{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_70657/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_70657","id":"gutenberg_70657","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70657","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Prayers","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Prayer -- Christianity"],"text":"PRAYER\n  AND PRAYING MEN\n\n  REV. EDWARD M. BOUNDS\n\n\n\n\n  PRAYER\n  AND PRAYING MEN\n\n  BY\n\n  REV. EDWARD M. BOUNDS\n\n  AUTHOR OF \u201cTHE INEFFABLE GLORY,\u201d \u201cPREACHER\n  AND PRAYER,\u201d \u201cPURPOSE IN PRAYER,\u201d ETC.\n\n  WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY\n  REV. HOMER W. HODGE\n\n  HODDER & STOUGHTON\n  LIMITED : : LONDON\n\n\n\n\n  COPYRIGHT, 1921,\n\n  BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY\n\n  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nRev. Edward McKendrie Bounds was passionately devoted to his beloved\nLord and Saviour Jesus Christ. His devotion was extraordinary in that\nhe was praying and writing about Him all the time, except during the\nhours of sleeping.\n\nGod gave Bounds an enlargedness of heart and an insatiable desire to\ndo service for Him. To this end he enjoyed what I am pleased to term a\ntranscendent inspiration, else he could never have brought out of his\ntreasury things new and old far exceeding anything we have known or\nread in the last half century.\n\nBounds is easily the Betelguese of the devotional sky. There is no man\nthat has lived since the days of the apostles that has surpassed him in\nthe depths of his marvelous research into the Life of Prayer.\n\nHe was busily engaged in writing on his manuscripts when the Lord said\nunto him, \u201cWell done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into\nthe joys of thy Lord.\u201d His letters would often come to me in Brooklyn,\nN. Y., in 1911, 1912 and 1913, saying, \u201cPray for me that God will give\nme new nerves and new visions to finish the manuscripts.\u201d\n\nWesley was of the sweetest and most forgiving disposition, but when\naroused he was a man of the \u201ckeenest penetration with a gift of speech\nthat bit like the stroke of a whip.\u201d Bounds was meek and humble, and\nnever did we know him to retaliate upon any of his enemies. He cried\nover them and wept praying for them early and late.\n\nWesley was easily gulled. \u201cMy brother,\u201d said Charles, on one occasion\nin disgusting accents, \u201cwas, I believe, born for the benefit\nof knaves.\u201d No man could impose on Bounds\u2019 credulity. He was a\ndiagnostician of rare ability. Bounds shied away from all frauds in\nprofession, and would waste no time upon them.\n\nWesley was preaching and riding all day. Bounds was praying and writing\nday and night.\n\nWesley would not allow any misrepresentation of his doctrinal positions\nin his late years. Bounds in this respect was very much like him.\n\nWesley came to his fame while yet alive. He was always in the public\neye. Bounds, while editing a _Christian Advocate_ for twelve years, was\nlittle known out of his church.\n\nWesley at eighty-six could still preach on the streets for thirty\nminutes. Bounds was able at seventy-five in the first hour of the\nfourth watch to pray for three hours upon his knees.\n\nWesley, at the time of his death, had enjoyed fifty-six years of\npreferment. His name was on every tongue. Christianity was born again\nin England under his mighty preaching and organization. Bounds was\ncomparatively unknown for fifty years but will recover the \u201clost and\nforgotten secret of the church\u201d in the next fifty years.\n\nWesley\u2019s piety and genius and popularity flowed from his early life\nlike a majestic river. Bounds\u2019 has been dammed up, but now it is\nbeginning to sweep with resistless force and ere long he will be the\nmighty Amazon of the devotional world.\n\nHenry Crabbe Robinson said in his diary when he heard Wesley preach at\nColchester, \u201cHe stood in a wide pulpit and on each side of him stood a\nminister, and the two held him up. His voice was feeble and he could\nhardly be heard, but his reverend countenance, especially his long\nwhite locks, formed a picture never to be forgotten.\u201d The writer of\nthese lines gave up his pulpit in Brooklyn in 1912 to Rev. E. M. Bounds\njust ten months before his death. His voice was feeble and his periods\nwere not rounded out. His sermon was only twenty minutes long, when he\nquietly came to the end and seemed exhausted.\n\nWesley had sufficient money and to spare during all his career. Bounds\ndid not care for money. He did not depreciate it; he considered it the\nlowest order of power.\n\nWesley died with \u201can eye beaming and lips breaking into praise.\u201d\n\u201cThe best of all is God with us,\u201d Bounds wrote the writer of these\nlines. \u201cWhen He is ready I am ready; I long to taste the joys of the\nheavenlies.\u201d\n\nWesley said, \u201cThe World is my parish.\u201d Bounds prayed as if the universe\nwas his zone.\n\nWesley was the incarnation of unworldliness, the embodiment of\nmagnanimity. Bounds was the incarnation of unearthliness, humility and\nself-denial. Wesley will live in the hearts of saints for everlasting\nages. Bounds eternally.\n\nWesley sleeps in City Road Chapel grounds, among his \u201cbonny dead,\u201d\nunder marble, with fitting tribute chiseled in prose, awaiting the\nResurrection. Bounds sleeps in Washington, Georgia, cemetery, without\nmarble covering, awaiting the Bridegroom\u2019s coming.\n\nThese two men held ideals high and clear beyond the reach of other men.\nHas this race of men entirely gone out of the world now that they are\ndead? Let us pray.\n\n                                                          HOMER W. HODGE\n\nBrooklyn, N. Y.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAPTER                                                    PAGE\n\n     I PRAYING SAINTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENTS                    13\n\n    II PRAYING SAINTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENTS (_continued_)      21\n\n   III ABRAHAM, THE MAN OF PRAYER                              29\n\n    IV MOSES, THE MIGHTY INTERCESSOR                           33\n\n     V ELIJAH, THE PRAYING PROPHET                             42\n\n    VI HEZEKIAH, THE PRAYING KING                              54\n\n   VII EZRA, THE PRAYING REFORMER                              66\n\n  VIII NEHEMIAH, THE PRAYING BUILDER                           72\n\n    IX SAMUEL, THE CHILD OF PRAYER                             80\n\n     X DANIEL, THE PRAYING CAPTIVE                             89\n\n    XI FAITH OF SINNERS IN PRAYER                              97\n\n   XII PAUL, THE TEACHER OF PRAYER                            107\n\n  XIII PAUL AND HIS PRAYING                                   121\n\n   XIV PAUL AND HIS PRAYING (_continued_)                     131\n\n    XV PAUL AND HIS REQUESTS FOR PRAYER                       142\n\n   XVI PAUL AND HIS REQUESTS FOR PRAYER (_continued_)         150\n\n\n\n\nPRAYER AND PRAYING MEN\n\n\n\n\nPRAYER AND PRAYING MEN\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nPRAYING SAINTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENTS\n\n  _The Holy Spirit will give to the praying saint the brightness of\n  an immortal hope, the music of a deathless song, in His baptism and\n  communion with the heart. He will give sweeter and more enlarged\n  visions of heaven until the taste for other things will pall, and\n  other visions will grow dim and distant. He will put notes of other\n  worlds in human hearts until all earth\u2019s music is discord and\n  songless._--REV. E. M. BOUNDS.\n\n\nOld Testament history is filled with accounts of praying saints. The\nleaders of Israel in those early days were noted for their praying\nhabits. Prayer is the one thing which stands out prominently in their\nlives.\n\nTo begin with, note the incident in Joshua, 10th chapter, where the\nvery heavenly bodies were made subject to prayer. A prolonged battle\nwas on between the Israelites and their enemies, and when night was\nrapidly coming on, and it was discovered that a few more hours of\ndaylight were needful to ensure victory for the Lord\u2019s hosts, Joshua,\nthat sturdy man of God, stepped into the breach, with prayer. The sun\nwas too rapidly declining in the west for God\u2019s people to reap the full\nfruits of a noted victory, and Joshua, seeing how much depended upon\nthe occasion, cried out in the sight and in the hearing of Israel,\n\u201cSun, stand thou still upon Gideon, and thou moon in the Valley of\nAjalon.\u201d And the sun actually stood still and the moon stopped on her\ncourse at the command of this praying man of God, till the Lord\u2019s\npeople had avenged themselves upon the Lord\u2019s enemies.\n\nJacob was not a strict pattern of righteousness, prior to his all-night\npraying. Yet he was a man of prayer and believed in the God of prayer.\nSo we find him swift to call upon God in prayer when he was in trouble.\nHe was fleeing from home fearing Esau, on his way to the home of Laban,\na kinsman. As night came on, he lighted on a certain place to refresh\nhimself with sleep, and as he slept he had a wonderful dream in which\nhe saw the angels of God ascending and descending on a ladder which\nstretched from earth to heaven. It was no wonder when he awoke he was\nconstrained to exclaim, \u201cSurely the Lord is in this place and I knew it\nnot.\u201d\n\nThen it was he entered into a very definite covenant with Almighty\nGod, and in prayer vowed a vow unto the Lord, saying, \u201cIf God will be\nwith me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread\nto eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father\u2019s house\nin peace; and shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set\nfor a pillar shall be God\u2019s house; and of all that thou shalt give me,\nI will surely give one-tenth unto thee.\u201d\n\nWith a deep sense of his utter dependence upon God, and desiring above\nall the help of God, Jacob conditioned his prayer for protection,\nblessing and guidance by a solemn vow. Thus Jacob supported his prayer\nto God by a vow.\n\nTwenty years had passed while Jacob tarried at the house of Laban, and\nhe had married two of his daughters and God had given him children. He\nhad increased largely in wealth, and he resolved to leave that place\nand return home to where he had been reared. Nearing home it occurred\nto him that he must meet his brother Esau, whose anger had not abated\nnotwithstanding the passage of many years. God, however, had said to\nhim, \u201cReturn to thy father\u2019s house and to thy kindred, and I will be\nwith thee.\u201d In this dire emergency doubtless God\u2019s promise and his vow\nmade long ago came to his mind, and he took himself to an all-night\nseason of prayer. Here comes to our notice that strange, inexplicable\nincident of the angel struggling with Jacob all night long, till Jacob\nat last obtained the victory. \u201cI will not let thee go except thou\nbless me.\u201d And then and there, in answer to his earnest, pressing and\nimportunate praying, he was richly blessed personally and his name was\nchanged. But even more than that, God went ahead of Jacob\u2019s desire,\nand strangely moved upon the angry nature of Esau, and lo and behold,\nwhen Jacob met him next day, Esau\u2019s anger had entirely abated, and he\nvied with Jacob in showing kindness to his brother who had wronged\nhim. No explanation of this remarkable change in the heart of Esau is\nsatisfactory which leaves out prayer.\n\nSamuel, the mighty intercessor in Israel and a man of God, was the\nproduct of his mother\u2019s prayer. Hannah is a memorable example of the\nnature and benefits of importunate praying. No son had been born to her\nand she yearned for a man child. Her whole soul was in her desire. So\nshe went to the house of worship, where Eli, the priest of God, was,\nand staggering under the weight of which bore down on her heart she was\nbeside herself and seemed to be really intoxicated. Her desires were\ntoo intense for articulation. \u201cShe poured out her soul in prayer before\nthe Lord.\u201d Insuperable natural difficulties were in the way, but she\n\u201cmultiplied her praying,\u201d as the passage means, till her God-lightened\nheart and her bright face recorded the answer to her prayers, and\nSamuel was hers by a conscious faith and a nation was restored by faith.\n\nSamuel was born in answer to the vowful prayer of Hannah, for the\nsolemn covenant which she made with God if He would grant her request\nmust not be left out of the account in investigating this incident\nof a praying woman and the answer she received. It is suggestive in\nJames 5:15 that \u201cThe prayer of faith shall save the sick,\u201d the word\ntranslated means a vow. So that prayer in its highest form of faith\nis that prayer which carries the whole man as a sacrificial offering.\nThus devoting the whole man himself, and his all, to God in a definite,\nintelligent vow, never to be broken, in a quenchless and impassioned\ndesire for heaven--such an attitude of self-devotement to God mightily\nhelps praying. Samson is somewhat of a paradox when we examine his\nreligious character. But amid all his faults, which were grave in the\nextreme, he knew the God who hears prayer and he knew how to talk to\nGod.\n\nNo farness to which Israel had gone, no depth to which Israel had\nfallen, no chains however iron with which Israel was bound but that\ntheir cry to God easily spanned the distance, fathomed the depths,\nand broke the chains. It was the lesson they were ever learning and\nalways forgetting, that prayer always brought God to their deliverance,\nand that there was nothing too hard for God to do for His people. We\nfind all of God\u2019s saints in straits at different times in some way\nor another. Their straits are, however, often the heralds of their\ngreat triumphs. But for whatever cause their straits come, or of what\nkind soever, there is no strait of any degree of direness or from any\nsource whatsoever of any nature whatsoever, from which prayer could not\nextricate them. The great strength of Samson does not relieve him nor\nextricate him out of his straits. Read what the Scriptures say:\n\n  \u201cAnd when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him; and\n  the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that\n  were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his\n  bands loosed from off his hands.\n\n  \u201cAnd he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and\n  took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.\n\n  \u201cAnd Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with\n  the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking, that\n  he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place\n  Ramath-Lehi.\n\n  \u201cAnd he was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, Thou hast\n  given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant, and now\n  shall I die of thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?\n\n  \u201cBut God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came\n  water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again and he\n  revived.\u201d\n\nWe have another incident in the case of this strange Old Testament\ncharacter, showing how, when in great straits, their minds\ninvoluntarily turned to God in prayer. However irregular in life they\nwere, however far from God they departed, however sinful they might\nbe when trouble came upon these men, they invariably called upon God\nfor deliverance, and, as a rule, when they repented God heard their\ncries and granted their requests. This incident comes at the close of\nSamson\u2019s life, and shows us how his life ended.\n\nRead the record as found in Judges, 16th chapter. Samson had formed an\nalliance with Delilah, a heathen woman, and she, in connivance with the\nPhilistines, sought to discover the source of his immense strength.\nThree successive times she failed, and at last by her persistence and\nwomanly arts persuaded Samson to divulge to her the wonderful secret.\nSo in an unsuspecting hour he disclosed to her the fact that the\nsource of his strength was in his hair which had never been cut; and\nshe deprived him of his great physical power by cutting off his hair.\nShe called for the Philistines, and they came and put out his eyes and\notherwise mistreated him.\n\nOn an occasion when the Philistines were gathered together to offer a\ngreat sacrifice to Dagon, their idol god, they called for Samson to\nmake sport for them. And the following is the account as he stood there\npresumably the laughing-stock of these enemies of his and of God.\n\n  \u201cAnd Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me\n  that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may\n  lean upon them.\n\n  \u201cNow the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the\n  Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three\n  thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.\n\n  \u201cAnd Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me,\n  I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, my God,\n  that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.\n  And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house\n  stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand\n  and of the other with his left.\n\n  \u201cAnd Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed\n  himself with all his might, and the house fell upon the lords, and\n  upon all the people that were there within. So the dead which he slew\n  at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nPRAYING SAINTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENTS\n\n(_Continued_)\n\n  _Bishop Lambeth and Wainwright had a great M. E. Mission in Osaka,\n  Japan. One day the order came from high up that no more meetings would\n  be allowed in the city by Protestants. Lambeth and Wainwright did all\n  they could but the high officials were obstinate and unrelenting. They\n  then retired to the room of prayer. Supper time came and the Japanese\n  girl came to summon them to their meal, but she fell under the power\n  of prayer. Mrs. Lambeth came to find what the matter was and fell\n  under the same power. They then rose and went to the mission hall and\n  opened it: and at once commenced meeting. God fell upon the assembly\n  and two of the sons of the city officials came to the altar and were\n  saved. Next morning one of the officials in authority came to the\n  mission and said, \u201cGo on with your meetings, you will not be\n  interrupted.\u201d The Osaka daily paper came out with box car letters\n  saying, \u201cTHE CHRISTIAN\u2019S GOD CAME TO TOWN LAST NIGHT.\u201d_--REV. H. C.\n  MORRISON.\n\n\nJonah, the man who prayed in the fish\u2019s belly, brings to view another\nremarkable instance of these Old Testament worthies who were given to\nprayer. This man Jonah, a prophet of the Lord, was a fugitive from God\nand from the place of duty. He had been sent on a mission of warning to\nwicked Nineveh, and had been commanded to cry out against them, \u201cfor\ntheir wickedness is come up before me,\u201d said God. But Jonah, through\nfear or otherwise, declined to obey God, and took passage on a ship for\nTarshish, fleeing from God. He seems to have overlooked the plain fact\nthat the same God who had sent him on that alarming mission had His eye\nupon him as he hid himself on board that vessel. A storm arose as the\nvessel was on its way to Tarshish, and it was decided to throw Jonah\noverboard in order to appease God and to avert the destruction of the\nboat and of all on board. But God was there as He had been with Jonah\nfrom the beginning. He had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, in\norder to arrest him, to defeat him in his flight from the post of duty,\nand to save Jonah that he might help to carry out the purposes of God.\n\nIt was Jonah who was in the fish\u2019s belly, in that great strait,\nand passing through a strange experience, who called upon God, who\nheard him and caused the fish to vomit him out on dry land. What\npossible force could rescue him from this fearful place? He seemed\nhopelessly lost, in \u201cthe belly of hell,\u201d as good as dead and damned.\nBut he prays--what else can he do? And this is just what he had been\naccustomed to do when in trouble before.\n\n  \u201cI cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me;\n  out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardst my voice.\u201d\n\nAnd the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry\nland.\n\nLike others he joined prayer to a vow he had made, for he says in his\nprayer, \u201cBut I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving;\nI will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.\u201d\n\nPrayer was the mighty force which brought Jonah from \u201cthe belly of\nhell.\u201d Prayer, mighty prayer, has secured the end. Prayer brought God\nto the rescue of unfaithful Jonah, despite his sin of fleeing from\nduty, and God could not deny his prayer. Nothing is too hard for prayer\nbecause nothing is too hard for God.\n\nThat answered prayer of Jonah in the fish\u2019s belly in its mighty results\nbecame an Old Testament type of the miraculous power displayed in the\nresurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Our Lord puts His seal of\ntruth upon the fact of Jonah\u2019s prayer and resurrection.\n\nNothing can be simpler than these cases of God\u2019s mighty deliverance.\nNothing is plainer than that prayer has to do with God directly and\nsimply. Nothing is clearer than that prayer has its only worth and\nsignificance in the great fact that God hears and answers prayer.\nThis the Old Testament saints strongly believed. It is the one fact\nthat stands out continuously and prominently in their lives. They were\nessentially men of prayer.\n\nHow greatly we need a school to teach the art of praying! This simplest\nof all arts and mightiest of all forces is ever in danger of being\nforgotten or depraved. The further we get away from our mother\u2019s\nknees, the further do we get away from the true art of praying. All\nour after-schooling and our after-teachers unteach us the lessons of\nprayer. Men prayed well in Old Testament times because they were simple\nmen and lived in simple times. They were childlike, lived in childlike\ntimes and had childlike faith.\n\nIn citing the Old Testament saints noted for their praying habits, by\nno means must David be overlooked, a man who pre\u00ebminently was a man\nof prayer. With him prayer was a habit, for we hear him say, \u201cEvening\nand morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud.\u201d Prayer with the\nSweet Psalmist of Israel was no strange occupation. He knew the way to\nGod and was often found in that way. It is no wonder we hear his call\nso clear and impressive, \u201cO come, let us worship and bow down; let us\nkneel before the Lord our Maker.\u201d He knew God as the one being who\ncould answer prayer: \u201cO thou that hearest prayer, to thee shall all\nflesh come.\u201d\n\nWhen God smote the child born of Bathsheba, because David had by his\ngrievous sins given occasion of the enemies of God to blaspheme, it is\nno surprise that we find him engaged in a week\u2019s praying, asking God\nfor the life of the child. The habit of his life asserted itself in\nthis great emergency in his home, and we find him fasting and praying\nfor the child to recover. The fact that God denied his request does not\nat all affect the question of David\u2019s habit of praying. Even though\nhe did not receive what he asked for, his faith in God was not in the\nleast affected. The fact is that while God did not give him the life of\nthat baby boy, He afterward gave him another son, even Solomon. So that\npossibly the latter son was a far great blessing to him than would have\nbeen the child for whom he prayed.\n\nIn close connection with this season of prayer, we must not overlook\nDavid\u2019s penitential praying when Nathan, by command of God, uncovered\nDavid\u2019s two great sins of adultery and murder. At once David\nacknowledged his wickedness, saying unto Nathan, \u201cI have sinned.\u201d\nAnd as showing his deep grief over his sin, his heart-broken spirit,\nand his genuine repentance, it is only necessary to read Psalm 51\nwhere confession of sin, deep humiliation and prayer are the chief\ningredients of the Psalm.\n\nDavid knew where to find a sin-pardoning God, and was received back\nagain and had the joys of salvation restored to him by earnest,\nsincere, penitential praying. Thus are all sinners brought into the\ndivine favor, thus do they find pardon, and thus do they find a new\nheart.\n\nThe entire Book of Psalms brings prayer to the front, and prayer\nfairly bristles before our eyes as we read this devotional book of the\nScriptures.\n\nNor must even Solomon be overlooked in the famous catalogue of men who\nprayed in Old Testament times. Whatever their faults, they did not\nforget the God who hears prayer nor did they cease to seek the God of\nprayer. While this wise man in his later life departed from God, and\nhis sun set under a cloud, we find him praying at the commencement of\nhis reign.