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us up to the deepest mysteries of prayer, and its power in the Kingdom of God. The
answer to such questions will convince us that prayer is indeed a power, on which the
ingathering of the harvest and the coming of the Kingdom do in very truth depend.
Prayer is no form or show. The Lord Jesus was Himself the truth; everything He
spake was the deepest truth. It was when (see ver. 36) 'He saw the multitude, and was
moved with compassion on them, because they were scattered abroad, as sheep having
no shepherd,' that He called on the disciples to pray for labourers to be sent among
them. He did so because He really believed that their prayer was needed, and would
help. The veil which so hides the invisible world from us was wonderfully transparent
to the holy human soul of Jesus. He had looked long and deep and far into the hidden
connection of cause and effect in the spirit world. He had marked in God's Word how,
when God called men like Abraham and Moses, Joshua and Samuel and Daniel, and
given them authority over men in His name, He had at the same time given them
authority and right to call in the powers of heaven to their aid as they needed them. He
knew that as to these men of old, and to Himself for a time, here upon earth, the work
of God had been entrusted, so it was now about to pass over into the hands of His
disciples. He knew that when this work should be given in charge to them, it would
not be a mere matter of form or show, but that on them, and their being faithful or
unfaithful, the success of the work would actually depend. As a single individual,
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within the limitations of a human body and a human life, Jesus feels how little a short
visit can accomplish among these wandering sheep He sees around Him, and He longs
for help to have them properly cared for. And so He tells His disciples now to begin
and pray, and, when they have taken over the work from Him on earth, to make this
one of the chief petitions in their prayer: That the Lord of the harvest Himself would
send forth labourers into His harvest. The God who entrusted them with the work, and
made it to so large extent dependent on them, gives them authority to apply to Him for
labourers to help, and makes the supply dependent on their prayer.
How little Christians really feel and mourn the need of labourers in the fields of
the world so white to the harvest. And how little they believe that our labour-supply
depends on prayer, that prayer will really provide 'as many as he needeth.' Not that
the dearth of labour is not known or discussed. Not that efforts are not sometimes put
forth to supply the want. But how little the burden of the sheep wandering without a
Shepherd is really borne in the faith that the Lord of the harvest will, in answer to
prayer, send forth the labourers, and in the solemn conviction that without this prayer
fields ready for reaping will be left to perish. And yet it is so. So wonderful is the
surrender of His work into the hands of His Church, so dependent has the Lord made
Himself on them as His body, through whom alone His work can be done, so real is the
power which the Lord gives His people to exercise in heaven and earth, that the
number of the labourers and the measure of the harvest does actually depend upon
their prayer.
Solemn thought! O why is it that we do not obey the injunction of the Master
more heartily, and cry more earnestly for labourers? There are two reasons for this.
The one is: We miss the compassion of Jesus, which gave rise to this request for prayer.
When believers learn that to love their neighbours as themselves, that to live entirely
for God's glory in their fellow-men, is the Father's first commandment to His redeemed
ones, they will accept of the perishing ones as the charge entrusted to them by their
Lord. And, accepting them not only as a field of labour, but as the objects of loving
care and interest, it will not be long before compassion towards the hopelessly
perishing will touch their heart, and the cry ascend with an earnestness till then
unknown: Lord! send labourers. The other reason for the neglect of the command, the
want of faith, will then make itself felt, but will be overcome as our pity pleads for
help. We believe too little in the power of prayer to bring about definite results. We do
not live close enough to God, and are not enough entirely given up to His service and
Kingdom, to be capable of the confidence that He will give it in answer to our prayer.
O let us pray for a life so one with Christ, that His compassion may stream into us, and
His Spirit be able to assure us that our prayer avails.
Such prayer will ask and obtain a twofold blessing. There will first be the desire
for the increase of men entirely given up to the service of God. It is a terrible blot upon
the Church of Christ that there are times when actually men cannot be found for the
service of the Master as ministers, missionaries, or teachers of God's Word. As God's
children make this a matter of supplication for their own circle or Church, it will be
given. The Lord Jesus is now Lord of the harvest. He has been exalted to bestow gifts--
the gifts of the Spirit. His chief gifts are men filled with the Spirit. But the supply and
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distribution of the gifts depend on the co-operation of Head and members. It is just
prayer will lead to such co-operation; the believing suppliants will be stirred to find the
men and the means for the work.
The other blessing to be asked will not be less. Every believer is a labourer; not
one of God's children who has not been redeemed for service, and has not his work
waiting. It must be our prayer that the Lord would so fill all His people with the spirit
of devotion, that not one may be found standing idle in the vineyard. Wherever there
is a complaint of the want of helpers, or of fit helpers in God's work, prayer has the
promise of a supply. There is no Sunday school or district visiting, no Bible reading or
rescue work, where God is not ready and able to provide. It may take time and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]