p. 755 | The Best Time to Pray by S. Cornelius

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 17, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 48.

The Best Time to Pray.

By S. Cornelius

A REMARK which I heard from the pulpit in my boyhood made a deep impression on my mind, and has been of great practical use to me many times ever since. It was this: "When you feel least like praying, then of all other times is the time to pray."

There are times of peculiar depression which every one has felt, when the mind becomes the prey of languor and melancholy. The causes of such a condition it is not always easy to determine. We cannot always distinguish between the animal and spiritual in our natures. It may be only a morbid condition of body that has produced a morbid condition of mind. We may think our case to be a case of spiritual desertion when it is only a case of ennui or indigestion. Disordered bodily organs affect the brain sympathetically; the mental poise is disturbed, and we begin to tremble and doubt and fear, loosening our hold upon the promises when we should tighten it. The words of the prophet are pertinent to such a condition: "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." An apostle teaches a like lesson when he says, "We walk by faith, not by sight."

If some certain frame of our minds or state of our feelings were requisite to our acceptance with God, who but must despair of acceptance? But we are "accepted in the Beloved." And, albeit it becomes us to hide our faces, so often shaded with gloom and quiet, in the dust of contrition, we may ever cry with penitent faith, "Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed." It is the privilege of the believer, when some melancholy mood is upon him, with praiseful and prayerful heart to exclaim, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Yes, pray the more because of your low spirits and your desponding thoughts; and the Sun of Righteousness will shine through the mists and vapors to the joy of your soul, for "light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart."

But we have real as well as fancied afflictions; and under the pressure of some sudden, and, as it appears to us, strange trouble, we may be almost irresistibly inclined to "cast away our confidence." We are— "Encompassed with clouds of distress, Just ready all hope to resign." And wherefore? Our case is thus described by the pen of inspiration: "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him." We are very slow to understand that such a time is one of our chief spiritual opportunities. "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." It is one of the blessed prerogatives of Christ in his relation to his people "to give unto them

beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Divine grace is adjusted to all the changing conditions of divine providence, with full provisions for every new want, and with special intervention for every new emergency. The greater the need of his people, the greater the succor their Lord will afford them. They cry aloud, and he hastens to their relief. What better time can there be for prayer than the time of our direst necessity? "Is any afflicted, let him pray."

That vile tempter who is always lying in wait to deceive us will contrive, if possible, to get us into some moral difficulty, and then delude us into the idea that we must relieve ourselves of the difficulty before we dare to call upon God. Such are "the depths of Satan." Happy are they who are "not ignorant of his devices." Betaking themselves to the sure word of promise, they will find it written there: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." From the edge of the net, the pit, the prison, in which Satan would fain inclose them, they cry to a covenant-keeping God, and are delivered. When is the very best time to pray, if it be not when the very stress of trouble is upon us, when the hour of greatest extremity is reached, when the deadliest peril is imminent?

The sinner is more easily deceived. He waits for what he imagines will be a better time to pray. He spangles himself over with tinsel merits, striving in vain to make himself worthy to approach a holy God. He imagines that he may yet give himself a better recommendation to the Saviour than he now dares to do. O foolish sinner, add not to your guilt by delay, but come just as you now are, and beg for mercy at the hands of your Redeemer. He might justly spurn you; but, O, he will not, if you will but seek his favor at once as he bids you. Now, now is the best time for you to pray.—S. Cornelius, D. D., in the Baptist Flag.