Christian, you perhaps think little of your prayers. God does not. Cornelius was a devout and prayerful man. He "prayed to God always." but, while praying on in patience, probably little thought that one day an angel would be sent to tell him, "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." Acts 10:2-4. But if you wish God's estimate of His people's prayers, see Rev. 5:8. "The four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials frill of odors, which are the prayers of saints." That is what they are. Golden vials contain them; they are as the Fragrance of incense before the throne of God. Think of a prayer meeting! Could the exercises of the saints be made visible, you would see the odors ascending to God's presence. The room and the surroundings may be mean, but if the hearts are full of Christ, St. Peter's at Rome with all its grandeur can present nothing so fine. Those humblings of soul in prayer, those addresses of faith to God, the workings of hearts wrought by the Spirit Himself, though invisible, are momentous; they are fraught with consequences which reach forth into eternity. Such is real prayer. Who that could be present would be absent from such a scene, and lose the privilege of a part in its activities?
It is possible that some, and that even amongst instructed Christians, have not quite a correct sense of the rank of the prayer meeting, regarding it as rather subordinate. Many who would feel condemned in their conscience at absence from the Lord's supper look upon attendance at the prayer meeting as optional. But they have not noticed that the promise to be with two or three gathered to His name is, in Scripture, specifically attached to prayer. Often as that promise is quoted, its connection with prayer and the prayer meeting is almost overlooked. But verse 20 of Matt. 18 is really the validating principle of verses 18 and 19. "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Matt. 18:18-20.
(1) First let us notice that the promise about agreeing in prayer is linked by the conjunction "for" with the presence of Christ in the midst of two or three. It therefore does not relate, as often supposed, to an agreement of two isolated Christians to pray about a mutual subject when apart from each other. The common application really diverts the scripture from its specific object, which is to show the special honor and efficacy which are attached to united prayer. It applies to two or three gathered together to Christ's name, and if they, though only two, are in real spiritual agreement in which they approach the Father, their prayer is successful. (Matt. 18:19.)
(2) The Lord, therefore, is in the midst at the prayer meeting as well as at the breaking of bread. Important fact! Possibly some have not looked at the prayer meeting in this light. Many esteem it as merely a means of spiritual comfort and communion, one of many ways of gaining profit to our souls, and therefore omit attending it or not, according as they are disposed. But the Lord is there! Were the Prince of Wales announced to be at a meeting in London, what activity would be displayed, what effort to be present! The subject matter would, by the very fact of his attendance, acquire a new importance. Persons who would not have troubled about attending, are now found quite zealous, and see a significance in the subject which they never saw before. But what is prince or king compared to the King of kings and Lord of lords, who is present with the gathering to His name?
(3) We see that the Lord being present, the prayer meeting ranks as an assembly meeting of the first order, second only to the Lord's supper. So it is placed, in the divine record of what characterized the first company of the Church. "They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Acts 2:42. At a lecture, a gospel preaching, etc., the Lord may be with His servant who speaks His word, and all present may share the blessing, but He is not with the company, even if consisting of saints, in exactly the sense in which He is with an assembly of only two or three simply gathered together unto His name.
(4) This presence of the Lord both in the prayer meeting as well as other meetings, is a matter about which many are obscure. Some confuse it with the presence of the Holy Ghost-but that is a different thing. The Holy Ghost does dwell in the assembly, as well as in the body of each individual believer. He does so permanently. But what is stated in Matt. 18:20 is not a permanent indwelling. It is a presence under conditions, namely, two or three being there, and they being gathered to His name. Further, it is the presence of the Lord Himself that is guaranteed.
“But," it will be said, "Jesus is in heaven." Yes, corporally He is there-blessed be His name!-but divinely He is with us here. He is the One who could say even in His days upon earth, "The Son of man which is in heaven." John 3:13. And if He was divinely in heaven while corporally on earth, so now He is divinely with the two or three on earth, though corporally in heaven.
(5) The presence of the Lord in the midst draws out the specific affections of the saints for Himself. For as there are distinct persons in the Godhead, so the new nature in us has feelings and affections appropriate to each. When we think of the Father, we think of the infinite, uncaused, love in which He gave the Son for us. We think of the One who has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father! who Himself loveth us because we have loved Jesus, and have believed that He came out from God. And when we think of Christ in our midst, it is of that Person in the Godhead who became incarnate, who so loved us as to give Himself for us, and who loved us unto death. The Holy Ghost present with us indeed gives us the spiritual apprehension of all this. He brings before our souls the things of Christ (John 16:13-15), but the Person in our midst is the One who died for us. He, though waiting on the Father's throne, still so yearns over those whom He purchased with His blood, that where, in any quarter or corner of the globe, two or three are gathered to His name, there He is in the midst. Would the Christian willingly be absent when the Lord is present? In this matter have we not sinned through lack of thought, or non-apprehension of what the prayer meeting really is? E. Thomas