{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_13196/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_13196","id":"gutenberg_13196","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13196","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Prayer -- Christianity"],"text":"Quiet Talks on Prayer\n\nby\n\nS. D. Gordon\n\n\n\n\nCopyright, 1904, by\nFleming H. Revell Company\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n\nI. The Meaning and Mission of Prayer\n  1. Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power\n  2. Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict\n  3. The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer\n  4. Does Prayer Influence God?\n\nII. Hindrances to Prayer\n  1. Why the Results Fail\n  2. Why the Results are Delayed\n  3. The Great Outside Hindrance\n\nIII. How to Pray\n  1. The \"How\" of Relationship\n  2. The \"How\" of Method\n  3. The Listening Side of Prayer\n  4. Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer\n  5. May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones\n\nIV. Jesus' Habits of Prayer\n  1. A Pen Sketch\n  2. Dissolving Views\n  3. Deepening Shadows\n  4. Under the Olive Trees\n  5. A Composite Picture\n\n\n\n\nI. The Meaning And Mission Of Prayer\n\n\n1. Prayer the Greatest Outlet of Power.\n2. Prayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict.\n3. The Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer.\n4. Does Prayer Influence God?\n\n\n\n\nPrayer the Greatest Outlet of Power\n\n\n\n<u>Five Outlets of Power.</u>\n\n\nA great sorrow has come into the heart of God. Let it be told only in\nhushed voice--one of His worlds is _a prodigal_! Hush your voice yet\nmore--_ours_ is that prodigal world. Let your voice soften down still\nmore--_we_ have _consented_ to the prodigal part of the story. But, in\nsoftest tones yet, He has won some of us back with His strong tender love.\nAnd now let the voice ring out with great gladness--we won ones may be the\npathway back to God for the others. That is His earnest desire. That\nshould be our dominant ambition. For that purpose He has endowed us with\npeculiar power.\n\nThere is one inlet of power in the life--anybody's life--any kind of\npower: just one inlet--the Holy Spirit. He is power. He is in every one\nwho opens his door to God. He eagerly enters every open door. He comes in\nby our invitation and consent. His presence within is the vital thing.\n\nBut with many of us while He is in, He is not in control: in as guest; not\nas host. That is to say He is hindered in His natural movements; tied up,\nso that He cannot do what He would. And so we are not conscious or only\npartially conscious of His presence. And others are still less so. But to\nyield to His mastery, to cultivate His friendship, to give Him full\nswing--that will result in what is called power. One inlet of power--the\nHoly Spirit in control.\n\nThere are five outlets of power: five avenues through which this One\nwithin shows Himself, and reveals His power.\n\nFirst: through the life, what we are. Just simply what we are. If we be\nright the power of God will be constantly flowing out, though we be not\nconscious of it. It throws the keenest kind of emphasis on a man being\nright in his life. There will be an eager desire to serve. Yet we may\nconstantly do more in what we are than in what we do. We may serve better\nin the lives we live than in the best service we ever give. The memory of\nthat should bring rest to your spirit when a bit tired, and may be\ndisheartened because tired.\n\nSecond: through the lips, what we say. It may be said stammeringly and\nfalteringly. But if said your best with the desire to please the Master it\nwill be God-blest. I have heard a man talk. And he stuttered and blushed\nand got his grammar badly tangled, but my heart burned as I listened. And\nI have heard a man talk with smooth speech, and it rolled off me as easily\nas it rolled out of him. Do your best, and leave the rest. If we are in\ntouch with God His fire burns whether the tongue stammer or has good\ncontrol of its powers.\n\nThird: through our service, what we do. It may be done bunglingly and\nblunderingly. Your best may not be the best, but if it be your best it\nwill bring a harvest.\n\nFourth: through our money, what we do not keep, but loosen out for God.\nMoney comes the nearest to omnipotence of anything we handle.\n\nAnd, fifth: through our prayer, what we claim in Jesus' name.\n\nAnd by all odds the greatest of these is the outlet through prayer. The\npower of a life touches just one spot, but the touch is tremendous. What\nis there we think to be compared with a pure, unselfish, gently strong\nlife. Yet its power is limited to one spot where it is being lived. Power\nthrough the lips depends wholly upon the life back of the lips. Words that\ncome brokenly are often made burning and eloquent by the life behind them.\nAnd words that are smooth and easy, often have all their meaning sapped by\nthe life back of them. Power through service may be great, and may be\ntouching many spots, yet it is always less than that of a life. Power\nthrough money depends wholly upon the motive back of the money. Begrudged\nmoney, stained money, soils the treasury. That which comes nearest to\nomnipotence also comes nearest to impotence. But the power loosened out\nthrough prayer is as tremendous, at the least, to say no more just now, is\nas tremendous as the power of a true fragrant life and, mark you, _and_,\nmay touch not one spot but wherever in the whole round world you may\nchoose to turn it.\n\nThe greatest thing any one can do for God and for man is to pray. It is\nnot the only thing. But it is the chief thing. A correct balancing of the\npossible powers one may exert puts it first. For if a man is to pray\nright, he must first _be_ right in his motives and life. And if a man _be_\nright, and put the practice of praying in its right place, then his\nserving and giving and speaking will be fairly fragrant with the presence\nof God.\n\nThe great people of the earth to-day are the people who pray. I do not\nmean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in\nprayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean these\npeople who _take_ time and _pray_. They have not time. It must be taken\nfrom something else. This something else is important. Very important, and\npressing than prayer. There are people that put prayer first, and group\nthe other items in life's schedule around and after prayer.\n\nThese are the people to-day who are doing the most for God; in winning\nsouls; in solving problems; in awakening churches; in supplying both men\nand money for mission posts; in keeping fresh and strong these lives far\noff in sacrificial service on the foreign field where the thickest\nfighting is going on; in keeping the old earth sweet awhile longer.\n\nIt is wholly a secret service. We do not know who these people are, though\nsometimes shrewd guesses may be made. I often think that sometimes we pass\nsome plain-looking woman quietly slipping out of church; gown been turned\ntwo or three times; bonnet fixed over more than once; hands that have not\nknown much of the softening of gloves; and we hardly giver her a passing\nthought, and do not know, nor guess, that perhaps _she_ is the one who is\ndoing far more for her church, and for the world, and for God than a\nhundred who would claim more attention and thought, _because she prays_;\ntruly prays as the Spirit of God inspires and guides.\n\nLet me put it this way: God will do as a result of the praying of the\nhumblest one here what otherwise He _would_ not do. Yes, I can make it\nstronger than that, and I must make it stronger, for the Book does.\nListen: God will do in answer to the prayer of the weakest one here what\notherwise he _could_ not do. \"Oh!\" someone thinks, \"you are getting that\ntoo strong now.\" Well, you listen to Jesus' own words in that last long\nquiet talk He had with the eleven men between the upper room and the\nolive-green. John preserves much of that talk for us. Listen: \"Ye did not\nchoose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear\nfruit, and that your fruit should abide: that\"--listen, a part of the\npurpose why we have been chosen--\"that whatsoever ye shall ask of the\nFather in My name, He _may_ give it you.\"[1] Mark that word \"may\"; not\n\"shall\" this time but _may_. \"Shall\" throws the matter over on God--His\npurpose. \"May\" throws it over upon us--our cooperation. That is to say our\npraying makes it possible for God to do what otherwise He could not do.\n\nAnd if you think into it a bit, this fits in with the true conception of\nprayer. In its simplest analysis prayer--all prayer--has, must have, two\nparts. First, a God to give. \"Yes,\" you say, \"certainly, a God wealthy,\nwilling, all of that.\" And, just as certainly, there must be a second\nfactor, _a man to receive_. Man's willingness is God's channel to the\nearth. God never crowds nor coerces. Everything God does for man and\nthrough man He does with man's consent, always. With due reverence, but\nvery plainly, let it be said that God can do nothing for the man with shut\nhand and shut life. There must be an open hand and heart and life\n_through_ which God can give what He longs to. An open life, an open hand,\nopen upward, is the pipe line of communication between the heart of God\nand this poor befooled old world. Our prayer is God's opportunity to get\ninto the world that would shut Him out.\n\n\n\n<u>In touch with a planet.</u>\n\n\nPrayer opens a whole planet to a man's activities. I can as really be\ntouching hearts for God in far away India or China through prayer, as\nthough I were there. Not in as many ways as though there, but as truly.\nUnderstand me, I think the highest possible _privilege_ of service is in\nthose far off lands. There the need is greatest, the darkness densest, and\nthe pleading call most eloquently pathetic. And if one _may_ go\nthere--happy man!--if one be _privileged_ to go to the honoured place of\nservice he may then use all five outlets direct in the spot where he is.\n\nYet this is only one spot. But his relationship is as wide as his Master's\nand his sympathies should be. A man may be in Africa, but if his heart be\nin touch with Jesus it will be burning for _a world_. Prayer puts us into\ndirect dynamic touch with a world.\n\nA man may go aside to-day, and shut his door, and as really spend a\nhalf-hour in India--I am thinking of my words as I say them, it seems so\nmuch to say, and yet it is true--as really spend a half hour of his life\nin India for God as though he were there in person. _Is_ that true? If it\nbe true, surely you and I must get more half-hours for this secret\nservice. Without any doubt he may turn his key and be for a bit of time as\npotentially in China by the power of prayer, as though there in actual\nbodily form. I say _potentially_ present. Of course not consciously\npresent. But in the _power exerted upon men_ he may be truly present at\nthe objective point of his prayer. He may give a new meaning to the\nprinted page being read by some native down in Africa. He may give a new\ntongue of flame to the preacher or teacher. He may make it easier for men\nto accept the story of Jesus, and then to yield themselves to\nJesus--yonder men swept and swayed by evil spirits, and by prejudices for\ngenerations--make it easier for them to accept the story, and, if need be,\nto cut with loved ones, and step out and up into a new life.\n\nSome earnest heart enters an objection here, perhaps. You are thinking\nthat if you were there you could influence men by your personal contact,\nby the living voice. So you could. And there must be the personal touch.\nWould that there were many times more going for that blessed personal\ntouch. But this is the thing to mark keenly both for those who may go, and\nfor those who must stay: no matter where you are you do more through your\npraying than through your personality. If you were in India you could _add\nyour personality to your prayer_. That would be a great thing to do. But\nwhether there or here, you must first win the victory, every step, every\nlife, every foot of the way, in secret, in the spirit-realm, and then add\nthe mighty touch of your personality in service. You can do _more _ than\npray, _after_ you have prayed. But you can _not_ do more than pray _until_\nyou have prayed. And just there is where we have all seemed to make a\nslip at times, and many of us are yet making it--a bad slip. We think we\ncan do more where we are through our service: then prayer to give power to\nservice. _No_--with the blackest underscoring of emphasis, let it be\nsaid--NO. We can do no thing of real power until we have done the prayer\nthing.\n\nHere is a man by my side. I can talk to him. I can bring my personality to\nbear upon him, that I may win him. But before I can influence his will a\njot for God, I must first have won the victory in the secret place.\nIntercession is winning the victory over the chief, and service is taking\nthe field after the chief is driven off. Such service is limited by the\nlimitation of personality to one place. This spirit-telegraphy called\nprayer puts a man into direct dynamic touch with a planet.\n\nThere are some of our friends who think themselves of the practical sort\nwho say, \"the great thing is work: prayer is good, and right, but the\ngreat need is to be doing something practical.\" The truth is that when one\nunderstands about prayer, and puts prayer in its right place in his life,\nhe finds a new motive power burning in his bones to be _doing_; and\nfurther he finds that it is the doing that grows out of praying that is\nmightiest in touching human hearts. And he finds further yet with a great\njoy that he may be _doing_ something for an entire world. His service\nbecomes as broad as his Master's thought.\n\n\n\n<u>Intercession is Service.</u>\n\n\nIt helps greatly to remember that intercession is service: the chief\nservice of a life on God's plan. It is unlike all other forms of service,\nand superior to them in this: that it has fewer limitations. In all other\nservice we are constantly limited by space, bodily strength, equipment,\nmaterial obstacles, difficulties involved in the peculiar differences of\npersonality. Prayer knows no such limitations. It ignores space. It may be\nfree of expenditure of bodily strength, where rightly practiced, and one's\npowers are under proper control. It goes directly, by the telegraphy of\nspirit, into men's hearts, quietly passes through walls, and past locks\nunhindered, and comes into most direct touch with the inner heart and will\nto be affected.\n\nIn service, as ordinarily understood, one is limited to the space where\nhis body is, the distance his voice can reach, the length of time he can\nkeep going before he must quit to eat, or rest, or sleep. He is limited by\nwalls, and locks, by the prejudices of men's minds, and by those peculiar\ndifferences of temperament which must be studied in laying siege to men's\nhearts.\n\nThe whole circle of endeavour in winning men includes such an infinite\nvariety. There is speaking the truth to a number of persons, and to one at\na time; the doing of needed kindly acts of helpfulness, supplying food,\nand the like; there is teaching; the almost omnipotent ministry of money;\nthe constant contact with a pure unselfish life; letter writing; printer's\nink in endless variety. All these are in God's plan for winning men. But\nthe intensely fascinating fact to mark is this:--that the real victory in\nall of this service is won in secret, beforehand, by prayer, and these\nother indispensable things are the moving upon the works of the enemy, and\nclaiming the victory already won. And when these things are put in their\nproper order, prayer first, and the other things second; _second_, I say,\nnot omitted, not slurred over; done with all the earnestness and power of\nbrain and hand and heart possible; but done _after_ the victory has been\nwon in secret, against the real foe, and done _while_ the winner is still\nclaiming the victory already assured,--then will come far greater\nachievements in this outer open service.\n\nThen we go into this service with that fine spirit of expectancy that\nsweeps the field at the start, and steadily sticks on the stubbornly\ncontested spots until the whipped foe turns tail, and goes. Prayer is\nstriking the winning blow at the concealed enemy. Service is gathering up\nthe results of that blow among the men we see and touch. Great patience\nand tact and persistence are needed in the service because each man must\nbe influenced in his own will. But the shrewd strategy that wins puts the\nkeen stiff secret fighting first.\n\n\n\n<u>The Spirit Switchboard.</u>\n\n\nElectricity is a strange element. It is catalogued in the study of\nphysics. It is supposed to be properly classed among the forces of nature.\nYet it seems to have many properties of the spirit world. Those who know\nmost of it say they know least of what it is. Some of the laws of its\nbeing have been learned, and so its marvellous power harnessed for man's\nuse, but in much ignorance of what it is. It seems almost to belong\nsomewhere in between the physical and spirit realms. It furnishes many\nsimiles of graphic helpfulness in understanding more nearly much truth of\nthe Spirit life.\n\nIn the power-house where the electricity is being wooed into man's\nharnessing, or generated, as the experts say, is found a switchboard, or\nswitch-room with a number of boards. Here in a large city plant a man may\ngo and turn a switch, that is, move a little handle, a very short\ndistance. It is a very simple act, easily performed, involving almost no\nstrength. But that act has loosened the power in the house back of the\nswitchboard out along the wires, and perhaps lighted a whole section of\nthe city. He goes in again at another hour, and turns _this_ set of\nswitches, and _this_, and sets in motion maybe scores of cars, carrying\nswiftly, hundreds of passengers. Again he goes in, and moves the little\nhandles and sets in motion the wheels in some factory employing hundreds\nof operatives.\n\nIt is a secret service, usually as far as any observers are concerned. It\nis a very quiet, matter of fact service. But the power influenced is\nunmeasured and immeasurable. And no one, seemingly, thus far, can explain\nthe mysterious but tremendous agent involved. Does the fluid--it a fluid?\nor, what?--pass _through_ the wire? or, _around_ the wire? The experts say\nthey do not know. But the laws which it obeys are known. And as men comply\nwith them its almost omnipotence is manifested.\n\nJust such a switch-room in the spirit realm is one's prayer-room. Every\none who will may have such a spirit switching-board in his life. There he\nmay go and in compliance with the laws of the power used loosen out the\ngracious persuasive irresistible power of God _where he wills to_; now in\nJapan; now in China; among the hungry human hearts of India's plains and\nmountains; again in Africa which is full as near to where Jesus sits as is\nEngland or America; and now into the house across the alley from your\nhome; and down in the slum district; and now into your preacher's heart\nfor next Sunday's work; and now again unto the hearts of those you will be\nmeeting in the settlement house, or the mission school.\n\nChildren are not allowed at the electrical switchboard, nor any unskilled\nhand. For misuse means possibility of great damage to property and life.\nAnd the spirit switchboard does not yield to the unskilled touch. Though\nsometimes there seems to be much tampering by those with crude fingers,\nand with selfish desire to turn this current to personal advantage merely.\n\nIt takes skill here. Yet such is our winsome God's wondrous plan that\nskill may come to any one who is willing; simply that--who is willing; and\nit comes _very simply_ too.\n\nStrange too, as with the electrical counterpart, the thing is beyond full\nor satisfying explanation.\n\nHow does it come to pass that a man turns a few handles, and miles away\ngreat wheels begin to revolve, and enormous power is manifested? Will some\none kindly explain? Yet we know it is so, and men govern their actions by\nthat knowledge.\n\nHow does it come to pass that a woman in Iowa prays for the conversion of\nher skeptical husband, and he, down in the thick of the most absorbing\ncongress Washington has known since the civil war, and in full ignorance\nof her purpose becomes conscious and repeatedly conscious of the presence\nand power of the God in whose existence he does not believe; and months\nafterwards with his keen, legally trained mind, finds the calendar to fit\ntogether the beginning of her praying with the beginning of his unwelcome\nconsciousness? Will some one kindly explain? Ah! who can, adequately! Yet\nthe facts, easy ascertainable, are there, and evidenced in the complete\nchange in the life and calling of the man.\n\nHow comes it to pass that a woman in Missouri praying for a friend of keen\nintellectual skeptically in Glasgow, who can skillfully measure and parry\nargument, yet finds afterwards that the time of her praying is the time of\nhis, at first decidedly unwelcome, but finally radical change of\nconvictions! Yet groups of thoughtful men and women know these two\ninstances to be even so though unable to explain how.\n\nAnd as the mysterious electrical power is being used by obedience to its\nlaws, even so is the power of prayer being used by many who understand\nsimply enough of its laws to obey, and to bring the stupendous results.\n\n\n\n<u>The Broad Inner Horizon.</u>\n\n\nThis suggests at once that the rightly rounded Christian life has two\nsides; the _out_-side, and the _inner_ side. To most of us the outer side\nseems the greater. The living, the serving, the giving, the doing, the\nabsorption in life's work, the contact with men, with the great majority\nthe sheer struggle for existence--these take the greater thought and time\nof us all. They seem to be the great business of life even to those of us\nwho thoroughly believe in the inner life.\n\nBut when the real eyes open, the inner eyes that see the unseen, the\nchange of perspective is first ludicrous, then terrific, then pathetic.\nLudicrous, because of the change of proportions; terrific, because of the\nissues at stake; pathetic, because of strong men that see not, and push on\nspending splendid strength whittling sticks. The outer side is narrow in\nits limits. It has to do with food and clothing, bricks and lumber, time\nand the passing hour, the culture of the mind, the joys of social contact,\nthe smoothing of the way for the suffering. And it needs not to be said,\nthat these are right; they belong in the picture; they are its physical\nbackground.\n\nThe inner side _includes all of these_, and stretches infinitely beyond.\nIts limits are broad; broad as the home of man; with its enswathing\natmosphere added. It touches the inner spirit. It moves in upon the\nmotives, the loves, the heart. It moves out upon the myriad spirit-beings\nand forces that swarm ceaselessly about the earth staining and sliming\nmen's souls and lives. It moves up to the arm of God in cooperation with\nHis great love-plan for a world.\n\nShall we follow for a day one who has gotten the true perspective? Here is\nthe outer side: a humble home, a narrow circle, tending the baby,\npatching, sewing, cooking, calling; _or_, measuring dry goods, chopping a\ntypewriter, checking up a ledger, feeding the swift machinery, endless\nstitching, gripping a locomotive lever, pushing the plow, tending the\nstock, doing the chores, tiresome examination papers; and all the rest of\nthe endless, endless, doing, day by day, of the commonplace treadmill\nthings, that must be done, that fill out the day of the great majority of\nhuman lives. This one whom we are following unseen is doing quietly,\ncheerily his daily round, with a bit of sunshine in his face, a light in\nhis eye, and lightness in his step, and the commonplace place becomes\nuncommon by reason of the presence of this man with the uncommon spirit.\nHe is working for God. No, better, he is working with God. He has an\nunseen Friend at his side. That changes all. The common drudgery ceases to\nbe common, and ceases to be drudgery because it is done for such an\nuncommon Master. That is the outer, the narrow side of this life: not\nnarrow in itself but in its proportion to the whole.\n\nNow, hold your breath, and look, for here is the inner side where the\nlarger work of life is being done. Here is the quiet bit of time alone\nwith God, with the Book. The door is shut, as the Master said. Now it is\nthe morning hour with a bit of made light, for the sun is busy yet farther\neast. Now it is the evening hour, with the sun speeding towards western\nservice, and the bed invitingly near. There is a looking up into God's\nface; then keen but reverent reading, and then a simple intelligent\npleading with its many variations of this--\"Thy will be done, in the\nVictor's name.\" God Himself is here, in this inner room. The angels are\nhere. This room opens out into and is in direct touch with a spirit space\nas wide as the earth. The horizon of this room is as broad as the globe.\nGod's presence with this man makes it so.\n\nTo-day a half hour is spent in China, for its missionaries, its native\nChristians, its millions, the printed page, the personal contact, the\ntelling of the story, the school, the dispensary, the hospital. And in\nthrough the petitions runs this golden thread--\"Victory in Jesus' name:\nvictory in Jesus' name; to-day: to-day: Thy will be being done: the other\nwill undone: victory in Jesus' name.\" Tomorrow's bit of time is largely\nspent in India perhaps. And so this man with the narrow outer horizon and\nthe broad inner horizon pushes his spirit-way through Japan, India,\nCeylon, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Africa, Europe's papal lands, the South\nAmerican States, the home land, its cities, frontiers, slums, the home\ntown, the home church, the man across the alley; in and out; out and in;\nthe tide of prayer sweeps quietly, resistlessly day by day.\n\nThis is the true Christian life. This man is winning souls and refreshing\nlives in these far-off lands and in near-by places as truly as though he\nwere in each place. This is the Master's plan. The true follower of Jesus\nhas as broad a horizon as his Master. Jesus thought in continents and\nseas. His follower prays in continents and seas. This man does not know\nwhat is being accomplished. Yes! He _does_ know, too. He knows by the\ninference of faith.\n\nThis room where we are meeting and talking together might be shut up so\ncompletely that no light comes in. A single crack breaking somewhere lets\nin a thin line of light. But that line of light shining in the darkness\ntells of a whole sun of light flooding the outer world.\n\nThere comes to this man occasional, yes frequent, evidences of changes\nbeing wrought, yet he knows that these are but the thin line of glory\nlight which speaks of the fuller shining. And with a spirit touched with\nglad awe that he can and may help God, and a heart full alike of peace and\nof yearning, and a life fragrant with an unseen Presence he goes steadily\non his way, towards the dawning of the day.\n\n\n\n\nPrayer the Deciding Factor in a Spirit Conflict\n\n\n\n<u>A Prehistoric Conflict.</u>\n\n\nIn its simplest meaning prayer has to do with a conflict. Rightly\nunderstood it is the deciding factor in a spirit conflict. The scene of\nthe conflict is the earth. The purpose of the conflict is to decide the\ncontrol of the earth, and its inhabitants. The conflict runs back into the\nmisty ages of the creation time.\n\nThe rightful prince of the earth is Jesus, the King's Son. There is a\npretender prince who was once rightful prince. He was guilty of a breach\nof trust. But like King Saul, after his rejection and David's anointing in\nhis place, he has been and is trying his best by dint of force to hold the\nrealm and oust the rightful ruler.\n\nThe rightful Prince is seeking by utterly different means, namely by\npersuasion, to win the world back to its first allegiance. He had a fierce\nset-to with the pretender, and after a series of victories won the great\nvictory of the resurrection morning.\n\nThere is one peculiarity of this conflict making it different from all\nothers; namely, a decided victory, and the utter vanquishing of the\nleading general has not stopped the war. And the reason is remarkable. The\nVictor has a deep love-ambition to win, not merely against the enemy, but\n_into men's hearts, by their free consent_. And so, with marvellous\nlove-born wisdom and courage, the conflict is left open, for men's sake.\n\nIt is a spirit conflict. The earth is swung in a spirit atmosphere. There\nare unnumbered thousands of spirit beings good and evil, tramping the\nearth's surface, and filling its atmosphere. They are splendidly organized\ninto two compact organizations.\n\nMan is a spirit being; an embodied spirit being. He has a body and a mind.\nHe is a spirit. His real conflicts are of the spirit sort; in the spirit\nrealm, with other spirit beings.\n\nSatan is a spirit being; an unembodied spirit being. That is, unembodied,\nsave as in much cunning, with deep, dark purpose he secures embodiment in\nhuman beings.\n\nThe only sort of power that influences in the spirit realm is _moral_\npower. By which is not meant _goodness_, but that sort of power either bad\nor good which is not of a physical sort: that higher, infinitely higher\nand greater power than the mere physical. Moral power is the opposite of\nviolent or physical power.\n\nGod does not use force, violent physical force. There are some exceptions\nto this statement. There have been righteous wars, righteous on one side.\nTurning to the Bible record, in emergencies, in extreme instances God has\nordered war measures. The nations that Israel was told to remove by the\ndeath of war would have inevitably worn themselves out through their\nphysical excesses, and disobedience of the laws of life. But a wide view\nof the race revealed an emergency which demanded a speedier movement. And\nas an exception, for the sake of His plan for the ultimate saving of a\nrace, and a world, God gave an extermination order. The emergency makes\nthe exception. There is one circumstance under which the taking of human\nlife is right, namely, when it can be clearly established that God the\ngiver and sovereign of life has so directed. But the rule clearly is that\nGod does not use force.\n\nBut note sharply in contrast with this that physical force is one of\nSatan's chief weapons. But mark there two intensely interesting facts:\nfirst, he can use it only as he secures man as his ally, and uses it\nthrough him. And, second, in using it he has with great subtlety sought to\nshift the sphere of action. He knows that in the sphere of spirit force\npure and simple he is at a disadvantage: indeed, worse yet, he is\ndefeated. For there is a moral force on the other side greater than any at\nhis command. The forces of purity and righteousness he simply _can_not\nwithstand. Jesus is the personification of purity and righteousness. It\nwas on this moral ground, in this spirit sphere that He won the great\nvictory. He ran a terrific gauntlet of tests, subtle and fierce, through\nthose human years, and came out victor with His purity and righteousness\nunstained.\n\n\n\n<u>Prayer is Projecting One's Spirit Personality.</u>\n\n\nNow prayer is a spirit force, it has to do wholly with spirit beings and\nforces. It is an insistent claiming, by a man, an embodied spirit being,\ndown on the contested earth, that the power of Jesus' victory over the\ngreat evil-spirit chieftain shall extend to particular lives now under his\ncontrol. The prayer takes on the characteristic of the man praying. He is\na spirit being. It becomes a spirit force. It is a projecting into the\nspirit realm of his spirit personality. Being a spirit force it has\ncertain qualities or characteristics of unembodied spirit beings. An\nunembodied spirit being is not limited by space as we embodied folk are.\nIt can go as swiftly as we can think. If I want to go to London it will\ntake at least a week's time to get my body through the intervening space.\nBut I can think myself into London more quickly than I can say the words,\nand be walking down the Strand. Now a spirit being can go as quickly as I\ncan think.\n\nFurther, spirit beings are not limited by material obstructions such as\nthe walls of this building. When I came in here to-day I came in by this\ndoor. You all came in by these doors. We were obliged to come in either by\ndoors or windows. But the spirit beings who are here listening to us, and\ndeeply concerned with our discussion did not bother with the doors. They\ncame in through the walls, or the roof, if they were above us, or through\nthe floor here, if they happened to be below this level.\n\nPrayer has these qualities of spirit beings of not being limited by space,\nor by material obstacles. Prayer is really projecting my spirit, that is,\nmy real personality to the spot concerned, and doing business there with\nother spirit beings. For example there is a man in a city on the Atlantic\nseaboard for whom I pray daily. It makes my praying for him very tangible\nand definite to recall that every time I pray my prayer is a spirit force\ninstantly traversing the space in between him and me, and going without\nhindrance through the walls of the house where he is, and influencing the\nspirit beings surrounding him, and so influencing his own will.\n\nWhen it became clear to me some few years ago that my Master would not\nhave me go yet to those parts of the earth where the need is greatest, a\ndeep tinge of disappointment came over me. Then as I realized the wisdom\nof His sovereignty in service, it came to me anew that I could exert a\npositive influence in those lands for Him by prayer. As many others have\ndone, I marked out a daily schedule of prayer. There are certain ones for\nwhom I pray by name, at certain intervals. And it gives great simplicity\nto my faith, and great gladness to my heart to remember that every time\nsuch prayer is breathed out, my spirit personality is being projected\nyonder, and in effect I am standing in Shanghai, and Calcutta and Tokyo in\nturn and pleading the power of Jesus' victory over the evil one there, and\non behalf of those faithful ones standing there for God.\n\nIt is a fiercely contested conflict. Satan is a trained strategist, and an\nobstinate fighter. He refuses to acknowledge defeat until he must. It is\nthe fight of his life. Strange as it must seem, and perhaps absurd, he\napparently hopes to succeed. If we knew all, it might seem less strange\nand absurd, because of the factors on his side. There is surely much down\nin the world of the sort which we can fully appreciate to give colour to\nhis expectations. Prayer is insisting upon Jesus' victory, and the retreat\nof the enemy on each particular spot, and heart and problem concerned.\n\nThe enemy yields only what he must. He yields only what is taken.\nTherefore the ground must be taken step by step. Prayer must be definite.\nHe yields only when he must. Therefore the prayer must be persistent. He\ncontinually renews his attacks, therefore the ground taken must be _held_\nagainst him in the Victor's name. This helps to understand why prayer\nmust be persisted in after we have full assurance of the result, and even\nafter some immediate results have come, or, after the general results have\ncommenced coming.\n\n\n\n<u>Giving God a Fresh Footing.</u>\n\n\nThe Victor's best ally in this conflict is the man, who while he remains\ndown on the battle-field, puts his life in full touch with his\nSaviour-Victor, and then incessantly, insistently, believingly claims\n_victory in Jesus' name_. He is the one foe among men whom Satan cannot\nwithstand. He is projecting an irresistible spirit force into the spirit\nrealm. Satan is obliged to yield. We are so accustomed through history's\nlong record to seeing victories won through force, physical force, alone,\nthat it is difficult for us to realize that moral force defeats as the\nother never can. Witness the demons in the gospels, and in modern days in\nChina,[2] clearly against their own set purpose, notwithstanding intensest\nstruggle on their part obliged to admit defeat, and even to ask favours of\ntheir Conqueror. The records of personal Christian service give\nfascinating instances of fierce opposition utterly subdued and individuals\ntransformed through such influence.\n\nHad we eyes to see spirit beings and spirit conflicts we would constantly\nsee the enemy's defeat in numberless instances through the persistent\npraying of some one allied to Jesus in the spirit of his life. Every time\nsuch a man prays it is a waving of the red-dyed flag of Jesus Christ above\nSatan's head in the spirit world. Every such man who freely gives himself\nover to God, and gives himself up to prayer is giving God a new spot in\nthe contested territory on which to erect His banner of victory.