Praying in the Name of Jesus Christ

“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.’ — Joun 14:13, 14.

the same time most commonly misunderstood promises in the Bible regarding God’s willingness to answer prayer is found in John 14:13, 14:

“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.”

Here our Lord Jesus Christ Himself tells us that if a certain class of people pray in a certain way, He will give them the very thing that they ask. Listen to the promise again, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.” These words are very plain, very simple, very positive and very precious and cheering. They tell us that there are certain people who can get from God anything that they ask for, if only they will ask for it in a certain way.

There is a doctrine regarding prayer that is very common in our day. It is this, “If we pray, our praying will do much good in many ways. We may not get the very

thing that we ask, but we will get something, something 125

O NE of the most familiar, most wonderful, and at just as good as that which we ask, or perhaps something far better than what we ask.” I do not doubt that there is a certain measure of truth in that doctrine. It is a good thing sometimes that some of us do not get what we ask for; we are so-careless, and so thoughtless, and so hasty, and so little under the control of the Holy Spirit when we pray, that it is oftentimes a good thing for us, and a good thing for others oftentimes, that we do not get the very thing that we ask. It would be a great misfortune if some of us got some of the things that we ask of God. But while there is a certain measure of truth in that doctrine, it is not the doctrine of prayer taught in the Bible. The doctrine of prayer taught in the Bible is, that there are certain people who can pray in a certain way and who will get not merely some good thing, or something just as good as what they ask, or something even better than what they ask, but they will get the very thing that they ask. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.” There are two things to especially notice about this promise: First, Who it is to whom the promise is made, who it is that can ask in the name of the Lord Jesus and get the very thing they ask; second, how these persons must pray in order to get what they ask.

I. To WHomM THE PROMISE 1S MADE

First of all, notice to whom this promise is made. One of the most common sources of misinterpretation of the Bible is the applying of promises that are made to a certain clearly defined class to people to whom the promises were never made. God does not promise to answer the prayers of everybody; indeed, He tells us very plainly that there are people to whose prayers He will pay no attention whatever. In the case of the present promise we are told very definitely in the context, in what goes before and what comes after the promise, just who it is whose prayers God will answer, if they are offered in a certain way. Who are the people to whom God says through His Son Jesus Christ, ‘“Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do’’? They are clearly described in verse twelve, the verse that immediately precedes, and verses fifteen and seventeen, the verses that immediately follow the promise.

1. First of all then, let us look at verse twelve, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.’ And then our Lord goes on to say, “And whatsoever ye [that is, ye that believve on the Son, as just defined] shall ask in my name, that will Ido.” The promise then is made, first of all, to those who believe upon Jesus Christ. Notice very carefully that it is not made to those who believe about Jesus Christ, but those who believe on Jesus Christ. People are constantly confusing in their own minds two entirely different things, believing about Jesus Christ and believing on Jesus Christ. God does not promise to answer the prayers of those who merely believe about Jesus Christ even though their faith is perfectly and rigidly orthodox, He does promise to answer the prayers of those who believe on Jesus Christ. A person may believe perfectly correctly about Jesus Christ, and yet not believe on Him at all. The Devil himself believes about Jesus Christ, and is doubtless perfectly orthodox; he knows more about Jesus Christ as He really is than we do, but the Devil certainly does not believe on Jesus Christ. There are many people today who, because their view of Jesus Christ is perfectly orthodox, imagine that they believe on Jesus Christ. But that does not follow at all.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE ON JESUS CHRIST? To believe on Jesus Christ means to put our personal confidence in Jesus Christ as what He claims to be, and to accept Him to be to ourselves what He offers Himself to: be to: us.) lt) méans (torus stomaccept: Him aexous Saviour, as the one who bore our sins in His own body upon the cross, and to trust God to forgive us because Jesus Christ died in our place, and also to accept Him as our Lord and Master to whom we surrender the absolute control of our lives. This we are told in so many words in the first chapter of this same Book, in the twelfth verse: ‘“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name.”

