and the experience of Christians, as detailed in their biographies or
personal confessions, discloses a wide difference between His words and
the findings of His disciples. Many have become accustomed to
disappointment in prayer. They have asked so many things which they
have never received; have sought so much without finding; have knocked
so repeatedly, but the door has remained closed. We are in the habit
of accounting for our failure by saying that probably our prayer was
not according to the will of God, or that God withheld the less that He
might give us something better. In some cases there may be even an
unspoken misgiving about the harmony of prayer with our Father's love
and wisdom, or with a perfect confidence in Him as doing the best for
us in the world. We forget that if we prayed as we should, we should
ask what was according to His will. We evade Christ's definite words,
"_Whatsoever_ ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do."
When we consider the lives of some who have wrought mightily for God,
it is clear that they had learned a secret which eludes many of us.
Take this, for instance, from the biography of Dr. Burns Thomson.
"When much together as students," writes his friend, "we agreed on
special petitions, and the Lord encouraged us by giving answers, so
early and so definite, as could only have come from Himself, so that no
room was left for the shadow of a doubt that God was the Hearer and
Answerer of prayer. Once the answer came the same day, and at another
time, whilst we were yet speaking. My friend often spoke of our
agreement, to the glory of Him who fulfilled to us His promise, and I
refer to it, to encourage others." This is but one leaf out of the
great library of prayers, intercessions, and supplications for all
saints, which stand recorded before God.
We naturally turn to our Lord's last utterances in which His
instructions about prevailing prayer are fuller than those of the
Sermon on the Mount; and than those given in the mid-passage of His
earthly life, which depict the importunity of the widow with the unjust
judge, and of the friend with his friend at midnight. The words spoken
in the chapter we are now considering are particularly pertinent to our
purpose, because they deal exclusively with the age to which our Lord
frequently referred as "that day," the day of Pentecost, the age of the
Holy Ghost, the day of this dispensation.
OUR LORD TEACHES THAT ANY PRAYER WHICH IS TO PREVAIL WITH GOD MUST PASS
FIVE TESTS, though these are but different phases of the same attitude.
(1) _The glory of the Father._--"That the Father may be glorified in
the Son" (John xiv. 13). The one purpose of Christ on earth was to
glorify the Father; and at the close of His life here He was conscious
that He had not striven in vain. "Now," said He, "is the Son of Man
glorified, and God is glorified in Him." This was the purpose of His
earthly career, and it was perfectly consistent with that of His
eternal being; for each person of the Holy Trinity is ever intent on
unfolding and displaying the moral beauty of the other twain. Having
sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Christ still pursues
His cherished purpose of making His Father known, loved, and adored.
No prayer, therefore, can hope to succeed with Him, or can claim His
concurrent intercession, which is out of harmony with this sublime
intent.
Whatever petition we offer should be submitted to this standard. Can
we establish it in the presence of Christ, that our request will
promote the glory of the Father? Bring in your evidence--establish
your pleas--adduce your strong reasons. If you can make good your
claim, your prayer is already granted. But be sure that it is
impossible to seek the glory of God consistently with selfish aims.
These two can no more coexist than light and darkness in the same cubic
space. The glory of God will ever triumph at our cost. It is equally
certain that none of us can truly pray for the glory of God, unless we
are living for it. It is only out of the heart that has but one
purpose in life and death, that those prayers emanate which touch the
tenderest chord in the Saviour's nature, and awaken all His energies to
their highest activity, "That will I do."
(2) _In Christ's Name._--"Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name" (John
xiv. 13). Throughout the Holy Scriptures, _name stands for nature_.
The Master says, "You must ask My Nature." In other words, when we
pray, it must not be as the self-nature, but as the Christian-nature
dictates. We always know when that is paramount. It excludes
boasting; it is pure, peaceable and loving; it is far removed from the
glare and gaud of the world, it is full of Calvary, Olivet, and
Pentecost. There are days in our life when we feel borne along on its
tidal current; when Christ is in us, the hope of glory; when a power is
working within us beyond what we can ask or think; when we live, yet
not we, but Christ in us--these are the times most propitious for
prayer. Pour out your heart before God. Let Christ, who is in you by
the Holy Spirit, speak to the Christ who is above you on the throne.
