BY THE REV. THOMAS SCOTT, RECTOR OF ASTON, SANDFORD, BUCKS.
THE INFLUENCE OF PRAYER.
I WOULD observe the influence which prayer appears to have had in effecting this change. I am aware that the world, though called Christian, is come to such a pass that the very mention of this subject in many companies is accounted ill manners, or even received with ridicule; and, that being known to maintain a constant communion with God by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving is alone sufficient to denominate any person a Methodist. It is, however, most certain that the Word of God is full of precepts, instructions, exhortations, invitations, promises and examples to this effect. He never read his Bible, who knows not this; nor can any man, under any pretence whatever, make a jest of this great duty and privilege of a believer without pouring contempt upon the Holy Scriptures, and insulting the brightest characters there proposed to us as examples, not excepting the Lord Jesus himself. Let men, therefore, under the profession of Christianity, be as irreligious and profane as they please, I shall not be ashamed to speak upon so unfashionable a topic, for, if the Word of God be true, he never knew anything as he ought to know, never believed, never repented, never performed one duty aright in his life, who hath not sought all his wisdom, knowledge, faith, repentance, and sufficiency for obedience from God, by fervent, instant, persevering prayer. Time was, even since I had souls committed to my care, that I lived in the neglect of this duty, and so “without God in the world,” but since, through His forbearance and mercy, I have been in earnest about the salvation of my soul, and the souls of other men, my conduct in this respect has been very different.
* A friend has sent us this Extract from “The Force of Truth,” which was written by Mr. Scott, the Commentator, as an account of his conversion experiences which took place after he was some time in the ministry. He was born in 1747, and died in 1821.—Ed.
“If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” And, “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” As He is the Spirit of Truth, it is His office to lead us into all truth, and to teach us all things: for He searches and reveals the deep things of God. It is expressly promised to the true Church that “all her children shall be taught of the Lord” (Isaiah liv. 13). Referring to this, Christ hath declared that “none can come unto him except he be drawn of the Father” and “taught of God” (John vi. 44, 45; and St. Paul declares that “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. ii. 14). The natural man is explained in Jude by not having the Spirit, which is evidently the Apostle’s meaning in this passage: for in the preceding verse he declares that he preached the gospel, “not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” On these grounds, I concluded that man’s natural understanding could not spiritually or profitably receive the knowledge of revealed mysteries, unless it were enlightened by the Holy Spirit. I learned also, that our eyes may be blinded by Satan, the god and prince of this world; that our understandings may be closed, and a veil be upon our hearts, when we read the Word of God, in which case the letter of the Scriptures, without the Spirit, only killeth. Hence the need of the “understanding being opened to understand the Scriptures,” for want of which the plainest discourses of our Lord to His disciples concerning His sufferings, death and resurrection, were hidden from them, and they understood them not. The veil also must be taken from the heart, for want of which the Jews, in reading the Old Testament, cannot understand the plainest declarations of Moses and the prophets concerning their promised Saviour.
The Scriptures also everywhere declare that true wisdom is the gift of God, and must be asked of Him by every one who would be wise unto salvation, that “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,” and that those “who receive not the love of the truth, that they may be saved,” are given over to “a strong delusion to believe a lie that they might all be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. ii. 10-12).
