Acts 12 - James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

A GREAT APOSTLE

‘James the brother of John.’

Acts 12:2

Within the broad circle of the Apostles’ characters, their lives, histories, examples, the follower of Christ finds experiences which he, to some extent at all events, walks amongst and shares in.

James and John, sons of Zebedee and Salome, known better as the sons of thunder, from their zeal and fiery faith, had been called by Christ from fishing on the blue waters of the Galilæan lake to fish for the souls of men. And how close to the side of their beloved Lord were they on great occasions, admitted to see what prophets and kings had not beheld!

We think now chiefly of St. James.

I. He had to learn much about his hidden life.—Partly ignorant yet of the new law of love, which taught men to bless their persecutors, the eager disciple was ready to ask for fire from above to consume the graceless Samaritans who refused hospitality to Jesus. But the patient and gracious Master bade His mistaken follower to suspend his erring zeal, perhaps reminding him that such ideas could only go to prove St. James’s ignorance of his own heart. ‘Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.’ (A.V.) How long does it take to convince us of the deceitfulness of our hearts! Much did the afterwards mighty Apostle need at that time the influence of the Holy Spirit, to add to his faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, crowned with godliness, and overshadowed by brotherly kindliness and charity.

II. St. James was to have his character formed bit by bit.—Each circumstance, each temptation, each danger, each spiritual advantage was to be the means, under God, of raising up within him a complete structure of holiness.

(a) If he had not wished to call down fire from heaven, he would never have received the timely rebuke of his dear Lord; and if he had not received that he would not have learnt so well his own mistaken zeal. He had to learn that though the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent, the earnest, take it by force, yet the servant of God must not strive in violence with his fellow-men to their hurt or loss or pain.

(b) He had to grasp another lesson from the Saviour’s answer to Salome, when for her sons, James and John, she begged a very high place in Messiah’s kingdom. St. James needed to learn that ambition is not a fruit of pleasant savour in a servant of Christ. Truly has it been said of the ambassadors of Jesus that ambition in their order is apostasy against their Lord.

III. History is constantly repeating itself—the great and good taken away when they seem most wanted. Only the earnest faith and Divine support of the little Christian band could have prevented its utter collapse in such a crisis as the martyrdom of St. James. Yet, as we know, it grew and flourished, proving thereby that it had a strength which must be supernatural. He Who loved His Church and gave Himself for it, would thus develop out of its midst new ventures of courage, new launchings forth of faith.

—Rev. C. G. H. Baskcomb.

Illustration

‘The Bible, as a rule, does not dwell so much upon the persons of those who worked with the Lord as upon the work which they were instrumental in bringing out. The author of the Acts of the Apostles reminds us that, in the former treatise which he wrote, he set forth all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day He was taken up; and surely this second book might be described as having for its theme all that Jesus intended to do and to teach after He was taken up. The theme of the remainder of the books of the New Testament is the life, and the work, and the personality of the eternal, the Incarnate Son of God, and so it matters not very much by whom or through whose instrumentality the work was carried on. James and the other ten Apostles appear, perhaps, every now and then, as elements and factors in that work—they are not really the persons by whom that work was accomplished. Oh, if we could only remember that we are, after all, but instruments of the Hand of God! If we could lose sight of individual human personality, and make much of that work which through human agents our Lord Jesus Christ continues to do!’

SLAIN BY THE SWORD

‘And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.’

Acts 12:2

The death of St. James is one of those events which, at first sight, seems so unintelligible to our minds. He was one of the first groups of the Apostles; and yet, almost without notice, according to the narrative, he is dispatched just at the caprice of a monarch. And then, when we come to the account of his death, it seems as summary as the death itself. Simply one short sentence describes the death of him who is the first apostolic martyr.

I. Its counterpart in modern life.—How often, in the range of our own experience, does not this event find counterpart in the more ordinary events of human life! How often it is that what seems to be a life full of promise, a life which might be almost regarded, by those who witness it, as indispensable to the well-being, the advantage of those among whom it is lived, is brought to a sudden and unexpected end!