\n\nSolomon went to Gibeon to offer sacrifice, which always meant that\nprayer went in close companionship with sacrifice, and while there, the\nLord appeared to Solomon in a vision by night, saying unto him, \u201cAsk\nwhat I shall give thee.\u201d The sequel shows the material out of which\nSolomon\u2019s character was formed. What was his request?\n\n  \u201cO Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of my father;\n  and I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or to come in.\n\n  \u201cAnd thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast\n  chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for\n  multitude.\n\n  \u201cGive therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy\n  people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to\n  judge this thy so great a people?\u201d\n\nWe do not wonder that it is recorded as a result of such praying:\n\n  \u201cAnd the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.\n\n  \u201cAnd God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and\n  hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for\n  thyself, nor hast asked the life of thy enemies, but has asked for\n  thyself understanding to discern judgment;\n\n  \u201cBehold I have done according to thy word; Lo, I have given thee a\n  wise and understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before\n  thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.\n\n  \u201cAlso I have given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches\n  and honor; so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto\n  thee all thy days.\u201d\n\nWhat praying was this! What self-deprecation and simplicity! \u201cI am but\na little child.\u201d How he specified the one thing needful! And see how\nmuch more he received than that for which he asked!\n\nTake the remarkable prayer at the dedication of the temple. Possibly\nthis is the longest recorded prayer in God\u2019s Word. How comprehensive,\npointed, intensive, it is! Solomon could not afford to lay the\nfoundations of God\u2019s house in anything else but in prayer. And God\nheard this prayer as he heard him before, \u201cAnd when Solomon had made an\nend of his praying, the fire came down from heaven, and the glory of\nthe Lord filled the house,\u201d thus God attested the acceptance of this\nhouse of worship and of Solomon, the praying king.\n\nThe list of these Old Testament saints given to prayer grows as we\nproceed, and is too long to notice at length all of them. But the name\nof Isaiah, the great evangelical prophet, and that of Jeremiah, the\nweeping prophet, must not be left out of the account. Still others\nmight be mentioned. These are sufficient, and with their names we may\nclose the list. Let careful readers of the Old Scriptures keep the\nprayer question in mind, and they will see how great a place prayer\noccupied in the minds and lives of the men of those early days.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nABRAHAM, THE MAN OF PRAYER\n\n  _Oh for determined men and women, who will rise early and really burn\n  out for God. Oh for a faith that will sweep into heaven with the early\n  dawning of the morning and have ships from a shoreless sea loaded in\n  the soul\u2019s harbor ere the ordinary laborer has knocked the dew from\n  his scythe or the huckster has turned from his pallet of straw to\n  spread nature\u2019s treasures of fruit before the early buyers._--REV.\n  HOMER W. HODGE.\n\n\nAbraham, the friend of God, was a striking illustration of one of the\nOld Testament saints who believed strongly in prayer. Abraham was not\na shadowy figure by any means. In the simplicity and dimness of the\npatriarchal dispensation, as illustrated by him, we learn the worth of\nprayer, as well as discover its antiquity. The fact is, prayer reaches\nback to the first ages of man on earth. We see how the energy of prayer\nis absolutely required in the simplest as well as in the most complex\ndispensations of God\u2019s grace. When we study Abraham\u2019s character,\nwe find that after his call to go out into an unknown country, on\nhis journey with his family and his household servants, wherever\nhe tarried by the way for the night or longer, he always erected an\naltar, and \u201ccalled upon the name of the Lord.\u201d And this man of faith\nand prayer was one of the first to erect a family altar, around\nwhich to gather his household and offer the sacrifices of worship,\nof praise and of prayer. These altars built by Abraham were, first\nof all, essentially altars about which he gathered his household, as\ndistinguished from secret prayer.\n\nAs God\u2019s revelations became fuller and more perfect, Abraham\u2019s\nprayerfulness increased, and it was at one of these spiritual eras\nthat \u201cAbraham fell on his face and God talked with him.\u201d On still\nanother occasion we find this man, \u201cthe father of the faithful,\u201d on\nhis face before God, astonished almost to incredulity at the purposes\nand revelations of Almighty God to him in promising him a son in his\nold age, and the wonderful engagements which God made concerning his\npromised son.\n\nEven Ishmael\u2019s destiny is shaped by Abraham\u2019s prayer when he prayed, \u201cO\nthat Ishmael might live before thee!\u201d\n\nWhat a remarkable story is that of Abraham\u2019s standing before God\nrepeating his intercessions for the wicked city of Sodom, the home of\nhis nephew Lot, doomed by God\u2019s decision to destroy it! Sodom\u2019s fate\nwas for a while stayed by Abraham\u2019s praying, and was almost entirely\nrelieved by the humility and insistence of the praying of this man\nwho believed strongly in prayer and who knew how to pray. No other\nrecourse was opened to Abraham to save Sodom but prayer. Perhaps the\nfailure to ultimately rescue Sodom from her doom of destruction was due\nto Abraham\u2019s optimistic view of the spiritual condition of things in\nthat city. It might have been possible,--who knows?--that if Abraham\nhad entreated God once more, and asked Him to spare the city if even\none righteous man was found there, for Lot\u2019s sake, He might have heeded\nAbraham\u2019s request.\n\nNote another instance in the life of Abraham as showing how he was\na man of prayer and had power with God. Abraham had journeyed to\nand was sojourning in Gerar. Fearing that Abimelech might kill him\nand appropriate Sarah his wife to his own lustful uses, he deceived\nAbimelech by claiming that Sarah was his sister. God appeared unto\nAbimelech in a dream and warned him not to touch Sarah, telling him\nthat she was the wife of Abraham, and not his sister. Then he said\nunto Abimelech, \u201cNow restore therefore the man his wife; for he is a\nprophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.\u201d And the\nconclusion of the incident is thus recorded: \u201cSo Abraham prayed unto\nGod, and God healed Abimelech and his wife, and his maid servants, and\nthey bare children. For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of\nthe house of Abimelech because of Sarah, his wife.\u201d\n\nThis was a case somewhat on the line of that of Job at the close of\nhis fearful experience and his terrible trials, when his friends, not\nunderstanding Job, neither comprehending God\u2019s dealings with this\nservant of His, falsely charged Job with being in sin as the cause of\nall his troubles. God said to these friends of Job, \u201cMy servant Job\nshall pray for you, for him will I accept. And the Lord turned the\ncaptivity of Job when he had prayed for his friends.\u201d\n\nAlmighty God knew His servant Job as a man of prayer, and He could\nafford to send these friends of Job to him to pray in order to carry\nout and fulfill His plans and purposes.\n\nIt was Abraham\u2019s rule to stand before the Lord in prayer. His life\nwas surcharged with prayer and Abraham\u2019s dispensation was sanctified\nby prayer. For wherever he halted in his pilgrimage, prayer was his\ninseparable accompaniment. Side by side with the altar of sacrifice was\nthe altar of prayer. He got up early in the morning to the place where\nhe stood before the Lord in prayer.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nMOSES, THE MIGHTY INTERCESSOR\n\n  _Intercessory Prayer is a powerful means of grace to the praying man.\n  Martyn observes that at times of inward dryness and depression, he had\n  often found a delightful revival in the act of praying for others for\n  their conversion, or sanctification, or prosperity in the work of the\n  Lord. His dealings with God for them about these gifts and blessings\n  were for himself the divinely natural channel of a renewed insight\n  into his own part and lot in Christ, into Christ as his own rest and\n  power, into the \u201cperfect freedom\u201d of an entire yielding of himself to\n  his Master for His work._--BISHOP HANDLEY C. G. MOULE.\n\n\nPrayer unites with the purposes of God and lays itself out to secure\nthose purposes. How often would the wise and benign will of God fail\nin its rich and beneficent ends by the sins of the people if prayer\nhad not come in to arrest wrath and make the promise sure! Israel as\na nation would have met their just destruction and their just fate\nafter their apostasy with the golden calf had it not been for the\ninterposition and unfainting importunity of Moses\u2019 forty days\u2019 and\nforty nights\u2019 praying!\n\nMarvelous was the effect of the character of Moses by his marvelous\npraying. His near and sublime intercourse with God in the giving\nof the law worked no transfiguration of character like the tireless\npraying of those forty days in prayer with God. It was when he came\ndown from that long struggle of prayer that his face shone with such\ndazzling brightness. Our mounts of transfiguration and the heavenly\nshining in character and conduct are born of seasons of wrestling\nprayer. All-night praying has changed many a Jacob, the supplanter,\ninto Israel, a prince, who has power with God and with men.\n\nNo mission was more majestic in purpose and results than that of\nMoses, and none was more responsible, diligent and difficult. In it\nwe are taught the sublime ministry and rule of prayer. Not only is it\nthe medium of supply and support, but it is a compassionate agency\nthrough which the pitying long-suffering of God has an outflow. Prayer\nis a medium to restrain God\u2019s wrath, that mercy might rejoice against\njudgment.\n\nMoses himself and his mission were the creation of prayer. Thus it is\nrecorded: \u201cWhen Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto\nthe Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers\nout of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place.\u201d This is the genesis\nof the great movement for the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egyptian\nbondage.\n\nThe great movements of God have had their origin and energy in and\nwere shaped by prayers of men. Prayer has directly to deal with God.\nOther ends, collateral and incidental, are secured by prayer, but\nmainly, almost solely, prayer has to deal with God. He is pleased to\norder His policy, and base His action on the prayers of His saints.\nPrayer influences God greatly. Moses cannot do God\u2019s great work, though\nGod-commissioned, without praying much. Moses cannot govern God\u2019s\npeople and carry out the divine plans, without having his censer filled\nfull of the incense of prayer. The work of God cannot be done without\nthe fire and fragrance are always burning, ascending and perfuming.\n\nMoses\u2019 prayers are often found relieving the terrible stroke of God\u2019s\nwrath. Four times were the prayers of Moses solicited by Pharaoh to\nrelieve him of the fearful stroke of God\u2019s wrath. \u201cEntreat the Lord,\u201d\nmost earnestly begged Pharaoh of Moses, while the loathsome frogs were\nupon him. And \u201cMoses cried unto the Lord because of the frogs which God\nhad brought against the land of Egypt, and the Lord did according to\nthe word of Moses.\u201d When the grievous plague of flies had corrupted the\nwhole land, Pharaoh again piteously cried out to Moses, \u201cEntreat for\nme.\u201d Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord, and the Lord\nagain did according to the word of Moses. The mighty thunderings and\nhail in their alarming and destructive fury extorted from this wicked\nking the very same earnest appeal to Moses, \u201cEntreat the Lord.\u201d And\nMoses went out from the city into privacy, and alone with Almighty God,\nhe \u201cspread abroad his hands unto the Lord, and the thunderings and hail\nceased, and the rain was not poured out upon the earth.\u201d\n\nThough Moses was the man of law, yet with him prayer asserted its\nmighty force. With him, as in the more spiritual dispensation, it could\nhave been said, \u201cMy house is the house of prayer.\u201d\n\nMoses accepts at its full face value the foundation principle of\npraying that prayer has to do with God. With Abraham we saw this\nclearly and strongly enunciated. With Moses it is clearer and stronger\nstill if possible. It declared that prayer affected God, that God was\ninfluenced in His conduct by prayer, and that God hears and answers\nprayer even when the hearing and answering might change His conduct and\nreverse His action. Stronger than all other laws, and more inflexible\nthan any other decree, is the decree, \u201cCall upon me and I will answer\nyou.\u201d\n\nMoses lived near God, and had the freest and most unhindered and\nboldest access to God, but this, instead of abating the necessity of\nprayer, made it more necessary, obvious and powerful. Familiarity and\ncloseness to God gives relish, frequency, point and potency to prayer.\nThose who know God the best are the richest and most powerful in\nprayer. Little acquaintance with God, and strangeness and coldness to\nHim, make prayer a rare and feeble thing.\n\nThere were conditions of extremity to which Moses was reduced which\nprayer did not relieve, but there is no position of extremity which\nbaffles God, when prayer puts God into the matter.\n\nMoses\u2019 mission was a divine one. It was ordered, directed and planned\nby God. The more there is of God in a movement, the more there is of\nprayer, conspicuous and controlling. Moses\u2019 prayer rule of the church\nillustrates the necessity of courage and persistence in prayer. For\nforty days and forty nights was Moses pressing his prayer for the\nsalvation of the Lord\u2019s people. So intense was his concern for them\nwhich accompanied his long season of praying, that bodily infirmities\nand appetites were retired. How strangely the prayers of a righteous\nman affect God is evident from the exclamation of God to Moses, \u201cNow,\ntherefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, that I\nmay consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation.\u201d The presence\nof such an influence over God fills us with astonishment, awe and fear.\nHow lofty, bold and devoted must be such a pleader!\n\nRead this from the divine record:\n\n  \u201cAnd Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have\n  sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold!\n\n  \u201cYet now if thou wilt forgive their sin--and if not, blot me, I pray\n  thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.\n\n  \u201cAnd the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him\n  will I blot out of my book.\n\n  \u201cTherefore now go, and lead the people unto the place of which I have\n  spoken unto thee. Behold my angel shall go before thee.\u201d\n\nThe rebellion of Korah was the occasion of God\u2019s anger flaming out\nagainst the whole congregation of Israel, who sympathized with these\nrebels. Again Moses appears on the stage of action, this time having\nAaron to join him in intercession for these sinners against God. But it\nonly shows that in a serious time like this Moses knew to whom to go\nfor relief, and was encouraged to pray that God would stay His wrath\nand spare Israel. Here is what is said about the matter:\n\n  \u201cAnd the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying,\n\n  \u201cSeparate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume\n  them in a moment.\n\n  \u201cAnd they fell on their faces, and said, O God, the God of the\n  spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with\n  all the congregation?\u201d\n\nThe assumption, pride and rebellion of Miriam, sister of Moses, in\nwhich she had the presence and sympathy of Aaron, put the praying and\nthe spirit of Moses in the noblest and most amiable light. Because of\nher sin God smote her with leprosy. But Moses made tender and earnest\nintercession for his sister who had so grievously offended God, and his\nprayer saved her from the fearful and incurable malady.\n\nThe record is intensely interesting, and follows just here:\n\n  \u201cAnd the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and the cloud\n  departed from off the tabernacle and behold, Miriam became leprous,\n  white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold she was\n  leprous.\n\n  \u201cAnd Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not\n  the sin unto us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have\n  sinned.\n\n  \u201cLet her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when\n  he cometh out of his mother\u2019s womb.\n\n  \u201cAnd Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her, O God, I beseech\n  thee.\n\n  \u201cAnd the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her\n  face, should she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from\n  the camp seven days, and after that let her be received again.\u201d\n\nThe murmurings of the children of Israel furnished conditions which\ncalled into play the full forces of prayer. They impressively bring out\nthe intercessory feature of prayer and disclose Moses in his great\noffice as an intercessor before God in behalf of others. It was at\nMarah, where the waters were bitter and the people grievously murmured\nagainst Moses and God.\n\nHere is the Scripture account:\n\n  \u201cAnd when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of\n  Marah; for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called\n  Marah.\n\n  \u201cAnd the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?\n\n  \u201cAnd Moses cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which\n  when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet; there\n  he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved\n  them.\u201d\n\nHow many of the bitter places of the earth have been sweetened by\nprayer the records of eternity alone will disclose.\n\nAgain at Taberah the people complained, and God became angry with them,\nand Moses came again to the front and stepped into the breach and\nprayed for them. Here is the brief account:\n\n  \u201cAnd when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; and the Lord\n  heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt\n  among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost part of the\n  camp.\n\n  \u201cAnd the people cried unto Moses, and when Moses prayed unto the\n  Lord, the fire was quenched.\u201d\n\nMoses got what he asked for. His praying was specific and God\u2019s answer\nwas likewise specific. Always was he heard by Almighty God when he\nprayed, and always was he answered by God. Once the answer was not\nspecific. He had prayed to go into Canaan. The answer came but not\nwhat he asked for. He was given a vision of the Promised Land, but\nhe was not allowed to go over Jordan into that land of promise. It\nwas a prayer on the order of Paul\u2019s when he prayed three times for\nthe removal of the thorn in the flesh. But the thorn was not removed.\nGrace, however, was vouchsafed which made the thorn a blessing.\n\nIt must not be thought that because the 90th Psalm is incorporated with\nwhat is known as the \u201cPsalms of David,\u201d that David was the author of\nit. By general consent it is attributed to Moses, and it gives us a\nsample of the praying of this giver of the law of God to the people. It\nis a prayer worth studying. It is sacred to us because it has been the\nrequiem uttered over our dead for years that are past and gone. It has\nblessed the grave of many a sleeping saint. But its very familiarity\nmay cause us to lose its full meaning. Wise will we be if we digest it,\nnot for the dead, but for the living, that it may teach us how to live,\nhow to pray while living, and how to die. \u201cSo teach us to number our\ndays that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Establish thou the work of\nour hands, yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nELIJAH, THE PRAYING PROPHET\n\n  _\u201cI have known men,\u201d says Goodwin--it must have been himself--\u201cwho\n  came to God for nothing else but just to come to Him, they so loved\n  Him. They scorned to soil Him and themselves with any other errand\n  than just purely to be alone with Him in His presence. Friendship is\n  best kept up, even among men, by frequent visits; and the more free\n  and defecate those frequent visits are, and the less occasioned by\n  business, or necessity, or custom they are, the more friendly and\n  welcome they are.\u201d_--REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE.\n\n\nElijah is pre\u00ebminently the elder of the prophets. The crown, the\nthrone and the scepter are his. His garments are white with flame. He\nseems exalted in his fiery and prayerful nature, as a being seemingly\nsuperhuman, but the New Testament places him alongside of us as man of\nlike nature with us. Instead of placing himself outside the sphere of\nhumanity, in the marvelous results of his praying, it points to him as\nan example to be imitated and as inspiration to stimulate us. To pray\nlike Elijah, and to have results like Elijah, is the crying need of the\ntimes.\n\nElijah had learned the lesson of prayer, and had graduated in that\ndivine school ere we know him. Somewhere in the secret places, on\nmountain or in plain, he had been alone with God, an intercessor\nagainst the debasing idolatry of Ahab. Mightily had his prayers\nprevailed with God. How confidently and well assured were the answers\nto his praying.\n\nHe had been talking with God about vengeance. He was the embodiment of\nhis times. Those times were times of vengeance. The intercessor was not\nto be clothed with an olive branch with its fillet of wood, the symbol\nof a suppliant for mercy, but with fire, the symbol of justice and the\nmessenger of wrath. How abruptly does he come before us in the presence\nof Ahab! Well assured and with holy boldness does he declare before\nthe astonished, cowering king his message of fearful import, a message\ngained by his earnest praying,--\u201cin praying he prayed that it might\nnot rain,\u201d and God did not deny his prayer. \u201cAs the Lord God of Israel\nliveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these\nyears but according to my word.\u201d\n\nThe secret of his praying and the character of the man are found in\nthe words, \u201cBefore whom I stand.\u201d We are here reminded of Gabriel\u2019s\nwords to Zacharias in informing this priest of the coming of a son to\nhim and his wife in their old age: \u201cI am Gabriel that standeth in the\npresence of God.\u201d The archangel Gabriel had scarcely more unflinching\ndevotion, more courage, and more readiness of obedience, and more\njealousy of God\u2019s honor, than Elijah. What projecting power do we see\nin his prayer! \u201cAnd it rained not on the earth by the space of three\nyears and six months.\u201d What omnipotent forces which can command the\npowers of nature! \u201cNot dew nor rain.\u201d What man is this who dares utter\nsuch a claim or assert such a power? If his claim be false, he is a\nfanatic or a madman. If his claim be true, he has stayed the benevolent\narm of Omnipotence, and put himself, by God\u2019s leave, in God\u2019s place.\nThe accursed and burnt-up land and the fiery, rainless and dewless days\nand nights, attest the truth of his saying, and prove the sternness,\nstrength, firmness and passion of the man who holds back the clouds and\nstays the blessed visitation of the rain. Elijah is his name, and this\nattests the truth of that name, \u201cMy God is Jehovah.\u201d\n\nHis prayers have the power to stay the benignant course of nature.\nHe stands in God\u2019s stead in this matter. The sober, passionless,\nunimaginative James, the brother of our Lord, in his Epistle, says to\nus: \u201cSee what prayer can do, by Elijah! Pray as Elijah prayed. Let the\nrighteous man put forth to its fullest extent the energy of prayer.\nLet saints and sinners, angels and devils, see and feel the mighty\npotencies of prayer. See how the prayer of a good man has power and\ninfluence, and avails with God!\u201d\n\nNo sham praying was that of Elijah, no mere performance, no spiritless,\nsoulless, official praying was it. Elijah was in Elijah\u2019s praying. The\nwhole man, with all his fiery forces, was in it. Almighty God to him\nwas real. Prayer to him was the means of projecting God in full force\non the world, in order to vindicate His name, establish His own being,\nto avenge His blasphemed name and violated law, and to vindicate His\nservants.\n\nInstead of \u201cprayed earnestly,\u201d in James 5:17, the Revised Version has\nit, \u201cIn his prayer he prayed,\u201d or \u201cwith prayer he prayed.