Nowhere in the whole Bible does God promise to hear the prayers of people who do not believe on Jesus Christ, i. e., the prayers of people who are not united to Jesus Christ by a living faith in Himself as their Saviour, and as their Lord. I do not say that God never does answer the prayers of those who are not believers on Jesus Christ. I believe that He sometimes does. He answered some of my prayers before I was in the Bible sense a believer on Him, but He does not promise to do it. His doing it belongs to what the old theologians used to call so aptly, “the uncovenanted mercies of God.” He promises most plainly and most positively to answer the prayers of those who believe on Jesus Christ, but never does He promise to answer the prayers of those who do not believe on Jesus Christ. Anyone who does not believe on Jesus Christ has no right whatever to expect God to answer their prayers, and he has no cause whatever to complain that vi promises of God are not true because He does not dnswer their prayers. There are many people who say they know that God does not answer prayer, because He has never answered their prayers, and they have tried it time and time again. But that is no proof whatever that God does not answer prayer, for God has never promised to answer their prayers.

That is one of the many good things about believing on Jesus Christ, it puts us on praying ground, it puts us in the place where we can go to God in every time of need and get from Him the very thing that we need and ask for. I would rather be on praying ground, rather be in such a relation to God that He can and will answer my prayers, than to have the combined wealth of a hundred Rockefellers. Times will come in the life of every one of us sooner or later when no earthly friend can help us, and no amount of wealth can help us; but the time will never come when God cannot help us and deliver us completely. This important question, therefore, confronts every one of us this morning, “Do I believe on Jesus Christ?” Not do I believe about Him, but do I believe on Him. If you do not, there is but one wise thing to do. There is but one thing to do that has even the slightest semblance of intelligence; and that is, to believe on Jesus Christ right now. Put your confidence in Him as your Saviour right now, and look to God to forgive your sins right now because Jesus Christ died in your place, and also put your confidence in Him right now as your Lord and Master to whom you surrender the entire control of your thoughts and your life and your conduct, right now.

2. But this is not all of the description of those whose prayers God promises to answer. The rest of the description of this fortunate class we find in the fifteenth verse, the verse that follows the promise. “Jf ye love me ye will keep my commandments.” The promise then ts made to those who believe on Jesus Christ and who love Him with that genuine love that leads them to keep His commandments. Of course in order to keep His commandments we must know them, and in ordet to know them we must study His Word, in which He has revealed to us His will. So we see that THE PROMISE IS MADE TO THOSE WHO STUDY THE Worp oF God EACH DAY OF THEIR LIVES THAT THEY MAY KNOW WHAT GoD’s WILL IS REGARDING THEIR CONDUCT, AND WHO, WHEN THEY DISCOVER IT, DO IT EVERY TIME. This brings us to just where we were when we were studying I John 3:22: “And whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.”

There is not a promise in the whole Book of God that God will hear and answer the prayers of a disobedient child. If we are to expect God to listen to us when we pray to Him, we must first of all listen to God when He speaks to us in His Word. We must obey God every time He commands and then (and only then) He will hear every time we pray. We must study His Word each day of our lives that we may find out what His will is, and when we find it do it every time. Then, and only then, are we on praying ground.

To sum it all up, then, The promise of God to give to a certain class of people whatever they ask in a certain way, is made to those who are united to Him by a living faith, and an obedient love, to them and to them alone. Someone may wish to ask, ‘“Which is more important in the prayer life, that we have a living faith in Jesus Christ or an obedient love to Jesus Christ?” The answer is very simple. You cannot have one without the other. If you have a living faith in Jesus Christ, it will lead inevitably to an obedient love to Jesus Christ. Paul states this.very clearly in Galatians 5:6: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” On the other hand, you will never love Jesus Christ until - you begin by believing in His love to you. We begin by believing in His love to us and end by loving Him. Or, as John puts it, in I John 4:19: “We love him, because he first loved us.’ There are many people who are trying to love God as a matter of duty, but no one ever succeeds in that: attempt. Of course, we ought to love God, for He is infinitely worthy of our love. We ought to love Him because of His moral perfection, and because He is the infinite One and our creator; but no one ever did love Him for that reason nor ever will or ever can. Here is where the Unitarians, under the leadership of Channing and other great intellectual leaders of his day, made their mistake. They tried to love God as a matter of duty. We never can and never will. But if we will first of all just put our trust in His wonderful love to us, vile and worthless sinners, we will soon find ourselves loving Him without an effort. Love to God is the inevitable outcome of our believing in His love to us.

