ep back and say, I will not go out of my
hiding-place, I elect to remain in the love of God.

The one effort of life is therefore reduced to a persistent resistance
to all the suggestions of the world, the flesh and the devil; that we
should step out of that Blessed Man into whom the Father has grafted us.

Then He abides in us. He is strong where we are weak, loving and
tender where we are thoughtless, holy where we fail. He is in us as
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; and as the hope
of glory.

XVI

Prayer that Prevails

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you."--JOHN xv. 7.

Christ expected answers to His prayers, and in all His teaching leads
us to feel that we shall be able to obtain, through prayer, what
otherwise would not come to our hand. He knew all that was to be known
of natural law and the Father's heart; but notwithstanding His perfect
acquaintance with the mysteries of the Father's government, He said,
"Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

A careful comparison between the confident assurances of the Master,
and the experience of Christians, as detailed in their biographies or
personal confessions, discloses a wide difference between His words and
the findings of His disciples. Many have become accustomed to
disappointment in prayer. They have asked so many things which they
have never received; have sought so much without finding; have knocked
so repeatedly, but the door has remained closed. We are in the habit
of accounting for our failure by saying that probably our prayer was
not according to the will of God, or that God withheld the less that He
might give us something better. In some cases there may be even an
unspoken misgiving about the harmony of prayer with our Father's love
and wisdom, or with a perfect confidence in Him as doing the best for
us in the world. We forget that if we prayed as we should, we should
ask what was according to His will. We evade Christ's definite words,
"_Whatsoever_ ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do."

When we consider the lives of some who have wrought mightily for God,
it is clear that they had learned a secret which eludes many of us.
Take this, for instance, from the biography of Dr. Burns Thomson.
"When much together as students," writes his friend, "we agreed on
special petitions, and the Lord encouraged us by giving answers, so
ear