\n\nThe Japanese struggled for weeks to get a footing on the Port Arthur\npeninsula, even after the naval victories had practically rendered Russia\nhelpless on the seas. It was an unusual spectacle to witness such\ndifficulty in getting a landing after such victories. But with the bulldog\ntenacity that has marked her fighting Japan fought for a footing. Nothing\ncould be done till a footing was gotten.\n\nPrayer is man giving God a footing on the contested territory of this\nearth. The man in full touch of purpose with God praying, insistently\npraying--that man is God's footing on the enemy's soil. The man wholly\ngiven over to God gives Him a new sub-headquarters on the battle-field\nfrom which to work out. And the Holy Spirit within that man, on the new\nspot, will insist on the enemy's retreat in Jesus the Victor's name. That\nis prayer. Shall we not, every one of us, increase God's footing down upon\nHis prodigal earth!\n\n\n\n\nThe Earth, the Battle-Field in Prayer\n\n\n\n<u>Prayer a War Measure.</u>\n\n\nThis world is God's prodigal son. The heart of God's bleeds over His\nprodigal. It has been gone so long, and the home circle is broken. He has\nspent all the wealth of His thought on a plan for winning the prodigal\nback home. Angels and men have marvelled over that plan, its sweep, its\ndetail, its strength and wisdom, its tenderness. He needs man for His\nplan. He will _use_ man. That is true. He will _honour_ man in service.\nThat is true. But these only touch the edge of the truth. The pathway from\nGod to a human heart is through a human heart. When He came to the great\nstrategic move in His plan, He Himself came down as a man and made that\nmove. _He needs man for His plan._\n\nThe greatest agency put into man's hands is prayer. To understand that at\nall fully one needs to define prayer. And to define prayer adequately one\nmust use the language of war. Peace language is not equal to the\nsituation. The earth is in a state of war. It is being hotly besieged and\nso one must use war talk to grasp the facts with which prayer is\nconcerned. _Prayer from God's side is communication between Himself and\nHis allies in the enemy's country_. Prayer is not persuading God. It does\nnot influence God's purpose. It is not winning Him over to our side; never\nthat. He is far more eager for what we are rightly eager for than we ever\nare. What there is of wrong and sin and suffering that pains you, pains\nHim far more. He knows more about it. He is more keenly sensitive to it\nthan the most sensitive one of us. Whatever of heart yearning there may be\nthat moves you to prayer is from Him. God takes the initiative in all\nprayer. It starts with Him. True prayer moves in a circle. It begins in\nthe heart of God, sweeps down into a human heart upon the earth, so\nintersecting the circle of the earth, which is the battle-field of prayer,\nand then it goes back again to its starting point, having accomplished its\npurpose on the downward swing.\n\n\n\n<u>Three Forms of Prayer.</u>\n\n\nPrayer is the word commonly used for all intercourse with God. But it\nshould be kept in mind that that word covers and includes three forms of\nintercourse. All prayer grows up through, and ever continues in three\nstages.\n\nThe first form of prayer is _communion_. That is simply being on good\nterms with God. It involves the blood of the cross as the basis of our\ngetting and being on good terms. It involves my coming to God through\nJesus. Communion is fellowship with God. Not request for some particular\nthing; not asking, but simply enjoying Himself, loving Him, thinking about\nHim, how beautiful, and intelligent, and strong and loving and lovable He\nis; talking to Him without words. That is the truest worship, thinking how\nworthy He is of all the best we can possibly bring to Him, and infinitely\nmore. It has to do wholly with God and a man being on good terms with each\nother. Of necessity it includes confession on my part and forgiveness upon\nGod's part, for only so can we come into the relation of fellowship.\nAdoration, worship belong to this first phase of prayer. Communion is the\nbasis of all prayer. It is the essential breath of the true Christian\nlife. It concerns just two, God and myself, yourself. Its influence is\ndirectly subjective. _It affects me._\n\nThe second form of prayer is _petition_. And I am using that word now in\nthe narrower meaning of asking something for one's self. Petition is\ndefinite request of God for something I need. A man's whole life is\nutterly dependent upon the giving hand of God. Everything we need comes\nfrom Him. Our friendships, ability to make money, health, strength in\ntemptation, and in sorrow, guidance in difficult circumstances, and in all\nof life's movements; help of all sorts, financial, bodily, mental,\nspiritual--all come from God, and necessitate a constant touch with Him.\nThere needs to be a constant stream of petition going up, many times\nwordless prayer. And there will be a constant return stream of answer and\nsupply coming down. The door between God and one's own self must be kept\never open. The knob to be turned is on our side. He opened His side long\nago, and propped it open, and threw the knob away. The whole life hinges\nupon this continual intercourse with our wondrous God. This is the second\nstage or form of prayer. It concerns just two: God and the man dealing\nwith God. It is subjective in its influence: _its reach is within_.\n\nThe third form of prayer is _intercession_. True prayer never stops with\npetition for one's self. It reaches out for others. The very word\nintercession implies a reaching out for some one else. It is standing as a\ngo-between, a mutual friend, between God and some one who is either out of\ntouch with Him, or is needing special help. Intercession is the climax of\nprayer. It is the outward drive of prayer. It is the effective end of\nprayer _outward_. Communion and petition are upward and downward.\nIntercession rests upon these two as its foundation. Communion and\npetition store the life with the power of God; intercession lets it out on\nbehalf of others. The first two are necessarily for self; this third is\nfor others. They ally a man fully with God: it makes use of that alliance\nfor others. Intercession is the full-bloomed plant whose roots and\nstrength lie back and down in the other two forms. _It_ is the form of\nprayer that helps God in His great love-plan for winning a planet back to\nits true sphere. It will help through these talks to keep this simple\nanalysis of prayer in mind. For much that will be said will deal chiefly\nwith this third form, intercession, the outward movement of prayer.\n\n\n\n<u>The Climax of Prayer.</u>\n\n\nTo God man is first an objective point, and then, without ceasing to be\nthat, he further becomes a distributing centre. God ever thinks of a man\ndoubly: first for his own self, and then for his possible use in reaching\nothers. Communion and petition fix and continue one's relation to God, and\nso prepare for the great outreaching form of prayer--intercession. Prayer\nmust begin in the first two but reaches its climax in the third. Communion\nand petition are of necessity self-wide. Intercession is world-wide in its\nreach. And all true rounded prayer will ever have all three elements in\nit. There must be the touch with God. One's constant needs make constant\npetition. But the heart of the true follower has caught the warm contagion\nof the heart of God and reaches out hungrily for the world. Intercession\nis the climax of prayer.\n\nMuch is said of the subjective and objective value of prayer; its\ninfluence upon one's self, and its possible influence upon persons and\nevents quite outside of one's self. Of necessity the first two sorts of\nprayer here named are subjective; they have to do wholly with one's self.\nOf equal necessity intercessory prayer is objective; it has to do wholly\nwith others. There is even here a reflex influence; in the first two\ndirectly subjective; here incidentally reflex. Contact with God while\ndealing with Him for another of necessity influences me. But that is the\nmere fringe of the garment. The main driving purpose is outward.\n\nJust now in certain circles it seems quite the thing to lay great stress\nupon the subjective value of prayer and to whittle down small, or, deny\nentirely its value in influencing others. Some who have the popular ear\nare quite free with tongue and pen in this direction. From both without\nand within distinctly Christian circles their voices come. One wonders if\nthese friends lay the greater emphasis on the subjective value of prayer\nso as to get a good deep breath for their hard drive at the other. Yet the\ngreater probability is that they honestly believe as they say, but have\nfailed to grasp the full perspective of the picture. In listening to such\nstatements one remembers with vivid distinctness that the scriptural\n_standpoint_ always is this: that things quite outside of one's self, that\nin the natural order of prevailing circumstances would not occur, are made\nto occur through prayer. Jesus constantly so _assumed_. The first-flush,\ncommonsense view of successful prayer is that some actual result is\nsecured through its agency.\n\nIt is an utter begging of the question to advance such a theory as a\nsufficient explanation of prayer. For prayer in its simplest conception\nsupposes something changed that is not otherwise reachable. Both from the\nscriptural, and from a rugged philosophical standpoint the objective is\nthe real driving point of all full prayer. The subjective is in order to\nthe objective, as the final outward climactic reach of God's great\nlove-plan for a world.\n\n\n\n<u>Six Facts Underlying Prayer.</u>\n\n\nIt will help greatly to step back and up a bit for a fresh look at certain\nfacts that underlie prayer. Everything depends on a right point of view.\nThere may be many view-points, from which to study any subject; but of\nnecessity any one view-point must take in all the essential facts\nconcerned. If not, the impression formed will be wrong, and a man will be\nmisled in his actions. In these talks I make no attempt to prove the\nBible's statements, nor to suggest a common law for their interpretation.\nThat would be a matter for quite a separate series of talks. It clears the\nground to assume certain things. I am assuming the accuracy of these\nscriptural statements. And I am glad to say I have no difficulty in doing\nso.\n\nNow there are certain facts constantly stated and assumed in this old\nBook. They are clearly stated in its history, they are woven into its\nsongs, and they underlie all these prophetic writings, from Genesis clear\nto the end of John's Patmos visions. Possibly they have been so familiar\nand taken for granted so long as to have grown unfamiliar. The very old\nmay need stating as though very new. Here is a chain of six facts:\n\nFirst:--The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.[3] His by\ncreation and by sovereign rule. The Lord sat as King at the flood.[4]\n\nSecond:--God gave the dominion of the earth to man. The kingship of its\nlife, the control and mastery of its forces.[5]\n\nThird:--Man, who held the dominion of the earth in trust from God,\ntransferred his dominion to somebody else, by an act which was a double\nact. He was deceived into doing that act. It was an act of disobedience\nand of obedience. Disobedience to God, and obedience to another one, a\nprince who was seeking to get the dominion of the earth into his own\nhands. That act of the first man did this. The disobedience broke with\nGod, and transferred the allegiance from God. The obedience to the other\none transferred the allegiance, and through that, the dominion to this\nother one.\n\nThe fourth fact is this:--The dominion or kingship of this earth so far\nas given to man, is now not God's, for He gave it to man. And it is not\nman's, for he has transferred it to another. It is in the control of that\nmagnificent prince whose changed character supplies his name--Satan, the\nhater, the enemy. Jesus repeatedly speaks of \"the prince\"--that is the\nruling one--\"of this world.\"[6] John speaks in his vision-book of a time\ncoming when \"the kingdom (not kingdoms, as in the old version) of the\nworld is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ.\"[7] By clear\ninference previous to that time it is somebody's else kingdom than His.\nThe kingship or rulership of the earth which was given to man is now\nSatan's.\n\nThe fifth fact:--God was eager to swing the world back to its original\nsway: for His own sake, for man's sake, for the earth's sake. You see, we\ndo not know God's world as it came from His hand. It is a rarely beautiful\nworld even yet--the stars above, the plant life, the waters, the exquisite\ncolouring and blending, the combinations of all these--an exquisitely\nbeautiful world even yet. But it is not the world it was, nor that some\ncoming day it will be. It has been sadly scarred and changed under its\npresent ruler. Probably Eve would not recognize in the present world her\nearly home-earth as it came fresh from the hand of its Maker.\n\nGod was eager to swing the old world back to its original control. But to\ndo so He must get a man, one of the original trustee class through whom He\nmight swing it back to its first allegiance. It was given to man. It was\nswung away by man. It must be swung back by man. And so a Man came, and\nwhile Jesus was perfectly and utterly human, we spell that word Man with a\ncapital M because He was a man quite distinct from all men. Because He was\nmore truly human than all other men He is quite apart from other men. This\nMan was to head a movement for swinging the world back to its first\nallegiance.\n\nThe sixth fact is this:--These two, God's Man, and the pretender-prince,\nhad a combat: the most terrific combat ever waged or witnessed. From the\ncruel, malicious cradle attack until Calvary's morning and two days longer\nit ran. Through those thirty-three years it continued with a terrificness\nand intensity unknown before or since. The master-prince of subtlety and\nforce did his best and his worst, through those Nazareth years, then into\nthe wilderness,--and Gethsemane--and Calvary. And that day at three\no'clock and for a bit longer the evil one thought he had won. And there\nwas great glee up in the headquarters of the prince of this world. They\nthought the victory was theirs when God's Man lay in the grave under the\nbars of death, within the immediate control of the lord of death. But the\nthird morning came and the bars of death were snapped like cotton thread.\n_Jesus rose a Victor._ For it was not possible that such as _He_ could be\nheld by death's lord. And then Satan knew that he was defeated. Jesus,\nGod's Man, the King's rightful prince, had gotten the victory.\n\nBut, please mark very carefully four sub-facts on Satan's side. First, he\nrefuses to acknowledge his defeat. Second, he refuses to surrender his\ndominion until he must. He yields only what he must and when he must.\nThird, he is supported in his ambitions by man. He has man's consent to\nhis control. The majority of men on the earth to-day, and in every day,\nhave assented to his control. He has control only through man's consent.\n(Satan _can_not get into a man's heart without his consent, and God _will_\nnot.) And, fourth, he hopes yet to make his possession of the earth\npermanent.\n\n\n\n<u>The Victor's Great Plan.</u>\n\n\nNow, hold your breath and note, on the side of the Victor-prince, this\nunparalleled and unimitated action: He has left the conflict open, and the\ndefeated chief on the field that He may win not simply against the chief,\nbut through that victory may win the whole prodigal race back to His\nFather's home circle again. But the great pitched battle is yet to come. I\nwould better say _a_ pitched battle, for the greatest one is past. Jesus\nrides into the future fight a Victor. Satan will fight his last fight\nunder the shadow and sting of a defeat. Satan is apparently trying hard to\nget a Jesus. That is to say Jesus was God's Man sent down to swing the\nworld back. Satan is trying his best to get _a man_--one of the original\ntrustee class, to whom the dominion of the earth was intrusted--a man who\nwill stand for him even as Jesus stood for God. Indeed a man who will\npersonify himself even as Jesus was the personification of God, the\nexpress image of His person. When he shall succeed in that the last\ndesperate crisis will come.\n\n_Now prayer is this: A man_, one of the original trustee class, who\nreceived the earth in trust from God, and who gave its control over to\nSatan; a man, _on the earth_, the poor old Satan-stolen, sin-slimed,\nsin-cursed, contested earth; a man, on the earth, _with his life in full\ntouch with the Victor, and sheer out of touch with the pretender-prince,\ninsistently claiming that Satan shall yield before Jesus'-victory, step by\nstep, life after life_. Jesus is the victor. Satan knows it, and fears\nHim. He must yield before His advance, and he must yield before this man\nwho stands for Jesus down on the earth. And he _will_ yield. Reluctantly,\nangrily, as slowly as may be, stubbornly contesting every inch of ground,\nhis clutches will loosen and he will go before this Jesus-man.\n\nJesus said \"the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me.\"[8]\nWhen you and I say, as we may say, very humbly depending on His grace,\nvery determinedly in the resolution of our own imperial will, \"though the\nprince of this world come he shall have nothing in me, no coaling station\nhowever small on the shores of my life,\" then we shall be in position\nwhere Satan must yield as we claim--victory in the Victor's Name.\n\n\n\n\nDoes Prayer Influence God?\n\n\n\n<u>How God Gives.</u>\n\n\nSome one may object to all this that the statements of God's word do not\nagree with this point of view.\n\nAt random memory brings up a few very familiar passages, frequently\nquoted. \"Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and will shew thee great\nthings, and difficult, that thou knowest not.\"[9] \"And call upon Me in the\nday of trouble; I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me.\"[10] \"Ask,\nand it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be\nopened unto you.\"[11] Here it seems, as we have for generations been\naccustomed to think, that our asking is the thing that influences God to\ndo. And further, that many times persistent, continued asking is necessary\nto induce God to do. And the usual explanation for this need of\npersistence is that God is testing our faith, and seeking to make certain\nchanges in us, before granting our requests. This explanation is without\ndoubt quite true, _in part_. Yet the thing to mark is that it explains\n_only_ in part. And when the whole circle of truth is brought into view,\nthis explanation is found to cover only a small part of the whole.\n\nWe seem to learn best about God by analogies. The analogy never brings all\nthere is to be learned. Yet it seems to be the nearest we can get. From\nwhat we know of ourselves we come to know Him.\n\nWill you notice how men give? Among those who give to benevolent\nenterprises there are three sorts of givers, with variations in each.\n\nThere is the man who gives because he is influenced by others. If the\nright man or committee of men call, and deftly present their pleas,\nplaying skillfully upon what may appeal to him; his position; his egotism;\nthe possible advantage to accrue; what men whom he wants to be classed\nwith are doing, and so on through the wide range that such men are\nfamiliar with; if they persist, by and by he gives. At first he seems\nreluctant, but finally gives with more or less grace. That is one sort of\ngiver.\n\nThere is a second sort: the man of truly benevolent heart who is desirous\nof giving that he may be of help to other men. He listens attentively when\npleas come to him, and waits only long enough to satisfy himself of the\nworth of the cause, and the proper sort of amount to give, and then gives.\n\nThere is a third sort, the rarest sort. This second man a stage farther\non, who _takes the initiative_. He looks about him, makes inquiries, and\nthinks over the great need in every direction of his fellow men. He\ndecides where his money may best be used to help; and then himself offers\nto give. But his gift may be abused by some who would get his money if\nthey could, and use it injudiciously, or otherwise than he intends. So he\nmakes certain conditions which must be met, the purpose of which is to\nestablish sympathetic relations in some particular with those whom he\nwould help. An Englishman's heart is strongly moved to get the story of\nJesus to the inland millions of Chinese. He requests the China-Inland\nMission to control the expenditure of almost a million dollars of his\nmoney in such a way as best to secure the object in his heart. An American\ngives a large sum to the Young Men's Christian Association of his home\ncity to be expended as directed. His thought is not to build up this\nparticular organization, but to benefit large numbers of the young men of\nhis town who will meet certain conditions which he thinks to be for their\ngood. He has learned to trust this organization, and so it becomes his\ntrustee.\n\nAnother man feels that if the people of New York City can be given good\nreading they can thereby best be helped in life. And so he volunteers\nmoney for a number of libraries throughout that city. And thousands who\nyearn to increase their knowledge come into sympathy with him in that one\npoint through his gift. In all such cases the giver's thought is to\naccomplish certain results in those whose purpose in certain directions is\nsympathetic with his own.\n\nAny human illustration of God must seem crude. Yet of these three sorts of\ngivers there is one and only one that begins to suggest how God gives. It\nmay seem like a very sweeping statement to make, yet I am more and more\ndisposed to believe it true that _most persons_ have unthinkingly thought\nof God's answering prayer as the first of these three men give. Many\nothers have had in mind some such thought as the second suggests. Yet to\nstate the case even thus definitely is to make it plain that neither of\nthese ways in any manner illustrate God's giving. The third comes the\nnearest to picturing the God who hears and answers prayer. Our God has a\ngreat heart yearning after His poor prodigal world, and after each one in\nit. He longs to have the effects of sin removed, and the original image\nrestored. He takes the initiative. Yet everything that is done for man\nmust of necessity be through man's will; by his free and glad consent. The\nobstacles in the way are not numberless nor insurmountable, but they are\nmany and they are stubborn. There is a keen, cunning pretender-prince who\nis a past-master in the fine art of handling men. There are wills warped\nand weakened; consciences blurred; minds the opposite of keen,\nsensibilities whose edge has been dulled beyond ordinary hope of being\never made keen again. Sin has not only stained the life, but warped the\njudgment, sapped the will, and blurred the mental vision. And God has a\nhard time just because every change must of necessity be through that\nsapped and warped will.\n\nYet the difficulty though great is never complex but very simple. And so\nthe statement of His purpose is ever exquisitely simple. Listen again:\n\"Call unto Me, and I will answer thee and shew thee great things and\ndifficult which thou knowest not.\" If a man call he has already turned his\nface towards God. His will has acted, and acted doubly; away from the\nopposite, and _towards_ God, a simple step but a tremendous one. The\ncalling is the point of sympathetic contact with God where their purposes\nbecome the same. The caller is beset by difficulties and longs for\nfreedom. The God who speaks to him saw the difficulties long ago and\neagerly longed to remove them. Now they have come to agreement. And\nthrough this willing will God eagerly works out His purpose.\n\n\n\n<u>A Very Old Question.</u>\n\n\nThis leads to a very old question: Does prayer influence God? No question\nhas been discussed more, or more earnestly. Skeptical men of fine\nscientific training have with great positiveness said \"no.\" And Christian\nmen of scholarly training and strong faith have with equal positiveness\nsaid \"yes.\" Strange to say both have been right. Not right in all their\nstatements, nor right in all their beliefs, nor right in all their\nprocesses of thinking, but right in their ultimate conclusions as\nrepresented by these short words, \"no,\" and \"yes.\" Prayer does not\ninfluence God. Prayer surely does influence God. It does not influence His\npurpose. It does influence His action. Everything that ever has been\nprayed for, of course I mean every right thing, God has already purposed\nto do. But He does nothing without our consent. He has been hindered in\nHis purposes by our lack of willingness. When we learn His purposes and\nmake them our prayers we are giving Him the opportunity to act. It is a\ndouble opportunity: manward and Satanward. We are willing. Our willingness\ncheckmates Satan's opposition. It opens the path to God and rids it of the\nobstacles. And so the road is cleared for the free action already planned.\n\nThe further question of nature's laws being sometimes set aside is wholly\na secondary matter. Nature's laws are merely God's habit of action in\nhandling secondary forces. They involve no purpose of God. His purposes\nare regarding moral issues. That the sun shall stay a bit longer than\nusual over a certain part of the earth is a mere detail with God. It does\nnot affect His power for the whole affair is under His finger. It does not\naffect His purpose for that as concerning far more serious matters. The\nemergencies of earth wrought by sin necessitate just such incidents, that\nthe great purpose of God for man shall be accomplished.\n\nEmergencies change all habits of action, divine and human. They are the\nreal test of power. If a man throw down the bundle he is carrying and make\na quick wild dash out into the middle of the street, dropping his hat on\nthe way, and grasp convulsively for something on the ground when no cause\nappears for such action we would quickly conclude that the proper place\nfor him is an asylum. But if a little toddling child is almost under the\nhorse's hoofs, or the trolley car, no one thinks of criticising, but\ninstead admires his courage, and quick action, and breathlessly watches\nfor the result. Emergencies call for special action. They should control\nactions, where they exist. Emergencies explain action, and explain\nsatisfactorily what nothing else could explain.\n\n_The world is in a great emergency through sin._ Only as that tremendous\nfact grips us shall we be men of prayer, and men of action up to the limit\nof the need, and to the limit of the possibilities. Only as that intense\nfact is kept in mind shall we begin to understand God's actions in\nhistory, and in our personal experiences. The greatest event of earth, the\ncross, was an emergency action.\n\nThe fact that prayer does not make any change in God's thought or\npurpose, reveals His marvellous love in a very tender way.\n\nSuppose I want something very much and _need_ as well as want. And I go to\nGod and ask for it. And suppose He is reluctant about giving: had not\nthought about giving me that thing; and rather hesitates. But I am\ninsistent, and plead and persist and by and by God is impressed with my\nearnestness, and sees that I really need the thing, and answers my prayer,\nand gives me what I ask. Is not that a loving God so to listen and yield\nto my plea? Surely. How many times just such an instance has taken place\nbetween a child and his father, or mother. And the child thinks to\nhimself, \"How loving father is; he has given me the thing I asked for.\"\n\nBut suppose God is thinking about me all the time, and planning, with\nlove-plans for me, and longing to give me much that He has. Yet in His\nwisdom He does not give because I do not know my own need, and have not\nopened my hand to receive, yes, and, further yet, likely as not, not\nknowing my need I might abuse, or misuse, or fail to use, something given\nbefore I had felt the need of it. And now I come to see and feel that need\nand come and ask and He, delighted with the change in me, eagerly gives.\nTell me, is not that a very much more loving God than the other conception\nsuggests? The truth is _that_ is God. Jesus says, \"Your Father knoweth\nwhat things ye have need of _before ye ask_.\" And He is a Father. And\nwith God the word father means mother too. Then what He _knows_ we need He\nhas _already planned_ to give. The great question for me then in praying\nfor some personal thing is this: Do _I_ know what _He_ knows I need? Am I\nthinking about what He is thinking about for me?\n\nAnd then remember that God is so much more in His loving planning than the\nwisest, most loving father we know. Does a mother think into her child's\nneeds, the food, and clothing and the extras too, the luxuries? That is\nGod, only He is more loving and wiser than the best of us. I have\nsometimes thought this: that if God were to say to me: \"I want to give you\nsomething as a special love-gift; an extra because I love you: what would\nyou like to have?\" Do you know I have thought I would say, \"Dear God,\n_you_ choose. _I_ choose what _you_ choose.\" He is thinking about me. He\nknows what I am thinking of, and what I would most enjoy, and He is such a\nlover-God that He would choose something Just a bit finer than I would\nthink. I might be thinking of a dollar, but likely as not He is thinking\nof a double eagle. I am thinking of blackberries, big, juicy blackberries,\nbut really I do not know what blackberries are beside the sort He knows\nand would choose for me. That is our God. Prayer does not and cannot\nchange the purpose of such a God. For every right and good thing we might\nask for He has already planned to give us. But prayer does change the\naction of God. Because He cannot give against our wills, and our\nwillingness as expressed by our asking gives Him the opportunity to do as\nHe has already planned.\n\n\n\n<u>The Greatest Prayer.</u>\n\n\nThere is a greatest prayer, _the_ greatest that can be offered. It is the\nsubstratum of every true prayer. It is the undercurrent in the stream of\nall Spirit-breathed prayer. Jesus Himself gives it to us in the only form\nof prayer He left for our use. It is small in size, but mighty in power.\nFour words--\"Thy will be done.\" Let us draw up our chairs, and _brew_ it\nover mentally, that its strength and fragrance may come up into our\nnostrils, and fill our very beings.\n\n\"_Thy_\": That is God. On one side, He is wise, with all of the\nintellectual strength, and keenness and poised judgment that that word\namong men brings to us. On another side, He is strong, with all that that\nword can imply of might and power irresistible. On still another side He\nis good, pure, holy with the finest thought those words ever suggest to us\nin those whom we know best, or in our dreams and visions. Then on a side\nremaining, the tender personal side, He is--loving? No, that is quite\ninadequate. He is _love_. Its personification is He. Now remember that we\ndo not know the meaning of those words. Our best definition and thought of\nthem, even in our dreams, when we let ourselves out, but hang around the\noutskirts. The heart of them we do not know. Those words mean infinitely\nmore than we think. Their meaning is a projection along the lines of our\nthought of them, but measurelessly beyond our highest reach.\n\nAnd then, this God, wise, strong, good, and love, _is kin to us_. We\nbelong to Him.\n\n    \"We are His flock;\n    He doth us feed.\n    And for His sheep,\n    He doth us take.\"\n\nWe are His children by creation, and by a new creation in Jesus Christ. He\nis ours, by His own act. That is the \"Thy\"--a God wise, strong, pure, who\nis love, and who is a Father-mother-God, and is _our_ God.\n\n\"Thy _will_.\" God's will is His desires, His purposes, that which He\nwishes to occur, and that to which He gives His strength that it may\noccur. The earth is His creation. Men are His children. Judging from wise\nloving parents among men He has given Himself to thinking and studying and\nplanning for all men, and every man, and for the earth. His plan is the\nmost wise, pure, loving plan that can be thought of, _and more._ It takes\nin the whole sweep of our lives, and every detail of them. Nothing escapes\nthe love-vigilance of our God. What _can_ be so vigilant and keen as love?\nHate, the exact reverse, comes the nearest. It is ever the extremes that\nmeet. But hate cannot come up to love for keen watchfulness at every\nturn. Health, strength, home, loved ones, friendships, money, guidance,\nprotecting care, the necessities, the extras that love ever thinks of,\nservice--all these are included in God's loving thought for us. That is\nHis will. It is modified by the degree of our consent, and further\nmodified by the circumstances of our lives. Life has become a badly\ntangled skein of threads. God with infinite patience and skill is at work\nuntangling and bringing the best possible out of the tangle. What is\nabsolutely best is rarely relatively best. That which is best in itself is\nusually not best under certain circumstances, with human lives in the\nbalance. God has fathomless skill, and measureless patience, and a love\nutterly beyond both. He is ever working out the best thing possible under\nevery circumstance. He could oftentimes do more, and do it in much less\ntime if our human wills were more pliant to His. He can be trusted. And of\ncourse _trust_ means _trust in the darkest dark_ where you cannot see. And\ntrust means trust. It does not mean test. Where you trust you do not test.\nWhere you test you do not trust. Making this our prayer means trusting\nGod. That is God, and that His will, and that the meaning of our offering\nthis prayer. \"Thy will _be_.\" A man's will is the man in action, within\nthe limits of his power. God's will for man is Himself in action, within\nthe limits of our cooperation. _Be_ is a verb, an action-word, in the\npassive voice. It takes some form of the verb to be to express the\npassive voice of any action-word. It takes the intensest activity of will\nto put this passive voice into human action. The greatest strength is\nrevealed in intelligent yielding. Here the prayer is expressing the utter\nwillingness of a man that God's will shall be done in him, and through\nhim. A man never _loses_ his will, unless indeed he lose his manhood. But\nhere he makes that will as strong as it can be made, as a bit of steel,\nbetter like the strong oak, strong enough to sway and bend in the wind.\nThen he uses all its strength in becoming passive to a higher will. And\nthat too when the purpose of that higher will is not clear to his own\nlimited knowledge and understanding.\n\n\"Thy will be _done_.\" That is, be accomplished, be brought to pass. The\nword stands for the action in its perfected, finished state. Thy will be\nfully accomplished in its whole sweep and in all its items. It speaks not\nonly the earnest desire of the heart praying, but the set purpose that\neverything in the life is held subject to the doing of this purpose of\nGod. It means that surrender of purpose that has utterly changed the lives\nof the strongest men in order that the purpose of God might be dominant.\nIt cut off from a great throne earth's greatest jurist, the Hebrew\nlawgiver, and led him instead to be allied to a race of slaves. It led\nthat intellectual giant Jeremiah from an easy enjoyable leadership to\nespouse a despised cause and so be himself despised. It led Paul from the\nleadership of his generation in a great nation to untold suffering, and to\na block and an ax. It led Jesus the very Son of God, away from a kingship\nto a cross. In every generation it has radically changed lives, and\nlife-ambitions. \"Thy will be done\" is the great dominant purpose-prayer\nthat has been the pathway of God in all His great doings among men.\n\nThat will is being done everywhere else in God's great world of worlds,\nsave on the earth and that portion of the spirit world allied to this\nearth. Everywhere else there is the perfect music of harmony with God's\nwill. Here only is heard the harsh discordant note.\n\nWith this prayer go two clauses that really particularize and explain it.\nThey are included in it, and are added to make more clear the full intent.\nThe first of these clauses gives the sweep of His will in its broadest\noutlines. The second touches the opposition to that will both for our\nindividual lives and for the race and the earth.\n\nThe first clause is this, \"Thy kingdom come.\" In both of these short\nsentences, \"Thy will be done,\" \"Thy kingdom come,\" the emphatic word is\n\"Thy.