A little girl in London came one day to Mark Guy

Pearse, the great English preacher, and looked up wistfully into his face and said, “Mr. Pearse, I don’t love Jesus. I wish I did love Jesus, but I don’t love Jesus. Won’t you please tell me how to love Jesus?” And the great preacher looked down into those eager eyes and said to her, “Little girl, as you go home today keep saying to yourself, ‘Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me.’ And when you come back next Sunday I think you will be able to say, ‘I love Jesus.’” The following Sunday the little girl came up to him again with happy eyes and radiant face and exclaimed, “Oh, Mr. Pearse, I do love Jesus, I do love Jesus. Last Sunday as I went home kept saying to myself, ‘Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me.’ And I began to think about His love and I began to think how He died upon the cross in my place, and I found my cold heart growing warm, and the first I knew it was full of love to Jesus.” That is the only way anyone will ever learn to love the Lord Jesus — by first of all believing what the Bible tells us about His love for us even when we are the vilest of sinners, and how He died in our place; and how “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities,’ and how “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him;” and how “by his stripes we are healed.” We begin by believing on Him, we begin by believing in His great love to us, and we wind up by loving Him and showing our love to Him by daily studying His Word to find out His will, and doing it every time we find it. And then we are on praying ground.

Some years ago a great Scotch teacher delivered an address at Northfield on the subject of whether it was better to have faith in Jesus Christ without love, or to have love for Jesus Christ without faith, and he came to the conclusion that it was better to have love without faith, than it was to have faith without love. But the whole address, though a great address in many ways, was built upon a misapprehension and a false assumption. He had assumed that we could have love without faith, but we cannot. Love to Christ is the outcome of faith in Christ, and faith in Christ is the root out of which love to Christ grows. To discuss whether it is better to have faith without love, or love without faith is like discussing whether it would be better to have an apple orchard whose trees had good roots but bore no apples; or to have an orchard whose trees had no roots but bore good apples. Of course an orchard where the trees had no roots would bear no apples at all. Anda life that is not rooted in faith in the love of Jesus Christ to us has no roots and cannot bear the fruit of love, and the obedience which comes out of love. So, then, this promise that we are considering 1s made to those who have a living faith in Jesus Christ that manifests itself in an obedient love.

II. PrAyING IN THE NAME oF JESUS

But how must those who are united to Jesus Christ by a living faith that reveals itself in an obedient love pray if they are to get the very thing that they ask? Let us read the verse again: “‘ And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything im my name, that will I do.” If we are to get from God what we ask, we must ask it IN THE NAME OF THE Lord Jesus. Prayer in the name of Jesus Christ prevails with God. No other prayer does. There is no other approach to God for any man or woman except through Jesus Christ, as the Lord Himself tells us in the sixth verse of this same chapter: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

But just what does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus? I have heard many explanations of this. Some of them were so profound or mystical, or so mixed, or so obscure, or so something or other, that when I got through reading them or listening to them I knew less about it than when I started. I have heard two great Bible teachers, two of the most renowned Bible teachers in the world, say that to “Pray in the name of Jesus means to pray in the person of Jesus.” Now I do not question that these two great Bible teachers had some definite thought in their own minds, but it certainly conveyed no clear and definite thought to my mind. The truth is, there is nothing mysterious about it. It is as simple as anything possibly can be, so simple that any intelligent child can understand it. I am always suspicious of profound explanations of the Scriptures, explanations that require a scholar or philosopher to understand them. The Bible is the plain man’s book. The Lord Jesus Himself said in Matthew 11:25, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes.” In at least ninety-nine cases in a hundred the meaning of Scripture that lies on the surface, the meaning that any simple-minded man, woman, or child who really wants to know the truth and to obey it would see in it, is what it really means, I have great sympathy with the little child who, when she once heard a learned attempt to explain away the plain meaning of Scripture, exclaimed, “If God did not mean what He said, why didn’t He say what He meant?” Well, God always does say just what He means, just what you and IJ would understand by it if our wills were really surrendered to God and we really desired to know exactly what God wished to tell us, and not to read our own opinions into the Bible. And He means by this expression, “In my name,” just exactly what the words would indicate to any earnest and intelligent seeker after the truth who was willing to take God’s words at their exact face value.

When you come across a word or a phrase in the Bible and do not know what it means, the thing to do is not to run off to a dictionary, nor a commentary, nor to some book of theology, but to take your concordance and go through the Bible and look up every place where that word or phrase, or synonymous words or phrases, are used. Then you will know just what the word or phrase means. The meaning of words and phrases in the Bible is to be determined just as it 1s in all other books, by usage. Now I have done this with this phrase, “In my name” and with synonymous phrases, “In his name;’ or “In the name of Jesus Christ.” I have looked up every passage in the Bible where they are found, and I have discovered, what I suspected at the outset, that these phrases mean exactly the same in the Bible that they do in ordinary every-day speech. What does it mean in ordinary every-day speech to ask something in some other person’s name? It means simply this, that you ask the thing that you ask from the person of whom you ask it, on the ground of some claim that the person in whose name you ask it has upon the one from whom you ask it.

