Essential Points In Prayer
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, JANUARY 20, 1889.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
FEBRUARY 10, 1887.
"The Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared unto
him at Gibeon. And the Lord said unto him, I have heard your prayer and
your supplication, that you have made before Me: I have hallowed this
house, which you have built, to put My name there forever. And My eyes
and My heart shall be there perpetually." 1 Kings 9:2,3.
BELOVED Friends, it was an exceedingly encouraging thing to Solomon
that the Lord should appear to him before the beginning of his great
work of building the temple. See in the third chapter of this First
Book of the Kings, at the fifth verse, "In Gibeon the Lord appeared to
Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give you."
Some of us remember how the Lord was with us at the beginning of our
life-work–when we started as young men and women newly converted, full
of zeal and earnestness–determined to do something for the Lord. How
we sought His face! With what simplicity, with what tenderness of
heart, with what dependence upon Him and diffidence as to ourselves!
We remember, as HE remembers, the love of our espousals–those early
days. I cannot forget when the Lord appeared unto me in Gibeon at the
first. Truly there are things about the lives of Christian men that
would not have been possible if God had not appeared to them at the
beginning. If He had not strengthened and tutored them and given them
wisdom beyond what they possess in themselves. If He had not inspirited
them. If He had not infused life into them, they had not done what they
have already done. It is a priceless blessing to begin with God and not
to lay a stone of the temple of our life-work till the Lord has
appeared unto us.
I do not know, however, but that it is an equal, perhaps a superior
blessing, for the Lord to appear to us after a certain work is done.
Even as in this case–"The Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as
He had appeared unto him at Gibeon." Solomon had now finished the
temple and he needed another visit from on high. There is great joy in
completing a work. And yet there is, to some minds, a great letdown,
when the once engrossing service ceases to keep the mind upon the
stretch. You run up hill and you have gained the summit–there is no
more climbing for the present– and then you almost wish that you had
to struggle again.
A work like that of Solomon lasting for seven years must have become a
delight to him–to see the house growing and to mark all the stages of
its beauty. And so it is with any special and notable work which we are
called to do early in life. We get wedded to it, we are glad to see it
grow under our hand. And when at last that particular portion of our
service is finished, we feel a kind of loss. We have grown used to the
pull upon the collar–we have almost leaned upon it and we feel a
difference when we are at the top of the hill. Personally I never feel
exhilaration at a success but a certain sinking of heart when the tug
of war was over.
We see the same in the story of God's greater servants. We note it
specially in Elijah when he had performed his mighty work on Carmel and
slain the prophets of Baal–he felt an exultation in his spirit for a
while and he ran before the chariot of the king in the joy of his soul.
But there came a reaction afterwards of a very painful kind. The case
of Solomon is not parallel. And yet I should think that it might have
been and probably was so with Solomon that he was in a condition of
special need when the temple was finished. He may have been in peril of
pride, if not of depression–in either case it was a remarkable season
and its need must have been remarkable, also–"and so the Lord appeared
unto Solomon the second time, as He had appeared unto him in Gibeon."
Brethren, we need renewed appearances, fresh manifestations, new
visitations from on High. And I commend to those of you who are getting
on in life–that while you thank God for the past and look back with
joy to His visits to you in your early days–you now seek and ask for a
second visitation of the Most High. Not that I do not think that you
have visitations from God full often and walk in the light of His
countenance. But still, though the ocean is often at flood twice every
day–yet it has its spring tides. The sun shines whether we see it or
not, right though our winter's fog, and yet it has its summer
brightness.
If we walk with God constantly, there are still seasons when He opens
to us the very secret of His heart and manifests Himself to us not only
as He does not unto the world but as He does not at all times to His
own favored ones. All days in a palace are not days of banqueting, and
all days with God are not so clear and glorious as certain special
Sabbaths of the soul in which the Lord unveils His glory. Happy are we
if we have once beheld His face. But happier still if He again comes to
us in fullness of favor.
I think that we should be seeking those second appearances–we should
be crying to God most pleadingly that He would speak to us a second
time. We do not want a re-conversion, as some assert. I hope that we do
not. If the Lord has kept us, as we should be, steadfast in His fear,
we are already possessors of what some call "the higher life." This
have many of us enjoyed from the very first hour of our spiritual life.
