¦Jm*** w&* ^•-.1v»; PRAYER A COURSE OF BIBLE STUDIES ARRANGED FOR DAILY STUDY By L. P. LARSEN THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY FOR INDIA LONDON, MADRAS AND COLOMBO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS OF INDIA AND CEYLON 86 COLLEGE STREET, CALCUTTA 1912 This • book may be obtained from the- Manager of the Christian Literature Society at any of the following addresses : — MEMORIAL HALL, MADRAS 46, DHARAMTOLA. STREET, CALCUTTA 18, CLIVE ROAD, ALLAHABAD MYSORE CITY DAM STREET, COLOMBO JL> XV 1VI1 A JTi. The author regrets that the circumstances under which the book has been printed have allowed a considerable number of errors to creep into the text. The reader is requested to make the follow ing more* important corrections. Page 1 line 3 & 5 for ' point of view 5 , , 10 ,, ,. 18 , , 15 ,, ,, 24 , , 2 ,, ,, 62 , , 6 ,, ,, 64 , 9 ,, ,, 76 , , 12 ,, ,, 90 , , H ,, , 91 , , 23 ,, ,, HI , , 17 .. ,, 118 , , 21 ,, ,, 135 , 6 ,, ., 135 , . 24 „ ., 157 , , 8 ,, ,, 160 , , 17&20,, ,, 188 , , 19 ,, ,, 198 , , 19 ,, ,. 209 , , 9 ,, ,, 240 , . 16 ,, xv. 7-16 i. 31 ' God's way ' 7. Pet. ' is and ' Luke xxiii ' apostles' prayer ' ' God's his ' ' God for is ' Ps. i. 15 ' judgement, are' 19-14 Matt. ix. 27 Matt. xix. 25 xxiii. 35 Luke ii. 33 Psalm i. 15 Ezra i read ' point of view that ' xv. 7, 16 i. 35 'light on God's way' 1 Pet. ' is in ' Luke xxii ' apostle's prayer * ' are God's ' ' God is ' Ps. 1. 15 ' judgement are * xix. 14 Matt. ix. 28 Matt. xix. 26 xviii. 35 Luke ii. 37 Psalm 1. 15 Ezek. i CONTENTS Page I CHRIST'S BELIEF IN PRAYER 1-16 1 Prayer in Christ's Gospel 1 2 Teaching Others to Pray ... 3 3 Effects of Prayer 5 4 Lack of Prayer 7 5 Ground of Assurance 9 6 The Chief Conditions 11 7 Apparent Objections 13 II CHRIST'S USE OF PRAYER ... 17-32 1 Strength for the Weary ... 17 2 Power to Work Miracles 19 3 Showing forth the Father's Glory . 21 4 Light on the Way 23 5 Strength to Obey 26 6 Helping Others 28 7 Saving to the Uttermost 30 III CHRIST'S PRAYER WARNINGS 33-17 1 No Concealing of Difficulties 33 2 Two Strange Parables 35 3 A Trying Experience 37 4 A Discouraging Beginning 40 5 Why so Late 42 6 No Answer 44 7 Not in Vain 46 IV CHRIST'S PATTERN PRAYER 48-62 1 The Disciple Prayer 48 2 God's Place 50 3 God's Mind 52 4 All One 54 Contents IV CHRIST'S PATTERN PRAYER (continued) 5 Our Daily Bread 6 Our Debts 7 Our Dangers V THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER 1 Alone with God 2 Two or Three 3 Child and Father 4 Waiting upon God 5 In Sorrow and in Joy 6 Praying Always 7 Struggling and Striving VI PRAYER IN THE LIFE OF THE APOSTLES 1 Fixed Prayer Hours 2 When in Danger 3 Working by Prayer 4 That God may Work "5 The Laying on of Hands 6 God's Point of View 7 The Riches of God's Grace VII PRAYER IN THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH 1 At the Throne of Grace 2 A Life of Prayer 3 A Fuller Insight 4 A Fuller Life 5 Helping the Apostles 6 Helping the Weak 7 Praying for All VIII THE NATURE OF PRAYER 1 Desiring 2 Asking 3 Seeking 4 Knocking Page 56 5860 63-78 63 65 676972 7476- 79-94 .79 81 84 86 88 90-92 95-109 95 9799 101103106 107 110-124 110 112113 116 CONTENTS VI 1 Page VII I THE NATURE OF PRAYER (continued) 5 Receiving ' 118 6 Using 120 7 Being Used 122 IX THE SPIRIT'S HELP .. 125-140 1 In that Day 125 2 Helping Our Infirmity 127 .3 Praying in the Spirit 130 4 Spirit and Understanding ... 132 5 Convicting of Sin 134 6 Glorifying Christ 136 7 Fruit that' Abides 138 X IN CHRIST'S NAME .. 141-155 1 Praying in Christ's Name 141 2 Name and Nature 143 3 Christ's Name and Our Life 145 4 God Giving in Christ's Name 147 5 Giving Thanks in Christ's Name 149 6 Working in Christ's Name 151 7 Kept in the Lord's Name 153 XI PRAYING IN FAITH .. 156-171 1 If Thou Canst Believe 156 2 God Cares 158 3 God is Able 160 4 I Believe God 162 5 Help My Unbelief 164 6 Surprised 167 7 Freedom of Speech 169 XI) ACCORDING TO GOD'S WILL .. 172-189 1 Learning Obedience 172 2 For Your Sakes 174 3 If I Regard Iniquity 176 4 Oneness of Purpose 179 5 Faith and a Good Conscience 181 Viii CONTENTS Page XII ACCORDING TO GOD'S WILL (continued) 6 Reconciled to our Brother ... 184 7 As We Forgive ... •¦¦ •¦• 186 XIII WATCHING AND FASTING ... ... 190-208 1 Watch and Pray ... ... •¦¦ 19Q 2 Readiness ... ... ••¦ 192 3 Looking unto Jesus ... ... 195 4 When Ye Fast ... ... ... 198 5 New Wine-Skins ... , ... ••¦ 200 6 Fasting and Prayer ... ... 203 7 Laying Aside Every Weight ... 206 XIV THANKSGIVING ... ... ... 209-228 1 Returning to Give Thanks ... ... 209 2 The Value of God's Gifts ... ... 211 3 The Way of Peace ... ... 215 4 The Source of Courage ... ... 217 5 The Secret of Joy ... ... ... 220 6 More Holiness ... ... ... 223 7 God's Glory ... ... ... 226 XV PRAISE ... ... ... ... 229-248 1 A New Song ... ... ¦•• 229 2 The Dayspring from on High ... 231 3 God's Manifold Wisdom ... ... 234 4 Every Spiritual Blessing ... ... 237 5 Before the Throne ... ... 240 6 The Song of Redemption ... ... 243 7 The Song of Victory ... ... 245 Index of Scripture Passages ... ... 249 I. Christ's Belief in Prayer 1. Prayer in Christ's Gospel (a) It is from the practical point of view prayer is regarded in the Gospels as well as in other parts of the Bible. And it is from the same point of view we shall be looking at the subject in these studies. Our chief interest is to learn how to use prayer, not how to explain the working of prayer. It is not unimportant for us to have intelligent ideas on the many points where questions may_ arise in connexion with our subject. We cannot continue to use prayer aright if it seems to us that legitimate functions and valuable faculties of our mind are irreconcilable with the practice of prayer. As we proceed with a study of prayer which goes hand in hand with the practice of prayer, we shall hope to get some light also on the understanding side of the question, light enough at all events to be able to pray without any disquieting and distracting questions coming from other sides of our mind to disturb our prayers. But we will not allow ourselves to forget that it is the practical question that is most important. It means infinitely more to us to learn to pray than to be able to explain some of the difficult prayer questions. (b) Prayer has the same place in all the four Gospels. There are many points, both in details and in the 2 CHRIST'S BELIEF IN PRAYER I. i general plan, where the first three Gospels are different from the fourth, and also points where the three Synoptic Gospels differ one from another. But in all of them we get exactly the same impression of Christ's estimate of the value of prayer. They all tell us of Christ's own prayer practice, and also of the ways in which He taught and encouraged His disciples to pray. There are more numerous references, however, to Christ's own prayers in one of the four Gospels than in the other three. Do you know in which Gospel that is ? If not, you will discover it as you proceed with these studies. (c) Prayer occupies the same prominent place in all stages of our Lord's public ministry. C From the earlier part of the story we have two familiar passages in the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. vi. 5-15 and vii. 7-11. Notice the context in which the first of these passages stands. Christ speaks there of what were regarded among the Jews as the chief religious practices. When you read the verses just mentioned, do you get the impression that Christ spoke of prayer merely as a religious duty, an important religious practice ? There came a time when a sifting took place among those who had been attracted to the great Prophet of Nazareth. He did not fulfil their expectations ; they were not satisfied with His terms. From that time on the Master's main teaching was given to the smaller circle of faithful disciples. Find in Luke xi. 5-13 and xviiL 1-14 characteristic instances of Christ's teaching on prayer during this period. There are several points that deserve to be noticed in these passages. Some of their most distinctive features we shall have occasion to think of I. ii TEACHING OTHERS TO PRAY 3 later ; we shall find them all the more interesting if we remember when Christ spoke these words. In Christ's conversations with His disciples the last night He spent with them before He was crucified' prayer again forms a large part of what the Master said to instruct and comfort them (see John xiv. 13; xv. 7-16 ; xvi. 23/, 26). Notice that the Fourth Gospel, which speaks so much of Christ's divine nature and His oneness with the Father, represents Him not only as urging His disciples to pray but as Himself praying to the Father (John vi. 15 ; xi. 41/; xii. 27/; xvii. Iff). {d) Read Matt. xxi. 1 3 ; Mark xi. 1 1-1 7 ; Luke xix. 46, and notice what to the Saviour was the chief characteristic of God's house, and therefore the essence of true worship. Is that what going to church means to us ? It does not necessarily decide the question as to what may or may not be done in a church, and how service should be conducted. But it does determine the spirit in which we should be present and in which alone we can worship God. 2. Teaching others to Pray (a) Read Luke xi. 1 and try to think what made the apostles come to their Master with this request. There must hs»ve been a double feeling in their minds that prompted them to ask Him for this particular kind of help, on the one hand a feeling of their own need, and On the other hand an impression that their Master could teach them to pray. 4 CHRIST'S BELIEF IN PRAYER I. ii The disciples must have been struck not only by seeing how much time Christ gave to prayer, but also by noticing the close connexion in His life between prayer and important experiences and events. Find instances of such connexion in Luke ix. 18/r"; ix. 28//; John xi. 41//; John xvii. Iff. We shall have occasion to look again at these passages when we come to study Christ's Use of Prayer '. In this connexion, what we want to learn from them is- why — or at any rate one of the reasons why — the disciples came to Christ with the request of which we read in Luke xi. 1. {b) Look again at Luke xi. 1 and notice the reference to what the Baptist had done for his disciples. We do not know what exactly the disciples are thinking of, as John's prayer instructions. One is inclined to think that they had in mind some definite prayer form, some particular words which they might use in praying. Did Christ in answer to this request teach them prayer- words ? Compare the reports of The Lord's Prayer in two of the Synoptic Gospels to see whether the . first disciples seem to have regarded this pattern-prayer as something the value of which depended on the use of particular, fixed, unalterable words and sentences. Think also of the instances to which we have referred, where the -disciples heard their Master pray. Do, you think the apostles on such occasions would have received the impression that the question of perfect prater is a question of a perfect formula ? (c) Christ did not make an exhibition of Himself in prayer to His disciples. Anything of that kind would have been contrary to what we shall learn about His ' Spirit of I.'iii EFFECTS OF PRAYER 5 Prayer '. ' An eloquent prayer ' is a combination of terms which surely to Christ would be meaningless. When He allowed His disciples to watch, so much of His own prayer-life it was only that He might teach and encourage them to pray. Others do not learn to pray by hearing us speak of prayer, but by seeing what prayer means to us in our own life. 3. . Effects of Prayer {a) Read John xiv. 13, 14; xv. 7-16; xvi. 23, noticing in each of these verses the expression that shows us what Christ thought could be obtained or accomplished by prayer. If these passages are typical of what we find in all our Lord's prayer-teaching, do not let us try to explain His words down to the level of our experience. Christ certainly knew more about prayer then we do. Let His words humble us — if need be let them even perplex us — but let them stand to guide us and to urge us on. (ft) To leave Christ's ' whatsoever ' and ' anything ' without any diluting or toning-down explanation does not, however, preclude our reminding ourselves that -He has not promised us everything we may wish to have, or everything which others may desire for us, but every thing that is needful. Look from this point of view at Luke xi. 5-8 and xviii. 1-8. We shall study these two parables later when we come to think of ' Christ's Prayer Warnings V But think in this' connexion of what it is which the man in the one case and the widow in the 6 CHRIST'S BELIEF IN PRAYER I. Hi other are asking for. Whatsoever is needful— that is what in these two parables Christ encourages us to expect in answer to our prayers. (c) Whatsoever is good — that is the plain addition in Matt. vii. 11. Compare also Jas. i. 17. If we were to ask what in Christ's eyes are the most valuable of the Father's good gifts we may find one answer by comparing Luke xi. 13 with Matt. vii. 11, and another by looking at Matt. vi. 14-15 in connexion with the preced ing verses. There is a difference between the report of our Lord's words in Matt. vii. 11 and in Luke xi. 13, and we are not able to say what the exact words were which Christ used on that occasion, or whether on one occasion He said the one thing and on another occasion the other. But one thing is perfectly plain : the difference between the two passages shows us that to Christ's early disciples there must have been some close connexion between good gifts ' and ' the Holy Spirit '. What is it Christ emphasizes, in the other passage we mentioned (Matt. vi. 14-15), as specially important in connexion with prayer? When of all the requests mention ed in the previous prayer this one point only is singled out for such emphatic reiteration, it must mean that this point is one which Christ regarded as particularly important. [d) Look carefully at the following passages to see what in each of them Christ mentions as the' divinely possible and divinely intended effect of prayer. — John xiv. 13. There are two clauses in this verse that deserve attention. Look carefully at them, and think of their meaning in connexion with your own prayer life. — John I. iv LACK OF PRAYER 7 xv. If, 16. What is prayer mentioned in connexion with here ? — John xvi. 23/. What is it Christ speaks of here as possible through prayer ? Try to think what the value of this prayer fruit is to those who desire to commend Christ to others. Have we in our prayers the expectancy and the aim which Christ's teaching justifies, and requires ? 4. Lack of Prayer («) If prayer has such effects as Christ says, the absence of prayer, or failure to pray aright, must have correspondingly sad consequences. This is also what Christ assures us in several places. Look at two such passages to get an impression of the seriousness of this question. {b) Mark xiv. 38 warns us of the danger it means to one's own life if prayer does not get its proper place. Read together with this verse Mark xiv. 29-31 ; John xiii. 36-38 ; Luke xxii. 31-34. Notice what the danger was that threatened Peter, and how in spite of repeated warnings from his Master he failed to get ready to meet it. Peter loved Jesus ; but that, was not enough to help him. It was prayer — not only a particular prayer act butthe right' prayer attitude — that was lacking. Peter was self-confident and heedless, characteristics the very opposite of those that distinguish the prayer mind. When Peter failed so sadly, it was not merely because his character was too weak, or because the trial was too 8 CHRIST'S BELIEF IN PRAYER L IV severe. The real explanation was that when he met the danger he was unarmed because he had not been watch ing and praying. (c) Mark ix. 29 tells us of the sad consequences to Christ's work of his disciples' failure to pray. Read the story from v. 14 and take time to think of the awful sadness of the failure of Christ's disciples which is here described, (l) Think of how greatly help was needed in the case we here read about. (2) Remem ber what reasons the disciples and others had to expect that they should be able to render such help as was here required. If an ordinary layman passes a place where a serious accident has taken place it is sad for him to look at the scene and be able to do nothing ; for help is so much needed. But it is doubly sad if a medically trained man passes the same scene without being able to render help ; for in his case you have a right to expect that he would be able to do something. (3) And then think of how the disciples' inability to heal the boy must have been regarded by Christ's enemies (we get an impression of that from v. 14) ; what feelings it awakened in the Master Himself {v. 19) ; and how much more difficult it made it for the sick boy's father to believe when he met Christ Himself (22 and 24). What was the cause of this failure, a failure which was not only such a sad thing in itself, but which threatened in so many ways to hinder and disturb the Master's work ? Christ gives the answer in v. 29. Let us remember this answer whenever we fail : — Lack of prayer is the cause of failure. I. V GROUND OF ASSURANCE 9 5. Ground of Assurance Prayer, of the kind that Christ teaches, means not only asking but a definite looking for an answer ; it is not only a desire to be helped but a confident assurance that help is available. (a) . What Christian assurance in general is built upon we learn from such passages as Eph. ii. 8 and 2 Tim. i. 12. What is, according to these verses, the ground on which a Christian may build his confidence ? {b) When we think of prayer in particular the ground of confident assurance is plainly stated in Matt. vii. 7-11. There is in these verses first {v. 7) an exhortation and a promise ; then {v. 8) a declaration of a definite, unfail ing prayer law ; and finally {vv. -9-1 1) an illustration drawn from ordinary human experience, evidently intended to make us ready to accept that prayer law and be guided by it. Think carefully of this illustration. On what is the assurance grounded that such asking for help will not be in vain ? Is it on the son's character, or something he has done before for the father ? Or is the result supposed to depend on the nice and impressive manner in which he makes his request ? There is only one cause in dicated ; and what is that ? Having pointed out what the ground of assurance is in the natural prayer relations between a child and its father, Christ reminds us how much stronger that ground of confidence is when it is of God we are asking help and not of an earthly parent. What is the 10 CHRIST'S BELIEF IN PRAYER I. V difference between the heavenly Father and an earthly father which thus increases the confidence and expec tancy with which we make our requests ? (c) Read also Jas. i. 5, and notice the two expres sions used there to describe God's manner of giving to those who ask Him for help. The meaning of the first term is perfectly clear. What exactly do you under stand the second expression to mean ? To whom, to what kind of people, is it of special value to be reminded of this characteristic of the divine mind ? Those who are conscious of many things in their lives which God might hold up against them as proofs that they do not deserve His help, would not be able to approach Him with confidence and expect help from Him in answer to their prayer if it were not "for the presence in Him of this mind that ' upbraideth not .'