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THE KING ’S BUSINESS Many public speakers, evangelists, and presiding offi* cers seem to have been seized with a perfect mania for being funny—everything must be turned into a joke, or presented in a way to awaken a laugh. We recently
Too Much' Funny Business.
attended a missionary convention. One of the speakers had made an excellent and impressive address with a very solemn closing. The chairman arose to announce the next speaker, and in doing so told a number of very funny stories. He succeeded in exciting prolonged laughter; it was almost impossible not to laugh aloud, the stories were so very, very funny and so well told, but with many persons he entirely dissipated the solemn effect of the preceding address.^ Nothing could by any possibility have been more out of place. The convention was filled with admiration for the chairman’s wit, but they entirely lost sight of the Lord and His work.
The central powers are praying for victory over the entente allies, and the entente allies are praying for vic- tory over the Germans. Certainly the prayers offered on the one side or the other side must come to nothing.
When Does God Answer the Prayeir
of Nations?
_ To many this fact seems conclusive proof that the Bible doctrine concerning prayer is not true. But it proves nothing of the kind. There is no promise anywhere in the Bible that God will answer all prayers for all things of everybody. The Bible doctrine of prayer is that God will hear the prayers o f men and women who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and are entirely surrendered to the will of God, and who show their surrender by keep ing His commandments and doing the things which are pleasing in His sight (John 15 :7 ; 1 John 3 :22; John 3 :12-15). There is no promise whatever in the Bible that God will hear the prayers either of nations or individuals when they are living in unconfessed sin, or when they are praying for things which are not .according to His will. Have we any reason for supposing that either the entente allies or the central powers are not living in unconfessed sin ? J Have the Germans and their allies on the one side confessed and put away their sins ? Have the English and their allies oh the other side, as nations, confessed and put away their sins ? Have either of the parties in this awful conflict met the conditions of prevailing prayer? God certainly will not hear the prayers of both sides, and we have no Bible warrant for thinking that He will hear the prayers of either side, for neither has met the conditions upon which He answers prayer. This doctrine so prevalent, that any individual or any nation, no matter whether they are living in obedience or disobedience to God, and for getfulness of God, can go to Him at any time and ask Him for anything they want, and use the God that they have forgotten and disobeyed, simply as a con venience to carry out their own selfish plans, is not only utterly foolish, but utterly unscriptural. That God does not hear the prayer of the Germans at the present time is no proof that God does not hear the prayer when the conditions of prevailing prayer are met, for they have not met them. The fact that God does not hear the prayers of the English at the present time is no proof that God does not answer pfayer when the conditions o f prevailing prayer are met, for they have not met them. This objection to the Bible doctrine of prayer, so common at all times, but especially emphasized in this time of conflict between people who are praying for diametrically different things, is not only unreason able but silly. .
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