The Wonders of Prayer.
by Various.
INTRODUCTORY.
BY D.W. WHITTLE.
To recognize G.o.d"s existence is to necessitate prayer to Him, by all intelligent creatures, or, a consciously living in sin and under condemnation of conscience, because they do not pray to Him. It would be horrible to admit the existence of a Supreme Being, with power and wisdom to create, and believe that the creatures he thought of consequence and importance enough to bring into existence, are not of enough consequence for him to pay any attention to in the troubles and trials consequent upon that existence.
Surely such a statement is an impeachment of both the wisdom and goodness of G.o.d.
It were far more sensible for those who deny the fitness and necessity of prayer to take the ground of the atheist and say plainly "We do not pray, for there is no G.o.d to pray to," for to deny prayer, is practical atheism.
So in the very const.i.tution of man"s being there is the highest reasonableness in prayer. And, if the position of man in his relation to the earth he inhabits is recognized and understood, there is no unreasonableness in a G.o.d-fearing man looking to G.o.d for help and deliverance under any and all circ.u.mstances, in all the vicissitudes of life. The earth was _made_ for man. One has said "there is nothing great in the world but man; and there is nothing great in man but his soul."
With this in view, how absurd to talk about "fixed laws" and "unchangeable order," in a way to keep man in his trouble from G.o.d. It is all the twaddle of the conceit of man setting himself up to judge and limit his maker. "To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal?
saith the Holy One." The Creator is greater than his creation; the law giver is supreme over all law. He created the earth that it might be inhabited by man, and He governs the earth in subordination to the interests, the eternal and spiritual welfare of the race of immortal beings that are here being prepared for glory and immortality.
Laws, indeed, are fixed in their operation and results as subserving the highest good in the training and the disciplining of the race, giving them hope in their labor and sure expectation of fruit from their toil.
But as set in operation for _man"s good_, so, in an exigency that may make necessary their suspension, to secure his deliverance from peril and bring man back to the recognition of the personal G.o.d, as above, law, is it unreasonable to believe that G.o.d has power thus to suspend or overrule his own arrangements? A wise father will govern his children by rules as securing their best good. But he will retain in his power the suspending of those rules when special occasions arise, when the object for which they exist can be better secured by their suspension. Shall not the living G.o.d have the same right?
So much as to the reflections suggested by the dogmas of natural religion. They sustain in reason our faith in prayer. The basis, however, of our faith rests upon the unchanging and unchangeable revelation of G.o.d, and not upon man"s philosophy. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, saying, "Our Father which art in Heaven." As Christians, this is our authority for prayer. In the words, "OUR FATHER," our Blessed Lord has given us the substance of all that can be said, as to _the privilege of prayer, what to pray for_, and _how to pray_. There can be no loftier exercise of soul ever given to created intelligence than to come into conscious contact with the living G.o.d, and be able to say "_My_ Father."
And surely, as my Father, with a loving father"s heart, it must be his desire that I should tell him _all_ my needs, _all_ my sorrows, _all_ my desires. And, so his word commands, "Be careful for nothing, but _in everything_, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto G.o.d." (Phil, iv., 6.) Under this verse there is positively no exception of any request that may not be made known unto G.o.d. So there is true faith and right Christian philosophy in the remark, "if a _pin_ was needful to my happiness and I could not find one I would pray to G.o.d for it."
The mistake of Christians is in _not_ praying over _little_ things. "The hairs of your head are all numbered." Consult G.o.d about everything.
Expect His counsel, His guidance, His care, His provision, His deliverance, His blessing, in everything. Does not the expression, "Our _daily_ bread," mean just this? Can there be any true life of faith that does not include this? Whatever will serve to help G.o.d"s children to a better understanding of the blessed privileges of prayer, and prove to them the reality of G.o.d"s answering prayer in the cares, trials and troubles of _daily life_, will approve itself to all thoughtful minds as a blessing to them and an honor to G.o.d. It is the purpose of this volume to do this. We are more helped by testimony to _facts_ than by theories and doctrines. When we have ill.u.s.trations before our eyes of G.o.d"s care for his children, and His response to their faith, even in the minutest things, we understand the meaning of His promises and the reality of His providences.
The writer had many thoughts in this line suggested to him by an incident, with which he was connected, in the life of George Muller. It was my happiness to cross the Atlantic in the company of this dear brother on the steamship Sardinian, from Quebec to Liverpool, in June, 1880.
I met Mr. Muller in the express office the morning of sailing, about half an hour before the tender was to take the pa.s.sengers to the ship.
He asked of the agent if a deck chair had arrived for him from New York.
He was answered, No, and told that it could not possibly come in time for the steamer. I had with me a chair I had just purchased and told Mr.
