“O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer
not, for thine own sake, O my God; for thy city and thy people are called
by thy name.”–Daniel 9:19.
Daniel was a man in very high position in life. It is true he was not
living in his own native land, but, in the providence of God, he had been
raised to great eminence under the dominion of the country in which he
dwelt. He might, therefore, naturally have forgotten his poor kinsmen;
many have done so. Alas! we have known some that have even forgotten
their poor fellow Christians when they have grown in grace, and have
thought themselves too good to worship with the poorer sort when they
themselves have grown rich in this world’s goods. But it was not so with
Daniel. Though he had been made a president of the empire, yet he was
still a Jew; he felt himself still one with the seed of Israel. In all
the afflictions of his people he was afflicted, and he felt it his honour
to be numbered with them, and his duty and his privilege to share with
them all the bitterness of their lot. If he could not become despised and
as poor as they, if God’s providence had made him to be distinguished,
yet his heart would make no distinction: he would remember them and pray
for them, and would plead that their desolation might yet be removed.
Daniel was also a man very high in spiritual things. Is he not one of God’s
three mighties in the Old Testament? He is mentioned with two others in a
celebrated verse as being one of three whose intercessions God would have
heard if he had heard any intercessions. But though thus full of grace
himself (and for that very reason) he stooped to those who were in a low
state. Rejoicing as he did before God as to his own lot, he sorrowed and
cried by reason of those from whom joy was banished. It is a sad fault with
those Christians who think themselves full of grace, when they begin to
despise their fellows. They may rest assured they are greatly mistaken in
the estimate they have formed of themselves. But it is a good sign when
thine own heart is fruitful and healthy before God, when thou dost
condescend to those that backslide, and search after such as are weak, and
bring again such as were driven away. When thou hast, like thy Master, a
tender sympathy for others, then art thou rich in divine things. Daniel
showed his intimate sympathy with his poorer and less gracious brethren in
the way of prayer. He would have shown that sympathy in other ways had
occasions occurred, and no doubt he did; but this time the most fitting way
of proving his oneness with them was in becoming an intercessor for them.
My object here and now will be to stir up the people of God, and
especially the members of this church, to abound exceedingly in prayer;
more and more to plead with God for the prosperity of his Church, and the
extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom.
First, our text gives us a model of prayer; and secondly, it and its
surroundings give us encouragement for prayer. First, then, our text
gives us:–
I. A MODEL OF PRAYER.
I think I may notice this first as to the antecedents of the prayer. This
prayer of Daniel was not offered without consideration. He did not come to
pray as some people do, as though it were a thing that required no
forethought whatever. We are constantly told we ought to prepare our
sermons, and I surely think that if a man does not prepare his sermons he
is very blameworthy. But are we never to prepare when we speak to God, and
only when we speak to man? Is there to be no preparation of the heart of
man from God when we open our mouth before the Lord? Do not you think we
often do, both in private and public, begin to pray without any kind of
consideration, and the words come, and then we try to quicken the words
rather than the desires coming, and the words coming like garments to
clothe them withal?
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
