Sunday, June 01, 2008
Sermons and Lessons
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
John C. Bowman, President of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church, Lancaster, Pa., and professor of practical theology; born at Chambersburg, Pa.; after completing his course in Franklin and Marshall College and the theological seminary at Lancaster, Pa., entered the ministry as pastor of the Reformed church, Shepherdstown, W. Va.; later became pastor of the Reformed church, Hanover, Pa.; for sixteen years was professor of New Testament exegesis in the theological seminary at Lancaster, Pa.
“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, 1 will do it." - John 14:13,14.
If one may discriminate as to the relative value and importance of the several religious disciplines, I should assign the first place to prayer. It relates itself to all other religious observances and activities as cause to effect. It serves, as no other agency can serve, to bring and keep the soul of man in touch with God, as the source and sup¬port of his spiritual life, and as a strong rock and tower of defense in the midst of life’s perils.
The text is found in what is known as the discourse of Jesus in the upper room at Jerusalem. It was spoken on one of the days of the last week of Jesus, shortly before lie proceeded to Olivet, accompanied by His disciples. Its significance, therefore, is enhanced by the solemnity which attaches to a final message. The words clearly indicate a confidential and spiritual relationship between Jesus and His disciples, such as had not previously existed; and they invest the prayer-problem with a meaning which carries with it corresponding difficulties. Frequently, on former occasions, Jesus had spoken to His disciples of the necessity and efficacy of prayer, and He confirmed his instruction by His example. The several instances of the praying of Jesus, recorded in the gospels, indicate the rule, the habit of His life. At the tomb of Lazarus, while addressing the Father, (John 11:42), He says, “I knew that thou hearest me always.” The word “always” evidently implies the regular habit of prayer. But the words of the text have very special significance in that they contain the promise that the time is drawing near when the disciples shall pray “in the name of Jesus”; and whatsoever they shall ask in His name, shall be given them.
The philosophy of prayer, which satisfies both the faith and the reason of a Christian, rests on certain assumptions, namely, that God is; that He is infinitely wise and good; that, as a father, He has a loving care for His children; that He is ever willing to help them in accordance with their need; and, further, that His help is conditioned by their desire and their cooperation. Prayer is the expression of confidence in the Father’s wisdom and love; also, of the dependence, need, and desire of the supplicating child. Prayer, therefore, is the bond of union between God and His children, the indispensable condition of the bestowal and the reception of divine blessing. But what of the reign of law? The reign of law, wrongly viewed, is an objection and an obstacle to prayer. The reign of law, rightly viewed, is an incentive to prayer. The universality of law does not mean that law works as an unconscious and unintelligent force, but that God works everywhere and in all things conformably to This will and to the designed purposes of creation. Christian prayer does not contradict the divine method; it does not attempt to constrain the will of God to an accommodative compliance with the desires or whims of fallible children. It is, rather, the means by which we lift ourselves up into correspondence with the purposes and the methods of God. It is the harmonizing of our will with the will of God.
In the bestowal of natural blessings God’s laws do not dispense with human cooperation. They demand it. It is part of the reign of law that man must work in harmony with nature in order to obtain what nature has in store. It is God’s method to open to those who - knock; to give to those who ask. In the spiritual kingdom there must ever be a recognition and application of a similar principle. It is not the province of prayer to attempt to withstand the invariable laws established by divine wisdom. That were folly. Prayer seeks correspondence with God ‘s method; and it is in harmony with the divine method, as well as with the law of human personality, that the bestowal of spiritual blessings should be conditioned by conscious human need and earnest desire. The idea of obtaining spiritual blessings without asking, without the free human will cooperating with the divine will, is irrational. It is indeed unthinkable in the light of our knowledge of spiritual life and a human personality.
Prayer is dependence upon divine guidance; it is the craving of divine help; it is the desire to live conformably to the will of Him who is infinitely wise and good; and thus, by glorifying Him, glorify our own nature.
What I have said by way of positive state¬ment concerning the nature and the purpose of prayer is, by implication, an answer to the question as to the efficacy of prayer. It is the height of folly to attempt to prove the efficacy of prayer to those who do not pray, or who doubt the efficacy of prayer. In the very nature of things the efficacy of prayer can be known only to those who observe the habit of prayer. It should count for something that the best and wisest of all ages have prayed, and were helped by prayer as by no other means. It should count for much that Jesus prayed. Shall He be convicted of folly? But the argument most convincing is the argument from experience. Has any one observed the habit of uplifting his mind daily to the throne of God, his thought com¬muning with the Highest? Has any one habitually and fervently prayed in the name of Jesus? If so, for him there is no question as to the efficacy of prayer.