Muller of the place near by, where I had obtained it, and suggested that as but a few moments remained he had better buy one at once. His reply was, "No, my brother, Our Heavenly Father will send the chair from New York. It is one used by Mrs. Muller, as we came over, and left in New York when we landed. I wrote ten days ago to a brother who promised to see it forwarded here last week. He has not been prompt as I would have desired, but I am sure Our Heavenly Father will send the chair. Mrs.
Muller is very sick upon the sea, and has particularly desired to have this same chair, and not finding it here yesterday when we arrived, as we expected, we have made special prayer that Our Heavenly Father would be pleased to provide it for us, and we will trust Him to do so." As this dear man of G.o.d went peacefully on board the tender, running the risk of Mrs. Muller making the voyage without a chair, when for a couple of dollars she could have been provided for, I confess I feared Mr.
Muller was carrying his faith principles too far and not acting wisely.
I was kept at the express office ten minutes after Mr. Muller left. Just as I started to hurry to the wharf a team drove up the street, and on top of a load just arrived from New York, _was Mr. Muller"s chair_! It was sent at once to the tender and placed in _my hands_ to take to Mr.
Muller (the Lord having a lesson for me) just as the boat was leaving the dock. I found Mr. and Mrs. Muller in a retired spot on one side of the tender and handed him the chair. He took it with the happy, pleased expression of a child who has just received a kindness deeply appreciated, and reverently removing his hat and folding his hands over it, he thanked his Heavenly Father for sending the chair. "In _everything_ by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto G.o.d." "Casting _all_ your care upon Him, for He careth for you."
So the word of G.o.d teaches us as His children (_inviting_ us to pray, _commanding_ us to pray, and _teaching us_ how to pray), that there is a divine reality in prayer. Experience abundantly corroborates the teaching.
Every truly converted man knows from this experience that G.o.d answers prayer. He has verified the promise. "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."
(Jer. x.x.xiii., 8.) His life is a life of prayer, and grows more and more to be a life of almost unconscious dependence upon G.o.d, as he becomes fixed in the habit of prayer. This, and it is the purpose of G.o.d, is the result secured by prayer. With this in view, it will not be so much what we expect to get by praying, as a consciousness of coming into closer relations to G.o.d, the giver of all, in our prayers, that will give us true joy.
Often G.o.d"s children are driven to the throne of grace by some desperate need of help and definite supply of an absolute want, and, as they cry to G.o.d and plead their case with tears before him, he so manifests his presence to them and so fills them with a consciousness of his love and power, that the burden is gone and _without the want being supplied_ that drove them to G.o.d, they rejoice in _G.o.d himself_ and care not for the deprivation. This was Paul"s experience when he went thus to G.o.d about the thorn, and came away without the specific relief he had prayed for, but with such a blessing as a result of his drawing near to G.o.d, that he little cared whether the thorn remained or not--or, rather, rejoiced that it was not removed; that it might be used to keep him near to G.o.d, whose love so filled his soul.
A widow once told the writer of the turning point in her Christian life, when G.o.d"s love was so shed abroad in her heart that she had been enabled to go on through all her trials rejoicingly conscious of G.o.d"s presence, and casting all her burdens upon Him. She was driven to seek G.o.d by great need. Her husband"s death left her dest.i.tute, with little children to provide for, and few friends from whom to look for continuous aid. Winter drew on, and, one day, her little boy came in shivering with cold and asked if he could not have a fur cap, as his straw hat was very cold and none of the boys at school wore straw hats.
She was without a cent in the world. She gave a hopeful answer to the boy and sent him out to play, and then went to her bedroom and knelt and wept in utter desolation of heart before G.o.d, praying most earnestly that G.o.d would give her a token that He _was_ her G.o.d and was caring for her by sending her a cap for her boy. While she prayed the peace of G.o.d filled her soul. She was made to feel the presence of her Saviour in such a way that all doubts as to his love for her and his fulfillment of all his promises to care for her vanished away, and she went out of her room, rejoicing in the Lord and singing his praise. She had no burden about the cap, and was quite content for G.o.d to send it or not as it pleased Him; and, in the afternoon, when a neighbor called, occupied with the Lord and his wonderful love, the thought of the cap had gone from her mind. When the neighbor rose to depart, she said, "You know my little boy died last fall. Just before he died I bought him a fur cap: he only wore it two or three times. After his death I put away all his things and thought I could never part with any of them. But, this morning, as I went to the drawer to look them over, I felt that I should give you this cap for your little boy. Will you take it of me?" As she took the cap and told her neighbor of the morning trial, prayer and blessing, two souls were filled with the sense of the reality of prayer and the love of G.o.d for his children. "My little boy," said the widow, "wore that cap for three winters. And often, when sorely tried by my circ.u.mstances, has G.o.d lifted the burden from my heart, by my just looking at it, and remembering the blessing that came with it."
