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џџќџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџVCEN   фџ__A__џџ     €€€€€ed, teach them to observe everything Jesus taught the disciples, the apostles, to observe. What about that? When they heard Paul say this, they were baptized again. You know, baptism is a picture of a transaction that has taken place. It means the counting of serf dead, the reckoning of self to be dead, and the starting out to live a new life. And if that did not happen, if you did not mean that when you were baptized, you ought to be baptized again and mean it. \par \par Now this is the thing I lay on your heart. Here in the New Testament there is an emphasis on a certain experience, if you can call it an experience; an emphasis on a certain blessing, if you can call it a blessing; an emphasis on what the Bible calls being filled with the Holy Ghost. Again and again the Scripture says, "They were full of the Holy Ghost," or "They weш{і N&&  ф  ф2  фIDTitleCommentsџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџ|џџp&}џџџџID&&џџworld wide scope, and much pleased with the free, frank, and vigorous translation. It exhibits a vast array of sound serious learning, as I can testify." \par Bill Cetnar, who worked at Bethel (Watchtower Headquarters in New York) during the period when the \i New World Translation\i0 was being prepared, was sent to interview Dr. Goodspeed in March, 1954 to seek his comments on the first volume of the \i New World Translation Of The Hebrew Scriptures\i0 . Cetnar writes: \par "During the two-hour long visit with him it was obvious that he knew the volume well, because he could cite the pages where the readings he objected to were found. One reading he pointed out as especially awkward and grammatically poor was in \cf2\ul Jdg_14:3\cf0\ulnone where Samson is made to say: `Her get for me....' As I left, Dr. Goodspeed was asked if he would recommend the translation for the general public He answered, `No, I'm afraid I could not do that. THE GRAMMAR IS REGRETTABLE. Be careful on the grammar. Be sure you have that right." \b\fs16 4\b0\fs24 (emphasis added) \par Dr. Goodspeed was, of course, not speaking here about the Greek (New Testament) Scriptures, but aionVCeN"" фBq  ф˜  фGq  ф<џ фJq фд  фi} ф8FlagsFormModuleNameReplicationVersionTypeTypeInfoVersionџџ}џџeџџœџџџџ}џџfџџ˜"'џџџџIndex1"""џџ of its misuse by the Jehovah's Witnesses during the last one hundred years." \b\fs16 14 \b0\fs24\par Dr. Gilmour was Norris Professor of New Testament at Andover Newton Seminary and editor of the \i Andover Newton Quarterly\i0 , and the author of a commentary on the Book of Revelation. \par With all due respect for Dr. Gilmour, his statement regarding the \i New World Translation\i0 is incorrect. The Jehovah's Witnesses did not publish, in 1950, or for that matter at any time, a book entitled \i New World Translation Of The New Testament\i0 . Rather, they published a book entitled \i New World Translation Of The Christian Greek Scriptures\i0 . Perhaps Dr. Gilmour simply failed to notice that the name was unusual. A more serious error, however, is his statement that "The New World Old Testament is now far advanced." He wrote that article, as earlier stated, in 1966. In fact, the \i New World Translation Of The Hebrew Scriptures\i0 was published in five volumes over the period 1953 to 1960. It was completed some six years before Dr. Gilmour made his statement, indeed a one volume edition of the whole Bible was published in 1961. Dr. Gilmour could have checked this out easily, simply by picking up a copy of the Bible, which leads one to wonder whether he had actually seen a copy. A footnote to the article shows that the information regarding the \i New World Translation\i0 came from McCoy's earlier article. Gilmour's article does not quote the \i New World Translation\i0 nor does it gain a mention in his Bibliography. The only book which is noted therein relating to the Jehovah's Witnesses is Horton Davies' Th$!MSysDb­Ь{іqьgтhave sought to bring out as much of the true sense of the Greek text as the English language is capable of expressing." \par While Goodspeed's comments are noticeable by their absence from the article in the book, \i All Scripture...\i0 , it is to be noted that Thomson is the ONLY reviewer whose comments appear therein. In this instance, however, he is reviewing the same volume as that which attracted unfavorable comments from Dr. Goodspeed. In the light of the earlier comments, Thomson's are both interesting and revealing: \par "Original renderings of the Hebrew Scriptures into the English are extremely few. It therefore gives us much pleasure to welcome the publication of the first part of the \i New World Translation\i0 [of the Hebrew Scriptures], Genesis to Ruth. This version has evidently made a special effort to be thoroughly readable. No one could say it is deficient in its freshness and originality. Its terminology is by no means based on that of the previous versions." \b\fs16 6\b0\fs24 \par In a technical sense, Thomson's comment would make the translation into a "pseudo-historical fraud." The Greek texts which form the basis of all competent translations come under the category of "previous ve€@@LVAL %asting mark upon you. You will not long remain the same man. Praying, with the imagination all awake, and all employed\emdash such praying will soon drink up your whole soul into itself. You will then \ldblquote pray always.\rdblquote It will be to you by far the noblest and the most blessed of all your employments in this present world. You will pray 248 \ldblquote without ceasing.\rdblquote We shall have to drag you out of your closet by main force. You will then be prayerful \ldblquote over much.\rdblquote \ldblquote Whether in the body I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth.\rdblquote Such will you all become when you accustom your inward eyes to see and to brood continually on the power, and on the greatness, and on the goodness, and on the grace and on the glory of God.\par \par Yes, but all the time, what about this?\emdash you will ask: what about this\emdash that \ldblquote no man hath seen God at any time\rdblquote ? Well,\emdash that is true, and well remembered, and opportunely and appropriately brought forward. Whatever else is true or false, that is true. That, all the time, abides the deepest and the surest of truths. And thus it was that the Invisible Father sent His Son to take our \ldblquote opaque and palpable\rdblquote flesh, and, in it, to reveal the Father. \ldblquote And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.\rdblquote And it is this being \ldblquote made flesh\rdblquote of the Son of God that has enabled us to see God. It is the birth and the whole life, and the words, and the works, and the death, and the resurrection, and the ascension, and the revelation from heaven again of Jesus Christ\emdash it is all this that has for ever opened up such new and boundless worlds which the Christian imagination may visit, and in which she may expatiate and regale herself continually.