. {d) Luke xviii. 7 shows us on what Christ builds the confidence that, however it may look for a time, God will not fail those who earnestly (and therefore persistently) ask help of Him. Notice that Christ does not refer us merely to the experience among men of the effect, of persistent asking. What is it Christ reminds us of in this verse as the real ground of confidence in prayer to God ? There are two expressions used in this verse to throw light upon God's attitude to those who pray. To see the force of the first expression compare John xv. 16 and Rom. viii. 29, 30, 33. The sentence in which the second term occurs is not free from difficulties ; but the meaning of the word itself is perfectly plain, and so is the value of such an attitude on God's part to those who appeal to Him for help. I.vi THE CHIEF CONDITIONS 11 Is there confident expectancy in our prayers ? And what do we build it on ? 6. The Chief Conditions {a) Christ has never promised that God will give men all they desire, that every wish will be fulfilled if only it takes the form of a prayer. No wise father would ever think of giving his children, some of whom are very ignorant and very inexperienced, an uncondi tional promise of that kind. Christ's disciples knew also that it was possible for men to ask without receiving because they ask amiss (Jas. iv. 3). (&) Prayer is not a charm, a mantra, which produces its effects unfailingly if only, the right , words are used and the words are pronounced in the proper manner. That is a magical conception of prayer ; spiritual results are supposed to be obtainable by mechanical, non- spiritual means. Where the word japa is used (in Tamil) about prayer it is necessary to remember that in Christian language this word is not used in its old mantra sense. (c) Prayer, as Christ teaches men to pray, is a spiritual question ; the result depends, on man's part, on the fulfilment of spiritual conditions. Remember that the difference between the physical "world and the spiritual side of life is not that in the physical world there are fixed laws and in the spiritual world there are no laws. If in the spiritual life there were no fixed, knowable laws we should never be able 12 CHRIST'S BELIEF IN PRAYER I. vi to attain to- any certainty in spiritual questions, no progress would be possible either in the matter of under standing things or in the doing of things. But in the spiritual world we have to do with spiritual laws ; spiritual conditions determine the connexion between cause and effect ; the result depends on the inward attitude and not on outward forms and actions merely. We shall have occasion to think, as we proceed with our studies, of many important prayer conditions. In this connexion we only want to see clearly that Christ who speaks so strongly of God's unlimited willingness to give, as a father to his children, insists also on definite conditions being fulfilled by those who seek God's help in prayer. - {d) Find in the following passages instances of some of the conditions that are most emphasized by Christ. What is it Christ requires on the part of those who pray, in Matt. v. 23/; vi. 14/; Mark xi. 25/? Think of this as a condition that applies also to yourself and to your prayer life. Read Mark ix. 23 and xi. 23/ to see what the Saviour here makes the result of prayer depend on. Compare also Luke xviii. 8, which reminds us not only of the im portance of this condition but also of the difficulty it sometimes presents to men. Be sure you understand aright what Christ means by ' faith '. There is a third class of passages we ought to look at, because in them we find another expression used by which Christ evidently meant to describe an important condition of effectual prayer. Find that expression in John xiv. 13, 14; xv. 16; xvi. 23. We shall have occasion I. Vii APPARENT OBJECTIONS 13 later to think more of this condition of prayer, as well as of those conditions already mentioned; But let it in this connexion be clearly remembered that the expression we are thinking of describes a spiritual condition and does not refer merely to the use of a particular prayer phrase. In Luke xviii. 9-14 Christ has given us a striking illus tration of what is hot merely the most fundamental but really the all comprehensive condition of our receiving from God what we ask for in prayer. Why did God give His blessing to the publican and not to the Pharisee? Be sure you understand what yqu mean by the term or terms which you use to answer this question. Are we in Christ's school, learning of Him how to pray aright ? 7. Apparent Objections There are problems which have often troubled men's minds in connexion with this great subject of prayer. As we think of some of the questions which are raised by this subject it may appear to us as if there is no room for prayer at all. And in - the light of the ex periences of men who have been praying it may look as if prayer had no effect. We are not going to discuss these questions ; but we want to remind ourselves that the Saviour who made so much of prayer was not blind to those ideas and ex periences, which some people look upon as fatal objec tions to prayer. 14 CHRIST'S BELIEF IN PRAYER I. vii (a) God's knowledge. If God knows everything, what is the good of our praying to Him ? Does He not know beforehand every thing which we are going to tell Him ? Find Christ's answer to this question in Matt. vi. 8. God does know, Christ says. But what is the con clusion to which this assurance leads Him ? Does He say {v. 9), Therefore you need not pray at all ? It is both logical and reverent to say as Christ does : Therefore do not pray as if by your prayer you were to give God information or to explain things to Him. {b) God's love. If God loves all men, as Christianity says, and if He is really ready as a father to give to all men what they need, why should it be necessary for men to pray to Him for help ? Read Matt. vii. 1 1 and see what Christ's attitude is on this point. When He urges men to pray, is it because He has any doubt as to God's willingness to help men ? Think also of the other passages we looked at in con nexion with the question of the ' Ground of Assurance '. Christ says, Yes, God loves you, and therefore you may pray to Him with perfect confidence ; pray not as if by your prayer you were to make God willing to help you ; He is always willing, there is no need of trying to move Him in this respect. (c) God's laws. What is the use of praying when we know that everywhere in existence, in the spiritual realm' as well as in the physical, there are fixed, -unalterable laws? This is a question, uttered or unuttered, which is familiar to many minds in our day. I. vii APPARENT OBJECTIONS 15 Read Matt. vii. 16-17; xii. 33; John iii. 6; also Matt. xvi. 2-3. What we find in these passages is not a discussion of the relations of natural laws to divine activity. Questions of that kind we are left to find light on ourselves as we come to understand more of the relations of natural laws to human activity. But Christ shows us in such passages as those to which we have referred, that He does not ignore the existence of law in God's world. His understanding of the existence of the great laws of life and growth does not, however, interfere with His belief in prayer. Our conviction of the reality, the divine greatness and the supreme value of all the laws that we describe as ' natural ' need not shake our belief in the value of prayer ; but it should make us feel sure that in what God does in answer to prayer there is nothing that is disorder ly or capricious. {d) Apparent resultlessness. It is no use praying ! God does not hear your prayers ! We have been praying, but have had no answers ! We asked God to intervene and help us, but nothing happened ! This is the silent sorrow of many hearts and the bitter cry of not a few. Read Luke xi. 5-8 and xviii. 1-8 to see what Christ says to those who ask questions or make complaints of this kind. We shall look more closely at these passages in another connexion. But notice here what the chief teaching is the two parables. Try to write it down for yourself as briefly and pointedly as you can. 16 CHRIST'S BELIEF IN PRAYER I. vii The light we get from Christ on the four points we have been looking at is not sufficient to answer every question that may arise. But it encourages us to con tinue to pray, in spite of the difficulties which our thoughts or our experiences may place before us. Christ was fully aware of those things which so often threaten to hinder our prayers. But He was not disturbed by them. We want to learn of Him how to pray. II. Christ's Use of Prayer 1. Strength for the Weary {a) Christ knew what it was to be tired. He spent Himself in His work. Matt. viii. 24 ; John iv. 6. . What light do such passages throw on the person of Christ, and on the manner or spirit in which He did His work ? What do you consider the truest and fullest ex planation of the fact that Christ frequently was tired ? Do you think it is sufficient to say that He was very busy and that He had a real human body ? Or is there some thing more to be borne in mind if we are to understand what we read about Christ being tired and exhausted ? Read Matt. viii. 17, and try to think what the writer may have had in mind when he quoted the old prophetic ' words in this connexion. Do you not think it must have meant to the evangelist something more than if he simply said that Christ removed men's infirmities and cured them of their diseases ? Why does he say that the Saviour took men's sufferings upon Himself? There is nothing in what we know of Christ's life to indicate that He was in His own body affected by the diseases and sufferings of which men were cured by Him. Perhaps we are too different from Christ to understand all that the words mean. But something of it is perfectly plain to us in the light of ordinary human experience. Think of two doctors who are doing very nearly the same work, the same amount and the same kind, day by day. They are equally 2 18 CHRIST'S USE OF PRAYER II. i well trained, equally capable of doing their work. But in one respect there is a great difference between them. One of them is interested in the people whom he is treating ; he seems to be feeling with them in their sufferings and anxieties. The other doctor's attitude to his cases, his interest in them and his feeling in con nexion with them, is purely professional. Which of these two comes nearer to the description given of the Great Physician in Matt. viii. 17? And which of two such doctors do you think, would feel more exhausted at the end of the day's work ? {b) Look at the following passages as instances which show how Christ through prayer refreshed and strength ened Himself. Mark i. 31. Look back over the story of the previous day's activities, noticing what is said in 21-23, 29-30, 32-34. Christ had had much to do on that day. And then remember that He put Himself into all He did, both when He was teaching and when He was healing. Luke. v. 15-16. Notice the connexion between the two verses to understand better why Christ ' withdrew Himself in the deserts, and prayed '. Matt. xiv. 23. Remember the preceding story of Christ's unexpected meeting with a great multitude in 'a desert place', the feelings called forth in Him as He saw them, and what He did to help them. (c) What we have now been looking at in Christ's life is a general law of God's kingdom. Find it stated in Isa. xl. 31. To see the force of this statement think of (l) the contrast betweeen 30 and 31, and (2) the degrees of strength suggested by the three II. ii POWER TO WORK MIRACLES 19 terms in 31, flying, running, walking. Do these words seem to you to form an anticlimax or a climax ? 2. Power to Work Miracles {a) We do not want to think more of miracles or put a higher value on them than Christ Himself did ; John iv. 48. But we want, on the other hand, to get from Christ's miracles the light and help which He said they were fitted to give ; John x. 37/; xv. 24. {b) We need not be troubled or perplexed about the general question of miracles. If there is a God who has a perfect knowledge of all the laws of existence and an absolute control of all forces, there is nothing strange in being told that He is able to do what nobody else can do. Human experience shows us very clearly that one who understands the laws of nature can accomplish things which to many others seem nothing short of miraculous. The question of greatest interest and importance in connexion with alleged divine miracles anywhere is not how they are performed, but whether the purpose which calls forth the divine action com mands our deepest approval. This is also the chief question in regard to Christ's miracles. What we most of all want to understand is not what to think of these miracles from the point of view of modern science, but, what light they throw upon God ? In answer to this question several things might deserve our attention in connexion with the miracles we 20 CHRIST'S USE OF PRAYER II. ii read of in the Gospels. What we want to think of here is only this one thing, that it was through prayer Christ got power to do His mighty works. (c) Read John xi. 41-42. You remember the previous story of how the sisters of Lazarus had sent word to Jesus about their brother's illness; how He, after receiving the message from Bethany, still remained two day where He was ; how He then tried to explain to the apostles the circumstances under which they were going back to the village on the Mount of Olives ; and what had happened after they reached Bethany. Look at the last sentence of v. 41 ; what is the plain inference as regards the subject of our present study ? We are not told when and how Christ had been . making this question of Lazarus's illness and restoration to life a matter of prayer. But the verse we are looking at makes it plain where the power that manifested itself in the raising of Lazarus had come from, and how Christ had got it. {d) Look at Matt. xiv. 19 ; xv. 36 ; John vi. 11. When on these occasions Christ looked up to heaven and gave thanks it did not perhaps at the time strike the disciples as anything extraordinary. The head of a Jewish household, the host at a Jewish feast, would always offer prayer before meals. But that afterwards they saw something more in the prayer which preceded the mira culous feeding of the multitudes, seems quite evident from John vi. 33. How does this verse describe that strange experience ? What light does the phrase used here shed on the disciples' idea of the secret of Christ's miraculous power ? II. iii THE FATHER'S GLORY 21 ;.. {e) Matt. xxvi. 53 throws a strong light on the voluntariness of Christ's sufferings. He could have es caped if He had wanted to. He knew that even at this late hour there was power available to free Him from: the' danger which was now close at hand. What we want to notice. in this connexion is what Christ says, of the way in which that help would have had to come. How does He. say He could have got the miraculous help that would have been sufficient to drive back His enemies,*? But does not this view of Christ's miracles detract from His glory ? Was it not His own power He was using ? Was He not Himself divine ? The answer which Christ Himself in all the Gospels gives to this question is, that His divine glory is the glory of divine sonship ; and ' the Son can do nothing of Himself '. Prayer was to Christ, as it is to all God's children, the channel through which divine power comes into life and work. 3. Showing forth the Father's Glory {a) In John xvii. 4 we learn what to Christ Himself was the aim of His whole life, the point of view f rom; which it must be looked at if it is to be understood: What was that aim ? Find in Matt. v. 16 an exactly similar statement of the aim that should control and characterize the life of His disciples. (ft) What is the real meaning of ' glorifying God ' ? Is it merely a matter of, the way in which we speak to -God or feel towards God, the same as ' praising 22 CHRIST'S USE OF PRAYER II. iii God ' ? Is my glorifying God something that concerns only two, God and myself ? Try to think out this matter quite clearly, writing down your answer in as definite and concise language as you can. (c) From Christ's own words, as they are recorded in the Gospels, it is plain, not only — as we have seen— that it was from His Father in heaven the Son received His power, but also that He wanted men to understand- that it Was the Father who did the works. Find this stated in John v. 36 ; x. 25, 32. These mighty works bore witness of Christ, that is to say, they threw light on Christ's relation to the Father. It was the Father who was reyealed through the works, it was His greatness and goodness that were seen through them. That was how Christ wanted His miracles to be regarded. {d) And that was also the way in which Christ's miracles impressed those who witnessed them. — Read Matt. ix. 8 ; remember what had taken place, and see in this verse what the multitudes had been led to think of by it. — Luke vii. 16 shows us another instance of this kind. What was the wonderful thing that had happen ed ? In what directions did the thoughts of those who had seen the miracle go ? Who got the praise for it ? — Look also at John iii. 2. Who is speaking, and in whose name ? What are Christ's miracles here taken as proofs or signs of ? The power working in Christ's life was God's power. The effect of what He did therefore was to reveal God, to help men to see God's glory. (e) Here we have again, illustrated perfectly in II. iv LIGHT ON THE WAY 23 Christ's life, a general law of God's kingdom : God's power . . . prayer . . . mighty works . . . the Father glorified. Find this law expressed in John xiv. 12-13, and remem ber that these words were spoken by Christ to His disciples expressing a truth which applied to their life, and a law by which they were to be guided. Read also 2 Cor. iv. 7, noticing in the first half of the verse the two expressions which the apostle uses to describe normal Christian experience, and in the second half of the verse what should above everything else be kept clear and made plain in all such experience. Glorifying God on earth — is that our aim ? 