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A Parable of Persistence
Christ Jesus taught the need of persistence in prayer. One means he used for this teaching was the parable, the homely tale from which a moral or a spiritual lesson may be taken. The parable of the friend at midnight directly follows the momentous statement of the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus gave his disciples in response to their appeal (Luke 11:1), "Lord, teach us to pray." Evidently, prayer is to be persisted in until it is answered.
In this particular parable the leading character, representing one who prays, goes to a friend at midnight and asks that he lend him three loaves. A guest has arrived, and the host has nothing to give him to eat. The one "within" refuses at first, saying, "Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee."
Jesus brought home the point of persistence by saying that although the friend would not rise and give the suppliant the loaves because of friendship, yet because of the other's importunity he rose and gave him as many loaves as he needed—perhaps implying also the great generosity of God, who gives more than we ask for.
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June 23, 1962 issue
View Issue-
A Correct View of Money
WALLACE MOIR
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Evil Is Nothing
VIRGINIA LAYNG WILLIAMS
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DESIRE
Almeda Doris Lobaugh
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What Is the Prayer That Avails?
MARION P. PHILLIPS
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THE WEDNESDAY EVENING MEETING
Leslie Marcoux
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To Love Is to Bless and to Be Blessed
EVELYN MAY GARNHAM
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Infinite Development
LACY BELL RICHTER
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"The Christian Scientist has enlisted"
MARIE ANTOINETTE COWING
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"I am not hurt, and I know the reason why"
CLIFF WALTER KRUEGER
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A Parable of Persistence
Helen Wood Bauman
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Christian Scientists and Vaccination
Ralph E. Wagers
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About sixteen years ago, soon...
Lelia O. Felder
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For several years I always carried...
Wilbur S. Jenkins
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About nine years ago, when we...
Juanita M. Nelson
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My gratitude to God for our...
Hazel Marie Cass
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It is with the greatest joy and...
Anna-Lisa Moss
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Several years ago my husband...
Rita Carter
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When I first heard of Christian Science...
Hilda M. Bangerter Bush
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Signs of the Times
with contributions from George Todt, Urlic Jelinek