\par 249\par \par The absolute and pure Godhead is utterly and absolutely out of all reach even of the highest flights of the imagi8LVALD @€ @€     €€€€€€€tnesses and the Watchtower translation." \b\fs16 23 \b0\fs24\par These authors claim that the \i New World Translation\i0 lacks scholarship, and, in fact, reflects scholastic dishonesty. \par Anthony Hoekema: \par "Their \i New World Translation\i0 of the Bible is by no means an objective rendering of the sacred text into modern English, but is a biased translation in which many of the peculiar teachings of the Watchtower Society are smuggled into the text of the Bible itself." \b\fs16 24 \b0\fs24\par Dr. Hoekema was Professor of Systematic Theology, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, U.S.A., and the author of one of the most highly regarded reference works on the Jehovah's Witnesses. \par F. F. Bruce: (Dr. Bruce is Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis Emeritus, University of Manchester, England. He is a world renowned Biblical exegete who has issued his own translation of the the New Testament, and a number of scholarly works i_VBA_PROJECTЬaaџdir|xБ€0* pH‚dф topic Ђ@8= Vh Œ@м? J< rstdole>stdole h%^*\G{0002043ь0-C 0046}#2.0#0#C:\WINDOWS\System32\e2.tlb#OLE Autom`ation`mADODB>‚ ADO€ъBD™€€DEB1D10-8DAA006D2EA 4D1DProgram Files\CommonƒM\ado\ms€21‚NMicrosoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.1 €Library€HEЮ‚Ѕж LVAL `nation of man. The pure and unincarnated Godhead dwells in light which no man\rquote s imagination has ever seen even afar off, or ever can see. But then, hear this. \ldblquote He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.\rdblquote Well, if that is true, come now! Awake up, O my baffled and beaten-back imagination! Awake, and look at last upon thy God! Awake, and feast thyself for ever on thy God! Bathe, and sun, and satiate thyself to all eternity, in the sweetness and in the beauty and in the light, and in the glory of thy God! There is nothing, in earth or in heaven, to our imagination now like the Word made flesh. We cannot waste any more, so much as one beat of her wing, or one glance of her eye, or one heave of her heart on any one else, in heaven or earth, but the Word made flesh. \ldblquote Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.\rdblquote There is a cold and heartless proverb among men to this effect: \ldblquote Out of sight, out of mind.\rdblquote And this cold and heartless proverb would be wholly true\emdash even of believing men\emdash if it were not for the divine offices and the splendid services of the Christian imagination. But the truly Christian imagination never lets Jesus Christ out of her sight. And she keeps Him in her sight and ever before her inward eyes in this way. You 250 open your New Testament\emdash which is her peculiar and most delightful field,\emdash you open that Book of books, say, at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. And, by your imagination, that moment you are one of Christ\rquote s disciples on the spot, and are at His feet. And all that Sermon you never once lift your eyes off the Great Preacher. You hear nothing else, and you see nothing else, till He shuts the Book and says: \ldblquote Great was the fall of the house,\rdblquote\emdash and so ends His sermon. All through His sermon you have seen the working of His face. In every word of His sermon, you have felt the beating of His heart. Your eye haЪ!ж*ive life again by the operation of the Holy Spirit in regeneration; that is one of the immeasurable benefits which come to us through Christ's atoning work on the cross. \par But the very ransomed children of God themselves: why do they know so little of that habitual conscious communion with God which the Scriptures seem to offer? The answer is our chronic unbelief. Faith enables our spiritual sense to function. Where faith is defective the result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things. This is the condition of vast numbers of Christians today. No proof is necessary to support that statement. We have but to converse with the first Christian we meet or enter the first church we find open to acquire all the proof we need. \par A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His Presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality. \par I have just now used two words which demand definition; or if definition is impossible, I must at least make clear what I mean when I use them. They are 'reckon' and 'reality.' What do I mean by \b reality\b0 ? I mean that which has existence apart from any idea any mind may have of it, and which would exist if there were no mine anywhere to entertain a thought of it. That which is real has being in itself. It does not depend upon the observer for its validity. \par I am aware that there are those who love to poke fun at the plain man's idea of reality. They are the idealists who spin endless proofs that nothing is real outside of the mind. They are the relativists who like to show that there are no fixed points in the universe from which we can measure anything. They smile down upon us from their lofty intellectual peaks and settle us to their own satisfaction by fastening upon us the reproachful term 'absolutistИ$MSysDb­ђ!@ov}vda€€џџў&feџ  фef  фџџ  фџџ   ф   фџџIdParentIdNameType DateCreate DateUpdateOwnerFlagsDatabaseConnect ForeignName RmtInfoShort RmtInfoLongLvLvPropLvModuleLvExtraџџsџџeџџtџџnџџiџџџџџџџ џџ!џџ џџˆџџ џџ!џџ џџˆџџ џџ! џџџџџџџџId ParentIdName        џџќџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџVCN)) ф  фol2  фenIDTitleCommentsџџ\џџrџџcџџ\џџnџџ0џџ\џџ2џџ()џџ џџuџџtџџyџџ џџbџџiџџtџџi) џџџџџџџџID PrimaryKey))џџtrating. It does not appeal to our faith; it is here, assaulting our five senses, demanding to be accepted as real and final. But sin has so clouded the lenses of our hearts that we cannot see that other reality, the City of God, shining around us. The world of sense triumphs. The visible becomes the enemy of the invisible; the temporal, of the eternal. That is the curse inherited by every member of Adam's tragic race. \par At the root of the Christian life lies belief in the invisible. The object of the Christian's faith is unseen reality. Our uncorrected thinking, influenced by the blindness of our natural hearts and the intrusive ubiquity of visible things, tends to draw a contrast between the spiritual and the real; but actually no such contrast exists. The antithesis lies elsewhere: between the real and the imaginary, between the spiritual and the material, between the temporal and the eternal; but between the spiritual and the real. \par The spiritual \b is\b0 real. If we would rise into that region of light and power plainly beckoning us through the Scriptures of truth we must break the evil habit of ignoring the spiritual. We must shift our interest from the seen to the unseen. For the great unseen Reality is God. '\i He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.\i0 ' (\cf1\ul Heb_11:6\cf0\ulnone ) This is basic in the life of faith. From there we can rise to unlimited heights. '\i Ye believe in God,\i0 ' said our Lord Jesus Christ, '\i believe also in me.