{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_73271/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_73271","id":"gutenberg_73271","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73271","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Prayer -- Christianity"],"text":"The Essentials of Prayer\n\n\n\n\n  +\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015+\n  |                      _EDITED BY HOMER W. HODGE_                |\n  |                                                                |\n  |                       The Spiritual Life Books                 |\n  |                                                                |\n  |                         By EDWARD M. BOUNDS                    |\n  +\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015+\n  |                                                                |\n  |  _The Reality of Prayer._ Cloth                        $1.25   |\n  |                                                                |\n  |     Dr. A. C. Dixon says: \u201cIf the Church would pray, as the    |\n  |   Scriptures Dr. Bounds unfolds teach us we may, there would   |\n  |   be irresistible power at work.\u201d                              |\n  |                                                                |\n  |                                                                |\n  |  _The Possibilities of Prayer_                                 |\n  |   Cloth                                                $1.25   |\n  |                                                                |\n  |     A rich, exceptionally helpful addition to Doctor Bounds\u2019   |\n  |   books, which deal with the place and significance prayer     |\n  |   has in the life of the believer.                             |\n  |                                                                |\n  |                                                                |\n  |  _Heaven_: A Place\u2015\u2015A City\u2015\u2015A Home.                            |\n  |   Cloth                                                $1.25   |\n  |                                                                |\n  |     Possessed of a wonderfully full knowledge of Holy          |\n  |   Scripture, a man of unswerving faith and mystical insight,   |\n  |   Mr. Bounds writes with a certitude, confidence and joyous    |\n  |   anticipation of the eternal felicity awaiting the faithful   |\n  |   believer.                                                    |\n  |                                                                |\n  |                                                                |\n  |  _Purpose in Prayer._ Cloth                            $1.25   |\n  |                                                                |\n  |     \u201cMr. Bounds has the gift of insight, and with this a       |\n  |   faculty for selecting words to express precisely that which  |\n  |   responds to the heart-hunger of those who are seeking        |\n  |   spiritual enlightenment.\u201d                                    |\n  |                                      \u2015\u2015_Sunday School Times._  |\n  |                                                                |\n  |                                                                |\n  |  _Satan_: His Personality, His Power, His Overthrow.           |\n  |   Cloth                                                $1.25   |\n  |                                                                |\n  +\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015\u2015+\n\n\n\n\n                                  The\n                          Essentials of Prayer\n\n\n\n\n                                   By\n\n                         EDWARD M. BOUNDS, D.D.\n\n           _Author of \u201cPurpose in Prayer,\u201d \u201cThe Possibilities\n                  of Prayer,\u201d \u201cHeaven,\u201d \u201cSatan,\u201d etc._\n\n\n\n\n                               EDITED BY\n\n                             HOMER W. HODGE\n\n\n\n\n                       [Illustration: colophon]\n\n\n\n\n                  NEW YORK                     CHICAGO\n\n                       Fleming H. Revell Company\n\n                          LONDON AND EDINBURGH\n\n\n\n\n                          Copyright, 1925, by\n\n                       FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY\n\n\n\n\n               _Printed in the United States of America_\n\n\n\n\n                      New York: 158 Fifth Avenue\n                     Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.\n                     London: 21 Paternoster Square\n                     Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street\n\n\n\n\n                                Foreword\n\n\nThe work of editing the Bounds Spiritual Life Books (of which the\npresent volume is the sixth) has been a labour of love which has\nbrought great profit and blessing to my own soul. After years of close\nstudy of the literary remains of this great Christian, together with\nthe work of other mystics, I am fully persuaded that to but few of the\nsons of men has there been given such spiritual power as was vouchsafed\nto Edward McKendree Bounds. Truly he was a burning and a shining light,\nand as _The Sunday School Times_ says, \u201che was a specialist in prayer\nand his books are for the quiet hour, for careful meditation and for\nall who wish to seek and find the treasures of God.\u201d\n\nIt was my great privilege to know the author well, and also to know\nthat his intention, in everything he wrote, was for the salvation of\nhis readers. _The Essentials of Prayer_ is sent forth in this spirit.\nMay God bless it to many hearts and use it for the upbuilding and\nstrengthening of Christian character through the length and breadth of\nthe land.\n\n                                               HOMER W. HODGE.\n\n _Flushing, N. Y._\n\n\n\n\n                                Contents\n\n\n         I. PRAYER TAKES IN THE WHOLE MAN                   9\n\n        II. PRAYER AND HUMILITY                            19\n\n       III. PRAYER AND DEVOTION                            28\n\n        IV. PRAYER, PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING                37\n\n         V. PRAYER AND TROUBLE                             47\n\n        VI. PRAYER AND TROUBLE (_Continued_)               61\n\n       VII. PRAYER AND GOD\u2019S WORK                          69\n\n      VIII. PRAYER AND CONSECRATION                        81\n\n        IX. PRAYER AND A DEFINITE RELIGIOUS STANDARD       93\n\n         X. PRAYER BORN OF COMPASSION                     101\n\n        XI. CONCERTED PRAYER                              111\n\n       XII. THE UNIVERSALITY OF PRAYER                    121\n\n      XIII. PRAYER AND MISSIONS                           129\n\n\n\n\n                                   I\n\n                     PRAYER TAKES IN THE WHOLE MAN\n\n     \u201cHenry Clay Trumbull spoke forth the Infinite in the terms\n     of our world, and the Eternal in the forms of our human\n     life. Some years ago, on a ferry-boat, I met a gentleman\n     who knew him, and I told him that when I had last seen Dr.\n     Trumbull, a fortnight before, he had spoken of him. \u2018Oh,\n     yes,\u2019 said my friend, \u2018he was a great Christian, so real,\n     so intense. He was at my home years ago and we were talking\n     about prayer.\u201d \u201cWhy, Trumbull,\u201d I said, \u201cyou don\u2019t mean to\n     say if you lost a pencil you would pray about it, and ask\n     God to help you find it.\u201d \u201cOf course I would; of course I\n     would,\u201d was his instant and excited reply.\u2019 Of course he\n     would. Was not his faith a real thing? Like the Saviour, he\n     put his doctrine strongly by taking an extreme illustration\n     to embody his principle, but the principle was fundamental.\n     He did trust God in everything. And the Father honoured the\n     trust of His child.\u201d\u2015\u2015ROBERT E. SPEER.\n\n\nPrayer has to do with the entire man. Prayer takes in man in his\nwhole being, mind, soul and body. It takes the whole man to pray, and\nprayer affects the entire man in its gracious results. As the whole\nnature of man enters into prayer, so also all that belongs to man is\nthe beneficiary of prayer. All of man receives benefits in prayer.\nThe whole man must be given to God in praying. The largest results\nin praying come to him who gives himself, all of himself, all that\nbelongs to himself, to God. This is the secret of full consecration,\nand this is a condition of successful praying, and the sort of praying\nwhich brings the largest fruits.\n\nThe men of olden times who wrought well in prayer, who brought the\nlargest things to pass, who moved God to do great things, were those\nwho were entirely given over to God in their praying. God wants, and\nmust have, all that there is in man in answering his prayers. He must\nhave whole-hearted men through whom to work out His purposes and plans\nconcerning men. God must have men in their entirety. No double-minded\nman need apply. No vacillating man can be used. No man with a divided\nallegiance to God, and the world and self, can do the praying that is\nneeded.\n\nHoliness is wholeness, and so God wants holy men, men whole-hearted\nand true, for His service and for the work of praying. \u201cAnd the very\nGod of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and\nsoul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus\nChrist.\u201d These are the sort of men God wants for leaders of the hosts\nof Israel, and these are the kind out of which the praying class is\nformed.\n\nMan is a trinity in one, and yet man is neither a trinity nor a dual\ncreature when he prays, but a unit. Man is one in all the essentials\nand acts and attitudes of piety. Soul, spirit and body are to unite in\nall things pertaining to life and godliness. The body, first of all,\nengages in prayer, since it assumes the praying attitude in prayer.\nProstration of the body becomes us in praying as well as prostration\nof the soul. The attitude of the body counts much in prayer, although\nit is true that the heart may be haughty and lifted up, and the mind\nlistless and wandering, and the praying a mere form, even while the\nknees are bent in prayer.\n\nDaniel kneeled upon his knees three times a day in prayer. Solomon\nkneeled in prayer at the dedication of the temple. Our Lord in\nGethsemane prostrated Himself in that memorable season of praying just\nbefore His betrayal. Where there is earnest and faithful praying the\nbody always takes on the form most suited to the state of the soul at\nthe time. The body, that far, joins the soul in praying.\n\nThe entire man must pray. The whole man, life, heart, temper,\nmind, are in it. Each and all join in the prayer exercise. Doubt,\ndouble-mindedness, division of the affections, are all foreign to the\ncloset. Character and conduct, undefiled, made whiter than snow, are\nmighty potencies, and are the most seemly beauties for the closet hour,\nand for the struggles of prayer.\n\nA loyal intellect must conspire and add the energy and fire of its\nundoubting and undivided faith to that kind of an hour, the hour of\nprayer. Necessarily the mind enters into the praying. First of all, it\ntakes thought to pray. The intellect teaches us we ought to pray. By\nserious thinking beforehand the mind prepares itself for approaching\na throne of grace. Thought goes before entrance into the closet and\nprepares the way for true praying. It considers what will be asked for\nin the closet hour. True praying does not leave to the inspiration\nof the hour what will be the requests of that hour. As praying is\nasking for something definite of God, so, beforehand, the thought\narises\u2015\u2015\u201cWhat shall I ask for at this hour?\u201d All vain and evil and\nfrivolous thoughts are eliminated, and the mind is given over entirely\nto God, thinking of Him, of what is needed, and what has been received\nin the past. By every token, prayer, in taking hold of the entire man,\ndoes not leave out the mind. The very first step in prayer is a mental\none. The disciples took that first step when they said unto Jesus at\none time, \u201cLord, teach us to pray.\u201d We must be taught through the\nintellect, and just in so far as the intellect is given up to God in\nprayer, will we be able to learn well and readily the lesson of prayer.\n\nPaul spreads the nature of prayer over the whole man. It must be so. It\ntakes the whole man to embrace in its god-like sympathies the entire\nrace of man\u2015\u2015the sorrows, the sins and the death of Adam\u2019s fallen race.\nIt takes the whole man to run parallel with God\u2019s high and sublime will\nin saving mankind. It takes the whole man to stand with our Lord Jesus\nChrist as the one Mediator between God and sinful man. This is the\ndoctrine Paul teaches in his prayer-directory in the second chapter of\nhis first Epistle to Timothy.\n\nNowhere does it appear so clearly that it requires the entire man in\nall departments of his being, to pray than in this teaching of Paul. It\ntakes the whole man to pray till all the storms which agitate his soul\nare calmed to a great calm, till the stormy winds and waves cease as\nby a Godlike spell. It takes the whole man to pray till cruel tyrants\nand unjust rulers are changed in their natures and lives, as well as in\ntheir governing qualities, or till they cease to rule. It requires the\nentire man in praying till high and proud and unspiritual ecclesiastics\nbecome gentle, lowly and religious, till godliness and gravity bear\nrule in Church and in State, in home and in business, in public as well\nas in private life.\n\nIt is man\u2019s business to pray; and it takes manly men to do it. It is\ngodly business to pray and it takes godly men to do it. And it is godly\nmen who give over themselves entirely to prayer. Prayer is far-reaching\nin its influence and in its gracious effects. It is intense and\nprofound business which deals with God and His plans and purposes, and\nit takes whole-hearted men to do it. No half-hearted, half-brained,\nhalf-spirited effort will do for this serious, all-important, heavenly\nbusiness. The whole heart, the whole brain, the whole spirit, must be\nin the matter of praying, which is so mightily to affect the characters\nand destinies of men.\n\nThe answer of Jesus to the scribe as to what was the first and greatest\ncommandment was as follows:\n\n     \u201cThe Lord our God is one Lord; And thou shalt love the Lord\n     thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with\n     all thy mind, and with all thy strength.\u201d\n\nIn one word, the entire man without reservation must love God. So it\ntakes the same entire man to do the praying which God requires of men.\nAll the powers of man must be engaged in it. God cannot tolerate a\ndivided heart in the love He requires of men, neither can He bear with\na divided man in praying.\n\nIn the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm the Psalmist teaches this very\ntruth in these words:\n\n     \u201cBlessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek\n     him with the whole heart.\u201d\n\nIt takes whole-hearted men to keep God\u2019s commandments and it demands\nthe same sort of men to seek God. These are they who are counted\n\u201cblessed.\u201d Upon these whole-hearted ones God\u2019s approval rests.\n\nBringing the case closer home to himself the Psalmist makes this\ndeclaration as to his practice: \u201cWith my whole heart have I sought\nthee; O let me not wander from thy commandments.\u201d\n\nAnd further on, giving us his prayer for a wise and understanding\nheart, he tells us his purposes concerning the keeping of God\u2019s law:\n\n     \u201cGive me understanding and I shall keep thy law; Yea, I\n     shall observe it with my whole heart.\u201d\n\nJust as it requires a whole heart given to God to gladly and fully obey\nGod\u2019s commandments, so it takes a whole heart to do effectual praying.\n\nBecause it requires the whole man to pray, praying is no easy task.\nPraying is far more than simply bending the knee and saying a few words\nby rote.\n\n    \u201c\u2019Tis not enough to bend the knee,\n      And words of prayer to say;\n    The heart must with the lips agree,\n      Or else we do not pray.\u201d\n\nPraying is no light and trifling exercise. While children should be\ntaught early to pray, praying is no child\u2019s task. Prayer draws upon the\nwhole nature of man. Prayer engages all the powers of man\u2019s moral and\nspiritual nature. It is this which explains somewhat the praying of our\nLord described as in Hebrews 5:7:\n\n     \u201cWho in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up\n     prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears,\n     unto him that was able to save him from death, and was\n     heard in that he feared.\u201d\n\nIt takes only a moment\u2019s thought to see how such praying of our\nLord drew mightily upon all the powers of His being, and called into\nexercise every part of His nature. This is the praying which brings the\nsoul close to God and which brings God down to earth.\n\nBody, soul and spirit are taxed and brought under tribute to prayer.\nDavid Brainerd makes this record of his praying:\n\n     \u201cGod enabled me to agonise in prayer till I was wet with\n     perspiration, though in the shade and in a cool place.\u201d\n\nThe Son of God in Gethsemane was in an agony of prayer, which engaged\nHis whole being:\n\n     \u201cAnd when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray ye\n     that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn\n     from them about a stone\u2019s cast, and kneeled down and\n     prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this\n     cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be\n     done. And there appeared an angel unto him, from heaven,\n     strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more\n     earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of\n     blood falling down to the ground.\u201d Luke 22:40-44.\n\nHere was praying which laid its hands on every part of our Lord\u2019s\nnature, which called forth all the powers of his soul, His mind and His\nbody. This was praying which took in the entire man.\n\nPaul was acquainted with this kind of praying. In writing to the Roman\nChristians, he urges them to pray with him after this fashion:\n\n     \u201cNow I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ\u2019s\n     sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive\n     together with me in your prayers to God for me.\u201d\n\nThe words, \u201cstrive together with me,\u201d tells of Paul\u2019s praying, and how\nmuch he put into it. It is not a docile request, not a little thing,\nthis sort of praying, this \u201cstriving with me.\u201d It is of the nature of\na great battle, a conflict to win, a great battle to be fought. The\npraying Christian, as the soldier, fights a life-and-death struggle.\nHis honour, his immortality, and eternal life are all in it. This is\npraying as the athlete struggles for the mastery, and for the crown,\nand as he wrestles or runs a race. Everything depends on the strength\nhe puts in it. Energy, ardour, swiftness, every power of his nature\nis in it. Every power is quickened and strained to its very utmost.\nLittleness, half-heartedness, weakness and laziness are all absent.\n\nJust as it takes the whole man to pray successfully, so in turn the\nwhole man receives the benefits of such praying. As every part of man\u2019s\ncomplex being enters into true praying, so every part of that same\nnature receives blessings from God in answer to such praying. This kind\nof praying engages our undivided hearts, our full consent to be the\nLord\u2019s, our whole desires.\n\nGod sees to it that when the whole man prays, in turn the whole man\nshall be blessed. His body takes in the good of praying, for much\npraying is done specifically for the body. Food and raiment, health and\nbodily vigour, come in answer to praying. Clear mental action, right\nthinking, an enlightened understanding, and safe reasoning powers, come\nfrom praying. Divine guidance means God so moving and impressing the\nmind, that we shall make wise and safe decisions. \u201cThe meek will he\nguide in judgment.\u201d\n\nMany a praying preacher has been greatly helped just at this point. The\nunction of the Holy One which comes upon the preacher invigorates the\nmind, loosens up thought and gives utterance. This is the explanation\nof former days when men of very limited education had such wonderful\nliberty of the Spirit in praying and in preaching. Their thoughts\nflowed as a stream of water. Their entire intellectual machinery felt\nthe impulse of the Divine Spirit\u2019s gracious influences.\n\nAnd, of course, the soul receives large benefits in this sort of\npraying. Thousands can testify to this statement. So we repeat, that as\nthe entire man comes into play in true, earnest effectual praying, so\nthe entire man, soul, mind and body, receives the benefits of prayer.\n\n\n\n\n                                   II\n\n                          PRAYER AND HUMILITY\n\n     \u201cIf two angels were to receive at the same moment a\n     commission from God, one to go down and rule earth\u2019s\n     grandest empire, the other to go and sweep the streets\n     of its meanest village, it would be a matter of entire\n     indifference to each which service fell to his lot, the\n     post of ruler or the post of scavenger; for the joy of\n     the angels lies only in obedience to God\u2019s will, and\n     with equal joy they would lift a Lazarus in his rags to\n     Abraham\u2019s bosom, or be a chariot of fire to carry an Elijah\n     home.\u201d\u2015\u2015JOHN NEWTON.\n\n\nTo be humble is to have a low estimate of one\u2019s self. It is to be\nmodest, lowly, with a disposition to seek obscurity. Humility retires\nitself from the public gaze. It does not seek publicity nor hunt for\nhigh places, neither does it care for prominence. Humility is retiring\nin its nature. Self-abasement belongs to humility. It is given to\nself-depreciation. It never exalts itself in the eyes of others nor\neven in the eyes of itself. Modesty is one of its most prominent\ncharacteristics.\n\nIn humility there is the total absence of pride, and it is at the\nvery farthest distance from anything like self-conceit. There is no\nself-praise in humility. Rather it has the disposition to praise\nothers. \u201cIn honour preferring one another.\u201d It is not given to\nself-exaltation. Humility does not love the uppermost seats and aspire\nto the high places. It is willing to take the lowliest seat and prefers\nthose places where it will be unnoticed. The prayer of humility is\nafter this fashion:\n\n   \u201cNever let the world break in,\n    Fix a mighty gulf between;\n    Keep me humble and unknown,\n    Prized and loved by God alone.\u201d\n\nHumility does not have its eyes on self, but rather on God and others.\nIt is poor in spirit, meek in behaviour, lowly in heart. \u201cWith all\nlowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in\nlove.\u201d\n\nThe parable of the Pharisee and publican is a sermon in brief on\nhumility and self-praise. The Pharisee, given over to self-conceit,\nwrapped up in himself, seeing only his own self-righteous deeds,\ncatalogues his virtues before God, despising the poor publican who\nstands afar off. He exalts himself, gives himself over to self-praise,\nis self-centered, and goes away unjustified, condemned and rejected by\nGod.\n\nThe publican sees no good in himself, is overwhelmed with\nself-depreciation, far removed from anything which would take any\ncredit for any good in himself, does not presume to lift his eyes to\nheaven, but with downcast countenance smites himself on his breast, and\ncries out, \u201cGod be merciful to me, a sinner.\u201d\n\nOur Lord with great preciseness gives us the sequel of the story of\nthese two men, one utterly devoid of humility, the other utterly\nsubmerged in the spirit of self-depreciation and lowliness of mind.\n\n     \u201cI tell you this man went down to his house justified\n     rather than the other; for every one that exalteth himself\n     shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be\n     exalted.\u201d Luke 18:14.\n\nGod puts a great price on humility of heart. It is good to be clothed\nwith humility as with a garment. It is written, \u201cGod resisteth the\nproud, but giveth grace to the humble.\u201d That which brings the praying\nsoul near to God is humility of heart. That which gives wings to prayer\nis lowliness of mind. That which gives ready access to the throne\nof grace is self-depreciation. Pride, self-esteem, and self-praise\neffectually shut the door of prayer. He who would come to God must\napproach Him with self hid from his eyes. He must not be puffed-up with\nself-conceit, nor be possessed with an over-estimate of his virtues and\ngood works.