{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_61883/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_61883","id":"gutenberg_61883","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61883","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life","Prayer -- Christianity"],"text":"PREVAILING PRAYER:\n\n  _WHAT HINDERS IT_?\n\n\n  BY\n\n  D. L. MOODY.\n\n\n  CHICAGO:\n  F. H. REVELL, 148 AND 150 MADISON STREET.\n  _Publisher of Evangelical Literature._\n\n\n\n\n  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by\n  FLEMING H. REVELL,\n  In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.\n\n\n  _ALL RIGHTS RESERVED._\n\n\n  Printed and bound by J. L. REGAN & CO., Chicago.\n\n\n\n\nPREFATORY NOTE.\n\n\nThe two first and essential means of grace are the Word of God and\nPrayer. By these comes conversion; for we are born again by the Word of\nGod, which liveth and abideth forever; and whosoever shall call upon\nthe name of the Lord shall be saved.\n\nBy these also we grow; for we are exhorted to desire the sincere milk\nof the Word that we may grow thereby, and we cannot grow in grace and\nin the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ except we also speak to Him\nin Prayer.\n\nIt is by the Word that the Father sanctifies us; but we are also bidden\nto watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation.\n\nThese two means of grace must be used in their right proportion. If we\nread the Word and do not pray, we may become puffed up with knowledge,\nwithout the love that buildeth up. If we pray without reading the Word,\nwe shall be ignorant of the mind and will of God, and become mystical\nand fanatical, and liable to be blown about by every wind of doctrine.\n\nThe following chapters relate especially to Prayer; but in order that\nour prayers may be for such things as are according to the will of\nGod, they must be based upon the revelation of His own will to us; for\nof Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things; and it is only by\nhearing His Word, in which we learn His purposes toward us and towards\nthe world, that we can pray acceptably, praying in the Holy Ghost,\nasking those things which are pleasing in His sight.\n\nThese Addresses are not to be regarded as exhaustive, but suggestive.\nThis great subject has been the theme of Prophets and Apostles, and of\nall good men in all ages of the world; and my desire in sending forth\nthis little volume is to encourage God\u2019s children to seek by prayer \u201cto\nmove the Arm that moves the world.\u201d\n\n                                  [Illustration: D. L. Moody. signature]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                               PAGE\n\n  CHAPTER I.\n  THE PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE        7\n\n  CHAPTER II.\n  ADORATION                      19\n\n  CHAPTER III.\n  CONFESSION                     25\n\n  CHAPTER IV.\n  RESTITUTION                    41\n\n  CHAPTER V.\n  THANKSGIVING                   51\n\n  CHAPTER VI.\n  FORGIVENESS                    59\n\n  CHAPTER VII.\n  UNITY                          71\n\n  CHAPTER VIII.\n  FAITH                          79\n\n  CHAPTER IX.\n  PETITION                       90\n\n  CHAPTER X.\n  SUBMISSION                    102\n\n  CHAPTER XI.\n  ANSWERED PRAYERS              111\n\n\n\n\nPrayer.\n\n\n  Prayer was appointed to convey\n    The blessings God designs to give;\n  Long as they live should Christians pray,\n    For only while they pray they live.\n\n  And shall we in dead silence lie,\n    When Christ stands waiting for our prayer?\n  My soul, thou hast a Friend on high;\n    Arise and try thy interest there.\n\n  If pain afflict, or wrongs oppress;\n    If cares distract, or fears dismay;\n  If guilt deject, if sin distress;\n    The remedy\u2019s before thee--Pray!\n\n  Depend on Christ, thou canst not fail;\n    Make all thy wants and wishes known.\n  Fear not; His merits must prevail;\n    Ask what thou wilt; it shall be done!\n\n                               --_Joseph Hart._\n\n\n\n\nPREVAILING PRAYER.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE.\n\n\nThose who have left the deepest impression on this sin-cursed earth\nhave been men and women of prayer. You will find that PRAYER has been\nthe mighty power that has moved not only God, but man. Abraham was a\nman of prayer, and angels came down from heaven to converse with him.\nJacob\u2019s prayer was answered in the wonderful interview at Peniel, that\nresulted in his having such a mighty blessing, and in softening the\nheart of his brother Esau; the child Samuel was given in answer to\nHannah\u2019s prayer; Elijah\u2019s prayer closed up the heavens for three years\nand six months, and he prayed again and the heavens gave rain.\n\nThe Apostle James tells us that the prophet Elijah was a man \u201csubject\nto like passions as we are.\u201d I am thankful that those men and women who\nwere so mighty in prayer were just like ourselves. We are apt to think\nthat those prophets and mighty men and women of old time were different\nfrom what we are. To be sure they lived in a much darker age, but they\nwere of like passions with ourselves.\n\nWe read that on another occasion Elijah brought down fire on Mount\nCarmel. The prophets of Baal cried long and loud, but no answer came.\nThe God of Elijah heard and answered his prayer. Let us remember that\nthe God of Elijah still lives. The prophet was translated and went up\nto heaven, but his God still lives, and we have the same access to Him\nthat Elijah had. We have the same warrant to go to God and ask the fire\nfrom heaven to come down and consume our lusts and passions--to burn up\nour dross, and let Christ shine through us.\n\nElisha prayed, and life came back to a dead child. Many of our children\nare dead in trespasses and sins. Let us do as Elisha did; let us\nentreat God to raise them up in answer to our prayers.\n\nManasseh, the king, was a wicked man, and had done everything he could\nagainst the God of his father; yet in Babylon, when he cried to God,\nhis cry was heard, and he was taken out of prison and put on the throne\nat Jerusalem. Surely if God gave heed to the prayer of wicked Manasseh,\nHe will hear ours in the time of our distress. Is not this a time of\ndistress with a great number of our fellow-men? Are there not many\namong us whose hearts are burdened? As we go to the throne of grace,\nlet us remember that GOD ANSWERS PRAYER.\n\nLook, again, at Samson. He prayed; and his strength came back,\nso that he slew more at his death than during his life. He was a\nrestored backslider, and he had power with God. If those who have been\nbacksliders will but return to God, they will see how quickly God will\nanswer prayer.\n\nJob prayed, and his captivity was turned. Light came in the place\nof darkness, and God lifted him up above the height of his former\nprosperity--in answer to prayer.\n\nDaniel prayed to God, and Gabriel came to tell him that he was a man\ngreatly beloved of God. Three times that message came to him from\nheaven in answer to prayer. The secrets of heaven were imparted to him,\nand he was told that God\u2019s Son was going to be cut off for the sins of\nHis people. We find also that Cornelius prayed; and Peter was sent to\ntell him words whereby he and his should be saved. In answer to prayer\nthis great blessing came upon him and his household. Peter had gone up\nto the house-top to pray in the afternoon, when he had that wonderful\nvision of the sheet let down from heaven. It was when prayer was made\nwithout ceasing unto God for Peter, that the angel was sent to deliver\nhim.\n\nSo all through the Scriptures you will find that when believing\nprayer went up to God, the answer came down. I think it would be a\nvery interesting study to go right through the Bible and see what has\nhappened while God\u2019s people have been on their knees calling upon him.\nCertainly the study would greatly strengthen our faith--showing, as it\nwould, how wonderfully God has heard and delivered, when the cry has\ngone up to Him for help.\n\nLook at Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi. As they prayed and\nsang praises, the place was shaken, and the jailer was converted.\nProbably that one conversion has done more than any other recorded\nin the Bible to bring people into the Kingdom of God. How many have\nbeen blessed in seeking to answer the question--\u201cWhat must I do to\nbe saved?\u201d It was the prayer of those two godly men that brought the\njailer to his knees, and that brought blessing to him and his family.\n\nYou remember how Stephen, as he prayed and looked up, saw the heavens\nopened, and the Son of Man at the right hand of God; the light of\nheaven fell on his face so that it shone. Remember, too, how the face\nof Moses shone as he came down from the Mount; he had been in communion\nwith God. So when we get really into communion with God, He lifts up\nHis countenance upon us; and instead of our having gloomy looks, our\nfaces will shine, because God has heard and answered our prayers.\n\nI want to call special attention to Christ as an example for us in all\nthings; in nothing more than in prayer. We read that Christ prayed\nto His Father for everything. Every great crisis in His life was\npreceded by prayer. Let me quote a few passages. I never noticed till\na few years ago that Christ was praying at His baptism. As He prayed,\nthe heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended on Him. Another\ngreat event in His life was His Transfiguration. \u201cAs He prayed, the\nfashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and\nglistering.\u201d\n\nWe read again: \u201cIt came to pass in those days that He went out into a\nmountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.\u201d This is\nthe only place where it is recorded that the Savior spent a whole night\nin prayer. What was about to take place? When He came down from the\nmountain He gathered His disciples around Him, and preached that great\ndiscourse known as the Sermon on the Mount--the most wonderful sermon\nthat has ever been preached to mortal men. Probably no sermon has done\nso much good, and it was preceded by a night of prayer. If our sermons\nare going to reach the hearts and consciences of the people, we must be\nmuch in prayer to God, that there may be power with the word.\n\nIn the Gospel of John we read that Jesus at the grave of Lazarus lifted\nup His eyes to heaven, and said: \u201cFather, I thank Thee that Thou hast\nheard Me; and I know that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the\npeople which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast\nsent Me.\u201d Notice, that before He spoke the dead to life He spoke to\nHis Father. If our spiritually dead ones are to be raised, we must\nfirst get power with God. The reason we so often fail in moving our\nfellow-men is that we try to win them without first getting power with\nGod. Jesus was in communion with His Father, and so He could be assured\nthat His prayers were heard.\n\nWe read again, in the twelfth of John, that He prayed to the Father. I\nthink this is one of the saddest chapters in the whole Bible. He was\nabout to leave the Jewish nation and to make atonement for the sin of\nthe world. Hear what He says: \u201cNow is My soul troubled, and what shall\nI say? Father, save Me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto\nthis hour.\u201d He was almost under the shadow of the Cross; the iniquities\nof mankind were about to be laid upon Him; one of His twelve disciples\nwas going to deny Him and swear he never knew Him; another was to sell\nHim for thirty pieces of silver; all were to forsake Him and flee. His\nsoul was exceeding sorrowful, and He prays; when His soul was troubled,\nGod spake to Him. Then in the Garden of Gethsemane, while He prayed,\nan angel appeared to strengthen him. In answer to His cry, \u201cFather,\nglorify Thy Name,\u201d He hears a voice coming down from the glory--\u201cI have\nboth glorified it, and will glorify it again.\u201d\n\nAnother memorable prayer of our Lord was in the Garden of Gethsemane:\n\u201cHe was withdrawn from them about a stone\u2019s cast, and kneeled down and\nprayed.\u201d I would draw your attention to the recorded fact that four\ntimes the answer came right down from heaven while the Savior prayed to\nGod. The first time was at His baptism, when the heavens were opened,\nand the Spirit descended upon Him in answer to His prayer. Again, on\nthe Mount of Transfiguration, God appeared and spoke to Him. Then\nwhen the Greeks came desiring to see Him, the voice of God was heard\nresponding to His call; and again, when He cried to the Father in the\nmidst of His agony, a direct response was given. These things are\nrecorded, I doubt not, that we may be encouraged to pray.\n\nWe read that His disciples came to Him, and said, \u201cLord, teach us to\npray.\u201d It is not recorded that He taught them how to preach. I have\noften said that I would rather know how to pray like Daniel than to\npreach like Gabriel. If you get love into your soul, so that the\ngrace of God may come down in answer to prayer, there will be no\ntrouble about reaching the people. It is not by eloquent sermons that\nperishing souls are going to be reached; we need the power of God in\norder that the blessing may come down.\n\nThe prayer our Lord taught his disciples is commonly called the Lord\u2019s\nPrayer. I think that the Lord\u2019s prayer, more properly, is that in the\nseventeenth of John. That is the longest prayer on record that Jesus\nmade. You can read it slowly and carefully in about four or five\nminutes. I think we may learn a lesson here. Our Master\u2019s prayers were\nshort when offered in public; when He was alone with God that was a\ndifferent thing, and He could spend the whole night in communion with\nHis Father. My experience is that those who pray most in their closets\ngenerally make short prayers in public. Long prayers are too often not\nprayers at all, and they weary the people. How short the publican\u2019s\nprayer was: \u201cGod be merciful to me a sinner!\u201d The Syrophenician woman\u2019s\nwas shorter still: \u201cLord help me!\u201d She went right to the mark, and she\ngot what she wanted. The prayer of the thief on the cross was a short\none: \u201cLord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom!\u201d Peter\u2019s\nprayer was, \u201cLord, save me, or I perish!\u201d So, if you go through the\nScriptures, you will find that the prayers that brought immediate\nanswers were generally brief. Let our prayers be to the point, just\ntelling God what we want.\n\nIn the prayer of our Lord, in John xvii, we find that He made seven\nrequests--one for Himself, four for His disciples around Him, and two\nfor the disciples of succeeding ages. Six times in that one prayer\nHe repeats that God had sent Him. The world looked upon Him as an\nimposter; and He wanted them to know that He was heaven-sent. He speaks\nof the world nine times, and makes mention of His disciples and those\nwho believe on Him fifty times.\n\nChrist\u2019s last prayer on the Cross was a short one: \u201cFather, forgive\nthem for they know not what they do.\u201d I believe that prayer was\nanswered. We find that right there in front of the Cross, a Roman\ncenturion was converted. It was probably in answer to the Savior\u2019s\nprayer. The conversion of the thief, I believe, was in answer to that\nprayer of our blessed Lord. Saul of Tarsus may have heard it, and the\nwords may have followed him as he traveled to Damascus; so that when\nthe Lord spoke to him on the way, he may have recognized the voice.\nOne thing we do know; that on the day of Pentecost some of the enemies\nof the Lord were converted. Surely that was in answer to the prayer,\n\u201cFather, forgive them!\u201d\n\nHence we see that prayer holds a high place among the exercises of a\nspiritual life. All God\u2019s people have been praying people. Look, for\ninstance, at Baxter! He stained his study walls with praying breath;\nand after he was anointed with the unction of the Holy Ghost, sent\na river of living water over Kidderminster, and converted hundreds.\nLuther and his companions were men of such mighty pleading with God,\nthat they broke the spell of ages, and laid nations subdued at the\nfoot of the Cross. John Knox grasped all Scotland in his strong arms\nof faith; his prayers terrified tyrants. Whitefield, after much holy,\nfaithful closet-pleading, went to the Devil\u2019s fair, and took more\nthan a thousand souls out of the paw of the lion in one day. See a\npraying Wesley turn more than ten thousand souls to the Lord! Look at\nthe praying Finney, whose prayers, faith, sermons and writings, have\nshaken this whole country, and sent a wave of blessing through the\nchurches on both sides of the sea.\n\nDr. Guthrie thus speaks of prayer and its necessity: \u201cThe first true\nsign of spiritual life, prayer, is also the means of maintaining it.\nMan can as well live physically without breathing, as spiritually\nwithout praying. There is a class of animals--the cetaceous, neither\nfish nor sea-fowl--that inhabit the deep. It is their home, they never\nleave it for the shore; yet, though swimming beneath its waves, and\nsounding its darkest depths, they have ever and anon to rise to the\nsurface that they may breathe the air. Without that, these monarchs of\nthe deep could not exist in the dense element in which they live, and\nmove, and have their being. And something like what is imposed on them\nby a physical necessity, the Christian has to do by a spiritual one. It\nis by ever and anon ascending up to God, by rising through prayer into\na loftier, purer region for supplies of Divine grace, that he maintains\nhis spiritual life. Prevent these animals from rising to the surface,\nand they die for want of breath; prevent the Christian from rising to\nGod, and he dies for want of prayer. \u2018Give me children,\u2019 cried Rachel,\n\u2018or else I die.\u2019 \u2018Let me breathe,\u2019 says a man gasping, \u2018or else I die.\u2019\n\u2018Let me pray,\u2019 says the Christian, \u2018or else I die.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cSince I began,\u201d said Dr. Payson when a student, \u201cto beg God\u2019s blessing\non my studies, I have done more in one week than in the whole year\nbefore.\u201d Luther, when most pressed with work, said, \u201cI have so much\nto do that I cannot get on without three hours a day praying.\u201d And\nnot only do theologians think and speak highly of prayer; men of all\nranks and positions in life have felt the same. General Havelock rose\nat four o\u2019clock, if the hour for marching was six, rather than lose\nthe precious privilege of communion with God before setting out. Sir\nMatthew Hale says: \u201cIf I omit praying and reading God\u2019s Word in the\nmorning, nothing goes well all day.\u201d\n\n\u201cA great part of my time,\u201d said McCheyne, \u201cis spent in getting my heart\nin tune for prayer. It is the link that connects earth with heaven.\u201d\n\nA comprehensive view of the subject will show that there are nine\nelements which are essential to true prayer. The first is Adoration;\nwe cannot meet God on a level at the start. We must approach Him as\nOne far beyond our reach or sight. The next is Confession; sin must be\nput out of the way. We cannot have any communion with God while there\nis any transgression between us. If there stands some wrong you have\ndone a man, you cannot expect that man\u2019s favor until you go to him and\nconfess the fault. Restitution is another; we have to make good the\nwrong, wherever possible. Thanksgiving is the next; we must be thankful\nfor what God has done for us already. Then comes Forgiveness, and then\nUnity; and then for prayer, such as these things produce, there must\nbe Faith. Thus influenced, we shall be ready to offer direct Petition.\nWe hear a good deal of praying that is just exhorting, and if you did\nnot see the man\u2019s eyes closed, you would suppose he was preaching.\nThen, much that is called prayer is simply finding fault. There needs\nto be more _petition_ in our prayers. After all these, there must come\nSubmission. While praying, we must be ready to accept the will of God.\nWe shall consider these nine elements in detail, closing our inquiries\nby giving incidents illustrative of the certainty of our receiving,\nunder such conditions, Answers to Prayer.\n\n\n\n\nThe Hour of Prayer.\n\n\n  \u201cLord, what a change within us one short hour\n      Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make!\n      What heavy burdens from our bosoms take;\n  What parched grounds refresh as with a shower.\n\n  \u201cWe kneel--and all around us seems to lower;\n      We rise--and all, the distant and the near,\n      Stands forth in sunny outline brave and clear;\n  We kneel: how weak!--we rise: how full of power!\n\n  \u201cWhy, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong,\n  Or others--that we are not always strong?\n  That we are ever overborne with care;\n      That we should ever weak or heartless be,\n  Anxious or troubled, while with us is prayer,\n      And joy, and strength, and courage, are with Thee?\u201d\n\n                                                  _Trench._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nADORATION.\n\n\nThis has been defined as the act of rendering Divine honor, including\nin it reverence, esteem and love. It literally signifies to apply the\nhand to the mouth, \u201cto kiss the hand;\u201d in Eastern countries this is one\nof the great marks of respect and submission. The importance of coming\nbefore God in this spirit is great, therefore it is so often impressed\nupon us in the Word of God.\n\nThe Rev. Newman Hall, in his work on the Lord\u2019s Prayer, says: \u201cMan\u2019s\nworship, apart from revelation, has been uniformly characterized by\nselfishness. We come to God either to thank Him for benefits already\nreceived, or to implore still further benefits: food, raiment, health,\nsafety, comfort. Like Jacob at Bethel, we are disposed to make the\nworship we render to God cor-relative with \u2018food to eat, and raiment to\nput on.\u2019 This style of petition, in which self generally precedes and\npredominates, if it does not altogether absorb, our supplications, is\nnot only seen in the votaries of false systems, but in the majority of\nthe prayers of professed Christians. Our prayers are like the Parthian\nhorsemen, who ride one way while they look another; we seem to go\ntoward God, but, indeed, reflect upon ourselves. And this may be the\nreason why many times our prayers are sent forth, like the raven out\nof Noah\u2019s ark, and never return. But when we make the glory of God the\nchief end of our devotion, they go forth like the dove, and return to\nus again with an olive branch.\u201d\n\nLet me refer you to a passage in the prophecies of Daniel. He was one\nof the men who knew how to pray; his prayer brought the blessing of\nheaven upon himself and upon his people. He says: \u201cI set my face unto\nthe Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and\nsackcloth, and ashes; and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my\nconfession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the\ncovenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His\ncommandments!\u201d\n\nThe thought I want to call special attention to is conveyed in the\nwords, \u201cO Lord, the great and dreadful God!\u201d Daniel took his right\nplace before God--in the dust; he put God in His right place. It was\nwhen Abraham was on his face, prostrate before God, that God spoke to\nhim, Holiness belongs to God; sinfulness belongs to us.\n\nBrooks, that grand old Puritan writer, says: \u201cA person of real\nholiness is much affected and taken up in the admiration of the\nholiness of God. Unholy persons may be somewhat affected and taken with\nthe other excellences of God; it is only holy souls that are taken and\naffected with His holiness. The more holy any are, the more deeply are\nthey affected by this. To the holy angels, the holiness of God is the\nsparkling diamond in the ring of glory. But unholy persons are affected\nand taken with anything rather than with this. Nothing strikes the\nsinner into such a damp as a discourse on the holiness of God; it is\nas the handwriting on the wall; nothing makes the head and heart of\na sinner to ache like a sermon upon the Holy One; nothing galls and\ngripes, nothing stings and terrifies unsanctified ones, like a lively\nsetting forth of the holiness of God. But to holy souls there are no\ndiscourses that do more suit and satisfy them, that do more delight and\ncontent them, that do more please and profit them, than those that do\nmost fully and powerfully discover God to be glorious in holiness.\u201d So,\nin coming before God, we must adore and reverence His name.\n\nThe same thing is brought out in Isaiah:\n\n\u201cIn the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a\nthrone, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it\nstood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his\nface, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.\nAnd one cried unto another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of\nhosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.\u201d\n\nWhen we see the holiness of God, we shall adore and magnify Him. Moses\nhad to learn the same lesson. God told him to take his shoes from off\nhis feet, for the place whereon he stood was holy ground. When we hear\nmen trying to make out that they are holy, and speaking about their\nholiness, they make light of the holiness of God. It is His holiness\nthat we need to think and speak about; when we do that, we shall be\nprostrate in the dust. You remember, also, how it was with Peter. When\nChrist made Himself known to him, he said, \u201cDepart from me, for I am\na sinful man, O Lord!\u201d A sight of God is enough to show us how holy He\nis, and how unholy we are.\n\nWe find that Job too, had to be taught the same lesson. \u201cThen Job\nanswered the Lord, and said: Behold I am vile; what shall I answer\nThee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.\u201d\n\nAs you hear Job discussing with his friends you would think he was\none of the holiest men who ever lived. He was eyes to the blind, and\nfeet to the lame; he fed the hungry, and clothed the naked. What a\nwonderfully good man he was! It was all I, I, I. At last God said to\nhim, \u201cGird up your loins like a man, and I will put a few questions to\nyou.