Divine Efficacy of Prayer 69 easily counterfeit. It is easy enough to imitate praying lips, so that hypocrites and Pharisees feign devoutness. But only God can open in the heart’s depths those springs of suppli cation that often find no channel in language, but flow out in groanings which cannot be uttered. It is not worth while to waste much time in defending or advocating prayer. Experiment makes argument needless. This is not so much a science to be mastered by study as an art to be learned by practice. Like the Bible, prayer is self- evidencing. It is a mysterious union of Divine and human elements not easy of explanation; but to him who prays and puts God to the test along the lines of His own precepts and promises, God proves how real a force prayer is in His moral universe. The best way to prop up prayer is to practice it. The pivot of piety, therefore, is prayer. A pivot is of double use, it acts as a fastener and as a center; it holds other parts in place, and it is the axis of revolution. Prayer likewise, keeps one steadfast in faith and helps to all holy activity. Hence, as surely as God is lifting His people to a higher level of spirituality, and moving them to a more un selfish and self-denying service, there will be new emphasis laid by them upon supplication, and especially upon interces sion. The revival of the praying-spirit is not only first in order of development, but it is first in order of importance, for without it there is no advance. Generally, if not uniformly, prayer is both starting-point and goal to every movement in which are the elements of permanent progress. Whenever the Church’s sluggishness is aroused and the world’s wicked ness arrested, somebody has been praying. If the secret his tory of all true spiritual advance could be written and. read, there would be found some intercessors who, like Job, Samuel, Daniel, Elijah, Paul and James; like Jonathan Edwards, Wil liam Carey, George Müller, and Hudson Taylor, have been
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