\n\nHumility is a rare Christian grace, of great price in the courts of\nheaven, entering into and being an inseparable condition of effectual\npraying. It gives access to God when other qualities fail. It takes\nmany descriptions to describe it, and many definitions to define it. It\nis a rare and retiring grace. Its full portrait is found only in the\nLord Jesus Christ. Our prayers must be set low before they can ever\nrise high. Our prayers must have much of the dust on them before they\ncan ever have much of the glory of the skies in them. In our Lord\u2019s\nteaching, humility has such prominence in His system of religion, and\nis such a distinguishing feature of His character, that to leave it out\nof His lesson on prayer would be very unseemly, would not comport with\nHis character, and would not fit into His religious system.\n\nThe parable of the Pharisee and publican stands out in such bold relief\nthat we must again refer to it. The Pharisee seemed to be inured to\nprayer. Certainly he should have known by that time how to pray, but\nalas! like many others, he seemed never to have learned this invaluable\nlesson. He leaves business and business hours and walks with steady\nand fixed steps up to the house of prayer. The position and place are\nwell-chosen by him. There is the sacred place, the sacred hour, and\nthe sacred name, each and all invoked by this seemingly praying man.\nBut this praying ecclesiastic, though schooled to prayer, by training\nand by habit, prays not. Words are uttered by him, but words are not\nprayer. God hears his words only to condemn him. A death-chill has come\nfrom those formal lips of prayer\u2015\u2015a death-curse from God is on his\nwords of prayer. A solution of pride has entirely poisoned the prayer\noffering of that hour. His entire praying has been impregnated with\nself-praise, self-congratulation, and self-exaltation. That season of\ntemple going has had no worship whatever in it.\n\nOn the other hand, the publican, smitten with a deep sense of his sins\nand his inward sinfulness, realising how poor in spirit he is, how\nutterly devoid of anything like righteousness, goodness, or any quality\nwhich would commend him to God, his pride within utterly blasted and\ndead, falls down with humiliation and despair before God, while he\nutters a sharp cry for mercy for his sins and his guilt. A sense of\nsin and a realisation of utter unworthiness has fixed the roots of\nhumility deep down in his soul, and has oppressed self and eye and\nheart, downward to the dust. This is the picture of humility against\npride in praying. Here we see by sharp contrast the utter worthlessness\nof self-righteousness, self-exaltation, and self-praise in praying, and\nthe great value, the beauty and the Divine commendation which comes to\nhumility of heart, self-depreciation, and self-condemnation when a soul\ncomes before God in prayer.\n\nHappy are they who have no righteousness of their own to plead and no\ngoodness of their own of which to boast. Humility flourishes in the\nsoil of a true and deep sense of our sinfulness and our nothingness.\nNowhere does humility grow so rankly and so rapidly and shine so\nbrilliantly, as when it feels all guilty, confesses all sin, and trusts\nall grace. \u201cI the chief of sinners am, but Jesus died for me.\u201d That is\npraying ground, the ground of humility, low down, far away seemingly,\nbut in reality brought nigh by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God\ndwells in the lowly places. He makes such lowly places really the high\nplaces to the praying soul.\n\n   \u201cLet the world their virtue boast,\n      Their works of righteousness;\n    I, a wretch undone and lost,\n      Am freely saved by grace;\n    Other title I disclaim,\n      This, only this, is all my plea,\n    I the chief of sinners am,\n      But Jesus died for me.\u201d\n\nHumility is an indispensable requisite of true prayer. It must be an\nattribute, a characteristic of prayer. Humility must be in the praying\ncharacter as light is in the sun. Prayer has no beginning, no ending,\nno being, without humility. As a ship is made for the sea, so prayer is\nmade for humility, and so humility is made for prayer.\n\nHumility is not abstraction from self, nor does it ignore thought about\nself. It is a many-phased principle. Humility is born by looking at\nGod, and His holiness, and then looking at self and man\u2019s unholiness.\nHumility loves obscurity and silence, dreads applause, esteems the\nvirtues of others, excuses their faults with mildness, easily pardons\ninjuries, fears contempt less and less, and sees baseness and falsehood\nin pride. A true nobleness and greatness are in humility. It knows and\nreveres the inestimable riches of the Cross, and the humiliations of\nJesus Christ. It fears the lustre of those virtues admired by men, and\nloves those that are more secret and which are prized by God. It draws\ncomfort even from its own defects, through the abasement which they\noccasion. It prefers any degree of compunction before all light in the\nworld.\n\nSomewhat after this order of description is that definable grace of\nhumility, so perfectly drawn in the publican\u2019s prayer, and so entirely\nabsent from the prayer of the Pharisee. It takes many sittings to make\na good picture of it.\n\nHumility holds in its keeping the very life of prayer. Neither\npride nor vanity can pray. Humility, though, is much more than the\nabsence of vanity and pride. It is a positive quality, a substantial\nforce, which energises prayer. There is no power in prayer to ascend\nwithout it. Humility springs from a lowly estimate of ourselves and\nof our deservings. The Pharisee prayed not, though well schooled and\nhabituated to pray, because there was no humility in his praying.\nThe publican prayed, though banned by the public and receiving no\nencouragement from Church sentiment, because he prayed in humility.\nTo be clothed with humility is to be clothed with a praying garment.\nHumility is just feeling little because we _are_ little. Humility is\nrealising our unworthiness because we _are_ unworthy, the feeling and\ndeclaring ourselves sinners because we _are_ sinners. Kneeling well\nbecomes us as the attitude of prayer, because it betokens humility.\n\nThe Pharisee\u2019s proud estimate of himself and his supreme contempt for\nhis neighbour closed the gates of prayer to him, while humility opened\nwide those gates to the defamed and reviled publican.\n\nThat fearful saying of our Lord about the works of big, religious\nworkers in the latter part of the Sermon on the Mount, is called out by\nproud estimates of work and wrong estimates of prayer:\n\n     \u201cMany shall say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have\n     we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out\n     devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then\n     will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me,\n     ye that work iniquity.\u201d\n\nHumility is the first and last attribute of Christly religion, and\nthe first and last attribute of Christly praying. There is no Christ\nwithout humility. There is no praying without humility. If thou wouldst\nlearn well the art of praying, then learn well the lesson of humility.\n\nHow graceful and imperative does the attitude of humility become to us!\nHumility is one of the unchanging and exacting attitudes of prayer.\nDust, ashes, earth upon the head, sackcloth for the body, and fasting\nfor the appetites, were the symbols of humility for the Old Testament\nsaints. Sackcloth, fasting and ashes brought Daniel a lowliness\nbefore God, and brought Gabriel to him. The angels are fond of the\nsackcloth-and-ashes men.\n\nHow lowly the attitude of Abraham, the friend of God, when pleading\nfor God to stay His wrath against Sodom! \u201cWhich am but sackcloth and\nashes.\u201d With what humility does Solomon appear before God! His grandeur\nis abased, and his glory and majesty are retired as he assumes the\nrightful attitude before God: \u201cI am but a little child, and know not\nhow to go out or to come in.\u201d\n\nThe pride of doing sends its poison all through our praying. The same\npride of being infects all our prayers, no matter how well-worded\nthey may be. It was this lack of humility, this self-applauding, this\nself-exaltation, which kept the most religious man of Christ\u2019s day from\nbeing accepted of God. And the same thing will keep us in this day from\nbeing accepted of Him.\n\n   \u201cO that now I might decrease!\n    O that all I am might cease!\n    Let me into nothing fall!\n    Let my Lord be all in all.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                                  III\n\n                          PRAYER AND DEVOTION\n\n     \u201cOnce as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737,\n     having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my\n     manner commonly had been to walk for divine contemplation\n     and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary,\n     of the glory of the Son of God. As near as I can judge,\n     this continued about an hour; and kept me the greater part\n     of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud. I felt\n     an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise how to\n     express, emptied and annihilated; to love Him with a holy\n     and pure love; to serve and follow Him; to be perfectly\n     sanctified and made pure with a divine and heavenly\n     purity.\u201d\u2015\u2015JONATHAN EDWARDS.\n\n\nDevotion has a religious signification. The root of devotion is to\ndevote to a sacred use. So that devotion in its true sense has to\ndo with religious worship. It stands intimately connected with true\nprayer. Devotion is the particular frame of mind found in one entirely\ndevoted to God. It is the spirit of reverence, of awe, of godly fear.\nIt is a state of heart which appears before God in prayer and worship.\nIt is foreign to everything like lightness of spirit, and is opposed to\nlevity and noise and bluster. Devotion dwells in the realm of quietness\nand is still before God. It is serious, thoughtful, meditative.\n\nDevotion belongs to the inner life and lives in the closet, but also\nappears in the public services of the sanctuary. It is a part of the\nvery spirit of true worship, and is of the nature of the spirit of\nprayer.\n\nDevotion belongs to the devout man, whose thoughts and feelings are\ndevoted to God. Such a man has a mind given up wholly to religion, and\npossesses a strong affection for God and an ardent love for His house.\nCornelius was \u201ca devout man, one that feared God with all his house,\nwhich gave much alms to the people, and prayed always.\u201d \u201cDevout men\ncarried Stephen to his burial.\u201d \u201cOne Ananias, a devout man, according\nto the law,\u201d was sent unto Saul when he was blind, to tell him what the\nLord would have him do. God can wonderfully use such men, for devout\nmen are His chosen agents in carrying forward His plans.\n\nPrayer promotes the spirit of devotion, while devotion is favourable to\nthe best praying. Devotion furthers prayer and helps to drive prayer\nhome to the object which it seeks. Prayer thrives in the atmosphere\nof true devotion. It is easy to pray when in the spirit of devotion.\nThe attitude of mind and the state of heart implied in devotion make\nprayer effectual in reaching the throne of grace. God dwells where the\nspirit of devotion resides. All the graces of the Spirit are nourished\nand grow well in the environment created by devotion. Indeed, these\ngraces grow nowhere else but here. The absence of a devotional spirit\nmeans death to the graces born in a renewed heart. True worship finds\ncongeniality in the atmosphere made by a spirit of devotion. While\nprayer is helpful to devotion, at the same time devotion reacts on\nprayer, and helps us to pray.\n\nDevotion engages the heart in prayer. It is not an easy task for the\nlips to try to pray while the heart is absent from it. The charge which\nGod at one time made against His ancient Israel was, that they honoured\nHim with their lips while their hearts were far from Him.\n\nThe very essence of prayer is the spirit of devotion. Without devotion\nprayer is an empty form, a vain round of words. Sad to say, much of\nthis kind of prayer prevails, today, in the Church. This is a busy age,\nbustling and active, and this bustling spirit has invaded the Church of\nGod. Its religious performances are many. The Church works at religion\nwith the order, precision and force of real machinery. But too often\nit works with the heartlessness of the machine. There is much of the\ntreadmill movement in our ceaseless round and routine of religious\ndoings. We pray without praying. We sing without singing with the\nSpirit and the understanding. We have music without the praise of God\nbeing in it, or near it. We go to Church by habit, and come home all\ntoo gladly when the benediction is pronounced. We read our accustomed\nchapter in the Bible, and feel quite relieved when the task is done. We\nsay our prayers by rote, as a schoolboy recites his lesson, and are not\nsorry when the Amen is uttered.\n\nReligion has to do with everything but our hearts. It engages our\nhands and feet, it takes hold of our voices, it lays its hands on our\nmoney, it affects even the postures of our bodies, but it does not take\nhold of our affections, our desires, our zeal, and make us serious,\ndesperately in earnest, and cause us to be quiet and worshipful in\nthe presence of God. Social affinities attract us to the house of\nGod, not the spirit of the occasion. Church membership keeps us after\na fashion decent in outward conduct and with some shadow of loyalty\nto our baptismal vows, but the heart is not in the thing. It remains\ncold, formal, and unimpressed amid all this outward performance,\nwhile we give ourselves over to self-congratulation that we are doing\nwonderfully well religiously.\n\nWhy all these sad defects in our piety? Why this modern perversion of\nthe true nature of the religion of Jesus Christ? Why is the modern type\nof religion so much like a jewel-case, with the precious jewels gone?\nWhy so much of this handling religion with the hands, often not too\nclean or unsoiled, and so little of it felt in the heart and witnessed\nin the life?\n\nThe great lack of modern religion is the spirit of devotion. We hear\nsermons in the same spirit with which we listen to a lecture or hear a\nspeech. We visit the house of God just as if it were a common place,\non a level with the theatre, the lecture-room or the forum. We look\nupon the minister of God not as the divinely-called man of God, but\nmerely as a sort of public speaker, on a plane with the politician,\nthe lawyer, or the average speech maker, or the lecturer. Oh, how\nthe spirit of true and genuine devotion would radically change all\nthis for the better! We handle sacred things just as if they were the\nthings of the world. Even the sacrament of the Lord\u2019s Supper becomes a\nmere religious performance, no preparation for it beforehand, and no\nmeditation and prayer afterward. Even the sacrament of Baptism has lost\nmuch of its solemnity, and degenerated into a mere form, with nothing\nspecially in it.\n\nWe need the spirit of devotion, not only to salt our secularities, but\nto make praying real prayers. We need to put the spirit of devotion\ninto Monday\u2019s business as well as in Sunday\u2019s worship. We need the\nspirit of devotion, to recollect always the presence of God, to be\nalways doing the will of God, to direct all things always to the glory\nof God.\n\nThe spirit of devotion puts God in all things. It puts God not merely\nin our praying and Church going, but in all the concerns of life.\n\u201cWhether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to\nthe glory of God.\u201d The spirit of devotion makes the common things\nof earth sacred, and the little things great. With this spirit of\ndevotion, we go to business on Monday directed by the very same\ninfluence, and inspired by the same influences by which we went to\nChurch on Sunday. The spirit of devotion makes a Sabbath out of\nSaturday, and transforms the shop and the office into a temple of God.\n\nThe spirit of devotion removes religion from being a thin veneer, and\nputs it into the very life and being of our souls. With it religion\nceases to be doing a mere work, and becomes a heart, sending its rich\nblood through every artery and beating with the pulsations of vigourous\nand radiant life.\n\nThe spirit of devotion is not merely the aroma of religion, but the\nstalk and stem on which religion grows. It is the salt which penetrates\nand makes savoury all religious acts. It is the sugar which sweetens\nduty, self-denial and sacrifice. It is the bright colouring which\nrelieves the dullness of religious performances. It dispels frivolity\nand drives away all skin-deep forms of worship, and makes worship a\nserious and deep-seated service, impregnating body, soul and spirit\nwith its heavenly infusion. Let us ask in all seriousness, has this\nhighest angel of heaven, this heavenly spirit of devotion, this\nbrightest and best angel of earth, left us? When the angel of devotion\nhas gone, the angel of prayer has lost its wings, and it becomes a\ndeformed and loveless thing.\n\nThe ardour of devotion is in prayer. In the fourth chapter of\nRevelation, verse eight, we read: \u201cAnd they rest not day nor night,\nsaying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is\nto come.\u201d The inspiration and centre of their rapturous devotion is the\nholiness of God. That holiness of God claims their attention, inflames\ntheir devotion. There is nothing cold, nothing dull, nothing wearisome\nabout them or their heavenly worship. \u201cThey rest not day nor night.\u201d\nWhat zeal! What unfainting ardour and ceaseless rapture! The ministry\nof prayer, if it be anything worthy of the name, is a ministry of\nardour, a ministry of unwearied and intense longing after God and after\nHis holiness.\n\nThe spirit of devotion pervades the saints in heaven and characterizes\nthe worship of heaven\u2019s angelic intelligences. No devotionless\ncreatures are in that heavenly world. God is there, and His very\npresence begets the spirit of reverence, of awe, and of filial fear. If\nwe would be partakers with them after death, we must first learn the\nspirit of devotion on earth before we get there.\n\nThese living creatures in their restless, tireless, attitude after God,\nand their rapt devotion to His holiness, are the perfect symbols and\nillustrations of true prayer and its ardour. Prayer must be aflame. Its\nardour must consume. Prayer without fervour is as a sun without light\nor heat, or as a flower without beauty or fragrance. A soul devoted to\nGod is a fervent soul, and prayer is the creature of that flame. He\nonly can truly pray who is all aglow for holiness, for God, and for\nheaven.\n\nActivity is not strength. Work is not zeal. Moving about is not\ndevotion. Activity often is the unrecognised symptom of spiritual\nweakness. It may be hurtful to piety when made the substitute for real\ndevotion in worship. The colt is much more active than its mother, but\nshe is the wheelhorse of the team, pulling the load without noise or\nbluster or show. The child is more active than the father, who may be\nbearing the rule and burdens of an empire on his heart and shoulders.\nEnthusiasm is more active than faith, though it cannot remove mountains\nnor call into action any of the omnipotent forces which faith can\ncommand.\n\nA feeble, lively, showy religious activity may spring from many causes.\nThere is much running around, much stirring about, much going here\nand there, in present-day Church life, but sad to say, the spirit of\ngenuine, heartfelt devotion is strangely lacking. If there be real\nspiritual life, a deep-toned activity will spring from it. But it is\nan activity springing from strength and not from weakness. It is an\nactivity which has deep roots, many and strong.\n\nIn the nature of things, religion must show much of its growth above\nground. Much will be seen and be evident to the eye. The flower and\nfruit of a holy life, abounding in good works, must be seen. It cannot\nbe otherwise. But the surface growth must be based on a vigourous\ngrowth of unseen life and hidden roots. Deep down in the renewed\nnature must the roots of religion go which is seen on the outside.\nThe external must have a deep internal groundwork. There must be much\nof the invisible and the underground growth, or else the life will be\nfeeble and short-lived, and the external growth sickly and fruitless.\n\nIn the Book of the prophet Isaiah these words are written:\n\n     \u201cThey that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;\n     they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run\n     and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.\u201d 40:31.\n\nThis is the genesis of the whole matter of activity and strength of the\nmost energetic, exhaustless and untiring nature. All this is the result\nof waiting on God.\n\nThere may be much of activity induced by drill, created by enthusiasm,\nthe product of the weakness of the flesh, the inspiration of volatile,\nshort-lived forces. Activity is often at the expense of more solid,\nuseful elements, and generally to the total neglect of prayer. To be\ntoo busy with God\u2019s work to commune with God, to be busy with doing\nChurch work without taking time to talk to God about His work, is the\nhighway to backsliding, and many people have walked therein to the hurt\nof their immortal souls.\n\nNotwithstanding great activity, great enthusiasm, and much hurrah for\nthe work, the work and the activity will be but blindness without the\ncultivation and the maturity of the graces of prayer.\n\n\n\n\n                                   IV\n\n                    PRAYER, PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING\n\n     \u201cDr. A. J. Gordon describes the impression made upon his\n     mind by intercourse with Joseph Rabinowitz, whom Dr.\n     Delitzsch considered the most remarkable Jewish convert\n     since Saul of Tarsus: \u2018We shall not soon forget the\n     radiance that would come into his face as he expounded the\n     Messianic psalms at our morning or evening worship, and\n     how, as here and there he caught a glimpse of the suffering\n     or glorified Christ, he would suddenly lift his hands and\n     his eyes to heaven in a burst of adoration, exclaiming with\n     Thomas after he had seen the nail-prints, \u201cMy Lord, and my\n     God.\u201d\u2019\u201d\n\n                                                \u2015\u2015D. M. MCINTYRE.\n\n\nPrayer, praise and thanksgiving all go in company. A close relationship\nexists between them. Praise and thanksgiving are so near alike that\nit is not easy to distinguish between them or define them separately.\nThe Scriptures join these three things together. Many are the causes\nfor thanksgiving and praise. The Psalms are filled with many songs of\npraise and hymns of thanksgiving, all pointing back to the results of\nprayer. Thanksgiving includes gratitude. In fact thanksgiving is but\nthe expression of an inward conscious gratitude to God for mercies\nreceived. Gratitude is an inward emotion of the soul, involuntarily\narising therein, while thanksgiving is the voluntary expression of\ngratitude.\n\nThanksgiving is oral, positive, active. It is the giving out of\nsomething to God. Thanksgiving comes out into the open. Gratitude\nis secret, silent, negative, passive, not showing its being till\nexpressed in praise and thanksgiving. Gratitude is felt in the heart.\nThanksgiving is the expression of that inward feeling.\n\nThanksgiving is just what the word itself signifies\u2015\u2015the giving of\nthanks to God. It is giving something to God in words which we feel at\nheart for blessings received. Gratitude arises from a contemplation of\nthe goodness of God. It is bred by serious meditation on what God has\ndone for us. Both gratitude and thanksgiving point to, and have to do\nwith God and His mercies. The heart is consciously grateful to God. The\nsoul gives expression to that heartfelt gratitude to God in words or\nacts.\n\nGratitude is born of meditation on God\u2019s grace and mercy. \u201cThe Lord\nhath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.\u201d Herein we see the\nvalue of serious meditation. \u201cMy meditation of him shall be sweet.\u201d\nPraise is begotten by gratitude and a conscious obligation to God for\nmercies given. As we think of mercies past, the heart is inwardly moved\nto gratitude.\n\n   \u201cI love to think on mercies past,\n        And future good implore;\n    And all my cares and sorrows cast\n        On Him whom I adore.\u201d\n\nLove is the child of gratitude. Love grows as gratitude is felt, and\nthen breaks out into praise and thanksgiving to God: \u201cI love the Lord\nbecause he hath heard my voice and my supplication.