We do not need to be converted again. But we do wish that again, over
our heads, the windows of Heaven should be opened–that again, a
Pentecost should be given, and that we should renew our youth like the
eagles to run without weariness and walk without fainting. May the Lord
fulfill to every one of His people tonight His blessing upon Solomon!
"The Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared unto
him at Gibeon."
Now, what the Lord spoke upon in the commencement of His interview with
Solomon concerned his prayer. And as the Lord answered that prayer, and
here, in this second appearance, recapitulated the points of it, we may
be sure that there was much about that prayer which would make it a
model for us. We shall do well to pray after the manner which
successful pleaders have followed. In this case we will follow the
Lord's own description of an accepted prayer. I shall use the text to
that end briefly in two or three ways.
I. First, OUR PROPER PLACE IN PRAYER. The Lord said, "I have heard your
prayer and your supplication, that you have made before Me." There is
the place to pray–"before Me"–that is to say, before the Lord. Let us
talk a little about this matter–
"Whenever we seek HIM He is found, And everyplace is hallowed ground."
But we should take care that the place is hallowed by our prayer being
deliberately and reverently presented before God.
This place is not always found. The Pharisee went up to the temple to
pray but evidently he did not pray "before God" so that even in the
most holy courts he did not find the place desired. In his own esteem
he prayed–but in his going home to his house without
justification–there was evidence that he either had not prayed at all
or that he had not prayed before God. It is not because you pass these
portals and come into these pews that you are before God. No, and if
you were to seek the shrines which have been most eminently regarded in
the Church–if you stood by the site of Jerusalem, if you sought out
that little skull-like hill called "Calvary," and prayed there–or if
you went to Olivet and bowed your knee in Gethsemane, you might not
therefore be before God.
The nearer the Church–sometimes the farther from God. And in the very
center of it, in the midst of the assembly where prayer is likely to be
made, you may not be "before God" at all. Praying before God is a more
spiritual business than is to be performed by turning to the east or to
the west, or bowing the knee, or entering within walls hallowed for
ages. Alas, it is easy enough to pray and not to pray before God! And
it is not so easy–it is indeed a thing not to be done except by the
power of the Spirit–to "enter into that which is within the veil," and
to stand before the Mercy Seat, all blood-besprinkled, consciously and
really in the presence of the Invisible, to fulfill that precept, "You
people, pour out your hearts before Him." "Before Him" is the place for
the soul's outpouring, and blessed, are they that know it and find it!
This blessed place "before God" can be found in public prayer.
Solomon's prayer before God was offered in the midst of a great
multitude. The priests stood in their places and the Levites kept their
due order. The people were gathered together and all the armies of the
tribes of Israel stood in the streets of the holy city when Solomon
bowed his knee and
cried mightily unto his God. It is evident that he was enabled, that
day, not to pray to please the people–that they might note his
eloquent language and be gratified with the appropriate performance–he
was inspired to pray before the Lord.
Ah, Brethren, those of us who have to conduct your devotions strive
hard that we may be seen of God in secret when heard of men in public.
And I am sure that we never pray so rightly or so usefully for you as
when we only remember you in a very inferior sense but seem to be
surrounded as with a cloud, enclosed within the secret place of the
Most High, even when we stand supplicating aloud for you in the public
assembly of God's people. The same is true of each of you–it is wrong
for you, in a Prayer Meeting, to pray with a view to an individual of
importance, or with the remembrance of those present whose respect you
would like to obtain.
The Mercy Seat is no place for the exhibition of your abilities. It is
even more evil to take the opportunity of making personal remarks about
others. I have heard of oblique hints having been given in prayer. I am
sorry to say that I have even heard of remarks which have been so
directly critical and offensive that one knew what the Brother was
saying and lamented it. Such a proceeding is altogether objectionable
and irreverent. We do not pray in Prayer Meetings to correct doctrinal
errors, nor to teach a body of divinity, nor to make remarks upon the
errors of certain Brethren, nor to impeach them before the Most High.
These things should be earnest matters of supplication but not of a
sort of indirect preaching and scolding in prayer. It is conduct worthy
of the Accuser of the Brethren to turn a prayer into an opportunity of
finding fault with others. Our prayer must be "before God," or else it
is not an acceptable prayer. And if eyes and memory, and thought can be
shut to the presence of everybody else, except in that minor sense in
which we must remember them in sympathy, then it is in the Presence of
God that we truly pray. And that, I say, may be done in public, if
Divine Grace is given. For this we have need to pray, "O Lord, open my
lips. And my mouth shall show forth Your praise."