This brings us now to the consideration of the warrant for the high claim made by Jesus. In our text the prayer-problem is conjoined with that of the person of Christ. Prayer is the communion of man with God. How do we know God? How shall we come to Him? Not otherwise than through the revelations which He has made of himself. God in nature, through its varied forms, has revealed, and ever continues to reveal, this wisdom, His power, and His goodness. And through these lower forms, as Bryant in his “Thanatopsis” teaches, nature, or God in nature, “speaks a various language.” And by means of these visible manifestations of the divine, the spirit of worship may be evoked. We lose nothing and may gain much by accepting the truth of natural religion. But this can not satisfy the aspirations and longings of the human heart, craving for communion with God through the highest and fullest revelation which He has made of Himself. Where do we find this? In Jesus Christ; in the moral perfections disclosed through His character and ministry.
In the discourses which lead up to the great pronouncement of the text, and in those which follow it, Jesus claims for Himself unique, ethical sonship with God; an incomparable closeness of fellowship with the Father. “The Father is in me and I in the Father.” “I and my Father are one.” “I speak that which I have seen with my Father.” “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.” “I do always the things which are pleasing to God.” “My meat is to do the will of him who sent me.”
These are but a few of the many passages taken from the teaching of Jesus, as set forth in the Fourth Gospel, which enforce the claim of Jesus to a perfect moral union with God. This claim is not weakened by the supposititious theory that the representation of the teaching of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel is colored by the thought of a theological interpreter. Admitting such inference, yet we may maintain that the coloring does not obscure or weaken, but that it enriches the truth of the teaching of Jesus. The primary question is: Has the claim of Jesus, made through His direct teaching, or through that which has been credited to Him, been made good? Has it been fully vindicated? If so, on what basis? I answer: on the basis of what Jesus was, in His character and in His life, as revealed unto men during his earthly ministry; as authenticated unto men throughout the entire period of Christian history; and as authenticated unto men today. In Jesus Christ, as revealed unto men, there is given the highest and fullest revelation of God. In the moral perfections of His manhood, in the superior excellences of His character, in His flawless virtues, in His unsurpassed and unsurpassable ideals, there is given all-sufficient proof that he is the Son of God; so that, both to Christian faith and enlightened reason, the claim of the divinity of Jesus Christ is fully justified.
And as Jesus is the highest revelation which God has made of Himself, so by virtue of that fact, in Jesus do we find the true mediator between God and man. No one can come to the Father but by him. He is the way, the truth, the life. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” If, therefore, we would go to God in prayer, to commune with Him, to seek His help, we would go to Him preferably in the form in which He has most fully manifested ihimself; that is, in Jesus Christ our Lord. And, further, if we would satisfy the aspirations of the heart to worship God, while we may praise Him in all his works, in His manifestations in nature, in His providential dealings with men and nations; and while we would heed His voice “spoken unto the fathers in the prophets, by divers portions and in divers manners,” yet, would we speak to Him and have Him speak to us, we come to Him as He has revealed Himself in his Son; and we worship God in Christ.
The claim of Jesus to perfect unity and fellowship with the Father being warranted by His character and His life, we can the more clearly apprehend the meaning of the phrase “in my name,” as this appears in the double promise: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.’’ “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” “In my name” - this is the first occurrence of the phrase in the teaching of Jesus, and implies an advance in thought as it does in revelation. It is something of which the Old Testament saints, and even the New Testament dis¬ciples, previous to this time, had not known. But let us not be misled by the very frequent, and perhaps too common, if not irreverent, use of the name of Jesus in prayer. The use of the name of Jesus in prayer, in itself, is no warrant of efficacy. It possesses no spell by means of which a Simon Magus can work wonders. It will not serve as an incantation to be used by the seven sons of Sceva against an evil spirit. Nor is an answer promised to the Christian‘s prayer because it is summarily concluded by the solemn appeal “in Jesus’ name,” or, “for Jesus’ sake,” however sincere may be one’s dependence on the vicarious work of Jesus.
