its membership those who taught such hurtful doctrines that were a
stumbling-block to others. And not so much that such characters were in
the Church, but that they were tolerated. The impression is that the
Church leaders were blind to the presence of such hurtful characters,
and hence were indisposed to administer discipline. This indisposition
was an unfailing sign of prayerlessness in the membership. There was no
union of prayer effort looking to cleansing the Church and keeping it
clean.
This disciplinary idea stands out prominently in the Apostle Paul’s
writings to the Churches. The Church at Corinth had a notorious case of
fornication where a man had married his step-mother, and this Church
had been careless about this iniquity. Paul rather sharply reproved
this Church and gave explicit command to this effect: “Therefore put
away from among yourselves that wicked person.” Here was concert of
action on the part of praying people demanded by Paul.
As good a Church as that at Thessalonica needed instruction and caution
on this matter of looking after disorderly persons. So we hear Paul
saying unto them:
“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every
brother that walketh disorderly.”
Mark you. It is not the mere presence of disorderly persons in a Church
which merits the displeasure of God. It is when they are tolerated
under the mistaken plea of “bearing with them,” and no steps are taken
either to cure them of their evil practices or exclude them from the
fellowship of the Church. And this glaring neglect on the part of the
Church of its wayward members, is but a sad sign of a lack of praying,
for a praying Church, given to mutual praying, agreement praying, is
keen to discern when a brother is overtaken in a fault, and seeks
either to restore him, or to cut him off if he be incorrigible.
Much of this dates back to the lack of spiritual vision on the part
of Church leaders. The Lord by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah once
asked the very pertinent, suggestive question, “And who is blind but my
servant?” This blindness in leadership in the Church is no more patent
than in this question of seeing evil doers in the Church, in caring for
them, and when the effort to restore them fails, to withdraw fellowship
from them, and let them be “as a heathen man and a publican.” The truth
is there is such a lust for members in the Church in these modern
times, that the officials and preachers have entirely lost sight of the
members who have violated baptismal covenants, and who are living in
open disregard of God’s Word. The idea now is _quantity_ in membership,
_not quality_. The purity of the Church is put in the background in the
craze to secure numbers, and to pad the Church rolls and make large
figures in statistical columns. Prayer, much prayer, mutual prayer,
would bring the Church back to Scriptural standards, and would purge
the Church of many wrongdoers, while it might cure not a few of their
evil lives.
Prayer and Church discipline are not new revelations of the Christian
dispensation. These two things had a high place in the Jewish Church.
Instances are too numerous to mention all of them. Ezra is a case
in point. When he returned from the captivity, he found a sad and
distressing condition of things among the Lord’s people who were left
in the land. They had not separated themselves from the surrounding
heathen people, and had intermarried with them, contrary to Divine
commands. And those high in the Church were involved, the priests and
the Levites with others. Ezra was greatly moved at the account given
him, and rent his garments and wept and prayed. Evil doers in the
Church did not meet his approval, nor did he shut his eyes to them
nor excuse them, neither did he compromise the situation. When he had
finished confessing the sins of the people and his praying, the people
assembled themselves before him and joined him in a covenant agreement
to put away from them their evil doings, and wept and prayed in company
with Ezra.
The result was that the people thoroughly repented of their
transgressions, and Israel was reformed. Praying and a good man, who
was neither blind nor unconcerned, did the deed.
Of Ezra it is written, “For he mourned because of the transgression of
them that had been carried away.” So it is with every praying man in
the Church when he has eyes to see the transgression of evil doers in
the Church, who has a heart to grieve over them, and who has a spirit
in him so concerned about the Church that he prays about it.