Let me illustrate. Suppose I should go down to the

First National Bank of this city and should write out a check “Pay to the order of R. A. Torrey the sum of five dollars,’ and then should sign my own name at the bottom of the check and then go to the paying teller’s window and put that check in. What would I be doing? I would be praying that bank to give me five doilars. And in whose name would I be asking it? In my own name. And what would happen? The paying teller would take the check and look at it, and then look at me, and then he would say, “Dr. Torrey, have you any money in this bank?” “No.” Then what would he say? Something like this. “We would like to accommodate you, but that is not business. You have no claim whatever upon this bank and we cannot honour your check even though it is for only five dollars.” But suppose, instead of that, some man here in the city who had a hundred thousand dollars in that bank should call me in and say, “Dr. Torrey, I am greatly interested in the work of the Bible Institute, and I have wanted to give some money to it and I am going to hand it to you.” And then he draws a check “pay to the order of R. A. Torrey the sum of five thousand dollars,’ and then he signs his name at the bottom of the check. I go to the bank again, and in presenting that check what would I be doing? I would be asking that bank to give me five thousand dollars. And in whose name would I be asking it? Not in my own name, but in the name of the man whose name is signed to the bottom of the check, and who has claims of a hundred thousand dollars on that bank.

And what would happen? The teller would look at the check, and then he would not ask me whether I had any money in that bank, and he would not care whether I had a penny in that bank or in any bank. If the check were properly drawn, and properly endorsed, he would count me out five thousand dollars; for I would be asking it in the other man’s name, asking it.on the ground of his claims on that bank. Now that is exactiy what praying in the name of Jesus Christ means. It means that we go to the bank of Heaven, on which neither you nor J nor any other man on earth has any claim of his own, but upon which Jesus Christ has infinite claims, and in Jesus’ name, which He has given us a right to put on our checks, if we are united to Him by a living faith that reveals itself in an obedient love, and ask whatever we need in His name. Or, to put it another way, to pray in the name of Jesus Christ is to recognize that we have no claims on God whatever, that God owes us nothing whatever, that we deserve nothing of God; but, believing what God Himself tells us about Jesus Christ’s claims upon Him, we ask God for things on the ground of Jesus Christ’s claims upon God. And when we draw near to God in that way we can get “whatsoever we ask,” no matter how great it may be.

Praying in the name of Christ means more than merely attaching that phrase, “In Jesus’ name,” or “For Jesus’ sake”? to your prayers. Many a man asks for things and puts that phrase, “In Jesus’ name,” or “For Jesus’ sake” in his prayer, while all the time he is really approaching God on the ground of some claim that he fancies that he has on God. And in reality, though he uses the phrase, he is not praying in the name of Jesus Christ but praying in his own name. Anda man might not put that phrase in his prayer at all, and yet all the time draw near to God realizing that he has no claims on God, but believing that Jesus Christ has claims on God and be approaching God on the ground of Jesus Christ’s claims. Here is where many a person fails of getting an answer to prayer. They ask things of God on the ground of some claim they fancy they themselves have on God. They fancy because they are such good Christians, so consistent in their lives, and so active in their service, that God is under obligation to grant their prayers.

When I was in Melbourne, Australia, as I went on the platform one day at the business men’s meeting, at the noon hour in the Town Hall, a note was put in my hands. This note read:

“DEAR Dr. TORREY:

“I am in great perplexity. I have been praying for a long time for something that I am confident is according to God’s will, but I do not get it. I have been a member of the Presbyterian Church for thirty years, and have tried to be a consistent one all the time. I have been Superintendent in the Sunday School for twenty-five years, and an elder in the church for twenty years; and yet God does not answer my prayer and I cannot understand it. Can you explain it to me?”

