon the career of Satan. King +Sauls seems to furnish the one great human illustration in scripture of +heaven's renegade fallen prince. These special paragraphs to be quoted are +like the pattern in the cloth where the colours of the yarn come into more +definite shape. The gospels form the central pattern of the whole where +the colours pile up into sharpest contrast.</p> + + + +<h4>Praying is Fighting.</h4> + + +<p>But let us turn to the Book at once. For we <i>know</i> only what it tells. The +rest is surmise. The only authoritative statements about Satan seem to be +these here. Turn first to the New Testament.</p> + +<p>The Old Testament is the book of illustrations; the New of explanations, +of teaching. In the Old, teaching is largely by kindergarten methods. The +best methods, for the world was in its child stage. In the New the +teaching is by precept. There is precept teaching in the Old; very much. +There is picture teaching in the New; the gospels full of it. But picture +teaching, acted teaching, is the characteristic of the Old, and precept +teaching of the New. There is a wonderfully vivid picture in the Old +Testament, of this thing we are discussing. But first let us get the +teaching counterpart in the new, and then look at the picture.</p> + +<p>Turn to Ephesians. Ephesians is a prayer epistle. That is a very +significant fact to mark. Of Paul's thirteen letters Ephesians is +peculiarly the prayer letter. Paul is clearly in a prayer mood. He is on +his knees here. He has much to say to these people whom he has won to +Christ, but it comes in the parenthesis of his prayer. The connecting +phrase running through is—"for this cause I pray.... I bow my knees." +Halfway through this rare old man's mind runs out to the condition of +these churches, and he puts in the always needed practical injunctions +about their daily lives. Then the prayer mood reasserts itself, and the +epistle finds its climax in a remarkable paragraph on prayer. From praying +the man goes urging them to pray.</p> + +<p>We must keep the book open here as we talk: chapter six, verses ten to +twenty inclusive. The main drive of all their living and warfare seems +very clear to this scarred veteran:—"that ye may be able to withstand the +wiles of the devil." This man seems to have had no difficulty in believing +in a personal devil. Probably he had had too many close encounters for +that. To Paul Satan is a cunning strategist requiring every bit of +available resource to combat.</p> + +<p>This paragraph states two things:—who the real foe is, against whom the +fight is directed; and, then with climactic intensity it pitches on the +main thing that routs him. Who is the real foe? Listen:—"For our +wrestling is not against flesh and blood"—not against men; never that; +something far, subtler—"but against the principalities"—a word for a +compact organization of individuals,—"against powers"—not only organized +but highly endowed intellectually, "against the world-rulers of this +darkness,"—they are of princely kin; not common folk—"against the hosts +of wicked spirits in the heavenlies"—spirit beings, in vast numbers, +having their headquarters somewhere above the earth. <i>That</i> is the foe. +Large numbers of highly endowed spirit beings, compactly organized, who +are the sovereigns of the present realm or age of moral darkness, having +their <i>headquarters</i> of activity somewhere above the earth, and below the +throne of God, but concerned with human beings upon the earth. In chapter +two of the epistle the head or ruler of this organization is referred to, +"the prince of the powers of the air."<sup><a href="#fn25">25</a></sup> That is the real foe.</p> + +<p>Then in one of his strong piled up climactic sentences Paul tells how the +fight is to be won. This sentence runs unbroken through verses fourteen to +twenty inclusive. There are six preliminary clauses in it leading up to +its main statement. These clauses name the pieces of armour used by a +Roman soldier in the action of battle. The loins girt, the breastplate on, +the feet shod, the shield, the helmet the sword, and so on. A Roman +soldier reading this or, hearing Paul preach it, would expect him to +finish the sentence by saying "<i>with all your fighting strength +fighting</i>."</p> + +<p>That would be the proper conclusion rhetorically of this sentence. But +when Paul reaches the climax with his usual intensity he drops the +rhetorical figure, and puts in the thing with which in our case the +fighting is done—"with all prayer <i>praying</i>." In place of the +expected word fighting is the word praying. The thing with which the +fighting is done is put in place of the word itself. Our fighting is +praying. Praying is fighting, spirit-fighting. That is to say, this old +evangelist-missionary-bishop says, we are in the thick of a fight. There +is a war on. How shall we best fight? First get into good shape to pray, +and then with all your praying strength and skill <i>pray</i>. That word +<i>praying</i> is the climax of this long sentence, and of this whole epistle. +This is the sort of action that turns the enemy's flank, and reveals his +heels. He simply <i>cannot</i> stand before persistent knee-work.</p> + +<p>Now mark the keenness of Paul's description of the man who does most +effective work in praying. There are six qualifications under the figure +of the six pieces of armour. A clear understanding of truth, a clean +obedient life, earnest service, a strongly simple trust in God, clear +assurance of one's own salvation and relation to God, and a good grip of +the truth for others—these things prepare a man for the real conflict of +prayer. <i>Such a man</i>—<i>praying</i>—<i>drives back these hosts of the traitor +prince</i>. Such a man praying is invincible in his Chief, Jesus. The +equipment is simple, and in its beginnings comes quickly to the willing, +earnest heart.</p> + +<p>Look a bit at how the strong climax of this long sentence runs. It is +fairly bristling with points. Soldier-points all of them; like bayonet +points. Just such as a general engaged in a siege-fight would give to his +men. "With all prayer and supplication"—there is <i>intensity</i>; +"praying"—that is <i>the main drive</i>; "at all seasons"—<i>ceaselessness</i>, +night and day; hot and cold; wet and dry; "in the Spirit"—as <i>guided by +the Chief;</i> "and watching thereunto"—<i>sleepless vigilance;</i> watching is +ever a fighting word; watch the enemy; watch your own forces; "with all +perseverance"—<i>persistence</i>; cheery, jaw-locked, dogged persistence, +bulldog tenacity; "and supplication"—<i>intensity again</i>; "for all the +saints"—<i>the sweep of the action</i>, keep in touch with the whole army; +"and on my behalf"—the human leader, rally around <i>the immediate leader.</i> +This is the foe to be fought. And this the sort of fighting that defeats +this foe.</p> + + + +<h4>A double Wrestling Match.</h4> + + +<p>Now turn back to the illustration section of our Book for a remarkably +graphic illustration of these words. It is in the old prophecy of Daniel, +tenth chapter. The story is this: Daniel is an old man now. He is an +exile. He has not seen the green hills of his fatherland since boyhood. In +this level Babylon, he is homesick for the dear old Palestinian hills, and +he is heartsick over the plight of his people. He has been studying +Jeremiah's prophecies, and finds there the promise plainly made that after +seventy years these exiled Hebrews are to be allowed to return. Go back +again! The thought of it quickens his pulse-beats. He does some quick +counting. The time will soon be up. So Daniel plans a bit of time for +special prayer, a sort of siege prayer.</p> + +<p>Remember who he is—this Daniel. He is the chief executive of the land. He +controls, under the king, the affairs of the world empire of his time. He +is a giant of strength and ability—this man. But he plans his work so as +to go away for a time. Taking a few kindred spirits, who understand +prayer, he goes off into the woods down by the great Tigris River. They +spend a day in fasting, and meditation and prayer. Not utter fasting, but +scant eating of plain food. I suppose they pray awhile; maybe separately, +then together; then read a bit from the Jeremiah parchment, think and talk +it over and then pray some more. And so they spend a whole day reading, +meditating, praying.</p> + +<p>They are expecting an answer. These old-time intercessors were strong in +expectancy. But there is no answer. A second day, a third, a fourth, a +week, still no answer reaches them. They go quietly on without hesitation. +Two weeks. How long it must have seemed! Think of fourteen days spent +<i>waiting</i>; waiting for something, with your heart on tenter hooks. There +is no answer. God might have been dead, to adapt the words of Catharine +Luther, so far as any answer reaching them is concerned. But you cannot +befool Daniel in that way. He is an old hand at prayer. Apparently he has +no thought of quitting. He goes quietly, steadily on. Twenty days pass, +with no change. Still they persist. Then the twenty-first day comes and +there is an answer. It comes in a vision whose glory is beyond human +strength to bear. By and by when they can talk, his visitor and he, this +is what Daniel hears: "Daniel, the first day you began to pray, your +prayer was heard, and I was sent with the answer." And even Daniel's eyes +open big—"the <i>first</i> day—three weeks ago?" "Yes, three weeks ago I left +the presence of God with the answer to your prayer. But"—listen, here is +the strange part—"the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, +resisted me, one and twenty days: but Michael, your prince, came to help +me, and I was free to come to you with the answer to your prayer."</p> + +<p>Please notice four things that I think any one reading this chapter will +readily admit. This being talking with Daniel is plainly a spirit being. +He is opposed by some one. This opponent plainly must be a spirit being, +too, to be resisting a spirit being. Daniel's messenger is from God: that +is clear. Then the opponent must be from the opposite camp. And here comes +in the thing strange, unexpected, the evil spirit being <i>has the power to +detain, hold back God's messenger</i> for three full weeks by earth's +reckoning of time. Then reenforcements come, as we would say. The evil +messenger's purpose is defeated, and God's messenger is free to come as +originally planned.</p> + +<p>There is a double scene being enacted. A scene you can see, and a scene +you cannot see. An unseen wrestling match in the upper spirit realm, and +two embodied spirit beings down on their faces by the river. And both +concerned over the same thing.</p> + +<p>That is the Daniel story. What an acted out illustration it is of Paul's +words. It is a picture glowing with the action of real life. It is a +double picture. Every prayer action is in doubles; a lower human level; an +upper spirit level. Many see only the seen, and lose heart. While we look +at the things that are seen, let us gaze intently at the things unseen; +for the seen things are secondary, but the unseen are chief, and the +action of life is being decided there.</p> + +<p>Here is the lower, the seen;—a group of men, led by a man of executive +force enough to control an empire, prone on their faces, with minds clear, +quiet, alert, persistently, ceaselessly <i>praying</i> day by day. Here is the +upper, the unseen:—a "wrestling," keen, stubborn, skilled, going on +between two spirit princes in the spirit realm. And by Paul's explanation +the two are vitally connected. Daniel and his companions are wrestlers +too, active participants in that upper-air fight, and really deciding the +issue, for they are on the ground being contested. These men are indeed +praying with all prayer and supplication at all times, in the Spirit, and +watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication, and <i>at length +victory comes</i>.</p> + + + +<h4>Prayer Concerns Three.</h4> + + +<p>Now a bit of a look at the central figure of the pattern. Jesus lets in a +flood of light on Satan's relation to prayer in one of His prayer +parables. There are two parables dealing distinctively with prayer: "the +friend at midnight,"<sup><a href="#fn26">26</a></sup> and "the unjust judge."<sup><a href="#fn27">27</a></sup> The second of these +deals directly with this Satan phase of prayer. It is Luke through whom we +learn most of Jesus' own praying who preserves for us this remarkable +prayer picture.</p> + +<p>It comes along towards the end. The swing has been made from plain talking +to the less direct, parable-form of teaching. The issue with the national +leaders has reached its acutest stage. The culmination of their hatred, +short of the cross, found vent in charging Him with being inspired by the +spirit of Satan. He felt their charge keenly and answered it directly and +fully. His parable of the strong man being bound before his house can be +rifled comes in here. <i>They</i> had no question as to what that meant. That +is the setting of this prayer parable. The setting is a partial +interpretation. Let us look at this parable rather closely, for it is full +of help for those who would become skilled in helping God win His world +back home again.</p> + +<p>Jesus seems so eager that they shall not miss the meaning here that He +departs from His usual habit and says plainly what this parable is meant +to teach:—"that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." The great +essential, He says, is <i>prayer</i>. The great essential in prayer is +<i>persistence</i>. The temptation in prayer is that one may lose heart, and +give up, or give in. "Not-to-faint" tells how keen the contest is.</p> + +<p>There are three persons in the parable; a judge, a widow, and an +adversary. The judge is utterly selfish, unjust, godless, and reckless of +anybody's opinion. The worst sort of man, indeed, the last sort of man to +be a judge. Inferentially he knows that the right of the case before him +is with the widow. The widow—well, she is a <i>widow</i>. Can more be said to +make the thing vivid and pathetic! A very picture of friendlessness and +helplessness is a widow. A woman needs a friend. This woman has lost her +nearest, dearest friend; her protector. She is alone. There is an +adversary, an opponent at law, who has unrighteously or illegally gotten +an advantage over the widow and is ruthlessly pushing her to the wall. She +is seeking to get the judge to join with her against her adversary. Her +urgent, oft repeated request is, "avenge me of mine adversary." That is +Jesus' pictorial illustration of persistent prayer.</p> + +<p>Let us look into it a little further. "Adversary" is a common word in +scripture for Satan. He is the accuser, the hater, the enemy, the +adversary. Its meaning technically is "an opponent in a suit at law." It +is the same word as used later by Peter, "Your adversary the devil as a +roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour."<sup><a href="#fn28">28</a></sup> The word +"avenge" used four times really means, "do me justice." It suggests that +the widow has the facts on her side to win a clear case, and that the +adversary has been bully-ragging his case through by sheer force.</p> + +<p>There is a strange feature to this parable, which must have a meaning. <i>An +utterly godless unscrupulous man is put in to represent God!</i> This is +startling. In any other than Jesus it would seem an overstepping of the +bounds. But there is keenness of a rare sort here. Such a man is chosen +for judge to bring out most sharply this:—the sort of thing required to +win this judge is certainly not required <i>with God</i>. The widow must +persist and plead because of the sort of man she has to deal with. But God +is utterly different in character. Therefore while persistence is urged in +prayer plainly it is not for the reason that required the widow to +persist. And if that reason be cut out it leaves only one other, namely, +that represented by the adversary.</p> + +<p>Having purposely put such a man in the parable for God, Jesus takes pains +to speak of the real character of God. "And He is <i>long-suffering</i> over +them." <i>That</i> is God. That word "long-suffering" and its equivalent on +Jesus' lips suggests at once the strong side of love, namely, <i>patience</i>, +gentle, fine patience. It has bothered the scholars in this phrase to know +with whom or over what the long-suffering is exercised. "Over them" is the +doubtful phrase. Long-suffering over these praying ones? <i>Or</i>, +long-suffering in dealing righteously with some stubborn adversary—which? +The next sentence has a word set in sharpest contrast with this one, +namely "speedily." "Long-suffering" yet "speedily."</p> + +<p>Here are gleams of bright light on a dark subject with apparently more +light obscured than is allowed to shine through. Jesus always spoke +thoughtfully. He chooses His words. Remembering the adversary against whom +the persistence is directed the whole story seems to suggest this: that +there is <i>a great conflict on</i> in the upper spirit world. Concerning it +our patient God is long-suffering. He is a just and righteous God. These +beings in the conflict are all His creatures. He is just in His dealings +with the devil and this splendid host of evil spirits even as with all His +creation. He is long-suffering that no unfairness shall be done in His +dealings with these creatures of His. Yet at the same time He is doing His +best to bring the conflict to a speedy end, for the sake of His loyal +loved ones, and that right may prevail.</p> + +<p>The upshot of the parable is very plain. It contains for us two +tremendous, intense truths. First is this: <i>prayer concerns three</i>, not +two but three. God to whom we pray, the man on the contested earth who +prays, and the evil one against whom we pray. And the purpose of the +prayer is not to persuade or influence God, but to join forces with Him +against the enemy. Not towards God, but with God against Satan—that is +the main thing to keep in mind in prayer. The real pitch is not Godward +but Satanward.</p> + +<p>The second intense truth is this:—the winning quality in prayer is +<i>persistence</i>. The final test is here. This is the last ditch. Many who +fight well up to this point lose their grip here, and so lose all. Many +who are well equipped for prayer fail here, and doubtless fail because +they have not rightly understood. With clear, ringing tones the Master's +voice sounds in our ears again to-day, "always to pray, <i>and</i> not to +faint."</p> + + + +<h4>A Stubborn Foe Routed.</h4> + + +<p>That is the parable teaching. Now a look at a plain out word from the +Master's lips. It is in the story of the demonized boy, the distressed +father, and the defeated disciples, at the foot of the transfiguration +mountain.<sup><a href="#fn29">29</a></sup> Extremes meet here surely. The mountain peak is in sharpest +contrast with the valley. The demon seems to be of the superlative degree. +His treatment of the possessed boy is malicious to an extreme. His purpose +is "to destroy" him. Yet there is a limit to his power, for what he would +do he has not yet been able to do. He shows extreme tenacity. He fought +bitterly against being disembodied again. (Can it be that embodiment eases +in some way the torture of existence for these prodigal spirits!) And so +far he fought well, and with success. The disciples had tried to cast him +out. They were expected to. They expected to. They had before. They +failed!--dismally—amid the sneering and jeering of the crowd and the +increasing distress of the poor father.</p> + +<p>Then Jesus came. Was some of the transfiguring glory still lingering in +that great face? It would seem so. The crowd was "amazed" when they saw +Him, and "saluted" Him. His presence changed all. The demon angrily left, +doing his worst to wreck the house he had to vacate. The boy is restored; +and the crowd astonished at the power of God.</p> + +<p>Then these disciples did a very keen thing. They made some bad blunders +but this is not one of them. They sought a private talk with Jesus. No +shrewder thing was ever done. When you fail, quit your service and get +away for a private interview with Jesus. With eyes big, and voices +dejected, the question wrung itself out of their sinking hearts, "Why +could not <i>we</i> cast it out?" Matthew and Mark together supply the full +answer. Probably first came this:—"because of your little faith." They +had quailed in their hearts before the power of this malicious demon. And +the demon knew it. They were more impressed with the power of the demon +than with the power of God. And the demon saw it. They had not prayed +victoriously against the demon. The Master says, "faith only as big as a +mustard seed (you cannot measure the strength of the mustard seed by its +size) will say to this mountain—'Remove.'" Mark keenly:—the direction of +the faith is towards the obstacle. Its force is against the enemy. It was +the demon who was most directly influenced by Jesus' faith.</p> + +<p>Then comes the second part of the reply:—"This kind can come out by +nothing but by prayer." Some less-stubborn demons may be cast out by the +faith that comes of our regular prayer-touch with God. This extreme sort +takes special prayer. This kind of a demon goes out by prayer. It can be +put out by nothing less. The real victory must be in the secret place. The +exercise of faith in the open battle is then a mere pressing of the +victory already won. These men had the language of Jesus on their lips, +but they had not gotten the victory first off somewhere alone. This demon +is determined not to go. He fights stubbornly and strongly. He succeeds. +Then this <i>Man of Prayer</i> came. The quiet word of command is spoken. The +demon must go. These disciples were strikingly like some of us. They had +not <i>realized</i> where the real victory is won. They had used the word of +command to the demon, doubtless coupling Jesus' name with it. But there +was not the secret touch with God that gives victory. Their eyes showed +their fear of the demon.</p> + +<p>Prayer, real prayer, intelligent prayer, it is this that routs Satan's +demons, for it routs their chief. David killed the lion and bear in the +secret forests before he faced the giant in the open. These disciples were +facing the giant in the open without the discipline in secret. "This kind +can be compelled to come out by nothing but by prayer," means this:—"this +kind comes out, and must come out, before the man who prays." This thing +which Jesus calls prayer casts out demons. Would that we knew better by +experience what He meant by prayer. It exerts a positive influence upon +the hosts of evil spirits. They fear it. They fear the man who becomes +skilled in its use.</p> + +<p>There are yet many other passages in this Bible fully as explicit as +these, and which give on the very surface just such plain teaching as +these. The very language of scripture throughout is full of this truth. +But these four great instances are quite sufficient to make the present +point clear and plain. This great renegade prince is an actual active +factor in the lives of men. He believes in the potency of prayer. He fears +it. He can hinder its results for a while. He does his best to hinder it, +and to hinder as long as possible.</p> + +<p><i>Prayer overcomes him.</i> It defeats his plans and himself. He cannot +successfully stand before it. He trembles when some man of simple faith in +God prays. Prayer is insistence upon God's will being done. It needs for +its practice a man in sympathetic touch with God. Its basis is Jesus' +victory. It overcomes the opposing will of the great traitor-leader.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="chapter" id="ch03"> +<h2>III. How to Pray</h2> + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch03-1">The "How" of Relationship.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-2">The "How" of Method.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-3">The Listening Side of Prayer. </a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-4">Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-5">May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones?</a></li> +</ol> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-1"> +<h3>The "How" of Relationship</h3><h4>God's Ambassadors.</h4> + + +<p>If I had an ambition to be the ambassador of this country to our +mother-country, there would be two essential things involved. The first +and great essential would be to receive the appointment. I would need to +come into certain relation with our president, to possess certain +qualifications considered essential by him, and to secure from his hand +the appointment, and the official credentials of my appointment. That +would establish my relationship to the foreign court as the representative +of my own country, and my right to transact business in her name.</p> + +<p>But having gotten that far I might go over there and make bad mistakes. I +might get our diplomatic relations tangled up, requiring many +explanations, and maybe apologies, and leaving unpleasant memories for a +long time to come. Such incidents have not been infrequent. Nations are +very sensitive. Governmental affairs must be handled with great nicety. +There would be a second thing which if I were a wise enough man to be an +ambassador I would likely do. I would go to see John Hay and Joseph H. +Choate, and have as many interviews with them as possible, and learn all I +possibly could from them of London official life, court etiquette, +personages to be dealt with, things to do, and things to avoid. How to be +a successful diplomat and further the good feeling between the two +governments, and win friends for our country among the sturdy Britons +would be my one absorbing thought. And having gotten all I could in that +way I would be constantly on the alert with all the mental keenness I +could command to practice being a successful ambassador.</p> + +<p>The first of these would make me technically an ambassador. The second +would tend towards giving me some skill as an ambassador. Now there are +the same two how's in praying. First the relationship must be established +before any business can be transacted. Then skill must be acquired in the +transacting of the business on hand.</p> + +<p>Just now, we want to talk about the first of these, the how of +relationship in prayer. The basis of prayer is right relationship with +God. Prayer is representing God in the spirit realm of this world. It is +insisting upon His rights down in this sphere of action. It is standing +for Him with full powers from Him. Clearly the only basis of such +relationship to God is <i>Jesus</i>. We have been outlawed by sin. We were in +touch with God. We broke with Him. The break could not be repaired by us. +Jesus came. He was God <i>and</i> Man. He touches both. We get back through +Him, and only so. The blood of the cross is the basis of all prayer. +Through it the relationship is established that underlies all prayer. Only +as I come to God through Jesus to get the sin score straightened, and only +as I keep in sympathy with Jesus in the purpose of my life can I practice +prayer.</p> + + + +<h4>Six Sweeping Statements.</h4> + + +<p>Jesus' own words make this very clear. There are two groups of teachings +on prayer in those three and a half years as given by the gospel records. +The first of these groups is in the Sermon on the Mount which Jesus +preached about half-way through the second year of His ministry. The +second group comes sheer at the end. All of it is in the last six months, +and most of it in the last ten days, and much of that on the very eve of +that last tragic day.</p> + +<p>It is after the sharp rupture with the leaders that this second series of +statements is made. The most positive, and most sweeping utterances on +prayer are here. Of Jesus' eight promises regarding prayer six are here. I +want to ask you please to notice these six promises or statements; and +then, to notice their relation to our topic of to-day.</p> + +<p>In Matthew 18:19, 20, is the first of these. "Again I say unto you, that +if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they Shall +ask, it shall be done for them of My Father who is in heaven." Notice the +place of prayer—"on earth"; and the sweep—"anything"; and the +positiveness—"it shall be done." Then the reason why is given. "For where +two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of +them." That is to say, if there are two persons praying, there are three. +If three meet to pray, there are four praying. There is always one more +than you can see. And if you might perhaps be saying to yourself in a bit +of dejection, "He'll not hear me: I'm so sinful: so weak"—you would be +wrong in thinking and saying so, but then we do think and say things that +are not right—<i>if</i> you might be thinking that, you could at once fall +back upon this: the Father always hears Jesus. And wherever earnest hearts +pray Jesus is there taking their prayer and making it His prayer.</p> + +<p>The second of these: Mark 11:22-24, "Jesus answering saith unto them, have +faith in God"—with the emphasis double-lined under the word "God." The +chief factor in prayer is God. "Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say +unto this mountain, be thou taken up and cast into the sea—" Choosing, do +you see the unlikeliest thing that might occur. Such a thing did not take +place. We never hear of Jesus moving an actual mountain. The need for such +action does not seem to have arisen. But He chooses the thing most +difficult for His illustration. Can you imagine a mountain moving off into +the sea—the Jungfrau, or Blanc, or Rainier? If you know mountains down in +your country you cannot imagine it actually occurring. "—And shall not +doubt in his heart—" That is Jesus' definition of faith. "—But shall +believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore, I +say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye +receive them, and ye shall have them." How utterly sweeping this last +statement! And to make it more positive it is preceded by the emphatic +"therefore—I—say—unto—you." Both whatsoever and whosoever are here. +Anything, and anybody. We always feel instinctively as though these +statements need careful guarding: a few fences put up around them. Wait a +bit and we shall see what the Master's own fence is.</p> + +<p>The last four of the six are in John's gospel. In that last long quiet +talk on the night in which He was betrayed. John preserves much of that +heart-talk for us in chapters thirteen to seventeen.</p> + +<p>Here in John 14:13, 14: "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, that will I do." The repetition is to emphasize the +unlimited sweep of what may be asked.</p> + +<p>John 15:7: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you—" That word +abide is a strong word. It does not mean to leave your cards; nor to hire +a night's lodging; nor to pitch a tent, or run up a miner's shanty, or a +lumberman's shack. It means moving in to stay. "—Ask whatsoever ye +will—" The Old Version says, "ye shall ask." But here the revised is more +accurate: "Ask; please ask; I ask you to ask." There is nothing said +directly about God's will. There is something said about our wills. "—And +it shall be done unto you." Or, a little more literally, "I will bring it +to pass for you."</p> + +<p>I remember the remark quoted to me by a friend one day. His church +membership is in the Methodist Church of the North, but his service +crosses church lines both in this country and abroad. He was talking with +one of the bishops of that church whose heart was in the foreign mission +field. The bishop was eager to have this friend serve as missionary +secretary of his church. But he knew, as everybody knows, how difficult +appointments oftentimes are in all large bodies. He was earnestly +discussing the matter with my friend, and made this remark: "If you will +allow the use of your name for this appointment, <i>I will lay myself out</i> +to have it made." Now if you will kindly not think there is any lack of +reverence in my saying so—and there is surely none in my thought—that is +the practical meaning of Jesus' words here. "If you abide in Me, and My +words sway you, you please ask what it is your will to ask. And—softly, +reverently now—I will lay Myself out to bring that thing to pass for +you." That is the force of His words here.</p> + +<p>This same chapter, sixteenth verse: "Ye did not choose Me, but I chose +you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your +fruit should abide; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, +He may give it you." God had our prayer partnership with Himself in His +mind in choosing us. And the last of these, John 16:23, 24, second clause, +"Verily, verily, I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father, +He will give it you in My name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: +ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled."</p> + +<p>These statements are the most sweeping to be found anywhere in the +Scriptures regarding prayer. There is no limitation as to who shall ask, +nor the kind of thing to be asked for. There are three limitations +imposed: the prayer is to be <i>through Jesus</i>; the person praying is to be +in fullest sympathy with Him; and this person is to have faith.</p> + + + +<h4>Words With a Freshly Honed Razor-Edge.</h4> + + +<p>Now please group these six sweeping statements in your mind and hold them +together there. Then notice carefully this fact. These words are not +spoken to the crowds. They are spoken to the small inner group of twelve +disciples. Jesus talks one way to the multitude. He oftentimes talks +differently to these men who have separated themselves from the crowd and +come into the inner circle.</p> + +<p>And notice further that before Jesus spoke these words to this group of +men He had said something else first. Something very radical; so radical +that it led to a sharp passage between Himself and Peter, to whom He +speaks very sternly. This something else fixes unmistakably their relation +to Himself. Remember that the sharp break with the national leaders has +come. Jesus is charged with Satanic collusion. The death plot is +determined upon. The breach with the leaders is past the healing point. +And now the Master is frequently slipping away from the crowd with these +twelve men, and seeking to teach and train them. That is the setting of +these great promises. It must be kept continually in mind.</p> + +<p>Before the Master gave Himself away to these men in these promises He said +this something else. It is this. I quote Matthew's account: "If any man +would come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross (daily, +Luke's addition) and follow Me<sup><a href="#fn30">30</a></sup>." <i>These words should be written +crosswise over those six prayer statements</i>. Jesus never spoke a keener +word. Those six promises are not meant for all. Let it be said very +plainly. They are meant only for those who will square their lives by +these razor-edged words.</p> + +<p>I may not go fully into the significance of these deep-cutting words here. +They have been gone into at some length in a previous set of talks as +suggesting the price of power. To him whose heart burns for power in +prayer I urge a careful review of that talk in this new setting of it. "If +any man would come after Me" means a rock-rooted purpose; the jaw locked; +the tendrils of the purpose going down around and under the gray granite +of a man's will, and tying themselves there; and knotting the ties; sailor +knots, that you cannot undo.</p> + +<p>"Come after Me" means all the power of Jesus' life, and has the other +side, too. It means the wilderness, the intense temptation. It may mean +the obscure village of Nazareth for you. It may mean that first Judean +year for you—lack of appreciation. It may mean for you that last six +months—the desertion of those hitherto friendly. It will mean without +doubt a Gethsemane. Everybody who comes along after Jesus has a Gethsemane +in his life. It will never mean as much to you as it meant to Him. That is +true. But, then, it will mean everything to you. And it will mean too +having a Calvary in your life in a very real sense, though different from +what that meant to Him. This sentence through gives the process whereby +the man with sin grained into the fibre of his will may come into such +relationship with God as to claim without any reservation these great +prayer promises. And if that sound hard and severe to you let me quickly +say that it is an easy way for the man who is <i>willing.</i> The presence of +Jesus in the life overlaps every cutting thing.</p> + +<p>If a man will go through Matthew 16:24, and habitually live there he may +ask what he wills to ask, and that thing will come to pass. The reason, +without question, why many people do not have power in prayer is simply +because they are unwilling—I am just talking very plainly—they are +unwilling to bare their breasts to the keen-edged knife in these words of +Jesus. And on the other side, if a man will quietly, resolutely follow the +Master's leading—nothing extreme—nothing fanatical, or morbid, just a +quiet going where that inner Voice plainly leads day by day, he will be +startled to find what an utterly new meaning prayer will come to have for +him.</p> + + + +<h4>The Controlling Purpose.</h4> + + +<p>Vital relationship is always expressed by purpose. The wise ambassador has +an absorbing purpose to further the interests of his government. Jesus +said, and it at once reveals His relationship to God, "I do always those +things that are well pleasing to him."</p> + +<p>The relationship that underlies prayer has an absorbing purpose. Its +controlling purpose is to please Jesus. That sentence may sound simple +enough. But, do you know, there is no sentence I might utter that has a +keener, a more freshly honed razor-edge to it than that. That the purpose +which <i>controls</i> my action in every matter be this: to please Him. If you +have not done so, take it for a day, a week, and use it as a touch stone +regarding thought, word and action. Take it into matters personal, home, +business, social, fraternal. It does not mean to ask, "Is this right? is +this wrong?" Not that. Not the driving of a keen line between wrong and +right. There are a great many things that can be proven to be not wrong, +but that are not best, that are not His preference.</p> + +<p>It will send a business man running his eye along the shelves and counter +of his store. "The controlling purpose to please Jesus ... hm-m-m, I guess +maybe that stuff there ought to come out. Oh, it is not wrong: I can prove +that. My Christian brother-merchants handle it here, and over the country: +but <i>to please Him</i>: a good, clean sixty per cent, profit too, cash money, +but <i>to please Him</i>—" and the stuff must go down and out.</p> + +<p>It would set some woman to thinking about the next time the young people +are to gather in her home for a delightful social evening with her own +daughters. She will think about some forms of pastime that are found +everywhere. They are not wrong, that has been conclusively proven. But <i>to +please Him</i>. Hm-m. And these will go out. And then it will set her to +work with all her God-given woman-wit and exquisite tact to planning an +evening yet more delightful. It will make one think of his personal +habits, his business methods, and social intercourse, the organizations he +belongs to, with the quiet question cutting it razor-way into each.</p> + +<p>And if some one listening may ask: Why put the condition of prayer so +strongly as that? I will remind you of this. The true basis of prayer is +sympathy, oneness of purpose. Prayer is not extracting favours from a +reluctant God. It is not passing a check in a bank window for money. That +is mandatory. The roots of prayer lie down in oneness of purpose. God up +yonder, His Victor-Son by His side, and a man down here, in <i>such +sympathetic touch</i> that God can think His thoughts over in this man's +mind, and have His desires repeated upon the earth as this man's prayer.</p> + + + +<h4>The Threefold Cord of Jesus' Life.</h4> + + +<p>Think for a moment into Jesus' human life down here. His marvellous +activities for those few years over which the world has never ceased to +wonder. Then His underneath hidden-away prayer-life of which only +occasional glimpses are gotten. Then grouping around about that sentence +of His—"I do always the things that are pleasing to Him"—in John's +gospel, pick out the emphatic negatives on Jesus' lips, the "not's": not +My will, not My works, not My words. Jesus came to do somebody's else +will. The controlling purpose of His life was to please His Father. That +was the secret of the power of His earthly career. Right relationship to +God; a secret intimate prayer-life: marvellous power over men and with +men—those are the strands in the threefold cord of His life.</p> + +<p>There is a very striking turn of a word in the second chapter of John's +gospel down almost at its close. The old version says that "Many believed +on His name beholding His signs which He did, but Jesus did not commit +Himself unto them" because He knew them so well. The word "believed," and +the word "commit" are the same word underneath our English. The sentence +might run "many <i>trusted</i> Him beholding what He did; but He did not +<i>trust</i> them for He knew them." I have no doubt most, or all of us here +to-day, trust Him. Let me ask you very softly now: Can He trust you? While +we might all shrink from saying "yes" to that, there is a very real sense +in which we may say "yes," namely, in the purpose of the life. Every life +is controlled by some purpose. What is yours? To please Him? If so He +knows it. It is a great comfort to remember that God judges a man not by +his achievements, but by his purposes: not by what I am, actually, but by +what I would be, in the yearning of my inmost heart, the dominant purpose +of my life. God will fairly flood your life with all the power He can +trust you to use wholly for Him.</p> + +<p>Commercial practice furnishes a simple but striking illustration here. A +man is employed by a business house as a clerk. His ability and honesty +come to be tested in many ways constantly. He is promoted gradually, his +responsibilities increased. As he proves himself thoroughly reliable he is +trusted more and more, until by and by as need arises he becomes the +firm's confidential clerk. He knows its secrets. He is trusted with the +combination to the inner box in the vault. Because it has been proven by +actual test that he will use everything only for the best interests of his +house, and not selfishly.</p> + +<p>Here, where we are dealing, the whole thing moves up to an infinitely +higher level, but the principle does not change. If I will come into the +relationship implied in these words:—it shall be the one controlling +desire and purpose of my life to do the things that please Him—then I may +ask for what I will, and it shall be done. That is how to pray: the how of +relationship. The man who will live in Matthew 16:24, and follow Jesus as +He leads: simply that: no fanaticism, no morbidism, no extremism, just +simply follow as He leads, day by day,—then those six promises of Jesus +with their wonderful sweep, their limitless sweep are his to use as he +will.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-2"> +<h3>The "How" of Method</h3><h4>Touching the Hidden Keys.</h4> + + +<p>One of the most remarkable illustrations in recent times of the power of +prayer, may be found in the experience of Mr. Moody. It explains his +unparalleled career of world-wide soul winning. One marvels that more has +not been said of it. Its stimulus to faith is great. I suppose the man +most concerned did not speak of it much because of his fine modesty. The +last year of his life he referred to it more frequently as though impelled +to.</p> + +<p>The last time I heard Mr. Moody was in his own church in Chicago. It was, +I think, in the fall of the last year of his life. One morning in the old +church made famous by his early work, in a quiet conversational way he +told the story. It was back in the early seventies, when Chicago had been +laid in ashes. "This building was not yet up far enough to do much in," he +said; "so I thought I would slip across the water, and learn what I could +from preachers there, so as to do better work here. I had gone over to +London, and was running around after men there." Then he told of going +one evening to hear Mr. Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle; and +understanding that he was to speak a second time that evening to dedicate +a chapel, Mr. Moody had slipped out of the building and had run along the +street after Mr. Spurgeon's carriage a mile or so, so as to hear him the +second time. Then he smiled, and said quietly, "I was running around after +men like that."</p> + +<p>He had not been speaking anywhere, he said, but listening to others. One +day, Saturday, at noon, he had gone into the meeting in Exeter Hall on the +Strand; felt impelled to speak a little when the meeting was thrown open, +and did so. At the close among others who greeted him, one man, a +minister, asked him to come and preach for him the next day morning and +night, and he said he would. Mr. Moody said, "I went to the morning +service and found a large church full of people. And when the time came I +began to speak to them. But it seemed the hardest talking ever I did. +There was no response in their faces. They seemed as though carved out of +stone or ice. And I was having a hard time: and wished I wasn't there; and +wished I hadn't promised to speak again at night. But I had promised, and +so I went.</p> + +<p>"At night it was the same thing: house full, people outwardly respectful, +but no interest, no response. And I was having a hard time again. When +about half-way through my talk there came a change. It seemed as though +the windows of heaven had opened and a bit of breath blew down. The +atmosphere of the building seemed to change. The people's faces changed. +It impressed me so that when I finished speaking I gave the invitation for +those who wanted to be Christians to rise. I thought there might be a few. +And to my immense surprise the people got up in groups, pew-fulls. I +turned to the minister and said, 'What does this mean?' He said, 'I don't +know, I'm sure.' Well," Mr. Moody said, "they misunderstood me. I'll +explain what I meant." So he announced an after-meeting in the room below, +explaining who were invited: only those who wanted to be Christians; and +putting pretty clearly what he understood that to mean, and dismissed the +service.</p> + +<p>They went to the lower room. And the people came crowding, jamming in +below, filling all available space, seats, aisles and standing room. Mr. +Moody talked again a few minutes, and then asked those who would be +Christians to rise. This time he knew he had made his meaning clear. They +got up in clumps, in groups, by fifties! Mr. Moody said, "I turned and +said to the minister, 'What <i>does</i> this mean?' He said, 'I'm sure I don't +know.'" Then the minister said to Mr. Moody, "What'll I do with these +people? I don't know what to do with them; this is something new." And he +said, "Well. I'd announce a meeting for to-morrow night, and Tuesday +night, and see what comes of it; I'm going across the channel to Dublin." +And he went, but he had barely stepped off the boat when a cablegram was +handed him from the minister saying, "Come back at once. Church packed." +So he went back, and stayed ten days. And the result of that ten days, as +I recall Mr. Moody's words, was that four hundred were added to that +church, and that every church near by felt the impulse of those ten days. +Then Mr. Moody dropped his head, as though thinking back, and said: "I had +no plans beyond this church. I supposed my life work was here. But the +result with me was that I was given a roving commission and have been +working under it ever since."</p> + +<p>Now what was the explanation of that marvellous Sunday and days following? +It was not Mr. Moody's doing, though he was a leader whom God could and +did mightily use. It was not the minister's doing; for he was as greatly +surprised as the leader. There was some secret hidden beneath the surface +of those ten days. With his usual keenness Mr. Moody set himself to ferret +it out.</p> + +<p>By and by this incident came to him. A member of the church, a woman, had +been taken sick some time before. Then she grew worse. Then the physician +told her that she would not recover. That is, she would not die at once, +so far as he could judge, but she would be shut in her home for years. +And she lay there trying to think what that meant: to be shut in for +years. And she thought of her life, and said, "How little I've done for +God: practically nothing: and now what can I do shut in here on my back." +And she said, "I can pray."</p> + +<p>May I put this word in here as a parenthesis in the story—that God +oftentimes allows us to be shut in—He does not shut us in—He does not +need to—simply take His hand off partly—there is enough disobedience to +His law of our bodies all the time to shut us aside—no trouble on that +side of the problem—<i>with pain to Himself</i>, against His own first will +for us, He allows us to be shut in, because only so <i>can</i> He get our +attention from other things to what He wants done; get us to see things, +and think things His way. I am compelled to think it is so.</p> + +<p>She said, "I <i>will</i> pray." And she was led to pray for her church. Her +sister, also a member of the church, lived with her, and was her link with +the outer world. Sundays, after church service, the sick woman would ask, +"Any special interest in church to-day?" "No," was the constant reply. +Wednesday nights, after prayer-meetings, "Any special interest in the +service to-night? there must have been." "No; nothing new; same old +deacons made the same old prayers."</p> + +<p>But one Sunday noon the sister came in from service and asked, "Who do you +think preached to-day?" "I don't know, who?" "Why, a stranger from +America, a man called Moody, I think was the name." And the sick woman's +face turned a bit whiter, and her eye looked half scared, and her lip +trembled a bit, and she quietly said: "I know what that means. There's +something coming to the old church. Don't bring me any dinner. I must +spend this afternoon in prayer." And so she did. And that night in the +service that startling change came.</p> + +<p>Then to Mr. Moody himself, as he sought her out in her sick room, she told +how nearly two years before there came into her hands a copy of a paper +published in Chicago called the <i>Watchman</i> that contained a talk by Mr. +Moody in one of the Chicago meetings, Farwell Hall meetings, I think. All +she knew was that talk that made her heart burn, and there was the name +M-o-o-d-y. And she was led to pray that God would send that man into their +church in London. As simple a prayer as that.</p> + +<p>And the months went by, and a year, and over; still she prayed. Nobody +knew of it but herself and God. No change seemed to come. Still she +prayed. And of course her prayer wrought its purpose. Every +Spirit-suggested prayer does. And that is the touchstone of true prayer. +And the Spirit of God moved that man of God over to the seaboard, and +across the water and into London, and into their church. Then a bit of +special siege-prayer, a sort of last charge up the steep hill, and that +night the victory came.</p> + +<p>Do you not believe—I believe without a doubt, that some day when the +night is gone and the morning light comes up, and we know as we are known, +that we shall find that the largest single factor, in that ten days' work, +and in the changing of tens of thousands of lives under Moody's leadership +is that woman in her praying. Not the only factor, mind you. Moody a man +of rare leadership, and consecration, and hundreds of faithful ministers +and others rallying to his support. But behind and beneath Moody and the +others, and to be reckoned with as first this woman's praying.</p> + +<p>Yet I do not know her name. I know Mr. Moody's name. I could name scores +of faithful men associated with him in his campaigns, but the name of this +one in whom humanly is the secret of it all I do not know. Ah! It is a +secret service. We do not know who the great ones are. They tell me she is +living yet in the north end of London, and still praying. Shall we pray! +Shall we not pray! If something else must slip out, something important, +shall we not see to it that intercession has first place!</p> + + + +<h4>Making God's Purpose Our Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>With that thought in mind let me this evening suggest a bit of how to +pray. As simple a subject as that: how to pray: the how of method.</p> + +<p>The first thing in prayer is to find God's purpose, the trend, the swing +of it; the second thing to make that purpose our prayer. We want to find +out what God is thinking, and then to claim that that shall be done. God +is seated up yonder on the throne. Jesus Christ is sitting by His side +glorified. Everywhere in the universe God's will is being done except in +this corner, called the earth, and its atmosphere, and that bit of the +heavens above it where Satan's headquarters are.</p> + +<p>It has been done down here by one person—Jesus. He came here to this +prodigal planet and did God's will perfectly. He went away. And He has +sought and seeks to have men down upon the earth so fully in touch with +Himself that He may do in them and through them just what He will. That He +may reproduce Himself in these men, and have God's will done again down on +the earth. Now prayer is this: finding out God's purpose for our lives, +and for the earth and insisting that that shall be done here. The great +thing then is to find out and insist upon God's will. And the "how" of +method in prayer is concerned with that.</p> + +<p>Many a time I have met with a group of persons for prayer. Various special +matters for prayer are brought up. Here is this man, needing prayer, and +this particular matter, and this one, and this. Then we kneel and pray. +And I have many a time thought—not critically in a bad sense—as I have +listened to their prayers, as though this is the prayer I must +offer:—"Blessed Holy Spirit, Thou knowest this man, and what the lacking +thing is in him. There is trouble there. Thou knowest this sick woman, and +what the difficulty is there. This problem, and what the hindrance is in +it. Blessed Spirit, pray in me the prayer Thou art praying for this man, +and this thing, and this one. The prayer Thou art praying, I pray that, in +Jesus' name. Thy will be done here under these circumstances."</p> + +<p>Sometimes I feel clear as to the particular prayer to offer, but many a +time I am puzzled to know. I put this fact with this, but I may not know +<i>all</i> the facts. I know this man who evidently needs praying for, a +Christian man perhaps, his mental characteristics, his conceptions of +things, the kind of a will he has, but there may be some fact in there +that I do not know, that seriously affects the whole difficulty. And I am +compelled to fall back on this: I don't know how to pray as I ought. But +the Spirit within me will make intercession for this man as I allow Him to +have free swing in me as the medium of His prayer. And He who is listening +above as He hears His will for this man being repeated down on the +battle-field will recognize His own purpose, of course. And so that thing +will be working out because of Jesus' victory over the evil one.</p> + +<p>But I may become so sensitive to the Spirit's thoughts and presence, that +I shall know more keenly and quickly what to pray for. In so far as I do +I become a more skillful partner of His on the earth in getting God's will +done.</p> + + + +<h4>The Trysting Place.</h4> + + +<p>There are six suggestions here on how to pray. First—we need <i>time</i> for +prayer, unhurried time, daily time, time enough to forget about how much +time it is. I do not mean now: rising in the morning at the very last +moment, and dressing, it may be hurriedly, and then kneeling a few moments +so as to feel easier in mind: not that. I do not mean the last thing at +night when you are jaded and fagged, and almost between the sheets, and +then remember and look up a verse and kneel a few moments: not that. That +is good so far as it goes. I am not criticising that. Better sweeten and +sandwich the day with all of that sort you can get in. But just now I mean +this: <i>taking time</i> when the mind is fresh and keen, and the spirit +sensitive, to thoughtfully pray. We haven't time. Life is so crowded. It +must be taken from something else, something important, but still less +important than this.</p> + +<p>Sacrifice is the continual law of life. The important thing must be +sacrificed to the more important. One needs to cultivate a mature +judgment, or his strength will be frizzled away in the less important +details, and the greater thing go undone, or be done poorly with the +fag-ends of strength. If we would become skilled intercessors, and know +how to pray simply enough, we must take quiet time daily to get off alone.</p> + +<p>The second suggestion: we need a <i>place</i> for prayer. Oh! you can pray +anywhere, on the street, in the store, travelling, measuring dry goods, +hands in dishwater,—where not. But you are not likely to unless you have +been off in some quiet place shut in alone with God. The Master said: +"Enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door": that door is +important. It shuts out, and it shuts in. "Pray to thy Father who is in +secret." God is here in this shut-in spot. One must get alone to find out +that he never is alone. The more alone we are as far as men are concerned +the least alone we are so far a; God is concerned.</p> + +<p>The quiet place and time are needful to train the ears for keen hearing. A +mother will hear the faintest cry of her babe just awaking. It is +up-stairs perhaps; the tiniest bit of a sound comes; nobody else hears; +but quick as a flash the mother's hands are held quiet, the head alert, +then she is off. Her ears are trained beyond anybody's else; love's +training. We need trained ears. A quiet place shuts out the outer sounds, +and gives the inner ear a chance to learn other sounds.