Let the living water, which has descended from the eternal city, return
back to its source through the channel of your heart. This is praying
in His Name, and according to His Nature.
Before we can expect our prayers to prosper, let us sit quietly down,
and, putting aside all other voices, permit the Christ-nature to speak.
It is only in proportion as it countersigns our petitions that they
will reach the audience-chamber of eternity. Surely, if this test were
properly applied, many of the petitions we now offer so glibly would
never leave our lips, and we should be satisfied about the fate of many
another prayer which, like some ill-fated barque, has left our shores,
and never been heard of again. But again let it be remembered that
none can pray in the name of Christ who do not live for that name, like
those early evangelists of whom John says that for the sake of the Name
they took nothing of the Gentiles. The name of Christ must be
predominant in life, if it is to be efficacious in prayer.
(3) _Abide in Christ._--"If ye abide in Me, . . . ask what ye will"
(John xv. 7). We are in Christ, by the grafting of the great
Husbandman, who took us out of the wild vine of nature, and
incorporated us with Christ. That union is forever, but its conscious
enjoyment and helpfulness arise only in so far as we keep His
commandments. A limb may be in the body, and yet be dislocated and
useless. If you are in a train running through to your destination at
the terminus, all that is necessary is to resist the temptation to
alight at the stations _en route_, and to remain where you are. If,
then, God the Father has put you into Christ, and is seeking to
establish you in Him, be careful to resist every temptation or
suggestion to depart from living fellowship by any act of disobedience
or unbelief.
If you abide in Christ in daily fellowship, it will not be difficult to
pray aright, for He has promised to abide in those who abide in Him;
and the sap of the Holy Ghost, securing for you fellowship with your
unseen Lord, will produce in you, as fruit, desires and petitions
similar to those which He unceasingly presents to His Father.
Throughout the ages Christ has been asking of God. This is the
perpetual attitude of the Son to the Father. He cannot ask what the
Father may not give. To get then into the current of His prayer is to
be sure of success. Abide in Him, that He may abide in you; not only
in the activities of holy service, but in the intercessions and
supplications of the hour of private prayer.
(4) _Submit prayer to the correction of the Word._--"If My words abide
in you" . . . (John xv. 7). Christ's words have been compared to a
court of solemn and stately presences, sitting to try our prayers
before they pass on into the Master's presence.
Here is a prayer which is selfish and earth-born, grasping at the
prizes of worldly ambition and greed. But as it enters it encounters
that solemn word, "_Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness,_" and it turns back surprised and ashamed.
Here is another prayer, full of imprecation and unkindness toward some
one who has maligned or injured the petitioner. But it is met by that
solemn word of the Master, "_Love your enemies, pray for them that
despitefully use you,_" and it hastens to retire.
Here is another prayer full of murmuring regret because of the pressure
of the cross, the weight of the restraining yoke. But forthwith that
notable word of Christ forbids its further progress, saying, "_In the
world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world._" In the presence of that reminder and rebuke, the prayer,
abashed, turns away its face and departs. Like the accusers of the
woman taken in the act of sin, prayers like these are inwardly
convicted of unfitness, and go forth.
The words of Christ forbid unsuitable prayer, but they also stir the
heart with great desire for the realization of those good things which
Christ has promised to them that love Him. In this sense prayer
becomes a dialogue between the Master who says, "Seek ye My face," and
the disciple who responds, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek."
(5) _Fruit-bearing._--"I appointed you that ye should bear fruit
that . . ." (John xv. 16). In other words, answers to prayers depend
very largely on our ministry to others. If we are prompted by desire
for our own comfort, peace, or enjoyment, we shall stand but a poor
chance of audience in the secret of His presence. If, on the other
hand, our prayers are connected with our fruit-bearing--that is, with
our ministry to others, with the coming of the kingdom, and the
accomplishment of God's purpose of salvation--the golden sceptre will
be extended to us, as when Ahasuerus said to Esther, "What is thy
request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed."
