Taking Hold of God - Forgotten Books

TAKING HOLD OF

GODSTUDIES ON THE NATURE, NEED AND POWER

OF PRAYER

By

SAM UEL M . ZWEMER

Profimor of tbe Hirtory of Religion and Cbrirtian Mimiom‘

,

Tbeologim

MARSHALL, MORGAN e’y SCOTT, LTD.

LONDON EDINBURGH

To

COLLEAGUES IN THE MISSION FIELD

WHO BEEN INSPIRATION IN THE

GOODLY FELLOWSHIP OF PRAYER

FOREWORD

WE b elieve that at the name of Jesus every knee shouldb ow and that He alo ne who taught his early disciplescan also teach us how to pray. We b elieve that prayeris a great reality ; that prayer changes things thatprayer

,if a lo st art, is lost only fo r those who have lost

the consciousness o f God. Therefore we b egin with theName which is ab ove every name and in the chaptersthat follow

,will strive to b ring every thought into

captivity to the Ob edience Of Christ.

Stradivarius at Cremo na is said to have marked everyviolin he made with the name o f Jesus, and his handiwo rk is still called Stradivarius del Gem . Mozart wro teat the head Of his music score, In flamine Domini . We

cannot b elieve in prayer or write on prayer unless web elieve in God. He that cometh to God must b elievethat He is, and that He is a rewarder o f those whodiligently seek Him .

A recent writer in Tbe Cbrirtiafl C8711q (March 1 3 ,

19 3 5) under the sarcastic title, WhyNo t Use a PrayerWheel ? ” makes light o f family prayer and pub licprayer. He says, We no longer pray, but go throughgestures . There is a decided wane in real b elief in theefficacy o f prayer.” And he accounts for this tragedyin light-hearted fashion as follows

7 11

viii F OR EWOR D

Baldly stated : the views ab o ut God and thenature o f the universe have changed . The elementOf petition in prayer, however carefully it may b ephrased

,is a relic Of the day when people actually

did b elieve that God intervened directly to aid hisfriends and discomfit his enemies . Prayer was aspecific means to a specific end.

Our changed ideas o f God make it impossib lefor us to b elieve in the efficacy Of o ur prayers as weonce did. Fo r a few elect so uls there may b e nodifficulty. They may be ab le to adjust themselvesto relationships with this nebulo us personality,Eternal Goo dness, Essence o f Life, o r however itmay b e designated ; the maj o rity Of men, I b elieve,only fool themselves in thinking they can do it.

Accordingly, as I see it, prayer“ in the conven

tional sense Of the word is doomed as surely as burntsacrifice and the Juggernaut car. Private meditatio n ; a fresh taking stock Of life ; thanksgiving forthe kindnesses we have received in not always reaping what we have sowed, moving us to a more charitab le attitude toward those who have had few buffersb etween them and failure and disgrace— these, yes.

But the expectation of getting something fo r no thing,

o r the readiness to request someo ne else to do whatwe know we o urselves ought to do—fo r this theknell has sounded.

”

This is Lib eralism at its worst. He that cometh toGod must b elieve that He is. The saints o f the Old and

F O R EWO R D ix

New Testament lived in a di fferent atmosphere . Theyhad a unique sense o f the presence Of God . Heavenw as no t far from earth . Prayer is an attitude as wellas a practice . It is impo ssib le in a go dless universe o rto a Christless Christiani ty. As a French writer putsit,The whole practice o f the New Testament and the

implications o f the Old Testament are that the Christianlife is a perpetual communion with God sustained byprayer as frequent as possib le .” There is a wo rld viewin which prayer is impo ssib le o r even ab surd

, but thisis not the wo rld V iew Of humanity at large o r down theages . The universality o f prayer, its antiqui ty, its nature,its mystery

,and its histo ry—all give proof that prayer

,

in the words o f Gladstone, “ is the highest expressio no f the human intellect.”

There is no lack Of literature o n thi s fine art in thespiritual realm. Our great lib raries give extensiveb ib liographies on prayer. Our hymno logies and liturgies enshrine the prayers o f the ages . Our Bib le co nco rdances offer an index to the tho usands o f referencesto prayer and praise in Scripture . Yet the theme isinexhaustib le and we o ffer these b rief studies that fo llow in the hope that some may find them useful in theschool o f prayer in which we are all mere learners andthere is only One Master. Lord teach us to pray .

”

SAMUEL M. ZWEMER .

Prineeton, New Jersey.

CHAFHHI

I.

CONTENTSPAGE

THE ANTIQUITY AND UNIVERSALITY OF

THE NATURE OF PRAYER

PLACE AND POSTURE IN PRAYER

THE TIME ELEMENT IN PRAYER

THE POWER OF PRAYER

HINDRANCES To PRAYER

NON-CHRISTIAN PRAYER AND MISSIONS

PRAYER AND MISSIONS

SOME OLD TESTAMENT PRAYERS

THE PRAYERS OF PAUL

THE LORD’S PRAYER

THE PRAYERS OF OUR LORD .

A DEVOTIONAL SERVICE OF MEDITATION


PRAYER

O tbat Tbou wouldest reveal Tbyself and rendTbe bear/ens andcomedown,

Of propbeeies and symbols make an endA nd sbow to us Tbycrown,

Tbat wen bt bumblykneel and bear TbynoiseAndlook upon Tbygloryand rejoiee

So batb man’

splaint aseended, Lord, to Tbee,A s be batb longed to know

Tbe verymeaning of life’

s destiny,

Wbenee tame andwbere sballgoHis soul so romp/ex yea, bis age

-long tryHatb sieged tbe ramparts of eternity.

Man’

sprayer was beard, and so Tbou earnest bereA nd sbowed to bim Tby f rown,

And let wboeoer would, kneel verynear

Wbere stood Tbymanger tbroneAndyet bow veryf ew badeyes to seeIn tborn or eross or straw Tby royalty.

TFATHER ANDREW, in Horizons.


PRAYER

S INCE prayer is the act bywhich man approaches Go d,

it is the very heart Of religion. There can be no religio nWitho ut prayer. In the wo rds Of the great Germantheo logian, Schlatter, the b attle for religion is ab attle fo r p rayer ; the theo ry Of a religion is its philosophy Of prayer ; normal prayer b elongs to no rmalreligion, co rrupt fo rms o f prayer to false religions .”

The relatio n b etween prayer and religio n is so clo se thatNovalis remarks, Prayer is to religion What thought isto philo sophy.

” Take away prayer and you cho ke thechannel Of communio n with the unseen ; there is thenno b ridge acro ss the abyss o f eterni ty there is then novoice to respo nd to the vo ice o f God in nature and inthe human heart . Where there is no prayer there can beno vital religion.

On the o ther hand, there is no religion Witho utprayer. It is the Oldest and most universal o f all religious rites . Acco rding to many, it is even Older thansacrifice

, fo r it lies at the ro o t Of the latter in all primitive religion . Men b egan from the earliest ages “

to

call upo n the name Of the Lo rd.

”Prayer is instinctive .

The Wing o f the b ird seeks flight, the fin o f the fishdemands water, the instinct o f the heart is for God .

1 5

I6 T A K I N G H O L D O F G O D

George Matheso n vo ices the longing Of all humani ty inhis prayer

My heart needs Thee, O Lord, my heart needsThee ! No part o f my b eing needs Thee like myheart . All else Within me can b e filled by thy gifts .My hunger can b e satisfied by daily b read. My thirstcan b e allayed by earthly waters . My co ld can b eremoved by ho useho ld fires . My weariness can b erelieved by o utward rest . But no outward thing canmake my heart pure . The calmest day will no t cairnmy passions . The fairest scene will no t b eautify mysoul. The sweetest music will no t make harmonywithin . The b reezes can cleanse the air but no b reezeever cleansed a spirit.This world has not provided fo r my beart . It

has provided fo r my eye ; it has provided f o r myear ; it has provided fo r my to uch ; it has providedfor my taste it has provided fo r my sense o f b eauty-but it has not provided fo r my beart . ProvideTho u fo r my heart, 0 Lord I It is the only unwingedb ird in all creation give it wings .”

Therefo re, even as a Wingless b ird o r a finless fishwould b e a mo nstro sity in nature, so in the realm o f

the spirit is a prayerless man . We are never so naturalas when w e pray. Ri se my so ul and stretch thyWings,fo r man is b orn to pray. The Greeks called man antbro

pas, some say, b ecause he is the b eing With face upturned to God.

Whatever the form Of prayer amo ng primitive races,

the fact Of prayer is universal . There is no trib e o r

UN I V E R S A L I T Y OF P R A Y E R 17

people, however degraded o r ignorant o f even theb eginnings o f civilization, that do es not pray. In all agesand in all lands men have called upo n their gods, invisib le spirits, o r the Great Spirit, and poured o ut theirneeds . The evidence has b een co llected by Schmidtand Heiler and is also fo und scattered in missionaryreports .The motive o f this universal practice must b e eitheran urge to prayer from within o r from without. Menbegan to pray and continued to pray

,either b ecause

their petitions were answered and they received b lessing, o r they b egan to pray and continued to pray b ecausenecessity o f their moral nature b ade them communewith the Unseen. As Augustine said, O God Tho uhast made us fo r Thyself and our hearts find no rest untilthey rest in Thee .This is true, not only o f those who have a knowledge

o f the Scriptures and Of Jesus Christ as the Son o f God,but o f all men, for they were made in His image and inHis likeness .

Far andwide, tbougb all unknowing,Pantsf or Tbee eaeb buman breast .

Human tearsf or Tbee areflowing,Human bearts in Tbee would rest .

No t only is the fact o f prayer universal among primitive races, but mo re and more the evidence is accumu

lating that much Of What we call primitive prayer bysavage trib es is addressed to a Supreme Being. A studyo f prayers among primitive peoples contributes itstestimony that monotheistic ideas preceded the worship

B

18 TA K ING H O L D O F G O D

o f many gods and that the earliest fo rm o f religionamong them

,as in China and India, not to mention

ancient Egypt, was monotheistic. 1Among b ackward races, such as the American Indians

o r the Bushmen o f South Africa, we find prayer addressedto a Great Spirit. In the South Sea Islands and amo ngsome o f the hill trib es Of India, the Great Spirit is evencalled Father-Of-All.The study Of non-Christian religions reveals the factthat God did not leave Himself witho ut a witnessamong the nations and that His common grace w asshed ab road in human hearts even where no knowledgeof the Gospel has illuminated the soul .The use o f prayer is earlier and more universal thanmagic itself. Prayers Of various kinds are found in theancient records o f India, Egypt, China, Babylonia, Peru,and Mexico . That is, the ritual of prayer already existedin the earliest civilizations . Of course we must rememb erthat men in early times expressed their religious feelingsin terms o f their own moral standards . The divine imagew as Often b lurred by their own gross desires . But theyexpressed those desires in prayer to unseen supernaturalpowers .As we study the prayer-life o f pagan tribes to-day

we find that there is always a special reverence and anattitude Of awe in the worshipper

,and w e must no t

forget the psycho logical significance Of thi s fact . Theposition of the body is not ordinary. The trib es o f

which we have spoken lift their hands o r their arms ;they prostrate themselves

,take o f? their sandals o r their

Compare the evidence in Zwemer’sOrigin of Religionand the references.

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2 0 T A K IN G H O LD OF GOD

The following prayer was heard from the lips of anAfrican pagan, a chief among the Khonds

Mb amb a, thou hast held b ack the rain ; give usrain lest we die . Save us from death by fam ine .Thou art our Father and we are thy children andthou hast created us .

Do st tho u desire our death ? Give us daily food.

Thou hast given us legs to run and arms to workand children also . Now give us rain that we mayhave a harvest.”

Nor do pagans pray only fo r material things . SomeOf their prayers rise to the ethical and spiritual leveland reveal the deeper hunger and famine Of the soul .The Gallas Of East Africa have an evening prayerwhich has this b eautiful petition : To Thee

,O God

,

we take o ur flight ; do not take Thy flight and go away

The ancient Mexicans recognized,amid all their

cruel idolatries,a Supreme Being and addressed him

as Invisib le, witho ut b o dy, One God Of perfectionand purity under whose wings we find repo se and suredefence.”

Even among the Hottentots o f South Africa, one Ofthe names o f the Great Spirit was the Father of allo ur chiefs and the Kekchi trib e o f Indians prayed :O Lord, our Mother, o ur Father, Lord Of the hillsand the valleys .” 80 near and yet so far was their thoughtfrom Christ’s wo rds

, Our Father whi ch art in heaven.

”

Heiler,in his great monograph o n prayer

,devotes

over one hundred pages to the prayer o f primitive races,

UN I VE R S A L I T Y OF P R A YE R 2 !

and discusses its cause and mo tive as well as its formand to whom it is addressed . It is true that the earliestcry o f prayer is only a cry for help, but it is genuine.Says Heiler :

Primitive man takes the same attitude when heprays as he does when addressing a chief o r a superior.The same affection and trustfulness which he Showstoward parents and relations he reveals also in prayerto those exalted b eings who are to him as father o rmo ther, grandfather o r grandmother. He speaks asa child to his parents . In perfect cando ur he expresseshimself frankly, he po urs o ut his heart in simpleconfidence—Go d is no stranger, he knows Him wellwith unaffected sincerity he loves Him b ecause he hasOften experienced His goodness with heartfelt confidence he trusts in Him , he relies on His power andkindness .

Perhaps this is put to o strongly. Yet if prayer is theladder b etween earth and heaven ; if the man who praysbelongs to two worlds and the prayerless man to o nlyone ; if the man who prays loo ks up and away fromhimself and so is made b etter— then we gladly recognizethat even among primitive savages prayer is a means Ofstrengthening emotion, sustaining co urage, and awakening hope.Prayer among the ancient Greeks was woven intotheir pub lic and private life . As a rule they prayed insho rt formulas which they b elieved had a magical power.Plato says, Every man of sense b efo re b eginning anyimportant work will ask help of the gods .” Plutarch

2 2 T A K I N G H O L D O F GOD

tells o f the great o rator Pericles that b efo re he beganan address he always prayed the gods to make his wordspro fitab le.Seneca the Roman

,a philo sopher in the midst of

idolatry,pro claimed God’s unity when he prayed

We worship and adore the Framer and Fo rmero f the universe ; Governor, Disposer, Keeper. Himon whom all things depend ; mind and spirit o f theworld ; from whom all things spring ; by who sespirit we live . God Of all power, Go d always present,God ab ove all gods, Thee we worship and ado re .”

These altars to unknown gods,to a half-known God,

or to the Great Spirit who b roods over the chaos o f aworld lost in sin

,whatever else they may teach us, are

undoub tedly a rebuke to prayerless Christians and to aform Of Christless Christianity that questions the legitim acy and efficacy o f prayer.A year o r tw o ago there w as a discussion in a well

known religious periodi cal as to whether prayer forrain was no t ab surd in an age o f science. Dr. Krapfin his Nika-English dictionary gives the reply from thelips Of African pagans in tw o b eautiful prayers, the oneused when ploughing and the other in time o f drought. 1

0 Thou God,I b eg Of Thee ! I am go ing to cul

tivate this field. Very well,it is to have enough to eat.

Come, Manes l I till this field that the grain may springup ab undantly and that the harvest may b e great whenit is ripe .

” Then he spits on his hoe and says, Maymy hoe dig deep into the w et ground.

”

1 Quo ted in Le Roy’

sTbc Religionof Primitives, pp. 197- I98.

UN I V E R S A L I T Y O F P R A Y E R 2 3

And here is the prayer fo r rain Tho u, God, giveus rain ! We are in a wretched state ! We are to ilinghard and we are Thy children. Give uS clouds full o frain so that the people may have fo od, we b eg Thee,0 Thou God . Thou art our Father.” The reader canjudge how clo se thi s is to the prayers in the Old Testament in time o f drought and famine, when Eliasprayed earnestly and the heavens gave rain andthe earth b rought forth her fruit.” (James 5 I7)One o f the Oldest and mo st pathetic prayers in timeof agricultural distress is fo und in the first chapter Ofthe Book o f Joel. Professor Rob ertson Smith says

Every verse sparkles with gems . The fig-tree

stripped Of its b ark standing white against the aridlandscape ; the sackcloth-gin b ride wailing fo r herhusb and ; the empty and ruinous garners ; the perplexed rush of the herds maddened with heatand thirst ; o r the unconscious supplication inwhich they raise their heads to heaven with piteouslowing, are indicated with a concrete

‘ pregnancyo f language which the translato r vainly tries to

reproduce .”

To the Apostle Paul, who was not insensitive to

suffering, the who le creatio n gro aneth and travailethin pain .

” The Psalmist asserts that Jehovah hears theyoung ravens which cry . (PS . 147 9) NO wo nder thatchildren

,watching the b irds, exclaim, Now the ro oks

are saying their evening prayers !”

(as Gilb ert Whiteo f Selborne relates) o r o f domestic fowls that they

2 4 T A K I N G H O L D o r G O D

look up to God and give thanks fo r every morsel o ffo od . We live in a wo rld o f prayer. Everything thathath b reath praises the Creator or cries to Him fo r help .

It is more than Heb rew poetic fancy that led Hoseato write

And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear,saith the Lord . I will hear the heavens , and theyshall hear the earth and the earth Shall hear the corn,and the wine

,and the o il ; and they shall hear

Jezreel.”

A chain o f prayer from animate and inanimate,the lowest to the highest-o f-all. An AmericanE . Merrill Roo d

,vo ices Tbe Prayer of tbe Seed

I grow (Tby will be done I)From eartb

’

s oblivion

Toward ligbtning and tbe

But ob, since Tbou didst sbarc

Tbe world tbat I must bear,Hear my dark prayer !

Birtb is a miracle

And,tberef ore, terribl

Remembering Calvary,

Pity my agony

Dark,dark, tbe callous mould

Covers my beart’

s deep gold.

Strengtben me, sbat alone

Wit/J eartb, and worm, and stone 1

UN I V E R S A L I T Y O F P R A YE R 2 }

Confirm myLeaves tbat sballfind tbe air,

Tbs golden grain to be.

Bread of Eternity l

Tbe beartbreak of tbe Spring !


O Lord seek, O Lordfind us,

In Tlg' patient rare

Be Tby Love before, bebind us,

Round us, everywbere

Lest tbs god of tbis worldLest be speak us fair,Lest beforge a ebain and

Lest be bait a snare.

Turn not from us, eall to

Find, embraee us, bear

Be Tby Love before, bebind us,

Round us everywbere.

—CHRISTINA ROSSETTI .

II

THE NATURE OF PRAYER

PRAYER, as we have seen, is the most ancient, the mostuniversal and the mo st intense expressio n o f the religiousinstinct. And yet Of all the acts and states Of the soulit is the mo st difficult to define—ir escapes definitio nand is b roader, higher, deeper than all human language .Prayer

,

” says a mystic Of the six teenth century, “ isto ask no t what we wish Of God, but what God wisheso f us .” Two years b efore his death, Co leridge said tohis son-in-law

To pray, to pray as God would have us— thi sis What at times makes me turn co ld to my soul .

Believe me,to pray with all yo ur heart and strength,

with the reason and the will,to believe vividly that

God will li sten to yo ur voice through Christ, andverily do the thing He pleaseth thereupon— this isthe last, the greatest achievement o f the Christian’swarfare upon earth .

” 1

According to this deep thinker and earnest disciple,the act o f prayer enlists all the powers o f the soul andrequires the who le panoply o f God. Did not Paul teachthe same truth when he made prayer the climax o f thegreat passage o n the weapo ns o f o ur spiritual warfare ?(Eph. 6 10- 1 8)1 Jane T. Stoddart, Tbe New Testament in Life and Literature, p . 1 58.

2 9

30 T A K I N G H O L D O F G O D

What is the essential nature Of prayer, what variouselements must be included in it and what takes placein the soul when man prays to God ? Undoub tedly,prayer includes more than petition ; yet petitio n is atthe heart o f prayer. Ask and ye Shall receive ; seekand ye shall find ; knock and it shall be opened untoyo u

—that was one of Christ’s first lessons in theschoo l o f prayer.There are many definitions o f prayer. James Montgomery crowds fo urteen into a single hymn o f six

stanzas . Prayer is Sincere desire ; prayer is often inaudib le prayer is hidden fire prayer is a Sigh, a tear ;prayer is the upward glance to God ; prayer is simpleas the lisp of a child ; prayer is sub lime as Go d’smaj esty ; it is the cry o f the prodigal, the b reath Of theso ul, the mo untain-air that invigorates, the watchwordat death

,the key to heaven and the pathway o f o ur

Saviour. To medi tate on these definitions alone wouldlead us into all the wealth Of the Scriptures on prayer.Geo rge Herb ert, the saintly poet, who died in 163 3 ,

has some quaint lines that indicate o ther and unusualaspects o f prayer ; he writes in epigrammatic phrasesfit to stir o ur sluggish imagination, if we take time tofathom their depth

Prayer—tbe Cburebe

’

s banquet, Angel’

s age,

God’

s breatb in man returning to bis birtb,

Tbe soul in parapbrase, boart in pilgrimage,Tbe Cbristian plummet sounding beav

’

n and eartb

Engine against tb’A ln btie, sinner

’

s towre,

Reversed tbunder, Cbrist-side-piereing spear,

T H E N A T U R E O F P R A Y E R 3 1

Tbc six-daies-world transposing in an boure,

A kind of tune wbieb all tbings beare andfear

Sof tnesse, andpeaee, andjoy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted manna, gladnesse of tbe best,Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,

Tbe milkie way, tbe bird of Paradise,

Cbureb-bels beyond tbe starres beard, tbe soul’

s bloud,

Tbe land of spires, sometbing understood.

”

That last statement is significant. We must pray notonly with the spirit but with the understanding .

