'And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing
with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power:
help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go
against this multitude. O Lord, Thou art our God; let not man prevail
against Thee.'--2 CHRON. xiv. 11.
This King Asa, Rehoboam's grandson, had had a long reign of peace,
which the writer of the Book of Chronicles traces to the fact that he
had rooted out idolatry from Judah, 'The land had rest, and he no war
... because the Lord had given him rest.'
But there came a time when the war-cloud began to roll threateningly
over the land, and a great army--the numbers of which, from their
immense magnitude, seem to be erroneously given--came up against him.
Like a wise man he made his military dispositions first, and prayed
next. He set his troops in order, and then he fell down on his knees,
and spoke to God.
Now, it seems to me that this prayer contains the very essence of what
ought to be the Christian attitude in reference to all the conditions
and threatening dangers and conflicts of life; and so I wish to run
over it, and bring out the salient points of it, as typical of what
ought to be our disposition.