^ E. A. Abbott, Anglican Career of Cardinal Newman.
2 W. Kniglit, Things New and Old, 101. ^ F^nclon, Letters to Women.
430 THE ANTIDOTE TO ANXIETY
II.
A Precept. " Let your requests be made known unto God."
Eelief can never be obtained, and the Divine command of the
text obeyed j3^.aLmfii;e_egQrt..fli.iyll.l^ No man can shake o£P care
fflmplv by trying to Ho" so. Neither can it be done by arguing
with ourselves as to its uselessness and hurtfulness; nor vet can
'IT be done, nor should it be attempted, by hardening oujcaabises.
Into an unfeeling stoical indifference. Here is the better way,
the only legitimate and effectual way of getting free from care.
It is to cast our care on Him who cares for us. It is to bring
IKe burden which we can neither bear nor shake off and leave.it ^
at the Lord's feet in prayer. Prayer is the only real,a^
thorough cure for care. To be full of faith is the only effectual
way to be empty of all fear. To flee with it within the veil, and
To fall with it at the feet of God, is the only mode of being truly ^
eased of the burden of anxiety and gloom, f So " In everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God,''_
^ A lady reports that, after the solemnities of a communion season, she and a friend were walking along Union Terrace, Aberdeen, behind Dr. Kidd and several of his brethren who had been assisting, when they heard him say — " Can you tell me how it is that, though I can bear great troubles as well as most men, the petty annoyances of life irritate me so that I say things which cause me much grief and shame afterwards, bring discredit on my Saviour's cause, and give the enemy cause to blaspheme ? " The answer came from Mr. Eose, of Nigg — "Yes, brother; you carry your great trials to God, but the little ones you try to manage for yourself, and so fail." "Aye, aye; that is the true cause, I believe." ^
1. The means hy which God would have us lay hare our hearts to Him — " hy prayer and supplication."
(1) Prayer. — The word which is here translated "prayer"
refers not to the petitions, but to the mood of the petitioner. It
describes a frame of mind. The soul can be in a prayerful
attitude, even though it refrains from making requests. All real
1 J. Stark, Dr. Kidd of Aberdeen, 259.
PHILIPPIANS IV. 6 431
prayer begins, not in words, but in moods. The great mystics have ever been experts in the knowledge of this secret. They have disciplined their souls to a reverent and receptive pose, until, at all times, their souls have been frankly open to the Divine. They have bowed in silence before the Lord, rejecting, in the first place, the clumsy expedient of words, and they have quietly drawn in breath in the fear of the Lord. It is here that we find the explanation of Paul's counsel to "pray without ceasing." If essential prayer be a matter of words, the counsel is impossible ; but if essential prayer be a spiritual posture, it is possible to obey the counsel throughout all the changing hours and moments of the years.
^ Prayer is the great lever of the spiritual life : nay — to speak in various figures — it is the lung by which it breathes, it is the atmosphere in which it floats, the wing by which it speeds its flight, and the language by which it daily communes with its own Original.^
^ Years ago an ingenious inventor tried to build a vessel in such a fashion that the saloon for passengers should remain upon one level, howsoever the hull might be tossed by waves. It was a failure, if I remember rightly. But if we are thus joined to God, He will do for our inmost hearts what the inventor tried to do with the chamber within his ship. The hull may be buffeted, but the inmost chamber where the true self sits will be kept level and unmoved. Prayer in the highest sense, by which I mean the exercise of aspiration, trust, submission — prayer will fight against and overcome all anxieties.^
(2) Supplication. — Actual petition for the supply of present wants is meant by " supplication." To ask for that supply will very often be to get it. To tell God what I think I need goes a long way always to bringing me the gift that I do need. If I have an anxiety which I am ashamed to speak to Him, that silence is a sign that I ought not to have it ; and if I have a desire that I do not feel I can put into a prayer, that feeling is a warn- ing to me not to cherish such a desire. There are many vague and oppressive anxieties that come and cast a shadow over our hearts, but if we could once define them, and put them into plain words, we should find that we vaguely fancied them a great deal larger than they were, and that the shadow they flung was ira-
1 W. Kniglit, Things Neiv and Old, 114. 2 ^^ Maclaren.