In the sixty-fo urth chapter o f Isaiah (o ne o f the fivegreat chapters on prayer in the Bib le) w e have a definitionOf prayer that surpasses all Others in its b o ldness,plicity and psychological accuracy.

After saying that men have not heard,nor per

ceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen whatHe hath prepared fo r him that waiteth fo r Him,

” theProphet conf esses his own Sins and those o f his people .Our righteousnesses,” he says, are as filthy rags .”

Then fo llows Isaiah’s definitio n o f prayer in the seventhverse : Tbere is none tbat ealletb upon Tby name

,tbat

stirretb up bimself to take bold of Tbee. It is a b o lddefini tion. Literally (in the Heb rew text) he says thatprayer means to rouse o neself o ut o f sleep and seizeho ld o f Jehovah. Of co urse, it is no t a carnal to uchlike that Of the heathen who emb race their ido ls o r

beat them to Ob tain their answers . Yet we have herethe patho s o f a suppliant who is in deadly earnest ;the arms , the hands, the very fingers Of the so ul reaching

3 2 T A K I N G HOL D o r GOD

o ut to lay hold Of God ; man’s personal,spiritual

appropriation o f deity !NO wonder Paul calls Isaiah very ho ld ! The humansoul is po o r and needy

,yet can take hold o f the infinite

and eternal Spirit.

Speak to Him tbou, forHebearetb, andspirit witb spirit

may meet .

Closer is be tban breatbing, and nearer tban bands and

feet .

This is the psycho logy o f prayer— the outreach, thecommunion and union o f the who le soul with God as

f revealed in Christ thro ugh the Holy Spirit. Jesus isthe ladder Of Jacob by which we climb to God. Anything less than thi s is no t real Christian prayer. Prayeris no t o nly the highest exercise Of the human intellectbut it is also the highest exercise o f the aff ections, thewill, the memo ry, the imagination and the conscience .All the powers Of the human soul find an adequateethical field Of action only in prayer. The perso n whonever prays is literally godless . He who do es pray is go dlyin pro po rtion to his inner prayer-life . This is true in alltheistic religions

,but supremely true in the Christian faith.

First Of all,we must take ho ld of God with our

tho ughts . The things which the angels desire to lookinto we may co ntemplate on our knees . Wherefore,as Peter tells us, we must gird up the b ins o f o ur

mind,” and on o ur knees s tudy to know God with allo ur mind no t nature, which is His garment no r manonly, tho ugh made in His image ; nor the saints w hoare only His servants but God Himself. By the exercise

THE N A TU R E O F P R A Y E R 3 3

o f our intellects, illuminated by His Spirit, we muststrive to understand His being and attributes to adoreHim fo r o ur creation and preservatio n and his dailyprovidence . This is what David said, fo r example, inthe one hundred fourth Psalm : O God

,Tho u art

very great, Tho u art clothed with majesty as with agarment.” Many chapters in the Bo ok Of Jo b andmany o f the nature Psalms consist almost entirely o f

this intellectual adoratio n o f God.

Our mind also takes hold o f God when we rememb erHis goodness . Thanksgiving is the exercise o f o ur

memory in the presence Of the source o f all b lessings .Our imaginations are kindled when we contemplatethe marvels o f creatio n, the o cean Of the fulness o f Hislove, the firm am ent of His glory

,and the exceeding

greatness o f His power. When we think o f these thingswe Shall regain the lo st art Of meditatio n. My soulShall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and mymouth shall praise Thee with j oyf ul lips : when Irememb er Thee upon my bed, and medi tate o n Theein the night watches .” Lean so uls may be restored tohealth and vigour by the exercise o f this lo st art . HOWlittle time we really give to this element in prayer !The psychology of prayer also included taking hold

o f God with our emo tions,o ur passions and o ur deepest

feelings . We find them all in the prayers o f Davidawe, fear, sorrow, joy, love, hatred, j ealo usy, passion.

All these emo tions exercised in the right way find theirplace in secret prayer. Here they need not be stifled .

The only cure fo r hypocrisy is to lay ho ld o f the sourceo f all sincerity— secret prayer. This is what David


meant when he said,Pour out yo ur heart b efo re Him.

LThe scum,and the dregs Paul makes reference in his

Epistles once and again to his tears . It is worth whileto loo k up the references . In his PrivateDevotions, BishopLancelo t Andrewes has a remarkab le prayer fo r tears

Give tears,O God, give a fountain Of waters to

my head. Give me the grace o f tears . Bedew thedryness o f my desert heart. Give me tears such asTho u didst give David Of Old, o r Jeremiah, o r Peter,or Magdalene Give me tears which Thou mayestput into Thy b ottle and write into Thy b ook

r In the confession o f sin, daily and detailed, thiselement Of prayer comes to its own . No t witho ut reaso ndo es Tbe Book of Common Prayer b egin with a greatconfession. Bunyan’s Grace A bounding to tbc Cbief ofSinners and Bishop Andrewes’ Private Devotions are tw ob ooks in which every page seems wet with tears . Bothmen were giants in prayer .Again when we are filled with a passion o f love fo rGod’s kingdom and a ho ly zeal fo r His glo ry, we canunderstand the journals that reco rd the prayers Of HenryMartyn in Persia o r the diary o f David Brainerd in hiswo rk among the Indians . What an outpo uring of compassion fo r Africa in the prayers Of David Livingstone

,

o r in tho se o f Andrew Murray ! t-One is reminded o f

the lines Of the poet

Tbc boart is a strange tbingIt bas no ayes,

But it can see tbrougb dark eartb

And bayoud blue skies.


3 6 T A K I N G H O L D O F G O D

that counts . He went a little further and prayed thesame words . Gethsemane . Gabb atha . Golgotha . TheResurrection morning .

The ministry o f intercession is a great b attlefield .

We need the who le armo ur o f Go d, fo r w e wrestle inthe trenches against all the powers Of darkness . On o ur

knees w e are kings and priests in Go d’s universe .Napoleon o r Alexander never had such an empire .George Muller and Hudso n Taylor were amb assado rsplenipotentiary Of their King .

The inner chamb er into which we retire f o r dailyprayer is the gymnasium o f the soul . Dr. Karl Heim

,

o f the University Of Tueb ingen, in his b o o k Tbe New

Divine Order, has the following remarkab le statementregarding prayer

It is part o f the essence o f prayer to have thecertainty that the whole Of wo rld-histo ry, from thesolar orb its to the o scillations of the electrons, lies inthis moment in the hand o f God like soft clay inthe hand o f the potter. He can make o f it what Hewills . No sparrow falls from the ro of without His

Whether the form Of the wo rld changes o r

remains the same,it does not happen from causal

necessity, but b ecause God wills it so . In everything

that may b efall me in the next moment, I have todeal no t with dead matter, with laws Of Nature, no rwith men

, but only with Him . Always I Stand b efo rethe simple choice b etween Him Who draws meupwards

,and the adverse force, which wants to draw

T H E N A T U R E O F P R A Y E R 37

me down. Everything else is only expression andprecipitate o f this spiritual strife .

Prayer, therefo re, whether the one who praysis conscio us o f it o r no t

,assumes always the inter

pretation o f Nature which has b een evo lved in thefo rego ing discussion . Fo r men who pray the historyo f the wo rld, when seen from within, is Will, divineand demoniac Will . Mi racle is the victo ry o f Go d

in this strife Of spiritual powers . Everyo ne who

prays knows that this victo ry is possib le at any momentand in any situatio n.

”

We must b ear all thi s in mind if we wo uld understand the true nature Of prayer

,its psycho logical elements

and the arena in which true prayer b ecomes effectualb ecause it is fervent .

Tberafore wben tbou wouldest pray, or dost tbine alms,

Blow not a trump before tbee bypocrites

Do tbus, vaingloriousl tbe common streets

Boast of tbeir largess, ecboing tbeir psalms.

On sncb tbc land of men, like unctuous balms,Falls witb sweet savour . Impious counterfeits !Prating of beaven, f or eartb tbeir bosom beats

Grasping at weeds, 1‘

n lose immortalpalms

God needs not iteration nor vain cries

Tbat man communion witb bis God migbt sbarcBelow,

Cbrist gave tbe ordinance of prayerVague embages, and witless ecstasies,

A vail not ere a voice to prayer begivenTbc beart sbould rise on wings of love to beaven.

—AUBREY DE VERE,in Tbc Rigbt Use of Prayer.

III

PLACE AND POSTURE IN PRAYER

ALL places are no t alike fo r prayer, although prayermay b e made in all places . In o ne sense we may say o f

prayer what God said to Jo shua Every place whereonthe so les o f yo ur feet shall tread shall be yo urs .” And

yet in the experience Of God’s people, b o th under theOld and the New Covenants, there are places that aremo re sacred than any other b ecause o f so litude o r o f

symb o lism, b ecause Of special memories o r Of specialpromises ; holy places where the wo rshipper is moreconscio us than elsewhere o f the presence and powero f God ; where God has manifested His b lessing o r

shown His favour.Jaco b ’s experience at Bethal is typical o f how o rdinarydesert stones may b ecome a ho ly altar with a ladderthat leads up to heaven and how the commonplaceb ecomes a never-to-be-forgo tten sanctuary . Surelythe Lo rd is in this place

,and I knew it not how

dreadf ul is this place ! thi s is no ne o ther but the houseOf God, and this is the gate o f heaven .

”

Faced in o ur day with a welter o f diverse formsand modes o f worship and a confusio n o f tonguesregarding the proper place fo r private and pub lic prayer,it is well to recall and re-examine the charter Of Christianworship given by our Lord. In His conversation with

4x


the woman o f Samaria (Jo hn 4 : 7 she herself,

like many o f us to-day, tries to evade the personal trendOf Christ’s teaching o n prayer by referring to the contro v ersy regarding the place Of prayer and sacrifice .Gerezirn o r Jerusalem,

which is mo re sacred and, therefo re

,more suitab le ? The woman asked the wrong

question. It is no t supremely impo rtant wberewe worshipbut bow we wo rship— in spirit and reality ; and wbomw e wo rship— the Father Of all, who is a Spirit and seeksspiritual wo rshippers .

At the same time (as someone Ob serves) weneed to rem ind ourselves that to worship in spiritdo es no t necessarily mean that we are to dispensewith the aid Of material things, as the Quakers tryto do . The material is not unspiritual ; it is neutral,but it may b ecome sacramental . The co ntrary to

spiritual is no t material bu t fo rmal ; and that w as

j ust the weakness Of Jewish wo rship— its fo rmality.

”

Why are certain places more suitab le, mo re inspiring,more helpful

,more ho ly than o thers when we pray ?

Fo r at least three reasons— so litude, symb o lism andmemo ry . Private prayer to b e real seeks so litude . Thesuppliant desires to b e alone with Go d. Tho u whentho u prayest enter into thy clo set and when tho u hastShut thy do o r pray to thy Father which is in secret .”

The saints o f all the ages have sought and found Godin solitude : Ab raham when the ho rro r Of great darkness fell upon him and he kept lonely vigil over hissacrifice Moses at the burning bush in the desert wasteElij ah o n the top o f Carmel and at the mouth o f thecave ; Isaiah in the temple court ; Daniel o n his knees



Solomon with all its glory, the later temple o f Ezraand that built by Hero d the Great—all Of them werethe centres o f wo rship fo r b elieving Israel, the holyplace where God manifested His presence, and there preeminently the place o f prayer. Who shall ascend untothe hill o f the Lo rd ? o r who shall stand in His holyplace ? Peter and Jo hn went up into the Temple topray and like their Master undoub tedly prayed everysab b ath-day in the synagogue . The upper ro om(wherever that may have been in Jerusalem) was theaccustomed place o f prayer where the disciples gatheredwith o ne acco rd b efo re Penteco st. Down the centuriesand in all lands, catacomb s, co nventicles, chapels,churches

,cathedrals, a wayside cro ss o r a Quaker

meeting-house,all have witnessed the truth Of the

great promise Fo r thus saith the high and lo fty Onethat inhab iteth eternity, who se name is Ho ly : I dwellin the high and ho ly place

,with him also that is o f a

contrite and humb le spirit ” (Isaiah God’shouse is the place Of prayer fo r Go d’s people . Why,therefore, should its do ors be closed during the longweek

,and o pen only on Sunday ?

A third factor that enters into the sacredness Of theplace of prayer is reminiscence . Memory clings toscenes and places as well as to persons and events .We read in the Go spel, “

And He !Jesus] went againb eyond Jo rdan into the place where John at first b aptized ; and there He ab ode and many believedon Him there .” It w as the place where John preachedrepentance, where Jesus, altho ugh sinless, was numb ered with the transgressors, where the heavens opened,

P L A C E A N D P O S TU R E IN P R A Y E R 45

where the symb ol o f the Dove and the Voice pro claimedthe eternal sonship . No wonder that Jesus so ught theplace again and that many b elieved o n Him there . Theassociation Of ideas is o f great help in prayer. Sometimes it is well-nigh irresistib le . The sto ry is told o f

an earnest, humb le Christian man who lingered at theclose o f the memo rial service held in the church whereWilliam Bo oth, the founder Of the Salvatio n Army,was co nverted. He kneeled alone at the altar-rail prayingrepeatedly : O Lo rd

,do it again ! DO it again !

The place where w e first conf essed our Lo rd the placewhere we were b aptized as adults o r in infancy ; where wetook o ur first Communions where we made some greatdecision or o b tained some great fo rgiveness—all theseplaces o f prayer are holy gro und b ecause ofho lymemo ries .An American po et pictures o ne o f the so ldiers whocrucified o ur Lord and was compelled to pray

We gambled f or tbc clotbes He wore,

His sandals fell to me.

Tbey bad been scarred upon tbc road

Tbat winds to Calvary.

I clasped tbem on unbolyfeet,Set out upon my wayTbc patbs were strange tbc sandals cbose,

I could not make ibom stay.

Tbay took me to an olive grove

So dark I could not see

And I,wbo always scofled at prayer,

Knelt down beneatb a tree.

” 1

1 Go ldie C. Smith, Sandals, in The Master o f Men,p . 142 .

46 T A K I N G H O L D O F GOD

There is truth in the imaginatio n Of the poet, fo r thereis no stronger influence o n the mind than the asso ciationo f ideas and the power Of memo ry. Jaco b co uld neverforget Bethel

,and Christ was recognised by the disciples

Of Emmaus in the b reaking o f the b read . Across theb roo k Cedron there w as a garden which even Judasknew full well, fo r Jesus o ft-times resorted thitherwith His di sciples . Where He meets with us, whateverthe circumstance, is the place o f prayer. Even as Davidgave So lomon the pattern Of the place Of themercy seat (1 Chron . 2 8 so David’s greater Son,as we shall see later

,gave us the pattern of the prayer

life . Many o f the high places and the holy places of theOld Testament now lie desolate, but the heavenlyplaces Of the New Testament are waiting to welcomeall true wo rshippers .We may still worship in some holy temple and catcha vision as Zachariah did ; o r go with David withglad heart to the assemb ly Of the upright and the greatcongregatio n. We may have fellowship with a cho senfew in an upper room waiting f o r the b lessing, tarryo n a housetop with Peter, pray o n the seashorewith Paul, o r find God near

,as Jesus did

,in the

so litude Of the desert and on the mo untain-side . Iwill therefore,” said the apostle, that men prayevetywbere lifting up holy hands, without wrath anddoubfing.

The reference here to uplifted hands shows thatplace and po sture are clo sely related in the practiceOf prayer. We grow accustomed to pray in a certainplace and we also form the hab it Of a certain posture

P L A C E AN D P O S T U R E I N P R A Y E R 47

when we commune with God. All the great non

Christian religio ns put emphasis on the right po sturein their minute regulations o f pub lic and private prayer.This is mo st pro nounced in Islam,

where in mo squeworship the b elievers are drawn up in ranks and prostratethemselves with various genuflections and movementso f the arms and even Of the fingers until it strikes theonlo oker as b eing prayer-drill rather than spiritualworship . Nevertheless, prayer in the Old and theNew Testaments is generally accompanied by somekind o f posture o r gesture . The mo st usual fo rm w as

pro stration, that is b owing down low ,like that Of the

Oriental to an earthly superio r. The Hebrew wo rdshe prostrated himself ”

are usually rendered heworshipped.

”Ezekiel fell o n his face when he saw the

glory o f the Lo rd (Ezekiel 3 2 3 9 8 1 1 Jesusto ok the same po sture in Gethsemane ; and the angelsin glory fall down o n their faces in ado ratio n.

Prayer also is Offered kneeling . We read that Daniel,

Stephen, Peter and Paul knelt. Sometimes the templeworshipper sto o d . So

,Hannah prayed fo r a so n

,8010

m on b lessed the co ngregation,and Jeremiah Offered

his prayer. The Pharisees, Christ’s ow n disciples andthe pub lican Offered prayer whi le standing . It hasb een suggested

,says Dr. McFadyen, with some prob

ab ility,that ordinarily prayer was Offered kneeling o r

standing with prostration at the b eginning and the end.

”

Sitting is mentioned o nly once, in David’s prayer Of

gratitude (II Sam . 7 : and may b e taken as an exception,

o r perhaps it w as due to his Old age . Surelyit is the least reverent attitude Of the b o dy when we


approach the King, eternal, immo rtal, invisib le, andcall Him o ur Lo rd .

The lifting up of the hands toward heaven,o r towards

Jerusalem,accompanied kneeling o r standing (II Chron.

Ex . I Kings 2 4) and was SO

common that it b ecomes a synonym for prayer itself(Psalm 141 We inf er that eyes were open duringprayer from the statement that the pub lican wo uldno t lift up SO much as his eyes unto heaven and fromthe practice o f Jesus Himself(Mark 6 41 7 Howthe Western custom o f praying with clo sed eyelids aroseis uncertain . Orientals do not generally Ob serve it.It may b e an applicatio n o f the words of Jesus regarding secret prayer and the closing Of the doo r againstintrusion o r interruptio n.

Neither place no r po s ture is o f supreme importance,but b oth deserve attention . Slovenly hab its in prayercannot yield great spiritual power. The wise words o fAugustine may well b e pondered f o r they are abundantlyillustrated in the lives Of the saints

In prayer to God, men do with the memb ers o ftheir b o dies that which b ecometh suppliants whenthey b end their knees, when they stretch fo rth theirhands

, o r even pro strate themselves on the ground,and whatever else they visib ly do ,

alb eit their invisib le will and heart’s intention b e known unto God,and He needs no t these to kens that any man’s mindshould be opened unto Him only hereb y one moreexcites himself to pray and groan more humb ly andmore fervently . And I know not how it is, while

P L A C E AND P O S T U R E IN P R A Y E R 49

these motio ns Of the b o dy canno t be made but by a

o utwardly in visib le sort made, that inward invisib leone which made them is increased and thereb y theheart’s aff ectio n which preceded that they might b emade

,groweth b ecause they are made. But Still

if any b e in that way held o r even b ound, that heis no t ab le to do these things with his limb s, it do esno t fo llow that the inner man do es no t pray

,and be

fore the eyes Of God in its mo st secret chamb er, whereit hath compunctio n, cast itself on the gro und .

” 1

1 Hastings, Tbc Cbristian Doctrine of Prayer, p . 43 1 .


jesus appears to bave devotedHimself specially to prayerat times wben His life was unusuallyfull of work and ex cite

ment . His was a very butylife tberewerenearlyalways maaycoming andgoing about Him . Sometimes, bowever, tbere was

sucb a congestion of tbrongzng objects tbat He bad scarcelytime to eat . But even tbenHefound time topray. Indeed, tbeseappear to bave been witb Him seasons of more prolonged

prayer tban usual. Tbus we read‘

So mucb tbe more went

tbere a fame abroad of Him,and great multitudes came to

getber to bear and to be bealedbyHim of tbeir infirmities but

He witbdrew Himself into tbc wilderness andprayed.

’

Many in our dayknow wbat tbis congestion of occupation

is tbay are swept off tbeir feet witb tbeir engagements and

can scarcelyfind time to eat . We make tbis a reason f or not

praying jesus made it a reasonf orpraying . Is tbere anydoubt

wbicb is tbc better course

— JAMES STALKER in Imago Cbristi .

IV

THE TIME ELEMENT IN PRAYER

THOSE who are staggered and off ended when theyare to ld by the saints Of the ages that man should spendhours upon hours alone with himself and God

,need

only to recall the prayer-life Of o ur Lord. He was neverconscious o f Sin and therefo re needed neither confessionnor forgiveness . He w as ever mindful o f Go d’s presenceand power. Yet Of Him we read that He arose a greatwhile b efo re dayb reak to pray ; that he spent allnight in prayer to God that b eing in ago nyhe prayed the mo re earnestly that He spoke a parab leto this end that men ought always to pray and no t tofaint ” ; and that “

b ecause o f o ur importunity ”o ur

Heavenly Father will give His Ho ly Spirit (Luke 1 1 : 1First Of all, w e must ask ourselves what time is,

b efo re we can know how much time or how little timewe need for prayer. The Victorian idea Of time wasdifferent from that Of the present day. Phi lo so phers andtheolo gians have grappled with the pro b lem o f timeand one Of them says All enigmas are b ound up withthe prob lem Of time if once we knew what time reallyis, all metaphysical questions would be answered.

”

The mystic as well as the scientist is puzzled by thereal relation of time to eternity. Is it quantitative orqualitative ? Is eternity, past and future, merely the

53


ex tensio n Of time o r is it something on a higher planethan time and space ? According to Althaus, Eachpo int o f time has relation perpendicularly

.

to eternity .

Eternity is supra-tempo ral. Time is as full o f eternityas the atom is Of energy.

”Every po int Of time may,

therefo re, b e a crisis b etween tw o eternities . Now isthe accepted time

,now is the day o f salvation. The

present hour, the present moment has a value that cano nly b e fully expressed in terms o f the eternal.The solemnity and the supreme value Of time is its

relation to the unseen and the eternal. And this relatio nis momentary . Time flies .