\u201d Answered prayers\ncause gratitude, and gratitude brings forth a love that declares it\nwill not cease praying: \u201cBecause he hath inclined his ear unto me,\ntherefore will I call upon him as long as I live.\u201d Gratitude and love\nmove to larger and increased praying.\n\nPaul appeals to the Romans to dedicate themselves wholly to God, a\nliving sacrifice, and the constraining motive is the mercies of God:\n\n     \u201cI beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of\n     God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,\n     acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.\u201d\n\nConsideration of God\u2019s mercies not only begets gratitude, but induces\na large consecration to God of all we have and are. So that prayer,\nthanksgiving and consecration are all linked together inseparably.\n\nGratitude and thanksgiving always looks back at the past though it\nmay also take in the present. But prayer always looks to the future.\nThanksgiving deals with things already received. Prayer deals with\nthings desired, asked for and expected. Prayer turns to gratitude and\npraise when the things asked for have been granted by God.\n\nAs prayer brings things to us which beget gratitude and thanksgiving,\nso praise and gratitude promote prayer, and induce more praying and\nbetter praying.\n\nGratitude and thanksgiving forever stand opposed to all murmurings at\nGod\u2019s dealings with us, and all complainings at our lot. Gratitude\nand murmuring never abide in the same heart at the same time. An\nunappreciative spirit has no standing beside gratitude and praise.\nAnd true prayer corrects complaining and promotes gratitude and\nthanksgiving. Dissatisfaction at one\u2019s lot, and a disposition to be\ndiscontented with things which come to us in the providence of God, are\nfoes to gratitude and enemies to thanksgiving.\n\nThe murmurers are ungrateful people. Appreciative men and women have\nneither the time nor disposition to stop and complain. The bane of the\nwilderness-journey of the Israelites on their way to Canaan was their\nproneness to murmur and complain against God and Moses. For this, God\nwas several times greatly grieved, and it took the strong praying of\nMoses to avert God\u2019s wrath because of these murmurings. The absence of\ngratitude left no room nor disposition for praise and thanksgiving,\njust as it is so always. But when these same Israelites were brought\nthrough the Red Sea dry shod, while their enemies were destroyed, there\nwas a song of praise led by Miriam, the sister of Moses. One of the\nleading sins of these Israelites was forgetfulness of God and His\nmercies, and ingratitude of soul. This brought forth murmurings and\nlack of praise, as it always does.\n\nWhen Paul wrote to the Colossians to let the word of Christ dwell in\ntheir hearts richly and to let the peace of God rule therein, he said\nto them, \u201cand be ye thankful,\u201d and adds, \u201cadmonishing yourselves in\npsalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts\nunto the Lord.\u201d\n\nFurther on, in writing to these same Christians, he joins prayer and\nthanksgiving together: \u201cContinue in prayer, and watch in the same with\nthanksgiving.\u201d\n\nAnd writing to the Thessalonians, he again joins them in union:\n\u201cRejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for\nthis is the will of God concerning you.\u201d\n\n   \u201cWe thank Thee, Lord of heaven and earth,\n    Who hast preserved us from our birth;\n    Redeemed us oft from death and dread,\n    And with Thy gifts our table spread.\u201d\n\nWherever there is true prayer, there thanksgiving and gratitude stand\nhard by, ready to respond to the answer when it comes. For as prayer\nbrings the answer, so the answer brings forth gratitude and praise. As\nprayer sets God to work, so answered prayer sets thanksgiving to work.\nThanksgiving follows answered prayer just as day succeeds night.\n\nTrue prayer and gratitude lead to full consecration, and consecration\nleads to more praying and better praying. A consecrated life is both a\nprayer-life and a thanksgiving life.\n\nThe spirit of praise was once the boast of the primitive Church. This\nspirit abode on the tabernacles of these early Christians, as a cloud\nof glory out of which God shined and spoke. It filled their temples\nwith the perfume of costly, flaming incense. That this spirit of praise\nis sadly deficient in our present-day congregations must be evident\nto every careful observer. That it is a mighty force in projecting\nthe Gospel, and its body of vital forces, must be equally evident. To\nrestore the spirit of praise to our congregations should be one of the\nmain points with every true pastor. The normal state of the Church is\nset forth in the declaration made to God in Psalm 65: \u201cPraise waiteth\nfor thee, O Lord, and unto thee shall the vow be performed.\u201d\n\nPraise is so distinctly and definitely wedded to prayer, so inseparably\njoined, that they cannot be divorced. Praise is dependent on prayer for\nits full volume and its sweetest melody.\n\nSinging is one method of praise, not the highest it is true, but it is\nthe ordinary and usual form. The singing service in our churches has\nmuch to do with praise, for according to the character of the singing\nwill be the genuineness or the measure of praise. The singing may be so\ndirected as to have in it elements which deprave and debauch prayer.\nIt may be so directed as to drive away everything like thanksgiving and\npraise. Much of modern singing in our churches is entirely foreign to\nanything like hearty, sincere praise to God.\n\nThe spirit of prayer and of true praise go hand in hand. Both are often\nentirely dissipated by the flippant, thoughtless, light singing in our\ncongregations. Much of the singing lacks serious thought and is devoid\nof everything like a devotional spirit. Its lustiness and sparkle may\nnot only dissipate all the essential features of worship, but may\nsubstitute the flesh for the spirit.\n\nGiving thanks is the very life of prayer. It is its fragrance and\nmusic, its poetry and its crown. Prayer bringing the desired answer\nbreaks out into praise and thanksgiving. So that whatever interferes\nwith and injures the spirit of prayer necessarily hurts and dissipates\nthe spirit of praise.\n\nThe heart must have in it the grace of prayer to sing the praise of\nGod. Spiritual singing is not to be done by musical taste or talent,\nbut by the grace of God in the heart. Nothing helps praise so mightily\nas a gracious revival of true religion in the Church. The conscious\npresence of God inspires song. The angels and the glorified ones in\nheaven do not need artistic precentors to lead them, nor do they care\nfor paid choirs to chime in with their heavenly doxologies of praise\nand worship. They are not dependent on singing schools to teach them\nthe notes and scale of singing. Their singing involuntarily breaks\nforth from the heart.\n\nGod is immediately present in the heavenly assemblies of the angels and\nthe spirits of just men made perfect. His glorious presence creates the\nsong, teaches the singing, and impregnates their notes of praise. It is\nso on earth. God\u2019s presence begets singing and thanksgiving, while the\nabsence of God from our congregations is the death of song, or, which\namounts to the same, makes the singing lifeless, cold and formal. His\nconscious presence in our churches would bring back the days of praise\nand would restore the full chorus of song.\n\nWhere grace abounds, song abounds. When God is in the heart, heaven is\npresent and melody is there, and the lips overflow out of the abundance\nof the heart. This is as true in the private life of the believer as\nit is so in the congregations of the saints. The decay of singing, the\ndying down and out of the spirit of praise in song, means the decline\nof grace in the heart and the absence of God\u2019s presence from the people.\n\nThe main design of all singing is for God\u2019s ear and to attract His\nattention and to please Him. It is \u201cto the Lord,\u201d for His glory, and\nto His honour. Certainly it is not for the glorification of the paid\nchoir, to exalt the wonderful musical powers of the singers, nor is\nit to draw the people to the church, but it is for the glory of God\nand the good of the souls of the congregation. Alas! How far has the\nsinging of choirs of churches of modern times departed from this\nidea! It is no surprise that there is no life, no power, no unction,\nno spirit, in much of the Church singing heard in this day. It is\nsacrilege for any but sanctified hearts and holy lips to direct the\nsinging part of the service of God\u2019s house of prayer. Much of the\nsinging in churches would do credit to the opera house, and might\nsatisfy as mere entertainments, pleasing the ear, but as a part of real\nworship, having in it the spirit of praise and prayer, it is a fraud,\nan imposition on spiritually minded people, and entirely unacceptable\nto God. The cry should go out afresh, \u201cLet all the people praise\nthe Lord,\u201d for \u201cit is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is\npleasant; and praise is comely.\u201d\n\nThe music of praise, for there is real music of soul in praise, is\ntoo hopeful and happy to be denied. All these are in the \u201cgiving\nof thanks.\u201d In Philippians, prayer is called \u201crequests.\u201d \u201cLet your\nrequests be made known unto God,\u201d which describes prayer as an asking\nfor a gift, giving prominence to the thing asked for, making it\nemphatic, something to be given by God and received by us, and not\nsomething to be done by us. And all this is closely connected with\ngratitude to God, \u201cwith thanksgiving, let your requests be made known\nunto God.\u201d\n\nGod does much for us in answer to prayer, but we need from Him many\ngifts, and for them we are to make special prayer. According to\nour special needs, so must our praying be. We are to be special and\nparticular and bring to the knowledge of God by prayer, supplication\nand thanksgiving, our particular requests, the things we need, the\nthings we greatly desire. And with it all, accompanying all these\nrequests, there must be thanksgiving.\n\nIt is indeed a pleasing thought that what we are called upon to do on\nearth, to praise and give thanks, the angels in heaven and the redeemed\ndisembodied spirits of the saints are doing also. It is still further\npleasing to contemplate the glorious hope that what God wants us to do\non earth, we will be engaged in doing throughout an unending eternity.\nPraise and thanksgiving will be our blessed employment while we remain\nin heaven. Nor will we ever grow weary of this pleasing task.\n\nJoseph Addison sets before us, in verse, this pleasing prospect:\n\n   \u201cThrough every period of my life\n      Thy goodness I\u2019ll pursue;\n    And after death, in distant worlds,\n      The pleasing theme renew.\n\n   \u201cThrough all eternity to Thee\n      A grateful song I\u2019ll raise;\n    But Oh! eternity\u2019s too short\n      To utter all Thy praise.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                                   V\n\n                           PRAYER AND TROUBLE\n\n    \u201c\u2018He will.\u2019 It may not be today,\n    That God Himself shall wipe our tears away,\n    Nor, hope deferred, may it be yet tomorrow\n    He\u2019ll take away our cup of earthly sorrow;\n    But, precious promise, He has said He _will_,\n    If we but trust Him fully\u2015\u2015and be still.\n\n    \u201cWe, too, as He, may fall, and die unknown;\n    And e\u2019en the place we fell be all unshown,\n    But eyes omniscient will mark the spot\n    Till empires perish and the world\u2019s forgot.\n    Then they who bore the yoke and drank the cup\n    In fadeless glory shall the Lord raise up.\n    God\u2019s word is ever good; His will is best:\u2015\u2015\n    The yoke, the heart all broken\u2015\u2015and then rest.\u201d\n                                \u2015\u2015CLAUDIUS L. CHILTON.\n\n\nTrouble and prayer are closely related to each other. Prayer is of\ngreat value to trouble. Trouble often drives men to God in prayer,\nwhile prayer is but the voice of men in trouble. There is great value\nin prayer in the time of trouble. Prayer often delivers out of trouble,\nand still oftener gives strength to bear trouble, ministers comfort in\ntrouble, and begets patience in the midst of trouble. Wise is he in the\nday of trouble who knows his true source of strength and who fails not\nto pray.\n\nTrouble belongs to the present state of man on earth. \u201cMan that is born\nof a woman is of few days and full of trouble.\u201d Trouble is common to\nman. There is no exception in any age or clime or station. Rich and\npoor alike, the learned and the ignorant, one and all are partakers\nof this sad and painful inheritance of the fall of man. \u201cThere hath\nno temptation taken you but such as is common to man.\u201d The \u201cday of\ntrouble\u201d dawns on every one at some time in his life. \u201cThe evil days\ncome and the years draw nigh\u201d when the heart feels its heavy pressure.\n\nThat is an entirely false view of life and shows supreme ignorance that\nexpects nothing but sunshine and looks only for ease, pleasure and\nflowers. It is this class who are so sadly disappointed and surprised\nwhen trouble breaks into their lives. These are the ones who know not\nGod, who know nothing of His disciplinary dealings with His people and\nwho are prayerless.\n\nWhat an infinite variety there is in the troubles of life! How\ndiversified the experiences of men in the school of trouble! No two\npeople have the same troubles under like environments. God deals with\nno two of His children in the same way. And as God varies His treatment\nof His children, so trouble is varied. God does not repeat Himself. He\ndoes not run in a rut. He has not one pattern for every child. Each\ntrouble is proportioned to each child. Each one is dealt with according\nto his own peculiar case.\n\nTrouble is God\u2019s servant, doing His will unless He is defeated in the\nexecution of that will. Trouble is under the control of Almighty God,\nand is one of His most efficient agents in fulfilling His purposes\nand in perfecting His saints. God\u2019s hand is in every trouble which\nbreaks into the lives of men. Not that He directly and arbitrarily\norders every unpleasant experience of life. Not that He is personally\nresponsible for every painful and afflicting thing which comes into\nthe lives of His people. But no trouble is ever turned loose in this\nworld and comes into the life of saint or sinner, but comes with Divine\npermission, and is allowed to exist and do its painful work with God\u2019s\nhand in it or on it, carrying out His gracious designs of redemption.\n\nAll things are under Divine control. Trouble is neither above God nor\nbeyond His control. It is not something in life independent of God.\nNo matter from what source it springs nor whence it arises, God is\nsufficiently wise and able to lay His hand upon it without assuming\nresponsibility for its origin, and work it into His plans and purposes\nconcerning the highest welfare of His saints. This is the explanation\nof that gracious statement in Romans, so often quoted, but the depth\nof whose meaning has rarely been sounded, \u201cAnd we know that all things\nwork together for good to them that love God.\u201d\n\nEven the evils brought about by the forces of nature are His servants,\ncarrying out His will and fulfilling His designs. God even claims the\nlocusts, the cankerworm, the caterpillar are His servants, \u201cMy great\narmy,\u201d used by Him to correct His people and discipline them.\n\nTrouble belongs to the disciplinary part of the moral government of\nGod. This is a life of probation, where the human race is on probation.\nIt is a season of trial. Trouble is not penal in its nature. It belongs\nto what the Scriptures call \u201cchastening.\u201d \u201cWhom the Lord loveth he\nchasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.\u201d Speaking\naccurately, punishment does not belong to this life. Punishment for sin\nwill take place in the next world. God\u2019s dealings with people in this\nworld are of the nature of discipline. They are corrective processes in\nHis plans concerning man. It is because of this that prayer comes in\nwhen trouble arises. Prayer belongs to the discipline of life.\n\nAs trouble is not sinful in itself, neither is it the evidence of sin.\nGood and bad alike experience trouble. As the rain falls alike on the\njust and unjust, so drouth likewise comes to the righteous and the\nwicked. Trouble is no evidence whatever of the Divine displeasure.\nScripture instances without number disprove any such idea. Job is a\ncase in point, where God bore explicit testimony to his deep piety, and\nyet God permitted Satan to afflict him beyond any other man for wise\nand beneficent purposes. Trouble has no power in itself to interfere\nwith the relations of a saint to God. \u201cWho shall separate us from the\nlove of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or\nfamine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?\u201d\n\nThree words practically the same in the processes of Divine discipline\nare found, temptation, trial and trouble, and yet there is a difference\nbetween them. Temptation is really a solicitation to evil arising from\nthe devil or born in the carnal nature of man. Trial is testing. It is\nthat which proves us, tests us, and makes us stronger and better when\nwe submit to the trial and work together with God in it. \u201cMy brethren,\ncount it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this,\nthat the trying of your faith worketh patience.\u201d\n\nPeter speaks along the same line:\n\n     \u201cWherein ye greatly rejoice, now for a season, if need be,\n     ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the\n     trial of your faith being much more precious than that of\n     gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be\n     found unto praise, and honor and glory at the appearing of\n     Jesus Christ.\u201d\n\nThe third word is trouble itself, which covers all the painful,\nsorrowing, and grievous events of life. And yet temptations and trials\nmight really become troubles. So that all evil days in life might well\nbe classed under the head of the \u201ctime of trouble.\u201d And such days of\ntrouble are the lot of all men. Enough to know that trouble, no matter\nfrom what source it comes, becomes in God\u2019s hand His own agent to\naccomplish His gracious work concerning those who submit patiently to\nHim, who recognise Him in prayer, and who work together with God.\n\nLet us settle down at once to the idea that trouble arises not by\nchance, and neither occurs by what men call accident. \u201cAlthough\naffliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring\nout of the ground, yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly\nupward.\u201d Trouble naturally belongs to God\u2019s moral government, and is\none of His invaluable agents in governing the world.\n\nWhen we realise this, we can the better understand much that is\nrecorded in the Scriptures, and can have a clearer conception of God\u2019s\ndealings with His ancient Israel. In God\u2019s dealings with them, we find\nwhat is called a history of Divine Providence, and providence always\nembraces trouble. No one can understand the story of Joseph and his old\nfather Jacob unless he takes into the account trouble and its varied\noffices. God takes account of trouble when He urges His prophet Isaiah\non this wise:\n\n     \u201cComfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye\n     comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare\n     is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.\u201d\n\nThere is a distinct note of comfort in the Gospel for the praying\nsaints of the Lord, and He is a wise scribe in Divine things who knows\nhow to minister this comfort to the broken-hearted and sad ones of\nearth. Jesus Himself said to His sad disciples, \u201cI will not leave you\ncomfortless.\u201d\n\nAll the foregoing has been said that we may rightly appreciate the\nrelationship of prayer to trouble. In the time of trouble, where does\nprayer come in? The Psalmist tells us: \u201cCall upon me in the day of\ntrouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.\u201d Prayer is\nthe most appropriate thing for a soul to do in the \u201ctime of trouble.\u201d\nPrayer recognises God in the day of trouble. \u201cIt is the Lord; let him\ndo what seemeth him good.\u201d Prayer sees God\u2019s hand in trouble, and\nprays about it. Nothing more truly shows us our helplessness than when\ntrouble comes. It brings the strong man low, it discloses our weakness,\nit brings a sense of helplessness. Blessed is he who knows how to\nturn to God in \u201cthe time of trouble.\u201d If trouble is of the Lord, then\nthe most natural thing to do is to carry the trouble to the Lord, and\nseek grace and patience and submission. It is the time to inquire in\nthe trouble, \u201cLord, what, wilt thou have me to do?\u201d How natural and\nreasonable for the soul, oppressed, broken, and bruised, to bow low at\nthe footstool of mercy and seek the face of God? Where could a soul in\ntrouble more likely find solace than in the closet?\n\nAlas! trouble does not always drive men to God in prayer. Sad is the\ncase of him who, when trouble bends his spirit down and grieves his\nheart, yet knows not whence the trouble comes nor knows how to pray\nabout it. Blessed is the man who is driven by trouble to his knees in\nprayer!\n\n   \u201cTrials must and will befall;\n      But with humble faith to see\n    Love inscribed upon them all\u2015\u2015\n      This is happiness to me.\n\n   \u201cTrials make the promise sweet,\n      Trials give new life to prayer;\n    Bring me to my Saviour\u2019s feet,\n      Lay me low, and keep me there.\u201d\n\nPrayer in the time of trouble brings comfort, help, hope, and\nblessings, which, while not removing the trouble, enable the saint the\nbetter to bear it and to submit to the will of God. Prayer opens the\neyes to see God\u2019s hand in trouble. Prayer does not interpret God\u2019s\nprovidences, but it does justify them and recognise God in them. Prayer\nenables us to see wise ends in trouble. Prayer in trouble drives us\naway from unbelief, saves us from doubt, and delivers from all vain\nand foolish questionings because of our painful experiences. Let us\nnot lose sight of the tribute paid to Job when all his troubles came\nto the culminating point: \u201cIn all this Job sinned not, nor charged God\nfoolishly.\u201d\n\nAlas! for vain, ignorant men, without faith in God and knowing nothing\nof God\u2019s disciplinary processes in dealing with men, who charge God\nfoolishly when troubles come, and who are tempted to \u201ccurse God.\u201d How\nsilly and vain are the complainings, the murmurings and the rebellion\nof men in the time of trouble! What need to read again the story of\nthe Children of Israel in the wilderness! And how useless is all our\nfretting, our worrying over trouble, as if such unhappy doings on our\npart could change things! \u201cAnd which of you with taking thought, can\nadd to his stature one cubit?\u201d How much wiser, how much better, how\nmuch easier to bear life\u2019s troubles when we take everything to God in\nprayer?\n\nTrouble has wise ends for the praying ones, and these find it so.\nHappy is he who, like the Psalmist, finds that his troubles have been\nblessings in disguise. \u201cIt is good for me that I have been afflicted,\nthat I might learn thy statutes. I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are\nright, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.\u201d\n\n   \u201cO who could bear life\u2019s stormy doom,\n        Did not Thy wing of love\n    Come brightly wafting through the gloom\n        Our peace branch from above.\n\n   \u201cThen sorrow, touched by Thee, grows bright,\n        With more than rapture\u2019s ray;\n    As darkness shows us worlds of light\n        We never saw by day.\u201d\n\nOf course it may be conceded that some troubles are really imaginary.\nThey have no existence other than in the mind. Some are anticipated\ntroubles, which never arrive at our door. Others are past troubles,\nand there is much folly in worrying over them. Present troubles are the\nones requiring attention and demanding prayer. \u201cSufficient unto the day\nis the evil thereof.\u201d Some troubles are self-originated. We are their\nauthors. Some of these originate involuntarily with us, some arise\nfrom our ignorance, some come from our carelessness. All this can be\nreadily admitted without breaking the force of the statement that they\nare the subjects of prayer, and should drive us to prayer. What father\ncasts off his child who cries to him when the little one from its own\ncarelessness has stumbled and fallen and hurt itself? Does not the cry\nof the child attract the ears of the father even though the child be\nto blame for the accident? \u201cWhatever things ye desire\u201d takes in every\nevent of life, even though some events we are responsible for.