Righteousness exalts a nation and unrighteousness yields corrosive effects that debase and ultimately destroy a people, exposing them to self-wrought disaster and suffering in the dispensation of divine judgement. Great responsibility descends upon the shoulders of servants of state and society and great temptations assail their hearts.Their good morale and moral integrity, sustained by God’s grace and believing prayer, are of inestimable benefit to the nations they serve. All of this is common sense but it should inspire ardent common prayer. Leaders in any capacity are fundamentally human and tragically fallen in their nature. Weakness, brokenness, corruption are likely to operate in all positions of privilege and power and the vocation of the Christian citizen is to engage in fervent prayer for officialdom.

The Litany does not overlook the universal dimension of the duty of prayer and rises to the scale of international concerns seeking the welfare of all mankind and harmonious relations between all people. Such prayer is not suffused with the naivety that worldwide goodwill can be achieved by human devices but only attained through the influences of divine grace.

If so called secular matters, albeit significant, are to be presented to God in earnest supplication the spiritual interests and needs of the human heart resume precedence in the four following petitions:

*That it may please thee to give us an heart to love and dread thee, and diligently to live after thy commandments . . . *That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of grace to hear meekly thy Word, and to receive it with pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit . . . .*That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred, and are deceived. . . . *That it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand; and to comfort and help the weak-hearted; and to raise up them that fall; and finally to beat down Satan under our feet . . . .

Salvation is the bringing of the human heart into alignment with God. If redemption is to the fore in an earlier portion of the Litany the inseparable aspect of renewal receives attention at this point in the offering of prayer. We think of the title of Professor John Murray’s exceedingly helpful book Redemption Accomplished and Applied. We are not only to be taught of grace but to be touched by it. Salvation has been wrought for us but it must also be at work within us. Our precious form of comprehensive prayer affirms so winsomely the facts of the salvation Christ has provided for us. We not only bring our intellects to saving truth but also our hearts and affections, our feelings and emotions, and the truth which permeates through us produces holy thought and action. Whitefield, Romaine, Simeon and others recommended faith in a “felt Christ”.

In Christ we are granted a heart to love God and we are made sensible of dwelling in the divine love. The mercy and majesty of God fill us with awe. There is no contradiction in loving and fearing the Lord concurrently. His immensity, power, dominion, and holiness evoke a healthy dread in comparison with our finitude, limitations, and sinfulness. In cold weather we hugely love a fire but we astutely respect its ability to burn and consume us. “Dread” is not too strong a term to employ before the face, force, and fiery nature of God. How delicious it is to be loved by he who is strong and to know that he has averted his just wrath away from us and handles us with such tenderness. We know what he might justly do to wicked and wretched miscreants such as ourselves and we know that through Christ as the expression of his free compassion that he will not do it - that is apply the frightful penalty of our revolt against him. The Saviour has interposed himself between an angry God and hell-deserving sinners. The love of the Father (Father and Son are not at odds in the scheme of our deliverance) devised a solution to the dilemma posed by ourselves (Hosea 11). The Son would suffer in our stead. God quenches his fury against evil by smothering it in his own bosom.

Grace is essential, and so is its increase. In the moments of our first awakening we welcome grace but underestimate its absolute necessity. Meekness before the Word, affection for it, and obedience and conformity to it are not natural dispositions or attainments. Not to any extent. All is of grace and grace is a sovereign gift. The dew of the Spirit must descend upon the soil of our hearts and moisten them before the shoots of love spring forth and the fruits of holiness appear. The heart must be opened to the regenerating, renewing influences of the Holy Spirit (Lydia Acts 16:14) and by the miraculous power of the Word he works a wonderful renovation of the soul and sustains it in its new existence and character (Philippians 1:6).

By nature it is easier for us to err in the things of God than we might suppose. There are voices within us, and urges that cause us to drift away from the pure doctrine of the word. We are susceptible to our own undetected preferences (the original meaning of the noun heresy) and we may unsuspectingly insert them in our reading of the holy text. Such unfortunate editorial activity may not threaten our salvation but there is always a slippery slope adjacent to the path of private opinion. Almost every great Christian leader takes a minor detour somewhere in their theology either through misapprehension of the Scriptures or in foolish quest of originality. An errant notion may become an enormous obsession. The little wrinkles in our pattern of thought are usually ironed out in the process of spiritual maturation and peculiarities and idiosyncrasies subside.

There is however a basic stubbornness to human nature and an obdurate reliance upon our own judgement. Added to this is our native hatred toward God and our consequent repudiation of his truth. If these tendencies are not subdued by grace error may lead to the earning of the wages of a sinful mindset. This danger is a concern of the church and skilled measures need to be adopted to woo those who have departed from the integrity of the faith back to the fold; mildness where best and severity where the situation is serious.

