_PRAYER._
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and
it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and
he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be
opened."--Matthew vii. 7, 8.
Prayer is one of the vital elements of the Christian life. It mingles
with its first impulses; it is the secret of every step in its
development, the hidden germ of the grain of mustard-seed, the sap
that nourishes the growing and the perfected tree from the furthermost
fibres of its roots to the topmost shoot of its branches. A sapless
tree is not a living one, but dead; a prayerless Christian cannot be.
As might have been expected, the New Testament is remarkably plain in
its teaching on this subject of prayer. The difficulties connected
with it which exist in our minds are not difficulties which it creates
or even sanctions. A simple reverence for its utterances is almost all
that we need for their removal. Let us inwardly pray for this while
we study the question now.
The form in which our Lord presents His exhortation in the text is
interesting and suggestive. He uses three words--"ask," "seek,"
"knock," which seem to intimate a gradation, and to lead up to a
climax. The word "ask" indicates the felt want of a good which may be
obtained; not purchased, but obtained as a free gift. The word "seek"
indicates the continuance of the asking, with the added idea, perhaps,
that our need is our fault, and that what we seek has been previously
lost. The word "knock" supposes a difficulty in obtaining, the delay
of the answer, a blessing shut up, and not immediately forthcoming.
Here, then, is a hint of possible difficulties. Nevertheless, a
promise is annexed, which is all-sufficient. "Ask, and it shall be
given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto
you." Christ's word is assurance enough for us; but He condescends to
append an argument drawn from a comparison between man and God,
between imperfect earthly parents and the infinitely perfect Father in
heaven; an argument which ought to be conclusive. "What man is there
of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he
ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your
Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?"
The facts as they lie open on the surface of the text are among the
most solemn and momentous facts of our life and thought. There is a
God, holding in the universe a position which is exclusively His own,
the great and only Giver of all good. Man's position is one of
dependence; in no sense is he self-sufficient. As it is God's
prerogative to give, so it is man's duty and interest to ask. There is
a possibility of communion between Him who gives and him who needs;
the hand of want brought into contact with the hand that supplies.
Then we have the fact that God is both able and willing to satisfy
man's want out of His own fulness. Further, we have the tender
solicitation to trust on our part--the absolute promise that such
trust can never be misplaced--and the encouraging assurance that the
God who gives is moved towards His creatures who ask by all the
sympathies of a Divine Fatherhood. Every ground of the confidence that
children have in their parents is consolidated into a rock of
immovable repose when the Heavenly Father comes in question.
These facts enter into the common substance of our Christian belief
and thought. As Christians, we never deny and never dispute them. We
hold them in a measure unconsciously till the crises of life bring
them into prominence. But they are inconceivably marvellous. As mere
conceptions they are grand; as realized grounds of hope they are
inexpressibly helpful. They are full of greatness and tenderness. Each
of us may say to himself: "My soul, with all thy manifold infirmities
and littlenesses, thou canst pray to the great God! Ay, thou canst
come to Him as to an infinite Father!" Surely that is distinction and
consolation enough.
Comparatively few Christians, however, understand prayer as they
should--either as a duty or as a privilege. With tens of thousands
amongst them it is to a great extent an unappreciated boon. Even many
devout Christians--anxious to use it to more effect--have their
difficulties. I want to offer some help to such as these. The scope of
prayer, unanswered prayer, delayed answers, etc., all are subjects of
anxious questioning.
I. Prayer, according to the teaching of Scripture and of experience,
is a simple transaction of asking and receiving. It indirectly serves
other ends, as we shall see shortly; but it is first of all, and all
through, just what I have stated. We pray because we want; we pray in
order to get what we want; and we pray with the feeling that we shall
not get it unless we pray. There is no mystery in such a view as this.
The transaction between the Christian and God, involved in prayer as
thus described, is as natural, as simple, as well defined, and as
easily understood, as the action of a child when it asks its parents
for what it needs, and when its parents give what it needs in answer
to the asking. The holy men of Scripture understood prayer in this
way. Their prayers are full of simplicity, both as to their structure
and their spirit. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, all
simply asked for such blessing as they felt they needed; asked for the
sake of receiving, and feeling that the reception of what they wanted
was dependent upon their asking. They unquestionably believed in an
invisible Hand, and felt that the Heart that guided that Hand
delighted to be trusted and appealed to in every, and for every, kind
of human need.
