THE DUTY OF PRAYING FOR OTHERS: ENFORCED BY SOME ARGUMENTS TAKEN FROM THE SUCCESS OF THOSE PRAYERS WHICH THE CHURCH The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.JAMES V. 16. F 5 THE DUTY OF PRAYING FOR OTHERS. ACTS xii. 5. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. HEROD, a persecutor of the church, stretched forth his hand to vex some of its members, and he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword; and because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded farther to take Peter also. He committed him to prison, chained him to two other persons, and gave him in charge to sixteen soldiers, who were four at a time, night and day, to be keeping watch over him. And after Easter he intended to have put him to death; but on the very night before his execution, Peter is wonderfully delivered, contrary to Herod's purpose, the prisoner's hopes, and the keeper's intentions. By what means was this brought about? By the church's prayers. From the time Peter was apprehended, prayers were made without ceasing for him; and when the faithful knew his execution was fixed for the next day, they were resolved to wrestle all night with God in prayer for him. Accordingly they besiege the throne of grace with their earnest and hearty requests for Peter's deliverance, and they are heard. While they are praying God gives in the prisoner among them, as an answer to their prayers. Upon this fact I will make some practical remarks for the use of God's people at this time. What I shall offer at present relates only to true believers, and I hope God will put it into their hearts to hear me with profit and improvement to their souls. My brethren, you see the distressed state of our affairs. All Europe is in confusion, our affairs are unsettled at home, and we are at war abroad, and with enemies who boast themselves in their victories and conquests. But the dearest thing to us is in the most danger. The protestant religion is ready to be destroyed, and the Lord seems to have given us up to our bloody persecutors. Look around you, you see no prospect of deliverance by any human means: what course then shall we take? Whither shall we go for help? God must be our only refuge. If we can trust in him for deliverance, he will deliver us: and if we have any trust in him, we shall certainly express it in prayer. And for our encouragemet to pray, and to expect a blessing upon our prayers, let us meditate upon the history before us; and may God so direct me to speak, and you to hear, that we may pray without ceasing, as they did in the text, until our success be like theirs. O that God would pour down upon us the spirit of prayer and supplication, and make us a praying people, until he deliver us from all our enemies, and make us an happy people. To this end, let us consider some of the chief practical uses to be made of the text. And First, we may remark, That whenever the faithful are in any great danger or trouble, if God intends to deliver them, he puts it into their hearts to pray for deliverance. We have many examples of this in scrip ture, and many express passages, whereon to ground this doctrine. We are never able to pray aright with out God's assistance. It is the office of the "holy "Spirit to help our infirmities; for we know not, says "the apostle, what we should pray for as we ought, "but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us." (Rom. viii. 26.) He helpeth our infirmities before we pray, by letting us see our wants, and he helpeth us in praying, by enabling us to pray with faith, and to ask what he knows our heavenly Father will grant us. Thus he puts it into their hearts to pray without ceasing for Peter's deliverance. If he had not helped their infirmities, every circumstance made so much against them, that they could have had no hopes from their prayers. But he strengthened their faith, and they looked beyond all difficulties. They saw a way open for Peter to escape, notwithstanding Herod's cruelty, the strictness and number of the guard, the closeness of the prison, and the nearness of Peter's death. They knew God was able, and they believed it would be for his glory, to deliver him, and therefore they prayed without ceasing. My brethren, do you find yourselves stirred up much to prayer in the present troublesome times? Are your hearts greatly disposed to pray, that God would put an end to these troubles, and to preserve to us the blessings of the protestant religion? Do you spend much time with God, do you wrestle with him in prayer, resolved "not to let him go," until he hear and answer? If this be the case, we shall certainly be preserved. If the Lord's people be led out into fervent and earnest prayer, if they pray often alone, and often with one another for the peace of our Jerusalem, then we need not despair. Though all things make against us, as they did in Peter's case, yet if God put it into our hearts to pray for deliverance, as he did into the hearts of the faithful, then we may promise ourselves the like blessed answer to our prayers, which they met with. And this is my second practical remark. The prayer of faith never returns without a blessing. Peter |