Blessed is that Church who has praying leaders, who can see that which
is disorderly in the Church, who are grieved about it, and who put
forth their hands to correct the evils which harm God’s cause as a
weight to its progress. One point in the indictment against those
“Who are at ease in Zion,” referred to by Amos, is that “they are not
grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” And this same indictment could
be brought against Church leaders of modern times. They are not grieved
because the members are engulfed in a craze for worldly, carnal things,
nor when there are those in the Church walking openly in disorder,
whose lives scandalise religion. Of course such leaders do not pray
over the matter, for praying would beget a spirit of solicitude in them
for these evil doers, and would drive away the spirit of unconcern
which possesses them.
It would be well for prayerless Church leaders and careless pastors to
read the account of the ink horn man in Ezekiel, 9th chapter, where God
instructed the prophet to send through the city certain men who would
destroy those in the city because of the great evils found therein.
But certain persons were to be spared. These were they who “sigh and
cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst of the city.”
The man with the ink horn was to mark every one of these sighers and
mourners so that they would escape the impending destruction. Please
note that the instructions were that the slaying of those who did not
mourn and sigh should “Begin at my sanctuary.”
What a lesson for non-praying, unconcerned officials of the modern
Church! How few there are who “sigh and cry” for present-day
abominations in the land, and who are grieved over the desolations of
Zion! What need for “two or three to be gathered together” in a concert
of prayer over these conditions, and in the secret place weep and pray
for the sins in Zion!
This concert of prayer, this agreement in praying, taught by our Lord
in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, finds proof and illustration
elsewhere. This was the kind of prayer which Paul referred to in his
request to his Roman brethren, recorded in Romans 15:30:
“Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s
sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive
together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may
be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea.”
Here is unity in prayer, prayer by agreement, and prayer which drives
directly at deliverance from unbelieving and evil men, the same kind of
prayer urged by our Lord, and the end practically the same, deliverance
from unbelieving men, that deliverance wrought either by bringing them
to repentance or by exclusion from the Church.
The same idea is found in II Thessalonians 3:1:
“Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord
may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with
you; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and
wicked men.”
Here is united prayer requested by an Apostle, among other things, for
deliverance from wicked men, that same that the Church of God needs in
this day. By joining their prayers to his, there was the desired end of
riddance from men who were hurtful to the Church of God and who were a
hindrance to the running of the Word of the Lord. Let us ask, are there
not in the present-day Church those who are a positive hindrance to the
on-going of the Word of the Lord? What better course is there than to
jointly pray over the question, at the same time using the Christ-given
course of discipline first to save them, but failing in that course, to
excise them from the body?
Does that seem a harsh course? Then our Lord was guilty of harshness
Himself, for He ends these directions by saying, “But if he neglect to
hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.”
No more is this harshness than is the act of the skilful surgeon, who
sees the whole body and its members endangered by a gangrenous limb,
and severs the limb from the body for the good of the whole. No more
was it harshness in the captain and crew of the vessel on which Jonah
was found, when the storm arose threatening destruction to all on
board, to cast the fleeing prophet overboard. What seems harshness is
obedience to God, is for the welfare of the Church, and is wise in the
extreme.
XII
THE UNIVERSALITY OF PRAYER
“It takes more of the power of the Spirit to make the farm,
the home, the office, the store, the shop holy than it
does to make the Church holy. It takes more of the power
of the Spirit to make Saturday holy than to make Sunday
holy. It takes much more of the power of the Spirit to make
money for God than it does to make a talk for God. Much
more to live a great life for God than to preach a great
sermon.”――EDWARD M. BOUNDS.
Prayer is far-reaching in its influence and world-wide in its effects.
It affects all men, affects them everywhere, and affects them in all
things. It touches man’s interest in time and eternity. It lays hold
upon God and moves Him to interfere in the affairs of earth. It moves
the angels to minister to men in this life. It restrains and defeats
the devil in his schemes to ruin man. Prayer goes everywhere and lays
its hand upon everything. There is a universality in prayer. When we
talk about prayer and its work we must use universal terms. It is
individual in its application and benefits, but it is general and
world-wide at the same time in its good influences. It blesses man in
every event of life, furnishes him help in every emergency, and gives
him comfort in every trouble. There is no experience through which
man is called to go but prayer is there as a helper, a comforter and a
guide.
