Brief, Silent Prayer

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 9, 1877,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"So I prayed to the God of Heaven." Nehemiah 2:4.

Nehemiah had made inquiry as to the state of the city of Jerusalem and
the tidings he heard caused him bitter grief. "Why should not my
countenance be sad," he said, "when the city, the place of my fathers'
sepulchers, lies waste and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?"
He could not endure that it should be a mere ruinous heap–that city
which was once beautiful and the joy of the whole earth! Laying the
matter to heart, he did not begin to speak to other people about what
they would do, nor did he draw up a wonderful scheme about what might
be done if so many thousand people joined in the enterprise.

No, it occurred to him that he should do something himself. This is
just the way that practical men start a matter. The unpractical will
plan, arrange and speculate about what may be done, but the genuine,
thorough-going lover of Zion puts this question to himself–"What can
you do? Nehemiah, what can you, yourself, do? Come, it has to be done,
and you are the man that is to do it–at least, to do your share. What
can you do?" Coming so far, he resolved to set apart a time for prayer.
It never left his thoughts for nearly four months! Day and night
Jerusalem seemed written on his heart, as if the name was painted on
his eyeballs. He could only see Jerusalem. When he slept he dreamed
about Jerusalem. When he woke, the first thought was, "Poor Jerusalem!"
and before he fell asleep again his evening prayer was for the ruined
walls of Jerusalem.

The man of one thing, you know, is a terrible man–and when one single
passion has absorbed the whole of his manhood, something will be sure
to come of it. Depend upon that. The desire of his heart will develop
into some open demonstration, especially if he talks the matter over
with God in prayer. Something did come of this. Before long Nehemiah
had an opportunity. Men of God, if you want to serve God and cannot
find the propitious occasion, wait awhile in prayer and your
opportunity will break on your path like a sunbeam! There was never a
true and valiant heart that failed to find a fitting sphere somewhere
or other in God's service. Every diligent laborer is needed in some
part of His vineyard. You may have to linger. You may seem as if you
stood in the market idle because your Master would not engage you, but
wait there in prayer–and with your heart boiling over with a warm
purpose–your chance will come.

The hour will need its man and if you are ready, you, as a man, shall
not be without your hour. God sent Nehemiah an opportunity. That
opportunity came, 'tis true, in a way which he could not have expected.
It came through his own sadness of heart. This matter preyed upon his
mind till he began to look exceedingly unhappy. I cannot tell whether
others noticed it, but the king whom he served, when he went into court
with the royal goblet, noticed the distress on the cupbearer's
countenance and said to him, "Why is your countenance sad, seeing you
are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart."

Nehemiah little knew that his prayer was making the occasion for him.
The prayer was registering itself upon his face. His fasting was making
its marks upon his visage and, though he did not know it, he was, in
that way, preparing the opportunity for himself when he went in before
the king. But you see, when the opportunity did come, there was trouble
with it, for he says, "I was very sore afraid." You want to serve God,
young man. You want to be at work. Perhaps you do not know what that
work involves. It is not all pleasure. You are longing for the battle,
young soldier–you have not smelled powder, yet, and when you have been
in a battle and have had a few cuts, or a bullet or two have pierced
you– you may not feel quite so eager for the fray!

Yet the courageous man sets those things aside and is ready to serve
his country or his sovereign. And so the courageous Christian puts all
difficulty aside and he is ready to serve his comrades and his God,
cost what it may! What if I should be sore afraid? Yet so let it be, my
God, if thus there shall be an opportunity to seek and to secure the
welfare of

Jerusalem for Your servant who longs to promote it with all his heart.
Thus have we traced Nehemiah up to the particular point where our text
concerns him. The king, Artaxerxes, having asked him why he was sad, he
had an opportunity of telling him that the city of his fathers was a
ruin. Thereupon the king asks him what he really wishes. By the manner
of the question he would seem to imply an assurance that he means to
help Nehemiah.

