“Pray without ceasing.”—1 Thess. v. 17.
There are two modes of praying mentioned in Scripture; the one is
prayer at set times and places, and in set forms; the other is what the
text speaks of,—continual or habitual prayer. The former of these is
what is commonly called prayer, whether it be public or private. The
other kind of praying may also be called holding communion with God, or
living in God's sight, and this may be done all through the day,
wherever we are, and is commanded us as the duty, or rather the
characteristic, of those who are really servants and friends of Jesus
Christ.
These two kinds of praying are also natural duties. I mean, we
should in a way be bound to attend to them, even if we were born in a
heathen country and had never heard of the Bible. For our conscience
and reason would lead us to practise them, if we did but attend to
these divinely-given informants. I shall here confine myself to the
consideration of the latter of the two, habitual or inward prayer,
which is enjoined in the text, with the view of showing what it is, and
how we are to practise it; and I shall speak of it, first, as a natural
duty, and then as the characteristic of a Christian.
1. At first sight, it may be difficult to some persons to understand
what is meant by praying always. Now consider it as a natural duty,
that is, a duty taught us by natural reason and religious feeling, and
you will soon see what it consists in.
What does nature teach us about ourselves, even before opening the
Bible?—that we are creatures of the Great God, the Maker of heaven and
earth; and that, as His creatures, we are bound to serve Him and give
Him our hearts; in a word, to be religious beings. And next, what is
religion but a habit? and what is a habit but a state of mind which is
always upon us, as a sort of ordinary dress or inseparable garment of
the soul? A man cannot really be religious one hour, and not religious
the next. We might as well say he could be in a state of good health
one hour, and in bad health the next. A man who is religious, is
religious morning, noon, and night; his religion is a certain
character, a mould in which his thoughts, words, and actions are cast,
all forming parts of one and the same whole. He sees God in all things;
every course of action he directs towards those spiritual objects which
God has revealed to him; every occurrence of the day, every event,
every person met with, all news which he hears, he measures by the
standard of God's will. And a person who does this may be said almost
literally to pray without ceasing; for, knowing himself to be in God's
presence, he is continually led to address Him reverently, whom he sets
always before him, in the inward language of prayer and praise, of
humble confession and joyful trust.
All this, I say, any thoughtful man acknowledges from mere natural
reason. To be religious is, in other words, to have the habit of
prayer, or to pray always. This is what Scripture means by doing all
things to God's glory; that is, so placing God's presence and will
before us, and so consistently acting with a reference to Him, that all
we do becomes one body and course of obedience, witnessing without
ceasing to Him who made us, and whose servants we are; and in its
separate parts promoting more or less directly His glory, according as
each particular thing we happen to be doing admits more or less of a
religious character. Thus religious obedience is, as it were, a spirit
dwelling in us, extending its influence to every motion of the soul;
and just as healthy men and strong men show their health and strength
in all they do (not indeed equally in all things, but in some things
more than in others, because all actions do not require or betoken the
presence of that health and strength, and yet even in their step, and
their voice, and their gestures, and their countenance, showing in due
measure their vigour of body), so they who have the true health and
strength of the soul, a clear, sober, and deep faith in Him in whom
they have their being, will in all they do, nay (as St. Paul says),
even whether they “eat or drink[1],” be living in God's sight, or, in
the words of the same Apostle in the text, live in ceaseless prayer.
If it be said that no man on earth does thus continually and
perfectly glorify and worship God, this we all know too well; this is
only saying that none of us has reached perfection. We know, alas! that
in many things all of us offend. But I am speaking not of what we do, but of what we ought to do, and must aim at doing,—of our
duty; and, for the sake of impressing our duty on our hearts, it is
of use to draw the picture of a man perfectly obedient, as a pattern
for us to aim at. In proportion as we grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Saviour, so shall we approximate to Him in obedience,
who is our great example, and who alone of all the sons of Adam lived
in the perfection of unceasing prayer.
Thus the meaning and reasonableness of the command in the text is
shown by considering it as a natural duty, religion being no accident
which comes and goes by fits and starts, but a certain spirit or life.
2. Now, secondly, I will state all this in the language of
Scripture; that is, I will confirm this view of our duty, which natural
reason might suggest, by that other and far clearer voice of God, His
inspired word.
