Thy Strength! My Strength!

“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord!” —

Is. li. 9.

“Awake, awake, put on thy strength, 0 Zion.” — Is. lii. 1.

“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! ‘^ That is the cry of an exiled people to their Lord. ‘^ Awake, awake, put on thy strength, 0 Zion! “That is the reply of the Lord to the supplicating people. A people cry to their Lord to awake: the Lord cries to His people to shake themselves from their sleep. Everything seemed to have gone against the exile. He had been defeated in battle. He had been stripped of his hereditary glory. The light of his national renown had been blown out. And here he was, languishing in despair, in the unlooseable grip of an alien people. Life had no longer for him a programme, but only a retrospect, no longer a radiant hope, but only a fading reminiscence, no longer an alluring vision, but only a distinguished history. There was no longer the Eastern light of an eager dawn in his eyes, but only the subdued and westerning splendour of a parting day. And so here he lay in captivity, and the songs of Zion had fled from his lips, and his mouth was filled with wailing and complaint. ‘’ The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me,” ‘’ Where is He that brought us up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is He that put His Holy Spirit within us? “And now and again the exile half-turned himself in angry, hopeless cry, ‘’ Oh, that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst come down!” And again he relapsed into the low and cheerless moan: ‘’ My Lord hath forgotten me.’^ And yet again he pierced the heaven with his searching supplication: Awake, awake, put on Thy strength, O arm of the Lord, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old.’’

What will be the Lord’s reply to the cry of the exile? Here it is: ‘’ Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion! “The Divine response is a sharp retort. “It is not thy God who sleepeth! It is thou thyself who art wrapt about in a sluggish and consuming indolence! Thou art crying out for more strength; but what of the strength thou hast? Thy trumpet is silent, and thine armour is rusting upon the walls! Thou art like a vagrant asking for help, when thou hast a full purse hidden between the covers of an idle bed! Thou art pleading for reinforcements, and thy soldiers are on the couch! Thy prayer is the supplication of a man who is not doing his best I Thou sayest, put on strength, O arm of the Lord I ‘I say to thee, ‘Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion 1 ‘Clothe thyself in thy present powers, consecrate thine all to the purpose of thy prayer and stand forth in battle array,”

I need not say that there is nothing in the Lord’s response which disparages the ministry of prayer. It does, however, tend to put prayer in its right place, and to give a true apprehension of its purpose and ministry. Prayer is not a talisman, to be used as an easy substitute for our activity and vigilance. Prayer is a ministry in which our own powers can be quickened into more vigorous and healthy service. God has given us certain endowments. Certain talents are part of our original equipment. We are possessed of powers of judgment, of initiative, of sympathy; and the primary implication of all successful prayer is that these powers are willingly placed upon the altar of sacrifice. Any prayer is idle when these powers are indolent. If we are pleading with the Lord for more strength, it must be on this ground, that our present strength is well invested. Is it not true that there are many burdens which gall and oppress us, both in the individual and the common life, and we fervently supplicate God for their removal, but we do not consecrate our strength to their removal? We too frequently pray to be carried like logs, and it is the Lord’s will that we should contend like men! If we would have the reinforcements, all our forces must be on the field. The condition of all efficient and fruitful prayer is the consecration of all our strength towards the answer. ‘’ Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! “That prayer is legitimate and wonder-working if we are ready to co-operate with the spirit of the Lord’s reply,” Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem.’’