4. Light on the Way {a) Many questions arise when we begin thought fully to study what the Gospels tell us of Christ and His life. On one point after another we feel how differ ent this story is from all that we are most familiar with. Because of such differences we are not surprised to find that there are many things in His life, both in what has to do with H is own inner life and also in what concerns His outward life and work among men, which we do not understand fully and cannot explain satis factorily. But this lack of a complete understanding does not make it useless, or irreverent, to try to understand the meaning and implication of what is told of Christ's inner life hx thee Gospels. One of the things which are made 24 CHRIST'S USE OF PRAYER II. iv clear by such a study is that Christ used prayer to get God's way. ¦ • (6) Read Luke iii. 21-22, and notice what is said here of Christ's inward attitude at the time of His baptism. The stories in Matthew and Mark do not mention this point. But Luke's Gospel is throughout- more interested in Christ's prayer life ; it is natural there fore that he should have made special mention of Christ's prayer in connexion with His baptism. Here is one of the points where, in our study of Christ's life, many and great questions arise to which we are unable to find any definite answers. What exactly did the baptism mean to Christ Himself ? As the story is told, and judging by the place where it stands in the Gospel narrative, it seems to have marked. a decisive step both in His inward experience and in His outward life. How much did this experience have to do with His own understanding of His unique relation to God and of the unique work which He had come to do among men ? How had this experience been prepared by the previous development of His inner life ? We cannot help asking such questions. And fully conscious of our very limited power to answer them, we cannot but try to form such an idea of Christ's experiences at Jordan as may help us not only to understand Him better but also to trust and follow Him better. (c) The striking features of what is told in all the Gospels of Christ's baptism are the coming of the Spirit and the voice from heaven. There are two other occasions in Christ's life when a voice from heaven is mentioned, Luke ix. 29 ; John xii. IL iv LIGHT ON THE WAY 25 27/ These two experiences clearly mark steps on the way to the same goal ; Christ is on the way to the cross, and He needs to be guided, encouraged, and strengthened on His way. Are we not right in putting Luke iii. 21 on a line with these other passages ? Does it not mark the entering upon that way ? It is not light only Christ is getting on these occasions ; but light to see the way clearly is a part of the help they speak of. They show us the critical points in the Saviour's life, and they show us how at each of these turning points the decisive step was taken. Every time the step was taken under prayer ; to be able to take the step Christ needed help from above ; the step He took called forth divine approbation. {d) In Luke vi. 12 we see how Christ through prayer sought help in a matter that more directly bore upon His work. Think of what the verse says, and what the connexion is. Try to understand what the importance was of the step which was here to be taken. And re member what we learn afterwards of one of the twelve who were chosen, and also of Christ's knowledge of him. Does it seem strange that on this occasion in a very special manner He felt the need of guidance, clear light that would make Him perfectly sure of the way to be followed ? (e) Here again we have come down to one of the fundamental laws of the kingdom. Look at what James says (i. 5) about the way to get the wisdom in which we so often find ourselves lack ing. Remember that ' wisdom ' is something practical ; it is not the knowledge that enables us to explain things, 26 CHRIST'S USE OF PRAYER II. V but the insight and understanding by which we are enabled to determine what we should aim at and what the right means and methods are. Think also of what Christ said to His apostles in Luke xxii. 40 and 46. How are we, according to these words, to be able to see God's way clearly enough to avoid entering into temptation ? 5. Strength to Obey {a) Obedience is the key-note of Christ's life, the secret of its beauty and of its power. What does Paul say in Phil. ii. 8. about Christ's life as a man ? Only one thing is mentioned to describe all that He was and did after ' being found in fashion as a man ', What is that one thing ? It is true that two terms are used about Christ in Phil. ii. 8, but it is easy to see that in the apostle's eyes the two are simply two sides of the same thing. And what is it the apostle Paul mentions in Rom. v. 19 as the explanation of Christ's power to save men from sin and make them righteous ? (&) In Heb. v. 7-8 we have a very striking statement regarding Christ's obedience. Look carefully at what the writer says. How did Christ learn obedience ? And what was made possible by it ? Remember that the writer who speaks here of Christs obedience, regarded Jesus Christ as -the glorious Son of God. But 'thougli he was a Son yet learned He obedience'. How can that be? Was obedience nc^ II. V STRENGTH TO OBEY 27 something which as God's Son Christ by nature possessed in perfection ? Here we are again at a point where we feel the limi tation of our power to understand and explain Christ's life. But we do understand what the writer of this epistle emphasizes in the passage we are thinking of, that Christ would not really have been our brother, the Son of God could not truly have been called also the Son of man, if the way of obedience had not been to Him a matter of personal choice and voluntary decision. (c) The decisive steps in Christ's way of obedience are those mentioned in Luke iii. 21 ; ix. 29; John xii. 27/; Luke xxii. 41-44. At each of these points it is expressly said that the step was taken after prayer. It was through prayer the way was made clear and strength was found to follow it. That it was not easy for Christ to obey, that it cost Him a great effort to follow this way of obedience to the end, is plain from the last two of the four passages mentioned. What is there in John xii. 27/ to show us that Christ found God's way hard ? What was the feeling instinctively called forth in Him as he looked at it ? And what do we learn from Luke xxii. Wff about the difficulty of obedience in Christ's life ? How far did His shrinking- from God's way go ? (d) Remember what Christ said in John iv. 34. Are these words contradicted by the prayer in Gethsemane ? What do you think made obedience hard for Him who said that it was His meat — the source of His satisfaction and strength — to do His Father's will ? Wasit His fear of physical pain ? Was it a desire for public honour and 28 CHRIST'S USE OF PRAYER Ii. -Vt victory ? Was it the feeling naturally called forth; .in a pure soul when in close contact with that which is impure ? Do not be satisfied with any answer which is not in keeping with all we know of Christ. .- Do you find the way of obedience difficult ? Strength to obey is obtained through prayer. 6. Helping others («) Christ lived not to please Himself. ; Even to one only superficially acquainted with Christ's life nothing is more strikingly characteristic of it tharr His readiness to spend Himself to help others. To this end He used many means. Think of in stances in the Gospels illustrating different mearisjand methods employed by Him. That prayer was one of the means He used to help others, is plain from many passages in the Gospels. (6) Read Matt. xiv. 22-23 ; John vi. 15. In the light of what is said in these verses what do you think was in Christ's mind as He withdrew on that evening to be alone with God in prayer? Christ perhaps felt afresh something of the temptation that is mentioned in Matt. iv. 8/, and He may have been seeking through His prayer strength to overcome the temptation and follow God's way. But do you not think that the need of His disciples weighed on His soul, and that the need of the crowds that had just been fed by Him was in His mind also as He prayed that evening ? What was the danger against which His disciples needed help at this time? II. vi HELPING OTHERS 29 And what would He be thinking of in His prayer as He remembered the multitudes that had been with Him?. (c) In Luke xxii. 31/ we have a characteristic in stance of Christ helping others by prayer. We may find it difficult to understand what is said about Satan's asking. But any question that may arise on this point does not prevent our understanding the meaning and value of what is told of Christ's help. Did Peter at this time know anything of the danger that threatened him ? Was he getting ready for it at all and arming himself to meet it ? Here is a helper who knows about the danger that is coming, and who understands how to meet it. The battle was not fought for Peter, in the sense that he himself had. nothing to do with it and felt nothing of the "struggle and pain. But he had Christ's help in the wrestling which is 'not against flesh and blood '. {d) In Luke xxiii. 34 we have another instance of the Saviour's efforts to help others by prayer. Those for whom He prayed on this occasion had no desire what ever to be helped by Him, and did not understand at all that they needed such help as Christ was seeking for them through prayer. Christ's prayers for others were not determined by their understanding or their desires, but — by what ? (e) In John xvii we have Christ's great high-priestly, prayer. For whom is He making intercession in this chapter ? Find in vv. 1.1, 15, 17, 21, 24, what He is asking for on their behalf. Think of these requests as expressing 30 CHRIST'S USE OF PRAYER II. vii what our Lord considered most needful and important to those who believe on Him. As in the case of the others for whom Christ prayed, His believers may not have understood how much they need these things and how great their value is. Christ knows our needs and our dangers better than we. He knows where the help is to be found ; and in His desire to help us He does not wait till we have begun to feel and understand the need. 7. Saving to the Uttermost {a) Christ's prayer-work did not cease with His life upon earth. We, are not told very much in detail about the work which the Saviour is doing since His return to the Father. But one of the things that are distinctly mentioned is that He continues to pray for men. (6) Read 1 John ii. 1-2. To whom is the glorified Christ's prayer, as mentioned in the first verse, fitted to be a source of comfort and assurance ? Do not overlook the first half of the verse. It is just because the apostle wants that statement to be understood to mean all that it says, that it is so im portant we should be reminded that there is help and hope for those who see that the victory over sin is, not yet complete in their lives. Notice also the connexion between the first and the second verse. What is in Christ's work upon earth the basis of His intercessory work in heaven ? The two parts of Christ's work for sinners which are mentioned II. vii SAVING TO THE UTTERMOST 31 in these verses were two of the chief aspects of the priestly work among the Jews. Christ is doing, in the real sense and in the fullest sense, the priestly work of establishing saving relations between God and man. And He is able to continue that work for ever. (c) This idea of a priesthood that continues, where therefore the priestly work can be perfectly done, is 'emphasized in Heb. vii. 25. Read the previous verses to see clearly the contrast to which the attention is here directed. Who is able fully to appreciate the value of what is said in v. 25 about Christ's power ? Compare such passages as Phil. i. 6 and 1 Thess. v. 23-24 where the same idea of finishing and perfecting the Lord's work is dwelt upon. That is the idea of the Christian hope, which is not merely a source of comfort to those who are about to die, but to all who are longing for that work of salvation to be finished of which they have known the beginning, but as yet only the beginning. {d) In John xiv. 16 a special object of Christ's prayer in heaven is mentioned. What is it ? Remember, how ever, what we have seen before by comparing Matt. vii. 11 with Luke xi. 13, that the gift Christ is speaking of here is not merely one out of many good gifts which the Father may bestow but the ' promise of the Father '. It is Christ's prayer, we are assured, which helps to bring this divine gift to men. (e) But lest what is said about the glorified Saviour's prayers should lead us to form a wrong idea of God and His mind toward men, let us remember Christ's words in John xvi. 26. 32 CHRIST'S USE OF PRAYER IL vii Do they seem to contradict what has been said above; about Christ's intercession? Not if the verse is care fully read. But the words do contradict, they are abso lutely irreconcilable with, certain crude and un-Christian ideas about Christ as our mediator. With these words before us, is there any room for the idea that the Father has to be moved by the Son to be loving and merciful toward men ? Or for the other idea, which one sometimes meets as an objection to Christian ity, that to speak of Christ as a mediator is to put Him between men and God, thus excluding men from direct relations and dealings with the Father ? He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through Him, seeing He ev.er livefh to make intercession for them.' III. Christ's Prayer Warnings 1. No Concealing of Difficulties . {a) This is one of the striking characteristics of Jesus Christ as we come to know Him through the Gospels. Read rapidly through Luke xiv. 25-35. Who were the people to whom Christ spoke these words ? What impression were such words likely to leave in people's minds ? What is the explanation of His using language apparently so discouraging, in speaking to those who came to Him ? Did he not care whether men who met Him were attracted or frightened away ? Learn from Luke xix. 41/ whether Christ was satisfied when He knew He had done His duty, without asking about the result in the lives of those to whom He had offered God's gift. Glance over the words which Christ spoke to His apostles in Matt. x. 16-39 and John xv. 18-xvi. 4, about their prospects in His service. Might they not feel discouraged and be turned away from Him, and from the work to which He had appointed them, by being told that they must be prepared for such trying and painful experiences in doing their Master's work ? It is plain that Christ does not desire to attract men to His kingdom and to His service by showing them only the bright side of things. He does not speak as an agitator, whose one great concern is to secure as many votes as he can, and who therefore, in what He says to 3 34 CHRIST'S PRAYER WARNINGS III. i men, dwells only on that which sounds promising and which they like to hear. Of one thing we feel sure as we read of Christ in the gospels : His chief ambition was not to win as many followers as possible. There was something that was greater to Him than to be well spoken of by men and to have the satisfaction of being followed by large numbers. {b) What is true in general of Christ's teaching and attitude to men, is very noticeable also when we confine our attention to the prayer side of His teaching. He had frequently encouraged His disciples, in the strongest manner possible, to pray and to expect God to answer their prayers. He had given them such unlimited prayer promises as we read in Matt. vii. 7/; John xiv. 13 and many other places. And yet here too we meet the warning. He certainly wants His disciples to understand His words about prayer to mean all that they say. But He wants them also to understand that it is not always easy to pray. In the following studies we shall see that it is true also in regard to the subject of prayer, that Christ does not conceal the difficulties. We shall see this as we study some of the things Christ said about prayer. And we shall see it no less clearly in Christ's own strange action at times towards people who asked help of Him. (c) Christ does not deceive us. One who speaks as Christ does, of the dark things as well as of the bright, can be trusted fully and may be followed withou any fear of disappointment. They that trust in Him shall not be disappointed. III. ii TWO STRANGE PARABLES 35 2. Two Strange Parables Read carefully Luke xi. 5-8 and xviii. 1-8. {a) In several details there are striking differences between these two parables. What prompted the man in Luke xi. 5-6 to go and ask for help ? What is the motive and object of the widow's request in Luke xviii. 2-3? (Notice in the margin of the Revised Version the real meaning of ' avenging'). Think also of the difference there is in the description of the two persons to whom the requests for help are addressed. Wherein are they different, and wherein do they resemble each other ? In the main teaching, these two parables are identical. What is their main teaching ? And what is there in it to justify our calling these parables strange ? (&) The strange thing is not that in the parables you have a cold-hearted, selfish person in the place where in the spiritual application God stands. If this meant that Christ compared God to a person of such character it would be strange indeed. But we find not infrequently in Christ's parables details which belong to the earth side of the story but which have no counterpart in the divine order of things on which the Lord wants to throw light by the whole parable; think for instance of Luke xvi. 8. Just as, on the other hand, there are details in some of the parables which are determined rather by Christ's ideas of the kingdom of God than by_ human experience as to what is natural or likely in cases of the kind described in the parable. Find illustrations of this last statement in Matt, xviii. 24 and 27. 