Chapter 2 starts at 10:22.
“He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him.”
Hebrews 11:7
“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
John 15:7
“And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
Acts 2:42
While the purpose of the present series of studies is that of stating the positive truth of the Christian faith concerning prayer, it is necessary at least to recognize the fact that among the things of weakness characterizing our age is a far spread doubt of the possibility of prayer. It is affirmed that the advance of scientific knowledge has made it impossible to believe that the desires and petitions of individual souls or of companies in agreement can have any effect upon the affairs of a universe conditioned absolutely within law. Some there are, therefore, and those the more consistent, who abandon prayer in every form, while others urge the maintenance of the habit of prayer because of the effect it produces upon those who pray. These claim that prayer, while devoid of objective value, has yet a subjective value. It is not my purpose to attempt any philosophical discussion on this question. I believe that the majority of persons who read will concede at once the objective value of prayer, and I do not think anything said in defence of the theory will bring conviction to those in doubt. It is only by praying that the possibility is proven. He has proved the objective value of prayer who has asked and received, who has sought and found, who has knocked and known the door opened in answer. Yet there are certain of the simplest things which may be said in this connection.
Let it once be granted that prayer has a subjective value and it will be difficult to escape conviction of its objective value. If it be true that petition has produced an effect upon character which is uplifting and ennobling, then that effect is due to belief in the existence of One who hears and is able to grant requests. If there be no such possibility, then belief in that which is untrue issues in character which is true and beautiful. This is unthinkable. All the subjective value of prayer has grown out of conviction of an objective value. If a man asks for something, it is because he believes he can obtain it by asking. Once persuade a man that it is impossible for him to receive an answer to his petition and he will not persist in asking. Thus will the subjective value of prayer be inevitably destroyed when the objective value is denied. No man will continue to ask if he be once convinced that his asking has no greater value than that it produces an effect upon himself. Everything which man has observed of the subjective value of prayer, of the influence it has produced upon character and tone, has been due to profound conviction of its objective value. Sincere and honest men who once deny the objective value cease praying, witness such men as Darwin, Tyndal, Spencer and Huxley. Their philosophy led them to the conclusion that prayer was never answered and therefore they properly and honestly - though as we think - mistakenly and disastrously ceased to pray.
I am not for a single moment denying the subjective value of prayer. No human being has ever lived the life of familiarity with the secret place without bearing the light and glory of it on the face. Those who know what it is to talk often with God gain a tone in their talking with men which cannot be mistaken. Herein the subjective value of prayer, but it came out of profound conviction that when they spoke they were heard, when they asked they were answered. I believe therefore that the demonstration of the subjective value of prayer is presumptive evidence of its objective value.
Our belief, however, in the prevailing power of prayer has firmer foundations. It is based first of all upon our doctrine of God. We do not believe that He is the slave of His own laws. At the same time we do not believe in a God who is lawless, but law-abiding. His knowledge of all law is, however, such as to enable Him in the overruling of one law by another so to perform what to our limited vision appears to be miraculous. Our doctrine of God makes us believe that it is possible for Him to do in answer to prayer that which appears to be contrary to law, but which is in reality wrought by the operation of a law of which we know nothing in relation to another law of which we know something. It is reasonable that those who deny the possibility of prayer always deny the existence of the miraculous. What is a miracle? The word simply means something which surprises, something for which we cannot account. Now, the only reason why men deny the possibility of prayer is that they deny the possibility of things which they cannot understand. That is the meaning of the denial of everything which we call supernatural. Our doctrine of God affirms that from the standpoint of His existence, of His government, of His love, there is nothing supernatural. The things which appear to be supernatural to me, are natural to Him. Every miracle of the New Testament and of the Old Testament was a simple happening which surprised men who did not know all the facts and forces of the universe. Those things surprising to finite men were actions perfectly natural to God. It is surely time that we recognize this. A great many things of which our fathers would have spoken as being quite as miraculous as anything recorded in the Bible, are commonplaces of every-day life to us. We are not surprised at the wonders wrought by electricity because we have discovered laws of which our fathers knew nothing. Yet the increase of our knowledge makes us the more ready to declare that even to-day we are but children of the dawn. The Christian affirmation is that God dwells in the light and there is no darkness with Him. That which appears to contradict nature is in harmony with the whole economy of God, and the work of God within the realm of laws higher than those which man has yet discovered. It may be objected that law cannot overrule law; but experience proves the contrary. I hold a book in my hand. The law of gravitation demands its fall but it remains in my hand because of the operation of an overruling law. In all the simplest things of life this inter-action of law is at work. Now, the Christian doctrine of God declares that He sitteth at the centre of the universe. He rules eternity with His presence. All laws are but His thoughts, and He is able to call into operation force against force, law against law. We therefore believe it is possible for His children to go to Him and ask of Him and receive from Him things they cannot obtain in any other way. Things absolutely impossible to men within the realm of the laws they know may become possible to them, if they can gain His ear and touch His Heart and find the answer of His overruling power. Once deny that God can answer prayer, and He is degraded into a being less than His universe, a prisoner in the heart of His own creation.
