privilege and opportunity in the matter of prayer, that they could scarcely be left a shadow of apology, if they faint in prayer, even where the delay in answering is ever so long.

The success of the elect, conditioned upon perseverance in prayer, could not be affirmed more strongly than in Christ's brief assurance: "I tell you, He will avenge them speedily."

Importunity in prayer-prayer continued day and night, even in face of discouragementsprayer that grows in intrepidity and boldness with every disappointment and delay-is the condition of success.

"Tis not simply in intensity of desire, though that were included, but in the persistency of one who offers the prayer, that we find the pledge of ultimate success.

Desires, however intense, if they are spasmodic in their character, can never claim the blessing which is the reward of perseverance in supplication. The widow owed her success to her continual coming, and not to the impetuous desire which prompted her first, second, third, or any subsequent application to the unjust judge.

So, they who make known their requests unto God, will find that their prevalence in prayer

will depend upon their continual coming to Him--their crying day and night.

Many are the praying ones, who, fainting in prayer, have ceased their supplications at the very juncture when importunity would have won the day and secured the blessing.

6. Instead of a lesson in parable, we come now to a real incident in the life of Christ, that illustrates and enforces what He had taught respecting the importance of persistency or importunity in prayer. The case is that of the Syrophoenician woman who came to Him in behalf of her daughter. This woman also encountered difficulties which she bravely and shrewdly overcame, one by one, winning Christ's emphatic approval, who exclaimed: "Oh woman, great is thy faith!”

In the plea for her daughter, "grievously vexed with a devil," she had so thoroughly identified herself with her child in the latter's experience of suffering, that she asks for mercy, as for herself: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David." She had come far, even out of the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, to make this appeal; but,

(1) Is met by the seeming indifference of the person from whom she expected the boon

so earnestly desired. The very Christ of whose compassion and wonder-working power she had heard so much in her own country, and on whose ready sympathy and prompt interposition, she had reckoned so surely, seemed utterly oblivious to her agonizing appeal, for He answered her not a word.

The surprise, not to say shock, this must have caused the woman, the utter disappointment that carried back its sickening sensation to her weary and sorrow-stricken heart we can imagine, as she found herself apparently unnoticed by the great Healer of human maladies. What could His silence betoken save utter disregard of the person of the suppliant and of her petition? We do not intimate, of course, that this would have been a just inference; but, under the circumstances, it would have been a very natural one, borne out by appearances.

(2) A new difficulty presented itself in the reception she met at the hands of the disciples. They were evidently annoyed by her presence, and more by the urgency of her entreaties; for, most likely, she had sought to press them into her service, beseeching them to use, in her behalf, their influence with the Master. And she saw how reluctant they were to interfere in the

matter; and, also, when they could no longer endure the vexation of her appeals, she heard their cold words as they besought Christ to "send her away," with her petition granted if He would, but at all events, to send her away, "for she crieth after us. She may have thought within herself, if this is the spirit which a long and intimate association with the Master has bred in the disciples-if no higher motive actuates Him than impels them, I can hope for nothing. But, if they misrepresent Him, and He is really under the influence of higher and holier motives, then, in my anxiety to engage the disciples in my service, I have overreached myself. The evident offense I have given them may prove an affront to the Master, and may so far excite His displeasure, that, for their sake, He will send me away unblessed.

But, in any aspect of the case, she could have seen nothing but discouragement in the attitude of the disciples. If the silence of Christ was a damper to her hope, the selfishness of His disciples bade fair to extinguish it altogether.

(3) But the end is not yet--a still greater obstacle presents itself in Christ's reply: "I am

not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel," which was understood to mean, that His ministry was limited to the boundaries of Judea, or to the Israelitish race. He Himself had never as yet gone out of Palestine, and was even now not beyond the boundary line. Why should He exceed the exact limits of His commission? I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now the manifest construction which these words required, would have been enough utterly to dishearten most persons in the position occupied by this woman. It seemed like a deliberate closing of the doors against her. The disciples, doubtless, so understood it. But the woman did not, or, would not take the hint designed for her, and so, she is doomed to meet another disappointment of more formidable proportions.

In the agony of her desire, as the case grew desperate, she had cast herself at Christ's feet, and with violence of manner, and words of passionate appeal, besought Him once more to help her.

(4) And is met by the reply-a reply in the form of an expression common among the Hebrews, and full of taunting contempt as it fell from the lips of the ordinary Jew-"It is