The peculiarity Of Time, !says Karl Heim], isthis

,that each moment is only once present

,then it

is over,never to return again

,and never to b e recalled .

A little while ago, anything was possib le . Now thedice are fallen, the b o o ks are closed. The past Standseternally motionless . History is a flowing stream,

which as soon as it has passed a certain place issuddenly fro zen.

”

All this has the closest possib le relation to the hab itOf prayer and the life Of prayer. We need God everyhour. Moment by moment w e must be kept by Hislove . Unless we take time to be ho ly, there will b e noholiness fo r us in eternity. We must pray without ceasingif w e wo uld live our life in co nscious fellowship withGod. We must pray always, fo r we are in the midst Offoes

,and temptation lurks everywhere . We must pray

at all times fo r we know not which time may be a time

T H E T I M E E L EM EN T I N P R A Y E R 55

o f crisis, no r when time f o r us will end and eterni tyb egin.

To the saints Of the Old and New Testament fromJaco b at Peniel to Paul in the Mamertine prison, prayerhas b een a wrestling against invisib le fo es . The Christianso ldier is always to be on guard, always alert, always atprayer. AmyWilso n Carmichael, that b rave missionaryin Southern India, b ecame seriously ill as the result Ofan accident in 19 3 1 . But She co ntinued her prayerco nflict . In Rose from Briar she writes regarding theministry Of intercessio n

There is no discharge in o ur warfare— no,not

fo r a Single day. We are never bors de combat . We

may be called to serve o n the visib le field,go ing con

tinually into the invisib le b o th to renew o ur strengthand to fight the kind o f b attle that can o nly be fo ughtthere . Orwe may b e called o ff the visib le alto gether fo rawhile and drawn deep into the invisib le . That drearywo rd laid aside is never fo r us ; we are so ldierso f the King Of kings . So ldiers are not shelved .

For us swords drawn, up to tbcgates of beaven,Ob mayno coward spirit seek to leaven

Tbe warrior code, tbc calling tbat is ours

Forbid tbat we sbould sbeatbe our swords inflowers.

Swords drawn,

Swords drawn,

Up to tbcgates of beavenFor us swords drawnUp to tbegates of beaven.


Co uld there be a finer interpretatio n o f the difficult wordsOf the psalmi st

,Let the saints b e jo yful in glory : let

them sing alo ud upo n their b eds . Let the high praiseso f God b e in theirmo uth, and a tw o -edged sword in theirhands this honour have all his saints (Ps.

There is a second reason why we need time, andmuch time

,f o r prayer. It is no t o nly b ecause time is

sho rt and we are stewards Of thi s priceless gift, butb ecause some things canno t b e done in a hurry. Trueprayer takes time . There are processes o f growth anddevelopment in nature that can by no artificial meansb e hastened . The tree that lo o ks to Go d all day andlifts her leafy arms to pray is no t the mushroomgrowth o f a summer night . We need time before wepray to realise Go d’s presence

,wbile we are praying

to realise our own and the world’s need,and after we

have prayed to meditate o n Go d’s wonderful grace andto thank Him f o r what He has promised .

Preparatio n fo r prayer is almo st as important asprayer itself. We canno t rush into the presence o f

the King Of kings . There is a little b o ok o f devotioncalled God

’

s Minute, and although the contents arevaluab le one wo nders why there sho uld be Christianpeo ple w ho have o nly o ne minute to spare fo r God andleave o ne thousand fo ur hundred and thirty-nine minutesOf the day f o r themselves ! In the increasing hurryOf life and in the midst Of its drudgery there are doub tless tho se who must crowd their prayers and compres stheir perio ds Of devo tio n into ej aculatory petitio ns . Yeteven such may learn a secret from the unknown authorOf the kitchen-prayer

TH E T I M E E L EM EN T IN P R A Y E R 57

Lord of allpots andpans and tbings, since I’

ve no time to be

A Saint bydoing lovely tbings, or watcbing late witb Tbee,

Or dreaming in tbc dawnlnt,or storming Heaven

’

s gates,

Makeme a saint bygetting meals, andwasbing up tbcplates.

A ltbougb I must bave Afartba’

s bands, I bave a Mary’s

mind

And wben I black tbc boots and sboes, Tby sandals, Lord,

I tbink of bow tbay trod tbc eartb,wbat time I scrub tbc

floorA ccept tbis meditation, Lord, I baven

’

t timef or more.

It is meditation in prayer as well as preparatio nfo r prayer that makes it impossib le to pray in a hurry.

The difl'

erence b etween a luke-warm Christian and thesaints lies here . The latter waited o n God. They heldtheir hearts still

,and gave them to be b roken and made

contrite . They poured o ut their hearts—all the drossand all the dregs— and that takes time . The b rokenand the contrite heart is not attained by a Co ué formu lao r by vain repetitions o f others

’ prayers which we havenot yet made o ur very ow n . Again, we can never learnthe patience o f unanswered prayer until we have tarried long and repeatedly at the mercy-seat . God ispatient b ecause He is eternal

,says St . Augustine, and

until we practise patience in prayer we do no t b ecomeintimate and collo quial with o ur Creator and Redeemer.In the wo rds o f one o f our present-day mystics,


Ifwe gave o urselves to systematic meditation evenfo r a few weeks , we wo uld b e surprised to discoverhow feeb le o ur ho ld upon fundamental principles hasb een and how b adly w e lacked orientation in our

spiritual geography.

”

Prayer is the gymnasium fo r the soul. If we wouldgrow in grace and knowledge we must give time for thisspiritual exercise .Yet b ecause “ to everything there is a seaso n anda time fo r every purpo se under heaven w e may wellask what is the b est time fo r meditation and silence,for ado ratio n

,confessio n and intercession in the busy

day and amid life’s irksome duties . Danielkneeled upo n his knees three times a day and prayed,and gave thanks b efo re his Go d

,as he did afo retime

(Dan, 6 And David tells us what his custom w as

Evening,and morning

,and at no on, will I pray, and

cry alo ud ; and He shall hear my vo ice (PS . 55

The author Of ano ther later Psalm says,

Seven timesa day do I praise Thee (PS . 1 19 : Paul b ids uspray witho ut ceasing and at all times . Of Peter weread that he prayed at the third hour, the sixth hourand the ninth hour. David also prayed in the silentwatches Of the night . My soul shall b e satisfied aswith marrow and fatness ; and my mouth shall praiseThee with j oyful lips when I rememb er Thee upon mybed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches (PS .

63 5, Father John, o f the Orthodo x Greek Church,

wrote a little b o ok o n Making Evety Day Sacramental.

We give a paragraph from the translation byDr.Whyte :


6o T A K I N G H O L D O F G O D

Wesley,two hours . Bishop Lancelo t Andrewes spent

five hours daily in prayer and meditatio n. He w as aco ntempo rary o f Shakespeare and o ne Of the translato rsOf the King James V ersion . His life w as steeped inprayer and his b ook, Private Devotions, is incomparab le,immortal and priceless . I b ought a copy o f AlexanderWhyte’s edition in Bombay, in 1905, and have usedit more than any other b o ok except the Bib le fo r privatedevo tion. What Andrewes prayed fo r in his clo set andhow he prayed for it and how lo ng

,all the wo rld may

now o penly know and have the reward o f— fo r he didit in secret . Only lo ng after his death was it discoveredand pub lished . One is Covered with confusion andshame o r stirred to emulatio n and despair when hecontemplates the prayer-life o f those who lived so clo seto Go d. David Brainerd among the Delaware IndiansDavid Livingstone on his travels ; Hudso n Taylor inChina ; Praying Hyde o f North India ; saintlyGeorge Bowen o f Bomb ay ; Henry Martyn with hisdiary ; Francis Xavier and his ro sary ; James Gilmo uro n his knees in the deserts o f Mongolia Bisho p Bompasin the Arctic regions o rMary Slesso rwrestling with Go dfor souls in Calab ar— how they put us to shame when wesaywe can find no time fo r prayer !Mo re than one o f the saints have told us that it isnot until w e feel utterly b ored with o ur prayers

,and

still pray o n, that w e can know the true power and joyo f prayer.” St. Francis o f Assisi wai ted long b eforethe answer came and then the joy o f the Lo rd was hisstrength. We are not to b egrudge the ho urs when wewatch in vain fo r the Lord’s coming . Sometimes

,as to

TH E T I M E E L EM EN T I N P R A Y E R 61

the disciples on the lake, He comes at the fourthwatch

,

” the b leak, weary, disillusio ned end o f the nighto r o f the false dawn . We must watch and pray lestwe enter into temptation. And then, when w e are

tempted, w e need prayer all the more . The mo rning

watch gives us the treasures o f Silence and meditation ;the night-watch, the j oy Of fellowship and the memo ryo f past victo ries . Such experiences are not the exclusiveproperty o f mystics o r the prero gative o f a class theyare the b irth-right o f all tho se who appro ach the mercyseat. This is the secret Of His presence, the hiding-placeo f the so ul. Wait, I say, o n the Lord.

” Repair thebroken altar. Bind the sacrifice with cords . Then waitfor the fire o f Go d. The spark o f a living faith

,then the

ignition and illumination o f the Holy Spirit.

If we witb earnest efiort could succeedTo make our life one long connectedprayer,A s lives of someperbaps bave been and are,If never leaving Tbee, we badno needOur wandering spirits back again to lead

Into Tbypresence, but continued tbere,Like angels standing on tbe bigbest stairOf tbc sappbire tbrone, tbis were topray indeed.

But if distractions manifoldprevail,A nd if in tbis we must confess wefail,Grant us to keep at least aprompt desire,Continual readinessf orprayer andpraise,A n altar beapedandwaiting to takefireWitb tbc least spark, and leap into a blaze.


In o rder to pray without ceasing throughout all thehours Of the day the ancient Latin church and the Greekchurch emplo yed devices and aids to memory. Thero sary, the b reviary and the horo logy were all intendedas aids to the memory and guides fo r persistent andpro tracted private prayer. Rememb ering the teachingo f our Lord, that prayer is no t heard b ecause o f muchspeaking and that we must not cultivate but avoidvain repetitions

,

” we may yet, I think, greatly profitby the use o f such an ho ro lo gy as is given by BishopAndrewes . It may well conclude this chapter on the

time element in prayer.

AN HOROLOGY

(A prayer for every hour o f the day)

O Thou, Who hast put in Thine own powerthe times and the seasons

give us grace that in a co nvenient ando pportune season we may pray to Thee

and deliver us .Tho u, Who fo r us men and for o ur salvation,

wast b orn in the depth Of nightgrant us to b e b orn again daily by renewing

o f the Ho ly Gho st,

until Christ Himself be formed in us,

to a perfect man ;and deliver us .

Tho u, Who very early in the morning,at the rising o f the sun

,

didst rise again from the dead

T H E T I M E E L EM EN T I N P R A Y E R 63

raise us also daily to newness o f life,

suggesting to us , fo r Tho u knowest them,

metho ds Of penitenceand deliver us .

Thou, Who at the third hour didst send downThy Ho ly Spirito n the apostles

take not the same Holy Spirit from us ,but renew Him daily in our hearts

and deliver us .Tho u, Who at the sixth hour o f the sixth daydidst nail together with Thyself upon the cro s s

the Sins o f the worldb lot out the handwriting o f our Sins

that is against us,and

,taking it away, deliver us .

Thou, Who at the sixth hour didst let downa great sheet from heaven to earth

,

the symb o l o f Thy Churchreceive into it us sinners o f the Gentiles ,and with it receive us up into heaven

and deliver us .Thou, Who at the seventh ho ur didst commandthe fever to leave the nob leman’s sonif there b e any fever in our hearts ,

if any sickness, remove it from us alsoand deliver us .

Thou, Who at the ninth hour, for us sinners ,and for our Sins

,

didst taste Of deathmo rtify in us o ur memb ers which are upon earth,


and whatso ever is co ntrary to Thy willand deliver us .

Thou, Who didst will the ninth ho ur to b ethe hour Of prayer

hear us while we pray at the ho ur Of prayer,

and grant unto us that which we pray fo r anddesire

and deliver us .Tho u

, Who at the tenth ho ur didst grant untoThine apo stles

to discover Thy Son,

and to cry o ut with great gladness,We have fo und the Messiah

grant unto us also,in like manner

,

to find the same Messiah,

and,having fo und Him, to rej o ice in like manner ;

and deliver us .Tho u

,Who didst

,even at the eleventh ho ur Of theday

,

Of Thy goodness send into Thy vineyardtho se that had sto o d all the day idle

,

promising them a rewardgrant unto us the like grace

,

and,tho ugh it b e late

,

even as it were ab o ut the eleventh hour,favourab ly receive us who return unto Thee

and deliver us.

Thou, Who at the sacred hour o f the supperwast pleased to institute

the mysteries o f Thy b o dy and b loodrender us mindful and partakers Of the same

THE T I M E E L EM EN T I N P R A Y E R 65

yet never to condemnation, but to the remissio nOf sin,

and to the acquiring the promisesOf the new testamentand deliver us .

Thou,Who at eventide wast pleased to be taken

down from the cro s s,and laid in the grave

take away from us, and bury in Thy sepulchre,o ur Sins,

covering whatever evil we have committedwith good wo rksand deliver us .

Thou, Who late in the night, by b reathing

o n Thine apo stles ,didst b estow o n them the power

o f the remi ssion and retention o f sinsgrant unto us to experience that power

fo r their remission, O Lo rd, no t fo r their retentio nand deliver us .

Thou, Who at midnight didst raise David Thy

prophet,and Paul Thine apo stle, that they sho uld praise

Theegive us also so ngs in the night,

and to b e mindful o f Thee upo n o ur b edsand deliver us .

Thou, Who with Thine ow n mouth hast declared,at midnight the Bridegro om Shall comegrant that the cry may ever sound in o ur ears,

Beho ld, the Bridegroom cometh,


that we may never be unprepared to go forthand meet Him ;

and deliver us.

Tho u, Who by the crowing Of the cock,didst admonish Thine apo stle

,

and didst cause him to return to repentancegrant that we, at the same warning, may fo llow his

example,may go forth and weep b itterly

fo r the things in which we have sinned againstThee

and deliver us .Thou

, Who hast fo reto ld Thy coming to judgmentin a day when we think not, and in an ho ur

when we are no t awaregrant that every day and every hour

we may b e prepared, and waiting Thy adventand deliver us .

Thou,Who sendest fo rth the light

,

and createst the morning,and makest Thy sun to rise upon the evil

and the goodillum inate the b lindness Of our minds by the

knowledge Of truth,lift Thou up the light o f Thy countenance upon us,that in Thy light we may see light,

and at length in the light Of grace the light Ofglory .

Thou,Who givest foo d to all flesh

,

Who feedest the young ravenswhich cry unto Thee,


V

THE POWER OF PRAYER

Out of solitary dialogue witb God streams a power wbose

importance cannot be imagined, a power of concentrating tbc

will and overcoming temptation, apower to endure all sufiering,apower to influence tbc lives of otbers,yea even apower toforcetbcfundamental laws of tbc plysical world of tbeir binges,

Tbat we as Cbristians bave tbc tremendous possibility ofspeaking personally witb tbc Supreme Power wbicb directs

tbc course of all events, gives a strengtb and deptb to our

devotion to our Lord’

s causesucb asno otber movement possesses,boweverpowerfulmaybe tbc organization it bas brougbtf ortb .

”

—KARL HEIM, D .D . , PH .D . , in Tbc Cburcb of Cbristand tbe Problems of tbc Day.

V

THE POWER OF PRAYER

THERE can b e no doub t that in some w ay o r o therprayer has power. The mo st spiritual men, the greatestheroes o f the faith, the patriarchs, prophets, and apo stleshave found power in prayer. Our Lord Himself couldno t dispense with it . Intercourse with God and withthe unseen wo rld is not o nly a reality fo r tho se whopray

, but power comes to them in the very act.They that wait upon the Lo rd shall renew theirstrength.

From the very nature o f prayer w e would expectdynamic results . When the negative and the po sitivepoles o f a b attery are b o th charged, a spark o f fire

leaps out when they come in contact . When man’s utterneed and helplessness are b rought face to face withGod’s might and mercy in b elieving prayer, somethingno tab le happens . Prayer is a lifting up o f mind andheart and will to Go d. And God hears and answersthe cry o f the so ul-o f-man made in His image .When man lays ho ld o f God, God lays hold o f man.

Deep calleth unto deep . The depth o f o ur misery tothe depth o f His mercy. Where the ro aring sea and thelowering sky meet there is a waterspout. All thywaves and thy b illows are go ne over me .” This poo rman cried and the Lord heard him .

”


We know there is po tency in prayer from its verynature

,from o ur ow n experience

,and from the abun

dant testimony o f God’s Wo rd in precept,promise

and example .All so -called scientific o r philo sophic ob j ections toprayer as b eing futile rest on the false premise thatthere is nothing supernatural. The same materialisticarguments apply against b elief in the V irgin b irth,against b elief in the Trinity, against faith in the b odilyresurrection and the ascensio n o f o ur Lo rd . But thereare mo re things in heaven and earth than are dreamedo f in human philosophy.

If radio’

s slim fingers can pluck a melodyFrom nigbt

— and toss it o’

er a continent or sea

If tbcpetal/ed wbite notes of a violin

A re blown across tbc mountains or tbc city’

s din

If songs, like crimson roses, are calledfrom tbin blue

Wby sbould mortals wonder, if God bears prayer

The tw o chi ef o b j ections to prayer made by sciencefalsely so -called are, that prayer interrupts the naturalo rder, and that prayer to the Omnipotent and Allmerciful is impertinence . Why Should we expect thethrough traffi c on the highways o f the laws o f natureto b e side—tracked fo r a lo cal train that carries o ur punypetitions Why should w e b o ther to ask, when Yourheavenly Father knoweth that ye have need o f all thesethingsBut b oth ob j ections fall to the ground when we havefaith in the testimony o f God’s Wo rd and in the

T H E P OW E R O F P R A Y E R 73

experience o f His people since the world b egan. Thosewho make these Ob j ections are not always experts inthe realm of prayer. Who would listen to a lectureo n chemistry by any man who had never perfo rmed alab o ratory experiment ? Who wo uld b ow to an opinionon harmony by one who was deaf and dumb ? We

b elieve what Jesus Christ tells us ab out prayer b ecauseHe speaks with autho rity . No man ever prayed as Hedid. No man ever taught the power o f prayer moreexplicitly and repeatedly than o ur Master. 80 we answerthe scientific ob j ector in the wo rds o f one who knewthe power o f prayer, Dora Greenwell

Can the humb le request o f b elieving lips restrain,accelerate, change the settled order Of events ? Canprayer make things that are no t to b e as though theywere ? Are events

,in sho rt, b ro ught ab out through

prayer that would not otherwise take place ? Yes,

a thousand times yes ! To b elieve anything short o fthis is to take the soul o ut o f every text that refersto prayer, is to do away with the force o f everyscriptural illustration that b ears upon it— to b elieveanything Short o f this is to b elieve that God hasplaced a mighty engine in the hands o f His creature,but one that will not wo rk, useful o nly as a scientifictoy might b e that helps to bring out a child’s faculties

,

valuab le only as a means o f training the so ul tocommune with God. Yet what so easy for the unb eliever as to cavil at prayer ; what so easy evenfor the Christian as to fail and falter in this region

,

and to stop sho rt o f the fulness o f this , God’s own


Land o f Promise, through unb elief The commonplace Ob j ectio n to prayer, fo unded upon the supposedimmutab ili ty o f the laws by which Go d governs thewo rld, is easily met and answered by the fact thatprayer is itself one o f these laws, upo n whose wo rking God has determined that a certain result shallfo llow.

”

The Bib le contains a wealth o f testimo ny to thepower o f prayer. Every injunctio n to pray, every com

mand to make o ur requests known to God wo uld b ehollow mockery if prayer did no t prevail . Ask andye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, kno ck and itShall b e opened unto you . How co uld Christ say that,if there were no hearing Ear, no Divine Perso nalitywith whom w e could commune, no Hand to lift thelatch and o pen the door. Co ncerning a poor oppressedslave Jehovah says to Moses , “

And it shall come topass

,when he crieth unto me, I will hear ; f o r I am

gracious (Exod 2 2 To So lomo n He gives thegreat promise If My people which are called byMyname Shall humb le themselves and pray and seek Mygrace then will I hear from heaven and will fo rgivetheir sins and will heal their land (II Chro n. 7 :

In the b oo k o f Psalms we have a sco re Of definitepromises that God hears and answers prayer (PS . 9 1 2

I0 : 17 ;-5 ;

Hewill regard the prayer o f the destitute and no t despisetheir prayer fo r He hath looked down from theheight o f His sanctuary ; from heaven did the Lord



Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Manasseh, Daniel andJeremiah are illustratio ns Of the power Of prayer b othsub j ective and Ob j ective . The New Testament evidenceis even more familiar. In the day when they cried

,God

answered them and strengthened them with strength intheir souls . When they prayed

,

”o n the day o f Pente

cost, the place was shaken where they were assemb ledtogether ; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghostand they spake the word Of God with b oldness . Themighty acts Of the Apo stles b egan with commo n prayer.Their united prayer pro duced miraculous change inthemselves and in the wo rld in which they lived

,through

the baptism Of the Spirit.This is the two-fold power Of prayer. We mustnot limit its efficacy to the sub j ective, but it b egins there .The sub j ective power is o n the mind and heart and willo f him who prays . Its Ob j ective power is o n othersfor whom we pray or in the realm o f the material world.

