43. Arise and Call on Thy God By Horatius Bonner. This sermon was created with an artificial voice for the audiobook initiative on Sermon Audio. There may be mispronunciations or occasional repetitions. To report a mistake, please email us at info at sermon audio dot com and include the sermon ID or title of the message and the time at which the error occurs. We will do our best to get it corrected for future listeners. Arise and call on thy God. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities. And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also. Zechariah 8, 20 and 21. He on whose name we call is our God and Father. He is no unknown God. but one whose name we know and therefore in whom we can entirely trust. It is upon no doubtful footing that we come to Him. The relationship in which we stand to Him and in which He stands to us is no uncertain or precarious thing. It is sure and abiding. He is our Father and we His children. We have learned to say, Abba, Father, with no faltering lip nor misgiving heart. We have ceased to suspect and dread Him as once we did. Our eye looks up to His. Our hand takes hold of His. Our heart rests placidly on His. We reason thus. He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? He that has given us the greater gift, will he withhold the less? He that has given the vast ocean, will he grudge us a single drop? Or perhaps, looking upwards to where that Saviour sits at God's right hand, having by Himself purged our sins, we reason thus. If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. If God did so much for us when enemies, what will He not do for us now that we are friends? If a dying Savior did so much for us when enemies, what will not a living Savior do for us when friends? If God gave us such infinite blessings unsought by us, and when we had no name in which to plead, what will He not give us now that we come asking in the name of His beloved Son? We come then to God is those that know the Father. This is the characteristic which Christ himself singled out from among many others as peculiarly marking out and describing his disciples. It is under this simple designation that he speaks of them to the Father himself. It is by this description that he contrasts them with the world. They know the Father, The world knows him not. They are not better by birth or nature or parentage or education or life. Nay, perhaps they were the vilest of sinners, but they were brought by the Spirit to know the Father. And this is all they can say for themselves. This is the very most and best that Christ can say for them. they know the Father. And this is enough. The world knows Him not, but they know Him. And in this they greatly rejoice. For this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. But it is not merely as their Father that they know Him, but as the Father of their Lord and Saviour, His Father and their Father, His God and their God. This double relationship links them to Him by a double tie. They are related to him directly, for he is their Father. They are related to him also indirectly, yet most nearly, for he is the Father of their Lord Jesus Christ. And thus it is that the Apostle speaks, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named Ephesians 3.14. Hence, also, the saints sing such a song as this, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, Ephesians 1, 3, or this other, of much the same import, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1, 3, The character, then, in which we look up to God and call upon His name is as Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the one family that is called by that glorious name. And thus we come to Him as standing in the same relationship towards Him as Christ Himself does, not simply deriving our right or liberty of coming into His presence from what Christ has done, but coming in His name, as if God were actually to us all that he is to Christ. He is the everlasting Son of the Father, and we are also sons. He is one with the Father, and we are one with him. It was with reference to this that he prayed in the days of his flesh, that they all may be one. As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." John 17, 21, and 23. And then further, our liberty of asking is a very wide one. We might almost call it unlimited. All things great and small, spiritual and temporal, public or personal. we may bring to him. His tender mercies are over all his works. And as he loveth a bountiful and a cheerful giver, so he himself giveth most cheerfully and bountifully, without upbraiding and without wearying. Our tendency is to ask too few things, not too many. He never worries with pouring down on us his rain and dew, nor does he scantily measure out his sunbeams or his starlight. All is in profusion, and all unasked. How much more, then, may we not count upon his gifts when we apply for them? If He gives so many unsought, what will He not give when we seek them? If He gives so liberally to all alike, the evil and the good, what will He not give to His own beloved ones, when they stretch out the hand and lift up the voice to the mercy seat? Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." Jeremiah 33, 3. All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. Matthew 21, 22. How wide and unrestricted are these words, all and whatsoever! What is there that we need, or that deserves the name of good, which they do not embrace? What a rebuke, then, may not these words administer, hitherto ye have asked nothing? Yet, what an encouragement follows! Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. If we have not, it is because we ask not. If we have little of the Spirit, it is because we ask not. If our progress be slow, our walk irregular, our frame very lifeless, it is because we ask not. If the ministry be unblessed and few are turned to the Lord among us, it is because we ask not. Then, again, our privilege of expectation is a very blessed one. It is no mere likelihood or possibility but a certainty. How great then should be our confidence The confidence of those who have learned something of the deep love of God and His exceeding willingness to supply all their need according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus our Lord. Is it not here that we stumble so sadly? We do not pray expectingly, and so we receive not. He does no mighty works among us because of our unbelief, but we are called to agree together in asking what we will. The Lord obviously lays much stress on this. Why He does so, it may be difficult fully to discover. Yet it is very plain that he does point out to us this agreement in prayer as something which he delights in, and something to which he will especially incline his ear. He loves to see his people banding together to plead with him and to obtain from him their desires. He delights to hear them singly, much more unitedly. It is as if he could not resist a united appeal. And, as the united harmony of many voices is sweeter than the single melody of one, however rich and beautiful, so the united prayers of many hearts are more pleasant and more irresistible than the pleadings of one or of many separately, however fervent and believing, it is evident that the Lord meant to tell us how much He delighted in such agreements in prayer, even though they should be but the agreements of two or three of His believing ones. It is evident also that he meant to point out these agreements as the most effectual way of drawing down the blessing and to call on his church to keep this in remembrance. A loving father will listen to each child in each petition. The voice of even one of his offspring will find its way into his heart. he will not meet it with a repulse or a denial. When, however, all his family approach him together and gather round his knees hand in hand, to present one special petition on which they have all set their hearts, how irresistible is the appeal! A child's request is much, but a family petition is more. And it is to this latter that Christ called his disciples, and to which he is now calling his church. Has the church availed herself of it? Has she sought the scattered members of the family and said to them, come now, let us join ourselves together and agree upon a joint request? Let us present the family petition. Let us press the family appeal. Too little has she cared for or even thought of this. She has overlooked the promise, and hence she has lost much blessing. She is now beginning to remember the words of her Lord and to act upon them. Her necessities have forced her back upon the promise, but as yet it is mixed up with much of unbelief and distrust. She is acting rather in the way of experiment, to see whether it will prove successful than in the way of faith, assured that the answer must be given. Is there not much sin in this? Much provocation in the eyes of God? Are His promises so ambiguous and uncertain that they must be experimented on instead of being simply confided in? And have not even our prayer unions been proposed and acted on too much in the light of experiments? As if it still remained to be proved that God is faithful and will assuredly abide by every jot and tittle of His promises. It is time to set aside such unbelief, such doubtfulness of God, such sad discrediting of His Word at the very time when we profess to be complying with it. Let us agree together to present our common petitions, because He has given us a clear and simple promise. Upon that promise, let us act in faith, nothing doubting, lest peradventure we be found discrediting God in that very thing in which we seem to be crediting Him, and dishonoring Him in that very thing in which we seem to be honoring Him most. Hitherto there has been much unbelief mingling with our agreements. Henceforth let us unite in faith. Let us plead in faith and see whether there be not in store for us an amount of blessing which will make our distrustful hearts to marvel. Blessing which we have been hitherto arresting and thrusting back by our unbelief. The time is a dark one. The crisis is urgent. God has begun in good earnest to deal with our land. His sword is lifted up to smite. Its flash has already stricken terror into many a heart. What will be the terrors of its full and vengeful stroke? God has suffered long with us. He evidently means to suffer no more unless we repent and turn to Him with all our heart. Judgment has begun at the house of God. And what will the end be? God's voice is echoing through Britain, nay, through the world. What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. It is no shadow of a drifting vapor that is darkening the air. It is something more perilous, more permanent, something whose issues are beyond the stretch of man's wisdom to foresee or even to conjecture. These are not morning clouds soon to rise and dissipate, leaving behind them as they ascend the purity of a cloudless noon. No, They are the falling shadows of the darkest evening which the world has ever known. These drops are not the early dew, speedily evaporating and freshening both earth and sky. No. They are the first drops of the thundershower that is now mustering its terrors and preparing to desolate the