spirit abode on the tabernacles of these early Christians, as a cloud
of glory out of which God shined and spoke. It filled their temples
with the perfume of costly, flaming incense. That this spirit of praise
is sadly deficient in our present-day congregations must be evident
to every careful observer. That it is a mighty force in projecting
the Gospel, and its body of vital forces, must be equally evident. To
restore the spirit of praise to our congregations should be one of the
main points with every true pastor. The normal state of the Church is
set forth in the declaration made to God in Psalm 65: “Praise waiteth
for thee, O Lord, and unto thee shall the vow be performed.”
Praise is so distinctly and definitely wedded to prayer, so inseparably
joined, that they cannot be divorced. Praise is dependent on prayer for
its full volume and its sweetest melody.
Singing is one method of praise, not the highest it is true, but it is
the ordinary and usual form. The singing service in our churches has
much to do with praise, for according to the character of the singing
will be the genuineness or the measure of praise. The singing may be so
directed as to have in it elements which deprave and debauch prayer.
It may be so directed as to drive away everything like thanksgiving and
praise. Much of modern singing in our churches is entirely foreign to
anything like hearty, sincere praise to God.
The spirit of prayer and of true praise go hand in hand. Both are often
entirely dissipated by the flippant, thoughtless, light singing in our
congregations. Much of the singing lacks serious thought and is devoid
of everything like a devotional spirit. Its lustiness and sparkle may
not only dissipate all the essential features of worship, but may
substitute the flesh for the spirit.
Giving thanks is the very life of prayer. It is its fragrance and
music, its poetry and its crown. Prayer bringing the desired answer
breaks out into praise and thanksgiving. So that whatever interferes
with and injures the spirit of prayer necessarily hurts and dissipates
the spirit of praise.
The heart must have in it the grace of prayer to sing the praise of
God. Spiritual singing is not to be done by musical taste or talent,
but by the grace of God in the heart. Nothing helps praise so mightily
as a gracious revival of true religion in the Church. The conscious
presence of God inspires song. The angels and the glorified ones in
heaven do not need artistic precentors to lead them, nor do they care
for paid choirs to chime in with their heavenly doxologies of praise
and worship. They are not dependent on singing schools to teach them
the notes and scale of singing. Their singing involuntarily breaks
forth from the heart.
God is immediately present in the heavenly assemblies of the angels and
the spirits of just men made perfect. His glorious presence creates the
song, teaches the singing, and impregnates their notes of praise. It is
so on earth. God’s presence begets singing and thanksgiving, while the
absence of God from our congregations is the death of song, or, which
amounts to the same, makes the singing lifeless, cold and formal. His
conscious presence in our churches would bring back the days of praise
and would restore the full chorus of song.
Where grace abounds, song abounds. When God is in the heart, heaven is
present and melody is there, and the lips overflow out of the abundance
of the heart. This is as true in the private life of the believer as
it is so in the congregations of the saints. The decay of singing, the
dying down and out of the spirit of praise in song, means the decline
of grace in the heart and the absence of God’s presence from the people.
The main design of all singing is for God’s ear and to attract His
attention and to please Him. It is “to the Lord,” for His glory, and
to His honour. Certainly it is not for the glorification of the paid
choir, to exalt the wonderful musical powers of the singers, nor is
it to draw the people to the church, but it is for the glory of God
and the good of the souls of the congregation. Alas! How far has the
singing of choirs of churches of modern times departed from this
idea! It is no surprise that there is no life, no power, no unction,
no spirit, in much of the Church singing heard in this day. It is
sacrilege for any but sanctified hearts and holy lips to direct the
singing part of the service of God’s house of prayer. Much of the
singing in churches would do credit to the opera house, and might
satisfy as mere entertainments, pleasing the ear, but as a part of real
worship, having in it the spirit of praise and prayer, it is a fraud,
an imposition on spiritually minded people, and entirely unacceptable
to God. The cry should go out afresh, “Let all the people praise
the Lord,” for “it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is
pleasant; and praise is comely.”