But prayer before God can just as well–perhaps more readily–be
offered in private, though I am not sure that it is not easily missed,
even there. You are in your room where you are accustomed to pray. Do
you not find yourself upon your knees repeating goodly words, while
your heart is wandering? May you not confess that often the prayer
which has been a matter of habit, has been said as much before the
walls of your room, or before the bedpost, as before God? You have not
realized His Presence–you have not spoken distinctly and directly to
Him. Although you have observed the Savior's canon and have shut the
door and nobody else has been there so that you have not prayed in the
presence of oth-ers–you have mainly prayed in your own presence and
God has to your inmost soul been far away.
It is poor work merely to talk piously to yourself. There is not much
that comes of pouring your heart into your heart, praying your soul
into your own soul–it is neither an emptying of self, nor a filling
with God–it does but stir up what had been quite as well left as dregs
at the bottom. Better far is the course prescribed in that hallowed
precept, "You people, pour out your heart before Him"–turn them bottom
upwards, let all run out before God and so let room be left for
something better and more Divine. Pouring out your soul within yourself
does not come to much.
And yet often that is about what our prayer amounts to–a
recapitulation of wants without a grasp of Divine supplies. A bemoaning
of weakness without a reception of strength. A consciousness of
nothingness but not a plunging into all-sufficiency. Brothers and
Sisters, the main point of supplication is neither to pray in the
presence of others, nor yet, first of all, in your own presence but to
present your prayer "before God."
Now, it is clear that this means that the prayer is to be directed to
God. "Well," says one, "I know that." I know you do–and yet, my
Brother, you too often forget it. Like a playful boy you get your bow
and arrows and shoot them anywhere. The way to pray is to take in hand
the aforesaid bow and arrows and–you think I am going to say–shoot
with them with all your might. But I am not in such haste. Wait a
bit–yes, draw the string and fit the arrow to it but wait, wait! Wait
till you have your eyes fixed on the target! Wait till you see
distinctly the center of the mark!
What is the use of shooting if you have not something to shoot at?
Wait, then, till you know what you are going to do. You want to strike
the white, to pierce the center of the target. Be sure, then, that you
get it well into your eye! Imitate David, who says, "In the morning
will I direct my prayer unto You and will look up." He has fixed the
arrow, drawn the bow and taken deliberate aim–now is the time for the
next act. He lets the arrow fly. How well directed! Look! He has hit
the center! He caught the mark with his eyes, and therefore, he has
struck it with his arrow.
Oh to pray with a distinct object! Indefinite praying is a waste of
breath. It will never do to begin praying because the time has come for
it. We must think, "I am about to ask of God what I want–I am to speak
to the great King of
kings, from whom all Divine Grace must come–it is to Him that my
prayer must be directed. What, then, shall I ask at His hands?" Does
anybody here suppose that the repeating of certain words out of a book,
or of his own making, has any virtue in it? Some seem, by their
frequent repetitions of that blessed model of prayer, the Lord's
Prayer, to think that there is a magical charm in that sacred
arrangement of words.
But I tell you solemnly–you might as well repeat that perfect prayer
backwards as forwards, if your heart is not in it. If your very heart
is not in it and if your soul is not looking Godward, you profane your
Lord's Words and are guilty of all the greater sin because of their
excellence. Make not praying a piece of witchcraft and your
supplications an imitation of the abracadabra of the wizard! That is
vain superstition and not acceptable supplication. Pray distinctly with
all your wits about you to your God. Speak to Him.
And hence it becomes needful that we should endeavor in prayer to
realize the Presence of God. It shall be well to put it this way–you
have prayed well if you have spoken to God as a man speaks to his
friend. If you are as sure that God is there as that you are there, and
perhaps somewhat more sure. If you are in Him and He in you and if you
talk to Him as to one whom you cannot see, but whom you can perceive
better than by sight, you have prayed well. If you speak to Him as to
one whom you cannot feel with your hands but can feel with all your
nature–with something better than fingers and hands–perceiving that
He is, and knowing that He is hearing you and will reward your diligent
seeking–that is praying before God.
That is pleading before a living God, with One who feels and will be
moved by what you feel, to One who speaks and will hearken to what you
speak. You are to commune with One who is not like your fellow men, who
may let you plead and remain like a block, unmoved by your pathetic
requests. But to a living God, a tender God, sensitive to all the
sensations of your soul. Oh, to come before the living and acting God!