\i0 ' (\cf1\ul Joh_14:1\cf0\ulnone ) Without the first there can be no second. \par If we truly want to follow God we must seek to be other-worldly. This I say knowing well that that word has been used with scornЬ{іqьgтe sons of this world and applied to the Christian as a badge of reproach. So be it. Everyman must choose his world. If we who follow Christ, with all the facts before us and knowing what we are about, deliberately choose the Kingdom of God as our sphere of interest I see no reason why anyone should object. If we lose by it, the loss is our own; if we gain we rob no one by so doing. \par The 'other world,' which is the object of this world's disdain and the subject of the drunkard's mocking song, is our carefully chosen goal and the object of our holiest longing. But we must avoid the common fault of pushing the 'other world' into the future. It is not future, but present. It parallels our familiar physical world, and the doors between the two worlds are open. '\i Ye are come,\i0 ' says the writer to the Hebrews (and the tense is plainly present), '\i unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, a €(ќяџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџџLVAL +{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red255\green0\blue0;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;\red0\green0\blue255;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\lang1033\b\f0\fs28 Lord, Teach us to Pray\fs32\par \cf0\i\fs22 Sermons on Prayer\b0\par by Alexander Whyte, D.D., LL.D.\par \par \b\i0 CONTENTS\par \par \fs28 PART I Introductory and General\b0\par \cf1\b\fs22 00\cf0\b0 Preface (This page at bottom)\par \cf1\b 01\cf0\b0 The Magnificence of Prayer \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf0\ulnone \cf2\ul 1Pe_2:9\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 02\cf0\b0 The Geometry of Prayer \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf0\ulnone \cf2\ul Isa_57:15\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 03\cf0\b0 The heart of man and the heart of God \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Psa_62:8\cf0\ulnone\par \par \b\fs28 PART II - Some Bible Types of Prayer\par \cf1\fs22 04\cf0\b0 Jacob\emdash Wresting \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf0 \cf2\ul Gen_32:30\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 05 \cf0\b0 Moses\emdash Making haste \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Exo_34:8\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 06\cf0\b0 Elijah\emdash Passionate in Prayer \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Jam_5:17\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 07\cf0\b0 Job\emdash Groping \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Job_23:3\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 08\cf0\b0 The Psalmist\emdash Setting the Lord always before him \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf0\ulnone .\cf2\ul Psa_16:8\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 09\cf0\b0 Habakkuk\emdash On his watch-Tower \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Hab_2:1\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 10\cf0\b0 Our Lord\emdash Sanctifying Himself \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Joh_7:19\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 11\cf0\b0 Our Lord-In the Garden \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Mat_26:36\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 12\cf0\b0 One of Paul's Prayers \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Eph_3:14-19\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 13\cf0\b0 One of Paul's Thanksgivings \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Col_1:12-13\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 14\cf0\b0 LVAL , The man who knocked at midnight \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Luk_11:5-8\cf0\ulnone\par \par \b\fs28 PART III - Some aspects of the way of prayer\b0\fs22\par \cf1\b 15\cf0\b0 Prayer to the most high \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Hos_7:16\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 16\cf0\b0 The costliness of prayer \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Jer_29:13\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 17\cf0\b0 Reverence in Prayer \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Mal_1:8\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 18\cf0\b0 The pleading Note in prayer \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Isa_43:26\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 19\cf0\b0 Concentration in prayer \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Mat_6:6\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 20\cf0\b0 Imagination in prayer \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf0 . \cf2\ul Rev_4:8\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 21\cf0\b0 The forgiving spirit in prayer \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf0 .\cf2\ul Mar_11:25\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 22\cf0\b0 The secret burden \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Zec_12:12\cf0\ulnone\par \cf1\b 23\cf0\b0 The endless quest \cf2\ul Luk_11:1\cf3\ulnone \cf2\ul Heb_9:6\cf0\ulnone\par \par {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "http://www.ccel.org/ccel/whyte/pray.html"}}{\fldrslt{\ul\cf4 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/whyte/pray.html}}}\cf3\f0\fs22\par \par \cf0\i\fs18 HODDER AND STOUGHTON LIMITED LONDON\par First Edition printed . . . March 1922\par Second Edition . . . . . May 1922\par Third Edition . . . . . June 1922 \fs22\par \i0 formatted for e-Sword by David Cox\par \par \cf3\b PREFACE\par \b0\par It is not the purpose of this Preface to anticipate the biography of Dr. Whyte, now being prepared by Dr. G. Freeland Barbour, or to provide a considered estimate of the great preacher\rquote s work as a whole. But it may be well briefly to explain the appearance of the present volume, and to take it, so far as it goes, as a mirror of the man. The desire has been expressed in various quarters that this sequence of sermons on prayer should appear by itself. Possibly it LVAL -may be followed at a later date by a representative volume of discourses, taken from different points in Dr. Whyte\rquote s long ministry. It is a curious fact that he who was by general consent the greatest Scottish preacher of his day published during his lifetime no volume of Sunday morning sermons, though his successive series of character studies, given as evening lectures, were numerous and widely known.\par \par At the close of the winter season, 1894-95, Dr. Whyte had brought to a conclusion a lengthy series of pulpit studies in the teaching of our Lord. It was evident that our Lord\rquote s teaching about prayer had greatly fascinated him: more than one sermon upon that had been included. And in the winter of 1895-96, he began a series of discourses in which St. Luke xi. i, \ldblquote Lord, teach us to pray,\rdblquote was combined with some other text, in order to exhibit various aspects of the life of prayer. The most of these discourses were preached in 1895-96, though a few came in 1897; and at intervals till 1906 some of them were re-delivered, or the sequence was added to. On the whole, in Dr. Whyte\rquote s later ministry, no theme was so familiar to his congregation or so beloved by himself as \ldblquote Luke eleven and one.\rdblquote To include the whole series here would have made a volume far too bulky: in a sequence stretching over so long a time and dealing with themes so closely allied, there is a considerable amount of repetition: it was necessary to select. For instance, Paul\rquote s Prayers and Thanksgivings were dealt with at length, and are here represented only by two examples. Further, it has not been possible to give the sermons in chronological order; Dr. Whyte dealt with the aspect of the matter uppermost in his mind for the week, and followed no plan which is now discernible: for the grouping, therefore, as for the selection, the present editors are responsible. They hope that the volume so selected and arranged may be a sufficient indication of the style and LVAL .spirit of the whole sequence.