power through which Thy Name and Word are glorified. Amen.
Or, SIXTEENTH LESSON. 'Speedily, though bearing long;' <strong>The</strong> Power <strong>of</strong> Persevering <strong>Prayer</strong>. 'And He spake a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint. . . . And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry to Him day and night, and He is long-suffering over them? I say unto you, that He will avenge them speedily.'--LUKE xviii. 108. OF all the mysteries <strong>of</strong> the prayer world, the need <strong>of</strong> persevering prayer is one <strong>of</strong> the greatest. That the Lord, who is so loving and longing to bless, should have to be supplicated time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes, we cannot easily understand. It is also one <strong>of</strong> the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise <strong>of</strong> believing prayer. When, after persevering supplication, our prayer remains unanswered, it is <strong>of</strong>ten easiest for our slothful flesh, and it has all the appearance <strong>of</strong> pious submission, to think that we must now cease praying, because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request. It is <strong>by</strong> faith alone that the difficulty is overcome. When once faith has taken its stand upon God's word, and the Name <strong>of</strong> Jesus, and has yielded itself to the leading <strong>of</strong> the Spirit to seek God's will and honor alone in its prayer, it need not be discouraged <strong>by</strong> delay. It knows from Scripture that the power <strong>of</strong> believing prayer is simply irresistible; real faith can never be disappointed. It knows how, just as water, to exercise the irresistible power it can have, must be gathered up and accumulated, until the stream can come down in full force, there must <strong>of</strong>ten be a heaping up <strong>of</strong> prayer, until God sees that the measure is full, and the answer comes. It knows how, just as the ploughman has to take his ten thousand steps, and sow his ten thousand seeds, each one a part <strong>of</strong> the preparation for the final harvest, so there is a need-be for <strong>of</strong>t-repeated persevering prayer, all working out some desired blessing. It knows for certain that not a single believing prayer can fail <strong>of</strong> its effect in heaven, but has its influence, and is treasured up to work out an answer in due time to him who persevereth to the end. It knows that it has to do not with human thoughts or possibilities, but with the word <strong>of</strong> the living God. And so even as Abraham through so many years 'in hope believed against hope,' and then 'through faith and patience inherited the promise,' it counts that the long-suffering <strong>of</strong> the Lord is salvation, waiting and hasting unto the coming <strong>of</strong> its Lord to fulfill His promise. To enable us, when the answer to our prayer does not come at once, to combine quiet patience and joyful confidence in our persevering prayer, we must specially try to understand the two words in which our Lord sets forth the character and conduct, not <strong>of</strong> the unjust judge, but <strong>of</strong> our God and Father towards those whom He allows to cry day and night to Him: 'He is long-suffering over them; He will avenge them speedily.' He will avenge them speedily, the Master says. <strong>The</strong> blessing is all prepared; He is not only willing but most anxious to give them what they ask; everlasting love burns with the longing desire to reveal itself fully to its beloved, and to satisfy their needs. God will not delay one moment longer than is absolutely necessary; He will do all in His power to hasten and speed the answer. But why, if this be true and His power be infinite, does it <strong>of</strong>ten last so long with the answer to prayer? And why must God's own elect so <strong>of</strong>ten, in the midst <strong>of</strong> suffering and conflict, cry day and night? 'He is long-suffering over them.' 'Behold! the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit <strong>of</strong> the earth, being longsuffering over it, till it receive the early and the latter rain.' <strong>The</strong> husbandman does indeed long for his harvest, but knows that it must have its full time <strong>of</strong> sunshine and rain, and has long patience. A child so <strong>of</strong>ten wants to pick the half-ripe fruit; the husbandman knows to wait till the proper time. Man, in his spiritual nature too, is under the law <strong>of</strong> gradual growth that reigns in all created life. It is only in the path <strong>of</strong> development that he can reach his divine destiny. And it is the Father, in whose hands are the times and seasons, who alone knows the moment when the soul or the Church is ripened to that fullness <strong>of</strong> faith in which it can really take and keep the blessing. As a father who longs to have his only child home from school, and yet waits patiently till the time <strong>of</strong> training is completed, so it is with God and His children: He is the long-suffering One, and answers speedily. <strong>The</strong> insight into this truth leads the believer to cultivate the corresponding dispositions: patience and faith, waiting and hasting, are the secret <strong>of</strong> his perseverance. By faith in the promise <strong>of</strong> God, we
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xii. 33). “Owe no man any thing,
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surely teach us at last, if indeed
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to wait upon the Lord with referenc
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me the needed means for this enlarg