Not before a God lame and impotent. Nor before the new God, who is
impersonal and dead ,but before the true God–God in Christ Jesus!
If we did but realize who He is to whom we speak–God, very near to us
in the person of the Only Begotten, who has taken our nature upon
Himself–what praying ours would be! And that is the right sort of
praying. Oh, that the God of Truth may be able, in speaking to each of
us, to speak concerning, "Your prayer and your supplication which you
have prayed before Me"! Lord, help us to pass through the outer courts
and to enter into Your inner court and speak with You! Lord, deliver us
from staying in the words but bring us into the spirit of prayer–bring
us near Yourself.
If there are any here that have never prayed, let their prayer at this
time be to One who is close to them, ready to hear them. Do not ask,
"What shall I say?" Say to God what you wish to say. What is your
desire tonight? Would you be saved? Beg Him to save you. Would you be
forgiven? Ask forgiveness. "The words," you say, "tell me the words."
No, you need no words. If you have none, look, just look to Him. Let
your heart think out its desires. There is music without words–and
there is prayer without words. The soul of prayer is being before God
and desiring before God–who hears without sounds and understands
without expressions.
Open your heart–look to Him. And ask Him to read what you cannot read.
Beg Him of His great mercy to give you not according to your own sense
of your requirements but according to the riches of His mercy in Christ
Jesus. You are praying before God when you have realized His Presence.
The Lord does not require from you that you should express yourself in
words. He reads what is there with an omniscient glance–what is
written on your heart. To know that He does so, and to plead in that
spirit is prayer before God. May He by His Grace give each of us this
privilege today.
II. I will change the run of our thought for a little while to notice,
with much earnestness, OUR GREAT DESIRE IN PRAYER. It is that which God
said that He had given to Solomon. "I have heard your prayer and your
supplication."
I have often had occasion to remark that the wise men of modern times
whose principal characteristic is that they think so much of themselves
and so very little of anybody else, tell us that prayer is an excellent
exercise, good and comforting and useful. But they say that we are not
to suppose that it has any effect upon God whatever. We enquire of
them, "Would you have us go on praying after the information you have
given?" "Oh, yes," they say, "Oh yes, of course. It is a pious
exercise, a proper and edifying thing. Go on praying but do not think
that God hears."
Brothers and Sisters, it is evident that they think us idiots.
Evidently they consider praying men to be born fools. If it is certain
that prayer has no effect upon God, my Brothers and Sisters, I would
just as soon whistle when I rise in the morning as pray. And I would as
soon close my eyes at night in dumb silence as run over a set of
ineffectual words. There
could be no good in prayer if it should be proved that it never went
beyond the room in which it was uttered. When it ceases to be accepted
by the Lord and honored by His response, we shall abandon it.
If there is neither hearing, nor answering, we shall have reduced
ourselves to the level of the worshippers of Baal. And we have not come
to that, yet. We are obliged to you wise men for your compliments. But
we shall not follow your absurd advice! Your pretty praises of our
devotion as a pleasing and instructive exercise are quite lost upon us,
since they involve a covert insult. You may take back your compliments,
if you please. For our opinion of your wisdom is almost equal to your
opinion of ours.
But, Brethren, what we desire in prayer is really to be heard. If I
pray, I pray not to the winds, nor to the waves–but to God. And if He
does not hear me, I have lost my breath. The first thing the soul
desires in prayer is an audience with God. If the Lord does not hear
us, we have gained nothing. And what an honor it is, if you come to
think of it, to have audience with God! The frail, feeble, undeserving
creature is permitted to stand in the august Presence of the God of the
whole earth and the Lord regards that poor creature as if there were
nothing else for Him to observe and bends His ear and His heart to
listen to that creature's cry! It is necessary to a living prayer to
feel that we are speaking to God and that God is hearing us.
You notice, that generally in the Psalms David says very little about
God's answering. But he always speaks about God's hearing and he asks
that He would hear. That He should deign to hear us is quite
enough–quite enough from such a God as He is. If I can get my petition
placed in His hands I am fully satisfied. If I can pour my desires into
His ears and He has once observed them, all further fear is removed.
Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things and you
may rest perfectly content. For in coming into His Presence, you have
done according to His command and therefore His promise holds good to
you. The first thing wanted, then, is that the Lord should hear us.