The music of praise, for there is real music of soul in praise, is
too hopeful and happy to be denied. All these are in the “giving
of thanks.” In Philippians, prayer is called “requests.” “Let your
requests be made known unto God,” which describes prayer as an asking
for a gift, giving prominence to the thing asked for, making it
emphatic, something to be given by God and received by us, and not
something to be done by us. And all this is closely connected with
gratitude to God, “with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God.”
God does much for us in answer to prayer, but we need from Him many
gifts, and for them we are to make special prayer. According to
our special needs, so must our praying be. We are to be special and
particular and bring to the knowledge of God by prayer, supplication
and thanksgiving, our particular requests, the things we need, the
things we greatly desire. And with it all, accompanying all these
requests, there must be thanksgiving.
It is indeed a pleasing thought that what we are called upon to do on
earth, to praise and give thanks, the angels in heaven and the redeemed
disembodied spirits of the saints are doing also. It is still further
pleasing to contemplate the glorious hope that what God wants us to do
on earth, we will be engaged in doing throughout an unending eternity.
Praise and thanksgiving will be our blessed employment while we remain
in heaven. Nor will we ever grow weary of this pleasing task.
Joseph Addison sets before us, in verse, this pleasing prospect:
“Through every period of my life
Thy goodness I’ll pursue;
And after death, in distant worlds,
The pleasing theme renew.
“Through all eternity to Thee
A grateful song I’ll raise;
But Oh! eternity’s too short
To utter all Thy praise.”
V
PRAYER AND TROUBLE
“‘He will.’ It may not be today,
That God Himself shall wipe our tears away,
Nor, hope deferred, may it be yet tomorrow
He’ll take away our cup of earthly sorrow;
But, precious promise, He has said He _will_,
If we but trust Him fully――and be still.
“We, too, as He, may fall, and die unknown;
And e’en the place we fell be all unshown,
But eyes omniscient will mark the spot
Till empires perish and the world’s forgot.
Then they who bore the yoke and drank the cup
In fadeless glory shall the Lord raise up.
God’s word is ever good; His will is best:――
The yoke, the heart all broken――and then rest.”
――CLAUDIUS L. CHILTON.
Trouble and prayer are closely related to each other. Prayer is of
great value to trouble. Trouble often drives men to God in prayer,
while prayer is but the voice of men in trouble. There is great value
in prayer in the time of trouble. Prayer often delivers out of trouble,
and still oftener gives strength to bear trouble, ministers comfort in
trouble, and begets patience in the midst of trouble. Wise is he in the
day of trouble who knows his true source of strength and who fails not
to pray.
Trouble belongs to the present state of man on earth. “Man that is born
of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Trouble is common to
man. There is no exception in any age or clime or station. Rich and
poor alike, the learned and the ignorant, one and all are partakers
of this sad and painful inheritance of the fall of man. “There hath
no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.” The “day of
trouble” dawns on every one at some time in his life. “The evil days
come and the years draw nigh” when the heart feels its heavy pressure.
That is an entirely false view of life and shows supreme ignorance that
expects nothing but sunshine and looks only for ease, pleasure and
flowers. It is this class who are so sadly disappointed and surprised
when trouble breaks into their lives. These are the ones who know not
God, who know nothing of His disciplinary dealings with His people and
who are prayerless.
What an infinite variety there is in the troubles of life! How
diversified the experiences of men in the school of trouble! No two
people have the same troubles under like environments. God deals with
no two of His children in the same way. And as God varies His treatment
of His children, so trouble is varied. God does not repeat Himself. He
does not run in a rut. He has not one pattern for every child. Each
trouble is proportioned to each child. Each one is dealt with according
to his own peculiar case.
