eak through them; but this unexpected
manoeuvre shatters his plan of battle. Many a soul that, in the
approach of temptation, has thus flung itself at the feet of God has,
while lying there awaiting the divine word, felt the awful sense of the
Satanic presence pass, and the sickening tug of temptation cease. The
enemy in the face of a situation so far beyond his power of {134}
understanding had made haste to withdraw his attack, lest while thus
fighting in the dark he should meet still more humiliating defeat.

III. _Instant in Prayer_

The humble soul is always the praying soul. The soul that realizes its
dependence will lose no time in calling upon Him on Whom it leans, and
this earnest prayer is the weapon in the warfare, without which certain
overthrow must ensue.

As in the case of humbling ourselves, the use of this weapon is to be
considered in its relation both to God and to Satan.

(1) Its relation to God. We know that prayer for help must of
necessity bring help, because the divine promise is given and repeated
a hundred times in Holy Scripture, that the Lord will hear us in the
day of trouble.[6] It is needless to multiply texts. One word of God
the Eternal Son suffices, "And shall not God avenge His own elect which
cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you
He will avenge them speedily."[7]

Impossible as it may seem, the prayer of the humble heart can command
the very Godhead. {135} Ascending to the throne of grace in union with
the intercession of Christ, the cry of the hard-pressed child of God
has power to liberate the divine Omnipotence, and set in motion all the
infinite energies of the kingdom which come forth in their
unconquerable might to wage war on our behalf.

This power that the praying soul has over God (we dare use such an
expression with entire freedom) is one of the mysteries of our union
with Him, and since He has given us so repeated a revelation of it, we
can expect nothing of Him if we neglect it.

One or two Scripture passages will make this clear to us. When Israel
rebelled and Moses prayed for them, God's answer was, "Now therefore
let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them."[8] Why should
the Omnipotent One have spoken thus since none is able to hinder Him or
bind His hands? The Holy Ghost, speaking by the Psalmist ages after,
gives us the meaning when He says: "He said He would have destroyed
them had not Moses, His chosen,