An
objection has been raised which is very ancient indeed, and has a great
appearance of force. It is raised not so much by sceptics, as by those who hold
a part of the truth; it is this—that prayer can certainly produce no result,
because of the decrees of God have settled everything, and those decrees are
immutable. Now we have no desire to deny the assertion that the decrees of God
have settled all events. It is our full belief that God has foreknown and
predestinated everything that happened in heaven above or in the earth beneath,
and that the foreknown station of a reed by the river is fixed as the station
of a king, and "the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the
stars in their courses."
Predestination
embraceth the great and the little, and reacheth unto all things; the question
is, wherefore pray? Might it not as logically be asked, wherefore breathe, eat,
move, or do anything? We have an answer which satisfies us, namely, that our
prayers are in the predestination, and that God has as much ordained his
people's prayers as anything else, and when we pray we are producing links in
the chain of ordained facts. Destiny decrees that I should pray—I pray; destiny
decrees that I shall be answered, and the answer comes to me.
Moreover,
in other matters we never regulate our actions by the unknown decrees of God;
as for instance, a man never questions whether he shall eat or drink, because
it may or may not be decreed that he shall eat or drink; a man never enquires
whether he shall work or not on the ground that it is decreed how much he shall
do or how little; as it is inconsistent with common sense to make the secret
decrees of God a guide to us in our general conduct, so we feel it would be in
reference to prayer, and therefore still we pray. But we have a better answer
than all this. Our Lord Jesus Christ comes forward, and he says to us this
morning, "My dear children, the decrees of God need not trouble you, there
is nothing in them inconsistent with your prayers being heard.
'I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you.' "Now, who is he
that says this? Why it is he that has been with the Father from the
beginning—"the same was in the beginning with God" and he knows what
the purposes of the Father are and what the heart of God is, for he has told us
in another place, "the Father himself loveth you."
Now
since he knows the decrees of the Father, and the heart of the Father, he can
tell us with the absolute certainty of an eye-witness that there is nothing in
the eternal purposes in conflict with this truth, that he that asketh
receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. He has read the decrees from the
beginning to end: hath he not taken the book, and loosed the seven seals
thereof, and declared the ordinances of heaven? He tells you there is nothing
there inconsistent with your bended knee and streaming eye, and with the
Father's opening the windows of heaven to shower upon you the blessings which
you seek. Moreover, he is himself God: the purposes of heaven are his own
purposes, and he who ordained the purpose here gives the assurance that there
is nothing in it to prevent the efficacy of prayer. "I say unto you."
O ye that believe in him, your doubts are scattered to the winds, ye know that
he heareth your prayer.