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The Highest Power of Prayer.

BY RAY PALMER, D.D.

(From the New York" Independent.”)

N earnest Christian man has addressed to me the following brief note:

"DEAR SIR, A good deal has of late been said from the pulpit, the press, and in Christian conversation in relation to effectual prayer. I do not now refer to the discussions which have grown out of recent sceptical objections to the general doctrine of the efficacy of prayer, as taught in the Scriptures and received throughout Christendom. I hear those who are firm believers in this doctrine inquiring among themselves about the different degrees of that efficacy, as found in the actual experience of different persons, or of the same person at different times, and I desire myself to come to a better understanding as to what kind of prayer that is specifically which realises the highest power with God in asking the good we need. It will be doing me a great service if you will briefly give me your thoughts on this profoundly interesting subject. "Very truly yours,

MY DEAR SIR,-I most cheerfully yield to your expressed desire that I will give you any light I may possess in respect to that special type of prayer which, both in Scripture history and in more ordinary Christian experience, stands connected with so many remarkable results, and respecting which there has been, and still is, so much earnest inquiry among sincere Christian people. It is a difficult subject, but one of deep practical interest, and worthy of thoughtful attention; and, though I may not be able to add any new light on the matter, I will, nevertheless, at your request, venture a few suggestions.

The apostles and early Christians were familiar with the history of prayer as presented in the Old Testament. The example and explicit teachings of their Divine Master, also, as regards the obligation and efficacy of prayer, left them no possible room to doubt in relation to these things. The convictions of the whole Christian Church in

succeeding generations on the general subject have been substantially right, and are so to-day. Yet it must be admitted that the Israels and Elijahs in the visible Church are comparatively few. A very considerable part of the whole number of avowed disciples feel, or would feel if they seriously reflected, that, practically, they know but little of what it is to ascend the heights of holy communion with God and of effectual intercession with Him. Many of these grieve over their conscious want of faith, and the consequent coldness and unfruitfulness of their devotions. What, then, seems to be needed is a better understanding as to what that is in prayer on which its prevailing efficacy depends; or when and how it reaches its highest power.

All real prayer, of course, supposes a sincere desire on the part of the suppliant to obtain the things for which he asks. It is not true, however, as many seem to think, that strong desire is the only, or, at least, the chief requisite of acceptable prayer, the specific thing which makes it prevalent with God. If it were so, the supplication of the frantic mother who implores relief and life for her suffering child, the intense excitement of whose natural affection leads her, for the time, to forget the duty of submission and drives from her mind all thought of what may be the will of God, or what His wisdom and goodness may see that even her own highest good demands, would be certainly effectual; but the truth is that she is intent solely on the gratification of her own wishes, and the strength of her desire, the agony with which it pleads, may be, by its excess and the wrong state into which it throws the whole mind and heart, precisely the reason why it cannot consistently be answered. It may be that what, with such importunity, she beseeches Infinite Love to do is not, in the existing circumstances, the fit thing to be done.

Nor if we suppose the things desired to be right objects of desire will the case be altered. Although it be some good which we know it is always the Divine pleasure to bestow on those who are fitted to receive it as, for instance, the gift of the Holy Ghost in His quickening power-which is asked of God, it is not even then true that the strength of the desire is the measure of the prevailing power of the request. For, though the thing desired be right, yet it may be that some unworthy motive, some impulse of selfishness or pride, some impatience of God's time and way of bestowing spiritual good, in short, something wrong in the spirit of the suppliant, may be dis

cerned by the All-seeing Eye, that shall render it improper that the request so offered shall be granted.

On what, then, the question returns, does the power of prayer to bring its answer essentially depend? Plainly, on the moral purity of the desire. The right kind of desire for things which are truly good will certainly be sincere and strong. But it will be more than this; it will be holy likewise. It will ask what it asks in a holy temper, with holy aims, and a holy regard to God's supremacy and choice. It will be the outbreathing of a soul which is under the pervading and directive influence, not of mere natural impulses, but of the Holy Spirit of God; a soul whose utterances are such, and such only, as that Spirit prompts. In proportion, we must believe, as any soul rises above the region of the carnal, the selfish, and the sensible, and comes into sympathy with the spiritual and the holy, in its approaches to the Mercy Seat, just in that proportion must it, according to the whole tenor and spirit of the Divine promises, have power to prevail with God. It is when it thus ascends in a very high degree that it attains to the highest form or the most effective power of prayer.

