The Religious Stage Below Prayer

I have looked upon My people, because their cry is come unto Me.” — I Sam. ix. 16.

We often speak of God as the hearer and

answerer of prayer. The Bible goes much further

than that; it says He is the hearer and answerer

of the cry. You will distinguish between a prayer

and a cry; they are not the same thing. A prayer

takes definite aim; a cry is a random shot. A

prayer is the expression of a particular need; a

cry may be the voice of a want unknown to him

who utters it. A prayer is addressed direct to the

ear of the Almighty; a cry may be addressed to

no one, but may simply cleave the air. That God

should answer my prayer is a very endearing

thought; but it is more endearing still that He

should answer my cry. There is a certain amount

of Jwmage in a prayer; there may be none in a cry.

A cry may be purely secular. The cry spoken of

in the passage was so. It was wrung out by a

worldly sorrow. It was not so much prompted by

longing for the future as by dissatisfaction with The Religious Stage below Prayer

the present; the people groaned because they were weary of the Philistines. Yet God says, “Their cry is come unto Me.” A very striking expression! I understand it to mean that the cry reached Him though it was not sent to Him; the value of a prayer was imputed to an expression of mere worldly want — to something which had “no language but a cry.” And what was true of ancient Israel is true of modern England. For every single prayer that God hears He hears a hundred cries. Many who utter them would be called men and women of the world; yet God accepts their cry as a protest against the world. It is something to be weary of the Philistines! It is something to be unfilled with the swine-husks! It is something to feel that, when life has loaded me with luxuries, there is a great void left behind! That void is to my Father equal to a voice of prayer. The message has no address, but it comes to Him.

Lord, there was a time when men said of me, “He is not a man of prayer.” They said, “He never lifts his voice to the Father of spirits; he is steeped in the cares of the world.” They were wrong. They forgot that the cares of the world are cries, and that cries reach Thee as well as prayers. If I were at home in the world, I should 115 H 2 have no care in the midst of its pleasures; they would fill me. But it is just in the midst of its pleasures that I have the deepest want. I never long so much for the wings of a dove as at the top of the earthly hill. It is then that my cry comes. Doubtless it is no prayer. It is not aspiration; it is only disappointed retrospect. But the disappointment makes it music in Thine ear. It tells Thee that I am too big for my toys. Thou hearest as yet no request; I ask Thee for nothing; I have not even called on Thee by name. But I have called on Thee by need. We speak of Thee as the hearer; Thou art more — Thou art the overhearer. Thou understandest my thought afar off — afar off even from myself. Ere I can speak a word Thou hast overheard my cry. Thou hast not waited for my asking, for my power to ask. Thou hast read in my groan more than I could say. Thou hast come, not to my voice, but to my void. Before I have learned to bless Thee, Thou hast seen my blank without Thee. Thou hast rated me above my present worth. Thou hast interpreted my cry as a creed, my sigh as a sympathy, my want as a wish, my poverty as a prayer, my discontent as a devotion, my lament as an accent of love. I praise Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast overheard the complainings which were not sent to Thee.