2. A Hindrance to Prayer.

"To the end that your prayers be not hindered" (1 Pet. 3. 7). The hindrances to prayer are legion. Here the reference is to a particular hindrance. Peter affirms that if a Christian man, in the tender and intimate relations of domestic life, does not show due consideration to those dependent upon him, and especially if he is not thoughtful, kind, and chivalrous in his conjugal relations, living with his wife on the higher plane, as being a joint-heir with her of the grace of life, showing her in all things proper respect and honor as "the weaker vessel," his prayers will be hindered; that is to say, they will be kept from mounting to the throne of grace, either dying upon his lips or dying by the

way.

To be guilty of any inconsistency whatsoever, to live below the line of the Christian ideal, is to have prayer muffled and choked, or kept from reaching the mark. Careless living leads to ineffectual praying. It is the life that prays, and "he who would pray well must live well." When anything that ought to be rendered others is held back prayers are held back.

To pray while living in wrongdoing is to spread sail while leaving the anchor unlifted. A man cannot let himself out in a free and glad communion with God unless he is living in obedience to his will in all things. And should he force himself to pray before putting himself right with man and

God, squeezing out reluctant words by the pressure of a sense of duty, his prayer will be hindered from finding the goal and securing the answer.

3. A Listening God.

"The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears unto their supplication" (1 Pet. 3. 12). In these words, which Peter freely quotes from Psa. 34. 15, the divine side of prayer is brought to view. We have an all-seeing, all-knowing, all-hearing God, whose eyes overlook the righteous, taking note of all their movements and taking note of all their needs, and whose ears are open to their supplications (literally, directed toward their supplications), being eagerly bent to catch the faintest whisper of desire that comes from their lips.

The Eternal Father is never too busy to attend to the prayers of his children. The affairs of the universe do not absorb his attention so that he cannot give heed to the affairs of the individual soul. The infinitely small comes just as truly within the circle of his interest as the infinitely great. Everything that concerns his children is to him a matter of concern. Against no cry of need are his ears closed. When from the remotest corner of the earth the humblest and most unworthy creature of his hand calls upon him, he "stills the harps of angel bands to hear the suppliant sigh." From no one does he ever turn away.

The context shows that the assurance of God's special providence, and of his accessibility to the

suppliant, is given to the righteous to enable them to realize a happy and satisfying life. Because his eyes are favorably directed toward them they are of all men most blessed. Life has no sweeter solace, no more satisfying delight than that which comes from the knowledge of God's fatherly care and his readiness to listen to every supplication that may arise from our burdened hearts.

4. Sobriety of Spirit in Prayer.

"Be sober unto prayer” (1 Pet. 4. 7). The interpretation of these words which have narrowed them down to the abstinence from wine, or from sexual indulgence, is faulty in the extreme. They have a much wider application. They were written in view of the end of the Jewish age which was at hand, and which seemed to Peter "the end of all things,' to exhort the followers of Christ to be temperate or self-controlled, so that they might continue in the spirit of prayer. The social break-up which was about to take place would be accompanied with great moral disorder. Men would throw the reins upon the wild horse of their passions, and give way to every indulgence. From all such excesses Christians were rigidly to abstain. They were to hold their passions in leash, and preserve a frame of mind leading up to prayer, and not away from it. By achieving self-control they were to manifest in all things a sobriety of spirit favorable to devotion.

These words, therefore, put a ban upon everything savoring of levity, flippancy, and irreverence.

Christians are not to be intoxicated with worldly gayety, plunging into the whirl of social dissipation, and rushing heedlessly from it into God's presence. They are to avoid what Brother Lawrence describes as "amusing themselves with trivial devotions," and are not to be found guilty of the shamelessness of quitting converse with God "to think of trifles and follies." Rather are they to come into God's august presence in a thoughtful mood, curbing their wayward and wandering thoughts by strenuous effort of the will, and setting themselves in order to listen quietly and reverently to his voice. Boisterousness of manner, extravagance of speech, and ebullition of feeling are here condemned. The praying soul is not to lose hold of the rudder of his will and allow himself to be swept away on the tide of his emotions. He is to be self-restrained, humble and chastened in spirit, simple and sincere in his speech to God. He is to obey the injunction, "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few" (Eccl. 5. 2).

CHAPTER V

THE PLACE OF PRAYER IN THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF JOHN

To "the disciple whom Jesus loved" the religious life naturally presented itself in terms of personal friendship. Beginning with divine union, it is consummated in divine communion. "Our friendship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ," is the keynote of his teaching.

It was to this high plane that John lifted the exercise of prayer. It was not an official act like that of a priest, but something natural, familiar, and free, like the act of a child. The word orato, which he uses for "prayer," is the word which is employed in reference to the praying of Jesus to the Father. The idea which it conveys is not that of entreating or beseeching, but of asking or requesting. "It suggests," says Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, "not the petition of some one who seeks for something as a favor, but the petition of one who is on a perfect equality with the person to whom it is presented." When the more insistent word aieto, "to ask," or "crave," is employed, there is still the idea of friendly intercourse with one willing and ready to give.

The references to prayer in John's Gospel have already been considered. Let us now glance at what is said on the same subject in his other reputed writings.