George Benfield, a driver on the Midland Railway, living
at Derby, was standing on the footplate oiling his engine, the train being
stationary, when his foot slipped; he fell on the space between the lines.
He heard the express coming on, and had only time enough to lie full length
on the "six-foot" when it rushed by, and he escaped unhurt.
He returned to his home in the middle of the night and as he was going
up-stairs he heard one of his children, a girl about eight years old,
crying and sobbing. "Oh, father," she said, "I thought
somebody came and told me that you were going to be killed, and I got
out of bed and prayed that God would not let you die." Was it only
a dream, a coincidence? George Benfield and others believed that he owed
his life to that prayer. -- DEAN HOLE
THE earthly career of our Lord Jesus Christ was no mere episode, a sort
of interlude, in His eternal life. What He was and what He did on earth
was neither abnormal nor divergent, but characteristic. What He was and
what He did on earth is but the figure and the illustration of what He is
and what He is doing in heaven. He is "the same yesterday and to-day,
and forever." This statement is the Divine summary of the eternal unity
and changelessness of His character. His earthly life was made up largely
of hearing and answering prayer. His heavenly life is devoted to the same
Divine business. Really the Old Testament is the record of God hearing and
answering prayer. The whole Bible deals largely with this all important
subject.
Christ's miracles are object lessons. They are living pictures. They talk
to us. They have hands which take hold of us. Many valuable lessons do these
miracles teach us. In their diversity, they refresh us. They show us the
matchless power of Jesus Christ, and at the same time discover to us His
marvellous compassion for suffering humanity. These miracles disclose to
us His ability to endlessly diversify His operations. God's method in working
with man is not the same in all cases. He does not administer His grace
in rigid ruts. There is endless variety in His movements. There is marvellous
diversity in His operations. He does not fashion His creations in the same
mould. Just so our Lord is not circumscribed in His working nor trammelled
by models. He works independently. He is His own architect. He furnishes
His own patterns which have unlimited variety.
When we consider our Lord's miracles, we discover that quite a number were
performed unconditionally. At least there were no conditions accompanying
them so far as the Divine record shows. At His own instance, without being
solicited to do so, in order to glorify God and to manifest His own glory
and power, this class of miracles was wrought. Many of His mighty works
were performed at the moving of His compassion and at the call of suffering
and need, as well as at the call of His power. But a number of them were
performed by Him in answer to prayer. Some were wrought in answer to the
personal prayers of those who were afflicted. Others were performed in answer
to the prayers of the friends of those who were afflicted.
Those miracles wrought in answer to prayer are very instructive in the uses
of prayer. In these conditional miracles, faith holds the primacy and prayer
is faith's vicegerent. We have an illustration of the importance of faith
as the condition on which the exercise of Christ's power was based, or the
channel through which it flowed, in the incident of a visit He made to Nazareth
with its results, or rather its lack of results. Here is the record of the
case:
"And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid
his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. "And he marvelled
because of their unbelief."
Those people at Nazareth may have prayed our Lord to raise their dead, or
open the eyes of the blind, or heal the lepers, but it was all in vain.
The absence of faith, however much of performance may be seen, restrains
the exercise of God's power, paralyzes the arm of Christ, and turns to death
all signs of life. Unbelief is the one thing which seriously hinders Almighty
God in doing mighty works. Matthew's record of this visit to Nazareth says,
"And he did not any mighty works there because of their unbelief."
Lack of faith ties the hands of Almighty God in His working among the children
of men. Prayer to Christ must always be based, backed and impregnated with
faith. The miracle of miracles in the earthly career of our Lord, the raising
of Lazarus from the dead, was remarkable for its prayer accompaniment. It
was really a prayer issue, something after the issue between the prophets
of Baal and Elijah. It was not a prayer for help. It was one of thanksgiving
and assured confidence. Let us read it:
"And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank
thee that thou hast heard me. "And I know that thou hearest me always.
But because of the people that stand by, I said it, that they may believe
that thou hast sent me."
It was a prayer mainly for the benefit of those who were present, that they
might know that God was with Him because He had answered His prayers, and
that faith in God might be radiated in their hearts. Answered prayers are
sometimes the most convincing and faith-creating forces. Unanswered prayers
chill the atmosphere and freeze the soil of faith. If Christians knew how
to pray so as to have answers to their prayers, evident, immediate, and
demonstrative answers from God, faith would be more widely diffused, would
become more general, would be more profound, and would be a much more mighty
force in the world. What a valuable lesson of faith and intercessory prayer
does the miracle of the healing of the centurion's servant bring to us!
