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(text and Philemon 1:22): — The two passages cover the entire subject. Here are prayers of the same kind as when a mother asks God to restore her sick child, or a Church asks a beloved officer to be spared.

I. THE SIMILARITY IN THE TWO CASES. The circumstances are almost identical. In both cases the Church pleads for the life of an apostle from the hands of a blood-thirsty tyrant, and in both cases the prayer is answered. Learn —

1. The region into which prayer may enter. Men say this is only the personal, inward, and spiritual. To pass from ourselves to affairs of human government and laws or to nature is vain. The examples here are against these statements and show that prayer has a voice in the action of our fellows, in the arrangements of life, and in the laws of nature.

2. Prayer has direct results therein. Good-humoured sceptics say, "Pray for others as much as you like that they may be delivered from nature's laws, and from human wrong — it may do you good in the way of deepening your sympathies, but outward results are impossible." But we see here that through the prayers of the Church Peter and Paul are restored to liberty.

3. Prayer does not always receive the answer desired. Peter and Paul were in prison again, and without doubt the Church prayed for their release. The apostles were released indeed, but by death, not to earthly toil but to heavenly rest. It is a misrepresentation that the Church teaches that the good asked for is always given, Christians pray not with a desire to impose their will upon God and His universe. When the answer is not given according to their desire, they are content to believe that it is in respect of things they would not have desired could they have known as God knows.

4. Yet prayer is a mighty power in the affairs of men — a mighty weapon in the hands of the Church. How unequal the forces; Herod or Nero, with prisons and soldiers, and on the other side a few weak men and women bowed in prayer. Yet note which wins.

5. The Church is. resistless for the purposes of her great mission when fully armed with the power of prayer. A king once led forth his steel-clad chivalry to place a despot's yoke upon the neck of a free people. Just before the battle he saw their ranks bending to the ground. "See," he cried, "they submit already." "Yes," said a wise counsellor, who knew them better; "they submit, but it is to God, not to us." And in a few hours the king and his army were scattered. Let the Church, as she stands face to face with opposing forces, submit to God in prayer and every foe will be vanquished.

II. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE TWO CASES. The same answer is given, but in different ways. In the first case there is direct Divine interposition, in the other nothing miraculous. — Paul pleads his case, is adjudged innocent and set free. Learn —

1. The blessedness of the man who lives and moves in an atmosphere of prayer, around whom cluster as guardian forces, the petitions of the people of God.

2. The exalted privilege of being identified with the visible Church. Men may speak lightly of it, but is it a light thing to be remembered by thousands in their prayers?

III. THE RELATION OF THE ONE CASE TO THE OTHER. The one explains the other. A miracle teaches us that God is everywhere working, and that the ordinary operations of nature are but the veil behind which He screens Himself, and which in the miracle is for the moment removed. Learn —

1. Not to expect supernatural operations in answer to prayer.

2. To recognise God in the natural, and to accept the answer when it comes in the ordinary course of events. It is a miserable condition of mind that sees God in the rescue of Peter but not in the rescue of Paul.

(W. Perkins.)

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KJV: Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

WEB: Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him.