_I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I sleep long,
or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o’clock before I
begin secret prayer. This is a wretched system. It is unscriptural.
Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place. David says:
“Early will I seek thee;” “Thou shalt early hear my voice.” Family
prayer loses much of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good
to those who come to seek from me. The conscience feels guilty, the
soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed. Then when in secret prayer the
soul is often out of tune. I feel it is far better to begin with
God--to see his face first, to get my soul near him before it is near
another._--ROBERT MURRAY MCCHEYNE.
The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on
their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity
and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor
headway seeking him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our
thoughts and efforts in the morning, he will be in the last place the
remainder of the day.
Behind this early rising and early praying is the ardent desire which
presses us into this pursuit after God. Morning listlessness is the
index to a listless heart. The heart which is behindhand in seeking God
in the morning has lost its relish for God. David’s heart was ardent
after God. He hungered and thirsted after God, and so he sought God
early, before daylight. The bed and sleep could not chain his soul in
its eagerness after God. Christ longed for communion with God; and so,
rising a great while before day, he would go out into the mountain to
pray. The disciples, when fully awake and ashamed of their indulgence,
would know where to find him. We might go through the list of men who
have mightily impressed the world for God, and we would find them early
after God.
A desire for God which cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing
and will do but little good for God after it has indulged itself fully.
The desire for God that keeps so far behind the devil and the world at
the beginning of the day will never catch up.
It is not simply the getting up that puts men to the front and makes
them captain generals in God’s hosts, but it is the ardent desire which
stirs and breaks all self-indulgent chains. But the getting up gives
vent, increase, and strength to the desire. If they had lain in bed and
indulged themselves, the desire would have been quenched. The desire
aroused them and put them on the stretch for God, and this heeding and
acting on the call gave their faith its grasp on God and gave to their
hearts the sweetest and fullest revelation of God, and this strength of
faith and fullness of revelation made them saints by eminence, and the
halo of their sainthood has come down to us, and we have entered on the
enjoyment of their conquests. But we take our fill in enjoyment, and
not in productions. We build their tombs and write their epitaphs, but
are careful not to follow their examples.
We need a generation of preachers who seek God and seek him early, who
give the freshness and dew of effort to God, and secure in return the
freshness and fullness of his power that he may be as the dew to them,
full of gladness and strength, through all the heat and labor of the
day. Our laziness after God is our crying sin. The children of this
world are far wiser than we. They are at it early and late. We do not
seek God with ardor and diligence. No man gets God who does not follow
hard after him, and no soul follows hard after God who is not after him
in early morn.