Trouble is God’s servant, doing His will unless He is defeated in the
execution of that will. Trouble is under the control of Almighty God,
and is one of His most efficient agents in fulfilling His purposes
and in perfecting His saints. God’s hand is in every trouble which
breaks into the lives of men. Not that He directly and arbitrarily
orders every unpleasant experience of life. Not that He is personally
responsible for every painful and afflicting thing which comes into
the lives of His people. But no trouble is ever turned loose in this
world and comes into the life of saint or sinner, but comes with Divine
permission, and is allowed to exist and do its painful work with God’s
hand in it or on it, carrying out His gracious designs of redemption.
All things are under Divine control. Trouble is neither above God nor
beyond His control. It is not something in life independent of God.
No matter from what source it springs nor whence it arises, God is
sufficiently wise and able to lay His hand upon it without assuming
responsibility for its origin, and work it into His plans and purposes
concerning the highest welfare of His saints. This is the explanation
of that gracious statement in Romans, so often quoted, but the depth
of whose meaning has rarely been sounded, “And we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God.”
Even the evils brought about by the forces of nature are His servants,
carrying out His will and fulfilling His designs. God even claims the
locusts, the cankerworm, the caterpillar are His servants, “My great
army,” used by Him to correct His people and discipline them.
Trouble belongs to the disciplinary part of the moral government of
God. This is a life of probation, where the human race is on probation.
It is a season of trial. Trouble is not penal in its nature. It belongs
to what the Scriptures call “chastening.” “Whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Speaking
accurately, punishment does not belong to this life. Punishment for sin
will take place in the next world. God’s dealings with people in this
world are of the nature of discipline. They are corrective processes in
His plans concerning man. It is because of this that prayer comes in
when trouble arises. Prayer belongs to the discipline of life.
As trouble is not sinful in itself, neither is it the evidence of sin.
Good and bad alike experience trouble. As the rain falls alike on the
just and unjust, so drouth likewise comes to the righteous and the
wicked. Trouble is no evidence whatever of the Divine displeasure.
Scripture instances without number disprove any such idea. Job is a
case in point, where God bore explicit testimony to his deep piety, and
yet God permitted Satan to afflict him beyond any other man for wise
and beneficent purposes. Trouble has no power in itself to interfere
with the relations of a saint to God. “Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
Three words practically the same in the processes of Divine discipline
are found, temptation, trial and trouble, and yet there is a difference
between them. Temptation is really a solicitation to evil arising from
the devil or born in the carnal nature of man. Trial is testing. It is
that which proves us, tests us, and makes us stronger and better when
we submit to the trial and work together with God in it. “My brethren,
count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this,
that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”
Peter speaks along the same line:
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, now for a season, if need be,
ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the
trial of your faith being much more precious than that of
gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be
found unto praise, and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ.”
The third word is trouble itself, which covers all the painful,
sorrowing, and grievous events of life. And yet temptations and trials
might really become troubles. So that all evil days in life might well
be classed under the head of the “time of trouble.” And such days of
trouble are the lot of all men. Enough to know that trouble, no matter
from what source it comes, becomes in God’s hand His own agent to
accomplish His gracious work concerning those who submit patiently to
Him, who recognise Him in prayer, and who work together with God.
Let us settle down at once to the idea that trouble arises not by
chance, and neither occurs by what men call accident. “Although
affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring
out of the ground, yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly
upward.” Trouble naturally belongs to God’s moral government, and is
one of His invaluable agents in governing the world.
When we realise this, we can the better understand much that is
recorded in the Scriptures, and can have a clearer conception of God’s
dealings with His ancient Israel. In God’s dealings with them, we find
what is called a history of Divine Providence, and providence always
embraces trouble. No one can understand the story of Joseph and his old
father Jacob unless he takes into the account trouble and its varied
offices. God takes account of trouble when He urges His prophet Isaiah
on this wise:
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.”
There is a distinct note of comfort in the Gospel for the praying
saints of the Lord, and He is a wise scribe in Divine things who knows
how to minister this comfort to the broken-hearted and sad ones of
earth. Jesus Himself said to His sad disciples, “I will not leave you
comfortless.”