\n\nSome troubles are human in their origin. They arise from second causes.\nThey originate with others and we are the sufferers. This is a world\nwhere often the innocent suffer the consequences of the acts of others.\nThis is a part of life\u2019s incidents. Who has not at some time suffered\nat the hands of others? But even these are allowed to come in the\norder of God\u2019s providence, are permitted to break into our lives for\nbeneficent ends, and may be prayed over. Why should we not carry our\nhurts, our wrongs and our privations, caused by the acts of others, to\nGod in prayer? Are such things outside of the realm of prayer? Are they\nexceptions to the rule of prayer? Not at all. And God can and will lay\nHis hand upon all such events in answer to prayer, and cause them to\nwork for us \u201ca far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.\u201d\n\nNearly all of Paul\u2019s troubles arose from wicked and unreasonable men.\nRead the story as he gives it in II Corinthians 11:23-33.\n\nSo also some troubles are directly of Satanic origin. Quite all of\nJob\u2019s troubles were the offspring of the devil\u2019s scheme to break down\nJob\u2019s integrity, to make him charge God foolishly and to curse God.\nBut are these not to be recognised in prayer? Are they to be excluded\nfrom God\u2019s disciplinary processes? Job did not do so. Hear him in those\nfamiliar words. \u201cThe Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed\nbe the name of the Lord.\u201d\n\nO what a comfort to see God in all of life\u2019s events! What a relief to a\nbroken, sorrowing heart to see God\u2019s hand in sorrow! What a source of\nrelief is prayer in unburdening the heart in grief!\n\n   \u201cO Thou who driest the mourner\u2019s tear.\n        How dark this world would be,\n    If, when deceived and wounded here.\n        We could not fly to Thee?\n\n   \u201cThe friends who in our sunshine live,\n        When winter comes are flown,\n    And he who has but tears to give,\n        Must weep those tears alone.\n\n   \u201cBut Thou wilt heal the broken heart,\n        Which, like the plants that throw\n    Their fragrance from the wounded part,\n        Breathes sweetness out of woe.\u201d\n\nBut when we survey all the sources from which trouble comes, it all\nresolves itself into two invaluable truths: First, that our troubles at\nlast are of the Lord. They come with His consent. He is in all of them,\nand is interested in us when they press and bruise us. And secondly,\nthat our troubles, no matter what the cause, whether of ourselves, or\nmen or devils, or even God Himself, we are warranted in taking them to\nGod in prayer, in praying over them, and in seeking to get the greatest\nspiritual benefits out of them.\n\nPrayer in the time of trouble tends to bring the spirit into perfect\nsubjection to the will of God, to cause the will to be conformed to\nGod\u2019s will, and saves from all murmurings over our lot, and delivers\nfrom everything like a rebellious heart or a spirit critical of the\nLord. Prayer sanctifies trouble to our highest good. Prayer so prepares\nthe heart that it softens under the disciplining hand of God. Prayer\nplaces us where God can bring to us the greatest good, spiritual and\neternal. Prayer allows God to freely work with us and in us in the day\nof trouble. Prayer removes everything in the way of trouble, bringing\nto us the sweetest, the highest and greatest good. Prayer permits God\u2019s\nservant, trouble, to accomplish its mission in us, with us and for us.\n\nThe end of trouble is always good in the mind of God. If trouble fails\nin its mission, it is either because of prayerlessness or unbelief, or\nboth. Being in harmony with God in the dispensations of His providence,\nalways makes trouble a blessing. The good or evil of trouble is always\ndetermined by the spirit in which it is received. Trouble proves a\nblessing or a curse, just according as it is received and treated by\nus. It either softens or hardens us. It either draws us to prayer and\nto God or it drives us from God and from the closet. Trouble hardened\nPharaoh till finally it had no effect on him, only to make him more\ndesperate and to drive him farther from God. The same sun softens the\nwax and hardens the clay. The same sun melts the ice and dries out the\nmoisture from the earth.\n\nAs is the infinite variety of trouble, so also is there infinite\nvariety in the relations of prayer to other things. How many are the\nthings which are the subject of prayer! It has to do with everything\nwhich concerns us, with everybody with whom we have to do, and has to\ndo with all times. But especially does prayer have to do with trouble.\n\u201cThis poor man cried and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all\nhis troubles.\u201d O the blessedness, the help, the comfort of prayer in\nthe day of trouble! And how marvelous the promises of God to us in the\ntime of trouble!\n\n     \u201cBecause he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I\n     deliver him; I will set him on high because he hath known\n     my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I\n     will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor\n     him.\u201d\n\n   \u201cIf pain afflict, or wrongs oppress,\n      If cares distract, or fears dismay;\n    If guilt deject, if sin distress,\n      In every case, still watch and pray.\u201d\n\nHow rich in its sweetness, how far-reaching in the realm of trouble,\nand how cheering to faith, are the words of promise which God delivers\nto His believing, praying ones, by the mouth of Isaiah:\n\n     \u201cBut now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob,\n     and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have\n     redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art\n     mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with\n     thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee:\n     when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be\n     burned: neither shall the flame kindle upon thee\u2026. For I am\n     the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                                   VI\n\n                    PRAYER AND TROUBLE (_Continued_)\n\n     \u201cMy first message for heavenly relief went singing over\n     millions of miles of space in 1869, and brought relief to\n     my troubled heart. But, thanks be to Him, I have received\n     many delightful and helpful answers during the last fifty\n     years. I would think the commerce of the skies had gone\n     into bankruptcy if I did not hear frequently, since I have\n     learned how to ask and how to receive.\u201d\u2015\u2015REV. H. W. HODGE.\n\n\nIn the New Testament there are three words used which embrace trouble.\nThese are tribulation, suffering and affliction, words differing\nsomewhat, and yet each of them practically meaning trouble of some\nkind. Our Lord put His disciples on notice that they might expect\ntribulation in this life, teaching them that tribulation belonged to\nthis world, and they could not hope to escape it; that they would\nnot be carried through this life on flowery beds of ease. How hard\nto learn this plain and patent lesson! \u201cIn the world ye shall have\ntribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.\u201d There is\nthe encouragement. As He had overcome the world and its tribulations,\nso might they do the same.\n\nPaul taught the same lesson throughout his ministry, when in confirming\nthe souls of the brethren, and exhorting them to continue in the\nfaith, he told them that \u201cwe must, through much tribulation, enter into\nthe kingdom of God.\u201d He himself knew this by his own experience, for\nhis pathway was anything but smooth and flowery.\n\nHe it is who uses the word \u201csuffering\u201d to describe the troubles of\nlife, in that comforting passage in which he contrasts life\u2019s troubles\nwith the final glory of heaven, which shall be the reward of all who\npatiently endure the ills of Divine Providence:\n\n     \u201cFor I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are\n     not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be\n     revealed in us.\u201d\n\nAnd he it is who speaks of the afflictions which come to the people\nof God in this world, and regards them as light as compared with the\nweight of glory awaiting all who are submissive, patient and faithful\nin all their troubles:\n\n     \u201cFor our light affliction, which is but for a moment,\n     worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of\n     glory.\u201d\n\nBut these present afflictions can work for us only as we co-operate\nwith God in prayer. As God works through prayer, it is only through\nthis means He can accomplish His highest ends for us. His Providence\nworks with greatest effect with His praying ones. These know the uses\nof trouble and its gracious designs. The greatest value in trouble\ncomes to those who bow lowest before the throne.\n\nPaul, in urging patience in tribulation, connects it directly with\nprayer, as if prayer alone would place us where we could be patient\nwhen tribulation comes. \u201cRejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,\ncontinuing instant in prayer.\u201d He here couples up tribulation and\nprayer, showing their close relationship and the worth of prayer in\nbegetting and culturing patience in tribulation. In fact there can\nbe no patience exemplified when trouble comes, only as it is secured\nthrough instant and continued prayer. In the school of prayer is where\npatience is learned and practiced.\n\nPrayer brings us into that state of grace where tribulation is not only\nendured, but where there is under it a spirit of rejoicing. In showing\nthe gracious benefits of justification, in Romans 5:3, Paul says:\n\n     \u201cAnd not only so, but we glory in tribulation also:\n     knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience,\n     experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not\n     ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our\n     hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.\u201d\n\nWhat a chain of graces are here set forth as flowing from tribulation!\nWhat successive steps to a high state of religious experience! And\nwhat rich fruits result from even painful tribulation!\n\nTo the same effect are the words of Peter in his First Epistle, in his\nstrong prayer for those Christians to whom he writes; thus showing that\nsuffering and the highest state of grace are closely connected; and\nintimating that it is through suffering we are to be brought to those\nhigher regions of Christian experience:\n\n     \u201cBut the God of all grace, who hath called us into his\n     eternal glory, by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered\n     awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen and settle\n     you.\u201d\n\nIt is in the fires of suffering that God purifies His saints and brings\nthem to the highest things. It is in the furnace their faith is tested,\ntheir patience is tried, and they are developed in all those rich\nvirtues which make up Christian character. It is while they are passing\nthrough deep waters that He shows how close He can come to His praying,\nbelieving saints.\n\nIt takes faith of a high order and a Christian experience far above the\naverage religion of this day, to count it joy when we are called to\npass through tribulation. God\u2019s highest aim in dealing with His people\nis in developing Christian character. He is after begetting in us those\nrich virtues which belong to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is seeking to\nmake us like Himself. It is not so much work that He wants in us. It\nis not greatness. It is the presence in us of patience, meekness,\nsubmission to the Divine will, prayerfulness which brings everything to\nHim. He seeks to beget His own image in us. And trouble in some form\ntends to do this very thing, for this is the end and aim of trouble.\nThis is its work. This is the task it is called to perform. It is not\na chance incident in life, but has a design in view, just as it has\nan All-wise Designer back of it, who makes trouble His agent to bring\nforth the largest results.\n\nThe writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives us a perfect directory\nof trouble, comprehensive, clear and worth while to be studied. Here\nis \u201cchastisement,\u201d another word for trouble, coming from a Father\u2019s\nhand, showing God is in all the sad and afflictive events of life.\nHere is its nature and its gracious design. It is not punishment\nin the accurate meaning of that word, but the means God employs to\ncorrect and discipline His children in dealing with them on earth.\nThen we have the fact of the evidence of being His people, namely, the\npresence of chastisement. The ultimate end is that we \u201cmay be partakers\nof his holiness,\u201d which is but another way of saying that all this\ndisciplinary process is to the end that God may make us like Himself.\nWhat an encouragement, too, that, chastisement is no evidence of anger\nor displeasure on God\u2019s part, but is the strong proof of His love. Let\nus read the entire directory on this important subject:\n\n     \u201cAnd ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh\n     unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the\n     chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of\n     him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth\n     every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God\n     dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the\n     father chasteneth not? But if ye are without chastisement,\n     whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not\n     sons.\n\n     \u201cFurthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which\n     corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much\n     rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?\n     For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own\n     pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers\n     of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth\n     to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it\n     yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which\n     are exercised thereby.\u201d\n\nJust as prayer is wide in its range, taking in everything, so trouble\nis infinitely varied in its uses and designs. It takes trouble\nsometimes to arrest attention, to stop men in the busy rush of life,\nand to awaken them to a sense of their helplessness and their need and\nsinfulness. Not till King Manasseh was bound with thorns and carried\naway into a foreign land and got into deep trouble, was he awakened and\nbrought back to God. It was then he humbled himself and began to call\nupon God.\n\nThe Prodigal Son was independent and self-sufficient when in\nprosperity, but when money and friends departed, and he began to be in\nwant, then it was he \u201ccame to himself,\u201d and decided to return to his\nfather\u2019s house, with prayer and confession on his lips. Many a man who\nhas forgotten God has been arrested, caused to consider his ways, and\nbrought to remember God and pray by trouble. Blessed is trouble when it\naccomplishes this in men!\n\nIt is for this among other reasons that Job says:\n\n     \u201cBehold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore,\n     despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. For he\n     maketh sore, and bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands\n     maketh whole. He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea,\n     in seven there shall no evil touch thee.\u201d\n\nOne thing more might be named. Trouble makes earth undesirable and\ncauses heaven to loom up large in the horizon of hope. There is a world\nwhere trouble never comes. But the path of tribulation leads to that\nworld. Those who are there went there through tribulation. What a world\nset before our longing eyes which appeals to our hopes, as sorrows like\na cyclone sweep over us! Hear John, as he talks about it and those who\nare there:\n\n     \u201cWhat are these which are arrayed in white robes? and\n     whence came they?\u2026 And he said to me, These are they which\n     came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes\n     and made them white in the blood of the Lamb\u2026. And God\n     shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.\u201d\n\n   \u201cThere I shall bathe my weary soul,\n        In seas of heavenly rest,\n    And not a wave of trouble roll,\n        Across my peaceful breast.\u201d\n\nOh, children of God, ye who have suffered, who have been sorely tried,\nwhose sad experiences have often brought broken spirits and bleeding\nhearts, cheer up! God is in all your troubles, and He will see that all\nshall \u201cwork together for good,\u201d if you will but be patient, submissive\nand prayerful.\n\n\n\n\n                                  VII\n\n                         PRAYER AND GOD\u2019S WORK\n\n     \u201cIf Jacob\u2019s desire had been given him in time for him to\n     get a good night\u2019s sleep he might never have become the\n     prince of prayers we know today. If Hannah\u2019s prayer for\n     a son had been answered at the time she set for herself,\n     the nation might never have known the mighty man of God it\n     found in Samuel. Hannah wanted only a son, but God wanted\n     more. He wanted a prophet, and a saviour, and a ruler for\n     His people. Some one said that \u2018God had to get a woman\n     before He could get a man.\u2019 This woman He got in Hannah\n     precisely by those weeks and months and years there came\n     a woman with a vision like God\u2019s, with tempered soul and\n     gentle spirit and a seasoned will, prepared to be the kind\n     of a mother for the kind of a man God knew the nation\n     needed.\u201d\u2015\u2015W. E. BIEDERWOLF.\n\n\nGod has a great work on hand in this world. This work is involved in\nthe plan of salvation. It embraces redemption and providence. God is\ngoverning this world, with its intelligent beings, for His own glory\nand for their good. What, then, is God\u2019s work in this world? Rather\nwhat is the end He seeks in His great work? It is nothing short of\nholiness of heart and life in the children of fallen Adam. Man is a\nfallen creature, born with an evil nature, with an evil bent, unholy\npropensities, sinful desires, wicked inclinations. Man is unholy by\nnature, born so. \u201cThey go astray as soon as they be born, speaking\nlies.\u201d\n\nGod\u2019s entire plan is to take hold of fallen man and to seek to change\nhim and make him holy. God\u2019s work is to make holy men out of unholy\nmen. This is the very end of Christ coming into the world:\n\n     \u201cFor this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he\n     might destroy the works of the devil.\u201d\n\nGod is holy in nature and in all His ways, and He wants to make man\nlike Himself.\n\n     \u201cAs he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all\n     manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy,\n     for I am holy.\u201d\n\nThis is being Christlike. This is following Jesus Christ. This is the\naim of all Christian effort. This is the earnest, heartfelt desire of\nevery truly regenerated soul. This is what is to be constantly and\nearnestly prayed for. It is that we may be made holy. Not that we\nmust make ourselves holy, but we must be cleansed from all sin by the\nprecious atoning blood of Christ, and be made holy by the direct agency\nof the Holy Spirit. Not that we are to _do_ holy, but rather to _be_\nholy. Being must precede doing. First be, then do. First, obtain a holy\nheart, then live a holy life. And for this high and gracious end God\nhas made the most ample provisions in the atoning work of our Lord and\nthrough the agency of the Holy Spirit.\n\nThe work of God in the world is the implantation, the growth and\nthe perfection of holiness in His people. Keep this ever in mind.\nBut we might ask just now, Is this work advancing in the Church? Are\nmen and women being made holy? Is the present-day Church engaged in\nthe business of making holy men and women? This is not a vain and\nspeculative question. It is practical, pertinent and all important.\n\nThe present-day Church has vast machinery. Her activities are great,\nand her material prosperity is unparalleled. The name of religion is\nwidely-spread and well-known. Much money comes into the Lord\u2019s treasury\nand is paid out. But here is the question: Does the work of holiness\nkeep pace with all this? Is the burden of the prayers of Church people\nto be made holy? Are our preachers really holy men? Or to go back a\nlittle further, are they hungering and thirsting after righteousness,\ndesiring the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby? Are\nthey really seeking to be holy men? Of course men of intelligence are\ngreatly needed in the pulpit, but prior to that, and primary to it, is\nthe fact that we need holy men to stand before dying men and proclaim\nthe salvation of God to them.\n\nMinisters, like laymen, and no more so than laymen, must be holy men\nin life, in conversation and in temper. They must be examples to the\nflock of God in all things. By their lives they are to preach as well\nas to speak. Men in the pulpit are needed who are spotless in life,\ncircumspect in behaviour, \u201cwithout rebuke and blameless in the midst\nof a crooked and perverse nation, among whom they are to shine in the\nworld.\u201d Are our preachers of this type of men? We are simply asking\nthe question. Let the reader make up his own judgment. Is the work of\nholiness making progress among our preachers?\n\nAgain let us ask: Are our leading laymen examples of holiness? Are they\nseeking holiness of heart and life? Are they praying men, ever praying\nthat God would fashion them according to His pattern of holiness? Are\ntheir business ways without stain of sin, and their gains free from the\ntaint of wrong-doing? Have they the foundation of solid honesty, and\ndoes uprightness bring them into elevation and influence? Does business\nintegrity and probity run parallel with religious activity, and with\nchurchly observance?\n\nThen, while we are pursuing our investigation, seeking light as to\nwhether the work of God among His people is making progress, let us ask\nfurther as to our women. Are the leading women of our churches dead to\nthe fashions of this world, separated from the world, not conformed\nto the world\u2019s maxims and customs? Are they in behaviour as becometh\nholiness, teaching the young women by word and life the lessons of\nsoberness, obedience, and home-keeping? Are our women noted for their\npraying habits? Are they patterns of prayer?\n\nHow searching are all these questions? And will any one dare say they\nare impertinent and out of place? If God\u2019s work be to make men and\nwomen holy, and He has made ample provisions in the law of prayer of\ndoing this very thing, why should it be thought impertinent and useless\nto propound such personal and pointed questions as these? They have to\ndo directly with the work and with its progress and its perfection.\nThey go to the very seat of the disease. They hit the spot.\n\nWe might as well face the situation first as last. There is no use to\nshut our eyes to real facts. If the Church does not do this sort of\nwork\u2015\u2015if the Church does not advance its members in holiness of heart\nand life\u2015\u2015then all our show of activities and all our display of Church\nwork are a delusion and a snare.\n\nBut let us ask as to another large and important class of people in our\nchurches. They are the hope of the future Church. To them all eyes are\nturned. Are our young men and women growing in sober-mindedness and\nreverence, and in all those graces which have their root in the renewed\nheart, which mark solid and permanent advance in the Divine life? If we\nare not growing in holiness, then we are doing nothing religious nor\nabiding.\n\nMaterial prosperity is not the infallible sign of spiritual prosperity.\nThe former may exist while the latter is significantly absent. Material\nprosperity may easily blind the eyes of Church leaders, so much so\nthat they will make it a substitute for spiritual prosperity. How great\nthe need to watch at that point! Prosperity in money matters does not\nsignify growth in holiness. The seasons of material prosperity are\nrarely seasons of spiritual advance, either to the individual or to the\nChurch. It is so easy to lose sight of God when goods increase. It is\nso easy to lean on human agencies and cease praying and relying upon\nGod when material prosperity comes to the Church.