PRAYER AND SACRIFICE EXPLAINED BY THE SIMILITUDE OF A PERFUME--OUR
ANNIHILATION IN THIS SACRIFICE--SOLIDITY AND FRUITFULNESS OF THIS PRAYER
AS SET FORTH IN THE GOSPEL.
Prayer ought to be both petition and sacrifice.
Prayer, according to the testimony of St John, is an incense, whose
perfume rises to God. Therefore it is said in the Revelation (chap.
viii. 3), that an angel held a censer, which contained the incense of
the prayers of saints.
Prayer is an outpouring of the heart in the presence of God. "I have
poured out my soul before the Lord," said the mother of Samuel (1 Sam.
i. 15). Thus the prayers of the Magi at the feet of the infant Jesus in
the stable of Bethlehem were signified by the incense which they
offered.
Prayer is the heat of love, which melts and dissolves the soul, and
carries it to God. In proportion as it melts, it gives out its odour,
and this odour comes from the love which burns it.
This is what the Bride meant when she said, "While the King sitteth at
His table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof" (Cant. i. 12).
The table is the heart. When God is there, and we are kept near to Him,
in His presence, this presence of God melts and dissolves the hardness
of our hearts, and as they melt, they give forth their perfume.
Therefore the Bridegroom, seeing His Bride thus melted by the speech of
her Beloved, says, "Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense?" (Cant. iii. 6).
Thus the soul rises up towards its God. But in order to this, it must
suffer itself to be destroyed and annihilated by the force of love. This
is a state of _sacrifice_ essential to the Christian religion, by which
the soul suffers itself to be destroyed and annihilated to render homage
to the sovereignty of God; as it is written, "The power of the Lord is
great, and He is honoured of the lowly" (Ecclus. iii. 20). And the
destruction of our own being confesses the sovereign being of God.
We must cease to be, so that the Spirit of the Word may be in us. In
order that He may come to us, we must yield our life to Him, and die to
self that He may live in us, and that we being dead, our life may be
hidden with Christ in God (Col. iii. 3).
"Come unto me," says God, "all ye that be desirous of me, and fill
yourselves with my fruits" (Ecclus. xxiv. 19). But how can we be filled
with God? Only by being emptied of self, and going out of ourselves in
order to be lost in Him.
Now, this can never be brought about except by our becoming nothing.
Nothingness is true prayer, which renders to God "honour, and glory, and
power, for ever and ever" (Rev. v. 13).
This prayer is the prayer of truth. It is worshipping the Father in
spirit and in truth. In _spirit_, because we are by it drawn out of our
human and carnal action, to enter into the purity of the Spirit, who
prays in us; and in _truth_, because the soul is led into the truth of
the ALL of God, and the NOTHING of the creature.
There are but these two truths, the ALL and the NOTHING. All the rest is
untruth.
We can only honour the ALL of God by our NOTHINGNESS; and we have no
sooner become nothing, than God, who will not suffer us to be empty,
fills us with Himself. Oh, if all knew the blessings which come to the
soul by this prayer, they would be satisfied with no others: it is the
pearl of great price; it is the hidden treasure. He who finds it gladly
sells all that he has to buy it (Matt. xiii. 44, 46). It is the well of
living water, which springs up into everlasting life (John iv. 14). It
is the practice of the pure maxims of the gospel.
Does not Christ Himself tell us that the kingdom of God is within us?
(Luke xvii. 21). This kingdom is set up in two ways. The first is, when
God is so thoroughly master of us that nothing resists Him: then our
heart is truly His kingdom. The other way is, that by possessing God,
who is the sovereign Lord, we possess the kingdom of God, which is the
height of felicity, and the end for which we were created. As it has
been said, _to serve God is to reign_.
The end for which we were created is to enjoy God in this life, and men
do not believe it!