siveness. The reluctance of the churlish neighbor is real, the reluctance of the heavenly Father is seeming. Delay is not denial. Reasons may exist why a petition should not be granted at once, but no reason exists why God should withhold from his children what they really need.

God is as unlike this unfriendly, disobliging neighbor as it is possible to conceive. He does not give grudgingly. We do not require to wring a reluctant blessing from his hand. He delights to give; and if he withholds for a time, he is pleased with our urgency, although grieved that we should so often misunderstand his real feeling toward us. "We prevail with men by importunity," says Matthew Henry, "because they are displeased, but with God because he is pleased with it." The certainty that God is interested in us, and is ready to answer our prayer is our encouragement, and affords a reasonable ground for importunity. Alford points out the closer connection between the parable and the words that follow, "Ask, and it shall be given you," and sees in this completed truth a revelation of "the great law of our Father's spiritual kingdom-a clause out of the eternal covenant which cannot be changed."

7. With Persistency.

"And he spake a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18. 1). The parable to which these words are the preface is that of the unrighteous judge

and the troublesome widow. Its object is the same as that of the preceding parable, and it resembles it still further in being a parable of contrast; but, whereas in the former parable the contrast is between a selfish neighbor and the heavenly Friend, here the contrast is between an unjust judge and the righteous Father.

Because God is well disposed prayer should be persistent. "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint"; that is, they ought to pray, and stay for the answer; they ought to pray through to the very end; not fainting because the way is long, and the answer slow in coming. The reason for persistence is not that it overcomes divine reluctance but that it finds a sure and certain response in divine willingness. We hold on and hold out because we know that our Father will not say us nay. We are all prone to grow remiss in prayer. Habit stales. Long-continued strain produces lassitude. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." The hands hang down; and prayer, if not altogether given up, is continued in a feeble way, through the ever-decreasing momentum of a past experience. To rally our spiritual forces, and keep us upon our knees, Jesus told this story of the unrighteous judge who was moved to redress this widow, not as an act of justice, but because she kept plaguing him by her continual coming, and he asks, “Shall not the righteous Father, who is rich in mercy and ready to help, answer the cry for redress of his own elect, who are forever dear to him?" That is to

say, If persistent pleading prevails over apathy, how much more will it prevail over love?

To this question Jesus answers, "I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." There will be no unnecessary delay. If the divine Father appears to tarry, it is because the proper hour has not yet struck, or because the petitioner is not prepared to receive what he has asked. The answer is to be calmly awaited. God will give it as speedily as possible, in view of all the interests involved; not because he has been teased and worried into compliance, but because he delights to give whenever he wisely can. A quiet trust in his love will lead us to keep praying on with a holy persistency that knows no abatement, while patiently waiting the outworking of his will.

8. With Humility.

To impress the hearts of men with the need of humility in prayer, Jesus tells this story: "Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I get. But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be thou merciful to me a sinner. I say unto you, This man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one that

exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke 18. 1014). In the introduction to this story or parable it is stated that it was spoken for the benefit of "certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and set all others at naught." Its object was to expose and to condemn the sin of selfrighteousness. With the Jewish people the vainglorious Pharisee was the model saint. They worshiped the very ground upon which he trod. How astonished and confounded therefore they must have been when Jesus, as a revolutionist in morals, hurled him from his pedestal, and put in his place the penitent publican-thus giving to the world a new model of piety.

With a few sharp strokes he puts into bold relief the characteristics of these two men, showing that while engaging in the same act of worship they were as the poles asunder. The Pharisee stood up boldly, with eyes and hands uplifted, and prayed "with himself" or "to himself"-ashamed to utter aloud the thoughts which his heart conceived. What he looked upon as prayer was really a soliloquy, which failed to ascend to heaven. In a spirit of self-gratulation he begins with a recital of the catalogue of his virtues. He thanks the Lord that he is a shining exception to the rest of men. He is not unjust in his dealings; he is not guilty of open sin; if he cannot boast of a clean heart, he can boast of clean hands. He fasts every Monday and Thursday; he tithes everything he earns-going in

both of these matters beyond the strict requirements of the law. Puffed up with pride and selfcomplacency, he looks upon the Lord as his debtor for his work of supererogation; and upon his fellow worshipers standing in the rear he looks with a feeling of the utmost disdain. Self-deluded as to his real condition and to the issue of his prayer, he goes down from the temple to his house condemned of heaven.

The publican, on the other hand, with an utter absence of self-assurance, bends his eyes earthward, while lifting his heart heavenward, and smites upon his breast in token of contrition, exclaiming, "God, be propitious to me the sinner." He makes no pretense, and no apology. As a member of an ostracized class he has no reputation to maintain. Moved by a deep sense of sinfulness, he casts himself in humility and self-abasement upon the mercy of God, with the result that his prayer is accepted, and he goes down to his house justified in the sight of heaven. "The Pharisee justified himself," says Dr. A. T. Pierson, "but God condemns him; the publican condemns himself, but God justifies him. From the lips of a sinner no other prayer than that of the humble taxgatherer is befitting, and no other will prevail."

9. With Confidence in God's Responsiveness.

"I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and