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Pray for the Burden of Souls
by
First published in the Australian War Cry,
April 12, 1913
Men are Dying – Women are Perishing –
Children are Damned in their Tender Years!
Can You Contemplate the Ruin of Immortal Souls Without Horror?
If Your Heart is Not Stirred by the World's Sin and Sorrow
Pray God to Give You a Vision
The multitude of unanswered prayers is beyond human
calculation. They are voicings of personal longings in our
petitions to God, of which we do not expect a fulfilment,
however ardently desired. We recognize instinctively that they
are no part of God's plans, and our faith storms no heaven to
obtain them. These prayers are like the sacrifice offered by
Cain, their smoke never swings free of the earth. For most
unanswered prayers our own heart can find a good reason. Not
in self-indulgence, but in self-denial lies the path of true
service – the service that is acceptable to God, that blesses
man, and that is satisfactory to our own heart. No selfless
prayer was ever left unanswered. Let our spirits crave and
seek that which develops our souls, strengthens our spiritual
powers, and makes us more like Christ, and we find God's
answer awaiting our petition. 'Before they call I will
answer,' He has said.
Look at God's heroes and note the manner of their prayers.
Take, for instance, Abraham, honoured by God with His
confidence, so clearly expressed in that sentence, 'Shall I
hide from Abraham that things which I do?' It implies a
long-standing friendship between Jehovah and Abraham; it was
the result of efficacious prayer and implicit obedience.
Abraham was not only thinking of Lot and his family when he
prayed for their lives, hoping that fifty righteous people
might be found there. God readily agreed to save the cities if
fifty righteous could be found. But Abraham's heart misgives
him. God would not destroy fifty good people without cause,
and so he goes on asking more and more until he comes down to
ten. Surely ten righteous can be found among the thousands of
those two cities. And the Lord agreed to save the cities for
the sake of ten. Alas! not even that small number could be
found! Abraham bore the burden of souls.
Again, look at Moses. The anger of the Lord is kindled even
more terribly than the overpowering indignation felt by Moses
when he found the Israelites dancing around the golden calf,
and when Moses beheld the majesty of Divine anger, his own
displeasure turned to intense grief. Hear him pray, 'Oh, this
people have sinned a great sin...Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive
their sin; if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of the book which
Thou hast written.' What a desperate earnestness and deep love
for the people, and what a contrast between this prayer, the
cry of a torn heart, on behalf of a sinful people, with the
perfunctory prayer we hear so often, when no genuine
responsibility is felt for the souls of others.
Elijah saw the idolatry of the children of Israel, and grieved
over it. He would prove that the Lord was God, and turn the
hearts of the people to Him again. Watch his assurance. Listen
to the passionate prayer yearning for the restoration of the
backslidden nation, and note the instant answer of God: - The
fire fell, the sacrifice consumed, and the enemy discomfited.
Gideon felt for his oppressed brethren, and he sought God's
help in prayer. And because he felt the burden of others, God
answered him twice by a sign, and made him the liberator of
the people.
Samuel was a living answer to prayer. Daniel prayed without
considering the danger to himself, and his prayers shut the
lions' mouths, and won the heart of the king. Right throughout
the Bible we read of the wonder-working power of prayer, and
the successful prayer is the outpouring of a heart overflowing
with anxiety for others.
We know how prayer brings forgiveness to the penitent, triumph
to the tempted, comfort to the troubled and afflicted, and
strength to the weak; but what we particularly want is the
burden of souls. If we are not feeling the weight of our
responsibility for others' salvation weighing upon us, if we
can look upon the exhibition of sin and its ravages without
deep emotion and intense hatred, then let us pray that God may
lay upon our hearts the burden that oppressed Moses, and made
him willing to perish with his people rather than be saved
alone. Let us seek the godly sorrow that made the prophets
weep for the sins of their people, crying with Jeremiah, 'Oh
that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,
that i might weep day and nights for the slain of the daughter
of my people.'
It was the same burden, unspeakably heavy on account of His
exact appraisement of the world's sin, that drove Jesus to
seek so frequently isolation on mountain-tops and in lonely
places, in order that he might undisturbedly commune with the
Father in nights of prayer.
The burden of souls brought obscure men out of unlikely
places, and made them religious leaders and reformers of the
faith. It was that heat burden that gave the world men like
Bernard of Clairveaux, Francis of Assisi, Savanarola, Huss,
Wycliffe, Luther, Fox, Wesley, Finney, and a host of other
glorious names, including that of our own great and good
founder and first General, William Booth. Under great pressure
these men developed their divine power over the minds and
hearts of others, and as we meet together for prayer from time
to time, let us pray that God may qualify us for His work, and
lay upon our thoughts and affections the burden of souls, that
we also may become wise in the art of winning them.
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