</p> + +<p>A man was standing in a telephone booth trying to talk, but could not make +out the message. He kept saying, "I can't hear, I can't hear." The other +man by and by said sharply, "If you'll shut that door you can hear." <i>His</i> +door was shut and he could hear not only the man's voice but the street +and store noises too. Some folks have gotten their hearing badly confused +because their doors have not been shut enough. Man's voice and God's voice +get mixed in their ears. They cannot tell between them. The bother is +partly with the door. If you'll shut that door you can hear.</p> + +<p>The third suggestion needs much emphasis to-day: <i>give the Book of God its +place in prayer.</i> Prayer is not talking to God—simply. It is listening +first, then talking. Prayer needs three organs of the head, an ear, a +tongue and an eye. First an ear to hear what God says, then a tongue to +speak, then an eye to look out for the result. Bible study is the +listening side of prayer. The purpose of God comes in through the ear, +passes through the heart taking on the tinge of your personality, and goes +out at the tongue as prayer. It is pathetic what a time God has getting a +hearing down here. He is ever speaking but even where there may be some +inclination to hear the sounds of earth are choking in our ears the sound +of His voice. God speaks in His Word. The most we know of God comes to us +here. This Book is God in print. It was inspired, and it <i>is</i> inspired. +God Himself speaks in this Book. That puts it in a list by itself, quite +apart from all others. Studying it keenly, intelligently, reverently will +reveal God's great will. What He says will utterly change what you will +say.</p> + + + +<h4>Our Prayer Teacher.</h4> + + +<p>The fourth suggestion is this: <i>Let the Spirit teach you how to pray</i>. The +more you pray the more you will find yourself saying to yourself, "I don't +know how to pray." Well God understands that. Paul knew that out of his +own experience before he wrote it down. And God has a plan to cover our +need there. There is One who is a master intercessor. He understands +praying perfectly. He is the Spirit of prayer. God has sent Him down to +live inside you and me, partly for this, to teach us the fine art of +prayer. The suggestion is this: let Him teach you.</p> + +<p>When you go alone in the quiet time and place with the Book quietly pray: +"blessed Prayer-Spirit, Master-Spirit, teach me how to pray," and He will. +Do not be nervous, or agitated, wondering if you will understand. Study to +be quiet; mind quiet, body quiet. Be still and listen. Remember Luther's +version of David's words,<sup><a href="#fn31">31</a></sup> "Be silent to God, and let Him mould thee."</p> + +<p>You will find your praying changing. You will talk more simply, like a man +transacting business or a child asking, though of course with a reverence +and a deepness of feeling not in those things. You will quit asking for +some things. Some of the old forms of prayer will drop from your lips +likely enough. You will use fewer words, maybe, but they will be spoken +with a quiet absolute faith that this thing you are asking is being worked +out.</p> + +<p>This thing of <i>letting the Spirit teach</i> must come first in one's praying, +and remain to the last, and continue all along as the leading dominant +factor. He is a Spirit of prayer peculiarly. The highest law of the +Christian life is obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. There needs +to be a cultivated judgment in reading His leading, and not mistaking our +haphazard thoughts as His voice. He should be allowed to teach us how to +pray and more, to dominate our praying. The whole range and intensity of +the spirit conflict is under His eye. He is God's General on the field of +action. There come crises in the battle when the turn of the tide wavers. +He knows when a bit of special praying is needed to turn the tide and +bring victory. So there needs to be special seasons of persistent prayer, +a continuing until victory is assured. Obey His promptings. Sometimes +there comes an impulse to pray, or to ask another to pray. And we think, +"Why, I have just been praying," <i>or</i>, "he does pray about this anyway. It +is not necessary to pray again. I do not just like to suggest it." Better +obey the impulse quietly, with fewest words of explanation to the other +one concerned, or no words beyond simply the request.</p> + +<p>Let Him, this wondrous Holy Spirit teach you how to pray. It will take +time. You may be a bit set in your way, but if you will just yield and +patiently wait, He will teach what to pray, suggest definite things, and +often the very language of prayer.</p> + +<p>You will notice that the chief purpose of these four suggestions is to +learn God's will. The quiet place, the quiet time, the Book, the +Spirit—this is the schoolroom as Andrew Murray would finely put it. Here +we learn His will. Learning that makes one eager to have it done, and +breathes anew the longing prayer that it may be done.</p> + +<p>There is a fine word much used in the Psalms, and in Isaiah for this sort +of thing—<i>waiting</i>. Over and over again that is the word used for that +contact with God which reveals to us His will, and imparts to us anew His +desires. It is a word full of richest and deepest meaning. Waiting is not +an occasional nor a hurried thing. It means <i>steadfastness</i>, that is +holding on; <i>patience</i>, that is holding back; <i>expectancy</i>, that is +holding the face up to see; <i>obedience</i>, that is holding one's self in +readiness to go or do; it means <i>listening</i>, that is holding quiet and +still so as to hear.</p> + + + +<h4>The Power of a Name.</h4> + + +<p>The fifth suggestion has already been referred to, but should be repeated +here. Prayer must be <i>in Jesus' name</i>. The relationship of prayer is +through Jesus. And the prayer itself must be offered in His name, because +the whole strength of the case lies in Jesus. I recall distinctly a +certain section of this country where I was for awhile, and very rarely +did I hear Jesus' name used in prayer. I heard men, that I knew must be +good men, praying in church, in prayer-meeting and elsewhere with no +mention of Jesus. Let us distinctly bear in mind that we have no standing +with God except through Jesus.</p> + +<p>If the keenest lawyer of London, who knew more of American law, and of +Illinois statute and of Chicago ordinance—suppose such a case—were to +come here, could he plead a case in your court-house? you know he could +not. He would have no legal standing here. Now you and I have no standing +at yonder bar. We are disbarred through sin. Only as we come through one +who has recognized standing there can we come.</p> + +<p>But turn that fact around. As we do come in Jesus' name, it is the same as +though Jesus prayed. It is the same as though—let me be saying it very +softly so it may seem very reverent—as though Jesus put His arm in yours +and took you up to the Father, and said, "Father, here is a friend of +mine; we're on good terms. Please give him anything he asks, for My sake." +And the Father would quickly bend over and graciously say, "What'll you +have? You may have anything you ask when My Son asks for it." That is the +practical effect of asking in Jesus' name.</p> + +<p>But I am very, very clear of this, and I keep swinging back to it that in +the ultimate analysis the force of using Jesus' name is that He is the +victor over the traitor prince. Prayer is repeating the Victor's name into +the ears of Satan and insisting upon his retreat. As one prays +persistently in Jesus' name, the evil one must go. Reluctantly, angrily, +he must loosen his clutches, and go back.</p> + + + +<h4>The Birthplace of Faith.</h4> + + +<p>The sixth suggestion is a familiar one, and yet one much misunderstood. +Prayer must be <i>in faith</i>. But please note that faith here is not +believing that God <i>can</i>, but that He <i>will</i>. It is kneeling and making +the prayer, and then saying, "Father, I thank Thee for this; that it will +be so, I thank Thee." Then rising and going about your duties, saying, +"that thing is settled." Going again and again, and repeating the prayer +with the thanks, and then saying as you go off, "that matter is assured." +Not going repeatedly to persuade God. But because prayer is the deciding +factor in a spirit conflict and each prayer is like a fresh blow between +the eyes of the enemy, a fresh broadside from your fleet upon the fort.</p> + +<p>"Well," some one will say, "now you are getting that keyed up rather high. +Can we all have faith like that? Can a man <i>make</i> himself believe?" There +should be no unnatural mechanical insisting that you do believe. Some +earnest people make a mistake there. And we will not all have faith like +that. That is quite true, and I can easily tell you why. The faith that +believes that God <i>will</i> do what you ask is not born in a hurry; it is not +born in the dust of the street, and the noise of the crowd. But I can tell +where that faith will have a birthplace and keep growing stronger: in +every heart that takes quiet time off habitually with God, and listens to +His voice in His word. Into that heart will come a simple strong faith +that the thing it is led to ask shall be accomplished.</p> + +<p>That faith has four simple characteristics. It is <i>intelligent</i>. It finds +out what God's will is. Faith is never contrary to reason. Sometimes it is +a bit higher up; the reasoning process has not yet reached up to it. +Second, it is <i>obedient</i>. It fits its life into God's will. There is apt +to be a stiff rub here all the time. Then it is <i>expectant</i>. It looks out +for the result. It bows down upon the earth, but sends a man to keep an +eye on the sea. And then it is <i>persistent</i>. It hangs on. It says, "Go +again seven times; seventy times seven." It reasons that having learned +God's will, and knowing that He does not change, the delay must be caused +by the third person, the enemy, and that stubborn persistence in the +Victor's name routs him, and leaves a clear field.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-3"> +<h3>The Listening Side of Prayer</h3><h4>A Trained Ear.</h4> + + +<p>In prayer the ear is an organ of first importance. It is of equal +importance with the tongue, but must be named first. For the ear leads the +way to the tongue. The child hears a word before it speaks it. Through the +ear comes the use of the tongue. Where the faculties are normal the tongue +is trained only through the ear. This is nature's method. The mind is +moulded largely through the ear and eye. It reveals itself, and asserts +itself largely through the tongue. What the ear lets in, the mind works +over, and the tongue gives out.</p> + +<p>This is the order in Isaiah's fiftieth chapter<sup><a href="#fn32">32</a></sup> in those words, +prophetic of Jesus. "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that +are taught.... He wakeneth my ear to hear as they that are taught." Here +the taught tongue came through the awakened ear. One reason why so many of +us do not have taught tongues is because we give God so little chance at +our ears.</p> + +<p>It is a striking fact that the men who have been mightiest in prayer have +known God well. They have seemed peculiarly sensitive to Him, and to be +overawed with the sense of His love and His greatness. There are three of +the Old Testament characters who are particularly mentioned as being +mighty in prayer. Jeremiah tells that when God spoke to him about the deep +perversity of that nation He exclaimed, "Though Moses and Samuel stood +before Me My heart could not be towards this people."<sup><a href="#fn33">33</a></sup> When James wants +an illustration of a man of prayer for the scattered Jews, he speaks of +Elijah, and of one particular crisis in his life, the praying on Carmel's +tip-top. These three men are Israel's great men in the great crises of its +history. Moses was the maker and moulder of the nation. Samuel was the +patient teacher who introduced a new order of things in the national life. +Elijah was the rugged leader when the national worship of Jehovah was +about to be officially overthrown. These three men, the maker, the +teacher, the emergency leader are singled out in the record as peculiarly +men of prayer.</p> + +<p>Now regarding these men it is most interesting to observe what <i>listeners</i> +they were to God's voice. Their ears were trained early and trained long, +until great acuteness and sensitiveness to God's voice was the result. +Special pains seem to have been taken with the first man, the nation's +greatest giant, and history's greatest jurist. There were two distinct +stages in the training of his ears. First there were the forty years of +solitude in the desert sands, alone with the sheep, and the stars, +and—God. His ears were being trained by silence. The bustle and confusion +of Egypt's busy life were being taken out of his ears. How silent are +God's voices. How few men are strong enough to be able to endure silence. +For in silence God is speaking to the inner ear.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Let us then labour for an inward stillness—</div> +<div class="line">An inward stillness and an inward healing;</div> +<div class="line">That perfect silence where the lips and heart</div> +<div class="line">Are still, and we no longer entertain</div> +<div class="line">Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions,</div> +<div class="line">But God alone speaks in us, and we wait</div> +<div class="line">In singleness of heart, that we may know</div> +<div class="line">His will, and in the silence of our spirits,</div> +<div class="line">That we may do His will, and do that only."<sup><a href="#fn34">34</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>A gentleman was asked by an artist friend of some note to come to his +home, and see a painting just finished. He went at the time appointed, was +shown by the attendant into a room which was quite dark, and left there. +He was much surprised, but quietly waited developments. After perhaps +fifteen minutes his friend came into the room with a cordial greeting, and +took him up to the studio to see the painting, which was greatly admired. +Before he left the artist said laughingly, "I suppose you thought it queer +to be left in that dark room so long." "Yes," the visitor said. "I did." +"Well," his friend replied, "I knew that if you came into my studio with +the glare of the street in your eyes you could not appreciate the fine +colouring of the picture. So I left you in the dark room till the glare +had worn out of your eyes."</p> + +<p>The first stage of Moses' prayer-training was wearing the noise of Egypt +out of his ears so he could hear the quiet fine tones of God's voice. He +who would become skilled in prayer must take a silence course in the +University of Arabia. Then came the second stage. Forty years were +followed by forty days, twice over, of listening to God's speaking voice +up in the mount. Such an ear-course as that made a skilled famous +intercessor.</p> + +<p>Samuel had an earlier course than Moses. While yet a child before his ears +had been dulled by earth sounds they were tuned to the hearing of God's +voice. The child heart and ear naturally open upward. They hear easily and +believe readily. The roadway of the ear has not been beaten down hard by +much travel. God's rains and dews have made it soft, and impressionable. +This child's ear was quickly trained to recognize God's voice. And the +tented Hebrew nation soon came to know that there was a man in their midst +to whom God was talking. O, to keep the heart and inner ear of a child as +mature years come!</p> + +<p>Of the third of these famous intercessors little is known except of the +few striking events in which he figured. Of these, the scene that finds +its climax in the opening on Carmel's top of the rain-windows, occupies by +far the greater space. And it is notable that the beginning of that long +eighteenth chapter of first Kings which tells of the Carmel conflict +begins with a message to Elijah from God: "The word of the Lord came to +Elijah: ... I will send rain upon the earth." That was the foundation of +that persistent praying and sevenfold watching on the mountaintop. First +the ear heard, then the voice persistently claimed, and the eye +expectantly looked. First the voice of God, then the voice of man. That is +the true order. Tremendous results always follow that combination.</p> + + + +<h4>Through the Book to God.</h4> + + +<p>With us the training is of the <i>inner</i> ear. And its first training, after +the early childhood stage is passed, must usually be through the eye. What +God has spoken to others has been written down for us. We hear through our +eyes. The eye opens the way to the inner ear. God spoke in His word. He is +still speaking in it and through it. The whole thought here is to get <i>to +know God.</i> He reveals Himself in the word that comes from His own lips, +and through His messengers' lips. He reveals Himself in His dealings with +men. Every incident and experience of these pages is a mirror held up to +God's face. In them we may come to see Him.</p> + +<p>This is studying the Bible not for the Bible's sake but for the purpose of +knowing God. The object aimed at is not the Book but the God revealed in +the Book. A man may go to college and take lectures on the English Bible, +and increase his knowledge, and enrich his vocabulary, and go away with +utterly erroneous ideas of God. He may go to a law school and study the +codes of the first great jurist, and get a clear understanding and firm +grasp of the Mosaic enactments, as he must do to lay the foundation of +legal training, yet he may remain ignorant of God.</p> + +<p>He may even go to a Bible school, and be able to analyze and synthesize, +give outlines of books, and contents of chapters and much else of that +invaluable and indispensable sort of knowledge and yet fail to understand +God and His marvellous love-will. It is not the Book with which we are +concerned here but the God through the Book. Not to learn truth but +through truth to know Him who is Himself the Truth.</p> + +<p>There is a fascinating bit of story told of one of David's mighty men.<sup><a href="#fn35">35</a></sup> +One day there was a sudden attack upon the camp by the Philistines when +the fighting men were all away. This man alone was there. The Philistines +were the traditional enemy. The very word "Philistines" was one to strike +terror to the Hebrew heart. But this man was reckoned one of the first +three of David's mighty men because of his conduct that day. He quietly, +quickly gripped his sword and fought the enemy single-handed. Up and down, +left and right, hip and thigh he smote with such terrific earnestness and +drive that the enemy turned and fled. And we are told that the muscles of +his hand became so rigid around the handle of his sword that he could not +tell by the feeling where his hand stopped, and the sword began. Man and +sword were one that day in the action of service against the nation's +enemy. When we so absorb this Book, and the Spirit of Him who is its life +that people cannot tell the line of division between the man, and the God +within the man, then shall we have mightiest power as God's intercessors +in defeating the foe. God and man will be as one in the action of service +against the enemy.</p> + + + +<h4>A Spirit Illumined Mind.</h4> + + +<p>I want to make some simple suggestions for studying this Book so as to get +to God through it. There will be the emphasis of doubling back on one's +tracks here. For some of the things that should be said have already been +said with a different setting. First there must be the <i>time</i> element. +One must get at least a half hour daily when the mind is fresh. A tired +mind does not readily <i>absorb</i>. This should be persisted in until there is +a habitual spending of at least that much time daily over the Book, with a +spirit at leisure from all else, so it can take in. Then the time should +be given to <i>the Book itself</i>. If other books are consulted and read as +they will be let that be <i>after</i> the reading of this Book. Let God talk to +you direct, rather than through somebody else. Give Him first chance at +your ears. This Book in the central place of your table, the others +grouped about it. First time given to it.</p> + +<p>A third suggestion brings out the circle of this work. <i>Read prayerfully.</i> +We learn how to pray by reading prayerfully. This Book does not reveal its +sweets and strength to the keen mind merely, but to the Spirit enlightened +mind. All the mental keenness possible, <i>with the bright light of the +Spirit's illumination</i>—that is the open sesame. I have sometimes sought +the meaning of some passage from a keen scholar who could explain the +orientalisms, the fine philological distinctions, the most accurate +translations, and all of that, who yet did not seem to know the simple +spiritual meaning of the words being discussed. And I have asked the same +question of some old saint of God, who did not know Hebrew from a hen's +tracks, but who seemed to sense at once the deep spiritual truth taught. +The more knowledge, the keener the mind, the better <i>if</i> illumined by the +Spirit that inspired these writings.</p> + +<p>There is a fourth word to put in here. We must read <i>thoughtfully</i>. +Thoughtfulness is in danger of being a lost art. Newspapers are so +numerous, and literature so abundant, that we are becoming a bright, but a +<i>not thoughtful</i> people. Often the stream is very wide but has no depth. +Fight shallowness. Insist on reading thoughtfully. A very suggestive word +in the Bible for this is "<i>meditate</i>." Run through and pick out this word +with its variations. The word underneath that English word means to +mutter, as though a man were repeating something over and over again, as +he turned it over in his mind. We have another word, with the same +meaning, not much used now—ruminate. We call the cow a ruminant because +she chews the cud. She will spend hours chewing the cud, and then give us +the rich milk and cream and butter which she has extracted from her food. +That is the word here—ruminate. Chew the cud, if you would get the +richest cream and butter here.</p> + +<p>And it is remarkable how much chewing this Book of God will stand, in +comparison with other books. You chew a while on Tennyson, or Browning, or +Longfellow. And I am not belittling these noble writings. I have my own +favourite among these men. But they do not yield the richest and yet +richer cream found here. This Book of God has stood more of that sort of +thing than any other, yet it is the freshest book to be found to-day. You +read a passage over the two hundredth time and some new fine bit of +meaning comes that you had not suspected to be there.</p> + +<p>There is a fifth suggestion, that is easier to make than to follow. <i>Read +obediently.</i> As the truth appeals to your conscience <i>let it change your +habit and life</i>.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Light obeyed, increased light:</div> +<div class="line">Light resisted, bringeth night</div> +<div class="line">Who shall give us power to choose</div> +<div class="line">If the love of light we lose?"<sup><a href="#fn36">36</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>Jesus gives the law of knowledge in His famous words, "If any man willeth +to do His will he shall know of the teaching."<sup><a href="#fn37">37</a></sup> If we do what we know +to do, we will know more. If we know to do, and hesitate and hold back, +and do not obey, the inner eye will surely go blind, and the sense of +right be dulled and lost. Obedience to truth is the eye of the mind.</p> + + + +<h4>Wide Reading.</h4> + + +<p>Then one needs to have a <i>plan</i> of reading. A consecutive plan gathers up +the fragments of time into a strong whole. Get a good plan, and stick to +it. Better a fairly good plan faithfully followed, than the best plan if +used brokenly or only occasionally. Probably all the numerous methods of +study may be grouped under three general heads, wide reading, topical +study, and textual. We all do some textual study in a more or less small +way. Digging into a sentence or verse to get at its true and deep meaning. +We all do some topical study probably. Gathering up statements on some one +subject, studying a character. The more pretentious name is Biblical +Theology, finding and arranging all that is taught in the whole range of +the Bible on any one theme.</p> + +<p>But I want especially to urge <i>wide reading</i>, as being the basis of all +study. It is the simple, the natural, the scientific method. It is adapted +to all classes of persons. I used to suppose it was suited best to college +students, and such; but I was mistaken. It is <i>the</i> method of all for all. +It underlies all methods of getting a grasp of this wonderful Book, and so +coming to as full and rounded an understanding of God as is possible to +men down here.</p> + +<p>By wide reading is meant a <i>rapid reading through</i> regardless of verse, +chapter, or book divisions. Reading it as <i>a narrative</i>, a story. As you +would read any book, "The Siege of Pekin," "The Story of an Untold Love," +to find out the story told, and be able to tell to another. There will be +a reverence of spirit with this book that no other inspires, but with the +same intellectual method of running through to see what is here. No book +is so fascinating as the Bible when read this way. The revised version is +greatly to be preferred here simply because it is a <i>paragraph</i> version. +It is printed more like other books. Some day its printed form will be yet +more modernized, and so made easier to read.</p> + +<p>To illustrate, begin at the first of Genesis, and read rapidly through <i>by +the page</i>. Do not try to understand all. You will not. Never mind that +now. Just push on. Do not try to remember all. Do not think about that. +Let stick to you what will. You will be surprised to find how much will. +You may read ten or twelve pages in your first half hour. Next time start +in where you left off. You may get through Genesis in three or four times, +or less or more, depending on your mood, and how fast your habit of +reading may be. You will find a whole Bible in Genesis. A wonderfully +fascinating book this Genesis. For love stories, plotting, swift action, +beautiful language it more than matches the popular novel.</p> + +<p>But do not stop at the close of Genesis. Push on into Exodus. The +connection is immediate. It is the same book. And so on into Leviticus. +Now do not try to understand Leviticus the first time. You will not the +hundredth time perhaps. But you can easily group its contents: these +chapters tell of the offerings: these of the law of offerings: here is an +incident put in: here sanitary regulations: get the drift of the book. And +in it all be getting the picture of God—<i>that is the one point</i>. And so +on through.</p> + +<p>A second stage of this wide reading is fitting together the parts. You +know the arrangement of our Bible is not chronological wholly, but +topical. The Western mind is almost a slave to chronological order. But +the Oriental was not so disturbed. For example, open your Bible to the +close of Esther, and again at the close of Malachi. This from Genesis to +Esther we all know is the historical section: and this second section the +poetical and prophetical section. There is some history in the prophecy, +and some prophecy and poetry in the historical part. But in the main this +first is historical, and this second poetry and prophecy. These two parts +belong together. This first section was not written, and then this second. +The second belongs in between the leaves of the first. It was taken out +and put by itself because the arrangement of the whole Book is topical +rather than chronological.</p> + +<p>Now the second stage of wide reading is this: fit these parts together. +Fit the poetry and the prophecy into the history. Do it on your own +account, as though it had never been done. It has been done much better +than you will do it. And you will make some mistakes. You can check those +up afterwards by some of the scholarly books. And you cannot tell where +some parts belong. But meanwhile the thing to note is this: you are +absorbing the Book. It is becoming a part of you, bone of your bone, and +flesh of your flesh, mentally, and spiritually. You are drinking in its +spirit in huge draughts. There is coming a new vision of God, which will +transform radically the reverent student. In it all seek to acquire <i>the +historical sense</i>. That is, put yourself back and see what this thing, or +this, meant to these men, as it was first spoken, under these immediate +circumstances.</p> + +<p>And so push on into the New Testament. Do not try so much to fit the four +gospels into one connected story, dovetailing all the parts; but try +rather to get a clear grasp of Jesus' movements those few years as told by +these four men. Fit Paul's letters into the book of Acts, the best you +can. The best book to help in checking up here is Conybeare and Howson's +"Life and Letters of St. Paul." That may well be one of the books in your +collection.</p> + +<p>You see at once that this is a method not for a month, nor for a year, but +for years. The topical and textual study grow naturally out of it. And +meanwhile you are getting an intelligent grasp of this wondrous classic, +you are absorbing the finest literature in the English tongue, and +infinitely better yet, you are breathing into your very being a new, deep, +broad, tender conception of <i>God</i>.</p> + + + +<h4>A Mirror Held up to God's Face.</h4> + + +<p>It is simply fascinating too, to find what light floods these pages as +they are read back in their historical setting, so far as that is +possible. For example turn to the third Psalm, fifth verse,</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"I laid me down and slept;</div> +<div class="line">I awaked; for the Lord sustaineth me."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>I was brought up in an old-fashioned church where that was sung. I knew it +by heart. As a boy I supposed it meant that night-time had come, and David +was sleepy; he had his devotions, and went to bed, and had a good night's +sleep. That was all it had suggested to me.</p> + +<p>But on my first swing through of the wide reading, my eye was caught, as +doubtless yours has often been, by the inscription at the beginning of the +psalm: "A psalm of David, <i>when he fled from Absalom his son</i>." Quickly I +turned back to Second Samuel to find that story. And I got this picture. +David, an old white-haired man, hurrying one day, barefooted, out of his +palace, and his capital city, with a few faithful friends, fleeing for his +life, because Absalom his favourite son was coming with the strength of +the national army to take the kingdom, and his own father's life. And that +night as the king lay down to try to catch some sleep, it was upon the +bare earth, with only heaven's blue dome for a roof. And as he lay he +could almost hear the steady tramp, tramp of the army, over the hills, +seeking his throne and his life. Let me ask you, honestly now; do you +think you would have slept much that night? I fear I would have been +tempted sorely to lie awake thinking: "here I am, an old man, driven from +my kingdom, and my home, by my own boy, that I have loved better than my +own life." Do you think <i>you</i> would have slept much? Tell me.</p> + +<p>But David speaking of that night afterwards wrote this down:—"I laid me +down, and <i>slept; I awaked</i>; (the thought is, I awaked <i>refreshed</i>) for +the Lord sustaineth me." And I thought, as first that came to me, "I never +will have insomnia again: I'll trust." And so you see a lesson of trust in +God came, in my wide reading, out of the historical setting, that greatly +refreshed and strengthened, and that I have never forgotten. What a God, +to give sleep under such circumstances!</p> + +<p>A fine illustration of this same thing is found in the New Testament in +Paul's letter to the Philippians. At one end of that epistle is this +scene: Paul, lying in the inner damp cell of a prison, its small creeping +denizens familiarly examining this newcomer, in the darkness of midnight, +his back bleeding from the stripes, his bones aching, and his feet fast in +the stocks. That is one half of the historical setting of this book. And +here is the other half: Paul, a prisoner in Rome. If he tries to ease his +body by changing his position, swinging one limb over the other, a chain +dangling at his ankle reminds him of the soldier by his side. As he picks +up a quill to put a last loving word out of his tender heart for these old +friends, a chain pulls at his wrist. That is Philippians, the prison +epistle, resounding with clanking chain.</p> + +<p>What is the keyword of the book, occurring oftener than any other? +Patience? Surely that would be appropriate. Long-suffering? Still more +fitting would that seem. But, no, the keyword stands in sharpest contrast +to these surroundings. Paul used clouds to make the sun's shining more +beautiful. Joy, rejoice, rejoicing, is the music singing all the way +through these four chapters. What a wondrous Master, this Jesus, so to +inspire His friend doing His will!</p> + +<p>Every incident and occurrence of these pages becomes a mirror held up to +God's face that we may see how wondrous He is.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Upon Thy Word I rest</div> +<div class="line"> Each pilgrim day.</div> +<div class="line">This golden staff is best</div> +<div class="line"> For all the way.</div> +<div class="line">What Jesus Christ hath spoken,</div> +<div class="line"> Cannot be broken!</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Upon Thy Word I rest;</div> +<div class="line"> So strong, so sure,</div> +<div class="line">So full of comfort blest,</div> +<div class="line"> So sweet, so pure:</div> +<div class="line">The charter of salvation:</div> +<div class="line"> Faith's broad foundation.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Upon Thy Word I stand:</div> +<div class="line"> That cannot die.</div> +<div class="line">Christ seals it in my hand.</div> +<div class="line"> He cannot lie.</div> +<div class="line">Thy Word that faileth never:</div> +<div class="line"> Abiding ever."<sup><a href="#fn38">38</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-4"> +<h3>Something about God's Will in Connection With Prayer</h3><h4>He Came to His Own.</h4> + + +<p>The purpose of prayer is to get God's will done. What a stranger God is in +His own world! Nobody is so much slandered as He. He comes to His own, and +they keep Him standing outside the door, like a pilgrim of the night, +staff in hand, while they peer suspiciously at Him through the crack of +the hinges.</p> + +<p>Some of us shrink back from making a full surrender of life to God. And if +the real reason were known it would be found to be that we are <i>afraid</i> of +God. We fear He will put something bitter in the cup, or some rough thing +in the road. And without doubt the reason we are afraid of God is because +we do not <i>know</i> God. The great prayer of Jesus' heart that night with the +eleven was, "that they may <i>know</i> Thee the only true God, and Jesus +Christ whom Thou didst send."</p> + +<p>To understand God's will we must understand something of His character, +Himself. There are five common every-day words I want to bring you to +suggest something of who God is. They are familiar words, in constant use. +The first is the word <i>father</i>. "Father" stands for strength, loving +strength. A father plans, and provides for, and protects his loved ones. +All fathers are not good. How man can extract the meaning out of a fine +word, and use the word without its meaning. If you will think of the +finest father ever you knew that anybody ever had; think of him now. Then +remember this, God is a father, only He is so much finer a father than the +finest father you ever knew of. And His will for your <i>life</i>—I am not +talking about heaven, and our souls just now, that is in it too—His will +for your life down here these days is a father's will for the one most +dearly loved.</p> + +<p>The second word is a finer word. Because woman is finer than man, and was +made, and meant to be, this second word is finer than the first. I mean +the word <i>mother</i>. If father stands for strength, mother stands for +love,—great, patient, tender, fine-fibred, enduring love. What would she +not do for her loved one! Why, not unlikely she went down into the valley +of the shadow that that life might come; and did it gladly with the +love-light shining out of her eyes. Yes, and would do it again, that the +life may remain if need be. That is a mother. You think of the finest +mother ever you knew. And the suggestion brings the most hallowed memories +to my own heart. Then remember this: God is a mother, only He is so much +finer a mother than the finest mother you ever knew.</p> + +<p>The references in scripture to God as a mother are numerous. "Under His +wings" is a mother figure. The mother-bird gathers her brood up under her +wings to feel the heat of her body, and for protection. The word mother is +not used for God in the Bible. I think it is because with God "father" +includes "mother." It takes more of the human to tell the story than of +the divine. With God, all the strength of the father and all the fine love +of the mother are combined in that word "father." And His will for us is a +mother's will, a wise loving mother's will for the darling of her heart.</p> + +<p>The third word is <i>friend</i>. I do not mean to use it in the cheaper +meaning. There is a certain kindliness of speech in which all +acquaintances are called friends. Tupper says, we call all men friends who +are not known to be enemies. But I mean to use the word in its finer +meaning. Here, a friend is one who loves you for your sake only and +steadfastly loves without regard to any return, even a return-love. The +English have a saying that you may fill a church with your acquaintances, +and not fill the pulpit seats with your friends. If you may have in your +life one or two real friends you are very wealthy. If you will think for a +moment of the very best friend you ever knew anybody to have. Then +remember this: God is a friend. Only He is ever so much better a friend +than the best friend you ever knew of. And the plan He has thought out for +your life is such a one as that word would suggest.</p> + +<p>The fourth word, I almost hesitate to use, yet I am sure I need not here. +The hesitancy is because the word and its relationship are spoken of +lightly, frivolously, so much, even in good circles. I mean that rare fine +word <i>lover</i>. Where two have met, and acquaintance has deepened into +friendship, and that in turn into the holiest emotion, the highest +friendship. What would he not do for her! She becomes the new human centre +of his life. In a good sense he worships the ground she treads upon. And +she—she will leave wealth for poverty if only so she may be with him in +the coming days. She will leave home and friends, and go to the ends of +the earth if his service calls him there. You think of the finest lover, +man or woman, you ever knew anybody to have. Then remember this, and let +me say it in soft, reverent tones, God is a lover—shall I say in yet more +reverent voice, a sweetheart-lover. Only He is so much finer a lover than +the finest lover you ever knew of. And His will, His plan for your life +and mine—it hushes my heart to say it—is a lover's plan for his only +loved one.</p> + +<p>The fifth word is this fourth word a degree finer spun, a stage farther +on, and higher up, the word <i>husband</i>. This is the word on the man side +for the most hallowed relationship of earth. This is the lover +relationship in its perfection stage. With men husband is not always a +finer word than lover. The more's the pity. How man does cheapen God's +plan of things; leaves out the kernel, and keeps only an empty shell +sometimes. In God's thought a husband is a lover <i>plus</i>. He is all that +the finest lover is, and more; more tender, more eager, more thoughtful. +Two lives are joined, and begin living one life. Two wills, yet one. Two +persons, yet one purpose. Duality in unity. Will you call to mind for a +moment the best husband you ever knew any woman to have. Then remember +this that God is a husband; only He is an infinitely more thoughtful +husband than any you ever knew. And His will for your life is a husband's +will for his life's friend and companion.</p> + +<p>Now, please, do not <i>you</i> take one of these words, and say, "I like that"; +and <i>you</i> another and say, "That conception of God appeals to me," and +<i>you</i> another. How we do whittle God down to our narrow conceptions! You +must take all five words, and think the finest meaning into each, and then +put them all together, to get a close up idea of God. He is all that, <i>and +more</i>.</p> + +<p>You see God is so much that it takes a number of earth's relationships put +together to get a good suggestion of what He is. He is a father, a +mother, a friend, a lover, a husband. I have not brought book, and +chapter, and verse. But you know I could spend a long time with you +reading over the numerous passages giving these conceptions of God.</p> + +<p>And God's will for us is the plan of such a God as that. It includes the +body, health and strength; the family and home matters; money and business +matters; friendships, including the choice of life's chief friend; it +includes service, what service and where; and constant guidance; it +includes the whole life, and the world of lives. All this He has thought +into, lovingly, carefully. Does a wise mother think of her child's needs +into the details, the necessities and the loving extras? That is God.</p> + + + +<h4>The One Purpose of Prayer.</h4> + + +<p>Now, the whole thought in prayer is to get the will of a God like that +done in our lives and upon this old earth. The greatest prayer any one can +offer is, "Thy will be done." It will be offered in a thousand different +forms, with a thousand details, as needs arise daily. But every true +prayer comes under those four words. There is not a good desirable thing +that you have thought of that He has not thought of first, and probably +with an added touch not in your thought. Not to grit your teeth and lock +your jaw and pray for grace to say, "Thy will be <i>endured</i>: it is bitter, +but I must be resigned; that is a Christian grace; Thy will be +<i>endured</i>." Not that, please. Do not slander God like that. There is a +superficial idea among men that charges God with many misfortunes and ills +for which He is not at all responsible. He is continually doing the very +best that can be done under the circumstances for the best results. He has +a bad mixture of stubborn warped human wills to deal with. With infinite +patience and skill and diplomacy and success too He is ever working at the +tangled skein of human life, through the human will.</p> + +<p>It may help us here to remember that God has a first and a second will for +us: a first choice and a second. He always prefers that His first will +shall be accomplished in us. But where we will not be wooed up to that +height, He comes down to the highest level we will come up to, and works +with us there. For instance, God's first choice for Israel was that He +Himself should be their king. There was to be no human, visible king, as +with the surrounding nations. He was to be their king. They were to be +peculiar in this. But to Samuel's sorrow and yet more to God's, they +insisted upon a king. And so God gave them a king. And David the great +shepherd-psalmist-king was a man after God's own heart, and the world's +Saviour came of the Davidic line. God did His best upon the level they +chose and a great best it was. Yet the human king and line of kings was +not God's first will, but a second will yielded to because the first +would not be accepted. God is ever doing the best for human lives that can +be done through the human will.</p> + +<p>His first will for our bodies, without doubt, is that there should be a +strong healthy body for each of us. But there is a far higher thing being +aimed at in us than that. And with keen pain to His own heart, He oft +times permits bodily weakness and suffering because in the conditions of +our wills only so can these higher and highest things be gotten at. And +where the human will comes into intelligent touch with Himself, and the +higher can so be reached, with great gladness and eagerness the bodily +difficulty is removed by Him.</p> + +<p>There are two things, at least, that modify God's first will for us. First +of all the degree of our intelligent willingness that He shall have His +full sway. And second, the circumstances of one's life. Each of us is the +centre of a circle of people, an ever changing circle. If we be in touch +with Him God is speaking through each of us to his circle. Our experiences +with God: His dealings with us, under the varying circumstances are a part +of His message to that circle. God is trying to win men. It takes +marvellous diplomacy on His part. And God is a wondrous tactician. +But—very reverently—He is a needy God. He needs us to help Him, each in +his circle. We must be perfectly willing to have His will done; and more, +we must trust Him to know what is best to do in us and with us in the +circle of our circumstances. God is a great economist. He wastes no +forces. Every bit is being conserved towards the great end in view.</p> + +<p>There may be a false submission to His supposed will in some affliction; a +not reaching out after <i>all</i> that He has for us. And at the other swing of +the pendulum there may be a sort of <i>logical praying</i> for some desirable +thing because a friend tells us we should claim it. By logical praying I +mean the studying of a statement of God's word, and possibly some one's +explanation of it, and hearing or knowing how somebody else has claimed a +certain thing through that statement and then concluding that therefore we +should so claim. The trouble with that is that it stops too soon. Praying +in the Spirit as opposed to logical praying is doing this logical +thinking: <i>then</i> quietly taking all to God, to learn what His will is for +<i>you</i>, under your circumstances, and in the circle of people whom He +touches through you.</p> + + + +<h4>The Spirit's Prayer Room.</h4> + + +<p>There is a remarkable passage in Paul's Roman letter about prayer and +God's will.<sup><a href="#fn39">39</a></sup> "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: +for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh +intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that +searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, that He +maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."</p> + +<p>Please notice: these words connect back with the verses ending with verse +seventeen. Verses eighteen to twenty-five are a parenthesis. As the Spirit +within breathes out the "Father" cry of a child, which is the prayer-cry, +so He helps us in praying. It is our infirmity that we do not know how to +pray <i>as we ought</i>. There is willingness and eagerness too. No bother +there. But a lack of knowledge. We don't know how. But the Spirit knows +how. He is the Master-prayor. He knows God's will perfectly. He knows what +best to be praying under all circumstances. And He is within you and me. +He is there as a prayer-spirit. He prompts us to pray. He calls us away to +the quiet room to our knees. He inclines to prayer wherever we are. He is +thinking thoughts that find no response in us. They cannot be expressed in +our lips for they are not in our thinking. He prays with an intensity +quite beyond the possibility of language to express. And the +heart-searcher—God listening above—knows fully what this praying Spirit +is thinking within me, and wordlessly praying, for they are one. He +recognizes His own purposes and plans being repeated in this man down on +the earth by His own Spirit.</p> + +<p>And the great truth is that the Spirit within us prays God's will. He +teaches us God's will. He teaches us how to pray God's will. And He +Himself prays God's will in us. And further that He seeks to pray God's +will—that is to pray for the thing God has planned—in us before we have +yet reached up to where we know ourselves what that will is.</p> + +<p>We should be ambitious to cultivate a healthy sensitiveness to this +indwelling Spirit. And when there comes that quick inner wooing away to +pray let us faithfully obey. Even though we be not clear what the +particular petition is to be let us remain in prayer while He uses us as +the medium of His praying.</p> + +<p>Oftentimes the best prayer to offer about some friend, or some particular +thing, after perhaps stating the case the best we can is this: "Holy +Spirit, be praying in me the thing the Father wants done. Father, what the +Spirit within me is praying, that is my prayer in Jesus' name. Thy will, +what Thou art wishing and thinking, may that be fully done here."</p> + + + +<h4>How to Find God's Will.</h4> + + +<p>We should make a study of God's will. We ought to seek to become skilled +in knowing His will. The more we know Him the better shall we be able to +read intelligently His will.</p> + +<p>It may be said that God has two wills for each of us, or, better, there +are two parts to His will. There is His will of grace, and His will of +government. His will of grace is plainly revealed in His Word. It is that +we shall be saved, and made holy, and pure, and by and by glorified in his +own presence. His will of government is His particular plan for my life. +God has every life planned. The highest possible ambition for a life is to +reach God's plan. He reveals that to us bit by bit as we need to know. If +the life is to be one of special service He will make that plain, what +service, and where, and when. Then each next step He will make plain.</p> + +<p>Learning His will here hinges upon three things, simple enough but +essential. I must keep <i>in touch</i> with Him so He has an open ear to talk +into. I must <i>delight</i> to do His will, <i>because it is His</i>. The third +thing needs special emphasis. Many who are right on the first two stumble +here, and sometimes measure their length on the ground. <i>His Word must be +allowed to discipline my judgment as to Himself and His will</i>. Many of us +stumble on number one and on number two. And very many willing earnest men +sprawl badly when it comes to number three. The bother with these is the +lack of a disciplined judgment about God and His will. If we would +prayerfully <i>absorb</i> the Book, there would come a better poised judgment. +We need to get a broad sweep of God's thought, to breathe Him in as He +reveals Himself in this Book. The meek man—that is the man willing to +yield his will to a higher will—will He guide in his judgment, that is, +in his mental processes.<sup><a href="#fn40">40</a></sup></p> + +<p>This is John's standpoint in that famous passage in his first epistle.<sup><a href="#fn41">41</a></sup> +"And this is the boldness that we have towards Him, that, if we ask +anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He +heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we +have asked of Him." These words dovetail with great nicety into those +already quoted from Paul in the eighth of Romans. The whole supposition +here is that we have learned His will about the particular matter in hand. +Having gotten that footing, we go to prayer with great boldness. For if He +wants a thing and I want it and we join—that combination cannot be +broken.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-5"> +<h3>May we Pray With Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones</h3><h4>God's Door into a Home.</h4> + + +<p>The heart of God hungers to redeem the world. For that He gave His own, +only Son though the treatment He received tore that father's heart to the +bleeding. For that He sent the Holy Spirit to do in men what the Son had +done for them. For that He placed in human hands the mightiest of all +forces—prayer, that so we might become partners with Him.</p> + +<p>For that too He set man in the relationships of kinship and friendship. He +wins men through men. Man is the goal, and he is also the road to the +goal. Man is the object aimed at. And he is the medium of approach, +whether the advance be by God or by Satan. God will not enter a man's +heart without his consent, and Satan <i>can</i>not. God would reach men through +men, and Satan must. And so God has set us in the strongest relation that +binds men, the relation of love, that He may touch one through another. +Kinship is a relation peculiar to man, and to the earth.</p> + +<p>I have at times been asked by some earnest sensitive persons if it is not +selfish to be especially concerned for one's own, over whom the heart +yearns much, and the prayer offered is more tender and intense and more +frequent. Well, if <i>you</i> do not pray for them who will? Who <i>can</i> pray for +them with such believing persistent fervour as you! God has set us in the +relationship of personal affection and of kinship for just such a purpose. +He binds us together with the ties of love that we may be concerned for +each other. If there be but one in a home in touch with God, that one +becomes God's door into the whole family.</p> + +<p>Contact means opportunity, and that in turn means responsibility. The +closer the contact the greater the opportunity and the greater too the +responsibility. Unselfishness does not mean to exclude one's self, and +one's own. It means right proportions in our perspective. Humility is not +whipping one's self. It is forgetting one's self in the thought of others. +Yet even that may be carried to a bad extreme. Not only is it not selfish +so to pray, it is a part of God's plan that we should so pray. I am most +responsible for the one to whom I am most closely related.</p> + + + +<h4>A Free Agent Enslaved.</h4> + + +<p>One of the questions that is more often asked in this connection than any +other perhaps is this: may we pray with assurance for the conversion of +our loved ones? No question sets more hearts in an audience to beating +faster than does that. I remember speaking in the Boston noonday meeting, +in the old Broomfield Street M. E. Church on this subject one week. +Perhaps I was speaking rather positively. And at the close of the meeting +one day a keen, cultured Christian woman whom I knew came up for a word. +She said, "I do not think we can pray like that." And I said, "Why not?" +She paused a moment, and her well-controlled agitation revealed in eye and +lip told me how deeply her thoughts were stirred. Then she said quietly, +"I have a brother. He is not a Christian. The theatre, the wine, the club, +the cards—that is his life. And he laughs at me. I would rather than +anything else that my brother were a Christian. But," she said, and here +both her keenness and the training of her early teaching came in, "I do +not think I can pray positively for his conversion, for he is a free +agent, is he not? And God will not save a man against his will."</p> + +<p>I want to say to you to-day what I said to her. Man <i>is</i> a free agent, to +use the old phrase, so far as God is concerned; utterly, wholly free. +<i>And</i>, he is the most enslaved agent on the earth, so far as sin, and +selfishness and prejudice are concerned. The purpose of our praying is not +to force or coerce his will; never that. It is to <i>free</i> his will of the +warping influences that now twist it awry. It is to get the dust out of +his eyes so his sight shall be clear. And once he is free, able to see +aright, to balance things without prejudice, the whole probability is in +favour of his using his will to choose the only right.</p> + +<p>I want to suggest to you the ideal prayer for such a one. It is an +adaptation of Jesus' own words. It may be pleaded with much variety of +detail. It is this: deliver him from the evil one; and work in him <i>Thy +will</i> for him, by Thy power to Thy glory in Jesus, the Victor's name. And +there are three special passages upon which to base this prayer. First +Timothy, second chapter, fourth verse (American version), "God our +Saviour, who would have all men to be saved." That is God's will for your +loved one. Second Peter, third chapter, ninth verse, "not wishing (or +willing) that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." +That is God's will, or desire, for the one you are thinking of now. The +third passage is on our side who do the praying. It tells who may offer +this prayer with assurance. John, fifteenth chapter, seventh verse, "If ye +abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you ask what it is your will to +ask, and I will bring it to pass for you."</p> + +<p>There is a statement of Paul's in second Timothy that graphically pictures +this:<sup><a href="#fn42">42</a></sup> "The Lord's servant must not strive "—not argue, nor +combat—"but be gentle towards all, apt to teach"—ready and skilled in +explaining, helping—"in meekness correcting (or, instructing) them that +oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the +knowledge of the truth, and <i>they may recover themselves out of the snare +of the devil</i>, having been taken captive by him unto his will."</p> + +<p>That word "deliver" in this prayer, as used by Jesus, the word under our +English, has a picturesque meaning. It means <i>rescue</i>. Here is a man taken +captive, and in chains. But he has become infatuated with his captor, and +is befooled regarding his condition. Our prayer is, "rescue him from the +evil one," and because Jesus is Victor over the captor, the rescue will +take place.