\u201d The moment that God revealed Himself, Job changed his language.\nHe saw his own vileness, and God\u2019s purity. He said, \u201cI have heard of\nThee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee; wherefore\nI abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.\u201d\n\nThe same thing is seen in the cases of those who came to our Lord in\nthe days of His flesh; those who came aright, seeking and obtaining\nthe blessing, manifested a lively sense of His infinite superiority to\nthemselves. The centurion, of whom we read in the eighth of Matthew,\nsaid: \u201cLord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof;\u201d\nJairus \u201cworshiped Him,\u201d as he presented his request; the leper, in\nthe Gospel of Mark, came \u201ckneeling down to Him;\u201d the Syrophenician\nwoman \u201ccame and fell at His feet;\u201d the man full of leprosy \u201cseeing\nJesus, fell on his face.\u201d So, too the beloved disciple, speaking\nof the feeling they had concerning Him when they were abiding with\nHim as their Lord, said: \u201cWe beheld His glory, the glory as of the\nonly-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.\u201d However intimate\ntheir companionship, and tender their love, they reverenced as much as\nthey communed, and adored as much as they loved.\n\nWe may say of every act of prayer as George Herbert says of public\nworship:\n\n  \u201cWhen once thy foot enters the church, be bare;\n  God is more than thou; for thou art there\n  Only by His permission. Then beware,\n  And make thyself all reverence and fear.\n  Kneeling ne\u2019er spoiled silk stocking; quit thy state.\n  All equal are within the church\u2019s gate.\u201d\n\nThe wise man says: \u201cKeep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God,\nand be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools; for they\nconsider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let\nnot thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in\nheaven, and thou upon earth--therefore let thy words be few.\u201d\n\nIf we are struggling to live a higher life, and to know something of\nGod\u2019s holiness and purity, what we need is to be brought into contact\nwith Him, that He may reveal Himself. Then we shall take our place\nbefore Him as those men of old were constrained to do. We shall hallow\nHis Name--as the Master taught His disciples, when He said, \u201cHallowed\nbe Thy Name.\u201d When I think of the irreverence of the present time, it\nseems to me that we have fallen on evil days.\n\nLet us, as Christians, when we draw near to God in prayer, give Him His\nright place. \u201cLet us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably,\nwith reverence and Godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nThe Trinity.\n\n\n  \u201cThou dear and great mysterious Three,\n      For ever be adored,\n  For all the endless grace we see\n      In our Redeemer stored.\n\n  \u201cThe Father\u2019s ancient grace we sing,\n      That chose us in our Head;\n  Ordaining Christ, our God and King,\n      To suffer in our stead.\n\n  \u201cThe sacred Son, in equal strains,\n      With reverence we address,\n  For all His grace, and dying pains,\n      And splendid righteousness.\n\n  \u201cWith tuneful tongue the Holy Ghost\n      For His great work we praise,\n  Whose power inspires the blood-bought host\n      Their grateful voice to raise.\n\n  \u201cThus the Eternal Three in One\n      We join to praise, for grace\n  And endless glory through the Son,\n      As shining from His face.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nCONFESSION.\n\n\nAnother element in true prayer is Confession. I do not want Christian\nfriends to think that I am talking to the unsaved. I think we, as\nChristians, have a good many sins to confess.\n\nIf you go back to the Scripture records, you will find that the men\nwho lived nearest to God, and had most power with Him, were those who\nconfessed their sins and failures. Daniel, as we have seen, confessed\nhis sins and those of his people. Yet there is nothing recorded against\nDaniel. He was one of the best men then on the face of the earth, yet\nwas his confession of sin one of the deepest and most humble on record.\nBrooks, referring to Daniel\u2019s confession, says: \u201cIn these words you\nhave seven circumstances that Daniel useth in confessing of his and\nthe people\u2019s sins; and all to heighten and aggravate them. First, \u2018We\nhave sinned;\u2019 secondly, \u2018We have committed iniquity;\u2019 thirdly, \u2018We have\ndone wickedly;\u2019 fourthly, \u2018We have rebelled against thee;\u2019 fifthly,\n\u2018We have departed from Thy precepts;\u2019 sixthly, \u2018We have not hearkened\nunto Thy servants;\u2019 seventhly, \u2018Nor our princes, nor all the people\nof the land.\u2019 These seven aggravations which Daniel reckons up in his\nconfession are worthy our most serious consideration.\u201d\n\nJob was no doubt a holy man, a mighty prince, yet he had to fall in\nthe dust and confess his sins. So you will find it all through the\nScriptures. When Isaiah saw the purity and holiness of God, he beheld\nhimself in his true light, and he exclaimed, \u201cWoe is me, for I am\nundone, because I am a man of unclean lips!\u201d\n\nI firmly believe that the Church of God will have to confess her own\nsins, before there can be any great work of grace. There must be a\ndeeper work among God\u2019s believing people. I sometimes think it is about\ntime to give up preaching to the ungodly, and preach to those who\nprofess to be Christians. If we had a higher standard of life in the\nChurch of God, there would be thousands more flocking into the Kingdom.\nSo it was in the past; when God\u2019s believing children turned away from\ntheir sins and their idols, the fear of God fell upon the people round\nabout. Take up the history of Israel, and you will find that when they\nput away their strange gods, God visited the nation, and there came a\nmighty work of grace.\n\nWhat we want in these days is a true and deep revival in the Church of\nGod. I have little sympathy with the idea that God is going to reach\nthe masses by a cold and formal church. The judgment of God must begin\nwith us. You notice that when Daniel got that wonderful answer to\nprayer recorded in the ninth chapter, he was confessing his sin. That\nis one of the best chapters on prayer in the whole Bible.\n\nWe read: \u201cWhile I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin,\nand the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before\nthe Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, while I was\nspeaking in my prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the\nvision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about\nthe time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with\nme, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and\nunderstanding.\u201d\n\nSo also when Job was confessing his sin, God turned his captivity and\nheard his prayer. God will hear our prayer and turn our captivity\nwhen we take our true place before Him, and confess and forsake our\ntransgressions. It was when Isaiah cried out before the Lord, \u201cI am\nundone,\u201d that the blessing came; the live coal was taken from the\naltar and put upon his lips; and he went out to write one of the most\nwonderful books the world has ever seen. What a blessing it has been to\nthe church!\n\nIt was when David said, \u201cI have sinned!\u201d that God dealt in mercy\nwith him. \u201cI acknowledge my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I\nnot hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and\nThou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.\u201d Notice how David made a very\nsimilar confession to that of the prodigal in the fifteenth of Luke: \u201cI\nacknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me. Against\nThee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight!\u201d There\nis no difference between the king and the beggar when the Spirit of God\ncomes into the heart and convicts of sin.\n\nRichard Sibbes quaintly says of confession: \u201cThis is the way to give\nglory to God: when we have laid open our souls to God, and laid as much\nagainst ourselves as the devil could do that way, for let us think\nwhat the devil would lay to our charge at the hour of death and the\nday of judgment. He would lay hard to our charge this and that--let\nus accuse ourselves as he would, and as he will ere long. The more\nwe accuse and judge ourselves, and set up a tribunal in our hearts,\ncertainly there will follow an incredible ease. Jonah was cast into\nthe sea, and there was an ease in the ship; Achan was stoned, and the\nplague was stayed. Out with Jonah, out with Achan; and there will\nfollow ease and quiet in the soul presently. Conscience will receive\nwonderful ease.\n\n\u201cIt must needs be so; for when God is honored, conscience is purified.\nGod is honored by confession of sin every way. It honors His\nomniscience, that He is all-seeing; that He sees our sins and searches\nour hearts--our secrets are not hid from Him. It honours His power.\nWhat makes us confess our sins, but that we are afraid of His power,\nlest He should execute it? And what makes us confess our sins, but that\nwe know there is mercy with Him that He may be feared, and that there\nis pardon for sin? We would not confess our sins else. With men it is,\nConfess, and have execution; but with God, Confess, and have mercy.\nIt is His own protestation. We should never lay open our sins but for\nmercy. So it honors God; and when He is honored, He honors the soul\nwith inward peace and tranquillity.\u201d\n\nOld Thomas Fuller says: \u201cMan\u2019s owning his weakness is the only stock\nfor God thereon to graft the grace of His assistance.\u201d\n\nConfession implies humility, and this, in God\u2019s sight, is of great\nprice.\n\nA farmer went with his son into a wheat field, to see if it was ready\nfor the harvest. \u201cSee, father,\u201d exclaimed the boy, \u201chow straight these\nstems hold up their heads! They must be the best ones. Those that\nhang their heads down, I am sure cannot be good for much.\u201d The farmer\nplucked a stalk of each kind and said: \u201cSee here, foolish child! This\nstalk that stood so straight is light-headed, and almost good for\nnothing; while this that hung its head so modestly is full of the most\nbeautiful grain.\u201d\n\nOutspokenness is needful and powerful, both with God and man. We need\nto be honest and frank with ourselves. A soldier said in a revival\nmeeting: \u201cMy fellow-soldiers, I am not excited; I am _convinced_--that\nis all. I feel that I ought to be a Christian; that I ought to say\nso, to tell you so, and to ask you to come with me; and now if there\nis a call for sinners seeking Christ to come forward, I for one shall\ngo--not to make a show, for I have nothing but sin to show. I do not\ngo because I want to--I would rather keep my seat; but going will be\ntelling the truth. I ought to be a Christian, I want to be a Christian;\nand going forward for prayers is just telling the truth about it.\u201d More\nthan a score went with him.\n\nSpeaking of Pharaoh\u2019s words, \u201cEntreat the Lord that He may take away\nthe frogs from me,\u201d Mr. Spurgeon says: \u201cA fatal flaw is manifest\nin that prayer. _It contains no confession of sin._ He says not, \u2018I\nhave rebelled against the Lord; entreat that I may find forgiveness!\u2019\nNothing of the kind; he loves sin as much as ever. A prayer without\npenitence is a prayer without acceptance. If no tear has fallen upon\nit, it is withered. Thou must come to God as a sinner through a Savior,\nbut by no other way. He who comes to God like the Pharisee, with,\n\u2018God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are,\u2019 never draws near\nto God at all; but he who cries, \u2018God be merciful to me a sinner,\u2019 has\ncome to God by the way which God has Himself appointed. There must be\nconfession of sin before God, or our prayer is faulty.\u201d\n\nIf this confession of sin is deep among believers, it will be so among\nthe ungodly also. I never knew it to fail. I am now anxious that God\nshould revive His work in the hearts of His children, so that we may\nsee the exceeding sinfulness of sin. There are a great many fathers and\nmothers who are anxious for the conversion of their children. I have\nhad as many as fifty messages from parents come to me within a single\nweek, wondering why their children are not saved, and asking prayer for\nthem. I venture to say that, as a rule, the fault lies at our own door.\nThere may be something in our life that stands in the way. It may be\nthere is some secret sin that keeps back the blessing. David lived in\nthe awful sin into which he fell for many months before Nathan made his\nappearance. Let us pray God to come into our hearts, and make His power\nfelt. If it is a right eye, let us pluck it out; if it is a right hand,\nlet us cut it off; that we may have power with God and with man.\n\nWhy is it that so many of our children are wandering off into the\ndrinking saloons, and drifting away into infidelity--going down\nto a dishonored grave? There seems to be very little power in the\nChristianity of the present time. Many Godly parents find that their\nchildren are going astray. Does it arise from some secret sin clinging\naround the heart? There is a passage of God\u2019s Word that is often\nquoted, but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred those who quote it\nstop at the wrong place. In the fifty-ninth of Isaiah we read: \u201cBehold,\nthe Lord\u2019s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ear\nheavy, that it cannot hear.\u201d There they stop. Of course God\u2019s hand is\nnot shortened, and His ear is not heavy; but we ought to read the next\nverse: \u201cYour iniquities have separated between you and your God, and\nyour sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. For your\nhands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips\nhave spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.\u201d As Mathew\nHenry says, \u201cIt was owing to themselves--they stood in their own light,\nthey shut their own door. God was coming toward them in the way of\nmercy, and they hindered Him. \u2018_Your iniquities have kept good things\nfrom you._\u2019\u201d\n\nBear in mind that if we are regarding iniquity in our hearts, or living\non a mere empty profession, we have no claim to expect that our prayers\nwill be answered. There is not one solitary promise for us. I sometimes\ntremble when I hear people quote promises, and say that God is bound to\nfulfil those promises to them, when all the time there is something in\ntheir own lives which they are not willing to give up. It is well for\nus to search our hearts, and find out why it is that our prayers are\nnot answered.\n\nThat is a very solemn passage in Isaiah:\n\n\u201cHear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the\nlaw of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the\nmultitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the\nburnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not\nin the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come\nto speak before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread My\ncourts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto\nMe; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot\naway with--it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.\u201d\n\n\u201cEven the solemn meeting!\u201d--think of that. If God does not get our\nheart-services, He will have none of it; it is an abomination to Him.\n\n\u201cYour new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth; they are a\ntrouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your\nhands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers,\nI will not hear; your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you\nclean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes, cease\nto do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,\njudge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason\ntogether, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall\nbe as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as\nwool.\u201d\n\nAgain we read in Proverbs: \u201cHe that turneth away his ear from hearing\nthe law, even his prayer shall be abomination.\u201d Think of that! It may\nshock some of us to think that our prayers are an abomination to God,\nyet if any are living in known sin, this is what God\u2019s Word says about\nthem. If we are not willing to turn from sin and obey God\u2019s law, we\nhave no right to expect that He will answer our prayers. Unconfessed\nsin is unforgiven sin, and unforgiven sin is the darkest, foulest thing\non this sin-cursed earth. You cannot find a case in the Bible where a\nman has been honest in dealing with sin, but God has been honest with\nhim and blessed him. The prayer of the humble and the contrite heart is\na delight to God. There is no sound that goes up from this sin-cursed\nearth so sweet to His ear as the prayer of the man who is walking\nuprightly.\n\nLet me call attention to that prayer of David, in which he says:\n\u201cSearch me, O, God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts,\nand see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way\neverlasting!\u201d I wish all my readers would commit these verses to\nmemory. If we should all honestly make this prayer once every day there\nwould be a good deal of change in our lives. \u201c_Search_ ME\u201d--not my\nneighbor. It is so easy to pray for other people, but so hard to get\nhome to ourselves. I am afraid that we who are busy in the Lord\u2019s work,\nare very often in danger of neglecting our vineyard. In this Psalm,\nDavid got home to himself. There is a difference between God searching\nme and my searching myself. I may search my heart, and pronounce it all\nright, but when God searches me as with a lighted candle, a good many\nthings will come to light that perhaps I knew nothing about.\n\n\u201c_Try me._\u201d David was tried when he fell by taking his eye off from\nthe God of his father Abraham. \u201c_Know my thoughts._\u201d God looks at the\nthoughts. Are our thoughts pure? Have we in our hearts thoughts against\nGod or against His people--against any one in the world? If we have,\nwe are not right in the sight of God. Oh, may God search us, every one!\nI do not know any better prayer that we can make than this prayer of\nDavid. One of the most solemn things in the Scripture history is that\nwhen holy men--better men than we are--were tested and tried, they were\nfound to be as weak as water away from God.\n\nLet us be sure that we are right. Isaac Ambrose, in his work on \u201cSelf\nTrial,\u201d has the following pithy words: \u201cNow and then propose we to our\nhearts these two questions: 1. \u2018Heart, how dost thou?\u2019--a few words,\nbut a very serious question. You know this is the first question and\nthe first salute that we use to one another--How do you do? I would to\nGod we sometimes thus spoke to our hearts: \u2018Heart, how dost thou? How\nis it with thee, for thy spiritual state?\u2019 2. \u2018Heart, what wilt thou\ndo?\u2019 or, \u2018Heart, what dost thou think will become of thee and me?\u2019--as\nthat dying Roman once said: \u2018Poor, wretched, miserable soul, whither\nart thou and I going--and what will become of thee, when thou and I\nshall part?\u2019\n\n\u201cThis very thing does Moses propose to Israel, though in other terms,\n\u2018Oh that they would consider their latter end!\u2019--and oh that we would\nput this question constantly to our hearts, to consider and debate\nupon! \u2018Commune with your own hearts,\u2019 said David; that is, debate\nthe matter betwixt you and your hearts to the very utmost. Let your\nhearts be so put to it in communing with them, as that they may speak\ntheir very bottom. Commune--or hold a serious communication and clear\nintelligence and acquaintance--with your own hearts.\u201d\n\nIt was the confession of a divine, sensible of his neglect, and\nespecially of the difficulty of this duty: \u201cI have lived,\u201d said he,\n\u201cforty years and somewhat more, and carried my heart in my bosom all\nthis while, and yet my heart and I are as great strangers, and as\nutterly unacquainted, as if we had never come near one another. Nay, I\nknow not my heart; I have forgotten my heart. Alas! alas! that I could\nbe grieved at the very heart, that my poor heart and I have been so\nunacquainted! We are fallen into an Athenian age, spending our time\nin nothing more than in telling or hearing news. How go things here?\nHow there? How in one place? How in another? But who is there that\nis inquisitive? How are things with my poor heart? Weigh but in the\nbalance of a serious consideration, what time we have spent in this\nduty, and what time otherwise; and for many scores and hundreds of\nhours or days that we owe to our hearts in this duty, can we write\nfifty? Or where there should have been fifty vessels full of this duty,\ncan we find twenty, or ten? Oh, the days, months, years, we bestow upon\nsin, vanity, the affairs of this world, while we afford not a minute in\nconverse with our own hearts concerning their case!\u201d\n\nIf there is anything in our lives that is wrong, let us ask God to show\nit to us. Have we been selfish? Have we been more jealous of our own\nreputation than of the honor of God? Elijah thought he was very jealous\nfor the honor of God; but it turned out that it was his own honor after\nall--self was really at the bottom of it. One of the saddest things,\nI think, that Christ had to meet with in His disciples was this very\nthing; there was a constant struggle between them as to who should be\nthe greatest, instead of each one taking the humblest place and being\nleast in his own estimation.\n\nWe are told in proof of this, that \u201cHe came to Capernaum; and being in\nthe house He asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves\nby the way? But they held their peace, for by the way they had disputed\namong themselves, who should be the greatest. And He sat down, and\ncalled the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first,\nthe same shall be the last of all, and servant of all. And He took a\nchild, and set him in the midst of them; and when He had taken him\nin His arms, He said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such\nchildren in My name, receiveth Me; and whosoever shall receive Me,\nreceiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me.\u201d\n\nSoon after \u201cJames and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto Him,\nsaying, Master, we would that Thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we\nshall desire. And He said unto them, What would ye that I should do\nfor you? They said unto Him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on Thy\nright hand, and the other on Thy left hand, in Thy glory. But Jesus\nsaid unto them, Ye know not what ye ask; can ye drink of the cup that\nI drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?\nAnd they said unto Him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall\nindeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I\nam baptized withal shall ye be baptized; but to sit on My right hand\nand on My left hand is not Mine to give; but it shall be given to them\nfor whom it is prepared. And when the ten heard it, they began to be\nmuch displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to Him, and\nsaith unto them: Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the\nGentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise\nauthority upon them. But so shall it not be among you; but whosoever\nwill be great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever of you\nwill be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man\ncame not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a\nransom for many.\u201d\n\nThe latter words were spoken in the third year of His ministry. Three\nyears the disciples had been with Him; they had listened to the words\nthat fell from His lips; yet they had failed to learn this lesson of\nhumility. The most humiliating thing that happened among the chosen\ntwelve occurred on the night of our Lord\u2019s betrayal, when Judas sold\nHim, and Peter denied Him. If there was any place where there should\nhave been an absence of these thoughts, it was at the Supper-table.\nYet we find that when Christ instituted that blessed memorial there\nwas a debate going on among His disciples who should be the greatest.\nThink of that!--right under the Cross, when the Master was \u201cexceeding\nsorrowful, even unto death;\u201d was already tasting the bitterness of\nCalvary, and the horrors of that dark hour were gathering upon His soul.\n\nI think if God searches us, we will find a good many things in our\nlives for us to confess. If we are tried and tested by God\u2019s law, there\nwill be many, many things that will have to be changed. I ask again:\nAre we selfish or jealous? Are we willing to hear of others being used\nof God more than we are? Are our Methodist friends willing to hear of a\ngreat revival of God\u2019s work among the Baptists? Would it rejoice their\nsouls to hear of such efforts being blessed? Are Baptists willing to\nhear of a reviving of God\u2019s work in the Methodist, Congregational, or\nother churches? If we are full of narrow, party and sectarian feelings,\nthere will be many things to be laid aside. Let us pray to God to\nsearch us, and try us, and see if there be any evil way in us. If these\nholy and good men felt that they were faulty, should we not tremble,\nand endeavor to find out if there is anything in our lives that God\nwould have us get rid of?