Shall I need to say more in commendation of intercessory prayer except it be
this, that it seems to me that when God gives any man much grace, it must be
with the design that he may use it for the rest of the family. I would
compare you who have near communion with God to courtiers in the king’s
palace. What do courtiers do? Do they not avail themselves of their influence
at court to take the petitions of their friends, and present them where they
can be heard? This is what we call patronage-a thing with which many find
fault when it is used for political ends, but there is a kind of heavenly
patronage which you ought to use right diligently. I ask you to use it on my
behalf. When it is well with you, then think of me. I pray you use it on the
behalf of the poor, the sick, the afflicted, the tempted, the tried, the
desponding, the despairing; when thou hast the King’s ear, speak to him for
us. When thou art permitted to come very near to his throne, and he saith to
thee, “Ask, and I will give thee what thou wilt”; when thy faith is strong,
thine eye clear, thine access near, thine interest sure, and the love of God
sweetly shed abroad in thy heart-then take the petitions of thy poor brethren
who stand outside at the gate and say, “My Lord, I have a poor brother, a
poor child of thine, who has desired me to ask of thee this favour. Grant it
unto me; it shall be a favour shown unto myself; grant it unto him, for he is
one of thine. Do it for Jesus’ sake!” Nay, to come to an end in this matter
of commendation, it is utterly impossible that you should have a large
measure of grace, unless it prompts you to use your influence for others.
Soul, if thou hast grace at all, and art not a mighty intercessor, that grace
must be but as a grain of mustard-seed-a shrivelled, uncomely, puny thing.
Thou hast just enough grace to float thy soul clear from the quicksand, but
thou hast no deep floods of grace, or else thou wouldst carry in thy joyous
bark a rich cargo of the wants of others up to the throne of God, and thou
wouldst bring back for them rich blessings which but for thee they might not
have obtained. If thou be like an angel with thy foot upon the golden ladder
which reaches to heaven, if thou art ascending and descending, know that thou
wilt ascend with others’ prayers and descend with others’ blessings, for it
is impossible for a full-grown saint to live or to pray for himself alone.
Thus much on commendation.
II. We turn to our second point, and endeavour to say something BY WAY OF
ENCOURAGEMENT, that you may cheerfully offer intercessory supplications.
First, remember that intercessory prayer is the sweetest prayer God ever
hears. Do not question it, for the prayer of Christ is of this character. In
all the incense which now our Great High Priest puts into the censer, there
is not a single grain that is for himself. His work is done; his reward
obtained. Now you do not doubt but that Christ’s prayer is the most
acceptable of all supplications. Very well, my brethren, the more like your
prayer is to Christ’s, the more sweet it will be; and while petitions for
yourself will be accepted, yet your pleadings for others, having in them more
of the fruits of the Spirit, more love, perhaps more faith, certainly more
brotherly kindness, they will be as the sweetest oblation that you can offer
to God, the very fat of thy sacrifice. Remember, again, that intercessory
prayer is exceedingly prevalent. What wonders it has wrought! Intercessory
prayer has stayed plagues. It removed the darkness which rested over Egypt;
it drove away the frogs which leaped upon the land; it scattered the lice and
locusts which plagued the inhabitants of Zoar; it removed the murrain, and
the thunder, and the lightning; it stayed all the ravages which God’s
avenging hand did upon Pharaoh and his people. Intercessory prayer has healed
diseases; -we know it did in the early church. We have evidence of it in old
Mosaic times. When Miriam was smitten with leprosy, Moses prayed, and the
leprosy was removed. It has restored withered limbs. When the king’s arm was
withered, he said to the prophet, “Pray for me,” and his arm was restored as
it was before. Intercessory prayer has raised the dead, for Elias stretched
himself upon the child seven times, and the child sneezed, and the child’s
soul returned. As to how many souls intercessory prayer has instrumentally
saved, recording angel, thou canst tell! Eternity, thou shalt reveal! There
is nothing which intercessory prayer cannot do. Oh! believer, you have a
mighty engine in your hand, use it well, use it constantly, use it now with
faith, and thou shalt surely prevail. But perhaps you have a doubt about
interceding for some one who has fallen far into sin. Brethren, did ye ever
hear of men who have been thought to be dead while yet alive? Have ye never
heard by the farmer’s fire some old-fashioned story of one who was washed and
laid out, and wrapped up in his shroud to be put into his coffin, and yet he
was but in a trance and not dead? And have ye not heard old legends of men
and women who have been buried alive? I cannot vouch for the accuracy of
those tales, but I can tell you that spiritually there has been many a man
given up for dead that was still within reach of grace. There has been many a
soul that has been put into the winding sheet even by Christian people, given
up to damnation even by the ministers of Christ, consigned to perdition even
by their own kinsfolk. But yet into perdition they did not come, but God
found them, and took them out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay,
and set their living feet upon his living rock. Oh! give up nobody; still
pray, lay none out for spiritually dead until they are lain out for dead
naturally. But perhaps you say, “I cannot pray for others, for I am so weak,
so powerless.” You will get strength, my brethren, by the exertion. But
besides, the prevalence of prayer does not depend upon the strength of the
man who prays, but upon the power of the argument he uses. Now, brethren, if
you sow seed you may be very feeble, but it is not your hand that puts the
seed into the ground which produces the harvest,-it is the vitality in the
seed. And so in the prayer of faith. When you can plead a promise and drop
that prayer into the ground with hope, your weakness shall not make it
miscarry; it shall still prevail with God and bring down blessings from on
high. Job! thou comest from thy dunghill to intercede, and so may I come from
my couch of weakness;-thou comest from thy poverty and thy desertion to
intercede for others, and so may we. Elias was a man of like passions-sweet
word!-of like passions, like infirmities, like tendencies to sin, but he
prevailed, and so shalt thou; only do thou see to it that thou be not
negligent in these exercises, but that thou pray much for others even as Job
prayed for his friends.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