How is religious obedience described in Scripture? Surely as a
certain kind of life. We know what life of the body is; it is a state
of the body: the pulse beats; all things are in motion. The hidden
principle of life, though we know not how or what it is, is seen in
these outward signs of it. And so of the life of the soul. The soul,
indeed, was not possessed of this life of God when first born into the
world. We are born with dead souls; that is, dead as regards religious
obedience. If left to ourselves we should grow up haters of God, and
tend nearer and nearer, the longer we had existence, to utter spiritual
death, that inward fire of hell torments, maturing in evil through a
long eternity. Such is the course we are beginning to run when born
into the world; and were it not for the gospel promise, what a
miserable event would the birth of children be! Who could take pleasure
at the sight of such poor beings, unconscious as yet of their
wretchedness, but containing in their hearts that fearful root of sin
which is sure in the event of reigning and triumphing unto everlasting
woe? But God has given us all, even the little children, a good promise
through Christ; and our prospects are changed. And He has given not
only a promise of future happiness, but through His Holy Spirit He
implants here and at once a new principle within us, a new spiritual
life, a life of the soul, as it is called. St. Paul tells us, that “God
hath quickened us,” made us live, “together with Christ, . . .
and hath raised us up together” from the death of sin, “and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus[2].” Now how God quickens
our souls we do not know, as little as how He quickens our bodies. Our
spiritual “life” (as St. Paul says) “is hid with Christ in
God[3].” But as our bodily life discovers itself by its activity, so is
the presence of the Holy Spirit in us discovered by a spiritual
activity; and this activity is the spirit of continual prayer. Prayer
is to spiritual life what the beating of the pulse and the drawing of
the breath are to the life of the body. It would be as absurd to
suppose that life could last when the body was cold and motionless and
senseless, as to call a soul alive which does not pray. The state or
habit of spiritual life exerts itself, consists, in the continual
activity of prayer.
Do you ask, where does Scripture say this? Where? In all it tells us
of the connexion between the new birth and faith; for what is prayer
but the expression, the voice, of faith? For instance, St. Paul says to
the Galatians, “The life which I now live in the flesh” (i.e.
the new and spiritual life), “I live by the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me[4].” For what, I say, is faith, but the looking to
God and thinking of Him continually, holding habitual fellowship with
Him, that is, speaking to Him in our hearts all through the day,
praying without ceasing? Afterwards, in the same Epistle, he tells us
first that nothing avails but faith working by love; but soon after, he
calls this same availing principle a new creature: so that the new
birth and a living faith are inseparable. Never, indeed, must it be
supposed, as we are indolently apt to suppose, that the gift of grace
which we receive at baptism is a mere outward privilege, a mere outward
pardon, in which the heart is not concerned; or as if it were some mere
mark put on the soul, distinguishing it indeed from souls unregenerate,
as if by a colour or seal, but not connected with the thoughts, mind,
and heart of a Christian. This would be a gross and false view of the
nature of God's mercy given us in Christ. For the new birth of the Holy
Spirit sets the soul in motion in a heavenly way: it gives us good
thoughts and desires, enlightens and purifies us, and prompts us to
seek God. In a word (as I have said), it gives a spiritual life;
it opens the eyes of our mind, so that we begin to see God in all
things by faith, and hold continual intercourse with Him by prayer, and
if we cherish these gracious influences, we shall become holier and
wiser and more heavenly, year by year, our hearts being ever in a
course of change from darkness to light, from the ways and works of
Satan to the perfection of Divine obedience.
These considerations may serve to impress upon our minds the meaning
of the precept in the text, and others like it which are found in St.
Paul's Epistles. For instance, he enjoins the Ephesians to “pray always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” To the Philippians he
says, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and
supplication let your requests be made known unto God[5].” To the
Colossians, “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with
thanksgiving.” To the Romans, “Continue instant in prayer[6].”
Thus the true Christian pierces through the veil of this world and
sees the next. He holds intercourse with it; he addresses God, as a
child might address his parent, with as clear a view of Him, and with
as unmixed a confidence in Him; with deep reverence indeed, and godly
fear and awe, but still with certainty and exactness: as St. Paul says,
“I know whom I have believed[7],” with the prospect of judgment to come
to sober him, and the assurance of present grace to cheer him.
If what I have said is true, surely it is well worth thinking about.
Most men indeed, I fear, neither pray at fixed times, nor do they
cultivate an habitual communion with Almighty God. Indeed, it is too
plain how most men pray. They pray now and then, when they feel
particular need of God's assistance; when they are in trouble or in
apprehension of danger; or when their feelings are unusually excited.