The name of Jesus, just as the name of God, expresses the sum of the qualities which mark the nature or character of the person. It is the embodiment and presentation of what Jesus is, demanding our recognition of the same. To believe in the name of Jesus is to accept as truth the revelation contained in the title. It is to acknowledge and appropriate Jesus in all that He is, and in all that He does for men.
To pray in the name of Jesus designates, on the part of the Christian, a holy and ex¬alted state and action of the spirit correspond¬ing to that of Jesus while praying to the Father. The phrase, “In the name of Jesus,” expresses a spiritual realm of life with which the mind of the Christian is enveloped, and implies that, moving in this realm of thought and life, the Christian is en rapport with the mind of Jesus. It means the identification of the disciple with his Lord. “In the name of Jesus,” designates a relationship to Jesus analogous to that which Jesus sustained to the Father. “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” “I in them and they in me that they may be perfected in one.” “He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” “If ye abide in me and my word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” In all these sayings there is set forth the thought of a profound spiritual kinship and fellowship, implying an essential unity and community of life. Similarly, in the teaching of Paul do we find frequent use of the phrases “in Christ,” “in Christ Jesus,’’ ‘‘in the Lord.” The significance of the preposition “in,” according to such New Testament usage. far transcends its ordinary meaning. Indeed, there is no single word in our language which can serve as its full equivalent. “In the name of Jesus” designates a vital, spiritual union with Christ, which is the basis, the explanation, and inspiration of the Christian’s whole manner of life. It denotes the aim and quality of every virtue and of every act. At the same time it carries with it the promise and pledge of heavenly power and blessedness. We have to do, then, not with a figure of speech, in our interpretation of the words of the text: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do,” but with a fact no less real than that of our spiritual union with Jesus, corresponding to the union which holds between Him and the Father. “In the name of Jesus” impresses the fact of a constant, spiritual environment, in which the personality is implanted, and upon which it ever depends as its source of sustenance and as the incentive to all action.
If the name of Jesus, as embracing the revelation of the Father in the Son, be the element in which the prayerful activity moves, then is the answer fully assured; as much so as though Jesus Himself offered the prayer. Manifestly, no thought or desire which is alien to the spirit of Jesus, and inconsistent with His ideals, can shield itself under the shelter of His name. That only can be in His name which expresses the spirit exhibited by Jesus in His life, and which promotes the ends for which Jesus lived. That only can be prayed in His name which brings to clear expression the principles by which His life was regulated, and the faith by which His conduct was in¬spired.
And whatsoever is prayed in His name shall be granted. “Whatsoever” designates the boundless scope of prayer as the expression of human need and of all lawful human desires. “Whatsoever ye shall ask” - this is the pledge that every need of the religious nature, indeed, of the entire proper nature of man, shall find enduring satisfaction in what Jesus has to give. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name” breathes all the solicitude and tenderness of the Father-heart, and of the Savior’s love in the care of supplicating children as regards their individual or personal needs.
Further, the name of Jesus betokens the comprehensiveness of the Savior’s love. It uplifts the thought and the desire of the individual into the realm of a world-wide loving care. It is the inspiration of all home and foreign missionary activity. Approaching the Father in the name of the Son, we place ourselves in intelligent correspondence with the divine kingdom and the divine purpose; and from the largess of God’s love we may draw the stores of good things which God wills to give for the well-being not simply of the individual or of the family, but of the Church, of the nation, of mankind. All these boundless stores of blessings are open to those who pray in the name of Jesus.
“In the name of Jesus,” while it is the sure pledge of answer to prayer, it is at the same time a severe test of the purity and sincerity of prayer. It is the sure standard by which we distinguish true prayer from prayer expressive of selfish desire, unholy cravings, impure thoughts, emotions, aspirations, born of the will of the flesh and not of the will of God. Prayer in the name of Jesus accepts Jesus as the guide to prayer and as our example in thought, purpose, and life. If we seek to commune with Jesus, as lie communed with the Father if we seek to do His will as He sought to do the Father’s will; if we, in our lives, seek to glorify him as He glorified the Father; then will be realized the blessedness, the joy, and the peace which accompany the constant habit of prayer. And in our life’s experience we shall find all-sufficient testimony to the uplifting power and saving efficacy of prayer.