All the foregoing has been said that we may rightly appreciate the
relationship of prayer to trouble. In the time of trouble, where does
prayer come in? The Psalmist tells us: “Call upon me in the day of
trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” Prayer is
the most appropriate thing for a soul to do in the “time of trouble.”
Prayer recognises God in the day of trouble. “It is the Lord; let him
do what seemeth him good.” Prayer sees God’s hand in trouble, and
prays about it. Nothing more truly shows us our helplessness than when
trouble comes. It brings the strong man low, it discloses our weakness,
it brings a sense of helplessness. Blessed is he who knows how to
turn to God in “the time of trouble.” If trouble is of the Lord, then
the most natural thing to do is to carry the trouble to the Lord, and
seek grace and patience and submission. It is the time to inquire in
the trouble, “Lord, what, wilt thou have me to do?” How natural and
reasonable for the soul, oppressed, broken, and bruised, to bow low at
the footstool of mercy and seek the face of God? Where could a soul in
trouble more likely find solace than in the closet?
Alas! trouble does not always drive men to God in prayer. Sad is the
case of him who, when trouble bends his spirit down and grieves his
heart, yet knows not whence the trouble comes nor knows how to pray
about it. Blessed is the man who is driven by trouble to his knees in
prayer!
“Trials must and will befall;
But with humble faith to see
Love inscribed upon them all――
This is happiness to me.
“Trials make the promise sweet,
Trials give new life to prayer;
Bring me to my Saviour’s feet,
Lay me low, and keep me there.”
Prayer in the time of trouble brings comfort, help, hope, and
blessings, which, while not removing the trouble, enable the saint the
better to bear it and to submit to the will of God. Prayer opens the
eyes to see God’s hand in trouble. Prayer does not interpret God’s
providences, but it does justify them and recognise God in them. Prayer
enables us to see wise ends in trouble. Prayer in trouble drives us
away from unbelief, saves us from doubt, and delivers from all vain
and foolish questionings because of our painful experiences. Let us
not lose sight of the tribute paid to Job when all his troubles came
to the culminating point: “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God
foolishly.”
Alas! for vain, ignorant men, without faith in God and knowing nothing
of God’s disciplinary processes in dealing with men, who charge God
foolishly when troubles come, and who are tempted to “curse God.” How
silly and vain are the complainings, the murmurings and the rebellion
of men in the time of trouble! What need to read again the story of
the Children of Israel in the wilderness! And how useless is all our
fretting, our worrying over trouble, as if such unhappy doings on our
part could change things! “And which of you with taking thought, can
add to his stature one cubit?” How much wiser, how much better, how
much easier to bear life’s troubles when we take everything to God in
prayer?
Trouble has wise ends for the praying ones, and these find it so.
Happy is he who, like the Psalmist, finds that his troubles have been
blessings in disguise. “It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
that I might learn thy statutes. I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are
right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.”
“O who could bear life’s stormy doom,
Did not Thy wing of love
Come brightly wafting through the gloom
Our peace branch from above.
“Then sorrow, touched by Thee, grows bright,
With more than rapture’s ray;
As darkness shows us worlds of light
We never saw by day.”
Of course it may be conceded that some troubles are really imaginary.
They have no existence other than in the mind. Some are anticipated
troubles, which never arrive at our door. Others are past troubles,
and there is much folly in worrying over them. Present troubles are the
ones requiring attention and demanding prayer. “Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof.” Some troubles are self-originated. We are their
authors. Some of these originate involuntarily with us, some arise
from our ignorance, some come from our carelessness. All this can be
readily admitted without breaking the force of the statement that they
are the subjects of prayer, and should drive us to prayer. What father
casts off his child who cries to him when the little one from its own
carelessness has stumbled and fallen and hurt itself? Does not the cry
of the child attract the ears of the father even though the child be
to blame for the accident? “Whatever things ye desire” takes in every
event of life, even though some events we are responsible for.
