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larger number that they spent ten minutes. When it came down to five minutes, all of them rose; but one man said, “I am afraid I am lying now, for I am not sure that I spend five consecutive minutes any day in prayer.” “Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Prayer may be public or pri vate, but all prayer is secret ; it is always a personal trans action between the soul and God. Whenever you pray, in private or public, enter into the inner chamber ; shut the door ; and let there be a personal dealing between God and you, and God that heareth in secret will reward you openly. Before the grave of Lazarus, our Lord Jesus “lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou heard- est me” —not “that thou hearest me.” Go back three days and you will find that in Perea, the Lord Jesus had heard of the death of Lazarus, and somewhere between the place where He heard of it and that sepulcher, potentially Laz arus had been raised from the dead. “Father, I thank thee that thou heardest me back there. I know that thou always hearest me. I knew it then. My prayer was answered be fore I got here. Lazarus to my vision of faith was alive.” Our Lord was heard in secret and rewarded openly. ft was in secret that God heard Elijah, and the heavens were locked; and then in secret that God heard Elijah again and the rain came. Melancthon’s knees at his death were found to be cal loused with much kneeling, and Martin Luther said, “To hâve prayed well is to have studied well.” He spent three hours every day in the inner chamber with God, and the Reformation was his reward in public. T h e S ight T hat C auses S atan to T remble Now there are ten thousand Lazaruses within half a mile of us in their spiritual graves. Can they be raised? Not by walking out in cold blood in front of their sepul chers and saying, “Lazarus, come forth.” What you say will be sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. The dead will remain dead. What we need is to raise the dead be fore we go to the sepulchers; to gain the victory before we reach the battlefield. Gain the victory in secret with God and the public reward in answered prayer will be certain. In my early ministry, a revival broke out in my church unexpectedly on a rainy day. Rather, it was in a school- house adjacent to the country church where I was preach ing. The Lord gave us nearly a hundred conversions within less than ten days, and I could hardly explain it. I was not expecting it, and I did not find anybody else who was expecting it. On the last day of the mission it was explained. A motherly woman came up to me, grasped my hand, and with a trembling voice said, “Oh, my boy,” for I was but a boy preacher, “when I heard that you were going to preach here Sunday afternoon, though I was sixty miles away teaching school, I said, T will spend every minute he preaches waiting upon God to save those in the community where I was born and reared.’ ” There was the explanation for the work of grace in those many hearts. The faithful prayer-ministry of that saint of God prepared the way that I might reap a harvest of souls. Let us learn well the lesson. The prayer of faith is a neces sary prerequisite to fruitful service. Let us therefore “pray without ceasing,” “with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perse verance.”
T h e G reat O bjective A step further still: Prayer is asking God to give or do something within the circle of His will, specified by human wish and will, in the name of Christ, that the Father may be glorified. “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” For God to answer a selfish prayer would be to cultivate selfishness. For God to give what you wish to consume upon your own pleasure's would be to pander to a worldly spirit. A good woman came to me and said: “Oh, pastor, pray that the Lord may restore my health.” I said, “My sis ter, what do you want with health?” I knew up to that time she had been spending it in frivolities.' She replied, “I cannot attend to my social duties.” She wanted a resto ration of health that she might continue to waste it upon her selfish desires. For God to answer a prayer of that kind might really be doing her an injury. “That the Father may be glorified.” Is it your purpose to glorify God? Is that your single wish, or are you trying to promote some selfish interest? Are you willing that all your efforts shall make simply for the glory of God ? If so, press your peti tion, and the more definite it isj the sooner it will be granted. Finally: Prayer is asking God to give or do something within the circle of His will, specified by human wish and will, in the name of Christ, that the Father may be glo rified, while we are in fellowship with God and with one another. “I f ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” If you are abiding in Christ as the branch abides in the vine, like the branch asking the vine for sap and life, that it may be fruitful and useful, ye may ask Christ what ye will, for there is no discord between the branches themselves. “I am the Vine, ye are the branches.” Vine and branches are one, working together for the single purpose of fruit-bearing. “I f ye abide in Me.” That means more than child life. The child can be five thousand miles away from the parent and yet live; but if the branch is a thousandth part of an inch away from the vine, it dies. Branch-life means abid ing life; and if you are in harmony with God, God’s thoughts and God’s will and God’s purpose circulating through your spiritual arteries and veins, what you ask for will be the expression of God’s wish and will. “Whatso ever we ask, we receive o f Him because we keep His com mandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” There is no discord between us and God. . H aving th e M ind of C hrist But “when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any.” There is to be not only harmony with Christ, but harmony with Christians, harmony with your fellows. The unforgiving spirit prevents an answer to prayer. When you pray, stop and think: Am I in harmony with God ? Am I willing to do His will ? Am I at variance with my neighbor? If so, bring that under the blood, and have God touch it away before you go a step further in your prayer. Harmony with God and a forgiving spirit towards everybody are necessary to successful praying. If I were to take a census now as to how many of us spend every day of our lives half an hour in prayer, how many would respond ? Such a census was taken in a min isters’ meeting in New York City, when 150 pastors were present, and very few responded. More responded, that they spent fifteen minutes a day in prayer, and a still
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