\n\nOnce again, let me call your attention to the prayer of David contained\nin the fifty-first Psalm. A friend of mine told me some years ago\nthat he repeated this prayer as his own every week. I think it would\nbe a good thing if we offered up these petitions frequently; let them\ngo right up from our hearts. If we have been proud, or irritable, or\nlacking in patience, shall we not at once confess it? Is it not time\nthat we began at home, and got our lives straightened out? See how\nquickly the ungodly will then begin to inquire the way of life! Let\nthose of us who are parents set our own houses in order, and be filled\nwith Christ\u2019s Spirit; then it will not be long before our children will\nbe inquiring what they must do to get the same Spirit. I believe that\nto-day, by its lukewarmness and formality, the Christian Church is\nmaking more infidels than all the books that infidels ever wrote. I do\nnot fear infidel lectures half so much as the cold and dead formalism\nin the professing church at the present time. One prayer-meeting like\nthat the disciples had on the day of Pentecost, would shake the whole\ninfidel fraternity.\n\nWhat we want is to get hold of God in prayer. You are not going to\nreach the masses by great sermons. We want to \u201cmove the Arm that moves\nthe world.\u201d To do that, we must be clear and right before God. \u201cFor if\nour heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all\nthings, Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence\ntoward God; and whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep\nHis commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nConfession.\n\n\n  \u201cNo, not despairingly\n    Come I to Thee;\n  No, not distrustingly\n    Bend I the knee;\n  Sin hath gone over me,\n  Yet is this still my plea,\n    Jesus hath died.\n\n  \u201cAh, mine iniquity\n    Crimson has been;\n  Infinite, infinite,\n    Sin upon sin;\n  Sin of not loving Thee,\n  Sin of not trusting Thee.\n    Infinite sin.\n\n  \u201cLord, I confess to Thee\n    Sadly my sin;\n  All I am, tell I Thee,\n    All I have been.\n  Purge Thou my sin away,\n  Wash Thou my soul this day;\n    Lord, make me clean!\u201d\n\n                    --_Dr. H. Bonar._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nRESTITUTION.\n\n\nA third element of successful prayer is RESTITUTION. If I have at\nany time taken what does not belong to me, and am not willing to\nmake restitution, my prayers will not go very far toward heaven. It\nis a singular thing, but I have never touched on this subject in my\naddresses, without hearing of immediate results. A man once told me\nthat I would not need to dwell on this point at a meeting I was about\nto address, as probably there would be no one present that would need\nto make restitution. But I think if the Spirit of God searches our\nhearts, we shall most of us find a good many things have to be done\nthat we never thought of before.\n\nAfter Zaccheus met with Christ, things looked altogether different.\nI venture to say that the idea of making restitution never entered\ninto his mind before. He thought, probably, that morning that he was a\nperfectly honest man. But when the Lord came and spoke to him, he saw\nhimself in an altogether different light. Notice how short his speech\nwas. The only thing put on record that he said was this: \u201cBehold, Lord,\nthe half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything\nfrom any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.\u201d A short\nspeech; but how the words have come ringing down through the ages!\n\nBy making that remark he confessed his sin--that he had been dishonest.\nBesides that, he showed that he knew the requirements of the law of\nMoses. If a man had taken what did not belong to him, he was not only\nto return it, but to multiply it by four. I think that men in this\ndispensation ought to be fully as honest as men under the Law. I am\ngetting so tired and sick of your mere sentimentalism, that does not\nstraighten out a man\u2019s life. We may sing our hymns and psalms, and\noffer prayers, but they will be an abomination to God, unless we are\nwilling to be thoroughly straightforward in our daily life. Nothing\nwill give Christianity such a hold upon the world as to have God\u2019s\nbelieving people begin to act in this way. Zaccheus had probably more\ninfluence in Jericho after he made restitution than any other man in it.\n\nFinney, in his lectures to professing Christians, says: \u201cOne reason\nfor the requirement, \u2018Be not conformed to this world,\u2019 is the immense,\nsalutary, and instantaneous influence it would have, if everybody would\ndo business on the principles of the Gospel. Turn the tables over, and\nlet Christians do business one year on Gospel principles. It would\nshake the world! It would ring louder than thunder. Let the ungodly\nsee professing Christians in every bargain consulting the good of the\nperson they are trading with--seeking not their own wealth, but every\nman another\u2019s wealth--living above the world--setting no value on the\nworld any further than it would be the means of glorifying God; what do\nyou think would be the effect? It would cover the world with confusion\nof face, and overwhelm them with conviction of sin.\u201d\n\nFinney makes one grand mark of genuine repentance to be restitution.\n\u201cThe thief has not repented who keeps the money he stole. He may have\nconviction, but no repentance. If he had repentance, he would go and\ngive back the money. If you have cheated any one, and do not restore\nwhat you have taken unjustly; or if you have injured any one, and do\nnot set about to undo the wrong you have done, as far as in you lies,\nyou have not truly repented.\u201d\n\nIn Exodus we read--\u201cIf a man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it,\nor sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep\nfor a sheep.\u201d And again: \u201cIf a man shall cause a field or vineyard\nto be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another\nman\u2019s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own\nvineyard shall he make restitution. If fire break out, and catch in\nthorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field,\nbe consumed therewith, he that kindled the fire shall surely make\nrestitution.\u201d\n\nOr turn to Leviticus, where the law of the trespass-offering is laid\ndown--the same point is there insisted on with equal clearness and\nforce.\n\n\u201cIf a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto\nhis neighbor in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship,\nor in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbor; or\nhave found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth\nfalsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein; then\nit shall be, because he hath sinned and is guilty, that he shall\nrestore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he\nhath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or\nthe lost thing which he found, or all that about which he hath sworn\nfalsely; he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add the\nfifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth,\nin the day of his trespass offering.\u201d\n\nThe same thing is repeated in Numbers, where we read--\u201cAnd the Lord\nspake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, When a\nman or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass\nagainst the Lord, and that person be guilty; then they shall confess\ntheir sin which they have done; and he shall recompense his trespass\nwith the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof,\nand give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed. But if the man\nhave no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be\nrecompensed unto the Lord, even to the priest, beside the ram of the\natonement, whereby an atonement shall be made of him.\u201d\n\nThese were the laws that God laid down for His people, and I believe\ntheir principle is as binding to-day as it was then. If we have taken\nanything from any man, if we have in any way defrauded a man, let us\nnot only confess it, but do all we can to make restitution. If we have\nmisrepresented any one--if we have started some slander, or some false\nreport about him--let us do all in our power to undo the wrong.\n\nIt is in reference to a practical righteousness such as this that God\nsays in Isaiah--\u201cBehold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite\nwith the fist of wickedness; ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to\nmake your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have\nchosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his\nhead as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt\nthou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this\nthe fast that I have chosen--to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo\nthe heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break\nevery yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou\nbring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the\nnaked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine\nown flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine\nhealth shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go\nbefore thee, the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou\ncall, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here\nI am.\u201d\n\nTrapp in his comment on Zaccheus, says: \u201cSultan Selymus could tell his\ncouncillor Pyrrhus, who persuaded him to bestow the great wealth he had\ntaken from the Persian merchants upon some notable hospital for relief\nof the poor, that God hates robbery for burnt-offering. The dying Turk\ncommanded it rather to be restored to the right owners, which was done\naccordingly, to the great shame of many Christians, who mind nothing\nless than restitution. When Henry III of England had sent the Friar\nMinors a load of frieze to clothe them, they returned the same with\nthis message, \u2018that he ought not to give alms of what he had rent from\nthe poor; neither would they accept of that abominable gift.\u2019 Master\nLatimer saith, \u2018If ye make no restitution of goods detained, ye shall\ncough in hell, and the devils shall laugh at you.\u2019 Henry VII, in his\nlast will and testament, after the disposition of his soul and body,\ndevised and willed restitution should be made of all such moneys as had\nunjustly been levied by his officers. Queen Mary restored again all\necclesiastical livings assumed to the crown, saying that she set more\nby the salvation of her own soul, than she did by ten kingdoms. A bull\ncame also from the Pope, at the same time, that others should do the\nlike, but none did. Latimer tells us that the first day he preached\nabout restitution, one came and gave him \u00a320 to restore; the next day\nanother brought him \u00a330; another time another gave him \u00a3200.\n\n\u201cMr. Bradford, hearing Latimer on that subject, was struck in the heart\nfor one dash of the pen which he had made without the knowledge of his\nmaster, and could never be quiet till, by the advice of Mr. Latimer,\nrestitution was made, for which he did willingly forego all the private\nand certain patrimony which he had on earth. \u2018I, myself,\u2019 saith Mr.\nBarroughs, \u2018knew one man who had wronged another but of five shillings,\nand fifty years after could not be quiet till he had restored it.\u2019\u201d\n\nIf there is true repentance it will bring forth fruit. If we have done\nwrong to some one, we should never ask God to forgive us until we are\nwilling to make restitution. If I have done any man a great injustice\nand can make it good, I need not ask God to forgive me until I am\nwilling to do so. Suppose I have taken something that does not belong\nto me. I cannot expect forgiveness until I make restitution. I remember\npreaching in an Eastern city, and a fine-looking man came up to me at\nthe close. He was in great distress of mind. \u201cThe fact is,\u201d he said,\n\u201cI am a defaulter. I have taken money that belonged to my employers.\nHow can I become a Christian without restoring it?\u201d \u201cHave you got the\nmoney?\u201d He told me he had not got it all. He had taken about 1,500\ndollars, and he still had about 900. He said, \u201cCould I not take that\nmoney and go into business, and make enough to pay them back?\u201d I told\nhim that was a delusion of Satan, that he could not expect to prosper\non stolen money; that he should restore all he had, and go and ask his\nemployers to have mercy upon him, and forgive him. \u201cBut they will put\nme in prison,\u201d he said. \u201cCan you not give me any help?\u201d \u201cNo; you must\nrestore the money before you can expect to get any help from God.\u201d\n\u201cIt is pretty hard,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, it is hard; but the great mistake\nwas in doing the wrong at first.\u201d His burden became so heavy that it\nwas, in fact, unbearable. He handed me the money--950 dollars and some\ncents--and asked me to take it back to his employers. I told them the\nstory, and said that he wanted mercy from them, not justice. The tears\ntrickled down the cheeks of these two men, and they said, \u201cForgive him!\nYes, we will be glad to forgive him.\u201d I went down stairs and brought\nhim up. After he had confessed his guilt and been forgiven, we all fell\ndown on our knees and had a blessed prayer-meeting. God met us and\nblessed us there.\n\nThere was another friend of mine who had come to Christ and was trying\nto consecrate himself and his wealth to God. He had formerly had\ntransactions with the Government, and had taken advantage of them.\nThis thing came to memory, and his conscience troubled him. He had a\nterrible struggle; his conscience kept rising up and smiting him. At\nlast he drew a check for 1500 dollars, and sent it to the Treasury of\nthe Government. He told me he received such a blessing after he had\ndone it. That is bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. I believe a\ngreat many men are crying to God for light; and they are not getting it\nbecause they are not honest.\n\nA man came to one of our meetings, when this subject was touched upon.\nThe memory of a dishonest transaction flashed into his mind. He saw at\nonce how it was that his prayers were not answered, but \u201creturned into\nhis own bosom,\u201d as the Scripture phrase puts it. He left the meeting,\ntook the train, and went to a distant city, where he had defrauded his\nemployer years before. He went straight to this man, confessed the\nwrong, and offered to make restitution. Then he remembered another\ntransaction, in which he had failed to meet the just demands upon him;\nhe at once made arrangements to have a large amount repaid. He came\nback to the place where we were holding the meetings, and God blessed\nhim wonderfully in his own soul. I have not met a man for a long time\nwho seemed to have received such a blessing.\n\nSome years ago, in the north of England, a woman came to one of the\nmeetings, and appeared to be very anxious about her soul. For some\ntime she did not seem to be able to get peace. The truth was, she was\ncovering up one thing that she was not willing to confess. At last, the\nburden was too great; and she said to a worker: \u201cI never go down on\nmy knees to pray, but a few bottles of wine keep coming up before my\nmind.\u201d It appeared that years before, when she was housekeeper, she had\ntaken some bottles of wine belonging to her employer. The worker said:\n\u201cWhy do you not make restitution?\u201d The woman replied that the man was\ndead; and besides, she did not know how much it was worth. \u201cAre there\nany heirs living to whom you can make restitution?\u201d She said there\nwas a son living at some distance; but she thought it would be a very\nhumiliating thing, so she kept back for some time. At last she felt as\nif she must have a clear conscience at any cost, so she took the train,\nand went to the place where the son of her employer resided. She took\nfive pounds with her, she did not exactly know what the wine was worth,\nbut that would cover it at any rate. The man said he did not want the\nmoney, but she replied, \u201cI do not want it; it has burnt my pocket long\nenough.\u201d So he agreed to take the half of it, and give it to some\ncharitable object. Then she came back; and I think she was one of the\nhappiest mortals I have ever met with. She said she could not tell\nwhether she was in the body or out of it--such a blessing had come to\nher soul.\n\nIt may be that there is something in our lives that needs straightening\nout; something that happened perhaps twenty years ago, and that has\nbeen forgotten till the Spirit of God brought it to our remembrance. If\nwe are not willing to make restitution, we cannot expect God to give us\ngreat blessing. Perhaps that is the reason so many of our prayers are\nnot answered.\n\n\n\n\nPerfect Cleansing.\n\n\n  \u201cWho would be cleansed from every sin,\n  Must to God\u2019s holy altar bring\n      The whole of life--its joys, its tears,\n      Its hopes, its loves, its powers, its years,\n  The will, and every cherished thing!\n\n  \u201cMust make this sweeping sacrifice--\n      Choose God, and dare reproach and shame,\n      And boldly stand in storm or flame\n  For Him who paid redemption\u2019s price;\n  Then trust (not struggle to believe),\n    And trusting wait, nor doubt, but pray\n      That in His own good time He\u2019ll say,\n  \u2018Thy faith hath saved thee; now receive.\u2019\n\n  \u201cHis time is when the soul brings all,\n      Is all upon His altar lain;\n      When pride and self-conceit are slain,\n  And crucified with Christ, we fall\n  Helpless upon His word, and lie;\n      When, faithful to His word, we feel\n      The cleansing touch, the Spirit\u2019s seal,\n  And know that He does sanctify.\u201d\n\n                                    _A. T. Allis._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHANKSGIVING.\n\n\nThe next thing I would mention as an element of prayer is THANKSGIVING.\nWe ought to be more thankful for what we get from God. Perhaps\nsome of you mothers have a child in your family who is constantly\ncomplaining--never thankful. You know that there is not much pleasure\nin doing anything for a child like that. If you meet with a beggar who\nis always grumbling, and never seems to be thankful for what you give,\nyou very soon shut the door in his face altogether. Ingratitude is\nabout the hardest thing we have to meet with. The great English poet\nsays:\n\n  \u201cBlow, blow, thou winter wind--\n  Thou art not so unkind\n    As man\u2019s ingratitude;\n  Thy tooth is not so keen,\n  Because thou art not seen,\n    Although thy breath be rude.\u201d\n\nWe cannot speak too plainly of this evil, which so demeans those who\nare guilty of it. Even in Christians there is but too much of it to be\nseen. Here we are, getting blessings from God day after day; yet how\nlittle praise and thanksgiving there is in the Church of God!\n\nGurnall, in his _Christian Armor_, referring to the words, \u201cIn\neverything give thanks,\u201d says: \u201c\u2018Praise is comely for the upright.\u2019\n\u2018An unthankful saint\u2019 carries a contradiction with it. Evil and\nUnthankful are twins that live and die together; as any one ceaseth\nto be evil, he begins to be thankful. It is that which God expects at\nyour hands; He made you for this end. When the vote passed in heaven\nfor your being--yea, happy being in Christ!--it was upon this account,\nthat you should be a name and a praise to Him on earth in time, and\nin heaven to eternity. Should God miss this, He would fail of one\nmain part of His design. What prompts Him to bestow every mercy, but\nto afford you matter to compose a song for His praise? \u2018They are My\npeople, children that will not lie; so He was their Savior.\u2019\n\n\u201cHe looks for fair dealing at your hands. Whom may a father trust with\nhis reputation, if not his child? Where can a prince expect honor, if\nnot among his favorites? Your state is such that the least mercy you\nhave is more than all the world besides. Thou, Christian, and thy few\nbrethren, divide heaven and earth among you! What hath God that He\nwithholds from you? Sun, moon and stars are set up to give you light;\nsea and land have their treasures for your use; others are encroachers\nupon them; you are the rightful heirs to them; they groan that any\nothers should be served by them. The angels, bad and good, minister\nunto you; the evil, against their will, are forced like scullions when\nthey tempt you, to scour and brighten your graces, and make way for\nyour greater comforts; the good angels are servants to your heavenly\nFather, and disdain not to carry you in their arms. Your God withholds\nnot Himself from you; He is your portion--Father, Husband, Friend. God\nis His own happiness, and admits you to enjoy Him. Oh, what honor is\nthis, for the subject to drink in his prince\u2019s cup! \u2018Thou shalt make\nthem drink of the river of Thy pleasures.\u2019 And all this is not the\npurchase of your sweat and blood; the feast is paid for by Another,\nonly He expects your thanks to the Founder. No sin-offering is imposed\nunder the Gospel; thank-offerings are all He looks for.\u201d\n\nCharnock, in discoursing on Spiritual Worship, says: \u201cThe praise of\nGod is the choicest sacrifice and worship, under a dispensation of\nredeeming grace. This is the prime and eternal part of worship under\nthe Gospel. The Psalmist, speaking of the Gospel times, spurs on to\nthis kind of worship: \u2018Sing unto the Lord a new song; let the children\nof Zion be joyful in their King; let the saints be joyful in glory;\nlet them sing aloud upon their beds; let the high praises of God be in\ntheir mouth.\u2019 He begins and ends both Psalms with _Praise ye the Lord!_\nThat cannot be a spiritual and evangelical worship that hath nothing\nof the praise of God in the heart. The consideration of God\u2019s adorable\nperfections discovered in the Gospel will make us come to Him with more\nseriousness, beg blessings of Him with more confidence, fly to Him\nwith a winged faith and love, and more spiritually glorify Him in our\nattendances upon Him.\u201d\n\nThere is a great deal more said in the Bible about praise than prayer;\nyet how few praise-meetings there are! David, in his Psalms, always\nmixes praise with prayer. Solomon prevailed much with God in prayer at\nthe dedication of the temple; but it was the voice of _praise_ which\nbrought down the glory that filled the house; for we read: \u201cAnd it\ncame to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place (for\nall the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then\nwait by course; also the Levites, which were the singers, all of them\nof Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren,\nbeing arrayed in white linen, having cymbals, and psalteries, and\nharps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and\ntwenty priests, sounding with trumpets); it came even to pass, as the\ntrumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in\npraising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice\nwith the trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised\nthe Lord, saying, \u2018For He is good; for His mercy endureth forever;\u2019\nthat then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the\nLord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the\ncloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.\u201d\n\nWe read, too, of Jehoshaphat, that he gained the victory over the\nhosts of Ammon and Moab through praise, which was excited by faith and\nthankfulness to God.\n\n\u201cAnd they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness\nof Tekoa; and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, \u2018Hear me,\nO Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; believe in the Lord your God,\nso shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper;\u2019\nand when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto\nthe Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went\nout before the army, and to say, \u2018Praise the Lord; for His mercy\nendureth for ever,\u2019 And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord\nset ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir,\nwhich were come against Judah; and they were smitten.\u201d\n\nIt is said that in a time of great despondency among the first settlers\nin New England, it was proposed in one of their public assemblies to\nproclaim a fast. An old farmer arose; spoke of their provoking heaven\nwith their complaints, reviewed their measures, showed that they had\nmuch to be thankful for, and moved that instead of appointing a day of\nfasting, they should appoint a day of thanksgiving. This was done; and\nthe custom has been continued ever since.\n\nHowever great our difficulties, or deep even our sorrows, there is room\nfor thankfulness. Thomas Adams has said: \u201cLay up in the ark of thy\nmemory not only the pot of manna, the bread of life; but even Aaron\u2019s\nrod, the very scourge of correction, wherewith thou hast been bettered.\nBlessed be the Lord, not only giving, but taking away, saith Job. God\nwho sees there is no walking upon roses to heaven, puts His children\ninto the way of discipline; and by the fire of correction eats out the\nrust of corruption. God sends trouble, then bids us call upon Him;\npromiseth our deliverance; and lastly, the all He requires of us is to\nglorify Him. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee,\nand thou shalt glorify Me.\u201d Like the nightingale, we can sing in the\nnight, and say with John Newton--\n\n  \u201cSince all that I meet shall work for my good,\n  The bitter is sweet, the medicine food;\n  Though painful at present, \u2019twill cease before long,\n  And then--oh, how pleasant!--the conqueror\u2019s song.\u201d\n\nAmong all the apostles none suffered so much as Paul; but none of\nthem do we find so often giving thanks as he. Take his letter to the\nPhilippians. Remember what he suffered at Philippi; how they laid\nmany stripes upon him, and cast him into prison. Yet every chapter\nin that Epistle speaks of rejoicing and giving thanks. There is that\nwell-known passage: \u201cBe careful for nothing, but in everything, by\nprayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made\nknown unto God.\u201d As some one has said, there are here three precious\nideas: \u201cCareful for nothing; prayerful for everything; and thankful\nfor anything.\u201d We always get more by being thankful for what God has\ndone for us. Paul says again: \u201cWe give thanks to God, the Father of our\nLord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.\u201d So he was constantly giving\nthanks. Take up any one of his Epistles, and you will find them full of\npraise to God.