\u201d That is,\nwith all the combined energies of prayer he prayed.\n\nElijah\u2019s praying was strong, insistent, and resistless in its elements\nof power. Feeble praying secures no results and brings neither glory to\nGod nor good to man.\n\nElijah learned new and higher lessons of prayer while hidden away by\nGod and with God when he was by the brook Cherith. He was doubtless\ncommuning with God while Ahab was searching all lands for him. After\na while he was ordered to Sarepta, where God had commanded a widow to\nsustain him. He went there for the widow\u2019s good as well as for his own.\nA benefit to Elijah and a signal good to the widow were the results\nof Elijah\u2019s going. While this woman provided for him, he provided for\nthe woman. Elijah\u2019s prayers did more for the woman than the woman\u2019s\nhospitality did for Elijah. Great trials awaited the widow and great\nsorrows too. Her widowhood and her poverty tell of her struggles and\nher sorrows. Elijah was there to relieve her poverty and to assuage her\ngriefs.\n\nHere is the interesting account:\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass that after these things, the son of the woman,\n  the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was sore, that\n  there was no breath left in him.\n\n  \u201cAnd she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of\n  God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay\n  my son?\n\n  \u201cAnd he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her\n  bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him\n  upon his own bed.\n\n  \u201cAnd he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also\n  brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying her son?\n\n  \u201cAnd he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto\n  the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee let this child\u2019s soul\n  come into him again.\n\n  \u201cAnd the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child\n  came into him again, and he revived.\n\n  \u201cAnd Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber\n  into the house, and delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said,\n  See, thy son liveth.\n\n  \u201cAnd the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man\n  of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.\u201d\n\nElijah\u2019s prayer enters regions where prayer had never gone before. The\nawful, mysterious and powerful regions of the dead are now invaded by\nthe presence and demands of prayer. Jesus Christ refers to Elijah\u2019s\ngoing to this widow as mainly, if not solely, for her good. Elijah\u2019s\npresence and praying keep the woman from starving and brings her son\nback from death. Surely no sorrow is like the bitterness of the loss of\nan only son. With what assured confidence Elijah faces the conditions!\nThere is no hesitancy in his actions, and there is no pause in his\nfaith. He takes the dead son to his own room, and alone with God he\nmakes the issue. In that room God meets him and the struggle is with\nGod alone. The struggle is too intense and too sacred for companionship\nor for spectator. The prayer is made to God and the issue is with God.\nThe child has been taken by God, and God rules in the realms of death.\nIn His hands are the issues of life and death. Elijah believed that\nGod had taken the child\u2019s spirit, and that God could as well restore\nthat spirit. God answered Elijah\u2019s prayer. The answer was the proof of\nElijah\u2019s mission from God, and of the truth of God\u2019s Word. The dead\nchild brought to life was a sure conviction of this truth: \u201cNow by this\nI know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy\nmouth is truth.\u201d Answers to prayer are the evidences of the being of\nGod and of the truth of His Word.\n\nThe immortal test of Elijah made in the presence of an apostate king,\nand in the face of a back-slidden nation and an idolatrous priesthood\non Mount Carmel, is a sublime exhibition of faith and prayer. In the\ncontest the prophets of Baal had failed. No fire from heaven falls from\nheaven in answer to their frantic cries. Elijah, in great quietness of\nspirit and with confident assurance, calls Israel to him. He repairs\nthe wasted altar of God, the altar of sacrifice and of prayer, and puts\nthe pieces of the bullock in order on the altar. He then uses every\npreventive against any charge of deception. Everything is flooded with\nwater. Then Elijah prays a model prayer, remarkable for its clearness,\nits simplicity and its utmost candor. It is noted for its brevity and\nits faith.\n\nRead the account given in the Scriptures:\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening\n  sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of\n  Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art\n  God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all\n  these things at thy word.\n\n  \u201cHear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art\n  the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.\n\n  \u201cThen the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice,\n  and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water\n  that was in the trench.\n\n  \u201cAnd when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they\n  said, The Lord, he is God; The Lord, he is God.\u201d\n\nElijah had been dealing directly with God as before. True prayer always\ndeals with God. This prayer of Elijah was to determine the existence\nof the true God, and the answer direct from God settles the question.\nThe answer is also the credentials of Elijah\u2019s divine mission and the\nevidence that God deals with men. If we had more of Elijah\u2019s praying,\nmarvels would not be the marvels that they are now to us. God would not\nbe so strange, so far away in being and so feeble in action. Everything\nis tame and feeble because our praying is so tame and feeble.\n\nGod said to Elijah, \u201cGo show thyself to Ahab, and I will send rain\non the earth.\u201d Elijah acted promptly on the divine order, and showed\nhimself to Ahab. He had made his issue with Ahab, Israel and Baal.\nThe whole current of national feeling had turned back to God. The day\nwas fading into the evening shades. No rain had come. But Elijah did\nnot fold his arms and say the promise had failed, but gave point and\nfulfilment to the promise.\n\nHere is the Scripture record with the result given:\n\n  \u201cAnd Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is\n  a sound of abundance of rain.\n\n  \u201cSo Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top\n  of Carmel. And he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face\n  between his knees.\n\n  \u201cAnd said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went\n  up and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again\n  seven times.\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass at the seventh time that he said, Behold there\n  riseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man\u2019s hand. And he said,\n  Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that\n  the rain stop thee not.\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass in the meanwhile, that the heaven was black with\n  clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went\n  to Jezreel.\n\n  \u201cAnd the hand of the Lord was on Elijah.\u201d\n\nThen it was, as James records, \u201cAnd he prayed again, and the heaven\ngave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.\u201d\n\nElijah\u2019s importunate, fiery praying and God\u2019s promise brought the\nrain. Prayer carries the promise to its gracious fulfillment. It takes\npersistent and persevering prayer to give to the promise its largest\nand most gracious results. In this instance it was expectant prayer,\nwatchful of results, looking for the answer. Elijah had the answer in\nthe small cloud like a man\u2019s hand. He had the inward assurance of the\nanswer even before he had the rain. How Elijah\u2019s praying shames our\nfeeble praying! His praying brought things to pass. It vindicated the\nexistence and being of God, brought conviction to dull and sluggish\nconsciences, and proved that God was still God in the nation. Elijah\u2019s\npraying turned a whole nation back to God, ordered the moving of the\nclouds, and directed the falling of the rain. It called down fire from\nheaven to prove the existence of God or to destroy God\u2019s enemies.\n\nThe praying of the Elder Prophet of Israel was clothed in his robes of\nfire. The golden crown was on his head, and his censer was full and\nfragrant with the flame, the melody and the perfume of prayer. What\nwonderful power clothed him on this occasion! It was no wonder that\nElisha cried out as he saw this fiery prophet of the Lord enter the\nchariot for his heavenly ride, \u201cMy father! my father! The chariot of\nIsrael and the horsemen thereof!\u201d But chariots and armies could not\nbegin to do as much for Israel as did this praying Elijah. Prayers are\nomnipotent forces, world-wide and heaven-reaching.\n\nWhere are the praying ones of modern times of fiery faith who can\nincense Elijah\u2019s prayers? We need at this time rulers in the Church\nwho can add to the force, flame and fragrance of Elijah\u2019s praying by\ntheir own prayers.\n\nElijah could touch nothing but by prayer. God was with him mightily\nbecause he was mighty in prayer.\n\nIn the contest with the prophets of Baal, he makes the issue clearly\nand positively to determine the true God, as one to be made by prayer.\nDoes God live? Is the Bible a revelation from Him? How often in\nthese days are those questions rising? How often do they need to be\nsettled? An appeal by prayer is the only settlement to them. Where is\nthe trouble? Not in God, but in our praying. The proof of God and of\nHis being is that He answers prayer. It takes the faith and prayer of\nElijah to settle the question. Where are the Elijahs in the Church of\nthe present day? Where are the men of like passions as he, who can pray\nas he prayed? We have thousands of men of like passions, but where\nare the men of like praying as he was? Notice with what calm, assured\nconfidence he stakes the issue and builds the altar. How calm and\npointed is his prayer on that occasion!\n\nInstead of such praying being out of the range of New Testament\nprinciples and moderation, this very praying of Elijah is pressed as\nan example to be imitated and as an illustration of what prayer is and\nwhat prayer can do when performed by the right men in the right way.\nElijah\u2019s results could be secured if we had more Elijah men to do the\npraying.\n\nElijah prayed really, truly and earnestly. How much of praying there\nis at the present time which is not real praying, but is a mere shell,\nshucks, and mere words! Much of it might well be termed non-praying.\nThe world is full of such praying. It goes nowhere, it avails nothing,\nit brings no returns. In fact, no returns nor results are expected.\n\nThe requisites of true prayer are the requisites of scriptural, vital,\npersonal religion. They are the requisites of real religious service\nin this life. Primary among these requisites is that in serving, we\nserve. So in praying, we must pray. Truth and heart reality, these\nare the core, the substance, the sum, the heart of prayer. There are\nno possibilities in prayer without we really pray in all simplicity,\nreality and trueness. Prayerless praying--how common, how popular, how\ndelusive and vain!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nHEZEKIAH, THE PRAYING KING\n\n  _One can form a habit of study until the will seems to be at rest and\n  only the intellect is engaged, the will having retired altogether from\n  exercise. This is not true of real praying. If the affections are\n  laggard, cold, indifferent, if the intellect is furnishing no material\n  to clothe the petition with imagery and fervor, the prayer is a mere\n  vaporing of intellectual exercise, nothing being accomplished worth\n  while._--REV. HOMER W. HODGE.\n\n\nThe great religious reformation under King Hezekiah and the prophet\nIsaiah was thoroughly impregnated with prayer in its various stages.\nKing Hezekiah, of Judah, will serve as an illustration of a praying\nelder of God\u2019s Church, white-robed and gold-crowned. He had genius and\nstrength, wisdom and piety. He was a statesman, a general, a poet and\na religious reformer. He is a distinct surprise to us, not so much\nbecause of his strength and genius--they were to be expected--but in\nhis piety, under all the circumstances connected with him. The rare\nstatement, \u201cHe did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,\u201d is\na glad and thrilling surprise when we consider all his antecedents\nand his environments. Where did he come from? Under what circumstances\nwas his childhood life spent? Who were his parents and what were their\nreligious character? Worldliness, half-heartedness and utter apostasy\nmarked the reign of his father, grandfather and his great-grandfather.\nHis home surroundings as he grew up were far from being favorable to\ngodliness and faith in God. One thing, however, favored him. He was\nfortunate in having Isaiah for his friend and counselor when he assumed\nthe crown of Judah. How much there is in a ruler\u2019s having a God-fearing\nman for a counselor and an associate!\n\nWith what familiar and successful praying did he intercede with God\nis seen in the Passover feast, in which a number of the people were\nunfitted to participate. They had not prepared themselves by the\nrequired ceremonial cleansing, and it was important that they be\nallowed to eat the Passover feast with all the others.\n\nHere is the brief account with special reference to the praying of\nHezekiah and the result:\n\n  \u201cFor there were many in the congregation that were not sanctified;\n  therefore the Levites had the charge of the killing of the passover\n  for every one that was not clean, to sanctify them unto the Lord.\n\n  \u201cFor a multitude of the people had not cleansed themselves yet did\n  they eat the passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah\n  prayed for them saying, The Good Lord pardon every one.\n\n  \u201cThat prepareth his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers,\n  though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the\n  sanctuary.\n\n  \u201cAnd the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.\u201d\n\nSo the Lord heard him as he prayed, and even the violation of the most\nsacred law of the Passover was forgiven in answer to the prayer of this\npraying, God-fearing king. Law must yield its scepter to prayer.\n\nThe strength, directness and foundation of his faith and prayer are\nfound in his words to his army. Memorable words are they, stronger and\nmightier than all the hosts of Sennacherib:\n\n  \u201cBe strong and courageous; be not afraid nor dismayed for the king\n  of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him; for there be\n  more with us than with him.\n\n  \u201cWith him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help\n  us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon\n  the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah.\u201d\n\nHis defense against the mighty enemies of God was prayer. His enemies\nquailed and were destroyed by his prayers when his own armies were\npowerless. God\u2019s people were always safe when their princes were\nprinces in prayer.\n\nAn occasion of serious import came to the people of God during his\nreign which was to test his faith in God and furnish opportunity to\ntry the prayer agency to obtain deliverance. Judah was sorely pressed\nby the Assyrians, and, humanly speaking, defeat and captivity seemed\nimminent. The King of Assyria sent a commission to defy and blaspheme\nthe name of God and to insult King Hezekiah, and they uttered their\ninsults and blasphemy publicly. Note what Hezekiah immediately did\nwithout hesitation:\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his\n  clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house\n  of the Lord.\u201d\n\nHis very first impression was to turn to God by going to the \u201chouse of\nprayer.\u201d God was in his thoughts, and prayer was the first thing to be\ndone. And so he sent messengers to Isaiah to join him in prayer. In\nsuch an emergency God must not be left out of the account. God must be\nappealed to for deliverance from these blasphemous enemies of God and\nHis people.\n\nJust at this particular juncture the forces of the King of Assyria,\nwhich were besieging Hezekiah, were diverted from an immediate attack\non Jerusalem. The King of Assyria, however, sent to Hezekiah a defaming\nand blasphemous letter.\n\nFor the second time, as he is insulted and beset by the forces of this\nheathen king, he enters the house of the Lord, the \u201chouse of prayer.\u201d\nWhere else should he go? And to whom should he appeal but unto the God\nof Israel?\n\n  \u201cAnd Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers,\n  and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and\n  spread it before the Lord.\n\n  \u201cAnd Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord: O Lord of hosts, the God of\n  Israel that dwellest between the cherubim, Thou art the God, even\n  thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou hast made heaven\n  and earth.\n\n  \u201cNow, therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the\n  kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou\n  only.\u201d\n\nAnd note the speedy answer and the marvelous results of such praying by\nthis God-fearing king. First, Isaiah gave the King full assurance that\nhe need fear nothing. God had heard the prayer, and would give a great\ndeliverance.\n\nThen secondly, the angel of the Lord came with swift wings and smote\n185,000 Assyrians. The king was vindicated, God was honored, and the\npeople of God were saved.\n\nThe united prayers of the praying king and of the praying prophet were\nalmighty forces in bringing deliverance and destroying God\u2019s enemies.\nArmies lay at their mercy, defenceless; and angels, swift-winged and\narmed with almighty power and vengeance, were their allies.\n\nHezekiah had ministered in prayer in destroying idolatry and in\nreforming his kingdom. In meeting his enemies, prayer had been his\nchief weapon. He now comes to try its efficiency against the set and\ndeclared purposes of Almighty God. Will it avail in this new field\nof action? Let us see. Hezekiah was very sick, and God sends his own\nfamiliar friend and wise counselor and prophet, Isaiah, to warn him of\nhis approaching end, and to tell him to arrange all his affairs for his\nfinal departure. This is the Scriptural statement:\n\n  \u201cIn those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the Prophet Isaiah,\n  the son of Amoz, came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord:\n  Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.\u201d\n\nThe decree came direct from God that he should die. What can set aside\nor reverse that Divine decree of heaven? Hezekiah had never been in a\ncondition so insuperable with a decree so direct and definite from God.\nCan prayer change the purposes of God? Can prayer snatch from the jaws\nof death one who has been decreed to die? Can prayer save a man from an\nincurable sickness? These were the questions with which his faith had\nnow to deal. But his faith does not seem to pause one moment. His faith\nis not staggered one minute at the sudden and definite news conveyed to\nhim by the Lord\u2019s prophet. No such questions which modern unbelief or\ndisbelief would raise are started in his mind. At once he gives himself\nto prayer. Immediately without delay he applies to God who issued the\nedict. To whom else could he go? Cannot God change His own purposes if\nHe chooses?\n\nNote what Hezekiah did in this emergency, sorely pressed, and see the\ngracious result:\n\n  \u201cThen he turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord, saying,\n\n  \u201cI beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee\n  in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good\n  in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.\u201d\n\nIt was no self-righteous plea which he offered to God for recovery. He\nwas only pleading his fidelity, just as Christ did in after years:\n\n\u201cFather, I have glorified thee on earth.\u201d He is the Lord\u2019s reminder,\nand is putting Him in mind as to his sincerity, fidelity and service,\nwhich was in every way legitimate. This prayer was directly in line\nwith that of David in Psalm 26:1, \u201cJudge me, O Lord, for I have walked\nin my integrity.\u201d This is not a prayer test with Hezekiah, nor is it a\nfaith cure, but it is a testing of God. It must be God\u2019s cure if a cure\ncomes at all.\n\nHezekiah had hardly finished his prayer, and Isaiah was just about\nto go home when God gave him another message for Hezekiah, this time\none more pleasant and encouraging. The mighty force of prayer had\naffected God, and had changed His edict and reversed Him in His purpose\nconcerning Hezekiah. What is that which prayer cannot do? What is it\nwhich a praying man cannot accomplish through prayer?\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass before Isaiah had gone out into the middle\n  court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying,\n\n  \u201cTurn again, and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, Thus, saith\n  the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer; I\n  have seen thy tears; Behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou\n  shalt go up to the house of the Lord.\n\n  \u201cAnd I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee\n  and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria; and I will\n  defend this city for my own sake, and for David, my servant\u2019s sake.\u201d\n\nThe prayer was to God. It was that God should reconsider and change His\nmind. Doubtless Isaiah returned to his house with a lighter heart than\nhe did when he delivered his original message. God had been prayed to\nby this sick king, and had been asked to revoke His decree, and God\nhad condescended to grant the request. God sometimes changes His mind.\nHe has a right to do so. The reasons for Him to change His mind are\nstrong reasons. His servant Hezekiah wants it done. Hezekiah had been\na dutiful servant and had done much for God. Truth, perfection and\ngoodness have been the elements of Hezekiah\u2019s service and the rule of\nhis life. Hezekiah\u2019s tears and prayer are in the way of God\u2019s executing\nHis decree to take away the life of His servant. Prayer and tears are\nmighty things with God. They are to Him much more than consistency and\nmuch more to Him than decrees. \u201cI have heard thy prayer; I have seen\nthy tears; behold I will heal thee.\u201d\n\nSickness dies before prayer. Health comes in answer to prayer. God\nanswered more than Hezekiah asked for. Hezekiah prayed only for his\nlife, and God gave him life, and in addition promised him protection\nand security from his enemies.\n\nBut Isaiah had something to do with the recovery of this praying king.\nThere was something more than prayer in it. Isaiah\u2019s praying was\nchanged into the skill of the physician. \u201cAnd Isaiah said, Take a lump\nof figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.\u201d\n\nGod often uses remedies in answering prayer. It frequently takes a\nstronger faith to rise above means and not to trust in them, than it\ndoes to wholly reject all means. Here was a simple remedy that all\nmight know that it did not cure the deadly disease, and yet a means to\naid or to test faith. But still more praying was to be done. Isaiah and\nHezekiah could not do things without much praying:\n\n  \u201cAnd Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord\n  will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the\n  third day?\n\n  \u201cAnd Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the\n  Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken: Shall the shadow go\n  forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?\n\n  \u201cAnd Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down\n  ten degrees; nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.\n\n  \u201cAnd Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the\n  shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of\n  Ahaz.\u201d\n\nHezekiah meets the occasion and covers the answer to his prayer with\nthanksgiving. The fragrance of the sweet spices are there, and the\nmelody of the harp also.\n\nFour things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds\nprayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer. These things\ncannot be too often repeated. Prayer breaks all bars, dissolves all\nchains, opens all prisons and widens all straits by which God\u2019s saints\nhave been holden.\n\nLife was sweet to Hezekiah and he desired to live, but what can brook\nGod\u2019s decree? Nothing but the energy of faith. Hezekiah\u2019s heart was\nbroken under the strain, and its waters flowed and added force and\nvolume to his praying. He pleaded with great strivings and with strong\narguments; and God heard Hezekiah praying, saw his tears, and changed\nhis mind, and Hezekiah lived to praise God and to be an example of the\npower of mighty praying.