Touching The Hidden Keys

Touching the Hidden Keys.





One of the most remarkable illustrations in recent times of the power of

prayer, may be found in the experience of Mr. Moody. It explains his

unparalleled career of world-wide soul winning. One marvels that more has

not been said of it. Its stimulus to faith is great. I suppose the man

most concerned did not speak of it much because of his fine modesty. The

last yea of his life he referred to it more frequently as though impelled

to.



The last time I heard Mr. Moody was in his own church in Chicago. It was,

I think, in the fall of the last year of his life. One morning in the old

church made famous by his early work, in a quiet conversational way he

told the story. It was back in the early seventies, when Chicago had been

laid in ashes. "This building was not yet up far enough to do much in," he

said; "so I thought I would slip across the water, and learn what I could

from preachers there, so as to do better work here. I had gone over to

London, and was running around after men there." Then he told of going

one evening to hear Mr. Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle; and

understanding that he was to speak a second time that evening to dedicate

a chapel, Mr. Moody had slipped out of the building and had run along the

street after Mr. Spurgeon's carriage a mile or so, so as to hear him the

second time. Then he smiled, and said quietly, "I was running around after

men like that."



He had not been speaking anywhere, he said, but listening to others. One

day, Saturday, at noon, he had gone into the meeting in Exeter Hall on the

Strand; felt impelled to speak a little when the meeting was thrown open,

and did so. At the close among others who greeted him, one man, a

minister, asked him to come and preach for him the next day morning and

night, and he said he would. Mr. Moody said, "I went to the morning

service and found a large church full of people. And when the time came I

began to speak to them. But it seemed the hardest talking ever I did.

There was no response in their faces. They seemed as though carved out of

stone or ice. And I was having a hard time: and wished I wasn't there; and

wished I hadn't promised to speak again at night. But I had promised, and

so I went.



"At night it was the same thing: house full, people outwardly respectful,

but no interest, no response. And I was having a hard time again. When

about half-way through my talk there came a change. It seemed as though

the windows of heaven had opened and a bit of breath blew down. The

atmosphere of the building seemed to change. The people's faces changed.

It impressed me so that when I finished speaking I gave the invitation for

those who wanted to be Christians to rise. I thought there might be a few.

And to my immense surprise the people got up in groups, pew-fulls. I

turned to the minister and said, 'What does this mean?' He said, 'I don't

know, I'm sure.' Well," Mr. Moody said, "they misunderstood me. I'll

explain what I meant." So he announced an after-meeting in the room below,

explaining who were invited: only those who wanted to be Christians; and

putting pretty clearly what he understood that to mean, and dismissed the

service.



They went to the lower room. And the people came crowding, jamming in

below, filling all available space, seats, aisles and standing room. Mr.

Moody talked again a few minutes, and then asked those who would be

Christians to rise. This time he knew he had made his meaning clear. They

got up in clumps, in groups, by fifties! Mr. Moody said, "I turned and

said to the minister, 'What _does_ this mean?' He said, 'I'm sure I don't

know.'" Then the minister said to Mr. Moody, "What'll I do with these

people? I don't know what to do with them; this is something new." And he

said, "Well. I'd announce a meeting for to-morrow night, and Tuesday

night, and see what comes of it; I'm going across the channel to Dublin."

And he went, but he had barely stepped off the boat when a cablegram was

handed him from the minister saying, "Come back at once. Church packed."

So he went back, and stayed ten days. And the result of that ten days, as

I recall Mr. Moody's words, was that four hundred were added to that

church, and that every church near by felt the impulse of those ten days.

Then Mr. Moody dropped his head, as though thinking back, and said: "I had

no plans beyond this church. I supposed my life work was here. But the

result with me was that I was given a roving commission and have been

working under it ever since."



Now what was the explanation of that marvellous Sunday and days following?

It was not Mr. Moody's doing, though he was a leader whom God could and

did mightily use. It was not the minister's doing; for he was as greatly

surprised as the leader. There was some secret hidden beneath the surface

of those ten days. With his usual keenness Mr. Moody set himself to ferret

it out.



