The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 343

miracles of mercy. There are a few exceptions. Conspicnous amongst these is the withering of the fig tree with a word. When tbe disciples marvelled Jesus expounded to them his astonishing doctrine of the power of faith. We learn- I. THAT BELII!lVING 18 ESSENTIAL TO PREVAILING PRAYER, 1. There can be no prayer without faith in a personal God. (1) The atheist cannot pray. The reason is obvious. He has no God to pray to. His is a melancholy orphanage. (2) The pantheist cannot pray. His god is an infinite It, unsusceptible to prayer, "He that cometh to God must believe that he is" (Heh. xi. 6). (3) 'fhe Christian can pray. He believes in a personal God, who created us after bis irnage. As a man can intelligently speak to his friend, so, eto. (see Exod. xxxiii. 11). 2. There can be no prayer without faith in a Person susceptible to human appeals. (1) The deist cannot pray. His god is too far removed from his works to notice the specks upon a tiny planet. (2) The Christian can pray, For he has loftier views of God. He is so great that nothing can escape him. While he rules firmaments of suns and systems of worlds, he feeds the animalculre. (3) The Christian, moreover, is encouraged to pray by his faith in the mediation of Christ. Without such mediation the sinner might shrink from approaching the infinitely Holy. In it mercy in harmony with justice is assured. 3. Faith is active in success- fal prayer. (1) The power of faith is like that of water, impotent in quiescence, but efficient when in motion. It is like heat, impotent when latent, but whose energy when molecules are in motion is tremendous. (2) It is the active faith of saints that alarms Satan. It stirs three worlds, viz. heaven, earth, and hell. . II. THAT BELIEVING PRAYER IS INFALLIBLY EFFECTIVE. 1. Because God has pledged himself to it. (1) He is able to do whatever be will. The power of the Promiser was exemplified in the witbering of the fig tree. The moral is drawn from this example: "If ye have faith, and doubt not," etc. (vers. 21, 22). (2) He is willing to do what- ever he promises. He cannot deny himself. "Heaven and earth may pass away." The Creator may reverse his act of creation. But the Uncreate cannot annihilate himself. But to falsify would be to annihilate Infinite 'l'ruth. 2. But how is the infallible effectiveness of believing prayer reconciled with the wisdom of God P (1) If omnipotence is pledged to faith, may not omnipotence be put into commission to folly ; for man is confessedly fallible? (2) Faith, in the nature of the case, pre- supposes a promise. Where has the God of wisdom promised a foolish thing? (3) But is there not here an open cheque: "All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive"? The particular promise is still implied in the term "believiug;" for faith itself is the gift of God. The God of wisdom cannot inspire faith in the interests of folly. 3. But how can efficacy in prayer comport with the uniformity of naturr?s processes 1 (1) So undeviating is the order in the revolutions of the spheres that eclipses, occultations, conjunctions, epacts, and other matters may be calculated with certainty. lu like manner, chemical changes never vary when the conditions are the same. Can prayer disturb these things? (2) Who wants it to do so? There is no need to disturb matter when prayer is made for spiritual blessings. ·what relation is there to eclipses and epo.cts in answering the cry for mercy? A whole millennium of spiritual glory may flood this earth in answer to prayer, without touching the properties of a molecule of matter. (3) But how does the argument stand in relation to providence? There is a sphere in nature for human providence. The farmer does not violate the order of nature when he grows corn in response to the cry of o. nation for food. By draining and tillage he can alter the climate of his country and alter its flora and fauna, and all this without altering the properties of a single molecule of matter. In like manner, on a far grander scale, God also has reserved to himself a sphere for his providence in nature, within which he can answer every prayer ho pleases to inspire, Ill. THAT PRAYER FAILS THROUGH THE INFLUENCE OF CONDITIONS INIMICAL TO ACTIVE FAITH, 1. As .when the matter of the suit is unwise. (1) "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss" (Jas. iv. 3). In such a case God will in mercy withhold his gift of faith. (2) Or ho mo.y honour the sincerity of the prayer by con- ferring an equivalent to that which his grace withholds. So he dealt with Paul when he sought the removal <:>f his "thorn in the flesh." (3) Honest prayer is never vain. Its very exercise ennobles. As the domestic animal is ennobled by his conversation with man, infinitely more is man cnnobl~d by conversing with hi,i Maker. 2. As wlien 848 THE GOSPEL A.COORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [en. XXI. 1-i6.