\n\nLike Hezekiah, the decent, soulless way of praying did not suit Paul.\nHe puts himself in the attitude of a wrestler, and charges his brethren\nto join him in the agony of a great conflict. \u201cBrethren, I beseech\nyou,\u201d he says, \u201cfor the Lord Jesus Christ\u2019s sake, and for the love of\nthe Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God\nfor me.\u201d He was too much in earnest to touch the praying business\ngenteelly or with gloved hands. He was in it as an agony, and he\ndesired his brethren to be his partners in this conflict and wrestling\nof his soul. Epaphras was doing this same kind of praying for the\nColossians: \u201cAlways laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye\nmay stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.\u201d An end worth\nagonizing for always. This kind of praying by these early pastors of\nthe Apostolic Church was one secret of the purity, one source of the\npower of the Church. And this was the kind of praying which was done by\nHezekiah.\n\nHere was prayer born in the fire of a great desire, and pursued through\nthe deepest agony of conflict and opposition to success. Our spiritual\ncravings are not strong enough to give life to the mighty conflicts of\nprayer? They are not absorbing enough to stop business, arrest worldly\npursuits, awaken us before day, and send us to the closet, to solitude,\nand to God; to conquer every opposing force and win our victories from\nthe very jaws of hell. We want preachers and men and women who can\nillustrate the uses, the forces, the blessing, and the utmost limits of\nprayer.\n\nIsaiah laments that there was no one who stirred himself up to take\nhold of God. Much praying was done, but it was too easy, indifferent,\ncomplacent. There were no mighty movements of the soul toward God, no\narray of all the sanctified energies to reach out and grapple God and\ndraw out his treasures for spiritual uses. Forceless prayers have no\npower to overcome difficulties, no power to win marked results, or gain\na complete and wonderful victory.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nEZRA, THE PRAYING REFORMER\n\n  _Before the Great War there were many signs of a new interest in_\n  PRAYER _and new hope from its exercise. How these signs have\n  multiplied is known to every one. This one thing at least that is good\n  the War has done for us already. Let us not miss our opportunity.\n  Prayer is not an easy exercise. It requires encouragement, exposition,\n  and training. There never was a time when men and women were more\n  sincerely anxious to be told how to pray. Prayer is the mightiest\n  instrument in our armory, and if we are to use it as God has given the\n  encouragement, we must do everything in our power to bring it into\n  exercise._--REV. JAMES HASTINGS.\n\n\nEzra, the priest, and one of God\u2019s great reformers, comes before\nus in the Old Testament as a praying man, one who uses prayer to\novercome difficulties and bring good things to pass. He had returned\nfrom Babylon under the patronage of the King of Babylon, who had been\nstrangely moved toward Ezra and who favored him in many ways. Ezra had\nbeen in Jerusalem but a few days when the princes came to him with the\ndistressing information that the people had not separated themselves\nfrom the people of that country, and were doing according to the\nabominations of the heathen nations about them. And that which was\nworse than all was that the princes and rulers in Israel had been chief\nin the trespass.\n\nIt was a sad state of affairs facing Ezra as he found the Church almost\nhopelessly involved with the world. God demands of His Church in all\nages that it should be separated from the world, a separation so sharp\nthat it amounts to an antagonism. To effect this very end, He put\nIsrael in the Promised Land, and cut them off from other nations by\nmountains, deserts and seas, and straightway charged them that they\nshould not form any relation with alien nations, neither marital,\nsocial nor business.\n\nBut Ezra finds the Church at Jerusalem, as he returns from Babylon,\nparalyzed and hopelessly and thoroughly prostrated by the violation of\nthis principle. They had intermarried, and had formed the closest and\nmost sacred ties in family, social and business life, with the Gentile\nnations. All were involved in it, priests, Levites, princes and people.\nThe family, the business, and the religious life of the people was\nfounded in this violation of God\u2019s law. What was to be done? What could\nbe done? Here were the important questions which faced this leader in\nIsrael, this man of God.\n\nEverything appeared to be against the recovery of the Church. Ezra\ncould not preach to them, because the whole city would be inflamed,\nand would hound him out of the place. What force was there which could\nrecover them to God so that they would dissolve business partnerships,\ndivorce wives and husbands, cut acquaintances and dissolve friendships?\n\nThe first thing about Ezra which is worthy of remark was that he saw\nthe situation and realized how serious it was. He was not a blind-eyed\noptimist who never sees anything wrong in the Church. By the mouth of\nIsaiah God had propounded the very pertinent question, \u201cWho is blind\nbut my servant?\u201d But it could not possibly be made to apply to Ezra.\nNor did he minimize the condition of things or seek to palliate the\nsins of the people or to minimize the enormity of their crimes. Their\noffense appeared in his eyes to be serious in the extreme. It is worth\nnot a little to have leaders in Zion who have eyes to see the sins of\nthe Church as well as the evils of the times. One great need of the\nmodern Church is for leaders after the style of Ezra, who are not blind\nin their seeing department, and who are willing to see the state of\nthings in the Church and who are not reluctant to open their eyes to\nthe real situation.\n\nVery naturally, seeing these dreadful evils in the Church and in the\nsociety of Jerusalem, he was distressed. The sad condition of things\ngrieved him, so much so that he rent his garments, plucked his hair,\nand sat down astonished. All these things are evidences of his great\ndistress of soul at the terrible state of affairs. Then it was in that\nframe of mind, concerned, solicitous and troubled in soul, that he gave\nhimself to prayer, to confession of the sins of the people, and to\npleading for pardoning mercy at the hands of God. To whom should he go\nin a time like this but unto the God who hears prayer, who is ready to\npardon and who can bring the unexpected thing to pass?\n\nHe was amazed beyond expression at the wicked conduct of the people,\nwas deeply moved and began to fast and pray. Prayer and fasting always\naccomplish something. He prays with a broken heart, for there is naught\nelse that he can do. He prays unto God, deeply burdened, prostrate on\nthe ground and weeping, while the whole city unites with him in prayer.\n\nPrayer was the only way to placate God, and Ezra became a great mover\nin a great work for God, with marvelous results. The whole work, its\nprinciples and its results, are summarized by just one verse in Ezra\n10:1:\n\n  \u201cNow when Ezra had prayed, and had confessed, weeping and casting\n  himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of\n  Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children, for\n  the people wept sore.\u201d\n\nThere had been mighty, simple and persevering prayer. Intense and\nprevailing prayer had accomplished its end. Ezra\u2019s praying had brought\ninto being and brought forth results in a great work for God. It was\nmighty praying because it brought Almighty God to do His own work,\nwhich was absolutely hopeless from any other source save by prayer and\nby God. But nothing is hopeless to prayer because nothing is hopelessly\nto God.\n\nAgain we must say that prayer has only to do with God, and is only\nresultful as it has to do with God. Whatever influence the praying of\nEzra had upon himself, its chief, if not its only, results followed\nbecause it affected God, and moved Him to do the work.\n\nA great and general repentance followed this praying of Ezra, and there\noccurred a wonderful reformation in Israel. And Ezra\u2019s mourning and\nhis praying were the great factors which had to do with bringing these\ngreat things to pass.\n\nSo thorough was the revival which occurred that as evidences of its\ngenuineness it is noted that the leaders in Israel came to Ezra with\nthese words:\n\n  \u201cWe have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of\n  the people of the land. Yet now there is hope in Israel concerning\n  this thing.\n\n  \u201cNow therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all\n  the wives, and such as are born to them, according to the counsel of\n  my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God;\n  and let it be done according to the law.\n\n  \u201cArise, for this matter belongeth unto thee. We also will be with\n  thee; be of good courage, and do it.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nNEHEMIAH, THE PRAYING BUILDER\n\n  _We care not for your splendid abilities as a minister, or your\n  natural endowment as an orator before men. We are sure that the truth\n  of the matter is this: No one will or can command success and become a\n  real praying soul unless intense application is the price. I am even\n  now convinced that the difference between the saints like Wesley,\n  Fletcher, Edwards, Brainerd, Bramwell, Bounds, and ourselves is\n  energy, perseverance, invincible determination to succeed or die in\n  the attempt. God help us._--REV. HOMER W. HODGE.\n\n\nIn enumerating the praying saints of the Old Testament, we must not\nleave out of that sacred catalogue Nehemiah, the builder. He stands out\non an equal footing with the others who have been considered. In the\nstory of the reconstruction of Jerusalem after the captivity, he plays\na prominent part, and prayer is prominent in his life during those\nyears. He was a captive in Babylon, and had an important position in\nthe palace of the king to whom he was cup bearer. There must have been\nconsiderable merit in him to cause the king to take a Hebrew captive\nand place him in such an office, where he really had the life of the\nking in his charge, because he was responsible for the wine which he\ndrank.\n\nIt was while Nehemiah was in Babylon, in the king\u2019s palace, that one\nday his brethren came from Jerusalem, and very naturally Nehemiah\ndesired news from the people there and information concerning the city\nitself. The distressing information was given him that the walls were\nbroken down, the gates were burned with fire, and the remnant who were\nleft there at the beginning of the captivity were in great affliction\nand reproach.\n\nJust one verse gives the effect of this sad news upon this man of God:\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass when I heard these words, that I sat down and\n  wept, and mourned certain days and fasted, and prayed before the God\n  of heaven.\u201d\n\nHere was a man whose heart was in his own native land far away from\nwhere he now lived. He loved Israel, was concerned for the welfare\nof Zion, and was true to God. Deeply distressed by the information\nconcerning his brethren at Jerusalem, he mourned and wept. How few the\nstrong men in these days who can weep at the evils and abominations\nof the times! How rare those who, seeing the desolations of Zion, are\nsufficiently interested and concerned for the welfare of the Church to\nmourn! Mourning and weeping over the decay of religion, the decline\nof revival power, and the fearful inroads of worldliness in the Church\nare almost an unknown quantity. There is so much of so-called optimism\nthat leaders have no eyes to see the breaking down of the walls of Zion\nand the low spiritual state of the Christians of the present day, and\nhave less heart to mourn and cry about it. Nehemiah was a mourner in\nZion. And possessing this state of heart, distressed beyond measure,\nhe does that which other praying saints had done--he goes to God and\nmakes it a subject of prayer. The prayer is recorded in Nehemiah, 1st\nchapter, and is a model after which to pattern our prayers. He begins\nwith adoration, makes confession of the sins of his nation, pleads the\npromises of God, mentions former mercies, and begs for pardoning mercy.\nThen with an eye to the future--for unquestionably he had planned, the\nnext time he was summoned into the King\u2019s presence, to ask permission\nto visit Jerusalem and to do there what was possible to remedy the\ndistressing state of affairs--we hear him pray for something very\nspecial: \u201cAnd prosper thy servant this day, I pray thee, and grant him\nmercy in the sight of this man. For,\u201d he adds by way of explanation, \u201cI\nwas the king\u2019s cup bearer.\u201d\n\nIt seemed all right to pray for his people, but how was a heathen\nking, with possibly no sympathy whatever for the sad condition of his\ncity and his people in a captive land, and who had no interest in\nthe matter, to be so favorably affected that he would consent to give\nup his faithful cup bearer and allow him to be gone for months? But\nNehemiah believed in a God who could touch even the mind of a heathen\nruler and move him favorably toward the request of his praying servant.\n\nNehemiah was summoned into the king\u2019s presence, and God used even the\nappearance of Nehemiah\u2019s countenance as an entering wedge to gain the\nconsent of Artaxerxes. This started the inquiry of the king as to\nits cause, and the final result was that the king not only permitted\nNehemiah to go back to Jerusalem but furnished him with everything\nneedful for the journey and for the success of the enterprise.\n\nNor did Nehemiah rest his case when he first prayed about this matter,\nbut he stated this significant fact as he was talking to the king: \u201cSo\nI prayed unto the God of heaven?\u201d leading out the impression that while\nthe king was inquiring about his request and the length of time he\nwould be gone, he was then and there talking to God about the matter.\n\nThe intense, persistent praying of Nehemiah prevailed. God can even\naffect the mind of a heathen ruler, and this he can do in answer to\nprayer without in the least overturning his free agency or forcing his\nwill. It was a parallel case with that of Esther when she called upon\nher people to fast and pray for her as she went uninvited into the\nking\u2019s presence. As a result, his mind at a very critical moment was\ntouched by the Spirit of God, and he was favorably moved toward Esther\nand held out to her the golden scepter.\n\nNor did the praying of Nehemiah cease when he had succeeded thus far.\nIn building the wall of Jerusalem, he met with great opposition from\nSanballat and Tobiah, who ridiculed the efforts of the people to\nrebuild the city\u2019s walls. Unmoved by these revilings and the intense\nopposition of these wicked opponents of that which was for God\u2019s cause,\nhe pursued the task which he had undertaken. But he mixes prayer with\nall he does: \u201cHear, O our God, for we are despised; and turn their\nreproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of\nour captivity.\u201d And in continuing the account he says, \u201cNevertheless we\nmade our prayer unto our God.\u201d\n\nAll along in the accounts of the high and noble work he was doing,\nwe find prayer comes out prominently to the front. Even after the\nwalls were completed, these same enemies of his and of the people of\nGod again opposed him in his task. But he renews his praying, and he\nhimself records this significant prayer: \u201cNow there, O God, strengthen\nmy hands.\u201d\n\nStill further on, when Sanballat and Tobiah had hired an emissary to\nfrighten and hinder Nehemiah, we find him setting himself directly\nagainst this new attack, and then again he turns to God in prayer: \u201cMy\nGod, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their\nworks and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that\nwould have put me in fear.\u201d And God answered his faithful laborer, and\ndefeated the counsels and the plans of these wicked opponents of Israel.\n\nNehemiah discovered to his dismay that the portions of the Levites had\nnot been given them, and as a result the house of God was forsaken.\nHe took steps to see that the lawful tithes were forthcoming so that\nGod\u2019s house should be opened to all religious services, and appointed\ntreasurers to give attention to this business. But prayer must not be\noverlooked, so we find his prayer recorded at this time: \u201cRemember me,\nO my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have\ndone for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.\u201d\n\nLet it not be thought that this was the plea of self-righteousness as\nwas that of the Pharisee in our Lord\u2019s time who professedly went up\nto the temple to pray, who paraded his self-righteous claims in God\u2019s\nsight. It was a prayer after the fashion of Hezekiah, who reminded God\nof his fidelity to Him and of his heart\u2019s being right in his sight.\n\nOnce more Nehemiah finds evil among the people of God. Just as he\ncorrected the evil which caused the closing of the house of God, he\ndiscovers practices of Sabbath breaking, and here he has not only to\ncounsel the people and seek to correct them by mild means, but he\nproposes to exercise his authority if they did not cease their buying\nand selling on the Sabbath Day. But he must close this part of his work\nalso with prayer, and so he records his prayer on that occasion:\n\n  \u201cRemember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according\n  to the greatness of thy mercy.\u201d\n\nLastly, as a reformer, he discovers another great evil among the\npeople. They had intermarried with the men and women of Ashdod, Ammon\nand Moab. Contending with them, he caused them to reform in this\nmatter, and the close of his record has a prayer in it:\n\n  \u201cRemember me, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and\n  the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.\u201d\n\nCleansing them from all strangers, he appointed the wards of the\npriests, and the Levites, and his recorded career closes with this\nbrief prayer: \u201cRemember me, O my God, for good.\u201d\n\nFortunate is that Church whose leaders are men of prayer. Happy is\nthat congregation who are contemplating the erection of a church to\nhave leaders who will lay its foundations in prayer, and whose walls\ngo up side by side with prayer. Prayer helps to build churches and to\nerect the walls of houses of worship. Prayer defeats the opponents of\nthose who are prosecuting God\u2019s enterprises. Prayer touches favorably\nthe minds even of those not connected with the Church, and moves them\ntoward Church matters. Prayer helps mightily in all matters concerning\nGod\u2019s cause and wonderfully aids and encourages the hearts of those who\nhave His work in hand in this world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nSAMUEL, THE CHILD OF PRAYER\n\n  _That was a grand action by Jerome, one of the Roman fathers. He laid\n  aside all pressing engagements and went to fulfill the call God gave\n  him, viz., to translate the Holy Scriptures. His congregations were\n  larger than many preachers of to-day but he said to his people, \u201cNow\n  it is necessary that the Scriptures be translated; you must find you\n  another minister: I am bound for the wilderness and shall not return\n  until my task is finished.\u201d Away he went and labored and prayed until\n  he produced the Latin Vulgate which will last as long as the world\n  stands. So we must say to our friends, \u201cI must away and have time for\n  prayer and solitude.\u201d And though we did not write Latin Vulgates yet\n  our work will be immortal: Glory to God._--REV. C. H. SPURGEON.\n\n\nSamuel came into this world and was given existence in direct answer\nto prayer. He was born of a praying mother, whose heart was full of\nearnest desire for a son. He came into life under prayer surroundings,\nand his first months in this world were spent in direct contact with\na woman who knew how to pray. It was a prayer accompanied by a solemn\nvow that if he should be given, he should be \u201clent unto the Lord,\u201d and\ntrue to that vow, this praying mother put him directly in touch with\nthe minister of the sanctuary and under the influence of \u201cthe house of\nprayer.\u201d It was no wonder he developed into a man of prayer. We could\nnot have expected otherwise with such a beginning in life and with such\nearly environments. Such surroundings always make impressions upon\nchildren and tend to make character and determine destiny.\n\nHe was in a favorable place to hear God when He spoke to him, and\nwas in an atmosphere where it tended to his heeding the divine call\nwhich came to him. It was the most natural thing in the world when\nat the third call from heaven, when he recognized God\u2019s voice, that\nhis childish heart responded so promptly, \u201cSpeak, Lord, thy servant\nheareth.\u201d Quickly was there a response from his boyish spirit, of\nsubmission, willingness and prayer.\n\nHad he been born of a different sort of mother, had he been placed\nunder different surroundings, had he spent his early days in contact\nwith different influences, does any one for one moment suppose he could\nhave easily heard the voice of God calling him to His service, and that\nhe would have so readily yielded his young life to the God who brought\nhim into being? Would a worldly home, with worldly surroundings,\nseparated from the Church of God, with a worldly-minded mother, have\nproduced such a character as Samuel? It takes such influences and\nagencies in early life to produce such praying men as Samuel. Would you\nhave your child called early into divine service and separated from the\nworld unto God? Would you have him so situated that he will be called\nin childhood by the Spirit of God? Put him under prayer influences.\nPlace him near to and directly under the influence of the Man of God\nand in close touch with that house which is called \u201cthe house of\nprayer.\u201d\n\nSamuel knew God in boyhood. As a consequence he knew God in manhood.\nHe recognized God in childhood, obeyed him and prayed unto him. The\nresult was that he recognized God in manhood, obeyed him, and prayed\nunto him. If more children were born of praying mothers, brought up\nin direct contact with \u201cthe house of prayer,\u201d and reared under prayer\nenvironments, more children would hear the voice of God\u2019s spirit\nspeaking to them, and would more quickly respond to those divine calls\nto a religious life. Would we have praying men in our churches? We\nmust have praying mothers to give them birth, praying homes to color\ntheir lives, and praying surroundings to impress their minds and to lay\nthe foundations for praying lives. Praying Samuels come from praying\nHannahs. Praying priests come from \u201cthe house of prayer.\u201d Praying\nleaders come from praying homes.\n\nIsrael for years had been under bondage to the Philistines and the ark\nwas housed in the home of Abinadab, whose son Eleazer was appointed to\nkeep this sacred testimony of God. The people had gone into idolatry\nand Samuel was disturbed about the religious condition of the nation.\nThe ark of God was absent, the people were given to the worship of\nidols, and there had been a grievous departure from God. Calling upon\nthem to put away their strange gods, he urged them to prepare their\nhearts unto the Lord and to begin again to serve Him--promising them\nthat the Lord would deliver them out of the hands of the Philistines.\nHis preaching thus plainly to them, for with all else belonging to him,\nSamuel was a preacher of the times, made a deep impression and bore\nrich fruits as such preaching always does. \u201cThen the children of Israel\ndid put away Baalim and Ashtoreth, and served the Lord only.\u201d\n\nBut this was not enough. Prayer must be mixed with and must accompany\ntheir reformation. So Samuel, true to his convictions about prayer,\nsays to the people, \u201cGather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for\nyou unto the Lord.\u201d While Samuel was offering up prayer for these\nwicked Israelites, the Philistines drew near to battle against the\nnation, but the Lord intervened at the critical moment and thundered\nwith a great thunder, and discomfited these enemies of Israel, \u201cand\nthey were smitten before Israel.\u201d\n\nThe nation fortunately had a man who could pray, who knew the place and\nthe worth of prayer, and a leader who had the ear of God and who could\ninfluence God.\n\nBut Samuel\u2019s praying did not stop there. He judged Israel all the\ndays of his life, and had occasion from year to year to go in circuit\nto Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpeh. Then he returned home to Ramah, where\nhe resided. \u201cAnd there he built an altar unto the Lord.