\cf1\b 1 \cf3\b0 The Scottish pulpit owes much to \ldblquote Courses\rdblquote of sermons, in which some great theme could be deliberately treated, some vast tract of doctrine or experience adequately surveyed. This method of preaching may be out of fashion with the restless mind of to-day, but in days when it was patiently heard it had an immensely educative effect: it was a means at once of enlarging and deepening. And Dr. Whyte\rquote s people were often full of amazement at the endless force, freshness and fervour which he poured into this series, bringing out of \ldblquote Luke eleven and one,\rdblquote as out of a treasury, things new and old.\par \par Nobody else could have preached these sermons,\emdash after much reading and re-reading of them that remains the most vivid impression: there can be few more strongly personal documents in the whole literature of the pulpit. Of course, his favourites appear\emdash Dante and Pascal, Butler and Andrewes, Bunyan and Edwards: they contribute their gift of illustration or enforcement, and fade away. But these pages are Alexander Whyte: the glow and radiance of them came out of that flaming heart. Those who knew and loved him will welcome the autobiographic touches: In one of the sermons he recommends his hearers so to read the New Testament that it shall be autobiographic of themselves: if ever a man read his Bible so, it was he. The 51st Psalm and many another classical passage of devotion took on a new colour and savour because, with the simplest and intensest sincerity, he found his own autobiography in them. Who that heard it spoken could ever forget the description, given on one of the following pages, of the wintry walk of one who thought himself forsaken of God, until the snows of Schiehallion made him cry, \ldblquote Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow,\rdblquote and brought back God\rquote s peace to his heart? But in a more general sense this whole volume is autobiographic. \ldblquote Deliver your owLVAL /n message\rdblquote was his counsel to his colleague, John Kelman. He did so himself: it is here. One or two ingredients in it are specially noteworthy.\par \par 1. One is his wonderful gift of Imagination. It is characteristic of him that, in his treatment of his chosen theme, he should give one whole discourse to the use of the imagination in prayer. But there is scarcely a sermon which does not at some point illustrate the theme of that discourse. Here was a soul \ldblquote full of eyes.\rdblquote He had the gift of calling up before himself that of which he spoke; and, speaking with his eye on the object, as he loved to put it, he made his hearers see it too with a vividness which often startled them and occasionally amused them. The Scripture scene was extended by some lifelike touch which increased the sense of reality without exceeding the bounds of probability. A case in point is the man who knocked at midnight. \ldblquote He comes back; he knocks again: \lquote Friend!\rquote he cries, till the dogs bark at him.\rdblquote And sometimes the imagination clothes itself in a certain grim grotesquerie which arrests the slumbering attention and is entirely unforgettable, as in the description of the irreverent family at prayers,\emdash their creaking chairs, their yawns and coughs and sneezes, their babel of talk unloosed before the Amen is well uttered. These pages contain many instances of the imagination which soars, as he bids her do, on shining wing, up past sun, moon and stars, but also of a more pedestrian imagination, with shrewd eyes and a grave smile, busy about the criticism of life and the healthy castigation of human nature.\par \par 2. Along with this goes a strongly dramatic instinct. This provides some words and phrases in the following pages, which might not stand the test of a cold or pedantic criticism. A strict editorship might have cut them out: Dr. Whyte himself might have done so, had he revised these pages for the press. But they have been allowed to stand becausLVAL 0e they now enshrine a memory: even after twenty-five years or more, they will bring back to some hearers the moments when the preacher\rquote s eyes were lifted off his manuscript, when his hand was suddenly flung out as though he tracked the movements of an invisible presence, when his voice expanded into a great cry that rang into every corner of the church. In this mood the apostrophe was instinctive: \ldblquote O Paul, up in heaven, be merciful in thy rapture! Hast thou forgotten that thou also was once a wretched man?\rdblquote Equally instinctive to it is the tendency to visualise, behind an incident or an instance, its scenery and background: \ldblquote the man of all prayer is still on his knees. . . . See! the day breaks over his place of prayer! See! the Kingdom of God begins to come in on the earth.\rdblquote Occasionally\emdash very ocasionally but all the more effectively because so seldom\emdash the dramatic instinct found fuller scope in a lengthy quotation from Shakespeare or even from Ibsen. The intellectual and spiritual effect was almost overwhelming the morning he preached on our Lord\rquote s prayer in Gethsemane. Dwelling for a moment on the seamless robe, with \ldblquote the blood of the garden, and of the pillar\rdblquote upon it, he suddenly broke off into the passage from Julius Caesar:\par \par You all do know this mantle: I remember The first time Caesar ever put it on.\par \par It was a daring experiment\emdash did ever any other preacher link these two passages together?\emdash but in Dr. Whyte\rquote s hands extraordinarily moving. The sermon closed with a great shout, \ldblquote Now let it work!\rdblquote and his hearers, as they came to the Communion Table that morning, must have been of one heart and mind in the prayer that in them the Cross of Christ should not be \ldblquote made of none effect.\rdblquote\par \par 3. It was Dr. Whyte\rquote s own wish that he should be known as a specialist in the study of sin: he was willing to leave other distinctLVAL 1ions to other men. No reader of these pages will be surprised to discover that, in the place of prayer which this preacher builds, the Miserere and the De Profundis are among the most haunting strains. The question has often been asked\emdash Did Dr. Whyte paint the world and human nature too black? Even if he did, two things perhaps may be said. The first is that there are so few specialists now in this line of teaching, that we can afford occasionally to listen to one who made it his deliberate business. And the second is that the clouds which this prophet saw lying over the lives of other men were no blacker than those which he honestly believed to haunt his own soul. That sense of sin goes with him all the way and enters into every message. If he overhears Habakkuk praying about the Chaldeans, the Chaldeans turn immediately into a parable of the power which enslaves our sinful lives. Assyria, Babylonia, anything cruel, tyrannous, aggressive, is but a finger-post pointing to that inward and ultimate bondage out of which all other tyrannies and wrongs take their rise. That is why a series of this kind, like Dr. Whyte\rquote s whole ministry, is so deepening. And that is also why these pages are haunted by a sense of the difficulty of the spiritual life, and especially of the life of prayer: we have such arrears to make up, such fetters to break; we are so much encased in the horrible pit and the miry clay. The preacher is frank enough about himself: \ldblquote daily self-denial is uphill work with me\rdblquote ; and when in Teresa, or in Boston, or in the Puritans, he finds confession of dryness and deadness of soul, he knows that he is passing through the same experience as some of the noblest saints of God. If the souls of the saints have sometimes their soaring path and their shining wings, they at other times are more as Thomas Vaughan describes them, like moles that \ldblquote lurk in blind entrenchments\rdblquote\emdash\par \par Heaving the earth to take in air.