3. The answer to the grandest prayer is wrapped in mystery. Who can escape the question, " If these men were chosen as the result of all this prayer — perfect, faultless prayer — why was Judas among their number? Was his election part of the answer ? " Why Judas was chosen at all is not clearly shown. What his character was at the time of his joining the apostolic band we cannot tell ; although we may reasonably suppose that it was such as justified his election ; and that he broke the fair promise of his early discipleship, and sank at last in the mire of covetousness, deceit, and villainy. But then comes the question. Was not all this foreseen by Him who gave and by Him who chose a man of this type to be among the Twelve ? Erom this question 1 W. E. Winks, The Gosi)el of Pray &r, 65.
ST. LUKE VI. 12, 13 177
will arise many others touching Divine foreordination and human freedom. These mysteries are not fully solved in the words of Christ, and evidently were not meant to be solved. They are still left among the " secret things " which " belong unto God."
Yet one point comes out clearly from His words. In the answer our Lord received to this prayer, as in the prayer itself, there are elements both Divine and human. Turning to God, Christ spoke of the Twelve as " those whom thou hast given me " ; turning to these men themselves, He said, " Have I not chosen you ? " And the men themselves are permitted to hear both declarations, to see both sides or poles of the sphere of truth. We may rest assured that it is ever thus with answers to prayer : like the prayers themselves, their answers are both " from God and of man." We are allowed to see this at least — and it is of inestimable value to us — that God's blessing in response to our supplications comes to us along the lines of our own faculties, and in reward for our proper use of them. The Great Creator always Honours His own gifts by making their legitimate exercise the condition of His favour. The praying Christ came under this law of life. Otherwise the history of His earthly sojourn must have been written in very different terms, and the prayers He offered to God could have been no pattern and encouragement for us.
^ Lately I have asked specially in prayer, with a large faith in God's goodness, for one or two things, but the prayer has brought no sign of an answer. This has not in the least affected my confidence in God, but it has led me to ask myself whether that sort of prayer is right, or whether the best way is just to tell out to God your difficulty or trouble, and then rest in the confi- dence that in His own way and His own time the best will come to pass. Whatever happens, time will roll on, bringing me — and, I trust, my loved ones — safe home, and that should be enough.^
Oft when of God we ask For fuller, happier life, He sets us some new task Involving care and strife. Is this the boon for which we sought? Has prayer new trouble on us brought?
^ J. Brash: Memorials and Correspondence, 160. ST. LUKE — 12
178 PRAYER AND CHOICE
This is indeed the boon,
Though strange to us it seems; We pierce the rock, and soon The blessing on us streams; For when we are the most athirst, Then the clear waters on us burst.
Forgiveness.
Literature.
Atwool (H. C), At His Feet, 15.
Bourdillon (F.), The Parables of our Lord Exiolained and Applied, 30.
Brown (J. Baldwin), The Divine Treatment of Sin, 135.
Burrell (D. J.), The Gospel of Gladness, 310.
„ „ Christ and Men, 246.
Cuckson (J.), Faith and Fellowship, 123. Davies (T.), Expositions on the Epistle to the Philippians, 526. Holland (H. S.), Creed and Character, 219. Leach (C), Sunday Afternoons idth Working Men, 269. Little (W. J. K.), The Journey of Life, 143. Maclaren (A.), After the Resiirredion, 249, Roberts (W. P.), Liberalism in Religion, 17. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), x. (1873), No. 818 ; New Ser.,
xi. (1875), No. 945. Walker (G. S.), The Pictures of the Divine Artist, 69.
Forgiveness.
And he said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace.— Luke vii. 50.
The woman in this story is described as a sinner. But there was something in her not dead to good, and one day she had stood on the edge of the crowd when all the publicans and sinners drew near to Jesus to hear Him, and had heard Him with the rest. As she listened and looked on His face, it dawned upon her that there was something in the world of which she had never dreamed. She had often seen good people, or those who were counted such, men and women who drew in their robes as they passed her that they might not be defiled by her touch ; but here was One whose goodness was unmistakable, who was pure and holy through and through, yet who did not repel such as she, but " received sinners and ate with them." Often she had mourned her lost innocence, but never till now had she believed in the possibility of restoration. Now she did believe. A holy One who receives sinners, who is inexorable to sin but infinitely gracious to the sinful, is forgiveness incarnate ; He is a pledge of recon- ciling and restoring love that sweeps away every sense of human wrongs. And as the woman looked upon Jesus, her heart dis- solved in penitence and love unutterable, and she was born again. So when she hears that He is in the Pharisee's house, what can she do but hasten thither, and brave the cruel, scornful looks of the respectable people there, to get near Him who has loosed her bonds ? She finds no difficulty in making her way to the table. Silently she kneels behind Him, with a cruse of ointment in her hand. She meant to pour it on His feet, which the attitude at table made easy to do ; but before she can open it, her heart opens, and tears of thankfulness and sweet penitence rain down so abundantly as to wet His feet, inflicting an indignity