XII
ONE OF PAUL'S PRAYERS
"Lord, teach us to pray,"--Luke xi. i.
"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father..."--Eph. iii. 14-19.
If we do not learn to pray, it will not be for want
of instructions and examples. Look at Abraham,
taking it upon him to speak unto the Lord for
Sodom. Look at Isaac, who goes out to meditate
in the field at the eventide. Look at Jacob, as
he wrestles until the breaking of the day at the
Jabbok. Look at Hannah, as she speaks in her
heart. Look at David, as he prevents now the
dawning of the day, and now the watches of the
night, in a hundred psalms. Look at our Lord.
And then, look at Paul, as great in prayer as he
is in preaching, or in writing Epistles. No,--if
you never learn to pray, it will not be for want of
the clearest instructions, and the most shining
examples.
Our Lord's Intercessory Prayer is above us: it
is beyond us. Of the people there are none with
our Lord when He prays. There is inexhaustible
instruction in our Lord's Intercessory Prayer; but
we must take our examples from men like ourselves.
After our Lord, there is no nobler sight to be seen
on earth than Paul on his knees in his prison in
Rome. All the Apostle's bonds fall from off
him as he kneels in prayer for the saints in
Ephesus, and for all the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Truly the Apostle has not fainted in his tribulations
when he can rise to such intercession and
adoration as this. "For this cause I bow my
knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named."
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage!
No,--not when those stone walls and those iron
bars have an Apostle Paul within them. For, as
Paul kneels on his prison floor, its dark roof becomes
a canopy of light: and its walls of iron become
crystal till Paul sees the whole family in heaven
and on earth gathered together in one, and all filled
with the fullness of God. Not Jews and Gentiles
only, of twain made one new man; but all created
things that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers. He sees all
the angels of God in all their endless ministries.
He sees the Archangels in their mighty dominions.
He sees the Cherubim shining with knowledge, and
the Seraphim burning with love. "Every family,"
is Paul's great and all-embracing word, "every
family in heaven and earth." Paul sees them all;
he salutes them all: he loves them all: he prays
for them all. Paul has the heart of a brother toward
them all. And all that, because his Father is their
Father; and his God their God; and his Master their
Master. And as he looks up at them with wonder,
they look down at him with desire. Much as they
could tell him, they feel that he could tell them
far more. They are not ignorant of God: God
hath not left His heavenly families without a
witness. Both in their creation and in their confirmation;
both in their occupations and in their
wages; both in their worship and in their wars,--
they all live, and move, and have their being in
God. But some of their elect and travelled fellows
have returned, and have told them things that
have set all their hearts on fire. Gabriel, for one;
the angel who was sent with strength to the Garden
of Gethsemane, for another; as also the multitude
of the heavenly host who praised God and said,
"Glory to God in the highest!"--all these favoured
sons of God had it to tell their fellows that not
the seventh heaven itself, but this lowest earth
alone, had seen the fullness of the Father's love.
And not in envy but in love they "desire to look
into these things." Paul from his prison looks
up to them, and they from a thousand shining
walls and towers and battlements and palaces look
down at him. And then, both earth and heaven
simultaneously cease from one another, and look
at Christ. "And the number of them was ten
thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of
thousands; saying with a loud voice, Blessing and
honour and glory and power: Amen!" And as
the angels sang, Paul rose up off his knees, and took
his pen and wrote this to us: "For verily He took
not on Him the nature of angels: but He took on
Him the seed of Abraham.... Wherefore, holy
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider
the Apostle and High Priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus."
Let us then also, my brethren, as often as
we lift our eyes and look up at the sun and
the moon and the stars,--at Arcturus, and the
bands of Orion, and the sweet influences of Pleiades,
and the Chambers of the South--let us see, inhabiting
and holding them all for God, His "every
family" named after Him. Let us often visit in
faith, and in love, and in imagination, all the
Father's families, intellectual and moral and
spiritual, that people the whole created universe.
Let us lift up our hands and salute them, and love
them in God their Maker, and in Jesus Christ their
Strength, if not also their Redeemer. If they are
not jealous of us, we need not be jealous of the
best of them. As yet they far excel us in glory:
but they would count it all loss to be "found in
Christ not having their own righteousness." Yes:
come, all ye shining angels of God, and I will tell
you what He hath done for my soul! Tell me
about your God, and I will tell you about my God.
How has he made you? And out of what substance?
And just in what image? How has He
spoken and written to you, and in what language
of Heaven? In what way has the
Logos enlightened
you? In what way has the Son, Who is in the
bosom of the Father, revealed the Father to you?
Just in what way do you know what is to be known
of God? Is there no kind of sin among you?
Did you ever hear about sin? Do you know what
it is? When one of your number is talented, and
favoured, and employed, and trusted, and loved,
and brought nearer the throne than another, what
do you feel to your brother in your hearts? Do
your hearts grow richer in love as your ages go on?
