"And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and
it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth
her fruit." - Jas. v. 17, 18.
IT is evident from what is written concerning the events associated with
the history of the prophet Elijah that God made use of the various trials
and calamities of his time to develop in him, and to demonstrate through
him, to the Church and to the world, the spirit and power of prevailing
prayer.
Elias, as we are told, "was a man subject to like passions as we are,
and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the
earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and
the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."
Again we are told that Elijah cried unto the Lord and said: "O Lord,
my God, hast Thou brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying
her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried
unto the Lord and said, O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul
come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul
of the child came into him again" (I Kings xvii. 20, 22).
The following example of the same prophet's action is no less remarkable.
Faith in the divine ability to answer prayer was Elijah's supreme test by
which he was able to prove in a very satisfactory manner that Israel had
again fallen into the sin of idolatry, and had departed from the faith of
the living God. This is clearly shown in the victory which followed the
challenge given by Elijah to the false prophets of Baal. As it is written:
"Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet
of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them
therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves,
and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will
dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And
call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord:
and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered
and said, It is well spoken" (I Kings xviii. 22-24). And it is recorded:
"They cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives
and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them " (verse 28). "
And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice,
that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac,
and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and
that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word.
Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord
God, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of
the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones,
and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench" (verses
36-38).
The one thing above all others that distressed the soul of Elijah during
the reign of Ahab was Israel's utter disregard of God. Through an evil heart
and a false religion, they had completely lost sight of God's righteous
claims upon them. Multitudes had ignored His very existence, as is always
the case amidst false teachers and corrupt religions. Therefore the withholding
of rain, or any other temporal calamity, however serious, would prove an
unspeakable blessing if thereby it would restore a true recognition of the
fact that "the Lord, He is God." The desire for this was the real
burden of the prophet's prayers, as may be seen in verses 36 and 37. Neither
did Elijah intercede for rain until this had taken place, and their hearts
had really been "turned back again," which thing came to pass
when, in answer to his fervent prayer, "the fire of the Lord fell and
consumed the burnt sacrifice." "And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, He is God," so that
we may safely say that in answer to his remarkable prayer there were more
unbelievers convinced of their folly, and backsliders restored in that one
day, than has ever taken place on any other occasion in the history of the
world. To wit, that their hearts were all "turned back again,"
except the priests, who, because of the hardness of their hearts, proved
themselves worthy of, as well as ripe for, immediate destruction.
This event is all the more remarkable because it is but one man against
nearly a whole nation of back-sliders. But be it remembered he was a praying
man, and when a man is strong in faith and knows the power of prayer, as
did Elijah, we may reckon that any such man when united with God is in the
majority. Alone and yet not alone; when Elijah stepped on the scene, there
was Another with him, and He was "the Lord God of Elijah." One
prayer under these circumstances was quite sufficient to convince a nation
of the fact that Elijah's God is the one true God; and that His Word and
His Truth must be obeyed. It was because Elijah's faith and confidence were
firmly fixed in Almighty God that his prayer stood the test.
The difference between Elijah's prayer and that of the false prophets was
not because his prayers were intense and theirs were not. The prophets of
Baal all prayed intensely, but with a wrong object and a wrong spirit. They
cried aloud and cried long, from morning till noon, and from noon till eve;
and, moreover, they were so intensely earnest that, as we are reminded,
"they cut themselves until the blood gushed out upon them." Had
any of us been present on the above occasion, no doubt we should have been
greatly astonished to have heard their loud cries and to have seen the ridiculous
capers which they cut, as well as to have witnessed the great amount of
earnestness they put into their devotions. And this is all the more sad
when we remember that it was nothing less than a fatal delusion from the
beginning to the end.
The record of the above transactions and the judgment which overtook the
worshippers of Baal and the false prophets are among the strongest manifestations
of God's displeasure against false teachers and false religions, and should
be an everlasting warning to those who try to put other religions on a par
with the religion of Jesus Christ; virtually saying that it does not matter
whether we worship Baal or Jesus Christ so long as we are sincere. Dr. A.
