She pressed her suit with ingenious arguments. She would take no refusal. She pleaded for a few " crumbs" of mercy, rather than none at all. And through this holy importunity she succeeded. She heard at last these joyful words : " For this saying go thy way ; the devil is gone out of thy daughter !"
Perseverance in prayer is a point of great moment. Our hearts are apt to become cool and indifferent, and to think that it is no use to draw near to God. Our hands soon hang down, and our knees wax faint. Satan is ever laboring to draw us off from our prayers, and filling our minds with reasons why we may give them up. These things are true with respect to all prayers, but they are especially true with respect to intercessory prayer. It is always far more meagre than it ought to be. It is often attempted for a little season, and then left off. We see no immediate answer to our prayers. We see the persons for whose souls we pray, going on still in sin. We draw the conclusion that it is useless to pray for them, and allow our intercession to come to an end.
In order to arm our minds with arguments for perse- verance in intercessory prayer, let us often study the case of this woman. Let us remember how she prayed on and did not faint, in the face of great discouragement. Let us mark how at last she went home rejoicing, and le^" us resolve, by God's grace, to follow her example.
Do we know what it is to pray for ourselves ? This,
f >r all, is the first question for serf-inquiry. The man
v aO never speaks to God about his own soul, can
nothing of praying for others. He is as yet