"Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone ? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent ? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" (Matt. 7:7-11).

These words are indeed the key of an inexhaustible treasury. The apostle James draws from them a simple and irresistible conclusion (4:2, 3):"Ye lust, and have not:ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (or pleasures)." How blessed, how divine, how solemn a word is here ! If we do indeed simply and without qualification, believe it, what an admonition we have as to the secret of so much poverty that our lives manifest, when all heaven's abundance is, as it were, poured out around us, with an earnest invitation to possess ourselves of it !

The words seem only too wonderful to be laid hold of as the simplicity of a child would lay hold of them :and yet here, if the lips of absolute truth are speaking to us,-if they are the words of One upon whom we rest with assurance for the fulfilment of all our "exceeding great and precious," yea, eternal, "promises,"-are we not to depend upon them, as having that fulness of meaning and literality which the Lord emphasizes in the reiteration, "every one that asketh receiveth," and the apostle in his application of them, "Ye have not because ye ask not"? Yet can that be the whole account of the matter ? We look back upon the long list of unfulfilled prayers – prayers put up, as we cannot but think, with much sincerity, often with much importunity, and ask, "can this be the whole account?" Were this the record of our own lives alone also, we might better accept it ; but think of how our own history is echoed in the experiences of all around us; listen to the testimony on every side:how can we disregard this ? And can we write upon all this tale of sorrow and unmet need, as the simple and sufficient account of it, "Ye have not because ye ask not" ?

And yet again we hear the words of Christ to His disciples that, " If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you "(Matt. 17:20). And again, "Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mk. 11:22-24). And again, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do; that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (Jno. 14:13). And still again, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you " (Jno. 15:7). And yet once more, "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" (16:23, 24).

These are all familiar texts to us, no doubt; but how much in earnest is the glorious Speaker, that we should believe their testimony! And this is no wonder, surely, when we hear with what He associates such petitions and their success:the Father's glory, and for His disciples, fulness of joy. Nor is it hard to understand this:heaven opened to men after this manner and its gifts poured out without stint upon earth; the people of God enriched, and proclaiming the fulness and glory of their ascended Head. This, as the end of such a testimony, is at once an enlightenment which makes it easy to realize the importance, and so the naturalness, of it. If God is acting for the glory of that beloved Son who on earth glorified Him and still does, by the revelation of His love and righteousness,-how much will suffice to show the delight He has in the Accomplisher and His accomplishment ? We stand before God as those who are the demonstration of its value, "made the " very "righteousness of God in Him," as well as to declare to the principalities and powers in heavenly places the exceeding riches of His grace. We bow our heads in adoration as we ask ourselves, What may we not expect from divine love which has displayed itself in such a place so given us ?

Yet it has been asserted, and not by an enemy, but by one zealous for the authority of Scripture, that "many there are, who in intensest earnestness have claimed such promises, and have reaped bitter disappointment which has staggered their faith. It is easy," the writer goes on, "to explain the failure by reading into the promise conditions of one kind or another, though the Lord Himself made no conditions whatever."He proposes therefore an-other solution of the matter in this way:-

" Here the striking fact claims attention that while the record of the Pentecostal dispensation presents us with the practical counterpart of all such promises, the epistles, which unfold the doctrine of the present dispensation, and describe the life which befits that doctrine,-the life of faith,-inculcate thoughts about prayer which are essentially different, and which are entirely in accord with the actual experience of spiritual Christians.

"Some perhaps may urge that while the earlier Gospels may be thus explained, St. John cannot be treated in this way. I can in reply but plead with the thoughtful reader to consider whether every word addressed to the apostles is intended to apply to believers at all times. Take Jno. 14:12 as a test of this. Is every believer to be endowed with miraculous powers equal to, or greater than those exercised by the Lord Himself? We are prepared at once to limit the scope of such words:is it so clear, then, that the words which immediately follow are of universal application? We have the fact, I repeat, that both these promises were proved to be true in the Pentecostal dispensation, and that neither has been proved to be true in the Christian Church. So also of chapter 15:16, and of 16:23, etc.

