NEHEMIAH'S PRAYER. Were we looking for an exemplary prayer we would find it in the lesson of today. Fasting preceded the praying. Fasting and "praying are twin virtues. Were we fast- ing more we would be praying more, and were we praying more we would be fasting more, and were we fasting and praying more we would be more like Nehemiah, whose wqnderful prayer brought such wonderful results. The attitude of Nehemiah with relation to his people is like that of Dan- iel, Dan. 9:4-20, and should teach us the lesson of identifying ourselves with our rape. Nehemiah was overwhelmed with grief over the conditions at Jerusalem. We should be broken down befdre" God over
the conditions which exist in the Church and the world. We should do less- criti- cizing and more crying; we should hammer people less and humble ourselves more. In place of being big-headed, over our knowl- edge of the Word of God and our separate- ness of life, we should be broken-hearted over our lack of. sympathy and love for the erring. We need to do less boasting and more beseeching. The study of this lesson will fail in its mission to us and through' us if' it does not bring us to our knees in confession of our - individual sins and lead us to a more thorough commitment of our lives to Him- self for self-sacrificing service in behalf of others.
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1 5 . Lesson XL111.- We have looked at the' relation of the disciples to the Father and to the world. We should have given some notice of their relation to each other before we took this last theme. The Lord prays that they may be one. He seeks the unification of the believersL They must be separated and sanctified before they can be unified. So we being many, are one body .in Christ, Rom. 10:5. One bread, one body, 1 Cor. 10:17. Members one of another, Eph. 4:25. Jesus is the Head. There is oneness of life, of purpose, of object. It is unity, not uniformity. The illustration is found in Psa. 132, where the anointing sanctifies the whole man. The union of sanctified ones is like heaven's dews saturating the air with heavenly moisture. They are blessed with the same light, heat, dew and rain—there is no jealousy, no grieving of the Spirit. They have a common life, heritage and destiny. By this we know that we are saved and give visible illustration of the truth of verse 23. The Lord also prays that they may be one with Him in glory. He prays "I WILL," verse 24. This certifies our salvation. This is the consummation of His holy desire. He looks forward with ardent anticipation and desires our fellowship in this hope. He localizes the place "Where I am." Glory Nov. 5, 1911. is used eight times in this prayer. Eight is the resurrection number. Glory relates to the future of the disciples with their Lord. A glorious gospel saved us, 2 Cor. 4:4, we entered into the glorious liberty of the children of God, Rom. 8:21. The Glorious Spirit has enshrined us, 2 Cor. 3:8. We look for His glorious .appearing, Titus 2:13, and we are to have glorified bodies, Phil. 3:21. We are to be presented as a glorified Church, Eph. 5:27,. and are to abide with Him in glory forever, Rev 1 . 21:11. Now the Spirit is changing us into the likeness of His glory, 2 Cor. 3:18 and pre- paring us. for our glorious union with Him. There is much talk of character building in these days; that is purely sentimental. To have a character fitting us for glory we must have the Christ as our glorious Saviour. Separation ife the. sign of disciple- ship; this is for our own comfort. Unification is the test, of discipleship and glorification the goal. There is nothing beyond this. It is the full fruition of His work for us. The bud is glorified when it bursts forth into a full blown flower. We are now in the bud of the Christian life. When the Lord comes we shall be glorified with Him. We shall be like Him and behold His glory. Lesson XLIV.—November 12. (1) The Place of Prayer. Gethsemane will always be known as the trysting place where the Lord met His disciples. A place evidently, where He often retired for prayer and a place well known to the disciples. The garden was of Jerusalem, across the brook Cedron. It has been suggested that-He .often slept there with His disciples. JESUS BETRAYED. Jno. 18:1-18. You will have noticed in the study of John's Gospel that he omits much that has been given by the other three gospel writ- ers. He writes long after the others. He writes from a different standpoint and for a different purpose, ,
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