But we want more than that–we want that He should accept. It were a
painful thing to be permitted to speak to a great friend and then for
him to stand austere and stern and say, "I have heard what you have to
say. Go your way." We ask not this of God. We beg Him kindly and
graciously to accept our poor confessions, petitions, supplications and
adorations. And if He does but look and smile–if He does but say one
word into our soul which implies, "I have accepted your prayer"–what a
joy it is! To have brought an offering which the Lord has
accepted–this is the sweetness and delight of supplication!
Still, there is a third thing which we want, which God gave to Solomon
and that was an answer. He asked the Lord to hallow the house and the
Lord did hallow the house. And as to you and me in prayer, while there
are some things which we must always pray for with a great deal of
diffidence, evermore saying emphatically, "Not as I will but as You
will"–yet are there certain other gifts which we are encouraged to
pray for with importunity, being resolved to have them. Those are
spiritual blessings, Covenant blessings, distinctly promised and
evidently necessary–these we may ask for without any question, using a
sacred importunity and refusing to let the angel go unless he blesses
us.
On matters promised by God in His Word we may come again and
again–knocking at the Lord's door until He awakes and gives us the
loaves that we seek for our hungry and fainting friend. Oh for more
holy boldness! Oh for more assured confidence! We have need to believe
that we have the petitions that we ask of Him. We must ask in faith,
nothing wavering, or we may not expect to receive anything of the Lord.
Oh, yes, we long to be heard and answered. And we cannot be satisfied
to pray unless we perceive that prayer is effective in the courts
above. That is our desire in prayer.
III. This makes me mention, thirdly, OUR ASSURANCE or ANSWER TO PRAYER.
Can we have an assurance that God has heard and answered prayer?
Solomon had it. The Lord said unto him, "I have heard your prayer and
your supplication, that you have made before Me." Does the Lord ever
say that to us? I think so. Let us consider how He does so.
I think that He says it to us very often in our usual faith. I hope
that I speak for many of you when I say that we constantly pray
believingly. It is habitual with me to expect God to answer me. I go to
Him very simply and ask for what I want. And if I did not have that
which I humbly sought for, I should be greatly surprised. When I do get
it, I reckon it as a matter of course–for the Lord has promised to
answer prayer and it is certain that He will keep His promise. I am
speaking now about the daily mercies and the daily trials and the
ordinary events of life–in these matters God is sure to answer prayer.
And our faith, in its ordinary operation, is, to our hearts, the voice
of God, saying, "I have heard your prayer and your supplication."
But sometimes you require strong confidence. You have to solicit some
extraordinary blessing. You get to a place like that to which Jacob
came when common prayer was not sufficient. When Esau was coming to
meet him with an armed force, he must have a night's prayer–he must
gather up all his courage at Jabbok. He must wrestle with the angel and
win the Divine blessing. At such times, it is a stronger faith than
usual, brought into exercise, by necessity, which assures the soul of
the blessing. "According to your faith be it unto you." If we can trust
God–for that is the thing–we shall have the thing we seek.
Faith is not saying, "I know that I have it," when you really have it
not. That would be telling yourself a lie. Here is a man who says,
"Believe that you are sanctified and you are in a moment sanctified."
But you are not. You may believe a lie in believing that and be,
perhaps, less sanctified than you were before you believed it–and ten
times more proud– and thus far more under the influence of Satan. To
believe in God that He will sanctify me and that He is sanctifying me,
is a very different thing from believing that I am already sanctified.
I believe that God will supply my needs but I do not believe that I
have got the Bank of England in my pocket. If I did believe it, I
should not find it there when I put my hand to feel for it.
Faith is not believing fanatically but believing the Truths of God.
There is a wonderful difference between believing what your fancy says
and believing what God has distinctly promised. Faith and fancy are two
very different things. God keep us from the falsehood of folly and lead
us into the Truth of God! I will believe anything, however monstrous it
may appear, if God says it. I will believe nothing, however desirable,
merely because my own fancy imagines it–or because your heated brain
suggests it. Strong faith often brings with it a conviction within the
soul which nothing can shake. A conviction most sure, and yet most
reasonable, since it is inspired by the Spirit of God who bears witness
only to the truth and not to dreams. To the man's inner consciousness
it is as though he heard the voice of God, saying, "I have heard your
prayer and your supplication."
