Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and might things, which thou knowest not. — Jeremiah 33:3

THIS is a prison word: let those who are spiritually in prison prize it.

This second word tested his faith by prayer, and we doubt not that he endured the test, for in after days he saw great and mighty things, even as the Lord had promised.

1. Pray, though you have prayed. See previous chapter at 16th verse and onward.
2. Pray concerning your present trouble. In Jeremiah 32:24, the prophet mentions "the mounts" which were raised against Jerusalem, and in verse 4 of this chapter the Lord answers on that very point.
3. Pray, though you are still in prison after prayer. If deliverance tarries, make your prayers the more importunate.
4. Pray, for the word of the Lord comes to you with this command.
5. Pray, for the Holy Spirit prompts you, and helps you.

1. He has appointed prayer, and made arrangements for its presentation and acceptance. He could not have meant it to be a mere farce: that were to treat us as fools.
2. He prompts, encourages, and quickens prayer; and surely he would never mock us by exciting desires which he never meant to gratify. Such a thought well nigh blasphemes the Holy Ghost, who indites prayer in the heart.
3. His nature is such that he must hear his children.
4. He has given his promise in the text; and it is often repeated elsewhere: he cannot lie or deny himself.
5. He has already answered many of his people, and ourselves also.

• Health and cure (verse 6).


• Liberation from captivity (verse 7).


• Forgiveness of iniquity (verse 8).

Many years ago, the late Duchess of Gordon called on good Harrington Evans, and said, "I have just five minutes, but I could not leave town without calling to say 'good-bye'!" "Five minutes," said Mr. Evans, with that solemn and impressive manner by which he was distinguished; "five minutes! Then pray! Pray! Pray! Good morning." "I felt so struck with these words," said the Duchess to a friend, "that I could not forget them; and, as I thought on them, I was led to study prayer, as a means of grace as well as an act of worship, and ever after my chief work in the Lord's service became the promotion of prayer-meetings."

A young engineer was being examined, and this question was put to him: "Suppose you have a steam-pump constructed for a ship, under your own supervision, and know that everything is in perfect order, yet, when you throw out the hose, it will not draw; what should you think?" "I should think, sir, there must be a defect somewhere." "But such a conclusion is not admissible; for the supposition is that everything is perfect, and yet that the pump will not work." "Then, sir," replied the student,"I should look over the side of the ship to see if the river had run dry." Even so it would appear that if true prayer is not answered the nature of God must have changed.

God's praying people get to know much more of his mind than others; like as John, by weeping, got the book opened; and Daniel, by prayer, had the king's secret revealed unto him in a night vision. "Bene orasse, est bene studuisse;' said Luther; who, as he had much communion with God by prayer, so holy truths were daily more and more made known unto him, he knew not how or which way, as himself said. — Trapp

Sir Walter Raleigh one day asking a favor from Queen Elizabeth, the latter said to him, "Raleigh, when will you leave off begging?" To which he answered, "When your Majesty leaves off giving." Ask great things of God. Expect great things from God. Let his past goodness make us "instant in prayer." — New Cyclopaedia of Illustrative Anecdote

Thomas Brooks, alluding to the old classical myth of Daedalus, who, being imprisoned in the island of Crete, made wings for himself, by which he escaped to Italy, says, "Christians must do as Daedalus, who, when he could not escape by a way upon earth went by a way of heaven." Holy prayers are the wings of the soul's deliverance.

The dungeon of the Mamertine, where a probable tradition declares that Paul was for a while confined, is entered through a round hole in the floor of another dungeon above. The uppermost apartment is dark enough, but the lower one is darkness itself, so that the apostle's imprisonment was of the severest kind. We noticed, however, a strange fact — in the hard floor there is a beautiful fountain of clear crystal water, which doubtless was as fresh in Paul's day as it is now; of course the Papists believe the fountain to be miraculous; we who are not so credulous of traditions rather see in it a symbol full of instruction: there never was a dungeon for God's servants which was without its well of consolation. — C. H. S.