We have already remarked that to call on the name of Jesus was the
distinctive peculiarity of the early believers, which marked them off
as a people by themselves. Would it be a true designation of the bulk
of so-called Christians now? You do not object to profess yourself a
Christian, or, perhaps, even to say that you are a disciple of
Christ, or even to go the length of calling yourself a follower and
imitator. But are you a worshipper of Him? In your life have you
the habit of meditating on Him as Lord, as Jesus, as Christ, and of
refreshing and gladdening dusty days and fainting strength by the
living water, drawn from the one unfailing stream from these triple
fountains? Is the invocation of His aid habitual with you?
There needs no long elaborate supplication to secure His aid. How
much has been done in the Church's history by short bursts of prayer,
as 'Lord, help me!' spoken or unspoken in the moment of extremity!
'They cried unto God in the battle.' They would not have time for
very lengthy petitions then, would they? They would not give much
heed to elegant arrangement of them or suiting them to the canons of
human eloquence. 'They cried unto God in the battle'; whilst the
enemy's swords were flashing and the arrows whistling about their
ears. These were circumstances to make a prayer a 'cry'; no composed
and stately utterance of an elegantly modulated voice, nor a languid
utterance without earnestness, but a short, sharp, loud call, such as
danger presses from panting lungs and parched throats. Therefore the
cry was answered, 'and He was entreated of them.' 'Lord, save us, we
perish!' was a very brief prayer, but it brought its answer. And so
we, in like manner, may go through our warfare and work, and day by
day as we encounter sudden bursts of temptation may meet them with
sudden jets of petition, and thus put out their fires. And the same
help avails for long-continuing as for sudden needs. Some of us may
have to carry lifelong burdens and to fight in a battle ever renewed.
It may seem as if our cry was not heard, since the enemy's assault is
not weakened, nor our power to beat it back perceptibly increased.
But the appeal is not in vain, and when the fight is over, if not
before, we shall know what reinforcements of strength to our weakness
were due to our poor cry entering into the ears of our Lord and
Brother. No other 'name' is permissible as our plea or as recipient
of our prayer. In and on the name of the Lord we must call, and if we
do, anything is possible rather than that the promise which was
claimed for the Church and referred to Jesus, in the very first
Christian preaching on Pentecost, should not be fulfilled--'Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
'In every place.' We may venture to subject the words of my text to a
little gentle pressure here. The Apostle only meant to express the
universal characteristics of Christians everywhere. But we may
venture to give a different turn to the words, and learn from them
the duty of devout communion with Christ as a duty for each of us
wherever we are. If a place is not fit to pray in it is not fit to be
in. We may carry praying hearts, remembrances of the Lord, sweet,
though they may be swift and short, contemplations of His grace, His
love, His power, His sufficiency, His nearness, His punctual help,
like a hidden light in our hearts, into all the dusty ways of life,
and in every place call on His name. There is no place so dismal but
that thoughts of Him will make sunshine in it; no work so hard, so
commonplace, so prosaic, so uninteresting, but that it will become
the opposite of all these if whatever we do is done in remembrance of
our Lord. Nothing will be too hard for us to do, and nothing too
bitter for us to swallow, and nothing too sad for us to bear, if only
over all that befalls us and all that we undertake and endeavour we
make the sign of the Cross and call upon the name of the Lord. If 'in
every place' we have Him as the object of our faith and desire, and
as the Hearer of our petition, in 'every place' we shall have Him for
our help, and all will be full of His bright presence; and though we
have to journey through the wilderness we shall ever drink of that
spiritual rock that will follow us, and that Rock is Christ. In every
place call upon His name, and every place will be a house of God, and
a gate of heaven to our waiting souls.