XVII.

JOHN xvi. 23, 24.

"In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."

PRAYER is said to be "the power that moves the arm that moves the world; or, "that opens heaven, that streams of mercy may flow in all their fulness." These, and such like sentiments, do not express the true and simple idea of prayer. They imply that God withholds what is meet, or that, until the creature first moves, He is indifferent to his necessities.

Prayer is the moving pulse, the vital action of the soul. Where it does not beat there is no life, no communion, no fellowship with God. A prayerless soul not only robs God of that devout, reverential homage which is His due, but ignores His characteristic blessedness—the outcoming of Himself, and the imparting of the rich bestowals of His grace to man, whom He has created in His own image, and for which He has destined him.

"Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it," is the unvarying and unchanging purpose of the ever-blessed One. Of the preventing grace of God, which has ever been in advance of man, there is no stint. No one ever truly prays, but realises a blessing. If he be straitened, he is so in himself; for the floodgates of mercy and love are wide open, and the rich streams of benign blessings are ever flowing in all their fulness at his feet.

In order, then, to understand the nature of true prayer, it is important to understand the condition of soul necessary to it. The language of the Old Testament is, “Call upon me and I will answer thee, and shew thee mighty things thou knewest not." True prayer, then, is something far deeper than the mere act or words of prayer. It not only recognises God as the hearer of it, so that we are in His presence, but it demands that condition of soul wherein He may unveil wondrous things, to us hitherto unknown.

Satisfied with some self-approved habit, impatient of advice, and without consideration, men ask: “Who regards not His gifts?" "Who despises His grace?" "Who resists His will?" "Are there not different kinds of prayer, and do we not feel it to be our duty to engage in them?” "Are there not various seasons of prayer, and do we not strive to improve them?" "Are there not encouragements to prayer most exalting, and do we not seek to embrace them?" Yes, truly; but, then, with what result?

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"In that day," said the Lord to His disciples, and so to all men, ye shall ask me nothing; but ye shall ask the Father, and ye shall ask Him in my name.” The same blessings are vouchsafed us. Where do the words of Christ imply otherwise? Yet, many may say, "We have often prayed; we have gone through the routine of public and private prayer; we have come into the great congregation and on our knees publicly, in the hearing of our fellow men, confessed our sins, and have gone into our closets and there gone through our accustomed duty; we have prayed in season and out of season." And, it may be asked, "Was it in Christ's name? or, rather, was it not in your own name, being without result, as your own experience testifies ?"

If we but consider the condition of soul necessary to true

prayer, we cannot fail to notice the importance of the term "In my name," twice mentioned in these verses. The name

of anything usually signifies its nature or properties, as the names of men express something prominent in their life, character, destiny. And when this is referred to the Lord Jesus, it signifies what He really is. He ever desired to be received as coming in the Father's name: "I am come," He said, "in my Father's name, and the works that I do bear witness of me. As the Father knoweth me, so know I the Father. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me. If you do not receive my words, receive my works, that ye may know that what I do, I do in the name of the Father, who hath sent me."

Thus, the disciples were sent forth in His name. They had then believed into Him. As He said, " In my name they shall cast out devils, speak with new tongues, lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." James says, "Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an ensample of suffering affliction and patience." Of whom Peter writes, "They searched what and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow." Thus the same thing is expressed by one, "In the name of the Lord;" by another, "The Spirit of Christ in them." "Whatever ye do," says Paul, “in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus;" that is, do it by Him, or rather, let Him do it dwelling in you. This compendium of Christian life is made to import a vapid and unmeaning signification where it is said, "Do it by His authority and according to His directions." When the Apostle declared that for him to live is Christ; that he knew no man after the flesh, being crucified with Christ; and he did all

things through Christ who strengthened him. John, drawing the Gospel to a close, says, "These things are written that thou mightest believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and, believing, mightest have life in His name." In another place, he says, "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Hence, to have life in His name is identical with possessing the Son of God.

"Hitherto," said the Lord, "have ye asked nothing in my name. I have been with you, but ye have not asked." Why had they not asked? Why are they rebuked for not asking? He was come, the Restorer of all things; the Manifester of the Father, that all might be filled with the fulness of God. He had established His kingdom, and given men power to enjoy its blessings, that, as children of light, they might dwell in the light, as He is in the light. Prayer is, indeed, the realisation of these blessings-the entering into the experience of them. Else, our prayers are not in the name of Christ. We ask amiss, and we have not. How was it, then, that these men who should have witnessed to these truths did not? He had been with them, yet they had not asked. They, as yet, know Him only after the flesh. They understood not how that His visible presence with them, as twelve, was an outward and visible testimony of His abiding presence with all men throughout all time. And when realised, as by His Church, by His indwelling Spirit binding together in one body the members constituting that body, they would ask in His name. Outwardly, they had left all and followed Him, but were ignorant of the inner life-the reality. So long as He was visibly present, they looked not beyond what their senses taught them; they embraced not the spiritual verities of the kingdom; they knew not the Father; they knew not Christ

in His indwelling power, and, consequently, could ask nothing in His name. At the same time many of the poor, despised, ignorant, and neglected, came in the name of the Lord, asked for, and earnestly desired, the provision their heavenly Father had abundantly prepared for them, and they, suffering no repulse, obtained.

Can there be a greater blessing than to ask in the name of the Lord ?-to realise such a condition of soul as to be able to approach, with holy boldness and never-failing confidence, the throne of our Father, and earnestly present a receptivity corresponding to the fulness of the ever-blessed One?

The Lord's rebuke teaches us that there is no position, however exalted, which necessarily confers this blessing. We may fill the highest earthly position, and yet be ignorant of Christ. Even as the Lord said to the disciples, "If ye had known me, ye would have known the Father." Coming in the name of the Father, He had revealed Him. Whom we also shall reveal if we know Christ, the Son of God-are in His name.

Christ is indeed with us; but we must know Him, that in the Son we may know the Father; else, we hate both Him and the Father. But if we believe into Him, greater works than He did shall we do, because He is gone to the Father,— works that will through the Son attest the Father, meeting not the temporal, but eternal necessities of men. Wherefore,

He says, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

The Lord repeatedly strove with His disciples, that they might have a true apprehension of His words, understand their import, and possess the reality. "I am the vine," He says; "ye are the branches. Abide in me, and I in you; for without me ye can do nothing. If ye abide in me, and my