36 CHRIST'S PRAYER WARNINGS III. ii No, the two strange parables -do not throw any doubt on God's character and His willingness to help men. On this point Christ's teaching from beginning to end is unmistakably clear. And even more impressively than by His teaching does Christ say by His life and by His death that God is always ready to give His help to all who are in need of it. God is not one who needs to be made willing to give. Nor is He one who can be moved by such selfish considerations as prompted the men spoken of in these parables to grant the help that was asked for. That God's character is altogether different from that of the unjust judge and from that of the man who had gone to bed and did not want to be disturbed, is plainly said in Luke xviii. 7. Look at this verse' again ; find the expression we are now thinking of ; and realize what it tells us about God's mind. (c) The strangeness of these parables lies in ¦ the frankness and boldness with which Christ says—- in contexts where He wishes to encourage His disciples to pray — that God sometimes seems to pay no attention to men's prayers. He does not attempt to explain why in such cases God acts in a manner so different altogether from what you would expect of a father. As we go on with our studies we may perhaps get - som6 light on this question. In these parables it is not the explanation hut" only the fact Christ wishes to set before us. Two things are very plain as the teaching of these parables ; and each of the two points deserves our most careful attention: (1) Those who pray must be pre- III. iii A TRYING EXPERIENCE 27 pared for what looks like sad disappointments ; there will come times when it seems useless to pray, because God does not answer. (2) If only men will continue to pray they will come to see that it is not in vain to -ask help of God. 3. A Trying Experience Read Matt- xv. 21-28. {a) Where did this incident take place ? We learn from Mark vii. 24 that the Saviour did not go to those parts for the purpose of working among the people who lived there. What was : His object in going so far away from His ordinary fields of labour ? Why do you think He chose to go with His disciples into a Gentile country ? Perhaps it was only because He might expect more easily to remain unnoticed there and thus be free from distrubance and interruption in His life with and in His teaching of His disciples. It is right that we should bear this in mind when we read and think of what is said in v. 23 about the feelings of the apostles. But the fact that Christ desired to be alone with His apostles, and that his plans were to some extent upset by the coming after them of this woman, is not sufficient to account for Christ's conduct when the woman came to Him. Read Matt. xiv. 13/ to see that Christ did not feel or speak unkindly to people because they crossed His platts. It might be natural perhaps for the apostles to be so influenced by the coming of the woman. But it does not suffice to explain Christ's action. 38 CHRIST'S PRAYER WARNINGS III. iii (6) Try to understand with what feelings this woman came to ask for Christ's help. Her feelings would be determined partly by her daughter's sad sufferings and partly by what she had heard of the Prophet . of Nazareth. Something she must have heard about Jesus, or else she would not have thought of asking Him to help her. What must have been the chief features of the reports that had reached her, which led her to take her daughter's pitiable case to the Jewish prophet ? Remember she was not a Jew, and she knew how the Jews regarded the Gentiles. (c) What is likely to have been the first impression she got of Jesus ? What does silence (23) ordinarily mean under such circumstances ? And what would the answer He gave her (24), when she continued to ask for help, lead her to think of Him? How different He must have appeared now from what she had heard of Him before ! How hard it must have been for her to continue to pray ! What do you think kept her from being discouraged ? There was still another trying experience for her to get through. What idea would the words we read in v. 26 make one form of Christ ? ' Dogs ' was the common contemptuous term used by Jews in speaking of the Gentiles. The expression is softened by Christ using a diminutive form, which should be translated 'little dog '. And the woman doubtless felt at once that Christ, though speaking to her as a Jew would do, was looking at her with much more kindness and sympathy than the ordinary Jew. To understand Christ's views of His relation to the III. iii A TRYING EXPERIENCE 39 Gentiles, look at Matt. x. 5 (the temporary limitations) and Matt. viii. 11 (the ultimate result). {d) Look at what v. 28 tells of the result of this woman's prayer. Do the words give you the impression that Christ against His will was made to listen to her request and grant her the help she asked for ? But if in His own mind He had all the time been willing to help her, why did He act in a manner that must have been both painful and discouraging ? He probably thereby intended to help, in a deeper sense than any of them understood at the time, both the woman and the disciples. How Christ's action might be for the good of the woman will be understood in the light of the following study. And as regards the dis ciples, are we not justified in thinking that their ex perience on this occasion would make them feel how ugly and hurtful that proud, unsympathetic narrowness is which was so common among them and among their countrymen ? But was it not unfair and unkind to cause the woman pain and distress in order that the disciples might be taught a lesson ? We shall think more of this later on ; but let us emphasize here that the prayer world — nay the whole of God's world — will never become intelligible if we think of each individual as a separate unit whose experiences and duties can be understood without constant reference to the needs and conditions of others 40 CHRIST'S PRAYER WARNINGS III. iv 4. A Discouraging Beginning {a) Read John ii. 3-4. Who is the person that here approaches Jesus with a request for help ? The words in the end of v. 3 have not the form of a request ; but obviously they were not intended merely to convey to Jesus the information contained in them. Why do you think the request was not directly expressed ? It is plain enough that Jesus understood what His mother meant ; and one would expect, when His mother asked Him for something, that He would be ready to grant her request, if it was at all possible for Him to do what she desired. And yet the reply He gave her did not seem very encouraging. There is nothing dis respectful or unkind in His use of the term ' woman ' in addressing His mother. We see that quite clearly when we notice that He uses the same term in John xix. 26, where there is nothing whatever of the nature of a rebuke in His words but only the tenderest love. {b) Were Christ's words to His mother meant to be a refusal ? That she did not regard them in that light is plain from the instructions she gave to the servants ; and the subsequent part of the story shows that she had rightly understood her Son's mind. There is, however, an unmistakable element of dislike or disap proval behind the answer Christ gave His mother. (c) What He understood to be His mother's real desire seems plain from His use of the expression 'mine hour '. Look at John vii. 6 ; xiii. 1 ; xvii. 1 , to see what Christ means when He speaks of His ' hour ' III. iv A DISCOURAGING BEGINNING 41 or ' time'. It refers to His passion and describes it as His opportunity for showing forth what He really is» His mother's desire at the wedding in Cana was not merely that He should help her friends, the hosts, out of an embarrassing situation, but that He should mani: fest Himself, give people an opportunity of knowing Him as the heavenly King whom she knew Him to be. As on many other occasions, Christ replied not so much to the words that were addressed to Him as to the unspoken thoughts and desires that lay behind the words. Christ's words to His mother on this occasion are an emphatic reminder to her that He cannot be guided by her wish in what concerns His Father's work ; she is not to decide when and how He shall manifest Him self. Here then lies the cause of what seems dis couraging in Christ's answer to His mother — she failed to^distinguish between her wish and God's will. {d) Read John iv. 46-50. -,. What feelings would be likely to be aroused in us if we got such a reply as we read here in 48 ? What do ' you think kept the man from turning away with resentment, offended at the uncalled-for criticism and doubt implied in the words ? And why did Jesus act in a manner apparently so contrary to the loving sympathy with which He used to meet sufferers who approached Him? (e)- Here again it becomes plain, when we read the whole story, that Christ was not unwilling to help the person to whom He spoke words that seemed so unkind or at any rate discouraging. The only explanation of those words would seem to be a desire on Christ's part 42 CHRIST'S PRAYER WARNINGS III. V to test and to teach the man who asked Him for help. By such testing and teaching the man's faith was to be deepened (cp. 1 Pet. i. 6-7). Remember that faith is (1) a deep longing, and (2) ' a confidence which builds on Christ Himself and not on external probabilities. 5. Why so Late? {a) Read John xi. 1-15. Think first of the feelings which bound Jesus and the family at Bethany together. We find touching expres sions of their friendship here in vv. 2, 3, 5, 35/. Notice it was not only that Lazarus and Martha and Mary loved Jesus, but they were sure also that Jesus loved them. What would this friendship mean for the expectations of the sisters after they had sent to Jesus their urgent request for help? Why do you think they sent their message to Him in the form we find in v. 3 ? (c) ,How strangely Christ acted when He had received their message ! Mark the connexion between 5 and 6. What would you naturally expect Jesus to do when such people sent such a message to Him ? And what did He actually do ? Does it look as if He was detained by circumstances over which He had no control ? Or does the story give you the impression that it was His own voluntary decision which made Him remain two days longer in the place where He was? (c) Look at vv. 21 and 32 to see what Martha and III. V -WHY SO LATE 43 Mary had been thinking during those days. Both of them used exactly the same words when they met Christ. These words evidently expressed the thoughts and feelings that had occupied their minds. When you comparer. 6. and v. 39, does it look as if Christ- after get ting the message from the two sisters could have reached Bethany before Lazarus died ? The sisters doubtless had been saying to themselves that it would not have made any difference • even if ¦ Christ had started at once and had travelled as quickly as could be done ; He would anyhow have been too late. Yet it did seem strange that He had not come. {d) What was Christ's purpose in acting towards His friends as He did on this occasion ? One part of His purpose we learn clearly from v. 4. Think again (we have looked at it before in another connexion) of what John xvii. 4. tells lis of the aim Christ had in view in all He did. Compare also Christ's words to Martha in v. 40. The cause of Christ's delay in responding to the call that came to Him from the heavy hearts of His friends, was not un willingness or inability on His part to render them the help they were hoping for. But He desired to give them more than they had asked or thought. What was the wish and hope the sisters had in their mind when they sent word to Christ about their brother's illness? We see it plainly from the words with which they re ceived Christ (in vv. 21 and 22). And what did Christ want to give them? We learn that from v. 40 and following verses ; not from v. 40 alone, but we must look also at v. 42. 44 CHRIST'S PRAYER WARNINGS III. vi Another part of the purpose Christ had in -delaying His answer to the sisters' prayer we find stated in v. 15. Compare John. ii. 11. The more we see of Christ's glory the stronger our faith grows (ii. 11). But we cannot see the divine glory unless we meet its manifes tations with faith (xi. 40). 6. No Answer {a) ' He that asketh receiveth ' Jesus has said (Matt. vii. 8) assuring us of what God will do. But He has also said that He that has seen Him has seen the Father (John xiv. 9). And yet the story of Christ's life warns us that men may come to Him with important questions and get no answer. We want to look at such cases to learn something about the things that may prevent our getting an answer from God to our prayers. We do not look upon those incidents in the gospels as if they contradicted or weakened Christ's prayer promises. But we find in them most solemn and very instructive prayer warnings. {b) Read Luke xxiii. 8-9. What was Herod's interest in asking of Jesus the questions here referred to ? What do you think was the reason why 'Christ answered him nothing' ? Does the explanation which seems to you the natural one commend itself to your conscience ? (c) Read John xix. 7-9. Notice what the question is to which Pilate wants an answer from Jesus. Why did he not get an answer ? Was the question not important enough ? III. vi WHY SO LATE 45 Remember that Pilate was quite satisfied that Jesus was not guilty of any offence which deserved to be punished by the government whose representative the judge was (xviii. 39 ; xix. 4). What then was Pilate's •¦ plain duty as a judge ? Had he done his duty, or shown himself ready to do it ? No new light from God can be expected so long as we are not ready to follow the light we have. id) Read Matt xxi. 23-27. What made Christ refuse to give these people an answer to the great question they brought to Him ? We understand Christ's silence when we notice their reasonings in vv 25, 26, 27. What is their fatal weakness that comes out here ? If we place selfish considerations above the question of truth we cannot wonder if we get no answer from God to our prayers for light and guidance. {e) Read also Matt. xi. 2ff. Here it is a friend who asks. How Jesus thought of him who sent the question we see in vv. 7-12. The Baptist might surely expect in his distress to get from Jesus all the help that He could give to a friend. And yet we notice that he got no definite answer to his question. Christ's reply (in vv. 4/) only points John to the same mighty works which, it is said in v. 2, had called forth the question. We cannot by any answer from God be saved the trouble of ourselves making up our mind as to what. we are to think of Christ. We can be helped to get the materials placed clearly before us out of which the answer must be built up. But the building up of the answer we must do ourselves. It is in this light also that we must understand Matt. xii. 38/; xvi. 1-4 ; John x. 24/. 46 CHRIST'S PRAYER WARNINGS III. vii 7. Not in Vain Read Matt. xxvi. 37-46, and see how at a critical point in His own life Christ did not get from the Father what He desired. {a) How deeply His soul was stirred, and how painful the feelings were that agitated Him, we learn from vv. 37 and 38. " We get also a strong impression of it as we read of His desire {v. 38) to have His disciples watch with Him, and of His disappointment {v. 40) at not getting from them the sympathy and help which He needed. He was alone in the struggle which He went through in Gethsemane, and it was hard for Him to be alone. {b) The cause of His inward pain and agitation we learn from His prayer in v. 39. What is it He is asking of His Father ? Read the parallel passages in Mark xiv. 32-42 and Luke xxii. 39-46 to see how perfectly the gospel writers agree on this point, whatever differ ences there are in many of the details of their stories. What is meant here by ' cup '? How do you think the expression has come to have the meaning it has here ? What made Christ desire to have ' this cup ' removed? Was His desire granted? If it was not, did He then pray in vain ? (c) Two things which throw light upon this great question become plain to us as we study carefully the story of Christ's prayer in Gethsemane. (1) The absolute necessity, in God's plan, of Christ's death on the cross. The Son asks His Father if some other way cannot III. vii NOT IN VAIN 47 he found by which the goal can he reached, the goal at which God's plans and His own coming into the world : have all along been aiming. Christ does not want the plans or the goal to be altered. But if some other way can be found He asks that that way may be chosen ; for His soul shrinks from the way of the cross. That cup was not removed from Christ ; the cross was the only possible way in which God's will could be done. It is perfectly clear from the story that this was how Christ understood it. (2) The help Christ received through His prayer. We are told in Luke xxii. 43 that an angel from heaven came and strengthened Him. And we see the reality of this strengthening in the calmness and courage and firmness with which Christ went from this prayer out to the meeting with His enemies and through all that followed. Christ's prayer in Gethsemane did not bring Him what His own personal feelings prompted Him to seek from His Father. And yet the prayer helped Him to get His heart's desire — light to see God's will clearly and strength to follow it to the end. IV. Christ's Pattern Prayer 1. The Disciple Prayer (a) Read Matt. vi. 9-13 and Luke xi. 2-4. • Why is this called The Lord's Prayer ? It is not unimportant to remind ourselves of the truth which this name is intended to express. The Lord's Praj'er might however be under stood to mean something else, and something that would make it altogether unsuitable as a description of this prayer. What is that other meaning which is suggested by the name The Lord's Prayer ? And why would it not be right in that sense to call the prayer so ? We shall find the answer by thinking of two prominent features of the prayer which Christ taught His disciples. [b) The we ' of the prayer is one of its distinctive characteristics. What this meant to the disciples in their prayers we shall think more of in the fourth study of this week. But a moment's thought will convince us that this is one of the points where the disciple's prayer is different from the Lord's own prayers. There is no ' we ' in Christ's prayers. We read frequently of the Lord praying in the presence of His disciples and others, but never of His having prayed together with His disciples. Think of the instances, to which reference has been made before, where people were present when Christ prayed. IV. i THE DISCIPLE PRAYER 49 When we say that there is no ' we ' in Christ's prayers it does not mean that there was any lack on His part of interest in others. Think of Heb. ii. 11, 17, and of Christ's constant use of the name ' the Son of man ' to emphasize His desire to be regarded by men as one of them. There was no selfish narrowness in His life, nor were His prayers concerned with His own needs and desires only. But He was conscious of a unique relation to the Father, which made it impossible for Him in His prayers to say ' we ', in the same sense in which He wants us to do it. Notice in John xx. 17 what the Lord says where the disciples say ' our ' Father. ' (c) Think also of the petition which at the end of the prayer (Matt. vi. 14/) Christ takes up again to give special emphasis to it. This was evidently in Christ's eyes a very important part of the disciple, prayer. Could the Lord Himself have made use of this part of the prayer ? Look again at Heb. ii. 17 and mark what it speaks of as the one great difference between Christ and men. Which passage, or passages, in the Gospels would you think of as the strongest evidence of Christ's own consciousness of such a differ ence between Himself and others ? {d) Remember that the value of the Pattern Prayer is not that it gives us words which are more acceptable to God and more effective than any other words we may use in praying ; but it shows us in what manner, that is, in what spirit, Christ wants His disciples to pray. 50 CHRIST'S PATTERN PRAYER IV. ii 2. God's Place {a) Read again the Pattern Prayer in both the Gospels where it is found. In several respects the form of the prayer differs in the two reports ; but in the order in which the petitions follow each other in the prayer there is no difference whatever. What are Christ's disciples to think of first in their prayers ? Whose interests are mentioned first, God's or ours ? In Matthew's Gospel a descriptive sentence is added to ' our Father '. In Luke's Gospel this sentence is not found in the Revised Version. What is the force of that sentence when used by the disciple in his prayer ? What conception of God is it intended to encourage and emphasize ? The doxology with which the prayer closes, as we ordinarily use it, is found in the Authorised Version (Matt. vi. 13) but is omitted in the Revised Version because it is not found in the oldest Greek manuscripts we possess of the New Testament. But even if these two sentences, the one at the beginning and the other at the end, were not a part of the prayer as the Lord taught it to His disciples, it is still perfectly plain what place He wants God to have in our minds when we pray. Look at the first petitions and try to realize what they mean as they stand at the beginning of the Pattern Prayer, and what they mean when applied to the life of every praying disciple. (&) Whose name are those who wish to follow Christ's prayer guidance to be most concerned about ? If we allow a frame of mind to be developed in us IV. ii , god's place . 51 which is much taken up with the question of what men think of us and how our life and our actions appear to others, is it likely that in our prayers we can give God's name the place which Christ wanted it to have in the prayers of His disciples ? (c) What is it that determines our requests when we turn to God in prayer ? Is it that our desires (for our selves and others) shall be realised and that our plans shall be carried out ? Or is it God's will our eyes are fixed on ? There can be no doubt as to the place which Christ wants God's will to have in the disciple's prayer. He does not say that His disciples should have no desires, make no plans, and bring no particular requests to God, only passively wait for that to happen which is God's will. But the meaning of His words is obviously that in our whole life we should let God's will be the guid ing and controlling force. If prayer is sincere and real it is the expression of our inmost self, in God's presence. If God's will is to get the right place in our prayer it must have the same place also in the silent, inner working and moulding of that life which expresses itself in prayer. {d) Notice the significant expression that God's will ' is done ' ; it is not merely something that happens, comes about. What is the practical implication of that expression ? And what does He want us to think of by the additional clause as in heaven ' ? (e) Have we begun truly to look upon ' God's king. dom' as the highest good we can desire both for our, selves and for others ? We are hot forbidden by Christ to ask for temporal blessings ; we shall notice that side 52 CHRIST'S PATTERN PRAYER IV. ii of the disciples' prayer in our fifth study this week. But we are to think of the coming of God's kingdom before we think of any of our personal wants. What do you understand by ' God's kingdom ' ? What does the term itself lead us to think of as its meaning ? What is the definition which the apostle Paul gives us in Rom. xiv. 17 ? Think of the meaning of each of the terms He uses, and notice the order in which they are mentioned. ,If God has the first place now, the time will come when He shall be all in all (l Cor. xv. 28). 3. God's Mind {a) Look again at the prayer we are studying, to see what it says about God and His attitude to men. There is only one expression used in the prayer to describe God and the mind with which He meets those who pray. What is that expression ? {b) The point to which we are now calling attention is sometimes used as a proof that this prayer is simple enough to be used by all religious people, whether they believe in Christ or not. Here we are invited, they say, to think of and speak to God as our Father without any metaphysical problems to puzzle us or any doctrinal difficulties to frighten us away. For reasons of this kind the prayer Christ taught His disciples has been used where followers of different religions have met to exchange views on religious questions. We do well to rejoice in the simplicity of the prayer IV. iii. god's mind 53 which Christ has taught us as a pattern of all true prayer. But Christ's teaching does not encourage us to think that to call God Father is such an easy matter that everybody can use this name. The name Father ' was used by individual Jews about God also before Christ's time. And similar instances are known from the literature of other nations. But such cases, both in Israel and elsewhere, when carefully studied will be found to reveal a longing of the human heart rather than any real assurance and confidence attained by those particular persons. Find in Matt. xi. 27 and John xiv. 6 two of Christ's characteristic utterances on this subject; mark what is said in each of these verses. (c) Nor is the knowledge and assurance that God is our Father a mere elementary lesson in the religious life, aS if men could be quite sure on this point and still feel that the greatest questions of religion are largely unsolved. To Christ the assurance that God has a father's mind towards us is the essence of all vital religious knowledge. Remember how Christ Himself used this name, from the first recorded saying of His and till He spoke His last word on the cross. In Luke ii. 49 the key-note of Christ's use of the name ' Father ' is duty ; in Luke xxiii. 46 it is comfort. Look at Christ's words in John iv. 22/, and notice how the same name is used to suggest what is most essential and most characteristic in all true worship of God. In Matt. v. 49 the ideal of human character is determined by, and the chief motive needed for the development of that character is found in, the conviction that God is our Father. And it is in such a 54 CHRIST'S PATTERN PRAYER IV- iv knowledge of God that men find confidence to turn to Him in their need and ask for help (Matt. vi. 32 and vii. 11). {d) Only those who, in spite of all that makes it difficult to hold fast the assurance, really believe in God's father-mind will be able to give to God in their prayers the place which He has in the "Pattern Prayer. Men may bow silently and submissively to the almighty One, because they recognize the uselessness of trying to resist one who has all power. But such an atti tude of resignation is not the mind which Christ wants to encourage in His disciples when they seek God in prayer. He does not want us to give God the first place in our life simply because we cannot help it, but because we are sure that the almighty God is planning and ruling with a Father's interest in all men. It is to our Father that Christ teaches us to pray. 4. All One (a) Look again at the prayer through which Christ teaches us how to pray, and notice that the first personal pronoun which occurs so frequently in it is never used in the singular. It is always ' we ' not ' I '. {b) Christ does not want to exclude from our prayers such requests as grow out of our own personal troubles and refer to our own individual needs. Think of Christ's prayer in Gethsemane ; with whose problems and needs was this prayer directly concerned ? Read also Luke xviii. 13/; this is, according to Christ's plain IV. iv all one 55 words, a prayer of the right kind ; of whom is the publican thinking in his prayer ? By using ' we ' and not ' I ' in the disciple prayer Christ does not forbid us to bring our personal requests to God. But the language He uses warns us that there is no room in the prayers of His disciples for a narrow, selfish spirit. If in my own mind, in my way of thinking of myself and of my interests, I isolate myself from others, as if there were no connexion between their needs and mine, nay as if there were a conflict between my interests and the interests of others, I have an ' I ' mind and I cannot pray as Christ has taught His disciples to pray. (c) Christ Himself did not say ' we ' when He prayed. We have seen illustrations of this before, and something of the explanation too. It was not because there was any narrowness or isolation, of the kind mentioned above, in His soul. His life was throughout a fulfilment of what is described in Gal. vi. 2 as ' the law of Christ '. What is that law ? To realize how truly Christ Himself fulfilled this law, think of His life in the light of such passages as Matt. viii. 17 ; xx. 28 ; Luke xxiii. 34. {d) It is the great law of solidarity, the idea of com munity of interest and of responsibility, that is emphasized by the constant use of ' we' ' in the Pattern Prayer. Look at Gen. xviii. 26-32 ; Jer. v. 1 ; viii. 18-22 ; ix. 1, out of many passages that might be mentioned, to see that this was from the beginning one of the great laws of God's kingdom. Only when this law is voluntarily accepted and obeyed can God's good and perfect will be worked ont in the world. 56 CHRIST'S PATTERN PRAYER IV. V At the root of all Christ's prayer teaching lies the truth that the world, with all its many different human minds, with all the difference between the material and the spiritual, and with all its known and unknown laws, is one large whole, with God as the centre, and with spiritual laws forming the deepest connexions between the different parts of it and between all the parts and God. But remember that this truth must be understood in a religious sense. It is not enough that it stimulates our curiosity ; it must be allowed so to work in us that it helps to develop a life of wider sympathies and of larger responsibilities. {e) What has been said must not be taken to mean that we cannot begin to pray until this lesson of solidarity has been fully learnt. But we must be aiming at this ideal all the time. We can pray as Christ's disciples only in proportion as we learn to speak the we ' language. 5. Our Daily Bread {a) Think now of th"at part of the Pattern Prayer in which the disciples are taught to ask for something for themselves. What is it Christ encourages us in these petitions to ask God for and to expect from God ? Is it what we might wish to get in order that our own lives may be comfortable, pleasant and easy ? Look carefully at the petitions of which we are now thinking, and see whether their common characteristics indicate that Christ had in IV. V OUR DAILY BREAD 57 mind all that His disciples might like to get, or, all that they need to have. Are we ready to accept for our life the standard which Christ wants His disciples to be guided by in their prayers ? {b) Notice what Christ mentions first in teaching us to pray for the things we need. That He does not regard this as our greatest need, the thing it is most important for us to get, is plain from Matt. iv. 4 and vi. 33. When in the second division of His Pattern Prayer this petition is placed first, it must be because it is the most elementary need of our life, not the most important gift we can get from God. (c) But when Christ teaches us to ask for this gift it means that He regards it as a real need in the life of His disciples. He does not want us to develop a spirituality that despises or is afraid of the physical side of life. Was it only men's spiritual needs that moved Christ to compassion ? Think of what is told in such passages as Mark i. 41// and viii. 2//. There is a distinction which it is of real importance that we should remember in our prayer life ; but it is not the distinction between spiritual needs and physical needs ; it is the distinction between our needs and our wishes. All that is really needful for the full , development and the right use of the life God has given us, we may ask and expect from God. Physical gifts are not necessarily less worthy objects of prayer than spiritual blessings. It is no more difficult for God to grant the one kirid of gifts than the other. And we need God's help for our physical life too, Christ reminds us in this 58 CHRIST'S PATTERN PRAYER IV. VI prayer ; it is not only in what has to do with our spiritual life that we must depend on God. {d) Notice that Christ wanted His disciples to pray day by day for only one day's bread at a time. By ' bread ' we understand all that is needed to meet our physical wants. Compare His warning in Matt. vi. 38, and try to see clearly both what His words in this verse mean and what they do not mean. Read also what is told in Exod. xvi. 16-21 about the manna. Is there a lesson for us to learn from that passage ? What is the frame of mind which God wanted to develop in His people in the wilderness, and which Christ is equally anxious to develop in His disciples ? Find an illustra tion in Luke xii. 19 of the danger which threatens us if we do not learn that lesson. 6. Our Debts What is the second thing Christ mentions as a need in the lives of His disciples to be remembered by them when they pray ? {a) How important the gift here referred to was in Christ's eyes we are frequently reminded of in the gospels. Read Matt. ix. 13. What kind of people does Christ say He has come to help ? His statement in that verse is beautifully illustrated in the fifteenth chapter of Luke's Gospel. Compare also what Christ mentions in John xvi. 8 as the chief work of the Divine Spirit whom He will send when He Himself has gone back to the Father. In whose life is that work IV. VI OUR DEBTS 59 needed ? And what is the gift of God which will be re quired, and which may be expected, where this work of the Spirit succeeds ? Read Luke vii. 41/ and try to see clearly what the value of forgiveness is, as Christ speaks of it here. What does Christ mention in Luke xxiv. 47 as the two chief notes of all apostolic preaching ? Compare what is said in Acts v. 31 of the work of the glorified Saviour. Look also at Eph. i. 7 to see how the apostle Paul speaks of ' forgiveness ' as synonymous with ' redemp tion '. Salvation includes, also in Paul's teaching, much more than forgiveness. But forgiveness (or justification) is the glorious beginning of all that Paul, or for that matter any of Christ's disciples, has in mind when he speaks of salvation. Look carefully at what he says in Rom. v. 1-2. What is it he starts with in these verses ? And what are the effects which that first step leads to ? But forgiveness is not merely the first part of God's gift, the first step on the way of salvation. It brings into our life a new motive power ; there lies in it the germ of a new character and a changed life. That is the meaning of Christ's words in Luke vii. 41-47 ; and that is the testimony of the apostle Paul in 2 Cor. v. 13-14. [b) The second half of the verse we are thinking of (Matt. vi. 12) mentions a condition which cannot be separated from the prayer for forgiveness. We shall think of this condition in another connexion. But remember that there is a definite condition, and notice of what nature that condition is. {b) Mark the term used by Christ in Matt. vi. 12 to 60 CHRIST'S PATTERN PRAYER IV.. vii describe sin. The word used in Greek means exactly the same as the English term. Look also at Luke xi. 4 and notice the change of expression there. There are several terms used in the New Testament, also in Christ's teaching in the Gospels, to express the idea of sin. One of them describes it as a missing of the mark, andther as a breaking of the law, and the one we have here as a debt, something we owe to God and have failed to pay. Try to realize the force and the appropriateness of each of these terms, more especially of the one we have before us now. It is the same idea of sin that lies behind Christ's words in Luke vii. Wff and Matt, xviii. 21-35. {d) One reason why men fail to seek and to appreciate the gift which Christ here teaches us to ask for, is that they do not sufficiently remember that sin is not merely the transgressions we are guilty of but also the debts we have failed to pay to God. Sins of omission require forgiveness as much as sins of commission. 