earth. These are not the mutterings of the departing tempest, fetching its last strokes of overspent fury before it gives place to the breathless calm. No, they are the forerunners of the wasting storm which is about to break upon a hundred shores. Meanwhile, iniquity abounds. The people return not to the Most High nor acknowledge His smiting hand. There are no signs of repentance, nor reformation, nor seeking of the face of God. Many disown and deny Him. Many hate the thoughts of Him and of His warnings. Many are afraid to think of Him at all. Many are recognizing Him but in name and form. Few, few are bowing in the dust before him, confessing their own sins, the sins of the church, and the sins of the land, that they may be mercifully forgiven, and his great anger turned away. Few are feeling for the honor of his name, the contempt of his gospel, and the rejection of his beloved son. Few hearts are touched, as was the heart of Jesus, with the prospect of calamity, and ruin, and woe, in which kindred friends country, may be are long involved. Fewer still see mourning over the eternal doom which is in sad reserve for the multitudes of this Christ-rejecting land. May not, then, the Church of Christ he called on to arise and plead, Is it not her duty to band together in cordial fellowship with all who know what it is to pray? Ought she not, with all haste, to snatch up her neglected censer, and rush between the living and the dead, if happily her intercession may yet prevail? Will not God yet be entreated for the land, and turn back the swelling flood of infidelity, potpourri, superstition, intemperance, lasciviousness, blasphemy, under which the very soil seems withering, and the fruits of the field are pining away? as if the atmosphere were tainted with the pollutions of the land, and then the barrenness of our spiritual fields. Our leanness, our leanness, what a dearth! Where are the multitudes of awakened souls? Where is the daily adding to the church of such as shall be saved? Where is the baptism of fire? Where is the ministry of life and power and blessing? Where are the inroads upon Satan's kingdom and the shout of triumph as tower after tower in his fortress is seen falling to the ground? and rank after rank giving way before the victorious onset of the army with banners? Who can reckon the guilt at this moment lying on the churches of Christ as well as on private Christians for negligence in prayer? Hours and weeks are thrown away on trifles and prayer forgotten, sleep company, idle visiting, foolish talking and jesting, idle reading, unprofitable occupations, and gross time that might have been redeemed for prayer. Why is there so little anxiety to get time to pray? Why is there so little forethought in the laying out of time and employments, so as to secure a large portion of each day for prayer? Why is there so much speaking, yet so little prayer? Why is there so much running to and fro, yet so little prayer? Why so much bustle and business, yet so little prayer? Why so many meetings with our fellow men, yet so few meetings with God? Why so little being alone, so little thirsting of the soul for the calm sweet hours of unbroken solitude, when God and His child hold fellowship together as if they could never part? It is the want of these solitary hours that not only injures our own growth in grace, but makes us such unprofitable members of the Church of Christ that renders our lives useless. In order to grow in grace, we must be much alone. It is not in society, even Christian society, that the soul grows most rapidly and vigorously. In one single quiet hour of prayer, it will often make more progress than in days of company with others. It is in the desert that the dew falls freshest and the air is purest. So with the soul, it is when none but God is nigh when His presence alone, like the desert air in which there is mingled no noxious breath of man, surrounds and pervades the soul, it is then that the eye gets the clearest, simplest view of eternal certainties. It is then that the soul gathers in wondrous refreshment and power and energy, and so it is also in this way that we become truly useful to others. It is when coming out fresh from communion with God that we go forth to do His work successfully. It is in the closet that we get our vessels so filled with blessing that, when we come forth, we cannot contain it to ourselves, but must, as by a blessed necessity, pour it out whithersoever we go. Perhaps there are some among us who once prayed more than they do now. When first brought to relish prayer, they never counted the hours they spent in it. They could have prayed all the day long. Now it is different. The spirit of prayer is not wholly lost, but the keen relish is gone. One hour or less can satisfy them when formerly three times that space or more could not. They are declining in spiritual things. They must repent and do their first works. They must strengthen the things that remain, which are ready to die. Others, among the awakenings which took place some years ago, prayed much. They were greatly quickened then, if not for the first time awakened. Now this fervor has subsided. They expected to get answers immediately. They looked for larger showers of blessing long ere now. And because these have not come, because the fields are still parched and the latter rain withholden, they are gradually giving up their supplications for the revival of God's work among them. They are desponding because they have asked so often and so long, and yet the answer has never come. But ought this to be? Ought this unbelieving despondency