the GRINDSTONE is the most
USEFUL TOOL in the
CARPENTER’S SHOP.
XXXIII. ANSWERED PRAYER.
“And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah.”—1 Kings xvii. 22.
Yes, and He will hear your voice if you are as much in earnest as he was! Why should not God hear the voice of William, or Robert, Sarah or Edith? He is no respecter of persons. Is it not written over the door of mercy, “Knock, and it shall be opened?” Aye, and the knocker is so low a child’s hand may reach it. St. James tells us that Elijah was “a man of like passions.” He was a human being like you and me, but he had faith in God. Why should we not believe in God as much as the prophet did? Is He not God yet? Have any of these sceptics removed Him from His throne? If He is still there, let us come with boldness as Elijah did.
This was not the first time God had heard the voice of His servant, and answered his prayer, and there is no reason why we should not have repeated and continuous replies in answer to our requests. Had Elijah the same wealth of promise we have? Jesus Christ has spoken since those times, and has said things which ought to fill us with hopefulness whenever we pray. What wonderful words of cheer He said in those last few days of His life, such as “Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Look up the references to that verse, and you will feel you must kneel down and ask for something.
But is there not suggested by that word “Ask,” the secret of so much failure? Do we ask? How often, in what is called prayer, there is little or no supplication? We
are to make our requests known. Listen to Elijah: “Lord, let this child’s soul come into him again.” Why should we not pray in the same direct style? Our prayers would not weary others by their length, if, before we knelt down, we thought
What is needed, and needed now.
What a scene when the child began to breathe again! and when the anxious mother was summoned to receive her boy from the dead. “Now,” said she, “I know thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.” When the church fights its battles on its knees, it prevails. Only let us, who say we believe in God, put our faith into petition, and obtain answers, then Infidelity will hide its head. Mr. Finney tells that when he first began to attend a place of worship, it was as an honest inquirer after truth. The members of the church noticed his coming to the prayer meetings with regularity, and presently it occurred to them that the young man might be anxious about his soul. Accordingly they asked him if he would like them to pray for him. He somewhat roughly declined, for, said he, “You don’t get any answers to your prayers for yourselves. You have been for months praying to be revived, and you are not any better.” Perhaps he was right, though rude. We may have in our midst those who would believe the Bible if they saw that we had only to ask to receive.
Let every father bear this in mind when he leads the devotions of his family. Nothing is so likely to save our children from infidelity as their knowing that we receive when we ask, and that our knock brings an open door. If only the family altar were the meeting place between God and man, Atheists might sneer and chatter, but they would