By and by this incident came to him. A member of the church, a woman, had

been taken sick some time before. Then she grew worse. Then the physician

told her that she would not recover. That is, she would not die at once,

so far as he could judge, but she would be shut in her home for years.

And she lay there trying to think what that meant: to be shut in for

years. And she thought of her life, and said, "How little I've done for

God: practically nothing: and now what can I do shut in here on my back."

And she said, "I can pray."



May I put this word in here as a parenthesis in the story--that God

oftentimes allows us to be shut in--He does not shut us in--He does not

need to--simply take His hand off partly--there is enough disobedience to

His law of our bodies all the time to shut us aside--no trouble on that

side of the problem--_with pain to Himself_, against His own first will

for us, He allows us to be shut in, because only so _can_ He get our

attention from other things to what He wants done; get us to see things,

and think things His way. I am compelled to think it is so.



She said, "I _will_ pray." And she was led to pray for her church. Her

sister, also a member of the church, lived with her, and was her link with

the outer world. Sundays, after church service, the sick woman would ask,

"Any special interest in church to-day?" "No," was the constant reply.

Wednesday nights, after prayer-meetings, "Any special interest in the

service to-night? there must have been." "No; nothing new; same old

deacons made the same old prayers."



But one Sunday noon the sister came in from service and asked, "Who do you

think preached to-day?" "I don't know, who?" "Why, a stranger from

America, a man called Moody, I think was the name." And the sick woman's

face turned a bit whiter, and her eye looked half scared, and her lip

trembled a bit, and she quietly said: "I know what that means. There's

something coming to the old church. Don't bring me any dinner. I must

spend this afternoon in prayer." And so she did. And that night in the

service that startling change came.



Then to Mr. Moody himself, as he sought her out in her sick room, she told

how nearly two years before there came into her hands a copy of a paper

published in Chicago called the _Watchman_ that contained a talk by Mr.

Moody in one of the Chicago meetings, Farwell Hall meetings, I think. All

she knew was that talk that made her heart burn, and there was the name

M-o-o-d-y. And she was led to pray that God would send that man into their

church in London. As simple a prayer as that.



And the months went by, and a year, and over; still she prayed. Nobody

knew of it but herself and God. No change seemed to come. Still she

prayed. And of course her prayer wrought its purpose. Every

Spirit-suggested prayer does. And that is the touchstone of true prayer.

And the Spirit of God moved that man of God over to the seaboard, and

across the water and into London, and into their church. Then a bit of

special siege-prayer, a sort of last charge up the steep hill, and that

night the victory came.



Do you not believe--I believe without a doubt, that some day when the

night is gone and the morning light comes up, and we know as we are known,

that we shall find that the largest single factor, in that ten days' work,

and in the changing of tens of thousands of lives under Moody's leadership

is that woman in her praying. Not the only factor, mind you. Moody a man

of rare leadership, and consecration, and hundreds of faithful ministers

and others rallying to his support. But behind and beneath Moody and the

others, and to be reckoned with as first this woman's praying.



Yet I do not know her name. I know Mr. Moody's name. I could name scores

of faithful men associated with him in his campaigns, but the name of this

one in whom humanly is the secret of it all I do not know. Ah! It is a

secret service. We do not know who the great ones are. They tell me she is

living yet in the north end of London, and still praying. Shall we pray!

Shall we not pray! If something else must slip out, something important,

shall we not see to it that intercession has first place!







Making God's Purpose Our Prayer.





With that thought in mind let me this evening suggest a bit of how to

pray. As simple a subject as that: how to pray: the how of method.



The first thing in prayer is to find God's purpose, the trend, the swing

of it; the second thing to make that purpose our prayer. We want to find

out what God is thinking, and then to claim that that shall be done. God

is seated up yonder on the throne. Jesus Christ is sitting by His side

glorified. Everywhere in the universe God's will is being done except in

this corner, called the earth, and its atmosphere, and that bit of the

heavens above it where Satan's headquarters are.



