shall ask, it shall
be done." Personal prayer is precious, united prayer is still more
powerful.

Thus in these verses we have one of the fullest, deepest and most precious
of the Apostle's prayers, and as we consider its union of thought and
experience, of profound teaching and equally profound revelation of
Christian life, we learn two of the most urgent and necessary lessons for
the Christian life to-day.

The first of these shall be given in the words of Bishop Moule: "Beware of
untheological devotion." If devotion is to be real it should be
characterised by _thought_. There is no contradiction between mind and
heart, between theology and devotion. Devotional hours do not mean hours
when thought is absent. Meditation is not abstraction, nor is devotion
dreaminess. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy _mind_" is an
essential part of the commandment. If genuine thought and equally genuine
theology do not characterise our hours of devotion, we lose some of the
most precious opportunities of grace and blessing. A piety which is mere
pietism, an evangelicalism which does not continually ponder the profound
truths of the New Testament, can never be strong or do any deep service.
We must beware of "untheological devotion."

We must also beware of "undevotional theology." This is the opposite
error, and constitutes an equally great danger. A hard, dry, intellectual
study of theology will yield no spiritual fruit. Accuracy in knowledge of
Greek, careful balancing of aspects of truth, large knowledge of the
doctrinal verities of the New Testament, are all essential and valuable;
but unless they are permeated by a spirit of devotion they will fail at
the crucial point. _Pectus facit theologum_--it is the heart that makes
the theologian; and a theology which does not spring from spiritual
experience is doomed to decay, to deadness, and therefore to disaster.

When, therefore, our devotions are theological, and our theology is
devotional, we begin to realise the true being, blessing, and power of the
Christian life, and we go from strength to strength, from grace to grace,
and from glory unto glory.

VI.

CONFLICT AND COMFORT.

VI.

CONFLICT AND COMFORT.

"For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for
them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the
flesh; that their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in
love, and unto all riches of