\par \par So these sLVAL 2ermons become a tremendous rallying call to our moral energies, that we may overcome our handicap, and shake off our load of dust, and do our best with our exhilarating opportunity. Here the sermon on \ldblquote The Costliness of Prayer\rdblquote is typical: there is small chance of success in the spiritual life unless we are willing to take time and thought and trouble,\emdash unless we are willing to sacrifice and crucify our listless, slothful, self-indulgent habits. This is a Stoicism, a small injection of which might put iron into the blood of some types of Christianity; Seneca and Teresa, as they are brought into alliance here, make very good company.\par \par 4. For the total and final effect of such preaching is not depressing: it is full of stimulus and encouragement mainly because the vision of sin and the vision of difficulty are never far removed from the vision of Grace. Dr. Whyte\rquote s preaching, stern as the precipitous sides of a great mountain, was also like a great mountain in this, that it had many clefts and hollows, with sweet springs and healing plants. One of his most devoted elders wrote of him: \ldblquote No preacher has so often or so completely dashed me to the ground as has Dr. Whyte; but no man has more immediately or more tenderly picked me up and set me on my feet again.\rdblquote Perhaps there was no phrase more characteristic of him, either in preaching or in prayer, than the prophet\rquote s cry, \ldblquote Who is a God like unto Thee?\rdblquote And when at his bidding,\emdash with an imagination which is but faith under another name, we ourselves become the leper at Christ\rquote s feet, or the prodigal returning home, or Peter in the porch, or Lazarus in his grave, and find in Christ the answer to all our personal need,\emdash we begin to feel how real the Grace of God, the God of Grace, was to the preacher, and how real He may be to us also. This volume is full of the burdens of the saints, the struggles of their souls, and the stains upon their raimentLVAL 3. But it is no accident that it ends with the song of the final gladness: \ldblquote Every one of them at last appeareth before God in Zion.\rdblquote\par \par When all is said, there is something here that defies analysis,\emdash something titanic, something colossal, which makes ordinary preaching seem to lie a long way below such heights as gave the vision in these words, such forces as shaped their appeal. We are driven back on the mystery of a great soul, dealt with in God\rquote s secret ways and given more than the ordinary measure of endowment and grace. His hearers have often wondered at his sustained intensity; as Dr. Joseph Parker once wrote of him: \ldblquote many would have announced the chaining of Satan for a thousand years with less expenditure of vital force\rdblquote than Dr. Whyte gave to the mere announcing of a hymn. That intensity was itself the expression of a burning sincerity: like his own Bunyan, he spoke what he \ldblquote smartingly did feel.\rdblquote And, though his own hand would very quickly have best raised to check any such testimony while he was alive, it may be said, now that he is gone; that he lived intensely what he so intensely spoke. In that majestic ministry, stretching over so long a time, many would have said that the personal example was even a greater thing than the burning words,\emdash and not least the personal example in the matter of which this book treats,\emdash the life of prayer; ordered, methodical, deliberate, unwearied in adoration, confession, intercession and thanksgiving. He at least was not in the condemnation, which he describes, of the ministers who attempt flights of prayer in public of which they know nothing in private. He had his reward in the fruitfulness of his pulpit work and in the glow he kindled in multitudes of other souls. He has it still more abundantly now in that glorified life of which even his soaring imagination could catch only an occasional rapturous glimpse. So we number him among those who through a long pilg•LVALЁ0bien el serm\'f3n de otro predicador es necesario haberlo puesto primero en el propio coraz\'f3n. El mejor m\'e9todo es leer el serm\'f3n varias veces buscando y releyendo cada vez en la Biblia las citas que en el mismo se dan. Leerlo con suma atenci\'f3n, hasta que resulten claros en la propia mente todos sus argumentos, ex\-hortaciones y ejemplos, de modo que sea f\'e1cil manejarlos y pasar de uno a otro variando las palabras, o sea explicar lo mismo con palabras propias, sin perder el hilo de la exposici\'f3n.\par Nos permitimos aconsejar a los predicadores que van a usar alguno de estos sermones, poner un peque\'f1o n\'famero tras de aquellas frases que despierten en ellos alguna nueva idea para aclarar o enfatizar la del autor. Luego, en papel apar\-te, escribir el mismo n\'famero y redactar a continuaci\'f3n aquellos pensamientos propios originados por la lectura del serm\'f3n. Los que disponen de mucho tiempo har\'edan bien en copiar el texto entero, a\'f1adi\'e9ndole aquellos p\'e1rrafos en los lugares respectivos. De este modo les ser\'eda m\'e1s f\'e1cil ver si las ideas propias corresponden bien con el mensaje; si son una ayuda aclaratoria, o rompen el hilo del discurso; y ten\-dr\'edan menos dificultad, al llegar a tales aportaciones perso\-nales cuando dieran el serm\'f3n desde el pulpito.\par \pard\ltrpar\qj Procuren, empero, que estas nuevas frases no sean una mera repetici\'f3n de lo rimage patiently pursued the Endless Quest, and who now have reached, beyond the splendours of the sunset, the one satisfying Goal.\par ----------------\par \cf1\b 1 \cf3\b0 The sermons on Jacob and the Man who knocked at midnight are parallel to the extent of a few sentences, and that on Elijah to the extent of a paragraph or two, with studies previously published in the Bible Characters . But they are so characteristic of the preacher, and so vital to the series that it has been deemed wise to give them, even though they are slightly reminiscent of matter which has before appeared. \par } (ЯœqGтВ}PяЖS$юКrMьХ‡X5%џЌ`lŒ'Hбс1\АsЈас%(Шs5eU5e%џЌ`rŒ'Hбс2ААsЈасehаsuee%ueџЌ`sŒ'Hбс3БsЈас%(иs%uuuue"PЌp,Œ'Hбс4XБsЈасehteeueeeџЌ@EŒ'Hбс5ЌБsЈас%(Pt5eeueeџЌ`sŒ'Hбс6ВsЈас%(Xtueee%eџЌ`eŒ'Hбс7TВsЈасeh`tueeeeeџЌp\Œ'Hбс8ЈВsЈасuxht5eee%uџЌpoŒ'Hбс9ќВsЈасuxpteeueeeџЌ0 Œ'02 The Geometry of PrayerбAў*03 The heart of man and the heart of Godъ9і9-04 Jacob-WrestingŒ=ю"05 Moses--Making hasteUNф'06 Elijah--Passionate in PrayerЙ@л0$07 Job--GropingлAв 08 The Psalmist-Setting the Lord always before him•HШC709 Habakkuk-On his watch-TowerNJО/#10 Our Lord--Sanctifying Himself NД1%11 Our Lord-In the GardenЧIЊ*12 One of Paul's PrayersХJ ) 13 One of Paul's Thanksgivings к@—0$ 14 The man who knocked at midnight Я=4( 15 Prayer to the most high>‡+ 16 The costliness of prayerЉ;,  17 Reverence in Prayer %6x(18 The pleading Note in prayer ыIn0$19 Concentration in prayerHd+20 Imagination in prayerУU[)21 The forgiving spirit in prayerЇ>S2&22 The secret burdenjII%23 The endless quest ђI?