a door of utterance,
to speak the mystery of Christ: that I may make it manifest as I ought
to speak." 1 Thess. v. 25: "Brethren, pray for us." Philem. 22: "I
trust that through your prayers I shall be given to you."

We saw how Christ prayed, and taught His disciples to pray. We see how
Paul prayed, and taught the churches to pray. As the Master, so the
servant calls us to believe and to prove that prayer is the power alike
of the ministry and the Church. Of his faith we have a summary in these
remarkable words concerning something that caused him grief: "This shall
turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit
of Jesus Christ." As much as he looked to his Lord in heaven did he look
to his brethren on earth, to secure the supply of that Spirit for him.
The Spirit from heaven and prayer on earth were to him, as to the twelve
after Pentecost, inseparably linked. We speak often of apostolic zeal
and devotion and power--may God give us a revival of apostolic prayer.

Let me once again ask the question: Does the work of intercession take
the place in the Church it ought to have? Is it a thing commonly
understood in the Lord's work, that everything depends upon getting from
God that "supply of the Spirit of Christ" for and in ourselves that can
give our work its real power to bless. This is Christ's Divine order for
all work, His own and that of His servants; this is the order Paul
followed: first come every day, as having nothing, and receive from God
"the supply of the Spirit" in intercession--then go and impart what has
come to thee from heaven.

In all His instructions, our Lord Jesus spake much oftener to His
disciples about their praying than their preaching. In the farewell
discourse, He said little about preaching, but much about the Holy
Spirit, and their asking whatsoever they would in His Name. If we are to
return to this life of the first apostles and of Paul, and really accept
the truth every day--my first work, my only strength is intercession, to
secure the power of God on the souls entrusted to me--we must have the
courage to confess past sin, and to believe that there is deliverance.
To break through old habits, to resist the clamour of pressing duties
that have always had their way, to make every other call subordinate to
this one, whether others approve or not, will not be easy at first. But
the men or women who are faithful will not only have a reward
themselves, but become bene