\u201d Here was an\naltar of sacrifice but as well was it an altar of prayer. And while it\nmay have been for the benefit of the community where he lived, after\nthe fashion of a town church, yet it must not be overlooked that it\nmust have been a family altar, a place where the sacrifice for sin was\noffered but at the same time where his household gathered for worship,\npraise and prayer. Here Almighty God was acknowledged in the home, here\nwas the advertisement of a religious home, and here father and mother\ncalled upon the name of the Lord, differentiating this home from all\nthe worldly and idolatrous homes about them.\n\nHere is an example of a religious home, the kind so greatly needed in\nthis irreligious, godless age. Blessed is that home which has in it an\naltar of sacrifice and of prayer, where daily thanksgivings ascend to\nheaven and where morning and night praying is done.\n\nSamuel was not only a praying priest, a praying leader and a praying\nteacher and leader, but he was a praying father. And any one who knows\nthe situation so far as family religion is concerned knows full well\nthat the great demand of these modern times is religious homes and\npraying fathers and mothers. Here is where the breakdown in religion\noccurs, where the religious life of a community first begins to decay,\nand where we must go first to beget praying men and women in the Church\nof God. It is in the home that the revival must commence.\n\nA crisis came in the history of this nation. The people were infatuated\nby the glory of a kingdom with a human king, and was prepared to reject\nGod as their king, as He had always been. So they came to Samuel with\nthe bold request, \u201cMake us a king to judge us like all the nations.\u201d\nThe thing displeased this man of God, who was jealous for the name,\nthe honor and the pleasure of the Lord God. How could it be otherwise?\nWho would not have been likewise displeased if he were built after the\npattern of Samuel? It grieved him in soul. The Lord, however, came to\nhim just at that time with the comforting assurance so far as he was\npersonally concerned in the transaction, that \u201cthey have not rejected\nthee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.\nHearken unto the voice of the people, in all that they say unto thee.\u201d\n\nThen it was that Samuel followed the bent of his mind, \u201cAnd Samuel\nprayed unto the Lord.\u201d It seemed that in every matter concerning this\npeople, with which Samuel was connected, he must pray over it. How\nmuch more now when there was to be an entire revolution in the form of\ngovernment, and God was to be displaced as the ruler of the people,\nand a human king was to be set up? National affairs need to be prayed\nover. Praying men are demanded to carry to God in prayer the affairs of\ngovernment. Lawmakers, law judges, and law executives need leaders in\nIsrael to pray for them. How much fewer the mistakes if there was more\npraying done in civil matters?\n\nBut this was not to be the end of this matter. God must show so\ndefinitely and plainly His displeasure at such a request as had been\nmade for a human king, that the people might know what a wicked thing\nthey had done, even though God acceded to their request. They must\nknow God still existed and had to do with this people, and with their\nking and the affairs of the government. So the prayers of Samuel must\nagain be brought into play to carry out the divine purposes. So Samuel\ncalled upon the people to stand still, and he would show them what the\nLord would do before their eyes. So he called upon God, and in answer\nGod sent a tremendous storm of thunder and rain, which exceedingly\nterrified the people, and caused them to acknowledge their great sin\nin asking for a king. So afraid were the people that they hastily\ncalled upon Samuel to pray for them and to spare them from what seemed\nto be destruction. Samuel again prayed, and God heard and answered, and\nthe thunder and rain ceased.\n\nOne more incident in the prayer life of Samuel is worth noticing. King\nSaul had been ordered to destroy all the Amalekites, root and branch,\nand all their stuff, but Saul, contrary to divine instructions, had\nspared King Agag and the best of the sheep and the cattle, and had\njustified it because he claimed that the people wanted it done.\n\nGod brought this message to Samuel at this time:\n\n  \u201cIt repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned\n  back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd it grieved Samuel, and he cried all night unto the Lord.\u201d Such\na sudden declaration was enough to produce grief of soul in a man\nlike Samuel, who loved his nation, who was true to God, and who above\neverything else desired the prosperity of Zion. Such grief of soul\nover the evils of the Church and at the sight of the abominations of\nthe times always drives a man to his knees in prayer. Of course Samuel\ncarried the case to God. It was a time for prayer. The case was too\nserious for him not to be deeply moved to pray. So greatly was the\ninner soul of Samuel disturbed that he prayed all night about it. Too\nmuch was at stake for him to shut his eyes to the affair, to treat it\nindifferently, and to let it pass without taking God into the matter,\nfor the future welfare of Israel was in the balance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nDANIEL, THE PRAYING CAPTIVE\n\n  _It is a wonderful historical fact that the men of prayer have always\n  been the men of power in the world. I want to convince you about this.\n  Some of you men--and I am glad to see such a large number of men here\n  to-night--if you are arguing with some friend in the workshop, be sure\n  and ask him why it is that the men of power in the world have been the\n  men of prayer. Take only one instance: Where did they go always to\n  find men for the forlorn hope in Havelock\u2019s days? They went to\n  Havelock\u2019s prayer meeting; that is where they found men who had\n  courage to come out for the forlorn hope._--BISHOP WINNINGTON INGRAM.\n\n\nThat was a notable experience in the life of Daniel when he was ordered\nby the king while in Babylon not to ask any petition of any God or king\nfor thirty days, under penalty of being cast into the lions\u2019 den. He\npaid no attention to the edict, for it is recorded, \u201cNow when Daniel\nknew that the writing was signed, he went into his house, and his\nwindows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon\nhis knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God,\nas he did aforetime.\u201d Do not forget that this was the regular habit\nof this man of God. \u201cHe kneeled upon his knees and prayed as he did\naforetime.\u201d What was the result? Just as expected. God sent an angel\ninto the den of lions with Daniel and locked their mouths so that not\na hair on his head was touched, and he was wonderfully delivered. Even\nso to-day deliverance always come to God\u2019s saints who tread the path of\nprayer as the saints of old did.\n\nDaniel did not forget his God while in a foreign land, away from the\nhouse of God and its religious services, and deprived as he was of many\nreligious privileges. He was a striking illustration of a young man\nwho was decidedly religious under the most unfavorable surroundings.\nHe proved conclusively that one could be definitely a servant of God\nthough his environments were anything else than religious. He was among\nheathens so far as a God-fearing nation was concerned. There was no\ntemple worship, no Sabbath Day, no Word of God to be read. But he had\none help there which remained with him, and of which he could not be\ndeprived, and that was his secret prayers.\n\nPurposing in his heart without debating the question one moment or\ncompromising at any one point, that he would not eat of the king\u2019s\nmeat nor drink the king\u2019s wine, he stood out in that ungodly country\na striking illustration of a young man, fearing God first of all, and\nresolving to be religious, cost what it may. But he was not to have a\nflowery bed on which to rest nor a smooth road on which to travel. The\nwhimsical, tyrannical and unreasonable king, Nebuchadnezzar, was to\nput him to the test, and his praying qualities were to be proved. This\nking had a strange dream, the particular items of which passed from his\nmemory, but the fact of the dream remained. So troubled was he about\nthe dream, he called for all the soothsayers, astrologers and sorcerers\nto call the dream to mind, an impossible task, humanly speaking, and\nthen to interpret it. He classed Daniel and his three companions,\nShadrach, Meshach and Abednego, with these men, though there really was\nnothing in them in common with the two classes of men. Being informed\nthat it was impossible to discover a dream like that, and at their\nsaying if the king would tell the dream to them, they would interpret\nit, the king became very angry, and ordered them to be put to death.\nThis sentence of death was against Daniel and his three companions.\n\nBut Daniel appeared upon the stage of action. At his suggestion the\nexecution of the rash edict was held up, and he immediately called his\nthree companions into counsel, and he urged them to unite with him in\na concert of prayer that God would discover to Daniel the dream with\nthe interpretation thereof. In answer to this united praying, it is\nrecorded: \u201cThen was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.\nThen Daniel blessed the God of heaven.\u201d As a sequel to this incident\nof the praying of these four men, Daniel revealed to the king his dream\nand its interpretation, and as a final result the king acknowledged\nthe God of Daniel and elevated to high positions Daniel and his three\nassociates. And it all came about because there was a praying man there\njust at a critical time. Blessed is that nation which has praying men\nwho can come to the help of civil rulers who are greatly perplexed and\nin great difficulties, and who can be depended upon to pray for rulers\nof state and Church.\n\nYears afterward, while still in a foreign land, he still had not\nforgotten the God of his fathers, and to him was given the noted vision\nof the \u201cRam and the He Goat.\u201d But Daniel did not comprehend this\nstrange vision, and yet he knew it was from God and had a deep and\nfuture meaning for nations and people. So, of course, he followed the\nbent of his religious mind and prayed about it.\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass when I even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and\n  sought for the meaning, then behold there stood before me as the\n  appearance of a man.\n\n  \u201cAnd I heard a man\u2019s voice which called, and said, Gabriel, make this\n  man to understand the vision.\u201d\n\nAnd so Gabriel made him understand the full meaning of this remarkable\nvision. But it came in answer to Daniel\u2019s praying. So puzzling\nquestions may often find an answer in the closet. And as elsewhere,\nGod employs angelic intelligences to convey information as to prayer\nanswers. Angels have much to do with prayer. Praying men and the angels\nof heaven are in close touch with each other.\n\nSome years thereafter, Daniel was studying the records of the nation,\nand he discovered that it was about time for the seventy years of\ncaptivity of his people to end. So he gave himself to prayer:\n\n  \u201cAnd I set my face to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting\n  and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord, and made\n  confession.\u201d\n\nThen follows the record in those Old Testament Scriptures of Daniel\u2019s\nprayer, so full of meaning, so simple in its utterances, so earnest in\nits spirit, so direct in its confession and requests, worthy of being\npatterned after.\n\nAnd it was while he was speaking in prayer that the same archangel\nGabriel, who seemed to have a direct interest in the praying of this\nman of God, \u201cbeing caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of\nthe evening sacrifice, and he informed me and talked with me,\u201d and then\ngave him much desired information valuable to Daniel.\n\nThe angels of God are much nearer us in our seasons of prayer than\nwe imagine. God employs these glorious heavenly intelligences in the\nblessed work of hearing and answering prayer, when the prayer, as in\nthe case of Daniel on this occasion, has to do with the present and\nfuture welfare of His people.\n\nOne other incident on the prayer line in the life of this captive man\nin Babylon. Another revelation was made to Daniel, but the time of its\nfulfillment appeared to be far in the future. \u201cIn those days, I Daniel\nwas mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came\nflesh nor wine into my mouth till the three whole weeks were fulfilled.\u201d\n\nIt was then that he had a very strange experience and a still stranger\nrevelation was made to him by some angelic being. It is worth while to\nread the scripture account:\n\n  \u201cAnd behold a hand touched me, which set me on my knees, and upon the\n  palms of my hands.\n\n  \u201cAnd he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the\n  words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright, for unto thee am I\n  now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.\n\n  \u201cThen he said unto me, Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that\n  thou didst set thy heart to understand and to chasten thyself before\n  thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.\n\n  \u201cBut the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty\n  days; but lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and\n  I remained there with the kings of Persia.\u201d\n\nWhat all this means is difficult to comprehend, but enough appears on\nits face to lead us to believe that the angels in heaven are deeply\ninterested in our praying, and are sent to tell us the answers to our\nprayers. Further, it is very clear that some unseen forces or invisible\nspirits are operating to hinder the answers to our prayers. Who the\nPrince of Persia was who withstood this great angelic being is not\ndivulged, but enough is revealed to know that there must be a contest\nin the unseen world about us between those spirits sent to minister to\nus in answer to our prayers and the devil and his evil spirits who seek\nto defeat these good spirits.\n\nThe passage furthermore gives us some intimation as to the cause of\ndelayed answers to prayer. For \u201cthree full weeks\u201d Daniel mourned and\nprayed, and for \u201cone and twenty days\u201d the divinely appointed angel was\nopposed by the \u201cPrince of the Kingdom of Persia.\u201d\n\nWell was it for praying Daniel that he had the courage, fortitude and\ndetermination to persist in his praying for three weeks while the\nfearful conflict between good and bad spirits was going on about him\nunseen by mortal eyes. Well will it be for us if we do not give up in\nour praying when God seems not to hear and the answer is not immediate.\nIt takes time to pray, and it takes time to get the answer to prayer.\nDelays in answering prayer are not denials. Failure to receive an\nimmediate answer is no evidence that God does not hear prayer. It takes\nnot only courage and persistence to pray successfully, but it requires\nmuch patience. \u201cWait on the Lord and be of good courage; and he shall\nstrengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nFAITH OF SINNERS IN PRAYER\n\n  _A certain preacher whose sermons converted many souls received a\n  revelation from God that it was not his sermons or works by all\n  means but the prayers of an illiterate lay brother who sat on the\n  pulpit steps pleading for the success of the sermon. It may be in the\n  all-revealing day so with us. We may believe after laboring long and\n  wearily that all honor belongs to another builder whose prayers were\n  gold, silver, and precious stones, while our sermonizings being apart\n  from prayer are but hay and stubble._--REV. C. H. SPURGEON.\n\n\nOne of the peculiar features of prayer as we study the Old Testament\non this subject is the faith of unrighteous and back-slidden men in\nprayer, and the great confidence they had in the prayers of praying men\nof that day. They knew certain men as men of prayer, who believed in\nGod, who were favored of God and who prayed unto God. They recognized\nthese men as having influence with God in averting wrath and in giving\ndeliverance from evil.\n\nFrequently when in trouble, when God\u2019s wrath was threatened and even\nwhen there were visitations of evil upon them for their iniquities,\nthey showed their faith in prayer by appealing to the men who prayed,\nto beg God to avert His displeasure and turn aside His wrath against\nthem. Recognizing the value of prayer as a divine agency to save men,\nthey made application to the men who prayed, to intercede with God for\nthem.\n\nIt is one of the strange paradoxes of those early days that while\npeople departed from God, and went into grievous sin, they did not\nbecome either atheists nor unbelievers when it came to the question\nof the existence of a prayer-answering God. Wicked men held fast to\na belief in God\u2019s existence, and to faith in the power of prayer to\nsecure pardon for sin and to deliver them from God\u2019s wrath. It is worth\nsomething as showing the influence of the Church on sinners, when the\nlatter believe in prayer and beg Christian people to pray for them. It\nis an item of interest and an event of importance when a sinner on a\ndying bed calls for a praying man to come to his bedside to pray for\nhim. It means something when penitent sinners, under a sense of their\nguilt, feeling the displeasure of God, approach a church altar and\nsay, \u201cPray for me, ye praying men and women.\u201d Little does the Church\nunderstand its full import, and still less does the Church appreciate\nand take in the full import of praying, especially for the unsaved men\nand women who ask them to pray for their immortal souls. If the Church\nwas fully alive to God and awake to the real peril of the unconverted\nall about it, and was in a thriving state, more sinners would be found\nseeking the altars of the Church and crying out to praying people,\n\u201cPray for my soul.\u201d\n\nMuch so-called praying for sinners there may be, but it is cold,\nformal, official praying, which goes nowhere, never reaches God, and\naccomplishes nothing. Revivals begin when sinners seek the prayers of\npraying people.\n\nSeveral things stand out in bold relief as we look at those Old\nTestament days:\n\nFirst, the disposition of sinners against God to almost involuntarily\nturn to praying men for help and refuge when trouble draws near, and\nto invoke their prayers for relief and deliverance. \u201cPray for us\u201d was\ntheir cry.\n\nSecond, the readiness with which those praying men responded to these\nappeals and prayed to God for those who desired this thing. Moreover,\nwe are impressed with the fact that these praying men were always in\nthe spirit of prayer and ready at any time to inquire of God. They were\nalways keyed up on prayer.\n\nThird, we note the wonderful influence these men of prayer had with\nGod whenever they made their appeal to Him. God nearly always quickly\nresponded and heard their praying for others. So intercessory prayer\npredominated in those early days of the Church.\n\nIt is a question worthy of earnest consideration, how far the\npresent-day Church is responsible for the unbelief of sinners of these\nmodern times in the value of prayer as an agency in averting God\u2019s\nwrath, in sparing barren lives and in giving deliverance. How far is\nthe Church responsible for the precious few mourners in Zion in these\ntimes, who ignore your altar calls and treat with indifference your\nappeals to come and be prayed for?\n\nThe first illustration we notice as showing the faith of wicked men\nin prayer and their appeal for a man of God to intercede for them is\nthe case of the fiery serpents sent upon the Israelites. They were\njourneying from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea, seeking to compass the\nland of Edom, when they spoke against God and Moses, after this fashion:\n\n  \u201cWherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the\n  wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and\n  our soul loatheth this light bread.\u201d\n\nThe thing so sorely displeased God that He sent fiery serpents among\nthe people, and many of the people of Israel died.\n\n  \u201cTherefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned because\n  we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the\n  Lord, that He take away the serpents from us.\u201d\n\nAnd Moses prayed for the people.\n\nAs far as these people had departed from God, and as great as was their\nsin in complaining against God\u2019s dealings with them, they had not lost\nfaith in prayer, neither did they forget that there was a leader in\nIsrael who had influence with God in prayer, and who could by that\nmeans avert disaster and bring deliverance to them.\n\nJeroboam, first King of the ten tribes when the kingdom was divided,\nwas another case in point. This was a most noted case because of the\nnotoriety of his departure from God, which was often referred to in the\nafter history of Israel, as \u201cthe sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat,\u201d\nand shows that despite his great wickedness in the sight of God, he did\nnot lose his faith in the efficacy of prayer. This king on one occasion\npresumed to take the place of the high priest, and stood by the altar\nto burn incense. A man of God came out of Judah and cried against the\naltar and proclaimed, \u201cBehold the altar shall be rent, and the ashes\nthat are upon it shall be poured out.\u201d This angered Jeroboam, who saw\nthat it was intended as a public rebuke for him, who had undertaken\ncontrary to the Levitical law to assume the office of God\u2019s priest,\nand the king put forth his hand with the apparent purpose of arresting\nor doing violence to the man of God, saying, at the same time to those\nabout him, \u201cLay hold upon him.\u201d\n\nImmediately God smote the king with leprosy, so that he could not\npull his hand back again, and at the same time the altar was rent.\nAstonished beyond measure at this sudden retribution for his sin,\ncoming like lightning from heaven, and very much afraid, he cried out\nto the man of God, \u201cEntreat now the face of the Lord thy God for me,\nthat my hand may be restored again.\u201d And it is recorded that \u201cthe man\nof God besought the Lord, and the king\u2019s hand was restored him again,\nand became as it was before.\u201d\n\nLet us keep in mind that we are not now considering the praying habits\nof the man of God nor the possibilities of prayer, though both face\nus here. But rather we are finding just here that a ruler in Israel,\nguilty of a grievous sin, and departing from God, when God\u2019s wrath\nfalls upon him, he immediately calls upon a praying man to intercede\nwith God in his behalf. It is but another case where a sinner against\nGod showed his faith in the virtue of the prayers of a man of God.\nSad is the day in a Christian land, not only where there is the decay\nof prayer in the Church, but where sinners are so unaffected by the\nreligion of the Church that they have no faith in prayer and care\nlittle about the prayers of praying men.\n\nAnother illustration follows this case very quickly. The son of King\nJeroboam fell sick, and was about to die. And this wicked, indifferent\nking, posted his wife off to Ahijah, the prophet of God, to ask him to\nsay what would be the result of the illness of the child. She attempted\nto practice a deception upon the old prophet who was nearly blind,\nintending not to make herself known to him. But he had the vision of a\nprophet even though dim in sight, and immediately revealed to her that\nshe was known to him. After telling her many things of vast importance\nconcerning the kingdom and charging her husband that he had not kept\nGod\u2019s commandments, but had gone into idolatry, he said to her: \u201cArise,\ntherefore, and get thee down to thy house; and when thy feet enter into\nthe city, the child shall die.\u201d\n\nHow natural for a father in trouble to appeal to a praying prophet for\nrelief? And as in the first mentioned case, his sin did not blind his\neyes to the value of having a man of God intercede for him. It availed\nnothing as was proved, but it did prove our contention that in Old\nTestament times sinners, while they were not themselves praying men,\nbelieved strongly in the prayers of praying men.\n\nTake the instance of Johanan, just as the Children of Israel began\ntheir life of captivity in Babylon. Johanan and Jeremiah, with a small\ncompany, had been left in their native land, and Ishmael had conspired\nagainst Gedaliah, the appointed governor of the country, and had slain\nhim. Johanan came to the rescue and delivered the people from Ishmael\nwho was taking them away from their land. But Johanan wanted to\nflee down into Egypt, which was contrary to the Divine plan. At this\nparticular juncture of affairs, he assembled all the people, and they\nwent to Jeremiah with the earnest appeal:\n\n  \u201cWe beseech thee, let our supplication be accepted before thee, and\n  pray for us unto the Lord thy God, that the Lord thy God may show us\n  the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.