Experiences like this G.o.d gives to all his children, not for the purpose of leading them to look to Him for supplying their physical necessities, as an end, but to make Himself known to them, and to secure their confidence and love, for "this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true G.o.d and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." (Jno.
xvii, 8.)
The use of prayer is to bring us into communion with G.o.d, for the growth of the spiritual life, that is ours by faith in Christ Jesus. To leave it upon any lower plane than this, is to rob it of its highest functions and to paralyze it of lasting power for good in any direction. The promises of G.o.d are conditioned upon our being in this state of heart toward G.o.d. "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (Jno. xv., 7.) Abiding in Christ, our will will be His will, as to desiring that which will most advance the divine life and promote confidence in G.o.d, and all our desires for material blessings will be subordinated to this motive.
Right here must come in a line of truth that will lead us from the spirit of dictation in our prayers to G.o.d in all matters pertaining to our worldly concerns. We cannot tell what is for our highest spiritual good. The saving of our property or the taking it away. The recovery from sickness or the continuance of it; the restoration of the health of our loved one, or his departing to be with Christ; the removing the thorn or the permitting it to remain. "_In everything_" it is indeed our blessed privilege to let _our requests_ be make known unto G.o.d, but, praise his name, he has not pa.s.sed over to us the awful responsibility of the a.s.surance that _in everything_ the requests we make known will be granted. He has reserved the decision, where we should rejoice to leave it, to his infinite wisdom and his infinite love.
There is a danger to be carefully guarded against in the reading of this book and in the consideration of the precious truth. The incidents it relates bring before the mind, of the unlimited resources and the unquenchable love of G.o.d, that are made available to believing prayer.
That danger has been suggested by what has been said, that the highest use of prayer is to bring the soul nearer to G.o.d, and _not the making of it a mere matter of convenience to escape physical ills or supply physical necessities_.
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh" and continues flesh until the end. "Have no confidence in the flesh" is always a much needed exhortation. Now, unquestionably, the desires of the natural heart may and do deceive us, and often lead as to believe that our fervent earnest prayer for temporal blessing is led of the Spirit, when the mind of the Spirit is, that we will be made more humble, more Christ-like and more useful by being denied than by being granted. Again, we are in danger of disobeying the plain commands of _G.o.d"s word_ in allowing prayer ever to take the place of anything _in our power_ to do, and _that we are commanded to do as a means to secure needed good_. He who has said "pray always," has also said, "Be ambitious to be quiet and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and may have need of nothing." (1 Thess., iv., 11, 12; R.V.)
How often the _flesh_ has led men to read (Phil, iv., 19): "My G.o.d shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,"
in a spirit entirely opposed to this exhortation. They have ceased to labor with their hands, and, without warrant in the providences of G.o.d and the judgment of brethren, have turned from doing their own business, expecting the Lord to pay their debts and provide for their necessities.
The quotations of Scripture made by our Lord to Satan, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy G.o.d," is surely applicable in all such cases. The spirit of a "sound mind" (see 2 Tim. i., 7) will surely recognize this.
So in _all_ things, that which G.o.d has given me intelligence and power to do, in avoiding evil or securing good, I am under direct command from him to do, always depending upon His blessing to secure the needed result. A _true faith_ in G.o.d will be made manifest by careful obedience to known commands. An _intelligent_ faith can never allow dependence upon means used to take the place of dependence upon the living G.o.d, who alone makes them efficacious.
It must result in _presumptions_ faith, if obedience is neglected, and the results only promised to obedience are expected. That G.o.d _can_ give blessing, without the use of the ordinary means, on man"s part, there is no question. That he _has_ done so is a matter of record. Yet we should remember that there were but _two_ miraculous draughts of fishes, and _only twice_ did our Lord make bread without the use of seed-time, harvest, grinding and baking. The _rule_ of Christ in his earthly ministry was, most certainly, to receive the supply of his physical wants from His Heavenly Father, in the use of means to secure the results offered in the ordinary operation of the laws of G.o.d. He went into the corn-field at autumn and visited the olive tree for sustenance as did other men. And the question for his disciples is not what G.o.d _can_ do, and not what he _has_ done (that he may be known as G.o.d over all creation, blessed for evermore) in the suspension of natural laws, but what has he revealed to us as his will during the time of the present dispensation of the church on this earth, as to his children using means for the avoidance of evil and securing of good, or depending entirely upon miraculous interference in answer to the prayer of faith for all need without reference to use of means.