II. The littleness of posthumous fame.—What does it matter, as regards ourselves, whether in future ages our deeds or our own sufferings are known and thought of? What does it matter to any Apostle to-day? James and John are household words, they are names which are familiar to us all, and yet, beyond just a few circumstances here and there in the books of the New Testament, we know very little whatever about them.

III. The littleness of death.—St. James passed out of this world. ‘Herod killed James the brother of John with the sword.’ To all outward appearances his work is done. Is that really so? His activities certainly in this life have come to an end, but his work is not over. The Apostles are the foundations of the Church of God, Jesus Christ Himself being the head corner-stone. The work which they accomplished during the years of their mortal life, being done in His Name, and by His power and influence, is a work which survives those who were instrumental in its fulfilment. The work of St. Peter, and St. James, and John, is day by day reaping its fruit; day by day producing some active and living effect in the Church of God. Their mortal life may be over, but that which they effected during its continuance in the Name and by the might of their Divine Master goes on and on.

IV. In the hands of God.—There are other points, too, which it is well for us to notice. Notice the great contrast between St. James and St. Peter. St. Peter was in prison at the same time. Why was it that of the two, one was taken and the other left? We cannot fathom the inscrutable decrees of God. The great mystery of life and death we must leave in His Hands—we know not. Or take the contrast in the dealings of God with St. Peter. We know that God, by the angel, delivered the Apostle Peter from the bondage of prison, and that He, at the same time, provided an angel who stood behind the headsman to receive the soul of the martyred Apostle St. James, and take it to the Kingdom above. We know the life of God was equally manifested in the death of him who died as in the prolongation of the life of him who continued to live. And so in the case of St. James by contrast with John, his brother. Both had expressed the wish that their participation in the Kingdom should not in any way separate the one from the other. Why was it that the one was called so soon, and the other lingered to such length of years? Again, we know not; so let us learn to leave the question of living and dying in the hands of God, whether of ourselves or of those who are near and dear.

—Rev. G. R. Hogg.

Illustration

‘No one can carefully read the history of “the glorious company of the Apostles” without noticing how our Lord taught them and trained them, and how their natural characters became quite changed. As Whittier says—

“They touched His garment’s fold, and soon

The Heavenly Alchemist transformed their very dust to gold.”

St. James at one time desired great things for himself, but at last he dies for the faith of Christ and becomes one of “the noble army of martyrs”; in fact, he was the first martyr of the Apostles.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

EVIL OVER-RULED

The early death of the Apostle instructs us as to certain principles that have ruled throughout the history of the Church of Christ. In his death we see—

I. The permitted power of evil.—Herod, whose character was without a single virtue, assails, and assails successfully, the infant Church of Christ. One of the Apostles is slain, and another imprisoned with murderous design. The Church of Christ is not made sacred and inviolate from the power of wicked men.

II. The restrained power of evil.—‘Because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.’ But he is not permitted to accomplish this portion of his cruel purpose. St. James is slain, but St. Peter is wonderfully rescued. The power of wickedness is a restrained and limited power.

III. The overruled power of evil.—The slaying of St. James was not an unmixed evil. The Church needed the death of St. James as much as the life of St. Peter; in other words, the Church of Christ requires martyrs as well as teachers.

Illustration

‘Every sapling of the Lord’s planting has required a plentiful watering of tears and blood before it has taken root and grown in the world. Liberty, truth, religion, have never made much way until men have died for them. Erasmus, a great and good man, to whom Christianity owes much, a man not without faults, and not the kind of man to make a martyr, has this entry in one of his works: “Two monks were yesterday burned for Lutheranism, the first victims in this place; and now the whole city has begun to favour strenuously the Reformed Religion.” ’

(THIRD OUTLINE)

DEATH AND ITS RESULTS

On the Apostle’s side we are called to notice—

I. Death putting the stamp of greatness upon a man.—We had not known how great St. James was but for his death. He was a man whom Herod, and common report on which he acted, recognised as one of the first and chief in the Church of Christ. Only as death takes them do we come to know how truly great and noble Christ’s servants are.

II. Death abruptly closing the early possibilities of the man.—Who can tell what this man might have been and might have done had he lived to the years of St. Peter, or for the half century during which his brother John survived. All these possibilities were suddenly and roughly ended by Herod’s sword. Death often steps in and blights the fair promise made; and better death should do it than dishonour and sin.

