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| The Power of Harmony in Relation to Prayer.
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Book
XIV.
1. The Power of Harmony in
Relation to Prayer.
“Again I say unto you that if two of you shall
agree6037
on earth as
touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for
them.”6038
The word
symphony is strictly applied to the harmonies of sounds in music.
And there are indeed among musical sounds some accordant and others
discordant. But the Evangelic Scripture is familiar with the name
as applied to musical matters in the passage, “He heard a
symphony and dancing.”6039
For it was
fitting that when the son who had been lost and found came by penitence
into concord with his father a symphony should be heard on the occasion
of the joyous mirth of the house. But the wicked Laban was not
acquainted with the word symphony in his saying to Jacob, “And if
thou hadst told me I would have sent thee away with mirth and with
music and with drums and a harp.”6040
But akin to the symphony of this
nature is that which is written in the second Book of Kings when
“the brethren of Aminadab went before the ark, and David and his
son played before the Lord on instruments artistically fitted with
might and with songs;”6041
for the instruments
thus fitted with might and with songs, had in themselves the musical
symphony which is so powerful that when two only, bring along with the
symphony which has relation to the music that is divine and spiritual,
a request to the Father in heaven about anything whatsoever, the Father
grants the request to those who ask along with the symphony on
earth,—which is most miraculous,—those things which those
who have made the symphony spoken of may have asked. So also I
understand the apostolic saying “Defraud ye not one the other
except it be by agreement for a season that ye may give yourselves unto
prayer.”6042
For since the
word harmony is applied to those who marry according to God in the
passage from Proverbs which is as follows: “Fathers will
divide their house and substance to their sons, but from God the woman
is married to the man,”6043
it is a logical
consequence of the harmony being from God, that the name and the deed
should enjoy the agreement with a view to prayer, as is indicated in
the word, “unless it be by agreement.”6044
Then the Word repeating that the
agreeing of two on the earth is the same thing as the agreeing with
Christ, adds, “For where two or three are gathered together in My
name.”6045
Therefore the
two or three who are gathered together in the name of Christ are those
who are in agreement on earth, not two only but sometimes also three. But he who has
the power will consider whether this agreement and a congregation of
this sort in the midst of which Christ is, can be found in more, since
“narrow and straightened is the way that leadeth unto life, and
few be they that find it.”6046
But
perhaps also not even few but two or three make a symphony as Peter and
James and John, to whom as making a symphony the Word of God showed His
own glory. But two made a symphony, Paul and Sosthenes, when
writing the first Epistle to the Corinthians;6047
and after this Paul and Timothy when sending the second Epistle to the
same.6048
And even three made a symphony when
Paul and Silvanus and Timothy gave instruction by letter to the
Thessalonians.6049
But if it be
necessary also from the ancient Scriptures to bring forward the three
who made a symphony on earth, so that the Word was in the midst of them
making them one, attend to the superscription of the Psalms, as for
example to that of the forty-first, which is as follows:
“Unto the end, unto understanding, for the sons of
Korah.”6050
For though
there were three sons of Korah whose names we find in the Book of
Exodus,6051
Aser, which is, by
interpretation, “instruction,” and the second Elkana, which
is translated, “possession of God,” and the third Abiasaph,
which in the Greek tongue might be rendered, “congregation of the
father,” yet the prophecies were not divided but were both spoken
and written by one spirit, and one voice, and one soul, which wrought
with true harmony, and the three speak as one, “As the heart
panteth after the springs of the water, so panteth my soul after thee,
O God.”6052
But also they
say in the plural in the forty-fourth Psalm, “O God, we have
heard with our ears.”6053
But if you
wish still further to see those who are making symphony on earth look
to those who heard the exhortation, “that ye may be perfected
together in the same mind and in the same judgment,”6054
and who strove after the goal, “the
soul and the heart of all the believers were one,”6055
who have become such, if it be possible for
such a condition to be found in more than two or three, that there is
no discord between them, just as there is no discord between the
strings of the ten-stringed psaltery with each other. But they
were not in symphony in earth who said, “I am of Paul, and I of
Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ,”6056
but there were schisms among them, upon the
dissolution of which they were gathered together in company with the
spirit in Paul, with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ,6057
that they might no longer “bite and
devour one another so that they were consumed by one
another;”6058
for discord
consumes, as concord brings together, and admits6059
| 6059 Or reading
χωρίζει, following the
Vetus Inter, keeps apart. | the Son of God who comes in the midst of
those who have become at concord. And strictly, indeed, concord
takes place in two things generic, through the perfecting together, as
the Apostle has called it, of the same mind by an intellectual grasp of
the same opinions, and through the perfecting together of the same
judgment, by a like way of living. But if whenever two of us
agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be
done for them of the Father of Jesus who is in heaven,6060
plainly when this is not done for them of
the Father in heaven as touching anything that they shall ask, there
the two have not been in agreement on earth; and this is the cause why
we are not heard when we pray, that we do not agree with one another on
earth, neither in opinions nor in life. But further also if we
are the body of Christ and God hath set the members each one of them in
the body that the members may have the same care one for another, and
may agree with one another, and when one member suffers, all the
members suffer with it, and if one be glorified, they rejoice with
it,6061
| 6061 1 Cor. xii. 25, 18, 25, 26. | we ought to practise the symphony which
springs from the divine music, that when we are gathered together in
the name of Christ, He may be in the midst of us, the Word of God, and
the Wisdom of God, and His Power.6062
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