&01 The Magnificence of PrayerlJ5."00 Whyte - Teach us to PrayЫI*, LVAL 6{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\lang1033\f0\fs22 I. THE MAGNIFICENCE OF PRAYER\par \par \ldblquote Lord, teach us to pray.\rdblquote\emdash Luke xi. 1.\par \par \ldblquote A royal priesthood.\rdblquote\emdash 1 Pet. ii. 9.\par \par \ldblquote I am an apostle,\rdblquote said Paul, \ldblquote I magnify mine office.\rdblquote And we also have an office. Our office is not the apostolic office, but Paul would be the first to say to us that our office is quite as magnificent as ever his office was. Let us, then, magnify our office. Let us magnify its magnificent opportunities; its momentous duties; and its incalculable and everlasting rewards. For our office is the \ldblquote royal priesthood.\rdblquote And we do not nearly enough magnify and exalt our royal priesthood. To be \ldblquote kings and priests unto God\rdblquote\emdash what a magnificent office is that! But then, we who hold that office are men of such small and such mean minds, our souls so decline and so cleave to this earth, that we never so much as attempt to rise to the height and the splendour of our magnificent office. If our minds were only enlarged and exalted at all up to our office, we would be found of God far oftener than we are, with our sceptre in our hand, and with our mitre upon our head. If we magnified our office, as Paul magnified 4 his office, we would achieve as magnificent results in our office as ever he achieved in his. The truth is,\emdash Paul\rquote s magnificent results were achieved more in our office than in his own. It was because Paul added on the royal priesthood to the Gentile apostleship that he achieved such magnificent results in that apostleship. And, if we would but magnify our royal priesthood as Paul did\emdash it hath not entered into our hearts so much as to conceive what God hath prepared for those who properly perform their office, as Kings and Priests unto LVAL 7God.\par \par Prayer is the magnificent office it is, because it is an office of such a magnificent kind. Magnificence is of many kinds, and magnificent things are more or less magnificent according to their kind.. This great globe on which it strikes its roots and grows is magnificent in size when compared with that grain of mustard seed: but just because that grain of mustard seed is a seed and grows, that smallest of seeds is far greater than the great globe itself. A bird on its summer branch is far greater than the great sun in whose warmth he builds and sings, because that bird has life and love and song, which the sun, with all his immensity of size, and with all his light and heat, has not. A cup of cold water only, given to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, is a far greater offering before God than thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil; because there is charity in that cup of cold 5 water. And an ejaculation, a sigh, a sob, a tear, a smile, a psalm, is far greater to God than all the oblations, and incense, and new moons, and Sabbaths, and calling of assemblies, and solemn meetings of Jerusalem, because repentance and faith and love and trust are in that sob and in that psalm. And the magnificence of all true prayer\emdash its nobility, its royalty, its absolute divinity\emdash all stand in this, that it is the greatest kind of act and office that man, or angel, can ever enter on and perform. Earth is at its very best; and heaven is at its very highest, when men and angels magnify their office of prayer and of praise before the throne of God.\par \par I. The magnificence of God is the source and the measure of the magnificence of prayer. \ldblquote Think magnificently of God,\rdblquote said Paternus to his son. Now that counsel is the sum and substance of this whole matter. For the heaven and the earth; the sun and the moon and the stars; the whole opening universe of our day; the Scriptures of truth, with all that they contain; the Church of Christ,LVAL 8 with all her services and all her saints\emdash all are set before us to teach us and to compel us indeed to \ldblquote think magnificently of God.\rdblquote And they have all fulfilled the office of their creation when they have all combined to make us think magnificently of their Maker. Consider the heavens, the work of His fingers, the moon and the stars, which He hath ordained: consider the intellectual heavens also, angels and 6 archangels, cherubim and seraphim: consider mankind also, made in the image of God: consider Jesus Christ, the express image of His person: consider a past eternity and a coming eternity, and the revelation thereof that is made to us in the Word of God, and in the hearts of His people\emdash and I defy you to think otherwise than magnificently of God. And, then, after all that, I equally defy you to forget, or neglect, or restrain prayer. Once you begin to think aright of Him Who is the Hearer of prayer; and Who waits, in all His magnificence, to be gracious to you\emdash I absolutely defy you to live any longer the life you now live. \ldblquote First of all, my child,\rdblquote said Paternus to his son, \ldblquote think magnificently of God. Magnify His providence: adore His power: frequent His service; and pray to Him frequently and instantly. Bear Him always in your mind: teach your thoughts to reverence Him in every place, for there is no place where He is not. Therefore, my child, fear and worship, and love God; first, and last, think magnificently of God.\rdblquote\par \par 2. \ldblquote Why has God established prayer?\rdblquote asks Pascal. And Pascal\rquote s first answer to his own great question is this. God has established prayer in the moral world in order \ldblquote to communicate to His creatures the dignity of causality.\rdblquote That is to say, to give us a touch and a taste of what it is to be a Creator. But then, \ldblquote there are some things 7 ultimate and incausable,\rdblquote says Bacon, that interpreter of nature. And whatever things LVAL 9are indeed ultimate to us, and incausable by us, them God \ldblquote hath put in His own power.