III. Death exhibiting the diversities of life and service appointed to men.—Three names are here brought together: St. James and St. Peter and John. The first is cut off early and suddenly, his course not half run. The second lives and labours on to the limit of threescore years and ten. The third is spared to extreme old age, and dies naturally towards the close of the first Christian century. Here is a wonderful diversity of life and service still manifested. Let us not be anxious for ourselves or for others. Let us leave all with Christ.

IV. Death rendering a future life necessary and sure.—If there be no hereafter, the darkness around this scene is deep and awful. An act like this makes the future certain. A good man cannot thus be made to perish. Herod’s sword was to the Apostle the stroke of freedom, and with a bound his spirit passed into the presence of Jesus, to renew under nobler conditions the fellowship begun on earth.

Illustration

‘Ask not of Him more than this,

Leave it in his Saviour’s breast,

Whether, early called to bliss,

He in youth shall find his rest,

Or armèd in his station wait,

Till the Lord be at the gate.’

‘ANSWERED PRAYERS’

‘Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him.’

Acts 12:5

‘But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.’

Philemon 1:22

The two passages taken together, and considered in the light of subsequent events, cover the whole subject of Divine Answers to Prayer; prayer which takes the form of petition for some definite, outside good, which appears to the soul of the suppliant needful and desirable. The first passage supplies clear and visible evidence that God can and will answer such prayers. The second passage supplies inspired testimony, confirmed by historical fact, that God can and does answer such prayers, though His operations may be unseen.

I. The similarity in the two cases.—The circumstances are almost identical. The differences are only in names, and times, and places. In both cases we have a portion of the Church of Christ bowed in earnest prayer before her Divine Head, beseeching Him to rescue His faithful Apostle from the power of a blood-thirsty tyrant; and in both cases the prayer is answered, and the Apostle is freed.

(a) The region into which prayer may enter. The only sphere to which prayer properly belongs, men say, is that which is personal, and inward, and spiritual. To pass from ourselves to the outside world, to affairs of human government and human laws, to the natural universe, is foolish and vain. The examples here given are against such statements. In matters that concern the free action of our fellow-men, the arrangements of human life, and the laws of nature, prayer has a voice, prayer may be offered.

(b) Prayer has direct results therein. A good-humoured sceptic might say, ‘Pray for others as much as you like. Pray that they may be delivered from the destructive action of Nature’s laws, or from human evil and wrong. It may do you some good in the way of deepening your sympathies, but any outward results are impossible.’ This is to deny the facts and statements before us. Through the prayers of the Church, St. Peter and St. Paul are restored to liberty.

(c) Prayer does not always receive the answer desired. There came a time when St. Peter and St. Paul were again in prison, and their lives imperilled. Without doubt the Christian Church prayed for their release as earnestly then as now. But the petition was not granted, at least not in the way expected and desired. The apostles were released, but by death—released, not to earthly toil, but to heavenly rest. It is a mistake to suppose, and a misrepresentation to declare, that the Christian Church teaches that the good asked in prayer is always given. Christians pray, if they pray aright, not with a desire to impose their will upon God, and upon His universe. And where the answer is not given according to their desire, they are content to believe that it is in respect of things they themselves would not have desired, could they have known as God knows.

(d) Prayer is a mighty power in the affairs of men, a mighty weapon put into the hands of the Church. How unequal seem the forces arrayed against each other! Herod with his royal resources; Nero with his imperial power, walled prisons, and armed men: on the other side a few weak men and women bowed in prayer. Yet against those prayers, and against the will of Him to whom those prayers are addressed, king and emperor, prisons and guards, are ineffectual, and the Church rejoices in the restoration of St. Peter and St. Paul. The Church of Christ is resistless for the purposes of her great mission, when fully armed with the power of prayer.