\" That word is set in sharpest possible contrast here. There is\nanother kingdom now on the earth. There is another will being done. This\nother kingdom must go if God's kingdom is to come. These kingdoms are\nantagonistic at every point of contact. They are rivals for the same\nallegiance and the same territory. They cannot exist together. Charles II\nand Cromwell cannot remain in London together. \"Thy kingdom come,\" of\nnecessity includes this, \"the other kingdom go.\" \"Thy kingdom come\" means\nlikewise \"Thy king come,\" for in the nature of things there cannot be a\nkingdom without a king. That means again by the same inference, \"the other\nprince go,\" the one who makes pretensions to being rightful heir to the\nthrone. \"Thy will be done\" includes by the same inference this:--\"the\nother will be undone.\" This is the first great explanatory clause to be\nconnected with this greatest prayer, \"Thy kingdom come.\" It gives the\nsweep of God's will in its broadest outlines.\n\nThe second clause included in the prayer, and added to make clear the\nswing of action is this--\"deliver us from the evil one.\" These two\nsentences, \"Thy will be done,\" and \"deliver us from the evil one,\" are\nnaturally connected. Each statement includes the other. To have God's will\nfully done in us means emancipation from every influence of the evil one,\neither direct or indirect, or by hereditary taint. To be delivered from\nthe evil one means that every thought and plan of God for our lives shall\nbe fully carried out.\n\nThere are the two great wills at work in the world ever clashing in the\naction of history and in our individual lives. In many of us, aye, in all\nof us, though in greatly varying degree, these two wills constantly clash.\nMan is the real battle-field. The pitch of the battle is in his will. God\nwill not do His will in a man without the man's will consenting. And Satan\ncannot. At the root the one thing that works against God's will is the\nevil one's will. And on the other hand the one thing that effectively\nthwarts Satan's plans is a man wholly given up to God's will.\n\nThe greatest prayer then fully expressed, sweeps first the whole field of\naction, then touches the heart of the action, and then attacks the\nopposition. It is this:--Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done: deliver us\nfrom the evil one. Every true prayer ever offered comes under this simple\ncomprehensive prayer. It may be offered, it _is_ offered with an infinite\nvariety of detail. It is greatest because of its sweep. It includes all\nother petitions, for God's will includes everything for which prayer is\nrightly offered. It is greatest in its intensity. It hits the very\nbull's-eye of opposition to God.\n\n\n\n\nII. Hindrances to Prayer\n\n\n1. Why the Results Fail. 2. Why the Results Are Delayed. 3. The Great\nOutside Hindrance, or, the Relation of Prayer to Satan.\n\n\n\n\nWhy the Results Fail\n\n\n\n<u>Breaking with God.</u>\n\n\nGod answers prayer. Prayer is God and man joining hands to secure some\nhigh end. He joins with us through the communication of prayer in\naccomplishing certain great results. This is the main drive of prayer. Our\nasking and expecting and God's doing jointly bring to pass things that\notherwise would not come to pass. Prayer changes things. This is the great\nfact of prayer.\n\nYet a great many prayers are not answered. Or, to put it more accurately,\na great many prayers fail utterly of accomplishing any results. Probably\nit is accurate to say that _thousands_ of prayers go up and bring nothing\ndown. This is certainly true. Let us say it just as bluntly and plainly as\nit can be said. As a result many persons are saying: \"Well, prayer is not\nwhat you claim for it: we prayed and no answer came: nothing was changed.\"\n\nFrom all sorts of circles, and in all sorts of language comes this\nstatement. Scholarly men who write with wisdom's words, and thoughtless\npeople whose thinking never even pricks the skin of the subject, and all\nsorts of people in between group themselves together here. And they are\nright, quite right. The bother is that what they say is not all there is\nto be said. There is yet more to be said, that is right too, and that\nchanges the final conclusion radically. Partial truth is a very mean sort\nof lie.\n\nThe prayer plan like many another has been much disturbed, and often\nbroken. And one who would be a partner with God up to the limit of his\npower must understand the things that hinder the prayer plan. There are\nthree sorts of hindrances to prayer. First of all there are things in us\nthat _break off connection_ with God, the source of the changing power.\nThen there are certain things in us that _delay, or diminish_ the results;\nthat interfere with the full swing of the prayer plan of operations. And\nthen there is a great _outside_ hindrance to be reckoned upon. To-day we\nwant to talk together of the first of these, namely, the hindrances that\n_break off connections_ between God and His human partner.\n\nHere again there is a division into three. There are three things directly\nspoken of in the book of God that hinder prayer. One of these is a\nfamiliar thing. What a pity that repugnant things may become so familiar\nas no longer to repel. It is this:--_sin_ hinders prayer. In Isaiah's\nfirst chapter God Himself speaking says, \"When you stretch out your\nhands\"--the way they prayed, standing with outstretched hands--\"I will\nshut My eyes; when you make many prayers, I will shut My ears.\"[12] Why?\nWhat's the difficulty? These outstretched hands are _soiled!_ They are\nactually holding their sin-soiled hands up into God's face; and He is\ncompelled to look at the thing most hateful to Him. In the fifty-ninth\nchapter of this same book,[13] God Himself is talking again. Listen\n\"Behold! the _Lord's_ hand is not shortened: _His_ ear is not heavy.\"\nThere is no trouble on the _up_ side. God is all right. \"But\"--listen with\nboth your ears--\"your _iniquities_ ... your _sins_ ... your _hands_ ...\nyour _fingers_ ... your _lips_ ... your _tongue_ ...\" the slime of sin is\noozing over everything! Turn back to that sixty-sixth Psalm[14]--\"if I\nregard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.\" How much more if\nthe sin of the heart get into the hands or the life! And the fact to put\ndown plainly in blackest ink once for all is this--_sin hinders prayer_.\nThere is nothing surprising about this. That we can think the reverse is\nthe surprising thing. Prayer is transacting business with God. Sin is\n_breaking with God_.\n\nSuppose I had a private wire from my apartments here to my home in\nCleveland, and some one should go outside and drag the wire down until it\ntouches the ground--a good square touch with the ground--the electricians\nwould call it grounded, could I telegraph over that wire? Almost any child\nknows I could not. Suppose some one _cuts_ the wire, a good clean cut; the\ntwo ends are apart: not a mile; not a yard; but distinctly apart. Could I\ntelegraph on that wire? Of course not. Yet I might sit in my room and tick\naway by the hour wholly absorbed, and use most beautiful persuasive\nlanguage--what is the good? The wire's cut. All my fine pleading goes into\nthe ground, or the air. Now _sin cuts the wire;_ it runs the message into\nthe ground.\n\n\"Well,\" some one will object, \"now you're cutting us all out, are you not?\nAre we not all conscious of a sinful something inside here that has to be\nfought, and held under all the while?\" It certainly seems to be true that\nthe nearer a man gets to God the more keenly conscious he is of a sinful\ntendency within even while having continual victory. But plainly enough\nwhat the Book means here is this:--if I am holding something in my life\nthat the Master does not like, if I am failing to obey when His voice has\nspoken, that to me is sin. It may be wrong in itself. It may _not_ be\nwrong in itself. It may not be wrong for another. Sometimes it is not the\nthing involved but the One involved that makes the issue. If that faithful\nquiet inner voice has spoken and I know what the Master would prefer and I\nfail to keep in line, that to me is sin. Then prayer is useless; sheer\nwaste of breath. Aye, worse, it is deceptive. For I am apt to say or\nthink, \"Well, I am not as good as you, or you, but then I am not so bad;\n_I pray._\" And the truth is because I have broken with God the\npraying--saying words in that form--is utterly worthless.\n\nYou see _sin is slapping God in the face_. It may be polished, cultured\nsin. Sin seems capable of taking quite a high polish. Or it may be the\ncommon gutter stuff. A man is not concerned about the grain of a club that\nstrikes him a blow. How can He and I talk together if I have done that,\nand stick to it--not even apologized. And of what good is an apology if\nthe offense is being repeated. And if we cannot talk together of course\nworking together is out of the question. And prayer is working together\nwith God. Prayer is _pulling with God_ in His plan for a world.\n\nShall we not put out the thing that is wrong? or put in the thing the\nMaster wants in? For _Jesus'_ sake? Aye for _men's_ sake: poor befooled\nmen's sake who are being kept out and away because God cannot get at them\nthrough us!\n\nShall we bow and ask forgiveness for our sin, and petty stubbornness that\nhas been thwarting the Master's love-plan? And yet even while we ask\nforgiveness there are lives out yonder warped and dwarfed and worse\nbecause of the hindrance in us; yes, and remaining so as we slip out of\nthis meeting. May the fact send us out to walk very softly these coming\ndays.\n\n\n\n<u>A Coaling Station for Satan's Fleet.</u>\n\n\nThere is a second thing that is plainly spoken of that hinders prayer.\nJames speaks of it in his letter.[15] \"Ye have not because ye _ask_\nnot\"--that explains many parched up lives and churches and unsolved\nproblems: no pipe lines run up to tap the reservoir, and give God an\nopening into the troubled territory. Then he pushes on to say--\"Ye ask,\n_and receive not_\"--ah! there's just the rub; it is evidently an old\nstory, this thing of not receiving--why? \"because ye ask amiss to spend it\n_in your pleasures_.\" That is to say selfish praying; asking for something\njust because I want it; want it for myself.\n\nHere is a mother praying for her boy. He is just growing up towards young\nmanhood; not a Christian boy yet; but a good boy. She is thinking, \"I want\n_my_ boy to be an honour to me; he bears my name; my blood is in his\nveins; I don't want my boy to be a prodigal. I want him to be a fine man,\nan honour to the family; and if he is a true Christian, he likely will be;\n_I wish he were a Christian_.\" And so she prays, and prays repeatedly and\nfervently. God might touch her boy's heart and say, \"I want you out here\nin India to help win my prodigal world back.\" _Oh!_ she did not mean that!\n_Her_ boy in far, far off _India!_ Oh, no! Not that!! Yes, what _she_\nwanted--that was the whole thought--selfishness; the stream turning in to\na dead sea within her own narrow circle; no thought of sympathy with God\nin His eager outreach for His poor sin-befooled world. The prayer itself\nin its object is perfectly proper, and rightly offered and answered times\nwithout number; but the _motive_ wholly, uglily selfish and the\nselfishness itself becomes a foothold for Satan and so the purpose of the\nprayer is thwarted.\n\nHere is a wife praying that her husband might become a Christian. Perhaps\nher thought is: \"I wish John _were_ a Christian: it would be so good: it\nreally seems the proper thing: he would go to church with me, and sit in\nthe pew Sunday morning: I'd like that.\" Perhaps she thinks: \"He would be\ncareful about swearing; he would quit drinking; and be nicer and gentler\nat home.\" Maybe she thinks: \"He would ask a blessing at the meals; that\nwould be so nice.\" Maybe she thinks: \"We would have family prayers.\"\n_Maybe_ that does not occur to her these days. This is what I say: _If_\nher thought does not go beyond some such range, of course _you_ would say\nit is selfish. She is thinking of herself; not of the loving grieved God\nagainst whom her husband is in rebellion; not of the real significance to\nthe man. God might touch her husband's heart, and then say: \"I want you to\nhelp Me win My poor world back.\" And the change would mean a reduced\nincome, and a different social position. _Oh!_ she had not meant _that!_\nYes--what _she_ wanted for herself!\n\nHere is a minister praying for a revival in his church. Maybe he is\nthinking; no, not exactly thinking; it is just half thinking itself out in\nhis sub-consciousness--\"I wish we had a good revival in our church;\nincreased membership; larger attendance; easier finances; may be an extra\nhundred or two in my own pocket; increased prestige in the denomination; a\nbetter call or appointment: I wish we might have a revival.\" Now no true\nminister ever talked that way even to himself or deliberately thought it.\nTo do so would be to see the mean contemptibility of it. But you know how\nsly we all are in our underneath scarcely-thought-out thoughts. This is\nwhat I say: _if_ that be the sort of thing underneath a man's praying of\ncourse the motive is utterly selfish; a bit of the same thing that brought\nSatan his change of name and character.\n\nPlease notice that the reason for the prayer not being answered here is\nnot an arbitrary reluctance upon God's part to do a desirable thing. He\nnever fails to work whenever He has a half chance as far as it is possible\nto work, even through men of faulty conceptions and mixed motives. The\nreason lies much deeper. It is this: selfishness gives Satan a footing. It\ngives a coaling station for his fleet on the shore of your life. And of\ncourse he does his best to prevent the prayer, or when he cannot wholly\nprevent, to spoil the results as far as he can.\n\nPrayer may properly be offered--_will_ be properly offered for many wholly\npersonal things; for physical strength, healing in sickness, about dearly\nloved ones, money needed; indeed regarding things that may not be\nnecessary but only desirable and enjoyable, for ours is a loving God who\nwould have His dear ones enjoy to the full their lives down here. But the\n_motive_ determines the propriety of such requests. Where the whole\npurpose of one's life is _for Him_ these things may be asked for freely as\nHis gracious Spirit within guides. And there need be no bondage of morbid\nintrospection, no continual internal rakings. _He knows if the purpose of\nthe heart is to please Him_.\n\n\n\n<u>The Shortest Way to God.</u>\n\n\nA third thing spoken of as hindering prayer is an unforgiving spirit. You\nhave noticed that Jesus speaks much about prayer and also speaks much\nabout forgiveness. But have you noticed how, over and over again He\n_couples_ these two--prayer _and_ forgiveness? I used to wonder why. I do\nnot so much now. Nearly everywhere evidence keeps slipping in of the sore\nspots. One may try to keep his lips closed on certain subjects, but it\nseems about impossible to keep the ears entirely shut. And continually the\nevidence keeps sifting in revealing the thin skin, raw flesh, wounds\nnever healed over, and some jaggedly open, almost everywhere one goes.\nJesus' continual references reveal how strikingly alike is the oriental\nand the occidental; the first and the twentieth centuries.\n\nRun through Matthew alone a moment. Here in the fifth chapter:[16] \"If\nthou are coming to the altar\"--that is approaching God; what we call\nprayer--\"and rememberest that thy brother hath aught _against thee_\"--that\nside of it--\"leave there thy gift and go thy way, _first_ be reconciled,\"\nand so on. Here comes a man with a lamb to offer. He approaches solemnly,\nreverently, towards the altar of God. But as he is coming there flashes\nacross his mind the face of _that man_, with whom he has had difficulty.\nAnd instantly he can feel his grip tightening on the offering, and his\nteeth shutting closer at the quick memory. Jesus says, \"If that be so lay\nyour lamb right down.\" What! go abruptly away! Why! how the folks around\nthe temple will talk! \"Lay the lamb right down, and go thy way.\" The\nshortest way to God for that man is not the way to the altar, but around\nby that man's house. \"_First_, be reconciled\"--keep your perspective\nstraight--follow the right order--\"_first_ be reconciled\"--not _second;\n\"then_ come and offer thy gift.\"\n\nIn the sixth chapter[17] He gives the form of prayer which we commonly\ncall the Lord's prayer. It contains seven petitions. At the close He\nstops to emphasize just one of the seven. You remember which one; the one\nabout forgiveness. In the eighteenth chapter[18] Jesus is talking alone\nwith the disciples about prayer. Peter seems to remember the previous\nremarks about forgiveness in connection with prayer; and he asks a\nquestion. It is never difficult to think of Peter asking a question or\nmaking a few remarks. He says, \"Master, how many times _must_ I forgive a\nman? _Seven_ times!\" Apparently Peter thinks he is growing in grace. He\ncan actually _think_ now of forgiving a man seven times in succession. But\nthe Master in effect says, \"Peter, you haven't caught the idea.\nForgiveness is not a question of mathematics; not a matter of _keeping\ntab_ on somebody: not seven times but _seventy times seven._\" And Peter's\neyes bulge open with an incredulous stare--\"four hundred and ninety\ntimes!... one man--straightway!!\" Apparently the Master is thinking, that\nhe will lose count, or get tired of counting and conclude that forgiveness\nis preferable, or else by practice _breathe in the spirit of\nforgiveness--the_ thing He meant.\n\nThen as He was so fond of doing Jesus told a story to illustrate His\nmeaning. A man owed his lord a great debt, twelve millions of dollars;\nthat is to say practically an _unpayable_ amount. By comparison with money\nto-day, in the western world, it would be about twelve billions. And he\nwent to him and asked for time. He said: \"I'm short just now; but I mean\nto pay; I don't mean to shirk: be easy with me; and I'll pay up the whole\nsum in time.\" And his lord generously forgave him the whole debt. That is\nJesus' picture of God, as He knows Him who knows Him best. Then this\nforgiven man went out and found a fellow servant who owed him--how much do\nyou think? Have you ever thought that Jesus had a keen sense of the\nludicrous? Surely it shows here. He owed him about sixteen dollars and\na-quarter or a-half! And you can almost feel the clutch of this fellow's\nfingers on the other's throat as he sternly demands:--\"Pay me that thou\nowest.\" And his fellow earnestly replies, \"Please be easy with me; I mean\nto pay; I'm rather short just now: but I'm not trying to shirk; be easy\nwith me.\" Is it possible the words do not sound familiar! But he would\nnot, but put him in the jail. The last place to pay a debt! That is Jesus'\npicture of man as He knows him who knows him best. And in effect He says\nwhat we have been forgiven by God is as an unpayable amount. And what are\nnot willing to forgive is like sixteen dollars and a fraction by contrast.\nWhat little puny folks some of us are in our thinking and feeling!\n\n\"Oh, well,\" some one says, \"you do not know how hard it is to forgive.\"\nYou think not? I know this much:--that some persons, and some things you\n_can_not forgive of yourself. But I am glad to say that I know this too\nthat if one allows the Spirit of Jesus to sway the heart He will make you\nlove persons you _can_not like. No natural affinity or drawing together\nthrough disposition, but a real yearning love in the heart. Jesus' love,\nwhen allowed to come in as freely as He means, fills your heart with pity\nfor the man who has wounded you. An infinite, tender pity that he has sunk\nso low as to be capable of such actions.\n\nBut the fact to put down in the sharpest contrast of white and black is\nthat we must forgive freely, frankly, generously, \"_even as God_,\" if we\nare to be in prayer touch with God.\n\nAnd the reason is not far to find; a double reason, Godward and Satanward.\nIf prayer be partnership in the highest sense then the same spirit must\nanimate both partners, the human and the divine, if the largest results\nare to come. And since unforgiveness roots itself down in hate Satan has\nroom for both feet in such a heart with all the leeway in action of such\npurchase. That word _unforgiving_! What a group of relatives it has, near\nand far! Jealousy, envy, bitterness, the cutting word, the polished shaft\nof sarcasm with the poisoned tip, the green eye, the acid saliva--what\nkinsfolk these!\n\n\n\n<u>Search Me.</u>\n\n\nSin, selfishness, an unforgiving spirit--what searchlights these words\nare! Many a splendid life to-day is an utter cipher in the spirit\natmosphere because of some such hindrance. And God's great love-plan for\nHis prodigal world is being held back; and lives being lost even where\nultimately souls shall be saved because of the lack of human prayer\npartners.\n\nMay we not well pray:--Search me, oh God, and know my heart and help me\nknow it; try me and know my innermost, undermost thoughts and purposes and\nambitions, and help me know them; and see what way there be in me that is\na grief to Thee; and then lead me--and here the prayer may be a purpose as\nwell as a prayer--lead me out of that way unto _Thy_ way, _the_ way\neverlasting. For Jesus' sake; aye for men's sake, too.\n\n\n\n\nWhy the Results are Delayed\n\n\n\n<u>God's Pathway to Human Hearts.</u>\n\n\nGod touches men through men. The Spirit's path to a human heart is through\nanother human heart. With reverence be it said, yet with blunt plainness\nthat in His plan for winning men to their true allegiance God is limited\nby the human limitations. That may seem to mean more than it really does.\nFor our thought of the human is of the scarred, warped, shrivelled\nhumanity that we know, and great changes come when God's Spirit controls.\nBut the fact is there, however limited our understanding of it.\n\nGod needs man for His plan. That is the fact that stands out strong in\nthinking about prayer. God's greatest agency; man's greatest agency, for\ndefeating the enemy and winning men back is intercession. God is counting\nmightily upon that. And He can count most mightily upon the man that\nfaithfully practices that.\n\nThe results He longs for are being held back, and made smaller because so\nmany of us have not learned how to pray simply and skilfully. We need\ntraining. And God understands that. He Himself will train. But we must be\nwilling; actively willing. And just there the great bother comes in. A\nstrong will perfectly yielded to God's will, or perfectly willing to be\nyielded, is His mightiest ally in redeeming the world.\n\nAnswers to prayer are delayed, or denied, out of kindness, _or_, that more\nmay be given, _or_, that a far larger purpose may be served. But deeper\ndown by far than that is this: _God's purposes are being delayed_; delayed\nbecause of our unwillingness to learn how to pray, _or_, our slowness--I\nalmost said--our stupidity in learning. It is a small matter that my\nprayer be answered, or unanswered; not small to me; everything perhaps to\nme; but small in proportion. It is a tremendous thing that _God's purpose_\nfor a world is being held back through my lack. The thought that prayer is\n_getting things_ from God; chiefly that, is so small, pitiably small, and\nyet so common. The true conception understands that prayer is partnership\nwith God in His planet-sized purposes, and includes the \"all things\"\nbeside, as an important detail of the whole.\n\nThe real reason for the delay or failure lies simply in the difference\nbetween God's view-point and ours. In our asking either we have not\nreached the _wisdom_ that asks best, _or_, we have not reached the\n_unselfishness_ that is willing to sacrifice a good thing, for a better,\nor the best; the unselfishness that is willing to sacrifice the smaller\npersonal desire for the larger thing that affects the lives of many.\n\nWe learn best by pictures, and by stories which are pen or word pictures.\nThis was Jesus' favourite method of teaching. There are in the Bible four\ngreat, striking instances of delayed, or qualified answers to prayer.\nThere are some others; but these stand out sharply, and perhaps include\nthe main teachings of all. Probably all the instances of hindered prayer\nwith which we are familiar will come under one of these. That is to say,\nwhere there are good connections upward as suggested in our last talk,\n_and_, excepting those that come under the talk succeeding this, namely,\nthe great outside hindrance. These four are Moses' request to enter\nCanaan; Hannah's prayer for a son; Paul's thorn; and Jesus' prayer in\nGethsemane.\n\nLet us look a bit at these in turn.\n\n\n\n<u>For the Sake of a Nation.</u>\n\n\nFirst is the incident of Moses' ungranted petition. Moses was the leader\nof his people. He is one of the giants of the human race from whatever\nstandpoint considered. His codes are the basis of all English and American\njurisprudence. From his own account of his career, the secret of all his\npower as a maker of laws, the organizer of a strangely marvellous nation,\na military general and strategist--the secret of all was in his direct\ncommunication with God. He was peculiarly a man of prayer. Everything was\nreferred to God, and he declared that everything--laws, organization,\nworship, plans--came to him from God. In national emergencies where moral\ncatastrophe was threatened he petitioned God and the plans were changed in\naccordance with his request. He makes personal requests and they are\ngranted. He was peculiarly a man who dealt directly with God about every\nsort of thing, national and personal, simple and complex. The record\ncommonly credited to him puts prayer as the simple profound explanation of\nhis stupendous career and achievements. He prayed. God worked along the\nline of his prayer. The great things recorded are the result. That is the\nsimple inferential summary.\n\nNow there is one exception to all this in Moses' life. It stands out the\nmore strikingly that it is an exception; the one exception of a very long\nline. Moses asked repeatedly for one thing. It was not given him. God is\nnot capricious nor arbitrary. There must be a reason. _There is._ And it\nis fairly luminous with light.\n\nHere are the facts. These freed men of Egypt are a hard lot to lead and to\nlive with. Slow, sensuous, petty, ignorant, narrow, impulsive, strangers\nto self-control, critical, exasperating--what an undertaking God had to\nmake a nation, _the_ nation of history, about which centred His deep\nreaching, far-seeing love ambition for redeeming a world out of such\nstuff! Only paralleled by the church being built upon such men as these\nGalilean peasants! What victories these! What a God to do such things!\nOnly a God could do either and both! What immense patience it required to\nshape this people. What patience God has. Moses had learned much of\npatience in the desert sands with his sheep; for he had learned much of\nGod. But the finishing touches were supplied by the grindstone of friction\nwith the fickle temper of this mob of ex-slaves.\n\nHere are the immediate circumstances. They lacked water. They grew very\nthirsty. It was a serious matter in those desert sands with human lives,\nand young children, and the stock. No, it was not serious: really a very\nsmall matter, for _God was along_, and the enterprise was of His starting.\nIt was His affair, all this strange journey. And they knew Him quite well\nenough in their brief experience to be expecting something fully equal to\nall needs with a margin thrown in. There was that series of stupendous\nthings before leaving Egypt. There was the Red Sea, and fresh food daily\ndelivered at every man's tent door, and game, juicy birds, brought down\nwithin arms' reach, yes, and--surely this alone were enough--there was\nliving, cool water gushing abundantly, gladly out of the very heart of a\nflinty rock--if such a thing can be said to have a heart! Oh, yes it was a\nvery small matter to be lacking anything with such a lavish God along.\n\n_But they forgot._ Their noses were keener than their memories. They had\nbetter stomachs than hearts. The odorous onions of Egypt made more\nlasting impressions than this tender, patient, planning God. Yet here\neven their stomachs forgot those rock-freed waters. These people must be\nkinsfolk of ours. They seem to have some of the same family traits.\n\nListen: they begin to complain, to criticise. God patiently says nothing\nbut provides for their needs. But Moses has not yet reached the high level\nthat later experiences brought him. He is standing to them for God. Yet he\nis very un-Godlike. Angrily, with hot word, he _smites_ the rock. Once\nsmiting was God's plan; then the quiet word ever after. How many a time\nhas the once smitten Rock been smitten again in our impatience! _The\nwaters came_! Just like God! They were cared for, though He had been\ndisobeyed and dishonoured. And there are the crowds eagerly drinking with\nfaces down; and up yonder in the shadow standeth God _grieved_, deeply\ngrieved at the false picture this immature people had gotten of Him that\nday through Moses. Moses' hot tongue and flashing eye made a deep moral\nscar upon their minds, that it would take years to remove. Something must\nbe done for the people's sake. Moses disobeyed God. He dishonoured God.\nYet the waters came, for _they needed water_. And God is ever\ntender-hearted. But they must be taught the need of obedience, the evil of\ndisobedience. Taught it so they never could forget.\n\nMoses was a leader. Leaders may not do as common men. And leaders may not\nbe dealt with as followers. They stand too high in the air. They affect\ntoo many lives. So God said to Moses:--\"You will not go into Canaan. You\nmay lead them clear up to the line; you may even see over, but you may not\ngo in.\" That hurt Moses deep down. It hurt God deeper down, in a heart\nmore sensitive to hurt than was Moses'. Without doubt it was said with\n_reluctance_, for _Moses'_ sake. But _it was said_, plainly, irrevocably,\nfor _their_ sakes. Moses' petition was for a reversal of this decision.\nOnce and again he asked. He wanted to see that wondrous land of God's\nchoosing. He felt the sting too. The edge of the knife of discipline cut\nkeenly, and the blood spurted. But God said:--\"Do not speak to Me again of\nthis.\" The decision was not to be changed. For Moses' sake only He would\ngladly have changed, judging by His previous conduct. For the sake of the\nnation--aye, for the sake of the prodigal world to be won back through\nthis nation, the petition might not be granted. That ungranted petition\ntaught those millions the lesson of obedience, of reverence, as no\ncommand, or smoking mount, or drowning Egyptians had done. It became\ncommon talk in every tent, by every camp-fire of the tented nation. \"Moses\ndisobeyed,--he failed to reverence God;--he cannot enter Canaan.\"--With\nhushed tones, and awed hearts and moved, strangely moved faces it passed\nfrom lip to lip. Some of the women and children wept. They all loved\nMoses. They revered him. How gladly they would have had him go over. The\ndouble-sided truth--obedience--disobedience--kept burning in through the\nyears.\n\nIn after years many a Hebrew mother told her baby, eager for a story, of\nMoses their great leader; his appearance, deep-set eyes, long beard,\nmajestic mien, yet infinite tenderness and gentleness, the softness of\nstrength; his presence with God in the mount, the shining face. And the\nbaby would listen so quietly, and then the eyes would grow so big and the\nhush of spirit come as the mother would repeat softly, \"but he could not\ncome over into the land of promise because _he did not obey God_.\" And\nstrong fathers reminded their growing sons. And so it was woven into the\nwarp and woof of the nation--_obedience, reverent obedience to God_. And\none can well understand Moses looking down from above with grateful heart\nthat he had been denied for _their_ sakes. The unselfishness and wisdom of\nlater years would not have made the prayer. _The prayer of a man was\ndenied that a nation might be taught obedience_.\n\n\n\n<u>That More Might be Given and Gotten.</u>\n\n\nNow let us look a bit at the second of these, the portrait of Hannah the\nHebrew woman. First the broader lines for perspective. This peculiar\nHebrew nation had two deep dips down morally between Egypt and Babylon;\nbetween the first making, and the final breaking. The national tide ebbed\nvery low twice, before it finally ran out in the Euphrates Valley. Elijah\nstemmed the tide the second time, and saved the day for a later night. The\nHannah story belongs in the first of these ebb-tides; the first bad sag;\nthe first deep gap.\n\nThe giant lawgiver is long gone. His successor, only a less giant than\nhimself is gone too, and all that generation, and more. The giants gave\nway to smaller-sized leaders. Now they are gone also. The mountain peaks\nhave been lost in the foothills, and these have yielded to dunes, and\nlevels; mostly levels; dead levels. These mountains must have had long\nlegs. The foothills are so far away, and are running all to toes. Now the\ntoes have disappeared.\n\nIt is a leaderless people, for the true Leader as originally planned has\nbeen, first ignored, then forgot. The people have no ideals. They grub in\nthe earth content. There is a deep, hidden-away current of good. But it\nneeds leadership to bring it to the surface. A leaderless people! This is\nthe niche of the Hannah story.\n\nThe nation was rapidly drifting down to the moral level of the lowest. At\nShiloh the formal worship was kept up, but the very priests were tainted\nwith the worst impurity. A sort of sleepy, slovenly anarchy prevailed.\nEvery man did that which was right in his own eyes, with every indication\nof a gutter standard. \"There was none in the land possessing power of\nrestraint that might put them to shame in anything.\" No government; no\ndominant spirit. Indeed the actual conditions of Sodom and her sister\ncities of the plain existed among the people. This is the setting of the\nsimple graphic incident of Hannah. One must get the picture clearly in\nmind to understand the story.\n\nUp in the hill country of Ephraim there lived a wise-hearted religious\nman, a farmer, raising stock, and grain; and fruit, too, likely. He was\nearnest but not of the sort to rise above the habit of his time. His farm\nwas not far from Shiloh, the national place of worship, and he made yearly\ntrips there with the family. But the woman-degrading curse of Lamech was\nover his home. He had two wives. Hannah was the loved one. (No man ever\nyet gave his heart to two women.) She was a gentle-spoken, thoughtful\nwoman, with a deep, earnest spirit. But she had a disappointment which\ngrew in intensity as it continued. The desire of her heart had been\nwithheld. She was childless.\n\nThough the thing is not mentioned the whole inference is that she prayed\nearnestly and persistently but to her surprise and deep disappointment the\ndesired answer came not. To make it worse her rival--what a word, for the\nother one in the home with her--her rival provoked her sore to make her\nfret. And that thing _went on_ year after year. That teasing, nagging,\npicking of a small nature was her constant prod. What an atmosphere for a\nhome! Is it any wonder that \"she was in bitterness of soul\" and \"wept\nsore\"? Her husband tenderly tries to comfort her. But her inner spirit\nremains chafed to the quick. And all this goes on for years; the yearning,\nthe praying, the failure of answer, the biting, bitter atmosphere,--for\n_years_. And she wonders why.\n\nWhy was it? Step back and up a bit and get the broader view which the\nnarrow limits of her surroundings, and shall I say, too, though not\ncritically, of her spirit, shut out from her eyes. Here is what she saw:\nher fondest hope unrealized, long praying unanswered, a constant ferment\nat home. Here is what she wanted:--_a son_. That is her horizon. Beyond\nthat her thought does not rise.\n\nHere is what God saw:--a nation--no, much worse--_the_ nation, in which\ncentred His great love-plan for winning His prodigal world, going to\npieces. The messenger to the prodigal was being slyly, subtly seduced by\nthe prodigal. The saviour-nation was being itself lost. The plan so long\nand patiently fostered for saving a world was threatened with utter\ndisaster.