</p> + +<p>Without any doubt we may assure the conversion of these laid upon our +hearts by such praying. The prayer in Jesus' name drives the enemy off the +battle-field of the man's will, and leaves him free to choose aright. +There is one exception to be noted, a very, very rare exception. There may +be <i>extreme</i> instances where such a prayer may not be offered; where the +spirit of prayer is withdrawn. But such are very rare and extreme, and the +conviction regarding that will be unmistakable beyond asking any +questions.</p> + +<p>And I cannot resist the conviction—I greatly dislike to say this, I would +much rather not if I regarded either my own feelings or yours. But I +cannot resist the conviction—listen very quietly, so I may speak in +quietest tones—that there are people ... in that lower, lost world ... +who are there ... because some one failed to put his life in touch with +God, and pray.</p> + + + +<h4>The Place Where God is Not.</h4> + + +<p>Having said that much let me go on to say this further, and please let me +say it all in softest sobbing voice—there is a hell. There must be a +hell. You may leave this Bible sheer out of your reckoning in the matter. +Still there must be a place for which that word of ugliest associations is +the word to use. <i>Philosophically</i> there must be a hell. That is the name +for the place where God is not; for the place where they will gather +together who insist on leaving God out. God out! There can be no worse +hell than that! God away! Man held back by no restraints!</p> + +<p>I am very clear it is <i>not</i> what men have pictured it to be. It is not +what my childish fancy saw and shrank from terrified. And, please let us +be very careful that we never consign anybody there, in our thinking or +speaking about them. When that life whose future might be questioned has +gone the most we can say is that we leave it with a God infinitely just +and the personification of love.</p> + +<p>There has been in some quarters an unthinking consigning of persons to a +lost world. And there has been in our day a clean swing of the pendulum +to the other extreme. Both drifts are to be dreaded. Let us deal very +tenderly here, yet with a right plainness in our tenderness. We are to +warn men faithfully. We know the Book's plain teaching that these who +prefer to leave God out "shall go away." The going is of their own accord +and choice. Regarding particular ones we do not know and are best silent. +The grave is closing. Let us deal with the living.</p> + +<p>One day at the close of the morning hour at a Bible conference in the +Alleghany Mountains a young woman came up for a moment's conversation. She +spoke about a friend, not a professing Christian, for whom she had prayed +much, and who had died unexpectedly. He had passed away during +unconsciousness, with no opportunity for exchange of words. She was much +agitated as the facts were recited, and then said as she finished, "he is +lost and in hell: and I can never pray again."</p> + +<p>We talked quietly awhile and I gathered the following facts. He was of a +Christian family, perfectly familiar with the Bible, was a thoughtful man, +of outwardly correct life in the main, had talked about these matters with +others but had never either in conversation or more openly confessed +personal faith in Christ. He was not in good health. Then came the sudden +end. One other fact came out. She had prayed for his conversion for a long +time. She was herself an earnest Christian woman, solicitous for others. +There were four facts to go upon regarding him. He knew the way to God. He +was thoughtful. He had never openly accepted. Some one had prayed.</p> + +<p>Can one <i>know</i> anything certainly about that man's condition? There are +two sorts of knowledge, direct and inferential. I know there is such a +city as London for I have walked its streets. That is direct knowledge. I +know there is such a city as St. Petersburg because though I have never +been there, yet through my reading, pictures I have seen, and friends who +have been there I am clear of its existence to the point of <i>knowledge</i>. +That is inferential knowledge.</p> + +<p>Now regarding this man after he slipped from the grasp of his friends, I +have no direct knowledge. But I have very positive inferential knowledge +based upon these four facts. Three of the facts, namely, the first, +second, and fourth were favourable to the end desired. The third swings +neither way. The great dominant fact in the case is the fourth, and a +great and dominating fact it is in judging—some one in touch with God had +been persistently, believingly praying up to the time of the quick end. +That fact with the others gives strong inferential knowledge regarding the +man. It is sufficient to comfort a heart, and give one renewed faith in +praying for others.</p> + + + +<h4>Saving the Life.</h4> + + +<p>We cannot know a man's mental processes. This is surely true, that if in +the very last half-twinkling of an eye a man look up towards God +longingly, that look is the turning of the will to God. And that is quite +enough. God is eagerly watching with hungry eyes for the quick turn of a +human eye up to Himself. Doubtless many a man has so turned in the last +moment of his life when we were not conscious of his consciousness, nor +aware of the movements of his outwardly unconscious sub-consciousness. One +may be unconscious of outer things, and yet be keenly conscious towards +God.</p> + +<p>At another of these summer gatherings this incident came to me. A man +seemingly of mature mind and judgment told me of a friend of his. That was +as close as I got to the friend himself. This friend was not a professing +Christian, was thrown from a boat, sank twice and perhaps three times, and +then was rescued, and after some difficulty resuscitated. He told +afterwards how swiftly his thoughts came as they are said to do to one in +such circumstances. He thought surely he was drowning, was quiet in his +mind, thought of God and how he had not been trusting Him, and in his +thought he prayed for forgiveness. He lived afterwards a consistent +Christian life. This illustrates simply the possibilities open to one in +his keen inner mental processes.</p> + +<p>Here is surely enough knowledge to comfort many a bereft heart, and +enough too to make us pray persistently and believingly for loved ones +because of prayer's uncalculated and incalculable power. Be sure the +prayer-fact is in the case of <i>your</i> friend, <i>and in strong</i>.</p> + +<p>Yet let us be wary, very wary of letting this influence us one bit +farther. That man is nothing less than a fool who presumes upon such +statements to resist God's gracious pleadings for his life. And on our +side, we must not fail to warn men lovingly, tenderly yet with plainness +of the tremendous danger of delay, in coming to God. A man may be so +stupefied at the close as to shut out of his range what has been suggested +here. And further even if a man's soul be saved he is responsible to God +for his life. We want men to <i>live</i> for Jesus, and win others to Him. And +further, yet, reward, preferment, honour in God's kingdom depends upon +faithfulness to Him down here. Who would be saved by the skin of his +teeth!</p> + +<p>The great fact to have burned in deep is that we may assure the coming to +God of our loved ones with their lives, as well as for their souls if we +will but press the battle.</p> + + + +<h4>Giving God a Clear Road for Action.</h4> + + +<p>Out in one of the trans-Mississippi states I ran across an illustration of +prayer in real life that caught me at once, and has greatly helped me in +understanding prayer.</p> + +<p>Fact is more fascinating than fiction. If one could know what is going on +around him, how surprised and startled he would be. If we could get <i>all</i> +the facts in any one incident, and get them colourlessly, and have the +judgment to sift and analyze accurately, what fascinating instances of the +power of prayer would be disclosed.</p> + +<p>There is a double side to this story. The side of the man who was changed, +and the side of the woman who prayed. He is a New Englander, by birth and +breeding, now living in this western state: almost a giant physically, +keen mentally, a lawyer, and a natural leader. He had the conviction as a +boy that if he became a Christian he was to preach. But he grew up a +skeptic, read up and lectured on skeptical subjects. He was the +representative of a district of his western home state in congress; in his +fourth term or so I think at this time.</p> + +<p>The experience I am telling came during that congress when the +Hayes-Tilden controversy was up, the intensest congress Washington has +known since the Civil War. It was not a time specially suited to +meditation about God in the halls of congress. And further he said to me +that somehow he knew all the other skeptics who were in the lower house +and they drifted together a good bit and strengthened each other by their +talk.</p> + +<p>One day as he was in his seat in the lower house, in the midst of the +business of the hour, there came to him a conviction that God—the God in +whom he did not believe, whose existence he could keenly disprove—God was +right there above his head thinking about him, and displeased at the way +he was behaving towards Him. And he said to himself: "this is ridiculous, +absurd. I've been working too hard; confined too closely; my mind is +getting morbid. I'll go out, and get some fresh air, and shake myself." +And so he did. But the conviction only deepened and intensified. Day by +day it grew. And that went on for weeks, into the fourth month as I recall +his words. Then he planned to return home to attend to some business +matters, and to attend to some preliminaries for securing the nomination +for the governorship of his state. And as I understand he was in a fair +way to securing the nomination, so far as one can judge of such matters. +And his party is the dominant party in the state. A nomination for +governor by his party has usually been followed by election.</p> + +<p>He reached his home and had hardly gotten there before he found that his +wife and two others had entered into a holy compact of prayer for his +conversion, and had been so praying for some months. Instantly he thought +of his peculiar unwelcome Washington experience, and became intensely +interested. But not wishing them to know of his interest, he asked +carelessly when "this thing began." His wife told him the day. He did some +quick mental figuring, and he said to me, "I knew almost instantly that +the day she named fitted into the calendar with the coming of that +conviction or impression about God's presence."</p> + +<p>He was greatly startled. He wanted to be thoroughly honest in all his +thinking. And he said he knew that if a single fact of that sort could be +established, of prayer producing such results, it carried the whole +Christian scheme of belief with it. And he did some stiff fighting within. +Had he been wrong all those years? He sifted the matter back and forth as +a lawyer would the evidence in any case. And he said to me, "As an honest +man I was compelled to admit the facts, and I believe I might have been +led to Christ that very night."</p> + +<p>A few nights later he knelt at the altar in the Methodist meeting-house in +his home town and surrendered his strong will to God. Then the early +conviction of his boyhood days came back. He was to preach the gospel. And +like Saul of old, he utterly changed his life, and has been preaching the +gospel with power ever since.</p> + +<p>Then I was intensely fascinated in getting the other side, the +praying-side of the story. His wife had been a Christian for years, since +before their marriage. But in some meetings in the home church she was +led into a new, a full surrender to Jesus Christ as Master, and had +experienced a new consciousness of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. +Almost at once came a new intense desire for her husband's conversion. The +compact of three was agreed upon, of daily prayer for him until the change +came.</p> + +<p>As she prayed that night after retiring to her sleeping apartment she was +in great distress of mind in thinking and praying for him. She could get +no rest from this intense distress. At length she rose, and knelt by the +bedside to pray. As she was praying and distressed a voice, an exquisitely +quiet inner voice said, "will you abide the consequences?" She was +startled. Such a thing was wholly new to her. She did not know what it +meant. And without paying any attention to it, went on praying. Again came +the same quietly spoken words to her ear, "will you abide the +consequences?" And again the half frightened feeling. She slipped back to +bed to sleep. But sleep did not come. And back again to her knees, and +again the patient, quiet voice.</p> + +<p>This time with an earnestness bearing the impress of her agony she said, +"Lord, I will abide any consequence that may come if only my husband may +be brought to Thee." And at once the distress slipped away, and a new +sweet peace filled her being, and sleep quickly came. And while she prayed +on for weeks and months patiently, persistently, day by day, the distress +was gone, the sweet peace remained in the assurance that the result was +surely coming. And so it was coming all those days down in the thick air +of Washington's lower house, and so it did come.</p> + +<p>What <i>was</i> the consequence to her? She was a congressman's wife. She would +likely have been, so far as such matters may be judged, the wife of the +governor of her state, the first lady socially of the state. She is a +Methodist minister's wife changing her home every few years. A very +different position in many ways. No woman will be indifferent to the +social difference involved. Yet rarely have I met a woman with more of +that fine beauty which the peace of God brings, in her glad face, and in +her winsome smile.</p> + +<p>Do you see the simple philosophy of that experience. Her surrender gave +God a clear channel into that man's will. When the roadway was cleared, +her prayer was a spirit-force traversing instantly the hundreds of +intervening miles, and affecting the spirit-atmosphere of his presence.</p> + +<p>Shall we not put our wills fully in touch with God, and sheer out of +sympathy with the other one, and persistently plead and claim for each +loved one, "deliver him from the evil one, and work in him Thy will, to +Thy glory, by Thy power, in the Victor's name." And then add amen—so it +<i>shall</i> be. Not so <i>may</i> it be—a wish, but so it <i>shall</i> be—an +expression of confidence in Jesus' power. <i>And these lives shall be won, +and these souls saved</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="chapter" id="ch04"> +<h2>IV. Jesus' Habits of Prayer</h2> + +<ol> + <li><a href="#ch04-1">A Pen Sketch.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-2">Dissolving Views. </a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-3">Deepening Shadows. </a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-4">Under the Olive Trees. </a></li> + <li><a href="#ch04-5">A Composite Picture.</a></li> +</ol> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch04-1"> +<h3>Jesus' Habits of Prayer</h3><h4>A Pen Sketch.</h4> + + +<p>When God would win back His prodigal world He sent down a Man. That Man +while more than man insisted upon being truly a man. He touched human life +at every point. No man seems to have understood prayer, and to have prayed +as did He. How can we better conclude these quiet talks on prayer than by +gathering about His person and studying His habits of prayer.</p> + +<p>A habit is an act repeated so often as to be done involuntarily; that is, +without a new decision of the mind each time it is done.</p> + +<p>Jesus prayed. He loved to pray. Sometimes praying was His way of resting. +He prayed so much and so often that it became a part of His life. It +became to Him like breathing—involuntary.</p> + +<p>There is no thing we need so much as to learn how to pray. There are two +ways of receiving instruction; one, by being told; the other, by watching +some one else. The latter is the simpler and the surer way. How better can +we learn how to pray than by watching how Jesus prayed, and then trying +to imitate Him. Not, just now, studying what He <i>said</i> about prayer, +invaluable as that is, and so closely interwoven with the other; nor yet +how He received the requests of men when on earth, full of inspiring +suggestion as that is of His <i>present</i> attitude towards our prayers; but +how He Himself prayed when down here surrounded by our same circumstances +and temptations.</p> + +<p>There are two sections of the Bible to which we at once turn for light, +the gospels and the Psalms. In the gospels is given chiefly the <i>outer</i> +side of His prayer-habits; and in certain of the Psalms, glimpses of the +<i>inner</i> side are unmistakably revealed.</p> + +<p>Turning now to the gospels, we find the picture of the praying Jesus like +an etching, a sketch in black and white, the fewest possible strokes of +the pen, a scratch here, a line there, frequently a single word added by +one writer to the narrative of the others, which gradually bring to view +the outline of a lone figure with upturned face.</p> + +<p>Of the fifteen mentions of His praying found in the four gospels, it is +interesting to note that while Matthew gives three, and Mark and John each +four, it is Luke, Paul's companion and mirror-like friend, who, in eleven +such allusions, supplies most of the picture.</p> + +<p>Does this not contain a strong hint of the explanation of that other +etching plainly traceable in the epistles which reveals Paul's own +marvellous prayer-life?</p> + +<p>Matthew, immersed in the Hebrew Scriptures, writes to the Jews of their +promised Davidic King; Mark, with rapid pen, relates the ceaseless +activity of this wonderful servant of the Father. John, with imprisoned +body, but rare liberty of vision, from the glory-side revealed on Patmos, +depicts the Son of God coming on an errand from the Father into the world, +and again, leaving the world and going back home unto the Father. But Luke +emphasizes the <i>human</i> Jesus, a <i>Man</i>—with reverence let me use a word in +its old-fashioned meaning—a <i>fellow</i>, that is, one of ourselves. And the +Holy Spirit makes it very plain throughout Luke's narrative that the <i>man</i> +Christ Jesus <i>prayed</i>; prayed <i>much; needed</i> to pray; <i>loved</i> to pray.</p> + +<p>Oh! when shall we men down here, sent into the world as He was sent into +the world, with the same mission, the same field, the same Satan to +combat, the same Holy Spirit to empower, find out that power lies in +keeping closest connection with the Sender, and completest insulation from +the power-absorbing world!</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch04-2"> +<h3>Dissolving Views.</h3> + + +<p>Let me rapidily sketch those fifteen mentions of the gospel writers, +attempting to keep their chronological order.</p> + +<p><i>The first mention</i> is by Luke, in chapter three. The first three gospels +all tell of Jesus' double baptism, but it is Luke who adds, "and praying." +It was while waiting in prayer that He received the gift of the Holy +Spirit. He <i>dared</i> not begin His public mission without that anointing. It +had been promised in the prophetic writings. And now, standing in the +Jordan, He waits and prays until the blue above is burst through by the +gleams of glory-light from the upper-side and the dove-like Spirit wings +down and abides upon Him. <i>Prayer brings power.</i> Prayer <i>is</i> power. The +time of prayer is the time of power. The place of prayer is the place of +power. Prayer is tightening the connections with the divine dynamo so that +the power may flow freely without loss or interruption.</p> + +<p><i>The second mention</i> is made by Mark in chapter one. Luke, in chapter +four, hints at it, "when it was day He came out and went into a desert +place." But Mark tells us plainly "in the morning a great while before the +day (or a little more literally, 'very early while it was yet very dark') +He arose and went out into the desert or solitary place and there prayed." +The day before, a Sabbath day spent in His adopted home-town Capernaum, +had been a very busy day for Him, teaching in the synagogue service, the +interruption by a demon-possessed man, the casting out amid a painful +scene; afterwards the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, and then at +sun-setting the great crowd of diseased and demonized thronging the +narrow street until far into the night, while He, passing amongst them, by +personal touch, healed and restored every one. It was a long and +exhausting day's work. One of us spending as busy a Sabbath would probably +feel that the next morning needed an extra hour's sleep if possible. One +must rest surely. But this man Jesus seemed to have another way of resting +in addition to sleep. Probably He occupied the guest-chamber in Peter's +home. The house was likely astir at the usual hour, and by and by +breakfast was ready, but the Master had not appeared yet, so they waited a +bit. After a while the maid slips to His room door and taps lightly, but +there's no answer; again a little bolder knock, then pushing the door ajar +she finds the room unoccupied. Where's the Master? "Ah!" Peter says; "I +think I know. I have noticed before this that He has a way of slipping off +early in the morning to some quiet place where He can be alone." And a +little knot of disciples with Peter in the lead starts out on a search for +Him, for already a crowd is gathering at the door and filling the street +again, hungry for more. And they "tracked Him down" here and there on the +hillsides, among clumps of trees, until suddenly they come upon Him +quietly praying with a wondrous calm in His great eyes. Listen to Peter as +he eagerly blurts out, "Master, there's a big crowd down there, all asking +for you." But the Master's quiet decisive tones reply, "Let us go into +the next towns that I may preach there also; for to this end came I +forth." Much easier to go back and deal again with the old crowd of +yesterday; harder to meet the new crowds with their new skepticism, but +there's no doubt about what <i>should</i> be done. Prayer wonderfully clears +the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; +sweetens and strengthens the spirit. The busier the day for Him the more +surely must the morning appointment be kept,<sup><a href="#fn43">43</a></sup> and even an earlier start +made, apparently. The more virtue went forth from Him, the more certainly +must He spend time, and even <i>more</i> time, alone with Him who is the source +of power.</p> + +<p><i>The third mention</i> is in Luke, chapter five. Not a great while after the +scene just described, possibly while on the trip suggested by His answer +to Peter, in some one of the numerous Galilean villages, moved with the +compassion that ever burned His heart, He had healed a badly diseased +leper, who, disregarding His express command, so widely published the fact +of His remarkable healing that great crowds blocked Jesus' way in the +village and compelled Him to go out to the country district, where the +crowds which the village could not hold now throng about Him. Now note +what the Master does. The authorized version says, "He withdrew into the +wilderness and prayed." A more nearly literal reading would be, "He was +retiring in the deserts and praying"; suggesting not a single act, but +rather <i>a habit of action</i> running through several days or even weeks. +That is, being compelled by the greatness of the crowds to go into the +deserts or country, districts, and being constantly thronged there by the +people, He had <i>less opportunity</i> to get alone, and yet more need, and so +while He patiently continues His work among them He studiously seeks +opportunity to retire at intervals from the crowds to pray.</p> + +<p>How much His life was like ours. Pressed by duties, by opportunities for +service, by the great need around us, we are strongly tempted to give less +time to the inner chamber, with door shut. "Surely this work must be +done," we think, "though it does crowd and flurry our prayer time some." +"<i>No</i>," the Master's practice here says with intense emphasis. Not work +first, and prayer to bless it. But the <i>first</i> place given to prayer and +then the service growing out of such prayer will be charged with +unmeasured power. The greater the outer pressure on His closet-life, the +more jealously He guarded against either a shortening of its time or a +flurrying of its spirit. The tighter the tension, the more time must there +be for unhurried prayer.</p> + +<p><i>The fourth mention</i> is found in Luke, chapter six. "It came to pass in +these days that He went out into the mountains to pray, and He continued +all night in prayer to God." The time is probably about the middle of the +second year of His public ministry. He had been having very exasperating +experiences with the national leaders from Judea who dogged His steps, +criticising and nagging at every turn, sowing seeds of skepticism among +His simple-minded, intense-spirited Galileans. It was also the day +<i>before</i> He selected the twelve men who were to be the leaders after His +departure, and preached the mountain sermon. Luke does not say that He +<i>planned</i> to spend the entire night in prayer. Wearied in spirit by the +ceaseless petty picking and Satanic hatred of His enemies, thinking of the +serious work of the morrow, there was just one thing for Him to do. He +knew where to find rest, and sweet fellowship, and a calming presence, and +wise counsel. Turning His face northward He sought the solitude of the +mountain not far off for quiet meditation and prayer. And as He prayed and +listened and talked without words, daylight gradually grew into twilight, +and that yielded imperceptibly to the brilliant Oriental stars spraying +down their lustrous fire-light. And still He prayed, while the darkness +below and the blue above deepened, and the stilling calm of God wrapped +all nature around, and hushed His heart into a deeper peace. In the +fascination of the Father's loving presence He was utterly lost to the +flight of time, but prayed on and on until, by and by, the earth had once +more completed its daily turn, the gray streaks of dawnlight crept up the +east, and the face of Palestine, fragrant with the deep dews of an +eastern night, was kissed by a sun of a new day. And then, "when it was +day"—how quietly the narrative goes on—"He called the disciples and +<i>chose</i> from them twelve,—and a great multitude of disciples and of the +people came,—and He <i>healed</i> all—and He opened His mouth and <i>taught</i> +them—<i>for power came forth from Him."</i> Is it any wonder, after such a +night! If all our exasperations and embarrassments were followed, and all +our decisions and utterances preceded, by unhurried prayer, what power +would come forth from us, too. Because as He is even so are we in this +world.</p> + +<p><i>The fifth mention</i> is made by Matthew, chapter fourteen, and Mark, +chapter six, John hinting at it in chapter six of his gospel. It was about +the time of the third passover, the beginning of His last year of service. +Both He and the disciples had been kept exceedingly busy with the great +throng coming and going incessantly. The startling news had just come of +the tragic death of His forerunner. There was need of bodily rest, as well +as of quiet to think over the rapidly culminating opposition. So taking +boat they headed towards the eastern shore of the lake. But the eager +crowds watched the direction taken and spreading the news, literally "ran" +around the head of the lake and "out-went them," and when He stepped from +the boat for the much-needed rest there was an immense company, numbering +thousands, waiting for Him. Did some feeling of impatience break out among +the disciples that they could not be allowed a little leisure? Very +likely, for they were so much like us. But <i>He</i> was "moved with +compassion" and, wearied though He was, patiently spent the entire day in +teaching, and then, at eventime when the disciples proposed sending them +away for food, He, with a handful of loaves and fishes, satisfied the +bodily cravings of as many as five thousand.</p> + +<p>There is nothing that has so appealed to the masses in all countries and +all centuries as ability to furnish plenty to eat. Literally tens of +thousands of the human race fall asleep every night hungry. So here. At +once it is proposed by a great popular uprising, under the leadership of +this wonderful man as king, to throw off the oppressive Roman yoke. +Certainly if only His consent could be had it would be immensely +successful, they thought. Does this not rank with Satan's suggestion in +the wilderness, and with the later possibility coming through the visit of +the Greek deputation, of establishing the kingdom without suffering? It +was a temptation, even though it found no response within Him. With the +over-awing power of His presence so markedly felt at times He quieted the +movement, "constrained"<sup><a href="#fn44">44</a></sup> the disciples to go by boat before Him to the +other side while He dismissed the throng. "And after He had <i>taken leave +of them</i>"—what gentle courtesy and tenderness mingled with His +irrevocable decision—"He went up in the mountain <i>to pray</i>," and +"<i>continued in prayer</i>" until the morning watch. A second night spent in +prayer! Bodily weary, His spirit startled by an event which vividly +foreshadowed His own approaching violent death, and now this vigorous +renewal of His old temptation, again He had recourse to His one unfailing +habit of getting off alone <i>to pray.</i> Time alone <i>to pray; more</i> time to +pray, was His one invariable offset to all difficulties, all temptations, +and all needs. How much more there must have been in prayer as He +understood and practiced it than many of His disciples to-day know.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch04-3"> +<h3>Deepening Shadows.</h3> + + +<p>We shall perhaps understand better some of the remaining prayer incidents +if we remember that Jesus is now in the last year of His ministry, the +acute state of His experiences with the national leaders preceding the +final break. The awful shadow of the cross grows deeper and darker across +His path. The hatred of the opposition leader gets constantly intenser. +The conditions of discipleship are more sharply put. The inability of the +crowds, of the disciples, and others to understand Him grows more marked. +Many followers go back. He seeks to get more time for intercourse with +the twelve. He makes frequent trips to distant points on the border of the +outside, non-Jewish world. The coming scenes and experiences—<i>the</i> scene +on the little hillock outside the Jerusalem wall—seem never absent from +His thoughts. <i>The sixth mention</i> is made by Luke, chapter nine. They are +up north in the neighbourhood of the Roman city of Cæsarea Philippi. "And +it came to pass as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him." +Alone, so far as the multitudes are concerned, but seeming to be drawing +these twelve nearer to His inner life. Some of these later incidents seem +to suggest that he was trying to woo them into something of the same love +for the fascination of secret prayer that He had. How much they would need +to pray in the coming years when He was gone. Possibly, too, He yearned +for a closer fellowship with them. He loved human fellowship, as Peter and +James and John, and Mary and Martha and many other gentle women well knew. +And there is no fellowship among men to be compared with fellowship <i>in +prayer</i>.</p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"There is a place where <i>spirits blend</i>,</div> +<div class="line">Where <i>friend holds fellowship with friend</i>,</div> +<div class="line">A place than all beside more sweet,</div> +<div class="line">It is the blood-bought mercy-seat."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p><i>The seventh mention</i> is in this same ninth chapter of Luke, and records a +third night of prayer. Matthew and Mark also tell of the transfiguration +scene, but it is Luke who explains that He went up into the mountain <i>to +pray</i>, and that it was <i>as He was praying</i> that the fashion of His +countenance was altered. Without stopping to study the purpose of this +marvellous manifestation of His divine glory to the chosen three at a time +when desertion and hatred were so marked, it is enough now to note the +significant fact that it was while <i>He was praying</i> that the wondrous +change came. <i>Transfigured while praying! </i> And by His side stood one who +centuries before on the earth had spent so much time alone with God that +the glory-light of that presence transfigured <i>his</i> face, though he was +unconscious of it. A shining face caused by contact with God! Shall not +we, to whom the Master has said, "follow Me," get alone with Him and His +blessed Word, so habitually, with open or uncovered face, that is, with +eyesight unhindered by prejudice or self-seeking, that mirroring the glory +of His face we shall more and more come to bear His very likeness upon our +faces?<sup><a href="#fn45">45</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"And the face shines bright</div> +<div class="line">With a glow of light</div> +<div class="line">From His presence sent</div> +<div class="line">Whom she loves to meet.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Yes, the face beams bright</div> +<div class="line">With an inner light</div> +<div class="line">As by day so by night,</div> +<div class="line">In shade as in shine,</div> +<div class="line">With a beauty fine,</div> +<div class="line">That she wist not of,</div> +<div class="line">From some source within.</div> +<div class="line"> And above.</div> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<div class="line">"Still the face shines bright</div> +<div class="line">With the glory-light</div> +<div class="line">From the mountain height.</div> +<div class="line">Where the resplendent sight</div> +<div class="line">Of His face</div> +<div class="line">Fills her view</div> +<div class="line">And illumines in turn</div> +<div class="line">First the few,</div> +<div class="line">Then the wide race."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p><i>The eighth mention</i> is in the tenth chapter of Luke. He had organized a +band of men, sending them out in two's into the places he expected to +visit. They had returned with a joyful report of the power attending their +work; and standing in their midst, His own heart overflowing with joy, He +looked up and, as though the Father's face was visible, spake out to Him +the gladness of His heart. He seemed to be always conscious of His +Father's presence, and the most natural thing was to speak to Him. They +were always within speaking distance of each other, and always on speaking +terms.</p> + +<p><i>The ninth mention</i> is in the eleventh chapter of Luke, very similar to +the sixth mention, "It came to pass as He was praying in a certain place +that when He ceased one of His disciples said unto Him, 'Lord, teach us +to pray.'" Without doubt these disciples were praying men. He had already +talked to them a great deal about prayer. But as they noticed how large a +place prayer had in His life, and some of the marvellous results, the fact +came home to them with great force that there must be some fascination, +some power, some secret in prayer, of which <i>they were ignorant.</i> This Man +was a master in the fine art of prayer. <i>They</i> really did not know how to +pray, they thought. How their request must have delighted Him! At last +they were being aroused concerning <i>the</i> great secret of power. May it be +that this simple recital of His habits of prayer may move every one of us +to get alone with Him and make the same earnest request. For the first +step in <i>learning</i> to pray is to pray,—"Lord, teach me to pray." And who +<i>can</i> teach like Him?</p> + +<p><i>The tenth mention</i> is found in John, chapter eleven, and is the second of +the four instances of ejaculatory prayer. A large company is gathered +outside the village of Bethany, around a tomb in which four days before +the body of a young man had been laid away. There is Mary, still weeping, +and Martha, always keenly alive to the proprieties, trying to be more +composed, and their personal friends, and the villagers, and the company +of acquaintances and others from Jerusalem. At His word, after some +hesitation, the stone at the mouth of the tomb is rolled aside. And Jesus +lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me; +and I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the multitude that +standeth around I said it that they may believe that Thou didst send Me!" +Clearly before coming to the tomb He had been praying in secret about the +raising of Lazarus, and what followed was in answer to His prayer. How +plain it becomes that all the marvellous power displayed in His brief +earthly career <i>came through prayer</i>. What inseparable intimacy between +His life of activity at which the multitude then and ever since has +marvelled, and His hidden closet-life of which only these passing glimpses +are obtained. Surely the greatest power entrusted to man is prayer-power. +But how many of us are untrue to the trust, while this strangely +omnipotent power put into our hands lies so largely unused.</p> + +<p>Note also the certainty of His faith in the Hearer of prayer: "I thank +Thee that Thou heardest Me." There was nothing that could be <i>seen</i> to +warrant such faith. There lay the dead body. But He trusted as <i>seeing</i> +Him who is <i>invisible</i>. Faith is blind, except upward. It is blind to +impossibilities and deaf to doubt. It listens only to God and sees only +His power and acts accordingly. Faith is not believing that He <i>can</i> but +that He <i>will</i>. But such faith comes only of close continuous contact with +God. Its birthplace is in the secret closet; and time and the open Word, +and an awakened ear and a reverent quiet heart are necessary to its +growth.</p> + +<p><i>The eleventh mention</i> is found in the twelfth chapter of John. Two or +three days before the fated Friday some Greek visitors to the Jewish feast +of Passover sought an interview with Him. The request seemed to bring to +His mind a vision of the great outside world, after which His heart +yearned, coming to Him so hungry for what only He could give. And +instantly athwart that vision like an ink-black shadow came the other +vision, never absent now from His waking thoughts, <i>of the cross</i> so +awfully near. Shrinking in horror from the second vision, yet knowing that +only through its realization could be realized the first,—seemingly +forgetful for the moment of the by-standers, as though soliloquizing, He +speaks—"now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Shall I say, +Father <i>save</i> Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour: +<i>this</i> is what I will say (and the intense conflict of soul merges into +the complete victory of a wholly surrendered will) <i>Father, glorify Thy +name</i>." Quick as the prayer was uttered, came the audible voice out of +heaven answering, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." +How near heaven must be! How quickly the Father hears! He must be bending +over, intently listening, eager to catch even faintly whispered prayer. +Their ears, full of earth-sounds, unaccustomed to listening to a heavenly +voice, could hear nothing intelligible. He had a <i>trained ear</i>. Isaiah +50:4 revised (a passage plainly prophetic of Him), suggests how it was +that He could understand this voice so easily and quickly. "He wakeneth +morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught." +A taught ear is as necessary to prayer as a taught tongue, and the daily +morning appointment with God seems essential to both.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch04-4"> +<h3>Under the Olive Trees.</h3> + + +<p><i>The twelfth mention</i> is made by Luke, chapter twenty-two. It is Thursday +night of Passion week, in the large upper room in Jerusalem where He is +celebrating the old Passover feast, and initiating the new memorial feast. +But even that hallowed hour is disturbed by the disciples' self-seeking +disputes. With the great patience of great love He gives them the +wonderful example of humility of which John thirteen tells, speaking +gently of what it meant, and then turning to Peter, and using his old +name, He says, "Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you that he might +sift you as wheat, but I made supplication for thee that thy faith fail +not." <i>He had been praying for Peter by name!</i> That was one of His +prayer-habits, praying for others. And He has not broken off that blessed +habit yet. He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near to God +through Him <i>seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them</i>. His +occupation now seated at His Father's right hand in glory is <i>praying for +each of us</i> who trust Him. By name? Why not?</p> + +<p><i>The thirteenth mention</i> is the familiar one in John, chapter seventeen, +and cannot be studied within these narrow limits, but merely fitted into +Us order. The twelfth chapter contains His last words to the world. In the +thirteenth and through to the close of this seventeenth He is alone with +His disciples. If this prayer is read carefully in the revised version it +will be seen that its standpoint is that of one who thinks of His work +down in the world as already done (though the chief scene is yet to come) +and the world left behind, and now He is about re-entering His Father's +presence to be re-instated in glory there. It is really, therefore, a sort +of specimen of the praying for us in which He is <i>now</i> engaged, and so is +commonly called the intercessory or high-priestly prayer. For thirty years +He lived a perfect life. For three and a half years He was a prophet +speaking to men for God. For nineteen centuries He has been high priest +speaking to God for men. When He returns it will be as King to reign over +men for God.</p> + +<p><i>The fourteenth mention</i> brings us within the sadly sacred precincts of +Gethsemane garden, one of His favourite prayer-spots, where He frequently +went while in Jerusalem. The record is found in Matthew twenty-six, Mark +fourteen, and Luke twenty-one. Let us approach with hearts hushed and +heads bared and bowed, for this is indeed hallowed ground. It is a little +later on that same Thursday night, into which so much has already been +pressed and so much more is yet to come. After the talk in the upper room, +and the simple wondrous prayer, He leads the little band out of the city +gate on the east across the swift, muddy Kidron into the inclosed grove of +olive trees beyond. There would be no sleep for Him that night. Within an +hour or two the Roman soldiers and the Jewish mob, led by the traitor, +will be there searching for Him, and He meant to spend the intervening +time in <i>prayer</i>. With the longing for sympathy so marked during these +latter months, He takes Peter and James and John and goes farther into the +deeply-shadowed grove. But now some invisible power tears him away and +plunges Him alone still farther into the moonlit recesses of the garden; +and there a strange, awful struggle of soul ensues. It seems like a +renewal of the same conflict He experienced in John twelve when the Greeks +came, but immeasurably intenser. He who in Himself knew no sin was now +beginning to realize in His spirit what within a few hours He realized +<i>actually</i>, that He was in very deed to be made sin for us. And the awful +realization comes in upon Him with such terrific intensity that it seems +as though His physical frame cannot endure the strain of mental agony. The +<i>actual</i> experience of the next day produced such mental agony that His +physical strength gave way. For He died not of His physical suffering, +excruciating as that was, but literally of a broken heart, its walls burst +asunder by the strain of soul. It is not possible for a sinning soul to +appreciate with what nightmare dread and horror the sinless soul of Jesus +must have approached the coming contact with the sin of a world. With +bated breath and reverent gaze one follows that lonely figure among the +trees; now kneeling, now falling upon His face, lying prostrate, "He +prayed that <i>if</i> it were possible the hour might pass away from Him." One +snatch of that prayer reaches our ears: "Abba, Father, all things are +possible unto Thee—<i>if</i> it be possible let this cup pass away from Me; +nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." How long He remained so in +prayer we do not know, but so great was the tension of spirit that a +messenger from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. Even after that +"being in an agony He prayed more earnestly (literally, more stretched +out, more strainedly) and His sweat became as it were great clots of blood +falling down upon the ground." When at length He arises from that season +of conflict and prayer, the victory seems to be won, and something of the +old-time calm reasserts itself. He goes to the sleeping disciples, and +mindful of their coming temptation, admonishes them to pray; then returns +to the lonely solitude again for more prayer, but the change in the form +of prayer tells of the triumph of soul, "O My Father, if this cup +<i>cannot</i> pass away except I drink it, Thy will be done." The victory is +complete. The crisis is past. He yields Himself to that dreaded experience +through which alone the Father's loving plan for a dying world can be +accomplished. Again He returns to the poor, weak disciples, and back again +for another bit of strengthening communion, and then the flickering glare +of torches in the distance tells Him that "the hour is come." With steady +step and a marvellous peace lighting His face He goes out to meet His +enemies. He overcame in this greatest crisis of His life <i>by prayer</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The fifteenth mention</i> is the final one. Of the seven sentences which He +spake upon the cross, three were prayers. Luke tells us that while the +soldiers were driving the nails through His hands and feet and lifting the +cross into place, He, thinking even then not of self, but of others, said, +"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."</p> + +<p>It was as the time of the daily evening sacrifice drew on, near the close +of that strange darkness which overcast all nature, after a silence of +three hours, that He loudly sobbed out the piercing, heart-rending cry, +"My God, My God, why didst Thou forsake Me?" A little later the triumphant +shout proclaimed His work done, and then the very last word was a prayer +quietly breathed out, as He yielded up His life, "Father, into Thy hands +I commend My spirit." And so His expiring breath was vocalized into +prayer.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch04-5"> +<h3>A Composite Picture.</h3> + + +<p>It may be helpful to make the following summary of these allusions.</p> + +<p>1. <i>His times of prayer</i>: His regular habit seems plainly to have been to +devote the early morning hour to communion with His Father, and to depend +upon that for constant guidance and instruction. This is suggested +especially by Mark 1:35; and also by Isaiah 50:4-6 coupled with John 7:16 +l.c., 8:28, and 12:49.</p> + +<p>In addition to this regular appointment, He sought other opportunities for +secret prayer as special need arose; late at night after others had +retired; three times He remained in prayer all the night; and at irregular +intervals between times. Note that it was usually a <i>quiet</i> time when the +noises of earth were hushed. He spent special time in prayer <i>before</i> +important events and also <i>afterwards</i>. (See mentions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 +and 14.)</p> + +<p>2. <i>His places of prayer</i>: He who said, "Enter into thine inner chamber +and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret," Himself +had no fixed inner chamber, during His public career, to make easier the +habitual retirement for prayer. Homeless for the three and a half years of +ceaseless travelling, His place of prayer was a desert place, "the +deserts," "the mountains," "a solitary place." He loved nature. The +hilltop back of Nazareth village, the slopes of Olivet, the hillsides +overlooking the Galilean lake, were His favourite places. Note that it was +always a <i>quiet</i> place, shut away from the discordant sounds of earth.</p> + +<p>3. <i>His constant spirit of prayer</i>: He was never out of the spirit of +prayer. He could be alone in a dense crowd. It has been said that there +are sorts of solitude, namely, of time, as early morning, or late at +night; solitude of place, as a hilltop, or forest, or a secluded room; and +solitude of spirit, as when one surrounded by a crowd may watch them +unmoved, or to be lost to all around in his own inner thought. Jesus used +all three sorts of solitude for talking with His Father. (See mentions 8, +10, 11 and 15.)</p> + +<p>4. <i>He prayed in the great crises of His life</i>: Five such are mentioned: +Before the awful battle royal with Satan in the Quarantanian wilderness at +the outset; before choosing the twelve leaders of the new movement; at the +time of the Galilean uprising; before the final departure from Galilee for +Judea and Jerusalem; and in Gethsemane, the greatest crisis of all. (See +mentions 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14.)</p> + +<p>5. He prayed for others by name, and still does. (See mention 13.)</p> + +<p>6. <i>He prayed with others</i>: A habit that might well be more widely copied. +A few minutes spent in quiet prayer by friends or fellow-workers before +parting wonderfully sweetens the spirit, and cements friendships, and +makes difficulties less difficult, and hard problems easier of solution. +(See mentions 7, 9 and 13.)</p> + +<p>7. <i>The greatest blessings of His life came during prayer</i>: Six incidents +are noted: while praying, the Holy Spirit came upon Him; He was +transfigured; three times a heavenly voice of approval came; and in His +hour of sorest distress in the garden a heavenly messenger came to +strengthen Him. (See mentions 1, 7, 11 and 14.)</p> + +<p>How much prayer meant to Jesus! It was not only His <i>regular habit</i>, but +His resort in <i>every emergency</i>, however slight or serious. When perplexed +He <i>prayed</i>. When hard pressed by work He <i>prayed</i>. When hungry for +fellowship He found it in <i>prayer</i>. He chose His associates and received +His messages <i>upon His knees</i>. If tempted, He <i>prayed</i>. If criticised, He +<i>prayed</i>. If fatigued in body or wearied in spirit, He had recourse to His +one unfailing habit of <i>prayer. Prayer</i> brought Him <i>unmeasured power</i> at +the beginning, and <i>kept</i> the flow unbroken and undiminished. There was no +emergency, no difficulty, no necessity, no temptation that would not yield +to prayer, as He practiced it. Shall not we, who have been tracing these +steps in His prayer life, go back over them again and again until we +breathe in His very spirit of prayer? And shall we not, too, ask Him daily +to teach us how to pray, and then plan to get alone with Him regularly +that He may have opportunity to teach us, and we the opportunity to +practice His teaching?</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div id="footnotes"> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> + + + +<p class="fn" id="fn1">1. John 15:16.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn2">2. "Demon Possession," by J. L. Nevius.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn3">3. Psalm 24:1.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn4">4. Psalm 29:10.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn5">5. Genesis 1:26, 28. Psalms 8:6. See quotations of this, referring to the +Man who will restore original conditions, in 1 Cor. 15:27. Ephesians 1:32, +Hebrews 2:8. Psalms 115:16.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn6">6. John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn7">7. Revelation 11:15.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn8">8. John 14:30.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn9">9. Jeremiah 33:3.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn10">10. Psalm 50:15.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn11">11. Matthew 7:7.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn12">12. Isaiah 1:15.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn13">13. Isaiah 59:1-3.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn14">14. Psalm 66:18.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn15">15. James 4:2, 3.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn16">16. Matthew 5:23, 24.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn17">17. Matthew 6:9-15.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn18">18. Matthew 18:19-35.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn19">19. Acts 16:6.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn20">20. Acts 16:7.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn21">21. John 7:8.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn22">22. Acts 22:17-21.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn23">23. 2 Cor. 5:21.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn24">24. Sidney Lanier.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn25">25. Ephesians 2:2.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn26">26. Luke 11:5-13.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn27">27. Luke 18:1-8.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn28">28. 1 Peter 5:8.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn29">29. Matthew 17:14-20; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn30">30. Matthew 16:24.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn31">31. Psalm 37:7.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn32">32. Isaiah 50:4.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn33">33. Jeremiah 15:1.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn34">34. Longfellow.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn35">35. 2 Samuel 23:9, 10.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn36">36. Joseph Cook.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn37">37. John 7:17.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn38">38. Frances Ridley Havergal.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn39">39. Romans 8:26-28.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn40">40. Psalm 25:9.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn41">41. 1 John 5:14, 15.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn42">42. 2 Timothy 2:24-26.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn43">43. Isaiah 50:4, Revised.</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn44">44. Does not this very strong language suggest that possibly the +disciples had been conferred with by the revolutionary leaders?</p> + +<p class="fn" id="fn45">45. 2 Cor. 3:18.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Quiet Talks on Prayer +by S. D. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + + + diff --git a/old/13196.txt b/old/13196.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a8cfa1e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13196.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5608 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Quiet Talks on Prayer, by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Quiet Talks on Prayer + +Author: S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon + +Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13196] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUIET TALKS ON PRAYER *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +Quiet Talks on Prayer + +by + +S. D. Gordon + + + + +Copyright, 1904, by +Fleming H. Revell Company + + + + +Contents + + + +I. The Meaning and Mission of Prayer + 1. Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power + 2. Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict + 3. The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer + 4. Does Prayer Influence God? + +II. Hindrances to Prayer + 1. Why the Results Fail + 2. Why the Results are Delayed + 3. The Great Outside Hindrance + +III. How to Pray + 1. The "How" of Relationship + 2. The "How" of Method + 3. The Listening Side of Prayer + 4. Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer + 5. May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones + +IV. Jesus' Habits of Prayer + 1. A Pen Sketch + 2. Dissolving Views + 3. Deepening Shadows + 4. Under the Olive Trees + 5. A Composite Picture + + + + +I. The Meaning And Mission Of Prayer + + +1. Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power. +2. Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict. +3. The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer. +4. Does Prayer Influence God? + + + + +Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power + + + +<u>Five Outlets of Power.