II. The distinction between the two cases.—The same answer is given, but in very different ways. In the first case, there is a direct Divine interposition. No man who belives the Scriptures can doubt the Divine answer. God’s hand is seen, thrust out of the thick darkness in which He hides Himself, touching and conquering all obstacles, and lifting His servant into liberty and life. In the other case there is nothing strange and miraculous. St. Paul is summoned before the imperial tribunal, is allowed as a Roman citizen to plead his cause, and, as the result, he is set at liberty. Men might say, ‘There is no answer to prayer here. St. Paul regained his freedom through a tyrant’s whim, a passing gleam of good nature in the savage Nero, a momentary impression made upon him by St. Paul’s evident sincerity and earnestness, or through the circumstances of the time when the fury of persecution had for the moment glutted itself.’ But St. Paul himself testifies, ‘Through your prayers I shall be given to you.’

(a) The blessedness of the man who lives and moves in an atmosphere of prayer; around whom cluster thickly, as guardian forces, the ceaseless petitions of the people of God; upon whose head descends continually the anointing oil of a thousand benedictions.

(b) The exalted privilege of being identified with the Redeemer’s visible Church. Men might speak lightly of it, but is it a light thing to be remembered daily by thousands in their prayers, who pray that we may be strengthened amid our temptations, comforted in sickness and care and sorrow, delivered from threatening evil, and preserved in faithfulness to Him Whose name we bear?

III. The relation of the one case to the other.—The one explains the other. The intention of a miracle, as one has well put it, is to manifest the Divine in what is common and ordinary. A miracle is designed to teach men that God is everywhere working, and that the ordinary operations of nature and life are but as the veil behind which he screens Himself from our beholding, and which, in the miracle, is for the moment removed. God delivered St. Peter from prison by a miracle, in answer to the prayers of the Church, not that men might think that by this method only He answers prayer, but that we might expect and discern the answer when it is given by ordinary and natural means.

(a) Learn not to expect supernatural appearances and supernatural operations in answer to prayer.

(b) Learn to recognize God in that which is natural, and to accept the answer when it comes in the ordinary course of events.

Illustration

‘I have read of a king who led forth his steel-clad chivalry to place a despot’s yoke upon a free people. Just before the battle was joined, he saw their ranks bending low to the ground. “See,” he cried in exultation, “they submit already.” “Yes,” said a wise counsellor, who knew the men better than his master, “they submit, but it is to God, not to us.” And in a few hours the king and his army were scattered in shameful rout. Let the Church of Christ, as she stands face to face to-day with so many opposing forces, submit herself to God in humble, earnest prayer, and every foe shall be vanquished, and a glorious victory won.’

A CHRISTIAN PRISONER

‘Peter therefore was kept in prison.’

Acts 12:5

There are prisons and prisons. If we could read each other’s hearts, I am afraid we should find many a disciple needing deliverance to-day almost as much as St. Peter did on this memorable occasion. Look at this story as a picture of the deliverance which God still works for His own people in their time of need. Notice first the prisoner. Who was he? and what was his condition? Well, he was—

I. A Christian in danger.—St. Peter was in Herod’s power, that is, he was in Satan’s power, for Herod was Satan’s instrument. It is an awful reflection that Satan can use not only wicked men, but sometimes even good men to oppress Christ’s servants. Let suffering saints trodden under some insolent Herod’s heel remember St. Peter and be comforted.

II. A Christian in the dark.—Further, St. Peter was in the dark. Yes! But remember there are different kinds of darkness. There is the darkness of sin and there is the darkness of suffering. St. Peter’s was the darkness of suffering. There is a special promise for that kind of darkness (Isaiah 50:10). As a father might say to his children on a journey ‘When you come to a tunnel, sit still till you are through,’ or, as I have sometimes said to my fellow-passengers in a tunnel, ‘Look up and you will find light from above.’ As Dorothea Trudel used to say, ‘We may sit in darkness provided the darkness does not sit in us.’ Still we cannot limit the great salvation. Let the sadness be the gloom of sorrow or of sin, or what it may, at Christ’s approach the darkness turns to day.

III. A Christian asleep.—St. Peter was asleep. That was to his credit personally. Thank God he could sleep in such circumstances. It was the night before his execution, but he was sleeping as calmly as a child on its mother’s breast. How was it that he was so composed? When Sir Walter Raleigh was about to lay his head upon the block he turned to the executioner and said, ‘My friend, it matters little how the head lies so long as the heart is right.’ Yes,

‘Jesus can make a dying bed

As soft as downy pillows are.’