Is sun needed to ripen the fruit? Ask for it. The Father waits to
give it. Is dew or rain needed that the pitchers may be filled to the
brim with water which is to be made wine? Ask for it. God is not
unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. Ask for all but
pruning; this the Father will administer, according to the good
pleasure of His goodness. The fruit-bearing branches have a right to
claim and appropriate all that is needed for the sweetening and
ripening of their precious burden.
The temple of prayer is thus guarded from the intrusion of the
unprepared footstep by many tests. At the foot of the marble steps, we
are challenged for the watchword; and if we do not speak in harmony
with God's glory, our further passage is peremptorily stayed. The key,
engraven with the name of Jesus, will only obey the hand in which His
nature is throbbing. We must be in Him, if He is to plead in us. His
words must prune, direct, and control our aspirations; His service must
engage our energies. We must take part in the camp with His soldiers,
in the vineyard with His husbandmen, in the temple-building with His
artificers. It is as we serve our King, that we can reckon absolutely
on His answer to our prayers.
THREE CONCLUDING THOUGHTS REMAIN.
_First_. It is clear that our prayers depend very largely on our inner
life. Where that is vigorous and healthy, they will be the same. But
let deterioration and failure set in there, and the effect will be
instantly apparent in our prayers. They act and react. Out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaks; and when the mouth is opened
in prayer and supplication, the heart speaks.
_Second_. Bespeak the Spirit's indwelling. He is the bond of
communion and fellowship between the Father and the Son, and will lift
us into the holy circle of that eternal life, so that the current may
pass through us with uninterrupted velocity and force. He makes inward
intercession for the saints according to the will and mind of God.
_Third_. Expect that prayer will become ever more engrossing, as the
Divine impulse is yielded to; so that what now occupies but a
comparatively small portion of time and energy will become with us, as
with the great Apostle, an exercise which we prosecute with unceasing
ardor, an ever-delightful method of promoting the Redeemer's Kingdom.
XVII
The hatred of the World
"They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that
whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these
things they will do unto you, because they have not known the Father,
nor Me."--JOHN xvi. 2, 3.
How near love and hate dwell in these words of Jesus! He had been
urging His disciples to cultivate perfect love, the love of God; He now
turns to describe the inevitable hatred with which they would be
assailed in the world that knew neither the Father nor Himself. And if
an additional motive were needed to induce that love, it would surely
be given by the consideration of that hate.
This is no unimportant theme. It touches, very nearly, the lives of
thousands of believers amongst us. Though they have not to face the
thumbscrew and the stake, they discover painfully enough that the
offence of the Cross has not ceased. There are amongst us many who
daily quiver under the venomous gibe of neighbor and fellow-workman,
and find that their acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Master
has suddenly changed their family and working-life from a garden of
roses into a bed of thorns. Many a young man in the city
counting-house, many a mechanic at the bench, many a traveller in the
commercial-room, many a student on the college-benches, is doomed to
discover that the world does not love the Church better than in those
days when the fires gleamed in Smithfield, and men and women were
burned to death for loving God. But how sweet to know that all this
verifies the Master's words: Ye are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own;
but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you.
I. WHAT THEN IS THE WORLD?--It consists of those who are destitute of
the life and love of God, as contrasted with those who have received
and welcomed the unspeakable gift which is offered to all in Jesus
Christ. The great mass of the unregenerate and unbelieving, considered
as a unity, is the world, as interpreted by our Lord and His apostles.
The world has its god and its religion, which was first instituted by
Cain at the gates of Eden; its prince, and court, and laws; its maxims
and principles; its literature and pleasures. It is dominated by a
peculiar spirit which the apostle calls a lust or fashion, and
resembles the German _Zeit-Geist_: an infection, an influence, a
pageantry, a witchery; reminding us of the fabled mountain of loadstone
which attracted vessels to itself for the iron that was in them, and
presently drew the nails from the timbers, so that the whole fabric
fell a helpless, shapeless mass into the waves. The votaries of the
world attach themselves to the objects of sense, to the things which
are seen and temporal. They have the utmost horror of poverty,
suffering, and humiliation; these they consider their chief evils to be
avoided at any cost; whilst they regard as the chief good, riches,
pleasure, and honor.
