By J.R. Miller
"If two of you shall agree." Why two? What is the advantage of two over one, in prayer? Why may we not pray alone, singly, each one in his own closet, quite as well and as effectually as when two are together? Why is there a special promise to the prayer of two agreeing? Will not the things asked for be given as certainly when one prays--as if two united in the request?
Jesus said also, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Why will He be present more really, with fuller blessing--where two or three are gathered together, than where one bows in faith filled supplication? Why are two better than one, in praying?
For one thing, when two pray together, each is drawn out of SELF, to pray for something else besides his own needs. While praying only alone, important as is such prayer in the individual spiritual life--we are apt to narrow our petitions to things we want for ourselves. We bring our own burdens to God. We pray about our own affairs, pleading for prosperity in our own business, imploring help in our own difficulties, deliverance in our own perils, and grace for our own experiences. This is the tendency of secret prayer. Its very blessedness as a privilege is in the fact that we can come into such intimate communion with God, and can bring all our questions, our sorrows, our fears, our weaknesses, our mistakes, our heart-hungers, to Him. There is a great blessing in secret prayer.
Praying by one's self is a duty. We cannot pray in secret while another is present. But praying only and always alone, with no outlook on the needs of others, tends to make us selfish, to keep our thoughts on ourselves, to narrow our desires, to repress our sympathies, and to stunt our growth in spiritual life! But when two pray together, these unwholesome tendencies are corrected. We are led to forget our own burdens and cares, for the time at least, and think of the needs of others, or the wider interests of Christ's kingdom. This is always a wholesome experience. It gives enlargement to our life.
Another advantage of prayer together, is in the influence one life has on the other life. You have some interest for which you are praying. You may pray very earnestly for this object which is so near your heart. But if another person who has the same interest and is carrying the same burden meets you, and you confer together about the matter, and then kneel side by side to pray--and your fervor and earnestness will be intensified. Faith in the one person, makes the other person's faith stronger. Love in your friend's heart for an imperiled life, quickens the love in your heart. Your brother's sympathy with you in your sorrow or your trial, strengthens you in your pleading with God for comfort or relief. The interest of each grows deeper--as both confer together.
We all need companionship in our Christian life. Cloister piety has manifold perils which are obviated in associated Christian life. One log will not burn alone; soon the flame dies out. It is the same with lives.
"A life cannot glow, alone!
A life is death, alone."
It is good to pray together. Life warms life. Heart quickens heart. Two logs together will burn, the fire will become bright, and the room will grow warm. Two friends praying together stimulate each other, and the earnestness of each is increased.
When two pray together, their chief burden usually is intercession. Perhaps we do not fully realize the value of intercessory prayer. Love desires always to be helpful to others; yet how little can we do one for another! We may be willing enough; but, to begin with, we do not know what our friend really needs, or how we can most truly help him. Perhaps the service we would render, even at much cost to ourselves, would do him harm--rather than good. We would lift away his burden, and carry it for him. We would do the hard task ourselves, to spare him. We would lessen the stress of the temptation for him, that the struggle may be easier. We would take out of his life the unpleasant things, that he may have ease and comfort.
That is the way sentimental human love usually seeks to help. We think that is what love demands of us. But it is almost certain that we thus do harm to our friend, instead of good. It is better that we keep our hands off his life, not trying to make providences for him. It is safer to commit all such cases to God, that He may do what is best. He does not help in this way. He does not take away the burden, because there is a blessing in it which we would miss--if the burden were removed. We may interfere with God's wise discipline of our friend's life--if we seek always to make life easier for him.
We know far less about people than we suppose we do. Here is a man in grief: he has lost a child, or he is in poor health, or he has suffered reverses in business, or he has had a sore struggle with adversity. You pity him. It makes your heart bleed--to think of his sorrow or trial. You would like to help him, to relieve him in his hard condition. But perhaps if you could see within, you would not pity him--but would bow your head in reverence before him. His heart if filled with the peace of God. He is living victoriously. He needs no pity, no help--from you. The best you can do for him is to pray to God to keep him brave and strong in his trial.
