10.07 The cry of the church militant
VII. THE CRY OF THE CHURCH MILITANT Again, the prayer in the parable is the cry of the “Church Militant here in earth,” in its age-long struggle with the “powers of this world.” The Church is charged by its Head with the task of overcoming the world by bringing it into subjection to the Kingdom of God. Certainly the victory seems to be far off. The Church in the thick of the battle, say in the midst of one of our great modern cities, seems scarcely to hold its own, much less to prevail, against the forces of evil and indifference. It is easy to despair, at least to give way to depression, to be content with endurance and give up the hope of victory. The one supreme remedy for the Church is to set itself to unremitting intercession with God.
It is here that we specially see the providential purpose which has preserved the old Psalms to be the camp-songs of the Christian army. From them, in every variety of tone, the cry is ever rising “Avenge me of mine adversaries.” It is persistence of intercession that alone can keep the Church true to its task, quicken its harassed faith, and sustain its drooping spirit. For if it is thus “instant in prayer,’ 7 it comes within the promise, “Shall not God avenge His elect which cry day and night unto Him? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.” God knows His own time, it will come, and when it comes, the faithful Church will see the victory once achieved in the hidden spiritual world on the Cross of Christ made manifest before angels and men.
These, no doubt, are bold words, and, as I write them, the warning with which Jesus closes the parable meets the eye. “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith on the earth?” Shall He find His Church after all these centuries of waiting still proving its faith by the fervour of its prayer? Shall He find it still praying with unfaltering faith, and steadfast will, in spite of all the evidences of the power and persistence of evil, “Thy Kingdom come on earth?” Or shall He find that its intercessions have become a mere hollow sound of rhetoric out of which any real expectation of answer has vanished? It is a question which we may well lay to heart; and rather than give any confident answer, offer the humble prayer, “Lord increase our faith.”
TAGS: [Parables]