Christ Prayed by Mary L. Williams

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 18, 1873

Christ Prayed.

By Mary L. Williams

While upon the earth, Christ spent much of his time in prayer. He often retired from the din and bustle of the city, and even from the company of his beloved disciples, and withdrew to some secret place, where alone he could commune with his Father in Heaven. On one of these occasions he passed the whole night upon a bleak mountain, exposed to the cold dews of heaven and the chill blasts of night, in prayer to his Father. Surely this was a sight upon which Heaven must have looked with delight. Angels must have lingered round the spot, to catch the accents of his voice as he poured out his soul to God.

The Son of God in prayer! He who existed before the worlds began, and was the express image of his Father, he alone passed through the world untarnished by sin. Yes! he prayed upon all occasions; in prosperity and in adversity, in the wilderness and upon the mountain top, where no eye but his Father’s was upon him. As he hung upon the cruel cross, he prayed for his murderers, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Christ taught his disciples to pray. While upon earth he sympathized with them in every trial.

Have we not the same friend now to lend a listening ear to our humble prayers, and grant help in time of need? Our Father has promised to hear our petitions if we go to him in the manner he directs, “believing that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.” I fear many of us have too much of the spirit of the Pharisee, and desire to be heard for our much speaking. We should ever remember the poor publican, that did not so much as raise his head, but cried, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” His prayer was acceptable to God, the Pharisee’s was not.

The apostle Paul exhorts us to “pray without ceasing.” When we are engaged in our every day-duties our hearts may be uplifted to God. He also says in 1 Cor. 16: 13, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” We may feel our weakness, and think we cannot overcome the world, the flesh, and Satan; but the Lord is for us, and he is greater than all that can be against us. Paul, in his letters to the Gentile churches, requests to be remembered in their prayers. James, who was taught how to pray, says the “prayer of faith shall save the sick.” Peter tells us as the end of all things is near that we are to pray. John, the beloved disciple, left us word that “whatsoever we ask, if we keep the commandments, we shall receive.”

Let our hearts be clean; let our souls be full of holy, burning zeal, and it shall come to pass that before we call, will God answer; and while we are yet speaking, will he hear.

“It was the Saviour’s prayer That on the silence broke, Imploring strength from Heaven to bear The sin-avenging stroke, As in Gethsemane he knelt, And pangs unknown his bosom felt. “The chosen three that stayed, Their nightly watch to keep, Left him through sorrows deep to wade, And gave themselves to sleep; Meekly and sad he prayed alone; Strangely forgotten by his own. “Among the mountain trees The winds were whispering low, And night’s ten thousand harmonies Were harmonies of woe; For cruel voices filled the gale That came from Cedron’s gloomy vale.”

MARY L. WILLIAMS.

Hardin Co., Ky., Jan. 23, 1873.