\n\nIf it be contended that the work of God is progressing, and that we\nare growing in holiness, then some perplexing questions arise which\nwill be hard to answer. If the Church is making advances on the lines\nof deep spirituality\u2015\u2015if we are a praying people, noted for our prayer\nhabits\u2015\u2015if our people are hungering after holiness\u2015\u2015then let us ask,\nwhy do we now have so few mighty outpourings of the Holy Spirit on\nour chief churches and our principal appointments? Why is it that so\nfew of our revivals spring from the life of the pastor, who is noted\nfor his deep spirituality, or the life of our church? Is the Lord\u2019s\nhand shortened that He cannot save? Is His ear heavy that He cannot\nhear? Why is it that in order to have so-called revivals, we must have\noutside pressure, by the reputation and sensation of some renowned\nevangelist? This is largely true in our larger charges and with our\nleading men. Why is it that the pastor is not sufficiently spiritual,\nholy and in communion with God, that he cannot hold his own revival\nservices, and have large outpourings of the Holy Spirit on the Church,\nthe community and upon himself? There can be but one solution for all\nthis state of things. We have cultivated other things to the neglect of\nthe work of holiness. We have permitted our minds to be pre-occupied\nwith material things in the Church. Unfortunately, whether designedly\nor not, we have substituted the external for the internal. We have put\nthat which is seen to the front and shut out that which is unseen. It\nis all too true as to the Church, that we are much further advanced in\nmaterial matters than in matters spiritual.\n\nBut the cause of this sad state of things may be traced further back.\nIt is largely due to the decay of prayer. For with the decline of the\nwork of holiness there has come the decline of the business of praying.\nAs praying and holiness go together, so the decline of one, means the\ndecay of the other. Excuse it if we may, justify the present state of\nthings if we will, yet it is all too patent that the emphasis in the\nwork of the present-day Church is not put on prayer. And just as this\nhas occurred, the emphasis has been taken from the great work of God\nset on foot in the atonement, holiness of heart and life. The Church\nis not turning out praying men and women, because the Church is not\nintently engaged in the one great work of holiness.\n\nAt one time, John Wesley saw that there was a perceptible decline in\nthe work of holiness, and he stopped short to inquire into the cause,\nand if we are as honest and spiritual as he was, we will now see the\nsame causes operating to stay God\u2019s work among us. In a letter to his\nbrother, Charles, at one time, he comes directly to the point, and\nmakes short, incisive work of it. Here is how he begins his letter:\n\n     \u201cWhat has hindered the work? I want to consider this. And\n     must we not first say, we are the chief. If we were more\n     holy in heart and life, thoroughly devoted to God, would\n     not all the preachers catch fire, and carry it with them,\n     throughout the land?\n\n     \u201cIs not the next hindrance the littleness of grace (rather\n     than of gifts) in a considerable part of our preachers?\n     They have not the whole mind that was in Christ. They do\n     not steadily walk as He walked. And, therefore, the hand of\n     the Lord is stayed, though not altogether; though He does\n     work still. But it is not in such a degree as He surely\n     would, were they holy as He that hath sent them is holy.\n\n     \u201cIs not the third hindrance the littleness of grace in the\n     generality of our people? Therefore, they pray little,\n     and with little fervency for a general blessing. And,\n     therefore, their prayer has little power with God. It does\n     not, as once, shut and open heaven.\n\n     \u201cAdd to this, that as there is much of the spirit of the\n     world in their hearts, so there is much conformity to the\n     world in their lives. They ought to be bright and shining\n     lights, but they neither burn nor shine. They are not true\n     to the rules they profess to observe. They are not holy\n     in all manner of conversation. Nay, many of them are salt\n     that has lost its savour, the little savour they once had.\n     Wherewith then shall the rest of the land be seasoned?\n     What wonder that their neighbours are as unholy as ever?\u201d\n\nHe strikes the spot. He hits the centre. He grades the cause. He freely\nconfesses that he and Charles are the first cause, in this decline of\nholiness. The chief ones occupy positions of responsibility. As they\ngo, so goes the Church. They give colour to the Church. They largely\ndetermine its character and its work. What holiness should mark these\nchief men? What zeal should ever characterise them? What prayerfulness\nshould be seen in them! How influential they ought to be with God! If\nthe head be weak, then the whole body will feel the stroke.\n\nThe pastors come next in his catalogue. When the chief shepherds and\nthose who are under them, the immediate pastors, stay their advance\nin holiness, the panic will reach to the end of the line. As are\nthe pastors, so will the people be as a rule. If the pastors are\nprayerless, then will the people follow in their footsteps. If the\npreacher be silent upon the work of holiness, then will there be no\nhungering and thirsting after holiness in the laymen. If the preacher\nbe careless about obtaining the highest and best God has for him in\nreligious experience, then will the people take after him.\n\nOne statement of Wesley needs to be repeated with emphasis. The\nlittleness of grace, rather than the smallness of gifts,\u2015\u2015this is\nlargely the case with the preachers. It may be stated as an axiom: That\nthe work of God fails as a general rule, more for the lack of grace,\nthan for the want of gifts. It is more than this. It is more than this,\nfor a full supply of grace brings an increase of gifts. It may be\nrepeated that small results, a low experience, a low religious life,\nand pointless, powerless preaching always flow from a lack of grace.\nAnd a lack of grace flows from a lack of praying. Great grace comes\nfrom great praying.\n\n   \u201cWhat is our calling\u2019s glorious hope\n        But inward holiness?\n    For this to Jesus I look up,\n        I calmly wait for this.\n\n   \u201cI wait till He shall touch me clean,\n        Shall life and power impart;\n    Give me the faith that casts out sin,\n        And purifies the heart.\u201d\n\nIn carrying on His great work in the world, God works through human\nagents. He works through His Church collectively and through His people\nindividually. In order that they may be effective agents, they must be\n\u201cvessels unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master\u2019s use, and\nprepared unto every good work.\u201d God works most effectively through holy\nmen. His work makes progress in the hands of praying men. Peter tells\nus that husbands who might not be reached by the Word of God, might be\nwon by the conversation of their wives. It is those who are \u201cblameless\nand harmless, the sons of God,\u201d who can hold forth the word of life \u201cin\nthe midst of a crooked and perverse nation.\u201d\n\nThe world judges religion not by what the Bible says, but by how\nChristians live. Christians are the Bible which sinners read. These\nare the epistles to be read of all men. \u201cBy their fruits ye shall know\nthem.\u201d The emphasis, then, is to be placed upon holiness of life. But\nunfortunately in the present-day Church, emphasis has been placed\nelsewhere. In selecting Church workers and choosing ecclesiastical\nofficers, the quality of holiness is not considered. The praying\nfitness seems not to be taken into account, when it was just otherwise\nin all of God\u2019s movements and in all of His plans. He looked for holy\nmen, those noted for their praying habits. Prayer leaders are scarce.\nPrayer conduct is not counted as the highest qualification for offices\nin the Church.\n\nWe cannot wonder that so little is accomplished in the great work in\nthe world which God has in hand. The fact is that it is surprising so\nmuch has been done with such feeble, defective agents. \u201cHoliness to the\nLord\u201d needs again to be written on the banners of the Church. Once more\nit needs to be sounded out in the ears of modern Christians. \u201cFollow\npeace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the\nLord.\u201d\n\nLet it be iterated and reiterated that this is the Divine standard of\nreligion. Nothing short of this will satisfy the Divine requirement. O\nthe danger of deception at this point! How near one can come to being\nright and yet be wrong! Some men can come very near to pronouncing the\ntest word, \u201cShibboleth,\u201d but they miss it. \u201cMany will say unto me.\nLord, Lord, in that day,\u201d says Jesus Christ, but He further states that\nthen will He say unto them, \u201cI never knew you; depart from me, ye that\nwork iniquity.\u201d\n\nMen can do many good things and yet not be holy in heart and righteous\nin conduct. They can do many good things and lack that spiritual\nquality of heart called holiness. How great the need of hearing the\nwords of Paul guarding us against self-deception in the great work of\npersonal salvation:\n\n     \u201cBe not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man\n     soweth, that shall he also reap.\u201d\n\n   \u201cO may I still from sin depart;\n    A wise and understanding heart,\n      Jesus, to me to be given;\n    And let me through thy Spirit know\n    To glorify my God below,\n      And find my way to heaven.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                                  VIII\n\n                        PRAYER AND CONSECRATION\n\n     \u201cEudamidas, a citizen of Corinth, died in poverty; but\n     having two wealthy friends, Arct\u00e6us and Carixenus, left\n     the following testament: In virtue of my last will, I\n     bequeath to Arct\u00e6us my mother and to Charixenus my daughter\n     to be taken home to their houses and supported for the\n     remainder of their lives. This testament occasioned much\n     mirth and laughter. The two legatees were pleased and\n     affectionately executed the will. If heathens trusted each\n     other, why should not I cherish a far greater confidence\n     in my beloved Master, Jesus? I hereby, therefore, nominate\n     Him my sole heir, consigning to Him my soul and my children\n     and sisters, that He may adopt, protect, and provide\n     for them by His mighty power unto salvation. The whole\n     residue of the estate shall be entrusted to His holy\n     counsel.\u201d\u2015\u2015GOTTHOLD.\n\n\nWhen we study the many-sidedness of prayer, we are surprised at the\nnumber of things with which it is connected. There is no phase of\nhuman life which it does not affect, and it has to do with everything\naffecting human salvation. Prayer and consecration are closely related.\nPrayer leads up to, and governs consecration. Prayer is precedent to\nconsecration, accompanies it, and is a direct result of it. Much goes\nunder the name of consecration which has no consecration in it. Much\nconsecration of the present day is defective, superficial and spurious,\nworth nothing so far as the office and ends of consecration are\nconcerned. Popular consecration is sadly at fault because it has little\nor no prayer in it. No consecration is worth a thought which is not the\ndirect fruit of much praying, and which fails to bring one into a life\nof prayer. Prayer is the one thing prominent in a consecrated life.\n\nConsecration is much more than a life of so-called service. It is\na life of personal holiness, first of all. It is that which brings\nspiritual power into the heart and enlivens the entire inner man. It is\na life which ever recognises God, and a life given up to true prayer.\n\nFull consecration is the highest type of a Christian life. It is the\none Divine standard of experience, of living and of service. It is the\none thing at which the believer should aim. Nothing short of entire\nconsecration must satisfy him.\n\nNever is he to be contented till he is fully, entirely the Lord\u2019s by\nhis own consent. His praying naturally and involuntarily leads up to\nthis one act of his.\n\nConsecration is the voluntary set dedication of one\u2019s self to God, an\noffering definitely made, and made without any reservation whatever.\nIt is the setting apart of all we are, all we have, and all we expect\nto have or be, to God first of all. It is not so much the giving\nof ourselves to the Church, or the mere engaging in some one line\nof Church work. Almighty God is in view and He is the end of all\nconsecration. It is a separation of one\u2019s self to God, a devotement\nof all that he is and has to a sacred use. Some things may be devoted\nto a special purpose, but it is not consecration in the true sense.\nConsecration has a sacred nature. It is devoted to holy ends. It is the\nvoluntary putting of one\u2019s self in God\u2019s hands to be used sacredly,\nholily, with sanctifying ends in view.\n\nConsecration is not so much the setting one\u2019s self apart from sinful\nthings and wicked ends, but rather it is the separation from worldly,\nsecular and even legitimate things, if they come in conflict with God\u2019s\nplans, to holy uses. It is the devoting of all we have to God for His\nown specific use. It is a separation from things questionable, or even\nlegitimate, when the choice is to be made between the things of this\nlife and the claims of God.\n\nThe consecration which meets God\u2019s demands and which He accepts is to\nbe full, complete, with no mental reservation, with nothing withheld.\nIt cannot be partial, any more than a whole burnt offering in Old\nTestament times could have been partial. The whole animal had to be\noffered in sacrifice. To reserve any part of the animal would have\nseriously vitiated the offering. So to make a half-hearted, partial\nconsecration is to make no consecration at all, and is to fail utterly\nin securing the Divine acceptance. It involves our whole being, all\nwe have and all that we are. Everything is definitely and voluntarily\nplaced in God\u2019s hands for His supreme use.\n\nConsecration is not all there is in holiness. Many make serious\nmistakes at this point. Consecration makes us relatively holy. We are\nholy only in the sense that we are now closely related to God, in\nwhich we were not related heretofore. Consecration is the human side\nof holiness. In this sense, it is self-sanctification, and only in\nthis sense. Sanctification or holiness in its truest and highest sense\nis Divine, the act of the Holy Spirit working in the heart, making it\nclean and putting therein in a higher degree the fruits of the Spirit.\n\nThis distinction is clearly set forth and kept in view by Moses\nin \u201cLeviticus,\u201d wherein he shows the human and the Divine side of\nsanctification or holiness:\n\n     \u201cSanctify yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy, for I am\n     the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes and do\n     them; I am the Lord which sanctify you.\u201d\n\nHere we are to sanctify ourselves, and then in the next word we are\ntaught that it is the Lord which sanctifies us. God does not consecrate\nus to His service. We do not sanctify ourselves in this highest sense.\nHere is the two-fold meaning of sanctification, and a distinction which\nneeds to be always kept in mind.\n\nConsecration being the intelligent, voluntary act of the believer, this\nact is the direct result of praying. No prayerless man ever conceives\nthe idea of a full consecration. Prayerlessness and consecration have\nnothing whatever in common. A life of prayer naturally leads up to\nfull consecration. It leads nowhere else. In fact, a life of prayer is\nsatisfied with nothing else but an entire dedication of one\u2019s self to\nGod. Consecration recognises fully God\u2019s ownership to us. It cheerfully\nassents to the truth set forth by Paul:\n\n     \u201cYe are not your own. For ye are bought with a price.\n     Therefore, glorify God in your body and spirit, which are\n     God\u2019s.\u201d\n\nAnd true praying leads that way. It cannot reach any other destination.\nIt is bound to run into this depot. This is its natural result. This\nis the sort of work which praying turns out. Praying makes consecrated\npeople. It cannot make any other sort. It drives to this end. It aims\nat this very purpose.\n\nAs prayer leads up to and brings forth full consecration, so prayer\nentirely impregnates a consecrated life. The prayer life and the\nconsecrated life are intimate companions. They are Siamese twins,\ninseparable. Prayer enters into every phase of a consecrated life.\nA prayerless life which claims consecration is a misnomer, false,\ncounterfeit.\n\nConsecration is really the setting apart of one\u2019s self to a life of\nprayer. It means not only to pray, but to pray habitually, and to pray\nmore effectually. It is the consecrated man who accomplishes most by\nHis praying. God must hear the man wholly given up to God. God cannot\ndeny the requests of him who has renounced all claims to himself, and\nwho has wholly dedicated himself to God and His service. This act of\nthe consecrated man puts him \u201con praying ground and pleading terms\u201d\nwith God. It puts Him in reach of God in prayer. It places him where\nhe can get hold of God, and where he can influence God to do things\nwhich He would not otherwise do. Consecration brings answers to prayer.\nGod can depend upon consecrated men. God can afford to commit Himself\nin prayer to those who have fully committed themselves to God. He who\ngives all to God will get all from God. Having given all to God, he can\nclaim all that God has for him.\n\nAs prayer is the condition of full consecration, so prayer is the\nhabit, the rule, of him who has dedicated himself wholly to God. Prayer\nis becoming in the consecrated life. Prayer is no strange thing in such\na life. There is a peculiar affinity between prayer and consecration,\nfor both recognise God, both submit to God, and both have their aim\nand end in God. Prayer is part and parcel of the consecrated life.\nPrayer is the constant, the inseparable, the intimate companion of\nconsecration. They walk and talk together.\n\nThere is much talk today of consecration, and many are termed\nconsecrated people who know not the alphabet of it. Much modern\nconsecration falls far below the Scripture standard. There is really\nno real consecration in it. Just as there is much praying without any\nreal prayer in it, so there is much so-called consecration current,\ntoday, in the Church which has no real consecration in it. Much passes\nfor consecration in the Church which receives the praise and plaudits\nof superficial, formal professors, but which is wide of the mark. There\nis much hurrying to and fro, here and there, much fuss and feathers,\nmuch going about and doing many things, and those who busy themselves\nafter this fashion are called consecrated men and women. The central\ntrouble with all this false consecration is that there is no prayer in\nit, nor is it in any sense the direct result of praying. People can\ndo many excellent and commendable things in the Church and be utter\nstrangers to a life of consecration, just as they can do many things\nand be prayerless.\n\nHere is the true test of consecration. It is a life of prayer. Unless\nprayer be pre-eminent, unless prayer is to the front, the consecration\nis faulty, deceptive, falsely named. Does he pray? That is the\ntest-question of every so-called consecrated man. Is he a man of\nprayer? No consecration is worth a thought if it be devoid of prayer.\nYea, more\u2015\u2015if it be not pre-eminently and primarily a life of prayer.\n\nGod wants consecrated men because they can pray and will pray. He can\nuse consecrated men because He can use praying men. As prayerless men\nare in His way, hinder Him, and prevent the success of His cause,\nso likewise unconsecrated men are useless to Him, and hinder Him in\ncarrying out His gracious plans, and in executing His noble purposes\nin redemption. God wants consecrated men because He wants praying men.\nConsecration and prayer meet in the same man. Prayer is the tool with\nwhich the consecrated man works. Consecrated men are the agents through\nwhom prayer works. Prayer helps the consecrated man in maintaining\nhis attitude of consecration, keeps him alive to God, and aids him in\ndoing the work to which he is called and to which he has given himself.\nConsecration helps to effectual praying. Consecration enables one to\nget the most out of his praying.\n\n   \u201cLet Him to whom we now belong\n      His sovereign right assert;\n    And take up every thankful song,\n      And every loving heart.\n\n   \u201cHe justly claims us for His own,\n      Who bought us with a price;\n    The Christian lives to Christ alone,\n      To Christ alone he dies.\u201d\n\nWe must insist upon it that the prime purpose of consecration is not\nservice in the ordinary sense of that word. Service in the minds of\nnot a few means nothing more than engaging in some of the many forms\nof modern Church activities. There are a multitude of such activities,\nenough to engage the time and mind of any one, yea, even more than\nenough. Some of these may be good, others not so good. The present-day\nChurch is filled with machinery, organisations, committees and\nsocieties, so much so that the power it has is altogether insufficient\nto run the machinery, or to furnish life sufficient to do all this\nexternal work. Consecration has a much higher and nobler end than\nmerely to expend itself in these external things.\n\nConsecration aims at the right sort of service\u2015\u2015the Scriptural kind.\nIt seeks to serve God, but in entirely a different sphere than that\nwhich is in the minds of present-day Church leaders and workers. The\nvery first sort of service mentioned by Zachariah, father of John the\nBaptist, in his wonderful prophecy and statement in Luke 1:74, was thus:\n\n     \u201cThat he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out\n     of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,\n     in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our life.\u201d\n\nHere we have the idea of \u201cserving God in holiness and righteousness all\nthe days of our life.\u201d\n\nAnd the same kind of service is mentioned in Luke\u2019s strong tribute to\nthe father and mother of John the Baptist before the latter\u2019s birth:\n\n     \u201cAnd they were both righteous before God, walking in all\n     the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.\u201d\n\nAnd Paul, in writing to the Philippians, strikes the same keynote in\nputting the emphasis on blamelessness of life:\n\n     \u201cDo all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye\n     may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without\n     rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,\n     among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth\n     the word of life.\u201d\n\nWe must mention a truth which is strangely overlooked in these\ndays by what are called personal workers, that in the Epistles of\nPaul and others, it is not what are called Church activities which\nare brought to the front, but rather the personal life. It is good\nbehaviour, righteous conduct, holy living, godly conversation, right\ntempers\u2015\u2015things which belong primarily to the personal life in\nreligion. Everywhere this is emphasised, put in the forefront, made\nmuch of and insisted on. Religion first of all puts one to living\nright. Religion shows itself in the life. Thus is religion to prove its\nreality, its sincerity and its Divinity.\n\n   \u201cSo let our lips and lives express\n    The holy Gospel we profess;\n    So let our works and virtues shine\n    To prove the doctrine all Divine.\n\n   \u201cThus shall we best proclaim abroad\n    The honors of our Saviour God;\n    When the salvation reigns within\n    And grace subdues the power of sin.\u201d\n\nThe first great end of consecration is holiness of heart and of life.\nIt is to glorify God, and this can be done in no more effectual way\nthan by a holy life flowing from a heart cleansed from all sin. The\ngreat burden of heart pressed on every one who becomes a Christian lies\nright here. This he is to ever keep in mind, and to further this kind\nof life and this kind of heart, he is to watch, to pray, and to bend\nall his diligence in using all the means of grace. He who is truly and\nfully consecrated, lives a holy life. He seeks after holiness of heart.\nIs not satisfied without it. For this very purpose he consecrates\nhimself to God. He gives himself entirely over to God in order to be\nholy in heart and in life.\n\nAs holiness of heart and of life is thoroughly impregnated with prayer,\nso consecration and prayer are closely allied in personal religion.\nIt takes prayer to bring one into such a consecrated life of holiness\nto the Lord, and it takes prayer to maintain such a life. Without\nmuch prayer, such a life of holiness will break down. Holy people are\npraying people. Holiness of heart and life puts people to praying.