To be near unto God - pagina 324

he refuses to hear; even when the saintliest worshipper pours out his soul before him; even when his own well-beloved Son cries unto Him from the cross. This is the comfort of the cry from the cross for every soul that cries and gets no answer. Otherwise the silence of Grod might bring the soul to despair. But when it appears that even the prayer of God's own Son remained unanswered, why should a sinful suppliant complain or despair, when he, too, is numbered with the Son of God. Is this non-compliance on the part of God call

mere

arbitrariness?

Far from

it.

Such an idea

unthinkable in God. Even this Divine withholding of an answer to our prayer is outflow of the love-life wherewith God compasses the soul In our prayer-life there is danger of his child. that we seek a gift from God rather than God himself. Prayer is almost always invocation of God's help, of his assistance; of his saving and blessing grace; but apart from ourselves, our own interests and conditions of need, prayer seldom aims first of all to have dealings with God himself. The ''Our Father" teaches the way. It instructs us first to pray for the hallowing of God's name, for the coming of his Kingdom, for the doing of his Will, and then it goes on to the prayer for our daily bread, for forgiveness of our sins and for our deliverance from the Evil. But this is the misery of our spiritual estate, that even in prayer we rarely stand on the sacred height of the "Our

is

Father".

This wounds the tender love-life between God and the soul. Prayer for provision in personal need is natural, but it always springs from love 320

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