They do not know what it is either to be habitually religious, or to
devote a certain number of minutes at fixed times to the thought of
God. Nay, the very best Christian, how lamentably deficient is he in
the spirit of prayer! Let any man compare in his mind how many times he
has prayed when in trouble, with how seldom he has returned thanks when
his prayers have been granted; or the earnestness with which he prays
against expected suffering, with the languor and unconcern of his
thanksgivings afterwards, and he will soon see how little he has of the
real habit of prayer, and how much his religion depends on accidental
excitement, which is no test of a religious heart. Or supposing he has
to repeat the same prayer for a month or two, the cause of using it
continuing, let him compare the earnestness with which he first said
it, and tried to enter into it, with the coldness with which he at
length uses it. Why is this, except that his perception of the unseen
world is not the true view which faith gives (else it would last as
that world itself lasts), but a mere dream, which endures for a night,
and is succeeded by a hard worldly joy in the morning? Is God
habitually in our thoughts? Do we think of Him, and of His Son our
Saviour, through the day? When we eat and drink, do we thank Him, not
as a mere matter of form, but in spirit? When we do things in
themselves right, do we lift up our minds to Him, and desire to promote
His glory? When we are in the exercise of our callings, do we still
think of Him, acting ever conscientiously, desiring to know His will
more exactly than we do at present, and aiming at fulfilling it more
completely and abundantly? Do we wait on His grace to enlighten, renew,
strengthen us?
I do not ask whether we use many words about religion. There is no
need to do this: nay, we should avoid a boastful display of our better
feelings and practices, silently serving God without human praise, and
hiding our conscientiousness except when it would dishonour God to do
so. There are times, indeed, when, in the presence of a holy man, to
confess is a benefit, and there are times when, in the presence of
worldly men, to confess becomes a duty; but these seasons, whether of
privilege or of duty, are comparatively rare. But we are always with
ourselves and our God; and that silent inward confession in His
presence may be sustained and continual, and will end in durable fruit.
But if those persons come short of their duty who make religion a
matter of impulse and mere feeling, what shall be said to those who
have no feeling or thought of religion at all? What shall be said of
the multitude of young people who ridicule seriousness, and
deliberately give themselves up to vain thoughts? Alas! my brethren,
you do not even observe or recognize the foolish empty thoughts which
pass through your minds; you are not distressed, even at those of them
you recollect; but what will you say at the last day, when, instead of
the true and holy visions in which consists Divine communion, you find
recorded against you in God's book an innumerable multitude of the
idlest, silliest imaginings, nay, of the wickedest, which ever
disgraced an immortal being? What will you say, when heaven and hell
are before you, and the books are opened, and therein you find the sum
total of your youthful desires and dreams, your passionate wishes for
things of this world, your low-minded, grovelling tastes, your secret
contempt and aversion for serious subjects and persons, your efforts to
attract the looks of sinners and to please those who displease God;
your hankerings after worldly gaieties and luxuries, your admiration of
the rich or titled, your indulgence of impure thoughts, your
self-conceit and pitiful vanity? Ah, I may seem to you to use harsh
words; but be sure I do not use terms near so severe as you will use
against yourselves in that day. Then those men, whom you now think
gloomy and over-strict, will seem to you truly wise; and the advice to
pray without ceasing, which once you laughed at as fit only for the
dull, the formal, the sour, the poor-spirited, or the aged, will be
approved by your own experience, as it is even now by your reason and
conscience. Oh, that you could be brought to give one serious hour to
religion, in anticipation of that long eternity where you must
be serious! True, you may laugh now, but there is no vain merriment on
the other side of the grave. The devils, though they repent not,
tremble. You will be among those unwilling serious ones then, if
you are mad enough to be gay and careless now; if you are mad enough to
laugh, jest, and scoff your poor moment now on earth, which, is short
enough to prepare for eternity in, without your making it shorter by
wasting your youth in sin. Could you but see who it is that suggests to
you all your lighter thoughts, which you put instead of Divine
communion, the shock would make you serious, even if it did not make
you religious. Could you see, what God sees, those snares and pitfalls
which the devil is placing about your path; could you see that all your
idle thoughts which you cherish, which seem so bright and pleasant, so
much pleasanter than religious thoughts, are inspired by that Ancient
Seducer of Mankind, the Author of Evil, who stands at your side while
you deride religion, serious indeed himself while he makes you laugh,
not able to laugh at his own jests, while he carries you dancing
forward to perdition,—doubtless you would tremble, even as he does
while he tempts you. But this you cannot possibly see, you cannot break
your delusion, except by first taking God's word in this matter on
trust. You cannot see the unseen world at once. They who ever speak
with God in their hearts, are in turn taught by Him in all knowledge;
but they who refuse to act upon the light, which God gave them by
nature, at length come to lose it altogether, and are given up to a
reprobate mind.
May God save us all from such wilful sin, old as well as young, and
enlighten us one and all in His saving knowledge, and give us the will
and the power to serve Him!
[1] 1 Cor. x. 31.
[2] Eph. ii. 5, 6.
[3] Col. iii. 3.
[4] Gal. ii. 20.
[5] Eph. vi. 18. Phil. iv. 6.
[6] Col. iv. 2. Rom. xii. 12.
[7] 2 Tim. i. 12.