7. Our Dangers {a) Read Matt. vi. 13 and Luke xi. 4. In Luke there is in the Revised Version only one sentence in this verse, in Matthew two. But the two petitions we have in Matthew do not express two distinct ideas. When we think more closely of them they will be seen to be only two different sides of the same thing. Christ wants us to ask God so to guide us that we may not be drawn into sin but that we may be kept from evil. IV. vii CUR DANGERS 61 (b) Obviously this prayer cannot be truly used except by people who have begun to see that there are grave dangers threatening them, and that by them selves they are not strong enough to meet those dangers. Find in Luke xxii. 31-33 an illustration of the type of mind which does not see its need of help and therefore is not able to receive the help that is ready. What would you mention as the chief characteristic of the mind here seen in Peter ? There was much that was noble and praiseworthy in the feelings that prompted Peter to speak as he did on this occasion ; but those praiseworthy feelings did not deliver him from evil. (c) What does the first part of the petition in Matt. vi. 13 mean ? Does God lead men into temptation ? As we use the word nowadays, ' to tempt ' means ' to lead, or endeavour to lead, into evil ; to entice to what is wrong '. In this sense the word cannot be used of God (Jas. i. 13). Only one who is himself evil, or at any rate has much in him of what is evil, can desire to induce another person to do what is wrong. But in the Bible the word is used in a wider sense, as will be seen from Jas. i. 2, 12-14 and IPet. i. 6. It is the translation of a Greek word which originally means ' to try ' or ' to test' , without any reference to the result. It is in itself as neutral as ' examination '. When trial came to mean temptation it was probably for reasons similar to those which might — perhaps, may — lead people in India to use the word ' examination ' in the sense of ' failure '. God does not test and try men with any desire to make them fail and go wrong ; but He does try and test. It is an indispensable part of the discipline of human 62 CHRIST'S PATTERN PRAYER IV. vii life. Think of the place which trying and tempting had in Christ's life. The great initial experience of this kind is described in Matt. iv. Iff. In Heb. v. 8 we are told what the effect was in Christ's own life, and in Heb. v. 9 what it meant to Him in His work of helping men. Look also at Jas. i. 2/ and 7. Pet. i. 6/ to see the value of 'temptation ' in the life of Christ's disciples. id) We must expect to be tested and tried in God's school. But notice in 1 Cor. x. 13 what God's purpose and method are when he sends such experiences into our lives. God leads us into tests and trials ; because we are what we are, the trials often become temptations. The real source from which temptations come is correctly described in Jas. i. 13. It is not from God the danger comes ; He is ready to give us the help we need in our dangers. (e) When Christ teaches us to ask to be ' delivered from evil ' (or 'from the evil one ' as the words may also be translated) the Greek preposition {apo) shows that what He is thinking of is not that we should be delivered out of evil but that we should be kept from evil. What is the difference between these two ideas ? We rejoice to know that Christ can draw us out of evil and raise us up after we have fallen ; think of the apostle Peter's experience. But what Christ teaches us here is to seek and get God's help to be kept from falling ; compare 1 John ii. 1. V. The Spirit of Prayer 1. Alone with God («) To Christ prayer was not merely an important religious duty. That was the ordinary Jewish view of prayer ; and that Christ did not despise that view, and the regularity of outward practice which it was calculated to foster, is plain from what He said in the Sermon on the Mount about alms-giving prayer, and fasting. But what Christ wanted men especially to think of when He spoke to them about prayer, was not regularity and correctness in the outward practice of it. First of all prayer meant to H im a personal meeting with God. That is the soul of all prayer. The all-important thing connexion with prayer, that on which its value entirely depends, is not correctness but contact. {b) ' Alone with God ' is a prominent characteristic of Christ's own prayer life. Read Mark i. 35 ; Luke v. 16 ; John vi. 15, and notice what is said in each of these places of the external conditions under which Christ prayed. Remember also what He said on this point in the prayer instructions He gave to His disciples, in Matt. vi. 6. We know from the gospels that Christ did not consider it wrong to pray when others were present. And in the Acts of the Apostles we see that the disciples did not think that their Master's words to them about praying ' in secret ' were meant to prohibit public prayer. 64 THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER V. i It is not the outward solitude that is the really im portant thing in this question of being alone with God. But it cannot be doubted that the Lord considered it desi rable and helpful to be.alone, away from others, when He wanted to have time for prayer. And is it -not also true that ive need times when we can be alone and undisturbed, if our prayer life is to become the source of refreshment and power which Christ wants it to be. Read Matt. vi. 5ff to see what the danger is and connexion with prayer against which the Lord primarily wanted to warn His disciples when He told them to go into the inner chamber and pray to the Father in secret. (c) What Christ regarded as indispensable to true prayer was not external separation from others, but to be inwardly alone with God. To be outwardly alone at the time of prayer is a real help in so far as it secures freedom from external distractions. But that is not all. Prayer is not what Christ wants it to be unless it is a real personal meeting with God. On Him our attention must be concentrated. There must be none behind whom in our thoughts we hide ourselves as we stand before God, and none with whom we compare ourselves. Only thus can our prayer become a real personal meeting with God. In Luke xviii. 11-12 we have a striking instance of an empty prayer form, prayer words without the prayer spirit. Notice how the Pharisee's prayer shows us that he was not truly (inwardly) alone with God. What do we learn from his prayer of the danger of having others in our minds to compare our selves with when we are praying ? V. ii TWO OR THREE 65 . -(d) This insistence on secret prayer, coming from Jesus Christ, certainly did. not mean that His disciples were to keep their religion secret, as if it were some; thing which they were afraid or ashamed to let men see. Nor did it mean that in his prayers the disciple was to shut, himself off from others, concerned only about himself in seeking God's presence. 2. Two or Three {a) Read Matt, xviii. 19 to see how strongly Christ encouraged His disciples to pray together. Notice carefully what is said in vv. 19-20 about the conditions on which the value of such united prayer depends. And mark the promise which Christ attaches to prayer of this kind. We do not forget that this passage has no parallels in any of the other Gospels. But from the very beginning of the Book of Acts we see that Christ's disciples were in the habit of praying together. Find the earliest instances in Acts i. 14 ; i. 24 ; iv. 24-30. Remember that in His prayer teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, as well as by His own example, the Lord had emphasized so strongly the value of solitude in prayer. Is it likely that the apostles, as soon as their Lord had left them, would have given united prayer such a large place in their life as we see they did, if He had not spoken very defintely to them of the value of praying together ? {b) But why was such a special promise given to 5 66 THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER V. ii united prayer? If prayer is a personal meeting with God, how can the power of prayer be increased- by the presence of others ? Think of the words Christ uses in Matt, xviii. 19 to describe the kind of prayer to which such an unlimited promise is attached. Is there anything to suggest the idea that the larger number will give greater weight to the petition and thus make more impression upon God ? We are familiar with such effects of numbers in cases where petitions are presented to men. But Christ has assured us that nothing is required to attract God's attention or to make Him willing to help us. What is it Christ lays stress on in His description of united prayer ? The value of it is not that it is better calculated to move God, but that it is better fitted to bring about those conditions which alone make it possible for God to act. (c) To talk with others about the matter which we are going to make a subject of prayer, and to agree with them as to what is right and needful in the matter, is calculated to help us in two important directions. It helps our faith and it helps our self-surrender. How essential to true prayer these two things are, faith and self-surrender, we shall think more of later. But try to realize here how united prayer, of the kind which Christ describes, may help to bring about the fulfilment of the fundamental prayer conditions which are suggested by those two words. Remember that the preparatory understanding which is required in prayer questions, the understanding necessary before we can pray, is only so much as will give us V. iii CHILD AND FATHER 67 light enough to keep the way open for such practice of prayer as Christ teaches, light enough to act, not light enough to explain. What Christ says in John vii. 17 of His teaching in general is pre-eminently true of His prayer teaching : He that will do it shall under stand it. The real understanding comes after the doing. {d) But it is important to bear in mind that in social prayer just as much as in private prayer it is the personal meeting with God that constitutes real prayer. Praying together with others will not be a help but a hindrance if the presence of others, or any thoughts caused by their presence, be allowed in any way to interfere with the individual soul's personal contact with God. 3. Child and Father {a) In the Pattern Prayer, by which Christ taught His disciples how to pray, only one thing is said about God's mind and about the view of God which is all important when men turn to Him in prayer. -What is that one thing ? (&) Think of the instances recorded in the Gospels showing us how Christ prayed, and notice how prominent that fundamental characteristic of all true prayer is in every one of them. Read Matt. xi. 25-26, and mark what it was that Christ thanked His Father for. It is not merely the use of the word Father that shows us the mind with which Christ looked at God. But the cause of His joy, that which prompted His thanksgiving, reveals the child 68 THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER V. iii mind. What makes Christ glad on this occasion is that the Father's will is being done in the Father's way. Read John xi. 4, 15, 40. Christ had a true friend's mind ; He felt the sorrow of His friends, He wept with Mary and Martha. It cannot have been easy or pleasant for Him to act in a manner that would add to the heavy burden which was already on the hearts of His friends. But in His action (and in the prayer which guided it; John xi. 41) His chief consideration is not the immediate satisfaction of the desires of those whom He loves, but the fuller revelation of His Father's glory. Look also at John xvii. 1-5. Think of the whole situation. Both to Christ's friends and to His enemies it looked as if His claims had been disproved. And we know, not only from the story of Gethsemane but also from Christ's prayer in John xii. 27-28, what His own feelings were as He thought of what was going to happen. In the midst of all this, what was it He asked of His Father for Himself, in John xvii. 1-5 ? Was it His own comfort He was thinking of ? Or the vindication of His cause openly before men ? Or what else ? Most strikingly we see in the Gethsemane struggle the mind with which Christ prayed. Mark how the child mind is revealed both in the frankness and in the trust ful obedience which characterize Christ's prayer in Gethsemane. It is not resignation that finds expression in" this prayer (Matt. xxvi. 39). What is the difference between the spirit of resignation and the spirit we meet here ? We have thought of this question before. (c) The child mind is the true prayer mind. And the chief characteristics of the child mind in relation to V. iii CHILD AND FATHER 69 God are revealed in Christ's life as nowhere else. Look at the following two passages to see the most fundamental traits of such a mind. ' In John v. 19-20 Christ tells us what characterizes both His own mind in His attitude to the Father and also the Father's mind towards the Son. The two sides are interdependent ; the one cannot be what it is without the other. Try to see clearly what the two sides are ; and give to each of them a brief distinctive name. In John viii. 29 we have another indication of the secret of what is most unique and most beautiful in Christ's life. What would you call the two characteristics of the child mind which are revealed in this verse ? It was this mind that determined Christ's prayers and characterized His whole life. 4. Waiting upon God {a) Read Isa. xl. 31 ; Ps. lxii. 1, 5 and Ps. xxxvii. 7, and find in these passages one of the characteristic Old Testament expressions for man's attitude to God in prayer. In Hebrew two different expressions are used in the verses mentioned above. The word in Ps. lxii and in Ps. xxxvii literally means (as indicated in the margin of the Revised Version) 'to be silent'. It describes therefore the submissive waiting. The term used . in Isa. xl. 31, and frequently in the Psalms (see xxv. 5; xxvii. 14; xxxvii. 34; xl. l) is derived from a root that means ' to be collected ', and describes therefore a 70 THE SPIRIT OF PAYER V. iv more active attitude, where one is looking intently for what may be coming, ready to respond with the appropriate action when it comes. (&) ' Waiting ' is not used in the New Testament to describe Christ's prayers. Nor do we find it in those passages where He teaches His disciples to pray. But when we try to understand what is suggested by that Old Testament expression it becomes clear that this term might well be used to describe one aspect of Christ's conception of prayer. What are the two main ideas im plied in ' waiting upon God ' ? Each of those ideas no doubt will be seen to involve or presuppose various elements. But what we are led to think of by the use of that expression may be summed up under two chief heads, What would you call them ? (c) It is not an uncommon idea that to the most godly souls prayer ceases to be requests and petitions and comes to be merely a peaceful dwelling in God's presence and a restful waiting for God to decide and act. This would not be a true description of all that we know of Christ's prayer life. As we shall see in one of the following studies, there was in Christ's prayers also an element of intense activity and struggle. But in what Christ has taught us and shown us of prayer there is an element, and a very important element, of what may truly be described as ' waiting upon God '. {d) Christ emphasizes strongly in His prayer teach ing that aspect of waiting which we may characterize by the word patience. It is necessary to wait, Christ warns us, because the object we seek in our prayer may not be attained at once. Think of the two parables we V. iv WAITING UPON GOD 71 have studied before which teach this lesson. Look also at the expression used in Rom. xii. 12. We cannot pray as Christ wants His disciples to pray unless we learn what it means to wait upon God. (e) . And from Christ's own prayers we get an equally strong impression of the waiting that means communion. It is desirable to wait, to tarry in God's presence, because it is good for the. soul to be there. This doubt less is a large part of what we must think of if we want to understand why Christ spent so much time in prayer. In the Father's presence His soul felt at home ; there He was free from all disharmony, and from all danger of being misunderstood. Remember how much there was in Christ's experi ence among men to make Him feel that in this world He was away from home. Think of the pain it caused Him to be in close contact with sin and all its disturbing effects. We see that from such passages as Mark ix. 19 and John xi. 33, 38. Think also of how frequently His best friends misunderstood Him, or failed altogether to understand Him. Find instances in Matt. xix. 17-22 ; Luke xxii. 19-26 ; Mark xiv. 34-38. Those who are conscious that they can do nothing apart from the Lord (John xv. 5) and who know that they are pilgrims and stangers in the world (i Pet. ii. 11 ; compare 2 Cor. v. 6) must learn to wait upon God. 72 THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER V. V 5. In Sorrow and in Joy {a) In Ps. 1. 15 we have one of the rich Old Testament descriptions of prayer. Read that verse carefully, noticing each of the. three sentences contained in it. They constitute three fundamental aspects of the full Biblical idea of prayer. We shall have occasion later on to think more of those aspects which are described in the second and third sentences. Here we want to think of the first sentence only. What is it, in this verse, that makes the human soul call upon God ' ? It shows us the natural beginning of prayer. It is trouble that teaches a man to pray ; it is when he realizes his need of help that he begins to seek help from God. (ft) And this is not a kind of prayer that belongs only to the infant standard of the prayer school. It is very prominent also in what the- Gospels tell us of Christ's prayers. He cried to God when He was in trouble ; when His soul was in distress He sought comfort and strength through prayer. Find an instance of this in John xii. 23-28. Look at vv. 20-22 to see what was the occasion of the thoughts and feelings described in the following verses. What was (v. 23) the first thought that was called forth in Christ's mind by the request of those Greek proselytes ? Try to understand how thoughts of that kind might naturally be awakened in the Saviour's soul by this incident. Mark in vv. 24-26 the further steps in the line of thought into which the Saviour's mind had thus been led. What is the connexion between 23 and 24. It is not difficult to see how the stern solemn V. V IN SORROW AND IN JOY 73 thoughts of 24-26 grew out of the bright vision in 23. What was the feeling (v. 27) that resulted in Christ's heart from this whole line of thought ? And what did He do when He found Himself overwhelmed by a powerful and painful feeling ? To call upon God in the day of trouble is not some thing selfish and unworthy, which those who aim at quitting themselves like men should strive to rise above. But to turn to God only when we are in trouble is certainly not to have a child's mind towards God. (c) The Gospels show us that in Christ's life prayer was born of joy as much as of sorrow. Read Matt. xi. 25/, and notice what led Christ to speak those words to God. What is the feeling that moves Him to prayer ? We have looked at this passage before and have seen what the cause of that feeling, was. . Look also at John xi. 4.1/. What is the occasion of Christ's prayer here ? What was it that brought into Christ's heart the joy which expressed itself in thanks giving to God ? {d) Both sorrow and joy may come in between us and- God, working in our lives in a manner that tends to separate us from God. Sorrow may become a cloud that hides Him. Joy may become a feeling of satisfac tion which weakens our sense of dependence upon Him. We need not discuss which of the two, sorrow or joy, is the greater danger to our life with God. Both kinds of experiences will prove dangerous if we do not use prayer to convert them into ties that bind us more closely to God. 74 THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER V. Vi 6. Praying Always {a) Read Christ's exhortations to His disciples in Luke xviii. 