NOTES
NOTE A, Chap. VI. p. 75
Just this day I have been meeting a very earnest lady missionary from India. She confesses and mourns the lack of prayer. But—in India at least—it can hardly be otherwise. You only have the morning hours, from six to eleven, for your work. Some have attempted to rise at four, and get the time they think they need, and have suffered, and had to give it up. Some have tried to take time after lunch, and been found asleep on their knees. You are not your own master, and must act with others. No one who has not been in India can understand the difficulty; sufficient time for much intercession cannot be secured.
Were it only in the heat of India the difficulty existed, one might be silent. But, alas, in the coldest winter in London, and in the moderate climate of South Africa, there is the same trouble everywhere. If once we really felt; intercession is the most important part of our work; the securing of God's presence and power in full measure is the essential thing; this is our first duty; our hours of work would all be made subordinate to this one thing.
May show us all whether there indeed be an inseparable difficulty for which we are not responsible; whether it be only a mistake we are making, or a sin by which we are grieving Him and hindering His Spirit!
If we ask the question George Muller once asked of a Christian who complained that he could not find time sufficient for the study of the word and prayer, whether an hour less work, say four hours with the soul dwelling in the full light of God would not be more prosperous and effective than five hours with the depressing consciousness of unfaithfulness, and the loss of the power that could be obtained in prayer. The answer will not be difficult. The more we think of it the more we feel that when earnest, godly workers allow, against their better will, the spiritual to be crowded out by incessant occupation and the fatigue it brings, it must be because the spiritual life is not sufficiently strong in them to bid the lever stand aside till the presence of God in Christ and the power of the Spirit have been fully secured.
Let us listen to Christ saying: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Let duty and work have their place. And unto God the things that are God's. Let the worship see the Spirit, the entire dependence and continued waiting upon God for the full experience of His presence and power every day, and the strength of Christ working in us, ever have the first place. The whole question is simply this: Is God to have the place, the love, the trust, the time for personal fellowship He claims, so that all our working shall be God working in us.
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