Well, now let us look about us. The principle is this — our ‘^ strength “must back our supplications. Is the backing always present? Take the matter of our personal salvation. A number of professedly Christian people are gathered together in the common name of the Christ. Every one is conscious how immature he is in the Divine life. We know how dim is our spiritual discernment. We know the flabby limpness of our spiritual grip. We know how few and infrequent are our brilliant conquests, and how many and common are our shameful defeats. And again and again we supplicate the Almighty:” Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! “Is it possible that the response of the Lord may be the retort of the olden days:” Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion “? Is it possible that the reinforcements tarry because the forces we have are drowsing in the tent ‘? We pray the Lord to make us finer men and women, and to lead us on to purer heights, but how many of us put our “strength” into the climb? We may put a sigh into it, and an occasional tear, and a languid and half-melancholy movement, but of how many of us can it be said that we have invested our all in the business, every ounce of our energy, as the Japanese invested every ounce of their energy in the prosecution of the recent war? We are so prone to divide the old psalmist’s counsel, and to pay heed to one part and to ignore the other. ‘’ Bring unto the Lord glory! ‘’ And so we do! We bring our Glorias, our doxologies, our hymns, and our anthems, and we do well, but it is a maimed and lifeless offering if, with the glory, we do not bring our strength. “Bring unto the Lord glory and strength!” It is in this gift of strength in our personal religion that we are so woefully deficient. We need to bring to our religion more strength of common-sense. Why, if many men were as thoughtless and haphazard in their business, as they are in their personal religion, they would be in the bankruptcy court in a year! I say we need stronger service in the matter of our personal salvation — more inventiveness, more fertility of ideas, more purpose, more steady and methodical persistence. And we need to bring a more commanding strength of will. There are some of us who, in our business life, move with the decisive trend of a bullet in its flight, but who, in the life of the closet, saunter in the drooping, uncertain wanderings of a falling feather. More strength, I say, if the closet is to become alive with reinforcements from the Infinite! So many of us would like to be saints without becoming soldiers, and the desire can never be attained. Let me tell you a story. It is taken from childhood; and the simplicities of a child often reflect the puerilities of the adult. Two little girls in the same class, one at the top and the other at the bottom. The one at the bottom consults the one at the top. ‘^ How is it that you are always at the top of the class? ‘’ “Oh, I ask Jesus to help me! ‘’” Then I will do the same,” said the undistinguished member, and she forthwith put the counsel into practice. Next day their relative positions were unaltered, one at the top, and the other at the bottom. The consultation is renewed. ‘’ I thought you said that Jesus would help me, and here I am at the bottom again! “‘’ Well, so He will, but how long did you work? ‘’ “Oh, I never opened a book! ‘’ ^’ Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord!” ‘’ Awake, awake, put on thy strength,” 0 little backward pupil! ‘^ Work out your own salvation... for it is God that worketh in you.”

Take the matter of the salvation of the home. I think I may assume that there is not a father or mother reading these pages who has not, in some form or another, commended their little ones to the blessing of Almighty God. We have had our fears. We know how soon the wanderings can begin. We know how easily a perverse bias can be given to the plastic will. And we have interceded for them at the throne of grace: ‘’ Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! “Is it possible, again I ask, that the Divine response may be a sharp but loving retort: ^’ Put on thy strength “? Are we putting our ‘^ strength” into the salvation of the home? Is the moral and spiritual pulse in the house strong, vigorous, and healthy? How many of us have said to ourselves, in calm but intense determination “God helping me, this home shall be mightily favourable to the making of Christians! Not to the making of prigs — prigs are not begotten of a strong, bracing, spiritual climate: prigs are the creation of a luxurious and relaxing temperature — this house shall be favourable not to the making of prigs, but to the making of strong, healthy, wholesome, chivalrous saints! ‘^ I say, how many of us have registered a determination like that, or have such a determination implied in the government of our home? I do not know a better pattern of a home than Charles Kingsley’s, but he brought his strength to its creation. It was a home whose moral atmosphere was like the air on Alpine heights, a home in which, in all perplexities, the only referendum was the Lord Himself, a home all of whose ministries were clothed in grace and beauty. ‘^ Put on thy strength, put on thy beautiful garments!” I do not seek to make any detailed suggestions, I would not presume to do it: all I now want is to urge that we back our prayers for our children with our own strength, and not allow our prayers to be weakened and emasculated by our comparative indolence and weakness. It is a good investment: it is worth doing; there is nothing worthier. I shall never forget hearing a long conversation between two men, one of whom had inquired of the other the size of his family. ^’ I have ten,” he said. “What a responsibility!” replied the other. To which there came at once the glad re-THY STRENGTH! AfY STRENGTH! 165

sponse: “And what a privilege, for they are all workers on the side of God.’’ Did I not say it is worth living for? No higher purpose can govern our years. ‘* Put on thy strength, O Zion!”

