THE GREAT NEED by Donald Sage Mackay, D.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 25, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 43.

THE GREAT NEED.

By Donald Sage Mackay, D.D.

You have been praying for the conversion of a friend for years, wondering why God has not answered your prayers, and perhaps God hopes that you will be the instrument to convert the friend—that you will do the kind of work of love and patience and tenderness, believing your own prayers, and the answer will be given. Some of you have been praying for deliverance from a besetting sin. Some of you here say you want to be Christians; you have been praying that God would make you a Christian. Your prayers, my friend, are already answered; your salvation is knocking at the door of your heart, and continues knocking, and all that is needed is that you will step out upon the promise that your prayers invoked, and God will give you grace. What we need is the girding of our wills upon our sleeve and the incoming of Christ in a complete surrender.

Ah, friends, I think what we need in these days is to learn the punctuation of prayer! What do I mean? I mean that so many of us put after the amens to our prayers a period—a full stop. "Amen," and that is the end. What we should put is a comma, and the next clause will record the answer to your prayer in the measure you are faithful. You remember how that was seen in the life of Nehemiah, and his persistent effort. . . . When building the wall of Jerusalem, and his enemies conspired to undo his work, he said, "I prayed to God, and set a watch day and night." That is the true punctuation of prayer—the "and" with the effort linked to divine grace. When we have learned that secret in personal life and in church life, we shall have mighty trophies of grace.