| The Golden Gate of Prayer |
Chapter 15 |
Page 2 |
There is a story of a young officer in his first battle. He said that when the fighting fairly began his first impulse was to run out of it as fast as he could. He looked up, however, and saw that that was exactly what his men were preparing to do. If he failed in courage they would fail, too. So he instantly rallied himself and then exhorted them to stand firm and be true. We can lead others only by being brave and strong ourself. It is needful, therefore, for others’ sake as well as our own, that we meet temptations.
Then the prayer is that when we are in temptation we may not be hurt by it, that we may be kept from its evil. This is the great problem of true and worthy living. There is possible evil in every experience — not alone in direct temptations, in actual allurements to sin, but even in the good things of life. A happy home by the very sweetness of its love, and by the rich satisfying which its affections give to the heart, may crowd out God and heaven, and thus do harm to the life. Pleasure is not an evil in itself, but possible evil lurks in its cup from which ofttimes men and women drink poison and not nourishment.
We do not put prosperity down among the evil things. In Old Testament days it was regarded as a mark of God’s special favor. It is indeed and always a blessing from God, from whose hands every good gift comes. No one dreads prosperity. In our church services we make prayers for those who are in any trouble, for the sick, for the poor, for the widow and the orphan, but we do not usually offer supplications for the prosperous, for those who have abounding health, for the happy, for those who have no trouble. Yet these conditions have their own perils. Many men lose their soul in their prosperity. While enjoying the good things of this world — never more than when receiving the largest measure of these good things — we need to pray continually to be kept from the evil that is in them.
Page 2