Or have you ages in Heaven? Have you days and
nights and weeks and years in Heaven? Do you
never grow old? Have you no death? What is
your occupation? What are your wages? What
is your way of taking rest? How do you worship?
How much do you know about us? Can you see
us at your distance? Has anyone of our race of
men ever visited your cities? And what did he
tell you about himself, and about us? Oh, all ye
lofty worlds of life, and light, and obedience, and
blessedness, we take boldness to salute you in
the name of our Father,--in His great Name, after
which every family in heaven and earth is named!
Far more out of the body than in it, the Apostle
now bows his knees to the Father for that little
family of saints and faithful in Christ Jesus that
God has in Ephesus, "that he would grant them
to be strengthened with might by His spirit in the
inner man." What a sweep of spiritual vision
from every family in heaven down to the inner
man of every Ephesian believer! What wonderful
flights of spiritual vision Paul took! And with
what swiftness and sureness of wing! But, what
exactly is this that he here prays for with such
importunity and nobility of mind? What is the
"inner man"? And what is the strength of the
inner man? An illustration is far better than a
description. And our Lord Himself--Blessed be
His Name!--is the best description and illustration
of spiritual strength in the inner man. "And the
child grew," we read, "and waxed strong in spirit,
filled with wisdom, and the Grace of God was upon
Him." Was upon Him, and was within Him, till
He stood up in the fullness of that wisdom and that
strength, and took the Book, and found the place,
and said to the men among whom He had been
brought up, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in
your ears." And, from that notable day, our Lord's
whole life was one long and unbroken illustration
to us of that strength in the inner man that
we are now in search of. When He loved His
enemies: when He did good to them that hated
Him: when He blessed them that cursed Him:
when He prayed for them that despitefully used
Him: when, smitten on the one cheek, He offered
also the other: when His cloke was taken away, and
He forbade them not to take His coat also: when
He gave to him that asked of Him: when He did
to all men as He would have all men do to Him:
when He judged not, nor found fault, but forgave
as much as if he had Himself needed to be forgiven:
when He was merciful, even as His Father
in Heaven is merciful: when He gave, looking not
to receive again, good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, and running over into men's
bosoms: "when He was reviled, and reviled not
again: when He suffered and threatened not...
but His own self bare our sins in His own body on
the tree"--that was strength in the inner man.
Paul, himself, in no small measure, had in himself
the same inner man and the strength that his
Master had. "For this thing I besought the Lord
thrice, that it might depart from me. And He
said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for
My strength is made perfect in weakness....
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,
in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for
Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I
strong."(2Cor.12:8-10)
Now, were some true and Paul-like friend of ours,
who has power with God, to bow his knees to the
Father for this same strength to strengthen us in
our inner man--how would the answer show itself?
It would show itself in this way. In that thing in
which we are now so weak, so easily tempted, so
easily overtaken, and so easily overthrown--in that
thing, and at that time, we should then stand firm.
At what times and in what places in your life do
you bring shame and pain and defeat and bondage
on yourselves? In what are you a burden, and an
offence, and a hindrance, and a constant cross to
your families and friends and acquaintances? Well,
all that would then come to an end, or, if not all at
once to an end,--as it would not,--yet all that would
begin to come to an end. With that strength
strengthening you in the inner man, you would begin
to be patient and silent and strong to endure under
provocation. You would be able to command
yourself where you were wont to be lashed up into
a passion. You would begin to look on the things
of other men. You would enjoy other men's happiness
as, at present, you enjoy your own. You
would be as grieved to hear an evil report of other
men as it to-day kills you to be told evil reports
about yourself. You would rejoice with them that
do rejoice: and you would weep with them who
weep. You would suffer long, and you would be
kind: you would not entertain envy: you would
not vaunt yourself: you would not be puffed up:
you would not behave yourself unseemly: you
would not seek your own: you would not be easily
provoked; you would think no evil: you would not
rejoice in iniquity, but you would rejoice in the
truth: you would bear all things, believe all
things, hope all things, endure all things. In
all these things, as the outward man perished,
the inward man would be renewed day by day.
Brethren, pray for us! And God forbid that we
should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray
for you!
But the interceding Apostle contracts and concentrates
this prayer of his for the Ephesians in a
very remarkable way. He concentrates and directs
his prayer on one special kind of strength. Paul is
as much bent on finding faith in the Ephesians as
Christ was bent on finding it in Jew and in Gentile,
and was overjoyed when He found it. "That
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." But
how?--just in what way does Christ dwell in that
man's heart in which faith is strengthened? Well,
take an illustration again. How did the still absent
bridegroom dwell in the heart of the bride in the
song? Listen to her heart, and you will see for
yourself. "By night on my bed I sought him
whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found
him not. Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? I
charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye tell
him that I am sick of love. Oh, that thou wert as my
brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother!