When we speak of the universality of prayer, we discover many sides
to it. First, it may be remarked that all men ought to pray. Prayer
is intended for all men, because all men need God and need what God
has and what prayer only can secure. As men are called upon to pray
everywhere, by consequence all men must pray for men are everywhere.
Universal terms are used when men are commanded to pray, while there is
a promise in universal terms to all who call upon God for pardon, for
mercy and for help:
“For there is no difference; for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
As there is no difference in the state of sin in which men are found,
and all men need the saving grace of God which only can bless them, and
as this saving grace is obtained only in answer to prayer, therefore
all men are called on to pray because of their very needs.
It is a rule of Scriptural interpretation that whenever a command
issues with no limitation, it is universal in binding force. So the
words of the Lord in Isaiah are to the point:
“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him
while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto
the Lord, who will have mercy, and to our God who will
abundantly pardon.”
So that as wickedness is universal, and as pardon is needed by all men,
so all men must seek the Lord while he may be found, and must call upon
Him while he is near. Prayer belongs to all men because all men are
redeemed in Christ. It is a privilege for every man to pray, but it is
no less a bounden duty for them to call upon God. No sinner is debarred
from the mercy seat. All are welcomed to approach the throne of grace
with all their wants and woes, with all their sins and burdens.
“Come all the world, come, sinner thou,
All things in Christ are ready now.”
Whenever a poor sinner turns his eyes to God, no matter where he is nor
what his guilt and sinfulness, the eye of God is upon him and His ear
is opened to his prayers.
But men may pray everywhere, since God is accessible in every clime and
under all circumstances. “I will therefore that men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”
No locality is too distant from God on earth to reach heaven. No place
is so remote that God cannot see and hear one who looks toward Him and
seeks His face. Oliver Holden puts into a hymn these words:
“Then, my soul, in every strait,
To Thy Father come and wait;
He will answer every prayer;
God is present everywhere.”
There is just this modification of the idea that one can pray
everywhere. Some places, because of the evil business carried on there,
or because of the environments which belong there, growing out of the
place itself, the moral character of those who carry on the business,
and of those who support it, are localities where prayer would not be
in place. We might instance the saloon, the theatre, the opera, the
card table, the dance, and other like places of worldly amusement.
Prayer is so much out of place at such places that no one would ever
presume to pray. Prayer would be an intrusion, so regarded by the
owners, the patrons and the supporters of such places. Furthermore
those who attend such places are not praying people. They belong almost
entirely to the prayerless crowd of worldlings.
While we are to pray everywhere, it unquestionably means that we are
not to frequent places where we cannot pray. To pray everywhere is to
pray in all legitimate places, and to attend especially those places
where prayer is welcome, and is given a gracious hospitality. To pray
everywhere is to preserve the spirit of prayer in places of business,
in our intercourse with men, and in the privacy of the home amid all of
its domestic cares.
The Model Prayer of our Lord, called familiarly “The Lord’s Prayer,”
is the universal prayer, because it is peculiarly adapted to all men
everywhere in all circumstances in all times of need. It can be put
in the mouths of all people in all nations, and in all times. It is
a model of praying which needs no amendment nor alteration for every
family, people and nation.
Furthermore, prayer has its universal application in that all men are
to be the subjects of prayer. All men everywhere are to be prayed for.
Prayer must take in all of Adam’s fallen race because all men are
fallen in Adam, redeemed in Christ, and are benefited by prayers for
them. This is Paul’s doctrine in his prayer directory in I Timothy 2:1:
“I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications,
prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all
men.”
There is strong Scriptural warrant, therefore, for reaching out and
embracing all men in our prayers, since not only are we commanded thus
to pray for them, but the reason given is that Christ gave Himself a
ransom for all men, and all men are provisionally beneficiaries of the
atoning death of Jesus Christ.
