Gods Door Into A Home

God's Door into a Home.





The heart of God hungers to redeem the world. For that He gave His own,

only Son though the treatment He received tore that father's heart to the

bleeding. For that He sent the Holy Spirit to do in men what the Son had

done for them. For that He placed in human hands the mightiest of all

forces--prayer, that so we might become partners with Him.



For that too He set man in the relationships of kinship and friendship. He

wins men through men. Man is the goal, and he is also the road to the

goal. Man is the object aimed at. And he is the medium of approach,

whether the advance be by God or by Satan. God will not enter a man's

heart without his consent, and Satan _can_not. God would reach men through

men, and Satan must. And so God has set us in the strongest relation that

binds men, the relation of love, that He may touch one through another.

Kinship is a relation peculiar to man, and to the earth.



I have at times been asked by some earnest sensitive persons if it is not

selfish to be especially concerned for one's own, over whom the heart

yearns much, and the prayer offered is more tender and intense and more

frequent. Well, if _you_ do not pray for them who will? Who _can_ pray for

them with such believing persistent fervour as you! God has set us in the

relationship of personal affection and of kinship for just such a purpose.

He binds us together with the ties of love that we may be concerned for

each other. If there be but one in a home in touch with God, that one

becomes God's door into the whole family.



Contact means opportunity, and that in turn means responsibility. The

closer the contact the greater the opportunity and the greater too the

responsibility. Unselfishness does not mean to exclude one's self, and

one's own. It means right proportions in our perspective. Humility is not

whipping one's self. It is forgetting one's self in the thought of others.

Yet even that may be carried to a bad extreme. Not only is it not selfish

so to pray, it is a part of God's plan that we should so pray. I am most

responsible for the one to whom I am most closely related.







A Free Agent Enslaved.





One of the questions that is more often asked in this connection than any

other perhaps is this: may we pray with assurance for the conversion of

our loved ones? No question sets more hearts in an audience to beating

faster than does that. I remember speaking in the Boston noonday meeting,

in the old Broomfield Street M. E. Church on this subject one week.

Perhaps I was speaking rather positively. And at the close of the meeting

one day a keen, cultured Christian woman whom I knew came up for a word.

She said, "I do not think we can pray like that." And I said, "Why not?"

She paused a moment, and her well-controlled agitation revealed in eye and

lip told me how deeply her thoughts were stirred. Then she said quietly,

"I have a brother. He is not a Christian. The theatre, the wine, the club,

the cards--that is his life. And he laughs at me. I would rather than

anything else that my brother were a Christian. But," she said, and here

both her keenness and the training of her early teaching came in, "I do

not think I can pray positively for his conversion, for he is a free

agent, is he not? And God will not save a man against his will."



I want to say to you to-day what I said to her. Man _is_ a free agent, to

use the old phrase, so far as God is concerned; utterly, wholly free.

_And_, he is the most enslaved agent on the earth, so far as sin, and

selfishness and prejudice are concerned. The purpose of our praying is not

to force or coerce his will; never that. It is to _free_ his will of the

warping influences that now twist it awry. It is to get the dust out of

his eyes so his sight shall be clear. And once he is free, able to see

aright, to balance things without prejudice, the whole probability is in

favour of his using his will to choose the only right.



I want to suggest to you the ideal prayer for such a one. It is an

adaptation of Jesus' own words. It may be pleaded with much variety of

detail. It is this: deliver him from the evil one; and work in him _Thy

will_ for him, by Thy power to Thy glory in Jesus, the Victor's name. And

there are three special passages upon which to base this prayer. First

Timothy, second chapter, fourth verse (American version), "God our

Saviour, who would have all men to be saved." That is God's will for your

loved one. Second Peter, third chapter, ninth verse, "not wishing (or

willing) that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

That is God's will, or desire, for the one you are thinking of now. The

third passage is on our side who do the praying. It tells who may offer

this prayer with assurance. John, fifteenth chapter, seventh verse, "If ye

abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you ask what it is your will to

ask, and I will bring it to pass for you."



