An Unanswered Prayer. In the multitude of applications made to our Lord during His ministry, we know of but one solitary instance which He refused to grant. It was the request of the mother of James and John. As a Jewess possessed of genuine faith, she looked for the promised glorious kingdom of Messiah. Moreover her faith saw in Jesus that Messiah, and, like her people at large, ignoring the fact that the sufferings of the Messiah must come before the glory, she looked for that glory at any moment, and desired her two sons to be in the high places of honor on the right and left of the King. It was a desire born of ambition. To answer it would have contradicted the very nature, and character, and mind, and way of Christ.

That is why many prayers may not be answered. They are born of a motive which is inconsistent with the character of Him to whom they are addressed. But no prayer born of need ever found a deaf ear in our blessed Lord. He may test it with delay, as in the case of the Syrophenician woman, but His heart is engaged, and His almighty power lies behind it. Pray on needy soul, and in due time thy prayer shall turn to praise.