I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's
house. His left hand should be under my head,
and his right hand should embrace me. Set me
as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm:
for love is strong as death. Many waters cannot
quench love, neither can the floods drown it."
That is something of the way Christ dwells in his
heart who is strengthened by faith. That is the way
he dwelt in John and Paul and in our own Samuel
Rutherford. And why not in you and me? Simply
because no one has prayed for us, and we have not
prayed for ourselves, that Christ may dwell in our
hearts by faith. No prayer,--no faith,--no Christ in
the heart. Little prayer,--little faith,--little Christ
in the heart. Increasing prayer,--increasing faith,--increasing
Christ in the heart. Much prayer,--much
faith,--much Christ in the heart. Praying always,--faith
always,--Christ always. "Hitherto ye have
asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive,
that your joy may be full."
"That ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
..may be able to comprehend with all saints what is
the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
and to know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge.." (Eph.3:17-19) You cannot construe that. You
cannot make grammar and logic out of that. You
cannot make theological science out of that. You
cannot shut that up into a confession of faith, or
contract it into a Church catechism. Paul is a
mystic. Paul is a poet. Paul is of heart and
imagination all compact. Paul has science, and he
has clearness and crispness of intellect of the very
first order. But he will tell you himself that he
never in any of his Epistles speaks the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth, because they are spiritually discerned.
"Rooted and grounded." I defy you when you
first try it to make anything of that. I defy you,
all you can do, to reconcile that. You never saw
anything like that in all your experience. There
is nothing created by God, or manufactured by
man, like that. You never heard before this
prayer, nor have you ever heard since this prayer,
of anything that was both rooted and grounded.
There is no such thing. There is no such thing but
a saint's heart. A tree is rooted, and a house is
grounded: a tree has a root, and a house has a
foundation: but no house has a root, and no tree
has a foundation. No houses but holy hearts: no
trees but the trees of righteousness, the planting of
the Lord. But here--all you who love to hear of
wonders and strange tales--here is a house with
roots, and a tree with foundations! And all that
deep down in the divine ground of love. Magnificent
man! A master of men! A master of the
inner man of the heart! Great Paul! Great
original! Great Apostle! Both Apostle and Poet
of Jesus Christ!
"And to know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge." There, again! What can we make
of a man like Paul? You cannot draw out leviathan
with a hook. Wilt thou play with him as with a
bird? Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
He maketh the sea to shine after him. One would
think the deep to be hoary. And yet, do not despair!
For it is this same leviathan among men who has
written with his own hand this combined challenge
and encouragement. "Where is the wise? Where
is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?(1Cor.1:20)
.. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men.(1Cor.1:25)
.. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God.(1Cor.2:5)" Yes! I begin
to see! It passes knowledge to know it all: but,
if it were not possible to me to know the love of
Christ in my own measure, Paul would never mock
me by such a prayer. All saints, he says, know
that love well. Then the least saint, and he who
is not worthy to be called a saint, may have his
own little knowledge ofthat love. A saint, indeed, is
not a saint at all: a true saint is just a great sinner
seeking to taste the love of Christ. Only "tell
me which of them will love Him most... I suppose
He to whom He forgave most... Thou has rightly
judged."
The truth, my brethren, the blessed truth is
this--that instead of it being a difficulty, and a
hardship, and an offence that the love of Christ
passeth knowledge,--that is the crowning glory of
Christ's love: that is our crowning blessedness.
The love of Christ has no border: it has no shore;
it has no bottom. The love of Christ is boundless:
it is bottomless: it is infinite: it is divine. That it
passeth knowledge is the greatest thing that ever
was said, or could be said about it, and Paul was
raised up of all men to see that and to say it. We
shall come to the shore, we shall strike the bottom, of
every other love: but never of the love of Christ!
No, never! It passeth now, and it will for ever
pass, knowledge. You, who have once cast yourselves
into it, and upon it--the great mystic speaks
of it as if it were at once an ocean and a mountain,--you
will never come to the length of it, or to the
breadth of it, or to the depth of it, or to the height
of it. To all eternity, the love of Christ to you
will be new. It will fill you full of wonder, and
expectation, and imagination; full of joy and
sweetness and satisfaction: and still the half
will not be known to you. Heap up eternity
upon eternity, and still the love of Christ to
you will make all eternity to be but the springtime
of life to you, and still but the early
days of your everlasting espousals. The love of
Christ will, absolutely and everlastingly, pass
all knowledge. The love of Christ, like the
peace of God, will everlastingly pass all understanding.
"And, that ye might be filled with all the fullness
of God." (Eph:3:19) What that is, and what that will for ever
be,--"it is not lawful for a man to utter."