</u> + + +A great sorrow has come into the heart of God. Let it be told only in +hushed voice--one of His worlds is _a prodigal_! Hush your voice yet +more--_ours_ is that prodigal world. Let your voice soften down still +more--_we_ have _consented_ to the prodigal part of the story. But, in +softest tones yet, He has won some of us back with His strong tender love. +And now let the voice ring out with great gladness--we won ones may be the +pathway back to God for the others. That is His earnest desire. That +should be our dominant ambition. For that purpose He has endowed us with +peculiar power. + +There is one inlet of power in the life--anybody's life--any kind of +power: just one inlet--the Holy Spirit. He is power. He is in every one +who opens his door to God. He eagerly enters every open door. He comes in +by our invitation and consent. His presence within is the vital thing. + +But with many of us while He is in, He is not in control: in as guest; not +as host. That is to say He is hindered in His natural movements; tied up, +so that He cannot do what He would. And so we are not conscious or only +partially conscious of His presence. And others are still less so. But to +yield to His mastery, to cultivate His friendship, to give Him full +swing--that will result in what is called power. One inlet of power--the +Holy Spirit in control. + +There are five outlets of power: five avenues through which this One +within shows Himself, and reveals His power. + +First: through the life, what we are. Just simply what we are. If we be +right the power of God will be constantly flowing out, though we be not +conscious of it. It throws the keenest kind of emphasis on a man being +right in his life. There will be an eager desire to serve. Yet we may +constantly do more in what we are than in what we do. We may serve better +in the lives we live than in the best service we ever give. The memory of +that should bring rest to your spirit when a bit tired, and may be +disheartened because tired. + +Second: through the lips, what we say. It may be said stammeringly and +falteringly. But if said your best with the desire to please the Master it +will be God-blest. I have heard a man talk. And he stuttered and blushed +and got his grammar badly tangled, but my heart burned as I listened. And +I have heard a man talk with smooth speech, and it rolled off me as easily +as it rolled out of him. Do your best, and leave the rest. If we are in +touch with God His fire burns whether the tongue stammer or has good +control of its powers. + +Third: through our service, what we do. It may be done bunglingly and +blunderingly. Your best may not be the best, but if it be your best it +will bring a harvest. + +Fourth: through our money, what we do not keep, but loosen out for God. +Money comes the nearest to omnipotence of anything we handle. + +And, fifth: through our prayer, what we claim in Jesus' name. + +And by all odds the greatest of these is the outlet through prayer. The +power of a life touches just one spot, but the touch is tremendous. What +is there we think to be compared with a pure, unselfish, gently strong +life. Yet its power is limited to one spot where it is being lived. Power +through the lips depends wholly upon the life back of the lips. Words that +come brokenly are often made burning and eloquent by the life behind them. +And words that are smooth and easy, often have all their meaning sapped by +the life back of them. Power through service may be great, and may be +touching many spots, yet it is always less than that of a life. Power +through money depends wholly upon the motive back of the money. Begrudged +money, stained money, soils the treasury. That which comes nearest to +omnipotence also comes nearest to impotence. But the power loosened out +through prayer is as tremendous, at the least, to say no more just now, is +as tremendous as the power of a true fragrant life and, mark you, _and_, +may touch not one spot but wherever in the whole round world you may +choose to turn it. + +The greatest thing any one can do for God and for man is to pray. It is +not the only thing. But it is the chief thing. A correct balancing of the +possible powers one may exert puts it first. For if a man is to pray +right, he must first _be_ right in his motives and life. And if a man _be_ +right, and put the practice of praying in its right place, then his +serving and giving and speaking will be fairly fragrant with the presence +of God. + +The great people of the earth to-day are the people who pray. I do not +mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in +prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean these +people who _take_ time and _pray_. They have not time. It must be taken +from something else. This something else is important. Very important, and +pressing than prayer. There are people that put prayer first, and group +the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer. + +These are the people to-day who are doing the most for God; in winning +souls; in solving problems; in awakening churches; in supplying both men +and money for mission posts; in keeping fresh and strong these lives far +off in sacrificial service on the foreign field where the thickest +fighting is going on; in keeping the old earth sweet awhile longer. + +It is wholly a secret service. We do not know who these people are, though +sometimes shrewd guesses may be made. I often think that sometimes we pass +some plain-looking woman quietly slipping out of church; gown been turned +two or three times; bonnet fixed over more than once; hands that have not +known much of the softening of gloves; and we hardly giver her a passing +thought, and do not know, nor guess, that perhaps _she_ is the one who is +doing far more for her church, and for the world, and for God than a +hundred who would claim more attention and thought, _because she prays_; +truly prays as the Spirit of God inspires and guides. + +Let me put it this way: God will do as a result of the praying of the +humblest one here what otherwise He _would_ not do. Yes, I can make it +stronger than that, and I must make it stronger, for the Book does. +Listen: God will do in answer to the prayer of the weakest one here what +otherwise he _could_ not do. "Oh!" someone thinks, "you are getting that +too strong now." Well, you listen to Jesus' own words in that last long +quiet talk He had with the eleven men between the upper room and the +olive-green. John preserves much of that talk for us. Listen: "Ye did not +choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear +fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that"--listen, a part of the +purpose why we have been chosen--"that whatsoever ye shall ask of the +Father in My name, He _may_ give it you."[1] Mark that word "may"; not +"shall" this time but _may_. "Shall" throws the matter over on God--His +purpose. "May" throws it over upon us--our cooperation. That is to say our +praying makes it possible for God to do what otherwise He could not do. + +And if you think into it a bit, this fits in with the true conception of +prayer. In its simplest analysis prayer--all prayer--has, must have, two +parts. First, a God to give. "Yes," you say, "certainly, a God wealthy, +willing, all of that." And, just as certainly, there must be a second +factor, _a man to receive_. Man's willingness is God's channel to the +earth. God never crowds nor coerces. Everything God does for man and +through man He does with man's consent, always. With due reverence, but +very plainly, let it be said that God can do nothing for the man with shut +hand and shut life. There must be an open hand and heart and life +_through_ which God can give what He longs to. An open life, an open hand, +open upward, is the pipe line of communication between the heart of God +and this poor befooled old world. Our prayer is God's opportunity to get +into the world that would shut Him out. + + + +<u>In touch with a planet.</u> + + +Prayer opens a whole planet to a man's activities. I can as really be +touching hearts for God in far away India or China through prayer, as +though I were there. Not in as many ways as though there, but as truly. +Understand me, I think the highest possible _privilege_ of service is in +those far off lands. There the need is greatest, the darkness densest, and +the pleading call most eloquently pathetic. And if one _may_ go +there--happy man!--if one be _privileged_ to go to the honoured place of +service he may then use all five outlets direct in the spot where he is. + +Yet this is only one spot. But his relationship is as wide as his Master's +and his sympathies should be. A man may be in Africa, but if his heart be +in touch with Jesus it will be burning for _a world_. Prayer puts us into +direct dynamic touch with a world. + +A man may go aside to-day, and shut his door, and as really spend a +half-hour in India--I am thinking of my words as I say them, it seems so +much to say, and yet it is true--as really spend a half hour of his life +in India for God as though he were there in person. _Is_ that true? If it +be true, surely you and I must get more half-hours for this secret +service. Without any doubt he may turn his key and be for a bit of time as +potentially in China by the power of prayer, as though there in actual +bodily form. I say _potentially_ present. Of course not consciously +present. But in the _power exerted upon men_ he may be truly present at +the objective point of his prayer. He may give a new meaning to the +printed page being read by some native down in Africa. He may give a new +tongue of flame to the preacher or teacher. He may make it easier for men +to accept the story of Jesus, and then to yield themselves to +Jesus--yonder men swept and swayed by evil spirits, and by prejudices for +generations--make it easier for them to accept the story, and, if need be, +to cut with loved ones, and step out and up into a new life. + +Some earnest heart enters an objection here, perhaps. You are thinking +that if you were there you could influence men by your personal contact, +by the living voice. So you could. And there must be the personal touch. +Would that there were many times more going for that blessed personal +touch. But this is the thing to mark keenly both for those who may go, and +for those who must stay: no matter where you are you do more through your +praying than through your personality. If you were in India you could _add +your personality to your prayer_. That would be a great thing to do. But +whether there or here, you must first win the victory, every step, every +life, every foot of the way, in secret, in the spirit-realm, and then add +the mighty touch of your personality in service. You can do _more _ than +pray, _after_ you have prayed. But you can _not_ do more than pray _until_ +you have prayed. And just there is where we have all seemed to make a +slip at times, and many of us are yet making it--a bad slip. We think we +can do more where we are through our service: then prayer to give power to +service. _No_--with the blackest underscoring of emphasis, let it be +said--NO. We can do no thing of real power until we have done the prayer +thing. + +Here is a man by my side. I can talk to him. I can bring my personality to +bear upon him, that I may win him. But before I can influence his will a +jot for God, I must first have won the victory in the secret place. +Intercession is winning the victory over the chief, and service is taking +the field after the chief is driven off. Such service is limited by the +limitation of personality to one place. This spirit-telegraphy called +prayer puts a man into direct dynamic touch with a planet. + +There are some of our friends who think themselves of the practical sort +who say, "the great thing is work: prayer is good, and right, but the +great need is to be doing something practical." The truth is that when one +understands about prayer, and puts prayer in its right place in his life, +he finds a new motive power burning in his bones to be _doing_; and +further he finds that it is the doing that grows out of praying that is +mightiest in touching human hearts. And he finds further yet with a great +joy that he may be _doing_ something for an entire world. His service +becomes as broad as his Master's thought. + + + +<u>Intercession is Service.</u> + + +It helps greatly to remember that intercession is service: the chief +service of a life on God's plan. It is unlike all other forms of service, +and superior to them in this: that it has fewer limitations. In all other +service we are constantly limited by space, bodily strength, equipment, +material obstacles, difficulties involved in the peculiar differences of +personality. Prayer knows no such limitations. It ignores space. It may be +free of expenditure of bodily strength, where rightly practiced, and one's +powers are under proper control. It goes directly, by the telegraphy of +spirit, into men's hearts, quietly passes through walls, and past locks +unhindered, and comes into most direct touch with the inner heart and will +to be affected. + +In service, as ordinarily understood, one is limited to the space where +his body is, the distance his voice can reach, the length of time he can +keep going before he must quit to eat, or rest, or sleep. He is limited by +walls, and locks, by the prejudices of men's minds, and by those peculiar +differences of temperament which must be studied in laying siege to men's +hearts. + +The whole circle of endeavour in winning men includes such an infinite +variety. There is speaking the truth to a number of persons, and to one at +a time; the doing of needed kindly acts of helpfulness, supplying food, +and the like; there is teaching; the almost omnipotent ministry of money; +the constant contact with a pure unselfish life; letter writing; printer's +ink in endless variety. All these are in God's plan for winning men. But +the intensely fascinating fact to mark is this:--that the real victory in +all of this service is won in secret, beforehand, by prayer, and these +other indispensable things are the moving upon the works of the enemy, and +claiming the victory already won. And when these things are put in their +proper order, prayer first, and the other things second; _second_, I say, +not omitted, not slurred over; done with all the earnestness and power of +brain and hand and heart possible; but done _after_ the victory has been +won in secret, against the real foe, and done _while_ the winner is still +claiming the victory already assured,--then will come far greater +achievements in this outer open service. + +Then we go into this service with that fine spirit of expectancy that +sweeps the field at the start, and steadily sticks on the stubbornly +contested spots until the whipped foe turns tail, and goes. Prayer is +striking the winning blow at the concealed enemy. Service is gathering up +the results of that blow among the men we see and touch. Great patience +and tact and persistence are needed in the service because each man must +be influenced in his own will. But the shrewd strategy that wins puts the +keen stiff secret fighting first. + + + +<u>The Spirit Switchboard.</u> + + +Electricity is a strange element. It is catalogued in the study of +physics. It is supposed to be properly classed among the forces of nature. +Yet it seems to have many properties of the spirit world. Those who know +most of it say they know least of what it is. Some of the laws of its +being have been learned, and so its marvellous power harnessed for man's +use, but in much ignorance of what it is. It seems almost to belong +somewhere in between the physical and spirit realms. It furnishes many +similes of graphic helpfulness in understanding more nearly much truth of +the Spirit life. + +In the power-house where the electricity is being wooed into man's +harnessing, or generated, as the experts say, is found a switchboard, or +switch-room with a number of boards. Here in a large city plant a man may +go and turn a switch, that is, move a little handle, a very short +distance. It is a very simple act, easily performed, involving almost no +strength. But that act has loosened the power in the house back of the +switchboard out along the wires, and perhaps lighted a whole section of +the city. He goes in again at another hour, and turns _this_ set of +switches, and _this_, and sets in motion maybe scores of cars, carrying +swiftly, hundreds of passengers. Again he goes in, and moves the little +handles and sets in motion the wheels in some factory employing hundreds +of operatives. + +It is a secret service, usually as far as any observers are concerned. It +is a very quiet, matter of fact service. But the power influenced is +unmeasured and immeasurable. And no one, seemingly, thus far, can explain +the mysterious but tremendous agent involved. Does the fluid--it a fluid? +or, what?--pass _through_ the wire? or, _around_ the wire? The experts say +they do not know. But the laws which it obeys are known. And as men comply +with them its almost omnipotence is manifested. + +Just such a switch-room in the spirit realm is one's prayer-room. Every +one who will may have such a spirit switching-board in his life. There he +may go and in compliance with the laws of the power used loosen out the +gracious persuasive irresistible power of God _where he wills to_; now in +Japan; now in China; among the hungry human hearts of India's plains and +mountains; again in Africa which is full as near to where Jesus sits as is +England or America; and now into the house across the alley from your +home; and down in the slum district; and now into your preacher's heart +for next Sunday's work; and now again unto the hearts of those you will be +meeting in the settlement house, or the mission school. + +Children are not allowed at the electrical switchboard, nor any unskilled +hand. For misuse means possibility of great damage to property and life. +And the spirit switchboard does not yield to the unskilled touch. Though +sometimes there seems to be much tampering by those with crude fingers, +and with selfish desire to turn this current to personal advantage merely. + +It takes skill here. Yet such is our winsome God's wondrous plan that +skill may come to any one who is willing; simply that--who is willing; and +it comes _very simply_ too. + +Strange too, as with the electrical counterpart, the thing is beyond full +or satisfying explanation. + +How does it come to pass that a man turns a few handles, and miles away +great wheels begin to revolve, and enormous power is manifested? Will some +one kindly explain? Yet we know it is so, and men govern their actions by +that knowledge. + +How does it come to pass that a woman in Iowa prays for the conversion of +her skeptical husband, and he, down in the thick of the most absorbing +congress Washington has known since the civil war, and in full ignorance +of her purpose becomes conscious and repeatedly conscious of the presence +and power of the God in whose existence he does not believe; and months +afterwards with his keen, legally trained mind, finds the calendar to fit +together the beginning of her praying with the beginning of his unwelcome +consciousness? Will some one kindly explain? Ah! who can, adequately! Yet +the facts, easy ascertainable, are there, and evidenced in the complete +change in the life and calling of the man. + +How comes it to pass that a woman in Missouri praying for a friend of keen +intellectual skeptically in Glasgow, who can skillfully measure and parry +argument, yet finds afterwards that the time of her praying is the time of +his, at first decidedly unwelcome, but finally radical change of +convictions! Yet groups of thoughtful men and women know these two +instances to be even so though unable to explain how. + +And as the mysterious electrical power is being used by obedience to its +laws, even so is the power of prayer being used by many who understand +simply enough of its laws to obey, and to bring the stupendous results. + + + +<u>The Broad Inner Horizon.</u> + + +This suggests at once that the rightly rounded Christian life has two +sides; the _out_-side, and the _inner_ side. To most of us the outer side +seems the greater. The living, the serving, the giving, the doing, the +absorption in life's work, the contact with men, with the great majority +the sheer struggle for existence--these take the greater thought and time +of us all. They seem to be the great business of life even to those of us +who thoroughly believe in the inner life. + +But when the real eyes open, the inner eyes that see the unseen, the +change of perspective is first ludicrous, then terrific, then pathetic. +Ludicrous, because of the change of proportions; terrific, because of the +issues at stake; pathetic, because of strong men that see not, and push on +spending splendid strength whittling sticks. The outer side is narrow in +its limits. It has to do with food and clothing, bricks and lumber, time +and the passing hour, the culture of the mind, the joys of social contact, +the smoothing of the way for the suffering. And it needs not to be said, +that these are right; they belong in the picture; they are its physical +background. + +The inner side _includes all of these_, and stretches infinitely beyond. +Its limits are broad; broad as the home of man; with its enswathing +atmosphere added. It touches the inner spirit. It moves in upon the +motives, the loves, the heart. It moves out upon the myriad spirit-beings +and forces that swarm ceaselessly about the earth staining and sliming +men's souls and lives. It moves up to the arm of God in cooperation with +His great love-plan for a world. + +Shall we follow for a day one who has gotten the true perspective? Here is +the outer side: a humble home, a narrow circle, tending the baby, +patching, sewing, cooking, calling; _or_, measuring dry goods, chopping a +typewriter, checking up a ledger, feeding the swift machinery, endless +stitching, gripping a locomotive lever, pushing the plow, tending the +stock, doing the chores, tiresome examination papers; and all the rest of +the endless, endless, doing, day by day, of the commonplace treadmill +things, that must be done, that fill out the day of the great majority of +human lives. This one whom we are following unseen is doing quietly, +cheerily his daily round, with a bit of sunshine in his face, a light in +his eye, and lightness in his step, and the commonplace place becomes +uncommon by reason of the presence of this man with the uncommon spirit. +He is working for God. No, better, he is working with God. He has an +unseen Friend at his side. That changes all. The common drudgery ceases to +be common, and ceases to be drudgery because it is done for such an +uncommon Master. That is the outer, the narrow side of this life: not +narrow in itself but in its proportion to the whole. + +Now, hold your breath, and look, for here is the inner side where the +larger work of life is being done. Here is the quiet bit of time alone +with God, with the Book. The door is shut, as the Master said. Now it is +the morning hour with a bit of made light, for the sun is busy yet farther +east. Now it is the evening hour, with the sun speeding towards western +service, and the bed invitingly near. There is a looking up into God's +face; then keen but reverent reading, and then a simple intelligent +pleading with its many variations of this--"Thy will be done, in the +Victor's name." God Himself is here, in this inner room. The angels are +here. This room opens out into and is in direct touch with a spirit space +as wide as the earth. The horizon of this room is as broad as the globe. +God's presence with this man makes it so. + +To-day a half hour is spent in China, for its missionaries, its native +Christians, its millions, the printed page, the personal contact, the +telling of the story, the school, the dispensary, the hospital. And in +through the petitions runs this golden thread--"Victory in Jesus' name: +victory in Jesus' name; to-day: to-day: Thy will be being done: the other +will undone: victory in Jesus' name." Tomorrow's bit of time is largely +spent in India perhaps. And so this man with the narrow outer horizon and +the broad inner horizon pushes his spirit-way through Japan, India, +Ceylon, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Africa, Europe's papal lands, the South +American States, the home land, its cities, frontiers, slums, the home +town, the home church, the man across the alley; in and out; out and in; +the tide of prayer sweeps quietly, resistlessly day by day. + +This is the true Christian life. This man is winning souls and refreshing +lives in these far-off lands and in near-by places as truly as though he +were in each place. This is the Master's plan. The true follower of Jesus +has as broad a horizon as his Master. Jesus thought in continents and +seas. His follower prays in continents and seas. This man does not know +what is being accomplished. Yes! He _does_ know, too. He knows by the +inference of faith. + +This room where we are meeting and talking together might be shut up so +completely that no light comes in. A single crack breaking somewhere lets +in a thin line of light. But that line of light shining in the darkness +tells of a whole sun of light flooding the outer world. + +There comes to this man occasional, yes frequent, evidences of changes +being wrought, yet he knows that these are but the thin line of glory +light which speaks of the fuller shining. And with a spirit touched with +glad awe that he can and may help God, and a heart full alike of peace and +of yearning, and a life fragrant with an unseen Presence he goes steadily +on his way, towards the dawning of the day. + + + + +Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict + + + +<u>A Prehistoric Conflict.</u> + + +In its simplest meaning prayer has to do with a conflict. Rightly +understood it is the deciding factor in a spirit conflict. The scene of +the conflict is the earth. The purpose of the conflict is to decide the +control of the earth, and its inhabitants. The conflict runs back into the +misty ages of the creation time. + +The rightful prince of the earth is Jesus, the King's Son. There is a +pretender prince who was once rightful prince. He was guilty of a breach +of trust. But like King Saul, after his rejection and David's anointing in +his place, he has been and is trying his best by dint of force to hold the +realm and oust the rightful ruler. + +The rightful Prince is seeking by utterly different means, namely by +persuasion, to win the world back to its first allegiance. He had a fierce +set-to with the pretender, and after a series of victories won the great +victory of the resurrection morning. + +There is one peculiarity of this conflict making it different from all +others; namely, a decided victory, and the utter vanquishing of the +leading general has not stopped the war. And the reason is remarkable. The +Victor has a deep love-ambition to win, not merely against the enemy, but +_into men's hearts, by their free consent_. And so, with marvellous +love-born wisdom and courage, the conflict is left open, for men's sake. + +It is a spirit conflict. The earth is swung in a spirit atmosphere. There +are unnumbered thousands of spirit beings good and evil, tramping the +earth's surface, and filling its atmosphere. They are splendidly organized +into two compact organizations. + +Man is a spirit being; an embodied spirit being. He has a body and a mind. +He is a spirit. His real conflicts are of the spirit sort; in the spirit +realm, with other spirit beings. + +Satan is a spirit being; an unembodied spirit being. That is, unembodied, +save as in much cunning, with deep, dark purpose he secures embodiment in +human beings. + +The only sort of power that influences in the spirit realm is _moral_ +power. By which is not meant _goodness_, but that sort of power either bad +or good which is not of a physical sort: that higher, infinitely higher +and greater power than the mere physical. Moral power is the opposite of +violent or physical power. + +God does not use force, violent physical force. There are some exceptions +to this statement. There have been righteous wars, righteous on one side. +Turning to the Bible record, in emergencies, in extreme instances God has +ordered war measures. The nations that Israel was told to remove by the +death of war would have inevitably worn themselves out through their +physical excesses, and disobedience of the laws of life. But a wide view +of the race revealed an emergency which demanded a speedier movement. And +as an exception, for the sake of His plan for the ultimate saving of a +race, and a world, God gave an extermination order. The emergency makes +the exception. There is one circumstance under which the taking of human +life is right, namely, when it can be clearly established that God the +giver and sovereign of life has so directed. But the rule clearly is that +God does not use force. + +But note sharply in contrast with this that physical force is one of +Satan's chief weapons. But mark there two intensely interesting facts: +first, he can use it only as he secures man as his ally, and uses it +through him. And, second, in using it he has with great subtlety sought to +shift the sphere of action. He knows that in the sphere of spirit force +pure and simple he is at a disadvantage: indeed, worse yet, he is +defeated. For there is a moral force on the other side greater than any at +his command. The forces of purity and righteousness he simply _can_not +withstand. Jesus is the personification of purity and righteousness. It +was on this moral ground, in this spirit sphere that He won the great +victory. He ran a terrific gauntlet of tests, subtle and fierce, through +those human years, and came out victor with His purity and righteousness +unstained. + + + +<u>Prayer is Projecting One's Spirit Personality.</u> + + +Now prayer is a spirit force, it has to do wholly with spirit beings and +forces. It is an insistent claiming, by a man, an embodied spirit being, +down on the contested earth, that the power of Jesus' victory over the +great evil-spirit chieftain shall extend to particular lives now under his +control. The prayer takes on the characteristic of the man praying. He is +a spirit being. It becomes a spirit force. It is a projecting into the +spirit realm of his spirit personality. Being a spirit force it has +certain qualities or characteristics of unembodied spirit beings. An +unembodied spirit being is not limited by space as we embodied folk are. +It can go as swiftly as we can think. If I want to go to London it will +take at least a week's time to get my body through the intervening space. +But I can think myself into London more quickly than I can say the words, +and be walking down the Strand. Now a spirit being can go as quickly as I +can think. + +Further, spirit beings are not limited by material obstructions such as +the walls of this building. When I came in here to-day I came in by this +door. You all came in by these doors. We were obliged to come in either by +doors or windows. But the spirit beings who are here listening to us, and +deeply concerned with our discussion did not bother with the doors. They +came in through the walls, or the roof, if they were above us, or through +the floor here, if they happened to be below this level. + +Prayer has these qualities of spirit beings of not being limited by space, +or by material obstacles. Prayer is really projecting my spirit, that is, +my real personality to the spot concerned, and doing business there with +other spirit beings. For example there is a man in a city on the Atlantic +seaboard for whom I pray daily. It makes my praying for him very tangible +and definite to recall that every time I pray my prayer is a spirit force +instantly traversing the space in between him and me, and going without +hindrance through the walls of the house where he is, and influencing the +spirit beings surrounding him, and so influencing his own will. + +When it became clear to me some few years ago that my Master would not +have me go yet to those parts of the earth where the need is greatest, a +deep tinge of disappointment came over me. Then as I realized the wisdom +of His sovereignty in service, it came to me anew that I could exert a +positive influence in those lands for Him by prayer. As many others have +done, I marked out a daily schedule of prayer. There are certain ones for +whom I pray by name, at certain intervals. And it gives great simplicity +to my faith, and great gladness to my heart to remember that every time +such prayer is breathed out, my spirit personality is being projected +yonder, and in effect I am standing in Shanghai, and Calcutta and Tokyo in +turn and pleading the power of Jesus' victory over the evil one there, and +on behalf of those faithful ones standing there for God. + +It is a fiercely contested conflict. Satan is a trained strategist, and an +obstinate fighter. He refuses to acknowledge defeat until he must. It is +the fight of his life. Strange as it must seem, and perhaps absurd, he +apparently hopes to succeed. If we knew all, it might seem less strange +and absurd, because of the factors on his side. There is surely much down +in the world of the sort which we can fully appreciate to give colour to +his expectations. Prayer is insisting upon Jesus' victory, and the retreat +of the enemy on each particular spot, and heart and problem concerned. + +The enemy yields only what he must. He yields only what is taken. +Therefore the ground must be taken step by step. Prayer must be definite. +He yields only when he must. Therefore the prayer must be persistent. He +continually renews his attacks, therefore the ground taken must be _held_ +against him in the Victor's name. This helps to understand why prayer +must be persisted in after we have full assurance of the result, and even +after some immediate results have come, or, after the general results have +commenced coming. + + + +<u>Giving God a Fresh Footing.</u> + + +The Victor's best ally in this conflict is the man, who while he remains +down on the battle-field, puts his life in full touch with his +Saviour-Victor, and then incessantly, insistently, believingly claims +_victory in Jesus' name_. He is the one foe among men whom Satan cannot +withstand. He is projecting an irresistible spirit force into the spirit +realm. Satan is obliged to yield. We are so accustomed through history's +long record to seeing victories won through force, physical force, alone, +that it is difficult for us to realize that moral force defeats as the +other never can. Witness the demons in the gospels, and in modern days in +China,[2] clearly against their own set purpose, notwithstanding intensest +struggle on their part obliged to admit defeat, and even to ask favours of +their Conqueror. The records of personal Christian service give +fascinating instances of fierce opposition utterly subdued and individuals +transformed through such influence. + +Had we eyes to see spirit beings and spirit conflicts we would constantly +see the enemy's defeat in numberless instances through the persistent +praying of some one allied to Jesus in the spirit of his life. Every time +such a man prays it is a waving of the red-dyed flag of Jesus Christ above +Satan's head in the spirit world. Every such man who freely gives himself +over to God, and gives himself up to prayer is giving God a new spot in +the contested territory on which to erect His banner of victory. + +The Japanese struggled for weeks to get a footing on the Port Arthur +peninsula, even after the naval victories had practically rendered Russia +helpless on the seas. It was an unusual spectacle to witness such +difficulty in getting a landing after such victories. But with the bulldog +tenacity that has marked her fighting Japan fought for a footing. Nothing +could be done till a footing was gotten. + +Prayer is man giving God a footing on the contested territory of this +earth. The man in full touch of purpose with God praying, insistently +praying--that man is God's footing on the enemy's soil. The man wholly +given over to God gives Him a new sub-headquarters on the battle-field +from which to work out. And the Holy Spirit within that man, on the new +spot, will insist on the enemy's retreat in Jesus the Victor's name. That +is prayer. Shall we not, every one of us, increase God's footing down upon +His prodigal earth! + + + + +The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer + + + +<u>Prayer a War Measure.</u> + + +This world is God's prodigal son. The heart of God's bleeds over His +prodigal. It has been gone so long, and the home circle is broken. He has +spent all the wealth of His thought on a plan for winning the prodigal +back home. Angels and men have marvelled over that plan, its sweep, its +detail, its strength and wisdom, its tenderness. He needs man for His +plan. He will _use_ man. That is true. He will _honour_ man in service. +That is true. But these only touch the edge of the truth. The pathway from +God to a human heart is through a human heart. When He came to the great +strategic move in His plan, He Himself came down as a man and made that +move. _He needs man for His plan._ + +The greatest agency put into man's hands is prayer. To understand that at +all fully one needs to define prayer. And to define prayer adequately one +must use the language of war. Peace language is not equal to the +situation. The earth is in a state of war. It is being hotly besieged and +so one must use war talk to grasp the facts with which prayer is +concerned. _Prayer from God's side is communication between Himself and +His allies in the enemy's country_. Prayer is not persuading God. It does +not influence God's purpose. It is not winning Him over to our side; never +that. He is far more eager for what we are rightly eager for than we ever +are. What there is of wrong and sin and suffering that pains you, pains +Him far more. He knows more about it. He is more keenly sensitive to it +than the most sensitive one of us. Whatever of heart yearning there may be +that moves you to prayer is from Him. God takes the initiative in all +prayer. It starts with Him. True prayer moves in a circle. It begins in +the heart of God, sweeps down into a human heart upon the earth, so +intersecting the circle of the earth, which is the battle-field of prayer, +and then it goes back again to its starting point, having accomplished its +purpose on the downward swing. + + + +<u>Three Forms of Prayer.</u> + + +Prayer is the word commonly used for all intercourse with God. But it +should be kept in mind that that word covers and includes three forms of +intercourse. All prayer grows up through, and ever continues in three +stages. + +The first form of prayer is _communion_. That is simply being on good +terms with God. It involves the blood of the cross as the basis of our +getting and being on good terms. It involves my coming to God through +Jesus. Communion is fellowship with God. Not request for some particular +thing; not asking, but simply enjoying Himself, loving Him, thinking about +Him, how beautiful, and intelligent, and strong and loving and lovable He +is; talking to Him without words. That is the truest worship, thinking how +worthy He is of all the best we can possibly bring to Him, and infinitely +more. It has to do wholly with God and a man being on good terms with each +other. Of necessity it includes confession on my part and forgiveness upon +God's part, for only so can we come into the relation of fellowship. +Adoration, worship belong to this first phase of prayer. Communion is the +basis of all prayer. It is the essential breath of the true Christian +life. It concerns just two, God and myself, yourself. Its influence is +directly subjective. _It affects me._ + +The second form of prayer is _petition_. And I am using that word now in +the narrower meaning of asking something for one's self. Petition is +definite request of God for something I need. A man's whole life is +utterly dependent upon the giving hand of God. Everything we need comes +from Him. Our friendships, ability to make money, health, strength in +temptation, and in sorrow, guidance in difficult circumstances, and in all +of life's movements; help of all sorts, financial, bodily, mental, +spiritual--all come from God, and necessitate a constant touch with Him. +There needs to be a constant stream of petition going up, many times +wordless prayer. And there will be a constant return stream of answer and +supply coming down. The door between God and one's own self must be kept +ever open. The knob to be turned is on our side. He opened His side long +ago, and propped it open, and threw the knob away. The whole life hinges +upon this continual intercourse with our wondrous God. This is the second +stage or form of prayer. It concerns just two: God and the man dealing +with God. It is subjective in its influence: _its reach is within_. + +The third form of prayer is _intercession_. True prayer never stops with +petition for one's self. It reaches out for others. The very word +intercession implies a reaching out for some one else. It is standing as a +go-between, a mutual friend, between God and some one who is either out of +touch with Him, or is needing special help. Intercession is the climax of +prayer. It is the outward drive of prayer. It is the effective end of +prayer _outward_. Communion and petition are upward and downward. +Intercession rests upon these two as its foundation. Communion and +petition store the life with the power of God; intercession lets it out on +behalf of others. The first two are necessarily for self; this third is +for others. They ally a man fully with God: it makes use of that alliance +for others. Intercession is the full-bloomed plant whose roots and +strength lie back and down in the other two forms. _It_ is the form of +prayer that helps God in His great love-plan for winning a planet back to +its true sphere. It will help through these talks to keep this simple +analysis of prayer in mind. For much that will be said will deal chiefly +with this third form, intercession, the outward movement of prayer. + + + +<u>The Climax of Prayer.</u> + + +To God man is first an objective point, and then, without ceasing to be +that, he further becomes a distributing centre. God ever thinks of a man +doubly: first for his own self, and then for his possible use in reaching +others. Communion and petition fix and continue one's relation to God, and +so prepare for the great outreaching form of prayer--intercession. Prayer +must begin in the first two but reaches its climax in the third. Communion +and petition are of necessity self-wide. Intercession is world-wide in its +reach. And all true rounded prayer will ever have all three elements in +it. There must be the touch with God. One's constant needs make constant +petition. But the heart of the true follower has caught the warm contagion +of the heart of God and reaches out hungrily for the world. Intercession +is the climax of prayer. + +Much is said of the subjective and objective value of prayer; its +influence upon one's self, and its possible influence upon persons and +events quite outside of one's self. Of necessity the first two sorts of +prayer here named are subjective; they have to do wholly with one's self. +Of equal necessity intercessory prayer is objective; it has to do wholly +with others. There is even here a reflex influence; in the first two +directly subjective; here incidentally reflex. Contact with God while +dealing with Him for another of necessity influences me. But that is the +mere fringe of the garment. The main driving purpose is outward. + +Just now in certain circles it seems quite the thing to lay great stress +upon the subjective value of prayer and to whittle down small, or, deny +entirely its value in influencing others. Some who have the popular ear +are quite free with tongue and pen in this direction. From both without +and within distinctly Christian circles their voices come. One wonders if +these friends lay the greater emphasis on the subjective value of prayer +so as to get a good deep breath for their hard drive at the other. Yet the +greater probability is that they honestly believe as they say, but have +failed to grasp the full perspective of the picture. In listening to such +statements one remembers with vivid distinctness that the scriptural +_standpoint_ always is this: that things quite outside of one's self, that +in the natural order of prevailing circumstances would not occur, are made +to occur through prayer. Jesus constantly so _assumed_. The first-flush, +commonsense view of successful prayer is that some actual result is +secured through its agency. + +It is an utter begging of the question to advance such a theory as a +sufficient explanation of prayer. For prayer in its simplest conception +supposes something changed that is not otherwise reachable. Both from the +scriptural, and from a rugged philosophical standpoint the objective is +the real driving point of all full prayer. The subjective is in order to +the objective, as the final outward climactic reach of God's great +love-plan for a world. + + + +<u>Six Facts Underlying Prayer.</u> + + +It will help greatly to step back and up a bit for a fresh look at certain +facts that underlie prayer. Everything depends on a right point of view. +There may be many view-points, from which to study any subject; but of +necessity any one view-point must take in all the essential facts +concerned. If not, the impression formed will be wrong, and a man will be +misled in his actions. In these talks I make no attempt to prove the +Bible's statements, nor to suggest a common law for their interpretation. +That would be a matter for quite a separate series of talks. It clears the +ground to assume certain things. I am assuming the accuracy of these +scriptural statements. And I am glad to say I have no difficulty in doing +so. + +Now there are certain facts constantly stated and assumed in this old +Book. They are clearly stated in its history, they are woven into its +songs, and they underlie all these prophetic writings, from Genesis clear +to the end of John's Patmos visions. Possibly they have been so familiar +and taken for granted so long as to have grown unfamiliar. The very old +may need stating as though very new. Here is a chain of six facts: + +First:--The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.[3] His by +creation and by sovereign rule. The Lord sat as King at the flood.[4] + +Second:--God gave the dominion of the earth to man. The kingship of its +life, the control and mastery of its forces.[5] + +Third:--Man, who held the dominion of the earth in trust from God, +transferred his dominion to somebody else, by an act which was a double +act. He was deceived into doing that act. It was an act of disobedience +and of obedience. Disobedience to God, and obedience to another one, a +prince who was seeking to get the dominion of the earth into his own +hands. That act of the first man did this. The disobedience broke with +God, and transferred the allegiance from God. The obedience to the other +one transferred the allegiance, and through that, the dominion to this +other one. + +The fourth fact is this:--The dominion or kingship of this earth so far +as given to man, is now not God's, for He gave it to man. And it is not +man's, for he has transferred it to another. It is in the control of that +magnificent prince whose changed character supplies his name--Satan, the +hater, the enemy. Jesus repeatedly speaks of "the prince"--that is the +ruling one--"of this world."[6] John speaks in his vision-book of a time +coming when "the kingdom (not kingdoms, as in the old version) of the +world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ."[7] By clear +inference previous to that time it is somebody's else kingdom than His. +The kingship or rulership of the earth which was given to man is now +Satan's. + +The fifth fact:--God was eager to swing the world back to its original +sway: for His own sake, for man's sake, for the earth's sake. You see, we +do not know God's world as it came from His hand. It is a rarely beautiful +world even yet--the stars above, the plant life, the waters, the exquisite +colouring and blending, the combinations of all these--an exquisitely +beautiful world even yet. But it is not the world it was, nor that some +coming day it will be. It has been sadly scarred and changed under its +present ruler. Probably Eve would not recognize in the present world her +early home-earth as it came fresh from the hand of its Maker. + +God was eager to swing the old world back to its original control. But to +do so He must get a man, one of the original trustee class through whom He +might swing it back to its first allegiance. It was given to man. It was +swung away by man. It must be swung back by man. And so a Man came, and +while Jesus was perfectly and utterly human, we spell that word Man with a +capital M because He was a man quite distinct from all men. Because He was +more truly human than all other men He is quite apart from other men. This +Man was to head a movement for swinging the world back to its first +allegiance. + +The sixth fact is this:--These two, God's Man, and the pretender-prince, +had a combat: the most terrific combat ever waged or witnessed. From the +cruel, malicious cradle attack until Calvary's morning and two days longer +it ran. Through those thirty-three years it continued with a terrificness +and intensity unknown before or since. The master-prince of subtlety and +force did his best and his worst, through those Nazareth years, then into +the wilderness,--and Gethsemane--and Calvary. And that day at three +o'clock and for a bit longer the evil one thought he had won. And there +was great glee up in the headquarters of the prince of this world. They +thought the victory was theirs when God's Man lay in the grave under the +bars of death, within the immediate control of the lord of death. But the +third morning came and the bars of death were snapped like cotton thread. +_Jesus rose a Victor._ For it was not possible that such as _He_ could be +held by death's lord. And then Satan knew that he was defeated. Jesus, +God's Man, the King's rightful prince, had gotten the victory. + +But, please mark very carefully four sub-facts on Satan's side. First, he +refuses to acknowledge his defeat. Second, he refuses to surrender his +dominion until he must. He yields only what he must and when he must. +Third, he is supported in his ambitions by man. He has man's consent to +his control. The majority of men on the earth to-day, and in every day, +have assented to his control. He has control only through man's consent. +(Satan _can_not get into a man's heart without his consent, and God _will_ +not.) And, fourth, he hopes yet to make his possession of the earth +permanent. + + + +<u>The Victor's Great Plan.</u> + + +Now, hold your breath and note, on the side of the Victor-prince, this +unparalleled and unimitated action: He has left the conflict open, and the +defeated chief on the field that He may win not simply against the chief, +but through that victory may win the whole prodigal race back to His +Father's home circle again. But the great pitched battle is yet to come. I +would better say _a_ pitched battle, for the greatest one is past. Jesus +rides into the future fight a Victor. Satan will fight his last fight +under the shadow and sting of a defeat. Satan is apparently trying hard to +get a Jesus. That is to say Jesus was God's Man sent down to swing the +world back. Satan is trying his best to get _a man_--one of the original +trustee class, to whom the dominion of the earth was intrusted--a man who +will stand for him even as Jesus stood for God. Indeed a man who will +personify himself even as Jesus was the personification of God, the +express image of His person. When he shall succeed in that the last +desperate crisis will come. + +_Now prayer is this: A man_, one of the original trustee class, who +received the earth in trust from God, and who gave its control over to +Satan; a man, _on the earth_, the poor old Satan-stolen, sin-slimed, +sin-cursed, contested earth; a man, on the earth, _with his life in full +touch with the Victor, and sheer out of touch with the pretender-prince, +insistently claiming that Satan shall yield before Jesus'-victory, step by +step, life after life_. Jesus is the victor. Satan knows it, and fears +Him. He must yield before His advance, and he must yield before this man +who stands for Jesus down on the earth. And he _will_ yield. Reluctantly, +angrily, as slowly as may be, stubbornly contesting every inch of ground, +his clutches will loosen and he will go before this Jesus-man. + +Jesus said "the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me."[8] +When you and I say, as we may say, very humbly depending on His grace, +very determinedly in the resolution of our own imperial will, "though the +prince of this world come he shall have nothing in me, no coaling station +however small on the shores of my life," then we shall be in position +where Satan must yield as we claim--victory in the Victor's Name. + + + + +Does Prayer Influence God? + + + +<u>How God Gives.</u> + + +Some one may object to all this that the statements of God's word do not +agree with this point of view. + +At random memory brings up a few very familiar passages, frequently +quoted. "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and will shew thee great +things, and difficult, that thou knowest not."[9] "And call upon Me in the +day of trouble; I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me."[10] "Ask, +and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be +opened unto you."[11] Here it seems, as we have for generations been +accustomed to think, that our asking is the thing that influences God to +do. And further, that many times persistent, continued asking is necessary +to induce God to do. And the usual explanation for this need of +persistence is that God is testing our faith, and seeking to make certain +changes in us, before granting our requests. This explanation is without +doubt quite true, _in part_. Yet the thing to mark is that it explains +_only_ in part. And when the whole circle of truth is brought into view, +this explanation is found to cover only a small part of the whole. + +We seem to learn best about God by analogies. The analogy never brings all +there is to be learned. Yet it seems to be the nearest we can get. From +what we know of ourselves we come to know Him. + +Will you notice how men give? Among those who give to benevolent +enterprises there are three sorts of givers, with variations in each. + +There is the man who gives because he is influenced by others. If the +right man or committee of men call, and deftly present their pleas, +playing skillfully upon what may appeal to him; his position; his egotism; +the possible advantage to accrue; what men whom he wants to be classed +with are doing, and so on through the wide range that such men are +familiar with; if they persist, by and by he gives. At first he seems +reluctant, but finally gives with more or less grace. That is one sort of +giver. + +There is a second sort: the man of truly benevolent heart who is desirous +of giving that he may be of help to other men. He listens attentively when +pleas come to him, and waits only long enough to satisfy himself of the +worth of the cause, and the proper sort of amount to give, and then gives. + +There is a third sort, the rarest sort. This second man a stage farther +on, who _takes the initiative_. He looks about him, makes inquiries, and +thinks over the great need in every direction of his fellow men. He +decides where his money may best be used to help; and then himself offers +to give. But his gift may be abused by some who would get his money if +they could, and use it injudiciously, or otherwise than he intends. So he +makes certain conditions which must be met, the purpose of which is to +establish sympathetic relations in some particular with those whom he +would help. An Englishman's heart is strongly moved to get the story of +Jesus to the inland millions of Chinese. He requests the China-Inland +Mission to control the expenditure of almost a million dollars of his +money in such a way as best to secure the object in his heart. An American +gives a large sum to the Young Men's Christian Association of his home +city to be expended as directed. His thought is not to build up this +particular organization, but to benefit large numbers of the young men of +his town who will meet certain conditions which he thinks to be for their +good. He has learned to trust this organization, and so it becomes his +trustee. + +Another man feels that if the people of New York City can be given good +reading they can thereby best be helped in life. And so he volunteers +money for a number of libraries throughout that city. And thousands who +yearn to increase their knowledge come into sympathy with him in that one +point through his gift. In all such cases the giver's thought is to +accomplish certain results in those whose purpose in certain directions is +sympathetic with his own. + +Any human illustration of God must seem crude. Yet of these three sorts of +givers there is one and only one that begins to suggest how God gives. It +may seem like a very sweeping statement to make, yet I am more and more +disposed to believe it true that _most persons_ have unthinkingly thought +of God's answering prayer as the first of these three men give. Many +others have had in mind some such thought as the second suggests. Yet to +state the case even thus definitely is to make it plain that neither of +these ways in any manner illustrate God's giving. The third comes the +nearest to picturing the God who hears and answers prayer. Our God has a +great heart yearning after His poor prodigal world, and after each one in +it. He longs to have the effects of sin removed, and the original image +restored. He takes the initiative. Yet everything that is done for man +must of necessity be through man's will; by his free and glad consent. The +obstacles in the way are not numberless nor insurmountable, but they are +many and they are stubborn. There is a keen, cunning pretender-prince who +is a past-master in the fine art of handling men. There are wills warped +and weakened; consciences blurred; minds the opposite of keen, +sensibilities whose edge has been dulled beyond ordinary hope of being +ever made keen again. Sin has not only stained the life, but warped the +judgment, sapped the will, and blurred the mental vision. And God has a +hard time just because every change must of necessity be through that +sapped and warped will. + +Yet the difficulty though great is never complex but very simple. And so +the statement of His purpose is ever exquisitely simple. Listen again: +"Call unto Me, and I will answer thee and shew thee great things and +difficult which thou knowest not." If a man call he has already turned his +face towards God. His will has acted, and acted doubly; away from the +opposite, and _towards_ God, a simple step but a tremendous one. The +calling is the point of sympathetic contact with God where their purposes +become the same. The caller is beset by difficulties and longs for +freedom. The God who speaks to him saw the difficulties long ago and +eagerly longed to remove them. Now they have come to agreement. And +through this willing will God eagerly works out His purpose. + + + +<u>A Very Old Question.