And, lastly, there is the matter of social redemption. We are all familiar with the disturbing presences in the common life; the wretchedness which wraps people about like a chilling and soaking mist: the moral pestilence; the sin which flaunts its nakedness, and the sin which clothes itself in the garb of virtue; the sorrow that cries, and the sorrow that has no cry; the clean and the grimy poverty; the omnipresent pain. How often have we prayed for the city: ‘” Awake, awake, put on strength, 0 arm of the Lord! ‘’ And still, I think, there comes the Divine retort, “Put on thy strength, O Zion! “” Thy armour is rusting in the armoury! Thy resources are wasting in indolence and neglect! Use the strength thou hast before pleading for more! Reinforcements came to soldiers on the field! The five talents used shall become ten! Put on thy strength! “That is our Lord’s response to us to-day in this work of social and national redemption. We abuse the privilege of prayer when we make it a minister of personal evasion and neglect. The prayer of the lips is only acceptable when it is accompanied by the strength of the hands. Have we put our “strength” into it? Are we supplicating for the removal of burdens when already we ourselves have strength to remove them i Let us look about us. There is the sin of the city. A burden? Oh, yes, a crushing burden. A mystery? Yes, an unfathomable mystery. Shall we pray about it? Oh, yes, let us pray mightily, but only if we are willing to mightily consecrate our strength; do not let us presume to appeal to the arm of the Lord if there be no weapon in our hands. How is it with drunkenness? Can we honestly say that we have put our strength into our attack? To put on one’s strength may just mean to put off one’s coat! Will anybody assert for a moment that we have put our strength into the business, and by negative and positive ministries sought the sobriety of our people? “Put on thy strength, O Zion! ‘’ How is it with gambling? We all admit it to be a subtle disease in the body politic, secretly consuming the manhood and the womanhood of the realm. We all admit its ravages, among peer and peasant, the millionaire and the pauper. And I saw the other day that a prayer-meeting was called to supplicate God for our delivery! It is well to appeal to the arm of the Lord, but have we used the strength we have? Can we truthfully say we have used the weapons we have, and they have broken in our hands, and are altogether inefficient and useless? Or, again, I ask, are our weapons rusting in the hall? Do we not know that if to-morrow we were to make the publication of betting news illegal, one half the gambling in the land would cease? Why not try the weapon before falling in an assumedly impotent prostration before the Lord? Let us come to the prayer-meeting with the weapons in our hands, and consecrate them to the service of the kingdom, and do not let us assimie an impotence when part of our present resources are still unused —” Put on thy strength, O Zion! “And how is it with poverty? The grim, gaunt thing is in our midst, squalid, ominous, terrible I” Yes, where is God to allow it i ‘’ ‘’ Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! ‘’ ‘” Where is God to allow it? ‘’ Nay, nay, there is a prior question. Where are we to allow it?” Put on thy strength, 0 Zion I ‘’ Have we put our strength into it, every ounce of it? It may be that, when we have exhausted all our resources, something of poverty may still remain. It may be so, but do not let us argue about the perpetuity of the thing while our possible resources are slumbering in dishonourable neglect. It may be that, when we have done all, something of drunkenness may remain, and something of lust may remain, and something of

poverty may remain; but what a plea we shall have with God, and how mighty will be our supplication, when we can come to Him and say: ‘* 0 God, our armoury is empty, our reserves are all called out, our last man is on the field, our ammunition is spent, and the enemy still boasts himself in our midst! Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O arm of the Lord!” I say that kind of prayer would shake the very heavens, and we should have as our eager and willing allies the innimierable hosts of the eternal God.

‘And so let us never forget that, when we pray for the salvation of the world, it is implied that we will put our strength into the cleansing and sweetening of our own little corner of the world. There is no true prayer without a full consecration.