THE minister who keeps his connection with Christ strictly intact, and who is fervent in secret prayer, will always have good success in the work’ of God. Jesus indicated this very strongly when He spoke of the “true vine.” He said, “I am the true Vine,” and then, in speaking of the connection the branch has with the vine, He says, “I am the Vine, ye are the branches : He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit : for without Me ye can do nothing.” 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. Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.” Much fruit is the result of a healthy connection and association with Christ; “not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.”
“We are great only as we are God-possessed; and scrupulous appointment in the upper room with the Master will prepare us for the toil and hardships of the most strenuous campaign. We must therefore hold fiiinly and steadily to this primary principle, that of all things that need doing, this need is supreme, to live in intimate fellowship with God.” (Jowett.) To live in intimate fellowship with God is our supreme and superlative need as ministers. Shall we permit the Lord to help us in this?
Only through prayer can this fellowship with God be obtained. How do we stand in regard to secret prayer? We read, “Our brethren do not wrestle with God in prayer all night long, as godly men have done it who worked before us.” Shall this be said any longer of us? Shall our lives not become more and more lives of deep prayer?
Of Jesus it is said, “In the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Then again, “It came to pass in those days that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” Is this not a wonderful example set for us by the Master? There is nothing surprising in His great victories when we consider Him in this marvellous attitude of ccnstant and earnest prayer.
“Luther was a man of prayer. His decision to do something is shown in his prayers. He prayed for immediate results, and they came. His prayers had as results a daring undertaking which depended upon the promises of God. He was placed in the position where he could wreck the mighty power of Rome, so that the foundation of the Papacy began to quiver in all lands.” What a mighty man Luther became through prayer. But not only he. There were many ethers likewise, Wycliffe, Calvin, Knox, Zinzendorf, Wesley, Whitfield, Spurgeon, and many others. The first thing I wanted to see in Wesley’s house when I visited it, was his prayer chamber where he secured the power to draw thousands to his meetings and to Christ. Shall we not imitate these examples, these mighty examples? God grant that we may. “How, how then is it to be done? By studious and reverent regard to the supreme commonplace of the spiritual life. We must assiduously attend to the culture of our souls. We must sternly and systematically make time for prayer, and devote more time to the reading of th,. Word of God. We must appoint private seasons fcr the deliberate and personal appropriation of the divine Word, for self-examination in the presence of its warnings; for self-humbling in the presence of its judgments, for selfheartenings in the presence of its promises, and for self-invigoration in the presence of its glorious hopes.”
My dear brethren, in the light of the serious times in which we live, and the pressing need of greater achievements among us as ministers of God, let us indeed, from day to day, be really in earnest, keep our connections with Christ intact, and let our secret prayers be a living reality.