Smellie has rightly stated that "the God of the heavens is in sharpest
contrast with the idols of the nations.''
In an article given in a monthly magazine published at Boston, Mass., USA,
the writer (with pointed reference to a visit of a popular English preacher
who was accepted to preach in one of the principal churches in that city)
said that "he dethroned Christ and declared that the Buddhist, Mohammedan,
and, in fact, every sincere person was as sure of heaven as the Christian
- we are all divine." That leaves us nothing more to say. These advanced
thinkers have no regard for consistency, no regard for the Word of God,
no regard for truth, but flounder about in the darkness of their own beclouded
reasonings. What will the end be? But there are a great many professing
Christians belonging to some of the churches in this country who, while
they would not think of praying to God after the same fashion as did the
Israelites to the god Baal, will nevertheless pray to gods of their own
fancy; or to gods that they have set up in their own imaginations. We fear
that there are multitudes of professing Christians in our own land who are
making a god of formalism, or their religious ceremonies. Especially is
this the case when they entertain the false notion that they please God
and render themselves fit for heaven by virtue of their devotion to their
religious observances. Thousands are constantly being deceived in a similar
manner in many of our Romish churches. As rightly observed by a godly clergyman,
"They imperil men's souls now and hereafter, for the pretended priestly
absolution leads men to trust in a false pardon, and rest in a delusive
peace." Because of this, multitudes know little or nothing about the
experience or power of an inward and vital Christianity, or the joy of worshipping
God "in spirit and in truth." They go their round of religious
observances day after day and year after year, and often manifest great
earnestness in their devotions, yet only to find, as in the case of Baal
worshippers, that it all ends in miserable failure. We admit that many of
the above class have a kind of piety which has often passed muster in certain
religious circles, but inasmuch as their hopes are based upon human traditions
and outward ceremonies, they can never be acceptable to God.
The teaching of our Saviour shows plainly that ceremonialism substitutes
the traditions of the elders for the commandments of God: the worship of
the lips for the worship of the heart; the worship of the flesh and senses
for the worship of the spirit; and substitutes forms of prayer for the true
spirit of grace and supplication. As one writer has stated: "God requires
soul worship and men give Him body worship: He asks for the heart and they
present Him with their lips: He demands their thoughts and minds, and they
give Him banners and vestments and candles."
Such, however, forget that God Himself is the only true object, as well
as promoter of all spiritual worship, and because many are willingly ignorant
of this, they have no right apprehension of spiritual life and power, either
in prayer or in any part of their religious exercise. Nor can it be otherwise,
for the reason that their minds are corrupted by false notions and their
faith, such as they possess, is centred upon wrong objects. In many cases
they rely far more upon their priest and their religious observances than
they do upon the merits of our Saviour. Therefore we maintain that it makes
a world of difference to us at the present day, as well as to the Israelites,
what we believe. In other words, it matters considerably whether our prayers
and religious devotions gather their inspiration from a false religion,
or from a true faith in the Lord God of Elijah. "Your life,"
said the late Joseph Parker, "cannot be good if your teaching is bad.
Doctrine lies at the basis of life. You may profess to believe a good many
things, but in reality what you believe is the very substance and inspiration
of your character." Then let us for ever banish from our minds the
idea that it does not matter what we believe, or what religion we hold,
so long as we are sincere and in earnest.
