m, and ye shall have them." How utterly sweeping this last
statement! And to make it more positive it is preceded by the emphatic
"therefore--I--say--unto--you." Both whatsoever and whosoever are here.
Anything, and anybody. We always feel instinctively as though these
statements need careful guarding: a few fences put up around them. Wait a
bit and we shall see what the Master's own fence is.

The last four of the six are in John's gospel. In that last long quiet
talk on the night in which He was betrayed. John preserves much of that
heart-talk for us in chapters thirteen to seventeen.

Here in John 14:13, 14: "And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will
I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask
anything in My name, that will I do." The repetition is to emphasize the
unlimited sweep of what may be asked.

John 15:7: "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you--" That word
abide is a strong word. It does not mean to leave your cards; nor to hire
a night's lodging; nor to pitch a tent, or run up a miner's shanty, or a
lumberman's shack. It means moving in to stay. "--Ask whatsoever ye
will--" The Old Version says, "ye shall ask." But here the revised is more
accurate: "Ask; please ask; I ask you to ask." There is nothing said
directly about God's will. There is something said about our wills. "--And
it shall be done unto you." Or, a little more literally, "I will bring it
to pass for you."

I remember the remark quoted to me by a friend one day. His church
membership is in the Methodist Church of the North, but his service
crosses church lines both in this country and abroad. He was talking with
one of the bishops of that church whose heart was in the foreign mission
field. The bishop was eager to have this friend serve as missionary
secretary of his church. But he knew, as everybody knows, how difficult
appointments oftentimes are in all large bodies. He was earnestly
discussing the matter with my friend, and made this remark: "If you will
allow the use of your name for this appointment, _I will lay myself out_
to have it made." Now if you will kindly not think there is any lack of
reverence in my saying so--and there is surely none in my thought--that is
the practical meaning of Jesus' words here. "If you abide in Me, and My
words sway you, you please ask what it is your will to ask. And--softly,
reverently now--I will lay Myself out to bring that thing to pass for
you." That is the