First Of all,prayer is mo untain air f o r the soul . We

open o ur windows towards Jerusalem and b reathethe air o f heaven. Prayer is the Christian’s vitalb reath, the Christian’s native air. Prayer is self-discipline. The cflo rt to realise the presence and powerOf God Stretches the sinews o f the soul and hardens itsmuscles . TO pray is to grow in grace . To tarry inthe presence Of the King leads to new loyalty and dev o tion o n the part o f faithful sub j ects . Christian charactergrows in the secret-place o f prayer. There is no morecongenial so il in which to cultivate the fruit Of theSpirit than near the throne Of grace . There the clusterripens to perfection love, j oy, peace, long-suff ering,

T H E P OW E R O F P R A Y E R 77

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control .Prayer strengthens the mind, purifies the emo tions andinvigorates the will . Hab itual prayer, as James Hastingsreminds us

,confers decisio n on the wavering, energy

on the listless, calmness to the distraught, and altrui smto the selfish . Prayer changes us . It always produces asense o f sin ; if we are near to God in Christ, He pourscontempt on all our pride . It produces submissio n ofthe wayward will ; for prayer is essentially a surrenderto God. No t My will, but Thine b e do ne .” Someonehas expressed it in a b eautiful simile The pull Of o urprayer may not move the everlasting thro ne, but, likethe pull on a line from the b ow Of a b oat, it may draw usinto clo ser fellowship with Go d and into fuller harmonywith His ho ly will in the harb our o f rest.”

Ano ther result Of prayer is inward peace . Thosewho “ in everything by prayer and supplication maketheir needs known to God experience a peace thatpasseth all understanding

,in mind and heart . And the

peace within reveals itself to others . Mo ses wist notthat his countenance sho ne

, but Israel knew. In TbcCboir Invisible, James Lane Allen tells Of the b eautifulface o f an aged Christian

Prayer will in time he says,make the human

countenance its own divinest altar ; years uponyears o f fine thought

,like music shut up within

,will

vib rate along the nerves Of expressio n until the lineso f the living insirum ent are drawn into co rrespo n

dence and the harmony o f visib le form matches theunheard harmony of the mind.

”

78 T A K IN G H O L D O F G O D

And this was first said nineteen hundred years agoby the Apostle Paul : We all with unveiled faceb eho lding as in a mirro r the glory o f the Lo rd

,are

transfo rmed into the same image from glory to gloryeven as from the Lord the Spirit.”

If only sub j ective results, and nothing more, expressed the power Of prayer, how we Should covet theprivilege Of such communion and waiting on God . Hisfellowship ought to b e far more to us than anygift wecould ask. Yet thi s is no t the who le o f prayer.The more we study the Go spels and Epistles

,the

mo re clear it is that to Christ and His apostles prayerwas a means to an end . The answer is pro of that ourprayer is acceptab le. In the New Testament and in thelife o f the Christian, prayer has Ob j ective power. Itoperates outside Of ourselves . We do not live in aclosed universe, but can converse with our HeavenlyFather Who knows and cares and loves .In speaking o f

“ prayer as an instrument o f God,Dr. W. Douglas Mackenzie says

No conceivable calculation of probable coincidences willaccount f or tbc enormous, tbc incalculable mass of evidence

tbat buman beings can live, and do live, in sucb relations

witbGodtbatHeacts upon tbem,andeven uponmankindas a

wbole in terms of tbeir prayer-life. Tbe evidence is im

measurable I say, it is universal.” 1

The mystery o f intercessory prayer is doub tlessgreat but its history is ample evidence Of its power and

1 Paternoster Sbeen o r Ligbt on Man’

s Destiny, p . 57.

TH E P O W E R O F P R A Y E R 79

that hi story extends from Ab raham ’s prayer fo r So domto the unceasing intercession of the saints o f the Churchuniversal in our own day bywhich

Tbc wbole round eartb is everywayBound bygold cbains about tbcfeet of God.

Prayer has power in the realm of nature . Elij ahprayed fervently that it might not rain ; and it rainednot on the earth fo r three years and six mo nths . And

he prayed again and the heavens gave rain and theearth b rought fo rth her fruit (James 5 17, Inthe L ife of Lord Lawrence (v o l. 2

, p . 375) we are to ldthat when some one deprecated prayer fo r rain as uselessto change the order o f nature

,the great Indian statesman

and Christian said,We are to ld to pray and that o ur

prayers will be answered ; that is sufficient fo r me .Prayer has power in the realm o f grace . When w eare commanded to pray fo r one another

,it is not idle

mockery but a divine prero gative and privilege . Christprayed fo r Peter. Paul prayed fo r his co nverts andfellow-wo rkers by name . Every revival o f religio n hasb een the result o f prayer. One has but to read the livesOf John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Dwight L. Mo o dyand other great evangelists to realize that the secret Oftheir power with men was their daily communion withGod.

Prayer has power to produce special providences .The life o f George Muller is an extraordinary illustration o f the constant intervention by Providence to

supply the needs for his o rphanages,which he laid befo re


Go d in prayer. The sto ry is either utterly incredib leo r it is convincing evidence o f the miraculous power o fintercession . God w as his b usiness partner. He suppliedall hi s needs in Bristo l and Often did so in the nick o f

time and in many circumstances that could not be merecoincidences .The story o f Hudson Taylo r’s life and that of theChina Inland Mission is one long record Of answeredprayer. In seventy years this Faith Mission receivedthe enormous sum o f pounds sterling

,in

unso licited gifts . The b arrel o f meal wasted no t no rdid the cruse of o il fail acco rding to the wo rd Of theLo rd .

” In 1 854 Hudso n Taylor landed in Shanghaialone . To -day that o ne mission has four thousandpreaching places where Chinese Christians gather inwo rship and o ver a thousand missionaries in everypart of China.The place o f private prayer in the story Of the Christian

Church down the ages is told by Jane T . Sto ddart.She b egins with the martyr-church o f the pagan empireo f Rome, and tells how prayer was Off ered and answeredin the catacomb s and at the stake . She tells o f the earlyChurch fathers

,Ignatius

, Polycarp, and Clement ; o f

Monica’s prayer f o r Augustine— the patience Of prevailing prayer ; o f St . Patrick in captivity, in j ourneysand in perils, delivered by prayer ; Of St . Bernard o f

Clairvaux and St . Teresa, b o th o f them giants in prayer

o f St . Francis, St . Louis and Dante in the dark ages ofthe refo rmers, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox —all o f

them mighty in prayer ; o f their apo sto lic successors inthe ministry o f intercessio n. As one reads this marvellous

T H E P OW E R O F’

P R AYER 81

sto ry, faith is quickened, love kindled and hope maderadiant . 1 And we recall the words o f Martin Luther

NO one can b elieve what power and effi cacy thereis in prayer

,unless he has learned it by experience .

It is a great thing when a so ul feels a mighty needand b etakes itself to prayer. This I do know, thatas o ften as I have prayed earnestly I have certainlyb een heard in rich ab undance and have o b tained mo rethan I asked o r sought. Our Lo rd has sometimesdelayed, but yet at last He heard me .

Never a sigb of passion or of pityNever a wailf or weakness orf or wrongHas not its arcbive in tbc angels

’

city

Finds not its eebo in tbc endless song.

There are no unanswered prayers . Even o ur tearsare treasured in Go d’s b o ttle, as David said, and rememb ered in His Bo o k. This is the patience and power Ofunanswered prayer.

1 Jane T. Stoddart—Private Prayer in Cbristian Story,New Yo rk, 19 2 8.


Lord, I am tired. I can bring to TbeeOnlya beavy weigbt of tiredness.

I kneel, but all my mind’

s a vacanryAnd conscious only if its weaknessCan it beprayer, tbis dragging dreariness ?

Tbc efi'

ectualferventprayer avails,’

Wrote downrigbt james andbere inert kneel II wouldfeelfervent but tbc efi

’ortfails

Like some starvedmendicant, too weak to cryHis need, I wait—percbance Tbou wiltpass by.

VI

HINDRANCES TO PRAYER

WHICH o f the saints in the secret-place o f prayer has no tstruggled against apathy and indo lence

,against wander

ing thoughts and a wayward will ? Who has not feltthe seeming unreality o f the spiritual world

,and lifted

hands into empty space seeking God’s presence

How bave I seen, inA raby, Orion,Seen witbout seeing, till be set again,

Known tbe nigbt-noise and tbunder of tbc lion,Silence and sounds of tbcprodigiousplain I

How bave I knelt witb arms of my aspiring,Liftedall nigbt in irresponsive air,Dazedand amazedwitb overmucb desiring,Blank witb tbc utter ugory of prayer

The hindrances to prayer are indeed many andfo ld . The Enemy of o ur so uls knows that prayer is thearena o f conflict and victo ry fo r the Christian, and hetherefo re uses all his strategy to b affle and o vercome .No t always is it true that, Satan tremb les when hesees the weakest saint upo n his knees .” John Bunyanhad a deeper insight into the life o f the pilgrim andpictures Christian in the Valley of Humiliation

,in

3 5

86 T A K I N G HOL D O F G O D

Doub ting Castle, and elsewhere, surrounded by foeswho hinder his prayers and whisper evil while he walksthrough the darkness .The various hindrances to prayer may b e classifiedas external and internal ; some that are due to outwardcircumstances o r interruptio ns and others that lurkwithin the soul .There are those f o r whom there seems to be no

sacred time nor sacred place ; who sit in darkness andthe shadow Of death or are b ound to the wheel o f lifewithout time f o r relaxation o r fo r prayers . It is easyto look up to God under the b lue sky and the overarching trees ; it is easy to find quiet and communio nwith Go d in a great cathedral with its vast spaces, itsheavenly music and the j ewelled windows that make thesunlight speak Of heaven . But when Lo uis Untermeyerinterprets the cry of Calib an in the coal mine we note adifference

God, we don’

t like to complain,We know tbat tbemine is no lark

But— tbere’

s tbcpoolfrom tbc rain

But— tbere’

s tbc cold and tbe dark.

God, You don

’

t know wbat it is

You,in Your well-lnted sky,

Watcbing tbc meteors wbizzWarm

,wbile tbc sungoes b !.

God,if You bad but tbc moon

S tuck in Your cap f or a lamp ,

Even You’

d tire of it soon,Down in ibe dark and tbc damp .

H IN D R AN CE S T o P R A Y E R 87

Notbing but blackness above,

Andnotbing tbat moves but tbc cars

God, if You wisb f or our loveFling us a banaf ul of stars 1

Circumstances make prayer difficult at times . Job feltit when he had lo st all his property and his family,when his friends misunderstood him and his b ody wastortured with pain

Beho ld I cry o ut of wrong, but I am not heardI cry aloud but there is no justice . He hath fencedup my way that I canno t pass, and hath set darknessin my paths . He hath stripped me o f my glo ry andtaken the crown from my head My kinsfo lk havefailed and my familiar friends have fo rgotten me .

Yet in the same chapter we have his confident appeal tothe vindicatio n o f a living Redeemer (Jo b 19 7

And Jeremiah,when the sorrows of captive Zion

o verwhelmed his soul,fo und it hard to pray. The

Lord was as an enemy ; He hath swallowed up IsraelHe hath cast o ff His altar

,He hath abhorred His

sanctuary (Lam . 2 5, He was in so re affliction andmisery . He tasted the wormwo o d and the gall. Icalled upon Thy name, O Lord, out o f the low dungeo n

Thou hast covered Thyself with a cloud, that ourprayer sho uld not pass through (Lam . Yet

Jeremiah found a way through and the man o f sorrowsb ecame an example o f triumphant faith in the goodnesso f Go d. Persevering prayer can overcome all circumstances that seem against us. In the darkest hour Godis o ur light and o ur salvation.


Another external hindrance to prayer is that o f

interruption. We seek Silence,and then the clamour o f

the street, the no ise o f the crowd b reaks in. We entero ur clo set (whatever that retreat may be) and the telephone rings insistently o r incessantly. The next-doo rradio -pro gramme

,the children’s play, the untimely

door-b ell— all seem to cho ose the very hour whenone would wait o n Go d. How can w e b e patientwith such interruptio ns and make them steppingstones instead of stumb ling-b locks in the w ay ofprayerHere again Christ is o ur example . Study the Gospel

story and you will find that He made every interruptionan oppo rtunity f o r the exercise Of His healing power o rHis comfo rting wo rds . It is the way the Master went .Should no t the servant tread it still ?All external hindrances and Ob stacles to prayer areOf less importance than tho se that arise in the heartitself and make true prayer difficult o r impo ssib le .Unb elief

,wandering tho ughts

,preo ccupatio n, pride,

selfishness,formality

,slo th

,unco nfessed Sin

,an unfo r

giving spirit— these are the great hindrances to privateprayer and the family altar.He that cometh to God must first o f all b elieve thatHe is Go d and that He is a rewarder o f those that diligently seek Him . No o ne can pray fervently in an

atmo sphere o f unb elief. When we throw into thediscard all that is distinctive in the Christian faith—a

b elief in a living Go d Who rules the wo rld ; faith inJesus Christ the Son o f God

, Who died on the Crossfor our sins, Who rose from the dead and lives to-day ;

H I N D R AN C E S T o P R A Y E R 89

the power o f the Holy Spirit ; and in the authorityo f Go d’s Word, we cut the nerve o f all prayer. Thesearticles o f the Christian faith are the common heritageo f all b elievers . They are the common denominator o fthe prayer that is Christian . If we have squandered thisinheritance o r sold it fo r a mess o f lib eral pottage andhumanistic philo so phy

, our prayers indeed will behindered.

Unb elief is the enemy o f prayer. A Christless, o r

denatured Christianity, o f mere ab stract morality and

pious maxims cannot produce the prayer-life no r canit continue to b elieve in the power o f prayer o r its

necessity. Yet prayer will overcome unb elief if wepersevere . I fo ught my doub ts,” says Sir ThomasBrowne in Religio Medici, no t in a martial po sture,but on my knees .”

Another hindrance to prayer is preoccupation o r

the wandering o f our thoughts . We cannot fix our

minds on the eternal wo rld . We are b ound by o ur

senses and sensib ilities to an earthly ho rizon . We cannot lo o k steadfastly upward . We strive to talk withGod but are all the time also chatting with the wo rld.

Who has no t felt the temptatio n of di stractio n in w o r

ship ? Who has no t said with the psalmist, Mine eyesfail with lo oking upward,

” when the spirit w as indeedwilling but the flesh weak.

A sho rt moment o f earnest and riveted attention iswo rth mo re to God than ho urs o f formal listlessness .We can overcome formality and Slo th in prayer by re

membering our Lo rd and His Apostles . When we love,we pay attention. The surrendered heart is not listless .


While w e muse, the fire will burn, and we shall speakwith o ur tongues words from the heart .Another hindrance to prayer is pride and selfishness .The Pharisee prayed by himself and his pride was ab arrier to communion with God . The first essentialo f sincere appro ach to our Maker and our Redeemeris humility o f heart . A b roken‘

and a contrite spirit areprecious in God’s sight. To think of Others and no t o fourselves is good practice in the scho ol o f prayer. Manyhave b een b rought nearer to God by thinking ab outOthers . Some years ago a life of Christ w as written by anItalian scholar who had once b een an atheist . The b ookhad a great vogue for a time . When Giovanni Papini, theauthor, w as once asked what had turned his mind toChrist, he replied that it w as thinking o f the needs o f hischildren. Whatever w e may desire fo r o urselves, wewant the b est f o r o ur children . Real love gives us, fo rthose w e love, an instinctive fear o f evil. Even when afather do es not pray, he will often b e gladthat his childrenshould come to Christ . But if he thought ab o ut themdeeply, he himself wo uld b e led to pray. And we canlearn not only to pray f or o ur children but to pray witbo ur children . To repeat once more the prayers we learnedin childho od will awaken a floo d o f memo ries, softeno ur hard hearts and b ring us clo se to the Father’s heart .Our prayers will b e narrow

,selfish

,parochial if

we centre attentio n on our own needs . But we Shall runthe w ay o f Go d’s commandm ents in prayer when Heenlarges o ur heart. A Christian’s citizenship is inheaven and he is an amb assador for the King, andintercessor for the world .


9 2 T A K I N G HOL D OF G O D

Peter the Apo stle went up on the house-top to pray andthe circle o f hi s prayer was Jewry. When he came downafter the threefold vision, his horizon had widened andincluded the Gentile wo rld.

Another hindrance to prayer is the unforgivingspirit o r the unconfessed Sin . Isaiah the prophet (chap .

1 1 5-17) puts it very clearly in his opening chapter,

condemning all the unreality and fo rmalism in worshipo f those who are perverse in spirit

When ye spread forth your hands, I will hidemine eyes from you ; yea, when ye make manyprayers I will no t hear ; your hands are full o f b lo o d .

Wash you ,make you clean ; put away the evil doings

from b efo re mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn todo well ; seek j udgment, relieve the oppressed, j udgethe fatherless plead fo r the widow.

”

And again in chap . 2

Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened that itcannot save ; neither is His ear heavy that it cannothear but your iniquities have separated b etween yo uand yo ur God, and yo ur sins have hid His face fromyou so that He will no t hear.”

How can we expect a b lessing at the altar if we arenot first reco nciled to o ur b ro ther ? The petition forpardon o f o ur own Sins dies on o ur lips unless wefo rgive our deb to rs for His sake Who hath forgiven

us. How o ften prayer is lukewarm b ecause w e haveacknowledged Sin

,witho ut staying to name our sins o r

expecting to forsake them . How often we seek forgive

H I N D R AN C E S TO P R A Y E R 9 3

ness without shame,and accept it without wonder and

ado ration . NO wo nder that in such case prayer fo ro thers is perfuncto ry and casual, and that we have dailyrelations with people fo r whom we never pray earnestly .

To amend o ur prayers we need first to amend o ur waysand learn the lesson of love fo r all humanity. Fo r ifwe love not our b ro ther whom w e have seen

,how can

we saywe love God Whom we have no t seen (I John4 : John Do nne, one o f the Old Puritans

,says in

a sermon

God is like us in this also, that He takes it wo rseto b e slighted, to b e neglected, to b e left o ut than tob e actually injured . Our inconsideratio n, o ur no t

thinking o f God in our actions o ffends Him mo rethan o ur Sins .

There is o ne more among the vario us hindranceswe meet in coming to the mercy-seat to which Peterrefers in his epistle when writing o f the duties o f wivesand husb ands (1 Peter 3 The home is to b e theplace o f love and lo yalty

,Of ho nour and respect and

mutual consideratio n b ecause husb and and wife areto gether heirs o f the grace o f life eternal. Then yo urprayers will no t b e hindered . When there is com

passion, kindness and co urteo usness in the home circle,the family-altar draws all hearts into Christlike uni ty.

Otherwise there is disco rd,and prayer b ecomes a

mo ckery. No thing tests sincerity mo re than prayer,if

it b e real prayer . Bishop Lancelo t Andrewes wro tethe fo llowing introductio n to a family prayer to beused at evening-tide


O Godwe bavefledfrom Tbee seeking usNeglected Tbee loving us

Stopped our ears to Tbee, speaking to us

Turnedour backs on Tbee, reacbing Tip) band to us

Forgotten Tbee, doinggood to usAnddespisedTbee correcting us.

”

With such confessio n on o ur lips and in our hearts,

all hindrances and Ob stacles will melt away and Go d’spromises and presence b ecome real to those who earnestlyseekHim .

VII


God Tbere is no God but He, tbc Living, tbc Eternal lSlumber seizetb Him not

,nor sleep .

His is wbatsoever is in tbc beavens,andwbatsoever is in tbe eartb .

He knowetb wbat batb been beforeand wbat sball be after.

His tbrone reacbetb over tbe beavens and tbe

And tbe upbolding of botb burdenetb Him not .

He is tbcHigb, tbc Great

THE KORAN (2 2 56)

0 Wise Lord ! Wbatever Tbou bast tbougbt,Wbatever Tbou bast uttered, wbatever Tbou bast created,Wbatever Tbou bast done — all bas been good.

So,O Wise Lord I We of er and dedicate to Tbee.

We worsbip Tbee. We afier our bamage to Tbee.

We render our tbanks to Tbee.

”

—ZOROASTRIAN PRAYER(Yasna


WE have seen in an earlier chapter that prayer is auniversal element in all religio ns . Indeed

,it wo uld

b e difficult to gather all the evidence fo r the antiquity,the universality and the element o f mystery in theprayer-life o f the non—Christian wo rld . Friedrich Heiler,in hi s encyclopedic study on Prayer

,devo ted no les s

than one hundred pages to the prayers and prayercustoms o f primitive trib es in Africa, Australasia andAmerica . He speaks o f the fo rm and content o f suchprayer where

Tbc beatben in bis blindness

Bows down to wood and stone,

and yet is also conscious o f higher powers and mo stOften o f a supreme Spirit

, o r High Go d, to whom headdresses his petitio ns . The evidence fo r this primitivemonotheism is b ecoming mo re and more convincing .

The prayer o f savage trib es,the b etter it is understo o d,

resemb les the hunger of the human soul and is witnesso f that commo n grace o f Go d which fashioneth o ur

hearts alike .Prayer is the oldest and clearest expressio n o f man’s

aw e and fear, o f the sense o f the eternal and o f gratitude97


for the mercies Of a divine pro vidence . Even in itslowest fo rm among the b lacks o f Australia

,the Pygm ies

o f the African fo rest o r the Ainus o f Japan such prayerexercises a somewhat enab ling influence . The manwho prays b elongs to tw o worlds , the prayerless manhas his portio n o nly in the wo rld o f sense . The SiouxIndians say Spirits o f the dead

,have mercy o n us

and thi s very Sho rt co llect presuppo ses a partial knowledge Of tw o fundamental Christian truths ; namely,that life continues after death and that we need mercyto face the life that never ends . We are to ld that whensome Algo nquin Indians set o ut to cro ss Lake Superio r,the cano es stopped clo se together and the chief

,in a

lo ud vo ice, o ffered a prayer to the Great Spirit entreating him to give them a good passage “

Yo u havemade this lake and made us your children. Cause thiswater to b e smooth while we pass o ver.” 1 Here wehave a glimpse o f the creative Fatherho o d Of Go d andof His power o ver nature .It is true that primitive prayers are generally o n a

low plane, fo r temporal success , fo r victo ry in w ar

and fo r o utward b lessings o nly . But the exceptionsare many and very significant. If prayer is the out

reach Of the so ul to Go d,then the prayer o f such b ack

ward races is truly a po int o f co ntact fo r the missio narymessage . The Reverend Alexander LeRoy tells us thatin the great African fo rest the people invo ke the Spiritto guard the life o f a new-b o rn child, to have go o dcrops, to heal the sick, to Ob tain rain and to sendpeace .