And here we are somewhat surprised to find that instead of promptly
answering the king–the answer is not given immediately–an incident
occurs, a fact is related. Though he was a man who had lately given
himself up to prayer and fasting, this little parenthesis occurs–"So I
prayed to the God of Heaven." My preamble leads up to this parenthesis.
Upon this prayer I propose to preach. The fact that Nehemiah prayed
challenges attention! He had been asked a question by his sovereign.
The proper thing, you would suppose, was to answer it. Not so. Before
he answered, he prayed to the God of Heaven. I do not suppose the king
noticed the pause. Probably the interval was not long enough to be
noticed, but it was long enough for God to notice it–long enough for
Nehemiah to have sought and have obtained guidance from God as to how
to frame his answer to the king.

Are you not surprised to find a man of God having time to pray to God
between a question and an answer? Yet Nehemiah found that time. We are
the more astonished at his praying because he was so evidently
perturbed in mind, for, according to the second verse, he was very
afraid. When you are fluttered and put out, you may forget to pray. Do
you not, some of you, account it a valid excuse for omitting your
ordinary devotion? At least, if anyone had said to you, "You did not
pray when you were about that business," you would have replied, "How
could I? There was a question that I was obliged to answer. I dared not
hesitate. It was a king that asked it. I was in a state of confusion. I
really was so distressed and terrified that I was not master of my own
emotions. I hardly knew what I did. If I did not pray, surely the
omission may be overlooked. I was in a state of wild alarm."

Nehemiah, however, felt that if he was alarmed, it was a reason for
praying, not for forgetting to pray! So habitually was he in communion
with God, that as soon as he found himself in a dilemma, he flew away
to God, just as the dove would fly to hide herself in the clefts of the
rock. His prayer was the more remarkable on this occasion because he
must have felt very eager about his objective. The king asks him what
it is he needs and his whole heart is set upon building up Jerusalem.
Are you not surprised that he did not at once say, "O king, live
forever! I long to build up Jerusalem's walls. Give me all the help you
can"? But no, eager as he was to pounce upon the desired objective, he
withdraws his hand until it is said, "So I prayed to the God of
Heaven."

I confess I admire him! I desire, also, to imitate him. I would that
every Christian's heart might have just that holy caution that did not
permit him to make such haste as to find ill-speed. "Prayer and
provender hinder no man's journey." Certainly, when the desire of our
heart is close before us, we are anxious to seize it. But we shall be
all the surer of getting the bird we spy in the bush to be a bird we
grasp in the hand if we quietly pause, lift up our heart and pray the
God of Heaven! It is all the more surprising that he should have
deliberately prayed just then because he had been already praying for
the past three or four months concerning the same matter. Some of us
would have said, "That is the thing I have been praying for–now all I
have to do is to take it and use it! Why pray any more? After all, my
midnight tears and daily cries, and setting myself apart by fasting to
cry unto the God of Heaven–after such an anxious conference, surely,
at last, the answer has come! What is to be done but to take the good
that God provides me and rejoice in it?"

But no, you will always find that the man who has prayed much is the
man who prays more. "For unto everyone that has, shall be given, and he
shall have abundance." If you do but know the sweet art of prayer, you
are the man that will be often engaged in it. If you are familiar with
the Mercy Seat, you will constantly visit it–

"For who that knows the power of prayer But wishes to be often there?"

Although Nehemiah had been praying all this while, he nevertheless must
offer another petition. "So I prayed to the God of Heaven." One thing
more is worth remembering, namely that he was in a king's palace and in
the palace of a heathen king, too–and he was in the very act of
handing up to the king a goblet of wine. He was fulfilling his part in
the state festival, I doubt not, among the glare of lamps and the
glitter of gold and silver. He was in the midst of princes and peers of
the realm. Or even if it were a private festival with the king and
queen only, yet still men generally feel so impressed on such occasions
with the responsibility of their high position that they are apt to
forget prayer.

But this devout Israelite, at such a time and in such a place, when he
stands at the king's foot to hold up to him the golden goblet, refrains
from answering the king's question until first he has prayed to the God
of Heaven! There are the facts and I think that seems to prompt further
inquiry. So we pass on to observe the manner of this prayer. Well, very
briefly, it was what we call a brief prayer–prayer which, as it were,
hurls a dart and then it is done. It was not the prayer which stands
knocking at Mercy's door–knock, knock, knock–but it was the
concentration of many knocks into one. It was begun and completed, as
it were, with one stroke! This brief prayer I desire to commend to you
as among the very best forms of prayer.