" But it will be asked, Is not the promise explicitly repeated in St. John's first epistle (i John 3:22 and 5:14, 15)? I think not. It seems to me that the apostles were in a special sense empowered both to act and to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, where-as the Christian should bow in the presence of the words, ' according to His will.' As dean Alford remarks, ' If we knew His will thoroughly, and submitted to it heartily, it would be impossible to ask anything, for the spirit or for the body, which He should not hear and perform. And it is this ideal state, as always, which the apostle has in view.' But the Christian too commonly makes his own longings, or his supposed interests, and not the Divine will, the basis of his prayer; he goes on to persuade himself that his requests will be granted; he then regards this 'faith' as a pledge that he has been heard; and finally, when the issue belies his confident hopes, he gives way to bitterness and unbelief. True faith is always prepared for a refusal. Some, we read, 'through faith,' 'obtained promises;' but no less 'through faith,' 'others were tortured, not accepting deliverance.'"* *"The Silence of God," by E. Anderson, App. 187-189.*
I have quoted so much because of the great interest attaching to this subject; and because the quotation also furnishes us with most of the points to be considered. The discussion of them will involve all, or nearly all, that I have in mind to say with regard to it.

Now, in the first place, what Dr. Anderson cites from the late dean of Canterbury is undoubtedly the truth, and may be accepted heartily. The apostle has certainly in view an ideal state, and one below which we may be indefinitely; while nevertheless the attainment of it is to be our aim, and capable of being reached with regard to the matter of our prayers indefinitely also. We can hardly suppose that in the Lord's words, "Ye shall ask what ye will," He meant that His disciples were empowered to set aside God's will in favor of their own. An apostle could here have no advantage (if it were an advantage) beyond the least of all that have ever followed Him. And His connected condition, "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you," remind us plainly of this. It is only as Christ's words have place in us that we are capable of effectual prayer:and such conditions necessarily underlie all promises of this kind, whether they are expressed or not. They are fundamental in order to blessing; and no one with one right thought could desire it otherwise. As the Lord reasons with us in the passage with which we began, it is to a Father that we come, and that which is our fullest encouragement in coming, and the guarantee of abundant answer to our prayers, is that also which guards from abuse of privilege,-guards, therefore, our own best interests. Our Father will give good gifts to them that ask Him:could any other be counted or coveted as gifts at all? No distinctions to be made between any imaginary Pentecostal dispensation differing from the present need to be insisted on, therefore, to explain what is said to stumble so many. God never meant to put the reins of His own government into the hands of even the apostles; and Pentecostal times were not different in this respect. The need of miracles to call men to give heed to heaven's new proclamation has passed:no earthly wealth was ever so trumpeted abroad as the riches of God's grace have been; and it is no wonder if with the need of them, the miracles themselves have passed away. No paralytic need now arise and take up his bed to make men know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins; and if he did, it would scarcely add an appreciable particle of evidence to that which, through all the progress of the centuries, has been, in fact, piling itself mountains high. For the unbelief of the heart, alas, miracles are no cure; and that is all that hinders the knowledge of the glory of the Lord even now covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. This accounts for a wide difference, as to the display of power, between Pentecostal times and our own,-a display which none with intelligence of His Lord's will could seek or expect to revive now. What has been foretold as to the closing days of Christianity as a dispensation is rather the revival of Satan's power; and this is really what we are beginning to see in the marvels of spiritism and kindred things. But the limit which in this way we may find to the "all things whatsoever ye shall ask," and which is only part of that which has been already freely acknowledged, is no reason for taking away from us all promises of this nature, and relegating them either to past or to the future, in the manner attempted here. We may concede also "that the apostles were empowered in a special sense to act in the Name of the Lord Jesus," if by that is meant that they had authority to act in a certain way. That, of course, is implied in the fact that they were apostles. Nevertheless that does not in the least interfere with the fact on the other side, that we are to "do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus," as an apostle himself teaches the Colossians (chap. 3:17). Where we are taught that the apostles had any special right to "pray in His Name," I have not found; and I think no one can produce the passage. An official place, God-given among men, we must all acknowledge to be theirs:but as approaching God, Scripture does not teach us that apostleship conferred any special rights:it belonged to another sphere; and there all Christians as such are of a holy priesthood,-their one High-priest is Christ alone.