That was the secret of Peter’s tranquillity. His heart was right. But Peter’s sleep on the eve of his execution is a picture of a very different sort of sleep too. Is it not a sad reflection that many souls still are both in prison and asleep? Some men, it has been well said, use the doctrines of the Gospel as a man does his bedclothes—they wrap themselves up in them, and you hear no more about them. How is it with us? (Ephesians 5:14).

IV. A Christian in chains.—St. Peter was not only asleep, he was bound between two soldiers, and his guards must answer for him with their lives. It seemed a hopeless case enough. There were the fetters and the foes and the fortress. How could he escape? There were the fetters—what are they? Christian, you know what they are—the chains of your besetting sin, the chains of evil habit, the chains of lust and pride and worldly conformity and the like. Have you been set free from these? And then still subtler bonds, silken and slender, almost invisible sometimes—the love of praise, the love of ease, the love of gold, what are these? Are these not fetters? Then the foes, the guards who stand sentry at the gates—are they not real? Sometimes in this struggle to escape from prison a man’s foes are ‘they of his own household’ (Matthew 10:36). The old companions, the worldly friends, yes, they may be foes indeed. Last, not least, the fortress, the great wall of circumstance that hems you round, the circle in which you move.

Are any of us really free? (John 8:26).

Rev. E. W. Moore.

THE CHURCH AT PRAYER

‘Prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him.’

Acts 12:5

‘More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of,’ or that the Church dreams of either, for that matter. When this prayer was answered, the Church could not believe it true, and as for St. Peter, he thought it was a dream. After all, who can blame him? ‘When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream’ (Psalms 126:1). And yet though unbelief mingled with the Church’s prayers, we may all take a lesson from that prayer-meeting. If we want souls prayed out of prison we must learn how to pray. There were three things about it that characterise prevailing prayer.

I. There was unity—the Church met together. Like Daniel of old (Daniel 2:17-18) the early Church believed in the power of united prayer. There were no dissentients, they were of one heart and one soul. Their prayer-meeting was held at ‘the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark’ (Acts 12:12). It may be that the ‘upper room’ of Acts 1 was there. Evidently this house was a sort of centre and was given up to Christ’s service.

II. There was intensity. The word in the Greek, rendered ‘without ceasing,’ means literally ‘stretched out.’ Stretched out prayer was made. One great reason why our prayers do not prevail is that they are not stretched out, they are not intense. There was an agony in these people’s prayers—they could not let God alone, their whole soul was in their petition. Though the case seemed hopeless and though they could not believe the answer when it came, still the Spirit of God constrained them to urge their request.

III. There was definiteness.—‘Generalities are the death of prayer.’ There are some prayers that seem to ‘aim at nothing and hit it.’ These people had something to pray for. They knew what they wanted and they asked for it. When these three marks, unity, intensity, definiteness, are found in our prayers they will succeed as this one did.

—Rev. E. W. Moore.

MAN’S EXTREMITY, GOD’S OPPORTUNITY

‘And his chains fell of from his hands.’

Acts 12:7

How was prayer answered for St. Peter, and when? Not till the last moment. St. Peter was at the last extremity; a few hours more and all would have been over; he was to have been executed in the sight of all men the very next day. God’s help came late; it often does, but it never comes too late. ‘Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.’ Christ comes in the fourth watch—in the darkest hour, but it is darkest just before the dawn. So it was here, at the supreme moment Christ intervened (Psalms 146:5; 2 Peter 2:9). He has many resources. Mark the stages in His procedure here.

I. Light.—‘A light shined in the prison’ (Acts 12:7). Light ‘to make the darkness visible’; light to show the prison cell, to let you see the poor confined imprisoned life that has been yours. Light to illumine, and light to cheer! to give a hope of better things; to show you escape is possible; above all, to reveal the angel of the covenant standing at your side. A word can do it. ‘God said, Let there be light, and there was light.’

II. Leading.—With the light comes—leading. Listen: ‘Arise up quickly,’ and ‘his chains fell off from his hands’ (Acts 12:7). Yes, the fetters were gone, but he was not free yet. He must pass the foes and escape the fortress. ‘Follow ME.’ What a crisis it was! Upon obedience to that call his life, his liberty, his all depended. Half mechanically, like the man in the dream he thought he was, St. Peter responded. But you and I cannot respond mechanically. It must be an intelligent following, and it will need many a heart-searching to be obedient to the Heavenly Vision.