On these grounds, and depending upon the promises and invitations so plentifully interspersed throughout the Scriptures, when I began to inquire after the truth, I was led also in some measure to cry unto the Lord for His guidance and teaching; and, as my mind grew more engaged, and my difficulties, in extricating myself from the labyrinths of controversy, increased, I became more and more earnest, constant, and particular in making my requests known to God. My constant prayer to the Lord was to be delivered from pride and prejudice, blindness of heart, contempt of the truth, obstinacy, enthusiasm, ignorance and error; and that the Lord would give me wisdom and knowledge, guide me to the truth, as it is in Jesus, open my understanding, take away the veil from my heart, and make known unto me the way of Salvation which is revealed to sinners in His holy Word. Thus, waiting upon the Lord according to His own appointment, depending on Him, and pleading His promises from day to day, I was led from one thing to another until my view of religious truth was totally changed. This I most firmly believe to have been by the promised teaching of the Spirit of Truth powerfully enlightening my mind, opening the Scriptures, and, by dispelling the clouds of error and prejudice, enabling me to receive the truth in faith and love. I am conscious that I have no intention, in speaking thus publicly on such a subject, but to advance the glory of God in the salvation of souls. But, as in His presence, I must declare that I have prayed over many of the most interesting passages of Scripture, chapter by chapter, and often verse by verse, with the most anxious dread of rejecting or mistaking the truth, or embracing a falsehood, and with the most earnest desire of knowing what that doctrine was which Jesus and His apostles taught. In the sight of God, I am sensible I have abundant cause to be humbled and ashamed of my frequent remissness, and the continual defilements of my prayers; but, as surely as I believe His promises to be faithful, as surely as I believe Him to be a God that heareth prayer, so surely do I believe that “flesh and blood hath not revealed” to me the doctrines I now preach, but God himself by His Holy Spirit.
Reader, whoever thou art, if thy conscience testifies that thou hast hitherto lived in the neglect of this important duty, or the formal, lifeless, unmeaning performance of it with thy lips, while thy heart hath been disengaged, and thy thoughts allowedly wandering to the ends of the earth; if thou hast not been accustomed by fervent prayer to seek wisdom from God, by His teaching Spirit; if thou knowest not what it is to exercise faith upon the promises pointed out to thee, nor to plead them in prayer to a promise-keeping God; if all thy knowledge of divine things hath been acquired by leaning to thy own understanding; if, in reading the Scriptures, thou hast looked more to learned critics, commentators and expositors than to the illuminating Spirit of God, then be as sure as the Word of God is true, and as we are concerned in it, that “the light which is in thee is darkness,” and that thou “knowest nothing yet as thou oughtest to know.” May the Lord effectually incline thine heart to take a contrary course, and to seek wisdom where alone it can be found, even from the Lord, “the Father of lights, and the Giver of every good and perfect gift,” who hath invited and commanded thee to ask, that it may be given thee!
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Importance of Searching the Scriptures Emphasised.
And, now, beloved reader, let me conclude by leaving it upon thy conscience to search for the truth of the gospel in the study of God’s Word, accompanied by prayer, as thou wouldst search for hid treasure. I give thee this counsel, expecting to meet thee at the Day of Judgment, that our meeting may be with joy, and not with grief. May the Lord incline thee to follow it with that solemn season in view! Time, how short! eternity, how long! Life, how precarious, and vanishing! death, how certain! The pursuits and employments of this present life, how vain, unsatisfying, trifling, and vexatious! God’s favour and eternal life, how unspeakably precious! His wrath, the never-quenched fire, the never-dying worm, how dreadful! Oh! trifle not away the span of life in heaping up riches which shortly must be left for ever, and which profit not in the day of wrath; in such pleasures and amusements as will issue in eternal torments, or in seeking that glory which shall be swallowed up in everlasting infamy. Agree with me but in this, that it is good to redeem precious time, to labour for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life, and to attend principally to the one thing needful; take but thy measure of truth as well as duty from the Word of God, be willing to be taught of God, meditate on His Word day and night, let it be “the light of thy feet and the lantern of the paths,” and, in studying it, “lean not to thy own understanding,” trust not implicitly to expositors and commentators, but ask wisdom and teaching of God. Be not a Felix, saying to thy serious apprehensions about thy soul, “Go thy way at this time, when I have a convenient season I will call for thee,” lest death and judgment come before that season; and be not an Agrippa, almost persuaded to be a Christian, but seek to be altogether such as the primitive Christians were. I say, agree but with me in these reasonable requests, and we shall at length agree in all things, in many in this world, in all, when we hear the Son of God address us in these rejoicing words: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” May the Lord vouchsafe unto the writer, and to every reader of this narrative, “that wisdom which is from above,” that teaching of His Holy Spirit which guides us into the ways of peace, that faith which justifies and works by love, that peace of God which passeth understanding, and that measure of sanctifying and strengthening grace which may enable each of us to be “steadfast” and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, as knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.”