Moreover, the so-called sincerity and earnestness of these false teachers
and their followers have failed them on different occasions when brought
face to face with a baptism of fire. The test to-day, as well as in the
time of Elijah, only requires to be sufficiently strong, and of the right
kind, in order to prove the genuineness or otherwise of our religion. We
have an example of this in the case of St. Francis of Assisi, who at the
risk of his life went with some of his followers to the Sultan. "Sire,"
said a number of the priests of Mahomet to the Sultan, "thou art expert
in the law and art bound to maintain and guard it. We command thee by Mahomet,
who gave it to us, that the heads of these men be cut off." Francis,
who had already by his fearless yet loving, Christlike spirit, made a deep
impression upon the Sultan, replied to him, "Your priests will not
talk with me, perhaps they would be more ready to act. Have a fire lighted
and I will go into the fire with them, and you will see by the results which
faith is the truest and the holiest." When Francis began to speak there
were a number of priests standing round him, but before he had finished
they had quietly taken themselves off. The idea had filled them with horror.
The Sultan, perceiving their absence, remarked sarcastically, "I do
not think that any of my priests are inclined to face flames and torture
for the defence of their faith."
The reason why wonders were wrought in answer to the prayers of Elijah and
others of his character was because they were on the side of truth and righteousness,
and fully believed in the God which answereth by fire. Oh! that a multitude
of such mighty souls were raised up in our churches today who, by their
intensified prayers and faith, were sufficiently strong to demonstrate once
more before all earth and hell, that the God that answereth by fire, He
is God. If this would take place, and we know of no reason why it should
not, then the Church of the living God would rise up in the midst of her
enemies stronger than ten thousand dreadnoughts; and would be able to pray
in a manner that would bring heaven and earth together; and in the language
of the prophet Isaiah would exclaim, "Drop down, ye heavens, from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness; and let them bring forth salvation"
(Isa. xlv. 8). And such are the prayers and such are the blessings that
are required at the present day in order to sweep away the refuges of lies,
and the false teaching that has got into many of the churches, and which
has made fearful havoc, especially among thousands of our young men and
such as are not fully established in the truth.
Judging from the Scriptures, the Church as a whole has never rightly understood
the glorious possibilities placed at her disposal in the prayer-life, but
which, thank God, she may understand and experience when in the fulness
of the Spirit she begins to realise the omnipotency of prayer.
The cry of Mr. Spurgeon was, "Oh, for five hundred Elijahs, each one
upon his Carmel, crying unto God, and we should soon have the clouds bursting
into showers! Oh, for more prayer, more constant, incessant mention of the
mission cause in prayer, then the blessing will be sure to come. Rev. J.
Hudson Taylor tells us of a young man who had been called to the foreign
field. He had not been in the habit of preaching, but he knew one thing
- how to prevail with God. Going one day to a friend he said, "I don't
see how God can use me on the field; I have no special talent." His
friend said, "My brother, God wants men on the field who can pray.
There are too many preachers now and too few pray-ers." He went. In
his own room, in the early dawn a voice was heard weeping and pleading for
souls. And often through the day, the shut door, and the hush that prevailed
made one feel like walking softly, for a soul was wrestling with God.
To his home hungry souls would flock, drawn by some irresistible power.
In the morning hours some would call and say, "I have gone by your
home and have longed to come in. Will you tell me how I can be saved? "or
from some distant place another would call saying, "I heard you would
tell us here how we might find heart-rest."
The mystery was unlocked. In the secret chamber lost souls were pleaded
for and claimed. The Holy Ghost knew just where they were and sent them
along. Mark this: If all who read these lines would just lay hold upon God
with holy violence and unconquerable persistence of faith-filled prayer,
a good many things would give way against which we have been beating with
our puny human wisdom and power in vain. The prayer-power has never been
tried to its full capacity in any church. If we want to see mighty wonders
of divine grace and power wrought, in place of weakness, failure, and disappointment,
let the whole Church answer God's standing challenge: "Call unto Me,
and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things which thou
knowest not" (Jer. xxxiii. 3). We must pray more.
And surely we have every encouragement to do so, especially in our Saviour'
s words, "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing,
ye shall receive" (Matt. xxi. 22)." Prayer hath brought health
to the sick, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and eyes to the blind,
life to the dead, salvation to the lost. And hath even driven Satan from
the hearts of many, and brought the God of Heaven to dwell in his room."
|