od are conditioned upon our being in this state of heart
toward God. "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (Jno. xv., 7.) Abiding in
Christ, our will will be His will, as to desiring that which will most
advance the divine life and promote confidence in God, and all our
desires for material blessings will be subordinated to this motive.
Right here must come in a line of truth that will lead us from the
spirit of dictation in our prayers to God in all matters pertaining to
our worldly concerns. We cannot tell what is for our highest spiritual
good. The saving of our property or the taking it away. The recovery
from sickness or the continuance of it; the restoration of the health of
our loved one, or his departing to be with Christ; the removing the
thorn or the permitting it to remain. "_In everything_" it is indeed our
blessed privilege to let _our requests_ be make known unto God, but,
praise his name, he has not passed over to us the awful responsibility
of the assurance that _in everything_ the requests we make known will be
granted. He has reserved the decision, where we should rejoice to leave
it, to his infinite wisdom and his infinite love.

There is a danger to be carefully guarded against in the reading of this
book and in the consideration of the precious truth. The incidents it
relates bring before the mind, of the unlimited resources and the
unquenchable love of God, that are made available to believing prayer.
That danger has been suggested by what has been said, that the highest
use of prayer is to bring the soul nearer to God, and _not the making of
it a mere matter of convenience to escape physical ills or supply
physical necessities_.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh" and continues flesh until the
end. "Have no confidence in the flesh" is always a much needed
exhortation. Now, unquestionably, the desires of the natural heart may
and do deceive us, and often lead as to believe that our fervent earnest
prayer for temporal blessing is led of the Spirit, when the mind of the
Spirit is, that we will be made more humble, more Christ-like and more
useful by being denied than by being granted. Again, we are in danger of
disobeying the plain commands of _God's word_ in allowing prayer ever to
take the place of anything _in our power_ to do, and _that we are
commanded to do as a means to secure needed good_. He who has said "pray
always