\u201d\n\nLike all other appeals to good men for prayer, Jeremiah interceded for\nthese inquirers after the right way, and after ten days the answer\ncame, and they were informed by Jeremiah what God would have them\ndo. This was to the effect that they should not go down to Egypt,\nbut remain in and about Jerusalem, but the people and Johanan played\nJeremiah false, and refused to do as God had told them in answer to\nprayer. But it did not disprove the fact that they had faith in prayer\nand in praying men.\n\nAnother case may be noticed as showing the truth of our proposition\nthat sinners had faith in prayer in the Old Testament dispensation,\nthus indirectly proving the pre\u00ebminence of prayer in those days, for\ncertainly prayer must have had a prominent place and its necessity must\nhave received general recognition, when even sinners by their actions\ngive endorsement to its virtue and necessity. Surely if sinners bore\ntestimony to its worth, and at that time displayed their need of\nprayer, even by the prayers of some one else, Church people of this day\nought to have a deep sense of its need, and should have strong faith in\nprayer and its virtue. And certainly if the men of Old Testament times\nwere such men of prayer, and had such a reputation as praying men, then\nin this favored day, Christian men should be so given to prayer that\nthey also would have a wide reputation as praying men.\n\nZedekiah was king of Judah just as the captivity of God\u2019s people began.\nHe was in charge of the kingdom when Jerusalem was besieged by the King\nof Babylon. And it was just about this time that Zedekiah sent two\nchosen men unto Jeremiah saying: \u201cInquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for\nus; for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, maketh war against us; if so\nbe that the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works,\nthat he may go up from us.\u201d\n\nAnd God told Jeremiah in answer to this inquiry what to do, and what\nwould occur, but as in another case, that of Johanan, Zedekiah proved\nfalse, and would not do as God instructed Jeremiah to tell him. At the\nsame time it proved conclusively that Zedekiah had not lost his faith\nin prayer as a means of finding out the mind of God, nor did it affect\nhim in his belief in the virtue of the prayers of a praying man.\n\nVerily, prayer must have had a pre\u00ebminent place in all Old Testament\nhistory when not only the men of God were noted for their praying\nhabits, but even men who departed from God and proved false bore\ntestimony to its virtue by appealing to the men of prayer to make\nintercessions for them. This is so notorious in Old Testament history\nthat no careful reader of these old scriptures can fail to discover and\nnotice it.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nPAUL, THE TEACHER OF PRAYER\n\n  _Fletcher of Madeley, a great teacher of a century and a half ago,\n  used to lecture to the young theological students. He was one of the\n  fellow-workers with Wesley and a man of most saintly character. When\n  he had lectured on one of the great topics of the Word of God, such as\n  the Fullness of God\u2019s Holy Spirit or on the power and blessing that He\n  meant His people to have, he would close the lecture and say, \u201cThat is\n  the theory; now will those who want the practice come along up to my\n  room?\u201d And again and again they closed their books and went away to\n  his room, where the hour\u2019s theory would be followed by one or two\n  hours of prayer._--REV. HUBERT BROOKE.\n\n\nHow instant, strenuous, persistent, and pathetic was Paul\u2019s urgency\nof prayer upon those to whom he wrote and spoke! \u201cI exhort,\u201d says\nhe, writing to Timothy, \u201cfirst of all, that supplications, prayers,\nintercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men.\u201d This he meant\nwas to be the prime deposit and truth for the Church. First of all,\nbefore all things, to the front of all things, the Church of Christ was\nto be a praying Church, was to pray for men, was to pray for all men.\nHe charged the Philippians to this effect: \u201cBe careful for nothing,\nbut in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let\nyour requests be made known unto God.\u201d The Church must be anxious about\nnothing. In everything prayer must be made. Nothing was too small about\nwhich to pray. Nothing was too great for God to overcome.\n\nPaul lays it down as a vital, all-essential injunction in writing to\nthe Church at Thessalonica, \u201cRejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In\neverything give thanks. For this is the will of God concerning you.\u201d\nThe Church must give itself to unceasing prayer. Never was prayer to\ncease in the Church. This was the will of God concerning His Church on\nearth.\n\nPaul was not only given to prayer himself, but he continually and\nearnestly urged it in a way that showed its vital importance. He was\nnot only insistent in urging prayer upon the Church in his day, but he\nurged persistent praying. \u201cContinue in prayer and watch in the same,\u201d\nwas the keynote of all his exhortations on prayer. \u201cPraying always with\nall prayer and supplication,\u201d was the way he pressed this important\nmatter upon the people. \u201cI will, therefore,\u201d I exhort, this is my\ndesire, my mind upon this question, \u201cthat men pray everywhere, without\nwrath and doubting.\u201d As he prayed after this fashion himself, he could\nafford to press it upon those to whom he ministered.\n\nPaul was a leader by appointment and by universal recognition and\nacceptance. He had many mighty forces in this ministry. His conversion,\nso conspicuous and radical, was a great force, a perfect magazine of\naggressive and defensive warfare. His call to the apostleship was\nclear, luminous and convincing. But these forces were not the divinest\nenergies which brought forth the largest results to his ministry.\nPaul\u2019s course was more distinctly shaped and his career rendered more\npowerfully successful by prayer than by any other force.\n\nIt is no surprise then that he should give such prominence to prayer in\nhis preaching and writing. We could not expect it to be otherwise. As\nprayer was the highest exercise in his personal life, so also prayer\nassumed the same high place in his teaching. His example of prayer\nadded force to his teaching on prayer. His practice and his teaching\nran in parallel lines. There was no inconsistency in the two things.\n\nPaul was the chiefest of the apostles as he was chief in prayer. If he\nwas the first of the apostles, prayer conspired to that end. Hence he\nwas all the better qualified to be a teacher on prayer. His praying\nfitted him to teach others what prayer was and what prayer could do.\nAnd for this reason he was competent to urge upon the people that they\nmust not neglect prayer. Too much depended upon it.\n\nHe was first in prayer for this cause. For the reason that on him\ncentered more saintly praying than on any one else, he became the first\nin apostleship. The crown of martyrdom was the highest crown in the\nroyalty of heaven, but prayer put this crown of martyrdom on his head.\n\nHe who would teach the people to pray must first himself be given to\nprayer. He who urges prayer on others must first tread the path of\nprayer himself. And just in proportion as preachers pray, will they\nbe disposed to urge prayer upon those to whom they preach. Moreover,\njust in proportion as preachers pray, will they be fitted to preach on\nprayer. If that course of reasoning be true, would it be legitimate to\ndraw the conclusion that the reason why there is so little preaching on\nprayer in these modern times is because preachers are not praying men?\n\nWe might stake the whole question of the absolute necessity and the\npossibilities of prayer in this dispensation on Paul\u2019s attitude\ntoward prayer. If personal force, if the energy of a strong will, if\nprofound convictions, if personal culture and talents, and if the\nDivine call and the Divine empowerment,--if any one of these, or all\nof them united, could direct the Church of God without prayer, then\nlogically prayer would be unnecessary. If profound piety and unswerving\nconsecration to a high purpose, if impassioned loyalty to Jesus\nChrist, if any or all of these could exist without devoted prayer, or\nlift a Church leader above the necessity of prayer, then Paul was above\nits use. But if the great and gifted, the favored and devoted Paul felt\nthe necessity of unceasing prayer, and realized that it was urgent and\npressing in regard to its claims and necessity, and if he felt that\nit was clamorous and insistent that the Church should pray without\nceasing, then he and his brethren in the apostolate should be aided by\nuniversal and mighty praying.\n\nPaul\u2019s praying and his commands and the urgency with which he\npressed upon the Church to pray, is the most convincing proof of the\nabsolute necessity of prayer as a great moral force in the world, an\nindispensable and inalienable factor in the progress and spread of the\nGospel, and in the development of personal piety. In Paul\u2019s view, there\nwas no Church success without prayer, and no piety without prayer, in\nfact without much prayer. A Church out of whose life streams prayer\nas the incense flames went out of the censer, and a leadership out of\nwhose character, life and habits flames prayer as imposing, conspicuous\nand spontaneous as the fragrant incense flamed, this was the leadership\nfor God.\n\nTo pray everywhere, to pray in everything, to continue instant in\nprayer, and to pray without ceasing, thus Paul spoke as a commentator\non the Divine uses and the nature of prayer.\n\nTimothy was very dear to Paul, and the attachment was mutual and\nintensified by all their affinities. Paul found in Timothy those\nelements which fitted him to be his spiritual successor, at least the\ndepository and the leader of the great spiritual principles and forces\nwhich were essential to the establishment and prosperity of the Church.\nThese primary and vital truths he would enforce on and radicate in\nTimothy. Paul regarded Timothy as one to whom fundamental and vital\ntruths might be committed, who would preserve them truly, and who\nwould commit them inviolate to the future. So he gives to Timothy this\ndeposit of prayer for all ages as found in 1st Timothy 2:1.\n\nLet it be noted before we go any further that Paul wrote directly under\nthe superintendency of the Holy Spirit, who guarded Paul against error,\nand who suggested the truths which Paul taught. We hold definitely\nwithout compromise in the least to the plenary inspiration of the\nScriptures, and as Paul\u2019s writings are part and parcel of those Sacred\nWritings, then Paul\u2019s Epistles are portions of the Scriptures or\nthe Word of God. This being true, the doctrine of prayer which Paul\naffirmed is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. His Epistles are of the\nWord of God, inspired, authentic and of Divine authority. So that\nprayer as taught by Paul is the doctrine which Almighty God would have\nHis Church accept, believe, and practice.\n\nThese words to Timothy, therefore, were divinely inspired words. This\nsection of Holy Writ is much more than merely suggestive, and is far\nmore than a broad, bare outline on prayer. It is so instructive about\nprayer, about how men ought to pray, how business men should pray, and\nso forceful about the reasons why men ought to pray, that it needs to\nbe strongly and insistently pressed.\n\nHere are Paul\u2019s words to Timothy on prayer:\n\n  \u201cI exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers,\n  intercessions and giving of thanks, be made for all men;\n\n  \u201cFor kings and all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and\n  peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.\n\n  \u201cFor this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Saviour;\n\n  \u201cWho will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of\n  the truth.\n\n  \u201cFor there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man\n  Christ Jesus;\n\n  \u201cWho gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.\n  I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands,\n  without wrath and doubting.\u201d\n\nIn this prayer section we have set forth by Paul the inheritance and\npractice of every Christian in all ages. It is a _vade mecum_ in\nthe great business of praying. It gives us a view of the energy and\nmany-sidedness of prayer. First in point of time in all excellence of\nall duties is prayer. It must be first in all occupations. So exacting\nand imperative in its import and power is prayer that it stands first\namong spiritual values. He that prays not, is not at all. He is naught,\nless than naught. He is below zero, so far as Christ and God and heaven\nare concerned. Not simply among the first things does prayer stand on a\nlevel with other things, but first of the first, to the very forefront,\ndoes Paul put prayer with all his heart. \u201cI exhort that first of all.\u201d\n\nHis teaching is that praying is the most important of all things on\nearth. All else must be restrained, retired, to give it primacy. Put\nit first, and keep its primacy. The conflict is about the primacy\nof prayer. Defeat and victory lie in this one thing. To make prayer\nsecondary is to discrown it. It is to fetter and destroy prayer. If\nprayer is put first, then God is put first, and victory is assured.\nPrayer must either reign in the life or must abdicate. Which shall it\nbe?\n\nAccording to Paul, \u201csupplications, prayers, intercessions and giving\nof thanks\u201d all these elements of prayer and forms of prayer are to be\noffered for men. Prayer is offered for things, for all things, for\nall temporal good, and for all spiritual good and grace, but in these\ndirections Paul rises to the highest results and purposes of prayer.\nMen are to be affected by prayer. Their good, their character, conduct\nand destiny are all involved in prayer. In this regard prayer moves\nalong the highest way, and pursues its loftiest end. We are cognizant\nand consonant with things, with blessings, and bestowments, with\nmatters and things which touch men, but men themselves are here set\nforth as the objects of prayer. This broadens and ennobles prayer. Men,\nthrough the whole sweep and range of their conditions, are to be held\nin the mighty grasp of prayer.\n\nPaul\u2019s teaching is to the effect that prayer is essentially a thing\nof the inner nature. The spirit within us prays. So note Paul\u2019s\ndirections: \u201cI will therefore that men pray everywhere, without\nwrath.\u201d \u201cWrath\u201d is a term which denotes the natural, internal motion\nof plants and fruits, swelling with juice. The natural juices are\nwarmed into life, and rise by the warmth of Spring. Man has in him\nnatural juices which rise as does the sap. Warmth, heat, all stages\nof passions and desires, every degree of feeling, these spontaneously\nrise under provocation. Guard against and suppress them. Man cannot\npray with these natural feelings rising in him, cultivated, cherished\nand continued there. Prayer is to be without these. \u201cWithout wrath.\u201d\nHigher, better, nobler inspiration are to lift prayer upward. \u201cWrath\u201d\ndepresses prayer, hinders it, suppresses it.\n\nThe word \u201cwithout\u201d means making no use of, having no association with,\napart from, aloof from. The natural, unrenewed heart has no part in\npraying. Its heat and all its nature juices poison and destroy praying.\nThe nature of prayer is deeper than nature. We cannot pray by nature,\neven by the kindliest and the best nature.\n\nPrayer is the true test of character. Fidelity to our conditions and\ntrueness to our relations are often evinced by our prayerfulness. Some\nconditions give birth to prayer. They are the soil which germinates and\nperfects prayer. To pray under some circumstances seems very fitting.\nNot to pray in some conditions seems heartless and discordant. The\ngreat storms of life, when we are helpless and without relief, or are\ndevoid of assuagement, are the natural and providential conditions of\nprayer.\n\nWidowhood is a great sorrow. It comes to saintly women as well as to\nothers. True widows there are who are saintly. They are to be honored\nand their sorrow is divine. Their piety is aromatic and lightened by\ntheir bruised hearts. Here is Paul\u2019s description of such widows:\n\n  \u201cNow she that is a widow indeed and desolate, trusteth in God, and\n  continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that\n  liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.\u201d\n\nHere is the striking contrast between two classes of women. One gives\nherself to supplications night and day. The other lives in pleasure\nand is spiritually dead. So Paul describes a true widow as being\ngreat in prayer. Her prayers, born of her faith and desolation, are a\nmighty force. Day and night her prayers go up to God unceasingly. The\nwidowhood heart is a mighty appeal to God when that heart is found in\nthe way of prayer, intense, unwearied prayer.\n\nOne of Paul\u2019s striking injunctions worthy of study is this one,\n\u201ccontinuing instant in prayer,\u201d or as the Revised Version reads,\n\u201cContinuing steadfast in prayer,\u201d which is his description of prayer.\nThe term means to tarry, to remain, to be steadfast and faithful in\nprayer, to stick to it strong, to stay at it with strength to the end,\nto give attention to it with vigor, devotion and constancy, to give\nunremitting care to it.\n\nPraying is a business, a life-long business, one to be followed\nwith diligence, fervor and toil. The Christian\u2019s business by way of\npre\u00ebminence is prayer. It is his most engaging, most heavenly, most\nlucrative business. Prayer is a business of such high and deserved\ndignity and import that it is to be followed \u201cwithout ceasing.\u201d That\nis, with no let up nor break down, followed assiduously and without\nintermission. To prayer we are to give all strength. It must cover all\nthings, be in every place, find itself in all seasons, and embrace\neverything, always, and everywhere.\n\nIn the remarkable prayer in Ephesians, 3d chapter, he is praying for\nwide reaches of religious experience. He is there bowing his knees unto\nGod, in the name of Jesus Christ, and asking that God would grant that\nthese Ephesian believers would in their experiences go far beyond the\nutmost stretches of past sainthood. \u201cFilled with all the fullness of\nGod,\u201d an experience so great and so glorious that it makes the head\nof the modern saint so dizzy that he is afraid to look up to those\nsupernal heights or peer down into the fathomless depths. Paul just\npasses us on to Him, \u201cwho is able to do exceeding abundantly above all\nthat we can ask or think.\u201d This is a specimen of his teaching on prayer.\n\nIn writing to the Philippian Church, Paul recounts the situation, and\nshows the transmuting power of prayer as follows:\n\n  \u201cSome indeed preach Christ of envy and strife; and some also of good\n  will;\n\n  \u201cThe one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add\n  affliction to my bonds;\n\n  \u201cBut the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the\n  Gospel.\n\n  \u201cWhat then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in\n  truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will\n  rejoice.\n\n  \u201cFor I know that this shall turn to my salvation through our prayer\n  and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.\n\n  \u201cAccording to my earnest expectation and my hope; that in nothing\n  shall I be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now\n  also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or\n  death.\u201d\n\nBoldness was to be secured by him and discomfiture and shame prevented\nby their prayers, and Christ was to be gloriously magnified by and\nthrough Paul, whether he lived or died.\n\nIt is to be remarked that in all these quotations in Corinthians,\nEphesians or Philippians, the Revised Version gives us the most\nintense form of prayer, \u201csupplications.\u201d It is the intense, personal,\nstrenuous, persistent praying of the saints, that Paul requests, and\nthey must give special strength, interest, time and heart to their\npraying to make it bear its largest golden fruit.\n\nThe general direction about prayer to the Colossian Christians is made\nspecific and is sharpened to the point of a personal appeal: \u201cContinue\nin prayer and watch in the same, with thanksgiving; withal praying\nalso for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak\nthe mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds; that I make it\nmanifest as I ought to speak.\u201d\n\nPaul is accredited with the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews.\nWe have it in a reference to the character of Christ\u2019s praying, which\nis illustrative, directory and authentative as to the elements of\ntrue praying. How deep tones are his words! How heart-affecting and\nhow sublime was His praying who prayed as never man prayed before,\nand yet prayed in order to teach man how to pray, \u201cwho in the days of\nHis flesh, when He had offered prayers and supplications, with strong\ncrying and tears, to Him that was able to save Him from death, and\nwas heard in that He feared.\u201d The praying of Jesus Christ drew on\nthe mightiest forces of His being. His prayers were His sacrifices,\nwhich He offered before He offered Himself on the cross for the\nsins of mankind. Prayer-sacrifice is the forerunner and pledge of\nself-sacrifice. We must die in our closets before we can die on the\ncross.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nPAUL AND HIS PRAYING\n\n  _In the life of Frank Crossley it is told how one day in 1888 he had\n  said good-bye at the station to his friends, General and Mrs. Booth;\n  but before they steamed out he handed a letter to them giving details\n  of a sacrifice he had resolved to make for the Army. He came home and\n  was praying alone. \u201cAs I was praying,\u201d he said, \u201cthere came over me\n  the most extraordinary sense of joy. It was not exactly in my head,\n  nor in my heart, it was almost a grasping of my chest by some strange\n  hand that filled me with an ecstasy I never had before. It was borne\n  in on me that this was the joy of the Lord.\u201d So this servant of God\n  made in his pilgrimage to God an advance from which he never fell\n  back. He thought it likely at the time that the Booths had read this\n  letter in the train and this was an answer to prayer of theirs;\n  afterwards he heard they had prayed for him in the train just after\n  getting well out of Manchester._--REV. EDWARD SHILLITO.\n\n\nHe who studies Paul\u2019s praying, both his prayers and his commands about\nprayer, will find what a wide, general, minute, and diversified area it\ncovers. It will appear that these men like Wesley, Brainerd, Luther,\nand all their holy successors in the spiritual realms, were not guilty\nof fanaticism nor superstition when they ordered all things by prayer\ngreat and small, and committed all things, secular and religious,\nnatural and spiritual, to God in prayer. In this they were but\nfollowing the great exemplar and authority of the Apostle Paul.\n\nTo seek God as Paul did by prayer, to commune with God as Paul did, to\nsupplicate Jesus Christ as Paul did, to seek the Holy Spirit by prayer\nas Paul did, to do this without ceasing, to be always a racer, and to\nwin Christ as Paul did by prayer--all this makes a saint, an apostle,\nand a leader for God. This kind of a life engages, absorbs, enriches,\nand empowers with God and for God. Prayer, if successful, must always\nengage and absorb us. This kind of praying brings Pauline days and\nsecures Pauline gifts. Pauline days are good, Pauline gifts are better,\nbut Pauline praying is best of all, for it brings Pauline days, and\nsecures Pauline gifts. Pauline praying costs much, is death to self,\nthe flesh and the world. Pauline praying is worth all it costs. Prayer\nwhich costs nothing gets nothing. It is beggarly business at best.\n\nPaul\u2019s estimate of prayer is seen and enforced by the fact that Paul\nwas a man of prayer. His high position in the Church was not one of\ndignity and position to enjoy and luxuriate in. It was not one of\nofficialism, nor was it one of arduous and exhaustless toil, for Paul\nwas pre\u00ebminently a praying man.\n\nHe began his great career for Christ in the great struggle and school\nof prayer. God\u2019s convincing and wonderful argument to assure Ananias\nwas, \u201cBehold he prayeth.\u201d Three days was he without sight, neither\neating nor drinking, but the lesson was learned well.\n\nHe went out on his first great missionary trip under the power of\nfasting and prayer, and they, Paul and Barnabas, established every\nChurch by the very same means, by fasting and prayer. He began his\nwork in Philippi \u201cwhere prayer was wont to be made.\u201d As \u201cthey went to\nprayer,\u201d the spirit of divination was cast out of the young woman. And\nwhen Paul and Silas were put in prison, at midnight they prayed and\nsang praises to God.