What a remarkable thing! The very man who would never taste death, the man for whom God had ordained an infinitely better lot, the prophet who would ride to heaven in a chariot of fire and be translated without seeing death—this same man prayed, "Let me die. I am no better than my fathers."

Here we have memorable proof that God does not always answer prayer in kind, though he always does in effect. He gave Elijah something better than what he asked for, and thus truly heard and answered him.

How strange that lion-hearted Elijah—fresh from Mount Carmel's triumph!—should be so depressed by Jezebel's threat as to ask to die. And how blessedly kind of our heavenly Father that he did not take his desponding servant at his word!

There is a limit to the doctrine of the prayer of faith. We are not to expect that God will give us everything we choose to ask for. We know that sometimes we ask and do not receive because we ask amiss. If we ask for what is not promised—if we run counter to the spirit which the Lord would have us cultivate—if we ask contrary to his will or to the decrees of his providence—if we ask merely for the gratification of our own ease, without an eye to his glory—we must not expect that we shall receive.

Yet when we ask in faith, nothing doubting, if we receive not the precise thing asked for, we shall receive an equivalent, and more than an equivalent, for it. As one remarks, "If the Lord does not pay in silver, he will pay in gold; and if he does not pay in gold, he will pay in diamonds."

If he does not give you precisely what you ask for, he will give you that which is tantamount to it, and that which you will greatly rejoice to receive in lieu thereof.

Be then, dear reader, much in prayer, and make this evening a season of earnest intercession, but take heed what you ask.