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John C. Bowman, President of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church, Lancaster, Pa., and professor of practical theology; born at Chambersburg, Pa.; after completing his course in Franklin and Marshall College and the theological seminary at Lancaster, Pa., entered the ministry as pastor of the Reformed church, Shepherdstown, W. Va.; later became pastor of the Reformed church, Hanover, Pa.; for sixteen years was professor of New Testament exegesis in the theological seminary at Lancaster, Pa.
PRAYER IN THE NAME OF JESUS
“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, 1 will do it." - John 14:13,14.
If one may discriminate as to the relative value and importance of the several religious disciplines, I should assign the first place to prayer. It relates itself to all other religious observances and activities as cause to effect. It serves, as no other agency can serve, to bring and keep the soul of man in touch with God, as the source and sup¬port of his spiritual life, and as a strong rock and tower of defense in the midst of life’s perils.
The text is found in what is known as the discourse of Jesus in the upper room at Jerusalem. It was spoken on one of the days of the last week of Jesus, shortly before lie proceeded to Olivet, accompanied by His disciples. Its significance, therefore, is enhanced by the solemnity which attaches to a final message. The words clearly indicate a confidential and spiritual relationship between Jesus and His disciples, such as had not previously existed; and they invest the prayer-problem with a meaning which carries with it corresponding difficulties. Frequently, on former occasions, Jesus had spoken to His disciples of the necessity and efficacy of prayer, and He confirmed his instruction by His example. The several instances of the praying of Jesus, recorded in the gospels, indicate the rule, the habit of His life. At the tomb of Lazarus, while addressing the Father, (John 11:42), He says, “I knew that thou hearest me always.” The word “always” evidently implies the regular habit of prayer. But the words of the text have very special significance in that they contain the promise that the time is drawing near when the disciples shall pray “in the name of Jesus”; and whatsoever they shall ask in His name, shall be given them.
The philosophy of prayer, which satisfies both the faith and the reason of a Christian, rests on certain assumptions, namely, that God is; that He is infinitely wise and good; that, as a father, He has a loving care for His children; that He is ever willing to help them in accordance with their need; and, further, that His help is conditioned by their desire and their cooperation. Prayer is the expression of confidence in the Father’s wisdom and love; also, of the dependence, need, and desire of the supplicating child. Prayer, therefore, is the bond of union between God and His children, the indispensable condition of the bestowal and the reception of divine blessing. But what of the reign of law? The reign of law, wrongly viewed, is an objection and an obstacle to prayer. The reign of law, rightly viewed, is an incentive to prayer. The universality of law does not mean that law works as an unconscious and unintelligent force, but that God works everywhere and in all things conformably to This will and to the designed purposes of creation. Christian prayer does not contradict the divine method; it does not attempt to constrain the will of God to an accommodative compliance with the desires or whims of fallible children. It is, rather, the means by which we lift ourselves up into correspondence with the purposes and the methods of God. It is the harmonizing of our will with the will of God.
In the bestowal of natural blessings God’s laws do not dispense with human cooperation. They demand it. It is part of the reign of law that man must work in harmony with nature in order to obtain what nature has in store. It is God’s method to open to those who - knock; to give to those who ask. In the spiritual kingdom there must ever be a recognition and application of a similar principle. It is not the province of prayer to attempt to withstand the invariable laws established by divine wisdom. That were folly. Prayer seeks correspondence with God ‘s method; and it is in harmony with the divine method, as well as with the law of human personality, that the bestowal of spiritual blessings should be conditioned by conscious human need and earnest desire. The idea of obtaining spiritual blessings without asking, without the free human will cooperating with the divine will, is irrational. It is indeed unthinkable in the light of our knowledge of spiritual life and a human personality.
Prayer is dependence upon divine guidance; it is the craving of divine help; it is the desire to live conformably to the will of Him who is infinitely wise and good; and thus, by glorifying Him, glorify our own nature.
What I have said by way of positive state¬ment concerning the nature and the purpose of prayer is, by implication, an answer to the question as to the efficacy of prayer. It is the height of folly to attempt to prove the efficacy of prayer to those who do not pray, or who doubt the efficacy of prayer. In the very nature of things the efficacy of prayer can be known only to those who observe the habit of prayer. It should count for something that the best and wisest of all ages have prayed, and were helped by prayer as by no other means. It should count for much that Jesus prayed. Shall He be convicted of folly? But the argument most convincing is the argument from experience. Has any one observed the habit of uplifting his mind daily to the throne of God, his thought com¬muning with the Highest? Has any one habitually and fervently prayed in the name of Jesus? If so, for him there is no question as to the efficacy of prayer.