\nConsecration puts people to praying in earnest.\n\nPrayerless people are strangers to anything like holiness of heart and\ncleanness of heart. Those who are unfamiliar with the closet are not\nat all interested in consecration and holiness. Holiness thrives in\nthe place of secret prayer. The environments of the closet of prayer\nare favourable to its being and its culture. In the closet holiness\nis found. Consecration brings one into holiness of heart, and prayer\nstands hard by when it is done.\n\nThe spirit of consecration is the spirit of prayer. The law of\nconsecration is the law of prayer. Both laws work in perfect harmony\nwithout the slightest jar or discord. Consecration is the practical\nexpression of true prayer. People who are consecrated are known by\ntheir praying habits. Consecration thus expresses itself in prayer. He\nwho is not interested in prayer has no interest in consecration. Prayer\ncreates an interest in consecration, then prayer brings one into a\nstate of heart where consecration is a subject of delight, bringing joy\nof heart, satisfaction of soul, contentment of spirit. The consecrated\nsoul is the happiest soul. There is no friction whatever between him\nwho is fully given over to God and God\u2019s will. There is perfect harmony\nbetween the will of such a man and God, and His will. And the two wills\nbeing in perfect accord, this brings rest of soul, absence of friction,\nand the presence of perfect peace.\n\n   \u201cLord, in the strength of grace,\n        With a glad heart and free,\n    Myself, my residue of days,\n        I consecrate to Thee.\n\n   \u201cThy ransomed servant, I\n        Restore to Thee Thy own;\n    And from this moment, live or die,\n        To serve my God alone.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                                   IX\n\n                    PRAYER AND A DEFINITE RELIGIOUS\n                                STANDARD\n\n     \u201cThe Angel Gabriel described Him as \u2018that holy thing\u2019\n     before He was born. As He was, so are we, in our measure,\n     in this world.\u201d\u2015\u2015DR. ALEXANDER WHYTE.\n\n\nMuch of the feebleness, barrenness and paucity of religion results from\nthe failure to have a Scriptural and reasonable standard in religion,\nby which to shape character and measure results; and this largely\nresults from the omission of prayer or the failure to put prayer in the\nstandard. We cannot possibly mark our advances in religion if there is\nno point to which we are definitely advancing. Always there must be\nsomething definite before the mind\u2019s eye at which we are aiming and to\nwhich we are driving. We cannot contrast shapeliness with unshapeliness\nif there be no pattern after which to model. Neither can there be\ninspiration if there be no high end to stimulate us.\n\nMany Christians are disjointed and aimless because they have no pattern\nbefore them after which conduct and character are to be shaped. They\njust move on aimlessly, their minds in a cloudy state, no pattern in\nview, no point in sight, no standard after which they are striving.\nThere is no standard by which to value and gauge their efforts. No\nmagnet is there to fill their eyes, quicken their steps, and to draw\nthem and keep them steady.\n\nAll this vague idea of religion grows out of loose notions about\nprayer. That which helps to make the standard of religion clear and\ndefinite is prayer. That which aids in placing that standard high\nis prayer. The praying ones are those who have something definite\nin view. In fact prayer itself is a very definite thing, aims at\nsomething specific, and has a mark at which it aims. Prayer aims at\nthe most definite, the highest and the sweetest religious experience.\nThe praying ones want all that God has in store for them. They are\nnot satisfied with anything like a low religious life, superficial,\nvague and indefinite. The praying ones are not only after a \u201cdeeper\nwork of grace,\u201d but want the very deepest work of grace possible and\npromised. They are not after being saved from some sin, but saved from\nall sin, both inward and outward. They are after not only deliverance\nfrom sinning, but from sin itself, from its being, its power and its\npollution. They are after holiness of heart and life.\n\nPrayer believes in, and seeks for the very highest religious life set\nbefore us in the Word of God. Prayer is the condition of that life.\nPrayer points out the only pathway to such a life. The standard of\na religious life is the standard of prayer. Prayer is so vital, so\nessential, so far-reaching, that it enters into all religion, and sets\nthe standard clear and definite before the eye. The degree of our\nestimate of prayer fixes our ideas of the standard of a religious life.\nThe standard of Bible religion is the standard of prayer. The more\nthere is of prayer in the life, the more definite and the higher our\nnotions of religion.\n\nThe Scriptures alone make the standard of life and experience. When we\nmake our own standard, there is delusion and falsity for our desires,\nconvenience and pleasure form the rule, and that is always a fleshly\nand a low rule. From it, all the fundamental principles of a Christly\nreligion are left out. Whatever standard of religion which makes in it\nprovision for the flesh, is unscriptural and hurtful.\n\nNor will it do to leave it to others to fix the standard of religion\nfor us. When we allow others to make our standard of religion, it is\ngenerally deficient because in imitation, defects are transferred to\nthe imitator more readily than virtues, and a second edition of a man\nis marred by its defects.\n\nThe most serious damage in thus determining what religion is by what\nothers say, is in allowing current opinion, the contagion of example,\nthe grade of religion current among us, to shape our religious opinions\nand characters. Adoniram Judson once wrote to a friend, \u201cLet me beg\nyou, not to rest contented with the commonplace religion that is now so\nprevalent.\u201d\n\nCommonplace religion is pleasing to flesh and blood. There is no\nself-denial in it, no cross bearing, no self-crucifixion. It is\ngood enough for our neighbours. Why should we be singular and\nstraight-laced? Others are living on a low plane, on a compromising\nlevel, living as the world lives. Why should we be peculiar, zealous\nof good works? Why should we fight to win heaven while so many are\nsailing there on \u201cflowery beds of ease\u201d? Are the easy-going, careless,\nsauntering crowd, living prayerless lives, going to heaven? Is heaven\na fit place for non-praying, loose living, ease loving people? That is\nthe supreme question.\n\nPaul gives the following caution about making for ourselves the jolly,\npleasure-seeking religious company all about us the standard of our\nmeasurement:\n\n     \u201cFor we dare not make ourselves of the number, or\n     compare ourselves with some that commend themselves; but\n     they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing\n     themselves among themselves, are not wise. But we will not\n     boast of things without our measure, but according to the\n     measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a\n     measure to reach even unto you.\u201d\n\nNo standard of religion is worth a moment\u2019s consideration which leaves\nprayer out of the account. No standard is worth any thought which does\nnot make prayer the main thing in religion. So necessary is prayer,\nso fundamental in God\u2019s plan, so all important to everything like a\nreligious life, that it enters into all Bible religion. Prayer itself\nis a standard, definite, emphatic, Scriptural. A life of prayer is the\nDivine rule. This is the pattern, just as our Lord, being a man of\nprayer, is the one pattern for us after whom to copy. Prayer fashions\nthe pattern of a religious life. Prayer is the measure. Prayer molds\nthe life.\n\nThe vague, indefinite, popular view of religion has no prayer in it. In\nits programme, prayer is entirely left out or put so low down and made\nso insignificant, that it hardly is worth mentioning. Man\u2019s standard of\nreligion has no prayer about it.\n\nIt is God\u2019s standard at which we are to aim, not man\u2019s. It is not the\nopinions of men, not what they say, but what the Scriptures say. Loose\nnotions of religion grow out of low notions of prayer. Prayerlessness\nbegets loose, cloudy and indefinite views of what religion is. Aimless\nliving and prayerlessness go hand in hand. Prayer sets something\ndefinite in the mind. Prayer seeks after something specific. The more\ndefinite our views as to the nature and need of prayer, the more\ndefinite will be our views of Christian experience and right living,\nand the less vague our views of religion. A low standard of religion\nlives hard by a low standard of praying.\n\nEverything in a religious life depends upon being definite. The\ndefiniteness of our religious experiences and of our living will depend\nupon the definiteness of our views of what religion is and of the\nthings of which it consists.\n\nThe Scriptures ever set before us the one standard of full consecration\nto God. This is the Divine rule. This is the human side of this\nstandard. The sacrifice acceptable to God must be a complete one,\nentire, a whole burnt offering. This is the measure laid down in\nGod\u2019s Word. Nothing less than this can be pleasing to God. Nothing\nhalf-hearted can please Him. \u201cA living sacrifice,\u201d holy, and perfect\nin all its parts, is the measurement of our service to God. A full\nrenunciation of self, a free recognition of God\u2019s right to us, and\na sincere offering of all to Him\u2015\u2015this is the Divine requirement.\nNothing indefinite in that. Nothing is in that which is governed by the\nopinions of others or affected by how men live about us.\n\nAnd while a life of prayer is embraced in such a full consecration,\nat the same time prayer leads up to the point where a complete\nconsecration is made to God. Consecration is but the silent expression\nof prayer. And the highest religious standard is the measure of prayer\nand self-dedication to God. The prayer-life and the consecrated life\nare partners in religion. They are so closely allied they are never\nseparated. The prayer life is the direct fruit of entire consecration\nto God. Prayer is the natural outflow of a really consecrated life. The\nmeasure of consecration is the measure of real prayer. No consecration\nis pleasing to God which is not perfect in all its parts, just as no\nburnt offering of a Jew was ever acceptable to God unless it was a\n\u201cwhole burnt offering.\u201d And a consecration of this sort, after this\nDivine measurement, has in it as a basic principle, the business of\npraying. Consecration is made to God. Prayer has to do with God.\nConsecration is putting one\u2019s self entirely at the disposal of God. And\nGod wants and commands all His consecrated ones to be praying ones.\nThis is the one definite standard at which we must aim. Lower than this\nwe cannot afford to seek.\n\nA Scriptural standard of religion includes a clear religious\nexperience. Religion is nothing if not experimental. Religion appeals\nto the inner consciousness. It is an experience if anything at all, and\nan experience in addition to a religious life. There is the internal\npart of religion as well as the external. Not only are we to \u201cwork out\nour salvation with fear and trembling,\u201d but \u201cit is God that worketh in\nus to will and do of His good pleasure.\u201d There is a \u201cgood work in you,\u201d\nas well as a life outside to be lived. The new birth is a definite\nChristian experience, proved by infallible marks, appealing to the\ninner consciousness. The witness of the Spirit is not an indefinite,\nvague something, but is a definite, clear inward assurance given by\nthe Holy Spirit that we are the children of God. In fact everything\nbelonging to religious experience is clear and definite, bringing\nconscious joy, peace and love. And this is the Divine standard of\nreligion, a standard attained by earnest, constant prayer, and a\nreligious experience kept alive and enlarged by the same means of\nprayer.\n\nAn end to be gained, to which effort is to be directed, is important\nin every pursuit in order to give unity, energy and steadiness to it.\nIn the Christian life, such an end is all important. Without a high\nstandard before us to be gained, for which we are earnestly seeking,\nlassitude will unnerve effort, and past experience will taint or exhale\ninto mere sentiment, or be hardened into cold, loveless principle.\n\nWe must go on. \u201cTherefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of\nChrist, let us go on unto perfection.\u201d The present ground we occupy\nmust be held by making advances, and all the future must be covered and\nbrightened by it. In religion, we must not only go on. We must know\nwhere we are going to. This is all important. It is essential that in\ngoing on in religious experience, we have something definite in view,\nand strike out for that one point. To ever go on and not to know to\nwhich place we are going, is altogether too vague and indefinite,\nand is like a man who starts out on a journey and does not have any\ndestination in view. It is important that we lose not sight of the\nstarting point in a religious life, and that we measure the steps\nalready trod. But it is likewise necessary that the end be kept in view\nand that the steps necessary to reach the standard be always in the\neye.\n\n\n\n\n                                   X\n\n                       PRAYER BORN OF COMPASSION\n\n     \u201cOpen your New Testament, take it with you to your knees,\n     and set Jesus Christ out of it before you. Are you like\n     David in the sixty-third Psalm? Is your soul thirsting\n     for God, and is your flesh longing for God in a dry and\n     thirsty land where no water is? Then set Jesus at the well\n     of Samaria before the eyes of your thirsty heart. And,\n     again set Him before your heart when He stood on the last\n     day, that great day of the feast, and cried, saying, \u2018If\n     any man thirst let him come to me and drink.\u2019 Or, are you\n     like David after the matter of Uriah? \u2018For, day and night,\n     thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the\n     drouth of summer.\u2019 Then set Him before you who says: \u2018I am\n     not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.\n     They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are\n     sick.\u2019\u2026 Or are you the unhappy father of a prodigal son?\n     Then, set your Father in heaven always before you: and\n     set the Son of God always before you as He composes and\n     preaches the parable of all parables for you and your son.\u201d\n                                      \u2015\u2015DR. ALEXANDER WHYTE.\n\n\nWe speak here more particularly of spiritual compassion, that which\nis born in a renewed heart, and which finds hospitality there. This\ncompassion has in it the quality of mercy, is of the nature of pity,\nand moves the soul with tenderness of feeling for others. Compassion is\nmoved at the sight of sin, sorrow and suffering. It stands at the other\nextreme to indifference of spirit to the wants and woes of others,\nand is far removed from insensibility and hardness of heart, in the\nmidst of want and trouble and wretchedness. Compassion stands besides\nsympathy for others, is interested in them, and is concerned about them.\n\nThat which excites and develops compassion and puts it to work, is\nthe sight of multitudes in want and distress, and helpless to relieve\nthemselves. Helplessness especially appeals to compassion. Compassion\nis silent but does not remain secluded. It goes out at the sight of\ntrouble, sin and need. Compassion runs out in earnest prayer, first of\nall, for those for whom it feels, and has a sympathy for them. Prayer\nfor others is born of a sympathetic heart. Prayer is natural and almost\nspontaneous when compassion is begotten in the heart. Prayer belongs to\nthe compassionate man.\n\nThere is a certain compassion which belongs to the natural man, which\nexpends its force in simple gifts to those in need, not to be despised.\nBut spiritual compassion, the kind born in a renewed heart, which\nis Christly in its nature, is deeper, broader and more prayerlike.\nChristly compassion always moves to prayer. This sort of compassion\ngoes beyond the relief of mere bodily wants, and saying, \u201cBe ye\nwarmed\u2015\u2015be ye clothed.\u201d It reaches deeper down and goes much farther.\n\nCompassion is not blind. Rather we should say, that compassion is not\nborn of blindness. He who has compassion of soul has eyes, first of\nall, to see the things which excite compassion. He who has no eyes to\nsee the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the wants and woes of humanity,\nwill never have compassion for humanity. It is written of our Lord that\n\u201cwhen he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them.\u201d\nFirst, seeing the multitudes, with their hunger, their woes and their\nhelpless condition, then compassion. Then prayer for the multitudes.\nHard is he, and far from being Christlike, who sees the multitudes, and\nis unmoved at the sight of their sad state, their unhappiness and their\nperil. He has no heart of prayer for men.\n\nCompassion may not always move men, but is always moved _toward_ men.\nCompassion may not always turn men to God, but it will, and does,\nturn God to man. And where it is most helpless to relieve the needs\nof others, it can at least break out into prayer to God for others.\nCompassion is never indifferent, selfish, and forgetful of others.\nCompassion has alone to do with others. The fact that the multitudes\nwere as sheep having no shepherd, was the one thing which appealed to\nour Lord\u2019s compassionate nature. Then their hunger moved Him, and the\nsight of the sufferings and diseases of these multitudes stirred the\npity of His heart.\n\n   \u201cFather of mercies, send Thy grace\n        All powerful from above,\n    To form in our obedient souls\n        The image of Thy love.\n\n   \u201cO may our sympathising breasts\n        That generous pleasure know;\n    Kindly to share in others\u2019 joy,\n        And weep for others\u2019 woe.\u201d\n\nBut compassion has not alone to do with the body and its disabilities\nand needs. The soul\u2019s distressing state, its needs and danger all\nappeal to compassion. The highest state of grace is known by the\ninfallible mark of compassion for poor sinners. This sort of compassion\nbelongs to grace, and sees not alone the bodies of men, but their\nimmortal spirits, soiled by sin, unhappy in their condition without\nGod, and in imminent peril of being forever lost. When compassion\nbeholds this sight of dying men hurrying to the bar of God, then it is\nthat it breaks out into intercessions for sinful men. Then it is that\ncompassion speaks out after this fashion:\n\n   \u201cBut feeble my compassion proves,\n    And can but weep where most it loves;\n    Thy own all saving arm employ,\n    And turn these drops of grief to joy.\u201d\n\nThe Prophet Jeremiah declares this about God, giving the reason why\nsinners are not consumed by His wrath:\n\n     \u201cIt is of the Lord\u2019s mercies we are not consumed, because\n     his compassions fail not.\u201d\n\nAnd it is this Divine quality in us which makes us so much like God.\nSo we find the Psalmist describing the righteous man who is pronounced\nblessed by God: \u201cHe is gracious and full of compassion, and righteous.\u201d\n\nAnd as giving great encouragement to penitent praying sinners, the\nPsalmist thus records some of the striking attributes of the Divine\ncharacter: \u201cThe Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger,\nand of great mercy.\u201d\n\nIt is no wonder, then, that we find it recorded several times of our\nLord while on earth that \u201che was moved with compassion.\u201d Can any one\ndoubt that His compassion moved Him to pray for those suffering,\nsorrowing ones who came across His pathway?\n\nPaul was wonderfully interested in the religious welfare of his Jewish\nbrethren, was concerned over them, and his heart was strangely warmed\nwith tender compassion for their salvation, even though mistreated and\nsorely persecuted by them. In writing to the Romans, we hear him thus\nexpress himself:\n\n     \u201cI say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also\n     bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great\n     heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart; for I could\n     wish that myself were accursed for my brethren, my kinsmen\n     according to the flesh.\u201d\n\nWhat marvellous compassion is here described for Paul\u2019s own nation!\nWhat wonder that a little later on he records his desire and prayer:\n\n     \u201cBrethren, my heart\u2019s desire and prayer to God for Israel\n     is that they might be saved.\u201d\n\nWe have an interesting case in Matthew which gives us an account of\nwhat excited so largely the compassion of our Lord at one time:\n\n     \u201cBut when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with\n     compassion on them, because they fainted, and were\n     scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith\n     he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous,\n     but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of\n     the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his\n     harvest.\u201d\n\nIt seems from parallel statements that our Lord had called His\ndisciples aside to rest awhile, exhausted as He and they were by the\nexcessive drafts on them, by the ceaseless contact with the persons who\nwere ever coming and going, and by their exhaustive toil in ministering\nto the immense multitudes. But the multitudes precede Him, and instead\nof finding wilderness-solitude, quiet and repose, He finds great\nmultitudes eager to see and hear, and to be healed. His compassions\nare moved. The ripened harvests need labourers. He did not call these\nlabourers at once, by sovereign authority, but charges the disciples to\nbetake themselves to God in prayer, asking Him to send forth labourers\ninto His harvest.\n\nHere is the urgency of prayer enforced by the compassions of our Lord.\nIt is prayer born of compassion for perishing humanity. Prayer is\npressed on the Church for labourers to be sent into the harvest of the\nLord. The harvest will go to waste and perish without the labourers,\nwhile the labourers must be God-chosen, God-sent, and God-commissioned.\nBut God does not send these labourers into His harvest without prayer.\nThe failure of the labourers is owing to the failure of prayer. The\nscarcity of labourers in the harvest is due to the fact that the Church\nfails to pray for labourers according to His command.\n\nThe ingathering of the harvests of earth for the granaries of heaven is\ndependent on the prayers of God\u2019s people. Prayer secures the labourers\nsufficient in quantity and in quality for all the needs of the harvest.\nGod\u2019s chosen labourers, God\u2019s endowed labourers, and God\u2019s thrust-forth\nlabourers, are the only ones who will truly go, filled with Christly\ncompassion and endued with Christly power, whose going will avail,\nand these are secured by prayer. Christ\u2019s people on their knees with\nChrist\u2019s compassion in their hearts for dying men and for needy souls,\nexposed to eternal peril, is the pledge of labourers in numbers and\ncharacter to meet the wants of earth and the purposes of heaven.\n\nGod is sovereign of the earth and of heaven, and the choice of\nlabourers in His harvest He delegates to no one else. Prayer honours\nHim as sovereign and moves Him to His wise and holy selection. We\nwill have to put prayer to the front ere the fields of paganism will\nbe successfully tilled for Christ. God knows His men, and He likewise\nknows full well His work. Prayer gets God to send forth the best\nmen and the most fit men and the men best qualified to work in the\nharvest. Moving the missionary cause by forces this side of God has\nbeen its bane, its weakness and its failure. Compassion for the world\nof sinners, fallen in Adam, but redeemed in Christ will move the Church\nto pray for them and stir the Church to pray the Lord of the harvest to\nsend forth labourers into the harvest.\n\n   \u201cLord of the harvest hear\n      Thy needy servants\u2019 cry;\n    Answer our faith\u2019s effectual prayer,\n      And all our wants supply.\n\n   \u201cConvert and send forth more\n      Into Thy Church abroad;\n    And let them speak Thy word of power,\n      As workers with their God.\u201d\n\nWhat a comfort and what hope there is to fill our breasts when we think\nof one in Heaven who ever liveth to intercede for us, because \u201cHis\ncompassion fails not!\u201d Above everything else, we have a compassionate\nSaviour, one \u201cwho can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them\nwho are out of the way, for that he himself is compassed about with\ninfirmity.