\n\nHere is what He wanted--_a leader_! But there were no leaders. And, worse\nyet, there were no men out of whom leaders might be made, no men of\nleader-size. And worse yet _there were no women_ of the sort to train and\nshape a man for leadership. That is the lowest level to which a people\never gets, aye, ever _can_ get. God had to get a woman before He could get\na man. Hannah had in her the making of the woman He needed. God honoured\nher by choosing her. But she must be changed before she could be used. And\nso there came those years of pruning, and sifting, and discipline. Shall\nwe spell that word discipline with a final g instead of e--discipling, so\nthe love of it may be plainer to our near-sightedness? And out of those\nyears and experiences there came a new woman. A woman with vision\nbroadened, with spirit mellowed, with strength seasoned, with will so\nsinewy supple as to yield to a higher will, to sacrifice the dearest\n_personal pleasure_ for the world-wide purpose; willing that he who was\nher dearest treasure should be the nation's _first_.\n\nThen followed months of prayer while the man was coming. Samuel was born,\nno, farther back yet, was conceived in the atmosphere of prayer and\ndevotion to God. The prenatal influences for those months gave the sort of\nman God wanted. And a nation, _the_ nation, the _world-plan,_ was saved!\nThis man became a living answer to prayer. The romantic story of the\nlittle boy up in the Shiloh tabernacle quickly spread over the nation. His\nvery name--Samuel, God hears--sifted into people's ears the facts of a\nGod, and of the power of prayer. The very sight of the boy and of the man\nclear to the end kept deepening the brain impression through eyeballs that\nGod answers prayer. And the seeds of that re-belief in God that Samuel's\nleadership brought about were sown by the unusual story of his birth.\n\n_The answer was delayed that more might be given and gotten_. And Hannah's\nexultant song of praise reveals the fineness to which the texture of her\nnature had been spun. And it tells too how grateful she was for a God who\nin great patience and of strong deliberate purpose delayed the answer to\nher prayer.\n\n\n\n<u>The Best Light for Studying a Thorn.</u>\n\n\nThe third great picture in this group is that of Paul and his\nneedle-pointed thorn. Talks about the certainty of prayer being answered\nare very apt to bring this question: \"What about Paul's thorn?\" Sometimes\nasked by earnest hearts puzzled; _some_times with a look in the eye almost\nexultant as though of gladness for that thorn because it seems to help out\na theory. These pictures are put into the gallery for our help. Let us\npull up our chairs in front of this one and see what points we may get to\nhelp our hearts.\n\nFirst a look at Paul himself. The best light on this thorn is through the\nman. The man explains the thorn. We have a halo about Paul's head; and\nrightly, too. What a splendid man of God he was! God's chosen one for a\npeculiar ministry. One of the twelve could be used to open the door to the\ngreat outside world, but God had to go aside from this circle and get a\nman of different training for this wider sphere. Cradled and schooled in a\nJewish atmosphere, he never lost the Jew standpoint, yet the training of\nhis home surroundings in that outside world, the contact with Greek\nculture, his natural mental cast fitted him peculiarly for his appointed\ntask to the great outside majority. His keen reasoning powers, his vivid\nimagination, his steel-like will, his burning devotion, his unmovable\npurpose, his tender attachment to his Lord,--what a man! Well might the\nMaster want to win such a man for service' sake. But Paul had some weak\ntraits. Let us say it very softly, remembering as we instinctively will,\nthat where we think of one in him there come crowding to memory's door\nmany more in one's self. A man's weak point is usually the extreme\nopposite swing of the pendulum on his strong point. Paul had a tremendous\nwill. He was a giant, a Hercules in his will. Those tireless journeys with\ntheir terrific experiences, all spell out _will_ large and black. But,\ngently now, he went to extremes here. Was it due to his overtired nerves?\nLikely enough. He was obstinate, _sometimes;_ stubborn; set in his way:\n_sometimes_ head down, jaw locked, driving hard. Say it all _softly_, for\nwe are speaking of dear old saintly Paul; but, to help, _say_ it, for it\nis true.\n\nGod had a hard time holding Paul to _His_ plans. Paul had some of his own.\nWe can all easily understand that. Take a side glance or two as he is\npushing eagerly, splendidly on. Turn to that sixteenth chapter of\nActs,[19] and listen: \"Having been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak\nthe word in (the province of) Asia,\" coupled with the fact of sickness\nbeing allowed to overtake him in Galatia where the \"forbidding\" message\ncame. And again this, \"they assayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of\nJesus suffered them not.\"[20] Tell me, is this the way the Spirit of God\nleads? That I should go driving ahead until He must pull me up with a\nsharp turn, and twist me around! It is the way He is obliged to do many\ntimes, no doubt, with most of us. But His chosen way? His own way? Surely\nnot. Rather this, the keeping close, and quiet and listening for the next\nstep. Rather the \"I go not up yet unto this feast\" of Jesus.[21] And then\nin a few days going up, evidently when the clear intimation came. These\nwords, \"assayed to go,\" \"forbidden,\" \"suffered not\"--what flashlights they\nlet into this strong man's character.\n\nBut there is much stronger evidence yet. Paul had an ambition to preach to\nthe _Jerusalem Jews_. It burned in his bones from the early hours of his\nnew life. The substratum of \"_Jerusalem_\" seemed ever in his thoughts and\ndreams. If _he_ could just get to those Jerusalem Jews! He knew them. He\nhad trained with them. He was a leader among the younger set. When they\nburned against these Christians he burned just a bit hotter. They knew\nhim. They trusted him to drive the opposite wedge. If only _he_ could have\na chance down there he felt that the tide might be turned. But from that\ncritical hour on the Damascene road \"_Gentiles--Gentiles_\" had been\nsounded in his ears. And he obeyed, of course he obeyed, with all his\nardent heart. _But, but_--those _Jerusalem Jews_! If he might go to\nJerusalem! Yet very early the Master had proscribed the Jerusalem service\nfor Paul. He made it a matter of a special vision,[22] in the holy temple,\nkindly explaining why. \"They will not receive of _thee_ testimony\nconcerning Me.\" Would that not seem quite sufficient? Surely. Yet this\nastonishing thing occurs:--Paul attempts to argue with the Master _why_ he\nshould be allowed to go. This is going to great lengths; a subordinate\narguing with his commanding general after the orders have been issued! The\nMaster closes the vision with a peremptory word of command, \"_depart_. I\nwill send thee _far hence_ (from Jerusalem, where you long to be), to the\nGentiles.\" That is a picture of this man. It reveals the weak side in\nthis giant of strength and of love. And _this_ is the man God has to use\nin His plan. He is without doubt the best man available. And in his\nsplendour he stands head and shoulders above his generation and many\ngenerations. Yet (with much reverence) God has a hard time getting Paul to\nwork always along the line of _His_ plans.\n\nThat is the man. Now for the thorn. Something came into Paul's life that\nwas a constant irritation. He calls it a thorn. What a graphic word! A\nsharp point prodding into his flesh, ever prodding, sticking, sticking in;\nasleep, awake, stitching tent canvas, preaching, writing, that thing ever\ncutting its point into his sensitive flesh. Ugh! It did not disturb him so\nmuch at first, because _there was God_ to go to. He went to God and said,\n\"_Please_ take this away.\" But it stayed and stuck. A second time the\nprayer; a bit more urgent; the thing sticks so. The time test is the\nhardest test of all. Still no change. Then praying the third time with\nwhat earnestness one can well imagine.\n\nNow note three things: First, _There was an answer_. God answered _the\nman_. Though He did not grant the petition, He answered the man. He did\nnot ignore him nor his request. Then God told Paul frankly that it was not\nbest to take the thorn away. It was in the lonely vigil of a sleepless\nnight, likely as not, that the wondrous Jesus-Spirit drew near to Paul.\nInaudibly to outer ear but very plainly to his inner ear, He spoke in\ntones modulated into tender softness as of dearest friend talking with\ndear friend. \"Paul,\" the voice said, \"I know about that thorn--and how it\nhurts--it hurts Me, too. For _your_ sake, I would quickly, so quickly\nremove it. But--Paul\"--and the voice becomes still softer--\"it is a bit\nbetter for _others_' sake that it remain: the plan in My heart _through\nyou_ for thousands, yes, unnumbered thousands, Paul, can so best be worked\nout.\" That was the first part of what He said. And Paul lies thinking with\na deep tinge of awe over his spirit. Then after a bit in yet quieter voice\nHe went on to say, \"I will be so close to your side; you shall have such\nrevelations of My glory that the pain will be clear overlapped, Paul; the\nglory shall outstrip the eating thorn point.\"\n\nI can see old Paul one night in his own hired house in Rome. It is late,\nafter a busy day; the auditors have all gone. He is sitting on an old\nbench, slowing down before seeking sleep. One arm is around Luke, dear\nfaithful Doctor Luke, and the other around young Timothy, not quite so\nyoung now. And with eyes that glisten, and utterance tremulous with\nemotion he is just saying:--\"And dear old friends, do you know, I would\nnot have missed this thorn, for the wondrous glory\"--and his heart gets\ninto his voice, there is a touch of the hoarseness of deep emotion, and a\nquavering of tone, so he waits a moment--\"the wondrous _glory-presence of\nJesus_ that came with it.\"\n\nAnd so out of the experience came a double blessing. There was a much\nfuller working of God's plan for His poor befooled world. And there was an\nunspeakable nearness of intimacy with his Lord for Paul. _The man was\nanswered and the petition denied that the larger plan of service might be\ncarried out_.\n\n\n\n<u>Shaping a Prayer on the Anvil of the Knees.</u>\n\n\nThe last of these pictures is like Raphael's Sistine Madonna in the\nDresden gallery; it is in a room by itself. One enters with a holy hush\nover his spirit, and, with awe in his eyes, looks at _Jesus in\nGethsemane_. There is the Kidron brook, the gentle rise of ground, the\ngrove of gnarled knotty old olive trees. The moon above is at the full.\nIts brightness makes these shadowed recesses the darker; blackly dark.\nHere is a group of men lying on the ground apparently asleep. Over yonder\ndeeper in among the trees a smaller group reclines motionless. They, too,\nsleep. And, look, farther in yet is that lone figure; all alone; nevermore\nalone; save once--on the morrow.\n\nThere is a foreshadowing of this Gethsemane experience in the requested\ninterview of the Greeks just a few intense days before. In the vision\nwhich the Greeks unconsciously brought the agony of the olive grove began.\nThe climax is among these moon-shadowed trees. How sympathetic those inky\nblack shadows! It takes bright light to make black shadows. Yet they were\nnot black enough. Intense men can get so absorbed in the shadows as to\nforget the light.\n\nThis great Jesus! Son of God: God the Son. The Son of Man: God--a man! No\ndraughtsman's pencil ever drew the line between His divinity and humanity;\nnor ever shall. For the union of divine and human is itself divine, and\ntherefore clear beyond human ken. Here His humanity stands out,\npathetically, luminously stands out. Let us speak of it very softly and\nthink with the touch of awe deepening for this is holiest ground. The\nbattle of the morrow is being fought out here. Calvary is in Gethsemane.\nThe victory of the hill is won in the grove.\n\nIt is sheer impossible for man with sin grained into his fibre through\ncenturies to understand the horror with which a sinless one thinks of\nactual contact with sin. As Jesus enters the grove that night it comes in\nupon His spirit with terrific intensity that He is actually coming into\ncontact--with a meaning quite beyond us--coming into contact with sin. In\nsome way all too deep for definition He is to be \"made sin.\"[23] The\nlanguage used to describe His emotions is so strong that no adequate\nEnglish words seem available for its full expression. An indescribable\nhorror, a chill of terror, a frenzy of fright seizes Him. The poisonous\nmiasma of sin seems to be filling His nostrils and to be stifling Him. And\nyonder alone among the trees the agony is upon Him. The extreme grips Him.\nMay there not yet possibly be some other way rather than _this--this!_ A\nbit of that prayer comes to us in tones strangely altered by deepest\nemotion. \"_If it be possible--let this cup pass_.\" There is still a\nclinging to a possibility, some possibility other than that of this\nnightmare vision. The writer of the Hebrews lets in light here. The strain\nof spirit almost snaps the life-thread. And a parenthetical prayer for\nstrength goes up. And the angels come with sympathetic strengthening. With\nwhat awe must they have ministered! Even after that some of the red life\nslips out there under the trees. By and by a calmer mood asserts itself,\nand out of the darkness a second petition comes. It tells of the tide's\nturning, and the victory full and complete. _A changed, petition_ this!\n\"_Since this cup may not pass_--since only thus _can_ Thy great plan for a\nworld be wrought out--_Thy--will_\"--slowly but very distinctly the words\ncome--\"_Thy--will--be--done._\"\n\n_The changed prayer was wrought out upon His knees!_ With greatest\nreverence, and a hush in our voices, let us say that there alone with the\nFather came the clearer understanding of the Father's actual will under\nthese circumstances.\n\n    \"Into the woods my Master went\n    Clean forspent, forspent;\n    Into the woods my Master came\n    Forspent with love and shame.\n    But the olives they were not blind to Him,\n    The little gray leaves were kind to Him;\n    The thorn-tree had a mind to Him\n    When into the woods He came.\n\n    \"Out of the woods my Master went\n    And He was well content;\n    Out of the woods my Master came\n    Content with death and shame.\n    When death and shame would woo Him last\n    From under the trees they drew Him last\n    'Twas on a tree they slew Him--last\n    When out of the woods He came.\"[24]\n\nTrue prayer is wrought out upon the knees alone with God. With deepest\nreverence, and in awed tones, let it be said, that _that was true of\nJesus_ in the days of His humanity. How infinitely more of us!\n\nShall we not plan to meet God alone, habitually, with the door shut, and\nthe Book open, and the will pliant so we may be trained for this holy\npartnership of prayer. Then will come the clearer vision, the broader\npurpose, the truer wisdom, the real unselfishness, the simplicity of\nclaiming and expecting, the delights of fellowship in service with Him;\nthen too will come great victories for God in His world. Although we\nshall not begin to know by direct knowledge a tithe of the story until the\nnight be gone and the dawning break and the ink-black shadows that now\nstain the earth shall be chased away by the brightness of His presence.\n\n\n\n\nThe Great Outside Hindrance\n\n\n\n<u>The Traitor Prince.</u>\n\n\nThere remains yet a word to be said about hindrances. It is a most\nimportant word; indeed the climactic word. What has been said is simply\nclearing the way for what is yet to be said. A very strange phase of\nprayer must be considered here. Strange only because not familiar. Yet\nthough strange it contains the whole heart of the question. Here lies the\nfight of the fight. One marvels that so little is said of it. For if there\nwere clear understanding here, and then faithful practicing, there would\nbe mightier defeats and victories: defeats for the foe; victories for our\nrightful prince, Jesus.\n\nThe intense fact is this: _Satan has the power to hold the answer\nback--for awhile; to delay the result--for a time_. He has not the power\nto hold it back finally, _if_ some one understands and prays with quiet,\nsteady persistence. The real pitch of prayer therefore is Satanward.\n\nOur generation has pretty much left this individual Satan out. It is\npartly excusable perhaps. The conceptions of Satan and his hosts and\nsurroundings made classical by such as Dante and Milton and Dor\u00e9 have\ndone much to befog the air. Almost universally they have been taken\nliterally whether so meant or not. One familiar with Satan's\ncharacteristics can easily imagine his cunning finger in that. He is\nwilling even to be caricatured, or to be left out of reckoning, if so he\nmay tighten his grip.\n\nThese suggestions of horns and hoofs, of forked tail and all the rest of\nit seek to give material form to this being. They are grotesque to an\nextreme, and therefore caricatures. A caricature so disproportions and\nexaggerates as to make hideous or ridiculous. In our day when every\nfoundation of knowledge is being examined there has been a natural but\nunthinking turning away from the very being of Satan through these\nrepresentations of him. Yet where there is a caricature there must be a\ntrue. To revolt from the true, hidden by a caricature, in revolting from\nthe caricature is easy, but is certainly bad. It is always bad to have the\ntruth hid from our eyes.\n\nIt is refreshing and fascinating to turn from these classical caricatures\nto the scriptural conception of Satan. In this Book he is a being of great\nbeauty of person, of great dignity of position even yet, endowed with most\nremarkable intellectual powers, a prince, at the head of a most\nremarkable, compact organization which he has wielded with phenomenal\nskill and success in furthering his ambitious purposes.\n\nAnd he is not chained yet. I remember a conversation with a young\nclergyman one Monday morning in the reading-room of a Young Men's\nChristian Association. It was in a certain mining town in the southwest,\nwhich is as full of evil resorts as such places usually are. The day\nbefore, Sunday, had been one of special services, and we had both been\nbusy and were a bit weary. We were slowing down and chatting leisurely. I\nremarked to my friend, \"What a glad day it will be when the millennium\ncomes!\" He quickly replied, \"I think this is the millennium.\" \"But,\" I\nsaid, \"I thought Satan was to be chained during that time. Doesn't it say\nsomething of that sort in the Book?\" \"Yes,\" he replied, \"it does. But I\nthink he is chained now.\" And I could not resist the answer that came\nblurting its way out, \"Well, if he is chained, he must have a fairly long\nchain: it seems to permit much freedom of action.\" From all that can be\ngathered regarding this mighty prince he is not chained yet. We would do\nwell to learn more about him. The old military maxim, \"Study the enemy,\"\nshould be followed more closely here.\n\nIt is striking that the oldest of the Bible books, and the latest, Job and\nRevelation, the first word and the last, give such definite information\nconcerning him. These coupled with the gospel records supply most of the\ninformation available though not all. Those three and a half years of\nJesus' public work is the period of greatest Satanic and demoniac\nactivity of which any record has been made. Jesus' own allusions to him\nare frequent and in unmistakable language. There are four particular\npassages to which I want to turn your attention now. Let it not be\nsupposed, however, that this phase of prayer rests upon a few isolated\npassages. Such a serious truth does not hinge upon selected proof texts.\nIt is woven into the very texture of this Book throughout.\n\nThere are two facts that run through the Bible from one end to the other.\nThey are like two threads ever crossing in the warp and woof of a finely\nwoven fabric. Anywhere you run your shears into the web of this Book you\nwill find these two threads. They run crosswise and are woven inextricably\nin. One is a black thread, inky black, pot-black. The other is a bright\nthread, like a bit of glory light streaming across. These two threads\neverywhere. The one is this--the black thread--there is an enemy. Turn\nwhere you will from Genesis to Revelation--always an enemy. He is keen. He\nis subtle. He is malicious. He is cruel. He is obstinate. He is a master.\nThe second thread is this: the leaders for God have always been men of\nprayer above everything else. They are men of power in other ways,\npreachers, men of action, with power to sway others but above all else men\nof prayer. They give prayer first place. There is one striking exception\nto this, namely, King Saul. And most significantly a study of this\nexception throws a brilliant lime light upon the career of Satan. King\nSauls seems to furnish the one great human illustration in scripture of\nheaven's renegade fallen prince. These special paragraphs to be quoted are\nlike the pattern in the cloth where the colours of the yarn come into more\ndefinite shape. The gospels form the central pattern of the whole where\nthe colours pile up into sharpest contrast.\n\n\n\n<u>Praying is Fighting.</u>\n\n\nBut let us turn to the Book at once. For we _know_ only what it tells. The\nrest is surmise. The only authoritative statements about Satan seem to be\nthese here. Turn first to the New Testament.\n\nThe Old Testament is the book of illustrations; the New of explanations,\nof teaching. In the Old, teaching is largely by kindergarten methods. The\nbest methods, for the world was in its child stage. In the New the\nteaching is by precept. There is precept teaching in the Old; very much.\nThere is picture teaching in the New; the gospels full of it. But picture\nteaching, acted teaching, is the characteristic of the Old, and precept\nteaching of the New. There is a wonderfully vivid picture in the Old\nTestament, of this thing we are discussing. But first let us get the\nteaching counterpart in the new, and then look at the picture.\n\nTurn to Ephesians. Ephesians is a prayer epistle. That is a very\nsignificant fact to mark. Of Paul's thirteen letters Ephesians is\npeculiarly the prayer letter. Paul is clearly in a prayer mood. He is on\nhis knees here. He has much to say to these people whom he has won to\nChrist, but it comes in the parenthesis of his prayer. The connecting\nphrase running through is--\"for this cause I pray.... I bow my knees.\"\nHalfway through this rare old man's mind runs out to the condition of\nthese churches, and he puts in the always needed practical injunctions\nabout their daily lives. Then the prayer mood reasserts itself, and the\nepistle finds its climax in a remarkable paragraph on prayer. From praying\nthe man goes urging them to pray.\n\nWe must keep the book open here as we talk: chapter six, verses ten to\ntwenty inclusive. The main drive of all their living and warfare seems\nvery clear to this scarred veteran:--\"that ye may be able to withstand the\nwiles of the devil.\" This man seems to have had no difficulty in believing\nin a personal devil. Probably he had had too many close encounters for\nthat. To Paul Satan is a cunning strategist requiring every bit of\navailable resource to combat.\n\nThis paragraph states two things:--who the real foe is, against whom the\nfight is directed; and, then with climactic intensity it pitches on the\nmain thing that routs him. Who is the real foe? Listen:--\"For our\nwrestling is not against flesh and blood\"--not against men; never that;\nsomething far, subtler--\"but against the principalities\"--a word for a\ncompact organization of individuals,--\"against powers\"--not only organized\nbut highly endowed intellectually, \"against the world-rulers of this\ndarkness,\"--they are of princely kin; not common folk--\"against the hosts\nof wicked spirits in the heavenlies\"--spirit beings, in vast numbers,\nhaving their headquarters somewhere above the earth. _That_ is the foe.\nLarge numbers of highly endowed spirit beings, compactly organized, who\nare the sovereigns of the present realm or age of moral darkness, having\ntheir _headquarters_ of activity somewhere above the earth, and below the\nthrone of God, but concerned with human beings upon the earth. In chapter\ntwo of the epistle the head or ruler of this organization is referred to,\n\"the prince of the powers of the air.\"[25] That is the real foe.\n\nThen in one of his strong piled up climactic sentences Paul tells how the\nfight is to be won. This sentence runs unbroken through verses fourteen to\ntwenty inclusive. There are six preliminary clauses in it leading up to\nits main statement. These clauses name the pieces of armour used by a\nRoman soldier in the action of battle. The loins girt, the breastplate on,\nthe feet shod, the shield, the helmet the sword, and so on. A Roman\nsoldier reading this or, hearing Paul preach it, would expect him to\nfinish the sentence by saying \"_with all your fighting strength\nfighting_.\"\n\nThat would be the proper conclusion rhetorically of this sentence. But\nwhen Paul reaches the climax with his usual intensity he drops the\nrhetorical figure, and puts in the thing with which in our case the\nfighting is done--\"with all prayer _praying_.\" In place of the\nexpected word fighting is the word praying. The thing with which the\nfighting is done is put in place of the word itself. Our fighting is\npraying. Praying is fighting, spirit-fighting. That is to say, this old\nevangelist-missionary-bishop says, we are in the thick of a fight. There\nis a war on. How shall we best fight? First get into good shape to pray,\nand then with all your praying strength and skill _pray_. That word\n_praying_ is the climax of this long sentence, and of this whole epistle.\nThis is the sort of action that turns the enemy's flank, and reveals his\nheels. He simply _cannot_ stand before persistent knee-work.\n\nNow mark the keenness of Paul's description of the man who does most\neffective work in praying. There are six qualifications under the figure\nof the six pieces of armour. A clear understanding of truth, a clean\nobedient life, earnest service, a strongly simple trust in God, clear\nassurance of one's own salvation and relation to God, and a good grip of\nthe truth for others--these things prepare a man for the real conflict of\nprayer. _Such a man_--_praying_--_drives back these hosts of the traitor\nprince_. Such a man praying is invincible in his Chief, Jesus. The\nequipment is simple, and in its beginnings comes quickly to the willing,\nearnest heart.\n\nLook a bit at how the strong climax of this long sentence runs. It is\nfairly bristling with points. Soldier-points all of them; like bayonet\npoints. Just such as a general engaged in a siege-fight would give to his\nmen. \"With all prayer and supplication\"--there is _intensity_;\n\"praying\"--that is _the main drive_; \"at all seasons\"--_ceaselessness_,\nnight and day; hot and cold; wet and dry; \"in the Spirit\"--as _guided by\nthe Chief;_ \"and watching thereunto\"--_sleepless vigilance;_ watching is\never a fighting word; watch the enemy; watch your own forces; \"with all\nperseverance\"--_persistence_; cheery, jaw-locked, dogged persistence,\nbulldog tenacity; \"and supplication\"--_intensity again_; \"for all the\nsaints\"--_the sweep of the action_, keep in touch with the whole army;\n\"and on my behalf\"--the human leader, rally around _the immediate leader._\nThis is the foe to be fought. And this the sort of fighting that defeats\nthis foe.\n\n\n\n<u>A double Wrestling Match.</u>\n\n\nNow turn back to the illustration section of our Book for a remarkably\ngraphic illustration of these words. It is in the old prophecy of Daniel,\ntenth chapter. The story is this: Daniel is an old man now. He is an\nexile. He has not seen the green hills of his fatherland since boyhood. In\nthis level Babylon, he is homesick for the dear old Palestinian hills, and\nhe is heartsick over the plight of his people. He has been studying\nJeremiah's prophecies, and finds there the promise plainly made that after\nseventy years these exiled Hebrews are to be allowed to return. Go back\nagain! The thought of it quickens his pulse-beats. He does some quick\ncounting. The time will soon be up. So Daniel plans a bit of time for\nspecial prayer, a sort of siege prayer.\n\nRemember who he is--this Daniel. He is the chief executive of the land. He\ncontrols, under the king, the affairs of the world empire of his time. He\nis a giant of strength and ability--this man. But he plans his work so as\nto go away for a time. Taking a few kindred spirits, who understand\nprayer, he goes off into the woods down by the great Tigris River. They\nspend a day in fasting, and meditation and prayer. Not utter fasting, but\nscant eating of plain food. I suppose they pray awhile; maybe separately,\nthen together; then read a bit from the Jeremiah parchment, think and talk\nit over and then pray some more. And so they spend a whole day reading,\nmeditating, praying.\n\nThey are expecting an answer. These old-time intercessors were strong in\nexpectancy. But there is no answer. A second day, a third, a fourth, a\nweek, still no answer reaches them. They go quietly on without hesitation.\nTwo weeks. How long it must have seemed! Think of fourteen days spent\n_waiting_; waiting for something, with your heart on tenter hooks. There\nis no answer. God might have been dead, to adapt the words of Catharine\nLuther, so far as any answer reaching them is concerned. But you cannot\nbefool Daniel in that way. He is an old hand at prayer. Apparently he has\nno thought of quitting. He goes quietly, steadily on. Twenty days pass,\nwith no change. Still they persist. Then the twenty-first day comes and\nthere is an answer. It comes in a vision whose glory is beyond human\nstrength to bear. By and by when they can talk, his visitor and he, this\nis what Daniel hears: \"Daniel, the first day you began to pray, your\nprayer was heard, and I was sent with the answer.\" And even Daniel's eyes\nopen big--\"the _first_ day--three weeks ago?\" \"Yes, three weeks ago I left\nthe presence of God with the answer to your prayer. But\"--listen, here is\nthe strange part--\"the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me,\nresisted me, one and twenty days: but Michael, your prince, came to help\nme, and I was free to come to you with the answer to your prayer.\"\n\nPlease notice four things that I think any one reading this chapter will\nreadily admit. This being talking with Daniel is plainly a spirit being.\nHe is opposed by some one. This opponent plainly must be a spirit being,\ntoo, to be resisting a spirit being. Daniel's messenger is from God: that\nis clear. Then the opponent must be from the opposite camp. And here comes\nin the thing strange, unexpected, the evil spirit being _has the power to\ndetain, hold back God's messenger_ for three full weeks by earth's\nreckoning of time. Then reenforcements come, as we would say. The evil\nmessenger's purpose is defeated, and God's messenger is free to come as\noriginally planned.\n\nThere is a double scene being enacted. A scene you can see, and a scene\nyou cannot see. An unseen wrestling match in the upper spirit realm, and\ntwo embodied spirit beings down on their faces by the river. And both\nconcerned over the same thing.\n\nThat is the Daniel story. What an acted out illustration it is of Paul's\nwords. It is a picture glowing with the action of real life. It is a\ndouble picture. Every prayer action is in doubles; a lower human level; an\nupper spirit level. Many see only the seen, and lose heart. While we look\nat the things that are seen, let us gaze intently at the things unseen;\nfor the seen things are secondary, but the unseen are chief, and the\naction of life is being decided there.\n\nHere is the lower, the seen;--a group of men, led by a man of executive\nforce enough to control an empire, prone on their faces, with minds clear,\nquiet, alert, persistently, ceaselessly _praying_ day by day. Here is the\nupper, the unseen:--a \"wrestling,\" keen, stubborn, skilled, going on\nbetween two spirit princes in the spirit realm. And by Paul's explanation\nthe two are vitally connected. Daniel and his companions are wrestlers\ntoo, active participants in that upper-air fight, and really deciding the\nissue, for they are on the ground being contested. These men are indeed\npraying with all prayer and supplication at all times, in the Spirit, and\nwatching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication, and _at length\nvictory comes_.\n\n\n\n<u>Prayer Concerns Three.</u>\n\n\nNow a bit of a look at the central figure of the pattern. Jesus lets in a\nflood of light on Satan's relation to prayer in one of His prayer\nparables. There are two parables dealing distinctively with prayer: \"the\nfriend at midnight,\"[26] and \"the unjust judge.\"[27] The second of these\ndeals directly with this Satan phase of prayer. It is Luke through whom we\nlearn most of Jesus' own praying who preserves for us this remarkable\nprayer picture.\n\nIt comes along towards the end. The swing has been made from plain talking\nto the less direct, parable-form of teaching. The issue with the national\nleaders has reached its acutest stage. The culmination of their hatred,\nshort of the cross, found vent in charging Him with being inspired by the\nspirit of Satan. He felt their charge keenly and answered it directly and\nfully. His parable of the strong man being bound before his house can be\nrifled comes in here. _They_ had no question as to what that meant. That\nis the setting of this prayer parable. The setting is a partial\ninterpretation. Let us look at this parable rather closely, for it is full\nof help for those who would become skilled in helping God win His world\nback home again.\n\nJesus seems so eager that they shall not miss the meaning here that He\ndeparts from His usual habit and says plainly what this parable is meant\nto teach:--\"that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.\" The great\nessential, He says, is _prayer_. The great essential in prayer is\n_persistence_. The temptation in prayer is that one may lose heart, and\ngive up, or give in. \"Not-to-faint\" tells how keen the contest is.\n\nThere are three persons in the parable; a judge, a widow, and an\nadversary. The judge is utterly selfish, unjust, godless, and reckless of\nanybody's opinion. The worst sort of man, indeed, the last sort of man to\nbe a judge. Inferentially he knows that the right of the case before him\nis with the widow. The widow--well, she is a _widow_. Can more be said to\nmake the thing vivid and pathetic! A very picture of friendlessness and\nhelplessness is a widow. A woman needs a friend. This woman has lost her\nnearest, dearest friend; her protector. She is alone. There is an\nadversary, an opponent at law, who has unrighteously or illegally gotten\nan advantage over the widow and is ruthlessly pushing her to the wall. She\nis seeking to get the judge to join with her against her adversary. Her\nurgent, oft repeated request is, \"avenge me of mine adversary.\" That is\nJesus' pictorial illustration of persistent prayer.\n\nLet us look into it a little further. \"Adversary\" is a common word in\nscripture for Satan. He is the accuser, the hater, the enemy, the\nadversary. Its meaning technically is \"an opponent in a suit at law.\" It\nis the same word as used later by Peter, \"Your adversary the devil as a\nroaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour.\"[28] The word\n\"avenge\" used four times really means, \"do me justice.\" It suggests that\nthe widow has the facts on her side to win a clear case, and that the\nadversary has been bully-ragging his case through by sheer force.\n\nThere is a strange feature to this parable, which must have a meaning. _An\nutterly godless unscrupulous man is put in to represent God!_ This is\nstartling. In any other than Jesus it would seem an overstepping of the\nbounds. But there is keenness of a rare sort here. Such a man is chosen\nfor judge to bring out most sharply this:--the sort of thing required to\nwin this judge is certainly not required _with God_. The widow must\npersist and plead because of the sort of man she has to deal with. But God\nis utterly different in character. Therefore while persistence is urged in\nprayer plainly it is not for the reason that required the widow to\npersist. And if that reason be cut out it leaves only one other, namely,\nthat represented by the adversary.\n\nHaving purposely put such a man in the parable for God, Jesus takes pains\nto speak of the real character of God. \"And He is _long-suffering_ over\nthem.\" _That_ is God. That word \"long-suffering\" and its equivalent on\nJesus' lips suggests at once the strong side of love, namely, _patience_,\ngentle, fine patience. It has bothered the scholars in this phrase to know\nwith whom or over what the long-suffering is exercised. \"Over them\" is the\ndoubtful phrase. Long-suffering over these praying ones? _Or_,\nlong-suffering in dealing righteously with some stubborn adversary--which?\nThe next sentence has a word set in sharpest contrast with this one,\nnamely \"speedily.