1 Jam es Freeman Clarke, Ten Great Religions, Vo l. H, p . 2 2 5.


IOO T A K I N G H O L D O F GOD

He placed a prayer-wbeel wbere tbc wild winds dance,And some complained bis pietywas lazyBut tben bis tbougbts onprayer were ratber bazy.

Yet God attended to bis suppliance.

He knelt on scarlet plusb brfore bis Lord,And mumbled words of ancient litanies

Butfelt uncomfortable on bis kneesA nd God

,lost in tbegloomy nave, was bored.

Silent, sbe raised ber eyes tbat burned and glistened

Likef resb lit tapers, no murmuring, tigbt-lzpped,But God stopped stars infligbt an bour, and listened.

” 1

Thi s is not the whole truth however in regard to suchprayer.Many questions, not easily answered, arise when weconsider the impo rt and value Of such prayer-in—thedark. What is its sub j ective value ? What is its o bjective o utreach ? Is it ever answered ? Does God heartheir cry o r is their telephone to the o ther wo rld a deadline ? Here we have fortunately considerab le light inthe Scriptures . The prayers o f many o utside the covenant circle o f Israel are recorded. Cain

,the fratricide

,

in his b itter plaint to Jehovah, fearfully in dread o f

capital punishm ent, received reprieve, a land in whichto find refuge and the b lessings Of home and civilizatio n(Gen. 4 1 3 Fo r the mercy o f the Lo rd b egan at theb eginning and endureth forever. Hagar’s prayer wasonly “ the falling o f a tear ”

bu t God gave her theanswer o f compassion. God heard the cry o f Ishmaeldying o f thirst, saved his life, and was with the lad

1 Tbc Upper Room,B . McNeil] Po teat, Jr.

NON-C H R I S T I AN P R A Y E R IOI

(Gen . 2 1 1 5 The Egyptian midwives (although wedo no t read that they prayed) received reward f o r theirkindness to Israel . Jethro , the priest o f Midian, was notof Israel’s seed, yet he knew Jeho vah and gives us theearliest b eatitude (Exo dus 1 8 10

,Ruth

,the

Mo ab itess, in spite o f her heathen genealo gy and hermixed marriage, stands o u t as one o f the loveliestexamples o f purity and motherho o d and faith in thewho le Old Testament, and she must have b een a womano f prayer b efo re she made her great conf essio n(Ruth 1 Ob ed, her son,

was the father o f Jesse,the father o f David . Did Solomon perhaps think Ofher when he prayed (I Kings 8 :41-43 )

The stranger that is no t of Thy peo ple Israel, butcometh out o f a far country fo r Thy name’s sakeand prays toward this house, hear Tho u in heavenThy dwelling-place and do acco rding to all that thestranger calleth to Thee f o r for all the people o f theearth may know Thy name .

Rahab , the harlo t o f Jericho, Naaman, the leper OfSyria, Cyrus, the Zoro astrian o f Persia— all o f themreceived answer to their deepest longing o f the heartand parto o k of uncovenanted mercies o utside the paleo f Israel. No ne save the Messiah o f the seed o f Ab rahamhas such titles and promises and b lessings as does Cyrusin the prophecies Of Isaiah .

In the sho rt sto ry o f Jo nah we have six prayers . Whenthe mariners pray to their go ds

,when they cast so lemn

lot to know their will,and when they pray to Jehovah,

102 . T A K I N G H OLD OF GOD

they are heard in the storm and their vows are accepted .

Jonah’s prayer o f penitence in the depths o f the sea isalso heard

, but his petulant complaint and his prayerthat he might die are not accepted o f God. The contrastin this b o o k is remarkab le for the prayer o f the Ninevitesis also answered.

In the New Testament we have o ther instances ofprayers by those no t o f the house Of Israel, the Magi,the Syro—Pho enician woman and Co rnelius, to remindus that

Tbere’

s a wideness inGod’

s merryLike tbe wideness of tbc seaF or tbc love of God is broaderTban tbc measure of man

’

s mind

And tbc beart of tbcEternalIs most wonderfullykind.

”

Dr. Ro b ert E . Hume compiled a Treasure House oftbe Living Religions in whi ch he gives classified selectio ns from the sacred b o o ks o f the ethnic faiths . Underthe head o f invo cation and wo rship we have some veryb eautiful examples o f prayer, giving evidence Of theripe scho larship and indefatigab le diligence o f the compiler. It is an exhib it of pearls and j ewels Of the tho ughtof man down the ages until w e have the Pearl o f GreatPrice in the prayer-life and teaching Of o ur Lo rd . AS

w e read these selectio ns that prove the yearning o f thehuman heart w e are reminded that the kingdom o f

heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodlypearls.

” Mo re than a thousand years b efo re Christ, thehigh caste Hindu prayed



Ahura Mazda in who se adoratio n I have b eentaught

By His wisdom let Him teach me what is b estSo long as I have strength and power through

the rightI shall b e and Shall b e called Thy praiser, O God 1May the Creato r o f life b ring ab o l'i tThrough go o d thought in accordance with His willThe realization o f that which is perfect .” 1

Every traveller who has visited the Near East recallsthe cry o f the muezzin from the minaret and the solemnranks o f wo rshippers in the mo sques . The pub lic andprivate prayer o f Islam is no do ub t the b est point ofco ntact in presenting the Go spel there . The life of thereligious community still centres in the five daily prayerperio ds and these were undoub tedly the great fo rmativeelement in early Islam . The utmo st solemnity and decorum are ob served in the pub lic wo rship o f the mosque .The lo o ks and b ehaviour o f tho se who come fo r prayerb etray no t only enthusiastic devotio n but a calm andmo dest piety . The wo rshippers appear who lly ab so rb edin ado ratio n and confessio n. While there may b e manyPharisees among them who fo r a pretence make lo ngprayers and repeat idle wo rds

,there are also many who

Stand like the Pub lican and plead fo r mercy . What shallw e say o f such prayer o n the part o f non-Christians ?Here is an illustratio n from my ow n experienceOne mo rning

,many years ago ,

sailing o n the IndianOcean we were reading a little manual o f Mo slem devo1Dr. R . E. Hume, Treasure House of tbe Living Religions, pp . 2 9

-3 1 .

N ON -C H R I S T I A N P R A Y E R 105

tion pub lished at Colomb o, in Tamil and Arab ic. It w asa b o ok o f prayers o f the Naqshab andi dervishes, and istypical o f this kind o f literature, which is everywhere inthe hands and on the lips Of the people . Here is a translation o f one b eautiful page I am truly b ankrupt, OGod . I stand b efo re the door o f Thy riches . Truly Ihave great Sins— fo rgive me fo r Thine own sake . TrulyI am a stranger

,a sinner

,a humb le slave who has no thing

but forgetfulness and diso b edience to present to Thee .My Sin s are as the sands witho ut numb er. Fo rgive meand pardon me . Remove my transgressions, and undertake my cause . Truly my heart is Sick, but Tho u artab le to heal it . My co nditio n, 0 Go d, is such that I haveno go o d work. My evil deeds are many, and my provisio n Of o b edience is small . Speak to the fire o f my heart

,

as Tho u didst in the case ’

Of Ab raham, b e cool fo r my

servant. ’ (The reference here is to a sto ry in theKoran o f Ab raham’s trial by fire.)What a b eautiful prayer this is for pardon. Whatheartaching to realize God’s fo rgiveness, and yet allthese petitio ns are directed to Go d fo r the sake o f theArab ian prophet. So near and yet so far is the Moslemheart from Him . But when the prodigal was yet agreat way o ff ,” his father saw him and ran o ut to meethim. Shall we not do the sameTake, as another example, the first chapter o f the

Ko ran, which is used as a prayer by all Mo slems

In the name o f God the Merciful and CompasSionate,

Praise be to God who the worlds did make,


The Merciful the CompassionateKing Of the Day Of fateThee do w e entreat and Thee do w e supplicate .Lead us in the w ay that is straight,The way o f tho se whom Tho u do st compas

Si onate,

No t Of tho se o n whom ab ides Thy hateNo r Of those who deviate . Amen.

(Surah I)

Dr. G . Campb ell Mo rgan o f Lo ndo n w as so impressedby the sincerity o f such a prayer fo r guidance and thepatho s o f its universality f o r thirteen centuries in thedark wo rld o f Islam, that he had the fo llowing missio ncollect

,printed in large letters

,hung on the reading

desk to face his audience in Westminster Chapel :

Al Ghazali, the greatest Moslem theolo gian andmystic

,w ho died in A .D . 1 1 1 1

,wro te much o n prayer

and the mystery o f communio n with Go d. He is witho ut doub t the mo st remarkab le figure in the history o f

Mo slem thought and his influence has greatly increasedin the past century. One o f the deepest thinkers Of hisage

,he was a true seeker after God and w as somewhat



alive, is yo ur Lord and Master, your Creato r andPreserver, and whenso ever yo u rememb er Him He issitting b eside you . Fo r Go d Himself hath said

,

‘ Iam the clo se companion o f tho se w ho rememb er me . ’

And whenever your heart is co ntrite with sorrowb ecause o f your neglect o f religio n He is your companio n who keeps close to yo u ,

f o r Go d hath said,

I am with tho se who are b roken-hearted on myaccount. ’ And if you o nly knew Him as yo u o ught toknow Him yo u wo uld take Him as a companion andforsake all men fo r His sake .”

These are no b le words and point to a life o f realdevotio n.

Now it is impossib le to study such prayer-lifeamong Mo slems

,Hindus, and other non-Christians

and fai l to realize that w e have here a po int o f

co ntact with the Go spel message . Prayers and altarsto an unknown o r a half-known Go d are a challengeto the missionary to -day as they were to the ApostlePaul. We may no t igno re no r despise the gropingOf the peni tent and longing soul.

Far and wide tbougb all unknowingPants f or Tbee eacb mortal breast

Human tears f or Tbee areflowing,Human bearts in Tbee would rest .

Tbirsting,as f or dews of even

,

A s tbe new-mown grass f or rain,

Tbee tbry seek as God of beaven,Tbee, as man, f or sinners slain.

N ON -C H R I S T I AN P R A Y E R 109

There is a remarkab le prayer o f St . Augustinewhich in its b road catholicity may well arrest o ur

thought :

Everywhere,O Truth

,do st Tho u hear all those

who consult Thee and dost answer all . Clearly dostTho u answer

,tho ugh all do no t with clearnes s hear

,

fo r they hear not always that whi ch they wish to hear.He is Thy b est servant who do es not so much lo o kto hear from Thee that which he himself wishes

, but

to wish that which he heareth from Thee .”

And yet after this catholicity o f viewpoint is conceded, there remains a fundamental difference b etweenall non-Christian prayer and the prayer o f a true believer.The prayer o f the Hindu Mahatma Gandhi, fo r example,differs totally from that o f the lowliest o utcaste who hasaccepted Christ as Savio ur and Lo rd . The diff erence isqualitative . Cbristian prayer is in tbe name of Cbrist,according to tbc will of God, and in tbc power of tbc HolySpirit . All thi s is po ssib le only when there is vital unionwith Christ.The wo rds reco rded regarding Saul o f Tarsus afterhe had seen the vision Of his living Lo rd are very significant : Beho ld, he prayeth.

”Saul the Pharisee was

a pio us and conscientious Jew and prayed Often b o thin pub lic and in private . But now hi sprayer w as di fferent:Lo rd

,what wilt Tho u have me to do .

”

(Actsand The prayers o f Saul were Old Testamentprayers

,tho se o f Paul were in the name o f Jesus

I IO T A K I N G H O L D OF GOD

In the parting words o f Christ to His disciples Hegave thi s mo st important lesso n on prayer ; it supplem ented and completed all His previo us teachingVerily

,verily I say unto you, Whatso ever ye shall ask

the Father in My name,He will give it you . Hitherto

have ye asked nothing in My name : ask and ye Shallreceive that your joy may b e full .

” Here are the firstprinciples Of New Testament prayer. By Christ’s ow ninterpretatio n and that Of His apo stles , to pray in Hisname means that we rely o n the redemptio n He haswro ught fo r us that we have the spirit Of Christ andseek the things which He seeks and that we are in vitalunio n with Him .

0

Prayer o f non-Christians at its b est is in the outercourt o f the Temple . Those who have received newlife and adoptio n into the family Of God have b oldnessto enter into the Ho ly Place by the b lo o d o f

Jesus, by the w ay which He dedicated f o r us, a new

and living way, thro ugh the veil, that is to say His

flesh .

Unio n with Christ implies identification o f interests ,and therefo re puts prayer on the highest plane . Ifye ab ide in me and my words ab ide in you, ye shallask what ye will and it shall b e do ne unto yo u (John1 5 All the general defini tio ns o f prayer as a universalreligious practice fall sho rt Of the idea o f prayer inChristian experience . That kind of prayer di ffers . Itis in the wo rds o f the Sho rter Catechism

,an Offering

up o f o ur desires unto God,fo r things agreeab le to

His will in the name o f Christ,with confession o f our

sins,and thankful acknowledgment o f His mercies .”


MISSIONS

A sidefrom tbc ex ample and teacbing of jesus, tbere is norieberfield tban missionary biograpbyf or tbe study of one wbobelieves inprayer andwould belp otbers to realise itspower and

use it . Tbe evangelisation of tbc world in tbis generationdependsfirst of all upon a revival of prayer . Deeper iban tbc

needf or men deeper, f ar, tban tbc needf or many deep down

at tbc bottom of our spiritless life, is tbc needf or tbeforgottensecret of prevailing, world-wide prayer. Missions bave pro

grossed slowlyabroad becausepietyandprayer bave been sballow

at bome. Of f argreater service tban aayarray of learningor gifts of eloquence more to be desired tban gold andfine

gold more to be sougbt tban a great name or apparent oppor

tunitiesf or large usefulness is tbisgift —tbc secret and sweetness

of unceasing, prevailing, triumpbant prayer f or tbe coming bftbcKingdom of tbe Lordjesus Cbrist .

”

— ROBERT E . SPEER, in MissionaryPrinciples.



but we have his Breastplate of Prayer, one o f the mo stremarkab le devo tional prayers in the annals o f missions .Raymund Lull

,the earliest missio nary to Mo slems ,

was pro foundly co nvinced that the only weapo n whichChristians can rightly wield against their fo es is prayer.In an age o f Crusades and Inquisitions he wro te in oneo f his many b o o ks on prayer

It is my b elief, O Christ, that the conquest o fthe Holy Land Sho uld b e attempted in no o ther w ay

than as Tho u and Thy apo stles underto o k to aecomplish ir

— by lo ve, by prayer, by tears and the o ff eringup o f o ur ow n lives . As it seemed that the po ssessio no f the Ho ly Sepulchre and o f the Ho ly Land can b eb etter secured by the fo rce o f arms, therefo re let themonks march fo rth as ho ly knights

,glittering with

the Sign o f the Cro ss, replenish with the grace o f theHoly Spirit

,and pro claim to the unb elievers the truth

o f Thy passio n . Let them, from love to Thee, exhaustthe who le fo untain o f their eyes

,and po ur o ut all

the b lood o f their b odies, as Tho u hast done from loveto them.

Lo rd o f heaven,Father o f all times, when Tho u

didst send Thy Son to take upo n Him human nature,

He and His apostles lived in o utward peace withJews, Pharisees, and other men ; never by o utwardvio lence did they capture o r Slay any o f the un

b elievers, o r those who persecuted them . This o u tward peace they used to b ring the erring to the knowledge o f the truth . So

,after Thy example

,sho uld

Christians conduct themselves towards the Saracens .

P R A Y E R AN D M I S S I ON S 1 17

Francis o f Assisi, Xavier, William Carey,Henry

Martyn,David Livingsto ne

,David Brainerd

,Mary

Mo ffat, Mary Slesso r, James Gilmo ur—what diversitieso f gifts and tasks and enviro nment ! Yet in one gifto f the Spirit they all had a large share

,the gift o f prayer

and intercessio n . As one reads these b io graphies,again

and again the narrative is eloquent with testimonyto God’s miraculous power in answer to prayer.They seem to stand in the midst o f fo es

,in the midst

o f peril and loneliness and o ppo sition,undiscouraged

and undismayed . One is reminded o f the prayer o f

Jeho shaphat O our Go d,wilt Tho u not judge

them ? fo r we have no might against this great companythat cometh against us neither know we what to dobut our eyes are upo n Thee (II Chron . 2 0 : Intheir case as in that of the King o f Israel

,man’s extremity

w as God’s oppo rtuni ty .

It is well to co nsider what these who hazarded theirlives fo r the Lo rd Jesus

, who w ere ‘His amb assado rsin distant lands and who di ed f o r the faith, thought o fprayer. Unprayed fo r

,

” said James Gilm o ur o f Mon

go lia,I feel like a diver at the b ottom o f a river with

no air to b reathe, o r like a fireman on a b lazing bu ildingwith an empty ho se . Jo hn Elio t’s trust in Go d andgreat love f o r the Indians was expressed in his watchwo rd Prayer and pains through faith in Jesus Christwill do anything .

” John Hunt’s dying words were,0 let me pray fo r Fiji

,Lo rd

,save Fij i !

Adoniram Judson o f Burma gave this testimony tothe power o f prayer I never was deeply interestedin any ob j ect, I never prayed Sincerely and earnestly

1 1 8 T A K I N G H O L D O F G O D

fo r anything, but it came at some time, no matter howdistant the day— somehow in some shape

,prob ab ly

the last I Should have devised - it came .” The life o fJohn G . Pato n is o ne long reco rd o f answered prayer.

By prayer he was led into missionary service byprayerhe was preserved o n his long vo yages ; by prayer hew on the affectio n o f degraded savages ; by prayer hedug wells and fo und fresh water where o thers failed ;byprayer he checked the hand o f the assassin byprayerhe found the right wo rds fo r his Go spel translations ;byprayer he influenced lives o f yo ung and o ld during hisfurlo ughs in Sco tland and America . Only in eternity, inthe presence o f the innumerab le company o f the redeemedcan the result o f such a life o f prayer b e measured .

The sto ry o f the China Inland Mission is well knownas a witness to the reward o f faith in prayer. No t thatthi s w as the first o r only missio n to lay emphasis o nprayer. Francis Xavier’s faith was hero ic in dark dayswhen

,lo o king toward China

,he cried

,Ro ck

,rock

,

when wilt tho u open to my Saviour ? ” Peter Parker,the first medical missio nary to China, knew the secreto f prayer as well as of medical skill . Every missionaryorganizatio n in China and every station can b ear witnessto the effi cacy o f prayer. Yet in no case is the reco rdSO startling as in that o f the China Inland Mission,b eginning with the life o f Hudson Taylo r

,the man

who b elieved in Go d. His Simple faith from childho odin the power o f prayer is an awe-inspiring and trem en

do us fact. To Hudso n Taylo r the Bib le w as a Bo oko f Certainties,” and the living God a reality . Hemeans what He says and will do all He has promised .

’


I ZO T A K I N G H O L D O F GOD

we gathered to gether ; we were led to pray fo r ahundred missio naries to b e sent o ut by o ur EnglishBo ard in the year 1 887, from January to December.And

,further than this, o ur income had no t b een

elastic fo r some years ; it had b een ab out J£ 2 2 ,000 ;and w e had, in co nnectio n with that Forward Movement, to ask God for

Then he went on to tell the sequel . The wholenumb er o f wo rkers was sent o u t and a total o fwas received in eleven large gifts Such b elieving prayeris surely the greatest gift Of Go d.

The missio nary movement under William Carey andhi s little b and o f Baptist Ministers was b orn in prayerand nourished in prayer.

Distressed tbat men f or wbom tbc Saviour died

In multitudes by festering fetters beldSbould of redeeming knowledge be denied,

Tbc clouds of tbwarting prejudice dispelled,A nd toiled witb tireless resolution till

He cast abroad, in many a motber tongue,

Tbc Word Divine f or bealing buman ill,A nd o

’

er tbeyears still urges old andyoungExpect great tbings from God, tbe Lord of all,

A ttempt great tbings at His constraining call.’

What great things he expected from God and whatgigantic tasks he attempted India now knows .In the annals o f missions one can see how the sudden

opening o f do ors, the outpouring of God’s Spirit, the

P R A Y E R AND M I S S I ON S I Z I

revival o f churches and great ingatherings were thedirect result of waiting o n God in prayer. The LoneStar Missio n o f the American Baptists at Ongo le, India,where received b aptism in one day ; the revivalin the training scho o l at Kyoto, Japan, in 1 883 thatin Miss Fiske’s Scho ol at Urum ia in 1 846 ; the greatrevival in Sumatra and Nias , during the World War

,

at a time when the German missio naries suffered everyhardship ; the recent sto ry o f evangelism in Korea ;the marvellous wo rk o f God’s Spirit among o ut-castesand untouchab les in Southern India—all these are indisputab le evidence that prayer and missio ns are inseparab ly united . The o ne is inco nceivab le witho ut theother. We can trace the alliance in the lives o f individuals,in the o rganizatio n o f societies

,in the opening of do ors ,

in the founding o f churches and in the Christianizatio no f entire communities .Every element in the missio nary prob lem to -day depends fo r its so lution chiefly upon prayer. The presentday summo ns to the Church

,as Dr. John R. Mo tt points

o ut, is to tap the supernatural resources o f God Almighty

by b elieving prayer. He can contro l the hearts o f men.

