the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 3
Daniel 2:17-19—Then was the secret revealed in a night vision.
This prayer-meeting, called hurriedly, must have been very intense. There was no knowing whether it might not be interrupted before it was completed by the guards of the palace summoning the supplicants to die. These two or three were gathered in the name of God, in rooms which never before had heard his name. But when their prayers had been offered, such serene peace resulted that Daniel was able to sleep with the utmost composure; and his mind, like a mirror, received upon its placid depths the impression of God’s thoughts.
It is a test of prayer having attained its object, when the praying soul feels there is no need to wrestle longer, and the sweet assurance is borne in that God has received our supplication, and that further words are needless. This serenity of heart shows itself in the unruffled calm of the commercial man in a time of panic; in the quietness of the soul under provocation; in the staidness of the heart on God, while storms sweep earth and sky.
It has been pointed out that there are three New Testament words for prayer to which we do well to take heed. Be sober unto prayer (1 Peter 4:7). Do not be drunk with worldly vanity, business, or gaiety; but bring a humble, penitent, clear, and sound mind. Be at leisure when you pray (1 Corinthians 7:5). The word means that prayer is not to be hurried; that nothing should interfere with its leisurely enjoyment. Labor at prayer (Colossians 1:29; or 4:12). As a man labors at his daily work, or strives on the battle-field, or agonizes to preserve a beloved friend from danger. It was thus that Jesus labored in the Garden of Gethsemane. And it was thus that these faithful souls must have prayed.