I took the note with me on to the platform and read it and said, “It is perfectly easy to explain it. This man thinks that because he has been a consistent Church member for thirty years, a faithful Sunday School Superintendent for twenty-five years, and an elder in the church for twenty years, that God is under obligation to answer his prayer. He is really praying in his own name, and God will not hear our prayers when we approach Him in that way. We must, if we would have God answer our prayers, give up any thought that we have any claims upon God. There is not one of us who deserves anything from God. If we got what we deserved, every last one. of us would spend eternity in hell. But Jesus Christ has great claims on God, and we should go to God in our prayers not on the ground of any goodness in ourselves, but on the ground of Jesus Christ’s claims. And this man is going on the ground of the claims that he supposes that he has, because he has been a faithful church member for thirty years, a Sunday School Superintendent for twenty-five years, and an elder in the church twenty years. He is praying in his own name. At the close of the meeting a gentleman stepped up to me and said, “I wrote that note. You have hit the nail square on the head. I did think that because I had been a consistent church member for thirty years, a Sunday School Superintendent for twenty-five years, and an elder in the church for twenty years, that God was under obligation to answer my prayers. I see my mistake.”

Multitudes are making the same mistake. They fancy that because they are faithful church members, and active in Christian service, that God is under obligation to answer their prayers, that they have some claim on God. Not one of us has any claim on God; the best of us here if we got what we deserved would spend eternity in hell. We are miserable sinners. But Jesus Christ has claims on God and He has given us the right to draw near to God in His name, that is, on the ground of His claims on God.

To pray, then, in the name of Jesus Christ, means simply this. That we recognize that we have no claims whatever on God. That we have no merit whatsoever in His sight, and to recognize, furthermore, that Jesus Christ has immeasurable claims on God, and has given us the right to draw near to God not on the ground of our claims, but on the ground of His claims. And when we thus draw near to God in prayer, God will give us what we ask.

Oh, what a precious -privilege it is to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. How rich we are if we only realize that Jesus Christ has given us the privilege of drawing near to the Heavenly Father in His name, on the ground of His claims on God. When I was a boy my father had put the conduct of much of the expenditures of the home and other things in the hands of my brother next older than myself, my oldest brother being away from home, and the bank account was in the name of this brother next older than myself. But he, too, was called away from home, and he turned over the matter of paying bills and the conduct of the business to me. He gave me a check book full of checks made out in blank with his name signed to them and said, “Whenever you want any money just fill out this check for the amount that you want, and go and present it at the bank.” How rich I felt with that bank book full of checks made out in blank, and that I could fill out at any time and go to the bank and get what I asked. But what is that to what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us? He has put all His bank account at our disposal. He has given us the right to draw near to the Father in His name, and ask anything of God on the ground not of our claims upon God, but on the ground of His claims upon God.

Even before Mr. Moody gave up business he was very active in Christian work, and often went out from Chicago to some of the country towns round about and held short series of meetings. At one time he was holding a series of meetings in a town in Illinois some distance from

Chicago. The wife of the judge of that district came to him and said, “Mr. Moody, won’t you go and talk to my husband?”’ Mr. Moody replied, “I cannot talk to your husband. Your husband is an educated man; he is a book infidel and I am nothing but an ignorant shoe clerk from Chicago.” But the judge’s wife was very insistent that he should go and talk with him, and finally Mr. Moody consented to go — and went. When he entered the outer office of the judge the law clerks tittered audibly as they thought of how quickly the clever judge would dispose of this ignorant young worker from Chicago. Mr. Moody went into the judge’s inner office and said to him, “Judge, I cannot talk with you. You are an educated man, you are a book infidel, and I am nothing but an uneducated boot clerk from Chicago. But I want to ask you one thing. When you are converted will you let me know?” The judge answered with a contemptuous laugh, “Yes, young man, when I am converted I will let you know. Yes, when [I am converted I will let you know. Good morning.” As Mr. Moody passed out of the inner office to the outer office, the judge raised his voice higher so that the clerks in the outer office might hear, “Yes, young man, when I am converted I will let you know,” and the law clerks tittered louder than before.

But the judge was converted within a year. Mr. Moody went back to the town and called on the judge. He said, “Judge, do you mind telling me how you were converted?” ‘“No, Mr. Moody,” he replied, “I will be very glad to tell you. Sometime after you were here, one prayer-meeting night my wife went to prayer-meeting as she always did, and I stayed at home as I always did and read the evening paper. After a while as I sat there reading I began to feel very miserable, began to feel that

