The Night-Bell of Prayer

Ull the night-bell,” This is the inscrip we often see written on the doorpost of shop in which medicines are sold. Som us have had our experiences with night-bells w sudden illness has overtaken some member of households, or when the sick have rapidly gn worse. How have we hurried through the si streets, when only here and there a light glimme from some chamber window! How eagerly have pulled the night-bell at our physician’s door; then, with prescription in hand, have sounded alarm at the place where the remedy was to be cured. Those of us who have had these lonely r night walks, and have given the summons for qi relief, know the meaning of that Bible-text, “Ar cry out in the night l”*

Seasons of trouble and distress are often spokei in God’s word, under the simile of night, The w vividly pictures those times when the skies are d; ened, and the lights that gladden the soul have gout, and it is not easy to find one’s way. Enen may be stealing on us in the darkness. Apprehensi gather like fancied spectres, to make us uneasy afraid. If prosperity be likened to the noonday, seasons of perplexity or distress laa-y the “night” Perhaps some of the readers of this paragraph maybe in a gloomy night-season of poverty, or bereavement, or of spiritual doubt and depression. Each heart knoweth its own bitterness. Friend, arise, and pull the night-bell of prayer 1 God your Father says to you, “Call upon me in the time of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.’’ Centuries ago it was said of certain people, “They cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He deHvered them out of their distresses.”

There are different kinds of prayer. There is the calm communion of the soul with God. There is the affectionate converse of the believer with Him, in which faith feeds on the promises, and recounts its mercies, and finds its meditations to be sweet Then, too, there is the sharp, piercing cry of anguish, or the earnest appeal of importunity. Which will not let God go without an immediate response. Christ described the beseeching eagerness of this style of prayer, when He told His disciples about a certain housekeeper who went to a friend’s house at midnight, and clamoured for the loan of three loaves of bread to feed unexpected guests, until, “because of his importunity he got all the bread that he needed. There are many varieties of night-calls for relief, from the sudden cry of our little ones in their cribs, to the shout for “Help!” in the street, or the eager call under the physician’s window. These are all types of the prayer which you are to pour out into the ear of d. in seasons of difficulty, ox dlsttt^^ ot ^^t%^.

If pains afflict, or wrongs oppress,
If cares distract, or fears dismay,
If guilt deject, if sin distress.

The remedy ’s before thee — /nz;/.”

“This is all a very pretty theory,” some of you may say; “and it has a very pious sound. But please to tell me what actual and positive good it can do me. Does it really move God? Does it really bring relief?” Such cavils are as common as breathing. The devil can suggest them in a hundred forms; and it is astonishing how much readier some people are to believe the father of lies, than to believe their Father in heaven.

Does the prayer of faith really move God? To this we can only reply, that God Himself tells us that it does actually produce that state of things in which it is right and in accordance with His will to bestow the asked-for blessing. God tells us that He loves to be asked, and is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him. He tells us that the fervent effectual prayer of the righteous availeth much. He bids us ask, and we shall receive. His word abounds in narratives of the actual bestowal of things which His children have besought Him to give them. When His needy or suffering ones have pulled the night-bell of prayer with strong faith. He has relieved them of their distress, or removed evils they suffered from, or else given to them supernatural grace to bear their burdens. On his bed of anguish Hezekiah rang this night-bell, and (xod heard it, and spaid Viys lfe. In his dungeon at Jerusalem Peter cried unto the Lord, and a whole prayer-meeting cried at the same time for his deliverance, and God sent His angel and brought the apostle out of the prison. Answered prayers cover the field of providential history as flowers cover Western prairies. Answered prayers hover around the communion-tables of our churches in seasons of revival, as we have seen great flocks of birds descend into a meadow. Answered prayers have made the pulpits of Payson, and Bums, and Spurgeon, powerful. Answered prayers have visited sick-rooms Uke angels, to restore to life; or, if infinite wisdom had appointed to the sick to die, the sting of death has been tmned to the song of victory. “I cannot get on without three hours a day of prayer now,” said Martin Luther in the thick of his great fight with the man of sin. Are you wiser than Luther?

Some people pull the bell of prayer, and then run away without stopping for the answer. Sometimes they grow discouraged, and mistake a delay for a total denial. Sometimes the thing asked for is not actually bestowed, but in lieu of it our all-wise Father grants us something far better. He does not spare oiu: sick darling’s life, but He takes the little one home to heaven, and draws our poor hearts up with it unto Himself. God answers prayers according to His own wisdom and love, and not according to our short-sightedness. But I no more believe that God leaves a right prayer, offered in the right spirit, to pass unnoticed, than I believii tiaX Ha Ii. V^ the whole summer pass over without a drop of rain or dew.

In securing answers to our requests, we must co-operate with the Lord. Some people ask Him to do their work. “Father,” said a little boy, after he had heard him pray fervently for the poor at family worship — “father, I wish I had your corn-crib.” “Why, my son?” “Because then I would answer your prayer.” I have heard professing Christians pray for the conversion of their children, while they were taking them night after night into scenes of folly and dissipation. We may make fools of ourselves, but the Almighty will never let us implicate Him in our foolishness. God is not mocked; whatsoever we sow, we shall also reap. Neither does God ever mock us.

Then, my friend, if you will only “arise and cry in the night,” you may be sure that your Father will hear the bell. He will send the right answer; and if it is not best that He lift off your load. He will give you grace to carry it Pull the bell with a strong hand! You’ll never doubt that God is a prayeranswerer when you get to heaven. There is no night there! He who has often arisen in the night of trouble and sorrow here to ring the bell of prayer, with a trembling hand, will then stand in the morning light of glory on the sea of glass like unto pure gold.