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in intense, dead earnest. His was no
light, casual, routine prayer. He put
his whole heart into it. Of it Daniel
says: "And 1 set my face unto the
Lord God, to seek by prayer and
supplications, with fasting , and
sackcloth, and ashes : And
1
prayed
unto the Etcrnal my God, and made
my confession, and said, O Lord,
the great and dreadful God ... We
have sinned, and have committed
iniquity, and have done wickedly,
and have rebelled, even by depart–
ing from thy precepts and from thy
judgments.... O Lord, righteous–
ness belongeth unto thee, but unto
us confusion of faces , as at this
day...."
In
this deeply earnest
prayer Daniel continued on, be–
seeching God with his whole heart
(Dan. 9:3-19).
Can you imagine these men of
God praying in this manner dry
eyed?
1
can't. Surely tears were
streaming down their faces. These
were intense prayers-prayers of
surrendered, yielded men to the
great God!
God has graciously granted, by
astonishing miracles, many answers
to my prayers. But never have 1 re–
ceived an answer from God except
when 1 prayed earnestly from the
heart. 1 have never known of a real
answer coming from God of a cas–
ual routine prayer. Yet do not most
people pray casually, perhaps as a
matter of duty, and without feeling
or emotion? Perhaps this makes
plain the reason most people have
never received an answer to their
prayers.
Jesus gavc us an example of two
men praying. The one a respected
Pharisee, the other a hated publi–
can. The Pharisee stood and prayed,
without emotion or feeling, in his
own self-esteem and vanity: "God, 1
thank thee, that 1 am not as other
men are, extortioners, unjust, adul–
terers, or even as this publican. 1 fast
twice in the week, 1give tithes of all
that 1 possess." The other, pounding
bis breast in earnest, heartrending,
deep-feeling remorse and repen–
tance, choked with emotion, could
only say, amid his tears, "God be
merciful to me a sinner"! Of this
latter, Jesus said, " 1 tell you, this
man went down to his house justi–
fied rather than the other"- the self–
exalting Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14).
44
Jesus Christ is our example. Can
you comprehend what extreme deep
feeling Jesus experienced when He
looked out over the ci ty of Jerusa–
lem, whose deceived, erring, wrong–
doing people He loved, and cried
out: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets, and stonest
them. which are sent unto thee, how
often would
1
have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not!" (Matt.
23:37.) Here was emotion expressed.
But it was intelligent expression of
feeling- not unthinking, unguided
sensual impulse. lt was filled with
deep meaning!
Of course Jesus had the divine
power; He could have gathered the
people of Jerusalem to Him by
force! But, had He brought them to
Him by force, His whole purpose of
character building by free choice
and free moral agency would have
been defeated- so He willed that
they, themselves, should make their
own decisions. And He was grieved
through His whole being that they
rejected truth and happiness and
salvation and eternal life, and chose
curses and suffering and death.
Should we ever feel deeply about
things? We certainJy should. Jesus
did! Just before the Judas-led mur–
dering mob carne to lead Him to
trial and death, Jesus went apart
from His disciples and prayed.
"And being in an agony he prayed
more earnestly: and his sweat was
as it were great drops of blood fall–
ing down to the ground" (Luke
22:44).
lf we do learn to live by "evcry
word of God"- by God's instruction
book- we will learn to guide emo–
tions intelligently- but we shall not
suppress them, neither Jet them run
rampant and uncontrolled where
they ought not.
Jesus Christ, at age 33 !12, was the
most perfectly developed man ,
physically, mentally, spiritually, and
emotionally, who ever lived. He was
fully mature, these four blending
harmoniously into the one perfect
whole man.
Let us study His life, follow His
example, live as He lived. And Jet us
begin, now, to train our children as
early as possible in the art of grow–
ing up emotionally!
o
RIGHTS
(Continued from page 30)
you have, including your life, liberty
or property, and still be morally jus–
tified.
Only God can put teeth into
human rights. If a dictator violates
the liberties of a people wholesale,
what is to stop him? Only superior
force. But as Nietzsche said, if God
is dead, then
al/
is permitted. Only
God always has force superior to
that of all dictators in every situ–
ation. Only God has the power
to judge dictators after they are
dead.
Human rights come from God.
And if we are to know what those
rights a re, we must look to God's
revelation. There is no other firm
source of human rights than what
God has stated
in
the Bible.
There are many rights delineated
in the Bible, and to list them would
take another article. But certain ba–
sic rights are enumerated in the
Decalogue:
1)
The righ1 lo worship God,
im–
plicit in the commandment that
only the true God shall be wor–
shiped.
2)
The right ro lije,
protected
in
the commandment against killing.
3)
The right to prívate property,
protected in the commandment
against stealing.
4)
The right to afair tria/,
implicit
in the commandment against false
witness.
This list is by no means a com–
prehensive description of the
human liberties guaranteed by God,
but it is a start. The main point is, if
there are any
absolute
human rights,
they come from God. If we want to
know the real source of our absolute
human rights, the clear lesson is we
ought to be diligent in studying
God's revelation, the Bible.
o
RECOMMENDED READING
Request the free booklet entitled
Read
the Book. This booklet gives helptul
guidelines tor studying God's revela–
tion to man, the Bible. lt explains how
to remember scriptures and how to ap–
ply the principies ot God's Word to real–
lile situations. To receive your free copy
of this booklet, simply write to the
address of our office nearest you.
The PLAIN TRUTH August 1978