II. The simplicity of their view of the _nature_ of prayer is no
greater than that of the view they took of the _scope_ of prayer. A
feeling has grown up in the minds of many that we cannot ask with
confidence for temporal blessings, and that the only blessings for
which we may be sure that it is right to ask are those which are
spiritual. But that was not the idea of the praying men of the past.
There was not a blessing, material or spiritual, for which they
hesitated to pray--life, health, food, rain, fruitful seasons, success
in battle, peace of soul, forgiveness of sins, strength for holy
work--all these, and indiscriminately as to any special privilege
attached to the prayer for one or another. Just so taught Christ. "The
Lord's Prayer" asks not only for the glory of God and the forgiveness
of trespasses, but also for "daily bread."
These considerations must neither be misunderstood nor overlooked.
Prayer is a direct, specific, simple act. Men say that well-wishing,
right-living, work, and such like, are prayer. Not so. A prayerful
spirit may be, and ought to be, blended with the whole of our life;
but we must not so shade off the act into something else as to take
away its point and its reality. Prayer is the concentration of the
soul upon its present need, whatever that may be, and then bringing it
to God, naked and undisguised, for Him to meet it. The faith that
prompts and backs up such prayer hangs every circumstance of life,
the most minute and the most momentous alike, on the direct and
immediate control of God, in whose great foresight all our little
plans are lost, and in whose hands we become the instruments of our
own well-being.
III. It is demanded by such a view of prayer as that which has now
been given, that we should confidently expect the answers to our
petitions. This seems a simple, trite thing to say; but it is here
especially that we fail. The attitude of looking for answers to prayer
is not a common one. How is this? Partly because our prayers are often
so vague that we do not know precisely what to expect; partly because
the habit of prayer is largely formal--a mere piece of religious
routine; sometimes because we misapprehend the form in which the
answer may come; and sometimes because, in impatience, we lose heart
and hope. We should ever remember, however, that the promise to hear
and to answer is positive and unrestricted. This fact leaves ample
room for the truth, which we should also ever remember, that the mode
and time of the answer remain with God, and must be left to His loving
wisdom. If He should see that what we ask will strengthen our faith in
Him, bring our hearts nearer to Him, and help us to fulfil His will,
He will grant the answer directly, and in the form in which we look
for it. He has done so in numberless cases. Sometimes He does so in
special and unmistakeable instances, of which, perhaps, George Müller
and his orphanage is the most prominent in our time. On the other
hand, if He should see that an answer of this kind would encourage
worldliness, or in any way lead to evil, as it might sometimes do,
then He will delay the answer, or will change its form into one of
greater safety for us, at the same time speaking with His "still small
voice" words of peace to our hearts. One thing is certain; namely,
that if the worldly advantage be first in our view, it will be well
for our prayer to be denied, and God will deny it.
IV. One condition, then, of answered prayer is that we must be loyal
to God, and this loyalty includes submission to His will--a
willingness to receive, and a willingness to be denied. We may ask
what we will in such a spirit as this; for in such a spirit we shall
be sure that any refusal from Him will be a blessing to ourselves.
