Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-07-10
THE EFFICAOY"OF PRAYER.
The Pre-cmincnce of Spiritual Things
'Seck First the Kingdom Of God and
and His Righteousness"

The latitude allowed the believer in
| prayer is rs wide as human need is. 1t
would be hard to frame Il more unlim-
tied privilege of petition than this one
found in Philippians iv. The apostle
here speaks of prayer and supplica-
ton" 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, and that "supplication' is intend
ed to cover specific petition for any
felt need Of spirit, soul or body. Ii
does not matter much whether this is a
correct excgesis or not; the ..every-
thing" Of the injunction is broad
enough. Certainly we are warranted
in laying all u petitions before God
without hesitancy or reserve. We must
believe that specific petition is included
in this promise or perm;ssion; that it
covers definite needs, and is o meant
simply to be a spiritual exercise which
will work a reflex benefit upon The
spiritual life Of the petitioner.
When II Lord babe us ask and said
VIC should receive; seek, and we should
find; knock, AID it should be opened
unto us, He certainly did not NEAR that
this promise would be met by IS spirit
ual benefit only. and not by the recep-
ton of the thing asked for. 1t is not to
Se understood as though a 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 | did not mean that |
would give you anything to eat; | only
wanted to train you into IA dependence
apon me-. Keep on asking; it will do
you good; and by and by you will learn
to do without food" This is not the
meaning of Gods promise to che ask
ing. seeking and knocking believer.
Most of the difficulties in prayer lie
in the region between the theory of
mere subjective benefit and thas of spc-
ciiic answer to prayer. The man who
wants specific answer to prayer is not
content with u mere reflex benefit:
and if specific answer is not realized,
then the believer wonders why it is
that there is, to say the least, II seem
ing failure of the promise. We think
it is not difficult to clear this difficulty.
All our wants are either in the class
spiritual or temporal. AS to the spirit
ual needs, these are confessedlv almost
always answered when prayer for them
is ~persevering. But as to the temporal
needs, these are confcssedly not SO fire.
qucntly 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 cultiva-
ton of their spiritual life. In other
words, it seems to us that the mo-
ment we put temporal benefits in adj
vance of spiritual things, either in the
order or in the frequency OF our prayer,
we are ~contravening the very first con
tAAIoh Vi y bNtl. "A w ttlnHol III lllIiI-N
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
thir9s. for the reason that ''He knovteth
that we have need Of Them" and AS n
father will supply them without our
asking or being urgent about them.
He teaches us that the body is more
than the raiment, and the life is more
than the body. He shows us how it is
that the heather, who have no
knowledge or sense of Divine Father
hood are always seeking after these
things They have no care nor even
thought of the higher spiritual realities
which our Father desires US 10 be care
ful about. Therefore. the general in
junction of our Lord is that we Seek
first the Kingdom Of God and His
righteousness md He adds the
promise: land all these things shall
be added unto you He would have
us careless about temporal things and
urgent about spiritual things. He has
given us His own life illustrations of
this. He voluntarily became poor, not
that he might glorify poverty into an
ordinance, bat that He might
dignity that poverty which is
poor. because a spiritul wealth and di-
vine service is preferred before it. IL
have meat to cat that we know not Of
MY meat is to do the will of Him that
sent me-" This lets us into the secret
Of the utter subordination of the tenn
poral to the spiritual. Now, in our
Judgment, the most of us are not COM
ing within long range of reducing this
RUE of the Kingdom Of God to prac-
tice. And so long as we are not walk
ing by this rule We may not wonder if
prayer for temporary things remains to
a great extent unanswered. We war
rant the assertion that there is no dis
ciple who is honestly seeking first the
Kingdom of God and His righteous
ness" who will be found making any
complaint of the lack Of temporal
things.
Then, again, is it not true that a very
large proportion of the temporal things
which we are seeking after are along
the line Of mere carnal desirep The
great apostle had at the end of his life