PRAYER AND

AND FAITH.

THE POWER OF PRAYER.

I WANT to call your attention to the subject of "Prayer." If we have had a blessing during the two years we have been labouring in this country, I believe it has been given in answer to prayer. Wherever the Lord's people have been thoroughly roused to pray, there the blessing has come down, so that there was scarcely room enough to receive it; and where there has been true, heartfelt prayer, there the blessing has been greatest.

I think that I could not have a better subject for our Bible reading in this hall than prayer, because if we are to have a great outpouring of the Spirit during our last month in England, it must be in answer to the cry of the Lord's people. If I could only say something to-day that would stir up two or three hundred Christians to earnest prayer, then we would have a great and mighty blessing indeed. Now, let us run through Scripture on this important subject, and see what it teaches as to "the nature and power of prevailing prayer." Turn to 2 Chron. xxx. 22-27. Here we find that Hezekiah has proclaimed a fast, on account of sins, and they met together, and not only confessed their sins, but also sanctified themselves, withdrew themselves from the world, separated themselves, and then it was that their prayer was heard. It went right up to the dwelling-place of the Most High.

Many of you, no doubt, have often asked yourselves when praying, "Will God hear my prayer? Is it true that God in heaven listens to my cry, or am I deceiving myself? Or do you wonder if the prayer we make in this building reaches the throne of God, even heaven? Well, we find it written over and over again that "their prayer was heard." I don't know how far away heaven may be, but this I know, that it is not so far but that God can hear the voice of prayer. I don't believe that a prayer was ever sent up from earth, or the simplest cry of a weak saint, but God has heard it. He loves to listen to the voice of prayer; it is the sweetest music that earth can make.

Turn to 2 Chron. vii. 14. There we see that after Solomon's prayer, God answers from heaven, and says, "If My people, which are called by My name, shall bumble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from

heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." It is the very occupation of God to listen to prayer. When they call upon Him, He promises to attend to their cry; to hear the prayer of his loved ones. No sweeter music ever falls upon the ear of the Almighty than the cry of His weary children who have learned to seek Him.

Turn again to Luke xi. 1-13. Here we have the disciples asking to be taught to pray; they had heard their Master praying, and wished to be taught. So Jesus teaches them what is generally called the Lord's prayer, but which is really the disciples' prayer-the Lord's prayer being found in John xvii. After He has taught them prayer, He goes on to show them how to continue in prayer, and He promises that if we ask it shall be given; if we seek we shall find; if we knock, it shall be opened.

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Now, what is it that the church of God wants so much to-day as the Holy Spirit? And Jesus promises it shall be given. What life and power there would be in the church if it had this gift! If we felt our need of the Spirit, and united to seek it, what a quickening the church would have! What a church it would be! Well, then, this Holy Spirit is God's gift to His children; He wants to give it to us.

Look, now, at this verse, "Ask and ye shall receive." There are a good many things that we ask and get at once, but there are some we don't get at once, just to teach us to do more than "ask."

There are three classes of Christians in the Church of God to-day. There are the asking Christians, the seeking Christians, and the knocking Christians. Many of us ask, but few seek. We just ask for something, and then run away and forget all about it. We don't expect an answer; in fact, if the answer did come, there would be no one more astonished than these asking Christians. They won't have all answer, certainly not!

Sometimes in the house my little child will be playing, and he will stop and say, "Papa, a glass of water, please." He can't get it himself, and so he asks for it. But if I am busy writing, and I see that he goes back to his play, I don't think he is very thirsty, and I don't rise to get it. Perhaps he will come two or three times, and take hold of my hand, and ask it again; but if he runs back to his play, I know he don't want it much. But by-and-by he gets thoroughly in earnest ; he throws away his toys, and comes and seizes hold of me. He must have the water now he is so thirsty. Then, of course, I go and get it, because I see that he really wants it.

Now, many are like this; they come and ask something of God, and then they go on with their business, and forget all about it. If we are to have an answer, and to get much, we must go up higher; and if the blessing don't come, we must find out the reason why. Many blame God; but the fault is at their own door. Perhaps they "regard iniquity in their heart." If so, "The Lord will not hear." Then comes the second class—the seeking Christians; well, they are

better than the first class, for they want an answer, and they keep looking for it.

But the third class, the knocking Christians, are the best of all; they will keep at it, and they will receive an answer. A good many of us have a great bunch of keys, and we lock up our best things. Now, I won't say that God keeps His best blessings under lock and key, but I know that if we want His very best and choicest gifts, we have to knock at the door for them. People say, "Why is this? Well, I don't know; but I can't help thinking if we got everything we asked for at once, God wouldn't have much of our company. He will have us in His company; and so He keeps us knocking for a time. Many say, "Why are our prayers not answered?" Now there are three reasons why our prayers do not get an answer. The first you will find in James i. 6, 7. You say, "God answers others, but not my prayers." Now read these verses, and you will find that one reason why prayer is not answered is, that you don't expect it. What are we told here? "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind, and tossed. For let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord." Many do not come expecting, and therefore they do not get. If they came to God in a firm expectation, they would not be sent away disappointed.

Did you ever hear of the woman who said she was resolved to test God? And I suppose she had in her mind that passage where it speaks of being able by faith to "move the mountains." So she prayed that God would remove a mountain near her house. Next morning she got up and looked out at the window, and there was the mountain, just in its usual place. She turned round, and said, "There, that's just what I thought." Ah, she didn't expect it! She didn't look for an answer, and, of course, she didn't have it. God warns us that a wavering mind will receive nothing; and, of course, if we do not believe that He will hear us, then He won't. God honours faith, not unbelief.