\rdblquote But there are many other things, and things that far more concern us, that He communicates to us to have a hand of cause and creation in. Not immediately, and at our own rash and hot hand, and at our precipitate and importunate will, but always under His Holy Hand, and under the tranquillity of His Holy Will. We hold our office and dignity of causality and creation under the Son, just as He holds His again under the Father. But instead of that lessening our dignity, to us, it rather ennobles and endears our dignity. All believers are agreed that they would rather hold their righteousness of Christ than of themselves; and so would all praying men: they would rather that all things had their spring and rise and rule in the wisdom and the love and the power of God, than in their own wisdom and love and power, even if they had the wisdom and the love and the power for such an office. But then, again, just as all believing men put on Jesus Christ to justification of life, so do they all put on, under Him, their royal robe and their priestly diadem and breastplate. And that, not as so many beautiful ornaments, beautiful as they are, but as instruments and engines of divine power. \ldblquote Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel,\rdblquote\emdash as He clothes 8 His priests with salvation,\emdash\ldblquote Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands command ye me.\rdblquote What a thing for God to say to man! What a magnificent office! What a more than royal dignity! What a gracious command, and what a sure encouragement is that to pray! For ourselves, first, as His sons,\emdash if His prodigal and dishonourable sons,- and then for our fellows, even if they are as prodigal and as undeserving as we are. Ask of me! Even when a father is wounded and offended by his son, even then, you feel sure that you have his heartstrings in your hand when you go to ask hiLVAL :m for things that concern his son; and that even though he is a bad son: even when he sends you away in anger, his fatherly bowels move over you as you depart: and he looks out at his door to see if you are coming back to ask him again concerning his son. And when you take boldness and venture back, he falls on your neck and says, Command me all that is in your heart concerning my son. Now, that is the \ldblquote dignity of causality,\rdblquote that in which you are the cause of a father taking home again his son: and the cause of a son saying, I will arise and go to my father. That is your \ldblquote magnificent office.\rdblquote That is your \ldblquote royal priesthood.\rdblquote\par \par 3. And, then, there is this magnificent and right noble thing in prayer. Oh, what a noble God we have!\emdash says Pascal,\emdash that God shares His 9 creatorship with us! And I will, to the praise and the glory of God this day, add this, that He makes us the architects of our own estates, and the fashioners of our own fortunes. It is good enough to have an estate left us in this life, if we forget we have it: it is good enough that we inherit a fortune in this world\rquote s goods, if it is not our lasting loss. Only there is nothing great, nothing noble, nothing magnanimous or magnificent in that. But to have begun life with nothing, and to have climbed up by pure virtue, by labour, and by self-denial, and by perseverance, to the very top,\emdash this world has no better praise to give her best sons than that. But there is another, and a better world, of which this world at its best is but the scaffolding, the preparation, and the porch: and to be the architect of our own fortune in that world will be to our everlasting honour. Now, there is this magnificence about the world of prayer, that in it we work out, not our own bare and naked and \ldblquote scarce\rdblquote salvation only, but our everlasting inheritance, incorruptible and undefilable, with all its unsearchable riches. Heaven and earth, time aLVAL ;nd eternity, creation and providence, grace and glory, are all laid up in Christ; and then Christ and all His unsearchable riches are laid open to prayer; and then it is said to every one of us\emdash Choose you all what you will have, and command Me for it! All God\rquote s grace, and all His truth, has been coined\emdash 10 as Goodwin has it\emdash out of purposes into promises; and then all those promises are made \ldblquote Yea and amen\rdblquote in Christ; and then out of Christ, they are published abroad to all men in the word of the Gospel; and, then, all men who read and hear the Gospel are put upon their mettle. For what a man loves, that that man is. What a man chooses out of a hundred offers, you are sure by that who and what that man is. And accordingly, put the New Testament in any man\rquote s hand, and set the Throne of Grace wide open before any man; and you need no omniscience to tell you that man\rquote s true value. If he lets his Bible lie unopened and unread: if he lets God\rquote s Throne of Grace stand till death, idle and unwanted: if the depth and the height, the nobleness and the magnificence, the goodness and the beauty of divine things have no command over him, and no attraction to him\emdash then, you do not wish me to put words upon the meanness of that man\rquote s mind. Look yourselves at what he has chosen: look and weep at what he has neglected, and has for ever lost! But there are other men: there are men of a far nobler blood than that man is: there are great men, royal men: there are some men made of noble stuff, and cast into a noble mould. And you will never satisfy or quiet those men with all you can promise them or pour out upon them in this life. They are men of a magnificent heart, and only in prayer have their 11 hearts ever got full scope and a proper atmosphere. They would die if they did not pray. They magnify their office. You cannot please them better than to invite and ask them to go to their God in your behalf. They would go of their own motion aLVAL <nd accord for you, even if you never asked them. They have prayed for you before you asked them, more than you know. They are like Jesus Christ in this; and He will acknowledge them in this. While you were yet their enemies, they prayed for you, and as good as died for you. And when you turn to be their enemies again, they will have their revenge on you at the mercy seat. When you feel, somehow, as if coals of fire were - from somewhere - being heaped upon your head, it is from the mercy seat, where that magnanimous man is retaliating upon you. Now not Paul himself ever magnified his office more or better than that. And it was in that very same way that our Lord magnified His royal priesthood when He had on His crown of thorns on the cross, and when His shame covered Him as a robe and a diadem in the sight of God, and when He interceded and said\emdash\ldblquote They know not what they do.