Scripture: "We trust not in ourselves, but in Cod who delivered us, and will yet deliver us."—2 Cor. i. 9, 10. "Some preach Christ of contention, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation, through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ."—PHIL. i. 16-19".
Texts like these prove that there were still Christians in the churches under the full power of the Holy Spirit, on whom Paul could count for effectual, much-availing prayer. When we plead with Christians to pray without ceasing, there are a very large number who quietly decide that such a life is not possible for them. They have not any special gift for prayer; they have not that intense desire for glorifying Christ in the salvation of souls; they have not yet learned what it is, under the power of the constraining love of Christ, to live not unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and rose again.
And yet it is such that we bring the call to offer themselves for a whole-hearted surrender to live entirely for Christ. We ask them whether they are not ashamed of the selfish life, that simply uses Christ as a convenience to escape from hell and to secure a place in heaven. We come to them with the assurance that God can change their lives, and fill their hearts with Christ and His Holy Spirit. We plead with them to believe that with God all things are possible. He is able and willing, yea rather, most anxious to restore them to the Father's house, to the joy of His presence and service.
One step on the way to the attainment of this will be, that they listen to the call for men and women who will every day and all the clay, in the power of Christ's abiding presence, live in the spirit of unceasing intercession for all saints, that they receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and acknowledge that this is nothing less than a duty, a sacrifice that Christ's love has a right to claim, and that He by His Spirit will indeed work in them. The man, however far he may have come short, who accepts the call as coming from Christ, and draws near to God in humble prayer for the needed grace, will have taken the first step in the path that leads to fellowship with God, to a new faith and life in Christ Jesus, and to the surrender of his whole being to that intercession of the Spirit, that will help to bring Pentecost again into the hearts of God's people.