to be indulged for a moment? Ought not the fact that we have prayed for so many years in vain make us feel all the surer that the answer must be coming soon? We prayed earnestly in 1839 that revivals such as Kilsithe might be multiplied over the land. We prayed in 1840 that such revivals as Dundee, Perth, etc. might increase a thousandfold. But since then the showers seem withdrawn, and many, we fear, have given up in despair. Oh! Surely it ought not so to be. Are we not sure that prayer must be answered? If we do not get the answer the first year, we have more hope of getting it the second. If it comes not in the second, there is the greater hope that it will come in the third. So that each year's delay should only make us the more hopeful and expecting that it will come or the next year be closed. Are we not with this hope to stir ourselves up to renewed prayer and intercession? Let the following specimens of praying saints and other days help to stir us up. It is said of John Welsh that, from the beginning of his ministry to his death, he reckoned the day Al spent if he stayed not seven or eight hours in prayer. Livingston writes, We used to meet the first Friday of every month at Antrim, where was a great and good congregation, and that day was spent in fasting and prayer and public preaching. Commonly two preached before noon and two after noon. We used to come together on the Thursday night before and stayed the Friday night after and consult about such things as concerned the carrying on the work of God, and these meetings among ourselves were sometimes as profitable as either Presbyteries or Synods. He also tells us of some brethren that they went out to the Sinai's near Edinburgh. And that last day they spent in fasting and prayer. Mr. D. Dixon, then but a young man, was put to pray, which he did for near two hours' space with great enlargement of heart on himself and all present, and expressed great confidence that the work of God would flourish in the land. which accordingly came to pass. For a few years after, that work in Stuarton and several other places of the West and Clydesdale began. Of Rutherford, we read that he used ordinarily to rise by three o'clock in the morning. He spent all his time either in prayer or reading or writing, or in visiting families in private, or in public employment of his ministry. of Blair, that he spent many days and nights in prayer alone, and with others, and was one very intimate with God. Brainerd thus writes, I set apart this day for fasting and prayer. In the morning I endeavored to plead for the divine presence for the day and not without some life. In the forenoon, I felt the power of intercession for precious immortal souls, for the advancement of the kingdom of my dear Lord and Savior in the world. In the afternoon, God was with me of a truth. Oh, it was blessed company indeed. God enabled me so to agonize in prayer that I was quite wet with sweat, though in the shade and the wind cool. My soul was drawn out very much for the world. I gasped for multitudes of souls. I was enabled to persevere in prayer that I knew not how to leave off and had forgot that I needed food. And the following is a specimen of Luther pleading when, on the morning of the 17th of April, 1521, he was called to appear before the princes and potentates of earth. O God, O God, O Thou my God, help me against all the wisdom of this world. Do this, I beseech Thee. Thou shouldst do this by Thine own mighty power. The work is not mine, but Thine. I have no business here. I have nothing to contend for with these great men of the world. I would gladly pass my days in happiness and peace. But the cause is Thine, and it is righteous and everlasting. O Lord, help me. O faithful and unchangeable God, I lean not on man. It were vain. My God, my God, dost thou not hear? My God, art thou no longer living? Nay, thou canst not die. Thou hast chosen me for this work. I know it. Therefore, O God, accomplish thine own will. Is not this the confidence of prayer? Is not this the language of one who, in the happy liberty of the spirit of adoption, could unbosom himself wholly to God? Even so should our prayers ever be, many unreserved, childlike, confidential in all things, whether pertaining to ourselves or others. Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to him must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Bruce 11.6 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11.24 It may be well for us that we have not been heard immediately. It is not pleasant, but it is salutary and God has his own purpose to serve by means of it. We might become proud of our success in praying and say, by the strength of my hand have I done it and by my wisdom, for I am prudent. We might perhaps begin to worship our own prayers and put an honor upon them which belongs to God alone. we might begin to feel as if we deserve to get everything the moment we asked it, and in our own way. What would it come to at last, says one, if all the storehouses of God should be opened to us immediately at the first knocking? Our gracious God does not always give His immediate attention when we appear before Him with our petitions, but generally lets us wait a while so that time after time we sigh, there is nothing, that we may reflect a little, and become conscious that in reality we have nothing to claim, but when we receive, we receive out of pure grace. If at first we spake of whole loaves, the Lord waits till we begin to speak of crusts, and then of crumbs. And, if at first we approached his threshold like righteous people, the Lord keeps us back