\" \"Long-suffering\" yet \"speedily.\"\n\nHere are gleams of bright light on a dark subject with apparently more\nlight obscured than is allowed to shine through. Jesus always spoke\nthoughtfully. He chooses His words. Remembering the adversary against whom\nthe persistence is directed the whole story seems to suggest this: that\nthere is _a great conflict on_ in the upper spirit world. Concerning it\nour patient God is long-suffering. He is a just and righteous God. These\nbeings in the conflict are all His creatures. He is just in His dealings\nwith the devil and this splendid host of evil spirits even as with all His\ncreation. He is long-suffering that no unfairness shall be done in His\ndealings with these creatures of His. Yet at the same time He is doing His\nbest to bring the conflict to a speedy end, for the sake of His loyal\nloved ones, and that right may prevail.\n\nThe upshot of the parable is very plain. It contains for us two\ntremendous, intense truths. First is this: _prayer concerns three_, not\ntwo but three. God to whom we pray, the man on the contested earth who\nprays, and the evil one against whom we pray. And the purpose of the\nprayer is not to persuade or influence God, but to join forces with Him\nagainst the enemy. Not towards God, but with God against Satan--that is\nthe main thing to keep in mind in prayer. The real pitch is not Godward\nbut Satanward.\n\nThe second intense truth is this:--the winning quality in prayer is\n_persistence_. The final test is here. This is the last ditch. Many who\nfight well up to this point lose their grip here, and so lose all. Many\nwho are well equipped for prayer fail here, and doubtless fail because\nthey have not rightly understood. With clear, ringing tones the Master's\nvoice sounds in our ears again to-day, \"always to pray, _and_ not to\nfaint.\"\n\n\n\n<u>A Stubborn Foe Routed.</u>\n\n\nThat is the parable teaching. Now a look at a plain out word from the\nMaster's lips. It is in the story of the demonized boy, the distressed\nfather, and the defeated disciples, at the foot of the transfiguration\nmountain.[29] Extremes meet here surely. The mountain peak is in sharpest\ncontrast with the valley. The demon seems to be of the superlative degree.\nHis treatment of the possessed boy is malicious to an extreme. His purpose\nis \"to destroy\" him. Yet there is a limit to his power, for what he would\ndo he has not yet been able to do. He shows extreme tenacity. He fought\nbitterly against being disembodied again. (Can it be that embodiment eases\nin some way the torture of existence for these prodigal spirits!) And so\nfar he fought well, and with success. The disciples had tried to cast him\nout. They were expected to. They expected to. They had before. They\nfailed!--dismally--amid the sneering and jeering of the crowd and the\nincreasing distress of the poor father.\n\nThen Jesus came. Was some of the transfiguring glory still lingering in\nthat great face? It would seem so. The crowd was \"amazed\" when they saw\nHim, and \"saluted\" Him. His presence changed all. The demon angrily left,\ndoing his worst to wreck the house he had to vacate. The boy is restored;\nand the crowd astonished at the power of God.\n\nThen these disciples did a very keen thing. They made some bad blunders\nbut this is not one of them. They sought a private talk with Jesus. No\nshrewder thing was ever done. When you fail, quit your service and get\naway for a private interview with Jesus. With eyes big, and voices\ndejected, the question wrung itself out of their sinking hearts, \"Why\ncould not _we_ cast it out?\" Matthew and Mark together supply the full\nanswer. Probably first came this:--\"because of your little faith.\" They\nhad quailed in their hearts before the power of this malicious demon. And\nthe demon knew it. They were more impressed with the power of the demon\nthan with the power of God. And the demon saw it. They had not prayed\nvictoriously against the demon. The Master says, \"faith only as big as a\nmustard seed (you cannot measure the strength of the mustard seed by its\nsize) will say to this mountain--'Remove.'\" Mark keenly:--the direction of\nthe faith is towards the obstacle. Its force is against the enemy. It was\nthe demon who was most directly influenced by Jesus' faith.\n\nThen comes the second part of the reply:--\"This kind can come out by\nnothing but by prayer.\" Some less-stubborn demons may be cast out by the\nfaith that comes of our regular prayer-touch with God. This extreme sort\ntakes special prayer. This kind of a demon goes out by prayer. It can be\nput out by nothing less. The real victory must be in the secret place. The\nexercise of faith in the open battle is then a mere pressing of the\nvictory already won. These men had the language of Jesus on their lips,\nbut they had not gotten the victory first off somewhere alone. This demon\nis determined not to go. He fights stubbornly and strongly. He succeeds.\nThen this _Man of Prayer_ came. The quiet word of command is spoken. The\ndemon must go. These disciples were strikingly like some of us. They had\nnot _realized_ where the real victory is won. They had used the word of\ncommand to the demon, doubtless coupling Jesus' name with it. But there\nwas not the secret touch with God that gives victory. Their eyes showed\ntheir fear of the demon.\n\nPrayer, real prayer, intelligent prayer, it is this that routs Satan's\ndemons, for it routs their chief. David killed the lion and bear in the\nsecret forests before he faced the giant in the open. These disciples were\nfacing the giant in the open without the discipline in secret. \"This kind\ncan be compelled to come out by nothing but by prayer,\" means this:--\"this\nkind comes out, and must come out, before the man who prays.\" This thing\nwhich Jesus calls prayer casts out demons. Would that we knew better by\nexperience what He meant by prayer. It exerts a positive influence upon\nthe hosts of evil spirits. They fear it. They fear the man who becomes\nskilled in its use.\n\nThere are yet many other passages in this Bible fully as explicit as\nthese, and which give on the very surface just such plain teaching as\nthese. The very language of scripture throughout is full of this truth.\nBut these four great instances are quite sufficient to make the present\npoint clear and plain. This great renegade prince is an actual active\nfactor in the lives of men. He believes in the potency of prayer. He fears\nit. He can hinder its results for a while. He does his best to hinder it,\nand to hinder as long as possible.\n\n_Prayer overcomes him._ It defeats his plans and himself. He cannot\nsuccessfully stand before it. He trembles when some man of simple faith in\nGod prays. Prayer is insistence upon God's will being done. It needs for\nits practice a man in sympathetic touch with God. Its basis is Jesus'\nvictory. It overcomes the opposing will of the great traitor-leader.\n\n\n\n\nIII. How to Pray\n\n\n1. The \"How\" of Relationship.\n2. The \"How\" of Method.\n3. The Listening Side of Prayer.\n4. Something about God's Will in Connection with Prayer.\n5. May We Pray with Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones?\n\n\n\n\nThe \"How\" of Relationship\n\n\n\n<u>God's Ambassadors.</u>\n\n\nIf I had an ambition to be the ambassador of this country to our\nmother-country, there would be two essential things involved. The first\nand great essential would be to receive the appointment. I would need to\ncome into certain relation with our president, to possess certain\nqualifications considered essential by him, and to secure from his hand\nthe appointment, and the official credentials of my appointment. That\nwould establish my relationship to the foreign court as the representative\nof my own country, and my right to transact business in her name.\n\nBut having gotten that far I might go over there and make bad mistakes. I\nmight get our diplomatic relations tangled up, requiring many\nexplanations, and maybe apologies, and leaving unpleasant memories for a\nlong time to come. Such incidents have not been infrequent. Nations are\nvery sensitive. Governmental affairs must be handled with great nicety.\nThere would be a second thing which if I were a wise enough man to be an\nambassador I would likely do. I would go to see John Hay and Joseph H.\nChoate, and have as many interviews with them as possible, and learn all I\npossibly could from them of London official life, court etiquette,\npersonages to be dealt with, things to do, and things to avoid. How to be\na successful diplomat and further the good feeling between the two\ngovernments, and win friends for our country among the sturdy Britons\nwould be my one absorbing thought. And having gotten all I could in that\nway I would be constantly on the alert with all the mental keenness I\ncould command to practice being a successful ambassador.\n\nThe first of these would make me technically an ambassador. The second\nwould tend towards giving me some skill as an ambassador. Now there are\nthe same two how's in praying. First the relationship must be established\nbefore any business can be transacted. Then skill must be acquired in the\ntransacting of the business on hand.\n\nJust now, we want to talk about the first of these, the how of\nrelationship in prayer. The basis of prayer is right relationship with\nGod. Prayer is representing God in the spirit realm of this world. It is\ninsisting upon His rights down in this sphere of action. It is standing\nfor Him with full powers from Him. Clearly the only basis of such\nrelationship to God is _Jesus_. We have been outlawed by sin. We were in\ntouch with God. We broke with Him. The break could not be repaired by us.\nJesus came. He was God _and_ Man. He touches both. We get back through\nHim, and only so. The blood of the cross is the basis of all prayer.\nThrough it the relationship is established that underlies all prayer. Only\nas I come to God through Jesus to get the sin score straightened, and only\nas I keep in sympathy with Jesus in the purpose of my life can I practice\nprayer.\n\n\n\n<u>Six Sweeping Statements.</u>\n\n\nJesus' own words make this very clear. There are two groups of teachings\non prayer in those three and a half years as given by the gospel records.\nThe first of these groups is in the Sermon on the Mount which Jesus\npreached about half-way through the second year of His ministry. The\nsecond group comes sheer at the end. All of it is in the last six months,\nand most of it in the last ten days, and much of that on the very eve of\nthat last tragic day.\n\nIt is after the sharp rupture with the leaders that this second series of\nstatements is made. The most positive, and most sweeping utterances on\nprayer are here. Of Jesus' eight promises regarding prayer six are here. I\nwant to ask you please to notice these six promises or statements; and\nthen, to notice their relation to our topic of to-day.\n\nIn Matthew 18:19, 20, is the first of these. \"Again I say unto you, that\nif two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they Shall\nask, it shall be done for them of My Father who is in heaven.\" Notice the\nplace of prayer--\"on earth\"; and the sweep--\"anything\"; and the\npositiveness--\"it shall be done.\" Then the reason why is given. \"For where\ntwo or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of\nthem.\" That is to say, if there are two persons praying, there are three.\nIf three meet to pray, there are four praying. There is always one more\nthan you can see. And if you might perhaps be saying to yourself in a bit\nof dejection, \"He'll not hear me: I'm so sinful: so weak\"--you would be\nwrong in thinking and saying so, but then we do think and say things that\nare not right--_if_ you might be thinking that, you could at once fall\nback upon this: the Father always hears Jesus. And wherever earnest hearts\npray Jesus is there taking their prayer and making it His prayer.\n\nThe second of these: Mark 11:22-24, \"Jesus answering saith unto them, have\nfaith in God\"--with the emphasis double-lined under the word \"God.\" The\nchief factor in prayer is God. \"Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say\nunto this mountain, be thou taken up and cast into the sea--\" Choosing, do\nyou see the unlikeliest thing that might occur. Such a thing did not take\nplace. We never hear of Jesus moving an actual mountain. The need for such\naction does not seem to have arisen. But He chooses the thing most\ndifficult for His illustration. Can you imagine a mountain moving off into\nthe sea--the Jungfrau, or Blanc, or Rainier? If you know mountains down in\nyour country you cannot imagine it actually occurring. \"--And shall not\ndoubt in his heart--\" That is Jesus' definition of faith. \"--But shall\nbelieve that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore, I\nsay unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye\nreceive them, and ye shall have them.\" How utterly sweeping this last\nstatement! And to make it more positive it is preceded by the emphatic\n\"therefore--I--say--unto--you.\" Both whatsoever and whosoever are here.\nAnything, and anybody. We always feel instinctively as though these\nstatements need careful guarding: a few fences put up around them. Wait a\nbit and we shall see what the Master's own fence is.\n\nThe last four of the six are in John's gospel. In that last long quiet\ntalk on the night in which He was betrayed. John preserves much of that\nheart-talk for us in chapters thirteen to seventeen.\n\nHere in John 14:13, 14: \"And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will\nI do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask\nanything in My name, that will I do.\" The repetition is to emphasize the\nunlimited sweep of what may be asked.\n\nJohn 15:7: \"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you--\" That word\nabide is a strong word. It does not mean to leave your cards; nor to hire\na night's lodging; nor to pitch a tent, or run up a miner's shanty, or a\nlumberman's shack. It means moving in to stay. \"--Ask whatsoever ye\nwill--\" The Old Version says, \"ye shall ask.\" But here the revised is more\naccurate: \"Ask; please ask; I ask you to ask.\" There is nothing said\ndirectly about God's will. There is something said about our wills. \"--And\nit shall be done unto you.\" Or, a little more literally, \"I will bring it\nto pass for you.\"\n\nI remember the remark quoted to me by a friend one day. His church\nmembership is in the Methodist Church of the North, but his service\ncrosses church lines both in this country and abroad. He was talking with\none of the bishops of that church whose heart was in the foreign mission\nfield. The bishop was eager to have this friend serve as missionary\nsecretary of his church. But he knew, as everybody knows, how difficult\nappointments oftentimes are in all large bodies. He was earnestly\ndiscussing the matter with my friend, and made this remark: \"If you will\nallow the use of your name for this appointment, _I will lay myself out_\nto have it made.\" Now if you will kindly not think there is any lack of\nreverence in my saying so--and there is surely none in my thought--that is\nthe practical meaning of Jesus' words here. \"If you abide in Me, and My\nwords sway you, you please ask what it is your will to ask. And--softly,\nreverently now--I will lay Myself out to bring that thing to pass for\nyou.\" That is the force of His words here.\n\nThis same chapter, sixteenth verse: \"Ye did not choose Me, but I chose\nyou, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your\nfruit should abide; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name,\nHe may give it you.\" God had our prayer partnership with Himself in His\nmind in choosing us. And the last of these, John 16:23, 24, second clause,\n\"Verily, verily, I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father,\nHe will give it you in My name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name:\nask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled.\"\n\nThese statements are the most sweeping to be found anywhere in the\nScriptures regarding prayer. There is no limitation as to who shall ask,\nnor the kind of thing to be asked for. There are three limitations\nimposed: the prayer is to be _through Jesus_; the person praying is to be\nin fullest sympathy with Him; and this person is to have faith.\n\n\n\n<u>Words With a Freshly Honed Razor-Edge.</u>\n\n\nNow please group these six sweeping statements in your mind and hold them\ntogether there. Then notice carefully this fact. These words are not\nspoken to the crowds. They are spoken to the small inner group of twelve\ndisciples. Jesus talks one way to the multitude. He oftentimes talks\ndifferently to these men who have separated themselves from the crowd and\ncome into the inner circle.\n\nAnd notice further that before Jesus spoke these words to this group of\nmen He had said something else first. Something very radical; so radical\nthat it led to a sharp passage between Himself and Peter, to whom He\nspeaks very sternly. This something else fixes unmistakably their relation\nto Himself. Remember that the sharp break with the national leaders has\ncome. Jesus is charged with Satanic collusion. The death plot is\ndetermined upon. The breach with the leaders is past the healing point.\nAnd now the Master is frequently slipping away from the crowd with these\ntwelve men, and seeking to teach and train them. That is the setting of\nthese great promises. It must be kept continually in mind.\n\nBefore the Master gave Himself away to these men in these promises He said\nthis something else. It is this. I quote Matthew's account: \"If any man\nwould come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross (daily,\nLuke's addition) and follow Me[30].\" _These words should be written\ncrosswise over those six prayer statements_. Jesus never spoke a keener\nword. Those six promises are not meant for all. Let it be said very\nplainly. They are meant only for those who will square their lives by\nthese razor-edged words.\n\nI may not go fully into the significance of these deep-cutting words here.\nThey have been gone into at some length in a previous set of talks as\nsuggesting the price of power. To him whose heart burns for power in\nprayer I urge a careful review of that talk in this new setting of it. \"If\nany man would come after Me\" means a rock-rooted purpose; the jaw locked;\nthe tendrils of the purpose going down around and under the gray granite\nof a man's will, and tying themselves there; and knotting the ties; sailor\nknots, that you cannot undo.\n\n\"Come after Me\" means all the power of Jesus' life, and has the other\nside, too. It means the wilderness, the intense temptation. It may mean\nthe obscure village of Nazareth for you. It may mean that first Judean\nyear for you--lack of appreciation. It may mean for you that last six\nmonths--the desertion of those hitherto friendly. It will mean without\ndoubt a Gethsemane. Everybody who comes along after Jesus has a Gethsemane\nin his life. It will never mean as much to you as it meant to Him. That is\ntrue. But, then, it will mean everything to you. And it will mean too\nhaving a Calvary in your life in a very real sense, though different from\nwhat that meant to Him. This sentence through gives the process whereby\nthe man with sin grained into the fibre of his will may come into such\nrelationship with God as to claim without any reservation these great\nprayer promises. And if that sound hard and severe to you let me quickly\nsay that it is an easy way for the man who is _willing._ The presence of\nJesus in the life overlaps every cutting thing.\n\nIf a man will go through Matthew 16:24, and habitually live there he may\nask what he wills to ask, and that thing will come to pass. The reason,\nwithout question, why many people do not have power in prayer is simply\nbecause they are unwilling--I am just talking very plainly--they are\nunwilling to bare their breasts to the keen-edged knife in these words of\nJesus. And on the other side, if a man will quietly, resolutely follow the\nMaster's leading--nothing extreme--nothing fanatical, or morbid, just a\nquiet going where that inner Voice plainly leads day by day, he will be\nstartled to find what an utterly new meaning prayer will come to have for\nhim.\n\n\n\n<u>The Controlling Purpose.</u>\n\n\nVital relationship is always expressed by purpose. The wise ambassador has\nan absorbing purpose to further the interests of his government. Jesus\nsaid, and it at once reveals His relationship to God, \"I do always those\nthings that are well pleasing to him.\"\n\nThe relationship that underlies prayer has an absorbing purpose. Its\ncontrolling purpose is to please Jesus. That sentence may sound simple\nenough. But, do you know, there is no sentence I might utter that has a\nkeener, a more freshly honed razor-edge to it than that. That the purpose\nwhich _controls_ my action in every matter be this: to please Him. If you\nhave not done so, take it for a day, a week, and use it as a touch stone\nregarding thought, word and action. Take it into matters personal, home,\nbusiness, social, fraternal. It does not mean to ask, \"Is this right? is\nthis wrong?\" Not that. Not the driving of a keen line between wrong and\nright. There are a great many things that can be proven to be not wrong,\nbut that are not best, that are not His preference.\n\nIt will send a business man running his eye along the shelves and counter\nof his store. \"The controlling purpose to please Jesus ... hm-m-m, I guess\nmaybe that stuff there ought to come out. Oh, it is not wrong: I can prove\nthat. My Christian brother-merchants handle it here, and over the country:\nbut _to please Him_: a good, clean sixty per cent, profit too, cash money,\nbut _to please Him_--\" and the stuff must go down and out.\n\nIt would set some woman to thinking about the next time the young people\nare to gather in her home for a delightful social evening with her own\ndaughters. She will think about some forms of pastime that are found\neverywhere. They are not wrong, that has been conclusively proven. But _to\nplease Him_. Hm-m. And these will go out. And then it will set her to\nwork with all her God-given woman-wit and exquisite tact to planning an\nevening yet more delightful. It will make one think of his personal\nhabits, his business methods, and social intercourse, the organizations he\nbelongs to, with the quiet question cutting it razor-way into each.\n\nAnd if some one listening may ask: Why put the condition of prayer so\nstrongly as that? I will remind you of this. The true basis of prayer is\nsympathy, oneness of purpose. Prayer is not extracting favours from a\nreluctant God. It is not passing a check in a bank window for money. That\nis mandatory. The roots of prayer lie down in oneness of purpose. God up\nyonder, His Victor-Son by His side, and a man down here, in _such\nsympathetic touch_ that God can think His thoughts over in this man's\nmind, and have His desires repeated upon the earth as this man's prayer.\n\n\n\n<u>The Threefold Cord of Jesus' Life.</u>\n\n\nThink for a moment into Jesus' human life down here. His marvellous\nactivities for those few years over which the world has never ceased to\nwonder. Then His underneath hidden-away prayer-life of which only\noccasional glimpses are gotten. Then grouping around about that sentence\nof His--\"I do always the things that are pleasing to Him\"--in John's\ngospel, pick out the emphatic negatives on Jesus' lips, the \"not's\": not\nMy will, not My works, not My words. Jesus came to do somebody's else\nwill. The controlling purpose of His life was to please His Father. That\nwas the secret of the power of His earthly career. Right relationship to\nGod; a secret intimate prayer-life: marvellous power over men and with\nmen--those are the strands in the threefold cord of His life.\n\nThere is a very striking turn of a word in the second chapter of John's\ngospel down almost at its close. The old version says that \"Many believed\non His name beholding His signs which He did, but Jesus did not commit\nHimself unto them\" because He knew them so well. The word \"believed,\" and\nthe word \"commit\" are the same word underneath our English. The sentence\nmight run \"many _trusted_ Him beholding what He did; but He did not\n_trust_ them for He knew them.\" I have no doubt most, or all of us here\nto-day, trust Him. Let me ask you very softly now: Can He trust you? While\nwe might all shrink from saying \"yes\" to that, there is a very real sense\nin which we may say \"yes,\" namely, in the purpose of the life. Every life\nis controlled by some purpose. What is yours? To please Him? If so He\nknows it. It is a great comfort to remember that God judges a man not by\nhis achievements, but by his purposes: not by what I am, actually, but by\nwhat I would be, in the yearning of my inmost heart, the dominant purpose\nof my life. God will fairly flood your life with all the power He can\ntrust you to use wholly for Him.\n\nCommercial practice furnishes a simple but striking illustration here. A\nman is employed by a business house as a clerk. His ability and honesty\ncome to be tested in many ways constantly. He is promoted gradually, his\nresponsibilities increased. As he proves himself thoroughly reliable he is\ntrusted more and more, until by and by as need arises he becomes the\nfirm's confidential clerk. He knows its secrets. He is trusted with the\ncombination to the inner box in the vault. Because it has been proven by\nactual test that he will use everything only for the best interests of his\nhouse, and not selfishly.\n\nHere, where we are dealing, the whole thing moves up to an infinitely\nhigher level, but the principle does not change. If I will come into the\nrelationship implied in these words:--it shall be the one controlling\ndesire and purpose of my life to do the things that please Him--then I may\nask for what I will, and it shall be done. That is how to pray: the how of\nrelationship. The man who will live in Matthew 16:24, and follow Jesus as\nHe leads: simply that: no fanaticism, no morbidism, no extremism, just\nsimply follow as He leads, day by day,--then those six promises of Jesus\nwith their wonderful sweep, their limitless sweep are his to use as he\nwill.\n\n\n\n\nThe \"How\" of Method\n\n\n\n<u>Touching the Hidden Keys.</u>\n\n\nOne of the most remarkable illustrations in recent times of the power of\nprayer, may be found in the experience of Mr. Moody. It explains his\nunparalleled career of world-wide soul winning. One marvels that more has\nnot been said of it. Its stimulus to faith is great. I suppose the man\nmost concerned did not speak of it much because of his fine modesty. The\nlast year of his life he referred to it more frequently as though impelled\nto.\n\nThe last time I heard Mr. Moody was in his own church in Chicago. It was,\nI think, in the fall of the last year of his life. One morning in the old\nchurch made famous by his early work, in a quiet conversational way he\ntold the story. It was back in the early seventies, when Chicago had been\nlaid in ashes. \"This building was not yet up far enough to do much in,\" he\nsaid; \"so I thought I would slip across the water, and learn what I could\nfrom preachers there, so as to do better work here. I had gone over to\nLondon, and was running around after men there.\" Then he told of going\none evening to hear Mr. Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle; and\nunderstanding that he was to speak a second time that evening to dedicate\na chapel, Mr. Moody had slipped out of the building and had run along the\nstreet after Mr. Spurgeon's carriage a mile or so, so as to hear him the\nsecond time. Then he smiled, and said quietly, \"I was running around after\nmen like that.\"\n\nHe had not been speaking anywhere, he said, but listening to others. One\nday, Saturday, at noon, he had gone into the meeting in Exeter Hall on the\nStrand; felt impelled to speak a little when the meeting was thrown open,\nand did so. At the close among others who greeted him, one man, a\nminister, asked him to come and preach for him the next day morning and\nnight, and he said he would. Mr. Moody said, \"I went to the morning\nservice and found a large church full of people. And when the time came I\nbegan to speak to them. But it seemed the hardest talking ever I did.\nThere was no response in their faces. They seemed as though carved out of\nstone or ice. And I was having a hard time: and wished I wasn't there; and\nwished I hadn't promised to speak again at night. But I had promised, and\nso I went.\n\n\"At night it was the same thing: house full, people outwardly respectful,\nbut no interest, no response. And I was having a hard time again. When\nabout half-way through my talk there came a change. It seemed as though\nthe windows of heaven had opened and a bit of breath blew down. The\natmosphere of the building seemed to change. The people's faces changed.\nIt impressed me so that when I finished speaking I gave the invitation for\nthose who wanted to be Christians to rise. I thought there might be a few.\nAnd to my immense surprise the people got up in groups, pew-fulls. I\nturned to the minister and said, 'What does this mean?' He said, 'I don't\nknow, I'm sure.' Well,\" Mr. Moody said, \"they misunderstood me. I'll\nexplain what I meant.\" So he announced an after-meeting in the room below,\nexplaining who were invited: only those who wanted to be Christians; and\nputting pretty clearly what he understood that to mean, and dismissed the\nservice.\n\nThey went to the lower room. And the people came crowding, jamming in\nbelow, filling all available space, seats, aisles and standing room. Mr.\nMoody talked again a few minutes, and then asked those who would be\nChristians to rise. This time he knew he had made his meaning clear. They\ngot up in clumps, in groups, by fifties! Mr. Moody said, \"I turned and\nsaid to the minister, 'What _does_ this mean?' He said, 'I'm sure I don't\nknow.'\" Then the minister said to Mr. Moody, \"What'll I do with these\npeople? I don't know what to do with them; this is something new.\" And he\nsaid, \"Well. I'd announce a meeting for to-morrow night, and Tuesday\nnight, and see what comes of it; I'm going across the channel to Dublin.\"\nAnd he went, but he had barely stepped off the boat when a cablegram was\nhanded him from the minister saying, \"Come back at once. Church packed.\"\nSo he went back, and stayed ten days. And the result of that ten days, as\nI recall Mr. Moody's words, was that four hundred were added to that\nchurch, and that every church near by felt the impulse of those ten days.\nThen Mr. Moody dropped his head, as though thinking back, and said: \"I had\nno plans beyond this church. I supposed my life work was here. But the\nresult with me was that I was given a roving commission and have been\nworking under it ever since.\"\n\nNow what was the explanation of that marvellous Sunday and days following?\nIt was not Mr. Moody's doing, though he was a leader whom God could and\ndid mightily use. It was not the minister's doing; for he was as greatly\nsurprised as the leader. There was some secret hidden beneath the surface\nof those ten days. With his usual keenness Mr. Moody set himself to ferret\nit out.\n\nBy and by this incident came to him. A member of the church, a woman, had\nbeen taken sick some time before. Then she grew worse. Then the physician\ntold her that she would not recover. That is, she would not die at once,\nso far as he could judge, but she would be shut in her home for years.\nAnd she lay there trying to think what that meant: to be shut in for\nyears. And she thought of her life, and said, \"How little I've done for\nGod: practically nothing: and now what can I do shut in here on my back.\"\nAnd she said, \"I can pray.\"\n\nMay I put this word in here as a parenthesis in the story--that God\noftentimes allows us to be shut in--He does not shut us in--He does not\nneed to--simply take His hand off partly--there is enough disobedience to\nHis law of our bodies all the time to shut us aside--no trouble on that\nside of the problem--_with pain to Himself_, against His own first will\nfor us, He allows us to be shut in, because only so _can_ He get our\nattention from other things to what He wants done; get us to see things,\nand think things His way. I am compelled to think it is so.\n\nShe said, \"I _will_ pray.\" And she was led to pray for her church. Her\nsister, also a member of the church, lived with her, and was her link with\nthe outer world. Sundays, after church service, the sick woman would ask,\n\"Any special interest in church to-day?\" \"No,\" was the constant reply.\nWednesday nights, after prayer-meetings, \"Any special interest in the\nservice to-night? there must have been.\" \"No; nothing new; same old\ndeacons made the same old prayers.\"\n\nBut one Sunday noon the sister came in from service and asked, \"Who do you\nthink preached to-day?\" \"I don't know, who?\" \"Why, a stranger from\nAmerica, a man called Moody, I think was the name.\" And the sick woman's\nface turned a bit whiter, and her eye looked half scared, and her lip\ntrembled a bit, and she quietly said: \"I know what that means. There's\nsomething coming to the old church. Don't bring me any dinner. I must\nspend this afternoon in prayer.\" And so she did. And that night in the\nservice that startling change came.\n\nThen to Mr. Moody himself, as he sought her out in her sick room, she told\nhow nearly two years before there came into her hands a copy of a paper\npublished in Chicago called the _Watchman_ that contained a talk by Mr.\nMoody in one of the Chicago meetings, Farwell Hall meetings, I think. All\nshe knew was that talk that made her heart burn, and there was the name\nM-o-o-d-y. And she was led to pray that God would send that man into their\nchurch in London. As simple a prayer as that.\n\nAnd the months went by, and a year, and over; still she prayed. Nobody\nknew of it but herself and God. No change seemed to come. Still she\nprayed. And of course her prayer wrought its purpose. Every\nSpirit-suggested prayer does. And that is the touchstone of true prayer.\nAnd the Spirit of God moved that man of God over to the seaboard, and\nacross the water and into London, and into their church. Then a bit of\nspecial siege-prayer, a sort of last charge up the steep hill, and that\nnight the victory came.\n\nDo you not believe--I believe without a doubt, that some day when the\nnight is gone and the morning light comes up, and we know as we are known,\nthat we shall find that the largest single factor, in that ten days' work,\nand in the changing of tens of thousands of lives under Moody's leadership\nis that woman in her praying. Not the only factor, mind you. Moody a man\nof rare leadership, and consecration, and hundreds of faithful ministers\nand others rallying to his support. But behind and beneath Moody and the\nothers, and to be reckoned with as first this woman's praying.\n\nYet I do not know her name. I know Mr. Moody's name. I could name scores\nof faithful men associated with him in his campaigns, but the name of this\none in whom humanly is the secret of it all I do not know. Ah! It is a\nsecret service. We do not know who the great ones are. They tell me she is\nliving yet in the north end of London, and still praying. Shall we pray!\nShall we not pray! If something else must slip out, something important,\nshall we not see to it that intercession has first place!\n\n\n\n<u>Making God's Purpose Our Prayer.</u>\n\n\nWith that thought in mind let me this evening suggest a bit of how to\npray. As simple a subject as that: how to pray: the how of method.\n\nThe first thing in prayer is to find God's purpose, the trend, the swing\nof it; the second thing to make that purpose our prayer. We want to find\nout what God is thinking, and then to claim that that shall be done. God\nis seated up yonder on the throne. Jesus Christ is sitting by His side\nglorified. Everywhere in the universe God's will is being done except in\nthis corner, called the earth, and its atmosphere, and that bit of the\nheavens above it where Satan's headquarters are.\n\nIt has been done down here by one person--Jesus. He came here to this\nprodigal planet and did God's will perfectly. He went away. And He has\nsought and seeks to have men down upon the earth so fully in touch with\nHimself that He may do in them and through them just what He will. That He\nmay reproduce Himself in these men, and have God's will done again down on\nthe earth. Now prayer is this: finding out God's purpose for our lives,\nand for the earth and insisting that that shall be done here. The great\nthing then is to find out and insist upon God's will. And the \"how\" of\nmethod in prayer is concerned with that.\n\nMany a time I have met with a group of persons for prayer. Various special\nmatters for prayer are brought up. Here is this man, needing prayer, and\nthis particular matter, and this one, and this. Then we kneel and pray.