Notice how very short it must have been. It was introduced–slipped
in–sandwiched in between the king's question and Nehemiah's answer.
And, as I have already said, I do not suppose it took up any time at
all that was appreciable– scarcely a second. Most likely the king
never observed any kind of pause or hesitation, for Nehemiah was in
such a state of alarm at the question that I am persuaded he did not
allow any demur or vacillation to appear. The prayer must have been
offered like an electric flash, very rapidly, indeed! In certain states
of strong excitement it is wonderful how much the mind gets through in
a short time. You may, perhaps, have dreamed and your dream occupied,
to your idea, an hour or two at the very least. Yet it is probably–no,
I think certain–that all dreaming is done at the moment you awake. You
never dreamed at all when you were asleep–it was just in that instant
when you awoke that the whole of it went through your mind.

As drowning men, when rescued and recovered, have been heard to say
that while they were sinking they say the whole panorama of their lives
pass before them in a few seconds, so the mind must be capable of
accomplishing much in a brief space of time. Thus the prayer was
presented like the blinking of an eye–it was done intuitively, yet it
was done– and it proved to be a prayer that prevailed with God. We
know, also, that it must have been a silent prayer and not merely
silent as to sounds but silent as to any outward signs–perfectly
secret. Artaxerxes never knew that Nehemiah prayed, though he stood,
probably, within a yard of him. He did not even move his lips as Hannah
did, nor did he deem it right, even, to close his eyes. The prayer was
strictly within himself offered to God.

As in the innermost shrine of the Temple–in the Holy of Holies of his
own secret soul–there did he pray. Short and silent was the prayer. It
was a prayer on the spot. He did not go to his chamber, as Daniel did,
and open the window. Daniel was right, but this was a different
occasion. Nehemiah could not have been permitted to retire from the
palace just then. He did not even turn his face to the wall or seek a
corner of the apartment. No, but then and there, with the cup in his
hand, he prayed unto the God of Heaven–and then answered the question
of the king. I have no doubt from the very wording of the text that it
was a very intense and direct prayer. He says, "So I prayed to the God
of Heaven." That was Nehemiah's favorite name of God–the God of
Heaven.

He knew to whom he was praying. He did not draw a bow at a venture and
shoot his prayers anyway, but he prayed to the God of Heaven–a right
straight prayer to God for the thing he needed–and his prayer sped,
though it occupied less, perhaps, than a second of time. It was a
prayer of a remarkable kind. I know it was so, because Nehemiah never
forgot that he prayed it. I have prayed hundreds of times–thousands of
times–and not remembered any particulars, afterwards, either as to the
occasion that prompted or the emotions that excited me. But there are
one or two prayers in my life that I can never forget. I have not
jotted them down in a diary, but I remember when I prayed, because the
time was so special and the prayer was so intense–and the answer to it
was so remarkable!

Now, Nehemiah's prayer was never, never erased from his memory. And
when these words of history were written down he wrote that down. "So I
prayed to the God of Heaven"–a little bit of a prayer pushed in
edgeways between a question and an answer–a mere fragment of devotion,
as it seemed, and yet so important that it is put down in a historical
document as a part of the history of the restitution and rebuilding of
the city of Jerusalem! And it was a link in the circumstances which led
up to that event of the most important character. Nehemiah felt it to
be so and, therefore, he notes the record–"So I prayed to the God of
Heaven."

Now, Beloved Friends, I come, in the third place, to recommend to you
this excellent style of praying. I shall speak mainly to the children
of God–to you that have faith in God. I beg you often, no, I would ask
you always to use this method of brief, silent prayer. And I would to
God, also, that some here who have never prayed before would offer a
brief, silent prayer to the God of Heaven before they leave this
house–that a short but fervent petition, something like that of the
publican in the temple, might go up from you–"God be merciful to me, a
sinner."