He can release the energies o f His Church . He canovercome man’s selfishnes s and greed . Prayer willthrust out lab ourers and provide fo r their support.The experience o f Pasto r Go ssner (1 83 6) shouldstimulate o ur faith . At sixty-three years o f age heb ecame dissatisfied with the mechanical methods o f

raising money and managing missions in Bavaria . Heinaugurated a new enterprise in which faith and prayerwere the principal factors . AS pastor o f the Bethlehem

I ZZ T A K I N G H O L D O F G OD

Church in Berlin he b egan his Missio n. Befo re hisdeath he put into the foreign field one hundred andfo rty-one missio naries and secured their o utfit

,travel

and suppo rt by prayer. He said, I wo uld rather ringthe prayer-b ell than the b eggar’s b ell .” No b righterchapter in the sto ry o f Indian missions can b e fo undthan that o f the Go ssner Missio n among the Kohls .In 1 864, Pasto r Lo uis Harms by faith and prayer led

the peasants o f the Hermannsburg Church to plant theGo spel ab ro ad, so that after thirty-one years he hadput into the field three hundred and fifty missionariesand at the end o f fo rty years his missio n gathered o ut

from heatheni sm a church o f mo re than thirteen tho usandmemb ers .If such is the histo ry o f the power o f prayer in

Christian missions , how eager we sho u ld b e to exercisethis gift . Surely such power with Go d and with menthro ugh intercessio n is mo re to b e desired than go ld,yea

,than much fine gold. Realizing the utter inade

quacy o f present cflo rts to meet the needs o f the wo rldthe Church needs new tides of spiritual power. Thiswill o nly come through united, sustained and victo riousprayer. It is the key to the who le missionary pro b lem .

Some years ago the Bishop of Salisbury statedthe conditions which he b elieved were essential toeffective prayer, namely, receptiveness, o b edience,and definiteness

RECEPTIVENESS . -The very essence of all prayeris to throw open the who le perso nality to the incoming o f God’s Spirit, to align oneself gladly with His



indigenous churches that they may so o n b ecome selfsuppo rting

,self-governing, and self-propagating . Again

we must pray,as did the apo stles, fo r kings and all

in autho rity in every land so that the gospel may havefree co urse and doors still closed may b e opened inGod’s providence ; for peace and b rotherhood amongthe nations .No r must w e neglect to pray fo r the enemies of themissio nary enterprise at home and ab ro ad . Praying fo rthose who despitefully o ppo se the go spel and persecutethe Church . We need prayer fo r heathen priests, Mo slemmullahs

,champio ns o f a false go spel, and all who by

unb elief o r heartless criticism o r by ungodly lives areenemies o f the go spel .Lastly

,o u r prayer Should b e with thanksgiving fo r

all that God has done ; w e Should recall the miracleso f His grace, the power o f His spirit ; the work o f faithand lab o ur o f love and patience o f hope in the lives o fHis amb assado rs . Fo llowing such a programme ofprayer we will b egin to realiz e the length and b readthand height o f true missionary intercession.

SOME OLD TESTAMENT PRAYERS

Apartfrom tbc Psalter, wbicb is a book of prayer witbintbc Bible, tbe Pentateucb, tbc Propbets and tbc Hagiograpba

are interspersedwitbprayers. A t least oneprayer is attributed

to every great biblical cbaracter from Hannab to Hezekiab .

Tbese individual prayers are independent of ritual. Tbey are

voluntary and spontaneous.

”

jewisb Enryclopedia (Prayer) .

Tbeprayer of tbc rigbteous is comparable to a pitcbf orkas tbc pitcbf ork cbanges tbc position of tbc wbeat so prayer

cbanges tbe disposition of Godfrom wratb to merryPrayer wben oflered witb intensity is as a flame to coal in

uniting tbc bigber and lower worlds Prayer is greatertban sacrifice and tbcprayer of tbcpoor is as wortby as tbat

of Moses.

”

—RABE1 ISAAC,in Tbc Talmud.



always sets toward God, and in mo st places is strongand deep .

”

Before we co nsider the prayers o f patriarchs ,pro phets and saints in the Old Testament reco rdwe Shall do well to pause b efo re this Bo ok o f

b oo ks o n the histo ry,the mystery and the art

o f prayer. It wo uld b e difficult to find wo rds to

describ e spiritual experience, its heights and itsrichness and variety o f depths o f communion withGod.

Here we have the whole gamut o f prayer. Humiliatio n

,co ntrition, co nfession, ado ration, supplication,

intercession,pleading

,thanksgiving and again, the

waiting o f the so ul in silence on God. The languageo f the Psalms is suited to every moo d and tense o f man’smicroco smic so ul. It is by far the o ldest and b est o fall the b ooks o f pub lic and private devotion w e po ssess .Its treasuries are inexhaustib le and it has therefo reb ecome the mo del and the source-b o o k fo r all Jewishand Christian litanies and liturgies . The Roman Breviary,the Greek Ortho dox liturgy, and the English Bo o k o f

Common Prayer owe their finest language and deepestno tes o f confession and petitio n to the Psalms . Notwithout reason did William Law advise his students toimprove their prayers by co llecting and transcrib ingthe finest passages o f the devo tio ns , confessions, petitions

,praises

,resignations

,and thanksgivings, which

are scattered up and down the Psalms, and then rangethem under proper heads . Thi s would b e so much fuelfor the flame for their own devotions . And we might

S O M E OL D T E S T AM EN T P R A Y E R S 1 2 9

add the testimo ny o f Max Mu ller regarding their supremeplace in the literature o f all religio ns

After reading the prayers o f other nations !hesays], no unprejudiced critic wo uld deny that theHeb rew Psalms stand o u t unique among the prayerso f the who le wo rld, by their simplicity, their powerand the majesty o f their language .” 1

One o f the most striking features o f the prayersfo und in the Psalms is their universal o utlo ok and theirmissionary character. There is no thing to equal it inthe o utlo o k o f other religions . They are tribal o r

ethnic ; the genius o f the Heb rew scriptures is that ofcosmopo litan universalism. The Jews were a peculiarpeople conscious o f a special call and destiny. Nevertheless from Ab raham to Malachi we have the samekey

-no te that Israel is to b ecome a b lessing to all nations,and that the Messiah is to rule the who le wo rld .

I will multiply thy seed as the stars o f the heavensand as the sand which is upon the sea Sho rein thee shall all the families of the earth be b lessed.

From the rising o f the sun even unto the go ing downo f the same My name Shall b e great among the Gentilesand in every place incense shall b e o ffered unto Myname and a pure o ff ering fo r My name Shall b e greatamo ng the Gentiles, saith the Lo rd o f hosts (Gen.

Mal. Thi s same idea o f auniversal b enedi ctio n o n humanity thro ugh the revelatio nand redemptio n in Israel is fo und in So lomon’s prayer

1 Semitic Studies (In Mem o ry o f Dr. Alexander Kohut, p .


at the dedication o f the temple, in the prophecies o f

Balaam,the b lessings o f Moses , and in the portrayal o f

a new universal Kingdom o f peace and righteousness inIsaiah

,Jeremiah

, Daniel, Ezekiel and the minor prophets .But it is especially in the Psalms that these visions

and promises b ecome missionary prayers . The secondPsalm strikes the key-no te. Ask o f me and I will givethee the heathen fo r thine inheritance and the uttermost parts o f the earth fo r thy possessio n. In thetwenty-seco nd Psalm w e are told that All the ends ofthe wo rld shall rememb er and turn unto the Lo rd andall the kindreds o f the natio ns Shall wo rship b eforethee ; fo r the kingdom is the Lord

’s ; and he is thegovernor among the natio ns .”

The sixty-seventh Psalm is one o f the greatest prayersfo r missions in the Old Testament. It w as prob ab lyarranged fo r antipho nal singing in the temple worshipGod be merciful to us and b less us that Thyway may b e known upon earth, Thy saving healthamong all nations . Let the people praise Thee

, O God,let all the peoples praise Thee What a wonderful impression must have b een made by such a universalprayer ! Notice as you read it the plurals,

“peoples,

”

nations,

” ends o f the earth and the recurrentall to include every one of the human family. Inthe same line o f tho ught are the ninety-Six th and theo ne hundredth Psalms , and just as universal in theiro utlook :

Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rej oice ;Let the sea roar and the fulness thereof



We turn from the study o f prayer in the Psalmsand o f prayer in the Old Testament to the consideratio no f a few o f the outstanding individual prayers as foundin the historical and pro phetical b ooks . The wealtho f material is great and o ur cho ice is due partly to thecharacter o f the o ne who offers the prayer (as in thecase o f Ab raham) and partly due to the special natureof the prayer itself as in that o f Asa on the eve o f b attle .We omit many striking examples o f prayer

,such as

that o f Isaac (Gen. 2 5 : 2 1) Jo b’s prayers

,Melchise

dek’

s (Gen. Lo t S (Gen. Balaam’

s

(Numb ers 2 3 Hannah’s (I Sam . 1 Manasseh’s(II Chro n . 3 3 the king o f Nineveh’s (Jo nah 3Isaiah’s prayer for revival (Isaiah 64) and that o f Hezekiah (II Kings I 9 The eight prayers we select areby Ab raham,

Jaco b , Mo ses,Elisha

,Asa, Nehemiah,

Jeremiah and Hab akkuk. Here is great variety of circumstance and of intercession, bu t the same spirit o f faithand confidence in God. Henry W . Frost co llected mosto f the prayers o f the Old Testament saints in a littlevolume entitled Men Wbo Prayed. In the preface to theseBib le studies he remarks So then the man who praysis the most potential man in the world. It is not thatman is anything but rather that God is everything . Fo r

the man who prays puts himself in his true place as asuppliant and God in His true place as the Benignantand Beneficent One. And when God’s grace is thusset free, it flows earthward in floods o f b lessing so thatthe desert places o f life are made to rej oice and b lossomas the ro se.” Passing through the Story o f the Cho senPeople and listening to the o utpouring o f their petitions

,

S O M E O L D T E S T AM EN T P R A Y E R S 1 3 3

we shall indeed see that here is no t a theory o f

prayer but actual accomplishment in the fine art o f

intercessio n.

Ab raham is called the friend o f God . He was thefather o f the faithf ul and the first o f fo reign mi ssionaries by his great life decision and the promise hereceived . But he was also a spiritual giant in the realmo f prayer. Among the prayers reco rded o f him o n

vario us o ccasio ns his intercessio n f o r the Cities o f thePlain is supreme . He is now o ne hundred years o ldand has learned something o f Go d’s covenant faithfulness and tender compassion Therefore he b egins hi sprayer in deepest humility

AndA brabam answered and said, Bebold now,I bave

taken upon me to speak unto tbe Lord, wbicb am but dust

and asbos peradventure tbere sball lack five of tbc fif tyrigbteous wilt Tbou destray all tbc cityf or lack of five 2A ndHe said, If Ifindfortyandfive, I will not destray it .

A nd be spake unto Himyet again, and said, Peradventure

tbere sball befortyfound tbere. A nd He said, I will notdo it f or forty

’

s sake. A nd be said unto Him, Ob let

not tbc Lord be angry,and I will speak peradventure tbere

sball tbirtybefound tbere. A ndHe said, I w ill not do it,if I find tbirty tbere. A nd be said, Bebold now,

I bavetaken upon me to speak unto tbe Lord peradventure tbere

sball be twentyfound tbere. A ndHe said, I will not destroyit f or twenty

’

s sake. A nd be said, Ob let not tbc Lord beangry, and I will speak yet but tbis once peradventure

ten sball befound tbere. A ndHe said, I will not destrayit f or ten

’s sake.


Here apparently,from the sequel o f the story, is a

case of fruitless intercession . Lot and his family weresaved

,but the Cities o f the Plain destro yed. And yet

what marvellous wealth there is here f o r the study o f

prayer. Shall no t the Judge o f all the earth do rightWilt Thou also destro y the righteo us with thewicked ? —these two questions still perplex the believer

,as they did Ab raham. We, to o , must face the

judgments o f God in history and plead for His abundantmercies . The friend o f God abho rred the wickednesso f Sodom but when he hears o f the im pending do omthe fountains o f pity are o pened in his heart .” Herehe w as indeed the friend o f God and the father o f allwho have compassio n o n the multitudes . Here is thesecret and the power o f persistent intercessio n.

Another well-known and yet mysterio us prayer inthe Old Testament i s that o f Jaco b wrestling with theangel I will not let thee go except thou b less meTell me

,I pray thee

,thy name .” This page in the life

o f the patriarch is indeed ho ly ground . We can neverfathom the depth o f tbis taking ho ld of God, and yetit has b een a comfo rt to the saints down the ages . Theway o f the transgresso r and deceiver w as hard . Jacobwas at the end o f all his own skill and resources . Hew as left alone with Go d. Then in the agony of prayerhis very Strength failed him. He never learned the nameo f Go d who wrestled with him but he received hisb lessing (Gen. 3 2 2 6 Hosea

,centuries later, t e

ferred to the midnight encounter : Yea, he !Jacob]had power over the angel and prevailed he wept andmade supplication unto Him ; he found Him in Beth-e],



Thee,the iniquity o f this people

,according unto the

greatness o f Thy mercy, and as Tho u hast forgiventhis people, from Egypt until now.

Moses is o f co lossal stature as the leader of Israel, but

he is greatest o f all in his prayers o f intercession . Theanswer to such pleading w as imm ediate and includeda promi se fo r the who le human family 1 And the Lordsaid

,I bave pardoned according to tay word but as truly

as I live all tbc carib sball befilledwitb tbcglory of tbc Lord.

The prayer o f Elisha at Do than (II Kings 6 : 17) isalso rem arkab le ; in thi s case fo r its setting and itsb revity . Terrified by the ho sts o f Benhadad the Syrian,the servant o f Eli sha aro used his master with a cry o f

peril, Alas my m aster l how shall we do Then the

hero o f faith answered, Fear not ; for they that b ewith us are more than they that be with them.

” Lord,I pray Tbee, open bis ayes tbat be may see. And the Lordopened the eyes o f the yo ung man ; and he saw : and,b eho ld

,the mountain w as full o f horses and chariots

o f fire round ab o ut Elisha.” How often has this prayerb een o n the lips o f saints in peril and when surro undedby their fo es . When God o pens our understanding, wetoo shall see the invisib le, hear the inaudib le voices andlay ho ld o f intangib le realities . We all need to b e delivered daily from the seeming unreality o f the spiritualwo rld. The things that are seen are o nly temporal

,the

unseen is eternal. And we must not forget that

Millions of spiritual creatures walk ibe eartb

Unseen, botb wben we wake and wben we sleep .

S OM E OL D TE S T AM EN T P R A Y E R S 1 37

Jesus Christ our Saviour b elieved in angels, often spokeo f them and assured His disciples that He had commando f the innumerab le company o f angels , even inGethsemane.The b attle-cry o f Asa, when he saw the strength o f

the Ethiopian army arrayed against Israel (II Chro n .

is another prayer in di stress . Stro ng in theconfidence that God could give victory to the fewagainst many and giving glory to Go d : We rest o nThee

,and in Thy name we go against this multitude .

”

His successor Jeho shaphat fo llowed this example o f

prayer b efore b attle and we have recorded his pub licintercession

,when all the warriors o f Judah stoo d

b efo re Jehovah with their little o nes,their wives

,and

their children (II Chron. 2 0 : 5 The Old Testament saints lived in the twilight, b efo re the great dawn,but they did know how to pray . They took ho ld o f Godwith mind and heart and will. This is the kind o f prayingwhich subdued kingdoms

,wrought righteousness and

ob tained promises .”

Tbrice blest is be to wbom is given

Tbc instinct tbat can tell

Tbat God is on tbefield wben HeIs most invisible.

Workman of God, 0 lose not boartBut learn wbat God is like

A nd in tbe darkest battle fieldTbou sbalt know wbere to strike.


These stanzas from the grand hymn o f FrederickW . Fab er might well have b een an interpretation o f theprayer o f Nehemiah in one o f the darkest hours o f hislife (Neh. I 5 This cup-b earer to the earthly kingin Shushan was an amb assador to the court o f heaven.

His grief at the deso latio n o f Jerusalem and the sad

plight of hi s people fo und utterance in a remarkab leprayer. After an appeal to God’s covenant faithfulness

,

and co ntritio n fo r the sin o f the nation, he reminds Godo f His unending grace and then concludes with o ne

great petition,Pro sper, I pray Thee, Thy servant this

day and grant him mercy in tbc sigbt of tbis man.

”And

that man w as an oriental despo t ; but Nehemiah prevailed . He aro se victo rious o ver all circumstances ; aman o f iron, patient, unb ending, enduring, invincib le,triumphant. We need such statesmen

,such b uilders of

so ciety to -day ; and they need prayer.

We read that Christ wept over Jerusalem,and Paul

is no t ashamed of hi s tears . If prayer b e the fallingo f a tear

,Jeremiah surely knew how to pray

The harvest is past,the summer is ended, and

w e are not saved Is there no b alm in Gileadis there no physician there Oh that my headwere waters and mine eyes a fo untain o f tears

,that

I might weep day and night fo r the slain o f thedaughter o f my people I (Chap . 8 : 2 0

,2 2 ; 9 : z) .

Jeremiah has b een called a figure o f bronze dissolvinginto tears .” Manly strength and wom anly tenderness



in saving Israel from her enemies . Tho u wentestforth fo r the salvatio n of Thy people Tho udidst walk through the sea with Thy ho rses, through theheap o f great waters .” Then we have deep humiliatio n

My b o dy tremb led, my lips quivered at thyvoice and the prophet clo ses with a halleluj ahparadox, b ecause the Lord is his strength

Altho ugh the fig-tree shall not b lossom, neithershall fruit b e in the vines the lab our o f the o live shallfail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flo ckshall b e cut o ff from the fo ld and there shall be no

herd in the stalls yet will I rejo ice in the Lord, Iwill j oy in the God o f my salvation .

”

X

THE PRAYERS OF PAUL

In prayer we are not alone or merely in tbe presence ofw-men. We are ratber speaking witb A notber

,

Wbo is m igbtier tban tbe wbole world witb wbicb we bave

to wrestle, Wbo is greater and stronger tban all wbicb takes

place in us and around us,tbe Creator of beaven and eartb .

We bring our need before Him, andHe answeres us just asPaul besougbt tbc Lord tbrice to remove tbc tbornfrom bis

flesb, until tbe Lord answered My grace is sufi cient f ortbee f or my strengtb is madeperfect in weakness (II Cor.

I z 8

—KARL HEIM, D .D .,in Tbc Cburcb of

Cbrist and tbc Problems of tbeDay.

Paul energetic as Peter, and contemplative as jobnPaul tbe bero of unselfisbness Paul tbc migbty cbampion ofspiritualfreedom Paul a greater preacber tban Cbrysostom,

a greater missionary tban Xavier, a greater reformer tban

Lutber, a greater tbeologian tban St . Tbomas of AquinasPaul tbc inspired Apostle of tbe Gentiles, tbc slave of tbc

Lord jesus Cbrist .

”

-F . W . FARRAR, D .D. , in Tbc Life



seraphic of saints far b elow him as he soars away upinto the third heaven o f rapture and revelation andadoratio n.

” 1

Paul lived and moved and had his b eing in the realmo f prayer. He o ffers no argument fo r prayer b ecausehe b elieved in a living Godwho exercises direct influenceo n the affairs o f men. Direct revelation o f God’s willcame to him (Gal I I 2 and z z) , and direct answersto his petitions . There sto o d by me this night, theangel o f God

,who se I am and whom I serve

,saying

,

Fear not, Paul ; thou must b e b ro ught b efo re Czesarand 10

,God hath given thee all them that sail with

thee (Acts 2 7 : 2 3 What certainty, what directness l No wonder Paul adds, “ I believe God. Hisattitude to prayer w as at the very antipo de o f much o f

mo dern tho ught and so -called philoso phical o b j ection.

No o ne can read his lif e o r s tudy his prayers witho utthe conviction that Pau l was ever co nscio us o f thereality o f the supernatural that he lived in the presenceo f God and that he b elieved in the efficacy o f prayerunder all circumstances . He b ade his readers praywithout ceasing and in everything give thanks . Thiswas his own practice . In fact the whole spiritual lif eo f Paul can be summed up in the earliest statement o fit,

“Bebold be prcg'etb (Acts To live as a

Christian was to live the life o f prayer. He prayed fo rhimself

,fo r o thers, fo r the churches which he fo unded,

f o r the trib es o f Israel, fo r the whole family o f humanity.

How real his prayer fo r individuals was we know from1 Alexander Whyte, Tbc Apostle Paul, p . 85 .

THE P R A YE R S O F P A U L 145

the long list o f Christian co nverts all mentioned byname

,although he had pro b ab ly never seen them,

fo undin the last chapter of the epistle to the Romans and inhi s o ther letters . I thank God,” he tells Timo thy,how unceasing is my remembrance o f thee in supplications

,night and day longing to see thee, rememb ering

thy tears that I may b e filled with joy.

”

And b e constantly asked fo r the prayers o f o thers,Brethren

,pray fo r us (I Thess . 5 He specifies

urgent personal needs that he may b e delivered fromthose who o ppo se the Go spel

,that his ministry may b e

acceptab le,that he may have a pro spero us j o urney, that

God may o pen do o rs fo r the Word, that he may escapefrom impriso nment (Rom . I 5 30

—3 2 ; Co l. 4 : 2 4 ; II

Thess . 3 I Philemo n To Paul’s mind the Go d andFather o f our Lo rd Jesus Christ w as a present help intime o f need . He can b e to uched with the feeling o f

man’s infirmity. The incarnatio n b rought God near toman and revealed His heart o f love .