\nAnd I have many a time thought--not critically in a bad sense--as I have\nlistened to their prayers, as though this is the prayer I must\noffer:--\"Blessed Holy Spirit, Thou knowest this man, and what the lacking\nthing is in him. There is trouble there. Thou knowest this sick woman, and\nwhat the difficulty is there. This problem, and what the hindrance is in\nit. Blessed Spirit, pray in me the prayer Thou art praying for this man,\nand this thing, and this one. The prayer Thou art praying, I pray that, in\nJesus' name. Thy will be done here under these circumstances.\"\n\nSometimes I feel clear as to the particular prayer to offer, but many a\ntime I am puzzled to know. I put this fact with this, but I may not know\n_all_ the facts. I know this man who evidently needs praying for, a\nChristian man perhaps, his mental characteristics, his conceptions of\nthings, the kind of a will he has, but there may be some fact in there\nthat I do not know, that seriously affects the whole difficulty. And I am\ncompelled to fall back on this: I don't know how to pray as I ought. But\nthe Spirit within me will make intercession for this man as I allow Him to\nhave free swing in me as the medium of His prayer. And He who is listening\nabove as He hears His will for this man being repeated down on the\nbattle-field will recognize His own purpose, of course. And so that thing\nwill be working out because of Jesus' victory over the evil one.\n\nBut I may become so sensitive to the Spirit's thoughts and presence, that\nI shall know more keenly and quickly what to pray for. In so far as I do\nI become a more skillful partner of His on the earth in getting God's will\ndone.\n\n\n\n<u>The Trysting Place.</u>\n\n\nThere are six suggestions here on how to pray. First--we need _time_ for\nprayer, unhurried time, daily time, time enough to forget about how much\ntime it is. I do not mean now: rising in the morning at the very last\nmoment, and dressing, it may be hurriedly, and then kneeling a few moments\nso as to feel easier in mind: not that. I do not mean the last thing at\nnight when you are jaded and fagged, and almost between the sheets, and\nthen remember and look up a verse and kneel a few moments: not that. That\nis good so far as it goes. I am not criticising that. Better sweeten and\nsandwich the day with all of that sort you can get in. But just now I mean\nthis: _taking time_ when the mind is fresh and keen, and the spirit\nsensitive, to thoughtfully pray. We haven't time. Life is so crowded. It\nmust be taken from something else, something important, but still less\nimportant than this.\n\nSacrifice is the continual law of life. The important thing must be\nsacrificed to the more important. One needs to cultivate a mature\njudgment, or his strength will be frizzled away in the less important\ndetails, and the greater thing go undone, or be done poorly with the\nfag-ends of strength. If we would become skilled intercessors, and know\nhow to pray simply enough, we must take quiet time daily to get off alone.\n\nThe second suggestion: we need a _place_ for prayer. Oh! you can pray\nanywhere, on the street, in the store, travelling, measuring dry goods,\nhands in dishwater,--where not. But you are not likely to unless you have\nbeen off in some quiet place shut in alone with God. The Master said:\n\"Enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door\": that door is\nimportant. It shuts out, and it shuts in. \"Pray to thy Father who is in\nsecret.\" God is here in this shut-in spot. One must get alone to find out\nthat he never is alone. The more alone we are as far as men are concerned\nthe least alone we are so far a; God is concerned.\n\nThe quiet place and time are needful to train the ears for keen hearing. A\nmother will hear the faintest cry of her babe just awaking. It is\nup-stairs perhaps; the tiniest bit of a sound comes; nobody else hears;\nbut quick as a flash the mother's hands are held quiet, the head alert,\nthen she is off. Her ears are trained beyond anybody's else; love's\ntraining. We need trained ears. A quiet place shuts out the outer sounds,\nand gives the inner ear a chance to learn other sounds.\n\nA man was standing in a telephone booth trying to talk, but could not make\nout the message. He kept saying, \"I can't hear, I can't hear.\" The other\nman by and by said sharply, \"If you'll shut that door you can hear.\" _His_\ndoor was shut and he could hear not only the man's voice but the street\nand store noises too. Some folks have gotten their hearing badly confused\nbecause their doors have not been shut enough. Man's voice and God's voice\nget mixed in their ears. They cannot tell between them. The bother is\npartly with the door. If you'll shut that door you can hear.\n\nThe third suggestion needs much emphasis to-day: _give the Book of God its\nplace in prayer._ Prayer is not talking to God--simply. It is listening\nfirst, then talking. Prayer needs three organs of the head, an ear, a\ntongue and an eye. First an ear to hear what God says, then a tongue to\nspeak, then an eye to look out for the result. Bible study is the\nlistening side of prayer. The purpose of God comes in through the ear,\npasses through the heart taking on the tinge of your personality, and goes\nout at the tongue as prayer. It is pathetic what a time God has getting a\nhearing down here. He is ever speaking but even where there may be some\ninclination to hear the sounds of earth are choking in our ears the sound\nof His voice. God speaks in His Word. The most we know of God comes to us\nhere. This Book is God in print. It was inspired, and it _is_ inspired.\nGod Himself speaks in this Book. That puts it in a list by itself, quite\napart from all others. Studying it keenly, intelligently, reverently will\nreveal God's great will. What He says will utterly change what you will\nsay.\n\n\n\n<u>Our Prayer Teacher.</u>\n\n\nThe fourth suggestion is this: _Let the Spirit teach you how to pray_. The\nmore you pray the more you will find yourself saying to yourself, \"I don't\nknow how to pray.\" Well God understands that. Paul knew that out of his\nown experience before he wrote it down. And God has a plan to cover our\nneed there. There is One who is a master intercessor. He understands\npraying perfectly. He is the Spirit of prayer. God has sent Him down to\nlive inside you and me, partly for this, to teach us the fine art of\nprayer. The suggestion is this: let Him teach you.\n\nWhen you go alone in the quiet time and place with the Book quietly pray:\n\"blessed Prayer-Spirit, Master-Spirit, teach me how to pray,\" and He will.\nDo not be nervous, or agitated, wondering if you will understand. Study to\nbe quiet; mind quiet, body quiet. Be still and listen. Remember Luther's\nversion of David's words,[31] \"Be silent to God, and let Him mould thee.\"\n\nYou will find your praying changing. You will talk more simply, like a man\ntransacting business or a child asking, though of course with a reverence\nand a deepness of feeling not in those things. You will quit asking for\nsome things. Some of the old forms of prayer will drop from your lips\nlikely enough. You will use fewer words, maybe, but they will be spoken\nwith a quiet absolute faith that this thing you are asking is being worked\nout.\n\nThis thing of _letting the Spirit teach_ must come first in one's praying,\nand remain to the last, and continue all along as the leading dominant\nfactor. He is a Spirit of prayer peculiarly. The highest law of the\nChristian life is obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. There needs\nto be a cultivated judgment in reading His leading, and not mistaking our\nhaphazard thoughts as His voice. He should be allowed to teach us how to\npray and more, to dominate our praying. The whole range and intensity of\nthe spirit conflict is under His eye. He is God's General on the field of\naction. There come crises in the battle when the turn of the tide wavers.\nHe knows when a bit of special praying is needed to turn the tide and\nbring victory. So there needs to be special seasons of persistent prayer,\na continuing until victory is assured. Obey His promptings. Sometimes\nthere comes an impulse to pray, or to ask another to pray. And we think,\n\"Why, I have just been praying,\" _or_, \"he does pray about this anyway. It\nis not necessary to pray again. I do not just like to suggest it.\" Better\nobey the impulse quietly, with fewest words of explanation to the other\none concerned, or no words beyond simply the request.\n\nLet Him, this wondrous Holy Spirit teach you how to pray. It will take\ntime. You may be a bit set in your way, but if you will just yield and\npatiently wait, He will teach what to pray, suggest definite things, and\noften the very language of prayer.\n\nYou will notice that the chief purpose of these four suggestions is to\nlearn God's will. The quiet place, the quiet time, the Book, the\nSpirit--this is the schoolroom as Andrew Murray would finely put it. Here\nwe learn His will. Learning that makes one eager to have it done, and\nbreathes anew the longing prayer that it may be done.\n\nThere is a fine word much used in the Psalms, and in Isaiah for this sort\nof thing--_waiting_. Over and over again that is the word used for that\ncontact with God which reveals to us His will, and imparts to us anew His\ndesires. It is a word full of richest and deepest meaning. Waiting is not\nan occasional nor a hurried thing. It means _steadfastness_, that is\nholding on; _patience_, that is holding back; _expectancy_, that is\nholding the face up to see; _obedience_, that is holding one's self in\nreadiness to go or do; it means _listening_, that is holding quiet and\nstill so as to hear.\n\n\n\n<u>The Power of a Name.</u>\n\n\nThe fifth suggestion has already been referred to, but should be repeated\nhere. Prayer must be _in Jesus' name_. The relationship of prayer is\nthrough Jesus. And the prayer itself must be offered in His name, because\nthe whole strength of the case lies in Jesus. I recall distinctly a\ncertain section of this country where I was for awhile, and very rarely\ndid I hear Jesus' name used in prayer. I heard men, that I knew must be\ngood men, praying in church, in prayer-meeting and elsewhere with no\nmention of Jesus. Let us distinctly bear in mind that we have no standing\nwith God except through Jesus.\n\nIf the keenest lawyer of London, who knew more of American law, and of\nIllinois statute and of Chicago ordinance--suppose such a case--were to\ncome here, could he plead a case in your court-house? you know he could\nnot. He would have no legal standing here. Now you and I have no standing\nat yonder bar. We are disbarred through sin. Only as we come through one\nwho has recognized standing there can we come.\n\nBut turn that fact around. As we do come in Jesus' name, it is the same as\nthough Jesus prayed. It is the same as though--let me be saying it very\nsoftly so it may seem very reverent--as though Jesus put His arm in yours\nand took you up to the Father, and said, \"Father, here is a friend of\nmine; we're on good terms. Please give him anything he asks, for My sake.\"\nAnd the Father would quickly bend over and graciously say, \"What'll you\nhave? You may have anything you ask when My Son asks for it.\" That is the\npractical effect of asking in Jesus' name.\n\nBut I am very, very clear of this, and I keep swinging back to it that in\nthe ultimate analysis the force of using Jesus' name is that He is the\nvictor over the traitor prince. Prayer is repeating the Victor's name into\nthe ears of Satan and insisting upon his retreat. As one prays\npersistently in Jesus' name, the evil one must go. Reluctantly, angrily,\nhe must loosen his clutches, and go back.\n\n\n\n<u>The Birthplace of Faith.</u>\n\n\nThe sixth suggestion is a familiar one, and yet one much misunderstood.\nPrayer must be _in faith_. But please note that faith here is not\nbelieving that God _can_, but that He _will_. It is kneeling and making\nthe prayer, and then saying, \"Father, I thank Thee for this; that it will\nbe so, I thank Thee.\" Then rising and going about your duties, saying,\n\"that thing is settled.\" Going again and again, and repeating the prayer\nwith the thanks, and then saying as you go off, \"that matter is assured.\"\nNot going repeatedly to persuade God. But because prayer is the deciding\nfactor in a spirit conflict and each prayer is like a fresh blow between\nthe eyes of the enemy, a fresh broadside from your fleet upon the fort.\n\n\"Well,\" some one will say, \"now you are getting that keyed up rather high.\nCan we all have faith like that? Can a man _make_ himself believe?\" There\nshould be no unnatural mechanical insisting that you do believe. Some\nearnest people make a mistake there. And we will not all have faith like\nthat. That is quite true, and I can easily tell you why. The faith that\nbelieves that God _will_ do what you ask is not born in a hurry; it is not\nborn in the dust of the street, and the noise of the crowd. But I can tell\nwhere that faith will have a birthplace and keep growing stronger: in\nevery heart that takes quiet time off habitually with God, and listens to\nHis voice in His word. Into that heart will come a simple strong faith\nthat the thing it is led to ask shall be accomplished.\n\nThat faith has four simple characteristics. It is _intelligent_. It finds\nout what God's will is. Faith is never contrary to reason. Sometimes it is\na bit higher up; the reasoning process has not yet reached up to it.\nSecond, it is _obedient_. It fits its life into God's will. There is apt\nto be a stiff rub here all the time. Then it is _expectant_. It looks out\nfor the result. It bows down upon the earth, but sends a man to keep an\neye on the sea. And then it is _persistent_. It hangs on. It says, \"Go\nagain seven times; seventy times seven.\" It reasons that having learned\nGod's will, and knowing that He does not change, the delay must be caused\nby the third person, the enemy, and that stubborn persistence in the\nVictor's name routs him, and leaves a clear field.\n\n\n\n\nThe Listening Side of Prayer\n\n\n\n<u>A Trained Ear.</u>\n\n\nIn prayer the ear is an organ of first importance. It is of equal\nimportance with the tongue, but must be named first. For the ear leads the\nway to the tongue. The child hears a word before it speaks it. Through the\near comes the use of the tongue. Where the faculties are normal the tongue\nis trained only through the ear. This is nature's method. The mind is\nmoulded largely through the ear and eye. It reveals itself, and asserts\nitself largely through the tongue. What the ear lets in, the mind works\nover, and the tongue gives out.\n\nThis is the order in Isaiah's fiftieth chapter[32] in those words,\nprophetic of Jesus. \"The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that\nare taught.... He wakeneth my ear to hear as they that are taught.\" Here\nthe taught tongue came through the awakened ear. One reason why so many of\nus do not have taught tongues is because we give God so little chance at\nour ears.\n\nIt is a striking fact that the men who have been mightiest in prayer have\nknown God well. They have seemed peculiarly sensitive to Him, and to be\noverawed with the sense of His love and His greatness. There are three of\nthe Old Testament characters who are particularly mentioned as being\nmighty in prayer. Jeremiah tells that when God spoke to him about the deep\nperversity of that nation He exclaimed, \"Though Moses and Samuel stood\nbefore Me My heart could not be towards this people.\"[33] When James wants\nan illustration of a man of prayer for the scattered Jews, he speaks of\nElijah, and of one particular crisis in his life, the praying on Carmel's\ntip-top. These three men are Israel's great men in the great crises of its\nhistory. Moses was the maker and moulder of the nation. Samuel was the\npatient teacher who introduced a new order of things in the national life.\nElijah was the rugged leader when the national worship of Jehovah was\nabout to be officially overthrown. These three men, the maker, the\nteacher, the emergency leader are singled out in the record as peculiarly\nmen of prayer.\n\nNow regarding these men it is most interesting to observe what _listeners_\nthey were to God's voice. Their ears were trained early and trained long,\nuntil great acuteness and sensitiveness to God's voice was the result.\nSpecial pains seem to have been taken with the first man, the nation's\ngreatest giant, and history's greatest jurist. There were two distinct\nstages in the training of his ears. First there were the forty years of\nsolitude in the desert sands, alone with the sheep, and the stars,\nand--God. His ears were being trained by silence. The bustle and confusion\nof Egypt's busy life were being taken out of his ears. How silent are\nGod's voices. How few men are strong enough to be able to endure silence.\nFor in silence God is speaking to the inner ear.\n\n    \"Let us then labour for an inward stillness--\n    An inward stillness and an inward healing;\n    That perfect silence where the lips and heart\n    Are still, and we no longer entertain\n    Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions,\n    But God alone speaks in us, and we wait\n    In singleness of heart, that we may know\n    His will, and in the silence of our spirits,\n    That we may do His will, and do that only.\"[34]\n\nA gentleman was asked by an artist friend of some note to come to his\nhome, and see a painting just finished. He went at the time appointed, was\nshown by the attendant into a room which was quite dark, and left there.\nHe was much surprised, but quietly waited developments. After perhaps\nfifteen minutes his friend came into the room with a cordial greeting, and\ntook him up to the studio to see the painting, which was greatly admired.\nBefore he left the artist said laughingly, \"I suppose you thought it queer\nto be left in that dark room so long.\" \"Yes,\" the visitor said. \"I did.\"\n\"Well,\" his friend replied, \"I knew that if you came into my studio with\nthe glare of the street in your eyes you could not appreciate the fine\ncolouring of the picture. So I left you in the dark room till the glare\nhad worn out of your eyes.\"\n\nThe first stage of Moses' prayer-training was wearing the noise of Egypt\nout of his ears so he could hear the quiet fine tones of God's voice. He\nwho would become skilled in prayer must take a silence course in the\nUniversity of Arabia. Then came the second stage. Forty years were\nfollowed by forty days, twice over, of listening to God's speaking voice\nup in the mount. Such an ear-course as that made a skilled famous\nintercessor.\n\nSamuel had an earlier course than Moses. While yet a child before his ears\nhad been dulled by earth sounds they were tuned to the hearing of God's\nvoice. The child heart and ear naturally open upward. They hear easily and\nbelieve readily. The roadway of the ear has not been beaten down hard by\nmuch travel. God's rains and dews have made it soft, and impressionable.\nThis child's ear was quickly trained to recognize God's voice. And the\ntented Hebrew nation soon came to know that there was a man in their midst\nto whom God was talking. O, to keep the heart and inner ear of a child as\nmature years come!\n\nOf the third of these famous intercessors little is known except of the\nfew striking events in which he figured. Of these, the scene that finds\nits climax in the opening on Carmel's top of the rain-windows, occupies by\nfar the greater space. And it is notable that the beginning of that long\neighteenth chapter of first Kings which tells of the Carmel conflict\nbegins with a message to Elijah from God: \"The word of the Lord came to\nElijah: ... I will send rain upon the earth.\" That was the foundation of\nthat persistent praying and sevenfold watching on the mountaintop. First\nthe ear heard, then the voice persistently claimed, and the eye\nexpectantly looked. First the voice of God, then the voice of man. That is\nthe true order. Tremendous results always follow that combination.\n\n\n\n<u>Through the Book to God.</u>\n\n\nWith us the training is of the _inner_ ear. And its first training, after\nthe early childhood stage is passed, must usually be through the eye. What\nGod has spoken to others has been written down for us. We hear through our\neyes. The eye opens the way to the inner ear. God spoke in His word. He is\nstill speaking in it and through it. The whole thought here is to get _to\nknow God._ He reveals Himself in the word that comes from His own lips,\nand through His messengers' lips. He reveals Himself in His dealings with\nmen. Every incident and experience of these pages is a mirror held up to\nGod's face. In them we may come to see Him.\n\nThis is studying the Bible not for the Bible's sake but for the purpose of\nknowing God. The object aimed at is not the Book but the God revealed in\nthe Book. A man may go to college and take lectures on the English Bible,\nand increase his knowledge, and enrich his vocabulary, and go away with\nutterly erroneous ideas of God. He may go to a law school and study the\ncodes of the first great jurist, and get a clear understanding and firm\ngrasp of the Mosaic enactments, as he must do to lay the foundation of\nlegal training, yet he may remain ignorant of God.\n\nHe may even go to a Bible school, and be able to analyze and synthesize,\ngive outlines of books, and contents of chapters and much else of that\ninvaluable and indispensable sort of knowledge and yet fail to understand\nGod and His marvellous love-will. It is not the Book with which we are\nconcerned here but the God through the Book. Not to learn truth but\nthrough truth to know Him who is Himself the Truth.\n\nThere is a fascinating bit of story told of one of David's mighty men.[35]\nOne day there was a sudden attack upon the camp by the Philistines when\nthe fighting men were all away. This man alone was there. The Philistines\nwere the traditional enemy. The very word \"Philistines\" was one to strike\nterror to the Hebrew heart. But this man was reckoned one of the first\nthree of David's mighty men because of his conduct that day. He quietly,\nquickly gripped his sword and fought the enemy single-handed. Up and down,\nleft and right, hip and thigh he smote with such terrific earnestness and\ndrive that the enemy turned and fled. And we are told that the muscles of\nhis hand became so rigid around the handle of his sword that he could not\ntell by the feeling where his hand stopped, and the sword began. Man and\nsword were one that day in the action of service against the nation's\nenemy. When we so absorb this Book, and the Spirit of Him who is its life\nthat people cannot tell the line of division between the man, and the God\nwithin the man, then shall we have mightiest power as God's intercessors\nin defeating the foe. God and man will be as one in the action of service\nagainst the enemy.\n\n\n\n<u>A Spirit Illumined Mind.</u>\n\n\nI want to make some simple suggestions for studying this Book so as to get\nto God through it. There will be the emphasis of doubling back on one's\ntracks here. For some of the things that should be said have already been\nsaid with a different setting. First there must be the _time_ element.\nOne must get at least a half hour daily when the mind is fresh. A tired\nmind does not readily _absorb_. This should be persisted in until there is\na habitual spending of at least that much time daily over the Book, with a\nspirit at leisure from all else, so it can take in. Then the time should\nbe given to _the Book itself_. If other books are consulted and read as\nthey will be let that be _after_ the reading of this Book. Let God talk to\nyou direct, rather than through somebody else. Give Him first chance at\nyour ears. This Book in the central place of your table, the others\ngrouped about it. First time given to it.\n\nA third suggestion brings out the circle of this work. _Read prayerfully._\nWe learn how to pray by reading prayerfully. This Book does not reveal its\nsweets and strength to the keen mind merely, but to the Spirit enlightened\nmind. All the mental keenness possible, _with the bright light of the\nSpirit's illumination_--that is the open sesame. I have sometimes sought\nthe meaning of some passage from a keen scholar who could explain the\norientalisms, the fine philological distinctions, the most accurate\ntranslations, and all of that, who yet did not seem to know the simple\nspiritual meaning of the words being discussed. And I have asked the same\nquestion of some old saint of God, who did not know Hebrew from a hen's\ntracks, but who seemed to sense at once the deep spiritual truth taught.\nThe more knowledge, the keener the mind, the better _if_ illumined by the\nSpirit that inspired these writings.\n\nThere is a fourth word to put in here. We must read _thoughtfully_.\nThoughtfulness is in danger of being a lost art. Newspapers are so\nnumerous, and literature so abundant, that we are becoming a bright, but a\n_not thoughtful_ people. Often the stream is very wide but has no depth.\nFight shallowness. Insist on reading thoughtfully. A very suggestive word\nin the Bible for this is \"_meditate_.\" Run through and pick out this word\nwith its variations. The word underneath that English word means to\nmutter, as though a man were repeating something over and over again, as\nhe turned it over in his mind. We have another word, with the same\nmeaning, not much used now--ruminate. We call the cow a ruminant because\nshe chews the cud. She will spend hours chewing the cud, and then give us\nthe rich milk and cream and butter which she has extracted from her food.\nThat is the word here--ruminate. Chew the cud, if you would get the\nrichest cream and butter here.\n\nAnd it is remarkable how much chewing this Book of God will stand, in\ncomparison with other books. You chew a while on Tennyson, or Browning, or\nLongfellow. And I am not belittling these noble writings. I have my own\nfavourite among these men. But they do not yield the richest and yet\nricher cream found here. This Book of God has stood more of that sort of\nthing than any other, yet it is the freshest book to be found to-day. You\nread a passage over the two hundredth time and some new fine bit of\nmeaning comes that you had not suspected to be there.\n\nThere is a fifth suggestion, that is easier to make than to follow. _Read\nobediently._ As the truth appeals to your conscience _let it change your\nhabit and life_.\n\n    \"Light obeyed, increased light:\n    Light resisted, bringeth night\n    Who shall give us power to choose\n    If the love of light we lose?\"[36]\n\nJesus gives the law of knowledge in His famous words, \"If any man willeth\nto do His will he shall know of the teaching.\"[37] If we do what we know\nto do, we will know more. If we know to do, and hesitate and hold back,\nand do not obey, the inner eye will surely go blind, and the sense of\nright be dulled and lost. Obedience to truth is the eye of the mind.\n\n\n\n<u>Wide Reading.</u>\n\n\nThen one needs to have a _plan_ of reading. A consecutive plan gathers up\nthe fragments of time into a strong whole. Get a good plan, and stick to\nit. Better a fairly good plan faithfully followed, than the best plan if\nused brokenly or only occasionally. Probably all the numerous methods of\nstudy may be grouped under three general heads, wide reading, topical\nstudy, and textual. We all do some textual study in a more or less small\nway. Digging into a sentence or verse to get at its true and deep meaning.\nWe all do some topical study probably. Gathering up statements on some one\nsubject, studying a character. The more pretentious name is Biblical\nTheology, finding and arranging all that is taught in the whole range of\nthe Bible on any one theme.\n\nBut I want especially to urge _wide reading_, as being the basis of all\nstudy. It is the simple, the natural, the scientific method. It is adapted\nto all classes of persons. I used to suppose it was suited best to college\nstudents, and such; but I was mistaken. It is _the_ method of all for all.\nIt underlies all methods of getting a grasp of this wonderful Book, and so\ncoming to as full and rounded an understanding of God as is possible to\nmen down here.\n\nBy wide reading is meant a _rapid reading through_ regardless of verse,\nchapter, or book divisions. Reading it as _a narrative_, a story. As you\nwould read any book, \"The Siege of Pekin,\" \"The Story of an Untold Love,\"\nto find out the story told, and be able to tell to another. There will be\na reverence of spirit with this book that no other inspires, but with the\nsame intellectual method of running through to see what is here. No book\nis so fascinating as the Bible when read this way. The revised version is\ngreatly to be preferred here simply because it is a _paragraph_ version.\nIt is printed more like other books. Some day its printed form will be yet\nmore modernized, and so made easier to read.\n\nTo illustrate, begin at the first of Genesis, and read rapidly through _by\nthe page_. Do not try to understand all. You will not. Never mind that\nnow. Just push on. Do not try to remember all. Do not think about that.\nLet stick to you what will. You will be surprised to find how much will.\nYou may read ten or twelve pages in your first half hour. Next time start\nin where you left off. You may get through Genesis in three or four times,\nor less or more, depending on your mood, and how fast your habit of\nreading may be. You will find a whole Bible in Genesis. A wonderfully\nfascinating book this Genesis. For love stories, plotting, swift action,\nbeautiful language it more than matches the popular novel.\n\nBut do not stop at the close of Genesis. Push on into Exodus. The\nconnection is immediate. It is the same book. And so on into Leviticus.\nNow do not try to understand Leviticus the first time. You will not the\nhundredth time perhaps. But you can easily group its contents: these\nchapters tell of the offerings: these of the law of offerings: here is an\nincident put in: here sanitary regulations: get the drift of the book. And\nin it all be getting the picture of God--_that is the one point_. And so\non through.\n\nA second stage of this wide reading is fitting together the parts. You\nknow the arrangement of our Bible is not chronological wholly, but\ntopical. The Western mind is almost a slave to chronological order. But\nthe Oriental was not so disturbed. For example, open your Bible to the\nclose of Esther, and again at the close of Malachi. This from Genesis to\nEsther we all know is the historical section: and this second section the\npoetical and prophetical section. There is some history in the prophecy,\nand some prophecy and poetry in the historical part. But in the main this\nfirst is historical, and this second poetry and prophecy. These two parts\nbelong together. This first section was not written, and then this second.\nThe second belongs in between the leaves of the first. It was taken out\nand put by itself because the arrangement of the whole Book is topical\nrather than chronological.\n\nNow the second stage of wide reading is this: fit these parts together.\nFit the poetry and the prophecy into the history. Do it on your own\naccount, as though it had never been done. It has been done much better\nthan you will do it. And you will make some mistakes. You can check those\nup afterwards by some of the scholarly books. And you cannot tell where\nsome parts belong. But meanwhile the thing to note is this: you are\nabsorbing the Book. It is becoming a part of you, bone of your bone, and\nflesh of your flesh, mentally, and spiritually. You are drinking in its\nspirit in huge draughts. There is coming a new vision of God, which will\ntransform radically the reverent student. In it all seek to acquire _the\nhistorical sense_. That is, put yourself back and see what this thing, or\nthis, meant to these men, as it was first spoken, under these immediate\ncircumstances.\n\nAnd so push on into the New Testament. Do not try so much to fit the four\ngospels into one connected story, dovetailing all the parts; but try\nrather to get a clear grasp of Jesus' movements those few years as told by\nthese four men. Fit Paul's letters into the book of Acts, the best you\ncan. The best book to help in checking up here is Conybeare and Howson's\n\"Life and Letters of St. Paul.\" That may well be one of the books in your\ncollection.\n\nYou see at once that this is a method not for a month, nor for a year, but\nfor years. The topical and textual study grow naturally out of it. And\nmeanwhile you are getting an intelligent grasp of this wondrous classic,\nyou are absorbing the finest literature in the English tongue, and\ninfinitely better yet, you are breathing into your very being a new, deep,\nbroad, tender conception of _God_.\n\n\n\n<u>A Mirror Held up to God's Face.</u>\n\n\nIt is simply fascinating too, to find what light floods these pages as\nthey are read back in their historical setting, so far as that is\npossible. For example turn to the third Psalm, fifth verse,\n\n    \"I laid me down and slept;\n    I awaked; for the Lord sustaineth me.\"\n\nI was brought up in an old-fashioned church where that was sung. I knew it\nby heart. As a boy I supposed it meant that night-time had come, and David\nwas sleepy; he had his devotions, and went to bed, and had a good night's\nsleep. That was all it had suggested to me.\n\nBut on my first swing through of the wide reading, my eye was caught, as\ndoubtless yours has often been, by the inscription at the beginning of the\npsalm: \"A psalm of David, _when he fled from Absalom his son_.\" Quickly I\nturned back to Second Samuel to find that story. And I got this picture.\nDavid, an old white-haired man, hurrying one day, barefooted, out of his\npalace, and his capital city, with a few faithful friends, fleeing for his\nlife, because Absalom his favourite son was coming with the strength of\nthe national army to take the kingdom, and his own father's life. And that\nnight as the king lay down to try to catch some sleep, it was upon the\nbare earth, with only heaven's blue dome for a roof. And as he lay he\ncould almost hear the steady tramp, tramp of the army, over the hills,\nseeking his throne and his life. Let me ask you, honestly now; do you\nthink you would have slept much that night? I fear I would have been\ntempted sorely to lie awake thinking: \"here I am, an old man, driven from\nmy kingdom, and my home, by my own boy, that I have loved better than my\nown life.\" Do you think _you_ would have slept much? Tell me.\n\nBut David speaking of that night afterwards wrote this down:--\"I laid me\ndown, and _slept; I awaked_; (the thought is, I awaked _refreshed_) for\nthe Lord sustaineth me.\" And I thought, as first that came to me, \"I never\nwill have insomnia again: I'll trust.\" And so you see a lesson of trust in\nGod came, in my wide reading, out of the historical setting, that greatly\nrefreshed and strengthened, and that I have never forgotten. What a God,\nto give sleep under such circumstances!\n\nA fine illustration of this same thing is found in the New Testament in\nPaul's letter to the Philippians. At one end of that epistle is this\nscene: Paul, lying in the inner damp cell of a prison, its small creeping\ndenizens familiarly examining this newcomer, in the darkness of midnight,\nhis back bleeding from the stripes, his bones aching, and his feet fast in\nthe stocks. That is one half of the historical setting of this book. And\nhere is the other half: Paul, a prisoner in Rome. If he tries to ease his\nbody by changing his position, swinging one limb over the other, a chain\ndangling at his ankle reminds him of the soldier by his side. As he picks\nup a quill to put a last loving word out of his tender heart for these old\nfriends, a chain pulls at his wrist. That is Philippians, the prison\nepistle, resounding with clanking chain.\n\nWhat is the keyword of the book, occurring oftener than any other?\nPatience? Surely that would be appropriate. Long-suffering? Still more\nfitting would that seem. But, no, the keyword stands in sharpest contrast\nto these surroundings. Paul used clouds to make the sun's shining more\nbeautiful. Joy, rejoice, rejoicing, is the music singing all the way\nthrough these four chapters. What a wondrous Master, this Jesus, so to\ninspire His friend doing His will!\n\nEvery incident and occurrence of these pages becomes a mirror held up to\nGod's face that we may see how wondrous He is.\n\n    \"Upon Thy Word I rest\n      Each pilgrim day.\n    This golden staff is best\n      For all the way.\n    What Jesus Christ hath spoken,\n      Cannot be broken!\n\n    \"Upon Thy Word I rest;\n      So strong, so sure,\n    So full of comfort blest,\n      So sweet, so pure:\n    The charter of salvation:\n      Faith's broad foundation.\n\n    \"Upon Thy Word I stand:\n      That cannot die.\n    Christ seals it in my hand.\n      He cannot lie.\n    Thy Word that faileth never:\n      Abiding ever.