Sometimes this comes in the form of a comfortable persuasion. Have you
ever known what it is to leave off prayer when you are in the middle of
it and say, "I am heard–I am heard"? Have you not felt that you needed
not to cry any longer, for you had gained your suit and must begin to
praise, rather than continue to pray? When a man goes to a bank with a
check and he gets the money, he does not stand loafing about the
counter–he goes off about his business. And oftentimes before God, he
that is prepared to be a long time in prayer if it should be necessary,
feels that he must be brief in petition and long in thanksgiving. He
rises from his knees with the persuasion, "I need not ask any more–I
am heard."
And he goes about his business, to do something more needful and
seasonable than praying. For it is always better to serve God in a
pressing practical duty than it is to continue to pray when prayer has
no longer any reasonableness in it, seeing that you are already heard.
If God has given you the blessing, why ask for it any further? "The
Lord says to Moses, Why do you cry unto Me? Speak unto the children of
Israel, that they go forward." And that going forward was a better
thing than praying, now that praying had had its day. So there comes a
comfortable assurance at times that it is even so, and you must go on
your way rejoicing. This inward persuasion is no fanatical imagining,
nor excitement of the brain– but a work of the Holy Spirit–which none
can imitate and only the receiver can understand.
The Lord also gives to His people a manifest preparation for the
blessing. He prepares them to receive it. Their expectation is raised
so that they begin to look out for the blessing and make room for it.
And when it is so, you may be sure that it is coming. God never brought
you to a well and put a bucket and rope in your way without intending
to fill that bucket when you let it down. When the thirsty soil has
opened all its mouths to drink in the rain of Heaven, that rain always
comes. When the ears of wheat are ready for the sun to ripen them, the
heat of harvest is near. When a man of God so looks for the wind of the
Spirit that he spreads the sails of hope, the breeze is sure to blow.
Brothers and Sisters, it is want of preparation in you that hinders the
blessing. "He did not many mighty works there because of their
unbelief." "You are not straitened in us but you are straitened in your
own heart." But when the Lord has given you an evident preparation for
the blessing, the blessing is already on the way, the shadow of it is
resting upon you. In that preparation the Lord virtually says–"I have
heard your prayer and your supplication."
Actual observation also breeds in us a solid confidence that our suit
is succeeding. Sometimes God gives us an assurance that He has heard
our prayer when He makes us look back and observe the past. How He has
answered us! He changes not. He hears us still. O Sirs, I have no
patience with those who say that God does not hear prayer–for my daily
experience proves them wrong. I would not lie even under the notion of
honoring God. But I will speak what I know. Throughout life it has been
my habit to wait upon God about many things and especially about
extraordinary necessities which have arisen out of the demands of the
great institutions committed to me.
I shall not stay to tell the stories of the Lord's supplies in answer
to prayer. Some of you know them in a measure. But in very truth the
Lord has heard my prayers as distinctly as if He had rent the heavens
and put out His right hand filled with good. Many of you could bear
similar witness, could you not? The fact that the Lord has heard us in
the past speaks in our souls and fills us with the assurance that He
will hear us again. Memory emphasizes the voice of the Lord, which
says, "I have heard your prayer. I have heard your supplication,
therefore trust Me with all your heart. Have I not always heard your
prayer? When did I refuse you?
"My Beloved One, when did I reject you? Have I not always hearkened to
you? In the hour of your distress, have I not delivered you? In the
times of your need, have I not supplied you? I have heard your prayer.
Go in peace. Weep no more. Let not your soul be troubled. All is well,
for I am on the Throne of Grace and My face is towards you."
IV. Now I have come to the end of what I have to say, with this one
sole exception. Let me speak of OUR SPECIAL APPLICATION OF PRAYER. In
the case of Solomon, prayer turned in one direction and in that
direction I want to turn now. You learn what Solomon's prayer was when
you hear how God fulfilled it. God said to him, "I have hallowed this
house which you have built and put My name there forever and My eyes
and My heart shall be there perpetually."
Last night the members of this Church met in their annual Church
Meeting* and we had great joy and thankfulness for all the mercy which
God has made to pass before us. I have just completed thirty-three
years of ministry here–a third of a century–with unbroken blessing.
We can say that all these years have passed with no division and no
strife among us–with nothing but perpetual benedictions from the Lord
God of our salvation. Blessed be His name!
