December 17

Where I record my name I will come unto thee . . . and bless thee. — Ex. xx. 24.

If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. — MATT. xviii. 19. 20.

CHRISTIANS are brethren. With a community of in- terests, they have common needs and wants. Here is our Lord's special promise to them when they meet together to ask for what they in common desire. There are promises to private prayer, to family prayer, to public prayer; this promise is to the symphony of prayer. Giving the smallest number that could form a union, Christ gives the largest encouragement to united prayer. Very sweet is the assur- ance of his presence then; that is enough. He is the She- chinah in this Holy of Holies. It is he who binds the saints together when they say "our." When he is one of a pray- ing company, what wonder that "it shall be done for them"? As Westcott says, "Their prayer is only some form of his teaching transformed into a supplication, and so it will neces- sarily be heard." They ask in his name; that pleads his authority and his wisdom. Christ has omnipotence and omniscience; we have neither. It were not to be desired, if this large promise offered the first and not the second. Let us therefore have faith, and "keep not silence till he estab- lish Jerusalem."

John Reid

Oh, joy, that we, who pray for all, by all

Commended are to God in daily prayer!

Yea, now, as in time past, and yet again

Through time to come, that church which shall not fall

From night to morn breathes forth upon the air

Meek intercession for the sons of men. SIR AUBREY LE VERE.