I think the little children will teach us how to pray. Many a lesson I have learned from them. That is what Christ means when He speaks of being like as a little child; they look for an answer right off, and God don't disappoint them.

A little child, whose father and mother had died, was taken into another family. The first night she asked if she could pray as she used to do. They said, "Oh, yes." So she knelt down, and prayed as her mother had taught her; and, when that was ended, she added a little prayer of her own: "Oh, God, make these people as kind to me as father and mother were." Then she paused, and looked up, as if expecting the answer, and then added, "Of course you will." How sweetly simple was that little one's faith; she expected God to "do," and, of course, she got her request. How many of us could look up to God and say, "Of course you will." If we ask God to save London in a month's time, some

say, "How can we ask such a thing?" But our God is able! What is that to Him? He could do it easier than I can turn my hand, if He will. Away with this miserable unbelief, that would limit the power of God! God help us to pluck out this miserable infidelity that is keeping back the blessing. Remember, the battle is not ours, it is God's. How that thought ought to encourage us.

Let us go to Him in prayer, and believe that IIe will not go back from His word, nor deceive us. If we ask for bread, will He give us a stone? Would that we had more faith. Let us remember that if God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? He gave us His Son unasked; for I can assure you, no one would have dared to have asked such a thing. It would have been rank presumption for any man to have asked that God should give up His Son to die for men, and to suffer the cruel death of the cross. Well, freely He gave Him; and if so, why not give us other things we ask for?

The truth is, God wants us to ask great things; let us ask them, and we will have them. But bear in mind that, if we are wavering and doubting, we won't receive the answer. Let us have strong faith, and look for the things we ask for: let us say, "Of course He will."

I remember a little child (she is a young lady now), who lived with her parents in a little village in America. One day the news came that her father had joined the army (it was at the beginning of our war), and a few days after the landlord came to demand the rent. The mother told him that she hadn't got it, and that her husband had gone to the army. He was a hard-hearted wretch, and he stormed and said that they must leave the house; he wasn't going to have people who couldn't pay the rent.

After he was gone, the mother threw herself into the arm-chair, and began to weep bitterly. Her little girl, whom she had taught to pray in faith (but it is more difficult to practise than to preach), came up to her and said, "What makes you cry, mamma? I will pray God to give us a little house, and won't He?" What could the mother say? So the little child went into the next room, and began to pray. The door was open, and the mother could hear every word. "Oh, God, you have come and taken away father, and mamma has got no money, and the landlord will turn us out because we can't pay, and we will have to sit on the door-step, and mamma will catch cold. Give us a little home." Then she waited, as if for an answer, and added, "Won't you please, God?"

She came out of that room quite happy, expecting a house to be given them. The mother felt reproved. I can tell you, however, she has never paid any rent since, for God heard the prayer of that little one, and touched the heart of the cruel landlord. God give ns the faith of that little child, that we may likewise expect an answer, "nothing wavering."

Well, now, that's the first reason why our prayers don't have answers; now the second reason we will find in James iv. 3. "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." It seems to me as if that verse throws a flood of light upon this question. A good many people are asking for temporal blessings, and because they don't have them they think that God is not true to His word. If we got all we asked for, it might soon be our ruin. We are all very anxious about temporal affairs. I know I used to pray God to make me rich, and I wondered why I had no answer. Well, I looked in the Bible, and I found that I had no warrant for asking to be made rich.

Suppose I went, like Gideon, with three hundred men, to fight a great army. Would I succeed? No, I would fail; unless, like Gideon, I had been sent; for then I would have a warrant to pray for success-and I would have it.

So about getting rich; we have no right to pray for it. God will give it if it be IIis will; but don't let us be too anxious about riches. Thousands more are ruined by prosperity than by poverty. It is when we get rich that we forget God. "Jeshuran waxed fat," and it was then that "he kicked." Look at the prodigal son. Did he go to his father when he was rich? No; it was when he was brought to poverty.

But, again, we may want riches for the purpose of satisfying our lusts. Suppose that prodigal, after he had wasted all his money on thieves, vagabonds, and harlots, had written to his father, asking more money to buy whiskey; would his father have sent it? No; he would say, "I can't give you any more money for that." Very likely the prodigal boy would say, "My father don't love me." But it's not that; it's just because his father loves him so much that he won't let him have the money. But let him come home, and see if his father don't love him.

Now, you backsliders, you are grumbling that your Father won't hear you, and you are filled with bitter thoughts against Him for it. But come home to Him, and see if He won't hear your prayers, and fill you with "the finest of the wheat." God don't hear prayers, the answering of which would injure our spiritual life.

A friend of mine told me he was one day shaving himself, when his little boy, four years of age, came into the room, and seeing the bright razor, asked to have it. "What for, my boy?" "To play with." "I cannot let you have it." "Why not, father?" Because you would cut yourself." The boy sat down on the floor, and began to cry. No doubt he thought his father didn't love him; but he loved him too well to let him have it.

It is so with many of us when we ask temporal blessings, we ask for what would injure us. It would be far better to leave all these things in our Father's hand, to give us what He sees to be for our good, and let us ask for spiritual things. Let us seek increased faith, and greater power to live and work for Him. We should ask