It has been done down here by one person--Jesus. He came here to this

prodigal planet and did God's will perfectly. He went away. And He has

sought and seeks to have men down upon the earth so fully in touch with

Himself that He may do in them and through them just what He will. That He

may reproduce Himself in these men, and have God's will done again down on

the earth. Now prayer is this: finding out God's purpose for our lives,

and for the earth and insisting that that shall be done here. The great

thing then is to find out and insist upon God's will. And the "how" of

method in prayer is concerned with that.



Many a time I have met with a group of persons for prayer. Various special

matters for prayer are brought up. Here is this man, needing prayer, and

this particular matter, and this one, and this. Then we kneel and pray.

And I have many a time thought--not critically in a bad sense--as I have

listened to their prayers, as though this is the prayer I must

offer:--"Blessed Holy Spirit, Thou knowest this man, and what the lacking

thing is in him. There is trouble there. Thou knowest this sick woman, and

what the difficulty is there. This problem, and what the hindrance is in

it. Blessed Spirit, pray in me the prayer Thou art praying for this man,

and this thing, and this one. The prayer Thou art praying, I pray that, in

Jesus' name. Thy will be done here under these circumstances."



Sometimes I feel clear as to the particular prayer to offer, but many a

time I am puzzled to know. I put this fact with this, but I may not know

_all_ the facts. I know this man who evidently needs praying for, a

Christian man perhaps, his mental characteristics, his conceptions of

things, the kind of a will he has, but there may be some fact in there

that I do not know, that seriously affects the whole difficulty. And I am

compelled to fall back on this: I don't know how to pray as I ought. But

the Spirit within me will make intercession for this man as I allow Him to

have free swing in me as the medium of His prayer. And He who is listening

above as He hears His will for this man being repeated down on the

battle-field will recognize His own purpose, of course. And so that thing

will be working out because of Jesus' victory over the evil one.



But I may become so sensitive to the Spirit's thoughts and presence, that

I shall know more keenly and quickly what to pray for. In so far as I do

I become a more skillful partner of His on the earth in getting God's will

done.







The Trysting Place.





There are six suggestions here on how to pray. First--we need _time_ for

prayer, unhurried time, daily time, time enough to forget about how much

time it is. I do not mean now: rising in the morning at the very last

moment, and dressing, it may be hurriedly, and then kneeling a few moments

so as to feel easier in mind: not that. I do not mean the last thing at

night when you are jaded and fagged, and almost between the sheets, and

then remember and look up a verse and kneel a few moments: not that. That

is good so far as it goes. I am not criticising that. Better sweeten and

sandwich the day with all of that sort you can get in. But just now I mean

this: _taking time_ when the mind is fresh and keen, and the spirit

sensitive, to thoughtfully pray. We haven't time. Life is so crowded. It

must be taken from something else, something important, but still less

important than this.



Sacrifice is the continual law of life. The important thing must be

sacrificed to the more important. One needs to cultivate a mature

judgment, or his strength will be frizzled away in the less important

details, and the greater thing go undone, or be done poorly with the

fag-ends of strength. If we would become skilled intercessors, and know

how to pray simply enough, we must take quiet time daily to get off alone.



The second suggestion: we need a _place_ for prayer. Oh! you can pray

anywhere, on the street, in the store, travelling, measuring dry goods,

hands in dishwater,--where not. But you are not likely to unless you have

been off in some quiet place shut in alone with God. The Master said:

"Enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door": that door is

important. It shuts out, and it shuts in. "Pray to thy Father who is in

secret." God is here in this shut-in spot. One must get alone to find out

that he never is alone. The more alone we are as far as men are concerned

the least alone we are so far a; God is concerned.



The quiet place and time are needful to train the ears for keen hearing. A

mother will hear the faintest cry of her babe just awaking. It is

up-stairs perhaps; the tiniest bit of a sound comes; nobody else hears;

but quick as a flash the mother's hands are held quiet, the head alert,

then she is off. Her ears are trained beyond anybody's else; love's

training. We need trained ears. A quiet place shuts out the outer sounds,

and gives the inner ear a chance to learn other sounds.