\n\nPaul made praying a habit, a business and a life. He literally gave\nhimself to prayer. So with him praying was not an outer garb, a mere\ncoloring, a paint, a polish. Praying made up the substance, the bone,\nthe marrow, and the very being of his religious life. His conversion\nwas a marvel of grace and power. His apostolic commission was full\nand royal. But he did not vainly expect to make full proof of his\nministry, by the marvels of conditions and by wonderful results in\nthe conversion, nor by the apostolic commission signed and sealed by\nDivine authority, and carrying with it all highest gifts and apostolic\nenrichments, but by prayer, by ceaseless, wrestling, agonizing and\nHoly Spirit praying. Thus did Paul work his work, and crown his work,\nhis life and the death with martyr principles and with martyr glory.\n\nPaul had a spiritual trait which was very marked and especially\npromised, and it was that of prayer. He had a profound conviction that\nprayer was a great as well as a solemn duty; that prayer was a royal\nprivilege; that prayer was a mighty force; that prayer gauges piety,\nmakes faith mighty and mightier; that much prayer was necessary to\nChristian success; that prayer was a great factor in the ongoing of\nGod\u2019s kingdom on earth; and that God and heaven expected to pray.\n\nSomehow we are dependent on prayer for great triumphs of holiness over\nsin, of heaven over hell, and of Christ over Satan. Paul took it for\ngranted that men who knew God would pray; that men who lived for God\nwould pray much, and that men could not live for God who did not pray.\nSo Paul prayed much. He was in the habit of praying. He was used to\npraying, and that formed the habit of prayer. He estimated prayer so\ngreatly that he fully knew its value, and that fastened the habit on\nhim. Paul was in the habit of praying because he loved God, and such\nlove in the heart always finds its expression in regular habits of\nprayer. He felt the need of much grace, and of more and more grace,\nand grace only comes through the channels of prayer, and only abounds\nmore and more as prayer abounds more and more.\n\nPaul was in the habit of praying, but he prayed not by mere force of\nhabit. Man is such a creature of habit that he is always in danger of\ndoing things simply by heart, in a routine, perfunctory manner. Paul\u2019s\nhabit was regular and hearty. To the Romans he writes, \u201cFor God is\nmy witness, that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my\nprayers.\u201d Prison doors are opened and earthquakes take place by such\npraying as Paul did, even by such melodious Pauline praying. All things\nare opened to the kind of praying which was done by Paul and Silas. All\nthings are opened by prayer. They could shut up Paul from preaching,\nbut this could not shut him up from praying. And the Gospel could win\nits way by Paul\u2019s praying as well as by Paul\u2019s preaching. The apostle\nmight be in prison, but the Word of God was free, and went like the\nmountain air, while the apostle is bound in prison and abounds in\nprayer.\n\nHow profound their joy in Jesus which expressed itself so happily and\nso sweetly in praise and prayer, under conditions so painful and so\ndepressing! Prayer brought them into full communion with God which\nmade all things radiant with the Divine presence which enabled them to\n\u201crejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name,\nand to count it all joy when they fell into divers trials.\u201d Prayer\nsweetens all things and sanctifies all things. The prayerful saint will\nbe a suffering saint. Suffering prayerfully he will be a sweet saint.\nA praying saint will be a praising saint. Praise is but prayer set to\nmusic and song.\n\nAfter that notable charge to the elders at Ephesus, as he tarried there\nwhile on his way to Jerusalem, this characteristic record is made in\nActs:\n\n  \u201cAnd when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them.\n  And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul\u2019s neck and kissed him.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe kneeled down and prayed.\u201d Note those words. Kneeling in prayer was\nPaul\u2019s favorite attitude, the fitting posture of an earnest, humble\nsuppliant. Humility and intensity are in such a position in prayer\nbefore Almighty God. It is the proper attitude of man before God, of a\nsinner before a Saviour, and of a beggar before his benefactor. To seal\nhis sacred and living charge to those Ephesian elders by prayer was\nthat which made the charge efficient, benignant and abiding.\n\nPaul\u2019s religion was born in the throes of that three days\u2019 struggle of\nprayer, while he was in the house of Ananias, and there he received a\ndivine impetus which never slackened till it brought him to the gates\nof the eternal city. That spiritual history and religious experience\nprojected along the line of unceasing prayer, brought him to the\nhighest spiritual altitudes and yields the largest spiritual results.\nPaul lived in the very atmosphere of prayer. His first missionary trip\nwas projected by prayer. It was by prayer and fasting that he was\ncalled into the foreign missionary field, and by the same means the\nChurch at Antioch was moved to send forth Paul and Barnabas on their\nfirst missionary journey. Here is the Scripture record of it:\n\n  \u201cNow there were in the Church which was at Antioch certain prophets\n  and teachers, as Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger; and\n  Lucius of Cyrene, and Manean, which had been brought up with Herod\n  the tetrarch, and Saul.\n\n  \u201cAnd as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said,\n  Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called\n  them.\n\n  \u201cAnd when they had fasted and prayed, and had laid their hands on\n  them, they sent them away.\u201d\n\nHere is a model for all missionary outgoings, a presage of success.\nHere was the Holy Spirit directing a prayerful Church obedient to the\nDivine leadership, and this condition of things brought forth the very\nlargest possible results in the mission of these two men of God. We may\nconfidently assert that no Church in which Paul was prominent would be\na prayerless Church. Paul lived, toiled and suffered in an atmosphere\nof prayer. To him, prayer was the very heart and life of religion, its\nbone and marrow, the motor of the Gospel, and the sign by which it\nconquered. We are not left in ignorance, for that spirit established\nchurches, putting in them the everlasting requisite of self-denial, in\nthe shape of fasting, and in the practice of prayer. Here is the Divine\nrecord of Paul\u2019s work on this line:\n\n  \u201cConfirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to\n  continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation\n  enter into the kingdom of God.\n\n  \u201cAnd when they had ordained them elders in every Church, and had\n  prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they\n  believed.\u201d\n\nIn obedience to a heavenly vision, Paul lands in Europe, and finds\nhimself at Philippi. There is no synagogue, and few if any Jews are\nthere. A few pious women, however, have a meeting place for prayer,\nand Paul is drawn by spiritual attraction and spiritual affinities to\nthe place \u201cwhere prayer is wont to be made.\u201d And Paul\u2019s first planting\nof the Gospel in Europe is at that little prayer meeting. He is there\nthe chief pray-er and the leading talker. Lydia was the first convert\nat that prayer meeting. They protracted the meeting. They called it a\nmeeting for prayer.\n\nIt was while they were going to that protracted prayer meeting that\nPaul performed the miracle of casting the devil of divination out of\na poor demon-possessed girl, who had been made a source of gain by\nsome covetous men, the results of which, by the magistrate\u2019s orders,\nwere his scourging and imprisonment. The result by God\u2019s orders was\nthe conversion of the jailer and his whole household. To the praying\napostle no discouragements are allowed. A few praying women are enough\nfor an apostolical field of labor.\n\nIn this last incident we have a picture of Paul at midnight. He is in\nthe inner prison, dark and deadly. He has been severely and painfully\nscourged, his clothing is covered with blood, while there are blood\nclots on his gnashed and torn body. His feet are in the stocks, every\nnerve is feverish and swollen, sensitive and painful. But we find him\nunder these very unfavorable and suffering conditions at his favorite\npursuit. Paul is praying with Silas, his companion, in a joyous,\ntriumphant strain. \u201cAnd at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang\npraises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was\nan earthquake, so that the foundation of the prison was shaken, and\nimmediately all the doors were shaken; and every one\u2019s ban was loosed.\nAnd the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the\nprison doors opened, he drew out his sword, and would have killed\nhimself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.\n\n  \u201cBut Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, Do thyself no harm; for\n  we are all here.\u201d\n\nNever was prayer so beautiful, never more resultful. Paul was an\nadept at prayer, a lover of prayer, a wondrous devotee of prayer, who\ncould pursue it with such joyous strains, under such conditions of\ndespondency and despair. What a mighty weapon of defense was prayer\nto Paul! How songful! The angels doubtless stilled their highest and\nsweetest notes to listen to the music which bore those prayers to\nheaven. The earthquake trod along the path made by the mighty forces\nof Paul\u2019s praying. He did not go out when his chains were loosed,\nand the stocks fell off. His praying taught him that God had nobler\npurposes that night than his own individual freedom. His praying and\nthe earthquake alarm were to bring salvation to that prison, freedom\nfrom the thraldom and prison house of sin which was prefigured to him\nby his body emancipation. God\u2019s mighty providence had opened his prison\ndoor and had broken his prison bonds, not to give freedom, but to give\nfreedom to the jailer. God\u2019s providential openings are often to test\nour ability to stay rather than to go. It tested Paul\u2019s ability to\nstay.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nPAUL AND HIS PRAYING\n\n(_Continued_)\n\n  _William Law has this very pertinent word in his \u201cDevout Life\u201d: \u201cWhen\n  you begin your petitions use such various expressions of the\n  attributes of God as may make you most sensible of the greatness and\n  power of the Divine nature.\u201d And then William Law gives various\n  examples, which I am bound to say would not be helpful to me, as they\n  would imprison my spirit in a coat of mail. But I want to emphasize\n  and commend the principle of it, which is, that our fellowship should\n  begin with the primary elements of adoration and praise._--REV. J. H.\n  JOWETT.\n\n\nThere are two occasions with wonderful results where the statement\nis not explicit that Paul was in prayer, but the circumstances and\nthe results, and Paul\u2019s universal and intense praying habit, make it\nmost evident that the key to the results of both occasions is prayer.\nThe first occasion is when Paul sailed away from Philippi and came to\nTroas, where he abode seven days. On the first day of the week, when\nthe disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them,\nexpecting to depart on the morrow, and continued his preaching till\nlate in the night.\n\nThere was sitting in the window a young man named Eutychus, who\nnaturally fell asleep, and as Paul was rather long in speaking, the\nyoung man fell out of the high window, and was taken up for dead. Paul\nwent down to the place where the young man had fallen, and embracing\nhim, told the people about him that they need not be troubled, for life\nwas still in the body. Paul returned to the upper room, where he had\nbeen preaching, and talked with the disciples till break of day. And\nthe young man was brought alive, and as a consequence all were greatly\ncomforted.\n\nThe very natural conclusion without the fact being specially stated is\nthat Paul must have prayed for the young man when he embraced him, and\nhis prayer was answered in the quick recovery of the young man.\n\nThe second occasion was in the perilous and protracted storm which\novertook the vessel in which Paul was being carried as a prisoner to\nRome. They were being exceedingly tossed about with the great tempest,\nand neither sun nor stars appeared as they were beset and struggled\nagainst wind and storm. All hope that they would be saved seemed gone.\nBut after long abstinence, Paul stood in the midst of those on board,\nand speaking more particularly to the officers of the vessel, said,\n\u201cSirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from\nCrete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you, to\nbe of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man\u2019s life among\nyou, but of the ship. For there stood by this night the angel of God,\nwhose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be\nbrought before C\u00e6sar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail\nwith thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God, that\nit shall be even as God hath told me.\u201d\n\nIt requires no strained interpretation to read into this simple record\nthe fact that Paul must have been praying when the angel appeared unto\nhim with that message of encouragement and assurance of safety. Paul\u2019s\nhabit of prayer and his strong belief in prayer must have driven him\nto his knees. Such an emergency with him would necessarily move him to\npray under such crucial circumstances.\n\nAfter the shipwreck, while on the island of Melita, we have another\nrepresentation of Paul at prayer. He is at his work of praying for a\nvery ill man. While a fire was being made, a deadly poisonous viper\nfastened itself on his hand, and the barbarians immediately concluded\nit was a case of retribution for some crime Paul had committed, but\nthey soon discovered that Paul did not die, and changed their minds and\nconcluded that he was a sort of god.\n\nIn the same quarter at the time, was the father of Publius, who was\nvery ill of a fever, and bloody flux, approaching seemingly his\nend. Paul went to him, and laid his hands upon him, and with simple\nconfidence in God he prayed, and immediately the disease was rebuked,\nand the man was healed. When the natives of the island beheld this\nremarkable incident, they brought others to Paul, and they were healed,\nafter the same fashion, by Paul\u2019s praying.\n\nTurning back in Paul\u2019s life to the time he was at Ephesus on his way to\nJerusalem, we find him stopping at Tyre after he departed from Ephesus.\nBefore leaving Ephesus he had prayed with them all. But he did not\ntrust in his words howsoever strong, fitting and solemn they might have\nbeen. God must be recognized, invoked and sought. Paul did not take it\nfor granted, after he had done his best, that God as a matter of course\nwould bless his efforts to do good, but he sought God. God does not do\nthings in a matter-of-course sort of way. God must be invoked, sought\nunto, and put into things by prayer.\n\nFollowing his visit to Ephesus, he arrived at Tyre, where he stopped a\nfew days. Here he found some disciples, who begged Paul not to go to\nJerusalem, saying through the Spirit that he should not go up to that\ncity. But Paul adhered to his original purpose to go to Jerusalem. The\naccount says:\n\n  \u201cAnd when we had accomplished those days, we departed, and went\n  our way; and they all brought us on our way with their wives and\n  children, till we were out of the city; and we kneeled down on the\n  shore and prayed.\u201d\n\nWhat a sight to behold on that seashore! Here is a family picture of\nlove and devotion, where husbands, wives and even children are present,\nand prayer is made out in the open air. What an impression it must have\nmade upon those children! The vessel was ready to depart, but prayer\nmust cement their affections and sanctify wives and children, and bless\ntheir parting--a parting which was to be final so far as this world was\nconcerned. The scene is beautiful and does honor to the head and heart\nof Paul, to his person and his piety, and shows the tender affection\nin which he was held. His devoted habit of sanctifying all things by\nprayer comes directly to the light. \u201cWe kneeled down on the shore\nand prayed.\u201d Never did sea strand see a grander picture or witness a\nlovelier sight--Paul on his knees on the sands of that shore, invoking\nGod\u2019s blessing upon these men, women and children.\n\nWhen Paul was arraigned at Jerusalem, in making his public defense,\nhe refers to two instances of his praying. One was when he was in the\nhouse of Judas, in Damascus, after he had been stricken to the earth\nand brought under conviction. He was there three days, and to him was\nAnanias sent, to lay his hand upon him, at the time of his blindness\nand darkness. It was during those three days of prayer. This is the\nScriptural record, and the words are those of Ananias addressed to him:\n\n  \u201cAnd now why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy\n  sins, calling on the name of the Lord.\u201d\n\nThe Lord had emboldened the timid Ananias to go and minister to Paul,\nby telling him, \u201cBehold he prayeth.\u201d And so we have in this reference\nPaul\u2019s prayerfulness intensified by the exhortation of Ananias. Prayer\nprecedes pardon of sins. Prayer becomes those who seek God. Prayer\nbelongs to the earnest, sincere inquirer after God. Pardon of sin and\nacceptance with God always come at the end of earnest praying. The\nevidence of sincerity in a true seeker of religion is that it can be\nsaid of him, \u201cBehold he prayeth.\u201d\n\nThe other reference in his defense lets us into the prayerful\nintenseness into which his whole religious life had been fashioned and\nshows us how in the absorbing ecstasy of prayer, the vision came and\ndirections were received by which his toilsome life was to be guided.\nAlso we see the familiar terms on which he stood and talked with his\nLord:\n\n  \u201cAnd it came to pass when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I\n  prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;\n\n  \u201cAnd saw him saying unto me, Make haste and get thee quickly out of\n  Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.\n\n  \u201cAnd I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every\n  synagogue them that believed on thee.\n\n  \u201cAnd when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was\n  standing by, and consenting to his death, and kept the raiment of\n  them that slew him.\n\n  \u201cAnd he said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the\n  Gentiles.\u201d\n\nPrayer always brings directions from heaven as to what God would have\nus to do. If we prayed more and more directly, we should make fewer\nmistakes in life as to duty. God\u2019s will concerning us is revealed in\nanswer to prayer. If we prayed more and prayed better and sweeter,\nthen clearer and more entrancing visions would be given us, and our\nintercourse with God, would be of the most intimate, free, and bold\norder.\n\nIt is difficult to itemize or classify Paul\u2019s praying. It is so\ncomprehensive, so discursive, and so minute, that it is no easy task to\ndo so. Paul teaches much about prayer in his didactics. He specifically\nenforces the duty and necessity of prayer upon the Church, but that\nwhich was better for Paul and better for us is that he himself prayed\nmuch and illustrated his own teaching. He practiced what he preached.\nHe put to the test the exercise of prayer which he urged upon the\npeople of his day.\n\nTo the Church at Rome he plainly and specifically asseverated with\nsolemnity his habit of praying. This he wrote to those Roman believers:\n\n  \u201cFor God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel\n  of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my\n  prayers.\u201d\n\nPaul not only prayed for himself. He made a practice of praying for\nothers. He was pre\u00ebminently an intercessor. As he urged intercessory\nprayer on others, so he interceded himself for others beside himself.\n\nHe begins that remarkable Epistle to the Romans in the spirit of\nprayer: He closes it with this solemn charge: \u201cNow I beseech you,\nbrethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ\u2019s sake, and for the love of the\nSpirit, that ye strive with me in your prayers to God for me.\u201d\n\nBut this is not all. In the very heart of that Epistle, he commands\n\u201cContinuing instant in prayer.\u201d That is, give constant attention to\nprayer. Make it the business of life. Be devoted to it. Just what he\ndid himself, for Paul was a standing example of the doctrine of prayer\nwhich he advocated and pressed upon the people.\n\nIn his Epistles to the Thessalonians, how all-inclusive and wonderful\nthe praying! Says he in writing his First Epistle to this Church:\n\n  \u201cWe give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in my\n  prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of\n  love, and patience of hope.\u201d\n\nNot to quote all he says, it is worth while to read his words to this\nsame Church of true believers further on:\n\n  \u201cNight and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and\n  might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. Now God himself\n  direct our way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound\n  in love one toward another, even as we do toward you, to the end he\n  may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even\n  our Father.\u201d\n\nAnd this sort of praying for these Thessalonian Christians is in direct\nline with that closing prayer for these same believers in this Epistle,\nwhere he records that striking prayer for their entire sanctification:\n\n  \u201cAnd the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your\n  whole spirit, and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the\n  coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d\n\nHow Paul did pray for those early Christians! They were in his mind\nand on his heart, and he was continually at it, \u201cnight and day praying\nexceedingly.\u201d Oh, if we had a legion of preachers in these days of\nsuperficial piety and these times of prayerlessness, who were given to\npraying for their churches as Paul did for those to whom he ministered\nin his day! Praying men are needed. Likewise praying preachers are\ndemanded in this age.\n\nAt the conclusion of that remarkable prayer in the third chapter of\nEphesians, he declared that \u201cGod was able to do exceeding abundantly\nabove all that we could ask or think,\u201d now he declares he is praying\nexceeding abundantly, striving after the most earnest order, to have\nhis prayers run parallel with God\u2019s power, and that they may not limit\nthat power nor exhaust that power, but get all there is in it to bless\nand greatly enrich His Church.\n\nPaul and his compeers prayed for the saints everywhere. It may be\nreferred to again. With what solemnity does Paul call the attention\nof the Roman Christians to the important fact of praying for them,\nbelievers whom he had never seen! \u201cGod is my witness that without\nceasing, I make mention of you in my prayers.\u201d To the churches he says,\n\u201cPraying always for you.\u201d\n\nAgain on the same line, we hear him articulating clearly, \u201cAlways in\nevery prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy.\u201d Again he\nwrites thus: \u201cI do not cease to pray for you.\u201d Once more we read the\nrecord, \u201cWherefore we pray always for you.\u201d And again it is written,\n\u201cCease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my\nprayers.\u201d And then he says, \u201cRemembrance of thee in my prayers night\nand day.\u201d\n\nHis declaration, \u201cnight and day praying exceedingly,\u201d is a condensed\nrecord of the engrossing nature of the praying done by this praying\napostle. It shows conclusively how important prayer was in his estimate\nand in his ministry, and further shows how to him prayer was an agony\nof earnest striving in seeking from God blessings which could be\nsecured in no other way.\n\nThe unselfishness of his praying is seen in his writing to the\nRomans where he tells them, \u201cMaking request if by any means I might\nhave a prosperous journey to come to you. For I long to see you\nthat I may impart to you some spiritual gift to the end ye may be\nestablished.\u201d The object of his desire to visit Rome was not for\nselfish gratification, the pleasure of a trip, or for other reasons,\nbut that he might be the means under God of \u201cimparting to them some\nspiritual gift,\u201d in order that they \u201cmight be established\u201d in their\nhearts, unblameably in love. It was that his visit might give to them\nsome spiritual gift which they had not received and that they might\nbe established at those points where they needed to be rooted, and\ngrounded in faith, in love, and in all that made up Christian life and\ncharacter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nPAUL AND HIS REQUESTS FOR PRAYER\n\n  _I desire above all things to learn to pray. We want to sound the\n  reveille for the Christian warriors. We desire to find truth of the\n  lack of real praying. What is it? Why is it? Why so little time spent\n  in prayer when Christ, who had command of His time, chose to spend\n  great part of it in INTERCESSION? \u201cHe ever liveth to make intercession\n  for us.