WE have called the attention of our readers to some of the most striking examples of prayer and its remarkable answers recorded in the Old Testament, but we must not fail to mention, among New Testament examples, the Lord's Prayer, the prayer our Saviour taught to His disciples, and which has been passed down thru all the ages, and is known throughout the world. This prayer expresses, in brief, all the essential requisites of a daily morning prayer—praise to God, petition for daily needs, prayer for forgiveness, for guidance, for deliverance from temptation, unto Him whose "is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever."
The prayer of Christ for His disciples, and for us, His followers, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, is the most beautiful in the Sacred Record. Not for Himself did He pray, tho He knew that the cross was just before—but O, how His great heart of love yearned for His disciples! even tho He knew they would forsake Him and flee, and that one of them would deny Him. He loved them, as He does us, with an everlasting love, and with loving-kindness He drew them to Himself. How He pleads that they may be kept from the evil in the world, and that their hearts may be filled with love for God and for one another, even as He had loved them and the Father loved Him!
Nor can we pass over the night in Gethsemane with its agony of supplication, so full of sweet submission. While the heart of Jesus was wrung with anguish, and the weight of the sins of the whole world was resting upon Him, hear that prayer as the bloody drops stand out on His forehead, revealing something of the intensity of the struggle within—hear the words from a heart so full, a frame so weak, with all the hosts of darkness hovering near, almost triumphant in their seeming victory; and all heaven silently, longingly, watching the struggle.
"O My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass." It seems that He can not bear it—alone, forsaken, despised, rejected of men! Yet hear Him still—"Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done."
How heaven rejoices at that prayer, so full of sweet submission, so utterly empty of self. How the angels honor their noble Captain, how they long to strengthen and encourage Him! Three times this yearning petition ascends to the Throne above, and then a heavenly messenger is sent to strengthen Him. He has prevailed with God; He faces the foe, meets the test of the ages, and later rises triumphant, the victorious, glorified Redeemer.
Do I hear some one say that these answers came hundreds of years ago? Is not God the same yesterday, to-day, and forever? What He has done for others, He will most certainly do for us; for He is no respecter of persons.
We quote from Dr. Daniel March:
"There is no joy, or duty, or conflict, or sorrow of life for which we can not be better prepared by prayer. If the child would be kept from the15paths of the destroyer while his heart is tender and his mind is not skilled to discern between good and evil, let him pray. If the young man [or the young woman] would pass in safety thru the dark scenes of trial and temptation, let him pray. If the weary, anxious, hard-working man of business would not be wholly given up to a life of care and endless disappointment, let him pray. If the aged pilgrim would find the last days of life the best, and enter the valley of the shadow of death in peace, let him pray. If any one does not know by personal experience how much of heaven's promised rest can be secured for the soul even now by prayer, he had better leave every other lesson of life unlearned until he has mastered that. The mightiest man on earth is the man who has the most power with God."