The world is thus a great unity and entity; standing together as a
mighty kingdom; united and compacted together as Nebuchadnezzar's
image; environing the Church, as the great kingdoms of Assyria and
Egypt did the chosen people of God in the days of the kings. It
resembles a pack of wolves. "Behold," said Christ, "I send you forth
as sheep in the midst of wolves." Between such irreconcilable
opposites as the Church and the world, there cannot but be antagonism
and strife. Each treasures and seeks what the other rejects as
worthless. Each is devoted to ends that are inimical to the dearest
interests of the other. Each follows a prince, who met the prince of
the other, in mortal conflict. Let us thank Him, who out of this world
chose us for Himself.
II. LET US TRACE THE STORY OF THE WORLD'S HATRED.--_It was foretold in
Eden_. "I will put enmity," so God spoke to the serpent, "between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed." We are not disposed
to treat that ancient record with which our Bible opens as romance or
fairy story, but to regard it as containing a true and authentic record
of what actually transpired. That declaration is the key to the Bible.
On every page we meet the conflict, the bruising of the Church's heel
by the dark powers, and the increasing area of victory covered by our
Emmanuel, the Virgin's Child. This hatred is then in the very nature
of things, for this is but another name for God. It is, like others of
the deepest facts in the experience of man, fundamental and inevitable,
the outcome of mysteries which lie beyond the ken of man.
_And it has characterized every age._--Abel is slain by Cain, who was
of the evil one, and slew his brother. Joseph is put into a pit by his
brethren, and into a prison by his master's wife; the Hebrew is smitten
by the Egyptian; David is hunted by Saul as a partridge on the
mountains; Micaiah is hated by Ahab because he always testifies against
him; Jeremiah lives a very suffering stricken life, until he is slain
in Egypt for remonstrating against a policy he could not alter; each of
the little company then listening to Christ is forecast for a martyr's
death, with, perhaps, the exception of John himself, whose life was
martyrdom enough; Stephen sheds the blood of his pure and noble nature,
and from that day to this the blood of the saints has poured in
streams, until the last harrowing records, which have come to light,
only of recent years, of the indescribable tortures and death of
Armenian martyrs.
Each age has had its martyr-roll. They have been tortured, not
accepting deliverance, have had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea,
moreover of bonds and imprisonment; have been stoned, sawn asunder,
tempted, and slain with the sword; wandering in deserts and mountains
and caves, and the holes of the earth: of whom the world was not worthy.
_The root or ground of hatred is not due to the evil discovered in the
persons, who are the objects of the world's hate._--"They hated Me
without a cause," our Saviour sorrowfully said. There might have been
some cloke for the shamelessness of the world's sin, if He had not
spoken words and done works among them such as none other ever said and
did; but in the face of the perfect beauty of His character, the grace
and truth of His words, and the loveliness of His deeds, it was by
their perfidy He was crucified and slain. In vain He challenged them
to convince Him of sin, and to bear witness to any evil which might
justify their malicious cruelty. They knew it was innocent blood; but
this knowledge, so far from mollifying them, only exasperated them the
more.
The world hates the Church, not for the evil that is in it, but for the
good. It hates without cause. The holier and purer a life is, the
more certainly it will attract to itself malignity and dislike. The
more Christlike we are, the more we must suffer the relentless hate
that drove the nails into His hands, and the spear into His side. Do
not be surprised at this. Think it not strange concerning the fiery
trial which cometh to prove you, as though a strange thing happened
unto you; but doubt and question and be in fear, if you meet only
smiles and flattery and such honors as the world can give. You may
then ask yourselves whether you are not one of the world's own.