1 ; xxi. 36. What is it the Lord says in these two places to describe the kind of prayer which He wants to encourage in His disciples ? Look also at Rom. i. 9; Eph. vi. 18; 1 Thess. v. 17, and notice what the apostle Paul says in these verses about prayer, both as He practises it Himself and as He wishes it to be used among all Christ's disciples. It is not the same expression that is used in all these places by Christ and by Paul ; but it is similar ideas that are expressed in all cases. How are we to understand this teaching ? Did the Master Himself, and His great apostle too, really mean that it is necessary and possible to pray always ? {b) We have several times had occasion to look at the passages in the Gospels which tell us that Christ spent much time in prayer, such passages as Mark i. 35 and Luke vi. 12. But He certainly did not devote all His time to prayer. He was busy day after day with teaching and healing, so busy and so whole-hearted in His work that it took all His strength and frequently made Him tired. Christ is our great prayer teacher, by His own example as much as by the words He spoke about prayer. He does not give us the impression that He regards a ' religious' life (in the technical sense of the word), a life entirely devoted to meditation and prayer, as more pleas: ing to God and more valuable in God's kingdom than an active life in the midst of busy, suffering, sinful men. V. vi PRAYING ALWAYS 75 Christ's disciples are urged to pray ' always ', ' at all seasons ', ' without ceasing '. Coming from Christ such words cannot mean that we are to retire from the world and live our life in a place of seclusion where we have no other duties to take us away from meditation and prayer. These remarks should not be taken to mean that such a life is in all cases contrary to the Master's will. But it is surely not to a life of that kind that all Christ's disciples are called by the words. we have been thinking of. And it is to all His disciples those words are addressed. (c) The right understanding of the 'always' etc. is not found by measuring the time devoted to prayer; but only by realizing that prayer is not merely a parti cular" act but primarily an inward spiritual attitude. In the light of what we have already studied, and of what else you know about prayer, what do you consider the most essential characteristics of the prayer attitude ? Let your answers to this question be quite definite. And test them in the light of our present study. The "right prayer attitude is one in which Christ wants us to be living constantly, one that is possible in the midst of all the problems and duties that require our attention. {d) It is no more impossible always to pray than al ways to love God. We cannot unceasingly love God if that meant never to be thinking of anything but God, to have our attention fixed on God all the time. But to love God — -just as when the question is of loving a human person — is a matter of something more than conscious thought and feeling. It is a question of an attitude and a power whose stimulating and regulating influence 76 THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER V. vii is not confined to the conscious part of our life. Our prayer life is to have its roots as deep down in our souls as our love to God. ' What are the chief characteristics of such an attitude of unceasing prayer ? And how is a prayer life of that kind to be cultivated ? 7. Struggling and Striving {a) Christ's prayer life was not merely a deep, hidden life of constant dependence, confidence, and obedience. Nor was it in its conscious exercise nothing but a restful waiting upon God. Read Luke xxiii. 39-44, and the reference in Heb. v. 8 to Christ's prayer on earth, where the writer pro bably has the Gethsemane experience especially in mind. Let the words in both these passages produce in your mind their full impression of the agitation into which Christ's soul was thrown on that occasion. And then' remember that this is not the only occasion in Christ's life when we see that prayer meant something more to Him than a peaceful, confident waiting and asking. {b) Notice also the language which the apostle Paul is using in Col. ii. 1 ; iv. 12 ; Rom. xv. 30. Where the English translation has ' striving ' the original has a word from which ' agony ' and ' agonizing ' are derived. But the Greek word does not convey the idea of intense pain ; it is a term that is used about the games and contests from which so many Christian metaphors in the New V. vii STRUGGLING AND STRIVING 77 Testament have been drawn., The idea suggested is not that of painful effort but that of intense effort. ': (c) When in the light of such passages as those to which reference has now been made, in the Gospels and in the Epistles, we speak of praying as struggling and striving we must not forget to make it clear, both to ourselves and to others, that 'it is not with God we are striving in prayer. There is no unwillingness on God's part that raises any hindrance to the fulfilment of our desires and requests, in so far as they aim at what is really good for us. If it is possible for us, as Ps. cvi. 15 seems to imply, by our prayers to overcome God's unwillingness to give us what is harmful and injurious to us, that at all events is not the kind of praying and striving to which we should be encouraged by the Master's example and by the apostle's words. Whatever may be our intepretation of Gen. xxxii. 24- 30 we are absolutely sure, from all that Chirst has shown us of the Father, that there is no resistance to be over come in God before He can be made to help those who pray to Him. Think again of Christ's words in Matt. vii. 11. {d) And yet in what Christ teaches us of prayer there is an element of struggle and striving and labour. There are hindrances in our way, there are forces which oppose the fulfilment of those desires to which God is always ready to give His help. But our wrestling is not with God. With what, or with whom, is it then ? Find the apostle Paul's answer in Eph. vi. 12. Compare Christ's words in Luke xxii. 31/. 78 THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER V. vii Because sin is so strong in us and around us, because the power of evil is an awful reality, and because God's Children are His fellow-workers in a world where siri is so strong and its disturbing effects so numerous, prayer is not merely an easy asking and receiving, but something in which there is room also for ' strong crying ' (Heb. v. 7) ' groanings ' (Rom. viii. 26) and ' striving ' (Col. ii. l). VI. Prayer in the Life of the Apostles 1. Fixed Prayer Hours {a) In Acts ii. 42 we read of the members of the earliest Christian Church that they ' continued in the prayers '. The plural (prayers) probably refers to the daily prayer hours which were observed among the Jews. This is certainly not all that the words mean. What the Book of Acts tells us of the prayer life of the apostles and the early Christians is a story of some thing much more than regular observance of daily prayer hours. But that they continued to follow the Jewish practice in this respect we learn from several passages. The daily hours of prayer among the Jews were the third hour (9 a.m.) . the sixth hour and the ninth hour. {b) In Acts ii. 15 we see at what hour of the day the great experience of Pentecost occurred. What had brought Christ's disciples and friends together at that hour ? They had been spending days in prayer waiting for the coming of that great divine gift of which the Master had spoken so much to them. And it was at One of the daily hours of prayer that the fulfilment came. In Acts iii. Iff we read of the first miracle in the apostolic Church. Where did it happen ? And at what hour ? What brought the two apostles to the temple at 80 LIFE OF THE APOSTLES VI. i that time ? This was probably the time of the evening sacrifice when, as we know from Luke i. 10, public prayer accompanied the offering of incense. In the Mosaic law there is no reference to public prayer as a part of the temple worship. But after the captivity the practice of public worship became general and was not confined to the synagogues. Read Acts x. 9, and notice at what hour of the day Peter had that vision which was the means God used to get the way opened for the Gentiles into Christ's Church. From these passages we learn, not only that the apostles observed the Jewish prayer hours, but that it was in connexion with those hours of prayer that some of the most significant experiences of the apostolic Church occurred. (c) But is this an element of permanent value in the apostolic prayer practice ? Or is it only in the child stage of the spiritual life that such external rules may be. allowed ? It is true that ' where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty' (2. Cor. iii. 17). But it is also true, and a truth that we cannot afford to forget, that real liberty in our spiritual and moral life is attained only through a process, sometimes a long and difficult process, of train ing and discipline. Christ has made no reference whatever in His teach ing to the question of fixed prayer hours ; He neither encouraged the practice nor warned against it. {d) That externalism is dangerous to true religion Christ frequently found it necessary to remind people. VI. i FIXED PRAYER HOURS 81 But we cannot afford, on the other hand, to ignore the value of regularity and of good habits for the develop ment of our spiritual life. Think of the language used in Luke iv. 16 to describe Christ's practice in the matter of attending the synagogue services. He certain ly did not think that worship is limited to particular places and prayer to stated hours. Yet He made it His habit to go to the synagogue every Sabbath. It is plain from the story of the apostles, life and work that they did not confine their prayers to the three daily prayer hours. Read Acts xx. 36 and xxi. 5. What are the occasions and places of prayer men tioned in these verses ? 2. When in Danger Read. Acts iv. 24-31. (a) Recall the situation as it is described in the pre vious verses. What was it the Jewish leaders had said to the apostles ( vv. 18, 21 ) ? Did those leaders have power to give effect to their threats? What then were the prospects of the apostles if they followed the course indicated in Peter's, reply before the council (19-20) ? What did the apostles and their friends do when they found themselves face to face with such a danger ? Did they sit down to lament and to pity each other ? (&) It is true that trouble and danger lead men to pray. But it is also true that a great and unexpected danger may so stun and confuse the mind that we "forget to pray, or feel unable to pray at once. We first 6 82 LIFE OF THE APOSTLES VI. ii look down, or look back, or look around. And that does not help us to be better able to look up when we remem ber to pray. Delay makes prayer more difficult. The more we cultivate at ordinary times the prayer habit in our life the easier it becomes to turn to God at once when difficulties and dangers meet us. The fixed prayer hours had probably not a little to do with the fast that the apostles were able to take their great trouble to God as soon as they came home from the council. (c) Their prayer is reported in vv. 24-30. How much of this passage is actual petition ? Mark carefully what they are saying before they make any request. What is the divine attribute on which their attention is fixed, in 24 b ? What is the value to men who pray of reminding themselves of the truth which finds expression in these words ? Why do you think the apostles quote the words from the second Psalm which we read in vv. 25-26 ? Had they, in the light of those words, any reason to be surprised when in the work they were doing for God they experienced opposition and hostility ? It is not difficult to see what it meant to them to think of the two aspects of Christ's sufferings which we find mentioned in vv. 27-28. -(l) They think of Christ as God's holy Servant '. The name ' Servant ' is also used about Christ in Acts iii. 13, 26 and iv. 30, and seems to indicate that the picture of the Lord's Servant as it is drawn in the latter part of the Book of Isaiah, especially in the fifty-third chapter, was much in the thoughts of the apostles. By using that name about the Saviour in their prayer they reminded themselves of VI. ii WHEN IN DANGER 83 the deep connexion there is between suffering and God's service. (2) They recall in v. 28 that those who put Christ to death did not by their hostile plans and efforts defeat God's purpose but only served to fulfil it. Was it then not also possible for them, face to face with the danger which now threatened them, to trust God to keep His promises and to carry out His plans ? All this is only the introduction to their prayer. But it is not an aimless and superfluous multiplication of words. What is the purpose of this long introductory or preparatory part of their prayer ? And what light does it throw on the apostolic conception of prayer ? {d) In vv. 29-30 we see what they are asking God for on this occasion. What might one expect them in these circumstances to pray for ? And what was actually their request ? Notice carefully that they did not ask for what might make the way easy and pleasant to them. The two things which they asked of God were those which Under the present circumstances they needed especially in order to be able to do the work which they knew God had given them to do. Look also at Eph. vi. 19 and Col. iv. 3 to see what the apostle Paul desired for himself when he was in prison. (e) In Acts iv. 31 we learn what was the result of the prayer. Was it merely that in a general way it did them good to pray together and that they felt brighter and happier after it ? Look at the three sentences that are used to describe the answer which the apostles received. What is the significance of each of the three experiences here mentioned ? 84 LIFE OF THE APOSTLES VI. iii 3. Working by Prayer {a) Read Acts vi. 1-4. What was the problem that had arisen at this time in the apostolic Church ? And how was the problem solved ? What was it the apostles wanted to devote themselves to ? What do you think their motive was in asking to be relieved of the work of attending to the wants of the widows ? Do you think they considered such work to be beneath the dignity of an apostle ? The chief question to us in this connexion is however what their conception was of the work which they knew they were called to do. In v. 2 one clause is used to describe that work, in v. 4 two clauses. It is plain that in their eyes prayer was an essential part of the work to which they were to devote themselves. Prayer was to the apostles not merely a means of getting God's blessing into their own life ; it was also a means of doing the work to which God had called them. They were to pray and to preach. We are accustomed to the expression, ' Work and -pray ', emphasizing the truth that the two should not be separated. It is equally important to learn and to remember that to pray is to work. (6) Read also Eph. i. 15-19 and iii. 14-19, and learn from these passages what the apostle Paul did to help the church at Ephesus. He had been long at Ephesus and knew the Church. When he left them he saw that dangerous influences threatened to come in and disturb the Lord's work (Acts xx. 29). He wrote this letter to them in order that he might help them. But VI. iii WORKING BY PRAYER 85 he did not content himself with sending them warnings and exhortations by letter. He was far away from them, and in prison (iii. 1 ; iv. l) ; but he was not therefore precluded from doing his apostolic work in Ephesus. What do we learn from the two passages mentioned above that he was able to do for his distant friends ? (c) In Col. ii. Iff. we learn the same lesson of - the possibility of helping and working for those who are far beyond the reach of our personal influence. Only that in Colossae the apostle Paul was personally unknown, and the dangers that threatened the Church were even greater there than in Ephesus. It was still more difficult, therefore, in this case for the apostle to render the help that was needed. As we have seen before, the expression Paul uses in Col. ii. 1 about his prayer suggests that it was not an easy thing. Yet, in his prison in Rome the apostle was able to work for his unknown brethren in Colossal. {d) Have we begun to learn to regard and to use prayer as a means of doing God's work, not merely to accompany the work we are doing, but to extend our service to persons and places we cannot reach ourselves ? It does not therefore cease to be necessary to g o out to distant places and to unattractive tasks. Prayer is not intended to make life and work easier, but to make possible the accomplishment of what God wants to have done but what would otherwise be impossible. 