\u201d We believe the answer to be the desire is in the heart, but\n  the will is undisciplined, the motive is present, but the affections\n  have not melted under hours of heavenly meditation; the intellect\n  is keen, yet not for hours of tireless research. The intellect and\n  the affections have never been linked together by the sealing of the\n  blessed Holy Ghost to do or die for God\u2019s glory in the secret places,\n  with doors shut, lusts crucified._--REV. HOMER W. HODGE.\n\n\nThe many requests of Paul for prayer for himself, made to those to\nwhom he ministered, put prayer to the front in Paul\u2019s estimate of its\npossibilities. Paul prayed much himself, and tried hard to arouse\nChristians to the imperative importance of the work of prayer. He\nso deeply felt the need of prayer that he was given to the habit\nof personal praying. Realizing this for himself, he pressed this\ninvaluable duty upon others. Intercessory prayer, or prayer for\nothers, occupied a high place in his estimate of prayer. It is no\nsurprise, therefore, when we find him throwing himself upon the prayers\nof the churches to whom he wrote.\n\nBy all their devotion to Jesus Christ, by all their interest in the\nadvance of God\u2019s kingdom on earth, by all the ardor of their personal\nattachment to Jesus, he charges them to pray much, to pray unceasingly,\nto pray at all times, to pray in all things, and to make praying a\nbusiness of praying. And then realizing his own dependence upon prayer\nfor his arduous duties, his sore trials and his heavy responsibilities,\nhe urges those to whom he wrote to pray especially for him.\n\nThe chief of the Apostles needed prayer. He needed the prayers of\nothers, for this he practically admitted in asking for their prayers.\nHis call to the apostleship did not lift him above this need. He\nrealized and acknowledged his dependence on prayer. He craved and\nprized the prayers of all good people. He was not ashamed to solicit\nprayers for himself nor to urge the brethren everywhere to pray for him.\n\nIn writing to the Hebrews, he bases his request for prayer on two\nreasons, his honesty and his anxiety to visit them. If he were\ninsincere, he could lay no claim to their prayers. Praying for him, it\nwould be a powerful agent in facilitating his visit to them. They would\ntouch the secret place of the wind and the waves, and arrange all\nsecondary agencies and make them minister to this end. Praying puts God\nin haste to do for us the things which we wish at His hands.\n\nPaul\u2019s frequent request of his brethren was that they would \u201cpray\nfor him.\u201d We are to judge of the value of a thing by the frequency\nof asking for it, and by the special and urgent plea made for it. If\nthat be true, then with Paul the prayers of the saints were among his\ngreatest assets. By the urgency, iteration and reiteration of the\nrequest, \u201cPray for me,\u201d Paul showed conclusively the great value he put\nupon prayer as a means of grace. Paul had no need so pressing as the\nneed of prayer. There were no values so appreciated and appreciable as\nthe prayers of the faithful.\n\nPaul put the great factor of prayer as the great factor in his work.\nThe most powerful and far-reaching energy in Paul\u2019s estimate is prayer.\nHe covets it and hoards it as he seeks the prayers of God\u2019s people. The\nearnestness of his soul goes out in these requests. Hear him in this\nentreaty for prayer he is writing to the Romans:\n\n  \u201cI beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ\u2019s sake, and for\n  the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your\n  prayers for me.\u201d\n\nPrayers by others for Paul were valuable because they helped him. Great\nhelpers are prayers. Nothing gives so much aid to us in our needs\nas real prayers. They supply needs and deliver from straits. Paul\u2019s\nfaith, so he writes to the Corinthians, had been much tried, and he had\nbeen much helped and much strengthened by God\u2019s deliverance. \u201cYe also\nhelping by prayer.\u201d What marvelous things has God done for His favored\nsaints through the prayers of others! The saints can help the saints\nmore by fervent praying than in any other way.\n\nIn the midst of envy and detraction, and in perils by false brethren,\nhe writes thus to the Philippians:\n\n  \u201cFor I know that this shall turn to my salvation though your prayer,\n  and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.\n\n  \u201cAccording to my expectation, and my hope, that in nothing I shall be\n  ashamed, but with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be\n  magnified in my body, whether it be by life or death.\u201d\n\nShame was taken away, holy boldness secured, and life and death made\nglorious by the prayers of the saints at Philippi for Paul.\n\nPaul had many mighty forces in his ministry. His remarkable conversion\nwas a great force, a point of mighty projecting and propelling power,\nand yet he did not in his ministry secure its results by the force\nof his epochal conversion. His call to the apostleship was clear,\nluminous, and all-convincing, but he did not depend on that for the\nlargest results in his ministry.\n\nPaul\u2019s course was more clearly marked out and his career rendered more\npowerfully successful by prayer than by any other force.\n\nPaul urges the Roman Christians to pray for him that he may be\ndelivered from unbelieving men. Prayer is a defense and protection\nagainst the malignity and machinations of evil men. It can affect men\nbecause God can affect them. Paul had not only unbelieving enemies\nwith whom to contend, but many Christians were prejudiced against him\nto an extent which rendered it questionable whether they would accept\nany Christian service at his hands. Especially was this the case at\nJerusalem, and so prayer, powerful prayer, must be used to remove the\nmighty and pernicious force of prejudice, inflamed and deep-seated.\n\nPrayer on their part for him must be used for his safety, and also that\na prosperous journey and God\u2019s will might bring him speedily and surely\nto them, in order to bless and refresh mutually the Roman Christians.\n\nThese prayer requests of Paul are many-sided and all-comprehensive.\nHow many things does his request to the Roman Church include! The\nrequest for their prayers, like the Church to whom it is directed,\nis cosmopolitan. He beseeches them, entreats them, a term indicating\nintensity and earnestness, \u201cfor the sake of Jesus Christ, to strive\nwith him in their prayers for him.\u201d This he desires that he may be\ndelivered from evil and designing men, who might hinder and embarrass\nhim in his mission, then further that his service for the poor saints\nmight be accepted by the saints, and that he might ultimately come unto\nthem with joy that they might be refreshed.\n\nHow full of heart earnestness is his request! How tender and loving\nis his appeal! How touching and high is the motive to the highest\nand truest form of prayer, \u201cfor the Lord Jesus Christ\u2019s sake!\u201d Also\nfor the love we bear to the Spirit, or for the love which the Spirit\nbears to us; by the ties of the holy brotherhood. By these lofty\nand constraining motives does he urge them to pray for him and to\n\u201cstrive with him\u201d in their mutual praying. Paul is in the great prayer\nstruggle, a struggle in which the mightiest issues are involved and\nimperiled; and he is in the midst of this struggle. He is committed\nto it because Christ is in it. He needs help, help which comes alone\nthrough prayer. So he pleads with his brethren to pray for him and with\nhim.\n\nBy prayer enemies are to be swept out of the way. By prayer prejudices\nare to be driven out of the hearts of good men. His way to Jerusalem\nwould be cleared of difficulties, the success of his mission would\nbe secured, and the will of God and the good of the saints would be\naccomplished. All these marvelous ends would be secured by marvelous\npraying. Wonderful and world-wide are the results to be gained by\nmighty praying. If all apostolic successors had prayed as Paul did, if\nall Christians in all these ages had been one with apostolical men in\nthe mighty wrestlings of prayer, how marvelous and divine would have\nbeen the history of God\u2019s Church! How unparalleled would have been its\nsuccess! The glory of its millennium would have brightened and blessed\nthe world ages ago.\n\nWe see in Paul\u2019s requests his estimate of the far-reaching power of\nprayer. Not that prayer has in it any talismanic force, nor that it is\na fetish, but that it moves God to do things that it nominates. Prayer\nhas no magic, potent charm in itself, but is only all potent because it\ngets the Omnipotent God to grant its request. A precedent basis in all\nprayer as expressed or understood by Paul is that \u201cYe strive together\nwith me in your prayers for me.\u201d It is of the nature of a severe\nconflict in which Paul\u2019s soul is engaged, a wrestle, a hand-to-hand\nfight. The strain is severe and exhaustive to all the energies of the\nsoul, and the issue is tossed in uncertainty. Paul in this prayer\nstruggle needs re\u00ebnforcements and divine help in his striving. He is in\nthe midst of the struggle, and will bear the brunt, but he solicits and\npleads for the help of others. Their prayers are just now needed. He\nneeds help to offer intense prayers.\n\nPrayer is not inaptly called \u201cwrestling,\u201d because it is a most intense\nstruggle. To prayer there are the greatest hindrances and the most\ninveterate foes. Mighty evil forces surge around the closets of prayer.\nEnemies strong and strongly entrenched are about the closets where\npraying is done. No feeble, listless act is this praying done by Paul.\nIn this thing he has \u201cput away childish things.\u201d The commonplace and\nthe tame have been retired. Paul must do this praying mightily or not\ndo it at all. Hell must feel and stagger under the mightiness of his\nprayer stroke, or he strikes not at all. The strongest graces and\nthe manliest efforts are requisite here. Strength is demanded in the\npraying done by Paul. Courage is at a premium in it. Timid touches\nand faint-hearted desires avail nothing in the mind of Paul which we\nare considering. Enemies are to be faced and routed and fields are to\nbe won. The most unflagging and invincible bravery and the highest\nqualities of Christian soldierhood are demanded for prayer. It is a\ntrumpet call to prayer, a chieftain\u2019s clarion note, sounded out for\nearnest, persistent prayer as the great spiritual conflict rages.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nPAUL AND HIS REQUESTS FOR PRAYER\n\n(_Continued_)\n\n  _We announce the law of prayer as follows: A Christian\u2019s prayer is\n  a joint agreement of the will and his cabinet, the emotions, the\n  conscience, the intellect, working in harmony at white heat, while the\n  body co-operates under certain hygienic conditions to make the prayer\n  long enough sustained at high voltage to insure tremendous results,\n  supernatural and unearthly._--REV. HOMER W. HODGE.\n\n\nWe come to the request of Paul made to the Church at Ephesus, found in\nthe latter part of chapter 6 of the Epistle to those Christians:\n\n  \u201cPraying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and\n  watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all\n  saints;\n\n  \u201cAnd for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my\n  mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel,\n\n  \u201cFor which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak\n  boldly as I ought to speak.\u201d\n\nFor this Church he had labored and prayed night and day, with many\nwatchings and tears and much humility. As he drew a vivid picture of\nthe Christian soldier, with his foes besetting him, he gave them this\ncharge of praying specially for him.\n\nTo these Ephesian Christians he gave a comprehensive statement of the\nnecessity, nature and special benefits of prayer. It was to be urgent,\ncovering all times and embracing all manner of places. Supplication\nmust give intensity, the Holy Spirit must be invoked, vigilance and\nperseverance must be added, and the whole family of saints were\ninvolved.\n\nThe force of his request for prayer centered on him, that he might be\nable to talk with force, fluency, directness and courage. Paul did not\ndepend upon his natural gifts, but on those which came to him in answer\nto prayer. He was afraid he would be a coward, a dull, dry speaker, or\na hesitating stammerer, and he urged these believers to pray that he\nmight have courage, not only to speak clearly, but freely and fully.\n\nHe desired them to pray that he might have boldness. No quality seems\nmore important to the preacher than that of boldness. It is that\npositive quality which does not reckon consequences, but with freedom\nand fullness meets the crisis, faces a present danger, and discharges\nunawed a present duty. It was one of the marked characteristics of\napostolic preachers and apostolic preaching. They were bold men,\nthey were bold preachers. The reference to the manifestation of the\nprinciple by them is almost the record of their trials. It is the\napplause of their faith.\n\nThere are many chains which enslave the preacher. His very tenderness\nmakes him weak. His attachments to the people tend to bring him into\nbondage. His personal intercourse, his obligations to his people, his\nlove for them, all tend to hamper his freedom and restrain his pulpit\ndeliverances. What great need to be continually praying for boldness to\nspeak boldly as he ought to speak!\n\nThe prophets of old were charged not to be afraid of the faces of men.\nUnawed by the frowns of men, they were to declare the truth of God\nwithout apology, timidity, hesitancy or compromise. The warmth and\nfreedom of conviction and of sincerity, the fearlessness of a vigorous\nfaith, and above all the power of the Holy Ghost, are all wonderful\nhelpers and elements of boldness. How all this should be coveted and\nsought with all earnestness by ministers of the Gospel in this day!\n\nMeekness and humility are high virtues of the first importance in the\npreacher, but these qualities do not at all militate against boldness.\nThis boldness is not the freedom of passionate utterances. It is not\nscolding nor rashness. It speaks the truth in love. Boldness is not\nrudeness. Roughness dishonors boldness. It is as gentle as a mother\nwith a babe, but as fearless as a lion standing before a foe. Fear,\nin the mild and innocent form of timidity, or in the criminal form of\ncowardice, has no place in the true ministry. Humble but holy boldness\nis of the very first importance.\n\nWhat hidden, mysterious mighty force can add courage to apostolical\npreaching, and give bolder utterances to apostolic lips? There is one\nanswer, and it is that prayer can do the deed.\n\nWhat force can so affect and dominate evil that the very results of\nevil will be changed into good? We have the answer in Paul\u2019s words\nagain, in connection with prayers made for him:\n\n  \u201cWho delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver; in whom we\n  trust that he will yet deliver us; Ye also helping together in prayer\n  for us. What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or\n  in truth, Christ is preached, and therein I do rejoice, yea, and will\n  rejoice.\u201d\n\nWe can see how the promises of God are made real and personal by\nprayer. \u201cAll things work together for good to them that love God.\u201d Here\nis a jeweled promise. Paul loved God, but he did not leave the promise\nalone, as a matter of course, to work out its blessed results. So he\nwrote to the Corinthians as we have before seen, \u201cI am in trouble. I\ntrust in God to deliver. Ye also helping together by prayer.\u201d Helping\nme by prayer, you help God to make the promise strong and rich in\nrealization.\n\nPaul\u2019s prayer requests embraced \u201csupplication for all saints,\u201d but\nespecially for apostolic courage for himself. How much he needed this\ncourage just as all true preachers, called of God, need it! Prayer was\nto open doors for apostolical labors, but at the same time it was to\nopen apostolic lips to utter bravely and truly the apostolic message.\n\nHear him as he speaks to the Church at Colosses:\n\n  \u201cWithal praying also for us, that God would open to us a door of\n  utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in\n  bonds;\n\n  \u201cThat I may make it manifest as I ought to speak.\u201d\n\nHow appropriate such a request to be made by a present-day preacher to\nhis congregation! How great the need of those things by the present-day\npreacher which Paul desired for himself!\n\nAs in the request to the Ephesians, Paul wants a \u201cdoor of utterance\u201d\ngiven him, that he may preach with the liberty of the Spirit, be\ndelivered from being straitened in thought or hampered in delivery.\nFurthermore, he desires the ability to make manifest in the clearest\nterms, without confusion of thought, and with force of utterance, the\nGospel \u201cas he ought to speak,\u201d and just as every preacher should speak.\nHappy that preacher who ministers to a people who pray thus for him!\nAnd happier still if he inwardly feels, as he faces his responsible\ntask and realizes how much he needs these things to preach clearly,\nforcibly and effectively, that he has urged his people to pray for him!\n\nPrayer transmutes crosses, trials and oppositions into blessings,\nand causes them to work together for good. \u201cThese shall turn to my\nsalvation through your prayers,\u201d says Paul. Just as the same things\nto-day in the life of the preacher are transmuted into gracious\nblessings in the end, \u201cye also helping together by prayer.\u201d Saintly\npraying mightily helped Apostolic preaching and rescued apostolic men\nfrom many sore straits. So just such praying in these days will effect\nlike results in faithful preaching done by brave, fearless ministers.\nPrayer for the preacher avails just as prayer by the preacher avails.\nTwo things are always factors in the life and work of a true preacher:\nFirst when he prays constantly, fervently and persistently for those to\nwhom he preaches; and secondly, when those to whom he ministers pray\nfor their preacher. Happy is the preacher so situated. Blessed is that\ncongregation thus favored.\n\nTo the Church at Thessalonica Paul sends this pressing request,\npointed, clear, and forcible:\n\n  \u201cFinally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have\n  free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you;\n\n  \u201cAnd that we may be delivered from wicked and unreasonable men.\u201d\n\nHe has in mind a race-course, on which the racer is exerting himself to\nreach the goal. Hindrances are in the way of his success and must be\nremoved, so that the racer may finally succeed and obtain the reward.\nThe \u201cWord of the Lord\u201d is this racer, as preached by Paul. This Word\nis personified and there are serious impediments which embarrass the\nrunning of the Word. It must have \u201cfree course.\u201d Everything in the\nway and opposing its running must be taken out of its roadway. These\nimpediments in the way of the Word of the Lord \u201crunning and being\nglorified\u201d are found in the preacher himself, in the Church to whom\nhe ministers, and in the sinners around him. The Word runs and is\nglorified when it has unobstructed access to the minds and hearts of\nthose to whom it is preached, when sinners are convicted for sin, when\nthey seriously consider the claims of God\u2019s Word on them, and when they\nare induced to pray for themselves, asking for pardoning mercy. It is\nglorified when saints are instructed in religious experience, corrected\nof errors of doctrine and mistakes in practice, and when they are led\nto seek for higher things and to pray for deeper experiences in the\nDivine life.\n\nMark you. It is not when the preacher is glorified because of the\nwonderful success wrought by the Word. It is not when people praise\nhim unduly, and make much of him because of his wonderful sermons,\nhis great eloquence and his remarkable gifts. The preacher is kept in\nthe background in all this work of glorification, even though he is\nforemost as being the object of all this praying.\n\nPrayer is to do all these things. So Paul urges, entreats, insists,\n\u201cPray for us.\u201d And it is not so much prayer for Paul personally in his\nChristian life and religious experience. All this needed much prayer.\nIt was really for him officially, prayer for him in the office and\nwork of a Gospel minister. His tongue must be unloosed in preaching,\nhis mouth unstopped, and his mind set free. Prayer must help in his\nreligious life not so much because it would help to \u201cwork out his own\nsalvation,\u201d but rather because right living would give strength to the\nWord of the Lord, and would save him from being a hindrance to the\nWord which he preached. And as he desires that no hindrance should\nbe in himself which would defeat his own preaching, so he wants all\nhindrances taken away from the churches to whom he ministers that\nChurch people may not stand in the way or weigh down the Word as it\nruns on the race-course attempting to reach the goal, even the minds\nand hearts of the people. Furthermore, he wishes hindrances in the\nunsaved to be set aside that God\u2019s Word as preached by him may reach\ntheir hearts and be glorified in their salvation.\n\nWith all this before him, Paul sends this pressing request to these\nbelievers at Thessalonica, \u201cPray for us,\u201d because praying by true\nChristians would greatly help in the running of the Word of the Lord.\n\nWise that preacher who has the eyes to see these things, and who\nrealizes that his success largely depends upon praying of this kind on\nthe part of his people for him. How much do we need churches now who,\nhaving the preacher in mind and the preached Word on their hearts,\npray for him that \u201cthe Word of the Lord may have free course, and be\nglorified.\u201d\n\nOne other item in this request is worth noting: \u201cThat we may be\ndelivered from wicked and unreasonable men.\u201d Such men are hindrances\nin the way of the Word of the Lord. Few preachers but are harassed by\nthem and need to be delivered from them. Prayer helps to bring such a\ndeliverance to preachers from \u201cunreasonable and wicked men.\u201d Paul was\nannoyed by such characters, and for this very reason he urged prayer\nfor him that he might find deliverance from them.\n\nSumming it all up, we find that Paul feels that the success of the\nWord, its liberty and largeness, are bound up in their prayers, and\nthat their failure to pray would restrict its influence and its\nglory. His deliverance from unreasonable and wicked men as well as\nhis safety, he asserts, are in some way dependent upon their prayers.\nThese prayers, while they greatly helped him to preach, would at the\nsame time protect his person from the cruel purposes of wicked and\nunreasonable men.\n\nIn Hebrews 13:9, Paul thus opens his heart to those Hebrew Christians\nin asking them to pray for him:\n\n  \u201cPray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things\n  willing to live honestly.\u201d\n\nIn this prayer request, Paul\u2019s inward consciousness of his integrity\nof heart and his internal witness to his personal honesty come out and\nare a basic truth of his Christian character. No room for blame does\nhe find in himself. \u201cPray for us.\u201d Your prayers for us will find in me\nhonest integrity and honest execution and honest administration of all\nprayer results.\n\nThe request is intended to stir up the saints to more earnest praying,\nmore devotion to prayer, and more urgency in prayer. Prayer must affect\nhis visit to them, would hasten it and enlarge its beneficial results.\n\nPaul is on the most cordial and freest terms with Philemon. He is\nanxious and expects to visit him at some future day and makes the\nappointment. He takes it for granted that Philemon is praying, for as\nthis man had been converted under his ministry, it is assumed that he\nhas been taught the Pauline lesson of prayer. He assumes also that\nprayer will open up the way for his visit, remove the hindrances and\nbring them graciously together. So he requests Philemon to prepare a\nlodging place for him, adding, \u201cI trust through your prayers I shall be\ngiven to you.\u201d Paul had the idea that his movements were hindered or\nhelped by the prayers of his brethren.\n\n\nTHE END\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES:\n\n\n  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.\n\n  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.\n\n  Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.\n\n  Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.\n\n  New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the\n    public domain.","title":"Prayer and praying men","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":34975}