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THE KING’ S BUSINESS
WHAT IS AN ANSWER TO PRAYER?
By CHARLES A. BLANCHARD, D. D.
T HAVE repeatedly heard beloved breth- ren say that when God declined to do the things which His children desired, the answer was as real as when He granted the things which they desired. The statement is sometimes made in this manner: ‘God says sometimes yes and sometimes no. No is as really an answer as yes, so that prayer is always answered.’ It has ever seemed to me a cruel trifling with the souls of men to teach in this way. O f course, I do not mean to charge those who thus speak, with an intentional cruelty or trifl ing., Nevertheless, that which they do, seems to me a heart-breaking piece o f work. “ Here, for example, is a mother praying for the life o f a child. She, ks well as she knows how, asks God to spare the life of her child, but she is not well taught as to pfayer. She does not know exactly what prayer is. She does not know how to pray. She has never been taught how to pray. In some essential particulars, her requests 'do not take the form o f acceptable prayer. God cannot grant her the thing that she desires in consistence with His own char acter. He does not. Her child dies. She is perplexed and distressed. She says to her religious adviser: ‘God does not answer my prayer, has ;refused my prayer.’ He says: ‘Oh, no, God has not refused your prayer. He has not failed to answer your prayer. He has just said no.’ “I do not believe that this teaching is true, and I am sure it would not be a com fort to a mother whose heart lay cold and heavy under the shadow o f the little grave. WHEN TROUBLES HARASS “Here is a man who is in business diffi culty. According to his best light, he prays fpr relief from his financial embarrass ments, but he does not know much about prayer. He has pot been a praying man. He has been a man o f the world, though a member o f the church. He has not been a student o f the Bible. He does not know
what it teaches on the subject o f prayer. He does not know what the conditions of acceptable prayer are. Blindly, ignorantly, in a heedless ignorance, he thinks he prays to God for relief. It does not come. His bank note goes to protest. His estate is scattered to creditors. He becomes a bank rupt. He says: ‘Why did God not answer my prayer?’ The fact may be that he has never prayed at all, but his religious adviser says to him : ‘God has answered your prayer, but He answered no.’ I do not believe that teaching of this kind is true, i am sure it would not be helpful to the afflicted person. He would look upon this explanation as trifling with his serious diffi culty. I think he would justly so regard it. WHEN THE TEMPER ASSA ILS “Here is a man who is in sore tempta tion. The world and the flesh and Satan combine to destroy him. Opportunity coin cides with inclination and he falls- into shameful sin. His name is dishonored. His family is broken up. The church o f Christ suffers. The neighborhood in which he lives is demoralized by his sin. At the- time when temptation was strong upon his soul, he asked God to deliver him. He says he prayed. He thinks he did pray and he says that his prayer was unan swered. He believes that it is possible for men to pray and not to receive the thing that they desire. He goes to his religious adviser, who says to him : ‘0 yes, brother, yqur prayer was answered. God just said no.’ “ I do not believe this teaching to be true and 1 do not believe it to be a comfort or help to anybody. I think it would tend to make infidels rather than Christians, for this man'very likely was like the one o f whom I spoke a moment ago, a man who had never prayed in his life, a man who had never had the child spirit. He did not love God but he loved things, loved to eat,1 loved to drink, loved to wear good clothes, loved to live in a good house, bought these
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