We might be ready to think that, if ever there was a minister of Jesus Christ who was raised above the need of his people's prayers, that minister was St. Paul. He was endowed, both by nature and by grace, beyond the measure of ordinary men. Whether as a man or as a servant of the Lord Jesus, he towers above the level of the common ranks, and from our distant point of view looks nearer and liker to his Master than any of his fellows. Since this great and good Apostle did feel deeply his need of prayer, not only his own, but also the prayers of all saints on his behalf, so felt this great and constant and pressing need, that he turned with touching importunity from church to church and pleaded with them that they would pray for him and not forget him, is not this to proclaim in the most emphatic manner that, as necessity is laid on ministers to preach the gospel, even
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66 PRAYER AND PROGRESS
so necessity is laid upon the people to pray for their ministers — to uphold and help them daily with their prayers ?
^ There is an almost pathetic eagerness in St. Paul's oft- recurring entreaty, " Brethren, pray for us," " Brethren, pray for us." Was it that the Apostle thought of his own salvation as in one sense owing to the prayer of another ? It may not be possible to determine with exactness the indebtedness of Paul to Stephen ; but that the dying martyr's prayer, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," shook to its very centre the confident Pharisaism of the youthful Saul of Tarsus it seems impossible to doubt. Perhaps St. Augustine scarcely goes too far when he says that the Church owes Paul to the prayer of Stephen.
Si Stephanus non orasset Ecclesia Paulum non haberet.*
I.
The Pkactice of Intercession.
"Pray for us."
The Apostle loved to be prayed for, and in thus beseeching the Churches to remember him in intercession, he almost invested the humblest member of the household of Christ with a new function and a special ministry. The Apostle did not deign to disregard the prayers of the poorest for his own personal protection and comfort, but he specially desired the supplication of tbe saints on behalf of the gospel itself, that it might spread over all the world. He would have all people be, as it were, reproductions of the Thessalonians, who had provided an open door for the evangelical message, and had in their own persons BO glowingly illustrated the power of the gospel that others might reproduce the Thessalonian example, and rest sure that in going in the direction of the Thessalonians they were pursuing the right way. What a tribute was this to the excellence of the Thessalonian Christians !
1. The double note (" We pray always for you . . . pray for us ") is heard through all St. Paul's Epistles. He prays for ' G. Jackson, Memoranda Paidina, 250.
2 THESSALONIANS iii. i (>^
others, and he entreats others to pray for him. "Making mention of you in my prayers " — this is the Apostolic token in almost every Epistle, The care of all the Churches was upon St. Paul daily, and daily he carried his care to God. Brethren in Asia Minor, brethren in Philippi, in Thessalonica and in Corinth, brethren in far-off Kome — he remembered them all when he knelt to pray. Nor was it only for Churches that he prayed ; he named men and women by name before God. " Making mention of thee in my prayers," he writes to Philemon ; and to Timothy, " I thank God how unceasing is my remembrance of thee in my supplications." And a man who prayed thus for his friends could not but desire the prayers of his friends for himself.
2. How St. Paul delighted in the practice of prayer and in enjoining it upon the Churches ! " Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Eph. vL 18). "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Phil. iv. 6). To the Thessalonians he said, " Pray without ceasing " (1 Thess. v. 17). Jesus Christ Himself had enjoined upon His disciples the duty of prayer. " Men ought always to pray, and not to faint " (Luke xviii. 1). " Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" (Matt. xxvi. 41). " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest" (Matt. ix. 38). The Apostle had confidence that by the prayers of the saints his ministry would be brought to the highest issues. " Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me" (Kom. xv, 30). In writing to the Colossians he desired a special interest in their prayers for the same purpose : " Praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ " (Col. iv. 3). If a great man like the Apostle Paul could not dispense with the prayers of Christians, ought not every preacher of the gospel to encourage the offering of such prayers on his own account ? When men pray for their ministers, they cannot undervalue their labours. They should regard such labours as an answer to