\n\nEven if nothing else called for thankfulness, it would always be an\nample cause for it that Jesus Christ loved us, and gave Himself for us.\nA farmer was once found kneeling at a soldier\u2019s grave near Nashville.\nSome one came to him and said: \u201cWhy do you pay so much attention to\nthis grave? Was your son buried here?\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring the war\nmy family were all sick, I knew not how to leave them. I was drafted.\nOne of my neighbors came over and said: \u2018I will go for you; I have no\nfamily.\u2019 He went off. He was wounded at Chickamauga. He was carried to\nthe hospital, and there died. And, sir, I have come a great many miles,\nthat I might write over his grave these words, \u2018_He died for me._\u2019\u201d\n\nThis the believer can always say of his blessed Savior, and in the fact\nmay well rejoice. \u201cBy Him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of\npraise continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to\nHis name.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nThe Praise of God.\n\n\n  \u201cSpeak, lips of mine!\n      And tell abroad\n      The praises of my God.\n  Speak, stammering tongue!\n      In gladdest tone,\n      Make His high praises known.\n\n  \u201cSpeak, sea and earth!\n      Heaven\u2019s utmost star,\n      Speak from your realms afar!\n  Take up the note,\n      And send it round\n      Creation\u2019s farthest bound.\n\n  \u201cSpeak, heaven of heavens!\n      Wherein our God\n      Has made His bright abode.\n  Speak, angels, speak!\n      In songs proclaim\n      His everlasting name.\n\n  \u201cSpeak, son of dust!\n      Thy flesh He took\n      And heaven for thee forsook.\n  Speak, child of death!\n      Thy death He died,\n      Bless thou the Crucified.\u201d\n\n                           --_Dr. Bonar._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nFORGIVENESS.\n\n\nThe next thing is perhaps the most difficult of all to deal\nwith--FORGIVENESS. I believe this is keeping more people from having\npower with God than any other thing--they are not willing to cultivate\nthe spirit of forgiveness. If we allow the root of bitterness to spring\nup in our hearts against some one, our prayer will not be answered. It\nmay not be an easy thing to live in sweet fellowship with all those\nwith whom we come in contact; but that is what the grace of God is\ngiven to us for.\n\nThe disciples\u2019 prayer is a test of sonship; if we can pray it all from\nthe heart we have good reason to think that we have been born of God.\nNo man can call God Father but by the Spirit. Though this prayer has\nbeen such a blessing to the world, I believe it has been a great snare;\nmany stumble over it into perdition. They do not weigh its meaning,\nnor take its facts right into their hearts. I have no sympathy with\nthe idea of universal sonship--that all men are the sons of God. The\nBible teaches very plainly that we are adopted into the family of God.\nIf all were sons God would not need to adopt any. We are all God\u2019s by\ncreation; but when people teach that any man can say, \u201cOur Father which\nart in heaven,\u201d whether he is born of God or not, I think that is\ncontrary to Scripture. \u201cAs many as are led by the Spirit of God, they\nare the sons of God.\u201d Sonship in the family is the privilege of the\nbeliever. \u201cIn this the children of God are manifest, and the children\nof the devil,\u201d says the Apostle. If we are doing the will of God, that\nis a very good sign that we are born of God. If we have no desire to do\nthat will, how can we call God \u201cOur Father?\u201d\n\nAnother thing. We cannot really pray for God\u2019s kingdom to come until\nwe are in it. If we should pray for the coming of God\u2019s kingdom\nwhile we are rebelling against Him, we are only seeking for our own\ncondemnation. No unrenewed man really wants God\u2019s will to be done on\nthe earth. You might write over the door of every unsaved man\u2019s house,\nand over his place of business, \u201cGod\u2019s will is not done here.\u201d\n\nIf the nations were really to put up this prayer, all their armies\ncould be discharged. They tell us there are some twelve millions of men\nin the standing armies of Europe alone. But men do not want God\u2019s will\ndone on earth as it is in heaven; that is the trouble.\n\nNow let us come to the part I want to dwell upon: \u201cForgive us our\ntrespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.\u201d This is the\nonly part of the prayer that Christ explained.\n\n\u201cFor if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also\nforgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will\nyour Father forgive your trespasses.\u201d\n\nNotice that when you go into the door of God\u2019s kingdom, you go in\nthrough the door of forgiveness. I never knew of a man getting a\nblessing in his own soul, if he was not willing to forgive others.\nIf we are unwilling to forgive others, God cannot forgive us. I do\nnot know how language could be more plain than it is in these words\nof our Lord. I firmly believe a great many prayers are not answered\nbecause we are not willing to forgive some one. Let your mind go back\nover the past, and through the circle of your acquaintance; are there\nany against whom you are cherishing hard feelings? Is there any root\nof bitterness springing up against some one who has perhaps injured\nyou? It may be that for months or years you have been nursing this\nunforgiving spirit; how can _you_ ask God to forgive you? If I am not\nwilling to forgive those who may have committed some single offence\nagainst me, what a mean, contemptible thing it would be for me to ask\nGod to forgive the ten thousand sins of which I have been guilty!\n\nBut Christ goes still further. He says: \u201cIf thou bring thy gift to\nthe altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against\nthee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be\nreconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.\u201d It may be\nthat you are saying: \u201cI do not know that I have anything against any\none.\u201d Has any one anything against you? Is there some one who thinks\nyou have done them wrong? Perhaps you have not; but it may be they\nthink you have. I will tell you what I would do before I go to sleep\nto-night; I would go and see them, and have the question settled. You\nwill find that you will be greatly blessed in the very act.\n\nSupposing you are in the right and they are in the wrong; you may\nwin your brother or sister. May God root out of all our hearts this\nunforgiving spirit.\n\nA gentleman came to me some time ago, and wanted me to talk to his\nwife about her soul. That woman seemed as anxious as any person I\never met, and I thought it would not take long to lead her into the\nlight; but it seemed that the longer I talked with her, the more her\ndarkness increased. I went to see her again the next day, and found her\nin still greater darkness of soul. I thought there must be something\nin the way that I had not discovered, and I asked her to repeat with\nme this disciples\u2019 prayer. I thought if she could say this prayer\nfrom the heart, the Lord would meet her in peace. I began to repeat\nit sentence after sentence, and she repeated it after me until I came\nto this petition: \u201cForgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that\ntrespass against us.\u201d There she stopped. I repeated it the second time,\nand waited for her to say it after me; she said she could not do it.\n\u201cWhat is the trouble?\u201d She replied, \u201cThere is one woman I never will\nforgive.\u201d \u201cOh,\u201d I said, \u201cI have got at your difficulty; it is no use my\ngoing on to pray, for your prayers will not go higher than my head. God\nsays He will not forgive you unless you forgive others. If you do not\nforgive this woman, God will never forgive you. That is the decree of\nheaven.\u201d She said, \u201cDo you mean to say that I cannot be forgiven until\nI have forgiven her?\u201d \u201cNo, I do not say it; the Lord says it, and that\nis far better authority.\u201d Said she, \u201cThen I will never be forgiven.\u201d I\nleft the house without having made any impression on her. A few years\nafter, I heard that this woman was in an asylum for the insane. I\nbelieve this spirit of unforgiveness drove her mad.\n\nIf there is some one who has aught against you, go at once, and be\nreconciled. If you have aught against any one, write to them a letter,\ntelling them that you forgive them, and so have this thing off your\nconscience. I remember being in the inquiry-room some years ago; I was\nin one corner of the room, talking to a young lady. There seemed to be\nsomething in the way, but I could not find out what it was. At last\nI said, \u201cIs there not some one you do not forgive?\u201d She looked up at\nme, and said, \u201cWhat made you ask that? Has anyone told you about me?\u201d\n\u201cNo,\u201d I said; \u201cbut I thought perhaps that might be the case, as you\nhave not received forgiveness yourself.\u201d \u201cWell,\u201d she said, pointing\nto another corner of the room, where there was a young lady sitting,\n\u201cI have had trouble with that young lady; we have not spoken to each\nother for a long time.\u201d \u201cOh,\u201d I said, \u201cit is all plain to me now; you\ncannot be forgiven until you are willing to forgive her.\u201d It was a\ngreat struggle. But then you know, the greater the cross the greater\nthe blessing. It is human to err, but it is Christ-like to forgive and\nbe forgiven. At last this young lady said: \u201cI will go and forgive her.\u201d\nStrange to say, the same conflict was going on in the mind of the lady\nin the other part of the room. They both came to their right mind about\nthe same time. They met each other in the middle of the floor. The one\ntried to say that she forgave the other, but they could not finish;\nso they rushed into each other\u2019s arms. Then the four of us--the two\nseekers and the two workers--got down on our knees together, and we\nhad a grand meeting. These two went away rejoicing.\n\nDear friend, is this the reason why your prayers are not answered? Is\nthere some friend, some member of your family, some one in the church,\nyou have not forgiven? We sometimes hear of members of the same church\nwho have not spoken to each other for years. How can we expect God to\nforgive when this is the case?\n\nI remember one town that Mr. Sankey and myself visited. For a week\nit seemed as if we were beating the air; there was no power in the\nmeetings. At last I said one day that perhaps there was some one\ncultivating this unforgiving spirit. The Chairman of our committee, who\nwas sitting next to me, got up and left the meeting right in view of\nthe audience. The arrow had hit the mark, and gone home to the heart\nof the Chairman of the committee. He had had trouble with some one\nfor about six months. He at once hunted up this man and asked him to\nforgive him. He came to me with tears in his eyes, and said: \u201cI thank\nGod you ever came here.\u201d That night the inquiry-room was thronged. The\nChairman became one of the best workers I have ever known, and he has\nbeen active in Christian service ever since.\n\nSeveral years ago the Church of England sent a devoted missionary to\nNew Zealand. After a few years of toil and success, he was one Sabbath\nholding a communion service in a district where the converts had not\nlong since been savages. As the missionary was conducting the service,\nhe observed one of the men, just as he was about to kneel at the rail,\nsuddenly start to his feet and hastily go the opposite end of the\nchurch. By and by he returned, and calmly took his place. After service\nthe clergyman took him on one side, and asked the reason for his\nstrange behavior. He replied: \u201cAs I was about to kneel I recognized in\nthe man next to me the chief of a neighboring tribe, who had murdered\nmy father, and drunk his blood; and I had sworn by all the gods that\nI would slay that man at the first opportunity. The impulse to have\nmy revenge, at the first almost overpowered me, and I rushed away, as\nyou saw me, to escape the power of it. As I stood at the other end of\nthe room and considered the object of our meeting, I thought of Him\nwho prayed for His own murderers: \u2018Father, forgive them, for they know\nnot what they do.\u2019 And I felt that I could forgive the murderer of my\nfather, and came and knelt down at his side.\u201d\n\nAs one has said: \u201cThere is an ugly kind of forgiveness in the world--a\nkind of hedgehog forgiveness, shot out like quills. Men take one\nwho has offended, and set him down before the blow-pipe of their\nindignation, and scorch him, and burn his fault into him; and when they\nhave kneaded him sufficiently with their fists, then they forgive him.\u201d\n\nThe father of Frederick the Great, on his death-bed, was warned by\nM. Roloff, his spiritual adviser, that he was bound to forgive his\nenemies. He was quite troubled, and after a moment\u2019s pause said to the\nQueen: \u201cYou, Feekin, may write to your brother (the King of England)\n_after I am dead_, and tell him that I forgave him, and died at peace\nwith him.\u201d \u201cIt would be better,\u201d M. Roloff mildly suggested, \u201cthat\nyour majesty should write at once.\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d was the stern reply. \u201cWrite\nafter I am dead. That will be safer.\u201d\n\nAnother story tells of a man who, supposing he was about to die,\nexpressed his forgiveness to one who had injured him, but added: \u201cNow\nyou mind, if I get well, the old grudge holds good.\u201d\n\nMy friends, that is not forgiveness at all. I believe true forgiveness\nincludes forgetting the offence--putting it entirely away out of our\nhearts and memories.\n\nAs Matthew Henry says: \u201cWe do not forgive our offending brother aright\nnor acceptably, if we do not forgive him from the heart, for it is that\nGod looks at. No malice must be harbored there, nor ill-will to any; no\nprojects of revenge must be hatched there, nor desires of it, as there\nare in many who outwardly appear peaceful and reconciled. We must from\nthe heart desire and seek the welfare of those who have offended us.\u201d\n\nIf God\u2019s forgiveness were like that often shown by us, it would not be\nworth much. Supposing God said: \u201cI will forgive you, but I will never\nforget it; all through eternity I will keep reminding you of it;\u201d we\nshould not feel that to be forgiveness at all. Notice what God says: \u201cI\nwill remember their sin no more.\u201d In a passage in Ezekiel it is said\nthat not one of our sins shall be mentioned; is not that like God? I do\nlike to preach this forgiveness--the sweet truth that sin is blotted\nout for time and eternity, and shall never once be mentioned against\nus. In another Scripture we read: \u201cTheir sins and iniquities will I\nremember no more.\u201d Then when you turn to the eleventh chapter of the\nHebrews, and read God\u2019s roll of honor, you find that not one of the\nsins of any of those men of faith is mentioned. Abraham is spoken of\nas the man of faith; but it is not told how he denied his wife down in\nEgypt; all that had been forgiven. Moses was kept out of the Promised\nLand because he lost patience; but this is not mentioned in the New\nTestament, though his name appears in the Apostle\u2019s roll of honor.\nSamson, too, is named, but his sins are not brought up again. Why, we\neven read of \u201crighteous Lot;\u201d he did not look much like a righteous\nman in the Old Testament story, but he has been forgiven, and God has\nmade him \u201crighteous.\u201d If we are once forgiven by God, our sins will be\nremembered against us no more. This is God\u2019s eternal decree.\n\nBrooks says of God\u2019s pardon granted to His people: \u201cWhen God pardons\nsin, He takes it sheer away; that if it should be sought for, yet it\ncould not be found; as the prophet Jeremiah speaks: \u2018In those days, and\nin that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought\nfor, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not\nbe found; for I will pardon them whom I reserve.\u2019 As David, when he saw\nin Mephibosheth the features of his friend Jonathan, took no notice of\nhis lameness, or any other defect or deformity; so God, beholding in\nHis people the glorious image of His Son, winks at all their faults and\ndeformities, which made Luther say, \u2018Do with me what thou wilt, since\nThou hast pardoned my sin.\u2019 And what is it to pardon sin, but not to\nmention sin?\u201d\n\nWe read in the Gospel of Matthew: \u201cMoreover, if thy brother shall\ntrespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him\nalone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.\u201d Then a\nlittle further on we read that Peter comes to Christ and says: \u201cHow\noft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven\ntimes?\u201d Jesus replied, \u201cI say not unto thee, until seven times; but\nuntil seventy times seven.\u201d Peter did not seem to think that _he_ was\nin danger of falling into sin; his question was, How often should I\nforgive my brother? But very soon we hear that Peter has fallen. I can\nimagine that when he did fall, the sweet thought came to him of what\nthe Master had said about forgiving until seventy times seven. The\nvoice of sin may be loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder.\n\nLet us enter into David\u2019s experience, when he said: \u201cBlessed is he\nwhose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the\nman unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there\nis no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring\nall the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me; my\nmoisture is turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin\nunto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my\ntransgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my\nsin.\u201d\n\nDavid could look below, above, behind and before; to the past, present,\nand future; and know that all was well. Let us make up our mind, that\nwe will not rest until this question of sin is for ever settled, so\nthat we can look up and claim God as our forgiving Father. Let us be\nwilling to forgive others, that we may be able to claim forgiveness\nfrom God, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said: \u201cIf ye\nforgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive\nyou; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your\nFather forgive your trespasses.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nPardon.\n\n\n  \u201cNow, oh joy! my sins are pardoned!\n    Now I can and do believe!\n  All I have, and am, and shall be,\n    To my precious Lord I give;\n  He roused my deathly slumbers,\n    He dispersed my soul\u2019s dark night;\n  Whispered peace, and drew me to Him\n    Made Himself my chief delight.\n\n  \u201cLet the babe forget its mother,\n    Let the bridegroom slight his bride;\n  True to him, I\u2019ll love none other,\n    Cleaving closely to His side.\n  Jesus, hear my soul\u2019s confession;\n    Weak am I, but strength is Thine;\n  On Thine arms for strength and succor,\n    Calmly may my soul recline!\u201d\n\n                            _Albert Midlane._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nUNITY.\n\n\nThe next thing we need to have, if we would get our prayers answered,\nis--UNITY. If we do not love one another we certainly shall not have\nmuch power with God in Prayer. One of the saddest things in the present\nday is the division in God\u2019s Church. You notice that when the power\nof God came upon the early church, it was when they were all of one\naccord. I believe the blessing of Pentecost never would have been given\nbut for that spirit of unity. If they had been divided and quarreling\namong themselves, do you think the Holy Ghost would have come, and\nthose thousands been converted? I have noticed in our work, that if we\nhave gone to a town where three churches were united in it, we have had\ngreater blessing than if only one church was in sympathy. And if there\nhave been twelve churches united, the blessing has multiplied fourfold;\nit has always been in proportion to the spirit of unity that has been\nmanifested. Where there are bickerings and divisions, and where the\nspirit of unity is absent, there is very little blessing and praise.\n\nDr. Guthrie thus illustrates this fact; he says: \u201cSeparate the atoms\nwhich make the hammer, and each would fall on the stone as a snowflake;\nbut welded into one, and wielded by the firm arm of the quarry man,\nit will break the massive rocks asunder. Divide the waters of Niagara\ninto distinct and individual drops, and they would be no more than the\nfalling rain, but in their united body they would quench the fires of\nVesuvius, and have some to spare for the volcanoes of other mountains.\u201d\n\nHistory tells us that it was agreed upon by both armies of the Romans\nand the Albans to put the trial of all to the issue of a battle betwixt\nsix brethren--three on the one side, the sons of Curatius, and three\non the other, the sons of Horatius. While the Curatii were united,\nthough all three sorely wounded, they killed two of the Heratii. The\nthird began to take to his heels, though not hurt at all; and when he\nsaw them follow slowly, one after another, because of wounds and heavy\narmor, he fell upon them singly, and slew all three. It is the cunning\nsleight of the devil to divide us that he may destroy us.\n\nWe ought to endure much and sacrifice much, rather than permit discord\nand division to prevail in our hearts. Martin Luther says: \u201cWhen two\ngoats meet upon a narrow bridge over deep water, how do they behave?\nNeither of them can turn back again, neither can pass the other,\nbecause the bridge is too narrow; if they should thrust one another\nthey might both fall into the water and be drowned. Nature, then, has\ntaught them that if the one lays himself down and permits the other to\ngo over him, both remain unhurt. Even so people should rather endure to\nbe trod upon than to fall into debate and discord one with another.\u201d\n\nCawdray says: \u201cAs in music, if the harmony of tones be not complete\nthey are offensive to the cultivated ear; so if Christians disagree\namong themselves they are unacceptable to God.\u201d\n\nThere are diversities of gifts--that is clearly taught--but there is\none Spirit. If we have all been redeemed with the same blood, we ought\nto see eye to eye in spiritual things. Paul writes: \u201cNow there are\ndiversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of\nadministrations, but the same Lord.\u201d\n\nWhere there is union I do not believe any power, earthly or infernal,\ncan stand before the work. When the church, the pulpit, and the pew,\nget united, and God\u2019s people are all of one mind, Christianity is like\na red-hot ball rolling over the earth, and all the hosts of death and\nhell cannot stand before it. I believe that men will then come flocking\ninto the Kingdom by hundreds and thousands. \u201cBy this,\u201d says Christ,\n\u201cshall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to\nanother.\u201d If only we love one another, and pray for one another, there\nwill be success. God will not disappoint us.\n\nThere can be no real separation or division in the true Church of\nChrist; they are redeemed by one price, and indwelt by one Spirit. If\nI belong to the family of God, I have been bought with the same blood,\nthough I may not belong to the same sect or party as another. What\nwe want to do is to get these miserable sectarian walls taken away.\nOur weakness has been in our division; and what we need is that there\nshould be no schism or division among those who love the Lord Jesus\nChrist. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians we read of the first\nsymptoms of sectarianism coming into the early church--\n\n\u201cNow I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,\nthat ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no division among\nyou; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and\nin the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my\nbrethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are\ncontentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith,\nI am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is\nChrist divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the\nname of Paul?\u201d\n\nNotice how one said, \u201cI am of Paul;\u201d and another, \u201cI am of Apollos;\u201d\nand another, \u201cI am of Cephas.\u201d Apollos was a young orator, and the\npeople had been carried away by his eloquence. Some said Cephas, or\nPeter, was of the regular Apostolic line, because he had been with\nthe Lord, and Paul had not. So they were divided, and Paul wrote this\nletter in order to settle the question.\n\nJenkyn, in his commentary on the Epistle of Jude, says: \u201cThe partakers\nof a \u2018common salvation,\u2019 who here agree in one way to heaven, and who\nexpect to be hereafter in one heaven, should be of one heart. It is the\nApostle\u2019s inference in Ephesians. What an amazing misery is it, that\nthey who agree in common faith should disagree like common foes! That\nChristians should live as if faith had banished love! This common faith\nshould allay and temper our spirits in all our differences. This should\nmoderate our minds, though there is inequality in earthly relations.\nWhat a powerful motive was that of Joseph\u2019s brethren to him to forgive\ntheir sin, they being both his brethren, and the servants of the God\nof his fathers! Though our own breath cannot blow out the taper of\ncontention, oh, yet let the blood of Christ extinguish it!\u201d\n\nWhat a strange state of things Paul, Cephas, and Apollos would find if\nthey would come to the world to-day! The little tree that sprang up at\nCorinth has grown up into a tree like Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s, with many of\nthe fowls of heaven gathered into it. Suppose Paul and Cephas were to\ncome down to us now, they would hear at once about our Churchmen and\nDissenters. \u201cA Dissenter!\u201d says Paul, \u201cwhat is that?\u201d \u201cWe have a Church\nof England, and there are those who dissent from the Church.