</u> + + +This leads to a very old question: Does prayer influence God? No question +has been discussed more, or more earnestly. Skeptical men of fine +scientific training have with great positiveness said "no." And Christian +men of scholarly training and strong faith have with equal positiveness +said "yes." Strange to say both have been right. Not right in all their +statements, nor right in all their beliefs, nor right in all their +processes of thinking, but right in their ultimate conclusions as +represented by these short words, "no," and "yes." Prayer does not +influence God. Prayer surely does influence God. It does not influence His +purpose. It does influence His action. Everything that ever has been +prayed for, of course I mean every right thing, God has already purposed +to do. But He does nothing without our consent. He has been hindered in +His purposes by our lack of willingness. When we learn His purposes and +make them our prayers we are giving Him the opportunity to act. It is a +double opportunity: manward and Satanward. We are willing. Our willingness +checkmates Satan's opposition. It opens the path to God and rids it of the +obstacles. And so the road is cleared for the free action already planned. + +The further question of nature's laws being sometimes set aside is wholly +a secondary matter. Nature's laws are merely God's habit of action in +handling secondary forces. They involve no purpose of God. His purposes +are regarding moral issues. That the sun shall stay a bit longer than +usual over a certain part of the earth is a mere detail with God. It does +not affect His power for the whole affair is under His finger. It does not +affect His purpose for that as concerning far more serious matters. The +emergencies of earth wrought by sin necessitate just such incidents, that +the great purpose of God for man shall be accomplished. + +Emergencies change all habits of action, divine and human. They are the +real test of power. If a man throw down the bundle he is carrying and make +a quick wild dash out into the middle of the street, dropping his hat on +the way, and grasp convulsively for something on the ground when no cause +appears for such action we would quickly conclude that the proper place +for him is an asylum. But if a little toddling child is almost under the +horse's hoofs, or the trolley car, no one thinks of criticising, but +instead admires his courage, and quick action, and breathlessly watches +for the result. Emergencies call for special action. They should control +actions, where they exist. Emergencies explain action, and explain +satisfactorily what nothing else could explain. + +_The world is in a great emergency through sin._ Only as that tremendous +fact grips us shall we be men of prayer, and men of action up to the limit +of the need, and to the limit of the possibilities. Only as that intense +fact is kept in mind shall we begin to understand God's actions in +history, and in our personal experiences. The greatest event of earth, the +cross, was an emergency action. + +The fact that prayer does not make any change in God's thought or +purpose, reveals His marvellous love in a very tender way. + +Suppose I want something very much and _need_ as well as want. And I go to +God and ask for it. And suppose He is reluctant about giving: had not +thought about giving me that thing; and rather hesitates. But I am +insistent, and plead and persist and by and by God is impressed with my +earnestness, and sees that I really need the thing, and answers my prayer, +and gives me what I ask. Is not that a loving God so to listen and yield +to my plea? Surely. How many times just such an instance has taken place +between a child and his father, or mother. And the child thinks to +himself, "How loving father is; he has given me the thing I asked for." + +But suppose God is thinking about me all the time, and planning, with +love-plans for me, and longing to give me much that He has. Yet in His +wisdom He does not give because I do not know my own need, and have not +opened my hand to receive, yes, and, further yet, likely as not, not +knowing my need I might abuse, or misuse, or fail to use, something given +before I had felt the need of it. And now I come to see and feel that need +and come and ask and He, delighted with the change in me, eagerly gives. +Tell me, is not that a very much more loving God than the other conception +suggests? The truth is _that_ is God. Jesus says, "Your Father knoweth +what things ye have need of _before ye ask_." And He is a Father. And +with God the word father means mother too. Then what He _knows_ we need He +has _already planned_ to give. The great question for me then in praying +for some personal thing is this: Do _I_ know what _He_ knows I need? Am I +thinking about what He is thinking about for me? + +And then remember that God is so much more in His loving planning than the +wisest, most loving father we know. Does a mother think into her child's +needs, the food, and clothing and the extras too, the luxuries? That is +God, only He is more loving and wiser than the best of us. I have +sometimes thought this: that if God were to say to me: "I want to give you +something as a special love-gift; an extra because I love you: what would +you like to have?" Do you know I have thought I would say, "Dear God, +_you_ choose. _I_ choose what _you_ choose." He is thinking about me. He +knows what I am thinking of, and what I would most enjoy, and He is such a +lover-God that He would choose something Just a bit finer than I would +think. I might be thinking of a dollar, but likely as not He is thinking +of a double eagle. I am thinking of blackberries, big, juicy blackberries, +but really I do not know what blackberries are beside the sort He knows +and would choose for me. That is our God. Prayer does not and cannot +change the purpose of such a God. For every right and good thing we might +ask for He has already planned to give us. But prayer does change the +action of God. Because He cannot give against our wills, and our +willingness as expressed by our asking gives Him the opportunity to do as +He has already planned. + + + +<u>The Greatest Prayer.</u> + + +There is a greatest prayer, _the_ greatest that can be offered. It is the +substratum of every true prayer. It is the undercurrent in the stream of +all Spirit-breathed prayer. Jesus Himself gives it to us in the only form +of prayer He left for our use. It is small in size, but mighty in power. +Four words--"Thy will be done." Let us draw up our chairs, and _brew_ it +over mentally, that its strength and fragrance may come up into our +nostrils, and fill our very beings. + +"_Thy_": That is God. On one side, He is wise, with all of the +intellectual strength, and keenness and poised judgment that that word +among men brings to us. On another side, He is strong, with all that that +word can imply of might and power irresistible. On still another side He +is good, pure, holy with the finest thought those words ever suggest to us +in those whom we know best, or in our dreams and visions. Then on a side +remaining, the tender personal side, He is--loving? No, that is quite +inadequate. He is _love_. Its personification is He. Now remember that we +do not know the meaning of those words. Our best definition and thought of +them, even in our dreams, when we let ourselves out, but hang around the +outskirts. The heart of them we do not know. Those words mean infinitely +more than we think. Their meaning is a projection along the lines of our +thought of them, but measurelessly beyond our highest reach. + +And then, this God, wise, strong, good, and love, _is kin to us_. We +belong to Him. + + "We are His flock; + He doth us feed. + And for His sheep, + He doth us take." + +We are His children by creation, and by a new creation in Jesus Christ. He +is ours, by His own act. That is the "Thy"--a God wise, strong, pure, who +is love, and who is a Father-mother-God, and is _our_ God. + +"Thy _will_." God's will is His desires, His purposes, that which He +wishes to occur, and that to which He gives His strength that it may +occur. The earth is His creation. Men are His children. Judging from wise +loving parents among men He has given Himself to thinking and studying and +planning for all men, and every man, and for the earth. His plan is the +most wise, pure, loving plan that can be thought of, _and more._ It takes +in the whole sweep of our lives, and every detail of them. Nothing escapes +the love-vigilance of our God. What _can_ be so vigilant and keen as love? +Hate, the exact reverse, comes the nearest. It is ever the extremes that +meet. But hate cannot come up to love for keen watchfulness at every +turn. Health, strength, home, loved ones, friendships, money, guidance, +protecting care, the necessities, the extras that love ever thinks of, +service--all these are included in God's loving thought for us. That is +His will. It is modified by the degree of our consent, and further +modified by the circumstances of our lives. Life has become a badly +tangled skein of threads. God with infinite patience and skill is at work +untangling and bringing the best possible out of the tangle. What is +absolutely best is rarely relatively best. That which is best in itself is +usually not best under certain circumstances, with human lives in the +balance. God has fathomless skill, and measureless patience, and a love +utterly beyond both. He is ever working out the best thing possible under +every circumstance. He could oftentimes do more, and do it in much less +time if our human wills were more pliant to His. He can be trusted. And of +course _trust_ means _trust in the darkest dark_ where you cannot see. And +trust means trust. It does not mean test. Where you trust you do not test. +Where you test you do not trust. Making this our prayer means trusting +God. That is God, and that His will, and that the meaning of our offering +this prayer. "Thy will _be_." A man's will is the man in action, within +the limits of his power. God's will for man is Himself in action, within +the limits of our cooperation. _Be_ is a verb, an action-word, in the +passive voice. It takes some form of the verb to be to express the +passive voice of any action-word. It takes the intensest activity of will +to put this passive voice into human action. The greatest strength is +revealed in intelligent yielding. Here the prayer is expressing the utter +willingness of a man that God's will shall be done in him, and through +him. A man never _loses_ his will, unless indeed he lose his manhood. But +here he makes that will as strong as it can be made, as a bit of steel, +better like the strong oak, strong enough to sway and bend in the wind. +Then he uses all its strength in becoming passive to a higher will. And +that too when the purpose of that higher will is not clear to his own +limited knowledge and understanding. + +"Thy will be _done_." That is, be accomplished, be brought to pass. The +word stands for the action in its perfected, finished state. Thy will be +fully accomplished in its whole sweep and in all its items. It speaks not +only the earnest desire of the heart praying, but the set purpose that +everything in the life is held subject to the doing of this purpose of +God. It means that surrender of purpose that has utterly changed the lives +of the strongest men in order that the purpose of God might be dominant. +It cut off from a great throne earth's greatest jurist, the Hebrew +lawgiver, and led him instead to be allied to a race of slaves. It led +that intellectual giant Jeremiah from an easy enjoyable leadership to +espouse a despised cause and so be himself despised. It led Paul from the +leadership of his generation in a great nation to untold suffering, and to +a block and an ax. It led Jesus the very Son of God, away from a kingship +to a cross. In every generation it has radically changed lives, and +life-ambitions. "Thy will be done" is the great dominant purpose-prayer +that has been the pathway of God in all His great doings among men. + +That will is being done everywhere else in God's great world of worlds, +save on the earth and that portion of the spirit world allied to this +earth. Everywhere else there is the perfect music of harmony with God's +will. Here only is heard the harsh discordant note. + +With this prayer go two clauses that really particularize and explain it. +They are included in it, and are added to make more clear the full intent. +The first of these clauses gives the sweep of His will in its broadest +outlines. The second touches the opposition to that will both for our +individual lives and for the race and the earth. + +The first clause is this, "Thy kingdom come." In both of these short +sentences, "Thy will be done," "Thy kingdom come," the emphatic word is +"Thy." That word is set in sharpest possible contrast here. There is +another kingdom now on the earth. There is another will being done. This +other kingdom must go if God's kingdom is to come. These kingdoms are +antagonistic at every point of contact. They are rivals for the same +allegiance and the same territory. They cannot exist together. Charles II +and Cromwell cannot remain in London together. "Thy kingdom come," of +necessity includes this, "the other kingdom go." "Thy kingdom come" means +likewise "Thy king come," for in the nature of things there cannot be a +kingdom without a king. That means again by the same inference, "the other +prince go," the one who makes pretensions to being rightful heir to the +throne. "Thy will be done" includes by the same inference this:--"the +other will be undone." This is the first great explanatory clause to be +connected with this greatest prayer, "Thy kingdom come." It gives the +sweep of God's will in its broadest outlines. + +The second clause included in the prayer, and added to make clear the +swing of action is this--"deliver us from the evil one." These two +sentences, "Thy will be done," and "deliver us from the evil one," are +naturally connected. Each statement includes the other. To have God's will +fully done in us means emancipation from every influence of the evil one, +either direct or indirect, or by hereditary taint. To be delivered from +the evil one means that every thought and plan of God for our lives shall +be fully carried out. + +There are the two great wills at work in the world ever clashing in the +action of history and in our individual lives. In many of us, aye, in all +of us, though in greatly varying degree, these two wills constantly clash. +Man is the real battle-field. The pitch of the battle is in his will. God +will not do His will in a man without the man's will consenting. And Satan +cannot. At the root the one thing that works against God's will is the +evil one's will. And on the other hand the one thing that effectively +thwarts Satan's plans is a man wholly given up to God's will. + +The greatest prayer then fully expressed, sweeps first the whole field of +action, then touches the heart of the action, and then attacks the +opposition. It is this:--Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done: deliver us +from the evil one. Every true prayer ever offered comes under this simple +comprehensive prayer. It may be offered, it _is_ offered with an infinite +variety of detail. It is greatest because of its sweep. It includes all +other petitions, for God's will includes everything for which prayer is +rightly offered. It is greatest in its intensity. It hits the very +bull's-eye of opposition to God. + + + + +II. Hindrances to Prayer + + +1. Why the Results Fail. 2. Why the Results Are Delayed. 3. The Great +Outside Hindrance, or, the Relation of Prayer to Satan. + + + + +Why the Results Fail + + + +<u>Breaking with God.</u> + + +God answers prayer. Prayer is God and man joining hands to secure some +high end. He joins with us through the communication of prayer in +accomplishing certain great results. This is the main drive of prayer. Our +asking and expecting and God's doing jointly bring to pass things that +otherwise would not come to pass. Prayer changes things. This is the great +fact of prayer. + +Yet a great many prayers are not answered. Or, to put it more accurately, +a great many prayers fail utterly of accomplishing any results. Probably +it is accurate to say that _thousands_ of prayers go up and bring nothing +down. This is certainly true. Let us say it just as bluntly and plainly as +it can be said. As a result many persons are saying: "Well, prayer is not +what you claim for it: we prayed and no answer came: nothing was changed." + +From all sorts of circles, and in all sorts of language comes this +statement. Scholarly men who write with wisdom's words, and thoughtless +people whose thinking never even pricks the skin of the subject, and all +sorts of people in between group themselves together here. And they are +right, quite right. The bother is that what they say is not all there is +to be said. There is yet more to be said, that is right too, and that +changes the final conclusion radically. Partial truth is a very mean sort +of lie. + +The prayer plan like many another has been much disturbed, and often +broken. And one who would be a partner with God up to the limit of his +power must understand the things that hinder the prayer plan. There are +three sorts of hindrances to prayer. First of all there are things in us +that _break off connection_ with God, the source of the changing power. +Then there are certain things in us that _delay, or diminish_ the results; +that interfere with the full swing of the prayer plan of operations. And +then there is a great _outside_ hindrance to be reckoned upon. To-day we +want to talk together of the first of these, namely, the hindrances that +_break off connections_ between God and His human partner. + +Here again there is a division into three. There are three things directly +spoken of in the book of God that hinder prayer. One of these is a +familiar thing. What a pity that repugnant things may become so familiar +as no longer to repel. It is this:--_sin_ hinders prayer. In Isaiah's +first chapter God Himself speaking says, "When you stretch out your +hands"--the way they prayed, standing with outstretched hands--"I will +shut My eyes; when you make many prayers, I will shut My ears."[12] Why? +What's the difficulty? These outstretched hands are _soiled!_ They are +actually holding their sin-soiled hands up into God's face; and He is +compelled to look at the thing most hateful to Him. In the fifty-ninth +chapter of this same book,[13] God Himself is talking again. Listen +"Behold! the _Lord's_ hand is not shortened: _His_ ear is not heavy." +There is no trouble on the _up_ side. God is all right. "But"--listen with +both your ears--"your _iniquities_ ... your _sins_ ... your _hands_ ... +your _fingers_ ... your _lips_ ... your _tongue_ ..." the slime of sin is +oozing over everything! Turn back to that sixty-sixth Psalm[14]--"if I +regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me." How much more if +the sin of the heart get into the hands or the life! And the fact to put +down plainly in blackest ink once for all is this--_sin hinders prayer_. +There is nothing surprising about this. That we can think the reverse is +the surprising thing. Prayer is transacting business with God. Sin is +_breaking with God_. + +Suppose I had a private wire from my apartments here to my home in +Cleveland, and some one should go outside and drag the wire down until it +touches the ground--a good square touch with the ground--the electricians +would call it grounded, could I telegraph over that wire? Almost any child +knows I could not. Suppose some one _cuts_ the wire, a good clean cut; the +two ends are apart: not a mile; not a yard; but distinctly apart. Could I +telegraph on that wire? Of course not. Yet I might sit in my room and tick +away by the hour wholly absorbed, and use most beautiful persuasive +language--what is the good? The wire's cut. All my fine pleading goes into +the ground, or the air. Now _sin cuts the wire;_ it runs the message into +the ground. + +"Well," some one will object, "now you're cutting us all out, are you not? +Are we not all conscious of a sinful something inside here that has to be +fought, and held under all the while?" It certainly seems to be true that +the nearer a man gets to God the more keenly conscious he is of a sinful +tendency within even while having continual victory. But plainly enough +what the Book means here is this:--if I am holding something in my life +that the Master does not like, if I am failing to obey when His voice has +spoken, that to me is sin. It may be wrong in itself. It may _not_ be +wrong in itself. It may not be wrong for another. Sometimes it is not the +thing involved but the One involved that makes the issue. If that faithful +quiet inner voice has spoken and I know what the Master would prefer and I +fail to keep in line, that to me is sin. Then prayer is useless; sheer +waste of breath. Aye, worse, it is deceptive. For I am apt to say or +think, "Well, I am not as good as you, or you, but then I am not so bad; +_I pray._" And the truth is because I have broken with God the +praying--saying words in that form--is utterly worthless. + +You see _sin is slapping God in the face_. It may be polished, cultured +sin. Sin seems capable of taking quite a high polish. Or it may be the +common gutter stuff. A man is not concerned about the grain of a club that +strikes him a blow. How can He and I talk together if I have done that, +and stick to it--not even apologized. And of what good is an apology if +the offense is being repeated. And if we cannot talk together of course +working together is out of the question. And prayer is working together +with God. Prayer is _pulling with God_ in His plan for a world. + +Shall we not put out the thing that is wrong? or put in the thing the +Master wants in? For _Jesus'_ sake? Aye for _men's_ sake: poor befooled +men's sake who are being kept out and away because God cannot get at them +through us! + +Shall we bow and ask forgiveness for our sin, and petty stubbornness that +has been thwarting the Master's love-plan? And yet even while we ask +forgiveness there are lives out yonder warped and dwarfed and worse +because of the hindrance in us; yes, and remaining so as we slip out of +this meeting. May the fact send us out to walk very softly these coming +days. + + + +<u>A Coaling Station for Satan's Fleet.</u> + + +There is a second thing that is plainly spoken of that hinders prayer. +James speaks of it in his letter.[15] "Ye have not because ye _ask_ +not"--that explains many parched up lives and churches and unsolved +problems: no pipe lines run up to tap the reservoir, and give God an +opening into the troubled territory. Then he pushes on to say--"Ye ask, +_and receive not_"--ah! there's just the rub; it is evidently an old +story, this thing of not receiving--why? "because ye ask amiss to spend it +_in your pleasures_." That is to say selfish praying; asking for something +just because I want it; want it for myself. + +Here is a mother praying for her boy. He is just growing up towards young +manhood; not a Christian boy yet; but a good boy. She is thinking, "I want +_my_ boy to be an honour to me; he bears my name; my blood is in his +veins; I don't want my boy to be a prodigal. I want him to be a fine man, +an honour to the family; and if he is a true Christian, he likely will be; +_I wish he were a Christian_." And so she prays, and prays repeatedly and +fervently. God might touch her boy's heart and say, "I want you out here +in India to help win my prodigal world back." _Oh!_ she did not mean that! +_Her_ boy in far, far off _India!_ Oh, no! Not that!! Yes, what _she_ +wanted--that was the whole thought--selfishness; the stream turning in to +a dead sea within her own narrow circle; no thought of sympathy with God +in His eager outreach for His poor sin-befooled world. The prayer itself +in its object is perfectly proper, and rightly offered and answered times +without number; but the _motive_ wholly, uglily selfish and the +selfishness itself becomes a foothold for Satan and so the purpose of the +prayer is thwarted. + +Here is a wife praying that her husband might become a Christian. Perhaps +her thought is: "I wish John _were_ a Christian: it would be so good: it +really seems the proper thing: he would go to church with me, and sit in +the pew Sunday morning: I'd like that." Perhaps she thinks: "He would be +careful about swearing; he would quit drinking; and be nicer and gentler +at home." Maybe she thinks: "He would ask a blessing at the meals; that +would be so nice." Maybe she thinks: "We would have family prayers." +_Maybe_ that does not occur to her these days. This is what I say: _If_ +her thought does not go beyond some such range, of course _you_ would say +it is selfish. She is thinking of herself; not of the loving grieved God +against whom her husband is in rebellion; not of the real significance to +the man. God might touch her husband's heart, and then say: "I want you to +help Me win My poor world back." And the change would mean a reduced +income, and a different social position. _Oh!_ she had not meant _that!_ +Yes--what _she_ wanted for herself! + +Here is a minister praying for a revival in his church. Maybe he is +thinking; no, not exactly thinking; it is just half thinking itself out in +his sub-consciousness--"I wish we had a good revival in our church; +increased membership; larger attendance; easier finances; may be an extra +hundred or two in my own pocket; increased prestige in the denomination; a +better call or appointment: I wish we might have a revival." Now no true +minister ever talked that way even to himself or deliberately thought it. +To do so would be to see the mean contemptibility of it. But you know how +sly we all are in our underneath scarcely-thought-out thoughts. This is +what I say: _if_ that be the sort of thing underneath a man's praying of +course the motive is utterly selfish; a bit of the same thing that brought +Satan his change of name and character. + +Please notice that the reason for the prayer not being answered here is +not an arbitrary reluctance upon God's part to do a desirable thing. He +never fails to work whenever He has a half chance as far as it is possible +to work, even through men of faulty conceptions and mixed motives. The +reason lies much deeper. It is this: selfishness gives Satan a footing. It +gives a coaling station for his fleet on the shore of your life. And of +course he does his best to prevent the prayer, or when he cannot wholly +prevent, to spoil the results as far as he can. + +Prayer may properly be offered--_will_ be properly offered for many wholly +personal things; for physical strength, healing in sickness, about dearly +loved ones, money needed; indeed regarding things that may not be +necessary but only desirable and enjoyable, for ours is a loving God who +would have His dear ones enjoy to the full their lives down here. But the +_motive_ determines the propriety of such requests. Where the whole +purpose of one's life is _for Him_ these things may be asked for freely as +His gracious Spirit within guides. And there need be no bondage of morbid +introspection, no continual internal rakings. _He knows if the purpose of +the heart is to please Him_. + + + +<u>The Shortest Way to God.</u> + + +A third thing spoken of as hindering prayer is an unforgiving spirit. You +have noticed that Jesus speaks much about prayer and also speaks much +about forgiveness. But have you noticed how, over and over again He +_couples_ these two--prayer _and_ forgiveness? I used to wonder why. I do +not so much now. Nearly everywhere evidence keeps slipping in of the sore +spots. One may try to keep his lips closed on certain subjects, but it +seems about impossible to keep the ears entirely shut. And continually the +evidence keeps sifting in revealing the thin skin, raw flesh, wounds +never healed over, and some jaggedly open, almost everywhere one goes. +Jesus' continual references reveal how strikingly alike is the oriental +and the occidental; the first and the twentieth centuries. + +Run through Matthew alone a moment. Here in the fifth chapter:[16] "If +thou are coming to the altar"--that is approaching God; what we call +prayer--"and rememberest that thy brother hath aught _against thee_"--that +side of it--"leave there thy gift and go thy way, _first_ be reconciled," +and so on. Here comes a man with a lamb to offer. He approaches solemnly, +reverently, towards the altar of God. But as he is coming there flashes +across his mind the face of _that man_, with whom he has had difficulty. +And instantly he can feel his grip tightening on the offering, and his +teeth shutting closer at the quick memory. Jesus says, "If that be so lay +your lamb right down." What! go abruptly away! Why! how the folks around +the temple will talk! "Lay the lamb right down, and go thy way." The +shortest way to God for that man is not the way to the altar, but around +by that man's house. "_First_, be reconciled"--keep your perspective +straight--follow the right order--"_first_ be reconciled"--not _second; +"then_ come and offer thy gift." + +In the sixth chapter[17] He gives the form of prayer which we commonly +call the Lord's prayer. It contains seven petitions. At the close He +stops to emphasize just one of the seven. You remember which one; the one +about forgiveness. In the eighteenth chapter[18] Jesus is talking alone +with the disciples about prayer. Peter seems to remember the previous +remarks about forgiveness in connection with prayer; and he asks a +question. It is never difficult to think of Peter asking a question or +making a few remarks. He says, "Master, how many times _must_ I forgive a +man? _Seven_ times!" Apparently Peter thinks he is growing in grace. He +can actually _think_ now of forgiving a man seven times in succession. But +the Master in effect says, "Peter, you haven't caught the idea. +Forgiveness is not a question of mathematics; not a matter of _keeping +tab_ on somebody: not seven times but _seventy times seven._" And Peter's +eyes bulge open with an incredulous stare--"four hundred and ninety +times!... one man--straightway!!" Apparently the Master is thinking, that +he will lose count, or get tired of counting and conclude that forgiveness +is preferable, or else by practice _breathe in the spirit of +forgiveness--the_ thing He meant. + +Then as He was so fond of doing Jesus told a story to illustrate His +meaning. A man owed his lord a great debt, twelve millions of dollars; +that is to say practically an _unpayable_ amount. By comparison with money +to-day, in the western world, it would be about twelve billions. And he +went to him and asked for time. He said: "I'm short just now; but I mean +to pay; I don't mean to shirk: be easy with me; and I'll pay up the whole +sum in time." And his lord generously forgave him the whole debt. That is +Jesus' picture of God, as He knows Him who knows Him best. Then this +forgiven man went out and found a fellow servant who owed him--how much do +you think? Have you ever thought that Jesus had a keen sense of the +ludicrous? Surely it shows here. He owed him about sixteen dollars and +a-quarter or a-half! And you can almost feel the clutch of this fellow's +fingers on the other's throat as he sternly demands:--"Pay me that thou +owest." And his fellow earnestly replies, "Please be easy with me; I mean +to pay; I'm rather short just now: but I'm not trying to shirk; be easy +with me." Is it possible the words do not sound familiar! But he would +not, but put him in the jail. The last place to pay a debt! That is Jesus' +picture of man as He knows him who knows him best. And in effect He says +what we have been forgiven by God is as an unpayable amount. And what are +not willing to forgive is like sixteen dollars and a fraction by contrast. +What little puny folks some of us are in our thinking and feeling! + +"Oh, well," some one says, "you do not know how hard it is to forgive." +You think not? I know this much:--that some persons, and some things you +_can_not forgive of yourself. But I am glad to say that I know this too +that if one allows the Spirit of Jesus to sway the heart He will make you +love persons you _can_not like. No natural affinity or drawing together +through disposition, but a real yearning love in the heart. Jesus' love, +when allowed to come in as freely as He means, fills your heart with pity +for the man who has wounded you. An infinite, tender pity that he has sunk +so low as to be capable of such actions. + +But the fact to put down in the sharpest contrast of white and black is +that we must forgive freely, frankly, generously, "_even as God_," if we +are to be in prayer touch with God. + +And the reason is not far to find; a double reason, Godward and Satanward. +If prayer be partnership in the highest sense then the same spirit must +animate both partners, the human and the divine, if the largest results +are to come. And since unforgiveness roots itself down in hate Satan has +room for both feet in such a heart with all the leeway in action of such +purchase. That word _unforgiving_! What a group of relatives it has, near +and far! Jealousy, envy, bitterness, the cutting word, the polished shaft +of sarcasm with the poisoned tip, the green eye, the acid saliva--what +kinsfolk these! + + + +<u>Search Me.</u> + + +Sin, selfishness, an unforgiving spirit--what searchlights these words +are! Many a splendid life to-day is an utter cipher in the spirit +atmosphere because of some such hindrance. And God's great love-plan for +His prodigal world is being held back; and lives being lost even where +ultimately souls shall be saved because of the lack of human prayer +partners. + +May we not well pray:--Search me, oh God, and know my heart and help me +know it; try me and know my innermost, undermost thoughts and purposes and +ambitions, and help me know them; and see what way there be in me that is +a grief to Thee; and then lead me--and here the prayer may be a purpose as +well as a prayer--lead me out of that way unto _Thy_ way, _the_ way +everlasting. For Jesus' sake; aye for men's sake, too. + + + + +Why the Results are Delayed + + + +<u>God's Pathway to Human Hearts.</u> + + +God touches men through men. The Spirit's path to a human heart is through +another human heart. With reverence be it said, yet with blunt plainness +that in His plan for winning men to their true allegiance God is limited +by the human limitations. That may seem to mean more than it really does. +For our thought of the human is of the scarred, warped, shrivelled +humanity that we know, and great changes come when God's Spirit controls. +But the fact is there, however limited our understanding of it. + +God needs man for His plan. That is the fact that stands out strong in +thinking about prayer. God's greatest agency; man's greatest agency, for +defeating the enemy and winning men back is intercession. God is counting +mightily upon that. And He can count most mightily upon the man that +faithfully practices that. + +The results He longs for are being held back, and made smaller because so +many of us have not learned how to pray simply and skilfully. We need +training. And God understands that. He Himself will train. But we must be +willing; actively willing. And just there the great bother comes in. A +strong will perfectly yielded to God's will, or perfectly willing to be +yielded, is His mightiest ally in redeeming the world. + +Answers to prayer are delayed, or denied, out of kindness, _or_, that more +may be given, _or_, that a far larger purpose may be served. But deeper +down by far than that is this: _God's purposes are being delayed_; delayed +because of our unwillingness to learn how to pray, _or_, our slowness--I +almost said--our stupidity in learning. It is a small matter that my +prayer be answered, or unanswered; not small to me; everything perhaps to +me; but small in proportion. It is a tremendous thing that _God's purpose_ +for a world is being held back through my lack. The thought that prayer is +_getting things_ from God; chiefly that, is so small, pitiably small, and +yet so common. The true conception understands that prayer is partnership +with God in His planet-sized purposes, and includes the "all things" +beside, as an important detail of the whole. + +The real reason for the delay or failure lies simply in the difference +between God's view-point and ours. In our asking either we have not +reached the _wisdom_ that asks best, _or_, we have not reached the +_unselfishness_ that is willing to sacrifice a good thing, for a better, +or the best; the unselfishness that is willing to sacrifice the smaller +personal desire for the larger thing that affects the lives of many. + +We learn best by pictures, and by stories which are pen or word pictures. +This was Jesus' favourite method of teaching. There are in the Bible four +great, striking instances of delayed, or qualified answers to prayer. +There are some others; but these stand out sharply, and perhaps include +the main teachings of all. Probably all the instances of hindered prayer +with which we are familiar will come under one of these. That is to say, +where there are good connections upward as suggested in our last talk, +_and_, excepting those that come under the talk succeeding this, namely, +the great outside hindrance. These four are Moses' request to enter +Canaan; Hannah's prayer for a son; Paul's thorn; and Jesus' prayer in +Gethsemane. + +Let us look a bit at these in turn. + + + +<u>For the Sake of a Nation.</u> + + +First is the incident of Moses' ungranted petition. Moses was the leader +of his people. He is one of the giants of the human race from whatever +standpoint considered. His codes are the basis of all English and American +jurisprudence. From his own account of his career, the secret of all his +power as a maker of laws, the organizer of a strangely marvellous nation, +a military general and strategist--the secret of all was in his direct +communication with God. He was peculiarly a man of prayer. Everything was +referred to God, and he declared that everything--laws, organization, +worship, plans--came to him from God. In national emergencies where moral +catastrophe was threatened he petitioned God and the plans were changed in +accordance with his request. He makes personal requests and they are +granted. He was peculiarly a man who dealt directly with God about every +sort of thing, national and personal, simple and complex. The record +commonly credited to him puts prayer as the simple profound explanation of +his stupendous career and achievements. He prayed. God worked along the +line of his prayer. The great things recorded are the result. That is the +simple inferential summary. + +Now there is one exception to all this in Moses' life. It stands out the +more strikingly that it is an exception; the one exception of a very long +line. Moses asked repeatedly for one thing. It was not given him. God is +not capricious nor arbitrary. There must be a reason. _There is._ And it +is fairly luminous with light. + +Here are the facts. These freed men of Egypt are a hard lot to lead and to +live with. Slow, sensuous, petty, ignorant, narrow, impulsive, strangers +to self-control, critical, exasperating--what an undertaking God had to +make a nation, _the_ nation of history, about which centred His deep +reaching, far-seeing love ambition for redeeming a world out of such +stuff! Only paralleled by the church being built upon such men as these +Galilean peasants! What victories these! What a God to do such things! +Only a God could do either and both! What immense patience it required to +shape this people. What patience God has. Moses had learned much of +patience in the desert sands with his sheep; for he had learned much of +God. But the finishing touches were supplied by the grindstone of friction +with the fickle temper of this mob of ex-slaves. + +Here are the immediate circumstances. They lacked water. They grew very +thirsty. It was a serious matter in those desert sands with human lives, +and young children, and the stock. No, it was not serious: really a very +small matter, for _God was along_, and the enterprise was of His starting. +It was His affair, all this strange journey. And they knew Him quite well +enough in their brief experience to be expecting something fully equal to +all needs with a margin thrown in. There was that series of stupendous +things before leaving Egypt. There was the Red Sea, and fresh food daily +delivered at every man's tent door, and game, juicy birds, brought down +within arms' reach, yes, and--surely this alone were enough--there was +living, cool water gushing abundantly, gladly out of the very heart of a +flinty rock--if such a thing can be said to have a heart! Oh, yes it was a +very small matter to be lacking anything with such a lavish God along. + +_But they forgot._ Their noses were keener than their memories. They had +better stomachs than hearts. The odorous onions of Egypt made more +lasting impressions than this tender, patient, planning God. Yet here +even their stomachs forgot those rock-freed waters. These people must be +kinsfolk of ours. They seem to have some of the same family traits. + +Listen: they begin to complain, to criticise. God patiently says nothing +but provides for their needs. But Moses has not yet reached the high level +that later experiences brought him. He is standing to them for God. Yet he +is very un-Godlike. Angrily, with hot word, he _smites_ the rock. Once +smiting was God's plan; then the quiet word ever after. How many a time +has the once smitten Rock been smitten again in our impatience! _The +waters came_! Just like God! They were cared for, though He had been +disobeyed and dishonoured. And there are the crowds eagerly drinking with +faces down; and up yonder in the shadow standeth God _grieved_, deeply +grieved at the false picture this immature people had gotten of Him that +day through Moses. Moses' hot tongue and flashing eye made a deep moral +scar upon their minds, that it would take years to remove. Something must +be done for the people's sake. Moses disobeyed God. He dishonoured God. +Yet the waters came, for _they needed water_. And God is ever +tender-hearted. But they must be taught the need of obedience, the evil of +disobedience. Taught it so they never could forget. + +Moses was a leader. Leaders may not do as common men. And leaders may not +be dealt with as followers. They stand too high in the air. They affect +too many lives. So God said to Moses:--"You will not go into Canaan. You +may lead them clear up to the line; you may even see over, but you may not +go in." That hurt Moses deep down. It hurt God deeper down, in a heart +more sensitive to hurt than was Moses'. Without doubt it was said with +_reluctance_, for _Moses'_ sake. But _it was said_, plainly, irrevocably, +for _their_ sakes. Moses' petition was for a reversal of this decision. +Once and again he asked. He wanted to see that wondrous land of God's +choosing. He felt the sting too. The edge of the knife of discipline cut +keenly, and the blood spurted. But God said:--"Do not speak to Me again of +this." The decision was not to be changed. For Moses' sake only He would +gladly have changed, judging by His previous conduct. For the sake of the +nation--aye, for the sake of the prodigal world to be won back through +this nation, the petition might not be granted. That ungranted petition +taught those millions the lesson of obedience, of reverence, as no +command, or smoking mount, or drowning Egyptians had done. It became +common talk in every tent, by every camp-fire of the tented nation. "Moses +disobeyed,--he failed to reverence God;--he cannot enter Canaan."--With +hushed tones, and awed hearts and moved, strangely moved faces it passed +from lip to lip. Some of the women and children wept. They all loved +Moses. They revered him. How gladly they would have had him go over. The +double-sided truth--obedience--disobedience--kept burning in through the +years. + +In after years many a Hebrew mother told her baby, eager for a story, of +Moses their great leader; his appearance, deep-set eyes, long beard, +majestic mien, yet infinite tenderness and gentleness, the softness of +strength; his presence with God in the mount, the shining face. And the +baby would listen so quietly, and then the eyes would grow so big and the +hush of spirit come as the mother would repeat softly, "but he could not +come over into the land of promise because _he did not obey God_." And +strong fathers reminded their growing sons. And so it was woven into the +warp and woof of the nation--_obedience, reverent obedience to God_. And +one can well understand Moses looking down from above with grateful heart +that he had been denied for _their_ sakes. The unselfishness and wisdom of +later years would not have made the prayer. _The prayer of a man was +denied that a nation might be taught obedience_. + + + +<u>That More Might be Given and Gotten.</u> + + +Now let us look a bit at the second of these, the portrait of Hannah the +Hebrew woman. First the broader lines for perspective. This peculiar +Hebrew nation had two deep dips down morally between Egypt and Babylon; +between the first making, and the final breaking. The national tide ebbed +very low twice, before it finally ran out in the Euphrates Valley. Elijah +stemmed the tide the second time, and saved the day for a later night. The +Hannah story belongs in the first of these ebb-tides; the first bad sag; +the first deep gap. + +The giant lawgiver is long gone. His successor, only a less giant than +himself is gone too, and all that generation, and more. The giants gave +way to smaller-sized leaders. Now they are gone also. The mountain peaks +have been lost in the foothills, and these have yielded to dunes, and +levels; mostly levels; dead levels. These mountains must have had long +legs. The foothills are so far away, and are running all to toes. Now the +toes have disappeared. + +It is a leaderless people, for the true Leader as originally planned has +been, first ignored, then forgot. The people have no ideals. They grub in +the earth content. There is a deep, hidden-away current of good. But it +needs leadership to bring it to the surface. A leaderless people! This is +the niche of the Hannah story. + +The nation was rapidly drifting down to the moral level of the lowest. At +Shiloh the formal worship was kept up, but the very priests were tainted +with the worst impurity. A sort of sleepy, slovenly anarchy prevailed. +Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, with every indication +of a gutter standard. "There was none in the land possessing power of +restraint that might put them to shame in anything." No government; no +dominant spirit. Indeed the actual conditions of Sodom and her sister +cities of the plain existed among the people. This is the setting of the +simple graphic incident of Hannah. One must get the picture clearly in +mind to understand the story. + +Up in the hill country of Ephraim there lived a wise-hearted religious +man, a farmer, raising stock, and grain; and fruit, too, likely. He was +earnest but not of the sort to rise above the habit of his time. His farm +was not far from Shiloh, the national place of worship, and he made yearly +trips there with the family. But the woman-degrading curse of Lamech was +over his home. He had two wives. Hannah was the loved one. (No man ever +yet gave his heart to two women.) She was a gentle-spoken, thoughtful +woman, with a deep, earnest spirit. But she had a disappointment which +grew in intensity as it continued. The desire of her heart had been +withheld. She was childless. + +Though the thing is not mentioned the whole inference is that she prayed +earnestly and persistently but to her surprise and deep disappointment the +desired answer came not. To make it worse her rival--what a word, for the +other one in the home with her--her rival provoked her sore to make her +fret. And that thing _went on_ year after year. That teasing, nagging, +picking of a small nature was her constant prod. What an atmosphere for a +home! Is it any wonder that "she was in bitterness of soul" and "wept +sore"? Her husband tenderly tries to comfort her. But her inner spirit +remains chafed to the quick. And all this goes on for years; the yearning, +the praying, the failure of answer, the biting, bitter atmosphere,--for +_years_. And she wonders why. + +Why was it? Step back and up a bit and get the broader view which the +narrow limits of her surroundings, and shall I say, too, though not +critically, of her spirit, shut out from her eyes. Here is what she saw: +her fondest hope unrealized, long praying unanswered, a constant ferment +at home. Here is what she wanted:--_a son_. That is her horizon. Beyond +that her thought does not rise. + +Here is what God saw:--a nation--no, much worse--_the_ nation, in which +centred His great love-plan for winning His prodigal world, going to +pieces. The messenger to the prodigal was being slyly, subtly seduced by +the prodigal. The saviour-nation was being itself lost. The plan so long +and patiently fostered for saving a world was threatened with utter +disaster. + +Here is what He wanted--_a leader_! But there were no leaders. And, worse +yet, there were no men out of whom leaders might be made, no men of +leader-size. And worse yet _there were no women_ of the sort to train and +shape a man for leadership. That is the lowest level to which a people +ever gets, aye, ever _can_ get. God had to get a woman before He could get +a man. Hannah had in her the making of the woman He needed. God honoured +her by choosing her. But she must be changed before she could be used. And +so there came those years of pruning, and sifting, and discipline. Shall +we spell that word discipline with a final g instead of e--discipling, so +the love of it may be plainer to our near-sightedness? And out of those +years and experiences there came a new woman. A woman with vision +broadened, with spirit mellowed, with strength seasoned, with will so +sinewy supple as to yield to a higher will, to sacrifice the dearest +_personal pleasure_ for the world-wide purpose; willing that he who was +her dearest treasure should be the nation's _first_. + +Then followed months of prayer while the man was coming. Samuel was born, +no, farther back yet, was conceived in the atmosphere of prayer and +devotion to God. The prenatal influences for those months gave the sort of +man God wanted. And a nation, _the_ nation, the _world-plan,_ was saved! +This man became a living answer to prayer. The romantic story of the +little boy up in the Shiloh tabernacle quickly spread over the nation. His +very name--Samuel, God hears--sifted into people's ears the facts of a +God, and of the power of prayer. The very sight of the boy and of the man +clear to the end kept deepening the brain impression through eyeballs that +God answers prayer. And the seeds of that re-belief in God that Samuel's +leadership brought about were sown by the unusual story of his birth. + +_The answer was delayed that more might be given and gotten_. And Hannah's +exultant song of praise reveals the fineness to which the texture of her +nature had been spun. And it tells too how grateful she was for a God who +in great patience and of strong deliberate purpose delayed the answer to +her prayer. + + + +<u>The Best Light for Studying a Thorn.</u> + + +The third great picture in this group is that of Paul and his +needle-pointed thorn. Talks about the certainty of prayer being answered +are very apt to bring this question: "What about Paul's thorn?" Sometimes +asked by earnest hearts puzzled; _some_times with a look in the eye almost +exultant as though of gladness for that thorn because it seems to help out +a theory. These pictures are put into the gallery for our help. Let us +pull up our chairs in front of this one and see what points we may get to +help our hearts. + +First a look at Paul himself. The best light on this thorn is through the +man. The man explains the thorn. We have a halo about Paul's head; and +rightly, too. What a splendid man of God he was! God's chosen one for a +peculiar ministry. One of the twelve could be used to open the door to the +great outside world, but God had to go aside from this circle and get a +man of different training for this wider sphere. Cradled and schooled in a +Jewish atmosphere, he never lost the Jew standpoint, yet the training of +his home surroundings in that outside world, the contact with Greek +culture, his natural mental cast fitted him peculiarly for his appointed +task to the great outside majority. His keen reasoning powers, his vivid +imagination, his steel-like will, his burning devotion, his unmovable +purpose, his tender attachment to his Lord,--what a man! Well might the +Master want to win such a man for service' sake. But Paul had some weak +traits. Let us say it very softly, remembering as we instinctively will, +that where we think of one in him there come crowding to memory's door +many more in one's self. A man's weak point is usually the extreme +opposite swing of the pendulum on his strong point. Paul had a tremendous +will. He was a giant, a Hercules in his will. Those tireless journeys with +their terrific experiences, all spell out _will_ large and black. But, +gently now, he went to extremes here. Was it due to his overtired nerves? +Likely enough. He was obstinate, _sometimes;_ stubborn; set in his way: +_sometimes_ head down, jaw locked, driving hard. Say it all _softly_, for +we are speaking of dear old saintly Paul; but, to help, _say_ it, for it +is true. + +God had a hard time holding Paul to _His_ plans. Paul had some of his own. +We can all easily understand that. Take a side glance or two as he is +pushing eagerly, splendidly on. Turn to that sixteenth chapter of +Acts,[19] and listen: "Having been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak +the word in (the province of) Asia," coupled with the fact of sickness +being allowed to overtake him in Galatia where the "forbidding" message +came. And again this, "they assayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of +Jesus suffered them not."[20] Tell me, is this the way the Spirit of God +leads? That I should go driving ahead until He must pull me up with a +sharp turn, and twist me around! It is the way He is obliged to do many +times, no doubt, with most of us. But His chosen way? His own way? Surely +not. Rather this, the keeping close, and quiet and listening for the next +step. Rather the "I go not up yet unto this feast" of Jesus.[21] And then +in a few days going up, evidently when the clear intimation came. These +words, "assayed to go," "forbidden," "suffered not"--what flashlights they +let into this strong man's character. + +But there is much stronger evidence yet. Paul had an ambition to preach to +the _Jerusalem Jews_. It burned in his bones from the early hours of his +new life. The substratum of "_Jerusalem_" seemed ever in his thoughts and +dreams. If _he_ could just get to those Jerusalem Jews! He knew them. He +had trained with them. He was a leader among the younger set. When they +burned against these Christians he burned just a bit hotter. They knew +him. They trusted him to drive the opposite wedge. If only _he_ could have +a chance down there he felt that the tide might be turned. But from that +critical hour on the Damascene road "_Gentiles--Gentiles_" had been +sounded in his ears. And he obeyed, of course he obeyed, with all his +ardent heart. _But, but_--those _Jerusalem Jews_! If he might go to +Jerusalem! Yet very early the Master had proscribed the Jerusalem service +for Paul. He made it a matter of a special vision,[22] in the holy temple, +kindly explaining why. "They will not receive of _thee_ testimony +concerning Me." Would that not seem quite sufficient? Surely. Yet this +astonishing thing occurs:--Paul attempts to argue with the Master _why_ he +should be allowed to go. This is going to great lengths; a subordinate +arguing with his commanding general after the orders have been issued! The +Master closes the vision with a peremptory word of command, "_depart_. I +will send thee _far hence_ (from Jerusalem, where you long to be), to the +Gentiles." That is a picture of this man. It reveals the weak side in +this giant of strength and of love. And _this_ is the man God has to use +in His plan. He is without doubt the best man available. And in his +splendour he stands head and shoulders above his generation and many +generations. Yet (with much reverence) God has a hard time getting Paul to +work always along the line of _His_ plans. + +That is the man. Now for the thorn. Something came into Paul's life that +was a constant irritation. He calls it a thorn. What a graphic word! A +sharp point prodding into his flesh, ever prodding, sticking, sticking in; +asleep, awake, stitching tent canvas, preaching, writing, that thing ever +cutting its point into his sensitive flesh. Ugh! It did not disturb him so +much at first, because _there was God_ to go to. He went to God and said, +"_Please_ take this away." But it stayed and stuck. A second time the +prayer; a bit more urgent; the thing sticks so. The time test is the +hardest test of all. Still no change. Then praying the third time with +what earnestness one can well imagine. + +Now note three things: First, _There was an answer_. God answered _the +man_. Though He did not grant the petition, He answered the man. He did +not ignore him nor his request. Then God told Paul frankly that it was not +best to take the thorn away. It was in the lonely vigil of a sleepless +night, likely as not, that the wondrous Jesus-Spirit drew near to Paul. +Inaudibly to outer ear but very plainly to his inner ear, He spoke in +tones modulated into tender softness as of dearest friend talking with +dear friend. "Paul," the voice said, "I know about that thorn--and how it +hurts--it hurts Me, too. For _your_ sake, I would quickly, so quickly +remove it. But--Paul"--and the voice becomes still softer--"it is a bit +better for _others_' sake that it remain: the plan in My heart _through +you_ for thousands, yes, unnumbered thousands, Paul, can so best be worked +out." That was the first part of what He said. And Paul lies thinking with +a deep tinge of awe over his spirit. Then after a bit in yet quieter voice +He went on to say, "I will be so close to your side; you shall have such +revelations of My glory that the pain will be clear overlapped, Paul; the +glory shall outstrip the eating thorn point." + +I can see old Paul one night in his own hired house in Rome. It is late, +after a busy day; the auditors have all gone. He is sitting on an old +bench, slowing down before seeking sleep. One arm is around Luke, dear +faithful Doctor Luke, and the other around young Timothy, not quite so +young now. And with eyes that glisten, and utterance tremulous with +emotion he is just saying:--"And dear old friends, do you know, I would +not have missed this thorn, for the wondrous glory"--and his heart gets +into his voice, there is a touch of the hoarseness of deep emotion, and a +quavering of tone, so he waits a moment--"the wondrous _glory-presence of +Jesus_ that came with it." + +And so out of the experience came a double blessing. There was a much +fuller working of God's plan for His poor befooled world. And there was an +unspeakable nearness of intimacy with his Lord for Paul. _The man was +answered and the petition denied that the larger plan of service might be +carried out_. + + + +<u>Shaping a Prayer on the Anvil of the Knees.