fervent prayer ¡ . that avalleth," Jas. 5:16. N. wept, mourned, fasted, day and night, 1:4, 6: Daniel prayed with fasting, sack- cloth and ashes (Dan. 9:3). Our Saviour prated with "strong crying and tears" (Heb. 5:7). 2. His inspiration. N.'s brother, Hanani, jusf from Judea, brought a melan- choly tale of desolation, poverty, and perse- cution at Jerusalem. He told it with pio'us and patriotic pathos for " He was a good man and feared GOD above many," 7:2. May we too, be more than average Christians! "When I heard I sat down and wept," says N • v 4. Before; I am afraid, he had been, iike the majority,- indifferent to the patriotic remnant returned to their country. He could'Sing in the synagogue, as they do to- dliyi "if I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my rlgnt hand forget her cunning," Psa. 137:5, 6. But we know what it is to sing holv songs without heart. When N. heard Hanani's words he "sat down" with them' let them talk to him, till he "wept." This was the inspiration of his prayer, the fount pf his earnestness. He got hold of facts and facts got hold of him;, facts, if you sit down with them, produce, feeling, and feeling is fervency (P.sa. 39:3.) The LORD said, "Lift up your eyes, look on the fields,—and pray," John 4:35. .¡With Hanani's glass in hand he gazed on far off Jerusalem, the scene stood out clearer and clearer, till he went, he PRAYED, .he HELPED. Let us listen and think of the/afflicted, the poor, the sor- rowful; the suffering, the ignorant, the sim- ple; the tempted,, the persecuted, the widow, the orphan;, the friendless, the homeless the hopeless; the heathen abrpad; the church at home, its reproach, the walls of sound doc- trine . broken down, the gates burned with fire.of,lust for numbers, and prestige, so that the world, pours in, and treads down the saintly life; look on the world, its unrest, its conflicting classes, its coming judgment, its day of grace—let your imagination have free course, it cannot run wild here—now you will pray praying, if there is any praver in you. 3. His prayer's address. "O JE- HOVAH," "GOD OF HEAVEN," "Great and terrible," "Keeping covenant," and "mercy," v. 5. - Get the address right or your mes- sage may go astray; it will get into the dead prayer office. Fixing attention on the true God will do as much to quicken faith as fixing it on facts will to quicken feeling. "O JEHOVAH"—Who is He? Why JE- HOVAH? That is: THE LIVING GOD; THE REDEEMER; THE HOLY ONE OF IS- RAEL; THE GOD OF Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob"; "THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST," yes, and He- is our LORD JESUS Himself. (Ex. 6:2-7). Think of all that! What He was to the patriarchs, to Israel, to JESUS: then prav to Him. But think on—-"THE GOD OF HEAVEN"; "gold, silver, brass, iron, wood and stone," these gods are of the earth, and moulded in fires of hellf our GOD fills the heavens, "great" and "terrible," THE AL- MIGHTY; the dread of His foes- and outs: the object of holy and reverent awe to His confiding people. And more, "Keeping cove- nant," that is. He is THE FAITHFUL GOD, has kept, will keep, His word; "keeping mercy," a great store of it, an inexhaustible treasury, "keeping mercy with thousands (of generations) of them that love Him and keep His commandments" (Ex. 20:6). And "His commandments are not grievous," 1
Jno. 5:3; they are all summed in this, "Lovi one another," 1 Jno. 3:23; Rom. 13:10. 4. His plea for a hearing. "Let thine ear be attentive,—-thine eyes open." Other gods "have eyes, but they see not; ears have they but they hear not; neither speak they through their throat," Psa. 115:5-7; but "He that planted the ear, shall He not hear; He that formed the eye, shall He not see? Psa, 94:9. Yet "GOD is a SPIRIT," Jno. 4:24, who^ without eyes, or ears, sees, and hears, and knows. But in JESUS He came down and "was made like unto His brethren in all things," Heb. 2:17. (See Ex. 3:7, 8; "seen," "heard," "come down.") None shall perish who make such pathetic appeal to Him (Est. 4:15). He extends His golden scepter to all who call on j i i m (Est. 5:2; Rom. 10:13). 5. The objects of his intercession. "Thy ser- vant," and "thy servants." The MASTER will hear His, servant, and save His servants. It is as safe as it is proper to "humble our- selves under the mighty hand of God," 1 Pet. 5:6. 6. His confession. He owns that they are "unprofitable servants," Luke 17:10. "We have done the things we ought not to have done," "we dealt very corruptly" (Heb., perversely); "we have left undone the things we ought to have done," "not kept—commandments—statutes—judgments." See how he takes his brethren's sins on himself, because "there is one body," Eph. 4:4; we dp ,not tell tales on our brother, when we confess his -.sins, we include our- selves as in some way- responsible for them with him. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and Just to forgive us our sins," 1 Jno. 1:9; Luke. 18:10-14. 7. His argument. "Remember:'' (1) Thy dreadful threats in Moses' day (Lev. 26:27-33) have been dread- fully fulfilled, nothing has failed. But (2) the threats - were accompanied by gracious assurances of restoration if we repent (Deut. 30:1-10) as we do this day. Lord do not execute judgment and forget thy prom- ise. Is not the realization of the former, our earnest of the performance of the latter? (3) We are thy.- "redeemed people," by "great power," and "with a strong Hand," thou didst break the yoke of Egypt; divide the ' sea; bring us through the "great and wastei wilderness,".Deut. 32:10; shall all this come to nothing, and shall we perish in exile? (4) And now LORD we "desire to fear thy Name." So we may reason in our praying, and pjead fulfilled threat, past mercies, and promises for the future. When one Rabbi wept to see Jerusalem in ruins, his fellow Rabbi rejoiced, because if the judgment came to pass, the" blessings must also. 8. N. made a special petition, "mercy in the sight of this man." The Great King was only a man, soft clay, a perishable clay, to be moulded as JEHOVAH would, and that, too, for the best interests of His people. III. THE ANSWER. . God gave him favor in the sight of Ar- taxerxes and his queen, who granted him a furlough, a guard, a firman commanding the "governors beyond the river" to give him all the aid he desired. For "Prayer moves the Arm that moves the world," and all its kings and governor^. Prayer is the key that opens the infinite treasurv and "sup- plies our needs according to His riches In glory, by Jesus Christ," Phil, 4 ; ^
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