Some troubles are human in their origin. They arise from second causes.
They originate with others and we are the sufferers. This is a world
where often the innocent suffer the consequences of the acts of others.
This is a part of life’s incidents. Who has not at some time suffered
at the hands of others? But even these are allowed to come in the
order of God’s providence, are permitted to break into our lives for
beneficent ends, and may be prayed over. Why should we not carry our
hurts, our wrongs and our privations, caused by the acts of others, to
God in prayer? Are such things outside of the realm of prayer? Are they
exceptions to the rule of prayer? Not at all. And God can and will lay
His hand upon all such events in answer to prayer, and cause them to
work for us “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
Nearly all of Paul’s troubles arose from wicked and unreasonable men.
Read the story as he gives it in II Corinthians 11:23-33.
So also some troubles are directly of Satanic origin. Quite all of
Job’s troubles were the offspring of the devil’s scheme to break down
Job’s integrity, to make him charge God foolishly and to curse God.
But are these not to be recognised in prayer? Are they to be excluded
from God’s disciplinary processes? Job did not do so. Hear him in those
familiar words. “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord.”
O what a comfort to see God in all of life’s events! What a relief to a
broken, sorrowing heart to see God’s hand in sorrow! What a source of
relief is prayer in unburdening the heart in grief!
“O Thou who driest the mourner’s tear.
How dark this world would be,
If, when deceived and wounded here.
We could not fly to Thee?
“The friends who in our sunshine live,
When winter comes are flown,
And he who has but tears to give,
Must weep those tears alone.
“But Thou wilt heal the broken heart,
Which, like the plants that throw
Their fragrance from the wounded part,
Breathes sweetness out of woe.”
But when we survey all the sources from which trouble comes, it all
resolves itself into two invaluable truths: First, that our troubles at
last are of the Lord. They come with His consent. He is in all of them,
and is interested in us when they press and bruise us. And secondly,
that our troubles, no matter what the cause, whether of ourselves, or
men or devils, or even God Himself, we are warranted in taking them to
God in prayer, in praying over them, and in seeking to get the greatest
spiritual benefits out of them.
Prayer in the time of trouble tends to bring the spirit into perfect
subjection to the will of God, to cause the will to be conformed to
God’s will, and saves from all murmurings over our lot, and delivers
from everything like a rebellious heart or a spirit critical of the
Lord. Prayer sanctifies trouble to our highest good. Prayer so prepares
the heart that it softens under the disciplining hand of God. Prayer
places us where God can bring to us the greatest good, spiritual and
eternal. Prayer allows God to freely work with us and in us in the day
of trouble. Prayer removes everything in the way of trouble, bringing
to us the sweetest, the highest and greatest good. Prayer permits God’s
servant, trouble, to accomplish its mission in us, with us and for us.
The end of trouble is always good in the mind of God. If trouble fails
in its mission, it is either because of prayerlessness or unbelief, or
both. Being in harmony with God in the dispensations of His providence,
always makes trouble a blessing. The good or evil of trouble is always
determined by the spirit in which it is received. Trouble proves a
blessing or a curse, just according as it is received and treated by
us. It either softens or hardens us. It either draws us to prayer and
to God or it drives us from God and from the closet. Trouble hardened
Pharaoh till finally it had no effect on him, only to make him more
desperate and to drive him farther from God. The same sun softens the
wax and hardens the clay. The same sun melts the ice and dries out the
moisture from the earth.
As is the infinite variety of trouble, so also is there infinite
variety in the relations of prayer to other things. How many are the
things which are the subject of prayer! It has to do with everything
which concerns us, with everybody with whom we have to do, and has to
do with all times. But especially does prayer have to do with trouble.
“This poor man cried and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all
his troubles.” O the blessedness, the help, the comfort of prayer in
the day of trouble! And how marvelous the promises of God to us in the
time of trouble!
“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I
deliver him; I will set him on high because he hath known
my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I
will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor
him.”