In fact, no Gospel is so unofficial as that of John, which furnishes us with the passages which speak of prayer in the name of Jesus. The very word "apostle " cannot be found in it. Christians would not readily resign, it may be hoped, their interest in these precious promises; and, instead of finding in that ideal state of knowledge which, according to dean Alford, they imply, a deterrent from putting in their claim to them, should surely recognize with joy and gratitude that God in them is calling them to a higher elevation and a nearer intimacy than they have yet perhaps even imagined possible. He has opened all His heart to us. And this privilege of praying in the Name of Jesus imports for us, not a mere asking for His sake, but God's identification of His people with Himself-with all the value that this Name has for Him. We represent Him; and His Spirit given to us is the practical qualification to represent Him. We are to do in His Name whatsoever we do, as those for whom their own wills are ended; their interests in His omnipotent Hand,- men who have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him:where there is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free; but Christ is all, and in all (Col. 3:10, 11). How complete is this change of view! What a clearing of spiritual sight for those who have gained it!

Now to pray in His Name, how different is it from the mere dependence upon the efficacy of His atonement for our acceptance, the putting His Name in this way at the end of our prayers. It is the taking a place which at once declares what is to be the character of our petitions. It does not by any means rule out the personal element:on the contrary it opens before us a wondrous inheritance into which we are invited already by faith to enter, and make it our own. Here we may covet-covet-covet; and the more we do so, the more pleasing shall we be to God our Father, whose glorious gift to us it is. Here is a sphere in which prayer will never be denied, if it be the prayer of the whole-and not the halfhearted. Here are precious harvests to be reaped, of which yet the indifferent shall and can know nothing. While on the earth there are precious harvests too, and still spiritual harvests, in which the fruit of labor shall abide with us forever; when the very scene of man's gaudiest achievements in art, in science, in the various conquest of a world put under him, but in which he knows little more than a great Babylon which he has builded, is passed away like a shriveled scroll in the fire of God's anger!

But as fellow-laborers under God, there are still limits to successful prayer. Nor is it because the thing prayed for is in a certain sense undoubtedly according to His mind, that we can necessarily pray with full expectation of answer. There was with Paul, as we know, a heart that yearned after the salvation of Israel; yet the voice of the Lord sent him out from among them with the assurance, "They will not hearken to thy testimony concerning Me." And if all Christians were to unite in heart and voice to Him who willeth not that any should perish, for the salvation of the world en masse, who could rightly expect answer to such a prayer ? The word of God has barred it in the emphatic statement as to the Spirit of God, that "the world cannot receive Him" (John 14:17).

These are words absolutely plain, surely; but can we then wonder if we find the same principle applying in other relations ? If in the things which seem most manifestly according to the character of God we may yet need the check of His ever perfect will, how evident it is that we may much more need it in things of more doubtful nature. Here we are privileged still to make our requests to God, and never in vain; though the answer may be like that of the apostle's for the removal of the thorn in the flesh, in a very different way from that which we anticipated. Can we never, then, rise to that perfect certainty with regard to these which is implied in the exhortation, to believe that we receive them and we shall have them? Most surely we can; but there is no way to this but by drawing near enough to God to gain such assurance. Here is the high place in which we ought to dwell; nor can we expect to attain it when sought temporarily under the pressure of some present need, while content in general with a greater distance. Our weakness may indeed claim His strength, our ignorance His wisdom to enlighten us, but not our waywardness ability to use and cast Him off again,-to claim His gifts, with the best and highest of all unvalued. In the Christian place, where the Lamb is the light and glory, and in His light all is seen, what may we not attain ?

Beloved reader, how far do you and I know the reality of praying in His Name ? F. W. G.