\u201d \u201cOh,\nindeed! Are there two classes of Christians here, then?\u201d \u201cI am sorry to\nsay there are a good many more divisions. The Dissenters themselves are\nsplit up. There are Wesleyans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Independents,\nand so on; even these are all divided up.\u201d \u201cIs it possible,\u201d says Paul,\n\u201cthat there are so many divisions?\u201d \u201cYes; the Church of England is\npretty well divided itself. There is the Broad Church, the High Church,\nthe Low Church, and the High-Lows. Then there is the Lutheran Church;\nand away in Russia they have the Greek Church, and so on.\u201d I declare\nI do not know what Paul and Cephas would think if they came back to\nthe world; they would find a strange state of things. It is one of the\nmost humiliating things in the present day to see how God\u2019s family is\ndivided up. If we love the Lord Jesus Christ the burden of our hearts\nwill be that God may bring us closer together, so that we may love one\nanother and rise above all party feeling.\n\nIn repairing a church in one of the Boston wards, the inscription upon\nthe wall behind the pulpit was covered up. Upon the first Sabbath after\nrepairs, \u201clittle five-year-old\u201d whispered to her mother: \u201cI know why\nGod told the paint men to cover that pretty verse up. It was because\nthe people did not love one another.\u201d The inscription was; \u201cA new\ncommandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.\u201d\n\nA Boston minister says he once preached on \u201cThe Recognition of Friends\nin the Future,\u201d and was told after service by a hearer, that it would\nbe more to the point to preach about the recognition of friends here,\nas he had been in the church twenty years, and did not know any of its\nmembers.\n\nI was in a little town some time ago, when one night as I came out of\nthe meeting, I saw another building where the people were coming out. I\nsaid to a friend, \u201cHave you got two churches here?\u201d \u201cOh yes.\u201d \u201cHow do\nyou get on?\u201d \u201cOh, we get on very well.\u201d \u201cI am glad to hear that. Was\nyour brother minister at the meeting?\u201d \u201cOh no, we don\u2019t have anything\nto do with each other. We find that is the best way.\u201d And they called\nthat \u201cgetting on very well.\u201d Oh, may God make us of one heart and of\none mind! Let our hearts be like drops of water flowing together. Unity\namong the people of God is a sort of foretaste of heaven. There we\nshall not find any Baptists, or Methodists, or Congregationalists, or\nEpiscopalians; we shall all be one in Christ. We leave all our party\nnames behind us when we leave this earth. Oh that the Spirit of God\nmay speedily sweep away all these miserable walls that we have been\nbuilding up!\n\nDid you ever notice that the last prayer Jesus Christ made on earth,\nbefore they led Him away to Calvary, was that His disciples might all\nbe one? He could look down the stream of time, and see that divisions\nwould come--how Satan would try to divide the flock of God. Nothing\nwill silence infidels so quickly as Christians everywhere being united.\nThen our testimony will have weight with the ungodly and the careless.\nBut when they see how Christians are divided, they will not believe\ntheir testimony. The Holy Spirit is grieved; and there is little power\nwhere there is no unity.\n\nIf I thought I had one drop of sectarian blood in my veins, I would let\nit out before I went to bed; if I had one sectarian hair in my head, I\nwould pull it out. Let us get right to the heart of Jesus Christ; then\nour prayers will be acceptable to God, and showers of blessings will\ndescend.\n\n\n\n\nUnion.\n\n\n  \u201cLet party names no more be known\n    Among the ransomed throng;\n  For Jesus claims them for His own;\n    To Him they all belong.\n\n  \u201cOne in their covenant Head and King,\n    They should be one in heart;\n  Of one salvation all should sing,\n    Each claiming his own part.\n\n  \u201cOne bread, one family, one rock,\n    One building, formed by love,\n  One fold, one Shepherd, yea, one flock,\n    They shall be one above.\u201d\n\n                              _Joseph Irons._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nFAITH.\n\n\nAnother element is FAITH. It is as important for us to know how to\npray as it is to know how to work. We are not told that Jesus ever\ntaught His disciples how to preach, but He taught them how to pray. He\nwanted them to have power with God; then He knew they would have power\nwith man. In James we read: \u201cIf any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of\nGod ... and it shall be given him; but let him ask in faith, nothing\nwavering.\u201d So faith is the golden key that unlocks the treasures of\nheaven. It was the shield that David took when he met Goliath on\nthe field; he believed that God was going to deliver the Philistine\ninto his hands. Some one has said that faith could lead Christ about\nanywhere; wherever He found it He honored it. Unbelief sees something\nin God\u2019s hand, and says, \u201cI cannot get it.\u201d Faith sees it, and says, \u201cI\nwill have it.\u201d\n\nThe new life begins with faith; then we have only to go on building on\nthat foundation. \u201cI say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye\npray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.\u201d But bear\nin mind, we must be in earnest when we go to God.\n\nI do not know of a more vivid illustration of the cry of distress for\nhelp going up to God, in all the earnestness of deeply realized need,\nthan the following story supplies:\n\nCarl Steinman, who visited Mount Hecla, Iceland, just before the great\neruption, in 1845, after a repose of eighty years, narrowly escaped\ndeath by venturing into the smoking crater against the earnest entreaty\nof his guide. On the brink of the yawning gulf he was prostrated by a\nconvulsion of the summit, and held there by blocks of lava upon his\nfeet. He graphically writes:\n\n\u201cOh, the horrors of that awful realization! There, over the mouth of a\nblack and heated abyss, I was held suspended, a helpless and conscious\nprisoner, to be hurled downward by the next great throe of trembling\nNature!\n\n\u201c\u2018Help! help! help!--for the love of God, help!\u2019 I shrieked, in the\nvery agony of my despair.\n\n\u201cI had nothing to rely upon but the mercy of heaven; and I prayed to\nGod as I had never prayed before, for the forgiveness of my sins, that\nthey might not follow me to judgment.\n\n\u201cAll at once I heard a shout, and, looking around, I beheld, with\nfeelings that cannot be described, my faithful guide hastening down the\nsides of the crater to my relief.\n\n\u201c\u2018I warned you!\u2019 said he.\n\n\u201c\u2018You did!\u2019 cried I, \u2018but forgive me, and save me, for I am perishing!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I will save you, or perish with you!\u2019\n\n\u201cThe earth trembled, and the rocks parted--one of them rolling down the\nchasm with a dull, booming sound. I sprang forward; I seized a hand\nof the guide, and the next moment we had both fallen, locked in each\nother\u2019s arms, upon the solid earth above. I was free, but still upon\nthe verge of the pit.\u201d\n\nBishop Hall, in a well-known extract, thus puts the point of\nearnestness in its relation to the prayer of faith.\n\n\u201cAn arrow, if it be drawn up but a little way, goes not far; but, if it\nbe pulled up to the head, flies swiftly and pierces deep. Thus prayer,\nif it be only dribbled forth from careless lips, falls at our feet.\nIt is the strength of ejaculation and strong desire which sends it to\nheaven, and makes it pierce the clouds. It is not the arithmetic of\nour prayers, how many they are; nor the rhetoric of our prayers, how\neloquent they be; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they be;\nnor the music of our prayers, how sweet our voice may be; nor the logic\nof our prayers, how argumentative they may be; nor the method of our\nprayers, how orderly they may be; nor even the divinity of our prayers,\nhow good the doctrine may be;--which God cares for. He looks not for\nthe horny knees which James is said to have had through the assiduity\nof prayer. We might be like Bartholomew, who is said to have had a\nhundred prayers for the morning, and as many for the evening, and all\nmight be of no avail. Fervency of spirit is that which availeth much.\u201d\n\nArchbishop Leighton says: \u201cIt is not the gilded paper and good\nwriting of a petition that prevails with a king, but the moving sense\nof it. And to that King who discerns the heart, heart-sense is the\nsense of all, and that which He only regards. He listens to hear what\nthat speaks, and takes all as nothing where that is silent. All other\nexcellence in prayer is but the outside and fashion of it. This is the\nlife of it.\u201d\n\nBrooks says: \u201cAs a painted fire is no fire, a dead man no man, so a\ncold prayer is no prayer. In a painted fire there is no heat, in a dead\nman there is no life; so in a cold prayer there is no omnipotency, no\ndevotion, no blessing. Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as\nswords without edges, as birds without wings; they pierce not, they cut\nnot, they fly not up to heaven. Cold prayers do always freeze before\nthey get to heaven. Oh that Christians would chide themselves out of\ntheir cold prayers, and chide themselves into a better and warmer frame\nof spirit, when they make their supplications to the Lord!\u201d\n\nTake the case of the Syrophenician woman. When she called to the\nMaster, it seemed for a time as if He were deaf to her request. The\ndisciples wanted her to be sent away. Although they were with Christ\nfor three years, and sat at His feet, yet they did not know how full of\ngrace His heart was. Think of Christ sending away a poor sinner who had\ncome to Him for mercy! Can you conceive such a thing? Never once did it\noccur. This poor woman put herself in the place of her child. \u201cLord,\nhelp me!\u201d she said. I think when we get so far as that in the earnest\ndesire to have our friends blessed--when we put ourselves in their\nplace--God will soon hear our prayer.\n\nI remember, a number of years ago at a meeting, I asked all those who\nwished to be prayed for to come forward and kneel or take seats in\nfront. Among those who came was a woman. I thought by her looks that\nshe must be a Christian, but she knelt down with the others. I said:\n\u201cYou are a Christian, are you not?\u201d She said she had been one for so\nmany years. \u201cDid you understand the invitation? I asked those only who\nwanted to become Christians.\u201d I shall never forget the look on her face\nas she replied, \u201cI have a son who has gone far away; I thought I would\ntake his place to-day, and see if God would not bless him.\u201d Thank God\nfor such a mother as that!\n\nThe Syrophenician woman did the same thing--\u201cLord help _me_!\u201d It was\na short prayer, but it went right to the heart of the Son of God.\nHe tried her faith, however. He said: \u201cIt is not meet to take the\nchildren\u2019s bread and cast it to dogs.\u201d She replied: \u201cTruth, Lord; yet\nthe dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters\u2019 table.\u201d \u201cO\nwoman, great is thy faith!\u201d What a eulogy He paid to her! Her story\nwill never be forgotten as long as the church is on the earth. He\nhonored her faith, and gave her all she asked for. Every one can say,\n\u201cLord, help me!\u201d We all need help. As Christians, we need more grace,\nmore love, more purity of life, more righteousness? Then let us make\nthis prayer to-day. I want God to help me to preach better and to live\nbetter, to be more like the Son of God. The golden chains of faith link\nus right to the throne of God, and the grace of heaven flows down into\nour souls.\n\nI do not know but that woman was a great sinner; still, the Lord heard\nher cry. It may be that up to this hour you have been living in sin;\nbut if you will cry, \u201cLord help me!\u201d He will answer your prayer, if\nit is an honest one. Very often when we cry to God we do not really\nmean anything. You mothers understand that. Your children have two\nvoices. When they ask you for anything, you can soon tell if the cry\nis a make-believe one or not. If it is, you do not give any heed to\nit; but if it is a real cry for help, how quickly you respond! The cry\nof distress always brings relief. Your child is playing around, and\nit says, \u201cMamma, I want some bread;\u201d but it goes on playing. You know\nthat it is not very hungry; so you let it alone. But, by and by, the\nchild drops the toys, and comes tugging at your dress. \u201cMamma, I am so\nhungry!\u201d Then you know that the cry is a real one; you soon go to the\npantry, and get some bread. When we are in earnest for the bread of\nheaven, we will get it. This woman was terribly in earnest; therefore\nher petition was answered.\n\nI remember hearing of a boy brought up in an English almshouse. He had\nnever learned to read or write, except that he could read the letters\nof the alphabet. One day a man of God came there, and told the children\nthat if they prayed to God in their trouble, He would send them help.\nAfter a time, this boy was apprenticed to a farmer. One day he was sent\nout into the fields to look after some sheep. He was having rather a\nhard time; so he remembered what the preacher had said, and he thought\nhe would pray to God about it. Some one going by the field heard a\nvoice behind the hedge. They looked to see whose it was, and saw the\nlittle fellow on his knees, saying, \u201cA, B, C, D,\u201d and so on. The man\nsaid, \u201cMy boy, what are you doing?\u201d He looked up, and said he was\npraying. \u201cWhy, that is not praying; it is only saying the alphabet.\u201d\nHe said he did not know just how to pray, but a man once came to the\npoor-house, who told them that if they called upon God, He would help\nthem. So he thought that if he named over the letters of the alphabet,\nGod would take them and put together into a prayer, and give him what\nhe wanted. The little fellow was really praying. Sometimes, when your\nchild talks, your friends cannot understand what he says; but the\nmother understands very well. So if our prayer comes right from the\nheart, God understands our language. It is a delusion of the devil to\nthink we cannot pray; we can, if we really want anything. It is not\nthe most beautiful or the most eloquent language that brings down the\nanswer; it is the cry that goes up from a burdened heart. When this\npoor Gentile woman cried out, \u201cLord, help me!\u201d the cry flashed over the\ndivine wires and the blessing came. So you can pray if you will; it is\nthe desire, the wish of the heart, that God delights to hear and to\nanswer.\n\nThen we must _expect_ to receive a blessing. When the centurion wanted\nChrist to heal his servant, he thought he was not worthy to go and ask\nthe Lord himself, so he sent his friends to make the petition. He sent\nout messengers to meet the Master, and say, \u201cDo not trouble yourself\nto come; all you have to do is to speak the word, and the disease will\ngo.\u201d Jesus said to the Jews, \u201cI have not found so great faith, no, not\nin Israel.\u201d He marvelled at the faith of this centurion; it pleased\nHim, so that he healed the servant then and there. Faith brought the\nanswer.\n\nIn John we read of a nobleman whose child was sick. The father fell\non his knees before the Master, and said, \u201cCome down, ere my child\ndie.\u201d Here you have both earnestness and faith; and the Lord answered\nthe prayer at once. The nobleman\u2019s son began to amend that very hour.\nChrist honored the man\u2019s faith.\n\nIn his case there was nothing to rest upon but the bare word of Christ,\nbut this was enough. It is well to bear always in mind, that the object\nof faith is not the creature, but the Creator; not the instrument, but\nthe Hand that wields it.\n\nRichard Sibbes puts it for us thus: \u201cThe object in believing is God,\nand Christ as Mediator. We must have both to found our faith upon. We\ncannot believe in God, except we believe in Christ. For God must be\nsatisfied by God; and by Him that is God must that satisfaction be\napplied--the Spirit of God--by working faith in the heart, and for\nraising it up when it is dejected. All is supernatural in faith. The\nthings we believe are above nature; the promises are above nature; the\nworker of it, the Holy Ghost, is above nature; and everything in faith\nis above nature. There must be a God in whom we believe, and a God\nthrough whom we may know that Christ is God--not only by that which\nChrist hath done, the miracles, which none could do but God, but also\nby what is done to Him. And two things are done to Him, which show that\nHe is God--that is, faith and prayer. We must believe only in God,\nand pray only to God; but Christ is the object of both these. Here He\nis set forth as the object of faith, and of prayer in that of Saint\nStephen, \u2018Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.\u2019 And, therefore, He is God;\nfor that is done unto Him which is proper and peculiar only to God.\nOh, what a strong foundation, what bottom and basis our faith hath!\nThere is God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and Christ the Mediator.\nThat our faith may be supported, we have Him to believe on who supports\nheaven and earth.\n\n\u201cThere is nothing that can lie in the way of the accomplishment of any\nof God\u2019s promises, but it is conquerable by faith.\u201d\n\nAs Samuel Rutherford says, commenting on the case of the Syrophenician\nwoman: \u201cSee the sweet use of faith under a sad temptation; faith\ntrafficketh with Christ and heaven in the dark, upon plain trust and\ncredit, without seeing any surety of dawn: Blessed are they that have\nnot seen, and yet have believed. And the reason is because faith is\nsinewed and boned with spiritual courage; so as to keep a barred city\nagainst hell, yea, and to stand under impossibilities; and here is a\nweak woman, though not as a woman, yet as a believer, standing out\nagainst Him who is \u2018the Mighty God, the Father of Ages, the Prince of\nPeace.\u2019 Faith only standeth out, and overcometh the sword, the world,\nand all afflictions. This is our victory, whereby one man overcometh\nthe great and vast world.\u201d\n\nBishop Ryle has said of Christ\u2019s intercession as the ground and\nsureness of our faith: \u201cThe bank-note without a signature at the\nbottom is nothing but a worthless piece of paper. The stroke of a pen\nconfers on it all its value. The prayer of a poor child of Adam is\na feeble thing in itself, but once indorsed by the hand of the Lord\nJesus, it availeth much. There was an officer in the city of Rome who\nwas appointed to have his doors always open, in order to receive any\nRoman citizen who applied to him for help. Just so the ear of the Lord\nJesus is ever open to the cry of all who want mercy and grace. It is\nHis office to help them. Their prayer is His delight.\u201d Reader, think of\nthis. Is not this encouragement?\n\nLet us close this chapter by referring to some of our Lord\u2019s own words\nconcerning faith in its relation to prayer:\n\n\u201cAnd when He saw a fig-tree in the way, He came to it, and found\nnothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it: Let no fruit grow\non thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig-tree withered\naway. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon\nis the fig-tree withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them,\nVerily I say unto you, if ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not\nonly do this which is done to the fig-tree, but also if ye shall say\nunto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,\nit shall be done. And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,\nbelieving, ye shall receive.\u201d\n\nSo again our Lord says: \u201cVerily, verily, I say unto you, he that\nbelieveth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater\nworks than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father. And\nwhatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may\nbe glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will\ndo it.\u201d And further: \u201cIf ye abide in Me, and my words abide in you,\nye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.\u201d \u201cVerily,\nverily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name,\nHe will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name; ask,\nand ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\u201cHave Faith in God.\u201d\n\n\n  \u201cHave faith in God, for He who reigns on high\n  Hath borne thy grief, and hears the suppliant\u2019s sigh;\n  Still to His arms, thine only refuge, fly,\n                            Have faith in God!\n\n  \u201cFear not to call on Him, O soul distressed!\n  Thy sorrow\u2019s whisper woos thee to His breast;\n  He who is oftenest there is oftenest blest.\n                            Have faith in God!\n\n  \u201cLean not on Egypt\u2019s reeds; slake not thy thirst\n  At earthly cisterns. Seek the Kingdom first.\n  Though man and Satan fright thee with their worst,\n                            Have faith in God!\n\n  \u201cGo, tell Him all! The sigh thy bosom heaves\n  Is heard in heaven. Strength and peace He gives,\n  Who gave Himself for thee. Our Jesus lives;\n                            Have faith in God!\u201d\n\n                                       _Anna Shipton._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nPETITION.\n\n\nThe next element in prayer that I notice is PETITION. How often we go\nto prayer-meetings without really asking for anything! Our prayers go\nall round the world, without anything definite being asked for. We do\nnot expect anything. Many people would be greatly surprised if God did\nanswer their prayers. I remember hearing of a very eloquent man who was\nleading a meeting in prayer. There was not a single definite petition\nin the whole. A poor, earnest woman shouted out: \u201cAsk Him summat, man.\u201d\nHow often you hear what is called prayer without any asking! \u201cAsk, and\nye shall receive.\u201d\n\nI believe if we put all the stumbling-blocks out of the way, God will\nanswer our petitions. If we put away sin and come into His presence\nwith pure hands, as He has commanded us to come, our prayers will have\npower with Him. In Luke\u2019s Gospel we have as a grand supplement to the\n\u201cDisciples\u2019 Prayer,\u201d \u201cAsk and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall\nfind; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.\u201d Some people think God\ndoes not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The\nonly way to trouble God is not to come at all. He encourages us to come\nto Him repeatedly, and press our claims.\n\nI believe you will find three kinds of Christians in the church to-day.\nThe first are those who _ask_; the second those who _seek_; and the\nthird those who _knock_.\n\n\u201cTeacher,\u201d said a bright, earnest-faced boy, \u201cwhy is it that so many\nprayers are unanswered? I do not understand. The Bible says, \u2018Ask,\nand ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be\nopened unto you;\u2019 but it seems to me a great many knock and are not\nadmitted.\u201d\n\n\u201cDid you never sit by your cheerful parlor fire,\u201d said the teacher,\n\u201con some dark evening, and hear a loud knocking at the door? Going\nto answer the summons, have you not sometimes looked out into the\ndarkness, seeing nothing, but hearing the pattering feet of some\nmischievous boy, who knocked but did not wish to enter, and therefore\nran away? Thus is it often with us. We ask for blessings, but do not\nreally expect them; we knock, but do not mean to enter; we fear that\nJesus will not hear us, will not fulfil His promises, will not admit\nus; and so we go away.\u201d\n\n\u201cAh, I see,\u201d said the earnest-faced boy, his eyes shining with the new\nlight dawning in his soul: \u201cJesus cannot be expected answer _runaway_\nknocks. He has never promised it. I mean to keep knocking, knocking,\nuntil He _cannot help opening the door_.\u201d\n\nToo often we knock at mercy\u2019s door, and then run away, instead of\nwaiting for an entrance and an answer. Thus we act as if we were afraid\nof having our prayers answered.\n\nA great many people pray in that way; they do not wait for the answer.\nOur Lord teaches us here that we are not only to ask, but we are to\nwait for the answer; if it does not come, we must seek to find out the\nreason. I believe that we get a good many blessings just by asking;\nothers we do not get, because there may be something in our life that\nneeds to be brought to light. When Daniel began to pray in Babylon for\nthe deliverance of his people, he sought to find out what the trouble\nwas, and why God had turned away His face from them. So there may be\nsomething in our life that is keeping back the blessing; if there is,\nwe want to find it out. Some one, speaking on this subject, has said:\n\u201cWe are to ask with a beggar\u2019s humility, to seek with a servant\u2019s\ncarefulness, and to knock with the confidence of a friend.\u201d\n\nHow often people become discouraged, and say they do not know whether\nor not God does answer prayer! In the parable of the importunate widow,\nChrist teaches us how we are not only to pray and seek, but to find. If\nthe unjust judge heard the petition of the poor woman who pushed her\nclaims, how much more will our Heavenly Father hear our cry! A good\nmany years ago an Irishman in the State of New Jersey was condemned to\nbe hung. Every possible influence was brought to bear upon the Governor\nto have the man reprieved; but he stood firm, and refused to alter\nthe sentence. One morning the wife of the condemned man, with her ten\nchildren, went to see the Governor. When he came to his office, they\nall fell on their faces before him, and besought him to have mercy on\nthe husband--the father. The Governor\u2019s heart was moved; and he at once\nwrote out a reprieve. The importunity of the wife and children saved\nthe life of the man, just as the woman in the parable, who, pressing\nher claims, induced the unjust judge to grant her request.\n\nIt was this that brought the answer to the prayer of blind Bartimeus.