V. One difficulty in relation to prayer of which anti-christian people
make much, and which often occurs even to the most devout, is as to
how these specific answers to prayer can be made to agree with the
regularity of God's laws and the order of His Providence. This
question introduces us to a mystery which we cannot hope fully to
solve. We have no idea that prayer alters either the perceptions or
the will of God; neither do we imagine that it interferes with natural
laws, so as to prevent their due and natural operation. The operations
of nature are often affected by the human will, both directly and
indirectly; yet no one supposes that to that extent the order of
nature is disturbed. Why may not the influence of the human will upon
nature act through the medium of prayer to the great Author of nature,
as well as in any other way? No objection of this kind lies against
prayer which does not equally lie against all human enterprise; yea,
even against the daily work by which we live! It is a sufficient reply
to every objection of this kind that it is founded in a philosophy of
fatalism. Surely if man, within the limits of his power, can use
nature for himself, God, whose power is infinitely greater, can use
nature for him, if He be pleased on any terms to do so; and there is
no more interference with the order of nature in the Divine use of it
than there is in the human. Prayer may have its part to play in the
great system of causation as well as work. It may be a part of the
foreseen chain of causes and effects by which God unfolds His eternal
purposes. The good order of a family is not disturbed by the margin
given to the children's wishes and requests; and when we are wise
enough to know, we shall see how it has been even so in the greater
family of God. God is love before we pray as well as when He answers;
and yet it may be according to His will, because it is according to
His beneficent wisdom, that there shall be many blessings unreceived
by us until we ask for them.
VI. How do these thoughts bear upon the subject of importunity in
prayer? Such importunity is not discountenanced, but rather
encouraged, by the very form of our Lord's exhortation. "Ask; seek;
knock." I have said that this series of words intimates a gradation,
and constitutes a climax. Seeking is more than asking; knocking is
more than asking or seeking. "Ask and ye shall receive." Yes, but the
"asking" which is to be followed by receiving may be such as to
include both "seeking" and "knocking." God is not reluctant to hear
and to answer; but that is no reason why He should not require
sometimes to be importuned. Christ gives His special sanction to this
importunity through the medium of two parables, both of which were
spoken for the express purpose of urging it. The first of these is the
parable of the man who disturbs the repose of his friend at midnight
for the purpose of obtaining from him the means of showing hospitality
to an unexpected wayfarer; the second is the parable of the injured
widow and the unjust judge. In both these parables, the suppliants are
represented as prevailing; but the point to be noted is that the power
by which they prevail is their earnest and persistent importunity. Why
does Christ illustrate prayer to God by the pertinacity which is
needful to arouse the affections of sinful man? We may be sure that He
does not ascribe any thing of human imperfection to God. Our Father in
heaven slumbers not, and is never weary. He is love. Christ simply
puts Himself in the feeling of the man who knows by experience that
God often delays the fulfilment of prayer, and shows, by parabolic
teaching, that to pray well we must be fervent and not "faint." The
lesson is impressive. If between man and man importunate prayer
prevails, how much more will it prevail with God who is perfect, and
who will not make us wait except for the sake of our highest
well-being. The man goes to his friend with confidence because he has
faith in the friendship; how inconceivably strong may this confidence
be when we repose it in God! The plea was the stress of his need; the
same stress belongs to many of the needs which only God can supply.
Our praying-time, like that of the friend at midnight, is often that
of the deepest darkness; but we pray to God and not to man, and need
not fear that He, in His deep, heavenly repose, will fail faithfully
to hearken to our supplications--supplications which, because they
proceed from the holiest solicitudes of love and duty, are inspired by
Himself. Christ bids us reason from both bad men and good men to God,
and it is well for us that He does so. On the bad side, man's love is
weak, his judgment faulty, and his selfishness deep-rooted; God is
infinite both in His wisdom and His love. On the good side, earthly
fathers give bread, not stones, to their children; how much kinder is
He to whom we look up and say, "Our Father which art in heaven"!
"Yes," you say, "He is good and kind; but He makes us wait." It is so;
and why? We are feeble in our desires, and changeful in our purposes.
We soon give up. We want faith, patience, perseverance. The uniformly
immediate fulfilment of our petitions would leave no room for the
cultivation of these quiet, unobtrusive virtues of the Divine life
within us. God makes us wait, that we may become importunate, and that
importunity may nourish the virtues which are as yet too feeble.
Besides, delay gives purity to our motives, and intensity to our
desires. A blessing which is easily won is likely to be unappreciated.
God would not have us treat His gold as though it were stones. Delay
is not refusal; it is discipline. Moreover why speak we of delay at
all? What we so designate is not delay from the Divine point of view.
He never postpones any asked-for good for one moment beyond the fit
time for bestowing it.
God's help is always sure,
His methods seldom guessed;
Delay will make our pleasure pure,
Surprise will give it zest.