Does the prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," mean that we are to do nothing to secure our bread, lest we show no faith in G.o.d, and simply wait in idleness for G.o.d to repeat the miracle of sending it by a raven? or, does it mean that with thankful hearts to G.o.d for the ability he has given us to work, that we go forth diligently fulfilling our task in the use of all appropriate means to secure that which his loving bounty has made possible for us in the fruitful seasons of the earth, and return with devout recognition that He is the Creator, Upholder and Giver of all, bringing our sheaves with us. When seed-time and harvest fail and death is on the land, when corn fails in Egypt and there is no bread, when _we have obeyed him_ and sought to toil with our hands and no man has given unto us, then we will expect his interposition and will have faith that he who has fed us by use of means, will supply us without means, and that He alone is the living G.o.d.
It is noticeable that the prophet Elisha, whose prayers G.o.d heard in the multiplication of the twenty loaves during the dearth at Gilgal, was made Elijah"s successor when following his twelve yoke of oxen at the plough in the field, diligently using means to obtain bread, and undoubtedly communing with G.o.d all the while and recognizing the evidences of his love and power in every upturned daisy as he ploughed the sod, and in every seed that he dropped into the fertile earth, and thought it grand to be a fellow worker with G.o.d in the husbandry of the earth and not one to be fed in idleness, neglecting the toil appointed to man, and losing the blessing that is promised in the word of G.o.d, in the discipline and the knowledge of G.o.d in the operations of His laws, that comes in a greater or less degree to all of earth"s honest toilers.
It is the opinion of many of G.o.d"s children that as the present dispensation draws to its close, there will be among the spiritually minded and consecrated ones of the church, a reproduction of the gifts of Pentecost for a last testimony to the world before Christ comes in glory. There is much Scripture that might be quoted to sustain this opinion. G.o.d grant in His grace and mercy that it may be so. But neither the church or the world have any _claim_ upon G.o.d for it. The church has abused grace and the world has despised mercy. All the promises as to miracles wrought for a testimony as to the truth of Christ"s resurrection, have been fulfilled. If Christ were to come to-day, the world would be without excuse in having rejected him, and could not plead that signs and wonders had been abundantly wrought in His name in the establishing of His church upon the earth.
The question of our Lord in Luke xviii., 8, "When the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth?" suggests to many minds that there may not be vouchsafed during the time immediately preceding his manifestations, any marked interference by G.o.d in the way of miracles or signs among his children, but that their faith in Him as the unseen G.o.d, and their trust in the truth and verify of His word, will be brought forth to the praise and glory of G.o.d and their joy, by their being left to the _word alone_ and the operations of the Holy Ghost by and through the word for their comfort and stability in the faith.
Coupled with this thought let it ever be borne in mind by the believer that the testimony of G.o.d"s word as to miracles, signs and wonders wrought by _Satanic agency_ in the church, during the last day, is clear and unmistakable, and warnings abound as to our danger from them.
"The Spirit saith expressly that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. iv., 1.
"But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come." "Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." 2 Tim. iii., 1 and 13.
"Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. 2 Cor. xi., 14.
"And then shall that wicked be revealed. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, _with all power, and signs_, and _lying wonders_; and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved." 2 Thess. ii., 8 to 10.
By these pa.s.sages it is plain that a sign or a wonder does not establish a doctrine or endorse a man as certainly being _from G.o.d_. The doctrine and the man must be judged by the written word of G.o.d.
If there is ought in the doctrine that denies that Jesus is the Son of G.o.d, that derogates in the slightest degree from the merit of His atonement on the cross for our sins, or that takes the eye off from Him as the risen and coming Lord, the alone object of our faith and hope, or that dishonors in any way G.o.d"s holy word, taking from or adding to it, _then_ the more signs and wonders and manifestations of mysterious power that there may be connected with it, then the more certainly we may know that it is of Satan and not of G.o.d.
And if, in the man who exhibits signs and wonders, there is a spirit contrary to the spirit of Christ, in his seeking honor from man, and using his power to establish a claim to such honor, "speaking of himself as some great one," and not walking in humility as a sinner saved from h.e.l.l and kept day by day by the power of G.o.d through faith in Christ, And if the purpose of his signs be to establish revelations he is receiving in any form apart from the written word, then, though his signs be as marvelous as those of the magicians in Egypt, or Simon Magnus in Samaria, he is, like them, a minister of Satan and not a minister of Jesus Christ.
The age abounds in doctrines and men of this kind. The life of faith lays the soul open to a.s.saults of the Devil by their agency.
"Beloved try the spirits whether they be of G.o.d."