Spurgeon: November PM
* 11/13/PM
"Men ought always to pray."
--Luke 18:1
If men ought always to pray and not to faint, much more
Christian men. Jesus has sent His church into the world on the
same errand upon which He Himself came, and this mission
includes intercession. What if I say that the church is the
world's priest? Creation is dumb, but the church is to find a
mouth for it. It is the church's high privilege to pray with
acceptance. The door of grace is always open for her petitions,
and they never return empty-handed. The veil was rent for her ,
the blood was sprinkled upon the altar for her , God constantly
invites her to ask what she wills. Will she refuse the privilege
which angels might envy her? Is she not the bride of Christ? May
she not go in unto her King at every hour? Shall she allow the
precious privilege to be unused? The church always has need for
prayer. There are always some in her midst who are declining, or
falling into open sin. There are lambs to be prayed for, that
they may be carried in Christ's bosom? the strong, lest they
grow presumptuous; and the weak, lest they become despairing. If
we kept up prayer-meetings four-and-twenty hours in the day, all
the days in the year, we might never be without a special
subject for supplication. Are we ever without the sick and the
poor, the afflicted and the wavering? Are we ever without those
who seek the conversion of relatives, the reclaiming of
back-sliders, or the salvation of the depraved? Nay, with
congregations constantly gathering, with ministers always
preaching, with millions of sinners lying dead in trespasses and
sins; in a country over which the darkness of Romanism is
certainly descending; in a world full of idols, cruelties,
devilries, if the church doth not pray, how shall she excuse her
base neglect of the commission of her loving Lord? Let the
church be constant in supplication, let every private believer
cast his mite of prayer into the treasury.