His wisdom is sublime,
His heart profoundly kind;
God never is before His time,
And never is behind.
VII. What, then, is the character of the prayer which avails? That
some prayers are "hindered"--so hindered as to be unsuccessful--we
know full well. This may be accounted for partly by mistaken notions
about the Scripture theory of prayer. For example, Jesus says, "What
things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye
shall have them." The teaching of these words is that the inspiration
to true prayer is God's pledge of the blessings sought, and that we
must be prepared to take it as such. The prayer of a man who has not
full faith in prayer falls short of its mark. Hindrance may also arise
from mistaken notions as to the primary use of prayer. Prayer is not
an end in itself, but a means to an end. It is true that the holier we
become the more shall we find ourselves accustomed to an atmosphere of
prayerfulness as the normal condition of the soul. But we shall not
pray aright, if we pray under the impression that we are holy because
we pray. We must rather pray in order to be holy. The hindrance may
also arise from the absence of a supreme anxiety and of a constant
effort to honour God in all our relations. Peter speaks of obedience
to the duties which spring from the conjugal relation as being
necessary to prevent the "hindrance"--the ineffectualness--of family
prayer. This is but a special application of a great general
principle--namely, the connection between holy conduct in society and
the efficiency of our social devotional exercises. These two act and
re-act upon each other. To secure the true, full benefit of prayer, we
must strive to live holily in all the society with which we mingle.
This point touches upon the value of intercessory prayer. Suppose that
there is a want of correspondence between the interest in the welfare
of those around us which we express in our prayers on their behalf,
and that which we show in our intercourse with them; can we rightly
expect such prayers to prevail? The deficiency is too frequently
manifest in our relations both to the Church and the world. How often
is Church brotherhood nominal rather than real! How many pray for the
salvation of souls, without caring to do anything else! There is one
thing which will always, in so far as it exists, be a barrier to the
acceptableness of prayer, and that is the wilful and persistent
violation of any of the Divine commands--the refusal to perform
Christian duties incumbent upon us, or the cherishing of some habit or
propensity known to be wrong. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the
Lord will not hear me." The success of our prayers does not depend
upon our learning, or upon the skill with which we can express our
petitions, or with which we can string them together. It depends
rather upon the state of our hearts--the vivid consciousness of need,
the deep feeling of dependence on God, the supreme desire of the heart
to be right with Him, faith in His promises, trust in His power and
His love, gratitude for His goodness, an unfainting perseverance in
appealing to His throne, and a willingness to wait His time for the
blessings thus humbly, trustfully, and earnestly sought. These are the
elements of the true spirit of prayer. "Ask" thus "and it shall be
given you;" "seek" thus, "and ye shall find;" "knock" thus, "and it
shall be opened unto you."
I alluded in the beginning to the indirect effects of prayer, and
these are too valuable to be overlooked. Prayer, pervaded by humility
and trust, is always strengthened by its own exercise. All Christian
graces are beautified by it; all Christian virtues are stimulated by
it. It is a Divine provision for rousing the slumbering affections of
the renewed heart, and keeping them awake. Prayer, too, is its own
reward, and a blessed one. How holy and how happy must they be who are
on intimate terms with God! Their faces catch His glory, and their
every tone and step the impress of the sanctity of the Divine
companionship. The Christian can tell his Father all! And because he
is so near to God and to heaven, he can put and keep the world beneath
his feet.
Even delays and seeming refusals are not without their salutary
influence. Some persons pray for specific blessings year after
year--"pray without ceasing"--and are often staggered at the fact that
their prayers remain unanswered; and yet we see them growing in
spirituality, purity, fortitude, faith, and we hear them say, "Though
He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." And so their faith--the most
precious thing they have--is tried and refined as in a furnace. Surely
such an answer to prayer is sublime!
I have been speaking to many a doubt, to many a perplexity, with which
I am familiar in my own experience and in that of others. God grant
that my words may be helpful! What we all want in regard to this great
subject is clearer views and a more unquestioning trust. God courts
our utmost confidence, and He will not fail to reward it.