10.05 The need of intercessory prayer

V. THE NEED OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER

There are some special features in each of the two parables as to which a few words may be added. In the parable of the Friend at Midnight, the request is made on behalf of another of the traveller who arrives unexpectedly! We need not dwell on the possible occult meanings which subtlety of interpretation may extract out of the relations of the traveller and his host. But we shall be true to the spirit of the parable if we learn from it the need of earnest intercessory prayer in our dealings with men with whom in any way our lot is cast. No one can look back upon his life without marvelling at the mystery of human intercourse. People, we say, “come into our lives,” from all sorts of life-journeys, unexpected, uninvited. It is an experience which will become more and more common as modern life grows in complexity. There is a widespread restlessness of mind and of body which drives men forth from the settled homes of custom. There are more travellers in the region of the spirit, as over the face of the globe, than there used to be. May we not say that now in every circle of friends, nay in every home, there is a society of travellers, each engaged in some journey of his own, of which the others are perhaps ignorant, and in which they cannot follow him? If there is any human hospitality in our characters, such travellers will often arrive at our doors, unexpected, perhaps out of the unknown, when we are least ready for them, asking us for strength, for refreshment, for rest in their journey. Here arrives one in great moral perplexity asking for advice; another, in the lonely wandering of sorrow, asking for comfort; another, who has lost his way in doubt, asking for light; or, in the words of S. Augustine, “perchance there cometh some wearied friend of thine, who, worn out amid all the desires and the poverty of the world, comes to thee as to a Christian and says, ’Give me an account of it, make me a Christian.’ “May we not say that an unexpected traveller is knocking at the door when the mother hears a sudden and troubled question come from the lips of her child; or when a man discerns in quiet talk a new note of sadness or of entreaty in the voice of his old friend? And alas! often when the traveller comes we “have nothing to set before him.” We are taken unawares: our minds have been asleep: our own spirit is tired: our stock of provender, always scanty enough for our own souFs need, is for the moment exhausted. What are we to do? We cannot turn the traveller from our door: but it is useless to keep him waiting with barren words: he has come for bread. In such a strait and who is there who does not or may not find himself in it? there is but one thing to do. We must go at once at the very midnight of the unexpected arrival to the Friend in Whose treasures there is provision for the needs of every human soul. We must rouse Him by the earnestness of our prayer, and ask Him to give the bread which we lack. I know by abundant experience that it has made all the difference in helping those who have asked for help whether or not one has immediately gone with their need to God. One who exercised great influence for good at Cambridge has even said that he almost gave up much talking to those whom he wished to help in order that he might devote the time to what he found far more effective much praying for them. It is indeed best to have something of our own which we can set before these life-travellers who come to us a sympathy trained to be discerning, a frankness which is willing for another’s sake to speak of self, or in these days especially some real knowledge of the Christian Faith, and some ability to give at least that reason for it which has convinced ourselves. But even then we have need of prayer that we may present what we have in the way and with the tact which will best commend it, above all that we may secure the aid of that Holy Spirit without Whom no words of ours can go home to another’s heart or mind or conscience. Constant prayerfulness keeps the spirit in readiness for these sudden demands and enables it to meet them.

It was said of the Spanish mystic, Juan deAvila, that “he seemed always as if he had just issued forth from a long and fervent prayer, and his very look was enough to edify men.” The spirit of prayer is the secret of influence. And remember, once again, that prayer for others must be insistent and persistent. It is the mother who prays with the constancy of a Monica who wins her son for God. It is the man who inwardly wrestles with God for his friends, who becomes a Prince in influence over them and prevails.

TAGS: [Parables]