in other ways, and we shall get no human commendation for it, as it is a

thing only known to us and our Saviour.

Just as in our physical bodies there are organs like the heart and

lungs doing vital work, yet are never seen like the external members as the

hands and feet, so believers who engage in this vital activity behind the

scenes may be doing as much in the Lord's sight as those whose service is in

the open and manifest to all.  The reader will remember the wonderful type

given in Exodus 17:8 -13.  Joshua and his men were fighting strenuously with

Amalek in the valley, but it was the man unseen at the hill top who

controlled the battle, namely Moses:

'When Moses held up his hand ... Israel prevailed: and when he let down

his hand, Amalek prevailed.  But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took

a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur

stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the

other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun'

(Exod. 17:11,12).

Do we who value dispensational truth and the glories of the

dispensation of the Mystery, uphold our leaders like this in prayer?  Oh, the

need today for many like Aaron and Hur!  As we look around us we see a

growing apathy to spiritual things in general and to our calling in

particular.  Christian walk and witness is getting more difficult as the

weeks and months pass.  We may put this down to the increasing apostasy and

declension which marks the end of the age and we may be right in so doing.

But can it be that we have not yet fully realized the possibilities latent in

a vital prayer -life and that the lack of results which we deplore may be due

to the fact that we have sown the seed of the written and spoken word and

then forgotten to water it by the ministry of prayer?  Only then can we

expect the increase or growth that God alone can give (1 Cor. 3:6,7).

When John in his Apocalyptic vision sees the twenty -four elders before

the Throne, he tells us that each one had a golden vial 'full of odours,

which are the prayers of saints' (Rev. 5:8).  So, in symbol, the prayers of

God's people ascend to Him as something inexpressibly precious and fragrant.

What encouragement we have then to come constantly to the Throne of grace and

share in this wonderful ministry of intercession!

Persevering prayer along the lines of the will of God does make a

difference, and if our studies on this subject come as a challenge to each of

us as we consider the poverty of our prayer -life, may God give us grace to

use, as we have never done before, this matchless privilege, and so be

blessed of Him increasingly in making known His transcendent riches of grace

and glory in the saving, calling out, and upbuilding of those chosen in

Christ before the overthrow of the world, to inherit the Heavenly holiest of

all for all eternity:

'Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving' (Col.

A study contributed by Stuart Allen