</u> + + +The last of these pictures is like Raphael's Sistine Madonna in the +Dresden gallery; it is in a room by itself. One enters with a holy hush +over his spirit, and, with awe in his eyes, looks at _Jesus in +Gethsemane_. There is the Kidron brook, the gentle rise of ground, the +grove of gnarled knotty old olive trees. The moon above is at the full. +Its brightness makes these shadowed recesses the darker; blackly dark. +Here is a group of men lying on the ground apparently asleep. Over yonder +deeper in among the trees a smaller group reclines motionless. They, too, +sleep. And, look, farther in yet is that lone figure; all alone; nevermore +alone; save once--on the morrow. + +There is a foreshadowing of this Gethsemane experience in the requested +interview of the Greeks just a few intense days before. In the vision +which the Greeks unconsciously brought the agony of the olive grove began. +The climax is among these moon-shadowed trees. How sympathetic those inky +black shadows! It takes bright light to make black shadows. Yet they were +not black enough. Intense men can get so absorbed in the shadows as to +forget the light. + +This great Jesus! Son of God: God the Son. The Son of Man: God--a man! No +draughtsman's pencil ever drew the line between His divinity and humanity; +nor ever shall. For the union of divine and human is itself divine, and +therefore clear beyond human ken. Here His humanity stands out, +pathetically, luminously stands out. Let us speak of it very softly and +think with the touch of awe deepening for this is holiest ground. The +battle of the morrow is being fought out here. Calvary is in Gethsemane. +The victory of the hill is won in the grove. + +It is sheer impossible for man with sin grained into his fibre through +centuries to understand the horror with which a sinless one thinks of +actual contact with sin. As Jesus enters the grove that night it comes in +upon His spirit with terrific intensity that He is actually coming into +contact--with a meaning quite beyond us--coming into contact with sin. In +some way all too deep for definition He is to be "made sin."[23] The +language used to describe His emotions is so strong that no adequate +English words seem available for its full expression. An indescribable +horror, a chill of terror, a frenzy of fright seizes Him. The poisonous +miasma of sin seems to be filling His nostrils and to be stifling Him. And +yonder alone among the trees the agony is upon Him. The extreme grips Him. +May there not yet possibly be some other way rather than _this--this!_ A +bit of that prayer comes to us in tones strangely altered by deepest +emotion. "_If it be possible--let this cup pass_." There is still a +clinging to a possibility, some possibility other than that of this +nightmare vision. The writer of the Hebrews lets in light here. The strain +of spirit almost snaps the life-thread. And a parenthetical prayer for +strength goes up. And the angels come with sympathetic strengthening. With +what awe must they have ministered! Even after that some of the red life +slips out there under the trees. By and by a calmer mood asserts itself, +and out of the darkness a second petition comes. It tells of the tide's +turning, and the victory full and complete. _A changed, petition_ this! +"_Since this cup may not pass_--since only thus _can_ Thy great plan for a +world be wrought out--_Thy--will_"--slowly but very distinctly the words +come--"_Thy--will--be--done._" + +_The changed prayer was wrought out upon His knees!_ With greatest +reverence, and a hush in our voices, let us say that there alone with the +Father came the clearer understanding of the Father's actual will under +these circumstances. + + "Into the woods my Master went + Clean forspent, forspent; + Into the woods my Master came + Forspent with love and shame. + But the olives they were not blind to Him, + The little gray leaves were kind to Him; + The thorn-tree had a mind to Him + When into the woods He came. + + "Out of the woods my Master went + And He was well content; + Out of the woods my Master came + Content with death and shame. + When death and shame would woo Him last + From under the trees they drew Him last + 'Twas on a tree they slew Him--last + When out of the woods He came."[24] + +True prayer is wrought out upon the knees alone with God. With deepest +reverence, and in awed tones, let it be said, that _that was true of +Jesus_ in the days of His humanity. How infinitely more of us! + +Shall we not plan to meet God alone, habitually, with the door shut, and +the Book open, and the will pliant so we may be trained for this holy +partnership of prayer. Then will come the clearer vision, the broader +purpose, the truer wisdom, the real unselfishness, the simplicity of +claiming and expecting, the delights of fellowship in service with Him; +then too will come great victories for God in His world. Although we +shall not begin to know by direct knowledge a tithe of the story until the +night be gone and the dawning break and the ink-black shadows that now +stain the earth shall be chased away by the brightness of His presence. + + + + +The Great Outside Hindrance + + + +<u>The Traitor Prince.</u> + + +There remains yet a word to be said about hindrances. It is a most +important word; indeed the climactic word. What has been said is simply +clearing the way for what is yet to be said. A very strange phase of +prayer must be considered here. Strange only because not familiar. Yet +though strange it contains the whole heart of the question. Here lies the +fight of the fight. One marvels that so little is said of it. For if there +were clear understanding here, and then faithful practicing, there would +be mightier defeats and victories: defeats for the foe; victories for our +rightful prince, Jesus. + +The intense fact is this: _Satan has the power to hold the answer +back--for awhile; to delay the result--for a time_. He has not the power +to hold it back finally, _if_ some one understands and prays with quiet, +steady persistence. The real pitch of prayer therefore is Satanward. + +Our generation has pretty much left this individual Satan out. It is +partly excusable perhaps. The conceptions of Satan and his hosts and +surroundings made classical by such as Dante and Milton and Dore have +done much to befog the air. Almost universally they have been taken +literally whether so meant or not. One familiar with Satan's +characteristics can easily imagine his cunning finger in that. He is +willing even to be caricatured, or to be left out of reckoning, if so he +may tighten his grip. + +These suggestions of horns and hoofs, of forked tail and all the rest of +it seek to give material form to this being. They are grotesque to an +extreme, and therefore caricatures. A caricature so disproportions and +exaggerates as to make hideous or ridiculous. In our day when every +foundation of knowledge is being examined there has been a natural but +unthinking turning away from the very being of Satan through these +representations of him. Yet where there is a caricature there must be a +true. To revolt from the true, hidden by a caricature, in revolting from +the caricature is easy, but is certainly bad. It is always bad to have the +truth hid from our eyes. + +It is refreshing and fascinating to turn from these classical caricatures +to the scriptural conception of Satan. In this Book he is a being of great +beauty of person, of great dignity of position even yet, endowed with most +remarkable intellectual powers, a prince, at the head of a most +remarkable, compact organization which he has wielded with phenomenal +skill and success in furthering his ambitious purposes. + +And he is not chained yet. I remember a conversation with a young +clergyman one Monday morning in the reading-room of a Young Men's +Christian Association. It was in a certain mining town in the southwest, +which is as full of evil resorts as such places usually are. The day +before, Sunday, had been one of special services, and we had both been +busy and were a bit weary. We were slowing down and chatting leisurely. I +remarked to my friend, "What a glad day it will be when the millennium +comes!" He quickly replied, "I think this is the millennium." "But," I +said, "I thought Satan was to be chained during that time. Doesn't it say +something of that sort in the Book?" "Yes," he replied, "it does. But I +think he is chained now." And I could not resist the answer that came +blurting its way out, "Well, if he is chained, he must have a fairly long +chain: it seems to permit much freedom of action." From all that can be +gathered regarding this mighty prince he is not chained yet. We would do +well to learn more about him. The old military maxim, "Study the enemy," +should be followed more closely here. + +It is striking that the oldest of the Bible books, and the latest, Job and +Revelation, the first word and the last, give such definite information +concerning him. These coupled with the gospel records supply most of the +information available though not all. Those three and a half years of +Jesus' public work is the period of greatest Satanic and demoniac +activity of which any record has been made. Jesus' own allusions to him +are frequent and in unmistakable language. There are four particular +passages to which I want to turn your attention now. Let it not be +supposed, however, that this phase of prayer rests upon a few isolated +passages. Such a serious truth does not hinge upon selected proof texts. +It is woven into the very texture of this Book throughout. + +There are two facts that run through the Bible from one end to the other. +They are like two threads ever crossing in the warp and woof of a finely +woven fabric. Anywhere you run your shears into the web of this Book you +will find these two threads. They run crosswise and are woven inextricably +in. One is a black thread, inky black, pot-black. The other is a bright +thread, like a bit of glory light streaming across. These two threads +everywhere. The one is this--the black thread--there is an enemy. Turn +where you will from Genesis to Revelation--always an enemy. He is keen. He +is subtle. He is malicious. He is cruel. He is obstinate. He is a master. +The second thread is this: the leaders for God have always been men of +prayer above everything else. They are men of power in other ways, +preachers, men of action, with power to sway others but above all else men +of prayer. They give prayer first place. There is one striking exception +to this, namely, King Saul. And most significantly a study of this +exception throws a brilliant lime light upon the career of Satan. King +Sauls seems to furnish the one great human illustration in scripture of +heaven's renegade fallen prince. These special paragraphs to be quoted are +like the pattern in the cloth where the colours of the yarn come into more +definite shape. The gospels form the central pattern of the whole where +the colours pile up into sharpest contrast. + + + +<u>Praying is Fighting.</u> + + +But let us turn to the Book at once. For we _know_ only what it tells. The +rest is surmise. The only authoritative statements about Satan seem to be +these here. Turn first to the New Testament. + +The Old Testament is the book of illustrations; the New of explanations, +of teaching. In the Old, teaching is largely by kindergarten methods. The +best methods, for the world was in its child stage. In the New the +teaching is by precept. There is precept teaching in the Old; very much. +There is picture teaching in the New; the gospels full of it. But picture +teaching, acted teaching, is the characteristic of the Old, and precept +teaching of the New. There is a wonderfully vivid picture in the Old +Testament, of this thing we are discussing. But first let us get the +teaching counterpart in the new, and then look at the picture. + +Turn to Ephesians. Ephesians is a prayer epistle. That is a very +significant fact to mark. Of Paul's thirteen letters Ephesians is +peculiarly the prayer letter. Paul is clearly in a prayer mood. He is on +his knees here. He has much to say to these people whom he has won to +Christ, but it comes in the parenthesis of his prayer. The connecting +phrase running through is--"for this cause I pray.... I bow my knees." +Halfway through this rare old man's mind runs out to the condition of +these churches, and he puts in the always needed practical injunctions +about their daily lives. Then the prayer mood reasserts itself, and the +epistle finds its climax in a remarkable paragraph on prayer. From praying +the man goes urging them to pray. + +We must keep the book open here as we talk: chapter six, verses ten to +twenty inclusive. The main drive of all their living and warfare seems +very clear to this scarred veteran:--"that ye may be able to withstand the +wiles of the devil." This man seems to have had no difficulty in believing +in a personal devil. Probably he had had too many close encounters for +that. To Paul Satan is a cunning strategist requiring every bit of +available resource to combat. + +This paragraph states two things:--who the real foe is, against whom the +fight is directed; and, then with climactic intensity it pitches on the +main thing that routs him. Who is the real foe? Listen:--"For our +wrestling is not against flesh and blood"--not against men; never that; +something far, subtler--"but against the principalities"--a word for a +compact organization of individuals,--"against powers"--not only organized +but highly endowed intellectually, "against the world-rulers of this +darkness,"--they are of princely kin; not common folk--"against the hosts +of wicked spirits in the heavenlies"--spirit beings, in vast numbers, +having their headquarters somewhere above the earth. _That_ is the foe. +Large numbers of highly endowed spirit beings, compactly organized, who +are the sovereigns of the present realm or age of moral darkness, having +their _headquarters_ of activity somewhere above the earth, and below the +throne of God, but concerned with human beings upon the earth. In chapter +two of the epistle the head or ruler of this organization is referred to, +"the prince of the powers of the air."[25] That is the real foe. + +Then in one of his strong piled up climactic sentences Paul tells how the +fight is to be won. This sentence runs unbroken through verses fourteen to +twenty inclusive. There are six preliminary clauses in it leading up to +its main statement. These clauses name the pieces of armour used by a +Roman soldier in the action of battle. The loins girt, the breastplate on, +the feet shod, the shield, the helmet the sword, and so on. A Roman +soldier reading this or, hearing Paul preach it, would expect him to +finish the sentence by saying "_with all your fighting strength +fighting_." + +That would be the proper conclusion rhetorically of this sentence. But +when Paul reaches the climax with his usual intensity he drops the +rhetorical figure, and puts in the thing with which in our case the +fighting is done--"with all prayer _praying_." In place of the +expected word fighting is the word praying. The thing with which the +fighting is done is put in place of the word itself. Our fighting is +praying. Praying is fighting, spirit-fighting. That is to say, this old +evangelist-missionary-bishop says, we are in the thick of a fight. There +is a war on. How shall we best fight? First get into good shape to pray, +and then with all your praying strength and skill _pray_. That word +_praying_ is the climax of this long sentence, and of this whole epistle. +This is the sort of action that turns the enemy's flank, and reveals his +heels. He simply _cannot_ stand before persistent knee-work. + +Now mark the keenness of Paul's description of the man who does most +effective work in praying. There are six qualifications under the figure +of the six pieces of armour. A clear understanding of truth, a clean +obedient life, earnest service, a strongly simple trust in God, clear +assurance of one's own salvation and relation to God, and a good grip of +the truth for others--these things prepare a man for the real conflict of +prayer. _Such a man_--_praying_--_drives back these hosts of the traitor +prince_. Such a man praying is invincible in his Chief, Jesus. The +equipment is simple, and in its beginnings comes quickly to the willing, +earnest heart. + +Look a bit at how the strong climax of this long sentence runs. It is +fairly bristling with points. Soldier-points all of them; like bayonet +points. Just such as a general engaged in a siege-fight would give to his +men. "With all prayer and supplication"--there is _intensity_; +"praying"--that is _the main drive_; "at all seasons"--_ceaselessness_, +night and day; hot and cold; wet and dry; "in the Spirit"--as _guided by +the Chief;_ "and watching thereunto"--_sleepless vigilance;_ watching is +ever a fighting word; watch the enemy; watch your own forces; "with all +perseverance"--_persistence_; cheery, jaw-locked, dogged persistence, +bulldog tenacity; "and supplication"--_intensity again_; "for all the +saints"--_the sweep of the action_, keep in touch with the whole army; +"and on my behalf"--the human leader, rally around _the immediate leader._ +This is the foe to be fought. And this the sort of fighting that defeats +this foe. + + + +<u>A double Wrestling Match.</u> + + +Now turn back to the illustration section of our Book for a remarkably +graphic illustration of these words. It is in the old prophecy of Daniel, +tenth chapter. The story is this: Daniel is an old man now. He is an +exile. He has not seen the green hills of his fatherland since boyhood. In +this level Babylon, he is homesick for the dear old Palestinian hills, and +he is heartsick over the plight of his people. He has been studying +Jeremiah's prophecies, and finds there the promise plainly made that after +seventy years these exiled Hebrews are to be allowed to return. Go back +again! The thought of it quickens his pulse-beats. He does some quick +counting. The time will soon be up. So Daniel plans a bit of time for +special prayer, a sort of siege prayer. + +Remember who he is--this Daniel. He is the chief executive of the land. He +controls, under the king, the affairs of the world empire of his time. He +is a giant of strength and ability--this man. But he plans his work so as +to go away for a time. Taking a few kindred spirits, who understand +prayer, he goes off into the woods down by the great Tigris River. They +spend a day in fasting, and meditation and prayer. Not utter fasting, but +scant eating of plain food. I suppose they pray awhile; maybe separately, +then together; then read a bit from the Jeremiah parchment, think and talk +it over and then pray some more. And so they spend a whole day reading, +meditating, praying. + +They are expecting an answer. These old-time intercessors were strong in +expectancy. But there is no answer. A second day, a third, a fourth, a +week, still no answer reaches them. They go quietly on without hesitation. +Two weeks. How long it must have seemed! Think of fourteen days spent +_waiting_; waiting for something, with your heart on tenter hooks. There +is no answer. God might have been dead, to adapt the words of Catharine +Luther, so far as any answer reaching them is concerned. But you cannot +befool Daniel in that way. He is an old hand at prayer. Apparently he has +no thought of quitting. He goes quietly, steadily on. Twenty days pass, +with no change. Still they persist. Then the twenty-first day comes and +there is an answer. It comes in a vision whose glory is beyond human +strength to bear. By and by when they can talk, his visitor and he, this +is what Daniel hears: "Daniel, the first day you began to pray, your +prayer was heard, and I was sent with the answer." And even Daniel's eyes +open big--"the _first_ day--three weeks ago?" "Yes, three weeks ago I left +the presence of God with the answer to your prayer. But"--listen, here is +the strange part--"the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me, +resisted me, one and twenty days: but Michael, your prince, came to help +me, and I was free to come to you with the answer to your prayer." + +Please notice four things that I think any one reading this chapter will +readily admit. This being talking with Daniel is plainly a spirit being. +He is opposed by some one. This opponent plainly must be a spirit being, +too, to be resisting a spirit being. Daniel's messenger is from God: that +is clear. Then the opponent must be from the opposite camp. And here comes +in the thing strange, unexpected, the evil spirit being _has the power to +detain, hold back God's messenger_ for three full weeks by earth's +reckoning of time. Then reenforcements come, as we would say. The evil +messenger's purpose is defeated, and God's messenger is free to come as +originally planned. + +There is a double scene being enacted. A scene you can see, and a scene +you cannot see. An unseen wrestling match in the upper spirit realm, and +two embodied spirit beings down on their faces by the river. And both +concerned over the same thing. + +That is the Daniel story. What an acted out illustration it is of Paul's +words. It is a picture glowing with the action of real life. It is a +double picture. Every prayer action is in doubles; a lower human level; an +upper spirit level. Many see only the seen, and lose heart. While we look +at the things that are seen, let us gaze intently at the things unseen; +for the seen things are secondary, but the unseen are chief, and the +action of life is being decided there. + +Here is the lower, the seen;--a group of men, led by a man of executive +force enough to control an empire, prone on their faces, with minds clear, +quiet, alert, persistently, ceaselessly _praying_ day by day. Here is the +upper, the unseen:--a "wrestling," keen, stubborn, skilled, going on +between two spirit princes in the spirit realm. And by Paul's explanation +the two are vitally connected. Daniel and his companions are wrestlers +too, active participants in that upper-air fight, and really deciding the +issue, for they are on the ground being contested. These men are indeed +praying with all prayer and supplication at all times, in the Spirit, and +watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication, and _at length +victory comes_. + + + +<u>Prayer Concerns Three.</u> + + +Now a bit of a look at the central figure of the pattern. Jesus lets in a +flood of light on Satan's relation to prayer in one of His prayer +parables. There are two parables dealing distinctively with prayer: "the +friend at midnight,"[26] and "the unjust judge."[27] The second of these +deals directly with this Satan phase of prayer. It is Luke through whom we +learn most of Jesus' own praying who preserves for us this remarkable +prayer picture. + +It comes along towards the end. The swing has been made from plain talking +to the less direct, parable-form of teaching. The issue with the national +leaders has reached its acutest stage. The culmination of their hatred, +short of the cross, found vent in charging Him with being inspired by the +spirit of Satan. He felt their charge keenly and answered it directly and +fully. His parable of the strong man being bound before his house can be +rifled comes in here. _They_ had no question as to what that meant. That +is the setting of this prayer parable. The setting is a partial +interpretation. Let us look at this parable rather closely, for it is full +of help for those who would become skilled in helping God win His world +back home again. + +Jesus seems so eager that they shall not miss the meaning here that He +departs from His usual habit and says plainly what this parable is meant +to teach:--"that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." The great +essential, He says, is _prayer_. The great essential in prayer is +_persistence_. The temptation in prayer is that one may lose heart, and +give up, or give in. "Not-to-faint" tells how keen the contest is. + +There are three persons in the parable; a judge, a widow, and an +adversary. The judge is utterly selfish, unjust, godless, and reckless of +anybody's opinion. The worst sort of man, indeed, the last sort of man to +be a judge. Inferentially he knows that the right of the case before him +is with the widow. The widow--well, she is a _widow_. Can more be said to +make the thing vivid and pathetic! A very picture of friendlessness and +helplessness is a widow. A woman needs a friend. This woman has lost her +nearest, dearest friend; her protector. She is alone. There is an +adversary, an opponent at law, who has unrighteously or illegally gotten +an advantage over the widow and is ruthlessly pushing her to the wall. She +is seeking to get the judge to join with her against her adversary. Her +urgent, oft repeated request is, "avenge me of mine adversary." That is +Jesus' pictorial illustration of persistent prayer. + +Let us look into it a little further. "Adversary" is a common word in +scripture for Satan. He is the accuser, the hater, the enemy, the +adversary. Its meaning technically is "an opponent in a suit at law." It +is the same word as used later by Peter, "Your adversary the devil as a +roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour."[28] The word +"avenge" used four times really means, "do me justice." It suggests that +the widow has the facts on her side to win a clear case, and that the +adversary has been bully-ragging his case through by sheer force. + +There is a strange feature to this parable, which must have a meaning. _An +utterly godless unscrupulous man is put in to represent God!_ This is +startling. In any other than Jesus it would seem an overstepping of the +bounds. But there is keenness of a rare sort here. Such a man is chosen +for judge to bring out most sharply this:--the sort of thing required to +win this judge is certainly not required _with God_. The widow must +persist and plead because of the sort of man she has to deal with. But God +is utterly different in character. Therefore while persistence is urged in +prayer plainly it is not for the reason that required the widow to +persist. And if that reason be cut out it leaves only one other, namely, +that represented by the adversary. + +Having purposely put such a man in the parable for God, Jesus takes pains +to speak of the real character of God. "And He is _long-suffering_ over +them." _That_ is God. That word "long-suffering" and its equivalent on +Jesus' lips suggests at once the strong side of love, namely, _patience_, +gentle, fine patience. It has bothered the scholars in this phrase to know +with whom or over what the long-suffering is exercised. "Over them" is the +doubtful phrase. Long-suffering over these praying ones? _Or_, +long-suffering in dealing righteously with some stubborn adversary--which? +The next sentence has a word set in sharpest contrast with this one, +namely "speedily." "Long-suffering" yet "speedily." + +Here are gleams of bright light on a dark subject with apparently more +light obscured than is allowed to shine through. Jesus always spoke +thoughtfully. He chooses His words. Remembering the adversary against whom +the persistence is directed the whole story seems to suggest this: that +there is _a great conflict on_ in the upper spirit world. Concerning it +our patient God is long-suffering. He is a just and righteous God. These +beings in the conflict are all His creatures. He is just in His dealings +with the devil and this splendid host of evil spirits even as with all His +creation. He is long-suffering that no unfairness shall be done in His +dealings with these creatures of His. Yet at the same time He is doing His +best to bring the conflict to a speedy end, for the sake of His loyal +loved ones, and that right may prevail. + +The upshot of the parable is very plain. It contains for us two +tremendous, intense truths. First is this: _prayer concerns three_, not +two but three. God to whom we pray, the man on the contested earth who +prays, and the evil one against whom we pray. And the purpose of the +prayer is not to persuade or influence God, but to join forces with Him +against the enemy. Not towards God, but with God against Satan--that is +the main thing to keep in mind in prayer. The real pitch is not Godward +but Satanward. + +The second intense truth is this:--the winning quality in prayer is +_persistence_. The final test is here. This is the last ditch. Many who +fight well up to this point lose their grip here, and so lose all. Many +who are well equipped for prayer fail here, and doubtless fail because +they have not rightly understood. With clear, ringing tones the Master's +voice sounds in our ears again to-day, "always to pray, _and_ not to +faint." + + + +<u>A Stubborn Foe Routed.</u> + + +That is the parable teaching. Now a look at a plain out word from the +Master's lips. It is in the story of the demonized boy, the distressed +father, and the defeated disciples, at the foot of the transfiguration +mountain.[29] Extremes meet here surely. The mountain peak is in sharpest +contrast with the valley. The demon seems to be of the superlative degree. +His treatment of the possessed boy is malicious to an extreme. His purpose +is "to destroy" him. Yet there is a limit to his power, for what he would +do he has not yet been able to do. He shows extreme tenacity. He fought +bitterly against being disembodied again. (Can it be that embodiment eases +in some way the torture of existence for these prodigal spirits!) And so +far he fought well, and with success. The disciples had tried to cast him +out. They were expected to. They expected to. They had before. They +failed!--dismally--amid the sneering and jeering of the crowd and the +increasing distress of the poor father. + +Then Jesus came. Was some of the transfiguring glory still lingering in +that great face? It would seem so. The crowd was "amazed" when they saw +Him, and "saluted" Him. His presence changed all. The demon angrily left, +doing his worst to wreck the house he had to vacate. The boy is restored; +and the crowd astonished at the power of God. + +Then these disciples did a very keen thing. They made some bad blunders +but this is not one of them. They sought a private talk with Jesus. No +shrewder thing was ever done. When you fail, quit your service and get +away for a private interview with Jesus. With eyes big, and voices +dejected, the question wrung itself out of their sinking hearts, "Why +could not _we_ cast it out?" Matthew and Mark together supply the full +answer. Probably first came this:--"because of your little faith." They +had quailed in their hearts before the power of this malicious demon. And +the demon knew it. They were more impressed with the power of the demon +than with the power of God. And the demon saw it. They had not prayed +victoriously against the demon. The Master says, "faith only as big as a +mustard seed (you cannot measure the strength of the mustard seed by its +size) will say to this mountain--'Remove.'" Mark keenly:--the direction of +the faith is towards the obstacle. Its force is against the enemy. It was +the demon who was most directly influenced by Jesus' faith. + +Then comes the second part of the reply:--"This kind can come out by +nothing but by prayer." Some less-stubborn demons may be cast out by the +faith that comes of our regular prayer-touch with God. This extreme sort +takes special prayer. This kind of a demon goes out by prayer. It can be +put out by nothing less. The real victory must be in the secret place. The +exercise of faith in the open battle is then a mere pressing of the +victory already won. These men had the language of Jesus on their lips, +but they had not gotten the victory first off somewhere alone. This demon +is determined not to go. He fights stubbornly and strongly. He succeeds. +Then this _Man of Prayer_ came. The quiet word of command is spoken. The +demon must go. These disciples were strikingly like some of us. They had +not _realized_ where the real victory is won. They had used the word of +command to the demon, doubtless coupling Jesus' name with it. But there +was not the secret touch with God that gives victory. Their eyes showed +their fear of the demon. + +Prayer, real prayer, intelligent prayer, it is this that routs Satan's +demons, for it routs their chief. David killed the lion and bear in the +secret forests before he faced the giant in the open. These disciples were +facing the giant in the open without the discipline in secret. "This kind +can be compelled to come out by nothing but by prayer," means this:--"this +kind comes out, and must come out, before the man who prays." This thing +which Jesus calls prayer casts out demons. Would that we knew better by +experience what He meant by prayer. It exerts a positive influence upon +the hosts of evil spirits. They fear it. They fear the man who becomes +skilled in its use. + +There are yet many other passages in this Bible fully as explicit as +these, and which give on the very surface just such plain teaching as +these. The very language of scripture throughout is full of this truth. +But these four great instances are quite sufficient to make the present +point clear and plain. This great renegade prince is an actual active +factor in the lives of men. He believes in the potency of prayer. He fears +it. He can hinder its results for a while. He does his best to hinder it, +and to hinder as long as possible. + +_Prayer overcomes him._ It defeats his plans and himself. He cannot +successfully stand before it. He trembles when some man of simple faith in +God prays. Prayer is insistence upon God's will being done. It needs for +its practice a man in sympathetic touch with God. Its basis is Jesus' +victory. It overcomes the opposing will of the great traitor-leader. + + + + +III. How to Pray + + +1. The "How" of Relationship. +2. The "How" of Method. +3. The Listening Side of Prayer. +4. Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer. +5. May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones? + + + + +The "How" of Relationship + + + +<u>God's Ambassadors.</u> + + +If I had an ambition to be the ambassador of this country to our +mother-country, there would be two essential things involved. The first +and great essential would be to receive the appointment. I would need to +come into certain relation with our president, to possess certain +qualifications considered essential by him, and to secure from his hand +the appointment, and the official credentials of my appointment. That +would establish my relationship to the foreign court as the representative +of my own country, and my right to transact business in her name. + +But having gotten that far I might go over there and make bad mistakes. I +might get our diplomatic relations tangled up, requiring many +explanations, and maybe apologies, and leaving unpleasant memories for a +long time to come. Such incidents have not been infrequent. Nations are +very sensitive. Governmental affairs must be handled with great nicety. +There would be a second thing which if I were a wise enough man to be an +ambassador I would likely do. I would go to see John Hay and Joseph H. +Choate, and have as many interviews with them as possible, and learn all I +possibly could from them of London official life, court etiquette, +personages to be dealt with, things to do, and things to avoid. How to be +a successful diplomat and further the good feeling between the two +governments, and win friends for our country among the sturdy Britons +would be my one absorbing thought. And having gotten all I could in that +way I would be constantly on the alert with all the mental keenness I +could command to practice being a successful ambassador. + +The first of these would make me technically an ambassador. The second +would tend towards giving me some skill as an ambassador. Now there are +the same two how's in praying. First the relationship must be established +before any business can be transacted. Then skill must be acquired in the +transacting of the business on hand. + +Just now, we want to talk about the first of these, the how of +relationship in prayer. The basis of prayer is right relationship with +God. Prayer is representing God in the spirit realm of this world. It is +insisting upon His rights down in this sphere of action. It is standing +for Him with full powers from Him. Clearly the only basis of such +relationship to God is _Jesus_. We have been outlawed by sin. We were in +touch with God. We broke with Him. The break could not be repaired by us. +Jesus came. He was God _and_ Man. He touches both. We get back through +Him, and only so. The blood of the cross is the basis of all prayer. +Through it the relationship is established that underlies all prayer. Only +as I come to God through Jesus to get the sin score straightened, and only +as I keep in sympathy with Jesus in the purpose of my life can I practice +prayer. + + + +<u>Six Sweeping Statements.</u> + + +Jesus' own words make this very clear. There are two groups of teachings +on prayer in those three and a half years as given by the gospel records. +The first of these groups is in the Sermon on the Mount which Jesus +preached about half-way through the second year of His ministry. The +second group comes sheer at the end. All of it is in the last six months, +and most of it in the last ten days, and much of that on the very eve of +that last tragic day. + +It is after the sharp rupture with the leaders that this second series of +statements is made. The most positive, and most sweeping utterances on +prayer are here. Of Jesus' eight promises regarding prayer six are here. I +want to ask you please to notice these six promises or statements; and +then, to notice their relation to our topic of to-day. + +In Matthew 18:19, 20, is the first of these. "Again I say unto you, that +if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they Shall +ask, it shall be done for them of My Father who is in heaven." Notice the +place of prayer--"on earth"; and the sweep--"anything"; and the +positiveness--"it shall be done." Then the reason why is given. "For where +two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of +them." That is to say, if there are two persons praying, there are three. +If three meet to pray, there are four praying. There is always one more +than you can see. And if you might perhaps be saying to yourself in a bit +of dejection, "He'll not hear me: I'm so sinful: so weak"--you would be +wrong in thinking and saying so, but then we do think and say things that +are not right--_if_ you might be thinking that, you could at once fall +back upon this: the Father always hears Jesus. And wherever earnest hearts +pray Jesus is there taking their prayer and making it His prayer. + +The second of these: Mark 11:22-24, "Jesus answering saith unto them, have +faith in God"--with the emphasis double-lined under the word "God." The +chief factor in prayer is God. "Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say +unto this mountain, be thou taken up and cast into the sea--" Choosing, do +you see the unlikeliest thing that might occur. Such a thing did not take +place. We never hear of Jesus moving an actual mountain. The need for such +action does not seem to have arisen. But He chooses the thing most +difficult for His illustration. Can you imagine a mountain moving off into +the sea--the Jungfrau, or Blanc, or Rainier? If you know mountains down in +your country you cannot imagine it actually occurring. "--And shall not +doubt in his heart--" That is Jesus' definition of faith. "--But shall +believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore, I +say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye +receive them, and ye shall have them." How utterly sweeping this last +statement! And to make it more positive it is preceded by the emphatic +"therefore--I--say--unto--you." Both whatsoever and whosoever are here. +Anything, and anybody. We always feel instinctively as though these +statements need careful guarding: a few fences put up around them. Wait a +bit and we shall see what the Master's own fence is. + +The last four of the six are in John's gospel. In that last long quiet +talk on the night in which He was betrayed. John preserves much of that +heart-talk for us in chapters thirteen to seventeen. + +Here in John 14:13, 14: "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, that will I do." The repetition is to emphasize the +unlimited sweep of what may be asked. + +John 15:7: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you--" That word +abide is a strong word. It does not mean to leave your cards; nor to hire +a night's lodging; nor to pitch a tent, or run up a miner's shanty, or a +lumberman's shack. It means moving in to stay. "--Ask whatsoever ye +will--" The Old Version says, "ye shall ask." But here the revised is more +accurate: "Ask; please ask; I ask you to ask." There is nothing said +directly about God's will. There is something said about our wills. "--And +it shall be done unto you." Or, a little more literally, "I will bring it +to pass for you." + +I remember the remark quoted to me by a friend one day. His church +membership is in the Methodist Church of the North, but his service +crosses church lines both in this country and abroad. He was talking with +one of the bishops of that church whose heart was in the foreign mission +field. The bishop was eager to have this friend serve as missionary +secretary of his church. But he knew, as everybody knows, how difficult +appointments oftentimes are in all large bodies. He was earnestly +discussing the matter with my friend, and made this remark: "If you will +allow the use of your name for this appointment, _I will lay myself out_ +to have it made." Now if you will kindly not think there is any lack of +reverence in my saying so--and there is surely none in my thought--that is +the practical meaning of Jesus' words here. "If you abide in Me, and My +words sway you, you please ask what it is your will to ask. And--softly, +reverently now--I will lay Myself out to bring that thing to pass for +you." That is the force of His words here. + +This same chapter, sixteenth verse: "Ye did not choose Me, but I chose +you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your +fruit should abide; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, +He may give it you." God had our prayer partnership with Himself in His +mind in choosing us. And the last of these, John 16:23, 24, second clause, +"Verily, verily, I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father, +He will give it you in My name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: +ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled." + +These statements are the most sweeping to be found anywhere in the +Scriptures regarding prayer. There is no limitation as to who shall ask, +nor the kind of thing to be asked for. There are three limitations +imposed: the prayer is to be _through Jesus_; the person praying is to be +in fullest sympathy with Him; and this person is to have faith. + + + +<u>Words With a Freshly Honed Razor-Edge.</u> + + +Now please group these six sweeping statements in your mind and hold them +together there. Then notice carefully this fact. These words are not +spoken to the crowds. They are spoken to the small inner group of twelve +disciples. Jesus talks one way to the multitude. He oftentimes talks +differently to these men who have separated themselves from the crowd and +come into the inner circle. + +And notice further that before Jesus spoke these words to this group of +men He had said something else first. Something very radical; so radical +that it led to a sharp passage between Himself and Peter, to whom He +speaks very sternly. This something else fixes unmistakably their relation +to Himself. Remember that the sharp break with the national leaders has +come. Jesus is charged with Satanic collusion. The death plot is +determined upon. The breach with the leaders is past the healing point. +And now the Master is frequently slipping away from the crowd with these +twelve men, and seeking to teach and train them. That is the setting of +these great promises. It must be kept continually in mind. + +Before the Master gave Himself away to these men in these promises He said +this something else. It is this. I quote Matthew's account: "If any man +would come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross (daily, +Luke's addition) and follow Me[30]." _These words should be written +crosswise over those six prayer statements_. Jesus never spoke a keener +word. Those six promises are not meant for all. Let it be said very +plainly. They are meant only for those who will square their lives by +these razor-edged words. + +I may not go fully into the significance of these deep-cutting words here. +They have been gone into at some length in a previous set of talks as +suggesting the price of power. To him whose heart burns for power in +prayer I urge a careful review of that talk in this new setting of it. "If +any man would come after Me" means a rock-rooted purpose; the jaw locked; +the tendrils of the purpose going down around and under the gray granite +of a man's will, and tying themselves there; and knotting the ties; sailor +knots, that you cannot undo. + +"Come after Me" means all the power of Jesus' life, and has the other +side, too. It means the wilderness, the intense temptation. It may mean +the obscure village of Nazareth for you. It may mean that first Judean +year for you--lack of appreciation. It may mean for you that last six +months--the desertion of those hitherto friendly. It will mean without +doubt a Gethsemane. Everybody who comes along after Jesus has a Gethsemane +in his life. It will never mean as much to you as it meant to Him. That is +true. But, then, it will mean everything to you. And it will mean too +having a Calvary in your life in a very real sense, though different from +what that meant to Him. This sentence through gives the process whereby +the man with sin grained into the fibre of his will may come into such +relationship with God as to claim without any reservation these great +prayer promises. And if that sound hard and severe to you let me quickly +say that it is an easy way for the man who is _willing._ The presence of +Jesus in the life overlaps every cutting thing. + +If a man will go through Matthew 16:24, and habitually live there he may +ask what he wills to ask, and that thing will come to pass. The reason, +without question, why many people do not have power in prayer is simply +because they are unwilling--I am just talking very plainly--they are +unwilling to bare their breasts to the keen-edged knife in these words of +Jesus. And on the other side, if a man will quietly, resolutely follow the +Master's leading--nothing extreme--nothing fanatical, or morbid, just a +quiet going where that inner Voice plainly leads day by day, he will be +startled to find what an utterly new meaning prayer will come to have for +him. + + + +<u>The Controlling Purpose.</u> + + +Vital relationship is always expressed by purpose. The wise ambassador has +an absorbing purpose to further the interests of his government. Jesus +said, and it at once reveals His relationship to God, "I do always those +things that are well pleasing to him." + +The relationship that underlies prayer has an absorbing purpose. Its +controlling purpose is to please Jesus. That sentence may sound simple +enough. But, do you know, there is no sentence I might utter that has a +keener, a more freshly honed razor-edge to it than that. That the purpose +which _controls_ my action in every matter be this: to please Him. If you +have not done so, take it for a day, a week, and use it as a touch stone +regarding thought, word and action. Take it into matters personal, home, +business, social, fraternal. It does not mean to ask, "Is this right? is +this wrong?" Not that. Not the driving of a keen line between wrong and +right. There are a great many things that can be proven to be not wrong, +but that are not best, that are not His preference. + +It will send a business man running his eye along the shelves and counter +of his store. "The controlling purpose to please Jesus ... hm-m-m, I guess +maybe that stuff there ought to come out. Oh, it is not wrong: I can prove +that. My Christian brother-merchants handle it here, and over the country: +but _to please Him_: a good, clean sixty per cent, profit too, cash money, +but _to please Him_--" and the stuff must go down and out. + +It would set some woman to thinking about the next time the young people +are to gather in her home for a delightful social evening with her own +daughters. She will think about some forms of pastime that are found +everywhere. They are not wrong, that has been conclusively proven. But _to +please Him_. Hm-m. And these will go out. And then it will set her to +work with all her God-given woman-wit and exquisite tact to planning an +evening yet more delightful. It will make one think of his personal +habits, his business methods, and social intercourse, the organizations he +belongs to, with the quiet question cutting it razor-way into each. + +And if some one listening may ask: Why put the condition of prayer so +strongly as that? I will remind you of this. The true basis of prayer is +sympathy, oneness of purpose. Prayer is not extracting favours from a +reluctant God. It is not passing a check in a bank window for money. That +is mandatory. The roots of prayer lie down in oneness of purpose. God up +yonder, His Victor-Son by His side, and a man down here, in _such +sympathetic touch_ that God can think His thoughts over in this man's +mind, and have His desires repeated upon the earth as this man's prayer. + + + +<u>The Threefold Cord of Jesus' Life.</u> + + +Think for a moment into Jesus' human life down here. His marvellous +activities for those few years over which the world has never ceased to +wonder. Then His underneath hidden-away prayer-life of which only +occasional glimpses are gotten. Then grouping around about that sentence +of His--"I do always the things that are pleasing to Him"--in John's +gospel, pick out the emphatic negatives on Jesus' lips, the "not's": not +My will, not My works, not My words. Jesus came to do somebody's else +will. The controlling purpose of His life was to please His Father. That +was the secret of the power of His earthly career. Right relationship to +God; a secret intimate prayer-life: marvellous power over men and with +men--those are the strands in the threefold cord of His life. + +There is a very striking turn of a word in the second chapter of John's +gospel down almost at its close. The old version says that "Many believed +on His name beholding His signs which He did, but Jesus did not commit +Himself unto them" because He knew them so well. The word "believed," and +the word "commit" are the same word underneath our English. The sentence +might run "many _trusted_ Him beholding what He did; but He did not +_trust_ them for He knew them." I have no doubt most, or all of us here +to-day, trust Him. Let me ask you very softly now: Can He trust you? While +we might all shrink from saying "yes" to that, there is a very real sense +in which we may say "yes," namely, in the purpose of the life. Every life +is controlled by some purpose. What is yours? To please Him? If so He +knows it. It is a great comfort to remember that God judges a man not by +his achievements, but by his purposes: not by what I am, actually, but by +what I would be, in the yearning of my inmost heart, the dominant purpose +of my life. God will fairly flood your life with all the power He can +trust you to use wholly for Him. + +Commercial practice furnishes a simple but striking illustration here. A +man is employed by a business house as a clerk. His ability and honesty +come to be tested in many ways constantly. He is promoted gradually, his +responsibilities increased. As he proves himself thoroughly reliable he is +trusted more and more, until by and by as need arises he becomes the +firm's confidential clerk. He knows its secrets. He is trusted with the +combination to the inner box in the vault. Because it has been proven by +actual test that he will use everything only for the best interests of his +house, and not selfishly. + +Here, where we are dealing, the whole thing moves up to an infinitely +higher level, but the principle does not change. If I will come into the +relationship implied in these words:--it shall be the one controlling +desire and purpose of my life to do the things that please Him--then I may +ask for what I will, and it shall be done. That is how to pray: the how of +relationship. The man who will live in Matthew 16:24, and follow Jesus as +He leads: simply that: no fanaticism, no morbidism, no extremism, just +simply follow as He leads, day by day,--then those six promises of Jesus +with their wonderful sweep, their limitless sweep are his to use as he +will. + + + + +The "How" of Method + + + +<u>Touching the Hidden Keys.</u> + + +One of the most remarkable illustrations in recent times of the power of +prayer, may be found in the experience of Mr. Moody. It explains his +unparalleled career of world-wide soul winning. One marvels that more has +not been said of it. Its stimulus to faith is great. I suppose the man +most concerned did not speak of it much because of his fine modesty. The +last year of his life he referred to it more frequently as though impelled +to. + +The last time I heard Mr. Moody was in his own church in Chicago. It was, +I think, in the fall of the last year of his life. One morning in the old +church made famous by his early work, in a quiet conversational way he +told the story. It was back in the early seventies, when Chicago had been +laid in ashes. "This building was not yet up far enough to do much in," he +said; "so I thought I would slip across the water, and learn what I could +from preachers there, so as to do better work here. I had gone over to +London, and was running around after men there." Then he told of going +one evening to hear Mr. Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle; and +understanding that he was to speak a second time that evening to dedicate +a chapel, Mr. Moody had slipped out of the building and had run along the +street after Mr. Spurgeon's carriage a mile or so, so as to hear him the +second time. Then he smiled, and said quietly, "I was running around after +men like that." + +He had not been speaking anywhere, he said, but listening to others. One +day, Saturday, at noon, he had gone into the meeting in Exeter Hall on the +Strand; felt impelled to speak a little when the meeting was thrown open, +and did so. At the close among others who greeted him, one man, a +minister, asked him to come and preach for him the next day morning and +night, and he said he would. Mr. Moody said, "I went to the morning +service and found a large church full of people. And when the time came I +began to speak to them. But it seemed the hardest talking ever I did. +There was no response in their faces. They seemed as though carved out of +stone or ice. And I was having a hard time: and wished I wasn't there; and +wished I hadn't promised to speak again at night. But I had promised, and +so I went. + +"At night it was the same thing: house full, people outwardly respectful, +but no interest, no response. And I was having a hard time again. When +about half-way through my talk there came a change. It seemed as though +the windows of heaven had opened and a bit of breath blew down. The +atmosphere of the building seemed to change. The people's faces changed. +It impressed me so that when I finished speaking I gave the invitation for +those who wanted to be Christians to rise. I thought there might be a few. +And to my immense surprise the people got up in groups, pew-fulls. I +turned to the minister and said, 'What does this mean?' He said, 'I don't +know, I'm sure.' Well," Mr. Moody said, "they misunderstood me. I'll +explain what I meant." So he announced an after-meeting in the room below, +explaining who were invited: only those who wanted to be Christians; and +putting pretty clearly what he understood that to mean, and dismissed the +service. + +They went to the lower room. And the people came crowding, jamming in +below, filling all available space, seats, aisles and standing room. Mr. +Moody talked again a few minutes, and then asked those who would be +Christians to rise. This time he knew he had made his meaning clear. They +got up in clumps, in groups, by fifties! Mr. Moody said, "I turned and +said to the minister, 'What _does_ this mean?' He said, 'I'm sure I don't +know.'" Then the minister said to Mr. Moody, "What'll I do with these +people? I don't know what to do with them; this is something new." And he +said, "Well. I'd announce a meeting for to-morrow night, and Tuesday +night, and see what comes of it; I'm going across the channel to Dublin." +And he went, but he had barely stepped off the boat when a cablegram was +handed him from the minister saying, "Come back at once. Church packed." +So he went back, and stayed ten days. And the result of that ten days, as +I recall Mr. Moody's words, was that four hundred were added to that +church, and that every church near by felt the impulse of those ten days. +Then Mr. Moody dropped his head, as though thinking back, and said: "I had +no plans beyond this church. I supposed my life work was here. But the +result with me was that I was given a roving commission and have been +working under it ever since." + +Now what was the explanation of that marvellous Sunday and days following? +It was not Mr. Moody's doing, though he was a leader whom God could and +did mightily use. It was not the minister's doing; for he was as greatly +surprised as the leader. There was some secret hidden beneath the surface +of those ten days. With his usual keenness Mr. Moody set himself to ferret +it out. + +By and by this incident came to him. A member of the church, a woman, had +been taken sick some time before. Then she grew worse. Then the physician +told her that she would not recover. That is, she would not die at once, +so far as he could judge, but she would be shut in her home for years. +And she lay there trying to think what that meant: to be shut in for +years. And she thought of her life, and said, "How little I've done for +God: practically nothing: and now what can I do shut in here on my back." +And she said, "I can pray." + +May I put this word in here as a parenthesis in the story--that God +oftentimes allows us to be shut in--He does not shut us in--He does not +need to--simply take His hand off partly--there is enough disobedience to +His law of our bodies all the time to shut us aside--no trouble on that +side of the problem--_with pain to Himself_, against His own first will +for us, He allows us to be shut in, because only so _can_ He get our +attention from other things to what He wants done; get us to see things, +and think things His way. I am compelled to think it is so. + +She said, "I _will_ pray." And she was led to pray for her church. Her +sister, also a member of the church, lived with her, and was her link with +the outer world. Sundays, after church service, the sick woman would ask, +"Any special interest in church to-day?" "No," was the constant reply. +Wednesday nights, after prayer-meetings, "Any special interest in the +service to-night? there must have been." "No; nothing new; same old +deacons made the same old prayers." + +But one Sunday noon the sister came in from service and asked, "Who do you +think preached to-day?" "I don't know, who?" "Why, a stranger from +America, a man called Moody, I think was the name." And the sick woman's +face turned a bit whiter, and her eye looked half scared, and her lip +trembled a bit, and she quietly said: "I know what that means. There's +something coming to the old church. Don't bring me any dinner. I must +spend this afternoon in prayer." And so she did. And that night in the +service that startling change came. + +Then to Mr. Moody himself, as he sought her out in her sick room, she told +how nearly two years before there came into her hands a copy of a paper +published in Chicago called the _Watchman_ that contained a talk by Mr. +Moody in one of the Chicago meetings, Farwell Hall meetings, I think. All +she knew was that talk that made her heart burn, and there was the name +M-o-o-d-y. And she was led to pray that God would send that man into their +church in London. As simple a prayer as that. + +And the months went by, and a year, and over; still she prayed. Nobody +knew of it but herself and God. No change seemed to come. Still she +prayed. And of course her prayer wrought its purpose. Every +Spirit-suggested prayer does. And that is the touchstone of true prayer. +And the Spirit of God moved that man of God over to the seaboard, and +across the water and into London, and into their church. Then a bit of +special siege-prayer, a sort of last charge up the steep hill, and that +night the victory came. + +Do you not believe--I believe without a doubt, that some day when the +night is gone and the morning light comes up, and we know as we are known, +that we shall find that the largest single factor, in that ten days' work, +and in the changing of tens of thousands of lives under Moody's leadership +is that woman in her praying. Not the only factor, mind you. Moody a man +of rare leadership, and consecration, and hundreds of faithful ministers +and others rallying to his support. But behind and beneath Moody and the +others, and to be reckoned with as first this woman's praying. + +Yet I do not know her name. I know Mr. Moody's name. I could name scores +of faithful men associated with him in his campaigns, but the name of this +one in whom humanly is the secret of it all I do not know. Ah! It is a +secret service. We do not know who the great ones are. They tell me she is +living yet in the north end of London, and still praying. Shall we pray! +Shall we not pray! If something else must slip out, something important, +shall we not see to it that intercession has first place! + + + +<u>Making God's Purpose Our Prayer.</u> + + +With that thought in mind let me this evening suggest a bit of how to +pray. As simple a subject as that: how to pray: the how of method. + +The first thing in prayer is to find God's purpose, the trend, the swing +of it; the second thing to make that purpose our prayer. We want to find +out what God is thinking, and then to claim that that shall be done. God +is seated up yonder on the throne. Jesus Christ is sitting by His side +glorified. Everywhere in the universe God's will is being done except in +this corner, called the earth, and its atmosphere, and that bit of the +heavens above it where Satan's headquarters are. + +It has been done down here by one person--Jesus. He came here to this +prodigal planet and did God's will perfectly. He went away. And He has +sought and seeks to have men down upon the earth so fully in touch with +Himself that He may do in them and through them just what He will. That He +may reproduce Himself in these men, and have God's will done again down on +the earth. Now prayer is this: finding out God's purpose for our lives, +and for the earth and insisting that that shall be done here. The great +thing then is to find out and insist upon God's will. And the "how" of +method in prayer is concerned with that. + +Many a time I have met with a group of persons for prayer. Various special +matters for prayer are brought up. Here is this man, needing prayer, and +this particular matter, and this one, and this. Then we kneel and pray. +And I have many a time thought--not critically in a bad sense--as I have +listened to their prayers, as though this is the prayer I must +offer:--"Blessed Holy Spirit, Thou knowest this man, and what the lacking +thing is in him. There is trouble there. Thou knowest this sick woman, and +what the difficulty is there. This problem, and what the hindrance is in +it. Blessed Spirit, pray in me the prayer Thou art praying for this man, +and this thing, and this one. The prayer Thou art praying, I pray that, in +Jesus' name. Thy will be done here under these circumstances." + +Sometimes I feel clear as to the particular prayer to offer, but many a +time I am puzzled to know. I put this fact with this, but I may not know +_all_ the facts. I know this man who evidently needs praying for, a +Christian man perhaps, his mental characteristics, his conceptions of +things, the kind of a will he has, but there may be some fact in there +that I do not know, that seriously affects the whole difficulty. And I am +compelled to fall back on this: I don't know how to pray as I ought. But +the Spirit within me will make intercession for this man as I allow Him to +have free swing in me as the medium of His prayer. And He who is listening +above as He hears His will for this man being repeated down on the +battle-field will recognize His own purpose, of course. And so that thing +will be working out because of Jesus' victory over the evil one. + +But I may become so sensitive to the Spirit's thoughts and presence, that +I shall know more keenly and quickly what to pray for. In so far as I do +I become a more skillful partner of His on the earth in getting God's will +done. + + + +<u>The Trysting Place.</u> + + +There are six suggestions here on how to pray. First--we need _time_ for +prayer, unhurried time, daily time, time enough to forget about how much +time it is. I do not mean now: rising in the morning at the very last +moment, and dressing, it may be hurriedly, and then kneeling a few moments +so as to feel easier in mind: not that. I do not mean the last thing at +night when you are jaded and fagged, and almost between the sheets, and +then remember and look up a verse and kneel a few moments: not that. That +is good so far as it goes. I am not criticising that. Better sweeten and +sandwich the day with all of that sort you can get in. But just now I mean +this: _taking time_ when the mind is fresh and keen, and the spirit +sensitive, to thoughtfully pray. We haven't time. Life is so crowded. It +must be taken from something else, something important, but still less +important than this. + +Sacrifice is the continual law of life. The important thing must be +sacrificed to the more important. One needs to cultivate a mature +judgment, or his strength will be frizzled away in the less important +details, and the greater thing go undone, or be done poorly with the +fag-ends of strength. If we would become skilled intercessors, and know +how to pray simply enough, we must take quiet time daily to get off alone. + +The second suggestion: we need a _place_ for prayer. Oh! you can pray +anywhere, on the street, in the store, travelling, measuring dry goods, +hands in dishwater,--where not. But you are not likely to unless you have +been off in some quiet place shut in alone with God. The Master said: +"Enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door": that door is +important. It shuts out, and it shuts in. "Pray to thy Father who is in +secret." God is here in this shut-in spot. One must get alone to find out +that he never is alone. The more alone we are as far as men are concerned +the least alone we are so far a; God is concerned. + +The quiet place and time are needful to train the ears for keen hearing. A +mother will hear the faintest cry of her babe just awaking. It is +up-stairs perhaps; the tiniest bit of a sound comes; nobody else hears; +but quick as a flash the mother's hands are held quiet, the head alert, +then she is off. Her ears are trained beyond anybody's else; love's +training. We need trained ears. A quiet place shuts out the outer sounds, +and gives the inner ear a chance to learn other sounds. + +A man was standing in a telephone booth trying to talk, but could not make +out the message. He kept saying, "I can't hear, I can't hear." The other +man by and by said sharply, "If you'll shut that door you can hear." _His_ +door was shut and he could hear not only the man's voice but the street +and store noises too. Some folks have gotten their hearing badly confused +because their doors have not been shut enough. Man's voice and God's voice +get mixed in their ears. They cannot tell between them. The bother is +partly with the door. If you'll shut that door you can hear. + +The third suggestion needs much emphasis to-day: _give the Book of God its +place in prayer._ Prayer is not talking to God--simply. It is listening +first, then talking. Prayer needs three organs of the head, an ear, a +tongue and an eye. First an ear to hear what God says, then a tongue to +speak, then an eye to look out for the result. Bible study is the +listening side of prayer. The purpose of God comes in through the ear, +passes through the heart taking on the tinge of your personality, and goes +out at the tongue as prayer. It is pathetic what a time God has getting a +hearing down here. He is ever speaking but even where there may be some +inclination to hear the sounds of earth are choking in our ears the sound +of His voice. God speaks in His Word. The most we know of God comes to us +here. This Book is God in print. It was inspired, and it _is_ inspired. +God Himself speaks in this Book. That puts it in a list by itself, quite +apart from all others. Studying it keenly, intelligently, reverently will +reveal God's great will. What He says will utterly change what you will +say. + + + +<u>Our Prayer Teacher.</u> + + +The fourth suggestion is this: _Let the Spirit teach you how to pray_. The +more you pray the more you will find yourself saying to yourself, "I don't +know how to pray." Well God understands that. Paul knew that out of his +own experience before he wrote it down. And God has a plan to cover our +need there. There is One who is a master intercessor. He understands +praying perfectly. He is the Spirit of prayer. God has sent Him down to +live inside you and me, partly for this, to teach us the fine art of +prayer. The suggestion is this: let Him teach you. + +When you go alone in the quiet time and place with the Book quietly pray: +"blessed Prayer-Spirit, Master-Spirit, teach me how to pray," and He will. +Do not be nervous, or agitated, wondering if you will understand. Study to +be quiet; mind quiet, body quiet. Be still and listen. Remember Luther's +version of David's words,[31] "Be silent to God, and let Him mould thee." + +You will find your praying changing. You will talk more simply, like a man +transacting business or a child asking, though of course with a reverence +and a deepness of feeling not in those things. You will quit asking for +some things. Some of the old forms of prayer will drop from your lips +likely enough. You will use fewer words, maybe, but they will be spoken +with a quiet absolute faith that this thing you are asking is being worked +out. + +This thing of _letting the Spirit teach_ must come first in one's praying, +and remain to the last, and continue all along as the leading dominant +factor. He is a Spirit of prayer peculiarly. The highest law of the +Christian life is obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. There needs +to be a cultivated judgment in reading His leading, and not mistaking our +haphazard thoughts as His voice. He should be allowed to teach us how to +pray and more, to dominate our praying. The whole range and intensity of +the spirit conflict is under His eye. He is God's General on the field of +action. There come crises in the battle when the turn of the tide wavers. +He knows when a bit of special praying is needed to turn the tide and +bring victory. So there needs to be special seasons of persistent prayer, +a continuing until victory is assured. Obey His promptings. Sometimes +there comes an impulse to pray, or to ask another to pray. And we think, +"Why, I have just been praying," _or_, "he does pray about this anyway. It +is not necessary to pray again. I do not just like to suggest it." Better +obey the impulse quietly, with fewest words of explanation to the other +one concerned, or no words beyond simply the request. + +Let Him, this wondrous Holy Spirit teach you how to pray. It will take +time. You may be a bit set in your way, but if you will just yield and +patiently wait, He will teach what to pray, suggest definite things, and +often the very language of prayer. + +You will notice that the chief purpose of these four suggestions is to +learn God's will. The quiet place, the quiet time, the Book, the +Spirit--this is the schoolroom as Andrew Murray would finely put it. Here +we learn His will. Learning that makes one eager to have it done, and +breathes anew the longing prayer that it may be done. + +There is a fine word much used in the Psalms, and in Isaiah for this sort +of thing--_waiting_. Over and over again that is the word used for that +contact with God which reveals to us His will, and imparts to us anew His +desires. It is a word full of richest and deepest meaning. Waiting is not +an occasional nor a hurried thing. It means _steadfastness_, that is +holding on; _patience_, that is holding back; _expectancy_, that is +holding the face up to see; _obedience_, that is holding one's self in +readiness to go or do; it means _listening_, that is holding quiet and +still so as to hear. + + + +<u>The Power of a Name.</u> + + +The fifth suggestion has already been referred to, but should be repeated +here. Prayer must be _in Jesus' name_. The relationship of prayer is +through Jesus. And the prayer itself must be offered in His name, because +the whole strength of the case lies in Jesus. I recall distinctly a +certain section of this country where I was for awhile, and very rarely +did I hear Jesus' name used in prayer. I heard men, that I knew must be +good men, praying in church, in prayer-meeting and elsewhere with no +mention of Jesus. Let us distinctly bear in mind that we have no standing +with God except through Jesus. + +If the keenest lawyer of London, who knew more of American law, and of +Illinois statute and of Chicago ordinance--suppose such a case--were to +come here, could he plead a case in your court-house? you know he could +not. He would have no legal standing here. Now you and I have no standing +at yonder bar. We are disbarred through sin. Only as we come through one +who has recognized standing there can we come. + +But turn that fact around. As we do come in Jesus' name, it is the same as +though Jesus prayed. It is the same as though--let me be saying it very +softly so it may seem very reverent--as though Jesus put His arm in yours +and took you up to the Father, and said, "Father, here is a friend of +mine; we're on good terms. Please give him anything he asks, for My sake." +And the Father would quickly bend over and graciously say, "What'll you +have? You may have anything you ask when My Son asks for it." That is the +practical effect of asking in Jesus' name. + +But I am very, very clear of this, and I keep swinging back to it that in +the ultimate analysis the force of using Jesus' name is that He is the +victor over the traitor prince. Prayer is repeating the Victor's name into +the ears of Satan and insisting upon his retreat. As one prays +persistently in Jesus' name, the evil one must go. Reluctantly, angrily, +he must loosen his clutches, and go back. + + + +<u>The Birthplace of Faith.</u> + + +The sixth suggestion is a familiar one, and yet one much misunderstood. +Prayer must be _in faith_. But please note that faith here is not +believing that God _can_, but that He _will_. It is kneeling and making +the prayer, and then saying, "Father, I thank Thee for this; that it will +be so, I thank Thee." Then rising and going about your duties, saying, +"that thing is settled." Going again and again, and repeating the prayer +with the thanks, and then saying as you go off, "that matter is assured." +Not going repeatedly to persuade God. But because prayer is the deciding +factor in a spirit conflict and each prayer is like a fresh blow between +the eyes of the enemy, a fresh broadside from your fleet upon the fort. + +"Well," some one will say, "now you are getting that keyed up rather high. +Can we all have faith like that? Can a man _make_ himself believe?" There +should be no unnatural mechanical insisting that you do believe. Some +earnest people make a mistake there. And we will not all have faith like +that. That is quite true, and I can easily tell you why. The faith that +believes that God _will_ do what you ask is not born in a hurry; it is not +born in the dust of the street, and the noise of the crowd. But I can tell +where that faith will have a birthplace and keep growing stronger: in +every heart that takes quiet time off habitually with God, and listens to +His voice in His word. Into that heart will come a simple strong faith +that the thing it is led to ask shall be accomplished. + +That faith has four simple characteristics. It is _intelligent_. It finds +out what God's will is. Faith is never contrary to reason. Sometimes it is +a bit higher up; the reasoning process has not yet reached up to it. +Second, it is _obedient_. It fits its life into God's will. There is apt +to be a stiff rub here all the time. Then it is _expectant_. It looks out +for the result. It bows down upon the earth, but sends a man to keep an +eye on the sea. And then it is _persistent_. It hangs on. It says, "Go +again seven times; seventy times seven." It reasons that having learned +God's will, and knowing that He does not change, the delay must be caused +by the third person, the enemy, and that stubborn persistence in the +Victor's name routs him, and leaves a clear field. + + + + +The Listening Side of Prayer + + + +<u>A Trained Ear.</u> + + +In prayer the ear is an organ of first importance. It is of equal +importance with the tongue, but must be named first. For the ear leads the +way to the tongue. The child hears a word before it speaks it. Through the +ear comes the use of the tongue. Where the faculties are normal the tongue +is trained only through the ear. This is nature's method. The mind is +moulded largely through the ear and eye. It reveals itself, and asserts +itself largely through the tongue. What the ear lets in, the mind works +over, and the tongue gives out. + +This is the order in Isaiah's fiftieth chapter[32] in those words, +prophetic of Jesus. "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that +are taught.... He wakeneth my ear to hear as they that are taught." Here +the taught tongue came through the awakened ear. One reason why so many of +us do not have taught tongues is because we give God so little chance at +our ears. + +It is a striking fact that the men who have been mightiest in prayer have +known God well. They have seemed peculiarly sensitive to Him, and to be +overawed with the sense of His love and His greatness. There are three of +the Old Testament characters who are particularly mentioned as being +mighty in prayer. Jeremiah tells that when God spoke to him about the deep +perversity of that nation He exclaimed, "Though Moses and Samuel stood +before Me My heart could not be towards this people."[33] When James wants +an illustration of a man of prayer for the scattered Jews, he speaks of +Elijah, and of one particular crisis in his life, the praying on Carmel's +tip-top. These three men are Israel's great men in the great crises of its +history. Moses was the maker and moulder of the nation. Samuel was the +patient teacher who introduced a new order of things in the national life. +Elijah was the rugged leader when the national worship of Jehovah was +about to be officially overthrown. These three men, the maker, the +teacher, the emergency leader are singled out in the record as peculiarly +men of prayer. + +Now regarding these men it is most interesting to observe what _listeners_ +they were to God's voice. Their ears were trained early and trained long, +until great acuteness and sensitiveness to God's voice was the result. +Special pains seem to have been taken with the first man, the nation's +greatest giant, and history's greatest jurist. There were two distinct +stages in the training of his ears. First there were the forty years of +solitude in the desert sands, alone with the sheep, and the stars, +and--God. His ears were being trained by silence. The bustle and confusion +of Egypt's busy life were being taken out of his ears. How silent are +God's voices. How few men are strong enough to be able to endure silence. +For in silence God is speaking to the inner ear. + + "Let us then labour for an inward stillness-- + An inward stillness and an inward healing; + That perfect silence where the lips and heart + Are still, and we no longer entertain + Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions, + But God alone speaks in us, and we wait + In singleness of heart, that we may know + His will, and in the silence of our spirits, + That we may do His will, and do that only."[34] + +A gentleman was asked by an artist friend of some note to come to his +home, and see a painting just finished. He went at the time appointed, was +shown by the attendant into a room which was quite dark, and left there. +He was much surprised, but quietly waited developments. After perhaps +fifteen minutes his friend came into the room with a cordial greeting, and +took him up to the studio to see the painting, which was greatly admired. +Before he left the artist said laughingly, "I suppose you thought it queer +to be left in that dark room so long." "Yes," the visitor said. "I did." +"Well," his friend replied, "I knew that if you came into my studio with +the glare of the street in your eyes you could not appreciate the fine +colouring of the picture. So I left you in the dark room till the glare +had worn out of your eyes." + +The first stage of Moses' prayer-training was wearing the noise of Egypt +out of his ears so he could hear the quiet fine tones of God's voice. He +who would become skilled in prayer must take a silence course in the +University of Arabia. Then came the second stage. Forty years were +followed by forty days, twice over, of listening to God's speaking voice +up in the mount. Such an ear-course as that made a skilled famous +intercessor. + +Samuel had an earlier course than Moses. While yet a child before his ears +had been dulled by earth sounds they were tuned to the hearing of God's +voice. The child heart and ear naturally open upward. They hear easily and +believe readily. The roadway of the ear has not been beaten down hard by +much travel. God's rains and dews have made it soft, and impressionable. +This child's ear was quickly trained to recognize God's voice. And the +tented Hebrew nation soon came to know that there was a man in their midst +to whom God was talking. O, to keep the heart and inner ear of a child as +mature years come! + +Of the third of these famous intercessors little is known except of the +few striking events in which he figured. Of these, the scene that finds +its climax in the opening on Carmel's top of the rain-windows, occupies by +far the greater space. And it is notable that the beginning of that long +eighteenth chapter of first Kings which tells of the Carmel conflict +begins with a message to Elijah from God: "The word of the Lord came to +Elijah: ... I will send rain upon the earth." That was the foundation of +that persistent praying and sevenfold watching on the mountaintop. First +the ear heard, then the voice persistently claimed, and the eye +expectantly looked. First the voice of God, then the voice of man. That is +the true order. Tremendous results always follow that combination. + + + +<u>Through the Book to God.</u> + + +With us the training is of the _inner_ ear. And its first training, after +the early childhood stage is passed, must usually be through the eye. What +God has spoken to others has been written down for us. We hear through our +eyes. The eye opens the way to the inner ear. God spoke in His word. He is +still speaking in it and through it. The whole thought here is to get _to +know God._ He reveals Himself in the word that comes from His own lips, +and through His messengers' lips. He reveals Himself in His dealings with +men. Every incident and experience of these pages is a mirror held up to +God's face. In them we may come to see Him. + +This is studying the Bible not for the Bible's sake but for the purpose of +knowing God. The object aimed at is not the Book but the God revealed in +the Book. A man may go to college and take lectures on the English Bible, +and increase his knowledge, and enrich his vocabulary, and go away with +utterly erroneous ideas of God. He may go to a law school and study the +codes of the first great jurist, and get a clear understanding and firm +grasp of the Mosaic enactments, as he must do to lay the foundation of +legal training, yet he may remain ignorant of God. + +He may even go to a Bible school, and be able to analyze and synthesize, +give outlines of books, and contents of chapters and much else of that +invaluable and indispensable sort of knowledge and yet fail to understand +God and His marvellous love-will. It is not the Book with which we are +concerned here but the God through the Book. Not to learn truth but +through truth to know Him who is Himself the Truth. + +There is a fascinating bit of story told of one of David's mighty men.[35] +One day there was a sudden attack upon the camp by the Philistines when +the fighting men were all away. This man alone was there. The Philistines +were the traditional enemy. The very word "Philistines" was one to strike +terror to the Hebrew heart. But this man was reckoned one of the first +three of David's mighty men because of his conduct that day. He quietly, +quickly gripped his sword and fought the enemy single-handed. Up and down, +left and right, hip and thigh he smote with such terrific earnestness and +drive that the enemy turned and fled. And we are told that the muscles of +his hand became so rigid around the handle of his sword that he could not +tell by the feeling where his hand stopped, and the sword began. Man and +sword were one that day in the action of service against the nation's +enemy. When we so absorb this Book, and the Spirit of Him who is its life +that people cannot tell the line of division between the man, and the God +within the man, then shall we have mightiest power as God's intercessors +in defeating the foe. God and man will be as one in the action of service +against the enemy. + + + +<u>A Spirit Illumined Mind.</u> + + +I want to make some simple suggestions for studying this Book so as to get +to God through it. There will be the emphasis of doubling back on one's +tracks here. For some of the things that should be said have already been +said with a different setting. First there must be the _time_ element. +One must get at least a half hour daily when the mind is fresh. A tired +mind does not readily _absorb_. This should be persisted in until there is +a habitual spending of at least that much time daily over the Book, with a +spirit at leisure from all else, so it can take in. Then the time should +be given to _the Book itself_. If other books are consulted and read as +they will be let that be _after_ the reading of this Book. Let God talk to +you direct, rather than through somebody else. Give Him first chance at +your ears. This Book in the central place of your table, the others +grouped about it. First time given to it. + +A third suggestion brings out the circle of this work. _Read prayerfully._ +We learn how to pray by reading prayerfully. This Book does not reveal its +sweets and strength to the keen mind merely, but to the Spirit enlightened +mind. All the mental keenness possible, _with the bright light of the +Spirit's illumination_--that is the open sesame. I have sometimes sought +the meaning of some passage from a keen scholar who could explain the +orientalisms, the fine philological distinctions, the most accurate +translations, and all of that, who yet did not seem to know the simple +spiritual meaning of the words being discussed. And I have asked the same +question of some old saint of God, who did not know Hebrew from a hen's +tracks, but who seemed to sense at once the deep spiritual truth taught. +The more knowledge, the keener the mind, the better _if_ illumined by the +Spirit that inspired these writings. + +There is a fourth word to put in here. We must read _thoughtfully_. +Thoughtfulness is in danger of being a lost art. Newspapers are so +numerous, and literature so abundant, that we are becoming a bright, but a +_not thoughtful_ people. Often the stream is very wide but has no depth. +Fight shallowness. Insist on reading thoughtfully. A very suggestive word +in the Bible for this is "_meditate_." Run through and pick out this word +with its variations. The word underneath that English word means to +mutter, as though a man were repeating something over and over again, as +he turned it over in his mind. We have another word, with the same +meaning, not much used now--ruminate. We call the cow a ruminant because +she chews the cud. She will spend hours chewing the cud, and then give us +the rich milk and cream and butter which she has extracted from her food. +That is the word here--ruminate. Chew the cud, if you would get the +richest cream and butter here. + +And it is remarkable how much chewing this Book of God will stand, in +comparison with other books. You chew a while on Tennyson, or Browning, or +Longfellow. And I am not belittling these noble writings. I have my own +favourite among these men. But they do not yield the richest and yet +richer cream found here. This Book of God has stood more of that sort of +thing than any other, yet it is the freshest book to be found to-day. You +read a passage over the two hundredth time and some new fine bit of +meaning comes that you had not suspected to be there. + +There is a fifth suggestion, that is easier to make than to follow. _Read +obediently._ As the truth appeals to your conscience _let it change your +habit and life_. + + "Light obeyed, increased light: + Light resisted, bringeth night + Who shall give us power to choose + If the love of light we lose?"[36] + +Jesus gives the law of knowledge in His famous words, "If any man willeth +to do His will he shall know of the teaching."[37] If we do what we know +to do, we will know more. If we know to do, and hesitate and hold back, +and do not obey, the inner eye will surely go blind, and the sense of +right be dulled and lost. Obedience to truth is the eye of the mind. + + + +<u>Wide Reading.</u> + + +Then one needs to have a _plan_ of reading. A consecutive plan gathers up +the fragments of time into a strong whole. Get a good plan, and stick to +it. Better a fairly good plan faithfully followed, than the best plan if +used brokenly or only occasionally. Probably all the numerous methods of +study may be grouped under three general heads, wide reading, topical +study, and textual. We all do some textual study in a more or less small +way. Digging into a sentence or verse to get at its true and deep meaning. +We all do some topical study probably. Gathering up statements on some one +subject, studying a character. The more pretentious name is Biblical +Theology, finding and arranging all that is taught in the whole range of +the Bible on any one theme. + +But I want especially to urge _wide reading_, as being the basis of all +study. It is the simple, the natural, the scientific method. It is adapted +to all classes of persons. I used to suppose it was suited best to college +students, and such; but I was mistaken. It is _the_ method of all for all. +It underlies all methods of getting a grasp of this wonderful Book, and so +coming to as full and rounded an understanding of God as is possible to +men down here. + +By wide reading is meant a _rapid reading through_ regardless of verse, +chapter, or book divisions. Reading it as _a narrative_, a story. As you +would read any book, "The Siege of Pekin," "The Story of an Untold Love," +to find out the story told, and be able to tell to another. There will be +a reverence of spirit with this book that no other inspires, but with the +same intellectual method of running through to see what is here. No book +is so fascinating as the Bible when read this way. The revised version is +greatly to be preferred here simply because it is a _paragraph_ version. +It is printed more like other books. Some day its printed form will be yet +more modernized, and so made easier to read. + +To illustrate, begin at the first of Genesis, and read rapidly through _by +the page_. Do not try to understand all. You will not. Never mind that +now. Just push on. Do not try to remember all. Do not think about that. +Let stick to you what will. You will be surprised to find how much will. +You may read ten or twelve pages in your first half hour. Next time start +in where you left off. You may get through Genesis in three or four times, +or less or more, depending on your mood, and how fast your habit of +reading may be. You will find a whole Bible in Genesis. A wonderfully +fascinating book this Genesis. For love stories, plotting, swift action, +beautiful language it more than matches the popular novel. + +But do not stop at the close of Genesis. Push on into Exodus. The +connection is immediate. It is the same book. And so on into Leviticus. +Now do not try to understand Leviticus the first time. You will not the +hundredth time perhaps. But you can easily group its contents: these +chapters tell of the offerings: these of the law of offerings: here is an +incident put in: here sanitary regulations: get the drift of the book. And +in it all be getting the picture of God--_that is the one point_. And so +on through. + +A second stage of this wide reading is fitting together the parts. You +know the arrangement of our Bible is not chronological wholly, but +topical. The Western mind is almost a slave to chronological order. But +the Oriental was not so disturbed. For example, open your Bible to the +close of Esther, and again at the close of Malachi. This from Genesis to +Esther we all know is the historical section: and this second section the +poetical and prophetical section. There is some history in the prophecy, +and some prophecy and poetry in the historical part. But in the main this +first is historical, and this second poetry and prophecy. These two parts +belong together. This first section was not written, and then this second. +The second belongs in between the leaves of the first. It was taken out +and put by itself because the arrangement of the whole Book is topical +rather than chronological. + +Now the second stage of wide reading is this: fit these parts together. +Fit the poetry and the prophecy into the history. Do it on your own +account, as though it had never been done. It has been done much better +than you will do it. And you will make some mistakes. You can check those +up afterwards by some of the scholarly books. And you cannot tell where +some parts belong. But meanwhile the thing to note is this: you are +absorbing the Book. It is becoming a part of you, bone of your bone, and +flesh of your flesh, mentally, and spiritually. You are drinking in its +spirit in huge draughts. There is coming a new vision of God, which will +transform radically the reverent student. In it all seek to acquire _the +historical sense_. That is, put yourself back and see what this thing, or +this, meant to these men, as it was first spoken, under these immediate +circumstances. + +And so push on into the New Testament. Do not try so much to fit the four +gospels into one connected story, dovetailing all the parts; but try +rather to get a clear grasp of Jesus' movements those few years as told by +these four men. Fit Paul's letters into the book of Acts, the best you +can. The best book to help in checking up here is Conybeare and Howson's +"Life and Letters of St. Paul." That may well be one of the books in your +collection. + +You see at once that this is a method not for a month, nor for a year, but +for years. The topical and textual study grow naturally out of it. And +meanwhile you are getting an intelligent grasp of this wondrous classic, +you are absorbing the finest literature in the English tongue, and +infinitely better yet, you are breathing into your very being a new, deep, +broad, tender conception of _God_. + + + +<u>A Mirror Held up to God's Face.</u> + + +It is simply fascinating too, to find what light floods these pages as +they are read back in their historical setting, so far as that is +possible. For example turn to the third Psalm, fifth verse, + + "I laid me down and slept; + I awaked; for the Lord sustaineth me." + +I was brought up in an old-fashioned church where that was sung. I knew it +by heart. As a boy I supposed it meant that night-time had come, and David +was sleepy; he had his devotions, and went to bed, and had a good night's +sleep. That was all it had suggested to me. + +But on my first swing through of the wide reading, my eye was caught, as +doubtless yours has often been, by the inscription at the beginning of the +psalm: "A psalm of David, _when he fled from Absalom his son_." Quickly I +turned back to Second Samuel to find that story. And I got this picture. +David, an old white-haired man, hurrying one day, barefooted, out of his +palace, and his capital city, with a few faithful friends, fleeing for his +life, because Absalom his favourite son was coming with the strength of +the national army to take the kingdom, and his own father's life. And that +night as the king lay down to try to catch some sleep, it was upon the +bare earth, with only heaven's blue dome for a roof. And as he lay he +could almost hear the steady tramp, tramp of the army, over the hills, +seeking his throne and his life. Let me ask you, honestly now; do you +think you would have slept much that night? I fear I would have been +tempted sorely to lie awake thinking: "here I am, an old man, driven from +my kingdom, and my home, by my own boy, that I have loved better than my +own life." Do you think _you_ would have slept much? Tell me. + +But David speaking of that night afterwards wrote this down:--"I laid me +down, and _slept; I awaked_; (the thought is, I awaked _refreshed_) for +the Lord sustaineth me." And I thought, as first that came to me, "I never +will have insomnia again: I'll trust." And so you see a lesson of trust in +God came, in my wide reading, out of the historical setting, that greatly +refreshed and strengthened, and that I have never forgotten. What a God, +to give sleep under such circumstances! + +A fine illustration of this same thing is found in the New Testament in +Paul's letter to the Philippians. At one end of that epistle is this +scene: Paul, lying in the inner damp cell of a prison, its small creeping +denizens familiarly examining this newcomer, in the darkness of midnight, +his back bleeding from the stripes, his bones aching, and his feet fast in +the stocks. That is one half of the historical setting of this book. And +here is the other half: Paul, a prisoner in Rome. If he tries to ease his +body by changing his position, swinging one limb over the other, a chain +dangling at his ankle reminds him of the soldier by his side. As he picks +up a quill to put a last loving word out of his tender heart for these old +friends, a chain pulls at his wrist. That is Philippians, the prison +epistle, resounding with clanking chain. + +What is the keyword of the book, occurring oftener than any other? +Patience? Surely that would be appropriate. Long-suffering? Still more +fitting would that seem. But, no, the keyword stands in sharpest contrast +to these surroundings. Paul used clouds to make the sun's shining more +beautiful. Joy, rejoice, rejoicing, is the music singing all the way +through these four chapters. What a wondrous Master, this Jesus, so to +inspire His friend doing His will! + +Every incident and occurrence of these pages becomes a mirror held up to +God's face that we may see how wondrous He is. + + "Upon Thy Word I rest + Each pilgrim day. + This golden staff is best + For all the way. + What Jesus Christ hath spoken, + Cannot be broken! + + "Upon Thy Word I rest; + So strong, so sure, + So full of comfort blest, + So sweet, so pure: + The charter of salvation: + Faith's broad foundation. + + "Upon Thy Word I stand: + That cannot die. + Christ seals it in my hand. + He cannot lie. + Thy Word that faileth never: + Abiding ever."[38] + + + + +Something about God's Will in Connection With Prayer + + + +<u>He Came to His Own.</u> + + +The purpose of prayer is to get God's will done. What a stranger God is in +His own world! Nobody is so much slandered as He. He comes to His own, and +they keep Him standing outside the door, like a pilgrim of the night, +staff in hand, while they peer suspiciously at Him through the crack of +the hinges. + +Some of us shrink back from making a full surrender of life to God. And if +the real reason were known it would be found to be that we are _afraid_ of +God. We fear He will put something bitter in the cup, or some rough thing +in the road. And without doubt the reason we are afraid of God is because +we do not _know_ God. The great prayer of Jesus' heart that night with the +eleven was, "that they may _know_ Thee the only true God, and Jesus +Christ whom Thou didst send." + +To understand God's will we must understand something of His character, +Himself. There are five common every-day words I want to bring you to +suggest something of who God is. They are familiar words, in constant use. +The first is the word _father_. "Father" stands for strength, loving +strength. A father plans, and provides for, and protects his loved ones. +All fathers are not good. How man can extract the meaning out of a fine +word, and use the word without its meaning. If you will think of the +finest father ever you knew that anybody ever had; think of him now. Then +remember this, God is a father, only He is so much finer a father than the +finest father you ever knew of. And His will for your _life_--I am not +talking about heaven, and our souls just now, that is in it too--His will +for your life down here these days is a father's will for the one most +dearly loved. + +The second word is a finer word. Because woman is finer than man, and was +made, and meant to be, this second word is finer than the first. I mean +the word _mother_. If father stands for strength, mother stands for +love,--great, patient, tender, fine-fibred, enduring love. What would she +not do for her loved one! Why, not unlikely she went down into the valley +of the shadow that that life might come; and did it gladly with the +love-light shining out of her eyes. Yes, and would do it again, that the +life may remain if need be. That is a mother. You think of the finest +mother ever you knew. And the suggestion brings the most hallowed memories +to my own heart. Then remember this: God is a mother, only He is so much +finer a mother than the finest mother you ever knew. + +The references in scripture to God as a mother are numerous. "Under His +wings" is a mother figure. The mother-bird gathers her brood up under her +wings to feel the heat of her body, and for protection. The word mother is +not used for God in the Bible. I think it is because with God "father" +includes "mother." It takes more of the human to tell the story than of +the divine. With God, all the strength of the father and all the fine love +of the mother are combined in that word "father." And His will for us is a +mother's will, a wise loving mother's will for the darling of her heart. + +The third word is _friend_. I do not mean to use it in the cheaper +meaning. There is a certain kindliness of speech in which all +acquaintances are called friends. Tupper says, we call all men friends who +are not known to be enemies. But I mean to use the word in its finer +meaning. Here, a friend is one who loves you for your sake only and +steadfastly loves without regard to any return, even a return-love. The +English have a saying that you may fill a church with your acquaintances, +and not fill the pulpit seats with your friends. If you may have in your +life one or two real friends you are very wealthy. If you will think for a +moment of the very best friend you ever knew anybody to have. Then +remember this: God is a friend. Only He is ever so much better a friend +than the best friend you ever knew of. And the plan He has thought out for +your life is such a one as that word would suggest. + +The fourth word, I almost hesitate to use, yet I am sure I need not here. +The hesitancy is because the word and its relationship are spoken of +lightly, frivolously, so much, even in good circles. I mean that rare fine +word _lover_. Where two have met, and acquaintance has deepened into +friendship, and that in turn into the holiest emotion, the highest +friendship. What would he not do for her! She becomes the new human centre +of his life. In a good sense he worships the ground she treads upon. And +she--she will leave wealth for poverty if only so she may be with him in +the coming days. She will leave home and friends, and go to the ends of +the earth if his service calls him there. You think of the finest lover, +man or woman, you ever knew anybody to have. Then remember this, and let +me say it in soft, reverent tones, God is a lover--shall I say in yet more +reverent voice, a sweetheart-lover. Only He is so much finer a lover than +the finest lover you ever knew of. And His will, His plan for your life +and mine--it hushes my heart to say it--is a lover's plan for his only +loved one. + +The fifth word is this fourth word a degree finer spun, a stage farther +on, and higher up, the word _husband_. This is the word on the man side +for the most hallowed relationship of earth. This is the lover +relationship in its perfection stage. With men husband is not always a +finer word than lover. The more's the pity. How man does cheapen God's +plan of things; leaves out the kernel, and keeps only an empty shell +sometimes. In God's thought a husband is a lover _plus_. He is all that +the finest lover is, and more; more tender, more eager, more thoughtful. +Two lives are joined, and begin living one life. Two wills, yet one. Two +persons, yet one purpose. Duality in unity. Will you call to mind for a +moment the best husband you ever knew any woman to have. Then remember +this that God is a husband; only He is an infinitely more thoughtful +husband than any you ever knew. And His will for your life is a husband's +will for his life's friend and companion. + +Now, please, do not _you_ take one of these words, and say, "I like that"; +and _you_ another and say, "That conception of God appeals to me," and +_you_ another. How we do whittle God down to our narrow conceptions! You +must take all five words, and think the finest meaning into each, and then +put them all together, to get a close up idea of God. He is all that, _and +more_. + +You see God is so much that it takes a number of earth's relationships put +together to get a good suggestion of what He is. He is a father, a +mother, a friend, a lover, a husband. I have not brought book, and +chapter, and verse. But you know I could spend a long time with you +reading over the numerous passages giving these conceptions of God. + +And God's will for us is the plan of such a God as that. It includes the +body, health and strength; the family and home matters; money and business +matters; friendships, including the choice of life's chief friend; it +includes service, what service and where; and constant guidance; it +includes the whole life, and the world of lives. All this He has thought +into, lovingly, carefully. Does a wise mother think of her child's needs +into the details, the necessities and the loving extras? That is God. + + + +<u>The One Purpose of Prayer.</u> + + +Now, the whole thought in prayer is to get the will of a God like that +done in our lives and upon this old earth. The greatest prayer any one can +offer is, "Thy will be done." It will be offered in a thousand different +forms, with a thousand details, as needs arise daily. But every true +prayer comes under those four words. There is not a good desirable thing +that you have thought of that He has not thought of first, and probably +with an added touch not in your thought. Not to grit your teeth and lock +your jaw and pray for grace to say, "Thy will be _endured_: it is bitter, +but I must be resigned; that is a Christian grace; Thy will be +_endured_." Not that, please. Do not slander God like that. There is a +superficial idea among men that charges God with many misfortunes and ills +for which He is not at all responsible. He is continually doing the very +best that can be done under the circumstances for the best results. He has +a bad mixture of stubborn warped human wills to deal with. With infinite +patience and skill and diplomacy and success too He is ever working at the +tangled skein of human life, through the human will. + +It may help us here to remember that God has a first and a second will for +us: a first choice and a second. He always prefers that His first will +shall be accomplished in us. But where we will not be wooed up to that +height, He comes down to the highest level we will come up to, and works +with us there. For instance, God's first choice for Israel was that He +Himself should be their king. There was to be no human, visible king, as +with the surrounding nations. He was to be their king. They were to be +peculiar in this. But to Samuel's sorrow and yet more to God's, they +insisted upon a king. And so God gave them a king. And David the great +shepherd-psalmist-king was a man after God's own heart, and the world's +Saviour came of the Davidic line. God did His best upon the level they +chose and a great best it was. Yet the human king and line of kings was +not God's first will, but a second will yielded to because the first +would not be accepted. God is ever doing the best for human lives that can +be done through the human will. + +His first will for our bodies, without doubt, is that there should be a +strong healthy body for each of us. But there is a far higher thing being +aimed at in us than that. And with keen pain to His own heart, He oft +times permits bodily weakness and suffering because in the conditions of +our wills only so can these higher and highest things be gotten at. And +where the human will comes into intelligent touch with Himself, and the +higher can so be reached, with great gladness and eagerness the bodily +difficulty is removed by Him. + +There are two things, at least, that modify God's first will for us. First +of all the degree of our intelligent willingness that He shall have His +full sway. And second, the circumstances of one's life. Each of us is the +centre of a circle of people, an ever changing circle. If we be in touch +with Him God is speaking through each of us to his circle. Our experiences +with God: His dealings with us, under the varying circumstances are a part +of His message to that circle. God is trying to win men. It takes +marvellous diplomacy on His part. And God is a wondrous tactician. +But--very reverently--He is a needy God. He needs us to help Him, each in +his circle. We must be perfectly willing to have His will done; and more, +we must trust Him to know what is best to do in us and with us in the +circle of our circumstances. God is a great economist. He wastes no +forces. Every bit is being conserved towards the great end in view. + +There may be a false submission to His supposed will in some affliction; a +not reaching out after _all_ that He has for us. And at the other swing of +the pendulum there may be a sort of _logical praying_ for some desirable +thing because a friend tells us we should claim it. By logical praying I +mean the studying of a statement of God's word, and possibly some one's +explanation of it, and hearing or knowing how somebody else has claimed a +certain thing through that statement and then concluding that therefore we +should so claim. The trouble with that is that it stops too soon. Praying +in the Spirit as opposed to logical praying is doing this logical +thinking: _then_ quietly taking all to God, to learn what His will is for +_you_, under your circumstances, and in the circle of people whom He +touches through you. + + + +<u>The Spirit's Prayer Room.</u> + + +There is a remarkable passage in Paul's Roman letter about prayer and +God's will.[39] "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: +for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh +intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that +searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, that He +maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." + +Please notice: these words connect back with the verses ending with verse +seventeen. Verses eighteen to twenty-five are a parenthesis. As the Spirit +within breathes out the "Father" cry of a child, which is the prayer-cry, +so He helps us in praying. It is our infirmity that we do not know how to +pray _as we ought_. There is willingness and eagerness too. No bother +there. But a lack of knowledge. We don't know how. But the Spirit knows +how. He is the Master-prayor. He knows God's will perfectly. He knows what +best to be praying under all circumstances. And He is within you and me. +He is there as a prayer-spirit. He prompts us to pray. He calls us away to +the quiet room to our knees. He inclines to prayer wherever we are. He is +thinking thoughts that find no response in us. They cannot be expressed in +our lips for they are not in our thinking. He prays with an intensity +quite beyond the possibility of language to express. And the +heart-searcher--God listening above--knows fully what this praying Spirit +is thinking within me, and wordlessly praying, for they are one. He +recognizes His own purposes and plans being repeated in this man down on +the earth by His own Spirit. + +And the great truth is that the Spirit within us prays God's will. He +teaches us God's will. He teaches us how to pray God's will. And He +Himself prays God's will in us. And further that He seeks to pray God's +will--that is to pray for the thing God has planned--in us before we have +yet reached up to where we know ourselves what that will is. + +We should be ambitious to cultivate a healthy sensitiveness to this +indwelling Spirit. And when there comes that quick inner wooing away to +pray let us faithfully obey. Even though we be not clear what the +particular petition is to be let us remain in prayer while He uses us as +the medium of His praying. + +Oftentimes the best prayer to offer about some friend, or some particular +thing, after perhaps stating the case the best we can is this: "Holy +Spirit, be praying in me the thing the Father wants done. Father, what the +Spirit within me is praying, that is my prayer in Jesus' name. Thy will, +what Thou art wishing and thinking, may that be fully done here." + + + +<u>How to Find God's Will.