But why ask God to do this? Certainly, not to interest him in the work, but, rather, to get ourselves into sympathy with him regarding the work. He is desirous to see the ripe grain reaped-to see prepared souls harvested and brought into his garner. He needs more harvest hands, and when we ask him to send them we simply enter into his desire that they may be sent. Our prayer thus unites us with him in the accomplishment of the very thing upon which his heart is set.

But praying that others may be sent is vain unless the one who prays puts himself within the circle of his own request, and is willing to go if he should be called. When Isaiah heard the voice of Jehovah saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" he did not point to some other man, saying, "Send him," but he answered, "Here am I; send me." For some who already feel the outthrust of a divine impulse this prayer may mean the proffer of self. And while there is no need for anyone to run before he is sent, everyone should see to it that he runs when he is sent.

12. Prayer as Related to the Immanence of God.

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4. 24). Jesus here clearly intimates that a new day in the religious development of the race had dawnedthat the time had come when worship was to be a thing of the spirit rather than a thing of external forms. He assumes that the day of ceremonial

religion, the day when religion should consist in rituals and shrines and altars, is past; that henceforth worship was not to be limited to temples made with hands; that the door into the holy place was no longer to be opened only by priestly hands that kept the keys; that not alone in certain sacred spots were men to worship the Father, but that the spiritual age having arrived he was to be worshiped anywhere, being near to all alike, and being accessible to all alike.

The expression "God is a Spirit" is more correctly rendered "God is spirit"; and so it reads in the margin of the Revised Version. As spirit, he is invisible to the eye, impalpable to the senses, is seen only by the eye of faith, and heard directly only by his still small voice within the inner chambers of the soul. This lack of outward impression, of audible communication, and of "a definite response such as a person feels when he gets into relation with the outward world, or to another person," is for many a prime difficulty in connection with prayer. When we commune with God we see nothing and hear nothing; the room in which we pray is apparently still and empty; yet the very fact that we do pray implies that we have a belief in an unseen Presence, even if our awareness of it be absent. And in this we are wise, for in the spiritual, as well as in the natural sphere, the final forces, while never merely passive, but always active, and always seeking to make themselves felt, seldom come within the range of consciousness. As

President H. C. King has pointed out, "The constant pressure of the air, the motion of the earth, we do not feel at all. We have no sensible knowledge of any kind of the existence of nature's atoms. The ether vibrations are quite beyond the reach of any sense." Thus in both spheres alike we have to walk by faith rather than by sense and sensation.

Because God is spirit "they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth": in spirit, "not as opposed to form, but as opposed to mere form"; in truth, not as opposed to outward expression, but as opposed to insincerity and unreality. According to Lyman Abbott, "Christ's language condemns the spirit of ritualism but not the employment of rites." It makes true worship a spiritual exercise, a thing "of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God" (Rom. 2. 29).

The expression "God is spirit" must not, however, be watered down to mean that he is an abstract principle or impersonal force, to be called by such vague names as "The All" or "The Absolute." He is a living Spirit, a loving Spirit; a fatherly Spirit with whom man can hold conscious fellowship. Yea, more, he is "the Father of spirits" to whom every man is kin; immanent in the life of the world, yet distinct from it, within it yet above it, at once the Universal Life and the Universal Father; one whose love is real, warm, and personal, one with whom the spirit of man can meet, and hold personal fellowship.

And when the human spirit meets the Infinite Spirit both come to their own.

The conception of God as immanent in the world, which Jesus here gives us, helps to bring him near, and make him accessible. The God who is immanent does not need to come down to meet us. He dwells in the world. His presence pervades every part of it. He is its indwelling life. The movement of his vital energy is seen in every form of sentient activity; the throb of his infinite heart is felt in every pulsation of animal and human love. The reason why he can always be found is because he is perpetually near. Those only fail to find him who turn away from him. As another has said, "No place is God-forsaken, except the place where man forsakes his God."

13. A New Epoch in the Prayer Life.

"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do" (John 14. 13, 14). "And in that day ye shall ask me no question. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be made full” (John 16. 23, 24). See also John 15. 16; 16. 26.

The formula, "In Christ's name," or its equivalent, "for his sake," with which almost every prayer is ended, is too often used as a sort of talisman. Rightly understood, it reveals a new revelation with

Christ, a new method of approach to God; or— shall we say?-a new way of praying. Of this high privilege of praying in Christ's name the Old Testament saints knew nothing. It is a privilege belonging to the new dispensation. How had the disciples prayed before this time? Like all other pious Jews, they had prayed in the name of Jehovah. Their plea had been "For thy name's sake, O Lord, hear my prayer" (see Psalms 25. 11 to 31. 3; 119. 21). "Henceforth" they were to use a new name— the name of Jesus. This they could not do until after his death and resurrection. While he was with them they went to the Father directly; after his departure they were to go to the Father in his name." "Hitherto," said he, "ye have asked nothing in my name." Henceforth they were to ask everything in his name. In his name they were to approach the Father; in his name they were to offer every prayer.

To pray in Christ's name is to do more than hide behind him; pleading his merits, adding his plea to ours. The thought is to be forever excluded

from our minds that Christ is more our friend than the Father, and that through him we are to get a favorable introduction to the Father before he can be won over to our side and answer our prayers. To pray in Christ's name is to stand in his place; to pray as he prayed, as sons to a Father, and not as creatures to a creator; it is to be one with him in thought and desire; to speak as his representative, and to occupy the position before God that he