the breakdown of his sacrificial work by his "choosing a different path from that which his Father had chosen for him." His struggle in the Garden was a struggle to keep up to the highest. His prayer was a prayer for strength. But he obtained the victory; so that his will was brought into perfect accord with the will of his Father, not in the sense of submitting to the inevitable, but in the sense of definitely choosing to hold to the supreme decision to go on. His was not a case of passive submission but of active self-surrender.

The help he sought and found in prayer may be ours also. We go to dark Gethsemane that we may learn of him to pray; and to prevail in prayer. His conflict and his victory are ours; the blessed fruits of his travail are ours.

Into the woods my Master went,
Clean for spent, forspent.

Out of the woods my Master went,
And he was well content,

Out of the woods my Master came
Content with death and shame.

And where he went we may follow.

7. He Prayed on the Cross.

After uttering to the world the words of triumph and exultation, "It is finished," he turned his face to heaven and breathed out his soul in the prayer, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23. 46). In this prayer of commitment Jesus affords an example of a filial confidence that

remained unbroken to the end. He had walked the human way of faith; he had gone before the sons of men teaching them how to live the life of faith, and giving them a perfect example of a faith-filled life; he had gone into that way without flinching when it led to the cross, and now in the hour of final conflict, when he felt as if he had been forsaken of the Father, the anchor chain of faith did not snap. In the midst of the awful darkness of the cross he clung to the hand of the Great Unseen, saying, "My God"; and when the end of all came he dismissed his spirit, committing it, with serene confidence, into the hands of the heavenly Father, believing that in his keeping it would be eternally safe.

The words of his prayer were borrowed from an Old Testament writer who used them in refer

ence to life rather than to death. In his deepest experiences Jesus did not hesitate to employ, and to adapt to his special need, a form of words that he found ready to hand. How surprised the unknown writer of these words would have been had he been told that such a use was to be made of them! Since then how many have taken this prayer into their lips; and in the solemn hour when time and eternity have met, and the ringing of the bells on the other shore has been heard, have sent their souls into the invisible in the calm and sweet assurance that their eternal welfare was secure, because their eternal all had been deposited in the hands of the heavenly Father?

CHAPTER IV

PRAYER AN INTEGRAL PART OF HIS
REDEMPTIVE WORK

JESUS helped on the work of human redemption by prayer. Not alone by his teaching and example, not alone by his mighty deeds and sacrificial death did he affect for good the hearts and lives of men, but also by his prayers. His prayers were a distinct form of redemptive energy. They set in motion a stream of influence which still flows on unspent. This world is a different place from what it would have been had not Christ prayed in it and for it.

He prayed, as we have seen, in the first instance for himself, because he had need of divine help, and could not render effective service without it. But he prayed mainly for others. His prayers were as unselfish as the rest of his life. In them his passion for human weal was expressed. The world which he had come to save lay upon his heart, and his prayers on its behalf rose unceasingly. And inasmuch as its wants are so wide, and so diversified, his prayers, of necessity, took on a great variety of specialized forms.

1. He Prayed for Little Children.

"Then were there brought unto him little chil

dren, that he should lay his hands on them, and pray" (Matt. 19. 13). This was probably his wont. The instinct that led these mothers of Israel to bring their children to Jesus that he might pray for them, invoking heaven's blessing upon them, was divinely implanted and divinely guided. They believed in his love for the children; and they believed that he was in such close touch with heaven that he could draw down blessing upon their heads. They never seemed to have questioned that to receive the touch of his hand and to secure an interest in his prayers was to obtain a substantial benefit. The way in which that benefit was conveyed they might not be able to understand, but the reality of it they never for a moment doubted.

The fact that he prayed for little children reveals his appreciation of their value. He saw the possibilities that lay hidden within them; he knew that the world's future would soon be in their hands, and he prayed that they might be molded and guided by a higher power, so that their lives might answer their destined ends.

Children are sometimes taught to look back regretfully upon this scene, and say, "I wish his hands had been placed on my head." Rather let them be taught that his hand is now placed upon the head of every one of them in blessing. His interest and love are unabated. He still prays for little children; and the fact that he does pray for them is one of the strongest motives that ought to lead us to pray for them also.

2. He Prayed for Individuals.

Of this we have an illustrative instance in his prayer for Peter, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not" (Luke 22. 31, 32). Peter was in danger, but he himself was unaware of it. His feet were slipping over the brink of a fearful precipice; and although, in his blindness, he felt no special need of prayer, the Master, who knew his danger, prayed for him. In answer to his prayer an unseen hand was holding him back from impending ruin. An unseen ally, who knew the designs of the ambushed enemy, and was able to foil them, was standing by his side ready to throw a protecting shield over his defenseless head. Satan begged to be allowed to subject him to some great temptation so as to sift the good out of him, that he might have him in his power and accomplish his destruction.

"I have prayed for thee"; literally, "I have besought for thee," says the Master, "that thy faith fail not." He did not pray that he might not be tempted, but that he might be given strength in the evil hour to withstand the assault of the tempter. The thing that Jesus was concerned about, the thing which he was afraid might fail, was Peter's faith. As the citadel of the religious life faith was the point of the enemy's attack. To lose faith is the greatest calamity that can overtake a soul. When faith fails the cable is broken that moors man to