until we become poor sinners, unworthy beggars, yea, dogs. And if we begin by rejoicing in our own strength, he waits until the cords be a little slackened, until, dispirited and lying in the dust, we end in sighs. Such is his way. Many ministers too have, we doubt not, experienced the truth of what we have been saying. When they first began their ministry, they were full of love and zeal. They set apart so many hours each day for prayer and, at intervals, a day for private fasting and humiliation. Gradually, their hours of prayer have been shortened and their days of fasting become more rare. Their former freshness and vigor, both in the closet and in the pulpit, have faded away. And perhaps, they oftentimes look back with mourning to the first year of their ministry, when they prayed so much more and labored with so much more faith and energy and simplicity of heart. If any such should read this tract, perhaps they may be stirred up in good earnest to bethink themselves and return, and do their first works. As the first and most necessary step, let their former closet hours be re-established. This may be difficult in these days, but it must be done. And when this is once accomplished, all the rest will smoothly follow. And oh, what need to pray! Our spiritual life is low, our faith languishes, our love is chill, our zeal has evaporated into form and bustle. Our warmth has become too much that of excitement instead of the fresh glow of souls filled with the Holy Ghost. There is much levity, little solemnity, much worldliness, little deep spirituality, much form, little power, much of earth, little of heaven or of Christ in our walk and ways. We are not self-denied, meek, lowly, heavenly, holy, but much the opposite. We make little progress personally. Our souls are dry. The life that is in us is but languid, as if utter death were at hand. We are not much blessed to others. Our words have little power and our example less. The dead lie still around us in the valley, moldering and unquickened. Few awake and arise. The gospel comes not to us as it used to do in mighty power. Discord among the saints does not diminish. Breaches are not healed. Unity is little prized. Iniquity overflows the world. Error increases. Superstition, licentiousness, infidelity are rolling on like a torrent. The earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof. Surely then, the summons is not unneeded. Arise and call on thy God. To your tents, O Israel, to your closets, and to your knees, ye saints of the Most High God. Plead, cry aloud, stay not, weary not, What is to be done must be done soon, for the storm is gathering, and the sky is blackening, and the shadows of the world's last evening are falling in gloom over the hills and valleys of this doomed and defiled earth. Let us then arise and plead. Let us leak together for solemn intercession. Let us as one family bend the knee before the mercy seat, and with our finger upon the Lord's gracious promise to united prayer, let us send up into the ear of our God. one long, one earnest, one believing cry such as he loves to hear and such as he will most assuredly answer. We need much. Let us ask much. We have many arguments. Let us order them before him and give him no rest. We have little time remaining. The night cometh. Let us lose not a moment. Let us go at once into his presence chamber, not to leave it till we have found him whom our soul loveth, and till we have secured the answer from his lips. We have at the same time many sins. Let us lay all these upon the altar, that the blood of the sacrifice may cleanse them thoroughly away, and thus our prayers may go up as the incense of cleansed and accepted ones. the intercessions of men who cannot be too confident and expecting, and who cannot be too importunate and persevering. Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? Hath thy soul loathed Zion? Why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, and there is no good, and for the time of healing and behold trouble. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers. For we have sinned against Thee. Do not abhor us, for Thy name's sake. Do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory. Remember, break not Thy covenant with us. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou he, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait upon thee, for thou hast made all these things." Jeremiah 14, 19-22. Hymn. Having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near. Hebrews 10, 19. 1. Cheer up, my soul! There is a mercy seat sprinkled with blood where Jesus answers prayer. there humbly cast thyself beneath his feet, for never needy sinner perish there. 2. Lord, I am come. Thy promise is my plea. Without thy word I durst not venture nigh. But thou hast called the burdened soul to thee, a weary burdened soul. O Lord, am I. 3. Bowed down beneath a heavy load of sin by Satan's fierce temptations, sorely pressed, beset without, and full of fears within, trembling and faint, I come to thee for rest. 4. Be thou my refuge, Lord, my hiding-place. I know no force can tear me from thy side. Unmoved, I then may all accusers face and answer every charge, with Jesus died. 5. Yes, thou didst weep and bleed and groan and die. Well hast thou known what fierce temptations mean. Such was thy love. And now, enthroned on high, the same compassions in thy bosom reign. 6. Lord, give me faith. He hears. What grace is this? Dry up thy tears, my soul, and cease to grieve. He shows me what he did, and who he is. I must, I will. I can, I do believe. End of 43. Arise, and call on thy God.