But lastly, and more at length, prayer has a universal side in that
all things which concern us are to be prayed about, while all things
which are for our good, physical, social, intellectual, spiritual,
and eternal, are subjects of prayer. Before, however, we consider this
phase of prayer let us stop and again look at the universal prayer for
all men. As a special class to be prayed for, we may mention those
who have control in state or who bear rule in the Church. Prayer has
mighty potencies. It makes good rulers, and makes them better rulers.
It restrains the lawless and the despotic. Rulers are to be prayed for.
They are not out of the reach and the control of prayer, because they
are not out of the reach and control of God. Wicked Nero was on the
throne of Rome when Paul wrote these words to Timothy urging prayer for
those in authority.
Christian lips are to breathe prayers for the cruel and infamous rulers
in state as well as for the righteous and the benign governors and
princes. Prayer is to be as far-reaching as the race, “for all men.”
Humanity is to burden our hearts as we pray, and all men are to engage
our thoughts in approaching a throne of grace. In our praying hours,
all men must have a place. The wants and woes of the entire race are to
broaden and make tender our sympathies, and inflame our petitions. No
little man can pray. No man with narrow views of God, of His plan to
save men, and of the universal needs of all men, can pray effectually.
It takes a broad-minded man, who understands God and His purposes in
the atonement, to pray well. No cynic can pray. Prayer is the divinest
philanthropy, as well as giant-great-heartedness. Prayer comes from a
big heart, filled with thoughts about all men and with sympathies for
all men.
Prayer runs parallel with the will of God, “who will have all men to be
saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
Prayer reaches up to heaven, and brings heaven down to earth. Prayer
has in its hands a double blessing. It rewards him who prays, and
blesses him who is prayed for. It brings peace to warring passions
and calms warring elements. Tranquillity is the happy fruit of true
praying. There is an inner calm which comes to him who prays and an
outer calm as well. Prayer creates “quiet and peaceable lives in all
godliness and honesty.”
Right praying not only makes life beautiful in peace, but redolent in
righteousness and weighty in influence. Honesty, gravity, integrity and
weight in character are the natural and essential fruits of prayer.
It is this kind of world-wide, large-hearted, unselfish praying which
pleases God well, and which is acceptable in His sight, because it
co-operates with His will and runs in gracious streams to all men and
to each man. It is this kind of praying which the man Christ Jesus did
when on earth, and the same kind which He is now doing at His Father’s
right hand in heaven, as our Mighty Intercessor. He is the pattern of
prayer. He is between God and man, the one Mediator, who gave Himself
a ransom for all men, and for each man.
So it is that true prayer links itself to the will of God, and runs in
streams of solicitude, and compassion, and intercession for all men. As
Jesus Christ died for every one involved in the fall, so prayer girdles
every one and gives itself for the benefit of every one. Like our one
Mediator between God and man, he who prays stands midway between God
and man, with prayers, supplications, “and strong cryings and tears.”
Prayer holds in its grasp the movements of the race of man, and
embraces the destinies of men for all eternity. The king and the beggar
are both affected by it. It touches heaven and moves earth. Prayer
holds earth to heaven and brings heaven in close contact with earth.
“Your guides and brethren bear
Forever on your mind;
Extend the arms of mighty prayer
In grasping all mankind.”
XIII
PRAYER AND MISSIONS
“One day, about this time, I heard an unusual bleating
amongst my few remaining goats, as if they were being
killed or tortured. I rushed to the goat-house and found
myself instantly surrounded by a band of armed men. The
snare had caught me, their weapons were raised, and I
expected the next moment to die. But God moved me to talk
to them firmly and kindly; I warned them of their sin and
its punishment; I showed them that only my love and pity
led me to remain there seeking their good, and that if they
killed me they killed their best friend. I further assured
them I was not afraid to die, for at death my Saviour would
take me to heaven and that I would be far happier than on
earth; and that my only desire to live was to make them
happy by teaching them to love Jesus Christ my Lord. I then
lifted up my hands and eyes to the heavens and prayed aloud
for Jesus to bless all my Tannese and to protect me or
take me to heaven as He saw to be for the best. One after
another they slipped away from me and Jesus restrained them
again. Did ever mother run more quickly to protect her
crying child in danger’s hour than the Lord Jesus hastens
to answer believing prayer and send help to His servants in
His own good time and way, so far as it shall be for their
good and His glory.”――JOHN G. PATON.
