me
three loaves; for a friend of mine is come unto me from a journey,
and I have nothing to set before him; and he from within shall
answer and say, Trouble me not: I cannot rise and give thee? I say
unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his
friend, yet, because of his importunity, he will arise and give him
as many as he needeth."--LUKE xi. 5-8.

"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never
hold their peace day nor night: ye that are the Lord's
remembrancers, keep not silence, and give Him no rest."--ISA. lxii.
6, 7.

We have seen in our previous chapter what power prayer has. It is the
one power on earth that commands the power of heaven. The story of the
early days of the Church is God's great object-lesson, to teach His
Church what prayer can do, how it alone, but it most surely, can draw
down the treasures and powers of heaven into the life of earth.

Just remember the lessons we learnt of how prayer is at once
indispensable and irresistible. Did we not see how unknown and untold
power and blessing is stored up for us in heaven?--how that power will
make us a blessing to men, and fit us to do any work or face any danger?
how it is to be sought in prayer continually and persistently? how they
who have the heavenly power can pray it down upon others? how in all the
intercourse of ministers and people, in all the ministrations of
Christ's Church, it is the one secret of success? how it can defy all
the power of the world, and fit men to conquer that world for Christ? It
is the power of the heavenly life, the power of God's own Spirit, the
power of Omnipotence, that waits for prayer to bring it down.

In all this prayer there was little thought of personal need or
happiness. It was the desire to witness for Christ and bring Him and His
salvation to others, it was the thought of God's kingdom and glory, that
possessed these disciples. If we would be delivered from the sin of
restraining prayer, we must enlarge our hearts for the work of
intercession. The attempt to pray constantly for ourselves must be a
failure; it is in intercession for others that our faith and love and
perseverance will be aroused, and that power of the Spirit be found
which can fit us for saving men. We are asking how we may become more
faithful and successful in prayer; let us see how the Master teaches us,
in the parable of the Friend at Midnight, that in