Tbou witb strong prayer and very mucb entreatingWillest be asked, and Tbou sbalt answer tben,

Sbow tbc bid boart beneatb creation beating,

Smile witb kind ayes and be a man to men.

When w e try to analyze and classify the prayers o f theApo stle Paul their numb er and variety are perplexing .

W. B . Pope,of Didsbury Co llege

,Manchester

,wrote a

series o f valuab le papers o n the prayers o f Paul in TbcMetbodist Magazine He classifies them intoejaculato ry prayers o f single wo rds o r sentences, inv ocations, b enedictions, and thanksgivings . In a class by

K

146 TA K I N G H O L D O F G O D

themselves he puts thirteen special prayers and givestheir titles as follows

Prayer fo r the ab o unding o f charity—I Thess . 3 1 2 ,

1 3 .

Prayer fo r entire sanctification—I Thess . 5 2 3 , 2 4.

Prayer fo r the goo d pleasure o f God— II Thess .I I I

,1 2 .

Prayer fo r everlasting consolatio n— II Thess . 2 : 16,

17.

Prayer fo r love and patience— II Thess . 3 5.

Prayer f o r co rpo rate perfection—II Co r. I 3 7-9 .

Prayer f o r the unity o f b elievers— Rom. 1 5 5, 6.

Prayer fo r hope— Rom . I 5 I 3 .

Prayer fo r knowledge o f God’s will— Co l. 1 : 9- 14.

Prayer fo r full assurance o f knowledge— Col . 2 I- 3 .

Prayer fo r the glo ry o f the inheritance— Eph . I I 5- 2 1 .

Prayer fo r the indwelling Trinity— Eph . 3 14—2 1 .

Prayer fo r perseverance to the day o f Christ—Phil.1 9

- 1 1 .

Nine o f these prayers are very b rief, while the five lastnamed are o f co nsiderab le length . All o f them are

definite petitio ns and intercessions fo r spiritual gracesand gifts . And it is remarkab le that five of these prayersoccur in the two earliest epistles , written to the b elieversat Thessalonica .In addition to these prayers we have salutations which

by their fo rm and content are addressed to Go d firstin petition and then to man in fervent wish : Grace,mercy

,and peace

,from God the Father and Jesus Christ

o ur Lord (I Tim. I Grace be unto you, and


148 TA K I N G H O L D O F G O D

If we would learn to give thanks, to po ur o ut oursouls in grateful acknowledgment o f all God has done,is doing, and will do fo r us, we should study thesethanksgivings o f the great Apo stle

Blessed be God, even the Father o f our LordJesus Christ

,the Father o f mercies and the God o f

all comfo rt ; Who comfo rteth us in all o ur tribulation, that we may ab le to comfo rt them which arein any troub le, by the comfo rt wherewith w e ourselves are comfo rted o f God (II Co r. I 3

As the eye ranges through the lo ng series o f Paul’sepistles we no te that without a single exceptio n thedo ctrinal statements o f greatest impo rtance take thefo rm o f more o r less explicit prayer. The mo re fo rmalprayers that we are ab out to consider were actual petitions with which he b esieged heaven daily. They werethe o ut-po uring o f his deepest desire as missionaryapostle fo r the early Church and they teach us whatsuch intercesso ry prayer can b e and sho uld b e. Thefive Thessalonian supplicatio ns already referred to, aremarked by b revity o f wo rds and depth o f meaning.

The first has for its sub j ect prayer fo r the ab o undingo f love ; and then fo llows, in the same letter, a prayerfor entire sanctification, every wo rd and phrase o f

which is unique

The Lord make you to increase and ab ound inlove one toward ano ther and toward all men, evenas we do toward you : to the end He may estab lishyour hearts unb lameab le in ho liness befo re Go d,

THE P RAYER S OP PAUL 149

even o ur Father,at the coming o f o ur Lord Jesus

Christ. Faithful is he that calleth yo u, who also willdo it.” And the very God o f peace sanctifyyou wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit andsoul and b ody be preserved b lameless unto the comingo f o ur Lord Jesus Christ.

In several respects this prayer is peculiar and mayb e said to stand alone . Its phraseo lo gy is unusuallyindividualistic ; it suggests the high-priestly prayer inJohn’s go spel (John it is addressed to theGod o f peace Who is the author o f reconciliation andthe source o f all holiness it implies the doctrine o f theTrinity not as dogma but as experience and then thisprayer clo ses with an unlimited promise b ased uponGo d’s faithfu lness .The three other b rief prayers in the second epistle

to the Thessalonians have already b een mentio ned . At

the clo se o f the seco nd letter to the Co rinthians we haveas it were

,the disj ointed fragments o f a prayer fo r

restoratio n Now I pray God that ye do no evil ; notthat w e should appear approved

, but that ye shoulddo that which is honest and this also we wish,even your perfectio n (II Cor. I 3 7, The co ntextis difficult but the unselfish love o f Paul is evident b ecause the cause o f the troub le was a disregard o f his

own aposto lic autho rity. We pass by the b rief prayersf o r Unity and Hope in Romans I 5 5 , 6, I 3 , and turnto the all-emb racing prayer fo r the knowledge o f God’swill in Co lossians I 9- 14. Paul asks that these youngChristians be filled with the knowledge o f God ’s will

1 5o T A K I N G H O L D O F G O D

in all wisdom and spiritual understanding ; that theymay walk worthy o f the Lord that they may be fruitfulin every go o d wo rk and b e strong with divine power ;their wills surrendered

,their walk godly

,their witness

Then he closes this remarkab le prayer with a threefo ld do xo lo gy to God the Father and the Son inWhomwe have redemptio n through His b lood, even the forgiv eness o f sins .” Every wo rd in these compact sentences is weighty and worthy o f careful thought. Suchcomprehensive spiritual insight and intercessio n is proofo f apo sto lic inspiration . So often our prayers are amultitude o f wo rds to hide paucity o f thought.Here is just the o pposite. It is a wrestling againstthe very power o f darkness mentioned by usingthe panoply o f light

,and the result is victory in

prayer.

A similar intercession,although less explicit

,is fo und

in the same epistle (Co l. 2 : 1 where the Apo stlepleads for a fuller assurance o f the knowledge o f themystery of the Go spel. His prayer is for Laodicea andfor those who se faces Paul had no t seen ; yet with whatagony o f soul he rememb ers their need. The epistleto the Ephesians has tw o o f the longest prayers o f Paulrecorded fo r us . The first (Eph . I 1 5

—2 1) deals withthe glory of the inheritance

,visib le only to those who se

eyes have b een enlightened and who live in the powero f Christ’s resurrectio n. Like other prayers o f Paul itis Trinitarian— the Father

,the Lord Jesus Christ and

the Spirit o f Wisdom and Revelation are all mentionedin a personal way . The language is that of experience .


1 5 2 T A K IN G H O L D O F GOD

sin, and then, thro ugh perhaps o nly two o r threesuch agents, more go od might be do ne in a shortwhile than by fifty o rdinary Christians .” 1

It was Paul’s prayer-life that helped to produce thatkind of Christian in the first century .

There is one more prayer o f Paul given at somelength in Philippians I : 9- 1 1 . He prays that b elieversmay ab ound in love more and mo re

,that they may

approve the right, be sincere and witho ut o ffence till

the day o f Christ.” Here is a co llect fo r the perseveranceo f the saints and the preservatio n o f the saints untilthe end. The day o f Christ is at the heart o f thispetitio n. That day is the dawn o f eternity, the hopeo f the redeemed

,the climax o f all hi sto ry . Some o ne

has said that Paul spoke only in terms o f to—day andthat day.

” He knew no o ther divisions o f time b ecausehe lived fo r eterni ty.The one perplexing question

,as we study Paul’s

prayers, is the ungranted petition regarding his thornin the flesh (II Cor. 1 2 7 This perplexity o f unanswered prayer comes in three forms . Sometimes because o f o ur diso b edience there is no answer to our

prayers . The heavens are dumb as they were to Saulat Gib eo n. Again the answer is deferred, delayed untilpersistent and repeated petition b rings answer, as tothe prophet Elij ah o n Carmel . And also God givesanswer in His own way, but not acco rding to o ur will.This was the case with Paul. Fo r thi s thing I b esoughtthe Lo rd thrice

,that it might depart from me . And

1 Lif e and Letters of Edward Bickerstetb, pp. 83 , 84.

THE P RAYE R S O F P A U L 1 53

He said unto me, My grace is sufficient fo r thee : forMy strength is made perfect in weakness .”

In the eleventh chapter we have Paul’s great apologiapro vita sua -his defence o f his apo stleship . Then comesthe sto ry o f his extrao rdinary experience o f rapture intothe glo ry o f the third heaven, o nly to be fo llowed bythi s b itter and humiliating acco unt o f the tho rn inthe flesh

,the messenger o f Satan to buffet me . It little

matters in the consideration o f thi s prayer whether thetho rn in the flesh was b o dily infirmity

,spiritual dis

couragem ent, carnal temptation, epilepsy, malaria fevero r acute o phthalmia . Each o f these theo ries has haddi stinguished advo cates, but no o ne really knows whatPaul suff ered o r to what he referred . It was a realGethsemane to him o f physical

,mental o r spiritual

ago ny . He tells us that pride was his spiritual fo e andthat pain was o ne o f Go d’s allies in the fight. Whenhe prayed the third time, the Lo rd said to him ,

Mygrace is sufficient fo r thee . Paul can now say under theco ntinued aff li ction, W’herefo re I take pleasure ininfirm ities fo r Christ’s sake : f o r when I amweak then I am strong.

”

Here is the patience o f unanswered,answered prayer 1

Here is the victory o f faith .

Unansweredyet Faitb cannot be unanswered,

Her feet arefirmlyplanted on tbe rock

A mid tbc wildest storms sbe stands undaunted

Nor quails before tbc loudest tbunder sbock.

Sbe knows Omnipotence bas beard ber prayer,A nd cries, It sball be done—sometime, somewbere.


Paul’s silence,as Rob ert E . Speer says, regarding

the particular nature o f his thorn in the flesh, “ is illustrative o f more than his reserve . It introduces us tohis clean, heroic grit . When he found that his thornw as to be a part o f his discipline and that he was to dohis work in spite o f it

,the warrio r j oy ro se up supreme

in him. Paul had learned no t o nly to pray withoutceasing bu t in everything to give thanks and so the joyo f the Lord was hi s strength.

If yo ur prayers hitherto have been a weariness toyou

,and your thorn in the flesh a burden and no b lessing,

if you desire to learn the secret o f communion withGo d and a heart aflam e fo r His glory, read Paul

’sepistles . Study his prayers and doxo lo gies and ado rations and confessions o f sin. In such case, to go b ackto Paul is to go b ack to Christ . And forward withChrist in the school o f prayer.


Our Fatber wbicb art in beaven, Hallowed be Tbyname. Tby will be done.

’—Wbat else can we say Tbe

otber nigbt in my sleepless tossings about, wbicb weregrowingmore and more miserable, tbese words, tbat brief and grand

Preyer, came strangely into my mind, witb an altogetber new

empbasis, as if WRITTEN and sbining f or me in mild, puresplendour, on tbc black bosom of tbe nigbt tbere. Wben I,as it were, READ tbem word by word

— witb a sudden cbeck

to my imperfect wanderings, witb a sudden softness of com

posure wbicb was most unexpected. Nat perbaps f or tbirlyor f orlyyears bad I onceformally repeated tbat prayer nay,

I neverfelt before bow intensely tbc voice ofman’

s soul it is

tbc inmost aspiration of all tbat is bigb andpious in poor

buman nature, rigbt wort/y to be recommendedwitb an Af tertbis manner prayye.

’

—THOMAS CARLYLE,in a Letter to Erskine .

XI

THE LORD’S PRAYER

NINETEEN centuries ago on the mountain-side Jesustaught His disciples fo r the first time the Pater Noster

,

the mo st perfect and b eautiful o f all prayers and whichwe commonly call the Lo rd’s Prayer. It is the Lord’sPrayer b ecause He gave it to the Church, b ecause itenshrines His teaching and is the expressio n o f Hisspirit. But in a deeper sense it is not the prayer o f ourLo rd but the prayer intended f o r those who are Hisdisciples . He had no sin and needed no petition o f

fo rgiveness . There is no record that o ur Lord everprayed thus ; except one b rief portion o f the prayerin the garden o f Gethsemane . The apo stles asked Jesusfo r a prayer o f their own and He gave it to them“When ye pray say Our Father.

”

Now there is no part o f the go spel whi ch has had alarger place in Christian literature and interpretatio nthan this prayer. When John Kno x lay dying in 1 572

b e repeated the Lord’s Prayer with a paraphrase o r

comment added to each petition Our Father Who artin heaven who can pronounce such ho ly wo rdsAnd who can add anything new to what has b eensaid and written on this universal prayer o f the ages ?Dante expo unded its mystic significance in the eleventhcanto o f his Purgatorio . Bengel imagined that the

I S7

1 58 TA K I N G H OLD OF GOD

who le o f Peter’s first epistle was a commentary on thisprayer ! Carlyle said it was the voice o f the humansoul, the inmost aspiration o f all that is high and holy.”

St . Francis o f As sisi when he stripped himself o f hisraiment and handed hi s father his last possessions said

Listen all o f yo u and understand well ! Untilthis time I have called Pietro Bernardone my f atber;but now I desire to serve God. This is why I returnmy money as well as all my clothing and all thatI have had from him— for from henceforth I desireto say nothing else than, Our Father Who art in

” 1

This prayer emb odies every possib le desire o f thepraying heart ; it contains a whole world o f spiritualrequirements

,and comb ines in simple language every

Divine promise, every human sorrow and want andevery Christian aspiration fo r the good o f others . Itis the shortest

,deepest

,richest of all prayers ever

off ered byman and could o nly proceed from the lips o fHim Who knew what was in man b ecause He is theSon o f God .

Some have compared it to a precious diamond withmany facets reflecting at once the teaching o f the gospel,the life and character o f o ur Lord

,the discipline o f

the Spirit,the power o f the redeemed life and the

very hi sto ry and final triumph of the Kingdom o f God.

It is simple yet always novel ; infini tely easy to repeat,yet infinitely hard to understand humb le in its phrases,exalted in its high significance ; natural yet super

1 Sabatier, Lif e of St. Francis, p . 61 .



the poverty o f man which only God can supply withHis grace .Tho luck remarks that the attentive reader who hasotherwise learned the do ctrine o f the Trinity will finda distinct reference to it in the arrangement o f thisprayer. The first petitio n in each o f the first and secondpo rtions o f the prayer refers to Go d as Creato r andPreserver ; the second to Go d the Redeemer ; thethird to God the Ho ly Spirit.” This may no t appearat first sight but the lo nger w e study the prayer andanalyze it

,the mo re it b ecomes evident. It is as when

yo u hold a piece o f b ond-paper to the light and thewatermark o f the manufacturer appears in every sheetso the do ctrine o f the b lessed Trinity appears wherewe do no t expect to see it in many a passage o f Scriptureb o th o f the Old and New Testaments .Surely the prayer that Jesus taught us may reflect

the glo ry o f the Father and the Son and the Ho ly Spiritby implicatio n if no t by direct expression . And suchis perhaps evident from its very fo rm

PROLOGUE PETITION CONCLUSIONFather Hallowed be Give us this Thine is the

Thy Name day, etc. KingdomThy Kingdom And f o rgiv e Thine is theCome u s, etc. power

in the Thy will b e And lead us Thine is theheavens done, etc. no t, etc. glo ry, etc.

Af ter thi s manner therefo re pray ye —conscio us o fo ur personal relationship to God o ur Father

, God o ur

Redeemer,and God o ur Sanctifier. In the pro lo gue

itself the doctrine o f the Trinity is implied . God is

THE L o R D’s P R A YER 161

eternal and unchangeab le in His b eing and attributes .Fo r if He is Father now, He always w as, and ever willb e. The Son o f His love w as in the b o som o f the Fatherb efo re the creation o f the wo rld . His spirit b ro o dedover chao s and that Spirit alone makes it po ssib le fo ra sinner to say Our Father—Ab b a, Father.The first petitio n is primarily concerned with the

ineflab le name o f Jehovah Who is holy in all His attributes . The second speaks o f the kingdom o f theMessiah

,the Son o f God— a kingdom o f grace in human

hearts,o f power in the wo rld and o f glo ry in the wo rld

to come . This three-fo ld kingdom b elongs to Christ.It is an everlasting kingdom and a kingdom witho utfrontiers . The third petition is in the realm o f the will

,

the deepest mystery o f personality . Thy will be doneo n earth as it is in heaven .

”

Our wills are ours we know not bow

Our wills are ours to make tbem Tbine

and that transfo rmatio n o f the reb ellio us will o f maninto confo rmity to the will o f Go d is thro ugho ut theScriptures the work o f the Ho ly Spirit. He kindles thespark o f faith, He makes the unwilling heart willing,He o vercomes o ur reluctance and makes us eager to

do the will o f God.

The same natural sequence occurs in the seconddivisio n o f the prayer. The first petitio n is to God theFather o f mankind . The eyes o f all wait upon Himand He giveth them meat in season. He o peneth hishand and satisfieth the desire o f every living thing .

He gives us o ur daily b read . The seco nd petition is


to the Son o f Man who hath power on earth to fo rgivesins to Him who prayed f o r sinners , wept fo r sinners,died fo r sinners and made ato nement fo r the sins o fthe whole wo rld .

“ Fo rgive us o ur deb ts as w eforgive .” Father fo rgive them for they know no t whatthey do .

The third and clo sing petitio n is undoub tedly con

cerned with the work o f the Ho ly Spirit . And leadus not into temptatio n but deliver us from evil .” Thenwas Jesus led o f the Spirit into the wilderness to b etempted o f the devil,” so w e read in the Gospel. TheHo ly Spirit and the spirit o f evil find their arena o f

conflict in the wo rld and in the heart of man. Onemay

, o f co urse, b elieve in neither Go d nor devil ; bu tif o ne b elieves in a personal God

, there is no reaso n fo rno t b elieving in a personal devil . If w e accept theScriptures there is every reason to b elieve in his existence . To quo te once mo re from the recent b ook byMerejkow ski

Who could b elieve in our days as Jesus b eliev ed ? He b elieved in demons , bu t we no longerdo

,

’ says a very naive Pro testant cleric,expressing

what almost all quondam Christians o f to -day feel .But if a little schoo lboy o f to -day could set Jesus rightconcerning the essence o f evil, the devil, whatguarantee have w e that Jesus w as no t also mistakenconcerning the essence o f go od, God ? And that byitself wo uld suffice to destro y all Christianity.

Throughout His who le life, Jesus do es no thingbut b attle, no t with impersonal, ab stract evil, but



b lended into one great harmony,even as in the Lo rd’s

Prayer. 80 Christian prayer must b e to God thro ughChrist and in the Spirit . Tho se who accustom themselves to the Trinitarian appro ach will no t fall intothe vague use o f the prono un

“ it when referring tothe Ho ly Spirit. He is o ur Comfo rter

,o ur Guide

, o ur

Enlightener,o ur Teacher and He alone can make Christ

real to us . One o f the mo st b eautiful o f the ancientLatin hymns is to the Ho ly Spirit and b egins V eniCreator Spiritus. It was prob ab ly written by Gregorythe Great (504—604 A .D .) and is a little commentaryon the sixth petitio n o f the Lo rd’s Prayer. That prayerin its appro ach to God is who lly Christian ; its frequentuse

,therefore

,in gatherings o f no n-Christians and Jews

,

as a sort o f comm o n denominator,is

,w e b elieve, to be

deprecated . We have access through Christ to the Father,

according to Paul,by one Spirit. There is the Father to

whom w e have access, the Son tbrougb whom,and the

Spirit in whom ; this open way to the throne o f graceis ours . As Archb ishop Trench expressed it

Prayer is a work o f Go d, o f God the Ho ly Gho st,a work o f His in yo u ,

and byyou ,and in which you

must be fellow-workers with Him— but His worknotwithstanding .

” 1

This b rings us to o ur seco nd question ; in what spiritcan we truly pray this prayer o f the ages ? We havethe answer in the words themselves . They demand afilial

,reverent

,lo yal

,submissive, dependent, penitent,

humb le, co nfident, triumphant, exultant and sincere spirit .1 Sermons Preacbed in Westminster Abbey, p . 2 2 9 .

THE L OKD’s P R A YE R 165

A filial spirit, fo r we call God o ur Father. We areHis so ns by creatio n, by adoption and by the greatinheritance . Through Christ o ur Master we are allb rethren. The Go d and Father o f o ur Lo rd JesusChrist

,o f whom the who le human family receives its

so lidarity and its redemption. We must appro ach Himin the spirit o f sonship .

A reverent spirit, fo r w e b egin our prayer by rememb ering that Go d’s name is to b e hallowed . We stand onholy gro und when w e pray. He that cometh to God

must b elieve that He is ho ly . Therefo re o ur heartswill kneel b efore Him in adoration and praise . Hallowed b e Thy name .”

A loyal spirit is the test o f all sincerity . We come toour King and pray f o r His Kingdom . Shall He find

us who le-hearted,true-hearted

,faithful and loyal

,

”o r

are w e using idle wo rds P When w e pray Thy Kingdom come w e must b reak down every idol and casto ut every rival from our hearts so that Jesus may occupya so litary throne and rule alone .This prayer also demands a submissive spirit ; theentire surrender o f our own will to the will o f God. As

in heaven the angels always b eho ld the face o f theSavio ur and do His will gladly and eagerly

, so we onearth are to yield o urselves to His o b edience . No to ur wilfulness, but o ur willingness is the key to thecalm and quiet o f Go d.

We also come like suppliants in a dependent spirit .

Give us this day o ur daily b read .

