THE KING’S BUSINESS
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the weakness o f the church? Is not this a good lesson for all o f us to learn now, and can we not as we stand in His presence, here and now, get the lesson o f the great importance o f prayer? Can we not look back and see how the failures o f our lives are linked with failure in prayer? And how the blessings o f our lives are bound up with our burdens in prayer ? I f the lesson o f today will send us all to the Word, and enable us to follow the life o f our Lord as He prayed His way through travail and trial in the midst o f a sorrowing, suffering humanity, the lesson will not be in vain for us and for our class. Our Saviour poured out His heart in inter cession while here, and He is now pleading unceasingly in our behalf there, and that is the reason we are saved and kept from ten thousand falls. Read the seventeenth chapter o f John and study there the high- priestly prayer He is making for His church. How sorrowful if He is compelled to say to us “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not learned to pray?” The pattern prayer is simple. There are seven petitions—three for worship, four for the supply of our needs. Three is the divine number, fou r the world number. The three combined express adoration and worship o f our Heavenly Father, and desire for His glorification in heaven and earth. The four contain petitions for our essential needs— daily bread, forgiveness o f sin, a walk with God, and victory over Satan. Simple, sub lime, blessed, if sincere. W e can say the words, but can yrt sound the depth o f their meaning?
The parable illustrates the prayer and is by way o f contrast. The basis o f unselfish prayer is need. A poverty stricken friend goes to a poverty stricken friend for bread, who in turn goes to a rich friend. He went to one able but unwilling, but who was goaded to give. You don’t have to impor tune God. Ask; seek; knock. You ask for things; you seek for something lost; you knock at a closed door. “ Father” in con trast with the selfish friend but He is only Father to those who believe His Son (Gal. 3 :26) “ For ye are all the children o f God by faith in Christ Jesus.” “ Knocking” assures the presence o f the Father; “ seeking” assures aft answer from the Father. How is it when H e asks? Do we refuse? When He seeks, do we hide? When He knocks, do we close the door? The pledge o f prayer is found in the words, “How much more shall your Heavenly Father.” PRACTICAL POINTS (1) Precept and practice go hand in hand. (2) In temptation, God proves His power, and we our faith. (3) Unless we forgive others, we can have no fellowship with the Father. (4) God’s promises are pledges. (5) Our prayer “ Feed us with food con venient,” ( 6 ) The basis o f all real prayer is need. (7) If your heart is hard toward God, the heavens will be as brass. ( 8 ) The prayer life o f our Lord is our pat tern.
PERTINENT ILLUSTRATIONS
By W . H. Pike.
TJRAYER is the greatest power known to man. Steam, water and electricity can move materials, but prayer moves men. Earthly powers act in the realm o f the earthly, but prayer is a .force in the realm o f the moral and spiritual as ■well as material. Martin Luther said, “ Prayer is a
powerful thing, for God has bound and tied Himself thereunto.” Selfish Prayer .—A little girl prayed at evening worship, the night before her parents were to start for the World’s Fair in Chicago, “ Good-by God, we are going to Chicago.”
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