A man was standing in a telephone booth trying to talk, but could not make

out the message. He kept saying, "I can't hear, I can't hear." The other

man by and by said sharply, "If you'll shut that door you can hear." _His_

door was shut and he could hear not only the man's voice but the street

and store noises too. Some folks have gotten their hearing badly confused

because their doors have not been shut enough. Man's voice and God's voice

get mixed in their ears. They cannot tell between them. The bother is

partly with the door. If you'll shut that door you can hear.



The third suggestion needs much emphasis to-day: _give the Book of God its

place in prayer._ Prayer is not talking to God--simply. It is listening

first, then talking. Prayer needs three organs of the head, an ear, a

tongue and an eye. First an ear to hear what God says, then a tongue to

speak, then an eye to look out for the result. Bible study is the

listening side of prayer. The purpose of God comes in through the ear,

passes through the heart taking on the tinge of your personality, and goes

out at the tongue as prayer. It is pathetic what a time God has getting a

hearing down here. He is ever speaking but even where there may be some

inclination to hear the sounds of earth are choking in our ears the sound

of His voice. God speaks in His Word. The most we know of God comes to us

here. This Book is God in print. It was inspired, and it _is_ inspired.

God Himself speaks in this Book. That puts it in a list by itself, quite

apart from all others. Studying it keenly, intelligently, reverently will

reveal God's great will. What He says will utterly change what you will

say.







Our Prayer Teacher.





The fourth suggestion is this: _Let the Spirit teach you how to pray_. The

more you pray the more you will find yourself saying to yourself, "I don't

know how to pray." Well God understands that. Paul knew that out of his

own experience before he wrote it down. And God has a plan to cover our

need there. There is One who is a master intercessor. He understands

praying perfectly. He is the Spirit of prayer. God has sent Him down to

live inside you and me, partly for this, to teach us the fine art of

prayer. The suggestion is this: let Him teach you.



When you go alone in the quiet time and place with the Book quietly pray:

"blessed Prayer-Spirit, Master-Spirit, teach me how to pray," and He will.

Do not be nervous, or agitated, wondering if you will understand. Study to

be quiet; mind quiet, body quiet. Be still and listen. Remember Luther's

version of David's words,[31] "Be silent to God, and let Him mould thee."



You will find your praying changing. You will talk more simply, like a man

transacting business or a child asking, though of course with a reverence

and a deepness of feeling not in those things. You will quit asking for

some things. Some of the old forms of prayer will drop from your lips

likely enough. You will use fewer words, maybe, but they will be spoken

with a quiet absolute faith that this thing you are asking is being worked

out.



This thing of _letting the Spirit teach_ must come first in one's praying,

and remain to the last, and continue all along as the leading dominant

factor. He is a Spirit of prayer peculiarly. The highest law of the

Christian life is obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. There needs

to be a cultivated judgment in reading His leading, and not mistaking our

haphazard thoughts as His voice. He should be allowed to teach us how to

pray and more, to dominate our praying. The whole range and intensity of

the spirit conflict is under His eye. He is God's General on the field of

action. There come crises in the battle when the turn of the tide wavers.

He knows when a bit of special praying is needed to turn the tide and

bring victory. So there needs to be special seasons of persistent prayer,

a continuing until victory is assured. Obey His promptings. Sometimes

there comes an impulse to pray, or to ask another to pray. And we think,

"Why, I have just been praying," _or_, "he does pray about this anyway. It

is not necessary to pray again. I do not just like to suggest it." Better

obey the impulse quietly, with fewest words of explanation to the other

one concerned, or no words beyond simply the request.



Let Him, this wondrous Holy Spirit teach you how to pray. It will take

time. You may be a bit set in your way, but if you will just yield and

patiently wait, He will teach what to pray, suggest definite things, and

often the very language of prayer.



You will notice that the chief purpose of these four suggestions is to

learn God's will. The quiet place, the quiet time, the Book, the

Spirit--this is the schoolroom as Andrew Murray would finely put it. Here

we learn His will. Learning that makes one eager to have it done, and

breathes anew the longing prayer that it may be done.