\"[38]\n\n\n\n\nSomething about God's Will in Connection With Prayer\n\n\n\n<u>He Came to His Own.</u>\n\n\nThe purpose of prayer is to get God's will done. What a stranger God is in\nHis own world! Nobody is so much slandered as He. He comes to His own, and\nthey keep Him standing outside the door, like a pilgrim of the night,\nstaff in hand, while they peer suspiciously at Him through the crack of\nthe hinges.\n\nSome of us shrink back from making a full surrender of life to God. And if\nthe real reason were known it would be found to be that we are _afraid_ of\nGod. We fear He will put something bitter in the cup, or some rough thing\nin the road. And without doubt the reason we are afraid of God is because\nwe do not _know_ God. The great prayer of Jesus' heart that night with the\neleven was, \"that they may _know_ Thee the only true God, and Jesus\nChrist whom Thou didst send.\"\n\nTo understand God's will we must understand something of His character,\nHimself. There are five common every-day words I want to bring you to\nsuggest something of who God is. They are familiar words, in constant use.\nThe first is the word _father_. \"Father\" stands for strength, loving\nstrength. A father plans, and provides for, and protects his loved ones.\nAll fathers are not good. How man can extract the meaning out of a fine\nword, and use the word without its meaning. If you will think of the\nfinest father ever you knew that anybody ever had; think of him now. Then\nremember this, God is a father, only He is so much finer a father than the\nfinest father you ever knew of. And His will for your _life_--I am not\ntalking about heaven, and our souls just now, that is in it too--His will\nfor your life down here these days is a father's will for the one most\ndearly loved.\n\nThe second word is a finer word. Because woman is finer than man, and was\nmade, and meant to be, this second word is finer than the first. I mean\nthe word _mother_. If father stands for strength, mother stands for\nlove,--great, patient, tender, fine-fibred, enduring love. What would she\nnot do for her loved one! Why, not unlikely she went down into the valley\nof the shadow that that life might come; and did it gladly with the\nlove-light shining out of her eyes. Yes, and would do it again, that the\nlife may remain if need be. That is a mother. You think of the finest\nmother ever you knew. And the suggestion brings the most hallowed memories\nto my own heart. Then remember this: God is a mother, only He is so much\nfiner a mother than the finest mother you ever knew.\n\nThe references in scripture to God as a mother are numerous. \"Under His\nwings\" is a mother figure. The mother-bird gathers her brood up under her\nwings to feel the heat of her body, and for protection. The word mother is\nnot used for God in the Bible. I think it is because with God \"father\"\nincludes \"mother.\" It takes more of the human to tell the story than of\nthe divine. With God, all the strength of the father and all the fine love\nof the mother are combined in that word \"father.\" And His will for us is a\nmother's will, a wise loving mother's will for the darling of her heart.\n\nThe third word is _friend_. I do not mean to use it in the cheaper\nmeaning. There is a certain kindliness of speech in which all\nacquaintances are called friends. Tupper says, we call all men friends who\nare not known to be enemies. But I mean to use the word in its finer\nmeaning. Here, a friend is one who loves you for your sake only and\nsteadfastly loves without regard to any return, even a return-love. The\nEnglish have a saying that you may fill a church with your acquaintances,\nand not fill the pulpit seats with your friends. If you may have in your\nlife one or two real friends you are very wealthy. If you will think for a\nmoment of the very best friend you ever knew anybody to have. Then\nremember this: God is a friend. Only He is ever so much better a friend\nthan the best friend you ever knew of. And the plan He has thought out for\nyour life is such a one as that word would suggest.\n\nThe fourth word, I almost hesitate to use, yet I am sure I need not here.\nThe hesitancy is because the word and its relationship are spoken of\nlightly, frivolously, so much, even in good circles. I mean that rare fine\nword _lover_. Where two have met, and acquaintance has deepened into\nfriendship, and that in turn into the holiest emotion, the highest\nfriendship. What would he not do for her! She becomes the new human centre\nof his life. In a good sense he worships the ground she treads upon. And\nshe--she will leave wealth for poverty if only so she may be with him in\nthe coming days. She will leave home and friends, and go to the ends of\nthe earth if his service calls him there. You think of the finest lover,\nman or woman, you ever knew anybody to have. Then remember this, and let\nme say it in soft, reverent tones, God is a lover--shall I say in yet more\nreverent voice, a sweetheart-lover. Only He is so much finer a lover than\nthe finest lover you ever knew of. And His will, His plan for your life\nand mine--it hushes my heart to say it--is a lover's plan for his only\nloved one.\n\nThe fifth word is this fourth word a degree finer spun, a stage farther\non, and higher up, the word _husband_. This is the word on the man side\nfor the most hallowed relationship of earth. This is the lover\nrelationship in its perfection stage. With men husband is not always a\nfiner word than lover. The more's the pity. How man does cheapen God's\nplan of things; leaves out the kernel, and keeps only an empty shell\nsometimes. In God's thought a husband is a lover _plus_. He is all that\nthe finest lover is, and more; more tender, more eager, more thoughtful.\nTwo lives are joined, and begin living one life. Two wills, yet one. Two\npersons, yet one purpose. Duality in unity. Will you call to mind for a\nmoment the best husband you ever knew any woman to have. Then remember\nthis that God is a husband; only He is an infinitely more thoughtful\nhusband than any you ever knew. And His will for your life is a husband's\nwill for his life's friend and companion.\n\nNow, please, do not _you_ take one of these words, and say, \"I like that\";\nand _you_ another and say, \"That conception of God appeals to me,\" and\n_you_ another. How we do whittle God down to our narrow conceptions! You\nmust take all five words, and think the finest meaning into each, and then\nput them all together, to get a close up idea of God. He is all that, _and\nmore_.\n\nYou see God is so much that it takes a number of earth's relationships put\ntogether to get a good suggestion of what He is. He is a father, a\nmother, a friend, a lover, a husband. I have not brought book, and\nchapter, and verse. But you know I could spend a long time with you\nreading over the numerous passages giving these conceptions of God.\n\nAnd God's will for us is the plan of such a God as that. It includes the\nbody, health and strength; the family and home matters; money and business\nmatters; friendships, including the choice of life's chief friend; it\nincludes service, what service and where; and constant guidance; it\nincludes the whole life, and the world of lives. All this He has thought\ninto, lovingly, carefully. Does a wise mother think of her child's needs\ninto the details, the necessities and the loving extras? That is God.\n\n\n\n<u>The One Purpose of Prayer.</u>\n\n\nNow, the whole thought in prayer is to get the will of a God like that\ndone in our lives and upon this old earth. The greatest prayer any one can\noffer is, \"Thy will be done.\" It will be offered in a thousand different\nforms, with a thousand details, as needs arise daily. But every true\nprayer comes under those four words. There is not a good desirable thing\nthat you have thought of that He has not thought of first, and probably\nwith an added touch not in your thought. Not to grit your teeth and lock\nyour jaw and pray for grace to say, \"Thy will be _endured_: it is bitter,\nbut I must be resigned; that is a Christian grace; Thy will be\n_endured_.\" Not that, please. Do not slander God like that. There is a\nsuperficial idea among men that charges God with many misfortunes and ills\nfor which He is not at all responsible. He is continually doing the very\nbest that can be done under the circumstances for the best results. He has\na bad mixture of stubborn warped human wills to deal with. With infinite\npatience and skill and diplomacy and success too He is ever working at the\ntangled skein of human life, through the human will.\n\nIt may help us here to remember that God has a first and a second will for\nus: a first choice and a second. He always prefers that His first will\nshall be accomplished in us. But where we will not be wooed up to that\nheight, He comes down to the highest level we will come up to, and works\nwith us there. For instance, God's first choice for Israel was that He\nHimself should be their king. There was to be no human, visible king, as\nwith the surrounding nations. He was to be their king. They were to be\npeculiar in this. But to Samuel's sorrow and yet more to God's, they\ninsisted upon a king. And so God gave them a king. And David the great\nshepherd-psalmist-king was a man after God's own heart, and the world's\nSaviour came of the Davidic line. God did His best upon the level they\nchose and a great best it was. Yet the human king and line of kings was\nnot God's first will, but a second will yielded to because the first\nwould not be accepted. God is ever doing the best for human lives that can\nbe done through the human will.\n\nHis first will for our bodies, without doubt, is that there should be a\nstrong healthy body for each of us. But there is a far higher thing being\naimed at in us than that. And with keen pain to His own heart, He oft\ntimes permits bodily weakness and suffering because in the conditions of\nour wills only so can these higher and highest things be gotten at. And\nwhere the human will comes into intelligent touch with Himself, and the\nhigher can so be reached, with great gladness and eagerness the bodily\ndifficulty is removed by Him.\n\nThere are two things, at least, that modify God's first will for us. First\nof all the degree of our intelligent willingness that He shall have His\nfull sway. And second, the circumstances of one's life. Each of us is the\ncentre of a circle of people, an ever changing circle. If we be in touch\nwith Him God is speaking through each of us to his circle. Our experiences\nwith God: His dealings with us, under the varying circumstances are a part\nof His message to that circle. God is trying to win men. It takes\nmarvellous diplomacy on His part. And God is a wondrous tactician.\nBut--very reverently--He is a needy God. He needs us to help Him, each in\nhis circle. We must be perfectly willing to have His will done; and more,\nwe must trust Him to know what is best to do in us and with us in the\ncircle of our circumstances. God is a great economist. He wastes no\nforces. Every bit is being conserved towards the great end in view.\n\nThere may be a false submission to His supposed will in some affliction; a\nnot reaching out after _all_ that He has for us. And at the other swing of\nthe pendulum there may be a sort of _logical praying_ for some desirable\nthing because a friend tells us we should claim it. By logical praying I\nmean the studying of a statement of God's word, and possibly some one's\nexplanation of it, and hearing or knowing how somebody else has claimed a\ncertain thing through that statement and then concluding that therefore we\nshould so claim. The trouble with that is that it stops too soon. Praying\nin the Spirit as opposed to logical praying is doing this logical\nthinking: _then_ quietly taking all to God, to learn what His will is for\n_you_, under your circumstances, and in the circle of people whom He\ntouches through you.\n\n\n\n<u>The Spirit's Prayer Room.</u>\n\n\nThere is a remarkable passage in Paul's Roman letter about prayer and\nGod's will.[39] \"And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity:\nfor we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh\nintercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that\nsearcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, that He\nmaketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.\"\n\nPlease notice: these words connect back with the verses ending with verse\nseventeen. Verses eighteen to twenty-five are a parenthesis. As the Spirit\nwithin breathes out the \"Father\" cry of a child, which is the prayer-cry,\nso He helps us in praying. It is our infirmity that we do not know how to\npray _as we ought_. There is willingness and eagerness too. No bother\nthere. But a lack of knowledge. We don't know how. But the Spirit knows\nhow. He is the Master-prayor. He knows God's will perfectly. He knows what\nbest to be praying under all circumstances. And He is within you and me.\nHe is there as a prayer-spirit. He prompts us to pray. He calls us away to\nthe quiet room to our knees. He inclines to prayer wherever we are. He is\nthinking thoughts that find no response in us. They cannot be expressed in\nour lips for they are not in our thinking. He prays with an intensity\nquite beyond the possibility of language to express. And the\nheart-searcher--God listening above--knows fully what this praying Spirit\nis thinking within me, and wordlessly praying, for they are one. He\nrecognizes His own purposes and plans being repeated in this man down on\nthe earth by His own Spirit.\n\nAnd the great truth is that the Spirit within us prays God's will. He\nteaches us God's will. He teaches us how to pray God's will. And He\nHimself prays God's will in us. And further that He seeks to pray God's\nwill--that is to pray for the thing God has planned--in us before we have\nyet reached up to where we know ourselves what that will is.\n\nWe should be ambitious to cultivate a healthy sensitiveness to this\nindwelling Spirit. And when there comes that quick inner wooing away to\npray let us faithfully obey. Even though we be not clear what the\nparticular petition is to be let us remain in prayer while He uses us as\nthe medium of His praying.\n\nOftentimes the best prayer to offer about some friend, or some particular\nthing, after perhaps stating the case the best we can is this: \"Holy\nSpirit, be praying in me the thing the Father wants done. Father, what the\nSpirit within me is praying, that is my prayer in Jesus' name. Thy will,\nwhat Thou art wishing and thinking, may that be fully done here.\"\n\n\n\n<u>How to Find God's Will.</u>\n\n\nWe should make a study of God's will. We ought to seek to become skilled\nin knowing His will. The more we know Him the better shall we be able to\nread intelligently His will.\n\nIt may be said that God has two wills for each of us, or, better, there\nare two parts to His will. There is His will of grace, and His will of\ngovernment. His will of grace is plainly revealed in His Word. It is that\nwe shall be saved, and made holy, and pure, and by and by glorified in his\nown presence. His will of government is His particular plan for my life.\nGod has every life planned. The highest possible ambition for a life is to\nreach God's plan. He reveals that to us bit by bit as we need to know. If\nthe life is to be one of special service He will make that plain, what\nservice, and where, and when. Then each next step He will make plain.\n\nLearning His will here hinges upon three things, simple enough but\nessential. I must keep _in touch_ with Him so He has an open ear to talk\ninto. I must _delight_ to do His will, _because it is His_. The third\nthing needs special emphasis. Many who are right on the first two stumble\nhere, and sometimes measure their length on the ground. _His Word must be\nallowed to discipline my judgment as to Himself and His will_. Many of us\nstumble on number one and on number two. And very many willing earnest men\nsprawl badly when it comes to number three. The bother with these is the\nlack of a disciplined judgment about God and His will. If we would\nprayerfully _absorb_ the Book, there would come a better poised judgment.\nWe need to get a broad sweep of God's thought, to breathe Him in as He\nreveals Himself in this Book. The meek man--that is the man willing to\nyield his will to a higher will--will He guide in his judgment, that is,\nin his mental processes.[40]\n\nThis is John's standpoint in that famous passage in his first epistle.[41]\n\"And this is the boldness that we have towards Him, that, if we ask\nanything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He\nheareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we\nhave asked of Him.\" These words dovetail with great nicety into those\nalready quoted from Paul in the eighth of Romans. The whole supposition\nhere is that we have learned His will about the particular matter in hand.\nHaving gotten that footing, we go to prayer with great boldness. For if He\nwants a thing and I want it and we join--that combination cannot be\nbroken.\n\n\n\n\nMay we Pray With Assurance for the Conversion of Our Loved Ones\n\n\n\n<u>God's Door into a Home.</u>\n\n\nThe heart of God hungers to redeem the world. For that He gave His own,\nonly Son though the treatment He received tore that father's heart to the\nbleeding. For that He sent the Holy Spirit to do in men what the Son had\ndone for them. For that He placed in human hands the mightiest of all\nforces--prayer, that so we might become partners with Him.\n\nFor that too He set man in the relationships of kinship and friendship. He\nwins men through men. Man is the goal, and he is also the road to the\ngoal. Man is the object aimed at. And he is the medium of approach,\nwhether the advance be by God or by Satan. God will not enter a man's\nheart without his consent, and Satan _can_not. God would reach men through\nmen, and Satan must. And so God has set us in the strongest relation that\nbinds men, the relation of love, that He may touch one through another.\nKinship is a relation peculiar to man, and to the earth.\n\nI have at times been asked by some earnest sensitive persons if it is not\nselfish to be especially concerned for one's own, over whom the heart\nyearns much, and the prayer offered is more tender and intense and more\nfrequent. Well, if _you_ do not pray for them who will? Who _can_ pray for\nthem with such believing persistent fervour as you! God has set us in the\nrelationship of personal affection and of kinship for just such a purpose.\nHe binds us together with the ties of love that we may be concerned for\neach other. If there be but one in a home in touch with God, that one\nbecomes God's door into the whole family.\n\nContact means opportunity, and that in turn means responsibility. The\ncloser the contact the greater the opportunity and the greater too the\nresponsibility. Unselfishness does not mean to exclude one's self, and\none's own. It means right proportions in our perspective. Humility is not\nwhipping one's self. It is forgetting one's self in the thought of others.\nYet even that may be carried to a bad extreme. Not only is it not selfish\nso to pray, it is a part of God's plan that we should so pray. I am most\nresponsible for the one to whom I am most closely related.\n\n\n\n<u>A Free Agent Enslaved.</u>\n\n\nOne of the questions that is more often asked in this connection than any\nother perhaps is this: may we pray with assurance for the conversion of\nour loved ones? No question sets more hearts in an audience to beating\nfaster than does that. I remember speaking in the Boston noonday meeting,\nin the old Broomfield Street M. E. Church on this subject one week.\nPerhaps I was speaking rather positively. And at the close of the meeting\none day a keen, cultured Christian woman whom I knew came up for a word.\nShe said, \"I do not think we can pray like that.\" And I said, \"Why not?\"\nShe paused a moment, and her well-controlled agitation revealed in eye and\nlip told me how deeply her thoughts were stirred. Then she said quietly,\n\"I have a brother. He is not a Christian. The theatre, the wine, the club,\nthe cards--that is his life. And he laughs at me. I would rather than\nanything else that my brother were a Christian. But,\" she said, and here\nboth her keenness and the training of her early teaching came in, \"I do\nnot think I can pray positively for his conversion, for he is a free\nagent, is he not? And God will not save a man against his will.\"\n\nI want to say to you to-day what I said to her. Man _is_ a free agent, to\nuse the old phrase, so far as God is concerned; utterly, wholly free.\n_And_, he is the most enslaved agent on the earth, so far as sin, and\nselfishness and prejudice are concerned. The purpose of our praying is not\nto force or coerce his will; never that. It is to _free_ his will of the\nwarping influences that now twist it awry. It is to get the dust out of\nhis eyes so his sight shall be clear. And once he is free, able to see\naright, to balance things without prejudice, the whole probability is in\nfavour of his using his will to choose the only right.\n\nI want to suggest to you the ideal prayer for such a one. It is an\nadaptation of Jesus' own words. It may be pleaded with much variety of\ndetail. It is this: deliver him from the evil one; and work in him _Thy\nwill_ for him, by Thy power to Thy glory in Jesus, the Victor's name. And\nthere are three special passages upon which to base this prayer. First\nTimothy, second chapter, fourth verse (American version), \"God our\nSaviour, who would have all men to be saved.\" That is God's will for your\nloved one. Second Peter, third chapter, ninth verse, \"not wishing (or\nwilling) that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.\"\nThat is God's will, or desire, for the one you are thinking of now. The\nthird passage is on our side who do the praying. It tells who may offer\nthis prayer with assurance. John, fifteenth chapter, seventh verse, \"If ye\nabide in Me, and My words abide in you, you ask what it is your will to\nask, and I will bring it to pass for you.\"\n\nThere is a statement of Paul's in second Timothy that graphically pictures\nthis:[42] \"The Lord's servant must not strive \"--not argue, nor\ncombat--\"but be gentle towards all, apt to teach\"--ready and skilled in\nexplaining, helping--\"in meekness correcting (or, instructing) them that\noppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the\nknowledge of the truth, and _they may recover themselves out of the snare\nof the devil_, having been taken captive by him unto his will.\"\n\nThat word \"deliver\" in this prayer, as used by Jesus, the word under our\nEnglish, has a picturesque meaning. It means _rescue_. Here is a man taken\ncaptive, and in chains. But he has become infatuated with his captor, and\nis befooled regarding his condition. Our prayer is, \"rescue him from the\nevil one,\" and because Jesus is Victor over the captor, the rescue will\ntake place.\n\nWithout any doubt we may assure the conversion of these laid upon our\nhearts by such praying. The prayer in Jesus' name drives the enemy off the\nbattle-field of the man's will, and leaves him free to choose aright.\nThere is one exception to be noted, a very, very rare exception. There may\nbe _extreme_ instances where such a prayer may not be offered; where the\nspirit of prayer is withdrawn. But such are very rare and extreme, and the\nconviction regarding that will be unmistakable beyond asking any\nquestions.\n\nAnd I cannot resist the conviction--I greatly dislike to say this, I would\nmuch rather not if I regarded either my own feelings or yours. But I\ncannot resist the conviction--listen very quietly, so I may speak in\nquietest tones--that there are people ... in that lower, lost world ...\nwho are there ... because some one failed to put his life in touch with\nGod, and pray.\n\n\n\n<u>The Place Where God is Not.</u>\n\n\nHaving said that much let me go on to say this further, and please let me\nsay it all in softest sobbing voice--there is a hell. There must be a\nhell. You may leave this Bible sheer out of your reckoning in the matter.\nStill there must be a place for which that word of ugliest associations is\nthe word to use. _Philosophically_ there must be a hell. That is the name\nfor the place where God is not; for the place where they will gather\ntogether who insist on leaving God out. God out! There can be no worse\nhell than that! God away! Man held back by no restraints!\n\nI am very clear it is _not_ what men have pictured it to be. It is not\nwhat my childish fancy saw and shrank from terrified. And, please let us\nbe very careful that we never consign anybody there, in our thinking or\nspeaking about them. When that life whose future might be questioned has\ngone the most we can say is that we leave it with a God infinitely just\nand the personification of love.\n\nThere has been in some quarters an unthinking consigning of persons to a\nlost world. And there has been in our day a clean swing of the pendulum\nto the other extreme. Both drifts are to be dreaded. Let us deal very\ntenderly here, yet with a right plainness in our tenderness. We are to\nwarn men faithfully. We know the Book's plain teaching that these who\nprefer to leave God out \"shall go away.\" The going is of their own accord\nand choice. Regarding particular ones we do not know and are best silent.\nThe grave is closing. Let us deal with the living.\n\nOne day at the close of the morning hour at a Bible conference in the\nAlleghany Mountains a young woman came up for a moment's conversation. She\nspoke about a friend, not a professing Christian, for whom she had prayed\nmuch, and who had died unexpectedly. He had passed away during\nunconsciousness, with no opportunity for exchange of words. She was much\nagitated as the facts were recited, and then said as she finished, \"he is\nlost and in hell: and I can never pray again.\"\n\nWe talked quietly awhile and I gathered the following facts. He was of a\nChristian family, perfectly familiar with the Bible, was a thoughtful man,\nof outwardly correct life in the main, had talked about these matters with\nothers but had never either in conversation or more openly confessed\npersonal faith in Christ. He was not in good health. Then came the sudden\nend. One other fact came out. She had prayed for his conversion for a long\ntime. She was herself an earnest Christian woman, solicitous for others.\nThere were four facts to go upon regarding him. He knew the way to God. He\nwas thoughtful. He had never openly accepted. Some one had prayed.\n\nCan one _know_ anything certainly about that man's condition? There are\ntwo sorts of knowledge, direct and inferential. I know there is such a\ncity as London for I have walked its streets. That is direct knowledge. I\nknow there is such a city as St. Petersburg because though I have never\nbeen there, yet through my reading, pictures I have seen, and friends who\nhave been there I am clear of its existence to the point of _knowledge_.\nThat is inferential knowledge.\n\nNow regarding this man after he slipped from the grasp of his friends, I\nhave no direct knowledge. But I have very positive inferential knowledge\nbased upon these four facts. Three of the facts, namely, the first,\nsecond, and fourth were favourable to the end desired. The third swings\nneither way. The great dominant fact in the case is the fourth, and a\ngreat and dominating fact it is in judging--some one in touch with God had\nbeen persistently, believingly praying up to the time of the quick end.\nThat fact with the others gives strong inferential knowledge regarding the\nman. It is sufficient to comfort a heart, and give one renewed faith in\npraying for others.\n\n\n\n<u>Saving the Life.</u>\n\n\nWe cannot know a man's mental processes. This is surely true, that if in\nthe very last half-twinkling of an eye a man look up towards God\nlongingly, that look is the turning of the will to God. And that is quite\nenough. God is eagerly watching with hungry eyes for the quick turn of a\nhuman eye up to Himself. Doubtless many a man has so turned in the last\nmoment of his life when we were not conscious of his consciousness, nor\naware of the movements of his outwardly unconscious sub-consciousness. One\nmay be unconscious of outer things, and yet be keenly conscious towards\nGod.\n\nAt another of these summer gatherings this incident came to me. A man\nseemingly of mature mind and judgment told me of a friend of his. That was\nas close as I got to the friend himself. This friend was not a professing\nChristian, was thrown from a boat, sank twice and perhaps three times, and\nthen was rescued, and after some difficulty resuscitated. He told\nafterwards how swiftly his thoughts came as they are said to do to one in\nsuch circumstances. He thought surely he was drowning, was quiet in his\nmind, thought of God and how he had not been trusting Him, and in his\nthought he prayed for forgiveness. He lived afterwards a consistent\nChristian life. This illustrates simply the possibilities open to one in\nhis keen inner mental processes.\n\nHere is surely enough knowledge to comfort many a bereft heart, and\nenough too to make us pray persistently and believingly for loved ones\nbecause of prayer's uncalculated and incalculable power. Be sure the\nprayer-fact is in the case of _your_ friend, _and in strong_.\n\nYet let us be wary, very wary of letting this influence us one bit\nfarther. That man is nothing less than a fool who presumes upon such\nstatements to resist God's gracious pleadings for his life. And on our\nside, we must not fail to warn men lovingly, tenderly yet with plainness\nof the tremendous danger of delay, in coming to God. A man may be so\nstupefied at the close as to shut out of his range what has been suggested\nhere. And further even if a man's soul be saved he is responsible to God\nfor his life. We want men to _live_ for Jesus, and win others to Him. And\nfurther, yet, reward, preferment, honour in God's kingdom depends upon\nfaithfulness to Him down here. Who would be saved by the skin of his\nteeth!\n\nThe great fact to have burned in deep is that we may assure the coming to\nGod of our loved ones with their lives, as well as for their souls if we\nwill but press the battle.\n\n\n\n<u>Giving God a Clear Road for Action.</u>\n\n\nOut in one of the trans-Mississippi states I ran across an illustration of\nprayer in real life that caught me at once, and has greatly helped me in\nunderstanding prayer.\n\nFact is more fascinating than fiction. If one could know what is going on\naround him, how surprised and startled he would be. If we could get _all_\nthe facts in any one incident, and get them colourlessly, and have the\njudgment to sift and analyze accurately, what fascinating instances of the\npower of prayer would be disclosed.\n\nThere is a double side to this story. The side of the man who was changed,\nand the side of the woman who prayed. He is a New Englander, by birth and\nbreeding, now living in this western state: almost a giant physically,\nkeen mentally, a lawyer, and a natural leader. He had the conviction as a\nboy that if he became a Christian he was to preach. But he grew up a\nskeptic, read up and lectured on skeptical subjects. He was the\nrepresentative of a district of his western home state in congress; in his\nfourth term or so I think at this time.\n\nThe experience I am telling came during that congress when the\nHayes-Tilden controversy was up, the intensest congress Washington has\nknown since the Civil War. It was not a time specially suited to\nmeditation about God in the halls of congress. And further he said to me\nthat somehow he knew all the other skeptics who were in the lower house\nand they drifted together a good bit and strengthened each other by their\ntalk.\n\nOne day as he was in his seat in the lower house, in the midst of the\nbusiness of the hour, there came to him a conviction that God--the God in\nwhom he did not believe, whose existence he could keenly disprove--God was\nright there above his head thinking about him, and displeased at the way\nhe was behaving towards Him. And he said to himself: \"this is ridiculous,\nabsurd. I've been working too hard; confined too closely; my mind is\ngetting morbid. I'll go out, and get some fresh air, and shake myself.\"\nAnd so he did. But the conviction only deepened and intensified. Day by\nday it grew. And that went on for weeks, into the fourth month as I recall\nhis words. Then he planned to return home to attend to some business\nmatters, and to attend to some preliminaries for securing the nomination\nfor the governorship of his state. And as I understand he was in a fair\nway to securing the nomination, so far as one can judge of such matters.\nAnd his party is the dominant party in the state. A nomination for\ngovernor by his party has usually been followed by election.\n\nHe reached his home and had hardly gotten there before he found that his\nwife and two others had entered into a holy compact of prayer for his\nconversion, and had been so praying for some months. Instantly he thought\nof his peculiar unwelcome Washington experience, and became intensely\ninterested. But not wishing them to know of his interest, he asked\ncarelessly when \"this thing began.\" His wife told him the day. He did some\nquick mental figuring, and he said to me, \"I knew almost instantly that\nthe day she named fitted into the calendar with the coming of that\nconviction or impression about God's presence.\"\n\nHe was greatly startled. He wanted to be thoroughly honest in all his\nthinking. And he said he knew that if a single fact of that sort could be\nestablished, of prayer producing such results, it carried the whole\nChristian scheme of belief with it. And he did some stiff fighting within.\nHad he been wrong all those years? He sifted the matter back and forth as\na lawyer would the evidence in any case. And he said to me, \"As an honest\nman I was compelled to admit the facts, and I believe I might have been\nled to Christ that very night.\"\n\nA few nights later he knelt at the altar in the Methodist meeting-house in\nhis home town and surrendered his strong will to God. Then the early\nconviction of his boyhood days came back. He was to preach the gospel. And\nlike Saul of old, he utterly changed his life, and has been preaching the\ngospel with power ever since.\n\nThen I was intensely fascinated in getting the other side, the\npraying-side of the story. His wife had been a Christian for years, since\nbefore their marriage. But in some meetings in the home church she was\nled into a new, a full surrender to Jesus Christ as Master, and had\nexperienced a new consciousness of the Holy Spirit's presence and power.\nAlmost at once came a new intense desire for her husband's conversion. The\ncompact of three was agreed upon, of daily prayer for him until the change\ncame.\n\nAs she prayed that night after retiring to her sleeping apartment she was\nin great distress of mind in thinking and praying for him. She could get\nno rest from this intense distress. At length she rose, and knelt by the\nbedside to pray. As she was praying and distressed a voice, an exquisitely\nquiet inner voice said, \"will you abide the consequences?\" She was\nstartled. Such a thing was wholly new to her. She did not know what it\nmeant. And without paying any attention to it, went on praying. Again came\nthe same quietly spoken words to her ear, \"will you abide the\nconsequences?\" And again the half frightened feeling. She slipped back to\nbed to sleep. But sleep did not come. And back again to her knees, and\nagain the patient, quiet voice.\n\nThis time with an earnestness bearing the impress of her agony she said,\n\"Lord, I will abide any consequence that may come if only my husband may\nbe brought to Thee.\" And at once the distress slipped away, and a new\nsweet peace filled her being, and sleep quickly came. And while she prayed\non for weeks and months patiently, persistently, day by day, the distress\nwas gone, the sweet peace remained in the assurance that the result was\nsurely coming. And so it was coming all those days down in the thick air\nof Washington's lower house, and so it did come.\n\nWhat _was_ the consequence to her? She was a congressman's wife. She would\nlikely have been, so far as such matters may be judged, the wife of the\ngovernor of her state, the first lady socially of the state. She is a\nMethodist minister's wife changing her home every few years. A very\ndifferent position in many ways. No woman will be indifferent to the\nsocial difference involved. Yet rarely have I met a woman with more of\nthat fine beauty which the peace of God brings, in her glad face, and in\nher winsome smile.\n\nDo you see the simple philosophy of that experience. Her surrender gave\nGod a clear channel into that man's will. When the roadway was cleared,\nher prayer was a spirit-force traversing instantly the hundreds of\nintervening miles, and affecting the spirit-atmosphere of his presence.