Prayer

Let us mark, lastly, in these verses, what a rare thing is thankfulness. We are told that of all the ten lepers whom Christ healed, there was only one who turned back and gave Him thanks. The words that fell from our Lord’s lips upon this occasion are very solemn: “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?” The lesson before us is humbling, heart-searching, and deeply instructive. The best of us are far too like the nine lepers. We are more ready to pray than to praise, and more disposed to ask God for what we have not, than to thank Him for what we have. Murmurings, and complainings, and discontent abound on every side of us. Few indeed are to be found who are not continually hiding their mercies under a bushel, and setting their wants and trials on a hill. These things ought not so to be. But all who know the church and the world must confess that they are true. The wide-spread thanklessness of Christians is the disgrace of our day. It is a plain proof of our little humility. Let us pray for a daily thankful spirit. It is the spirit which God loves and delights to honor. David and St. Paul were eminently thankful men.—It is the spirit which has marked all the brightest saints in every age of the church. M’Cheyne, and Bickersteth, and Haldane Stewart, were always full of praise.—It is the spirit which is the very atmosphere of heaven. Angels and “just men made perfect” are always blessing God.—It is the spirit which is the source of happiness on earth. If we would be careful for nothing, we must make our requests known to God not only with prayer and supplication, but with thanksgiving.

Let us mark, secondly, in these verses, how help meets men in the path of obedience. We are told that when the lepers cried to our Lord, He only replied, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” He did not touch them and command their disease to depart. He prescribed no medicine, no washing, no use of outward material means Yet healing power accompanied the words which He spoke. Relief met the afflicted company as soon as they obeyed His command. “It came to pass that as they went they were cleansed.” A fact like this is doubtless intended to teach us knowledge. It shows us the wisdom of simple, childlike obedience to every word which comes from the mouth of Christ. It does not become us to stand still, and reason, and doubt, when our Master’s commands are plain and unmistakeable. If the lepers had acted in this way, they would never have been healed. We must read the Scriptures diligently. We must try to pray. We must attend on the public means of grace. All these are duties Which Christ requires at our hands, and to which, if we love life, we must attend, without asking vain and captious questions. It is just in the path of unhesitating obedience that Christ will meet and bless us. “If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine.”

Above all, let us pray for a deeper sense of our own sinfulness, guilt, and undeserving. This, after all, is the true secret of a thankful spirit. It is the man who daily feels his debt to grace, and daily remembers that in reality he deserves nothing but hell,—this is the man who will be daily blessing and praising God. Thankfulness is a flower which will never bloom well excepting upon a root of deep humility.

The conduct of the ten lepers is very instructive. It throws light on a most important subject in practical Christianity, which we can never understand too well. That subject is prayer. How is it that many never pray at all? How is it that many others are content to repeat a form of words, but never pray with their hearts? How is it that dying men and women, with souls to be lost or saved, can know so little of real, hearty, business-like prayer? The answer to these questions is short and simple. The bulk of mankind have no sense of sin. They do not feel their spiritual disease. They are not conscious that they are lost, and guilty, and hanging over the brink of hell. When a man finds out his soul’s ailment, he soon learns to pray. Like the leper, he finds words to express his want. He cries for help. How is it, again, that many true believers often pray so coldly? What is the reason that their prayers are so feeble, and wandering, and lukewarm, as they frequently are? The answer once more is very plain. Their sense of need is not so deep as it ought to be. They are not truly alive to their own weakness and helplessness, and so they do not cry fervently for mercy and grace. Let us remember these things. Let us seek to have a constant and abiding sense of our real necessities. If saints could only see their souls as the ten afflicted lepers saw their bodies, they would pray far better than they do.

Verse 1

And now the wants are told
That brought Thy children to Thy knee;
Here lingering still, we ask for nought,
But simply worship Thee.

Verse 2

The hope of heaven’s eternal days
Absorbs not all the heart
That gives Thee glory, love, and praise,
For being what Thou art.

Verse 3

For Thou art God, the One, the same,
O’er all things high and bright;
And round us, when we speak Thy Name,
There spreads a heaven of light.

Verse 4

O wondrous peace, in thought to dwell
On excellence Divine;
To know that nought in man can tell
How fair Thy beauties shine.

Verse 5

O Thou, above all blessing blest,
O’er thanks exalted far,
Thy very greatness is a rest
To weaklings as we are;

Verse 6

For when we feel the praise of Thee
A task beyond our powers,
We say, “A perfect God is He,
And He is fully ours.”

Verse 1

Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat
Where Jesus answers prayer;
There humbly fall before His feet,
For none can perish there.

Verse 2

Thy promise is my only plea;
With this I venture nigh:
Thou callest burdened souls to Thee,
And such, O Lord, am I.