\nThe people, and even the disciples, tried to hush him into silence; but\nhe only cried out the louder, \u201cThou Son of David, have mercy on me!\u201d\n\nPrayer is hardly ever mentioned in the Bible alone; it is prayer and\nearnestness; prayer and watchfulness; prayer and thanksgiving. It is an\ninstructive fact that throughout Scripture prayer is always linked with\nsomething else. Bartimeus was in earnest, and the Lord heard his cry.\n\nThen the highest type of Christian is the one who has got clear beyond\nasking and seeking, and keeps knocking till the answer comes. If we\nknock, God has promised to open the door and grant our request. It may\nbe years before the answer comes; He may keep us knocking; but He has\npromised that the answer will come.\n\nI will tell you what I think it means to knock. A number of years ago,\nwhen we were having meetings in a certain city, it came to a point\nwhere there seemed to be very little power. We called together all the\nmothers, and asked them to meet and pray for their children. About\nfifteen hundred mothers came together, and poured out their hearts\nto God in prayer. One mother said: \u201cI wish you would pray for my two\nboys. They have gone off on a drunken spree; and it seems as if my\nheart would break.\u201d She was a widowed mother. A few mothers gathered\ntogether, and said: \u201cLet us have a prayer-meeting for these boys.\u201d\nThey cried to God for these two wandering boys; and now see how God\nanswered their prayer.\n\nThat day these two brothers had planned to meet at the corner of the\nstreet where our meetings were being held. They were going to spend the\nnight in debauchery and sin. About seven o\u2019clock the first one came to\nthe appointed place; he saw the people going into the meeting. As it\nwas a stormy night, he thought he would go in for a little while. The\nword of God reached him, and he went into the inquiry-room, where he\ngave his heart to the Savior.\n\nThe other brother waited at the corner until the meeting broke up,\nexpecting his brother to come; he did not know that he had been in the\nmeeting. There was a young men\u2019s meeting in the church near by, and\nthis brother thought he would like to see what was going on; so he\nfollowed the crowd into the meeting. He also was impressed with what\nhe heard, and was the first one to go into the inquiry-room, where he\nfound peace. While this was happening, the first one had gone home to\ncheer his mother\u2019s heart with the good news. He found her on her knees.\nShe had been knocking at the mercy-seat. While she was doing so, her\nboy came in and told her that her prayers had been answered; his soul\nwas saved. It was not long before the other brother came in and told\nhis story--how he, too, had been blessed.\n\nOn the following Monday night, the first to get up at the young\nconverts\u2019 meeting was one of these brothers, who told the story of\ntheir conversion. No sooner had he taken his seat, than the other\njumped up and said: \u201cAll that my brother has told you is true, for I\nam his brother. The Lord has indeed met us and blessed us.\u201d\n\nI heard of a wife in England who had an unconverted husband. She\nresolved that she would pray every day for twelve months for his\nconversion. Every day at twelve o\u2019clock she went to her room alone and\ncried to God. Her husband would not allow her to speak to him on the\nsubject; but she could speak to God on his behalf. It may be that you\nhave a friend who does not wish to be spoken with about his salvation;\nyou can do as this woman did--go and pray to God about it. The twelve\nmonths passed away, and there was no sign of his yielding. She resolved\nto pray for six months longer; so every day she went alone and prayed\nfor the conversion of her husband. The six months passed, and still\nthere was no sign, no answer. The question arose in her mind, could\nshe give him up? \u201cNo,\u201d she said; \u201cI will pray for him as long as God\ngives me breath.\u201d That very day, when he came home to dinner, instead\nof going into the dining-room he went upstairs. She waited, and waited,\nand waited; but he did not come down to dinner. Finally she went to\nhis room, and found him on his knees crying to God to have mercy upon\nhim. God convicted him of sin; he not only became a Christian, but the\nWord of God had free course, and was glorified in him. God used him\nmightily. That was God answering the prayers of this Christian wife;\nshe knocked, and knocked, till the answer came.\n\nI heard something the other day that cheered me greatly. Prayer had\nbeen made for a man for about forty years, but there was no sign of any\nanswer. It seemed as though he was going down to his grave one of the\nmost self-righteous men on the face of the earth. Conviction came in\none night. In the morning he sent for the members of his family, and\nsaid to his daughter: \u201cI want you to pray for me. Pray that God would\nforgive my sins; my whole life has been nothing but sin--sin.\u201d And all\nthis conviction came in one night. What we want is to press our case\nright up to the throne of God. I have often known cases of men who came\nto our meetings, and although they could not hear a word that was said,\nit seemed as though some unseen power laid hold of them, so that they\nwere convicted and converted then and there.\n\nI remember at one place where we were holding meetings, a wife came to\nthe first meeting and asked me to talk with her husband. \u201cHe is not\ninterested,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I am in hopes he will become so.\u201d I talked\nwith him, and I think I hardly ever spoke to a man who seemed to be so\nself-righteous. It looked as though I might as well have talked to an\niron post, he seemed to be so encased in self-righteousness. I said to\nhis wife that he was not at all interested. She said, \u201cI told you that,\nbut I am interested for him.\u201d All the thirty days we were there that\nwife never gave him up. I must confess she had ten times more faith for\nhim than I had. I had spoken to him several times, but I could see no\nray of hope. The last night but two the man came to me and said: \u201cWould\nyou see me in another room?\u201d I went, aside with him, and asked him\nwhat was the trouble. He said, \u201cI am the greatest sinner in the State\nof Vermont.\u201d \u201cHow is that?\u201d I said, \u201cIs there any particular sin you\nhave been guilty of?\u201d I must confess I thought he had committed some\nawful crime, which he was covering up, and that he now wanted to make\nconfession. \u201cMy whole life,\u201d he said, \u201chas been nothing but sin. God\nhas shown it to me to-day.\u201d He asked the Lord to have mercy on him,\nand he went home rejoicing in the assurance of sins forgiven. There\nwas a man convicted and converted in answer to prayer. So if you are\nanxious about the conversion of some relative, or some friend, make up\nyour mind that you will give God no rest, day or night, till He grants\nyour petition. He can reach them, wherever they are--at their places of\nbusiness, in their homes, or anywhere--and bring them to His feet.\n\nDr. Austin Phelps, in his \u201cStill Hour,\u201d says: \u201cThe prospect of gaining\nan object will always affect thus the expression of intense desire.\nThe feeling which will become spontaneous with a Christian under the\ninfluence of such a trust is this: \u2018I come to my devotions this morning\non an errand of real life. This is no romance, and no farce. I do not\ncome here to go through a form of words; I have no hopeless desires to\nexpress. I have an object to gain; I have an end to accomplish. This is\na business in which I am about to engage. An astronomer does not turn\nhis telescope to the skies with a more reasonable hope of penetrating\nthose distant heavens, than I have of reaching the mind of God by\nlifting up my heart at the throne of grace. This is the privilege of my\ncalling of God in Christ Jesus. Even my faltering voice is now to be\nheard in heaven; and it is to put forth a new power there, the results\nof which only God can know, and only eternity can develop. Therefore,\nO Lord, Thy servant findeth it in his heart to pray this prayer unto\nThee!\u2019\u201d\n\nJeremy Taylor says: \u201cEasiness of desire is a great enemy to the success\nof a good man\u2019s prayer. It must be an intent, zealous, busy, operative\nprayer; for consider what a huge indecency it is that a man should\nspeak to God for a thing that he values not! Our prayers upbraid our\nspirits when we beg tamely for those things for which we ought to die,\nwhich are more precious than imperial sceptres, richer than the spoils\nof the sea, or the treasures of Indian hills.\u201d\n\nDr. Patton, in his work on \u201cRemarkable Answers to Prayer,\u201d says:\n\u201cJesus bids us seek. Imagine a mother seeking a lost child. She looks\nthrough the house, and along the streets, then searches the fields\nand woods, and examines the river-banks. A wise neighbor meets her\nand says: \u2018Seek on, look everywhere; search every accessible place.\nYou will not find, indeed; but then seeking is a good thing. It puts\nthe mind on the stretch; it fixes the attention; it aids observation;\nit makes the idea of the child very real. And then, after a while,\nyou will cease to want your child.\u2019 The words of Christ are, \u2018Knock,\nand it shall be opened unto you.\u2019 Imagine a man knocking at the door\nof a house, long and loud. After he has done this for an hour, a\nwindow opens, and the occupant of the house puts out his head and\nsays: \u2018That is right, my friend; I shall not open the door, but keep\non knocking--it is excellent exercise, and you will be the healthier\nfor it. Knock away till sundown; and then come again, and knock all\nto-morrow. After some days thus spent you will attain to a state of\nmind in which you will no longer care to come in.\u2019 Is this what Jesus\nintended us to understand, when He said--\u2018Ask, and ye shall receive;\nseek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you?\u2019 No\ndoubt one would thus soon cease to ask, to seek, and to knock; but\nwould it not be from disgust?\u201d\n\nNothing is more pleasing to our Father in heaven than direct,\nimportunate, and persevering prayer. Two Christian ladies, whose\nhusbands were unconverted, feeling their great danger, agreed to spend\none hour each day in united prayer for their salvation. This was\ncontinued for seven years, when they debated whether they should pray\nlonger, so useless did their prayers appear. They decided to persevere\ntill death, and, if their husbands went to destruction, it should\nbe laden with prayers. In renewed strength, they prayed three years\nlonger, when one of them was awakened in the night by her husband, who\nwas in great distress for sin. As soon as the day dawned, she hastened,\nwith joy, to tell her praying companion that God was about to answer\ntheir prayers. What was her surprise to meet her friend coming to her\non the same errand! Thus ten years of united and persevering prayer was\ncrowned with the conversion of both husbands on the same day.\n\nWe cannot be too frequent in our requests; God will not weary of\nHis children\u2019s prayers. Sir Walter Raleigh asked a favor of Queen\nElizabeth, to which she replied, \u201cRaleigh, when will you leave off\nbegging?\u201d \u201cWhen your Majesty leaves off giving,\u201d he replied. So long\nmust we continue praying.\n\nMr. George Muller, in a recent address given by him in Calcutta, said\nthat in 1844 five individuals were laid on his heart, and he began\nto pray for them. Eighteen months passed away before one of them was\nconverted. He prayed on for five years more, and another was converted.\nAt the end of twelve years and a half, a third was converted. And\nnow for forty years he had been praying for the other two, without\nmissing one single day on any account whatever; but they were not yet\nconverted. He felt encouraged, however, to continue in prayer; and he\nwas sure of receiving an answer in relation to the two who were still\nresisting the Spirit.\n\n\n\n\n\u201cTo See His Face.\u201d\n\n\n  \u201cSweet is the precious gift of prayer,\n    To bow before a throne of grace;\n  To leave our every burden there,\n    And gain new strength to run our race;\n  To gird our heavenly armor on,\n  Depending on the Lord alone.\n\n  \u201cAnd sweet the whisper of His love,\n    When conscience sinks beneath its load,\n  That bids our guilty fears remove,\n    And points to Christ\u2019s atoning blood;\n  Oh, then \u2019tis sweet indeed to know\n  God can be just and gracious too.\n\n  \u201cBut oh, to see our Savior\u2019s face!\n    From sin and sorrow to be freed!\n  To dwell in His divine embrace--\n    This will be sweeter far indeed!\n  The fairest form of earthly bliss\n  Is less than nought, compared with this.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nSUBMISSION.\n\n\nAnother essential element in prayer is SUBMISSION. All true prayer must\nbe offered in full submission to God. After we have made our requests\nknown to Him, our language should be, \u201cThy will be done.\u201d I would a\nthousand times rather that God\u2019s will should be done than my own. I\ncannot see into the future as God can; therefore, it is a good deal\nbetter to let Him choose for me than to choose for myself. I know His\nmind about spiritual things. His will is that I should be sanctified;\nso I can with confidence pray to God for that, and expect an answer to\nmy prayers. But when it comes to temporal matters, it is different;\nwhat I ask for may not be God\u2019s purpose concerning me.\n\nAs one has well put it: \u201cDepend upon it, prayer does not mean that\nI am to bring God down to my thoughts and my purposes, and bend His\ngovernment according to my foolish, silly, and sometimes sinful\nnotions. Prayer means that I am to be raised up into feeling, into\nunion and design with Him; that I am to enter into His counsel, and\ncarry out His purpose fully. I am afraid sometimes we think of prayer\nas altogether of an opposite character, as if thereby we persuaded\nor influenced our Father in heaven to do whatever comes into our\nown minds, and whatever would accomplish our foolish, weak-sighted\npurposes. I am quite convinced of this, that God knows better what is\nbest for me and for the world than I can possibly know; and even though\nit were in my power to say, \u2018_My_ will be done,\u2019 I would rather say to\nHim, \u2018_Thy_ will be done.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt is reported of a woman, who, being sick, was asked whether she was\nwilling to live or die, that she answered, \u201cWhich God pleases.\u201d \u201cBut,\u201d\nsaid one, \u201cif God should refer it to you, which would you choose?\u201d\n\u201cTruly,\u201d replied she, \u201cI would refer it to Him again.\u201d Thus that man\nobtains his will of God, whose will is subjected to God.\n\nMr. Spurgeon remarks on this subject, \u201cThe believing man resorts to God\nat all times, that he may keep up his fellowship with the Divine mind.\nPrayer is not a soliloquy, but a dialogue; not an introspection, but\na looking toward the hills, whence cometh our help. There is a relief\nin unburdening the mind to a sympathetic friend, and faith feels this\nabundantly; but there is more than this in prayer. When an obedient\nactivity has gone to the full length of its line, and yet the needful\nthing is not reached, then the hand of God is trusted in to go beyond\nus, just as before it was relied upon to go with us. Faith has no\ndesire to have its own will, when that will is not in accordance with\nthe mind of God; for such a desire would at bottom be the impulse of\nan unbelief which did not rely upon God\u2019s judgment as our best guide.\nFaith knows that God\u2019s will is the highest good, and that anything\nwhich is beneficial to us will be granted to our petitions.\u201d\n\nHistory informs us that the Tusculani, a people of Italy, having\noffended the Romans, whose power was infinitely superior to theirs,\nCamillus, at the head of a considerable army, was on his march to\nsubdue them. Conscious of their inability to cope with such an enemy,\nthey took the following method to appease him: They declined all\nthoughts of resistance, set open their gates, and every man applied\nhimself to his proper business, resolving to submit where they knew\nit was in vain to contend. Camillus, entering their city, was struck\nwith the wisdom and candor of their conduct, and addressed himself to\nthem in these words: \u201cYou only, of all people, have found out the true\nmethod of abating the Roman fury; and your submission has proved your\nbest defense. Upon these terms, we can no more find in our heart to\ninjure you than upon other terms you could have found power to oppose\nus.\u201d The chief magistrate replied: \u201cWe have so sincerely repented of\nour former folly, that in confidence of that satisfaction to a generous\nenemy, we are not afraid to acknowledge our fault.\u201d\n\nIn view of the difficulty of bringing our hearts to this complete\nsubmission to the Divine will, we may well adopt Fenelon\u2019s prayer: \u201cO\nGod, take my heart, for I cannot give it; and when Thou hast it, keep\nit; for I cannot keep it for Thee; and save me in spite of myself.\u201d\n\nSome of the best men the world has ever seen have made great mistakes\non this point. Moses could pray for Israel, and could prevail with\nGod; but God did not answer his petition for himself. He asked that\nGod would take him over Jordan, that he might see Lebanon; and after\nthe forty years\u2019 wandering in the wilderness, he desired to go into\nthe Promised Land; but the Lord did not grant his desire. Was that\na sign that God did not love him? By no means. He was a man greatly\nbeloved of God, like Daniel; and yet God did not answer this prayer of\nhis. Your child says, \u201cI want this or that,\u201d but you do not grant the\nrequest, because you know that it will be the ruin of the child to give\nhim everything he wants. Moses wished to enter the Promised Land; but\nthe Lord had something else in store for him. As some one has said,\nGod kissed away his soul, and took him home to Himself. \u201cGod buried\nhim\u201d--the greatest honor ever paid to mortal man.\n\nFifteen hundred years afterward God answered the prayer of Moses; He\nallowed him to go into the Promised Land, and to get a glimpse of the\ncoming glory. On the Mount of Transfiguration, with Elijah, the great\nprophet, and with Peter, James, and John, he heard the voice come from\nthe throne of God, \u201cThis is My beloved Son; hear ye Him.\u201d That was\nbetter than to have gone over Jordan, as Joshua did, and to sojourn for\nthirty years in the land of Canaan. So when our prayers for earthly\nthings are not answered, let us submit to the will of God, and know\nthat it is all right.\n\nWhen one inquired of a deaf and dumb boy why he thought he was born\ndeaf and dumb, taking the chalk he wrote upon the board, \u201cEven so,\nFather; for so it seemed good in Thy sight.\u201d\n\nJohn Brown, of Haddington, once said. \u201cNo doubt I have met with trials\nlike others; but yet so kind has God been to me, that I think if He\nwere to give me as many years as I have lived in the world, I would not\ndesire one single circumstance in my lot changed, except that I wish\nthere had been less sin. It might be written on my coffin, \u2018Here lies\none of the cares of Providence, who early lost both father and mother,\nand yet never wanted for the care of either.\u2019\u201d\n\nElijah was mighty in prayer; he brought fire down from heaven on his\nsacrifice, and his petitions brought rain on the thirsty land. He stood\nfearlessly before King Ahab in the power of prayer. Yet we find him\nsitting under a juniper-tree like a coward, asking God that He would\nlet him die. The Lord loved him too well for that; He was going to take\nhim up to heaven in a chariot of fire. So we must not allow the devil\nto take advantage of us, and make us believe that God does not love\nus because He does not grant all our petitions in the time and way we\nwould have Him do.\n\nAs Moses takes up more room in the Old Testament than any other\ncharacter, so it is with Paul in the New Testament, except, perhaps,\nthe Lord Himself. Yet Paul did not know how to pray for himself. He\nbesought the Lord to take away \u201cthe thorn in the flesh.\u201d His request\nwas not granted; but the Lord bestowed upon him a greater blessing.\nHe gave him more grace. It may be we have some trial--some thorn in\nthe flesh. If it is not God\u2019s will to take it away, let us ask Him to\ngive us more grace, in order to bear it. We find that Paul gloried in\nhis reverses and his infirmities, because all the more the power of\nGod rested upon him. It may be there are some of us who feel as if\neverything is against us. May God give us grace to take Paul\u2019s platform\nand say: \u201cAll things work together for good to them that love God.\u201d So\nwhen we pray to God we must be submissive, and say, \u201cThy will be done.\u201d\n\nIn the Gospel of John we read: \u201cIf ye\u201d (that \u201cif\u201d is a mountain to\nbegin with), \u201cIf ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall\nask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.\u201d The latter part is\noften quoted, but not the first. Why, there is very little abiding in\nChrist now-a-days! You go and visit Him once in a while; but that is\nall. If Christ is in my heart, of course I will not ask anything that\nis against His will. And how many of us have God\u2019s Word abiding in us?\nWe must have a warrant for our prayers. If we have some great desire,\nwe must search the Scriptures to find if it be right to ask it. There\nare many things we want that are not good for us; and many other things\nwe desire to avoid are really our best blessings. A friend of mine was\nshaving one morning, and his little boy, not four years old, asked him\nfor his razor, and said he wanted to whittle with it. When he found he\ncould not get it, he began to cry as if his heart would break. I am\nafraid that there are a great many of us who are praying for razors.\nJohn Bunyan blessed God for that Bedford jail more than for anything\nelse that happened to him in this life. We never pray for affliction;\nand yet it is often the best thing we could ask.\n\nDyer says: \u201cAfflictions are blessings to us when we can bless God for\nafflictions. Suffering has kept many from sinning. God had one Son\nwithout sin; but He never had any without sorrow. Fiery trials make\ngolden Christians; sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.\u201d\n\nRutherford beautifully writes, in reference to the value of sanctified\ntrial, and the wisdom of submitting in it to God\u2019s will: \u201cOh, what\nowe I to the file, to the hammer, to the furnace of my Lord Jesus, who\nhath now let me see how good the wheat of Christ is that goeth through\nHis mill and His oven, to be made bread for His own table! Grace tried\nis better than grace; and it is more than grace; it is glory in its\ninfancy. I now see that Godliness is more than the outside, and this\nworld\u2019s passments and their bushings. Who knoweth the truth of grace\nwithout a trial? Oh, how little getteth Christ of us, but that which\nHe winneth (to speak so) with much toil and pains! And how soon would\nfaith freeze without a cross! How many dumb crosses have been laid upon\nmy back, that had never a tongue to speak the sweetness of Christ, as\nthis hath! When Christ blesseth His own crosses with a tongue, they\nbreathe out Christ\u2019s love, wisdom, kindness, and care for us. Why\nshould I start at the plough of my Lord, that maketh deep furrows on\nmy soul? I know that He is no idle husbandman; He purposeth a crop. Oh\nthat this white, withered lea-ground were made fertile to bear a crop\nfor Him, by whom it is so painfully drest, and that this fallow ground\nwere broken up! Why was I (a fool!) grieved that He put His garland and\nHis rose upon my head--the glory and honor of His faithful witnesses?\nI desire now to make no more pleas with Christ. Verily He hath not put\nme to a loss by what I suffer; He oweth me nothing; for in my bonds how\nsweet and comfortable have the thoughts of Him been to me, wherein I\nfind a sufficient recompense of reward! How blind are my adversaries\nwho sent me to a banqueting house, to a house of wine, to the lovely\nfeasts of my lovely Lord Jesus, and not to a prison, or place of exile!\u201d\n\nWe may close our remarks on this subject by a reference to the words\nof the Prophet Jeremiah, in Lamentations, where he says: \u201cThe Lord is\ngood unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is\ngood that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of\nthe Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He\nsitteth alone and keepeth silence; because he hath borne it upon him.\nHe putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. He giveth\nhis cheek to him that smiteth him; he is filled full with reproach.\nFor the Lord will not cast off forever; but though He cause grief, yet\nwill He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For\nHe doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.... Who\nis he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it\nnot? Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?\nWherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his\nsins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let\nus lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nSubmission.\n\n\n  \u201cHear me, my God, and if my lip hath dared\n    To murmur \u2019neath Thy Hand, oh, teach me now\n  To feel each inmost thought before Thee bared,\n    And this rebellious will in faith to bow.\n  Though I wept wildly o\u2019er the ruined shrine,\n    Where earthly idols held Thy place alone,\n  Now purify and make this temple Thine,\n    And teach me, Lord, to say, \u2018Thy will be done!\u2019\n\n  \u201cWhat can I bring to offer that is mine?\n    A youth of sorrow, and a life of sin.\n  What can I lay upon Thy hallowed shrine,\n    One hope of pardon for the past to win?\n  While thus a suppliant at Thy feet I bow,\n    Still dare I lift to Thee my tearful eyes,\n  I plead the promise of Thy word, that Thou\n    A broken, contrite heart will not despise.