Pray and Faint Not

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · May 8, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 19.

Pray and Faint Not.

"And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man; and there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, Tho I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, tho He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18: 1-8.

THE Master tells His object in giving the foregoing parable. It is that men "ought always to pray, and not to faint." The widow is determined. She will not be put off. She feels that her cause is just and she must have redress against her adversary.

It takes determination to accomplish anything worth while. If we secure the benefits of God's promises, we must set our faces resolutely in that direction. The whole drift in modern times is away from God and His sacred word. The influences that we meet as we mingle with our fellow men are largely of a nature to fill us with indifference to the Bible. This generation is pronounced and strong in its worldly nature, because it is so strongly skeptical.

But these facts do not make of no effect the promises of God. They only make it necessary for us to be resolute and determined in laying hold on these promises.

The parable teaches us "to pray, and not to faint." All the heroes of chivalry and war are to be cast into the dark gloom of oblivion by the true heroism of faith built up by resolute prayer by the ones who will unflinchingly stand with God in these days. T.

Egypt a Witness to Prophecy.

THERE are many indeed who would place more credence in God's prophecies of the present if they only knew more of the fulfilment of His prophecies in the past. There is such ignorance of the word of God that but few indeed know of many witnesses which the history of the world has given and is giving of the fulfilment of the prophetic word. Take, for instance, what God has said concerning Egypt. When this prophecy was spoken by the son of Buzi, Egypt was one of the mightiest nations of earth. At the mouth of the Nile innumerable streams watered the land, and idolatry was rampant. In the 30th chapter of Ezekiel we read, "I will also

destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis; and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt." Egypt to-day is without its images, and for a long period of time it has had no native ruler. Again, "It [Egypt] shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations; and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations." Chapter 29:15. How true it is to-day that Egypt is indeed a base kingdom, one of the very lowest, the existence of which is supported wholly by the powers of Europe. The 12th verse of the 30th chapter declares: "And I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men;" and history records that at the mouth of the Nile where there were many streams there are now few. Egypt is a literal fulfilment of prophecy.