_The real origin and fountain of the hatred of the world is due to
Satan's antagonism to God._--In his original creation, he was doubtless
as fair as any of the firstborn sons of light; but in his pride he
substituted himself for God, and love faded out of his being, making
way for the unutterable darkness of diabolic hate. Satan hates God
with a hatred for which there are no words; and therefore when the
Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, Satan gathered up
every energy and resource of his nature to dog His steps, and make His
course through the world as painful as possible. Do you wonder that
the life of Jesus was so full of suffering? It could not have been
otherwise. Directly God, in the person of Jesus, stepped down into the
time-sphere, and assumed the conditions of earth and death, He came
within the range of the utmost that Satan could do to molest and injure
Him. Similarly, when the blessed Lord becomes the tenant of the heart,
and in proportion as He is so, that heart attracts to itself the hatred
with which the devil from the beginning has hated God. "If they have
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept My
saying, they will keep yours also. And these things will they do unto
you, because they have not known the Father nor Me."
_It is natural for the evil to hate the good._--First, the sinner has
an uneasy conscience, and it hurts him to come in contact with those
whose character reminds him of what he ought to be, and might be, and
perhaps once was. The diseased eye dreads the light. The uncanny,
slimy things that lurk beneath stones, and in dark caves, squirm in
pain when you let in the day. The Turkish Sultan dislikes the presence
of British representatives, and correspondents of the Daily Press, amid
the dark deeds of blood and lust by which he is making Armenia a
desert. "Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to
the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."
In addition to an uneasy conscience, the sinner has an unbroken will.
He stoutly resists the impression of a superior and condemning
goodness. He hardens his heart, and strengthens its defences. "Who is
the Lord, that I should obey His voice? Double the tale of bricks:
summon the choice chariots and veteran soldiers of Egypt, that we may
pursue, overtake, and divide the spoil." Such are the successive boats
and challenges of the hardened heart.
Is it to be wondered at, under such conditions, that the wicked
plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth, that
he draws his sword and bends his bow, to shoot privily at the upright
of heart? "The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is
judged."
_The great object of this hatred is to overcome the good._--In this
respect the hate of the world is like the love of the Church. The
child of God loves, that he may overcome the evil in the world, by
converting evil-doers from the error of their ways and assimilating
them to holiness; the child of the devil hates, that he may overcome
the good of the world, by arresting their goodness, and assimilating to
evil. Ah, how thankful we may be that we are not of the world, but
have been chosen out of it; for it lieth in the wicked one, and is
infected with the hatred of hell.
It is not difficult, therefore, to go through the world, and escape its
hate. We have only to adopt its maxims, speak its language, and
conform to its ways. In the well-known picture of the Huguenots, the
young girl, with pleading, upturned face, seeks to tie the Royalist
scarf around her lover's arm. She will secure his safety if she
succeeds! Ah, how many pleading glances are cast at us to induce us to
spare ourselves and others, by toning down our speech, and covering our
regimentals by the disguising cloke of conformity to the world around!
"If you do not approve, at least you need not express your
disapproval." "If you cannot vote for, at least do not vote against."
If you dissent, put your sentiments in courtly phrase, and so pare them
down that they may not offend sensitive ears. Such is the advice,
which is freely proffered. But those who follow it quickly discover
that the compromise of principle involves certainly and awfully the
loss of influence for good.
III. OUR BEHAVIOR AMID THE WORLD'S HATRED.--We have fallen on evil
days. The world has been coated over with a Christian veneer, whilst
the Church has become leavened with the subtle spirit of the world. It
is hard to come out and be separate, because in the dim twilight one is
apt to mistake friend and foe. The bribes are so rich for those who
conform, the dissuasive so strong for those who refuse to bow to the
great golden image. But our duty is clear. We must be true to the
spirit of Christ. We must live a holy and unworldly life; we must
avoid all that might be construed as an unworthy compromise of the
interests of our Master's Kingdom.
And through all the pitiless storm of hate that beats in our faces, we
must be glad. "Blessed are ye," said our Lord, "when men shall revile
you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you
falsely for My sake: rejoice and be exceeding glad." And why rejoice?
Because your reward is great in heaven; because you know that you are
not of the world; because you are shown to be on the path trodden by
the saints before you, every step of which has been trodden amid
similar manifestations of the devil's hate.