These words are deeply instructive. They are a bright example to all ministers of the Gospel, and to all laborers in the great work of doing good to souls. All such should daily do as the apostles did on this occasion. They should tell all their proceedings to the great Head of the Church. They should spread all their work before Christ, and ask of Him counsel, guidance, strength, and help.
Prayer is the main secret . of success in spiritual business. It moves Him who can move heaven and earth. It brings down the promised aid of the Holy Ghost, without whom the finest sermons, the clearest teaching, and the most diligent working, are all alike in vain. It is not always those who have the most eminent gifts who are most successful laborers for God. It is generally those who keep up closest communion with Christ and are most instant in prayer. It is those who cry with the prophet Ezekiel, " Come from the four winds, 0 breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live/' (Ezek. xxxvii. 9.) It is those who follow most exactly the apostolic model, and " give themselves to prayer, and the ministry of the word." (Acts vi. 4.) Happy is that church which has a praying as well as a preaching ministry ! The question we should ask about a new minister, is not merely " Can he preach well ?" but u Does he pray much for his people and his work ?"
Let us mark, in the second place, the words of our Lord to the apostles, when they returned from their first public ministry. " He said unto them, come - ye apart your- selves into a desert place, and rest a while."
These words are full of tender consideration. Gur
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