ST. MARK 291
received it. Patience perseveres in prayer until the gift bestowed in heaven is seen on earth.^
^ In 1886, the China Inland Mission under the care of Dr. Hudson Taylor had a force of two hundred missionaries. In a conference for Bible study and united prayer these missionaries were led to unite in prayer that God would, within a year, send one hundred additional workers to their assistance. So great was the faith of this little band of faithful workers that, before the conference closed, one of them suggested that they hold a praise meeting thanking God for answering their prayer, for, said he, " We shall not be all able to come together for that purpose next year." They did so. During the following year the Mission received no less than six himdred applications, and by the end of the year one hundred of these had been selected and sent out to Inland China.
3. The receiving from God in faith, the believing acceptance of the answer with the perfect, praising assurance that it has been given, is not necessarily the experience or subjective possession of the gift we have asked for. At times there may be a considerable, or even a long, interval. In other cases the believing supplicant may at once enter upon the actual enjoy- ment of what he has received. It is specially in the former case that we have need of faith and patience : faith to rejoice in the assurance of the answer bestowed and received, and to begin and act upon that answer though nothing be felt ; patience to wait if there be for the present no sensible proof "ofits presence. We can count upon it: Ye shall have, in actual enjoyment.
^ I never was deeply interested in any object, I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything, but it came ; at some time — ^no matter at how distant a day — somehow, in some shape, probably the last I should have devised — it came. And yet I have always had so little faith ! May God forgive me, and while He condescends to use me as His instrument, wipe the sin of unbehef from my heart I ^
0 soul, be patient: thou shalt find
A little matter mend all this; Some strain of music to thy mind,
Some praise for skill not spent amiss.*
* Andrew Murray. ' Adoniram Judson. ' Robert Bridges,
292 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
ii. We shall know that we have obtained our request.
So did the lepers. It came to pass, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was cleansed, returned, and fell down at Jesus' feet, giving Him thanks.
The work began when first your prayer was uttered, And God will finish what He has begun. If you will keep the incense burning there. His glory you shall see, sometime, somewhere.^
^The question: "Does prayer really help you?" put to a prayerful Christian, is aSout^easylolinsWSraBa'certain question once put to a Chinese boatman of the river Han. The current was fairly strong, and, spite of much poling and rowing, we made little headway. Up to a certain point the journey was tediousness itself. Then, having performed a very simple operation, the boat- men sat at their ease, and we sped along grandly.
In a tone of innocent ignorance, I asked the skipper at the stern : " Does putting up that sail really help you to get along ? " He made no reJTy, burgriniied, Wondering what was coming next. " I suppose you say it catches the power of something no one has ever seen — I believe you call it * wind ' or something like that. But how can an unseen power make this heavy wooden boat to move up-stream ? That is what I want to know ! " His broad grin exploded into thunderous laughter, and his two assistants said in confidence : " Foreign funny-words ! "
But I had a purpose in view. " I say, old chum, have you heard that we Christians pray to an unseen God — an unseen God, mind you — to be made better men and women ? "
" Aye, that I have, sir. I know that Christians are folks who believe in praying for that. Does it answer at all ? "
"Now, old chum, be fair, you know! I just asked you i question easy to answer, and you only laughed at me. Suppose I just laugh at you now. I asked you in plainest Chinese : " Does your putting up that sail answer at all ? "
"Well, sir, everybody knows it does, of course. Look how we'regoing ahead ! " * — ■
■"^^^eli, everybody who knows God as a Father, the Lord Jesus as Eescuer, and who really puts up the sail of his heart — that's what prayer really is — knows quite as surely that it does answer. Our prayers just catch hold of the unseen power of God, like a fair wind always blowing ; and however the ' world customs flow downwards,' we need not be ' down-drifting men.' It helps our boat grandly up-stream."
' Mrs. Browning. ' W. A. Comaby.
ST. MARK 293
My sorrow pierced me through, it throbbed in my heart like a thorn ; This way and that I stared, as a bird with a broken limb Hearing the hound's strong feet thrust imminent through the corn, So to my God I turned: and I had forgotten Him.