\rdblquote\par \par 4. And then there is this fine and noble thing about prayer also, that the aceptableness of it, and the power of it, are in direct proportion to the secrecy and the spirituality of it. As its stealth is: as its silence is: as its hiddenness away with 12 God is: as its unsuspectedness and undeservedness with men is: as its pure goodness, pure love, and pure goodwill are\emdash so does prayer perform its magnificent part when it is alone with God. The true closet of the true saint of God is not built of stone and lime. The secret place of God; and His people, is not a thing of wood and iron, and bolts and bars. At the same time, Christ did say\emdash Shut your door. And in order to have the Holy Ghost all to himself, and to be able to give himself up wholly\emdash body, soul and spirit\emdash to the Holy Ghost, the man after God\rquote s own heart in prayer always as a matter of fact builds for himself a little sanctuary, all his own; not to shut God in, but to shut all that is not of God out. He builds a house for God, before he has as yet built a house for himself. You would not believe it aLVAL =bout that man of secret prayer. When you see and hear him, he is the poorest, the meekest, the most contrite, and the most silent of men: and you rebuke him because he so trembles at God\rquote s word. If you could but see him when he is alone with the King! If you could but see his nearness and his boldness! You would think that he and the King\rquote s Son had been born and brought up together\emdash such intimacies, and such pass-words, are exchanged between them. You would wonder, you would not believe your eyes and your ears. If you saw him on his knees you would see a sight. Look! He is in the 13 Audience Chamber. Look! He is in the Council Chamber now. He has a seat set for him among the peers. He is set down among the old nobility of the Empire. The King will not put on His signet ring to seal a command, till your friend has been heard. \ldblquote Command Me,\rdblquote the King says to him. \ldblquote Ask Me,\rdblquote He says, \ldblquote for the things of My sons: command Me things to come concerning them\rdblquote ! And, as if that were not enough, that man of all-prayer is still on his knees. He is \ldblquote wrestling\rdblquote on his knees. There is no enemy there that I can see. There is nothing and no one that I can see near him: and yet he wrestles like a mighty man. What is he doing with such a struggle? Doing? Do you not know what he is doing? He is moving heaven and earth. The man is removing mountains. He is casting this mountain, and that, into the midst of the sea. He is casting down thrones. He is smiting old empires of time to pieces. Yes: he is wrestling indeed! For he is wrestling now with God; and now with man: now with death; and now with hell: See! the day breaks over his place of prayer! See! the Kingdom of God begins to come in on the earth! What a spot is that! What plots are hatched there! What conspiracies are planned there! How dreadful is this place! Let us escape for our life out of it! Is that man, in there with God, your friend? Can you trust him with God?LVAL > Will he speak about you when he 14 is in audience? And what will he say? Has he anything against you? Have you anything on your conscience, or in your heart, against him? Then I would not be you, for a world! But no! Hear him! What is that he says? I declare I hear your name, and your children\rquote s names! And the King stretches forth His sceptre, and your friend touches it. He has \ldblquote commanded\rdblquote his God for you. He has \ldblquote asked concerning\rdblquote you and your sons. Such access, such liberty, such power, such prevalency, such a magnificent office has he, who has been made of God a King and a Priest unto God.\par \par 5. And, then, to cap and to crown it all\emdash the supreme magnanimity, and the superb generosity of God, to its top perfection, is seen in this\emdash in the men He selects, prepares for Himself, calls, consecrates, and clothes with the mitre and with the ephod, and with the breastplate. It is told in the Old Testament to the blame of Jeroboam, that \ldblquote he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.\rdblquote But what is written and read in the Levitical law, to Jeroboam\rquote s blame, that vary same thing, and in these very same words, God\rquote s saints are this Sabbath day singing in their thousands to His praise before the throne of God and the Lamb. For, ever since the day of Christ, it has been the lowest of the people\emdash those lowest, that 15 is, in other men\rquote s eyes, and in their own\emdash it has been the poor and the despised, and the meek, and the hidden, and the down-trodden, and the silent, who have had secret power and privilege with God, and have prevailed. It was so, sometimes, even in the Old testament. The New Testament sometimes broke up through the Old; and in nothing more than in this in the men,\emdash and in their mothers,\emdash who were made Kings and Priests unto God. \ldblquote The Lord maketh poor,\rdblquote sang Samuel\rquote s motheєLVAL=s existi\'f3 desde toda la eternidad en el seno del Padre como parte integrante de la Divinidad, en potencia y en esencia; sino por ser el mismo la Vida; la causa y raz\'f3n de la existencia de todas las cria\-turas.\par Entre \'e9stas, se encuentran, en primer lugar, los \'e1ngeles. \'a1Qu\'e9 hermosos y poderosos son! Estos maravillosos seres pu\-dieron darse cuenta de su existencia (facultad que tambi\'e9n nosotros tenemos, pero no los animales) y sin duda empeza\-ron a preguntarse la raz\'f3n de su existir y a adorar a su Creador.\par El Esp\'edritu Divino hizo otra cosa maravillosa; cre\'f3 y pu\-so en movimiento el \'e9ter universal invisible (Hebreos 11:3); organiz\'f3 la materia, los \'e1tomos, polvo del Universo, y de ellos los mundos. No sabemos cu\'e1ntos millones de siglos transcurrieron, pues no lo dice la Biblia. La ciencia trata de investigar la edad de la materia y asegura que puede saberse. La materia no es eterna, pues de la nada, nada pue\-de salir.\par En este peque\'f1o planeta llamado Tierra apareci\'f3 la vida por el poder del Esp\'edritu de Dios que se mov\'eda sobre el haz de las aguas. Vida vegetal; despu\'e9s vida animal, peces, aves, cuadr\'fapedos. \'bfQu\'e9 se propon\'eda el Creador? Crear un ser de materia estr, \ldblquote and maketh rich: He bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.\rdblquote And the mother of our great High Priest Himself sang, as she sat over His manger\emdash\ldblquote He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden. . . . He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich hath He sent empty away.\rdblquote This, then, is the very topmost glory, and the very supremest praise of God\emdash the men, from among men, that He takes, and makes of them Kings and Priests unto God. Let all such men magnify their office; and let them think and speak and sing magnificently of their God!\par } LVAL @{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\lang1033\f0\fs22 XXIII. THE ENDLESS QUEST\par \par \ldblquote Lord, teach us to pray.\rdblquote\emdash Luke xi. i.\par \par \ldblquote He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (lit. that seek Him out).\rdblquote\emdash Heb. xi. 6.\par \par I MUST not set myself up as a man able to mend, and to make improvements upon, the English translation of the Greek Testament. At the same time, it seems to me to be beyond dispute that the English of the text falls far short of the exact point and the full expressiveness of the original. Remacu:\emdash touching the text with the point of needle, Bengel exclaims: \ldblquote A grand compound!\rdblquote And it is a \ldblquote grand compound.\rdblquote The verb in the text is not simply to seek. It is not simply to seek diligently. It is to seek out: it is to seek and search out to the very end. A Greek particle, of the greatest possible emphasis and expressiveness, is prefixed to the simple verb: and those two letters are letters of such strength and intensity they make the commonplace word to which they are prefixed to shine out with a great grandeur to Bengel\rquote s so keen, so scholarly and so spiritual eyes.\par 281\par \par Ever feeling after God, if haply I may find Him, in a moment I saw the working out of my own salvation in a new light; and, at the same moment, I saw written out before me my present sermon, as soon as I stumbled on the Apostle\rquo