Our prayer is again that the Lord Himself would hallow this house which
we have built. We ask this in no superstitious way. Bricks and mortar
and iron and stone are nothing to us. The qualities of holiness do not
adhere to material substances but to hearts and to souls and acts. Yet
we ask our Lord to hallow this Tabernacle with His Presence still more
and more. If that were gone, Ichabod would be our bitter cry! The glory
would indeed have departed. We want our Lord to hallow it by His
favorable regard that when we worship He will accept our worship and
hear our prayers and our praises.
We want Him to hallow it by His working among us in many more
conversions. It was a joyous time to me when I saw the enquirer come
who was number ten thousand–that is long ago and we have reached a far
higher number now– but all is the work of our gracious God. We shall
never bring in another true convert unless we have God's Presence! O
Lord Jesus, we would constrain You saying, "Abide with us." The Lord
bless His people in this House of Prayer in the breaking of bread, in
the ordinance of Baptism, in the proclamation of the Gospel and in all
their gatherings together.
O Lord, we pray You hallow this house. We pray it from our inmost
souls. We that have found our services to be hallowed to You in days
that are past, cannot bear the idea of failure and famine in the
future. May the Lord say to us tonight, "I have hallowed this house
which you have built."
We want that He should hallow it, next, in this way–"to put My name
there forever." "Forever." As long as there shall be any such house, or
need of such a house, may His name be here. My venerable predecessor,
Dr. Rippon, whom I never saw, I have been informed was likely to pray
for a certain successor of his whom he seemed always to have in his
mind's thoughts. He frequently prayed for the man whom the Lord would
send among the people of his care after his own decease. In a letter
that I have seen, which he wrote to a friend, I cannot but somehow see
myself.
As in the glimmer of the firelight he saw the person who would follow
him and carry on his work. After sixty years of service in this Church,
as the old man grew older, he used to be praying about this successor
more and more. I think that I may begin to pray after his example, that
as long as there shall be the need for a House of God, the name of God
may be honored in this Tabernacle and may faithful men proclaim His
salvation in the power of the Holy Spirit. Shall there stand here one
day a man that denies the Deity of my Lord? God forbid! ["Amen."]
Shall there be found here one that shall preach modern thought and give
up the old, old Gospel? God forbid! ["Amen."] Let the house be wrapped
in flames and every ash be blown away by the winds sooner than any
shall preach from this pulpit any other Gospel than that you have
received. ["Amen." "Amen."] I thank you for those loud Amens. May God
Himself say, Amen. May the name of our Covenant God be set here forever
and no other name.
And then, Solomon prayed also and God heard him, that the eyes of the
Lord might be there. That was Solomon's prayer and God greatly improved
upon it, for He said that His eyes and His heart should be there
perpetually. Thus the Lord hears our prayers in a better sense than
that in which we offer them. We pray that His eyes may be upon us, and
He adds, "It shall be so and with My eyes, My heart also shall be
there." Oh, that the eyes of the Lord might be upon this house and upon
this Church, to watch over it, to keep it from all harm!
But may His heart also be with us to fill us with His Divine life and
love and to make us know His inner self! Oh for the love of God to be
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit! May we know that God's
feelings of affection and delight are towards us! This shall be our joy
unspeakable.
Now, Brothers and Sisters who happen to be worshipping with us on this
occasion but are not members with us, I entreat you kindly to pray for
this house and this Church. I would, in return, pray for your place of
worship and for the Church to which you belong. You will, however,
readily forgive us if we think, just now, after our thirty-three years
of this particular Church and its interests. We must praise the Lord
for all His mercy towards us. Grace personally received must be
personally acknowledged. You see, we are at home and we must think of
our own home. I can truly sing–
"Here my best friends, my kindred dwell, Here God my Savior reigns."
"I dwell among my own people," said the Shunammite. And there is no joy
like it for a Christian minister and a Christian Church member–to feel
that he dwells among his own people and is happy with them. To be
driven from Church to Church, as some are, is a wretched business. To
be like others, changing their views as often as the moon– happy
nowhere, miserable everywhere, agreeing with nobody, not even with
themselves–is a poor business. Persons of that kind, I hope, will not
join this Church just yet, or, if they do, may the Lord convert them as
they come in.
As for us, we love each other and our united prayer is that the eyes
and the heart of God may be with us and all His people perpetually. The
Lord bless you, dear Friends, for Christ's sake! Amen.