There is a fine word much used in the Psalms, and in Isaiah for this sort

of thing--_waiting_. Over and over again that is the word used for that

contact with God which reveals to us His will, and imparts to us anew His

desires. It is a word full of richest and deepest meaning. Waiting is not

an occasional nor a hurried thing. It means _steadfastness_, that is

holding on; _patience_, that is holding back; _expectancy_, that is

holding the face up to see; _obedience_, that is holding one's self in

readiness to go or do; it means _listening_, that is holding quiet and

still so as to hear.







The Power of a Name.





The fifth suggestion has already been referred to, but should be repeated

here. Prayer must be _in Jesus' name_. The relationship of prayer is

through Jesus. And the prayer itself must be offered in His name, because

the whole strength of the case lies in Jesus. I recall distinctly a

certain section of this country where I was for awhile, and very rarely

did I hear Jesus' name used in prayer. I heard men, that I knew must be

good men, praying in church, in prayer-meeting and elsewhere with no

mention of Jesus. Let us distinctly bear in mind that we have no standing

with God except through Jesus.



If the keenest lawyer of London, who knew more of American law, and of

Illinois statute and of Chicago ordinance--suppose such a case--were to

come here, could he plead a case in your court-house? you know he could

not. He would have no legal standing here. Now you and I have no standing

at yonder bar. We are disbarred through sin. Only as we come through one

who has recognized standing there can we come.



But turn that fact around. As we do come in Jesus' name, it is the same as

though Jesus prayed. It is the same as though--let me be saying it very

softly so it may seem very reverent--as though Jesus put His arm in yours

and took you up to the Father, and said, "Father, here is a friend of

mine; we're on good terms. Please give him anything he asks, for My sake."

And the Father would quickly bend over and graciously say, "What'll you

have? You may have anything you ask when My Son asks for it." That is the

practical effect of asking in Jesus' name.



But I am very, very clear of this, and I keep swinging back to it that in

the ultimate analysis the force of using Jesus' name is that He is the

victor over the traitor prince. Prayer is repeating the Victor's name into

the ears of Satan and insisting upon his retreat. As one prays

persistently in Jesus' name, the evil one must go. Reluctantly, angrily,

he must loosen his clutches, and go back.







The Birthplace of Faith.





The sixth suggestion is a familiar one, and yet one much misunderstood.

Prayer must be _in faith_. But please note that faith here is not

believing that God _can_, but that He _will_. It is kneeling and making

the prayer, and then saying, "Father, I thank Thee for this; that it will

be so, I thank Thee." Then rising and going about your duties, saying,

"that thing is settled." Going again and again, and repeating the prayer

with the thanks, and then saying as you go off, "that matter is assured."

Not going repeatedly to persuade God. But because prayer is the deciding

factor in a spirit conflict and each prayer is like a fresh blow between

the eyes of the enemy, a fresh broadside from your fleet upon the fort.



"Well," some one will say, "now you are getting that keyed up rather high.

Can we all have faith like that? Can a man _make_ himself believe?" There

should be no unnatural mechanical insisting that you do believe. Some

earnest people make a mistake there. And we will not all have faith like

that. That is quite true, and I can easily tell you why. The faith that

believes that God _will_ do what you ask is not born in a hurry; it is not

born in the dust of the street, and the noise of the crowd. But I can tell

where that faith will have a birthplace and keep growing stronger: in

every heart that takes quiet time off habitually with God, and listens to

His voice in His word. Into that heart will come a simple strong faith

that the thing it is led to ask shall be accomplished.



That faith has four simple characteristics. It is _intelligent_. It finds

out what God's will is. Faith is never contrary to reason. Sometimes it is

a bit higher up; the reasoning process has not yet reached up to it.

Second, it is _obedient_. It fits its life into God's will. There is apt

to be a stiff rub here all the time. Then it is _expectant_. It looks out

for the result. It bows down upon the earth, but sends a man to keep an

eye on the sea. And then it is _persistent_. It hangs on. It says, "Go

again seven times; seventy times seven." It reasons that having learned

God's will, and knowing that He does not change, the delay must be caused

by the third person, the enemy, and that stubborn persistence in the

Victor's name routs him, and leaves a clear field.