With these suggestions borne in mind, let me come to a particular illustration. Suppose a Christian in his closet and in the attitude of prayer. He is bending the knee on that sacred spot whence, with varying degrees of the spirit of prayer, he has daily looked up to the Eternal Throne, and where he has consciously received answers proportioned to the degree of inward grace in exercise. There he has often pleaded with God under the influence of deep emotion, as when he has intensely felt his own sins and his pressing necessities, or when he has entreated for others whose condition and wants have profoundly moved him, or has prayed for the coming of the Kingdom of God in a sinful and suffering world. But at this time, were it allowed you to look in on his retirement, as the All-seeing Eye is able to do, you would notice something peculiar in the scene. His aspect is now fixed and calm. He exhibits few, if any, indications of mere human affections. Only, perhaps, a tear is stealing down his cheek, which tells that emotions too deep to find expression have possession of his soul. His lips, which at the commencement of his prayer gave utterance to his petitions, are still; for what at present fills his spirit and ascends therefrom words are immeasurably too low and feeble to embody. On the countenance there rests an indescribable

expression, which seems to say that the soul, with intense collectedness of thought and unwonted clearness of perception, is now enjoying the most immediate contact with the Invisible which the present state admits. It is, indeed, conversing with God without the use of language, or nearly so. It is impressed most profoundly with the transcendent exaltation, majesty, and holiness of His glorious being in the presence of which it feels itself sinking into nothing; and yet it is not repelled. It is conscious of no painful fear. On the contrary, childlike trust is mingled with its deep and solemn reverence, and its fervour of admiration is accompanied by a most tranquil and peace-producing love. Never were its wishes for personal supplies of wisdom, grace, and strength more earnest; never did the welfare of others, the enlargement of the Church, and the general progress of the Divine Kingdom seem more to be desired; but, for the time, all these things are, as one may say, merged and lost in the one grand, absorbing, inexpressible desire that God may be glorified, and all His blessed will be done. Abba, Father, not now an utterance, is an affectionate emotion with which the soul is overflowing. The whole being is, in the words of Paul, filled with all the fulness of God.

It is plain, therefore, dear Sir, as it seems to me, that there is often a material misapprehension as to the meaning of the "importunity" spoken of in the Scriptures in connection with prevailing prayer. There are those who take it as necessarily involving a state in which body and mind are wrought up to an intensity of emotion which, if amounting almost, or quite, to agony, is so much the more likely to attain its end. Many, accordingly, when urged to be importunate in prayer, make painful effort to produce in themselves such a state of physical and mental excitement, and to sustain it habitually. Some persons of a peculiar temperament succeed in doing this to a considerable extent; others are unable to do it, and reproach themselves in proportion as they fail; but it is not such importunity that the Scriptures, fairly interpreted in their entire teaching, insist on. Strong desire-healthful and intelligent desire-may be, and often is, almost supernaturally calm, while yet profoundly earnest. Neither in the giving of the Lord's Prayer, nor in the substance of the Prayer itself, is there the least hint of any necessity for agonising excitement as the condition of its being heard and answered. The agony of the Blessed Redeemer in the Garden was the result of the crushing burdens which He bore as the Saviour of the lost. It was

the thing which, as an overwhelming evil, furnished the occasion of the prayer, and not something which was required of Him as a condition. of its being answered. His prayer was answered, not when the agony of His desire had reached a certain necessary degree of intensity, but when His desire itself gave place to a sublime submission and selfsurrender, in which the sufferer could heartily say, "Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done!" and again, calmly, a second and a third time: "If this cup may not pass from Me except I drink it, Thy will be done!" Then we learn (Heb. v. 7): "He was heard in that He feared."

With such an example before me, I cannot help believing that it is just when faith completely triumphs and the impassioned desire of the suppliant ceases-sinks into the stillness of a soul now absolutely at one with the will of God-that prayer reaches its highest conceivable power. Surely, to a soul in such a state the Infinite Father can deny nothing that it were consistent with righteousness and love to grant. When peacefully and sweetly it can say, "Thy will be done," in the consciousness that this is all it wants, denial has become impossible. Of course, I have not intended, in what I have said above, nor in the illustration given, to describe precisely what occurs in every case in which the highest power with God is reached. I have simply sought to present some general idea of the spiritual state in which the prayers of loving and believing souls obtain their most complete and blessed fulfilment. That what has been said is in accordance with the experience of great numbers of Christian men and women, in all the Christian ages, there is ample evidence in the records of the Church at large.

If these brief thoughts shall prove of any service in the way of directing your own inquiries, or those of others who love the Mercy Seat, I shall be glad to have had occasion to express them.-With Christian regard, I am, very truly yours, R. P.

In Memoriam.

N Lord's-day morning, April 24th, Mrs. Anne Stevens, the beloved wife of Mr. John Stevens, of "Yarborough," Southsea, entered into her everlasting rest, in simple reliance on the Atonement of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.