Chapter XXIX.—Of the Power of Prayer.

For what has God, who exacts it ever denied186    Routh would read, “What will God deny?” to prayer coming from “spirit and truth?”  How mighty specimens of its efficacy do we read, and hear, and believe! Old-world prayer, indeed, used to free from fires,187    Dan. iii. and from beasts,188    Dan. vi. and from famine;189    1 Kings xviii.; James v. 17, 18. and yet it had not (then) received its form from Christ. But how far more amply operative is Christian prayer! It does not station the angel of dew in mid-fires,190    i.e. “the angel who preserved in the furnace the three youths besprinkled, as it were, with dewy shower” (Muratori quoted by Oehler).  [Apocrypha, The Song, etc., verses 26, 27.] nor muzzle lions, nor transfer to the hungry the rustics’ bread;191    2 Kings iv. 42–44. it has no delegated grace to avert any sense of suffering;192    i.e. in brief, its miraculous operations, as they are called, are suspended in these ways. but it supplies the suffering, and the feeling, and the grieving, with endurance: it amplifies grace by virtue, that faith may know what she obtains from the Lord, understanding what—for God’s name’s sake—she suffers. But in days gone by, withal prayer used to call down193    Or, “inflict.” plagues, scatter the armies of foes, withhold the wholesome influences of the showers. Now, however, the prayer of righteousness averts all God’s anger, keeps bivouac on behalf of personal enemies, makes supplication on behalf of persecutors. Is it wonder if it knows how to extort the rains of heaven194    See Apolog. c. 5 (Oehler).—(prayer) which was once able to procure its fires?195    See 2 Kings i. Prayer is alone that which vanquishes196    [A reference to Jacob’s wrestling. Also, probably, to Matt. xi. 12.] God. But Christ has willed that it be operative for no evil: He had conferred on it all its virtue in the cause of good.  And so it knows nothing save how to recall the souls of the departed from the very path of death, to transform the weak, to restore the sick, to purge the possessed, to open prison-bars, to loose the bonds of the innocent. Likewise it washes away faults, repels temptations, extinguishes persecutions, consoles the faint-spirited, cheers the high-spirited, escorts travellers, appeases waves, makes robbers stand aghast, nourishes the poor, governs the rich, upraises the fallen, arrests the falling, confirms the standing. Prayer is the wall of faith: her arms and missiles197    Or, “her armour defensive and offensive.” against the foe who keeps watch over us on all sides. And, so never walk we unarmed. By day, be we mindful of Station; by night, of vigil. Under the arms of prayer guard we the standard of our General; await we in prayer the angel’s trump.198    1 Cor. xv. 52; 1 Thess. iv. 16. The angels, likewise, all pray; every creature prays; cattle and wild beasts pray and bend their knees; and when they issue from their layers and lairs,199    Or, “pens and dens.” they look up heavenward with no idle mouth, making their breath vibrate200    As if in prayer. after their own manner. Nay, the birds too, rising out of the nest, upraise themselves heavenward, and, instead of hands, expand the cross of their wings, and say somewhat to seem like prayer.201    This beautiful passage should be supplemented by a similar one from St. Bernard: “Nonne et aviculas levat, non onerat pennarum numerositas ipsa? Tolle eas, et reliquum corpus pondere suo fertur ad ima. Sic disciplinam Christi, sic suave jugum, sic onus leve, quo deponimus, eo deprimimur ipsi:  quia portat potius quam portatur.” Epistola, ccclxxxv. Bernardi Opp. Tom. i. p. 691. Ed. (Mabillon.) Gaume, Paris, 1839. Bearing the cross uplifts the Christian.] What more then, touching the office of prayer? Even the Lord Himself prayed; to whom be honour and virtue unto the ages of the ages!

CAPUT ULTIMUM .

Quid enim orationi de spiritu et veritate venienti negavit Deus, qui eam exigit? Legimus, et audimus, et credimus, quanta documenta efficaciae ejus. Vetus quidem oratio et ab ignibus, et a bestiis, et ab inedia liberabat, et tamen non a Christo acceperat formam. Caeterum quanto amplius oratur oratio Christianorum, non roris Angelum in mediis ignibus sistit, nec ora leonibus obstruit, nec esurientibus rusticorum prandium transfert, nullum sensum passionis delegata gratia avertit; sed patientes, et sentientes, et dolentes sufferentia instruit, virtute ampliat gratiam, ut sciat fides quid a Domino consequatur, intelligens quid pro 1195B Dei nomine patiatur. Sed et retro oratio plagas irrogabat, fundebat hostium exercitus, imbrium utilia prohibebat. Nunc vero oratio justitiae omnem iram Dei avertit, pro inimicis excubat, pro persequentibus supplicat. Mirum si aquas coelestes extorquere novit, quae potuit et ignes impetrare? Sola est oratio, quae Deum vincit. Sed Christus eam nihil mali novit operari. Omnem illi virtutem de bono contulit. Itaque 1196A nihil novit, nisi defunctorum animas de ipso mortis itinere vocare, debiles reformare, aegros remediare, daemoniacos expiare, claustra carceris aperire, vincula innocentium solvere. Eadem diluit delicta, tentationes repellit, persecutiones extinguit, pusillanimos consolatur, magnanimos oblectat, peregrinantes deducit, fluctus mitigat, latrones obstupefacit, alit pauperes, regit divites, lapsos erigit, cadentes suspendit, stantes continet. Oratio murus est fidei, arma et tela nostra adversus hominem, qui nos undique observat. Itaque nunquam inermes incedamus. Die stationis, nocte vigiliae meminerimus. Sub armis orationis signum nostri imperatoris custodiamus; tubam Angeli exspectemus. Orantes erant etiam Angeli omnes. Orat omnis creatura. Orant pecudes, et ferae, 1196B et genua declinant, et egredientes de stabulis ac speluncis, ad coelum non otiosi ore suspiciunt, vibrantes spiritu suo movere. Sed et aves nunc exsurgentes eriguntur ad coelum, et alarum crucem pro manibus extendunt, et dicunt aliquid, quod oratio videatur. Quid ergo amplius de officio orationis? Etiam ipse Dominus oravit, cui sit honor et virtus in saecula saeculorum.