</u> + + +We should make a study of God's will. We ought to seek to become skilled +in knowing His will. The more we know Him the better shall we be able to +read intelligently His will. + +It may be said that God has two wills for each of us, or, better, there +are two parts to His will. There is His will of grace, and His will of +government. His will of grace is plainly revealed in His Word. It is that +we shall be saved, and made holy, and pure, and by and by glorified in his +own presence. His will of government is His particular plan for my life. +God has every life planned. The highest possible ambition for a life is to +reach God's plan. He reveals that to us bit by bit as we need to know. If +the life is to be one of special service He will make that plain, what +service, and where, and when. Then each next step He will make plain. + +Learning His will here hinges upon three things, simple enough but +essential. I must keep _in touch_ with Him so He has an open ear to talk +into. I must _delight_ to do His will, _because it is His_. The third +thing needs special emphasis. Many who are right on the first two stumble +here, and sometimes measure their length on the ground. _His Word must be +allowed to discipline my judgment as to Himself and His will_. Many of us +stumble on number one and on number two. And very many willing earnest men +sprawl badly when it comes to number three. The bother with these is the +lack of a disciplined judgment about God and His will. If we would +prayerfully _absorb_ the Book, there would come a better poised judgment. +We need to get a broad sweep of God's thought, to breathe Him in as He +reveals Himself in this Book. The meek man--that is the man willing to +yield his will to a higher will--will He guide in his judgment, that is, +in his mental processes.[40] + +This is John's standpoint in that famous passage in his first epistle.[41] +"And this is the boldness that we have towards Him, that, if we ask +anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He +heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we +have asked of Him." These words dovetail with great nicety into those +already quoted from Paul in the eighth of Romans. The whole supposition +here is that we have learned His will about the particular matter in hand. +Having gotten that footing, we go to prayer with great boldness. For if He +wants a thing and I want it and we join--that combination cannot be +broken. + + + + +May we Pray With Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones + + + +<u>God's Door into a Home.</u> + + +The heart of God hungers to redeem the world. For that He gave His own, +only Son though the treatment He received tore that father's heart to the +bleeding. For that He sent the Holy Spirit to do in men what the Son had +done for them. For that He placed in human hands the mightiest of all +forces--prayer, that so we might become partners with Him. + +For that too He set man in the relationships of kinship and friendship. He +wins men through men. Man is the goal, and he is also the road to the +goal. Man is the object aimed at. And he is the medium of approach, +whether the advance be by God or by Satan. God will not enter a man's +heart without his consent, and Satan _can_not. God would reach men through +men, and Satan must. And so God has set us in the strongest relation that +binds men, the relation of love, that He may touch one through another. +Kinship is a relation peculiar to man, and to the earth. + +I have at times been asked by some earnest sensitive persons if it is not +selfish to be especially concerned for one's own, over whom the heart +yearns much, and the prayer offered is more tender and intense and more +frequent. Well, if _you_ do not pray for them who will? Who _can_ pray for +them with such believing persistent fervour as you! God has set us in the +relationship of personal affection and of kinship for just such a purpose. +He binds us together with the ties of love that we may be concerned for +each other. If there be but one in a home in touch with God, that one +becomes God's door into the whole family. + +Contact means opportunity, and that in turn means responsibility. The +closer the contact the greater the opportunity and the greater too the +responsibility. Unselfishness does not mean to exclude one's self, and +one's own. It means right proportions in our perspective. Humility is not +whipping one's self. It is forgetting one's self in the thought of others. +Yet even that may be carried to a bad extreme. Not only is it not selfish +so to pray, it is a part of God's plan that we should so pray. I am most +responsible for the one to whom I am most closely related. + + + +<u>A Free Agent Enslaved.</u> + + +One of the questions that is more often asked in this connection than any +other perhaps is this: may we pray with assurance for the conversion of +our loved ones? No question sets more hearts in an audience to beating +faster than does that. I remember speaking in the Boston noonday meeting, +in the old Broomfield Street M. E. Church on this subject one week. +Perhaps I was speaking rather positively. And at the close of the meeting +one day a keen, cultured Christian woman whom I knew came up for a word. +She said, "I do not think we can pray like that." And I said, "Why not?" +She paused a moment, and her well-controlled agitation revealed in eye and +lip told me how deeply her thoughts were stirred. Then she said quietly, +"I have a brother. He is not a Christian. The theatre, the wine, the club, +the cards--that is his life. And he laughs at me. I would rather than +anything else that my brother were a Christian. But," she said, and here +both her keenness and the training of her early teaching came in, "I do +not think I can pray positively for his conversion, for he is a free +agent, is he not? And God will not save a man against his will." + +I want to say to you to-day what I said to her. Man _is_ a free agent, to +use the old phrase, so far as God is concerned; utterly, wholly free. +_And_, he is the most enslaved agent on the earth, so far as sin, and +selfishness and prejudice are concerned. The purpose of our praying is not +to force or coerce his will; never that. It is to _free_ his will of the +warping influences that now twist it awry. It is to get the dust out of +his eyes so his sight shall be clear. And once he is free, able to see +aright, to balance things without prejudice, the whole probability is in +favour of his using his will to choose the only right. + +I want to suggest to you the ideal prayer for such a one. It is an +adaptation of Jesus' own words. It may be pleaded with much variety of +detail. It is this: deliver him from the evil one; and work in him _Thy +will_ for him, by Thy power to Thy glory in Jesus, the Victor's name. And +there are three special passages upon which to base this prayer. First +Timothy, second chapter, fourth verse (American version), "God our +Saviour, who would have all men to be saved." That is God's will for your +loved one. Second Peter, third chapter, ninth verse, "not wishing (or +willing) that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." +That is God's will, or desire, for the one you are thinking of now. The +third passage is on our side who do the praying. It tells who may offer +this prayer with assurance. John, fifteenth chapter, seventh verse, "If ye +abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you ask what it is your will to +ask, and I will bring it to pass for you." + +There is a statement of Paul's in second Timothy that graphically pictures +this:[42] "The Lord's servant must not strive "--not argue, nor +combat--"but be gentle towards all, apt to teach"--ready and skilled in +explaining, helping--"in meekness correcting (or, instructing) them that +oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the +knowledge of the truth, and _they may recover themselves out of the snare +of the devil_, having been taken captive by him unto his will." + +That word "deliver" in this prayer, as used by Jesus, the word under our +English, has a picturesque meaning. It means _rescue_. Here is a man taken +captive, and in chains. But he has become infatuated with his captor, and +is befooled regarding his condition. Our prayer is, "rescue him from the +evil one," and because Jesus is Victor over the captor, the rescue will +take place. + +Without any doubt we may assure the conversion of these laid upon our +hearts by such praying. The prayer in Jesus' name drives the enemy off the +battle-field of the man's will, and leaves him free to choose aright. +There is one exception to be noted, a very, very rare exception. There may +be _extreme_ instances where such a prayer may not be offered; where the +spirit of prayer is withdrawn. But such are very rare and extreme, and the +conviction regarding that will be unmistakable beyond asking any +questions. + +And I cannot resist the conviction--I greatly dislike to say this, I would +much rather not if I regarded either my own feelings or yours. But I +cannot resist the conviction--listen very quietly, so I may speak in +quietest tones--that there are people ... in that lower, lost world ... +who are there ... because some one failed to put his life in touch with +God, and pray. + + + +<u>The Place Where God is Not.</u> + + +Having said that much let me go on to say this further, and please let me +say it all in softest sobbing voice--there is a hell. There must be a +hell. You may leave this Bible sheer out of your reckoning in the matter. +Still there must be a place for which that word of ugliest associations is +the word to use. _Philosophically_ there must be a hell. That is the name +for the place where God is not; for the place where they will gather +together who insist on leaving God out. God out! There can be no worse +hell than that! God away! Man held back by no restraints! + +I am very clear it is _not_ what men have pictured it to be. It is not +what my childish fancy saw and shrank from terrified. And, please let us +be very careful that we never consign anybody there, in our thinking or +speaking about them. When that life whose future might be questioned has +gone the most we can say is that we leave it with a God infinitely just +and the personification of love. + +There has been in some quarters an unthinking consigning of persons to a +lost world. And there has been in our day a clean swing of the pendulum +to the other extreme. Both drifts are to be dreaded. Let us deal very +tenderly here, yet with a right plainness in our tenderness. We are to +warn men faithfully. We know the Book's plain teaching that these who +prefer to leave God out "shall go away." The going is of their own accord +and choice. Regarding particular ones we do not know and are best silent. +The grave is closing. Let us deal with the living. + +One day at the close of the morning hour at a Bible conference in the +Alleghany Mountains a young woman came up for a moment's conversation. She +spoke about a friend, not a professing Christian, for whom she had prayed +much, and who had died unexpectedly. He had passed away during +unconsciousness, with no opportunity for exchange of words. She was much +agitated as the facts were recited, and then said as she finished, "he is +lost and in hell: and I can never pray again." + +We talked quietly awhile and I gathered the following facts. He was of a +Christian family, perfectly familiar with the Bible, was a thoughtful man, +of outwardly correct life in the main, had talked about these matters with +others but had never either in conversation or more openly confessed +personal faith in Christ. He was not in good health. Then came the sudden +end. One other fact came out. She had prayed for his conversion for a long +time. She was herself an earnest Christian woman, solicitous for others. +There were four facts to go upon regarding him. He knew the way to God. He +was thoughtful. He had never openly accepted. Some one had prayed. + +Can one _know_ anything certainly about that man's condition? There are +two sorts of knowledge, direct and inferential. I know there is such a +city as London for I have walked its streets. That is direct knowledge. I +know there is such a city as St. Petersburg because though I have never +been there, yet through my reading, pictures I have seen, and friends who +have been there I am clear of its existence to the point of _knowledge_. +That is inferential knowledge. + +Now regarding this man after he slipped from the grasp of his friends, I +have no direct knowledge. But I have very positive inferential knowledge +based upon these four facts. Three of the facts, namely, the first, +second, and fourth were favourable to the end desired. The third swings +neither way. The great dominant fact in the case is the fourth, and a +great and dominating fact it is in judging--some one in touch with God had +been persistently, believingly praying up to the time of the quick end. +That fact with the others gives strong inferential knowledge regarding the +man. It is sufficient to comfort a heart, and give one renewed faith in +praying for others. + + + +<u>Saving the Life.</u> + + +We cannot know a man's mental processes. This is surely true, that if in +the very last half-twinkling of an eye a man look up towards God +longingly, that look is the turning of the will to God. And that is quite +enough. God is eagerly watching with hungry eyes for the quick turn of a +human eye up to Himself. Doubtless many a man has so turned in the last +moment of his life when we were not conscious of his consciousness, nor +aware of the movements of his outwardly unconscious sub-consciousness. One +may be unconscious of outer things, and yet be keenly conscious towards +God. + +At another of these summer gatherings this incident came to me. A man +seemingly of mature mind and judgment told me of a friend of his. That was +as close as I got to the friend himself. This friend was not a professing +Christian, was thrown from a boat, sank twice and perhaps three times, and +then was rescued, and after some difficulty resuscitated. He told +afterwards how swiftly his thoughts came as they are said to do to one in +such circumstances. He thought surely he was drowning, was quiet in his +mind, thought of God and how he had not been trusting Him, and in his +thought he prayed for forgiveness. He lived afterwards a consistent +Christian life. This illustrates simply the possibilities open to one in +his keen inner mental processes. + +Here is surely enough knowledge to comfort many a bereft heart, and +enough too to make us pray persistently and believingly for loved ones +because of prayer's uncalculated and incalculable power. Be sure the +prayer-fact is in the case of _your_ friend, _and in strong_. + +Yet let us be wary, very wary of letting this influence us one bit +farther. That man is nothing less than a fool who presumes upon such +statements to resist God's gracious pleadings for his life. And on our +side, we must not fail to warn men lovingly, tenderly yet with plainness +of the tremendous danger of delay, in coming to God. A man may be so +stupefied at the close as to shut out of his range what has been suggested +here. And further even if a man's soul be saved he is responsible to God +for his life. We want men to _live_ for Jesus, and win others to Him. And +further, yet, reward, preferment, honour in God's kingdom depends upon +faithfulness to Him down here. Who would be saved by the skin of his +teeth! + +The great fact to have burned in deep is that we may assure the coming to +God of our loved ones with their lives, as well as for their souls if we +will but press the battle. + + + +<u>Giving God a Clear Road for Action.</u> + + +Out in one of the trans-Mississippi states I ran across an illustration of +prayer in real life that caught me at once, and has greatly helped me in +understanding prayer. + +Fact is more fascinating than fiction. If one could know what is going on +around him, how surprised and startled he would be. If we could get _all_ +the facts in any one incident, and get them colourlessly, and have the +judgment to sift and analyze accurately, what fascinating instances of the +power of prayer would be disclosed. + +There is a double side to this story. The side of the man who was changed, +and the side of the woman who prayed. He is a New Englander, by birth and +breeding, now living in this western state: almost a giant physically, +keen mentally, a lawyer, and a natural leader. He had the conviction as a +boy that if he became a Christian he was to preach. But he grew up a +skeptic, read up and lectured on skeptical subjects. He was the +representative of a district of his western home state in congress; in his +fourth term or so I think at this time. + +The experience I am telling came during that congress when the +Hayes-Tilden controversy was up, the intensest congress Washington has +known since the Civil War. It was not a time specially suited to +meditation about God in the halls of congress. And further he said to me +that somehow he knew all the other skeptics who were in the lower house +and they drifted together a good bit and strengthened each other by their +talk. + +One day as he was in his seat in the lower house, in the midst of the +business of the hour, there came to him a conviction that God--the God in +whom he did not believe, whose existence he could keenly disprove--God was +right there above his head thinking about him, and displeased at the way +he was behaving towards Him. And he said to himself: "this is ridiculous, +absurd. I've been working too hard; confined too closely; my mind is +getting morbid. I'll go out, and get some fresh air, and shake myself." +And so he did. But the conviction only deepened and intensified. Day by +day it grew. And that went on for weeks, into the fourth month as I recall +his words. Then he planned to return home to attend to some business +matters, and to attend to some preliminaries for securing the nomination +for the governorship of his state. And as I understand he was in a fair +way to securing the nomination, so far as one can judge of such matters. +And his party is the dominant party in the state. A nomination for +governor by his party has usually been followed by election. + +He reached his home and had hardly gotten there before he found that his +wife and two others had entered into a holy compact of prayer for his +conversion, and had been so praying for some months. Instantly he thought +of his peculiar unwelcome Washington experience, and became intensely +interested. But not wishing them to know of his interest, he asked +carelessly when "this thing began." His wife told him the day. He did some +quick mental figuring, and he said to me, "I knew almost instantly that +the day she named fitted into the calendar with the coming of that +conviction or impression about God's presence." + +He was greatly startled. He wanted to be thoroughly honest in all his +thinking. And he said he knew that if a single fact of that sort could be +established, of prayer producing such results, it carried the whole +Christian scheme of belief with it. And he did some stiff fighting within. +Had he been wrong all those years? He sifted the matter back and forth as +a lawyer would the evidence in any case. And he said to me, "As an honest +man I was compelled to admit the facts, and I believe I might have been +led to Christ that very night." + +A few nights later he knelt at the altar in the Methodist meeting-house in +his home town and surrendered his strong will to God. Then the early +conviction of his boyhood days came back. He was to preach the gospel. And +like Saul of old, he utterly changed his life, and has been preaching the +gospel with power ever since. + +Then I was intensely fascinated in getting the other side, the +praying-side of the story. His wife had been a Christian for years, since +before their marriage. But in some meetings in the home church she was +led into a new, a full surrender to Jesus Christ as Master, and had +experienced a new consciousness of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. +Almost at once came a new intense desire for her husband's conversion. The +compact of three was agreed upon, of daily prayer for him until the change +came. + +As she prayed that night after retiring to her sleeping apartment she was +in great distress of mind in thinking and praying for him. She could get +no rest from this intense distress. At length she rose, and knelt by the +bedside to pray. As she was praying and distressed a voice, an exquisitely +quiet inner voice said, "will you abide the consequences?" She was +startled. Such a thing was wholly new to her. She did not know what it +meant. And without paying any attention to it, went on praying. Again came +the same quietly spoken words to her ear, "will you abide the +consequences?" And again the half frightened feeling. She slipped back to +bed to sleep. But sleep did not come. And back again to her knees, and +again the patient, quiet voice. + +This time with an earnestness bearing the impress of her agony she said, +"Lord, I will abide any consequence that may come if only my husband may +be brought to Thee." And at once the distress slipped away, and a new +sweet peace filled her being, and sleep quickly came. And while she prayed +on for weeks and months patiently, persistently, day by day, the distress +was gone, the sweet peace remained in the assurance that the result was +surely coming. And so it was coming all those days down in the thick air +of Washington's lower house, and so it did come. + +What _was_ the consequence to her? She was a congressman's wife. She would +likely have been, so far as such matters may be judged, the wife of the +governor of her state, the first lady socially of the state. She is a +Methodist minister's wife changing her home every few years. A very +different position in many ways. No woman will be indifferent to the +social difference involved. Yet rarely have I met a woman with more of +that fine beauty which the peace of God brings, in her glad face, and in +her winsome smile. + +Do you see the simple philosophy of that experience. Her surrender gave +God a clear channel into that man's will. When the roadway was cleared, +her prayer was a spirit-force traversing instantly the hundreds of +intervening miles, and affecting the spirit-atmosphere of his presence. + +Shall we not put our wills fully in touch with God, and sheer out of +sympathy with the other one, and persistently plead and claim for each +loved one, "deliver him from the evil one, and work in him Thy will, to +Thy glory, by Thy power, in the Victor's name." And then add amen--so it +_shall_ be. Not so _may_ it be--a wish, but so it _shall_ be--an +expression of confidence in Jesus' power. _And these lives shall be won, +and these souls saved_. + + + + +IV. Jesus' Habits of Prayer + + +1. A Pen Sketch. +2. Dissolving Views. +3. Deepening Shadows. +4. Under the Olive Trees. +5. A Composite Picture. + + + + +Jesus' Habits of Prayer + + + +<u>A Pen Sketch.</u> + + +When God would win back His prodigal world He sent down a Man. That Man +while more than man insisted upon being truly a man. He touched human life +at every point. No man seems to have understood prayer, and to have prayed +as did He. How can we better conclude these quiet talks on prayer than by +gathering about His person and studying His habits of prayer. + +A habit is an act repeated so often as to be done involuntarily; that is, +without a new decision of the mind each time it is done. + +Jesus prayed. He loved to pray. Sometimes praying was His way of resting. +He prayed so much and so often that it became a part of His life. It +became to Him like breathing--involuntary. + +There is no thing we need so much as to learn how to pray. There are two +ways of receiving instruction; one, by being told; the other, by watching +some one else. The latter is the simpler and the surer way. How better can +we learn how to pray than by watching how Jesus prayed, and then trying +to imitate Him. Not, just now, studying what He _said_ about prayer, +invaluable as that is, and so closely interwoven with the other; nor yet +how He received the requests of men when on earth, full of inspiring +suggestion as that is of His _present_ attitude towards our prayers; but +how He Himself prayed when down here surrounded by our same circumstances +and temptations. + +There are two sections of the Bible to which we at once turn for light, +the gospels and the Psalms. In the gospels is given chiefly the _outer_ +side of His prayer-habits; and in certain of the Psalms, glimpses of the +_inner_ side are unmistakably revealed. + +Turning now to the gospels, we find the picture of the praying Jesus like +an etching, a sketch in black and white, the fewest possible strokes of +the pen, a scratch here, a line there, frequently a single word added by +one writer to the narrative of the others, which gradually bring to view +the outline of a lone figure with upturned face. + +Of the fifteen mentions of His praying found in the four gospels, it is +interesting to note that while Matthew gives three, and Mark and John each +four, it is Luke, Paul's companion and mirror-like friend, who, in eleven +such allusions, supplies most of the picture. + +Does this not contain a strong hint of the explanation of that other +etching plainly traceable in the epistles which reveals Paul's own +marvellous prayer-life? + +Matthew, immersed in the Hebrew Scriptures, writes to the Jews of their +promised Davidic King; Mark, with rapid pen, relates the ceaseless +activity of this wonderful servant of the Father. John, with imprisoned +body, but rare liberty of vision, from the glory-side revealed on Patmos, +depicts the Son of God coming on an errand from the Father into the world, +and again, leaving the world and going back home unto the Father. But Luke +emphasizes the _human_ Jesus, a _Man_--with reverence let me use a word in +its old-fashioned meaning--a _fellow_, that is, one of ourselves. And the +Holy Spirit makes it very plain throughout Luke's narrative that the _man_ +Christ Jesus _prayed_; prayed _much; needed_ to pray; _loved_ to pray. + +Oh! when shall we men down here, sent into the world as He was sent into +the world, with the same mission, the same field, the same Satan to +combat, the same Holy Spirit to empower, find out that power lies in +keeping closest connection with the Sender, and completest insulation from +the power-absorbing world! + + + +<u>Dissolving Views.</u> + + +Let me rapidily sketch those fifteen mentions of the gospel writers, +attempting to keep their chronological order. + +_The first mention_ is by Luke, in chapter three. The first three gospels +all tell of Jesus' double baptism, but it is Luke who adds, "and praying." +It was while waiting in prayer that He received the gift of the Holy +Spirit. He _dared_ not begin His public mission without that anointing. It +had been promised in the prophetic writings. And now, standing in the +Jordan, He waits and prays until the blue above is burst through by the +gleams of glory-light from the upper-side and the dove-like Spirit wings +down and abides upon Him. _Prayer brings power._ Prayer _is_ power. The +time of prayer is the time of power. The place of prayer is the place of +power. Prayer is tightening the connections with the divine dynamo so that +the power may flow freely without loss or interruption. + +_The second mention_ is made by Mark in chapter one. Luke, in chapter +four, hints at it, "when it was day He came out and went into a desert +place." But Mark tells us plainly "in the morning a great while before the +day (or a little more literally, 'very early while it was yet very dark') +He arose and went out into the desert or solitary place and there prayed." +The day before, a Sabbath day spent in His adopted home-town Capernaum, +had been a very busy day for Him, teaching in the synagogue service, the +interruption by a demon-possessed man, the casting out amid a painful +scene; afterwards the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, and then at +sun-setting the great crowd of diseased and demonized thronging the +narrow street until far into the night, while He, passing amongst them, by +personal touch, healed and restored every one. It was a long and +exhausting day's work. One of us spending as busy a Sabbath would probably +feel that the next morning needed an extra hour's sleep if possible. One +must rest surely. But this man Jesus seemed to have another way of resting +in addition to sleep. Probably He occupied the guest-chamber in Peter's +home. The house was likely astir at the usual hour, and by and by +breakfast was ready, but the Master had not appeared yet, so they waited a +bit. After a while the maid slips to His room door and taps lightly, but +there's no answer; again a little bolder knock, then pushing the door ajar +she finds the room unoccupied. Where's the Master? "Ah!" Peter says; "I +think I know. I have noticed before this that He has a way of slipping off +early in the morning to some quiet place where He can be alone." And a +little knot of disciples with Peter in the lead starts out on a search for +Him, for already a crowd is gathering at the door and filling the street +again, hungry for more. And they "tracked Him down" here and there on the +hillsides, among clumps of trees, until suddenly they come upon Him +quietly praying with a wondrous calm in His great eyes. Listen to Peter as +he eagerly blurts out, "Master, there's a big crowd down there, all asking +for you." But the Master's quiet decisive tones reply, "Let us go into +the next towns that I may preach there also; for to this end came I +forth." Much easier to go back and deal again with the old crowd of +yesterday; harder to meet the new crowds with their new skepticism, but +there's no doubt about what _should_ be done. Prayer wonderfully clears +the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; +sweetens and strengthens the spirit. The busier the day for Him the more +surely must the morning appointment be kept,[43] and even an earlier start +made, apparently. The more virtue went forth from Him, the more certainly +must He spend time, and even _more_ time, alone with Him who is the source +of power. + +_The third mention_ is in Luke, chapter five. Not a great while after the +scene just described, possibly while on the trip suggested by His answer +to Peter, in some one of the numerous Galilean villages, moved with the +compassion that ever burned His heart, He had healed a badly diseased +leper, who, disregarding His express command, so widely published the fact +of His remarkable healing that great crowds blocked Jesus' way in the +village and compelled Him to go out to the country district, where the +crowds which the village could not hold now throng about Him. Now note +what the Master does. The authorized version says, "He withdrew into the +wilderness and prayed." A more nearly literal reading would be, "He was +retiring in the deserts and praying"; suggesting not a single act, but +rather _a habit of action_ running through several days or even weeks. +That is, being compelled by the greatness of the crowds to go into the +deserts or country, districts, and being constantly thronged there by the +people, He had _less opportunity_ to get alone, and yet more need, and so +while He patiently continues His work among them He studiously seeks +opportunity to retire at intervals from the crowds to pray. + +How much His life was like ours. Pressed by duties, by opportunities for +service, by the great need around us, we are strongly tempted to give less +time to the inner chamber, with door shut. "Surely this work must be +done," we think, "though it does crowd and flurry our prayer time some." +"_No_," the Master's practice here says with intense emphasis. Not work +first, and prayer to bless it. But the _first_ place given to prayer and +then the service growing out of such prayer will be charged with +unmeasured power. The greater the outer pressure on His closet-life, the +more jealously He guarded against either a shortening of its time or a +flurrying of its spirit. The tighter the tension, the more time must there +be for unhurried prayer. + +_The fourth mention_ is found in Luke, chapter six. "It came to pass in +these days that He went out into the mountains to pray, and He continued +all night in prayer to God." The time is probably about the middle of the +second year of His public ministry. He had been having very exasperating +experiences with the national leaders from Judea who dogged His steps, +criticising and nagging at every turn, sowing seeds of skepticism among +His simple-minded, intense-spirited Galileans. It was also the day +_before_ He selected the twelve men who were to be the leaders after His +departure, and preached the mountain sermon. Luke does not say that He +_planned_ to spend the entire night in prayer. Wearied in spirit by the +ceaseless petty picking and Satanic hatred of His enemies, thinking of the +serious work of the morrow, there was just one thing for Him to do. He +knew where to find rest, and sweet fellowship, and a calming presence, and +wise counsel. Turning His face northward He sought the solitude of the +mountain not far off for quiet meditation and prayer. And as He prayed and +listened and talked without words, daylight gradually grew into twilight, +and that yielded imperceptibly to the brilliant Oriental stars spraying +down their lustrous fire-light. And still He prayed, while the darkness +below and the blue above deepened, and the stilling calm of God wrapped +all nature around, and hushed His heart into a deeper peace. In the +fascination of the Father's loving presence He was utterly lost to the +flight of time, but prayed on and on until, by and by, the earth had once +more completed its daily turn, the gray streaks of dawnlight crept up the +east, and the face of Palestine, fragrant with the deep dews of an +eastern night, was kissed by a sun of a new day. And then, "when it was +day"--how quietly the narrative goes on--"He called the disciples and +_chose_ from them twelve,--and a great multitude of disciples and of the +people came,--and He _healed_ all--and He opened His mouth and _taught_ +them--_for power came forth from Him."_ Is it any wonder, after such a +night! If all our exasperations and embarrassments were followed, and all +our decisions and utterances preceded, by unhurried prayer, what power +would come forth from us, too. Because as He is even so are we in this +world. + +_The fifth mention_ is made by Matthew, chapter fourteen, and Mark, +chapter six, John hinting at it in chapter six of his gospel. It was about +the time of the third passover, the beginning of His last year of service. +Both He and the disciples had been kept exceedingly busy with the great +throng coming and going incessantly. The startling news had just come of +the tragic death of His forerunner. There was need of bodily rest, as well +as of quiet to think over the rapidly culminating opposition. So taking +boat they headed towards the eastern shore of the lake. But the eager +crowds watched the direction taken and spreading the news, literally "ran" +around the head of the lake and "out-went them," and when He stepped from +the boat for the much-needed rest there was an immense company, numbering +thousands, waiting for Him. Did some feeling of impatience break out among +the disciples that they could not be allowed a little leisure? Very +likely, for they were so much like us. But _He_ was "moved with +compassion" and, wearied though He was, patiently spent the entire day in +teaching, and then, at eventime when the disciples proposed sending them +away for food, He, with a handful of loaves and fishes, satisfied the +bodily cravings of as many as five thousand. + +There is nothing that has so appealed to the masses in all countries and +all centuries as ability to furnish plenty to eat. Literally tens of +thousands of the human race fall asleep every night hungry. So here. At +once it is proposed by a great popular uprising, under the leadership of +this wonderful man as king, to throw off the oppressive Roman yoke. +Certainly if only His consent could be had it would be immensely +successful, they thought. Does this not rank with Satan's suggestion in +the wilderness, and with the later possibility coming through the visit of +the Greek deputation, of establishing the kingdom without suffering? It +was a temptation, even though it found no response within Him. With the +over-awing power of His presence so markedly felt at times He quieted the +movement, "constrained"[44] the disciples to go by boat before Him to the +other side while He dismissed the throng. "And after He had _taken leave +of them_"--what gentle courtesy and tenderness mingled with His +irrevocable decision--"He went up in the mountain _to pray_," and +"_continued in prayer_" until the morning watch. A second night spent in +prayer! Bodily weary, His spirit startled by an event which vividly +foreshadowed His own approaching violent death, and now this vigorous +renewal of His old temptation, again He had recourse to His one unfailing +habit of getting off alone _to pray._ Time alone _to pray; more_ time to +pray, was His one invariable offset to all difficulties, all temptations, +and all needs. How much more there must have been in prayer as He +understood and practiced it than many of His disciples to-day know. + + + +<u>Deepening Shadows.</u> + + +We shall perhaps understand better some of the remaining prayer incidents +if we remember that Jesus is now in the last year of His ministry, the +acute state of His experiences with the national leaders preceding the +final break. The awful shadow of the cross grows deeper and darker across +His path. The hatred of the opposition leader gets constantly intenser. +The conditions of discipleship are more sharply put. The inability of the +crowds, of the disciples, and others to understand Him grows more marked. +Many followers go back. He seeks to get more time for intercourse with +the twelve. He makes frequent trips to distant points on the border of the +outside, non-Jewish world. The coming scenes and experiences--_the_ scene +on the little hillock outside the Jerusalem wall--seem never absent from +His thoughts. _The sixth mention_ is made by Luke, chapter nine. They are +up north in the neighbourhood of the Roman city of Caesarea Philippi. "And +it came to pass as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him." +Alone, so far as the multitudes are concerned, but seeming to be drawing +these twelve nearer to His inner life. Some of these later incidents seem +to suggest that he was trying to woo them into something of the same love +for the fascination of secret prayer that He had. How much they would need +to pray in the coming years when He was gone. Possibly, too, He yearned +for a closer fellowship with them. He loved human fellowship, as Peter and +James and John, and Mary and Martha and many other gentle women well knew. +And there is no fellowship among men to be compared with fellowship _in +prayer_. + + "There is a place where _spirits blend_, + Where _friend holds fellowship with friend_, + A place than all beside more sweet, + It is the blood-bought mercy-seat." + +_The seventh mention_ is in this same ninth chapter of Luke, and records a +third night of prayer. Matthew and Mark also tell of the transfiguration +scene, but it is Luke who explains that He went up into the mountain _to +pray_, and that it was _as He was praying_ that the fashion of His +countenance was altered. Without stopping to study the purpose of this +marvellous manifestation of His divine glory to the chosen three at a time +when desertion and hatred were so marked, it is enough now to note the +significant fact that it was while _He was praying_ that the wondrous +change came. _Transfigured while praying! _ And by His side stood one who +centuries before on the earth had spent so much time alone with God that +the glory-light of that presence transfigured _his_ face, though he was +unconscious of it. A shining face caused by contact with God! Shall not +we, to whom the Master has said, "follow Me," get alone with Him and His +blessed Word, so habitually, with open or uncovered face, that is, with +eyesight unhindered by prejudice or self-seeking, that mirroring the glory +of His face we shall more and more come to bear His very likeness upon our +faces?[45] + + "And the face shines bright + With a glow of light + From His presence sent + Whom she loves to meet. + + "Yes, the face beams bright + With an inner light + As by day so by night, + In shade as in shine, + With a beauty fine, + That she wist not of, + From some source within. + And above. + + "Still the face shines bright + With the glory-light + From the mountain height. + Where the resplendent sight + Of His face + Fills her view + And illumines in turn + First the few, + Then the wide race." + +_The eighth mention_ is in the tenth chapter of Luke. He had organized a +band of men, sending them out in two's into the places he expected to +visit. They had returned with a joyful report of the power attending their +work; and standing in their midst, His own heart overflowing with joy, He +looked up and, as though the Father's face was visible, spake out to Him +the gladness of His heart. He seemed to be always conscious of His +Father's presence, and the most natural thing was to speak to Him. They +were always within speaking distance of each other, and always on speaking +terms. + +_The ninth mention_ is in the eleventh chapter of Luke, very similar to +the sixth mention, "It came to pass as He was praying in a certain place +that when He ceased one of His disciples said unto Him, 'Lord, teach us +to pray.'" Without doubt these disciples were praying men. He had already +talked to them a great deal about prayer. But as they noticed how large a +place prayer had in His life, and some of the marvellous results, the fact +came home to them with great force that there must be some fascination, +some power, some secret in prayer, of which _they were ignorant._ This Man +was a master in the fine art of prayer. _They_ really did not know how to +pray, they thought. How their request must have delighted Him! At last +they were being aroused concerning _the_ great secret of power. May it be +that this simple recital of His habits of prayer may move every one of us +to get alone with Him and make the same earnest request. For the first +step in _learning_ to pray is to pray,--"Lord, teach me to pray." And who +_can_ teach like Him? + +_The tenth mention_ is found in John, chapter eleven, and is the second of +the four instances of ejaculatory prayer. A large company is gathered +outside the village of Bethany, around a tomb in which four days before +the body of a young man had been laid away. There is Mary, still weeping, +and Martha, always keenly alive to the proprieties, trying to be more +composed, and their personal friends, and the villagers, and the company +of acquaintances and others from Jerusalem. At His word, after some +hesitation, the stone at the mouth of the tomb is rolled aside. And Jesus +lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me; +and I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the multitude that +standeth around I said it that they may believe that Thou didst send Me!" +Clearly before coming to the tomb He had been praying in secret about the +raising of Lazarus, and what followed was in answer to His prayer. How +plain it becomes that all the marvellous power displayed in His brief +earthly career _came through prayer_. What inseparable intimacy between +His life of activity at which the multitude then and ever since has +marvelled, and His hidden closet-life of which only these passing glimpses +are obtained. Surely the greatest power entrusted to man is prayer-power. +But how many of us are untrue to the trust, while this strangely +omnipotent power put into our hands lies so largely unused. + +Note also the certainty of His faith in the Hearer of prayer: "I thank +Thee that Thou heardest Me." There was nothing that could be _seen_ to +warrant such faith. There lay the dead body. But He trusted as _seeing_ +Him who is _invisible_. Faith is blind, except upward. It is blind to +impossibilities and deaf to doubt. It listens only to God and sees only +His power and acts accordingly. Faith is not believing that He _can_ but +that He _will_. But such faith comes only of close continuous contact with +God. Its birthplace is in the secret closet; and time and the open Word, +and an awakened ear and a reverent quiet heart are necessary to its +growth. + +_The eleventh mention_ is found in the twelfth chapter of John. Two or +three days before the fated Friday some Greek visitors to the Jewish feast +of Passover sought an interview with Him. The request seemed to bring to +His mind a vision of the great outside world, after which His heart +yearned, coming to Him so hungry for what only He could give. And +instantly athwart that vision like an ink-black shadow came the other +vision, never absent now from His waking thoughts, _of the cross_ so +awfully near. Shrinking in horror from the second vision, yet knowing that +only through its realization could be realized the first,--seemingly +forgetful for the moment of the by-standers, as though soliloquizing, He +speaks--"now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Shall I say, +Father _save_ Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour: +_this_ is what I will say (and the intense conflict of soul merges into +the complete victory of a wholly surrendered will) _Father, glorify Thy +name_." Quick as the prayer was uttered, came the audible voice out of +heaven answering, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." +How near heaven must be! How quickly the Father hears! He must be bending +over, intently listening, eager to catch even faintly whispered prayer. +Their ears, full of earth-sounds, unaccustomed to listening to a heavenly +voice, could hear nothing intelligible. He had a _trained ear_. Isaiah +50:4 revised (a passage plainly prophetic of Him), suggests how it was +that He could understand this voice so easily and quickly. "He wakeneth +morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught." +A taught ear is as necessary to prayer as a taught tongue, and the daily +morning appointment with God seems essential to both. + + + +<u>Under the Olive Trees.</u> + + +_The twelfth mention_ is made by Luke, chapter twenty-two. It is Thursday +night of Passion week, in the large upper room in Jerusalem where He is +celebrating the old Passover feast, and initiating the new memorial feast. +But even that hallowed hour is disturbed by the disciples' self-seeking +disputes. With the great patience of great love He gives them the +wonderful example of humility of which John thirteen tells, speaking +gently of what it meant, and then turning to Peter, and using his old +name, He says, "Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you that he might +sift you as wheat, but I made supplication for thee that thy faith fail +not." _He had been praying for Peter by name!_ That was one of His +prayer-habits, praying for others. And He has not broken off that blessed +habit yet. He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near to God +through Him _seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them_. His +occupation now seated at His Father's right hand in glory is _praying for +each of us_ who trust Him. By name? Why not? + +_The thirteenth mention_ is the familiar one in John, chapter seventeen, +and cannot be studied within these narrow limits, but merely fitted into +Us order. The twelfth chapter contains His last words to the world. In the +thirteenth and through to the close of this seventeenth He is alone with +His disciples. If this prayer is read carefully in the revised version it +will be seen that its standpoint is that of one who thinks of His work +down in the world as already done (though the chief scene is yet to come) +and the world left behind, and now He is about re-entering His Father's +presence to be re-instated in glory there. It is really, therefore, a sort +of specimen of the praying for us in which He is _now_ engaged, and so is +commonly called the intercessory or high-priestly prayer. For thirty years +He lived a perfect life. For three and a half years He was a prophet +speaking to men for God. For nineteen centuries He has been high priest +speaking to God for men. When He returns it will be as King to reign over +men for God. + +_The fourteenth mention_ brings us within the sadly sacred precincts of +Gethsemane garden, one of His favourite prayer-spots, where He frequently +went while in Jerusalem. The record is found in Matthew twenty-six, Mark +fourteen, and Luke twenty-one. Let us approach with hearts hushed and +heads bared and bowed, for this is indeed hallowed ground. It is a little +later on that same Thursday night, into which so much has already been +pressed and so much more is yet to come. After the talk in the upper room, +and the simple wondrous prayer, He leads the little band out of the city +gate on the east across the swift, muddy Kidron into the inclosed grove of +olive trees beyond. There would be no sleep for Him that night. Within an +hour or two the Roman soldiers and the Jewish mob, led by the traitor, +will be there searching for Him, and He meant to spend the intervening +time in _prayer_. With the longing for sympathy so marked during these +latter months, He takes Peter and James and John and goes farther into the +deeply-shadowed grove. But now some invisible power tears him away and +plunges Him alone still farther into the moonlit recesses of the garden; +and there a strange, awful struggle of soul ensues. It seems like a +renewal of the same conflict He experienced in John twelve when the Greeks +came, but immeasurably intenser. He who in Himself knew no sin was now +beginning to realize in His spirit what within a few hours He realized +_actually_, that He was in very deed to be made sin for us. And the awful +realization comes in upon Him with such terrific intensity that it seems +as though His physical frame cannot endure the strain of mental agony. The +_actual_ experience of the next day produced such mental agony that His +physical strength gave way. For He died not of His physical suffering, +excruciating as that was, but literally of a broken heart, its walls burst +asunder by the strain of soul. It is not possible for a sinning soul to +appreciate with what nightmare dread and horror the sinless soul of Jesus +must have approached the coming contact with the sin of a world. With +bated breath and reverent gaze one follows that lonely figure among the +trees; now kneeling, now falling upon His face, lying prostrate, "He +prayed that _if_ it were possible the hour might pass away from Him." One +snatch of that prayer reaches our ears: "Abba, Father, all things are +possible unto Thee--_if_ it be possible let this cup pass away from Me; +nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." How long He remained so in +prayer we do not know, but so great was the tension of spirit that a +messenger from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. Even after that +"being in an agony He prayed more earnestly (literally, more stretched +out, more strainedly) and His sweat became as it were great clots of blood +falling down upon the ground." When at length He arises from that season +of conflict and prayer, the victory seems to be won, and something of the +old-time calm reasserts itself. He goes to the sleeping disciples, and +mindful of their coming temptation, admonishes them to pray; then returns +to the lonely solitude again for more prayer, but the change in the form +of prayer tells of the triumph of soul, "O My Father, if this cup +_cannot_ pass away except I drink it, Thy will be done." The victory is +complete. The crisis is past. He yields Himself to that dreaded experience +through which alone the Father's loving plan for a dying world can be +accomplished. Again He returns to the poor, weak disciples, and back again +for another bit of strengthening communion, and then the flickering glare +of torches in the distance tells Him that "the hour is come." With steady +step and a marvellous peace lighting His face He goes out to meet His +enemies. He overcame in this greatest crisis of His life _by prayer_. + +_The fifteenth mention_ is the final one. Of the seven sentences which He +spake upon the cross, three were prayers. Luke tells us that while the +soldiers were driving the nails through His hands and feet and lifting the +cross into place, He, thinking even then not of self, but of others, said, +"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." + +It was as the time of the daily evening sacrifice drew on, near the close +of that strange darkness which overcast all nature, after a silence of +three hours, that He loudly sobbed out the piercing, heart-rending cry, +"My God, My God, why didst Thou forsake Me?" A little later the triumphant +shout proclaimed His work done, and then the very last word was a prayer +quietly breathed out, as He yielded up His life, "Father, into Thy hands +I commend My spirit." And so His expiring breath was vocalized into +prayer. + + + +<u>A Composite Picture.</u> + + +It may be helpful to make the following summary of these allusions. + +1. _His times of prayer_: His regular habit seems plainly to have been to +devote the early morning hour to communion with His Father, and to depend +upon that for constant guidance and instruction. This is suggested +especially by Mark 1:35; and also by Isaiah 50:4-6 coupled with John 7:16 +l.c., 8:28, and 12:49. + +In addition to this regular appointment, He sought other opportunities for +secret prayer as special need arose; late at night after others had +retired; three times He remained in prayer all the night; and at irregular +intervals between times. Note that it was usually a _quiet_ time when the +noises of earth were hushed. He spent special time in prayer _before_ +important events and also _afterwards_. (See mentions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 +and 14.) + +2. _His places of prayer_: He who said, "Enter into thine inner chamber +and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret," Himself +had no fixed inner chamber, during His public career, to make easier the +habitual retirement for prayer. Homeless for the three and a half years of +ceaseless travelling, His place of prayer was a desert place, "the +deserts," "the mountains," "a solitary place." He loved nature. The +hilltop back of Nazareth village, the slopes of Olivet, the hillsides +overlooking the Galilean lake, were His favourite places. Note that it was +always a _quiet_ place, shut away from the discordant sounds of earth. + +3. _His constant spirit of prayer_: He was never out of the spirit of +prayer. He could be alone in a dense crowd. It has been said that there +are sorts of solitude, namely, of time, as early morning, or late at +night; solitude of place, as a hilltop, or forest, or a secluded room; and +solitude of spirit, as when one surrounded by a crowd may watch them +unmoved, or to be lost to all around in his own inner thought. Jesus used +all three sorts of solitude for talking with His Father. (See mentions 8, +10, 11 and 15.) + +4. _He prayed in the great crises of His life_: Five such are mentioned: +Before the awful battle royal with Satan in the Quarantanian wilderness at +the outset; before choosing the twelve leaders of the new movement; at the +time of the Galilean uprising; before the final departure from Galilee for +Judea and Jerusalem; and in Gethsemane, the greatest crisis of all. (See +mentions 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14.) + +5. He prayed for others by name, and still does. (See mention 13.) + +6. _He prayed with others_: A habit that might well be more widely copied. +A few minutes spent in quiet prayer by friends or fellow-workers before +parting wonderfully sweetens the spirit, and cements friendships, and +makes difficulties less difficult, and hard problems easier of solution. +(See mentions 7, 9 and 13.) + +7. _The greatest blessings of His life came during prayer_: Six incidents +are noted: while praying, the Holy Spirit came upon Him; He was +transfigured; three times a heavenly voice of approval came; and in His +hour of sorest distress in the garden a heavenly messenger came to +strengthen Him. (See mentions 1, 7, 11 and 14.) + +How much prayer meant to Jesus! It was not only His _regular habit_, but +His resort in _every emergency_, however slight or serious. When perplexed +He _prayed_. When hard pressed by work He _prayed_. When hungry for +fellowship He found it in _prayer_. He chose His associates and received +His messages _upon His knees_. If tempted, He _prayed_. If criticised, He +_prayed_. If fatigued in body or wearied in spirit, He had recourse to His +one unfailing habit of _prayer. Prayer_ brought Him _unmeasured power_ at +the beginning, and _kept_ the flow unbroken and undiminished. There was no +emergency, no difficulty, no necessity, no temptation that would not yield +to prayer, as He practiced it. Shall not we, who have been tracing these +steps in His prayer life, go back over them again and again until we +breathe in His very spirit of prayer? And shall we not, too, ask Him daily +to teach us how to pray, and then plan to get alone with Him regularly +that He may have opportunity to teach us, and we the opportunity to +practice His teaching? + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] John 15:16. + +[2] "Demon Possession," by J. L. Nevius. + +[3] Psalm 24:1. + +[4] Psalm 29:10. + +[5] Genesis 1:26, 28. Psalms 8:6. See quotations of this, referring to the +Man who will restore original conditions, in 1 Cor. 15:27. Ephesians 1:32, +Hebrews 2:8. Psalms 115:16. + +[6] John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. + +[7] Revelation 11:15. + +[8] John 14:30. + +[9] Jeremiah 33:3. + +[10] Psalm 50:15. + +[11] Matthew 7:7. + +[12] Isaiah 1:15. + +[13] Isaiah 59:1-3. + +[14] Psalm 66:18. + +[15] James 4:2, 3. + +[16] Matthew 5:23, 24. + +[17] Matthew 6:9-15. + +[18] Matthew 18:19-35. + +[19] Acts 16:6. + +[20] Acts 16:7. + +[21] John 7:8. + +[22] Acts 22:17-21. + +[23] 2 Cor. 5:21. + +[24] Sidney Lanier. + +[25] Ephesians 2:2. + +[26] Luke 11:5-13. + +[27] Luke 18:1-8. + +[28] 1 Peter 5:8. + +[29] Matthew 17:14-20; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43. + +[30] Matthew 16:24. + +[31] Psalm 37:7. + +[32] Isaiah 50:4. + +[33] Jeremiah 15:1. + +[34] Longfellow. + +[35] 2 Samuel 23:9, 10. + +[36] Joseph Cook. + +[37] John 7:17. + +[38] Frances Ridley Havergal. + +[39] Romans 8:26-28. + +[40] Psalm 25:9. + +[41] 1 John 5:14, 15. + +[42] 2 Timothy 2:24-26. + +[43] Isaiah 50:4, Revised. + +[44] Does not this very strong language suggest that possibly the +disciples had been conferred with by the revolutionary leaders? + +[45] 2 Cor. 3:18. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Quiet Talks on Prayer +by S. 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