\u201d The compassion of our Lord well fits Him for being the\nGreat High Priest of Adam\u2019s fallen, lost and helpless race.\n\nAnd if He is filled with such compassion that it moves Him at the\nFather\u2019s right hand to intercede for us, then by every token we should\nhave the same compassion on the ignorant and those out of the way,\nexposed to Divine wrath, as would move us to pray for them. Just\nin so far as we are compassionate will we be prayerful for others.\nCompassion does not expend its force in simply saying, \u201cBe ye warmed;\nbe ye clothed,\u201d but drives us to our knees in prayer for those who need\nChrist and His grace.\n\n   \u201cThe Son of God in tears\n      The wondering angels see;\n    Be thou astonished, O my soul!\n      He shed those tears for thee.\n\n   \u201cHe wept that we might weep;\n      Each sin demands a tear;\n    In heaven alone no sin is found,\n      And there\u2019s no weeping there.\u201d\n\nJesus Christ was altogether man. While He was the Divine Son of\nGod yet at the same time, He was the human Son of God. Christ had\na pre-eminently human side, and, here, compassion reigned. He was\ntempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. At one time how the\nflesh seems to have weakened under the fearful strain upon Him, and\nhow He must have inwardly shrunk under the pain and pull! Looking up\nto heaven, He prays, \u201cFather, save me from this hour.\u201d How the spirit\nnerves and holds\u2015\u2015\u201cbut for this cause came I to this hour.\u201d Only he can\nsolve this mystery who has followed His Lord in straits and gloom and\npain, and realised that the \u201cspirit is willing but the flesh is weak.\u201d\n\nAll this but fitted our Lord to be a compassionate Saviour. It is no\nsin to feel the pain and realise the darkness on the path into which\nGod leads. It is only human to cry out against the pain, the terror,\nand desolation of that hour. It is Divine to cry out to God in that\nhour, even while shrinking and sinking down, \u201cFor this cause came I\nunto this hour.\u201d Shall I fail through the weakness of the flesh? No.\n\u201cFather, glorify thy name.\u201d How strong it makes us, and how true, to\nhave one pole star to guide us to the glory of God!\n\n\n\n\n                                   XI\n\n                            CONCERTED PRAYER\n\n     \u201cA tourist, in climbing an Alpine summit, finds himself\n     tied by a strong rope to his trusty guide, and to three of\n     his fellow-tourists. As they skirt a perilous precipice\n     he cannot pray, \u2018Lord, hold up _my_ goings in a safe\n     path, that _my_ footsteps slip not, but as to my guide\n     and companions, they must look out for themselves.\u2019 The\n     only proper prayer in such a case is, \u2018Lord, hold up _our_\n     goings in a safe path; for if one slips all of us may\n     perish.\u2019\u201d\u2015\u2015H. CLAY TRUMBULL.\n\n\nThe pious Quesnel says that \u201cGod is found in union and agreement.\nNothing is more efficacious than this in prayer.\u201d\n\nIntercessions combine with prayers and supplications. The word\ndoes not mean necessarily prayer in relation to others. It means a\ncoming together, a falling in with a most intimate friend for free,\nunrestrained communion. It implies prayer, free, familiar and bold.\n\nOur Lord deals with this question of the concert of prayer in the\neighteenth chapter of Matthew. He deals with the benefit and energy\nresulting from the aggregation of prayer forces. The prayer principle\nand the prayer promise will be best understood in the connection in\nwhich it was made by our Lord:\n\n     \u201cMoreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go\n     and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he\n     shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he\n     will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more,\n     that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may\n     be established.\n\n     \u201cAnd if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the\n     church; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be\n     unto thee as an heathen and a publican.\n\n     \u201cVerily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth,\n     shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on\n     earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you,\n     That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any\n     thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of\n     my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are\n     gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of\n     them.\u201d\n\nThis represents the Church in prayer to enforce discipline in order\nthat its members who have been overtaken by faults, may yield readily\nto the disciplinary process. In addition, it is the Church called\ntogether in a concert of prayer in order to repair the waste and\nfriction ensuing upon the cutting off of a Church offender. This last\ndirection as to a concert of prayer is that the whole matter may be\nreferred to Almighty God for His approval and ratification.\n\nAll this means that the main, the concluding and the all powerful\nagency in the Church is prayer, whether it be, as we have seen in\nMatthew, 9th chapter, to thrust out labourers into God\u2019s earthly\nharvest fields, or to exclude from the Church a violator of unity,\nlaw and order, who will neither listen to his brethren nor repent and\nconfess his fault.\n\nIt means that Church discipline, now a lost art in the modern Church,\nmust go hand in hand with prayer, and that the Church which has no\ndisposition to separate wrong doers from the Church, and which has\nno excommunication spirit for incorrigible offenders against law and\norder, will have no communication with God. Church purity must precede\nthe Church\u2019s prayers. The unity of discipline in the Church precedes\nthe unity of prayers by the Church.\n\nLet it be noted with emphasis that a Church which is careless of\ndiscipline will be careless in praying. A Church which tolerates evil\ndoers in its communion, will cease to pray, will cease to pray with\nagreement, and will cease to be a Church gathered together in prayer in\nChrist\u2019s name.\n\nThis matter of Church discipline is an important one in the Scriptures.\nThe need of watchfulness over the lives of its members belongs to the\nChurch of God. The Church is an organization for mutual help, and it is\ncharged with the watch care of all of its members. Disorderly conduct\ncannot be passed by unnoticed. The course of procedure in such cases\nis clearly given in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, which has been\nheretofore referred to. Furthermore, Paul, in Galatians 6:1, gives\nexplicit directions as to those who fall into sin in the Church:\n\n     \u201cBrethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are\n     spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness,\n     considering thyself lest thou also be tempted.\u201d\n\nThe work of the Church is not alone to seek members but it is to watch\nover and guard them after they have entered the Church. And if any are\novertaken by sin, they must be sought out, and if they cannot be cured\nof their faults, then excision must take place. This is the doctrine\nour Lord lays down.\n\nIt is somewhat striking that the Church at Ephesus, (Rev. 2) though it\nhad left its first love, and had sadly declined in vital godliness and\nin those things which make up spiritual life, yet it receives credit\nfor this good quality: \u201cThou canst not bear them that are evil.\u201d\n\nWhile the Church at Pergamos was admonished because it had there among\nits membership those who taught such hurtful doctrines that were a\nstumbling-block to others. And not so much that such characters were in\nthe Church, but that they were tolerated. The impression is that the\nChurch leaders were blind to the presence of such hurtful characters,\nand hence were indisposed to administer discipline. This indisposition\nwas an unfailing sign of prayerlessness in the membership. There was no\nunion of prayer effort looking to cleansing the Church and keeping it\nclean.\n\nThis disciplinary idea stands out prominently in the Apostle Paul\u2019s\nwritings to the Churches. The Church at Corinth had a notorious case of\nfornication where a man had married his step-mother, and this Church\nhad been careless about this iniquity. Paul rather sharply reproved\nthis Church and gave explicit command to this effect: \u201cTherefore put\naway from among yourselves that wicked person.\u201d Here was concert of\naction on the part of praying people demanded by Paul.\n\nAs good a Church as that at Thessalonica needed instruction and caution\non this matter of looking after disorderly persons. So we hear Paul\nsaying unto them:\n\n     \u201cNow we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord\n     Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every\n     brother that walketh disorderly.\u201d\n\nMark you. It is not the mere presence of disorderly persons in a Church\nwhich merits the displeasure of God. It is when they are tolerated\nunder the mistaken plea of \u201cbearing with them,\u201d and no steps are taken\neither to cure them of their evil practices or exclude them from the\nfellowship of the Church. And this glaring neglect on the part of the\nChurch of its wayward members, is but a sad sign of a lack of praying,\nfor a praying Church, given to mutual praying, agreement praying, is\nkeen to discern when a brother is overtaken in a fault, and seeks\neither to restore him, or to cut him off if he be incorrigible.\n\nMuch of this dates back to the lack of spiritual vision on the part\nof Church leaders. The Lord by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah once\nasked the very pertinent, suggestive question, \u201cAnd who is blind but my\nservant?\u201d This blindness in leadership in the Church is no more patent\nthan in this question of seeing evil doers in the Church, in caring for\nthem, and when the effort to restore them fails, to withdraw fellowship\nfrom them, and let them be \u201cas a heathen man and a publican.\u201d The truth\nis there is such a lust for members in the Church in these modern\ntimes, that the officials and preachers have entirely lost sight of the\nmembers who have violated baptismal covenants, and who are living in\nopen disregard of God\u2019s Word. The idea now is _quantity_ in membership,\n_not quality_. The purity of the Church is put in the background in the\ncraze to secure numbers, and to pad the Church rolls and make large\nfigures in statistical columns. Prayer, much prayer, mutual prayer,\nwould bring the Church back to Scriptural standards, and would purge\nthe Church of many wrongdoers, while it might cure not a few of their\nevil lives.\n\nPrayer and Church discipline are not new revelations of the Christian\ndispensation. These two things had a high place in the Jewish Church.\nInstances are too numerous to mention all of them. Ezra is a case\nin point. When he returned from the captivity, he found a sad and\ndistressing condition of things among the Lord\u2019s people who were left\nin the land. They had not separated themselves from the surrounding\nheathen people, and had intermarried with them, contrary to Divine\ncommands. And those high in the Church were involved, the priests and\nthe Levites with others. Ezra was greatly moved at the account given\nhim, and rent his garments and wept and prayed. Evil doers in the\nChurch did not meet his approval, nor did he shut his eyes to them\nnor excuse them, neither did he compromise the situation. When he had\nfinished confessing the sins of the people and his praying, the people\nassembled themselves before him and joined him in a covenant agreement\nto put away from them their evil doings, and wept and prayed in company\nwith Ezra.\n\nThe result was that the people thoroughly repented of their\ntransgressions, and Israel was reformed. Praying and a good man, who\nwas neither blind nor unconcerned, did the deed.\n\nOf Ezra it is written, \u201cFor he mourned because of the transgression of\nthem that had been carried away.\u201d So it is with every praying man in\nthe Church when he has eyes to see the transgression of evil doers in\nthe Church, who has a heart to grieve over them, and who has a spirit\nin him so concerned about the Church that he prays about it.\n\nBlessed is that Church who has praying leaders, who can see that which\nis disorderly in the Church, who are grieved about it, and who put\nforth their hands to correct the evils which harm God\u2019s cause as a\nweight to its progress. One point in the indictment against those\n\u201cWho are at ease in Zion,\u201d referred to by Amos, is that \u201cthey are not\ngrieved for the affliction of Joseph.\u201d And this same indictment could\nbe brought against Church leaders of modern times. They are not grieved\nbecause the members are engulfed in a craze for worldly, carnal things,\nnor when there are those in the Church walking openly in disorder,\nwhose lives scandalise religion. Of course such leaders do not pray\nover the matter, for praying would beget a spirit of solicitude in them\nfor these evil doers, and would drive away the spirit of unconcern\nwhich possesses them.\n\nIt would be well for prayerless Church leaders and careless pastors to\nread the account of the ink horn man in Ezekiel, 9th chapter, where God\ninstructed the prophet to send through the city certain men who would\ndestroy those in the city because of the great evils found therein.\nBut certain persons were to be spared. These were they who \u201csigh and\ncry for all the abominations that be done in the midst of the city.\u201d\nThe man with the ink horn was to mark every one of these sighers and\nmourners so that they would escape the impending destruction. Please\nnote that the instructions were that the slaying of those who did not\nmourn and sigh should \u201cBegin at my sanctuary.\u201d\n\nWhat a lesson for non-praying, unconcerned officials of the modern\nChurch! How few there are who \u201csigh and cry\u201d for present-day\nabominations in the land, and who are grieved over the desolations of\nZion! What need for \u201ctwo or three to be gathered together\u201d in a concert\nof prayer over these conditions, and in the secret place weep and pray\nfor the sins in Zion!\n\nThis concert of prayer, this agreement in praying, taught by our Lord\nin the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, finds proof and illustration\nelsewhere. This was the kind of prayer which Paul referred to in his\nrequest to his Roman brethren, recorded in Romans 15:30:\n\n     \u201cNow I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ\u2019s\n     sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive\n     together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may\n     be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea.\u201d\n\nHere is unity in prayer, prayer by agreement, and prayer which drives\ndirectly at deliverance from unbelieving and evil men, the same kind of\nprayer urged by our Lord, and the end practically the same, deliverance\nfrom unbelieving men, that deliverance wrought either by bringing them\nto repentance or by exclusion from the Church.\n\nThe same idea is found in II Thessalonians 3:1:\n\n     \u201cFinally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord\n     may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with\n     you; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and\n     wicked men.\u201d\n\nHere is united prayer requested by an Apostle, among other things, for\ndeliverance from wicked men, that same that the Church of God needs in\nthis day. By joining their prayers to his, there was the desired end of\nriddance from men who were hurtful to the Church of God and who were a\nhindrance to the running of the Word of the Lord. Let us ask, are there\nnot in the present-day Church those who are a positive hindrance to the\non-going of the Word of the Lord? What better course is there than to\njointly pray over the question, at the same time using the Christ-given\ncourse of discipline first to save them, but failing in that course, to\nexcise them from the body?\n\nDoes that seem a harsh course? Then our Lord was guilty of harshness\nHimself, for He ends these directions by saying, \u201cBut if he neglect to\nhear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.\u201d\n\nNo more is this harshness than is the act of the skilful surgeon, who\nsees the whole body and its members endangered by a gangrenous limb,\nand severs the limb from the body for the good of the whole. No more\nwas it harshness in the captain and crew of the vessel on which Jonah\nwas found, when the storm arose threatening destruction to all on\nboard, to cast the fleeing prophet overboard. What seems harshness is\nobedience to God, is for the welfare of the Church, and is wise in the\nextreme.\n\n\n\n\n                                  XII\n\n                       THE UNIVERSALITY OF PRAYER\n\n     \u201cIt takes more of the power of the Spirit to make the farm,\n     the home, the office, the store, the shop holy than it\n     does to make the Church holy. It takes more of the power\n     of the Spirit to make Saturday holy than to make Sunday\n     holy. It takes much more of the power of the Spirit to make\n     money for God than it does to make a talk for God. Much\n     more to live a great life for God than to preach a great\n     sermon.\u201d\u2015\u2015EDWARD M. BOUNDS.\n\n\nPrayer is far-reaching in its influence and world-wide in its effects.\nIt affects all men, affects them everywhere, and affects them in all\nthings. It touches man\u2019s interest in time and eternity. It lays hold\nupon God and moves Him to interfere in the affairs of earth. It moves\nthe angels to minister to men in this life. It restrains and defeats\nthe devil in his schemes to ruin man. Prayer goes everywhere and lays\nits hand upon everything. There is a universality in prayer. When we\ntalk about prayer and its work we must use universal terms. It is\nindividual in its application and benefits, but it is general and\nworld-wide at the same time in its good influences. It blesses man in\nevery event of life, furnishes him help in every emergency, and gives\nhim comfort in every trouble. There is no experience through which\nman is called to go but prayer is there as a helper, a comforter and a\nguide.\n\nWhen we speak of the universality of prayer, we discover many sides\nto it. First, it may be remarked that all men ought to pray. Prayer\nis intended for all men, because all men need God and need what God\nhas and what prayer only can secure. As men are called upon to pray\neverywhere, by consequence all men must pray for men are everywhere.\nUniversal terms are used when men are commanded to pray, while there is\na promise in universal terms to all who call upon God for pardon, for\nmercy and for help:\n\n     \u201cFor there is no difference; for the same Lord over all is\n     rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call\n     upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.\u201d\n\nAs there is no difference in the state of sin in which men are found,\nand all men need the saving grace of God which only can bless them, and\nas this saving grace is obtained only in answer to prayer, therefore\nall men are called on to pray because of their very needs.\n\nIt is a rule of Scriptural interpretation that whenever a command\nissues with no limitation, it is universal in binding force. So the\nwords of the Lord in Isaiah are to the point:\n\n     \u201cSeek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him\n     while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and\n     the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto\n     the Lord, who will have mercy, and to our God who will\n     abundantly pardon.\u201d\n\nSo that as wickedness is universal, and as pardon is needed by all men,\nso all men must seek the Lord while he may be found, and must call upon\nHim while he is near. Prayer belongs to all men because all men are\nredeemed in Christ. It is a privilege for every man to pray, but it is\nno less a bounden duty for them to call upon God. No sinner is debarred\nfrom the mercy seat. All are welcomed to approach the throne of grace\nwith all their wants and woes, with all their sins and burdens.\n\n   \u201cCome all the world, come, sinner thou,\n    All things in Christ are ready now.\u201d\n\nWhenever a poor sinner turns his eyes to God, no matter where he is nor\nwhat his guilt and sinfulness, the eye of God is upon him and His ear\nis opened to his prayers.\n\nBut men may pray everywhere, since God is accessible in every clime and\nunder all circumstances. \u201cI will therefore that men pray everywhere,\nlifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.\u201d\n\nNo locality is too distant from God on earth to reach heaven. No place\nis so remote that God cannot see and hear one who looks toward Him and\nseeks His face. Oliver Holden puts into a hymn these words:\n\n   \u201cThen, my soul, in every strait,\n    To Thy Father come and wait;\n    He will answer every prayer;\n    God is present everywhere.\u201d\n\nThere is just this modification of the idea that one can pray\neverywhere. Some places, because of the evil business carried on there,\nor because of the environments which belong there, growing out of the\nplace itself, the moral character of those who carry on the business,\nand of those who support it, are localities where prayer would not be\nin place. We might instance the saloon, the theatre, the opera, the\ncard table, the dance, and other like places of worldly amusement.\nPrayer is so much out of place at such places that no one would ever\npresume to pray. Prayer would be an intrusion, so regarded by the\nowners, the patrons and the supporters of such places. Furthermore\nthose who attend such places are not praying people. They belong almost\nentirely to the prayerless crowd of worldlings.\n\nWhile we are to pray everywhere, it unquestionably means that we are\nnot to frequent places where we cannot pray. To pray everywhere is to\npray in all legitimate places, and to attend especially those places\nwhere prayer is welcome, and is given a gracious hospitality. To pray\neverywhere is to preserve the spirit of prayer in places of business,\nin our intercourse with men, and in the privacy of the home amid all of\nits domestic cares.\n\nThe Model Prayer of our Lord, called familiarly \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer,\u201d\nis the universal prayer, because it is peculiarly adapted to all men\neverywhere in all circumstances in all times of need. It can be put\nin the mouths of all people in all nations, and in all times. It is\na model of praying which needs no amendment nor alteration for every\nfamily, people and nation.\n\nFurthermore, prayer has its universal application in that all men are\nto be the subjects of prayer. All men everywhere are to be prayed for.\nPrayer must take in all of Adam\u2019s fallen race because all men are\nfallen in Adam, redeemed in Christ, and are benefited by prayers for\nthem. This is Paul\u2019s doctrine in his prayer directory in I Timothy 2:1:\n\n     \u201cI exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications,\n     prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all\n     men.\u201d\n\nThere is strong Scriptural warrant, therefore, for reaching out and\nembracing all men in our prayers, since not only are we commanded thus\nto pray for them, but the reason given is that Christ gave Himself a\nransom for all men, and all men are provisionally beneficiaries of the\natoning death of Jesus Christ.\n\nBut lastly, and more at length, prayer has a universal side in that\nall things which concern us are to be prayed about, while all things\nwhich are for our good, physical, social, intellectual, spiritual,\nand eternal, are subjects of prayer. Before, however, we consider this\nphase of prayer let us stop and again look at the universal prayer for\nall men. As a special class to be prayed for, we may mention those\nwho have control in state or who bear rule in the Church. Prayer has\nmighty potencies. It makes good rulers, and makes them better rulers.\nIt restrains the lawless and the despotic. Rulers are to be prayed for.\nThey are not out of the reach and the control of prayer, because they\nare not out of the reach and control of God. Wicked Nero was on the\nthrone of Rome when Paul wrote these words to Timothy urging prayer for\nthose in authority.\n\nChristian lips are to breathe prayers for the cruel and infamous rulers\nin state as well as for the righteous and the benign governors and\nprinces. Prayer is to be as far-reaching as the race, \u201cfor all men.