To deal with this matter practically, then, it is the duty and
privilege of every Christian to have set times of prayer. I cannot
understand a man's keeping up the vitality of godliness unless he
regularly retires for prayer, morning and evening at the very least.
Daniel prayed three times a day and David says, "Seven times a day will
I praise You." It is good for your hearts, good for your memory, good
for your moral consistency that you should hedge about certain portions
of time and say, "These belong to God. I shall do business with God at
such-and-such a time and try to be as punctual to my hours with Him as
I should be if I made an engagement to meet a friend."

When Sir Thomas Abney was Lord Mayor of London, the banquet somewhat
troubled him, for Sir Thomas always had prayer with his family at a
certain time. The difficulty was how to leave the banquet to keep up
family devotion. But so important did he consider it that he vacated
his chair, saying to a person near that he had a special engagement
with a dear Friend which he must keep. And he did keep it and returned,
again, to his place, none of the company being the wiser, but he
himself being all the better for observing his habit of worship!

But now, having urged the importance of such habitual piety, I want to
impress on you the value of another sort of prayer–namely, the short,
brief, quick, frequent prayers of which Nehemiah gives us a specimen.
And I recommend this because it hinders no engagement and occupies no
time. You may be measuring off your calicoes, or weighing your
groceries, or you may be casting up an account and between the items
you may say, "Lord, help me." You may breathe a prayer to Heaven and
say, "Lord, keep me." It will take no time. It is one great advantage
to persons who are hard pressed in business that such prayers as these
will not, in the slightest degree, incapacitate them from attending to
the business they may have in hand!

It requires you to go to no particular place. You can stand where you
are, ride in a cab, walk along the streets, be the bottom sawyer in a
saw pit, or the top one and yet pray just as well such prayers as
these. No altar, no Church, no so-called sacred place is needed!
Wherever you are, just a little prayer as that will reach the ear of
God and win a blessing. Such a prayer as that can be offered anywhere,
under any circumstances. I do not know in what condition a man could be
in which he might not offer some such prayer as that. On the land, or
on the sea, in sickness or in health, amidst losses or gains, great
reverses or good returns, still might he breathe his soul in short,
quick sentences to God! The advantage of such a way of praying is that
you can pray often and pray always. If you must prolong your prayer for
a quarter of an hour you might possibly be unable to spare the time,
but if it only needs a quarter of a minute, why, then, it may come
again and again and again and again–a hundred times a day!

The habit of prayer is blessed, but the spirit of prayer is better. And
the spirit of prayer it is which is the mother of these brief, silent
prayers and, therefore, do I like them because she is a plentiful
mother. Many times in a day may we speak with the Lord our God. Such
prayer may be suggested by all sorts of surroundings. I remember a poor
man once paying me a compliment which I highly valued at the time. He
was lying in a hospital and when I called to see him he said, "I heard
you for some years, and now whatever I look at seems to remind me of
something or other that you said, and it comes back to me as fresh as
when I first heard it." Well, now, he that knows how to pray brief
prayers will find everything about him helping him to the sacred habit!
Is it a beautiful landscape? Say, "Blessed be God who has strewn these
treasures of form and color through the world, to cheer the sight and
gladden the heart."

Are you in doleful darkness and is it a foggy day? Say, "Lighten my
darkness, O Lord." Are you in the midst of company? You will be
reminded to pray, "Lord, keep the door of my lips." Are you quite
alone? Then you can say, "Let me not be alone, but be You with me,
Father." The putting on of your clothes, the sitting at the breakfast
table, the getting into the conveyance, the walking the streets, the
opening of your ledger, the putting up of your shutters– everything
may suggest such prayer as that which I am trying to describe if you
are but in the right frame of mind for offering it.