I was a great sinner. Before my wife got home I was so miserable that I did not dare face my wife and retired before she reached the house. She came up to my room and said, ‘Are you ill?’ I replied, “No, I wasn’t feeling real well and thought I would go to bed. Good night.’ I was miserable all night, and when morning came I felt so bad that I did not dare face my wife at the breakfast table, and I simply looked into the breakfast room and said, “Wife, I am not feeling real well. Ill not eat any breakfast this morning. Good-bye, I am going down to the office.” When I got to the office I felt so miserable that I told my clerks that they could take a holiday, and when they had left I locked the outer door and then I went into my inner office and locked that door, and sat down. I got to feeling more and more miserable as I thought of my sins, until at last I knelt down and said, ‘Oh, God, forgive my sins.’ There was no answer. And I cried more earnestly, ‘Oh, God, forgive my sins.’ There was no answer. I would not say, “Oh, God, for Jesus Christ’s sake forgive my sins,’ for I was a Unitarian and did not believe in the atonement. Again I cried, “Oh, God, forgive my sins.’ But there was no answer. At last I was so perfectly miserable at the thought of my sins that I cried, ‘Oh, God, for Jesus Christ’s sake forgive my sins.’ And I found instant peace.”

Oh, men and women, there is no use in our trying to approach God in any other way than in the name of Jesus Christ, and on the ground of His claims upon God, and on the ground of His atoning death whereby He took our sins upon Himself and made it possible for us to approach God on the ground of His claims upon God.

While we have no claims upon God because of any goodness or service of our own, Jesus Christ, as we have said, has infinite claims upon God and has given us the right to approach God in His name, and we ought to go very boldly to God and ask great things of God. Oftentimes when we pray and ask something that seems to be pretty big, the Devil will come and say to us, “You ought not to pray for anything so great as that, you are such a poor Christian that is more than you deserve.” Yes, it is more than we deserve, but it is not as much as Jesus Christ deserves. Time and time again Satan has said to me when I have dared to ask something of God that seemed very large, “Oh, don’t dare to ask so great a thing as that. You are not worthy of anything so great as that,’ and I have replied, “I know that I am not worthy of anything so great as that. I am not worthy of anything at all, but Jesus Christ is worthy of that and I am asking not on the ground of my claims upon God, but on the ground of His. And sometimes as I think of how precious the name of Jesus Christ is to God, how He delights to honour the name of His Son, I grow very bold and ask God for great things. Once when I was kneeling in prayer, as I was thinking of how infinite was the worth of Jesus Christ, how infinite were His claims upon God, and how God delights to give great things in His name, I grew very bold and I asked God to send me around the world preaching the Gospel and to give me to see many thousands saved in Japan, China, and Australia, and New Zealand, and Tasmania, and India, and England, and Scotland, and Ireland, and Germany, and France, and Switzerland, and other lands. And as I thought of the power of Jesus’ Name I knew that God had heard my prayer and that I was going around the world, and was going to see thousands saved in many lands.

Do you realize that we honour the name of Christ by asking great things in that name? Do you realize that we dishonour that name by not daring to ask great things in that name? Oh, have faith in the power of Jesus’ name and dare to ask great things in His name.

During our Civil War there was a father and mother in Columbus, Ohio, who had an only son, the joy of their hearts. Soon after the outbreak of the war he came home one day and said to his father and mother, “I have enlisted in the army.” Of course, they felt badly to have their son leave home, but they loved their country and were willing to make the sacrifice of giving their son to go to the war and fight for his country. After he had gone to the front he wrote home regularly, telling his father and mother about his experiences in camp and elsewhere. His letters were full of brightness and good cheer, and brought joy to the father’s and mother’s lonely hearts. But one day at the regular time no letter came. Days passed, and no letter. Weeks passed, and they wondered what might have happened to their boy. One day a letter came from the United States Government and in it they were told that there had been a great battle, that many had been killed, and that their son was among those who had been killed in battle. The light went out of that home. Days and weeks, months and years passed by. The war came to an end. One morning as they were sitting at the breakfast table the maid came in and said, “There is a poor, ragged fellow out at the door and he wanted to speak to you. But I knew you did not wish to speak to a man like him, and he handed me this note and asked me to put it in your hand.” And she put in the hands of the father a soiled and crumpled piece of paper. The father opened it, and when he glanced at it his eyes fell upon the writing, then he started, for he recognized the writing of his son. The note said:

“DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER: “TI have been shot and have only a short time to live, and I am writing you this last farewell note. As I write there is kneeling beside me my most intimate friend in the company, and when the war is over he will bring you this note, and when he does be kind to him for Charlie’s sake. Your Son CHARLES,”

There was nothing in that house that was too good for that poor tramp, “For Charlie’s sake,” and there is nothing in Heaven or on earth too good, or too great, for you and me in Jesus’ name. Oh, be bold and ask great things of God In JESUS’ NAME.