There is a statement of Paul's in second Timothy that graphically pictures

this:[42] "The Lord's servant must not strive "--not argue, nor

combat--"but be gentle towards all, apt to teach"--ready and skilled in

explaining, helping--"in meekness correcting (or, instructing) them that

oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the

knowledge of the truth, and _they may recover themselves out of the snare

of the devil_, having been taken captive by him unto his will."



That word "deliver" in this prayer, as used by Jesus, the word under our

English, has a picturesque meaning. It means _rescue_. Here is a man taken

captive, and in chains. But he has become infatuated with his captor, and

is befooled regarding his condition. Our prayer is, "rescue him from the

evil one," and because Jesus is Victor over the captor, the rescue will

take place.



Without any doubt we may assure the conversion of these laid upon our

hearts by such praying. The prayer in Jesus' name drives the enemy off the

battle-field of the man's will, and leaves him free to choose aright.

There is one exception to be noted, a very, very rare exception. There may

be _extreme_ instances where such a prayer may not be offered; where the

spirit of prayer is withdrawn. But such are very rare and extreme, and the

conviction regarding that will be unmistakable beyond asking any

questions.



And I cannot resist the conviction--I greatly dislike to say this, I would

much rather not if I regarded either my own feelings or yours. But I

cannot resist the conviction--listen very quietly, so I may speak in

quietest tones--that there are people ... in that lower, lost world ...

who are there ... because some one failed to put his life in touch with

God, and pray.







The Place Where God is Not.





Having said that much let me go on to say this further, and please let me

say it all in softest sobbing voice--there is a hell. There must be a

hell. You may leave this Bible sheer out of your reckoning in the matter.

Still there must be a place for which that word of ugliest associations is

the word to use. _Philosophically_ there must be a hell. That is the name

for the place where God is not; for the place where they will gather

together who insist on leaving God out. God out! There can be no worse

hell than that! God away! Man held back by no restraints!



I am very clear it is _not_ what men have pictured it to be. It is not

what my childish fancy saw and shrank from terrified. And, please let us

be very careful that we never consign anybody there, in our thinking or

speaking about them. When that life whose future might be questioned has

gone the most we can say is that we leave it with a God infinitely just

and the personification of love.



There has been in some quarters an unthinking consigning of persons to a

lost world. And there has been in our day a clean swing of the pendulum

to the other extreme. Both drifts are to be dreaded. Let us deal very

tenderly here, yet with a right plainness in our tenderness. We are to

warn men faithfully. We know the Book's plain teaching that these who

prefer to leave God out "shall go away." The going is of their own accord

and choice. Regarding particular ones we do not know and are best silent.

The grave is closing. Let us deal with the living.



One day at the close of the morning hour at a Bible conference in the

Alleghany Mountains a young woman came up for a moment's conversation. She

spoke about a friend, not a professing Christian, for whom she had prayed

much, and who had died unexpectedly. He had passed away during

unconsciousness, with no opportunity for exchange of words. She was much

agitated as the facts were recited, and then said as she finished, "he is

lost and in hell: and I can never pray again."



We talked quietly awhile and I gathered the following facts. He was of a

Christian family, perfectly familiar with the Bible, was a thoughtful man,

of outwardly correct life in the main, had talked about these matters with

others but had never either in conversation or more openly confessed

personal faith in Christ. He was not in good health. Then came the sudden

end. One other fact came out. She had prayed for his conversion for a long

time. She was herself an earnest Christian woman, solicitous for others.

There were four facts to go upon regarding him. He knew the way to God. He

was thoughtful. He had never openly accepted. Some one had prayed.



Can one _know_ anything certainly about that man's condition? There are

two sorts of knowledge, direct and inferential. I know there is such a

city as London for I have walked its streets. That is direct knowledge. I

know there is such a city as St. Petersburg because though I have never

been there, yet through my reading, pictures I have seen, and friends who

have been there I am clear of its existence to the point of _knowledge_.

That is inferential knowledge.



