ith. As the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, he loveth too an eager
persevering asker. The door seems narrow, but its narrowness was not
meant to keep us out; they please him best who press most heavily on its
yielding sides. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the
violent take it by force." The King of Glory feels well pleased the
warriors' onset,--gladly welcomes the conqueror in.

It is indeed blessed to give: but the giver's blessedness is greatly
marred by the listlessness of the needy creatures on whom he has
bestowed his bounty. If they who need and get the goodness are
insensible, and cold, and ungrateful, the joy of the benefactor is
proportionally diminished. It is thus with "the giving God." When the
receiver values the bounty, the delight of the bestower is increased.
Thus the Lord Jesus was specially pleased as he healed the daughter of
the Syro-Phoenician mother because she gave evidence by her
importunity how much she valued the boon; and, on the other hand, his
plaintive question, "Where are the nine?" when the lepers took their
cure so lightly, shows that he did not much enjoy the act of healing
because the diseased made light both of their ailment and their cure.

Come near, press hard, open your mouth wide, pray without ceasing; for
this is the kind of asking that the great Giver loves. Unforgiven sin on
the conscience keeps the sinful distant, and Satan calls the silence
modesty. It is not; they most honour God who show by their importunity
in asking that they value his gifts.

While it is true that prayer should be a continuous fulness in the
heart, ever pressing outward and upward, flowing wherever it can find an
opening, it is not specifically that characteristic to which this
parable points. This is not the lesson, "In everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto
God:" the lesson here points not to the breadth of a whole spiritual
life, but to the length of one line that runs through it. Whatever it be
that a disciple desires, and is bent upon obtaining, he should ask not
once, or twice, or twenty times, but ask until he obtain it; or until he
die with the request upon his lips: and in that case he will get his
desire, and more. Trust in God: trust in his love. He who has not spared
his own Son, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Do not
deem that delay is proof of his indifference. Delaying to bestow is not
proof of ind