These prayers are commendable because they are truly spiritual. Wordy
prayers may, also, be windy prayers! There is much of praying by book
that has nothing whatever to recommend it. Pray with your heart, not
with your hands. Or, if you would lift hands in prayer, let them be
your own hands, not another man's. The prayers that come leaping out of
the soul–the gust of strong emotion, fervent desire, lively
faith–these are the truly spiritual prayers and no prayers but
spiritual prayers will God accept. This kind of prayer is free from any
suspicion that it is prompted by the corrupt motive of being offered to
please men. They cannot say that the secret prayers of our soul are
presented with any view to our own

praise, for no man knows that we are praying at all! Therefore do I
commend such prayers to you and hope that you may abound in them.

There have been hypocrites that have prayed by the hour. I doubt not
there are hypocrites as regular at their devotions as the angels are
before the Throne of God–and yet there is no life, no spirit, no
acceptance in their pretentious homage! But he that prays brief
prayers–whose heart talks with God–he is no hypocrite! There is a
reality, force and life about his prayers. Brief, silent prayers are of
great use to us. Oftentimes they check us. Bad-tempered people, if you
were always to pray just a little before you let angry expressions fly
from your lips, why many times you would not say those naughty words at
all! They advised a good woman to take a glass of water and hold some
of it in her mouth five minutes before she scolded her husband. I dare
say it was not a bad recipe, but if, instead of practicing that little
eccentricity, she would just breathe a short prayer to God it would
certainly be more effectual and far more Scriptural.

I can recommend it as a valuable prescription for the hasty and the
peevish–for all who are quick to take offense and slow to forgive
insult or injury. When in business you are about to close in with an
offer about the propriety of which you have a little doubt, or a
positive scruple, such a prayer as, "Guide me, good Lord" would often
keep you back from doing what you will afterwards regret. The habit of
offering these brief prayers would, also, check your confidence in
yourself. It would show your dependence upon God. It would keep you
from getting worldly. It would be like sweet perfume burnt in the
chamber of your soul to keep away the fever of the world from your
heart.

Besides, this type of prayers actually bring us blessings from Heaven.
Brief prayers, as in the case of Eliezer, the servant of Abraham. As in
the case of Jacob when he said, even in dying, "I have waited for Your
salvation, O God"– prayers such as Moses offered when we do not read
that he prayed at all and yet God said to him, "Why cry you unto Me?"
And brief prayers such as David frequently presented–these were all
successful with the Most High. Therefore abound in them, for God loves
to encourage and to answer them! I might thus keep on recommending
brief prayer, but I will say only one more thing in its favor.

I believe it is very suitable to some persons of a peculiar temperament
who could not pray for a long time to save their lives. Their minds are
rapid and quick. Well, time is not an element in the business–God does
not hear us because of the length of our prayer–but because of the
sincerity of it. Prayer is not to be measured by the yard, nor weighed
by the pound. It is the might and force of it–the truth and reality of
it–the energy and the intensity of it. You that are either of so
little a mind or of so quick a mind that you cannot use many words or
continue long to think of one thing, it should be to your comfort that
brief prayers are acceptable.

And it may be, dear Friend, that you are in a condition of body in
which you cannot pray any other way. A headache such as some people are
frequently affected with the major part of their lives–a state of body
which only the physician can explain to you–might prevent the mind
from concentrating itself long upon one subject. Then it is refreshing
to be able again and again and again–50 or a hundred times a day–to
address one's self to God in short, quick sentences, the soul being all
on fire. This is a blessed style of praying!

Now, I conclude by mentioning a few of the times when I think we ought
to resort to this practice of brief prayer. Mr. Rowland Hill was a
remarkable man for the depth of his piety, but when I asked at
Wotton-under-Edge for his study, though I rather pressed the question,
I did not obtain a satisfactory reply. At length the good minister
said, "The fact is, we never found any. Mr. Hill used to study in the
garden, in the parlor, in the bedroom, in the streets, in the woods,
anywhere." "But where did he retire for prayer?" They said they
supposed it was in his chamber, but that he was always praying–that it
did not matter where he was, the good old man was always praying! It
seemed as if his whole life, though he spent it in the midst of his
fellow men doing good, was passed in perpetual prayer!