Again, our belief in the possibility of prayer is based upon the declarations of Jesus, and behind His declarations there is Himself. If when I ask I never have; when I seek I cannot find; when I knock no door is opened to me, then either Christ was deceived or a deceiver. His teaching was most explicit. In this connection one quotation, perhaps the most remarkable of all, will suffice. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” A careful examination of that passage makes it even more wonderful than appears at first sight. The word “ask” may with perfect accuracy be rendered “demand as your due.” No violence will be done to the Lord’s words if instead of “whatsoever ye will” we read “whatsoever ye are inclined to.” Yet again, the word translated “done,” may be changed into “generated,” and we have here as it seems to me, the most stupendous statement regarding prayer ever uttered. It makes prayer limitless within limits. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you,” are the limits. Let these be observed, then prayer becomes the method of cooperation with Deity. The life of true relation to Himself is one in which desire harmonizes with the purposes of God, and which therefore demands an answer which is provided even though the creative force of Deity should be employed. If there is no answer to prayer, then these are the words of One who was deceived, or was a deceiver - impossible alternatives despite a thousand new-born philosophies. Neither was He deceived, nor a deceiver. What He said is true though the heavens fall. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word cannot. To deny the possibility of prayer is to deny the teaching of Jesus. To deny that teaching is to destroy Him.
Yet once again, we base our belief in the possibility of prayer upon the history and experience of men. When science makes experience the universal test of reality how can men rationally exclude the experience of the saints of all ages in this matter? They tell us they have asked and had; sought and found; knocked and the door has been opened. In answer to this it is affirmed that they were all perfectly sincere in believing so, but they were mistaken. Such a statement is a test of patience to which I am not equal. To be told that not one or two; but hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of human beings, not of one age or temperament or geographical position; but in every age, of all temperaments and from every clime, though weeks and months and years and decades and centuries and millenniums, have all been deceived, is to be asked to believe something far more incredible than anything which Christianity affirms as true. If the testimony of seers, prophets, psalmists, saints, confessors and martyrs is all to go for nothing; yet may God help me to share their delusion, for it has been a glorious delusion and the dynamic by which all the best work of the centuries has been done. We affirm therefore, our belief in the objective value of prayer, first because of our doctrine of God; secondly because of the declarations of Jesus Christ, and finally because of the history and the experience of the saints.
Yet, let me go one step further. God has been reached always through His Son, Jesus Christ. Not that men have always understood this, not that we perfectly understand it to-day, but the fact remains that fallen man has always found his way to God in prayer through the mystery of the mediation of Christ. Now, that is the theme we are proposing to follow. The Christian revelation is that of the constant method by which man has been able to pray; by which man has asked and received, has sought and found; has knocked and found the door opened. So that the final proof of the objective value of prayer lies in all that Christian economy which we claim creates its possibility, and which is to be considered.