Missions mean the giving of the Gospel to those of Adam’s fallen race
who have never heard of Christ and His atoning death. It means the
giving to others the opportunity to hear of salvation through our Lord
Jesus Christ, and allowing others to have a chance to receive, and
accept the blessings of the Gospel, as we have it in Christianised
lands. It means that those who enjoy the benefits of the Gospel give
these same religious advantages and Gospel privileges to all of
mankind. Prayer has a great deal to do with missions. Prayer is the
hand-maid of missions. The success of all real missionary effort is
dependent on prayer. The life and spirit of missions are the life and
spirit of prayer. Both prayer and missions were born in the Divine
Mind. Prayer and missions are bosom companions. Prayer creates and
makes missions successful, while missions lean heavily on prayer. In
the seventy-second Psalm, one which deals with the Messiah, it is
stated that “prayer shall be made for him continually.” Prayer would
be made for His coming to save man, and prayer would be made for the
success of the plan of salvation which He would come to set on foot.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the spirit of missions. Our Lord Jesus
Christ was Himself the first missionary. His promise and advent
composed the first missionary movement. The missionary spirit is
not simply a phase of the Gospel, not a mere feature of the plan of
salvation, but is its very spirit and life. The missionary movement
is the Church of Jesus Christ marching in militant array, with the
design of possessing the whole world of mankind for Christ. Whoever
is touched by the Spirit of God is fired by the missionary spirit.
An anti-missionary Christian is a contradiction in terms. We might
say that it would be impossible to be an anti-missionary Christian
because of the impossibility for the Divine and human forces to put
men in such a state as not to align them with the missionary cause.
Missionary impulse is the heart-beat of our Lord Jesus Christ, sending
the vital forces of Himself through the whole body of the Church. The
spiritual life of God’s people rises or falls with the force of those
heart-beats. When these life forces cease, then death ensues. So that
anti-missionary Churches are dead Churches, just as anti-missionary
Christians are dead Christians.
The craftiest wile of Satan, if he cannot prevent a great movement for
God, is to debauch the movement. If he can put the movement first, and
the spirit of the movement in the background, he has materialised and
thoroughly debauched the movement. Mighty prayer only will save the
movement from being materialised, and keep the spirit of the movement
strong and controlling.
The key of all missionary success is prayer. That key is in the hands
of the home churches. The trophies won by our Lord in heathen lands
will be won by praying missionaries, not by professional workers in
foreign lands. More especially will this success be won by saintly
praying in the churches at home. The home church on her knees fasting
and praying, is the great base of spiritual supplies, the sinews of
war, and the pledge of victory in this dire and final conflict.
Financial resources are not the real sinews of war in this fight.
Machinery in itself carries no power to break down heathen walls, open
effectual doors and win heathen hearts to Christ. Prayer alone can do
the deed.
Aaron and Hur did not more surely give victory to Israel through
Moses, than a praying church through Jesus Christ will give victory on
every battlefield in heathen lands. It is as true in foreign fields
as it is in home lands. The praying church wins the contest. The home
church has done but a paltry thing when she has furnished the money to
establish missions and support her missionaries. Money is important,
but money without prayer is powerless in the face of the darkness, the
wretchedness and the sin in unchristianised lands. Prayerless giving
breeds barrenness and death. Poor praying at home is the solution of
poor results in the foreign field. Prayerless giving is the secret of
all crises in the missionary movements of the day, and is the occasion
of the accumulation of debts in missionary boards.