MANY precious and divine graces are given the sinner who is brought out of spiritual darkness into the saving light and liberty of the children of God, by the operations of the Holy Ghost, and in an especial manner through faith in the atoning death of the glorious Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of these heavenly gifts is the spirit of prayer, of which the Holy Scriptures have so much to say. The grace of believing, humble, earnest prayer is the daily and constant need of the living and exercised Christian. And we feel with some good reason, that at the outset of this another year, that we are not mistaken in seeking to emphasise the need there is now, that all who profess, in truth, the name of Christ, should secretly turn to the Throne of Grace for an abundant measure of the spirit of grace and of supplication. The God of heaven, and of grace and providence, will be enquired of by His people, to do for them and others what will be consistent with His mind and to the enrichment spiritually of precious souls and also to the furtherance of His Kingdom. Jesus taught His disciples to pray: “Thy Kingdom come,” and instructed them in many like things as matter for prayer.
We need to pray for deliverance and relief from a prayerless frame of heart, and from sloth and neglect in this exercise. The Holy Spirit is He who alone can stir up, enliven and enlarge the hearts of holiness, to discern and feel as a weighty burden upon their spirits personally, the many and present matters that call for prayer.
Surely troubled nations call for prayer when we look out upon the different parts of the world where there is much strife, conflict, unrest and even bloodshed, as if Satan were stirring up men to manifest, without restraint, that which we read of as natural to men, “hateful and hating one another.” How much the authority and influence of the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ, in power, are needed in such parts, to bring men of many different climes to live in the fear of God and in the exercise of that wisdom “which is first pure, then peaceable.” The Jew, the Egyptian, the Arab, the African, the Cypriot, and the Indian, and many others to-day, even at this present time, need to
be prayed for. David prayed: “The whole earth be filled with his glory” (Ps. lxxii. 19). There is an evil spirit abroad among men which brings in its train nothing but contention and misery for multitudes, which nothing will heal and cure but the Word of God in the power of the Holy Ghost. Here, then, is matter for prayer now and as we contemplate the immediate future.
The religious and moral situation and condition of affairs within our own beloved nation testifies against us; inasmuch as “Our backslidings are many, and our iniquities testify against us.” Our land where, blessed be God, the Bible is printed and sent abroad in increasing numbers, and where the Bible is one of the cheapest books available, is a land wherein the most of people are utterly indifferent to and ignorant of the reading of the Holy Scriptures in their homes. The attendant evils of this indifference and ignorance are deplorable and obvious surely to the least discerning of Christians. These evils are legion, such as the abandonment of divine worship, Sabbath desecration, repudiation of the pure gospel of Christ, and much materialism and immorality. And thus there ought to be constant prayer, that the Most High would visit our nation with a day of His power, not the power of men. For it is not by fleshly might or power, but by the Spirit from on High that this our nation can be brought to a humble and penitent return to the God of our fathers, and to the precious ordinances of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then as to the professing Christian Church in its various branches within our Realm, it may truly be asserted that much obtains which is clearly dishonouring to Christ and diametrically opposed to the teaching of His Word. And on this account, is it not right and proper that His people, in prayer, bring before the Lord that it is time for Him to work, seeing men within the Church have made void His law? The King of the Church in days past personally entered into the Temple of God and cast out the buyers and sellers and the carnal practices of evil and hypocritical men; thus cleansing the Temple at Jerusalem. Then let there be prayer to Him who has “all power in heaven and on earth,” that He would cast out false prophets, false doctrines, false worship, false practices, false charity, and false profession of His most precious Name. The faithful remnant, in the midst thereof, may testify against what is false, and the weak may not condone it; but the Lord alone can purge and restore to “the faith once delivered to the saints,” any backsliding branch of the Christian Church. In Scotland itself there is much loud profession of possessing a Biblical witness and testimony by some ecclesiastics; but, on scrutiny, the testimony is after all not at all four square with the Word, law and mind of Christ Jesus. We look not for perfection in the Church militant. We acknowledge much imperfection in witnessing for the Lord. “An end of all perfection, here have I seen O God,” writes David in Psalm cxix. Yet there is such a thing as an
inconsistent practice, going along with a claim to a Scriptural testimony. For example, claiming to be defenders of the Sabbath, yet condoning and permitting what is obviously inconsistent with the Sabbath law. And again, the extolling of Biblical doctrine and yet a preparedness to go hand in hand, when occasion arises, with those who are at least associated with erroneous beliefs in a formal way, if not actually under the influence of error. And so also, divine wisdom, guidance and spiritual discernment should be constantly sought after, at the Throne of Grace to separate, and be separate, from all which is calculated to weaken or undermine one’s attachment to a pure testimony and practice on the side of God’s truth and ways. The separation we commend is not that of the Pharisee or Legalist, with which we have been charged, more than once, by those outside the borders of the Free Presbyterian Church. The separation we enjoin and must pray to be concerned in is a separation, not to extoll man and to satisfy carnal self-sufficiency; but one required by the necessity of continuing in the footsteps of our godly and faithful fathers and forefathers, in cleaving to, and in holding fast to, the faith once delivered to the saints. Let us illustrate: the late Rev. Donald Macfarlane, in originating the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1893, did not separate himself and others from the Word of God, but from the then backsliding Free Church. Pray to be kept, in heart and life, close to God’s Word, and His mind therein set forth; and if this means continued separation from others in Scotland and elsewhere, as Churches, then it is simply unavoidable, and not bigotry or narrow-mindedness, as some aver.
