THE REV. THOMAS CONNELLAN, - The Gospel Magazine

The Gospel Magazine. 519
sleeps has His ears open to his prayer at any hour of the night!
Full of thrilling interest, too, is the record of that stormy night when
the disciples were on the sea, 'toiling in rowing.' The wind being
contrary, they knew not that Jesus was alone on the land' praying.'
But about the' fourth watch of the night' He came to them on
the sea, and calmed at once both the storm without and the fears
within, saying unto them, 'It is 1.' "
.As we know, and it is a cheering truth, the darkness of
nature hides nothing from our God. To Him the night shineth
as the day. "He giveth songs in the night"-and prayers also.
How many illustrations of night prayer the Holy Spirit has recorded
in the Word! "Samuel cried to the Lord all the night" (1 Sam.
xv. 11-1'6). Nehemiah prayed for Israel day and night" (Neh.
i. 6). David prayed and watered his couch with tears (Ps.
vi. 1-6). The Bride sought the Lord" by night" upon her bed
(Song iii. 1). Isaiah said, "With my soul have I desired Thee
in the night" (Isa. xxvi. 9). Jeremiah longed to weep day and
night for his people (Jer. ix. 1, Lam. n. 18, 19). Moses fell down
before the Lord "forty days and forty nights" (Deut. ix. 25).
But notably Jesus Himself prayed by night, even "continued
all mght in prayer to God" (Luke vi. 12). and, as has been specially
noted, "What a night of prayer was His last night before He
suffered! first in the supper-chamber (John xvii), and then in
Gethsemane" (Luke xxi. 40-45). One cannot name Gethsemane
and Jesus in prayer, without remembering that plaintively precious
composition of dear Joseph Hart's;-
"JESUS, while He dwelt below,
As Divine historians say,
To a place would often go ;
Near to Kedron's brook it lay;
In this place He loved to be,
_