This brings us now to the consideration of the warrant for the high claim made by Jesus. In our text the prayer-problem is conjoined with that of the person of Christ. Prayer is the communion of man with God. How do we know God? How shall we come to Him? Not otherwise than through the revelations which He has made of himself. God in nature, through its varied forms, has revealed, and ever continues to reveal, this wisdom, His power, and His goodness. And through these lower forms, as Bryant in his “Thanatopsis” teaches, nature, or God in nature, “speaks a various language.” And by means of these visible manifestations of the divine, the spirit of worship may be evoked. We lose nothing and may gain much by accepting the truth of natural religion. But this can not satisfy the aspirations and longings of the human heart, craving for communion with God through the highest and fullest revelation which He has made of Himself. Where do we find this? In Jesus Christ; in the moral perfections disclosed through His character and ministry.
In the discourses which lead up to the great pronouncement of the text, and in those which follow it, Jesus claims for Himself unique, ethical sonship with God; an incomparable closeness of fellowship with the Father. “The Father is in me and I in the Father.” “I and my Father are one.” “I speak that which I have seen with my Father.” “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.” “I do always the things which are pleasing to God.” “My meat is to do the will of him who sent me.”
These are but a few of the many passages taken from the teaching of Jesus, as set forth in the Fourth Gospel, which enforce the claim of Jesus to a perfect moral union with God. This claim is not weakened by the supposititious theory that the representation of the teaching of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel is colored by the thought of a theological interpreter. Admitting such inference, yet we may maintain that the coloring does not obscure or weaken, but that it enriches the truth of the teaching of Jesus. The primary question is: Has the claim of Jesus, made through His direct teaching, or through that which has been credited to Him, been made good? Has it been fully vindicated? If so, on what basis? I answer: on the basis of what Jesus was, in His character and in His life, as revealed unto men during his earthly ministry; as authenticated unto men throughout the entire period of Christian history; and as authenticated unto men today. In Jesus Christ, as revealed unto men, there is given the highest and fullest revelation of God. In the moral perfections of His manhood, in the superior excellences of His character, in His flawless virtues, in His unsurpassed and unsurpassable ideals, there is given all-sufficient proof that he is the Son of God; so that, both to Christian faith and enlightened reason, the claim of the divinity of Jesus Christ is fully justified.
And as Jesus is the highest revelation which God has made of Himself, so by virtue of that fact, in Jesus do we find the true mediator between God and man. No one can come to the Father but by him. He is the way, the truth, the life. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” If, therefore, we would go to God in prayer, to commune with Him, to seek His help, we would go to Him preferably in the form in which He has most fully manifested ihimself; that is, in Jesus Christ our Lord. And, further, if we would satisfy the aspirations of the heart to worship God, while we may praise Him in all his works, in His manifestations in nature, in His providential dealings with men and nations; and while we would heed His voice “spoken unto the fathers in the prophets, by divers portions and in divers manners,” yet, would we speak to Him and have Him speak to us, we come to Him as He has revealed Himself in his Son; and we worship God in Christ.
The claim of Jesus to perfect unity and fellowship with the Father being warranted by His character and His life, we can the more clearly apprehend the meaning of the phrase “in my name,” as this appears in the double promise: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.’’ “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” “In my name” - this is the first occurrence of the phrase in the teaching of Jesus, and implies an advance in thought as it does in revelation. It is something of which the Old Testament saints, and even the New Testament dis¬ciples, previous to this time, had not known. But let us not be misled by the very frequent, and perhaps too common, if not irreverent, use of the name of Jesus in prayer. The use of the name of Jesus in prayer, in itself, is no warrant of efficacy. It possesses no spell by means of which a Simon Magus can work wonders. It will not serve as an incantation to be used by the seven sons of Sceva against an evil spirit. Nor is an answer promised to the Christian‘s prayer because it is summarily concluded by the solemn appeal “in Jesus’ name,” or, “for Jesus’ sake,” however sincere may be one’s dependence on the vicarious work of Jesus.
The name of Jesus, just as the name of God, expresses the sum of the qualities which mark the nature or character of the person. It is the embodiment and presentation of what Jesus is, demanding our recognition of the same. To believe in the name of Jesus is to accept as truth the revelation contained in the title. It is to acknowledge and appropriate Jesus in all that He is, and in all that He does for men.
To pray in the name of Jesus designates, on the part of the Christian, a holy and ex¬alted state and action of the spirit correspond¬ing to that of Jesus while praying to the Father. The phrase, “In the name of Jesus,” expresses a spiritual realm of life with which the mind of the Christian is enveloped, and implies that, moving in this realm of thought and life, the Christian is en rapport with the mind of Jesus. It means the identification of the disciple with his Lord. “In the name of Jesus,” designates a relationship to Jesus analogous to that which Jesus sustained to the Father. “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” “I in them and they in me that they may be perfected in one.” “He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” “If ye abide in me and my word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” In all these sayings there is set forth the thought of a profound spiritual kinship and fellowship, implying an essential unity and community of life. Similarly, in the teaching of Paul do we find frequent use of the phrases “in Christ,” “in Christ Jesus,’’ ‘‘in the Lord.” The significance of the preposition “in,” according to such New Testament usage. far transcends its ordinary meaning. Indeed, there is no single word in our language which can serve as its full equivalent. “In the name of Jesus” designates a vital, spiritual union with Christ, which is the basis, the explanation, and inspiration of the Christian’s whole manner of life. It denotes the aim and quality of every virtue and of every act. At the same time it carries with it the promise and pledge of heavenly power and blessedness. We have to do, then, not with a figure of speech, in our interpretation of the words of the text: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do,” but with a fact no less real than that of our spiritual union with Jesus, corresponding to the union which holds between Him and the Father. “In the name of Jesus” impresses the fact of a constant, spiritual environment, in which the personality is implanted, and upon which it ever depends as its source of sustenance and as the incentive to all action.
If the name of Jesus, as embracing the revelation of the Father in the Son, be the element in which the prayerful activity moves, then is the answer fully assured; as much so as though Jesus Himself offered the prayer. Manifestly, no thought or desire which is alien to the spirit of Jesus, and inconsistent with His ideals, can shield itself under the shelter of His name. That only can be in His name which expresses the spirit exhibited by Jesus in His life, and which promotes the ends for which Jesus lived. That only can be prayed in His name which brings to clear expression the principles by which His life was regulated, and the faith by which His conduct was in¬spired.
And whatsoever is prayed in His name shall be granted. “Whatsoever” designates the boundless scope of prayer as the expression of human need and of all lawful human desires. “Whatsoever ye shall ask” - this is the pledge that every need of the religious nature, indeed, of the entire proper nature of man, shall find enduring satisfaction in what Jesus has to give. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name” breathes all the solicitude and tenderness of the Father-heart, and of the Savior’s love in the care of supplicating children as regards their individual or personal needs.
Further, the name of Jesus betokens the comprehensiveness of the Savior’s love. It uplifts the thought and the desire of the individual into the realm of a world-wide loving care. It is the inspiration of all home and foreign missionary activity. Approaching the Father in the name of the Son, we place ourselves in intelligent correspondence with the divine kingdom and the divine purpose; and from the largess of God’s love we may draw the stores of good things which God wills to give for the well-being not simply of the individual or of the family, but of the Church, of the nation, of mankind. All these boundless stores of blessings are open to those who pray in the name of Jesus.
“In the name of Jesus,” while it is the sure pledge of answer to prayer, it is at the same time a severe test of the purity and sincerity of prayer. It is the sure standard by which we distinguish true prayer from prayer expressive of selfish desire, unholy cravings, impure thoughts, emotions, aspirations, born of the will of the flesh and not of the will of God. Prayer in the name of Jesus accepts Jesus as the guide to prayer and as our example in thought, purpose, and life. If we seek to commune with Jesus, as lie communed with the Father if we seek to do His will as He sought to do the Father’s will; if we, in our lives, seek to glorify him as He glorified the Father; then will be realized the blessedness, the joy, and the peace which accompany the constant habit of prayer. And in our life’s experience we shall find all-sufficient testimony to the uplifting power and saving efficacy of prayer.
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