\n\n  \u201cWhat shall I bring? A bruised spirit, Lord,\n    Worn with the contest, pining now for rest,\n  And yearning for Thy peace, as some poor bird,\n    \u2019Mid the wild tempest, seeks its mother\u2019s breast,\n  My sacrifice, the Lamb who died for me;\n    I plead the merits of Thy sinless Son;\n  I bring Thy promises; I trust in Thee;\n    In love Thou smitest; Lord, \u2018Thy will be done!\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nANSWERED PRAYERS.\n\n\nIn the fifteenth chapter of John and the seventh verse, we find who\nhave their prayers answered--\u201cIf ye abide in Me, and My words abide in\nyou, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.\u201d Now in\nthe fourth chapter of James, in the third verse, we find some spoken of\nwhose prayers were not answered: \u201cYe ask, and receive not, because ye\nask amiss.\u201d There are a great many prayers not answered because there\nis not the right motive; we have not complied with the Word of God; we\nask amiss. It is a good thing that our prayers are not answered when we\nask amiss.\n\nIf our prayers are not answered, it may be that we have prayed\nwithout the right motive; or that we have not prayed according to the\nScriptures. So let us not be discouraged, or give up praying, although\nour prayers are not answered in the way we want them.\n\nA man once went to George Muller and said he wanted him to pray for\na certain thing. The man stated that he had asked God a great many\ntimes to grant him his request, but He had not seen fit to do it. Mr.\nMuller took out his note-book, and showed the man the name of a person\nfor whom, he said, he had prayed for twenty-four years. The prayer,\nMr. Muller added, was not answered yet; but the Lord had given him\nassurance that that person was going to be converted, and his faith\nrested there.\n\nWe sometimes find that our prayers are answered right away while we\nare praying; at other times the answer is delayed. But especially\nwhen men pray for mercy, how quickly the answer comes! Look at Paul,\nwhen he cried, \u201cO Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?\u201d The answer\ncame at once. Then the publican who went up to the temple to pray--he\ngot an immediate answer. The thief on the cross prayed, \u201cLord,\nremember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom!\u201d and the answer came\nimmediately--then and there. There are many cases of a similar kind in\nthe Bible, but there are also others who prayed long and often. The\nLord delights in hearing His children make their requests known unto\nHim--telling their troubles all out to Him; and then we should wait for\nHis time. We do not know when that is.\n\nThere was a mother in Connecticut who had a son in the army, and it\nalmost broke her heart when he left, because he was not a Christian.\nDay after day she lifted up her voice in prayer for her boy. She\nafterward learned that he had been taken to the hospital, and there\ndied, but she could not find out anything about how he had died. Years\npassed, and one day a friend came to see some member of the family on\nbusiness. There was a picture of the soldier boy upon the wall. He\nlooked at it, and said, \u201cDid you know that young man?\u201d The mother said,\n\u201cThat young man was my son. He died in the late war.\u201d The man replied,\n\u201cI knew him very well; he was in my company.\u201d The mother then asked,\n\u201cDo you know anything about his end?\u201d The man said, \u201cI was in the\nhospital, and he died a most peaceful death, triumphant in the faith.\u201d\nThe mother had given up hope of ever hearing of her boy; but before she\nwent hence she had the satisfaction of knowing that her prayers had\nprevailed with God.\n\nI think we shall find a great many of our prayers that we thought\nunanswered answered when we get to heaven. If it is the true prayer\nof faith, God will not disappoint us. Let us not doubt God. On\none occasion, at a meeting I attended, a gentleman pointed out an\nindividual and said, \u201cDo you see that man over there? That is one\nof the leaders of an infidel club.\u201d I sat down beside him, when the\ninfidel said, \u201cI am not a Christian. You have been humbugging these\npeople long enough, and making some of these old women believe that you\nget answers to prayer. Try it on me.\u201d I prayed, and when I got up, the\ninfidel said with a good deal of sarcasm, \u201cI am not converted; God has\nnot answered your prayer!\u201d I said, \u201cBut you may be converted yet.\u201d Some\ntime afterwards I received a letter from a friend, stating that he had\nbeen converted and was at work in the meetings.\n\nJeremiah prayed, and said: \u201cAh, Lord God! Behold Thou hast made the\nheaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched-out Arm, and\nthere is nothing too hard for Thee.\u201d Nothing is too hard for God;\nthat is a good thing to take for a motto. I believe this is a time of\ngreat blessing in the world, and we may expect great things. While the\nblessing is falling all around, let us arise and share in it. God has\nsaid, \u201cCall unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and\nmighty things which thou knowest not.\u201d Now let us call on the Lord; and\nlet us pray that it may be done for Christ\u2019s sake--not our own.\n\nAt a Christian convention a number of years ago, a leading man got up\nand spoke--his subject being \u201cFor Christ\u2019s Sake\u201d--and he threw new\nlight upon that passage. I had never seen it in that way before. When\nthe war broke out the gentleman\u2019s only son had enlisted, and he never\nsaw a company of soldiers but his heart went right out after them.\nThey started a Soldiers\u2019 Home in the city where that gentleman lived,\nand he gladly went on the committee, and acted as President. Some time\nafterward he said to his wife, \u201cI have given so much time to these\nsoldiers that I have neglected my business,\u201d and he went down to his\noffice with the fixed determination that he would not be disturbed by\nany soldiers that day. The door opened soon after, and he saw a soldier\nentering. He never minded him, but kept on writing; and the poor fellow\nstood for some time. At last the soldier put down an old soiled piece\nof paper on which there was writing. The gentleman observed that it\nwas the handwriting of his son, and he seized the letter at once and\nread it. It was something to this effect: \u201cDear father, this young\nman belongs to my company. He has lost his health in defense of his\ncountry, and he is on his way home to his mother to die. Treat him\nkindly for Charlie\u2019s sake.\u201d The gentleman at once dropped his work and\ntook the soldier to his house, where he was kindly cared for until\nhe was able to be sent home to his mother; then he took him to the\nstation, and sent him home with a \u201cGod bless you, for Charlie\u2019s sake!\u201d\n\nLet our prayers, then, be for Christ\u2019s sake. If we want our sons and\ndaughters converted, let us pray that it be done for Christ\u2019s sake.\nIf that is the motive, our prayers will be answered. If God gave up\nChrist for the world, what will He not give us? If He gave Christ to\nthe murderers and blasphemers, and the rebels of a world lying in\nwickedness and sin, what would He not give to those who go to Him for\nChrist\u2019s sake? Let our prayer be that God may advance His work, not for\nour glory--not for our sake--but for the sake of His beloved Son whom\nHe hath sent.\n\nSo let us remember that when we pray we ought to expect an answer.\nLet us be looking for it. I remember at the close of a meeting in one\nof our Southern cities near the close of the war, a man came up to\nme weeping and trembling. I thought something I had said had aroused\nhim, and I began to question him as to what it was. I found, however,\nthat he could not tell a word of what I had said. \u201cMy friend,\u201d said I,\n\u201cwhat is the trouble?\u201d He put his hand into his pocket, and brought out\na letter, all soiled, as if his tears had fallen on it. \u201cI got that\nletter,\u201d he said, \u201cfrom my sister last night. She tells me that every\nnight she goes on her knees and prays to God for me. I think I am the\nworst man in all the Army of the Cumberland. I have been perfectly\nwretched to-day.\u201d That sister was six hundred miles away, but she had\nbrought her brother to his knees in answer to her earnest, believing\nprayer. It was a hard case, but God heard and answered the prayer of\nthis Godly sister, so that the man was as clay in the hands of the\npotter. He was soon brought into the Kingdom of God--all through his\nsister\u2019s prayers.\n\nI went off some thirty miles to another place, where I told this story.\nA young man, a lieutenant in the army, sprang to his feet and said,\n\u201cThat reminds me of the last letter I got from my mother. She told me\nthat every night as the sun went down she prayed for me. She begged\nof me, when I got her letter, to go away alone, and yield myself to\nGod. I put the letter in my pocket, thinking there would be plenty of\ntime.\u201d He went on to say that the next news that came from home was\nthat that mother was gone. He went out into the woods alone, and cried\nto his mother\u2019s God to have mercy upon him. As he stood in the meeting\nwith his face shining, that lieutenant said: \u201cMy mother\u2019s prayers are\nanswered; and my only regret is that she did not live to know it; but I\nwill meet her by-and-by.\u201d So, though we may not live to see the answer\nto our prayers, if we cry mightily to God, the answer will come.\n\nIn Scotland, a good many years ago, there lived a man with his wife and\nthree children--two girls and a boy. He was in the habit of getting\ndrunk, and thus losing his situation. At last, he said he would take\nJohnnie, and go off to America, where he would be away from his old\nassociates, and where he could commence life over again. He took the\nlittle fellow, seven years old, and went away. Soon after he arrived\nin America, he went into a saloon and got drunk. He got separated from\nhis boy in the streets, and he has never been seen by his friends\nsince. The little fellow was placed in an institution, and afterward\napprenticed in Massachusetts. After he had been there some time, he\nbecame discontented, and went off to sea; finally, he came to Chicago\nto work on the lakes. He had been a roving spirit, had gone over sea\nand land, and now he was in Chicago. When the vessel came into port,\none time, he was invited to a Gospel meeting. The joyful sound of the\nGospel reached him, and he became a Christian.\n\nAfter he had been a Christian a little while, he became very anxious to\nfind his mother. He wrote to different places in Scotland, but could\nnot find out where she was. One day he read in the Psalms--\u201cNo good\nthing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.\u201d He closed his\nBible, got down on his knees, and said: \u201cO God, I have been trying to\nwalk uprightly for months past; help me to find my mother.\u201d It came\ninto his mind to write back to the place in Massachusetts from which he\nhad run away years before. It turned out that a letter from Scotland\nhad been waiting for him there for seven years. He wrote at once to\nthe place in Scotland, and found that his mother was still living; the\nanswer came back immediately. I would like you to have seen him when he\ngot that letter. He brought it to me; and the tears flowed so that he\ncould scarcely read it. His sister had written on behalf of the mother;\nshe had been so overcome by the tidings of her long-lost boy that she\ncould not write.\n\nThe sister said that all the nineteen years he had been away, his\nmother had prayed to God day and night that he might be saved, and that\nshe might live to know what had become of him, and see him once more.\nNow, said the sister, she was so overjoyed, not only that he was alive,\nbut that he had become a Christian. It was not long before the mother\nand sisters came out to Chicago to meet him.\n\nI mention this incident to show how God answers prayer. This mother\ncried to God for nineteen long years. It must have seemed to her\nsometimes as though God did not mean to give her the desire of her\nheart; but she kept praying, and at last the answer came.\n\nThe following personal testimony was publicly given at one of our\nmeetings lately held in London, and may serve to help and encourage\nreaders of these pages.\n\n\nA PRAYER-MEETING TESTIMONY.\n\n\u201cI want you to understand, my friends, that what I state is not what I\ndid, but what God did. _God only could have done it!_ I had given it\nup as a bad job, long before. But it is of God\u2019s great mercy that I am\nstanding here to-night, to tell you that Christ is able to save _to the\nuttermost_ all that come to God through Him.\n\n\u201cThe reading of those \u2018requests\u2019 [for the salvation of inebriates]\ntouched me very deeply indeed. They seemed to be an echo of many a\nrequest for prayer which has been made for me. And, from my knowledge\nof society generally, and of human nature, I know that in a very great\nnumber of families there is need of some such request.\n\n\u201cTherefore if what I may tell you will cheer any Christian heart,\nencourage any Godly father and mother to go on praying for their sons,\nor assist any man or woman who has felt himself or herself beyond the\nreach of hope, I shall thank God for it.\n\n\u201cI had very good opportunities. My parents loved the Lord Jesus, and\ndid their best to train me up in the right path; and for some time\nI thought myself that I should be a Christian. But I got away from\nChrist, and turned further and further away from God and all good\ninfluences.\n\n\u201cIt was at a public school where I first learned to drink. Many a time\nat seventeen I drank to excess, but I had an amount of self-respect\nthat kept me from going thoroughly to the bad till I was about\ntwenty-three; but from then till I was twenty-six, I went steadily down\nhill. At Cambridge I went on further and further in drinking, until I\nlost all self-respect, and voluntarily chose the worst of companions.\n\n\u201cI strayed further and further from God, until my friends, those who\nwere Christians and those who were not, considered, and told me that\nthere was very little hope for me. I had been pleaded with by all sorts\nof people, but I \u2018hated reproof.\u2019 I hated everything that savored of\nreligion, and I sneered at every bit of good advice, or any kind word\noffered me in that way.\n\n\u201cMy father and mother both died without seeing me brought to the Lord.\nThey prayed for me all the time they lived, and at the very last my\nmother asked me if I would not follow her to be with her in heaven.\nTo quiet and soothe her, I said I would. But I did not mean it; and I\nthought, when she had passed away, that she knew now my real feelings.\nAfter her death I went from bad to worse, and plunged deeper and deeper\ninto vice. Drink got a stronger hold of me, and I went lower and lower\ndown. I was never \u2018in the gutter,\u2019 in the acceptation in which that\nterm is generally understood; but I was as low in my soul as any man\nwho lives in one of the common lodging-houses.\n\n\u201cI went from Cambridge first to a town in the north, where I was\narticled to a solicitor; and then to London. While I was in the north,\nMessrs. Moody and Sankey came to the town I lived in; and an aunt of\nmine, who was still praying for me after my mother\u2019s death, came and\nsaid to me, \u2018I have a favor to ask of you.\u2019 She had been very kind to\nme, and I knew what she wanted. She said, \u2018It is to go and hear Messrs.\nMoody and Sankey.\u2019 \u2018Very good,\u2019 I said; \u2018it is a bargain. I will go\nand hear the men; but you are never to ask me again. You will promise\nthat?\u2019 \u2018Yes,\u2019 she said, \u2018I do.\u2019 I went, and kept, as I thought, most\nreligiously my share of the bargain.\n\n\u201cI waited until the sermon was over, and I saw Mr. Moody coming down\nfrom the pulpit. Earnest prayer had been offered for me, and there\nhad been an understanding between my aunt and him that the sermon\nshould apply to me, and that he would come and speak to me immediately\nafterward. We met Mr. Moody in the aisle, and I thought that I had done\na very clever thing when I walked round my aunt, before Mr. Moody could\naddress me, and out of the building.\n\n\u201cI wandered further from God after that; and I do not think that I\nbent my knees in prayer for between two and three years. I went to\nLondon, and things grew worse and worse. At times I tried to pull up.\nI made any number of resolutions. I promised myself and my friends not\nto touch the drink. I kept my resolutions for some days, and, on one\noccasion, for six months; but the temptation came with stronger force\nthan ever, and swept me further and further from the pathway of virtue.\nWhen in London I neglected my business and everything I ought to have\ndone, and sank deeper into sin.\n\n\u201cOne of my boon companions said to me, \u2018If you don\u2019t pull up, you will\nkill yourself.\u2019 \u2018How is that?\u2019 I asked. \u2018You are killing yourself, for\nyou can\u2019t drink so much as you used to.\u2019 \u2018Well,\u2019 I replied, \u2018I can\u2019t\nhelp it, then.\u2019 I got to such a state that I did not think there was\nany possible help for me.\n\n\u201cThe recital of these things pains me; and as I relate them, God forbid\nthat I should feel anything but shame. I am telling you these things\nbecause we have a Savior; and if the Lord Jesus Christ saved even me,\nHe is able also to save you.\n\n\u201cAffairs went on in this manner until, at last, I lost all control over\nmyself.\n\n\u201cI had been drinking and playing billiards one day, and in the evening\nI returned to my lodgings. I thought that I would sit there awhile,\nand then go out again, as usual. Before going out, I began to think,\nand the thought struck me, \u2018How will all this end?\u2019 \u2018Oh,\u2019 I thought to\nmyself, \u2018what is the use of that? I know how it will end--in my eternal\ndestruction, body and soul!\u2019 I felt I was killing myself--my body;\nand I knew too well what would be the result to my soul. I thought\nit impossible for me to be saved. But the thought came to me very\nstrongly, \u2018Is there any way of escape?\u2019 \u2018No,\u2019 I said; \u2018I have made any\nnumber of resolutions. I have done all I could to keep clear of drink,\nbut I can\u2019t. It is impossible.\u2019\n\n\u201cJust at that moment the words came into my mind, from God\u2019s own\nWord--words that I had not remembered since I was a boy: \u2018With men\nthis is impossible; but with God all things are possible.\u2019 And then I\nsaw, in a flash, that what I had just admitted, as I had done hundreds\nof times before, to be an impossibility, was the one thing that God\nhad pledged Himself to do, if I would go to Him. All the difficulties\ncame up in my way--my companions, my surroundings of all sorts, and my\ntemptations; but I just looked up and thought, \u2018It is possible with\nGod.\u2019\n\n\u201cI went down on my knees there and then, in my room, and began to\nask God to do the impossible. As soon as I prayed to Him, with very\nstammering utterance--I had not prayed for nearly three years--I\nthought, \u2018Now, then, God will help me.\u2019 I took hold of His truth, I\ndon\u2019t know how. It was nine days before I knew how, and before I had\nany assurance, or peace and rest, to my soul. I got up, there and then,\nwith the hope that God would save me. I took it to be the truth, and I\nultimately proved it; for which I praise God.\n\n\u201cI thought the best thing I could do would be to go and get somebody\nto talk to me about my soul, and tell me how to be saved; for I was a\nperfect heathen, though I had been brought up so well. I went out and\nhunted about London; and it shows how little I knew of religious people\nand places of worship, that I could not find a Wesleyan chapel. My\nmother and father were Wesleyans, and I thought I would find a place\nbelonging to their denomination; but I could not. I searched an hour\nand a half; and that night I was in the most utter, abject misery of\nbody and soul any man can think of or conceive.\n\n\u201cI came home to my lodgings and went upstairs, and thought to myself,\n\u2018I will not go to bed till I am saved.\u2019 But I was so ill from\ndrinking--I had not had my usual amount of food in the evening; and the\nreaction was so tremendous, that I felt I must go to bed (although I\ndared not), or I should be in a very serious condition in the morning.\n\n\u201cI knew how I should be in the morning, thinking, \u2018what a fool I was\nlast night!\u2019 when I would wake up moderately fresh, and go off to\ndrink again, as I had often done. But again I thought, \u2018God can do the\nimpossible. He will do that which I cannot do myself.\u2019 And I prayed to\nthe Lord to let me wake up in much the same condition as that in which\nI went to bed, feeling the weight of my sins and my misery. Then I\nwent to sleep. The first thing in the morning, as soon as I remembered\nwhere I was, I thought, \u2018Has the conviction left me?\u2019 No; I was more\nmiserable than before, and--it seemed strange, though it was natural--I\ngot up, and thanked the Lord because He had kept me anxious about my\nsoul.\n\n\u201cHave you ever felt like that? Perhaps after some meeting or\nconversation with some Christian, or reading the Word of God, you have\ngone to your room miserable and \u2018almost persuaded.\u2019\n\n\u201cI went on for eight or nine days seeking the Lord. On the Saturday\nmorning I had to go and tell the clerks. That was hard. I did it with\nthe tears running down my cheeks. A man does not like to cry before\nother men. Anyway, I told them I wanted to become, and meant to\nbecome, a Christian. The Lord helped me with that promise, \u2018With God\nall things are possible.\u2019\n\n\u201cA sceptic dropped his head, and said nothing. Another fellow, with\nwhom I played billiards, said, \u2018I wish I had the pluck to say so\nmyself!\u2019 My words were received in a different way from what I thought\nthey would be. But the very man who had told me that I was killing\nmyself with drink, spent an hour and a half trying to get me to drink,\nsaying, that I \u2018had the blues, and was out of sorts; and that a glass\nof brandy or whisky would do me good.\u2019 He tried to get me to drink; and\nI turned upon him at last, and said, \u2018You remember what you said to me;\nI am trying to get away from drink, and not to touch it again.\u2019 When I\nthink of that I am reminded of the words of God Himself: \u2018The tender\nmercies of the wicked are cruel.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd now the Lord drew me on until the little thread became a cable,\nby which my soul could swing. He drew me nearer; until I found that He\nwas my Savior. Truly He is \u2018able to save to the uttermost all that come\nunto God by Him.\u2019\n\n\u201cI must not forget to tell you that I went down before God in my\nmisery, my helplessness, and my sin, and owned to Him that it was\nimpossible that I should be saved; that it was impossible for me to\nkeep clear of drink; but from that night to this moment, I have never\nhad the slightest desire for drink.\n\n\u201cIt was a hard struggle indeed to give up smoking. But God in His\ngreat wisdom, knew that I must have come to grief if I had to fight\nsingle-handed against the overwhelming desire I had for drink; and He\ntook that desire, too, clean away. From that day to this the Lord has\nkept me away from drink, and made me hate it most bitterly. I simply\nsaid that I had not any strength; nor have I now; but it is the Lord\nJesus who \u2018is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto\nGod by Him.\u2019\n\n\u201cIf there is any one hearing me who has given up all hope, come to the\nSavior! That is His name, for \u2018He shall save His people from their\nsins.\u2019 Wherever I have gone, since then, I have found Him to be my\nSavior. God forbid that I should glory! It would be glorying in my\nshame. It is to my shame that I speak thus of myself; but oh, the\nSavior is able to save, and He will save!\n\n\u201cChristian friends, continue to pray. You may go to heaven before your\nsons are brought home. My parents did; and my sisters prayed for me for\nyears and years. But now I can help others on their way to Zion. Praise\nthe Lord for all His mercy to me!\n\n\u201cRemember, \u2018with God all things are possible.\u2019 And then you may say\nlike St. Paul, \u2018I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth\nme.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\u201cLook Up.\u201d\n\n\n  \u201cO soul most desolate, look up! For thee\n    One faithful voice doth promise sure relief.\n    Whate\u2019er thy sin, whate\u2019er thy sorrow be,\n    Tell all to Jesus. He looketh where\n    The weary-hearted weep, and draweth near\n    To listen fondly to the half-formed prayer,\n    Or read the silent pleading of a tear.\n    Lose not thy privilege, O silent soul;\n    Pour out thy sorrow at thy Savior\u2019s feet.\n    What outcast spurns the hand that gives the dole?\n    Oh, let Him hear thy voice; to Him thy voice is sweet.\u201d\n\n                                                       _A. S._\n\n  =NOTICE.=--All former books (before this series), issued in\n  Mr. Moody\u2019s name, have been mere compilations\n  from newspaper reports of his sermons,\n  issued without his consent and\n  notwithstanding his protest.\n\n\n\n\n  WORKS BY\n\n  MR. D. L. MOODY,\n\n  PUBLISHED BY\n\n  F. H. REVELL, 148 & 150 MADISON ST.,\n  CHICAGO.\n\n_The following Books sent postpaid on receipt of\nprice._\n\n\nOver 350,000 copies of these works have already been sold, the greater\nportion within the last three years.\n\n\n =To the Work! To the Work!= By D. L. MOODY. Exhortations to Christians.\n\n Tinted covers, 30c.; cloth boards, gilt dies, 60c.\n\n Just published.\n\n This new work by Mr. Moody is in the line of his most successful\n efforts, that of stirring Christians to active, personal, aggressive\n work for the Master. Mr. Moody has frequently been heard to say that\n it was much better to set 100 men to work than to do the work of 100\n men. This little volume will we confidently believe be a means of\n inspiring not hundreds, but _thousands_ to more efficient effort in\n Christian life.