\n\nShall we not put our wills fully in touch with God, and sheer out of\nsympathy with the other one, and persistently plead and claim for each\nloved one, \"deliver him from the evil one, and work in him Thy will, to\nThy glory, by Thy power, in the Victor's name.\" And then add amen--so it\n_shall_ be. Not so _may_ it be--a wish, but so it _shall_ be--an\nexpression of confidence in Jesus' power. _And these lives shall be won,\nand these souls saved_.\n\n\n\n\nIV. Jesus' Habits of Prayer\n\n\n1. A Pen Sketch.\n2. Dissolving Views.\n3. Deepening Shadows.\n4. Under the Olive Trees.\n5. A Composite Picture.\n\n\n\n\nJesus' Habits of Prayer\n\n\n\n<u>A Pen Sketch.</u>\n\n\nWhen God would win back His prodigal world He sent down a Man. That Man\nwhile more than man insisted upon being truly a man. He touched human life\nat every point. No man seems to have understood prayer, and to have prayed\nas did He. How can we better conclude these quiet talks on prayer than by\ngathering about His person and studying His habits of prayer.\n\nA habit is an act repeated so often as to be done involuntarily; that is,\nwithout a new decision of the mind each time it is done.\n\nJesus prayed. He loved to pray. Sometimes praying was His way of resting.\nHe prayed so much and so often that it became a part of His life. It\nbecame to Him like breathing--involuntary.\n\nThere is no thing we need so much as to learn how to pray. There are two\nways of receiving instruction; one, by being told; the other, by watching\nsome one else. The latter is the simpler and the surer way. How better can\nwe learn how to pray than by watching how Jesus prayed, and then trying\nto imitate Him. Not, just now, studying what He _said_ about prayer,\ninvaluable as that is, and so closely interwoven with the other; nor yet\nhow He received the requests of men when on earth, full of inspiring\nsuggestion as that is of His _present_ attitude towards our prayers; but\nhow He Himself prayed when down here surrounded by our same circumstances\nand temptations.\n\nThere are two sections of the Bible to which we at once turn for light,\nthe gospels and the Psalms. In the gospels is given chiefly the _outer_\nside of His prayer-habits; and in certain of the Psalms, glimpses of the\n_inner_ side are unmistakably revealed.\n\nTurning now to the gospels, we find the picture of the praying Jesus like\nan etching, a sketch in black and white, the fewest possible strokes of\nthe pen, a scratch here, a line there, frequently a single word added by\none writer to the narrative of the others, which gradually bring to view\nthe outline of a lone figure with upturned face.\n\nOf the fifteen mentions of His praying found in the four gospels, it is\ninteresting to note that while Matthew gives three, and Mark and John each\nfour, it is Luke, Paul's companion and mirror-like friend, who, in eleven\nsuch allusions, supplies most of the picture.\n\nDoes this not contain a strong hint of the explanation of that other\netching plainly traceable in the epistles which reveals Paul's own\nmarvellous prayer-life?\n\nMatthew, immersed in the Hebrew Scriptures, writes to the Jews of their\npromised Davidic King; Mark, with rapid pen, relates the ceaseless\nactivity of this wonderful servant of the Father. John, with imprisoned\nbody, but rare liberty of vision, from the glory-side revealed on Patmos,\ndepicts the Son of God coming on an errand from the Father into the world,\nand again, leaving the world and going back home unto the Father. But Luke\nemphasizes the _human_ Jesus, a _Man_--with reverence let me use a word in\nits old-fashioned meaning--a _fellow_, that is, one of ourselves. And the\nHoly Spirit makes it very plain throughout Luke's narrative that the _man_\nChrist Jesus _prayed_; prayed _much; needed_ to pray; _loved_ to pray.\n\nOh! when shall we men down here, sent into the world as He was sent into\nthe world, with the same mission, the same field, the same Satan to\ncombat, the same Holy Spirit to empower, find out that power lies in\nkeeping closest connection with the Sender, and completest insulation from\nthe power-absorbing world!\n\n\n\n<u>Dissolving Views.</u>\n\n\nLet me rapidily sketch those fifteen mentions of the gospel writers,\nattempting to keep their chronological order.\n\n_The first mention_ is by Luke, in chapter three. The first three gospels\nall tell of Jesus' double baptism, but it is Luke who adds, \"and praying.\"\nIt was while waiting in prayer that He received the gift of the Holy\nSpirit. He _dared_ not begin His public mission without that anointing. It\nhad been promised in the prophetic writings. And now, standing in the\nJordan, He waits and prays until the blue above is burst through by the\ngleams of glory-light from the upper-side and the dove-like Spirit wings\ndown and abides upon Him. _Prayer brings power._ Prayer _is_ power. The\ntime of prayer is the time of power. The place of prayer is the place of\npower. Prayer is tightening the connections with the divine dynamo so that\nthe power may flow freely without loss or interruption.\n\n_The second mention_ is made by Mark in chapter one. Luke, in chapter\nfour, hints at it, \"when it was day He came out and went into a desert\nplace.\" But Mark tells us plainly \"in the morning a great while before the\nday (or a little more literally, 'very early while it was yet very dark')\nHe arose and went out into the desert or solitary place and there prayed.\"\nThe day before, a Sabbath day spent in His adopted home-town Capernaum,\nhad been a very busy day for Him, teaching in the synagogue service, the\ninterruption by a demon-possessed man, the casting out amid a painful\nscene; afterwards the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, and then at\nsun-setting the great crowd of diseased and demonized thronging the\nnarrow street until far into the night, while He, passing amongst them, by\npersonal touch, healed and restored every one. It was a long and\nexhausting day's work. One of us spending as busy a Sabbath would probably\nfeel that the next morning needed an extra hour's sleep if possible. One\nmust rest surely. But this man Jesus seemed to have another way of resting\nin addition to sleep. Probably He occupied the guest-chamber in Peter's\nhome. The house was likely astir at the usual hour, and by and by\nbreakfast was ready, but the Master had not appeared yet, so they waited a\nbit. After a while the maid slips to His room door and taps lightly, but\nthere's no answer; again a little bolder knock, then pushing the door ajar\nshe finds the room unoccupied. Where's the Master? \"Ah!\" Peter says; \"I\nthink I know. I have noticed before this that He has a way of slipping off\nearly in the morning to some quiet place where He can be alone.\" And a\nlittle knot of disciples with Peter in the lead starts out on a search for\nHim, for already a crowd is gathering at the door and filling the street\nagain, hungry for more. And they \"tracked Him down\" here and there on the\nhillsides, among clumps of trees, until suddenly they come upon Him\nquietly praying with a wondrous calm in His great eyes. Listen to Peter as\nhe eagerly blurts out, \"Master, there's a big crowd down there, all asking\nfor you.\" But the Master's quiet decisive tones reply, \"Let us go into\nthe next towns that I may preach there also; for to this end came I\nforth.\" Much easier to go back and deal again with the old crowd of\nyesterday; harder to meet the new crowds with their new skepticism, but\nthere's no doubt about what _should_ be done. Prayer wonderfully clears\nthe vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose;\nsweetens and strengthens the spirit. The busier the day for Him the more\nsurely must the morning appointment be kept,[43] and even an earlier start\nmade, apparently. The more virtue went forth from Him, the more certainly\nmust He spend time, and even _more_ time, alone with Him who is the source\nof power.\n\n_The third mention_ is in Luke, chapter five. Not a great while after the\nscene just described, possibly while on the trip suggested by His answer\nto Peter, in some one of the numerous Galilean villages, moved with the\ncompassion that ever burned His heart, He had healed a badly diseased\nleper, who, disregarding His express command, so widely published the fact\nof His remarkable healing that great crowds blocked Jesus' way in the\nvillage and compelled Him to go out to the country district, where the\ncrowds which the village could not hold now throng about Him. Now note\nwhat the Master does. The authorized version says, \"He withdrew into the\nwilderness and prayed.\" A more nearly literal reading would be, \"He was\nretiring in the deserts and praying\"; suggesting not a single act, but\nrather _a habit of action_ running through several days or even weeks.\nThat is, being compelled by the greatness of the crowds to go into the\ndeserts or country, districts, and being constantly thronged there by the\npeople, He had _less opportunity_ to get alone, and yet more need, and so\nwhile He patiently continues His work among them He studiously seeks\nopportunity to retire at intervals from the crowds to pray.\n\nHow much His life was like ours. Pressed by duties, by opportunities for\nservice, by the great need around us, we are strongly tempted to give less\ntime to the inner chamber, with door shut. \"Surely this work must be\ndone,\" we think, \"though it does crowd and flurry our prayer time some.\"\n\"_No_,\" the Master's practice here says with intense emphasis. Not work\nfirst, and prayer to bless it. But the _first_ place given to prayer and\nthen the service growing out of such prayer will be charged with\nunmeasured power. The greater the outer pressure on His closet-life, the\nmore jealously He guarded against either a shortening of its time or a\nflurrying of its spirit. The tighter the tension, the more time must there\nbe for unhurried prayer.\n\n_The fourth mention_ is found in Luke, chapter six. \"It came to pass in\nthese days that He went out into the mountains to pray, and He continued\nall night in prayer to God.\" The time is probably about the middle of the\nsecond year of His public ministry. He had been having very exasperating\nexperiences with the national leaders from Judea who dogged His steps,\ncriticising and nagging at every turn, sowing seeds of skepticism among\nHis simple-minded, intense-spirited Galileans. It was also the day\n_before_ He selected the twelve men who were to be the leaders after His\ndeparture, and preached the mountain sermon. Luke does not say that He\n_planned_ to spend the entire night in prayer. Wearied in spirit by the\nceaseless petty picking and Satanic hatred of His enemies, thinking of the\nserious work of the morrow, there was just one thing for Him to do. He\nknew where to find rest, and sweet fellowship, and a calming presence, and\nwise counsel. Turning His face northward He sought the solitude of the\nmountain not far off for quiet meditation and prayer. And as He prayed and\nlistened and talked without words, daylight gradually grew into twilight,\nand that yielded imperceptibly to the brilliant Oriental stars spraying\ndown their lustrous fire-light. And still He prayed, while the darkness\nbelow and the blue above deepened, and the stilling calm of God wrapped\nall nature around, and hushed His heart into a deeper peace. In the\nfascination of the Father's loving presence He was utterly lost to the\nflight of time, but prayed on and on until, by and by, the earth had once\nmore completed its daily turn, the gray streaks of dawnlight crept up the\neast, and the face of Palestine, fragrant with the deep dews of an\neastern night, was kissed by a sun of a new day. And then, \"when it was\nday\"--how quietly the narrative goes on--\"He called the disciples and\n_chose_ from them twelve,--and a great multitude of disciples and of the\npeople came,--and He _healed_ all--and He opened His mouth and _taught_\nthem--_for power came forth from Him.\"_ Is it any wonder, after such a\nnight! If all our exasperations and embarrassments were followed, and all\nour decisions and utterances preceded, by unhurried prayer, what power\nwould come forth from us, too. Because as He is even so are we in this\nworld.\n\n_The fifth mention_ is made by Matthew, chapter fourteen, and Mark,\nchapter six, John hinting at it in chapter six of his gospel. It was about\nthe time of the third passover, the beginning of His last year of service.\nBoth He and the disciples had been kept exceedingly busy with the great\nthrong coming and going incessantly. The startling news had just come of\nthe tragic death of His forerunner. There was need of bodily rest, as well\nas of quiet to think over the rapidly culminating opposition. So taking\nboat they headed towards the eastern shore of the lake. But the eager\ncrowds watched the direction taken and spreading the news, literally \"ran\"\naround the head of the lake and \"out-went them,\" and when He stepped from\nthe boat for the much-needed rest there was an immense company, numbering\nthousands, waiting for Him. Did some feeling of impatience break out among\nthe disciples that they could not be allowed a little leisure? Very\nlikely, for they were so much like us. But _He_ was \"moved with\ncompassion\" and, wearied though He was, patiently spent the entire day in\nteaching, and then, at eventime when the disciples proposed sending them\naway for food, He, with a handful of loaves and fishes, satisfied the\nbodily cravings of as many as five thousand.\n\nThere is nothing that has so appealed to the masses in all countries and\nall centuries as ability to furnish plenty to eat. Literally tens of\nthousands of the human race fall asleep every night hungry. So here. At\nonce it is proposed by a great popular uprising, under the leadership of\nthis wonderful man as king, to throw off the oppressive Roman yoke.\nCertainly if only His consent could be had it would be immensely\nsuccessful, they thought. Does this not rank with Satan's suggestion in\nthe wilderness, and with the later possibility coming through the visit of\nthe Greek deputation, of establishing the kingdom without suffering? It\nwas a temptation, even though it found no response within Him. With the\nover-awing power of His presence so markedly felt at times He quieted the\nmovement, \"constrained\"[44] the disciples to go by boat before Him to the\nother side while He dismissed the throng. \"And after He had _taken leave\nof them_\"--what gentle courtesy and tenderness mingled with His\nirrevocable decision--\"He went up in the mountain _to pray_,\" and\n\"_continued in prayer_\" until the morning watch. A second night spent in\nprayer! Bodily weary, His spirit startled by an event which vividly\nforeshadowed His own approaching violent death, and now this vigorous\nrenewal of His old temptation, again He had recourse to His one unfailing\nhabit of getting off alone _to pray._ Time alone _to pray; more_ time to\npray, was His one invariable offset to all difficulties, all temptations,\nand all needs. How much more there must have been in prayer as He\nunderstood and practiced it than many of His disciples to-day know.\n\n\n\n<u>Deepening Shadows.</u>\n\n\nWe shall perhaps understand better some of the remaining prayer incidents\nif we remember that Jesus is now in the last year of His ministry, the\nacute state of His experiences with the national leaders preceding the\nfinal break. The awful shadow of the cross grows deeper and darker across\nHis path. The hatred of the opposition leader gets constantly intenser.\nThe conditions of discipleship are more sharply put. The inability of the\ncrowds, of the disciples, and others to understand Him grows more marked.\nMany followers go back. He seeks to get more time for intercourse with\nthe twelve. He makes frequent trips to distant points on the border of the\noutside, non-Jewish world. The coming scenes and experiences--_the_ scene\non the little hillock outside the Jerusalem wall--seem never absent from\nHis thoughts. _The sixth mention_ is made by Luke, chapter nine. They are\nup north in the neighbourhood of the Roman city of C\u00e6sarea Philippi. \"And\nit came to pass as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him.\"\nAlone, so far as the multitudes are concerned, but seeming to be drawing\nthese twelve nearer to His inner life. Some of these later incidents seem\nto suggest that he was trying to woo them into something of the same love\nfor the fascination of secret prayer that He had. How much they would need\nto pray in the coming years when He was gone. Possibly, too, He yearned\nfor a closer fellowship with them. He loved human fellowship, as Peter and\nJames and John, and Mary and Martha and many other gentle women well knew.\nAnd there is no fellowship among men to be compared with fellowship _in\nprayer_.\n\n    \"There is a place where _spirits blend_,\n    Where _friend holds fellowship with friend_,\n    A place than all beside more sweet,\n    It is the blood-bought mercy-seat.\"\n\n_The seventh mention_ is in this same ninth chapter of Luke, and records a\nthird night of prayer. Matthew and Mark also tell of the transfiguration\nscene, but it is Luke who explains that He went up into the mountain _to\npray_, and that it was _as He was praying_ that the fashion of His\ncountenance was altered. Without stopping to study the purpose of this\nmarvellous manifestation of His divine glory to the chosen three at a time\nwhen desertion and hatred were so marked, it is enough now to note the\nsignificant fact that it was while _He was praying_ that the wondrous\nchange came. _Transfigured while praying! _ And by His side stood one who\ncenturies before on the earth had spent so much time alone with God that\nthe glory-light of that presence transfigured _his_ face, though he was\nunconscious of it. A shining face caused by contact with God! Shall not\nwe, to whom the Master has said, \"follow Me,\" get alone with Him and His\nblessed Word, so habitually, with open or uncovered face, that is, with\neyesight unhindered by prejudice or self-seeking, that mirroring the glory\nof His face we shall more and more come to bear His very likeness upon our\nfaces?[45]\n\n    \"And the face shines bright\n    With a glow of light\n    From His presence sent\n    Whom she loves to meet.\n\n    \"Yes, the face beams bright\n    With an inner light\n    As by day so by night,\n    In shade as in shine,\n    With a beauty fine,\n    That she wist not of,\n    From some source within.\n       And above.\n\n    \"Still the face shines bright\n    With the glory-light\n    From the mountain height.\n    Where the resplendent sight\n    Of His face\n    Fills her view\n    And illumines in turn\n    First the few,\n    Then the wide race.\"\n\n_The eighth mention_ is in the tenth chapter of Luke. He had organized a\nband of men, sending them out in two's into the places he expected to\nvisit. They had returned with a joyful report of the power attending their\nwork; and standing in their midst, His own heart overflowing with joy, He\nlooked up and, as though the Father's face was visible, spake out to Him\nthe gladness of His heart. He seemed to be always conscious of His\nFather's presence, and the most natural thing was to speak to Him. They\nwere always within speaking distance of each other, and always on speaking\nterms.\n\n_The ninth mention_ is in the eleventh chapter of Luke, very similar to\nthe sixth mention, \"It came to pass as He was praying in a certain place\nthat when He ceased one of His disciples said unto Him, 'Lord, teach us\nto pray.'\" Without doubt these disciples were praying men. He had already\ntalked to them a great deal about prayer. But as they noticed how large a\nplace prayer had in His life, and some of the marvellous results, the fact\ncame home to them with great force that there must be some fascination,\nsome power, some secret in prayer, of which _they were ignorant._ This Man\nwas a master in the fine art of prayer. _They_ really did not know how to\npray, they thought. How their request must have delighted Him! At last\nthey were being aroused concerning _the_ great secret of power. May it be\nthat this simple recital of His habits of prayer may move every one of us\nto get alone with Him and make the same earnest request. For the first\nstep in _learning_ to pray is to pray,--\"Lord, teach me to pray.\" And who\n_can_ teach like Him?\n\n_The tenth mention_ is found in John, chapter eleven, and is the second of\nthe four instances of ejaculatory prayer. A large company is gathered\noutside the village of Bethany, around a tomb in which four days before\nthe body of a young man had been laid away. There is Mary, still weeping,\nand Martha, always keenly alive to the proprieties, trying to be more\ncomposed, and their personal friends, and the villagers, and the company\nof acquaintances and others from Jerusalem. At His word, after some\nhesitation, the stone at the mouth of the tomb is rolled aside. And Jesus\nlifted up His eyes and said, \"Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me;\nand I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the multitude that\nstandeth around I said it that they may believe that Thou didst send Me!\"\nClearly before coming to the tomb He had been praying in secret about the\nraising of Lazarus, and what followed was in answer to His prayer. How\nplain it becomes that all the marvellous power displayed in His brief\nearthly career _came through prayer_. What inseparable intimacy between\nHis life of activity at which the multitude then and ever since has\nmarvelled, and His hidden closet-life of which only these passing glimpses\nare obtained. Surely the greatest power entrusted to man is prayer-power.\nBut how many of us are untrue to the trust, while this strangely\nomnipotent power put into our hands lies so largely unused.\n\nNote also the certainty of His faith in the Hearer of prayer: \"I thank\nThee that Thou heardest Me.\" There was nothing that could be _seen_ to\nwarrant such faith. There lay the dead body. But He trusted as _seeing_\nHim who is _invisible_. Faith is blind, except upward. It is blind to\nimpossibilities and deaf to doubt. It listens only to God and sees only\nHis power and acts accordingly. Faith is not believing that He _can_ but\nthat He _will_. But such faith comes only of close continuous contact with\nGod. Its birthplace is in the secret closet; and time and the open Word,\nand an awakened ear and a reverent quiet heart are necessary to its\ngrowth.\n\n_The eleventh mention_ is found in the twelfth chapter of John. Two or\nthree days before the fated Friday some Greek visitors to the Jewish feast\nof Passover sought an interview with Him. The request seemed to bring to\nHis mind a vision of the great outside world, after which His heart\nyearned, coming to Him so hungry for what only He could give. And\ninstantly athwart that vision like an ink-black shadow came the other\nvision, never absent now from His waking thoughts, _of the cross_ so\nawfully near. Shrinking in horror from the second vision, yet knowing that\nonly through its realization could be realized the first,--seemingly\nforgetful for the moment of the by-standers, as though soliloquizing, He\nspeaks--\"now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Shall I say,\nFather _save_ Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour:\n_this_ is what I will say (and the intense conflict of soul merges into\nthe complete victory of a wholly surrendered will) _Father, glorify Thy\nname_.\" Quick as the prayer was uttered, came the audible voice out of\nheaven answering, \"I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.\"\nHow near heaven must be! How quickly the Father hears! He must be bending\nover, intently listening, eager to catch even faintly whispered prayer.\nTheir ears, full of earth-sounds, unaccustomed to listening to a heavenly\nvoice, could hear nothing intelligible. He had a _trained ear_. Isaiah\n50:4 revised (a passage plainly prophetic of Him), suggests how it was\nthat He could understand this voice so easily and quickly. \"He wakeneth\nmorning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught.\"\nA taught ear is as necessary to prayer as a taught tongue, and the daily\nmorning appointment with God seems essential to both.\n\n\n\n<u>Under the Olive Trees.</u>\n\n\n_The twelfth mention_ is made by Luke, chapter twenty-two. It is Thursday\nnight of Passion week, in the large upper room in Jerusalem where He is\ncelebrating the old Passover feast, and initiating the new memorial feast.\nBut even that hallowed hour is disturbed by the disciples' self-seeking\ndisputes. With the great patience of great love He gives them the\nwonderful example of humility of which John thirteen tells, speaking\ngently of what it meant, and then turning to Peter, and using his old\nname, He says, \"Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you that he might\nsift you as wheat, but I made supplication for thee that thy faith fail\nnot.\" _He had been praying for Peter by name!_ That was one of His\nprayer-habits, praying for others. And He has not broken off that blessed\nhabit yet. He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near to God\nthrough Him _seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them_. His\noccupation now seated at His Father's right hand in glory is _praying for\neach of us_ who trust Him. By name? Why not?\n\n_The thirteenth mention_ is the familiar one in John, chapter seventeen,\nand cannot be studied within these narrow limits, but merely fitted into\nUs order. The twelfth chapter contains His last words to the world. In the\nthirteenth and through to the close of this seventeenth He is alone with\nHis disciples. If this prayer is read carefully in the revised version it\nwill be seen that its standpoint is that of one who thinks of His work\ndown in the world as already done (though the chief scene is yet to come)\nand the world left behind, and now He is about re-entering His Father's\npresence to be re-instated in glory there. It is really, therefore, a sort\nof specimen of the praying for us in which He is _now_ engaged, and so is\ncommonly called the intercessory or high-priestly prayer. For thirty years\nHe lived a perfect life. For three and a half years He was a prophet\nspeaking to men for God. For nineteen centuries He has been high priest\nspeaking to God for men. When He returns it will be as King to reign over\nmen for God.\n\n_The fourteenth mention_ brings us within the sadly sacred precincts of\nGethsemane garden, one of His favourite prayer-spots, where He frequently\nwent while in Jerusalem. The record is found in Matthew twenty-six, Mark\nfourteen, and Luke twenty-one. Let us approach with hearts hushed and\nheads bared and bowed, for this is indeed hallowed ground. It is a little\nlater on that same Thursday night, into which so much has already been\npressed and so much more is yet to come. After the talk in the upper room,\nand the simple wondrous prayer, He leads the little band out of the city\ngate on the east across the swift, muddy Kidron into the inclosed grove of\nolive trees beyond. There would be no sleep for Him that night. Within an\nhour or two the Roman soldiers and the Jewish mob, led by the traitor,\nwill be there searching for Him, and He meant to spend the intervening\ntime in _prayer_. With the longing for sympathy so marked during these\nlatter months, He takes Peter and James and John and goes farther into the\ndeeply-shadowed grove. But now some invisible power tears him away and\nplunges Him alone still farther into the moonlit recesses of the garden;\nand there a strange, awful struggle of soul ensues. It seems like a\nrenewal of the same conflict He experienced in John twelve when the Greeks\ncame, but immeasurably intenser. He who in Himself knew no sin was now\nbeginning to realize in His spirit what within a few hours He realized\n_actually_, that He was in very deed to be made sin for us. And the awful\nrealization comes in upon Him with such terrific intensity that it seems\nas though His physical frame cannot endure the strain of mental agony. The\n_actual_ experience of the next day produced such mental agony that His\nphysical strength gave way. For He died not of His physical suffering,\nexcruciating as that was, but literally of a broken heart, its walls burst\nasunder by the strain of soul. It is not possible for a sinning soul to\nappreciate with what nightmare dread and horror the sinless soul of Jesus\nmust have approached the coming contact with the sin of a world. With\nbated breath and reverent gaze one follows that lonely figure among the\ntrees; now kneeling, now falling upon His face, lying prostrate, \"He\nprayed that _if_ it were possible the hour might pass away from Him.\" One\nsnatch of that prayer reaches our ears: \"Abba, Father, all things are\npossible unto Thee--_if_ it be possible let this cup pass away from Me;\nnevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.\" How long He remained so in\nprayer we do not know, but so great was the tension of spirit that a\nmessenger from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. Even after that\n\"being in an agony He prayed more earnestly (literally, more stretched\nout, more strainedly) and His sweat became as it were great clots of blood\nfalling down upon the ground.\" When at length He arises from that season\nof conflict and prayer, the victory seems to be won, and something of the\nold-time calm reasserts itself. He goes to the sleeping disciples, and\nmindful of their coming temptation, admonishes them to pray; then returns\nto the lonely solitude again for more prayer, but the change in the form\nof prayer tells of the triumph of soul, \"O My Father, if this cup\n_cannot_ pass away except I drink it, Thy will be done.\" The victory is\ncomplete. The crisis is past. He yields Himself to that dreaded experience\nthrough which alone the Father's loving plan for a dying world can be\naccomplished. Again He returns to the poor, weak disciples, and back again\nfor another bit of strengthening communion, and then the flickering glare\nof torches in the distance tells Him that \"the hour is come.\" With steady\nstep and a marvellous peace lighting His face He goes out to meet His\nenemies. He overcame in this greatest crisis of His life _by prayer_.\n\n_The fifteenth mention_ is the final one. Of the seven sentences which He\nspake upon the cross, three were prayers. Luke tells us that while the\nsoldiers were driving the nails through His hands and feet and lifting the\ncross into place, He, thinking even then not of self, but of others, said,\n\"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.\"\n\nIt was as the time of the daily evening sacrifice drew on, near the close\nof that strange darkness which overcast all nature, after a silence of\nthree hours, that He loudly sobbed out the piercing, heart-rending cry,\n\"My God, My God, why didst Thou forsake Me?\" A little later the triumphant\nshout proclaimed His work done, and then the very last word was a prayer\nquietly breathed out, as He yielded up His life, \"Father, into Thy hands\nI commend My spirit.\" And so His expiring breath was vocalized into\nprayer.\n\n\n\n<u>A Composite Picture.</u>\n\n\nIt may be helpful to make the following summary of these allusions.\n\n1. _His times of prayer_: His regular habit seems plainly to have been to\ndevote the early morning hour to communion with His Father, and to depend\nupon that for constant guidance and instruction. This is suggested\nespecially by Mark 1:35; and also by Isaiah 50:4-6 coupled with John 7:16\nl.c., 8:28, and 12:49.\n\nIn addition to this regular appointment, He sought other opportunities for\nsecret prayer as special need arose; late at night after others had\nretired; three times He remained in prayer all the night; and at irregular\nintervals between times. Note that it was usually a _quiet_ time when the\nnoises of earth were hushed. He spent special time in prayer _before_\nimportant events and also _afterwards_. (See mentions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10\nand 14.)\n\n2. _His places of prayer_: He who said, \"Enter into thine inner chamber\nand when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret,\" Himself\nhad no fixed inner chamber, during His public career, to make easier the\nhabitual retirement for prayer. Homeless for the three and a half years of\nceaseless travelling, His place of prayer was a desert place, \"the\ndeserts,\" \"the mountains,\" \"a solitary place.\" He loved nature. The\nhilltop back of Nazareth village, the slopes of Olivet, the hillsides\noverlooking the Galilean lake, were His favourite places. Note that it was\nalways a _quiet_ place, shut away from the discordant sounds of earth.\n\n3. _His constant spirit of prayer_: He was never out of the spirit of\nprayer. He could be alone in a dense crowd. It has been said that there\nare sorts of solitude, namely, of time, as early morning, or late at\nnight; solitude of place, as a hilltop, or forest, or a secluded room; and\nsolitude of spirit, as when one surrounded by a crowd may watch them\nunmoved, or to be lost to all around in his own inner thought. Jesus used\nall three sorts of solitude for talking with His Father. (See mentions 8,\n10, 11 and 15.)\n\n4. _He prayed in the great crises of His life_: Five such are mentioned:\nBefore the awful battle royal with Satan in the Quarantanian wilderness at\nthe outset; before choosing the twelve leaders of the new movement; at the\ntime of the Galilean uprising; before the final departure from Galilee for\nJudea and Jerusalem; and in Gethsemane, the greatest crisis of all. (See\nmentions 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14.)\n\n5. He prayed for others by name, and still does. (See mention 13.)\n\n6. _He prayed with others_: A habit that might well be more widely copied.\nA few minutes spent in quiet prayer by friends or fellow-workers before\nparting wonderfully sweetens the spirit, and cements friendships, and\nmakes difficulties less difficult, and hard problems easier of solution.\n(See mentions 7, 9 and 13.)\n\n7. _The greatest blessings of His life came during prayer_: Six incidents\nare noted: while praying, the Holy Spirit came upon Him; He was\ntransfigured; three times a heavenly voice of approval came; and in His\nhour of sorest distress in the garden a heavenly messenger came to\nstrengthen Him. (See mentions 1, 7, 11 and 14.)\n\nHow much prayer meant to Jesus! It was not only His _regular habit_, but\nHis resort in _every emergency_, however slight or serious. When perplexed\nHe _prayed_. When hard pressed by work He _prayed_. When hungry for\nfellowship He found it in _prayer_. He chose His associates and received\nHis messages _upon His knees_. If tempted, He _prayed_. If criticised, He\n_prayed_. If fatigued in body or wearied in spirit, He had recourse to His\none unfailing habit of _prayer. Prayer_ brought Him _unmeasured power_ at\nthe beginning, and _kept_ the flow unbroken and undiminished. There was no\nemergency, no difficulty, no necessity, no temptation that would not yield\nto prayer, as He practiced it. Shall not we, who have been tracing these\nsteps in His prayer life, go back over them again and again until we\nbreathe in His very spirit of prayer? And shall we not, too, ask Him daily\nto teach us how to pray, and then plan to get alone with Him regularly\nthat He may have opportunity to teach us, and we the opportunity to\npractice His teaching?\n\n\n\n\nFootnotes\n\n\n\n[1] John 15:16.\n\n[2] \"Demon Possession,\" by J. L. Nevius.\n\n[3] Psalm 24:1.\n\n[4] Psalm 29:10.\n\n[5] Genesis 1:26, 28. Psalms 8:6. See quotations of this, referring to the\nMan who will restore original conditions, in 1 Cor. 15:27. Ephesians 1:32,\nHebrews 2:8. Psalms 115:16.\n\n[6] John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11.\n\n[7] Revelation 11:15.\n\n[8] John 14:30.\n\n[9] Jeremiah 33:3.\n\n[10] Psalm 50:15.\n\n[11] Matthew 7:7.\n\n[12] Isaiah 1:15.\n\n[13] Isaiah 59:1-3.\n\n[14] Psalm 66:18.\n\n[15] James 4:2, 3.\n\n[16] Matthew 5:23, 24.\n\n[17] Matthew 6:9-15.\n\n[18] Matthew 18:19-35.\n\n[19] Acts 16:6.\n\n[20] Acts 16:7.\n\n[21] John 7:8.\n\n[22] Acts 22:17-21.\n\n[23] 2 Cor. 5:21.\n\n[24] Sidney Lanier.\n\n[25] Ephesians 2:2.\n\n[26] Luke 11:5-13.\n\n[27] Luke 18:1-8.\n\n[28] 1 Peter 5:8.\n\n[29] Matthew 17:14-20; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43.\n\n[30] Matthew 16:24.\n\n[31] Psalm 37:7.\n\n[32] Isaiah 50:4.\n\n[33] Jeremiah 15:1.\n\n[34] Longfellow.\n\n[35] 2 Samuel 23:9, 10.\n\n[36] Joseph Cook.\n\n[37] John 7:17.\n\n[38] Frances Ridley Havergal.\n\n[39] Romans 8:26-28.\n\n[40] Psalm 25:9.\n\n[41] 1 John 5:14, 15.\n\n[42] 2 Timothy 2:24-26.\n\n[43] Isaiah 50:4, Revised.\n\n[44] Does not this very strong language suggest that possibly the\ndisciples had been conferred with by the revolutionary leaders?\n\n[45] 2 Cor. 3:18.","title":"Quiet Talks on Prayer","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":52781}