”Apparently o ne

o f the smallest yet one of the greatest petitions . Weask for earthly b read and He gives us no t only that


but the heavenly manna . It is a prayer for moderationand co ntentment that covers all earthly wants . It isa prayer fo r neither poverty no r riches, but fo r fo o dand shelter and home— fo r all o f which we are dailydependent on Go d. As Maltb ie Babcock puts it, ino ne of his sermons

Back of tbe loaf tbere is tbeflour,And back of tbeflour tbc mill,And back of tbc mill tbc sun and tbc sbower

And tbcHeavenlyFatber’

s will.

And since all o ur daily deeds and daily duties anddaily anxieties are no t free from sin, we must includea spirit of penitence. Fo rgive us o ur deb ts as w e fo r

give o ur deb tors .” This is no t the ground o f Go d’sfo rgiveness no r the measure o f His fo rgiveness

,but

the condition on which He waits . It is the most heartsearching clause in the Lord’s Prayer. He w ho cannot forgive man

,can no t find fo rgiveness with God.

Forgive us Lord I to Tbeewe cryForgive us tbrougb Taymatcblessgrace

On Tbee alone our souls relyBe Tbou our strengtb and rigbteousness.

Forgive us, 0 Tbou bleeding LambTbourisen, Tbou exalted Lord

Tbougreat Higb-priest, our souls redeem,

A nd speak tbepardon-sealing word.

”

Then also w e shall have tbc bumble spirit which knowsits own weakness and fears the power of temptation .


XII

THE PRAYERS OF OUR LORD

Tbere are tbree roads to Betblebem

And souls mustfollow all of tbemFor tbese roads are a TrinityAnd all are one and all are tbree

And tbgy are laidf oryou andme.Tbrougb grace of God

’

s dear courteryBy angels working busilyFor travellers to

'

tbat blest countryWbere reignetb He— tbcOne— tbc Tbree.

Tbe tbird road is tbe wayof prayerAndwemayfind it aaywbereA ndprayer is work and oftenpainA ndpain isprayer and tben again

Work sbould beprayer, and often isSet bigb among life

’

s sanctities

By sufiering, andwe sballproveTbese tbree roads one, f or all are loveAndHe trod every one of tbemWbo lay in straw at Betblebem .

-FATHER ANDREW, in Horizons.



cessions o f others— no r did he ever ask His disciplesto pray fo r Him . How diff erent in this respect is the lif eo f Jesus from that o f His great apo stle Paul IThe greater part o f the prayer-life o f our Saviouris shro uded in mystery . A veil o f silence covers thethirty years at Nazareth bu t w e know they must haveb een years o f communio n with God and intercession fo rthe wo rld, in preparatio n fo r His great mission.

Who taught Jesus His first prayer as a child ? Whicho f the Psalms o f prayer and thanksgiving in the Jewishritual were mo st precious to Him ?Some have imagined that His favourite b o ok in the

Old Testament w as Deutero nomy b ecause it is mo stfrequently quo ted in the Go spel-reco rd o f His wo rds .One has o nly to read the last fo ur chapters thoughtqy

to see what a wealth o f adoration and intercession ishere enshrined in the song and b lessing o f Moses .J . P. Lange has a paragraph on the prayers of Jesusthat is wo rth pondering

Ou t o f Christ’s divinely rich prayer-life, thereemerge

,as from an o cean

,the pearls Of those single

prayers o f His that are preserved to us Heappears as the Prince o f humanity even in the realmo f prayer ; in the manner, likewise, in which Hehas co ncealed His prayer-life, exhib iting it onlyas there was necessity fo r its presentment. If weregard His wo rk as a tree that towers into heavenand overshadows the wo rld, His prayer-life is theroo t o f this tree His overcoming o f the wo rld restsupon the infinite depth o f His self-presentation

T H E P R A YER S O F O U R L O R D 173

b efo re Go d, His self-devo tio n to God,His self

immersion in Go d,His self-certitude and power from

Go d. In His prayer-life the perfect truth o f Hishuman nature has also approved itself. The same who ,as the Son o f God

,is complete revelation, is as the

Son o f Man,complete religion .

”

The first reference w e have to Jesus as engaged inprayer is in Luke’s Go spel where w e read Now whenall the people were b aptised, it came to pass that Jesusalso b eing b aptised, andpraying, the heaven was o penedand the Ho ly Gho st descended in a b o di ly shape like adove upon Him and a vo ice came from heaven whichsaid

,Tho u art My b eloved Son ; in Thee I am well

pleased .

” Then fo llows the statement that Jesus wasab out thirty years o f age . ” What a life o f prayeris hidden in tho se silent years What victories o f faithand patience and love they must have witnessed inlowly and lonely Nazareth

We saw Tbee not wben Tbou didst come

To tbispoor world of sin anddeatb

Nor e’

er bebeld Tbycottage bome

In tbat despisédNazaretb .

But we believe Tbyfootsteps trodIts streets andplains, Tbou Son of God.

From Luke’s Go spel w e learn mo st regarding theprayer-life o f o ur Saviour

,while Jo hn gives us the

most regarding the language o f His prayers . Afterthe b aptism Luke tells us o f the fo rty days and fo rtynights o f fasting and prayer in the wilderness . Then


after pro claiming His mission, w e are to ld that He

departed and went into a desert place evidently to b e alone in prayer . Af terwards He cleansedthe leper and His fame spread ab ro ad so that greatmultitudes came together to hear

,

”but He withdrew

Himself into the wilderness and prayed ”

(5 Inthe next chapter, when the Jews were filled with madness and communed o ne with ano ther what they mightdo to Jesus w e read again that He went o ut into amountain to pray and co ntinued all night in prayer toGod (6 Jesus

,w e are to ld by Jo hn, knew from

the b eginning who sho uld b etray Him (John 6 64,

Therefo re just b efo re He cho se the twelve, includingJudas Iscario t, He spent the who le night in prayer.

As Bo rchert remarks,the ho ur demanded an immense

sacrifice from Him : He to ok the serpent into Hisb o som.

”

The writer o f the Epistle to the Heb rews had knowledge o f such inner prayer-life o f Jesus

,when he wro te

o f the days o f His flesh when He had o ffered upprayer and supplicatio n with strong crying and tearsunto Him that was ab le to save Him from death, andw as heard in that He feared .

” No t o nly at the last, inGethsemane

, but all thro ugh His mini stry, such prayermust have b een His experience . We have glimpses o fit in His prayer fo r Peter when he faced temptation(Luke 2 2 : Jesus knew the human heart. Peter’scourage failed him

,as did his emo tions and his heart

and mind ; but Jesus was praying and Peter’s faith didno t die . Such intercession co sts agony. Peter stoo dby the fire warming himself while his Master was spat


176 T A K IN G H O L D O F G O D

thanksgivings are elo quent in teaching us that Jesuswas always co nscio us o f His Father and o f His ow npeculiar relationship to Him . The self-consciousnesso f this unique relationship puts a gulf b etween theprayers o f Jesus and the prayers o f His disciples— theformer are totaliter aliter . Listen

I thank Thee,O Father

,Lo rd o f heaven and

earth,b ecause Tho u hast hid these things from the

wise and prudent,and hast revealed them unto

b ab es . Even so Father : fo r so it seemed go o d inThy sight. All things are delivered unto Me Of MyFather and no man knoweth the Son bu t the Fatherneither knoweth any man the Father save the Sonand he to whomso ever the Son will reveal Him .

”

Jesus lifted up His eyes and said : Father, Ithank Thee that Thou hast heard Me . And I knowthat Thou hearest Me always : but b ecause o f thepeople which stand by, I said it that they may b elievethat Tho u hast sent me .And Bo rchert says

To Jesus prayer was the necessary answer to thevoice o f Go d which He heard everywhere b ecauseHe lived so much in Him . Prayer went like a divineshuttle b ackwards and fo rwards b etween Him andthe Father. On the still, dark lake o f Galilee,prob ab ly f o r the first and o nly time

,prayer b ecame

a loving alo ud, full and undisturb ed, a transfo rmatio n o f existence into pure sub j ectiveness—He inthe Father and the Father in Him .

T H E P R A Y E R S O F O U R L O R D 177

Thi s great mystery o f the prayer-life Of Jesus we mayno t prob e, bu t can o nly stand in awe and worship .

The high-priestly prayer is also ho ly gro und . TheGo spel of Jo hn is the charter o f Christian mysticismand he who leaned o n Jesus’ b osom had the deepest insight into the implications o f the incarnation . AsOrigensays

,No one can fully understand this prayer who has

no t, like its autho r, lain upon the b reast o f Jesus .Here we have the length and b readth and depth and

height o f intercessio n . A few hours b efo re his deathJohn Kno x said to his wife

,GO, where I cast my first

ancho r ! And so she read to him the seventeenthchapter of Jo hn . It is go o d ancho r gro und fo r us all,and co ntains exceeding great and precio us promises asan ancho r o f the so ul

,sure and steadfast.

The prayer is addressed to Go d the Father by theSon and thro ugh the eternal Spirit. The wo rd Fathero ccurs six times

,twice with the addition o f the wo rds,

ho ly and righteo us . The prayer is generally dividedinto three parts First

,Jesus prays fo r Him self (v s. 1

then fo r His apostles (v s. 6 and lastly fo r the Church(vs. 2 0 In the first part His desire is that Godmay b e glo rified in b estowing eternal life thro ughHimself upo n all to whom He is sent . He prays fo r theapostles as instruments in co ntinuing His wo rk in thewo rld. And then the ho rizon o f theirwo rld-wide missionlifts and He prays fo r all b elievers present and future thatthey may b eho ld and share His glo ry with the Father.From ano ther aspect

,as Pro fesso rWilliamO. Carver has

pointed o ut, this great prayer is wholly mi ssio nary.

1

1 Missions in tbe Plan of tbcAges, pp. 76, 83 .


The ho ur is come,the crucial ho ur o f His atoning

death,the supreme hour fo r Love’s manifestation

,fo r

sins’

s ultimate effo rt and defeat . Because Go d hasgiven His Son authority over all flesh He can b estoweternal life upon tho se who b elieve in His name. Tomake that name known is to fini sh the work whichChrist has given us to do Jesus has set imperisha‘

b lyin human life and knowledge GOd’

s nature and message. This is the seed that will grow into a great tree .”

He prays that the little gro up Of disciples may b e keptin faith and in unity in order that the wo rld at largemay b elieve in Him.

“A s Tho u didst send me into

the world,so do I send them into the world.

” Theyare the pro j ection o f Christ’s mi ssion . They are to goon His errand in His spirit and make up that which 13

b ehind in His suff ering . So that finally the prayer includes all who shall b elieve— the great multitudewhich John saw in vision and which no man cannumb er.And now in one final burst of passion all His wo rk,all His longing

,all His hopes

,all His plans find preg

nant expression (verses 2 5-2 6)

O righteous Father, the world did not knowThee ; but I knew Thee : (so I came to make theworld know) and these came to know that Tho udidst send me ; and I made known unto them Thy(true) name (and character) , and will (continue to)make it known ; so that the love wherewith Thoulovedst me may be in them and I in them.

’ 1

1Missions in tbc Plan of tbe Ages, p . 82 .



earnestly : and His sweat was as it were great dropso f b lood falling down to the ground (Luke 2 2

41-44)

Matthew tells us that this prayer was repeated threetimes and that Jesus fell on His face pro strate whilepraying ; while John is silent regarding the prayer inthe Garden. Here b egan the loneliness o f the Passion

,

the climax in the life o f the lonely Nazarene . All

ye shall b e offended b ecause Of me this night — thatwas His warning . And when He b egan to b e so rrowfuland very heavy in spirit those who were asked to watchwith Him fell asleep . Alo ne He faced the darknesso f that hour ; alone He overcame the Tempter ; aloneHe prayed thrice and aro se victo rious . That is thelesso n he would teach us.

Go to dark Getbsemane,

Ye tbatfeel tbc Tempter’spower

Your Redeemer’

s conflict see,Watcb witb Him one bitter bour

Turn notfrom Hisgriefs awayLearn of esus bow topray.

”

Fo r the Christian as f o r Christ, although on a far lowerplane and in les ser degree

,there may b e ecstasy in

to rment. As Thomas aKempis puts it, When thoushalt come to this state that tribulatio n is sweet to thee,and tho u do s t relish it f o r Christ’s sake, then think itto be well with thee, fo r tho u hast fo und Paradise onearth . To accept the chalice o f pain o r di sappo intmentwith j oy is to share the fellowship o f Him who prayed

THE P R A Y E R S O F O U R L O R D 181

Nevertheless no t my will but thine b e doneAnd there appeared an angel unto him from heaven

,

s trengthening him .

’

One mo re b rief prayer is reco rded o f o ur Saviourb efo re His cry on the Cross “My God

,my God

, whyfo llowed by his confident,

“ Father into Thyhands I commend my spirit .”

When the so ldiers and the Jewish m o b led Him to

the place called Calvary and b egan their cruel task o f

nailing the three victims to their cro sses,Luke tells us

that Jesus prayed : “ Father fo rgive them ; fo r theyknow not what they do .

” The first o f the seven wo rdsfrom the cross is the last wo rd on the love that passethknowledge

,the fo rgiveness that knows no b o unds, and

the divine omniscience o f man’s b lindness and igno ranceand sin, but whi ch emb races all in its mercy . Whereman’s sin ab ounded, nay went b eyo nd all b o unds, gracedid much mo re ab o und. O the depth o f the richesb o th o f the wisdom and mercy o f Go d in this b riefprayer f o r pardo n At the b eginning and at the end o fthe crucifixion, Jesus addresses Go d as Father. Hewho had power on earth to fo rgive sins, prays fo r theforgivenes s o f tho se who sinned against Him by theperpetration o f the most hideo us crime o f all history .

Fo r they knew no t what they did,no r to whom they did

it,else they would no t have crucified the Lord o f Glo ry

(I Cor. 2Tw o mo re

,o f the seven last words from the Cross,

may b e considered as sentence prayers . The first, when(as Mrs . Browning tells us in the last stanzas o f herpoem on Cowper’s grave)

1 82 T A K I N G H OLD O F G O D

Adam’

s sins swept between tbc rigbteous Son and

Yea, once, Immanuel’s orpbaned cry His universe batb

It went up single, ecboless, AllyGod I amforsakenIt went upfrom tbcHoly

’

s lips, andf orHis lost creation,Tbat of tbe lost, no son sboulduse tbosewords of desolation.

And sho rtly after tbat b itter cry, which none o f us willever fathom

,came the last word Father

,into thy

hands I commend my spirit.”

And so ended the prayer-life o f the Son o f Man,who (after his glo rious resurrectio n and ascension tothe right hand o f the Father) ever lives to make intercessio n fo r us . And who

,b ecause He partook o f o ur

flesh and b lood,knoweth o ur frame

,rememb ereth that

we are dust, and can have compassion on the ignorantand those who are o ut o f the w ay.

We know no t how to pray as w e ought, but HisSpirit maketh intercession f o r us with gro anings thatcanno t b e uttered. Only in the light o f the prayer-lifeo f Jesus can we rightly examine o ur own ways o f prayer.If w e do no t take time fo r wo rship

,if the greatness Of

Go d’s lo ve and glo ry do not ho ld us, let us learn o f

Christ and amend o ur ways .If w e are without moral passion and do no t hunger

and thirst fo r righteo usness among men, let us learno f Christ . If o ur prayers f o r others are perfuncto ry o r

casual ; if we care to o little fo r others o r fo r mankindto b e ab le to give time to intercession, let us rememb erChrist’s midnight hours o f prayer. If the circle of those


Fatber, I scarcelydare topray,So clear I see, now it is done,

Tbat I bavewasted balfmy day,

And left my work butjust begun.

S0 clear I see tbat tbings I tbougbtWere rigbt or barmless were a sin

So clear I see tbat I bave sougbt ,Unconscious, selfisb aims to win.

So clear I see tbat I bave burtTbe souls I migbt bave belped to save,

Tbat I bave slotbf ul been, inert,Deaf to tbc calls Tby leadersgave.

In outskirts of Tby kingdom vast,

Fatber,tbc bumblest spot give me

Set me tbe lowliest task tbou bast

Let me, repentant, workf or Tbee—Helen Hunt Jackson’s last poem.

A DEVOTIONAL SERVICE OF MEDITATIONON THE TRINITY



And God is ab le to giv e you an overflowing measureo f all go o d gif ts, that all your wants o f every kind mayb e supplied at all times, and yo u may giv e o f yourabundance to ev ery wo rk.

”

Corybeare and Howson.

And God is ab le to b estow every b lessing on you in

abundance, so that richly enjo ying all sufli ciency, at alltimes

, you may have ample means fo r all go od wo rks.

”

qmoutb.

God is ab le to b less you with ample means, so thatyou may always hav e quite enough fo r any emergencyo f yo ur ow n, and ample b esides fo r any kind act to

o thers.”

Godhaspower to cause every kind o f favour to superab ound unto yo u , in o rder that in ev erything, at ev erytime, hav ing ev ery so rt o f sufficiency o f your own,

yemay b e superab o unding unto every go od wo rk.

”

Rotberbam .

God has power to shower all kinds o f b lessings uponyou , so that hav ing, under all circumstances, and on allo ccasions, all that you can need, you may b e ab le toshower all kinds o f b enefits upon o thers.

”

Twentietb Century New Testament.

II. LET US MEDITATE ON jESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR“Jesus the v ery thought o f Thee

CONFESSION :

Father fo rgiv e me, fo r I knew no t, truly I knew no t,

what I did in sinning against Thee.Lo rd, rememb er meWhen Tho u comest into Thy kingdom.

Lo rd, lay no t mine enemies’ sins to their chargeLo rd, lay no t my own to mine.

S ER V I C E O F M E D I T A T I ON 1 89

By Thy sweat, b lo ody and clo tted, Thy soul in agony,Thy head crowned with tho rns, b ruised with stav es,Thine eyes a fountain o f tears,Thine ears f ull o f insults,Thy mouth mo istened with vinegar and gall,Thy face stained with spitting,Thy neck b owed down with the burden o f the cro ss,Thy b ack ploughed with the weals and wounds o f the

scourge,Thy pierced hands and feet

,

Thy strong cry, Eli, Eli ,Thy heart pierced with the spear

,

Thy water and b lo od thence flowing,Thy b ody b roken, Thy b lo od po ured out,

Lo rd, f o rgiv e the iniquity o f Thy servant, and cover allhis sin .

”

I b eliev e that Thou hast created me despise no t thewo rk o f Thine own hands that Tho u madest me af terThine image and likeness suffer no t Thy likeness to b eb lo tted o ut.

”

III. LET US MEDITATE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THANK HIM.

HYMN: Spirit o f God, descend upon my heart .”

THANKSGIVINGO Lo rd, my Lo rd, fo rmy b eing, life, reason, f o r nur

ture,pro tection, guidance, fo r education, f o r civ il rights,

religion, fo r Thy gif ts Of grace, nature, wo rldly go od,fo r redemption, regeneration, instruction, fo r my call,recall, yea many calls b esides ; fo r Thy fo rb earance,long suffering, long, long suffering toward me, manyseasons, many years, even until now ; fo r all go odthings receiv ed, successesgrantedme, go o d deeds donefo r the use o f things present, fo r Thy promise, and myhope o f the enjo yment o f go o d things to come fo r myparents honest and go od, teachers kind, b enefacto rs

190 T A K I N G H O L D O F G O Dnever to b e fo rgo tten, fellow-ministers who are o f o ne

mind,hearers thoughtful , friends s1ncere, domestics

faithful f o r all who have adv antaged me bywritings,sermons, conv ersations, prayers, examples, rebukes,injuries fo r al l these, and all o therswhich I know,

andwhich I know no t, open, hidden, rememb ered

, fo r

go tten, done when I wished, when I, wished no t, I confess to Thee andwill conf ess, I b less Thee andwill b less,I giv e thanks to Thee and wil l giv e thanks, all the dayso f my life.Who am I, o r what is my father’

s house, that Thoushouldest lo o k upon such a dead dog as I amWhat shall I render unto the Lo rd fo r all His b enefitstoward me ?Fo r all things in which He hath spared and b orne withme until now .

Holy, bol boly,Tbou art wort/y

r,

O Lo rd and o ur God, the Ho ly One, to receive glo ry,honour and power fo rThou hast created all things, andfo r Thy pleasure they are and were created. Amen.

(Bisbop A ndrewes’

Private Devotions .)

IV . LET US MAKE INTERCESSION FOR ALL MANKIND.

HYMN Sav iour sprinkle many nations.

”

Almighty Go d, o ur Heavenly Father, w ho hast made o fo ne b lo od all nations, and hast promised that manyshall come from the East and sit down with Ab rahamin Thy KingdomWe pray f o r all Thy prodigal children who are still

af ar Off , that they may b e b rought nigh by the b lo odo f Christ.Lo ok upon them in pity, b ecause they are igno rant o fThy truth.


19 2 T A K I N G H O L D O F GOD

hearts toward them mo re and mo re andwhile they arehearing the burden ab ro ad, giv e us grace to help andsuccour them by o ur sympathy and prayers at home.Bless every letter written to them and by them to tho seat home, and all o ur intercourse with them . We prayfo r them that they may b e filled with Thy Spirit . Grantthat the same mind m ay b e in them which w as also inChrist Jesus. Let them nev er lo se their first lov e. Raisethem ab ov e the cares o f this wo rld. Help them to denythemselv es and to endure all things fo r the elect

’

s sake.Giv e them the tongue o f the learned. Clo the them withhumility. Teach them to f o llow peace with each o ther,and with all men. Suppo rt them under spiritual distresses, temptations o f the adv ersary, b odily sickness,domestic anxieties, and hope deferred. And so confirmThy wo rd f rom their lips by the power o f the Ho lyGho st, that through them multitudes may b e turnedfrom darkness to light, and from the power o f Satanunto God.

HYMN : Ten Tho usand Times Ten Thousand.

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