Then, those who have a gracious hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, and adhere to the testimony for Truth in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland would do well to examine themselves as to whether the spirit and exercise of prayer is being engaged in, in that manner and regarding those things required by prevailing circumstances. Membership and office in the Church bespeak one’s professed spiritual relationship to the Saviour. Living fellowship with the divine Saviour and Lord, is inevitably bound to a life of faith upon the intrinsic merit of His precious blood, as of a Lamb, without blemish and without spot, and upon the fullness of His grace. Sin within and powerful and evil influences from without aim their blows at this fellowship to mar and weaken it in the believer’s experience. True, living godliness derives from secret fellowship with the Redeemer, and having a conscience purged in the blood of the Lamb, and the whole soul being brought under the effectual reign of abounding grace: “That where sin abounds, grace might much more abound.” And so the Scriptures direct us to “Come boldly to the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Therefore there should be a coming in prayer, be it but groaning, sighing, or an earnest desire, to the Throne for blessings which will make the believer known as one who has been with Jesus. If there is to be an obvious and
marked distinction between the worldling and the godfearing, as there ought to be, then those who fear the Lord must be given much to prayer, that the Lord would draw them near to Himself and keep them in a dark and cloudy time. But to proceed to another point: we wrote some time ago in these pages on the subject, “Brethren, pray for us,” and emphasised the due and serious regard which ought to be given to prayer in relation to the enjoyment of the ministry of the Gospel. Preachers and hearers cannot possibly enjoy public ordinances in a soul-edifying way, apart from the reality of the presence of the power of the divine Spirit of Truth. Are we to be content with orderly and formal engagement in those exercises? Have we been lax and thoughtless as to seeking secretly and earnestly the presence and blessing of the Holy Spirit in the past? Then may the God of our help awaken and quicken His people to cry mightily to Him, in our congregations and throughout our Church, at home and abroad, and in the mission field, to visit us now and in the immediate future with times of refreshing from His presence, to the reviving of faith, hope and love in the souls of the living in Jerusalem, and to the enlarging of a real hunger after “the sincere milk of the Word” as read, preached and expounded. And what need there is to please with God, for Christ’s sake, that His ministers would be endued with power from on high! And pray, Christian reader, that throughout the land, and within our Church and congregations, sinners without God, without Christ and without hope, would be convinced of their sins and brought to know their hopeless and helpless condition before the bar of heaven, and be led to flee from the wrath to come, and to hide by a God-given faith in the wounds of the suffering Son of God, there to taste of pardoning mercy and redeeming love. It may be answered here that the Lord’s people have been, and are already, humbly engaged in praying over these matters. Yes, but let these matters for prayer in our congregations become more particular, weighty and constant upon the hearts of believers, than before. And now, what of vacant congregations, as they are described, without a pastor to preach the Word of Life to them and to go out and in among them as the Lord’s servants? And many laymen who have willingly and faithfully served the Master, in opening the Word of Truth to their fellow sinners in many of our congregations, are now getting on in years. “The harvest is great and the labourers are few”; and although the Lord Jesus takes perfect cognisance of all concerning His Cause among us, as elsewhere, yet He will have His disciples to pray “that He would send forth labourers into His harvest”; men who would have the experience of a work of grace in their hearts and be sent forth to be ministers of Christ, by Christ Jesus Himself. Men can run without being sent, and we ought to pray that our Church would be preserved from such men relative to the ministry of the gospel, although they would be converted men.
In the 51st Psalm, David, immediately following upon references to “a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart,” prays to the Most High thus: “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.” This is blessed praying indeed when engaged in with a broken heart. And so may our prayers be arising to heaven, from out of a broken and a contrite heart, and be made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man.