I have undertaken to set forth before you the apostle Paul as a man of prayer. We have studied Paul in various aspects of his character and career, but perhaps we have never taken up a special study of his example as a man of prayer.

      In the brief address last given I called your attention to his habit of prayer and to some special examples that are recorded historically by Luke without giving the words that he uttered. I propose now to call attention to some that are mentioned by him himself. Of course we find these in his epistles, and more of them in the first epistle to the Thessalonians than in any of his longer epistles. You remember that he had been scourged and imprisoned in Philippi and treated shamefully, as he afterwards expressed it. He went to Thessalonica, about 100 miles west and there in the course of three weeks, or including three Sabbath days spent in the synagogue he reasoned with the people setting forth that the Christ must needs suffer death and come forth from the dead, and that the Jesus whom he proclaimed unto them was the Christ, The result of his labor in those three sabbaths and perhaps the twelve intervening days was that some of the Jews of Thessalonica, a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and of the chief women not a few, believed. This remarkable success excited the jealousy of those Jews who believed not. And, being in a foreign city, where they had to be very careful how they conducted themselves, they were afraid to do any violence openly; so they stirred up the people by slander and lies of the basest kind. Taking to themselves certain "vile fellows of the baser sort," they assaulted the house of Jason who had been entertaining Paul and Silas: but not finding them there for some cause which is not explained, they took Jason and certain other brethren and dragged them before the rulers of the city, crying, "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; whom Jason bath received: and these all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus." Now that charge put before magistrates who [47] knew nothing of the subject, caused a persecution at once against the whole church. They dragged this man Jason before the magistrates and put him under bonds to keep the peace. In the meantime the brethren had sent Paul and Silas away by night. It is a humiliating thing for a man of sensitive feelings to have to leave a place between two days. It is generally the way in which thieves and robbers and criminals in general leave the places of their crimes. You remember that he went down to Berea where he had great success until some of these foreign Jews followed him there and stirred up trouble. He went from there to Athens where he stayed quite a while and where he had good success. From there he went to Corinth where he remained about eighteen months.

      Now on leaving Thessalonica he left the church which they had planted there under the persecution that followed the trouble stirred up by those foreign Jews. In writing to them afterwards he said, "You have heard what things the church in Jerusalem suffered at the hands of the Jews," and he draws a parallel between their own sufferings and those which caused the church at Jerusalem to be dispersed. A report of this reached him at Athens, and he said, "I have desired again and again to come to you, but Satan hindered." It is a remarkable declaration--that the devil hindered him from returning to Thessalonica. I presume that it was because the devil kept up that persecution and would have stirred up the people to greater violence and cruelty if Paul had gone back there. So, not daring to do this, on account of the evil it would bring upon the disciples, he sent Timothy back there and he remained in Athens until Timothy returned. Timothy went to "establish them and strengthen them in the faith and comfort them". Now that brings us the subject of his prayer.

      In the beginning of the epistle he says, "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." This shows that in all of his prayers he made mention of that body of disciples, with thanksgiving to God on their account. "We give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers"; showing [43] that in every prayer that he offered he had remembrance of that church. What an earnest, devoted man he was. How deep his sympathies for his brethren in their suffering. And how earnestly he plead with God on their behalf. Here is an example for every preacher. It does good, or else the inspired apostle would not have engaged in it. If you know of a single disciple who is suffering at the hands of the enemies of God, there is an example for you. He tells them, farther on, what he particularly prayed for when he was remembering them in his prayers and giving thanks to God for them. "Now may our God and father himself direct our way to you and remove Satan out of the place where he is hindering us from coming to you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men." That "all men" included those persecuting Jews; and his prayer is, that the disciples may abound and increase in love not only toward one another, but toward "all men", including those who were persecuting them. "Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus, direct our way unto you: and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you; to the end he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all of his saints". The expression, "All of his saints" includes those who had departed to where Jesus is. And as the word saints means holy ones, he probably refers to the coming of the holy angels; and his prayer is that the Thessalonian saints may be established in holiness.

      Then he has another prayer for them which he mentions. "And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." He next shows his faith in prayer, not only in his own prayers, but in those of others, by adding, "Brethren, pray for us." What was the use of their praying for him? There was a use for it. There was something good in it. He expected as a result of their praying for him that blessings would come to him which he would not otherwise receive.

      I will next call your attention to his prayer for another church which had been established by other hands than [49] his. He tells the Romans that he had had for many years a longing desire to visit them and be among them. I expect some of you young preachers would like to go to New York City, or to Boston, or over to Chicago, to serve some great. church with its great building, its great organ and choir, and great men sitting there to hear you. Well, why? Curious ambition, or what motive? Certainly the apostle Paul's desire to visit Rome was not of that kind. He tells them that he has desired to visit them for many years in order that he may impart to them some spiritual gift; not in order that he might say, as some now do, I have preached in Rome, or Boston, or New York, or Chicago, but that he might impart unto them some spiritual gift, and that he might enjoy for a time their fellowship and that they might enjoy his. Now that is a pure and noble purpose. When he said I am not ashamed of the gospel, and I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome, he does not mean that he is such a good preacher that he is not ashamed to preach in Rome; but he says, "I am a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome."

      But notice his prayer in regard to them. "For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if by any means now at length I may be prospered by the will of God to come unto you." Notice that. "I make mention of you always in my prayers." Not praying God's blessing, as sometimes is said, upon all for whom it is our duty or privilege to pray, the world over; but mentioning unceasingly the church of Rome; not because they were in the midst of any great persecution, but because, situated where they were, their fame as disciples of Christ had spread abroad over the whole earth. "First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world." Everywhere this church had become known and was spoken of. Their faith was published. He thanks God for that and then he, unceasingly in all of his prayers, prays God that he may come to them and impart to them some gift of the Spirit. That was constant. [50]

      These prayers were offered in Corinth, where he labored for eighteen months.

      There is another noble expression of the apostle at the close of this epistle--a doxology. "Now to him that is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith: to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen." [51]

[CT 47-52]