III. Liberty.—But it must be done, or there can be no liberty for you and me. Yet as you follow be of good cheer, liberty is nigh. Barrier after barrier yields before the angel’s noiseless touch—the iron gate most formidable of all opens of its own accord, and, saved with a wonderful salvation, the prisoner is free.

Saints in prison or saints set free, in which category are we found? Imprisoned Peters are of little use to God. Asleep, in danger, in the dark, in chains, how can He make you a blessing to the world? If not for your own sake then for the sake of others, rest not content until like St. Peter you are out of prison.

Rev. E. W. Moore.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

PETER’S DELIVERANCE

The early Church at this time seemed to be in a very bad way. Herod, son of the Herod who slew the Innocents, vexed the Church, and it might have been well-nigh blotted out if it had not been Divine. He took St. James, the brother of John, and slew him with the sword. He had got St. Peter in the darkest, deepest dungeon, and he was quite determined that he should not escape. Nothing seemed more certain than that St. Peter was to be murdered in the morning. But ‘man proposes and God disposes.’

I. Ready to die.—What was St. Peter doing? Reposing in the arms of God. He was fast asleep between the two soldiers. Was not his mind disturbed? No, not in the least. It is one of those beautiful pictures that the Scriptures give us. He was loved of God, and ‘so He giveth His beloved sleep.’ We cannot help remembering what happened on the lake the day when Christ was asleep. St. Peter woke Him up and said, ‘Master, carest Thou not that we perish?’ What a change! He was afraid of death then; here his death was imminent—but all fear had gone. It is well for us just to pause and wonder whether our religion will stand us as well as that when our time comes.

II. Praying friends.—Well now, we have seen what St. Peter was doing. What were St. Peter’s friends doing? Their very best. They were praying. They had met together, as the beautiful little bit of Scripture tells us, in a house to pray earnestly for St. Peter. If you look in the margin you see how instantly, how earnestly, they were pouring out prayer to God to save St. Peter. He was so much to them then. There are some circumstances that we cannot help. There are certain difficulties that we cannot forestall. There are certain people that we cannot save. What are we to do? Did not St. Peter’s case seem hopeless? St. Peter was safe in prison, and the Jews were waiting outside to see him put to death in the morning. So they all met together and prayed. If a mother comes to me and says, ‘What can I do? I have no influence over my poor boy: he is going to the death.’ What should I say? ‘Never cease to pray to God for him!’ If they prayed St. Peter’s chains off, you can pray like them. See the forces. Herod, the soldiers, the prison, the chains, the locks, the warders—that is the force on the one side. And the force on the other? The poor little Church kneeling down in a room to pray! See the two forces, earth’s force on the one side, and heaven’s on the other.

III. Peter’s deliverance.—Well then, of course you know the story well, the chains fell off, and St. Peter was delivered. The Angel of the Lord came—just as the Angel went into the lions’ den and shut the mouths of the lions—and awoke St. Peter at midnight, and as he got up the chains fell off his hands. St. Peter himself was amazed. He thought he saw a vision and was walking in his sleep. But the first ward was passed, and then the second ward was passed, and then the great gate of the prison opened with a clang of it own accord, and they passed out into the open air. Then St. Peter knew that it was not a dream. With the fresh air about him the fancies had gone, the free air of God had blown away the dream, and St. Peter knew of a surety that the Lord had sent His angel and delivered him out of the expectation of the Jews.

IV. Faith in prayer.—We should all remember that though the prison doors may be shut against our hopes, the gates of heaven are always open to prayer; that when circumstances seem to bind you so that you cannot move hand or foot to help, you can pray, and by your prayers put the case into God’s hands; and if you say, ‘Thy will be done,’ your prayer must be answered, because you are quite sure that God’s will will be done. It is a beautiful example of faith in prayer, and I should like you to say to yourselves as you go away: ‘Well, when I cannot do anything for anybody else, when I find that the bolts and the bars of the prison and everything is against my helping, I can pray.’ If you believe in prayer there is no limit to it.

Rev. A. H. Stanton.