Now regarding this man after he slipped from the grasp of his friends, I

have no direct knowledge. But I have very positive inferential knowledge

based upon these four facts. Three of the facts, namely, the first,

second, and fourth were favourable to the end desired. The third swings

neither way. The great dominant fact in the case is the fourth, and a

great and dominating fact it is in judging--some one in touch with God had

been persistently, believingly praying up to the time of the quick end.

That fact with the others gives strong inferential knowledge regarding the

man. It is sufficient to comfort a heart, and give one renewed faith in

praying for others.







Saving the Life.





We cannot know a man's mental processes. This is surely true, that if in

the very last half-twinkling of an eye a man look up towards God

longingly, that look is the turning of the will to God. And that is quite

enough. God is eagerly watching with hungry eyes for the quick turn of a

human eye up to Himself. Doubtless many a man has so turned in the last

moment of his life when we were not conscious of his consciousness, nor

aware of the movements of his outwardly unconscious sub-consciousness. One

may be unconscious of outer things, and yet be keenly conscious towards

God.



At another of these summer gatherings this incident came to me. A man

seemingly of mature mind and judgment told me of a friend of his. That was

as close as I got to the friend himself. This friend was not a professing

Christian, was thrown from a boat, sank twice and perhaps three times, and

then was rescued, and after some difficulty resuscitated. He told

afterwards how swiftly his thoughts came as they are said to do to one in

such circumstances. He thought surely he was drowning, was quiet in his

mind, thought of God and how he had not been trusting Him, and in his

thought he prayed for forgiveness. He lived afterwards a consistent

Christian life. This illustrates simply the possibilities open to one in

his keen inner mental processes.



Here is surely enough knowledge to comfort many a bereft heart, and

enough too to make us pray persistently and believingly for loved ones

because of prayer's uncalculated and incalculable power. Be sure the

prayer-fact is in the case of _your_ friend, _and in strong_.



Yet let us be wary, very wary of letting this influence us one bit

farther. That man is nothing less than a fool who presumes upon such

statements to resist God's gracious pleadings for his life. And on our

side, we must not fail to warn men lovingly, tenderly yet with plainness

of the tremendous danger of delay, in coming to God. A man may be so

stupefied at the close as to shut out of his range what has been suggested

here. And further even if a man's soul be saved he is responsible to God

for his life. We want men to _live_ for Jesus, and win others to Him. And

further, yet, reward, preferment, honour in God's kingdom depends upon

faithfulness to Him down here. Who would be saved by the skin of his

teeth!



The great fact to have burned in deep is that we may assure the coming to

God of our loved ones with their lives, as well as for their souls if we

will but press the battle.







Giving God a Clear Road for Action.





Out in one of the trans-Mississippi states I ran across an illustration of

prayer in real life that caught me at once, and has greatly helped me in

understanding prayer.



Fact is more fascinating than fiction. If one could know what is going on

around him, how surprised and startled he would be. If we could get _all_

the facts in any one incident, and get them colourlessly, and have the

judgment to sift and analyze accurately, what fascinating instances of the

power of prayer would be disclosed.



There is a double side to this story. The side of the man who was changed,

and the side of the woman who prayed. He is a New Englander, by birth and

breeding, now living in this western state: almost a giant physically,

keen mentally, a lawyer, and a natural leader. He had the conviction as a

boy that if he became a Christian he was to preach. But he grew up a

skeptic, read up and lectured on skeptical subjects. He was the

representative of a district of his western home state in congress; in his

fourth term or so I think at this time.



The experience I am telling came during that congress when the

Hayes-Tilden controversy was up, the intensest congress Washington has

known since the Civil War. It was not a time specially suited to

meditation about God in the halls of congress. And further he said to me

that somehow he knew all the other skeptics who were in the lower house

and they drifted together a good bit and strengthened each other by their

talk.



One day as he was in his seat in the lower house, in the midst of the

business of the hour, there came to him a conviction that God--the God in

whom he did not believe, whose existence he could keenly disprove--God was

right there above his head thinking about him, and displeased at the way

he was behaving towards Him. And he said to himself: "this is ridiculous,

absurd. I've been working too hard; confined too closely; my mind is

getting morbid. I'll go out, and get some fresh air, and shake myself."

