encies in the government of the world. This important view
is strikingly illustrated in Scripture. For some of the _purposes_ of
God, which might have been undiscoverable in the mere light of Nature,
are there explicitly declared; nay, they are thrown into the form of
express _promises_, to which the Divine faithfulness is solemnly
pledged; and yet the exercise of prayer, so far from being superseded by
these promises, is rather stimulated and encouraged by them; and the
believer pleads with increased fervor and confidence when he simply
converts _God's promises into his own petitions_. He feels that in doing
so he is taking God at his word; and that his own prayer, in so far as
it is warranted by His promise, cannot be ineffectual any more than
God's faithfulness can fail.

Thus Daniel "understood by books the number of the years whereof the
word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish
_seventy_ years in the desolation of Jerusalem." He knew the Lord's
promise, and that the time for its fulfilment was at hand; yet so far
from regarding either the immutability of the Divine _purpose_, or even
the infallible certainty of the Divine _promise_, as a reason for
neglecting prayer, as if that exercise were superfluous or vain, he was
stimulated and encouraged to pray just because "he knew the word of the
Lord."--"And I set my face," he says, "unto the Lord God, to seek by
prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes;" and I
prayed unto the Lord my God, and said, "O Lord! hear; O Lord! forgive; O
Lord! hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God!"[208]
Thus, _again_, when the Lord gave certain great and precious promises to
His ancient people, assuring them that "He would sprinkle clean water
upon them, and give them a new heart and a right spirit," it is added,
"I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for
them."[209] Thus, _again_, when the Saviour himself gave to His
disciples that promise, which is emphatically called "the promise of
the Father," assuring them that they should be "baptized with the Holy
Ghost not many days hence," and directing them to "wait at Jerusalem
until they should be endued with power from above," the apostles, so far
from regarding that "promise" as superseding the exercise of "prayer,"
betook themselves immediately to an upper room, and "all continued with
one accord in prayer and supplication;" and, at the appointed