Verse 3

Bowed down beneath a load of sin,
By Satan sorely pressed,
By war without, and fears within,
I come to Thee for rest.

Verse 4

Be Thou my Shield and Hiding-place,
That, sheltered near Thy side,
I may my fierce accuser face,
And tell him, Thou hast died.

Verse 5

O wondrous love! to bleed and die,
To bear the cross and shame,
That guilty sinners, such as I,
Might plead Thy gracious Name!

Verse 1

Are you weary, are you heavy-hearted?
Tell it to Jesus.
Are you grieving over joys departed?
Tell it to Jesus alone.

Refrain

Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus,
He is a Friend that’s well known;
You have no other such a friend or brother!
Tell it to Jesus alone.

Verse 2

Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden?
Tell it to Jesus.
Have you sins that to man’s eye are hidden?
Tell it to Jesus alone.

Verse 3

Do you fear the gath’ring clouds of sorrow?
Tell it to Jesus.
Are you anxious what shall be to-morrow?
Tell it to Jesus alone.

Verse 4

Are you troubled at the tho’t of dying?
Tell it to Jesus.
For Christ’s coming kingdom are you sighing?
Tell it to Jesus alone.

Verse 1

A throne of grace! then let us go
And offer up our prayer;
A gracious God will mercy show
To all that worship there.

Verse 2

A throne of grace! oh, at that throne
Our knees have often bent,
And God has showered his blessings down
As often as we went.

Verse 3

A throne of grace! rejoice, ye saints!
That throne is open still;
To God unbosom your complaints,
And then inquire his will.

Verse 1

Behold the throne of grace!
The promise calls me near:
There Jesus shows a smiling face,
And waits to answer prayer.

Verse 2

My soul, ask what thou wilt;
Thou canst not be too bold;
Since His own blood for thee He spilt,
What else can He withhold?

Verse 3

Thine image, Lord, bestow,
Thy presence and Thy love;
I ask to serve Thee here below,
And reign with Thee above.

Verse 4

Teach me to live by faith;
Conform my will to Thine;
Let me victorious be in death,
And then in glory shine.

Verse 1

Behold the throne of grace!
The promise calls me near;
There Jesus shows a smiling face,
And waits to answer prayer.

Verse 2

That rich atoning blood,
Which sprinkled round I see,
Provides, for those who come to God,
An all-prevailing plea.

Verse 3

My soul! ask what thou wilt;
Thou canst not be too bold;
Since his own blood for thee he spilt,
What else can he withhold?

Verse 4

Thine, image, Lord! bestow,
Thy presence and thy love;
I ask to serve thee here below,
And reign with thee above.

Verse 5

Teach me to live by faith;
Conform my will to thine;
Let me victorious be in death,
And then in glory shine.

Verse 1

Christian, seek not yet repose,
Cast thy dreams of ease away;
Thou art in the midst of foes:
Watch and pray.

Verse 2

Principalities and powers,
Mustering their unseen array,
Wait for thy unguarded hours:
Watch and pray.

Verse 3

Gird thy heavenly armor on,
Wear it ever, night and day;
Ambushed lies the evil one:
Watch and pray.

Verse 4

Hear the victors who o’ercame;
Still they mark each warrior’s way;
All with one sweet voice exclaim,
“Watch and pray.”

Verse 5

Hear, above all, hear Thy Lord,
Him thou lovest to obey;
Hide within thy heart His word,
“Watch and pray.”

Verse 6

Watch, as if on that alone
Hung the issue of the day;
Pray, that help may be sent down:
Watch and pray.

Verse 1

Come at the morning hour,
Come, let us kneel and pray;
Pray’r is the Christian pilgrim’s staff
To walk with God all day.

Verse 2

At noon beneath the Rock
Of Ages, rest and pray;
Sweet is that shelter from the sun
In weary heat of day.

Verse 3

At evening, in thy home,
Around its altar, pray;
And finding there the house of God,
With heaven then close the day.

Verse 4

When midnight veils our eyes,
Oh, it is sweet to say,
I sleep, but my heart waketh, Lord!
With thee to watch and pray.

O Lord, whether we know it or not, and we often do not know it, our heart and our flesh crieth out for the living God. We beseech Thee that we may turn these cries into prayers, and that they may be the prayers of faith, and that they may be seconded and backed up by our daily lives, and that so we may receive that without which we shall continue always to be miserable and poor and blind and naked, and all the while conceiting ourselves to have need of nothing. O Lord! teach us our great wants, and then give us Thy great gifts, and fill us with the power and the peace of Thine own life bestowed through Jesus Christ Who is our Life. And help us, day by day, to live the lives that we live in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved us and gave Himself for us.

By all means, right life is the best in man’s prayer, for such life prays better to God than the voices of hypocrites.