86 LIFE OF THE APOSTLES VI. iv 4. That God may work {a) There is not only a direct causal connexion between our prayer and God's help, prayer enabling us to get the particular gift for which we are asking. Prayer also prepares the way for God to work out that which He wishes to bring about, but which those who pray have perhaps not yet understood and of which they are not thinking in their prayers. Read Acts ix. 10-19. What was Paul doing during the first days of waiting after the Lord had met him at Damascus ? We do not know what he was thinking of " and asking for as he was praying. He probably did not even know Ananias's name. But while he was praying God was getting the helper ready. {b) Read Acts x. 9-16. What was this experience intended to prepare the apostle Peter for ? Peter's hunger (v. 10) is doubtless the natural explanation of the form which his vision took. But the thing of real importance was not the form of the vision but the lesson to be learnt through it. What he understood this strange experience to mean we learn from v. 28. What is, in this verse, Peter's own explanation of the great change that has taken place in his views on the question of intercourse between Jews and Gentiles ? God had been doing something which Peter was not looking for. It was while Peter was praying {v. 9) that God began to prepare the way for that great change which he saw was necessary, but which the apostle at this time neither understood nor desired ? VI. iv THAT GOD MAY WORK 87 There had been other prayers beside Peter's preparing the way for this decisive step in the history of Christ's Church (see Acts x. 30/). Cornelius perhaps did not know what exactly to ask God for ; but God knew what he needed ; and while the man was praying God began to do His work. (c) Look at what Acts xiii. 2 tells us of the circum stances under which the call came to set Barnabas and Saul apart 'for their new work. Whether the Church at Antioch, largely composed of Gentile Christians, had been considering the question of sending out missionaries to more distant places, and whether they had made that question a special subject of prayer, we do not know. Nor do we know what their feelings were when they understood that their two leaders (xi. 25/) were to leave them. All that the writer finds it necessary to tell us is that it was while they were praying that God began definitely to work to lead the Church to take this new, great step. {d) Read Acts xvi. 25-34. What Paul and Silas were praying for (v. 25) we are not told. What the writer does tell us is that while they were praying God's power was manifested. What God did was not simply to deliver His two servants out of danger, but to open the doors for the Gospel into Europe. Compare also Acts v. 19-20. Where were the apostles told to go when God had opened the prison doors and set them free ? Were they sent to a place where no further dangers could reach them ? Let us remember that it is service rather than safety that God has in view in helping His children. 88 LIFE OE THE APOSTLES VI. V It is when men are praying that God can do His work. 5. The Laying on of Hands We read frequently in the New Testament of the laying on of hands as something that accompanied prayer. {a) The first instance mentioned is in Acts vi. 6. What the writer is interested in is not a question of ecclesiastical authority, the question as to who chose and ordained the deacons. Light is thrown on that question also by this passage. But what the writer obviously wants to- tell in the sixth verse is how the seven were solemnly set apart for their Work. Those who prayed for them and laid their hands on, them cannot have thought that thereby they were going to confer on these men, or to secure for them, the spiritual qualifications required for their new office. What were the qualifications which the apostles con sidered necessary in the men who were to ' serve tables ' (v. 6.) ? Were those gifts and graces to be obtained through the prayer spoken of in v. 6 ? Or, were they found in the seven before ? Prayer was never an empty ceremony in the early Church. It was always the means of obtaining and accomplishing something. We may be sure that this was true also of the solemn kind of prayer mentioned in Acts vi. 6. What do you think they had in mind as they prayed on this occasion ? It must have been some- VJ. V THE LAYING ON OF HANDS 89 thing which made it natural for them while they prayed to lay their hands on those for whom the prayer was offered. (&) An exactly similar use of this kind of prayer is mentioned in Acts xiii. 3. For what were the two men one whose behalf prayer was thus offered set apart on this occasion ? Remember that these two men had been in ' the ministry of the word ' for some time. What was done now was not to ordain them, in the ordinary sense of the word. Look also at 1 Tim. iv. 14 and v. 22. Nothing is ex pressly said about prayer in these places. But we feel sure that the laying on of hands was not regarded as an act or a ceremony which by itself, in some magical way, could confer any spiritual benefit. The apostolic Church knew that spiritual effects follow only from spiritual causes. The idea which was expressed or symbolized by the laying on of hands was doubtless that of solidarity. Those who lay their hands on men who are being set apart for a special work in the Church thereby identify themselves with those men ; they recognize that they share the responsibility with the new workers, and that they must bear the burdens of the work together with them. (c) In Acts viii. 15-17 the laying on of hands is mentioned in a different connexion. To whom was it done, and for what purpose ? The receiving of the Holy Spirit evidently (v. 18) refers to the extraordi nary spiritual gifts of which we hear so much in the apostolic Church. It was not the apostles who confer- 90 LIFE OF THE APOSTLES VI. V red this gift (l Cor. xii. 11). That was not what they wanted to express by laying their hands on the new disciples in Samaria. But behind their prayer for the gifts of the Spirit lay a desire to be in the fullest sense one with these Samaritan believers. {d) What is the result aimed at by the prayer and laying on of hands mentioned in Acts xxviii. 8 ? There is no indication of any idea of magnetism or the like, as if the touch had in itself a healing power. Here too the laying on of hands is doubtless symbolic of the idea of solidarity. There lies behind the apostles' prayer something of the same mind which we have seen in the Great Physician (Matt. viii. 17). Solidarity is one of the fundamental laws of the prayer world. 6. God's Point of View {a) Read Rom. i. 9. The words throw much light on the apostle Paul's prayer life. Remember that he had not been working in Rome himself. We learn from chapter xvi that he knew many individual members of the Church in Rome. But it was not one of his Churches. There was not the same natural reason for him to be interested in that Church as in the many others with which he was in so many ways intimately connected. And yet he prayed so earnestly as this verse tells us for the Christians in Rome. What made him do it ? What was the secret of his prayers for others ? VI. vi GOD'S POINT OF VIEW 91 {b) Think of the expression Paul uses in Col. ii 1 to describe his prayer interest in the Christians at Colossae. Remember what the word means which he uses here about his prayer ; we have looked at it in another connexion. And then think of the clause in this verse which may well make us wonder that Paul could pray so earnestly for those people. What is that clause ? We have exactly the same reason to feel surprised when in Rom. xv. 30 we see that Paul expects people, most of whom did not know him personally, to strive for him in prayer; He prayed earnestly himself for people whom he did not know. And he expected those who did not know him to be able to pray earnestly for him. (c) In 1 Tim. ii. 1 the apostle does not speak of his own prayers but of the prayer life he desires to see developed in all Christians. How far does he want~ their prayers to extend ? For whom should Christians pray ? The answer given in this verse is surely an impossible ideal if our prayer horizon is to be determined by our own natural love and interest. What is said in the ¦ New Testament of the prayer life of Christ's disciples is only intelligible when we remember that they God's his fellow workers. What they are living and working for is His cause not their own. It is His interests that determine their attitude, also in prayer. It is His point of view not their own that regulates their whole outlook upon life. [d) Of this we get a strong impression also when we look at those passages which show us what the apostle Paul' was thanking God for. Read 1 Cor. i. 4/; Eph. i. 15. What is it in these verses that moves the 92 LIFE OF THE APOSTLES VI. vii apostle to thanksgiving ? Is it benefits he himself has received ? One might answer that in these cases it is at any rate ' his ' converts who have received the good gifts for which he thanks the Lord. But in Rom. i. 8 and Col. i. 3-5 the people who have been benefitted by the gifts for which he thanks God are hot personally known to him, and from the ordinary, natural point of view there could not be said to be any special connexion between him and them. How can there be any real feeling of gratitude in his heart as he thinks of the gifts those strangers had received from God ? It was possible because he had begun to let his interests and desires and efforts be determined by what he knows to be God's point of view. Therefore he finds it necessary to pray not only for what he needs himself but for all that he knows God wants to get done. And wherever he sees something which he knows makes God glad he finds cause for thanksgiving. (e) This is not an unreasonable ideal or a mere fanciful picture. To be Christians means to have Christ as our life. Gal, ii. 20 ; Col. iii. 3. The full realisation of what these words imply may be a long way off. But where Christ has begun to get the pre-eminence, the life also begins to bear this mark. If Christ has begun to be our life, He has begun to determine the horizon and outlook also of our prayer life. 7. The Riches of God's Grace (a) Find in Eph. i. 7/ a characteristic statement of the apostle Paul's ground of assurance concerning God's VI. vii. THE RICHES OF GOD'S GRACE 93 work both in himself and in others. On what is it he builds his confidence and his hope ? Find the same deep and unshakable foundation mentioned in vv. 4 a, 5 a, 7 b, 9 b, 11 b. What is it in all these verses that determines God's attitude and action ? Notice that the idea of God's foreknowledge and foreordination is to Paul not so much a difficult intellectual problem as a conviction which alone makes possible the assurance of his faith and the confident expectancy of his prayers. (&) Look at Eph. iii. 16, and notice in the first part of the verse what the apostle says about the degree or measure which characterizes God's giving. We shall return to this prayer in one of the following studies. But think here of the expression which tells, us how much Paul expects God to be ready to give to those who ask him for strength and for other gifts of which they stand in need. How far is God willing to go in giving ¦ to men ? What determines His willingness ? Is it the degree of understanding and virtue found in those who pray ? (c) Find also in Eph. iii. 20 a statement showing how much the apostle expects God to do. The need of God's help in the Ephesian Church was very great. The apostle has been making great requests in the preceding verses. How much may the Christians at Ephesns expect God to do for them ? In the last part of the verse we learn what ground the apostle had for his assurance that God is able to do so much. He knows something from experience (and so do the readers) of the greatness of God's power. 94 LIFE OF THE APOSTLES VI. vii What do you think is in the apostle's mind when he speaks of the power that worketh in us ' ? {d) In 2 Cor. xii. 7-10 we have a striking illustration from the apostle's own experience of the truth that God is ' able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.' What was it, as we are told in these verses, that Paul had been thinking of and praying for ? Try to realize the meaning of the two figures he employs to describe that which he had been asking the Lord to take away from him. What exactly the suffer ing was to which these words refer we do not know. But the apostle's language makes it quite clear that it was not only something painful to himself, but some-. thing which he regarded as a hindrance to the Lord's work. And what was the result of his prayer ? Did he get what he asked for ? It may be that at first he had been inclined to feel disappointed. But when he wrote the words we are thinking of he had come to see that God had given him something greater and better than that for which he had prayed. What was it he had got light on through this prayer experience ? Paul knew, and we may know, that to those who pray God gives according to the riches of his grace '. VII. Prayer in the Apostolic Church 1. At the Throne of Grace Study Heb. iv. 16 as a description of what prayer meant to the early Christians. Think of each of the four clauses you find in this verse. {a) ' The throne of grace.' To pray is to approach a throne. What are the proper feelings with which to approach one who sits upon a throne ? He to whom we pray is not only a kind Father but also the Lord of glory, the Ruleir of all. His is the kingdom and the power and the -glory. God's throne is a throne of grace. But it does not thereby cease to be a throne ; God's majesty is not cancelled or hidden by His grace. Those who approach God in prayer should have before their mind both the divine majesty and the divine grace. Let us realize clearly what God's grace means to those who pray. It is not an attitude on God's part which makes us think less seriously of our sins and failures as we stand in God's presence. But it means (l) what the Saviour says in John vi. 37 ; (2) what He says in Matt. vii. 1 1 ; and (3) what the apostle Paul says in Eph. iii. 16 about the degree of strength he expects God to give. (6) ' With confidence.' Try to realize what may make (and often does make) it difficult for men to turn 96 PRAYER IN THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH VII. i to God with confidence and boldness. Think of two or three of the principal causes of lack of boldness in prayer. We learn from the epistle to the Hebrews what the chief grounds are of that confidence which is so fre quently mentioned in this epistle as an indispensable characteristic of true prayer. Find one answer to the question of boldness in approaching God in Heb. x. 19, another in iv. 14, and a third in iv. 15. We have studied yet another answer to this question in Eph. iii. 20. (c) To receive mercy.' This is the first object we should have in view when we pray ; not merely to receive the particular gift andblessing for which we may be asking, ,but to be more firmly grounded in '-the grace wherein we stand, (Rom. v. 2). Whatever the special need may be that prompts us to pray the deepest note of all Christ-taught prayer is a longing for a life more deeply rooted and grounded in God's love (Eph. iii. 17). Christ's disciples pray to God in order that they may get (l) mercy and (2) the help they need. (rf) ' Help in time of need.' Let us not be afraid of telling God what we desire to get, ' making our requests known unto God' (Phil. iv. 6). To ask for definite gifts is not something unworthy of God's children. But it is important to remember that God has promised to give us His help only when we really need it ; it is then only that it can bring us all that God desires to give us by it. Remember what Christ said in the Pattern Prayer about ' daily bread ', and also what both by words arid by example He has taught us of the 'delays' which some VII. i AT THE THRONE OF GRACE 97 times make prayer such a difficult thing (Luke xi. 5-8; John xi. 6). To pray means to ask God for the help we need and to expect Him to help us.; but also, to be content with getting His help when He sees that we need it. To pray is to approach the throne of grace. 2. A Life of Prayer ,. (a) Read Acts ii. 42, and mark the four characteris tics of the life of the Christian Church in its earliest days which are mentioned in this verse. What is described by- the four terms constitutes not only the symptoms of the Church's life but the channels through which the life comes from God into the Church. It is not necessary to stop and inquire whether the writer has mentioned the four points in what he con sidered the order of their importance. What he tells us plainly is that all the four things are essential. That means that prayer is one of the secrets of the spiritual life that distinguished the apostolic Church. It was not the apostles only who found it necessary to pay much attention to prayer (Acts vi. 4). In the life of the whole Church, to every member of the Church, prayer was one of the means of grace on which their spiritual life depended. {b) " Think again of the exhortation ' to pray always ' which comes to us both from Christ and from the apostles. As we have seen before, the idea of praying always clearly implies that prayer is not only a means of 7 98 PRAYER IN THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH VII. ii obtaining particular gifts but has to do with our whole life. That is just what we should expect to find emphasized where the relations between God and men are described in the terms of father and children. If a child's communications with its father are .deter mined entirely by the child's desire to secure gifts from the father — even though the gifts asked for are of the best kind — there is something seriously wrong in the relations between that child and its father. Is prayer to us only a means of obtaining gifts from our Father ? Or do we use it also as a' means of growing in the life to which as God's children we are called ? (c) Look at Eph. vi. 18 and the connexion between this verse and what goes before. . There are six clauses in that verse which all deserve to be carefully pondered in order that we may see what was the apostle Paul's conception of prayer. But what we now wish to think of is the importance of prayer in the life of a Christian, as indicated by the manner in which this exhortation is introduced. How far back do you think our thoughts should go to understand what was in the apostle's mind when he added, ' with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons ' etc. ? Do you think it is only what is said in the last verse that the; apostle, wants them to do ' praying with all prayer etc ' ? Or, does it seem more likely to you that the apostle wants this exhortation to be connected with the whole passage that begins at v. 13, in which he describes the Christian's armour ? If the latter is the right construction the apostle says VII. jii A FULLER INSIGHT 99 that this armour cannot be used, the benefits of all the divine gifts here mentioned cannot be enjoyed, except by those who pray always. - Prayer is not only one of the means of grace; the value of all the means of grace, and of all God's good gifts, depends on our using them with prayer. 5. A Fuller Insight Read Eph. i. 17-20. {a) This is one of the apostle Paul's prayers for the Church in Ephesus. It shows us what he considered essential for a Christian life, and how he expected to obtain it. Think first of the two terms which he uses in address ing God in 17