The simplicity and strength of the faith of this Roman officer are remarkable,
for He believed that it was not needful for our Lord to go directly to his
house in order to have his request granted, "But speak the word only,
and my servant shall be healed." And our Lord puts His mark upon this
man's faith by saying, "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so
great faith, no, not in Israel." This man's prayer was the expression
of his strong faith, and such faith brought the answer promptly.
The same invaluable lesson we get from the prayer miracle of the case of
the Syrophenician woman who went to our Lord in behalf of her stricken daughter,
making her daughter's case her own, by pleading, "Lord, help me."
Here was importunity, holding on, pressing her case, refusing to let go
or to be denied. A strong case it was of intercessory prayer and its benefits.
Our Lord seemingly held her off for a while but at last yielded, and put
His seal upon her strong faith: "O woman, great is thy faith! Be it
unto thee even as thou wilt."
What a lesson on praying for others and its large benefits! Individual cases
could be named, where the afflicted persons interceded for themselves, illustrations
of wonderful things wrought by our Lord in answer to the cries of those
who were afflicted. As we read the Evangelists' record, the pages fairly
glisten with records of our Lord's miracles wrought in answer to prayer,
showing the wonderful things accomplished by the use of this divinely appointed
means of grace. If we turn back to Old Testament times, we have no lack
of instances of prayer miracles.
The saints of those days were well acquainted with the power of prayer to
move God to do great things. Natural laws did not stand in the way of Almighty
God when He was appealed to by His praying ones. What a marvellous record
is that of Moses as those successive plagues were visited upon Egypt in
the effort to make Pharaoh let the children of Israel go that they might
serve God! As one after another of these plagues came, Pharaoh would beseech
Moses, "Entreat the Lord your God that he may take away this death."
And as the plagues themselves were miracles, prayer removed them as quickly
as they were sent by Almighty God. The same hand which sent these destructive
agencies upon Egypt was moved by the prayers of His servant Moses to remove
these same plagues. And the removal of the plagues in answer to prayer was
as remarkable a display of Divine power as was the sending of the plagues
in the first instance. The removal in answer to prayer would do as much
to show God's being and His power as would the plagues themselves. They
were miracles of prayer.
All down the line in Old Testament days we see these prayer miracles. God's
praying servants had not the least doubt that prayer would work marvellous
results and bring the supernatural into the affairs of earth. Miracles and
prayer went hand in hand. They were companions. The one was the cause, the
other was the effect. The one brought the other into existence. The miracle
was the proof that God heard and answered prayer. The miracle was the Divine
demonstration that God, who was in heaven, interfered in earth's affairs,
intervened to help men, and worked supernaturally if need be to accomplish
His purposes in answer to prayer. Passing to the days of the early Church,
we find the same Divine record of prayer miracles.
The sad news came to Peter that Dorcas was dead and he was wanted at Joppa.
Promptly he made his way to that place. Peter put everybody out of the room,
and then he kneeled down and prayed, and with faith said, "Tabitha,
arise," and she opened her eyes and sat up. Knee work on the part of
Peter did the work. Prayer brought things to pass and saved Dorcas for further
work on earth. Paul was on that noted journey to Rome under guard, and had
been shipwrecked on an island. The chief man of the island was Publius,
and his old father was critically ill of a bloody flux. Paul laid his hands
on the old man, and prayed for him, and God came to the rescue and healed
the sick man. Prayer brought the thing desired to pass. God interfered with
the laws of nature, either suspending or setting them aside for a season,
and answered the prayer of this praying servant of His. And the answer to
prayer among those heathen people convinced them that a supernatural power
was at work among them. In fact so true was this that they seemed to think
a supernatural being had come among them.
Peter was put in prison by Herod after he had killed James with the sword.
The young Church was greatly concerned, but they neither lost heart nor
gave themselves over to needless fretting and worrying. They had learned
before this from whence their help came. They had been schooled in the lesson
of prayer. God had intervened before in the behalf of His servants and interfered
when His cause was at stake. "Prayer was made without ceasing of the
Church unto God for him." An angel on swift wings comes to the rescue,
and in a marvellous and supernatural way releases Peter and leaves the prison
doors locked. Locks and prison doors and an unfriendly king cannot stand
in the way of Almighty God when His people cry in prayer unto Him.
Miracles if need be will be wrought in their behalf to fulfill His promises
and to carry forward His plans. After this order does the Word of God illustrate
and enlarge and confirm the possibilities of prayer by what may be termed
"Prayer miracles." How quickly to our straits follow our enlargements!
God wrought a wonderful work through Samson in enabling him with a crude
instrument, the jaw bone of an ass, to slay a thousand men, giving him a
great deliverance.
Shortly afterward he was abnormally thirsty, and he was unable to obtain
any water. It seemed as if he would perish with thirst. God had saved him
from the hands of the Philistines. Could he not as well save him from thirst?
