But further, while we might commend this duty by quoting innumerable examples
from the lives of eminent saints, it is enough for the disciple of Christ if
we say that Christ in His holy gospel has made it your duty and your
privilege to intercede for others. When he taught us to pray, he said, “Our
Father,” and the expressions which follow are not in the singular but in the
plural-”Give us this day our daily bread.” “Forgive us our debts”; “Lead us
not into temptation”; evidently intending to set forth that none of us are to
pray for ourselves alone, that while we may have sometimes prayers so bitter
that they must be personal like the Saviour’s own-”Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me”; yet, as a rule, our prayers should be public
prayers, though offered in private; and even in secret we should not forget
the church of the living God. By the mouth of Paul how frequently does the
Holy Ghost exhort us to pray for ministers! “Brethren,” says Paul, “pray for
us”; and then after exhorting them to offer prayers and supplications for all
classes and conditions of men, he adds, “And for us also that we may have
boldness to speak as we ought to speak.” While James, who is ever a practical
apostle, bids us pray for one another; in that same verse, where he says,
“Confess your sins the one to the other,” he says, “and pray one for
another,” and adds the privilege “that ye may be healed,” as if the healing
would not only come to the sick person for whom we pray, but to us who offer
the prayer; we, too, receiving some special blessing when our hearts are
enlarged for the people of the living God.
But, brethren, I shall not stay to quote the texts in which the duty of
praying for others is definitely laid down. Permit me to remind you of the
high example of your Master; he is your pattern; follow ye his leadership.
Was there even one who interceded as he did? Remember that golden prayer of
his, where he cried for his own people, “Father, keep them, keep them from
the evil!” Oh what a prayer was that! He seems to have thought of all their
wants, of all their needs, of all their weaknesses, and in one long stream of
intercession, he pours out his heart before his Father’s throne. Bethink you
how, even in the agonies of his crucifixion, he did not forget that he was
still an intercessor for man. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do.” Oh, remember, brethren, it is your Saviour’s example to you today,
for there before the throne, with outstretched hands, he prays not for
himself, for he has attained his glory; not for himself, for he rests from
his labours, and has received his everlasting recompense; but for you, for
the purchase of his blood, for as many as are called by his grace, yea, and
for those who shall believe on him through our word-
“For all that come to God by him,
Salvation he demands;
Points to the wounds upon his heart,
And spreads his bleeding hands.”
Come, brethren, with such an example as this, we are verily guilty if we
forget to plead for others.
But I will go a little further. If in the Bible there were no example of
intercessory supplication, if Christ had not left it upon record that it was
his will that we should pray for others, and even if we did not know that it
was Christ’s practice to intercede, yet the very spirit of our holy religion
would constrain us to plead for others. Dost thou go up into thy closet, and
in the face and presence of God think of none but thyself? Surely the love of
Christ cannot be in thee, for the spirit of Christ is not selfish. No man
liveth unto himself when once he has the love of Christ in him. I know there
are some whose piety is comfortably tethered within the limits of their own
selfish interests. It is enough for them if they hear the Word, if they be
saved, if they get to heaven. Ah, miserable spirit, thou shalt not get there!
It would need another heaven for thee, for the heaven of Christ is the heaven
of the unselfish, the temple of the large-hearted, the bliss of living
spirits, the heaven of those who, like Christ, are willing to become poor
that others may be rich. I cannot believe-it were a libel upon the cross of
Christ, it were a scandal upon the doctrine which he taught-if I could ever
believe that the man whose prayers are selfish has anything of the spirit of
Christ within him. Brethren, I commend intercessory prayer, because it opens
man’s soul, gives a healthy play to his sympathies, constrains him to feel
that he is not everybody, and that this wide world and this great universe
were not after all made that he might be its petty lord, that everything
might bend to his will, and all creatures crouch at his feet. It does him
good, I say, to make him know that the cross was not uplifted alone for him,
for its far-reaching arms were meant to drop with benedictions upon millions
of the human race. Thou lean and hungry worshipper of self, this is an
exercise which would make another man of thee, a man more like the Son of
Man, and less like Nabal the churl. But again; I commend the blessed
privilege of intercession, because of its sweet brotherly nature. You and I
may be naturally hard, and harsh, and unlovely of spirit, but praying much
for others will remind us we have, indeed, a relationship to the saints, that
their interests are ours, that we are jointly concerned with them in all the
privileges of grace. I do not know anything which, through the grace of God,
may be a better means of uniting us the one to the other than constant prayer
for each other. You cannot harbour enmity in your soul against your brother
after you have learned to pray for him. If he hath done you ill, when you
have taken that ill to the mercy seat, and prayed over it, you must forgive.
Surely you could not be such a hypocrite as to invoke blessings on his head
before God and then come forth to curse him in your own soul. When there have
been complaints brought by brother against brother, it is generally the best
way to say, “Let us pray before we enter into the matter.” Wherever there is
a case to be decided by the pastor, he ought always to say to the brethren
who contend, “Let us pray first,” and it will often happen that through
prayer the differences will soon be forgotten. They will become so slight, so
trivial, that when the brethren rise from their knees they will say, “They
are gone; we cannot contend now after having been one in heart before the
throne of God.” I have heard of a man who had made complaints against his
minister, and his minister wisely said to him, “Well, don’t talk to me in the
street; come to my house, and let us hear it all.” He went, and the minister
said, “My brother, I hope that what you have to say to me may be greatly
blessed to me; no doubt I have my imperfections as well as any other man, and
I hope I shall never be above being told of them, but in order that what you
have to say to me may be blessed to me let us kneel down and pray together.”
So our quarrelsome friend prayed first and the minister prayed next, both
briefly. When they rose from their knees, he said, “Now, my brother, I think
we are both in a good state of mind; tell me what it is that you have to find
fault with.” The man blushed, and stammered, and stuttered, and said, he did
not think there was anything at all, except in himself. “I have forgotten to
pray for you, sir,” said he, “and of course I cannot expect that God will
feed my soul through you when I neglect to mention you at the throne of
grace.” Ah, well, brethren, if you will exercise yourselves much in
supplication for your brethren you will forgive their tempers, you will
overlook their rashness, you will not think of their harsh words; but knowing
that you also may be tempted, and are men of like passions with them, you
will cover their faults, and bear with their infirmities.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
