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our Irish student, who was praying at the Institute evening prayer service—“ God give me grace to ask for grace.” - Selfishness' in Prayer .—“When the ten heard it they began to be much displeased with James and John.” Selfish praying provokes selfishness in others. Dr. F. B. Meyer said, “Do we pray as much' for the church across the way as we do for our own?” He said, “this thought gripped me one day with great power. I began to pray for the church opposite mine, and in a few months God sent the great Scotch preacher, Dr. John McNeill, as pastor o f this church.” Then Dr. Meyer was downcast, for he said, “this man will draw all the crowd and I will get no one to preach to,” but he con tinued to pray for the church opposite and its new pastor. Very soon Dr. McNeill began to draw such crowds that his church would not hold them, and the people came over and filled up Dr. Meyers church. Praying for others enlarges ones own work. .. Brooks. that He would be resurrected. Does it look as if Hd died a martyr? He came to die and not to live—His death was the very object o f His incarnation. The heart of the Gospels is not a teaching Christ, but a crucified Christ whose ; sacrifice is the mighty magnet to draw the believer tp God. K K , L. B. His veracity is at stake if he did not literally rise.—Denney. Is it pos sible in view o f His perfect truthfulness in word and deed, there should be such an anticlimax as is involved in a denial of His assurance that He would literally rise again? If that death was the close of the only perfect life, we are faced with an insoluble mysterySthe permanent tri umph o f wrong over right and the impos sibility of believing in truth and righteous ness in the world.—Robinson. v. 35. What we desire. As on the one hand, there are some who do not use, on the other hand, there are some who abuse SUNDRY SOURCES
trust us with dull jack knives. Hugh Miller says, “prayer is so great an instrument that no man ever thoroughly mastered all its keys. They sweep along the infinite scale o f man’s wants and God’s goodness.” Dr. Campbell Morgan s a id ,“Prayer based on John 15:7 is so mighty that if it were not for the conditions o f this promise I would wreck heaven and earth in twenty-four hours by my asking.” A mother in New York state did not want her daughter to marry a missiorfary and go to China, so she prayed that she might marry another young man and stay in this country. The daugh ter did not go as the missionary’s wife but yielded to the mother’ s advice. Soon after her marriage she became sick, lingered for several years a fearful sufferer. She con fessed she did not do as God wanted her to do, and the mother wished a thousand times she had not prayed for the daughter to stay home. W e better ask God what to ask for, or to put it in the words of suffering since Transfiguration, but they were so occupied with petty ambitions they had not comprehended. Many great think ers today are likewise taken up with their own notioris and ambitions, never under standing what Jesus says to them.—Torrey. v. 33, 34. Killed—rise again. Some say Christ died simply as a martyr. His death was the result o f circumstances that were too strong for Him. But how can this be reconciled with the fact that the burden o f Christ’s message from the very first concerned His coming death and resurrec tion. The shedding o f His blood and the resurrection was His own program, the ful fillment o f the prophecies. He came to give His life a ransom. He died a victor, not a victim. His death was His own choice; God’s program—there was no other way of saving the world.—Morgan. He did not foretell His coming death without adding By K. I B EGAN to tell them (v. 32): The third time He had told them o f His coming COMMENTS FROM
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