PRAYER by C. L. Gregory

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 11, 1879

PRAYER

By C. L. Gregory

Go, burdened one, to God in prayer, And grace and pardon seek; Soon his rich blessings you will share, While kneeling at his feet.

PRAYER is the sincere desire of the heart after needed blessings; and if those desires are in harmony with God’s law, and are presented to him with earnest supplication, they will surely be granted. We are assured of this in the word of God. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

It is inconsistent for professed believers in divine revelation to “go mourning all the day,” when if they would “pray without ceasing,” they might “rejoice evermore,” be a blessing in their family connection, to the church and to the world. Unceasing prayer would prevent the young convert from leaving his first love, and thus there would be none lukewarm among the followers of Christ.

What a spectacle to angels was Daniel, the “greatly beloved,” when in the presence of enemies who hated God’s law, he held intercourse with the King of Kings, with the great Lawgiver. What a host of names are enrolled in life’s fair book, of whom it will be said in the Judgment, they walked with God.

We think we have true earthly friends; but they sometimes prove treacherous. Not so with the blessed Saviour; “he is a friend which sticketh closer than a brother.” Go, ye burdened ones, to him with your complaints. He will never betray you, nor will he upbraid you, though you “touch the hem of his garment;” but he will cure you of all your maladies, and finally, if faithful, will bring you into “everlasting habitations.”

C. L. GREGORY.