You know the story of his being in Walworth, at Mr. George Clayton's
chapel, and of his being seen in the aisles after everybody was gone,
while he was waiting for his coachman. There was the old man toddling
up and down the aisles, and as someone listened, he heard him singing
to himself–

"And when I shall die, receive me I'll cry, For Jesus has loved me, I
cannot tell why. But this thing I find, we two are so joined, He won't
be in Hea ven and lea ve me behind."

And with such rhymes and ditties, and choice words, he would occupy
every moment of his life! He has been known to stand in the
Blackfriars' road with his hands under his coat tails, looking in a
shop window, and if you listened you might soon perceive that he was
breathing out his soul before God! He had got into a constant state of
prayer! I believe it is the best condition in which a man can
be–praying always, praying without ceasing, always drawing near to God
with these brief prayers.

But if I must give you a selection of suitable times I should mention
such as these. Whenever you have a great joy, cry, "Lord, make this a
real blessing to me." Do not exclaim with others, "Am I not a lucky
fellow?" but say, "Lord, give me more Grace and more gratitude, now
that You do multiply Your favors." When you have got any arduous
undertaking on hand or a heavy piece of business, do not touch it till
you have breathed your soul out in a short prayer. When you have a
difficulty before you and you are seriously perplexed. When business
has got into a tangle or a confession which you cannot unravel or
arrange, breathe a prayer! It need not occupy a minute, but it is
wonderful how many snarls come loose after just a word of prayer.

Are the children particularly troublesome to you, good woman? Do you
seem as if your patience was almost worn out with the worry and
harassment? Now for a brief prayer! You will manage them all the better
and you will bear with their naughty tempers all the more quietly. At
any rate your own mind will be the less ruffled. Do you think that
there is a temptation before you? Do you begin to suspect that somebody
is plotting against you? Now for a prayer. "Lead me in a plain path
because of my enemies." Are you at work at the bench, or in a shop, or
a warehouse where lewd conversation and shameful blasphemies assail
your ears? Now for a short prayer! Have you noticed some sin that
grieves you? Let it move you to prayer! These things ought to remind
you to pray.

I believe the devil would not let people swear so much if Christian
people always prayed every time they heard an oath. He would then see
it did not pay. Their blasphemies might somewhat be hushed if they
provoked us to supplication! Do you feel your own heart going off the
lines? Does sin begin to fascinate you? Now for a prayer–a warm,
earnest, passionate cry, "Lord, hold me up!" Did you see something with
your eyes and did that infect your heart? Do you feel as if "your feet
were almost gone and your steps had well near slipped?" Now for a
prayer–"Hold me, Lord, by my right hand." Has something quite
unlooked-for happened? Has a friend treated you badly? Then, like
David, say, "Lord, put to nothing the counsel of Ahithophel."

Breathe a prayer now! Are you anxious to do some good? Be sure to have
prayer over it. Do you mean to speak to that young man about his soul?
Pray first, Brothers and Sisters. Do you mean to address yourself to
the members of your class and write them a letter this week about their
spiritual welfare? Pray over every line, Brothers and Sisters. It is
always good to have praying going on while you are talking about
Christ! I always find I can preach better if I can pray while I am
preaching. And the mind is very remarkable in its activities. It can be
praying while it is studying–it can be looking up to God while it is
talking to man! And there can be one hand held up to receive supplies
from God while the other hand is dealing out the same supplies which He
is pleased to give!

Pray as long as you live! Pray when you are in great pain–the sharper
the pang–the more urgent and importunate should your cry to God be.
And when the shadow of death gathers round you and strange feelings
flush or chill you, and plainly tell that you near the journey's end,
then pray! Oh that is a time for brief prayer! Short and pithy prayers
like this–"Hide not Your face from me, O Lord." Or this, "Be not far
from me, O God" will doubtless suit you. "Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit," were the thrilling words of Stephen in his extremity! And
"Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit," were the words that your
Master, Himself, uttered just before He bowed His head and gave up the
ghost. You may well take up the same strain and imitate Him.