\u201d\nHumanity is to burden our hearts as we pray, and all men are to engage\nour thoughts in approaching a throne of grace. In our praying hours,\nall men must have a place. The wants and woes of the entire race are to\nbroaden and make tender our sympathies, and inflame our petitions. No\nlittle man can pray. No man with narrow views of God, of His plan to\nsave men, and of the universal needs of all men, can pray effectually.\nIt takes a broad-minded man, who understands God and His purposes in\nthe atonement, to pray well. No cynic can pray. Prayer is the divinest\nphilanthropy, as well as giant-great-heartedness. Prayer comes from a\nbig heart, filled with thoughts about all men and with sympathies for\nall men.\n\nPrayer runs parallel with the will of God, \u201cwho will have all men to be\nsaved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.\u201d\n\nPrayer reaches up to heaven, and brings heaven down to earth. Prayer\nhas in its hands a double blessing. It rewards him who prays, and\nblesses him who is prayed for. It brings peace to warring passions\nand calms warring elements. Tranquillity is the happy fruit of true\npraying. There is an inner calm which comes to him who prays and an\nouter calm as well. Prayer creates \u201cquiet and peaceable lives in all\ngodliness and honesty.\u201d\n\nRight praying not only makes life beautiful in peace, but redolent in\nrighteousness and weighty in influence. Honesty, gravity, integrity and\nweight in character are the natural and essential fruits of prayer.\n\nIt is this kind of world-wide, large-hearted, unselfish praying which\npleases God well, and which is acceptable in His sight, because it\nco-operates with His will and runs in gracious streams to all men and\nto each man. It is this kind of praying which the man Christ Jesus did\nwhen on earth, and the same kind which He is now doing at His Father\u2019s\nright hand in heaven, as our Mighty Intercessor. He is the pattern of\nprayer. He is between God and man, the one Mediator, who gave Himself\na ransom for all men, and for each man.\n\nSo it is that true prayer links itself to the will of God, and runs in\nstreams of solicitude, and compassion, and intercession for all men. As\nJesus Christ died for every one involved in the fall, so prayer girdles\nevery one and gives itself for the benefit of every one. Like our one\nMediator between God and man, he who prays stands midway between God\nand man, with prayers, supplications, \u201cand strong cryings and tears.\u201d\nPrayer holds in its grasp the movements of the race of man, and\nembraces the destinies of men for all eternity. The king and the beggar\nare both affected by it. It touches heaven and moves earth. Prayer\nholds earth to heaven and brings heaven in close contact with earth.\n\n   \u201cYour guides and brethren bear\n        Forever on your mind;\n    Extend the arms of mighty prayer\n        In grasping all mankind.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                                  XIII\n\n                          PRAYER AND MISSIONS\n\n     \u201cOne day, about this time, I heard an unusual bleating\n     amongst my few remaining goats, as if they were being\n     killed or tortured. I rushed to the goat-house and found\n     myself instantly surrounded by a band of armed men. The\n     snare had caught me, their weapons were raised, and I\n     expected the next moment to die. But God moved me to talk\n     to them firmly and kindly; I warned them of their sin and\n     its punishment; I showed them that only my love and pity\n     led me to remain there seeking their good, and that if they\n     killed me they killed their best friend. I further assured\n     them I was not afraid to die, for at death my Saviour would\n     take me to heaven and that I would be far happier than on\n     earth; and that my only desire to live was to make them\n     happy by teaching them to love Jesus Christ my Lord. I then\n     lifted up my hands and eyes to the heavens and prayed aloud\n     for Jesus to bless all my Tannese and to protect me or\n     take me to heaven as He saw to be for the best. One after\n     another they slipped away from me and Jesus restrained them\n     again. Did ever mother run more quickly to protect her\n     crying child in danger\u2019s hour than the Lord Jesus hastens\n     to answer believing prayer and send help to His servants in\n     His own good time and way, so far as it shall be for their\n     good and His glory.\u201d\u2015\u2015JOHN G. PATON.\n\n\nMissions mean the giving of the Gospel to those of Adam\u2019s fallen race\nwho have never heard of Christ and His atoning death. It means the\ngiving to others the opportunity to hear of salvation through our Lord\nJesus Christ, and allowing others to have a chance to receive, and\naccept the blessings of the Gospel, as we have it in Christianised\nlands. It means that those who enjoy the benefits of the Gospel give\nthese same religious advantages and Gospel privileges to all of\nmankind. Prayer has a great deal to do with missions. Prayer is the\nhand-maid of missions. The success of all real missionary effort is\ndependent on prayer. The life and spirit of missions are the life and\nspirit of prayer. Both prayer and missions were born in the Divine\nMind. Prayer and missions are bosom companions. Prayer creates and\nmakes missions successful, while missions lean heavily on prayer. In\nthe seventy-second Psalm, one which deals with the Messiah, it is\nstated that \u201cprayer shall be made for him continually.\u201d Prayer would\nbe made for His coming to save man, and prayer would be made for the\nsuccess of the plan of salvation which He would come to set on foot.\n\nThe Spirit of Jesus Christ is the spirit of missions. Our Lord Jesus\nChrist was Himself the first missionary. His promise and advent\ncomposed the first missionary movement. The missionary spirit is\nnot simply a phase of the Gospel, not a mere feature of the plan of\nsalvation, but is its very spirit and life. The missionary movement\nis the Church of Jesus Christ marching in militant array, with the\ndesign of possessing the whole world of mankind for Christ. Whoever\nis touched by the Spirit of God is fired by the missionary spirit.\nAn anti-missionary Christian is a contradiction in terms. We might\nsay that it would be impossible to be an anti-missionary Christian\nbecause of the impossibility for the Divine and human forces to put\nmen in such a state as not to align them with the missionary cause.\nMissionary impulse is the heart-beat of our Lord Jesus Christ, sending\nthe vital forces of Himself through the whole body of the Church. The\nspiritual life of God\u2019s people rises or falls with the force of those\nheart-beats. When these life forces cease, then death ensues. So that\nanti-missionary Churches are dead Churches, just as anti-missionary\nChristians are dead Christians.\n\nThe craftiest wile of Satan, if he cannot prevent a great movement for\nGod, is to debauch the movement. If he can put the movement first, and\nthe spirit of the movement in the background, he has materialised and\nthoroughly debauched the movement. Mighty prayer only will save the\nmovement from being materialised, and keep the spirit of the movement\nstrong and controlling.\n\nThe key of all missionary success is prayer. That key is in the hands\nof the home churches. The trophies won by our Lord in heathen lands\nwill be won by praying missionaries, not by professional workers in\nforeign lands. More especially will this success be won by saintly\npraying in the churches at home. The home church on her knees fasting\nand praying, is the great base of spiritual supplies, the sinews of\nwar, and the pledge of victory in this dire and final conflict.\nFinancial resources are not the real sinews of war in this fight.\nMachinery in itself carries no power to break down heathen walls, open\neffectual doors and win heathen hearts to Christ. Prayer alone can do\nthe deed.\n\nAaron and Hur did not more surely give victory to Israel through\nMoses, than a praying church through Jesus Christ will give victory on\nevery battlefield in heathen lands. It is as true in foreign fields\nas it is in home lands. The praying church wins the contest. The home\nchurch has done but a paltry thing when she has furnished the money to\nestablish missions and support her missionaries. Money is important,\nbut money without prayer is powerless in the face of the darkness, the\nwretchedness and the sin in unchristianised lands. Prayerless giving\nbreeds barrenness and death. Poor praying at home is the solution of\npoor results in the foreign field. Prayerless giving is the secret of\nall crises in the missionary movements of the day, and is the occasion\nof the accumulation of debts in missionary boards.\n\nIt is all right to urge men to give of their means to the missionary\ncause. But it is much more important to urge them to give their prayers\nto the movement. Foreign missions need, today, more the power of prayer\nthan the power of money. Prayer can make even poverty in the missionary\ncause move on amidst difficulties and hindrances. Much money without\nprayer is helpless and powerless in the face of the utter darkness and\nsin and wretchedness on the foreign field.\n\nThis is peculiarly a missionary age. Protestant Christianity is stirred\nas it never was before in the line of aggression in pagan lands. The\nmissionary movement has taken on proportions that awaken hope, kindle\nenthusiasm, and which demand the attention, if not the interest, of\nthe coldest and the most lifeless. Nearly every Church has caught the\ncontagion, and the sails of their proposed missionary movements are\nspread wide to catch the favouring breezes. Herein is the danger just\nnow, that the missionary movement will go ahead of the missionary\nspirit. This has always been the peril of the Church, losing the\nsubstance in the shade, losing the spirit in the outward shell, and\ncontenting itself in the mere parade of the movement, putting the force\nof effort in the movement and not in the spirit.\n\nThe magnificence of this movement may not only blind us to the spirit\nof it, but the spirit which should give life and shape to the movement\nmay be lost in the wealth of the movement as the ship, borne by\nfavouring winds, may be lost when these winds swell to a storm.\n\nNot a few of us have heard eloquent and earnest speeches stressing\nthe imperative need of money for missions where we have heard one\nstressing the imperative need of prayer. All our plans and devices\ndrive to the one end of raising money, not to quicken faith and\npromote prayer. The common idea among Church leaders is that if we get\nthe money, prayer will come as a matter of course. The very reverse is\nthe truth. If we get the Church at the business of praying, and thus\nsecure the spirit of missions, money will more than likely come as a\nmatter of course. Spiritual agencies and spiritual forces never come\nas a matter of course. Spiritual duties and spiritual factors, left\nto the \u201cmatter of course\u201d law, will surely fall out and die. Only the\nthings which are stressed live and rule in the spiritual realm. They\nwho give, will not necessarily pray. Many in our churches are liberal\ngivers who are noted for their prayerlessness. One of the evils of the\npresent-day missionary movement lies just there. Giving is entirely\nremoved from prayer. Prayer receives scant attention, while giving\nstands out prominently. They who truly pray will be moved to give.\nPraying creates the giving spirit. The praying ones will give liberally\nand self-denyingly. He who enters his closet to God, will also open his\npurse to God. But perfunctory, grudging, assessment-giving kills the\nvery spirit of prayer. Emphasising the material to the neglect of the\nspiritual, by an inexorable law retires and discounts the spiritual.\n\nIt is truly wonderful how great a part money plays in the modern\nreligious movements, and how little prayer plays in them. In striking\ncontrast with that statement, it is marvellous how little part money\nplayed in primitive Christianity as a factor in spreading the Gospel,\nand how wonderful part prayer played in it.\n\nThe grace of giving is nowhere cultured to a richer growth than in\nthe closet. If all our missionary boards and secretaryships were\nturned into praying bands, until the agony of real prayer and travail\nwith Christ for a perishing world came on them, real estate, bank\nstocks, United States bonds would be in the market for the spreading\nof Christ\u2019s Gospel among men. If the spirit of prayer prevailed,\nmissionary boards whose individual members are worth millions, would\nnot be staggering under a load of debt and great Churches would not\nhave a yearly deficit and a yearly grumbling, grudging, and pressure to\npay a beggarly assessment to support a mere handful of missionaries,\nwith the additional humiliation of debating the question of recalling\nsome of them. The on-going of Christ\u2019s kingdom is locked up in the\ncloset of prayer by Christ Himself, and not in the contribution box.\n\nThe Prophet Isaiah, looking down the centuries with the vision of a\nseer, thus expresses his purpose to continue in prayer and give God no\nrest till Christ\u2019s kingdom be established among men:\n\n     \u201cFor Zion\u2019s sake will I not hold my peace, and for\n     Jerusalem\u2019s sake I will not rest till the righteousness\n     thereof goeth forth as brightness, and the salvation\n     thereof as a lamp that burneth.\u201d\n\nThen, foretelling the final success of the Christian Church, he thus\nspeaks:\n\n     \u201cAnd the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all\n     kings thy glory, and thou shalt be called by a new name,\n     which the mouth of the Lord shall name.\u201d\n\nThen the Lord, Himself, by the mouth of this Evangelical prophet,\ndeclares as follows:\n\n     \u201cI have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which\n     shall never hold their peace, day nor night. Ye that make\n     mention of the Lord, keep not silence. And give him no rest\n     till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in\n     the earth.\u201d\n\nIn the margin of our Bible, it reads, \u201cYe that are the Lord\u2019s\nremembrancers.\u201d The idea is, that these praying ones are those who are\nthe Lord\u2019s remembrancers, those who remind Him of what He has promised,\nand who give Him no rest till God\u2019s Church is established in the earth.\n\nAnd one of the leading petitions in the Lord\u2019s Prayer deals with this\nsame question of the establishing of God\u2019s kingdom and the progress of\nthe Gospel in the short, pointed petition, \u201cThy kingdom come,\u201d with the\nadded words, \u201cThy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.\u201d\n\nThe missionary movement in the Apostolic Church was born in an\natmosphere of fasting and prayer. The very movement looking to offering\nthe blessings of the Christian Church to the Gentiles was on the\nhousetop on the occasion when Peter went up there to pray, and God\nshowed him His Divine purpose to extend the privileges of the Gospel to\nthe Gentiles, and to break down the middle wall of partition between\nJew and Gentile.\n\nBut more specifically Paul and Barnabas were definitely called and set\napart to the missionary field at Antioch when the Church there had\nfasted and prayed. It was then the Holy Spirit answered from heaven:\n\u201cSeparate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called\nthem.\u201d\n\nPlease note this was not the call to the ministry of Paul and Barnabas,\nbut more particularly their definite call to the foreign field.\nPaul had been called to the ministry years before this, even at his\nconversion. This was a subsequent call to a work born of special and\ncontinued prayer in the Church at Antioch. God calls men not only to\nthe ministry but to be missionaries. Missionary work is God\u2019s work.\nAnd it is the God-called men who are to do it. These are the kind of\nmissionaries which have wrought well and successfully in the foreign\nfield in the past, and the same kind will do the work in the future, or\nit will not be done.\n\nIt is praying missionaries who are needed for the work, and it is a\npraying church who sends them out, which are prophecies of the success\nwhich is promised. The sort of religion to be exported by missionaries\nis of the praying sort. The religion to which the heathen world is to\nbe converted is a religion of prayer, and a religion of prayer to\nthe true God. The heathen world already prays to its idols and false\ngods. But they are to be taught by praying missionaries, sent out by a\npraying Church, to cast away their idols and to begin to call upon the\nname of the Lord Jesus Christ. No prayerless church can transport to\nheathen lands a praying religion. No prayerless missionary can bring\nheathen idolaters who know not our God to their knees in true prayer\nuntil he becomes pre-eminently a man of prayer. As it takes praying\nmen at home to do God\u2019s work, none the less does it take praying\nmissionaries to bring those who sit in darkness to the light.\n\nThe most noted and most successful missionaries have been pre-eminently\nmen of prayer. David Livingstone, William Taylor, Adoniram Judson,\nHenry Martyn, and Hudson Taylor, with many more, form a band of\nillustrious praying men whose impress and influence still abide\nwhere they laboured. No prayerless man is wanted for this job. Above\neverything rise, the primary qualification for every missionary is\nprayer. Let him be, above everything else, a man of prayer. And when\nthe crowning day comes, and the records are made up and read at the\ngreat judgment day, then it will appear how well praying men wrought in\nthe hard fields of heathendom, and how much was due to them in laying\nthe foundations of Christianity in those fields.\n\nThe one only condition which is to give world-wide power to this Gospel\nis prayer, and the spread of this Gospel will depend on prayer. The\nenergy which was to give it marvelous momentum and conquering power\nover all its malignant and powerful foes is the energy of prayer.\n\nThe fortunes of the kingdom of Jesus Christ are not made by the\nfeebleness of its foes. They are strong and bitter and have ever been\nstrong, and ever will be. But mighty prayer\u2015\u2015this is the one great\nspiritual force which will enable the Lord Jesus Christ to enter into\nfull possession of His kingdom, and secure for Him the heathen as His\ninheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for His possession.\n\nIt is prayer which will enable Him to break His foes with a rod of\niron, that will make these foes tremble in their pride and power, who\nare but frail potter\u2019s vessels, to be broken in pieces by one stroke of\nHis hand. A person who can pray is the mightiest instrument Christ has\nin this world. A praying Church is stronger than all the gates of hell.\n\nGod\u2019s decree for the glory of His Son\u2019s kingdom is dependent on prayer\nfor its fulfilment: \u201cAsk of me, and I will give thee the heathen\nfor thy inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for thy\npossession.\u201d God the Father gives nothing to His Son only through\nprayer. And the reason why the Church has not received more in the\nmissionary work in which it is engaged is the lack of prayer. \u201cYe have\nnot, because ye ask not.\u201d\n\nEvery dispensation foreshadowing the coming of Christ when the\nworld has been evangelised, at the end of time, rests upon these\nconstitutional provisions, God\u2019s decree, His promises and prayer.\nHowever far away that day of victory by distance or time, or remoteness\nof shadowy type, prayer is the essential condition on which the\ndispensation becomes strong, typical and representative. From Abraham,\nthe first of the nation of the Israelites, the friend of God, down to\nthis dispensation of the Holy Spirit, this has been true.\n\n   \u201cThe nations call! from sea to sea\n        Extends the thrilling cry,\n   \u2018Come over, Christians, if there be,\n        And help us, ere we die.\u2019\n\n   \u201cOur hearts, O Lord, the summons feel;\n        Let hand with heart combine,\n    And answer to the world\u2019s appeal,\n        By giving \u2018that is thine.\u2019\u201d\n\nOur Lord\u2019s plan for securing workers in the foreign missionary field\nis the same plan He set on foot for obtaining preachers. It is by the\nprocess of praying. It is the prayer plan as distinguished from all\nman-made plans. These mission workers are to be \u201csent men.\u201d God must\nsend them. They are God-called, divinely moved to this great work. They\nare inwardly moved to enter the harvest fields of the world and gather\nsheaves for the heavenly garners. Men do not choose to be missionaries\nany more than they choose to be preachers. God sends out labourers in\nHis harvest fields in answer to the prayers of His Church. Here is the\nDivine plan as set forth by our Lord:\n\n     \u201cBut when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with\n     compassion on them, because they fainted, and were as sheep\n     having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The\n     harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Pray\n     ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest that he will send\n     forth labourers into his harvest.\u201d\n\nIt is the business of the home church to do the praying. It is the\nLord\u2019s business to call and send forth the labourers. The Lord does\nnot do the praying. The Church does not do the calling. And just as\nour Lord\u2019s compassions were aroused by the sight of multitudes, weary,\nhungry, and scattered, exposed to evils, as sheep having no shepherd,\nso whenever the Church has eyes to see the vast multitudes of earth\u2019s\ninhabitants, descendants of Adam, weary in soul, living in darkness,\nand wretched and sinful, will it be moved to compassion, and begin to\npray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest.\n\nMissionaries, like ministers, are born of praying people. A praying\nchurch begets labourers in the harvest-field of the world. The\nscarcity of missionaries argues a non-praying church. It is all right\nto send trained men to the foreign field, but first of all they must\nbe God-sent. The sending is the fruit of prayer. As praying men are\nthe occasion of sending them, so in turn the workers must be praying\nmen. And the prime mission of these praying missionaries is to convert\nprayerless heathen men into praying men. Prayer is the proof of their\ncalling, their Divine credentials, and their work.\n\nHe who is not a praying man at home needs the one fitness to become a\nmission worker abroad. He who has not the spirit which moves him toward\nsinners at home, will hardly have a spirit of compassion for sinners\nabroad. Missionaries are not made of men who are failures at home. He\nwho will be a man of prayer abroad must, before anything else, be a man\nof prayer in his home church. If he be not engaged in turning sinners\naway from their prayerless ways at home, he will hardly succeed in\nturning away the heathen from their prayerless ways. In other words, it\ntakes the same spiritual qualifications for being a home worker as it\ndoes for being a foreign worker.\n\nGod in His own way, in answer to the prayers of His Church, calls men\ninto His harvest-fields. Sad will be the day when Missionary Boards and\nChurches overlook that fundamental fact, and send out their own chosen\nmen independent of God.\n\nIs the harvest great? Are the labourers few? Then \u201cpray ye the Lord of\nthe harvest to send forth labourers into his harvest.\u201d Oh, that a great\nwave of prayer would sweep over the Church asking God to send out a\ngreat army of labourers into the needy harvest fields of the earth! No\ndanger of the Lord of the harvest sending out too many labourers and\ncrowding the fields. He who calls will most certainly provide the means\nfor supporting those whom He calls and sends forth.\n\nThe one great need in the modern missionary movement is intercessors.\nThey were scarce in the days of Isaiah. This was his complaint:\n\n     \u201cAnd he saw that there was no man, and wondered that\n     there was no intercessor.\u201d\n\nSo today there is great need of intercessors, first, for the needy\nharvest-fields of earth, born of a Christly compassion for the\nthousands without the Gospel; and then intercessors for labourers to be\nsent forth by God into the needy fields of earth.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Note:\n\nWords may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation\nin the text. Obsolete and alternative spellings were left unchanged.\nMisspelled words were corrected.\n\nWords and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like\nthis_. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations\nwere added. The following was changed: added unprinted \u201cis\u201d to \u2018It is\nso easy to lean \u2026\u2019","title":"Essentials of prayer","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":33379}