Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-07-08
IN EVERY THING BY PRAYER.

ELECTROMAGNETIC Law of the Pre-
Eninence of Spiritual Things.
The latitude allowed the believer in
prayer is as wide as human need is. 1t
would be hard to frame a more unlim-
tied privilege of petition than this one
found in Philippians iv. The apostle
here speaks of prayer and supplica-
tion." 1t has been suggested that the
term prayer in this passage is meant
to cover general prayer; that is, the
souls attitude toward God in commun-
ion, In confession, in thanksgiving,
and in all audible or articulate wor-
ship; and that ''supplication'' is in
tended to cover specific petition for
any felt need of spirit, soul or body.
1t does not matter much whether this
Is correct exegesis or not; the ''ev-
erything" of the Injunction is broad
enough. Certainly we are warranted
in laying all our petitions before God
without hesitancy or reserve. We must
believe that specific petition is in
eluded in this promise or permission;
mat it covers definite needs, and is
not meant simply to be spiritual ex-
ercise which viii work a reflex benefit
upon the spiritual life OF the petitioner.
When our Lord babe us ask, aud
said We should receive; seek, and we
should find; knock, and it should be
opened unto lis, He certainly diu not
mean that this promise would be met
by spiritual benefit only. and not by
the reception of the thing asked for. 1t
nc mr. 10 hn
mother should say to her children:
'.When you are hungry, come to me
and Ask. and We shall receive;'" and
when the children came again, and
again asked and did not receive, the
mother should say: '-Of course l did
not mean that 1 would give you any,
thing to eat; l only wanted to train
you into a sense Of dependence upon
me. Keep on asking. 1t will do you
good; and by and by you will learn to
do without food" This is not the
meaning of Gods promise to the ask
ing, seeking and knocking believer.
Most of the difficulties in prayer lie
in the region between the theory of
mere subjective benefit and that of
specific answer to prayer. The man
who wants specific answer to prayer is
not content with a mere reflex benefit;
and if specific answer is not realized,
then the believer wonders why it is
that there is, to say the least, a SEEM
ing failure of the promise. We think
1t is not difficult to clear this difficulty.
All our wants are either in the class
spiritual or temporal. As to the spir-
! itual needs, these are confessedly al
most always answered when prayer
for them is persevering. But as to the
temperoral needs, these are confessed
ly not SO frequently answered. The
reason for this may be two-fold. First,
those of Gods people who are found in
most frequent trouble on this score are
not those who are the most assiduous
in the cultivation Of their spiritual life.
In other words, it seems to us that the
moment we put temporal benefits in
advance of spiritual things, either in
the order or in the frequency of our
prayer. we are cOntravening the very
first condition of prayer. As to tenn
poral things the Lord has clearly
taught us that while He will supply
them and will have us seek from His
hand our daily bread, He does not
want us to be careful about these
things. for the reason that HE
knoweth that we have need of them"
and as father will supply them
without our asking or being urgent
about them. He teaches US that the
body is more than the railnent, and the
life is more than the body. He shows
US how 1t is that the heather, who
have no knowledge nor sense OF Divine
Fatherhood, are always seeking after
these things" They have no care nor
even thought of the higher spiritual
realities which our Father de-
sires us to be careful about. There
fore, the general injunction of our
Lord is that we seek first the King
dom of God and His righteousness"
and He adds the promise: land all
these things shall be added unto YOU"
He would have us careless aboE:: tenn
poral things ana urgent about spiritual
j things. He has given us in 1ils own
life illustrations of this He voluntarily
became poor, not that He might glorify
poverty into an ordinance. but that He
might dignity that poverty which is
poor, because spiritual wealth and Di-
vine service is preferred before it Il
have meat to eat that We know not OF"
4.ny meat is to do the will of Him
that sent me-" This lets US into the |
secret of the utter subordination of the
temporal to the spiritual. Now, in our
judgment. the most of us are not COM
ing w,thin long range of reducing this
rule of the Kingdom of God 20 prac-
ice. And SO long as we are not walk
ing by this rule we may not wonder if
prayer fox temporary things remains
to great extent unanswered. We
warrant the assertion that there is no
disciple who is honestly seeking first |
: the Kingdom of God and His right
eousness," who viii be found making |
any complaint Of the lack Of temporal
tbings.
Then, again. is it not true that avery |
large proportion of the temporal things |
which we are seeking after are along
che, line of mere caIpal odesires. The
great apostle had at the end of his life
reached CT he had not before) this es-
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