These thoughts and counsels are so exclusively addressed to the saints
and faithful Brothers and Sisters in Christ that you will be prone to
ask. "Is not there anything to be said to the unconverted?" Well,
whatever has been spoken in their hearing may be used by them for their
own benefit. Now let me address myself to you as pointedly as I can.
Though you are not saved, yet you must not say, "I cannot pray." Why,
if prayer is so simple, what excuse can you have for neglecting it? It
needs no measurable space of time. Such prayers as these, God will
hear, and you have, all of you, the ability and opportunity to think
and to express them if you have only that elementary faith in God which
believes "that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him."

Cornelius had, I suppose, got about as far as this when he was
admonished by the angel to send for Peter, who preached to him peace by
Jesus Christ to the conversion of his soul! Is there such a strange
being in the Tabernacle as a man or woman that never prays? How shall I
expostulate with you? May I steal a passage from a living poet who,
though he has contributed nothing to our hymn books, hums a note so
suited to my purpose and so pleasant to my ear that I like to quote
it–

"More things are worked by prayer

Than this world dreams of.

Therefore let your voice

Rise like a fountain, flowing night and day!

For what are men better than sheep or goats,

That nourish a blind life within the brain,

If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer,

Both for themselves and those who call them friend?

For so the whole round world is every way

Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." I do not suspect there is
a creature here who never prays because people generally pray to
somebody or other. The man that never prays to God such prayers as he
ought, prays to God such prayers as he ought not! It is an awful thing
when a man asks God to damn him–and yet there are persons that do
that! Suppose He were to hear you? He is a prayer-hearing God!

If I address one profane swearer here I would like to put this matter
clearly to him. Were the Almighty to hear you– if your eyes were
blinded and your tongue were struck dumb while you were uttering a wild
imprecation–how would you bear the sudden judgment on your impious
speech? If some of those prayers of yours were answered for yourself–
and if some that you have offered in your passion for your wife and for
your child were fulfilled to their hurt and your distraction–what an
awful thing it would be!

Well, God does answer prayer, and one of these days He may answer your
prayers to your shame and everlasting confusion. Would not it be well
now, before you leave your seat, to pray, "Lord, have mercy upon me.
Lord, save me. Lord, change my heart. Lord, give me to believe in
Christ. Lord, give me now an interest in the precious blood of Jesus.
Lord, save me now"? Will not each one of you breathe such a prayer as
that? May the Holy Spirit lead you to do so! And if you once begin to
pray aright I am not afraid that you will never leave off, for there is
a something that holds the soul fast in real prayer.
__________________________________________________________________

Indexes
__________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture Commentary

Genesis

[1]7:1 [2]7:7

Leviticus

[3]5:17-18

Deuteronomy

[4]33:29

Joshua

[5]7:3 [6]8:1

Judges

[7]11:35 [8]13:22-23

1 Samuel

[9]5:2-4

2 Samuel

[10]3:17-18

Nehemiah

[11]2:4

Job

[12]16:22 [13]17:9 [14]36:5

Psalms

[15]27:14 [16]32:2 [17]32:3 [18]37:7 [19]92:13-15
[20]119:25 [21]119:27 [22]119:57

Isaiah

[23]6:8 [24]38:17 [25]40:11 [26]53:12 [27]55:8-9 [28]61:2
[29]64:7

Jeremiah

[30]4:20

Hosea

[31]14:8

Zechariah

[32]12:10

Matthew

[33]9:27-30 [34]10:16 [35]21:28 [36]26:64

Mark

[37]2:17 [38]5:28 [39]10:49

Luke

[40]10:25-37 [41]14:17

John

[42]3:8 [43]17:25-26 [44]19:14

Acts

[45]15:9 [46]27:25

Romans

[47]4:16 [48]4:20 [49]15:13 [50]15:13

2 Corinthians

[51]4:18

Galatians

[52]6:9

Ephesians

[53]2:20

Philippians

[54]3:7-9

1 Thessalonians

[55]4:17

2 Thessalonians

[56]3:16

2 Timothy

[57]2:20-21

Hebrews

[58]6:18 [59]13:20-21

1 Peter

[60]2:4 [61]2:4-5

Revelation

[62]22:17
__________________________________________________________________

This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
generated on demand from ThML source.

References

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