\n\n\n =Secret Power=, or The Secret of Success in Christian Life and\n Christian Work. By D. L. MOODY. Fifty-fifth Thousand.\n\n This work, so full of inspiration and suggestion, has been reprinted\n in England, and has also been translated into French and Italian.\n Through the kindness of a consecrated lady, a copy of the book has\n been presented to every Protestant minister in Italy, while another\n friend sends the English edition to every Presbyterian minister in\n Ireland.\n\n Every page is full of stimulating thought for Christian\n workers.--_Christian Commonwealth._\n\n It is a good statement of the secret of success in Christian Life, by\n one who has some claim to speak on such a theme.--_The Outlook._\n\n This series of earnest and solemn Addresses bear throughout that stamp\n of honest, eager earnestness, which is so striking a characteristic of\n the writer\u2019s labors as a preacher.--_Clerical World._\n\n\n =Prevailing Prayer, What Hinders it?= By D. L. MOODY.\n\n Cloth, uniform with \u201cTo the Work,\u201d \u201cHeaven,\u201d &c., 60c.\n\n Paper covers, 30c.\n\n An earnest and solemn work, full of helpful hints on the aids and\n hindrances to prevailing prayer.\n\n \u201cThis great subject has been the theme of apostles and prophets, and\n of all good men in all ages of the world; and my desire in sending\n forth this little volume is to encourage God\u2019s children to seek\n by prayer \u2018to move the arm that moves the world.\u2019\u201d--_Extract from\n Preface._\n\n\n =Heaven=; Where It Is; Its Inhabitants, and How to Get There. By D. L.\n MOODY. 88th Thousand.\n\n While adapted to the humble capacity, it will command the attention of\n the mature and thoughtful.--_National Presbyterian._\n\n Mr. Moody is sure of an audience, and well deserves a large one for\n this book.--_Presbyterian Witness._\n\n Mr. Moody\u2019s unfaltering faith and rugged enthusiasm are manifested on\n every page.--_Christian Advocate._\n\n Eminently scriptural, earnest and impressive, will be welcomed by\n thousands.--_Zion\u2019s Herald._\n\n Characterized by his apt, homely illustrations and not a few pithy\n anecdotes, such as few can equal.--_The Advance._\n\n A most acceptable monogram in its author\u2019s own short, pointed,\n monosyllabic, Anglo-saxon style.--_Herald of Truth, California._\n\n Abounds in apt and telling illustrations.--_The Standard, Chicago._\n\n Anything from the pen of this renowned evangelist will be read with\n interest.--_Index, Atlanta, Ga._\n\n The clear, Scriptural, common sense treatment of this subject by Mr.\n Moody has been commended in the highest terms by leading theologians\n in Europe and America, while the common people have heard them\n everywhere with gladness.--_Central Baptist._\n\n\n =Twelve Select Sermons.= By D. L. MOODY. 110th Thousand.\n\n This volume contains those special sermons, which have appeared to be\n most useful, and under which there have been the greatest results.\n\n Carefully revised by Mr. Moody, they present a volume of choice and\n striking addresses, sure to command a large sale.\n\n With the effect of these addresses when _spoken_, the whole land is\n acquainted, and now that they are _written_, they will tend to keep in\n force the impressions they have already made.--_Methodist._\n\n Mr. Moody\u2019s happy style, abounding in striking anecdote and\n illustration, make it a most readable and convincing volume.--_The\n Watchman._\n\n Full of earnest enthusiasm which characterizes everything Mr. Moody\n does, and will be read with interest.--_Detroit Free Press._\n\n There are few who heard any one of these sermons who will fail to be\n delighted with this opportunity of making a calm acquaintance with it\n again.--_Daily Review._\n\n This book is one of pre-eminent interest, as containing an authorized\n record of the teaching under which, along with other means, such great\n and extensive religious impressions have been recently produced in\n this country.--_The Messenger._\n\n Will be read by thousands with memorable interest.--_Record._\n\n\n =The Way to God, and How to Find it.= Fifty-fifth Thousand.\n\n It consists of nine chapters of the kind only D. L. Moody can\n write. The little volume contains the most convincing argument ever\n framed for the use of common people. It is a good book to drop into\n the sachel of your boy or girl; good to send to some friend at a\n distance in whom you have an interest, and good upon your own study\n table.--_Inter Ocean._\n\n \u201cThe Way to God\u201d is a theme upon which the Evangelist has been wont\n to dwell. Here in nine chapters he grasps together words of advice\n regarding that path which it is the happy privilege of the minister to\n continually make plain.--_Chicago Standard._\n\n They are characterized by his usual simplicity, directness, fervor and\n exceptional power of vivid illustration.--_Christian Herald._\n\n They are sharply to the point, plainly practical, and orthodox in a\n good, simple and true sense.--_Christian Advocate._\n\n It will lead sinners to trust in God, and fire the hearts of layman\n and minister to noble works for the Master.--_Baptist Reflector._\n\n It puts the way so plain that he who runs may read.--_Religious\n Telescope._\n\n It is an excellent manual for the soul winners, and for the awakened\n seeker, and we trust will be the means of leading thousands to\n Christian hope and heaven.--_Zion\u2019s Herald._\n\n Very earnest and powerful, abounding in apt illustrations, striking\n thoughts, and helpful, encouraging words. This book is written in the\n same plain, simple and pointed style that lends such force to his\n spoken words. The volume should find many readers. Those that buy it\n will not be disappointed.--_National Baptist._\n\n\n =Daniel, the Prophet.= An Amplification and Extension of Mr. Moody\u2019s\n various Lectures on the Life of Daniel.\n\n Tinted covers, 20c.; cloth, 40c.\n\n A small book; but big as regards the truth it contains. Every worker\n in the Lord\u2019s vineyard would be helped by reading it.--_Railway\n Signal._\n\n\n =The Way and The Word.= By D. L. MOODY. Forty-fifth Thousand.\n\n Paper, 15c.; cloth, 25c.\n\n This little work contains a very clear statement on the important\n subject, _Regeneration_, to which is added Mr. Moody\u2019s valuable hints\n on Bible Reading.\n\n Mr. Moody has used this book by the thousand, placing them in the\n hands of young converts at the close of his meetings.\n\n\n =The Second Coming of Christ.= By D. L. MOODY. Fortieth Thousand.\n Tinted covers, 10c.\n\n \u201cThe moment a man takes hold of the truth that Jesus is coming back\n again to receive His followers to Himself, this world loses its\n hold upon him. Gas stocks and water stocks, and stocks in banks and\n railroads, are of very much less consequence to him then. His heart is\n free, and he looks for the blessed appearing of the Lord, who at His\n coming, will take him into His blessed Kingdom.\u201d--_Extract._\n\n\n =How to Conduct Inquiry Meetings.= By D. L. MOODY, and =The Use of the\n Bible in Inquiry Meetings=. By D. W. WHITTLE.\n\n 40 pages and cover. Price 15c.\n\n\n\n\nA SELECTION FROM THE CATALOGUE\n\nOF\n\nFLEMING H. REVELL,\n\n_Publisher of Evangelical Literature_\n\n148 & 150 MADISON STREET, CHICAGO.\n\n_The Following Books sent Post-paid on Receipt of Price._\n\n\nHELPS IN BIBLE STUDY.\n\n\n =Notes and Suggestions for Bible Readings.= _Seventeenth thousand._\n Compiled by S. R. BRIGGS and J. H. ELLIOTT. Acknowledged to be the\n very best help for Bible readings in print. Containing, in addition to\n twelve introductory chapters on plans and methods of Bible study and\n Bible readings, over six hundred outlines of Bible readings by many of\n the most eminent Bible students of the day.\n\n Large 12mo, 262 pages, with complete index, cloth, fine library style,\n $1.00; Flexible cloth, travelers\u2019 edition, 75c; Cheap edition, paper\n covers, 50c.\n\n This is a book which every Bible student should possess. Those who\n conduct Bible readings will find it most suggestive.--_Christian\n Progress._\n\n\n =Symbols and Systems in Bible Readings.= By Rev. W. F. CRAFTS.\n\n Giving a plan of Bible reading, with fifty verses definitely assigned\n for each day, the Bible being arranged with much labor in the order of\n its events. The entire symbolism of the Bible also explained concisely\n and clearly. 100 hints upon Bible markings and Bible readings are\n added.\n\n A year of work upon such a system would yield rich harvests of Bible\n knowledge and spiritual experience.--_S. S. World._\n\n\n =The True Tabernacle.= A series of lectures on the Jewish Tabernacle\n and its typical signification. By GEORGE C. NEEDHAM. Illustrated,\n cloth, neat, 75c.\n\n\n =\u201cC. H. M.\u2019s\u201d Notes.= By C. H. MCINTOSH. Genesis, 75c; Exodus, 75c;\n Leviticus, 75c; Numbers, 75c; Deuteronomy, 2 vols., each, 75c.\n\n The notes breathe a very sweet and reverential spirit, and the author\n shows wonderful insight into the heart of truths.--_Evangelist._\n\n Mr. D. L. Moody says of these books: \u201cThey have been to me a very key\n to the Scriptures.\u201d\n\n Major D. W. Whittle says: \u201cUnder God they have blessed me more than\n any books, outside of the Bible itself, that I have ever read, and\n have led me to a love of the Bible that is proving an unfailing source\n of profit.\u201d\n\n\n =Life and Times of David, King of Israel=; or, The Life of Faith\n Exemplified. By \u201cC. H. M.\u201d Third edition, revised. 12mo, 200 pp.\n Cloth, 60c.\n\n\n =The Gospel According to Moses=, as seen in the Tabernacle and its\n Various Services. By GEORGE ROGERS. New edition, enlarged 16mo, 124\n pp. Paper, 50c; Cloth, 75c.\n\n No preacher or teacher should be ignorant of the truth which this\n small volume very simply but forcibly enunciates.--_The Record._\n\n\n =Outline of the Books of the Bible.= By Rev. J. H. BROOKES, D. D.\n Invaluable to the young student of the Bible as a \u201cFirst Lessons\u201d in\n the study of the Bible. 180 pp., cloth, 50c; Paper covers, 25c.\n\n\n =Ruth, the Moabitess=; or, Gleanings in the Book of Ruth. By HENRY\n MOOREHOUSE. A characteristic series of Bible readings, full of\n suggestions and instruction.\n\n Neat 16mo, paper covers, 20c; cloth, gilt stamped, 40c.\n\n Contains many fresh and original remarks, all tending to\n practical usefulness; a capital bit of commenting on a favorite\n book.--_Spurgeon\u2019s Sword and Trowel._\n\n\n =Bible Readings.= By HENRY MOOREHOUSE. A series of eleven sermons of\n comment and exposition, by one pre-eminently the man of one book--an\n incessant, intense, prayerful student of the Bible.\n\n Neat, 16mo, paper covers, 30c; cloth, gilt stamped, 60c.\n\n\n =Current Discussions in Theology.= By the Professors of Chicago\n Theological Seminary. Vol. I, cloth, 12mo, 248 pp., $1.00; paper\n covers, 50c. Vol. II, 328 pp., cloth, $1.50.\n\n There is nothing in our language of this kind. The American student\n has had to choose between the exhaustive and unremitting labors which\n are the price of first-hand knowledge, and reviews which rarely fail\n of being colored with partiality or prejudice. The volume before us is\n a helpful, fair and trustworthy statement of the present position and\n recent movements of theology.--_The Independent._\n\n It may be safely said that from no one book in the English language\n can ministers gather so much recent information concerning the topics\n treated.--_Presbyterian Witness._\n\n\n =The Date of Our Gospels.= A critical argument and examination of\n evidences, particularly regarding their authenticity and authorship.\n By SAMUEL IVES CURTISS, D. D., Union Park Theological Seminary,\n Chicago.\n\n Sq. 16mo, neat, flexible cloth, 50c; paper edition, 25c.\n\n The argument is winnowed of superfluous words, and presents a luminous\n and brief case.--_New York Independent._\n\n\n =A New Catechism.= By Rev. J. T HYDE. A manual of instruction for\n students and other thoughtful inquirers.\n\n Cloth, 12mo, $1.00.\n\n\nAIDS IN CHRISTIAN WORK.\n\n\n =Children\u2019s Meetings and How to Conduct Them.= By LUCY J. RIDER and\n NELLIE M. CARMAN. Introduction by Rev. J. H. VINCENT, D. D. Contains\n contributions from over forty well-known workers among children, and\n gives the cream of their experience. The outline lessons (over sixty\n in number), diagrams, and music will especially commend it to the\n thoughtful teacher. Pp. 208, cloth, net $1.00.\n\n It is a good book, that suggests something in addition to that which\n it conveys.--_Journal and Messenger._\n\n The volume will be heartily welcomed by many having this most\n important part of the religious instruction of the young in\n hand.--_Zion\u2019s Herald._\n\n\n =Secret Power=; or, the Secret of Success in Christian Life and\n Christian Work. By D. L. MOODY. _Fifty-fifth thousand._ 12mo volume,\n 116 pp., rich gilt and black stamp, cloth, 60c; cheap edition, paper\n cover, 30c.\n\n Every page is full of stimulating thought for Christian\n workers.--_Christian Commonwealth._\n\n\n =The Work of Preaching Christ.= By Bishop CHARLES PETTITT MCILVAINE. A\n revised edition of an important little work. Paper covers, 15c.\n\n\n =The Prayer Meeting and Its Improvement.= By Rev. LEWIS O. THOMPSON,\n with introduction by Rev. A. E. KITTREDGE, D. D. Sixth edition.\n Revised. An attractive volume. 12mo, pp. 256, $1.25.\n\n A valuable, because a very suggestive book.--_S. S. Times._\n\n * * * \u201cThis is so good a book that we wish we could afford to give a\n copy of it to every young minister. Revive your prayer meetings and\n the churches will be revived. Mr. Thompson says some capital things in\n a telling manner, and, as his pages are full of fire and gunpowder,\n we hope certain old, worn-out things among us will be exploded, and\n good things set on fire. A brother who has this book handy will be\n helped to lead lively meetings, conducting them in varied ways, and\n expatiating on different topics, so as to keep up freshness, and avoid\n monotony and dullness.\u201d--_C. H. Spurgeon._\n\n\n =Revivals=; Their Place and Power. By Rev. HERRICK JOHNSON, D. D.\n Cloth, flexible, 25c.\n\n An admirable discussion of the subject.--_Interior._\n\n We know of no publication that covers the ground so briefly and\n satisfactorily.--_Baltimore Presbyterian._\n\n Dr. Johnson\u2019s experience has qualified him to speak upon this\n subject.--_Independent._\n\n\n =To the Work! To the Work!= By D. L. MOODY. Exhortations to\n Christians. Paper covers, 30c; Cloth boards, gilt dies, 60c. Just\n published.\n\n This new work by Mr. Moody, is in the line of his most successful\n efforts, that of stirring Christians to active, personal, aggressive\n work for the Master. Mr. Moody has frequently been heard to say that\n it was much better to set 100 men to work than to do the work of 100\n men. This little volume will, we confidently believe, be a means of\n inspiring not hundreds but _thousands_ to more efficient effort in\n Christian life.\n\n\nPRE-MILLENNIAL LITERATURE.\n\n\n =Pre-Millennial Essays.= A series of papers on prophetical subjects by\n eminent writers. Edited by NATHANIEL WEST, D. D. Issued in one large\n 12mo volume of 500 pages, $1.50.\n\n Those who desire to have, within the compass of a single volume, all\n that is necessary to an intelligent consideration of the subject, will\n find it here in a very readable form. It is certainly the ablest work\n that has appeared on the pre-millennial side.--_Canada Presbyterian._\n\n The best treatment of this subject from the pre-millennial side that\n has ever been published.--_The Standard._\n\n It is pious, elaborate and fraternal. We are pleased with the\n forcible, yet candid style of argumentation.--_Zion\u2019s Herald._\n\n\n =Maranatha=; or, the Lord Cometh. By Rev. J. H. BROOKES, D. D. Pp.\n 445, cloth, $1.25; paper, 50c.\n\n\n =Present Truth=; being the Testimony of the Holy Ghost on the Second\n Coming of the Lord, the Divinity of Christ, and the Personality of the\n Holy Ghost. By Rev. J. H. BROOKES, D. D. 250 pp., fine cloth, 75c.\n Cheap edition, paper cover, 25c.\n\n\n =Second Coming of Christ.= By Rev. J. H. BROOKES, D. D. Price, 15c.\n\n\n =The Blessed Hope=; or, The Glorious Coming of the Lord. By WILLIS\n LORD, D. D. New and cheaper edition. A practical treatise; a volume\n well adapted to lead to a more joyous Christian life. 250 pp., cloth,\n $1.00. Cheap edition, for circulation, paper covers only, 25c.\n\n\n =Second Coming of Christ.= By GEORGE MULLER, of Bristol, Eng. A neat\n little tract of 32 pages, suitable for circulation. Per dozen, 40c;\n 100 copies, $2.50.\n\n\n =Jesus Is Coming.= By W. E. B. A most popular hand book. _Sixteenth\n thousand._ Giving seven arguments in favor of the pre-millennial\n coming--stating the distinction between the Rapture and the\n Revelation, and between the Church and the Kingdom--and containing a\n diagram, with explanations. New, enlarged edition, 160 pp., cloth,\n 50c; paper covers, 15c.\n\n\n =Twenty Reasons for Believing= that the Second Coming of the Lord is\n Near. 34 pages and cover, neat, 15c. Per dozen, $1.00.\n\n\n =Epiphainia.= A study in Prophecy. By E. J. EDGREN, Professor of\n Biblical Interpretation in the Morgan Park Theological Seminary. 16mo,\n 112 pp., cloth, neat, 75c.\n\n Dr. Edgren writes as one who both loves and reveres the Sacred Word.\n He has altogether made a book creditable in a literary not less than\n in an evangelical point of view.--_Chicago Standard._\n\n\n =Waiting for the Morning=, and Other Poems. By the author of \u201cTwenty\n Reasons for Believing the Coming of the Lord is Near.\u201d Sq. 16mo, pp.\n 54, red line, cloth, elegant, 50c. Cheap edition, paper covers, neat,\n 25c.\n\n\n =The Second Coming of Christ.= By D. L. MOODY. Revised. _Forty-second\n thousand._ 32 pp. and cover, 10c. Per dozen, $1.00.\n\n\nHELPS FOR INQUIRERS.\n\n\n =Grace and Truth= Under Twelve Different Aspects. By W. P. MACKAY, M.\n A. _Forty-eighth thousand_ of American edition. The English edition\n has reached a sale of over two hundred thousand, besides being\n translated into German, Spanish, Swedish, Arabic, Italian, Dutch,\n Gaelic and Welsh. 12mo, pp. 282, paper, 35c; cloth, fine, 75c.\n\n Mr. Moody says of this work: \u201cI know of no book in print better\n adapted to aid in the work of him who would be a winner of souls, or\n to place in the hands of the unconverted.\u201d\n\n\n =My Inquiry Meeting=; or Plain Truths for Anxious Souls. By ROBERT\n BOYD, D. D. Being the experience of a pastor during many years of\n personal dealing with anxious and careless souls. Pp. 64, 15c.\n\n For simplicity, clearness, and force of statement we have met with\n nothing that equals this little volume. We can think of no better\n service a pastor could render to Sunday-school teachers, and other\n guides of souls, than to secure their reading of these pages. Nor\n could inquirers have any better help in their search for truth.--_The\n Interior._\n\n\n =Glad Tidings.= By ROBERT BOYD, D. D. A book for inquirers. 12mo, pp.\n 100, cloth, neat, 50c. Cheap edition, for circulation, 25c.\n\n This book has been used largely in connection with the great revival\n meetings both in Great Britain and this land.\n\n\n =The Soul and Its Difficulties.= By H. W. SOLTAU. Paper, pp. 108, 8c.\n\n\n =How to Be Saved=; or, the Sinner Directed to the Saviour. By J. H.\n BROOKES, D. D. Pp. 120, paper cover, 25c; cloth, 50c.\n\n\n =The Way to God and How to Find It.= By D. L. MOODY. _Fifty-fifth\n thousand._ A book for the inquirer and Christian worker. Cloth, rich\n black and gold stamp, 60c; paper, tinted covers, 30c.\n\n The way of salvation is made as clear as simple language and forcible,\n pertinent illustration can make it. In two features it is equal to\n anything that Mr. Moody has produced--in close adherence to the Word\n of God, and in profound earnestness--while in simplicity, directness\n of appeal and originality it is superior. It is a great matter to\n send such a work, so full of Christ, all over the churches, where\n it may, by the work of the Spirit, arrest the careless and move the\n ungodly.--_Lutheran Observer._\n\n\n =God\u2019s Way of Salvation.= By ALEXANDER MARSHALL. A brief statement of\n the Way of Life, with answers to popular objections. Each brief page\n complete in itself, and containing a sermon in a nutshell. 48 pages\n and covers, 5c. Per hundred. $2.50.\n\n\n =Doubts Removed.= By C\u00c6SAR MALAN, D. D. Paper covers, 5c; per dozen,\n 50c.\n\n \u201cIt contains the clearest statements and illustrations on the subject\n treated we have ever read.\u201d\n\n\n =Welcome to Jesus.= By Rev. C. H. SPURGEON. A series of 4 page\n tracts, with first page in attractive, illuminated designs, etc. Four\n different series, each containing 32 assortments. Price, per package,\n 25c.\n\n\nPOPULAR DEVOTIONAL BOOKS.\n\n\n =Prevailing Prayer: What Hinders It?= By D. L. MOODY. Cloth, uniform\n with To the Work! Heaven, etc., 60c; paper covers, 30c.\n\n An earnest and solemn work, full of helpful hints on the aids and\n hindrances to prevailing prayer.\n\n \u201cThis great subject has been the theme of apostles and prophets, and\n of all good men in all ages of the world; and my desire in sending\n forth this little volume is to encourage God\u2019s children to seek\n by prayer \u2018to move the arm that moves the world.\u2019\u201d--_Extract from\n Preface._\n\n\n =The Christian\u2019s Secret of a Happy Life.= By HANNAH WHITALL SMITH;\n author of \u201cA Happy Life.\u201d Revised edition, from entirely new plates.\n 12mo, 240 pp., cloth, black and gold stamp, $1.00; paper cover, 50c.\n\n A book we unhesitatingly recommend. We have not for years read a book\n with more delight and profit.--_Southwestern Christian Advocate._\n\n We are delighted with the book. It reaches the very core of Christian\n experience.--_Baptist Weekly._\n\n Worthy of universal circulation.--_Christian Union._\n\n\n =Life Warfare and Victory.= By Maj. D. W. WHITTLE. Cloth, neat, 124\n pp., 60c; paper, 30c.\n\n This book has been prepared in the midst of evangelistic work, to\n meet the wish often expressed to the writer--that instruction given\n in Bible readings to young converts might be made available for their\n more careful study and permanent use.--_Extract from Preface._\n\n\n =Christ and the Scriptures.= By Rev. ADOLPH SAPHIR. Cloth, 16mo, neat,\n 75c.\n\n To all disciples of Jesus this work commends itself at once by its\n grasp of truth, its insight, the life in it, and its spiritual\n force.--_Christian Work._\n\n \u201cIn these days of doubt and hypercriticism such a volume, breathing a\n spirit of earnest devotion, lifting the mind to a better conception of\n the immeasureable worth of the Person and the Word, and written, too,\n by a son of Israel, cannot but be welcome and helpful.\u201d\n\n\n =The Holy Life.= A book for Christians seeking the \u201cRest of Faith.\u201d\n By Rev. EVAN H. HOPKINS. _Fifth thousand_, 18mo, 115 pages, cloth,\n beveled edge, 60c.\n\n\n =Walking Worthy of God.= A reprint from the works of Rev. JOHN\n FLAVELL, with an introduction by (and published at the request of)\n Maj. D. W. Whittle. A valuable book for circulation--an incentive to\n Christian living.\n\n Sq. 16mo, pp. 43, 15c.\n\n\n =Gems from Northfield.= A Record of the Best Thoughts exchanged at the\n Conference for Bible Study, convened at Northfield, by D. L. MOODY.\n\n 12mo, pp. 116. Price $1.00.\n\n The thoughts and expositions of Scripture which are presented in this\n volume are of rare practical value.--_Herald and Presbyter._\n\n\n =My Morning Word.= A book of texts for every day in the year.\n\n Cloth, plain, 75c; Cloth, gilt edges, $1.00; Calf, flexible, gilt,\n $1.75.\n\n The several texts for every day each contain the \u201cMorning Word,\u201d this\n single word being the key-word by means of which the texts are called\n to mind.\n\n\n =Birth-Day Memorial Text-Book.=\n\n A handsome little volume with a short text for every day in the year,\n with blank space opposite for autographs. Especially attractive for\n children.\n\n 32mo, cloth, black and gold stamp, 25c; per dozen, $2.50.\n\n\n =The Practice of the Presence of God.= By \u201cBrother LAWRENCE.\u201d\n\n Being a small collection of remarkable letters and \u201cconversations\u201d of\n a monk.\n\n Pp. 64, 24mo, paper cover, 10c; per dozen, 75c.\n\n\n =Grace Sufficient.= By Rev. HENRY ROISSY. An extremely helpful work\n for the closet, with counsel and comfort for the Way of Life. Pp. 265,\n cloth, $1.25.\n\n\n =Clifton Springs Bible Readings.= Containing the Bible Readings and\n Addresses given at the Conference of Believers at Clifton Springs,\n N. Y., by Messrs. Brookes, Erdman, Whittle, Needham, Parsons, Clark,\n Marvin and others.\n\n Sq. 16mo, 144 pp., cloth, fine, 50c; paper covers, 25c.\n\n\n =The Scarlet Line.= A most suggestive tract upon Joshua II and VI,\n showing the close connection between the type of the Old Testament and\n the Antitype of the New.\n\n 36 pages and cover, 5c; per hundred, $3.00.\n\n\n =Envelope Series of Tracts.= By H. W. S., from \u201cThe Christian\u2019s Secret\n of a Happy Life,\u201d comprising the following:\n\n  How to Enter into the Life.\n  Difficulties Concerning Consecration.\n  Difficulties Concerning Guidance.\n  Difficulties Concerning Faith.\n  Faith: What it is.\n  Is God in Everything?\n  The Joy of Obedience.\n  Practical Results.\n\n Sold only in packets of one dozen copies. May be had either assorted\n or all of the same kind. Price, per packet, 20c.\n\n \u201cThey will form an excellent collection of tracts for distribution\n by those who wish their friends to share the \u2018Life that is hid with\n Christ.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n =Words of Worth=, from the Chicago Christian Convention. A verbatim\n report of the addresses before the Convention of October, 1882.\n\n 12mo, pp. 134, paper, 25c.\n\n The addresses by such men as Rev. Marcus Rainsford, Rev. Chas.\n Spurgeon, Dr. W. P. Mackay, Rev. A. T. Pierson, D. D., and others,\n will be welcomed by many.\n\n  _CHICAGO: F. H. REVELL, 148 & 150 MADISON ST._\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES:\n\n\n  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.\n\n  Emboldened text is surrounded by equals signs: =bold=.\n\n  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.","title":"Prevailing Prayer: What Hinders It?","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":37266}