So Samson cried unto the Lord, and "God clave a hollow place that was
in the jaw, and there came water thereout, and when he had drunk, his spirit
came again and he revived." God could bring water out of the jaw bone
just as well as He could give victory by it to Samson. God could change
that which had been death-dealing to His enemies and make it life-giving
to His servant. God can and will work a miracle in answer to prayer in order
to deliver His friends, sooner than He will work one to destroy His enemies.
He does both, however, in answer to prayer. All natural forces are under
God's control. He did not create the world and put it under law, and then
retire from it, to work out its own destiny, irrespective of the welfare
of His intelligent creatures. Natural laws are simply God's laws, by which
He governs and regulates all things in nature. Nature is nothing but God's
servant. God is above nature, God is not the slave of nature.
This being true, God can and will suspend the working of nature's laws,
can hold them in abeyance by His almighty hand, can for the time being set
them aside, to fulfill His higher purposes in redemption. It is no violation
of nature's laws when, in answer to prayer, He who is above nature makes
nature His servant, and causes nature to tarry out His plans and purposes.
This is the explanation of that wonderful prayer miracle of Old Testament
times, when Joshua, in the strength and power of the Lord God, commanded
the sun and moon to stand still in order to give time to complete the victory
over the enemies of Israel. Why should it be thought a thing incredible
that the God of nature and of grace should interfere with His own natural
laws for a short season in answer to prayer, and for the good of His cause?
Is God tied hand and foot? Has He so circumscribed Himself that He cannot
operate the law of prayer? Is the law of nature superior to the law of prayer?
Not by any means. He is the God of prayer as well as the God of nature.
Both prayer and nature have God as their Maker, their Ruler and their Executor.
And prayer is God's servant, just as nature is His servant. The prayer force
in God's government is as strong as any other force, and all natural and
other forces must give way before the force of prayer. Sun, moon and stars
are under God's control in answer to prayer. Rain, sunshine and drouth obey
His will. "Fire and hail, snow and vapour, stormy wind fulfilling his
word."
Disease and health are governed by Him. All, all things in heaven and earth,
are absolutely under the control of Him who made heaven and earth, and who
governs all things according to His own will. Prayer still works miracles
among men and brings to pass great things. It is as true now as when James
wrote his Epistle, "The fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man
availeth much." And when the records of eternity are read out to an
assembled world, then will it appear how much prayer has wrought in this
world. Little is now seen of the fruits of prayer compared to all that it
has accomplished and is accomplishing. At the judgment day, then will God
disclose the things which were brought to pass in this world through the
prayers of the saints. Many occurrences which are now taken as a matter
of course will then be seen to have happened because of the Lord's praying
ones.
The work of George Muller in Bristol, England, was a miracle of the nineteenth
century. It will take the opening of the books at the great judgment day
to disclose all he wrought through prayer. His orphanage, in which hundreds
of fatherless and motherless children were cared for, to sustain which this
godly man never asked any one for money with which to pay its running expenses,
is a marvel of modern times. His practice was always to ask God for just
what was needed, and the answers which came to him read like a record of
apostolic times. He prayed for everything and trusted implicitly to God
to supply all his needs. And it is a matter of record that never did he
and the orphans ever lack for any good thing. Of a holy man who has done
so much for Christ and suffering humanity, it was said at the grave about
him:
"He prayed up the walls of an hospital, and the hearts
of the nurses. He prayed mission stations into being, and missionaries
into faith. He prayed open the hearts of the rich, and gold from the most
distant lands."
Luther is quoted as once saying: "The Christian's trade is praying."
Certainly, for a great reason, the preacher's trade should be praying. We
fear greatly that many preachers know nothing of this trade of praying,
and hence they never succeed at this trade.
A severe apprenticeship in the trade of praying must be served in order
to become a journeyman in it. Not only is it true that there are few journeymen
at work at this praying trade, but numbers have never even been apprentices
at praying. No wonder so little is accomplished by them. God and the supernatural
are left out of their programmes. Many do not understand this trade of praying
because they have never learned it, and hence do not work at it. Many miracles
ought to be worked by our praying. Why not? Is the arm of the Lord shortened
that He cannot save? Is His ear heavy that He cannot hear? Has prayer lost
its power because iniquity abounds and the love of many has grown cold?
Has God changed from what He once was?
To all these queries we enter an emphatic negative. God can as easily to-day
work miracles by praying as He did in the days of old. "I am the Lord;
I change not." "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" He who
works miracles by praying will first of all work the chief miracle on himself.
Oh, that we might fully understand well the Christian's trade of praying,
and follow the trade day by day and thus make to ourselves great spiritual
wealth! |