Here is another man who seems to be the favorite of fortune. Everything he touches, turns to gold. Sunshine floods his pathway. You congratulate this friend on his prosperity. You would name him as the most favored man in the community. Ah! Perhaps, if you could see within his soul, where fierce passions and unrestrained desires hold sway--your congratulation would turn to sad pity. This man needs your prayers far more than your commendations. Your prayer for him should be that in his worldly prosperity, his soul may not perish or be hurt.
We can really know but little of the lives about us. It is scarcely safe even to try to help another, by changing his condition or circumstances. We may only mar the Master's work in him--if we try to make life easier for him. It is better that, as we pray--we let God do what His wisdom knows is best for him!
But we should never cease our intercession. We have not a friend who does not need our prayer for something. We do not know how much of the blessing wrought by Christ when He was on earth, came through His prayers. He spent whole nights in supplication. On His heart, He carried the burden of human sorrow and sin, and went continually with it to His Father. Then we are told that His work now in heaven for His people--is continual intercession. All the blessings that come to us these days--come in answer to the pleading of our great High Priest. Much of our work as Christians likewise, should be intercession. People need our prayers. We are not altogether faithful to the friend, for whom we do not pray. "Pray for whom you love," says an old writer; "you will never have any comfort of his friendship, for whom you do not pray."
Perhaps many of us are in danger of overlooking this part of our duty towards others. If only we realized the danger in which our friends are living, even when all things appear bright about them, when they are walking in flowery paths--we would never cease our supplication for them! We sorrow, with breaking heart, over our dead brethren, who have fallen asleep in Jesus; we do not know that ofttimes there is far more reason for sorrow over our living brethren!
We readily think of many who are in circumstances of trial. Here is a young man who is making perilous associations, and is danger of being dragged down to ruin! Here is a young woman who has been caught in the whirl of society, and is being carried away from the beautiful simplicity of her early days. Here is a man who has met a terrible bereavement, and is reeling under the staggering blow. Here is one who has suffered a financial loss, and is left, stripped bare and empty handed, to start anew in life. Here is one who has fallen unawares, into sin--and lies in the dust of despair. Then there are those who are prosperous, whose very prosperity is their peril. There are those who, by a new, sweet, human friendship, which fills and satisfies their heart--are in danger of being drawn away from Christ. There are those who are just beginning the Christian life, and who, in their inexperience, need most careful guidance in the new and unaccustomed paths. There are broken families--father or mother gone, or both--where there is infinite need of God's help.
We have a duty toward all of these. We do but one part of our duty as Christians, when we live faithfully, consistently, and uprightly. It is not enough for us to be good ourselves; we must reach out our hand to serve. The strong must help the weak. We must assist others by wholesome sympathy, by cheerful encouragement, by sharing our life with them, by all manner of self-forgetful ministry. But we should never cease to help them also--by prayer. We know not what blessings from God we can call down upon them by loving, importunate intercession.
It is told of a good man that in a great bereavement he was strangely, supernaturally calm and peaceful. It was discovered that some friends had agreed together in prayer for him--that his faith might not fail. That was the secret of his wonderful victoriousness in sorrow. Thousands are strengthened for their struggles, and carried in safety through untold perils, because loved ones are praying for them. Truly, "more things are wrought by prayer--than this world dreams of!" None of us know what we owe to the intercessions of those who love us, and pray for us.
But there is another side. How many go down in their struggle, are defeated in their battles, are wrecked in life's storms, because no one is praying! A missionary came back from a preaching tour, and reported that there had been almost no blessing on his work. A good woman said, "Alas! I am to blame. I did not pray this time for you, as I have always done before when you were out." A mother, seeing her son led away as a prisoner, arrested for crime, cried bitterly, "It is my fault; I did not pray enough for him."
If Monica had not prayed for her son with all persistence of faith and love--the world would never have had Augustine. If Jesus had not made supplication for Peter--that apostle would have fallen away utterly. Who knows what moral failures there are continually in all life's paths, because those who ought to have made intercession were silent? Who can estimate the loss, from unoffered prayers?
We need to watch lest we grow selfish in our praying. We should remember that we sin against God--when we cease to pray for others. No other duty to our friends can be more solemn or obligatory than this. And to add power to our intercession, we should band together in leagues of twos or threes--and thus come within the scope of the promise, that if two shall agree on earth, touching the thing that they ask--it shall be given to them!
