True prayer.
"He shall call," etc. This is the simplest view of prayer. And in our present weakness, sin, need, that which comes most home, suits us most. Prayer may extend far beyond the range of our own need, as in the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer. It may rise above petition into converse with God, adoration, thanksgiving, consecration. But this is the alphabet of those loftier lessons, "Ask and receive" (Luke 11:9, etc.; Psalms 50:15).
I. PRAYER IS A LAW OF GOD'S GOVERNMENT. He has ordained it among the conditions of the blessings he is ready to bestow, as surely as he has ordained sowing as the condition of reaping, or the dependence of the child on the parent (Matthew 7:11). We hear much in our day of laws; and no wonder, for the progress of science depends on the discovery of the laws which regulate nature. Rightly understood, they are the glorious witness of which Psalms 19:1 speaks. The mischief and folly come in when men erect "laws" into an imaginary self-existence, and worship them as a sort of fetish, just as in old times people worshipped imaginary powers in nature. A strange idolatry! Laws can have no existence but in mind. In our minds they are truths which we discover as constant amid the infinite, ever-changing variety of nature. In the Divine mind they are the principles and rules according to which the Creator has made, upholds, and rules the universe. Now, if prayer be one of the great laws which God has ordained for human life, it must needs be in perfect harmony with all nature's laws. God's laws cannot contradict one another. The so called "scientific" objection against prayer (which has really nothing scientific in it) amounts to this—that if God is influenced by prayer, so that he causes events which would not have happened had prayer not been offered, nature must be irregular, and God irresolute. The answer is—It is God's will that "men pray everywhere," as much as that the sun shall shine and rain fall. He has built this universe as a temple. All nature is so under his eye, hand, will, that it is no more deranged by his granting our petitions than by a parent granting a child's request (1 John 5:14, 1 John 5:15). Men can disobey, disbelieve, despise, this great law of prayer. The difference between natural laws and laws for intelligent beings is just this—things cannot disobey God. Men can; but they must take the consequences.
II. THAT GOD ANSWERS PRAYER IS A FACT OF EXPERIENCE. The truth of any law is verified by experience. So God says, "Prove me" The law of prayer is established by the teaching of the whole Bible, by abundant express promises, by our Saviour's example as well as teaching. It has been tested constantly for thousands of years; is being tested hourly—nay, every minute. And the immense witness of experience is, "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." If experience can establish any fact, it is this. But here is a difficulty. All prayers are not answered.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY