Scripture: "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit." "There is one body and one Spirit."—EPH. iv. 3, 4.
It is from Paul that we learn how the Christian communities in different places ought to remember each other in the fellowship of prayer. He points out how in such prayer God is glorified. So he writes more than once (2 Cor. i. 11, iv. 15, ix. 12, 13) of how the ministry of intercession abounds to the glory of God.
In our days there is very great need that the children of God throughout the world should be drawn close together in the consciousness of their being chosen by God to be a holy priesthood ministering continually the sacrifice of praise and prayer. There is too little distinction between the world and the Body of Christ; in the life of many of God's children there is very little difference from what the world is. It is a question of the deepest importance: What can be done to foster the unity of the Spirit ?
Nothing will help so much as the separation to a life of more prayer, with the definite intercession that God's people may prove their unity in a life of holiness and love. That will be a living testimony to the world of what it means to live for God. When Paul wrote: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and sup¬plication for all saints," he names one of the essential characteristics of the difference between God's people and the world.
You say you long to bear this mark of the children of God, I and to be able so to pray for them that yon may prove to yourself land to others that you are indeed not of the world. Resolve in i your life to bear about with you this one great distinctive feature 1 of the true Christian—a life of prayer and intercession. Join with God's children who are seeking with one accord and unceasingly so to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the Body of (Christ that they may be strong in the Lord and in the power of I His might, to pray down a blessing upon His Church. Let none I of us think it too much to give a quarter of an hour every day I for meditation on some word of God connected with His promises I to His Church—and then to plead with Him for its fulfilment. Slowly, unobservedly, and yet surely, you will taste the blessedness of being one, heart and soul, with God's people, and receive the power to pray the effectual prayer that availeth much.