And so he did. But the conviction only deepened and intensified. Day by

day it grew. And that went on for weeks, into the fourth month as I recall

his words. Then he planned to return home to attend to some business

matters, and to attend to some preliminaries for securing the nomination

for the governorship of his state. And as I understand he was in a fair

way to securing the nomination, so far as one can judge of such matters.

And his party is the dominant party in the state. A nomination for

governor by his party has usually been followed by election.



He reached his home and had hardly gotten there before he found that his

wife and two others had entered into a holy compact of prayer for his

conversion, and had been so praying for some months. Instantly he thought

of his peculiar unwelcome Washington experience, and became intensely

interested. But not wishing them to know of his interest, he asked

carelessly when "this thing began." His wife told him the day. He did some

quick mental figuring, and he said to me, "I knew almost instantly that

the day she named fitted into the calendar with the coming of that

conviction or impression about God's presence."



He was greatly startled. He wanted to be thoroughly honest in all his

thinking. And he said he knew that if a single fact of that sort could be

established, of prayer producing such results, it carried the whole

Christian scheme of belief with it. And he did some stiff fighting within.

Had he been wrong all those years? He sifted the matter back and forth as

a lawyer would the evidence in any case. And he said to me, "As an honest

man I was compelled to admit the facts, and I believe I might have been

led to Christ that very night."



A few nights later he knelt at the altar in the Methodist meeting-house in

his home town and surrendered his strong will to God. Then the early

conviction of his boyhood days came back. He was to preach the gospel. And

like Saul of old, he utterly changed his life, and has been preaching the

gospel with power ever since.



Then I was intensely fascinated in getting the other side, the

praying-side of the story. His wife had been a Christian for years, since

before their marriage. But in some meetings in the home church she was

led into a new, a full surrender to Jesus Christ as Master, and had

experienced a new consciousness of the Holy Spirit's presence and power.

Almost at once came a new intense desire for her husband's conversion. The

compact of three was agreed upon, of daily prayer for him until the change

came.



As she prayed that night after retiring to her sleeping apartment she was

in great distress of mind in thinking and praying for him. She could get

no rest from this intense distress. At length she rose, and knelt by the

bedside to pray. As she was praying and distressed a voice, an exquisitely

quiet inner voice said, "will you abide the consequences?" She was

startled. Such a thing was wholly new to her. She did not know what it

meant. And without paying any attention to it, went on praying. Again came

the same quietly spoken words to her ear, "will you abide the

consequences?" And again the half frightened feeling. She slipped back to

bed to sleep. But sleep did not come. And back again to her knees, and

again the patient, quiet voice.



This time with an earnestness bearing the impress of her agony she said,

"Lord, I will abide any consequence that may come if only my husband may

be brought to Thee." And at once the distress slipped away, and a new

sweet peace filled her being, and sleep quickly came. And while she prayed

on for weeks and months patiently, persistently, day by day, the distress

was gone, the sweet peace remained in the assurance that the result was

surely coming. And so it was coming all those days down in the thick air

of Washington's lower house, and so it did come.



What _was_ the consequence to her? She was a congressman's wife. She would

likely have been, so far as such matters may be judged, the wife of the

governor of her state, the first lady socially of the state. She is a

Methodist minister's wife changing her home every few years. A very

different position in many ways. No woman will be indifferent to the

social difference involved. Yet rarely have I met a woman with more of

that fine beauty which the peace of God brings, in her glad face, and in

her winsome smile.



Do you see the simple philosophy of that experience. Her surrender gave

God a clear channel into that man's will. When the roadway was cleared,

her prayer was a spirit-force traversing instantly the hundreds of

intervening miles, and affecting the spirit-atmosphere of his presence.



Shall we not put our wills fully in touch with God, and sheer out of

sympathy with the other one, and persistently plead and claim for each

loved one, "deliver him from the evil one, and work in him Thy will, to

Thy glory, by Thy power, in the Victor's name." And then add amen--so it

_shall_ be. Not so _may_ it be--a wish, but so it _shall_ be--an

expression of confidence in Jesus' power. _And these lives shall be won,

and these souls saved_.