John Calvin cared pastorally for the soul of Michael Servetus, universally condemned by Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed for grave and exaggerated promulgation of a multiplicity of heresies, and, as was the case in those times in practically every European state, also sentenced to capital punishment for the crime of endangering human souls as well as committing unimaginable blasphemy. The great French Reformer earnestly reasoned with the mischievous Spanish weaver of falsehood. Failing to convince him of the option of repentance Calvin persuaded the Council of Geneva to mitigate the nature of what he believed to be a just punishment to a milder form of execution. Harsh times prevailed in the 16th century, and as a son of his generation Calvin should not be judged too harshly from our perspective (the same precaution applies to Francis Walsingham without whom England would have been pitched back into pre-Reformation darkness and superstition). By his own lights Calvin was on the side of mercy and his consent to Servetus’ death was by no means exceptional. Even the gentle Philip Melancthon concurred with the Genevan. It was a case of who would “catch the scoundrel first”.

There may also be relatively innocent victims of false teaching who attach themselves blindly and gullibly to impressive but blind leaders. Such strays are to be guided gently home. Richard Hooker is wise and helpful in his understanding of and sympathy for the generations of members of Christ’s flock sadly deceived under the misrule of bad shepherds prior to the reformation of the church. In dark times true faith may be faint but the slightest glimmer is proof that the Light of the World has entered humble and trusting souls.

The fourth petition in focus is inclusive of every kind of believer. Some stand - but by grace alone. We need to be held upright in our faith, profession, and walk with God. The danger of religious ecstasy to any degree of spiritual prosperity and comfort, is the lapse into self-confidence and smug contentment. If the apostle Paul needed thorns in the flesh to deflate his self-exaltation following experiences of great exultation (2 Corinthians 12; 1-10 ) how much more do we require numerous pricks to our pride. Only the divine hand can keep us steady on our feet and firm in the steps we take

Every Christian discovers themselves to be weak-hearted on some occasions in some way. Our constitution is delicate. The Old Testament scholar Edmond Jacob reminds us repeatedly that man is weak: “The first affirmation of the Old Testament about man and which underlies all the rest is that he is a creature and as such shares in the feebleness and limitations of all creatures . . . The feebleness of man inherent in his creaturely estate is one of the reasons why God is moved to pity and to pardon . . . . The opposition between God and man is defined by the prophet Isaiah as that of flesh and spirit (31:3), flesh being synonymous with feebleness and spirit with power; therefore the trust man places in his fellow man is vain and illusory” (Theology of the Old Testament, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1958, page 151).

We must not be surprised if the fundamental weakness and present fallenness of our creature-hood sometimes plagues and entraps the Christian. Discovery of our weakness under trial and temptation is a sharp reminder of our absolute dependence upon the Lord our Maker. It is a salutary stroke at our grotesque pride and an invitation to find a ready refuge in our heavenly Father. The great awakeners of the 18th century, Henry Venn and William Romaine, were at one in the ministry of demolishing human hubris. Venn wrote to Romaine, “I think, we are both agreed to pull man down, and when we have the proud chit (Yorkshire for child) down, to keep him down. For this is the main. And never let him recover so much as his knees, till with a broken heart and contrite spirit, the dear REDEEMER raise him (‘An Iron Pillar’ The Life and Times of William Romaine, Tim Shenton, Evangelical Press USA, P.O. Box 825, Webster, New York, 14580, USA).

With discernment as to cause and with loving mercy we are to support folk when weak-hearted and not to be rudely dismissive and given to hasty chastisement or the display of our superior gems of spiritual advice. Patience pays. We ourselves are closer to collapse and brokenness than we are aware. Those who think of themselves as religious titans can be toppled in a trice. We should err on the side of compassion with humble gratitude that we are not so afflicted when our condition could be easily such, and believers have to find the balance between bearing one’s own burdens (the route of responsibility) and sharing the burden of others (the way of mutual cherishing). Unbeknown to us many saints endure great struggles and silent griefs.

Believers often fall. Our paths, retrospectively, are strewn with many slips, and sometimes there occur grave falls indeed. Our evils ways are not be condoned but full recovery to spiritual wellbeing is the desire for self and fellow saints. Enemies of the soul and enticements to wickedness are many and there exists an artful foe who will take advantage over us at every opportunity. He desires nothing less than our ruination. It is impossible to conceive of the craft and cruelty of Satan and of the vastness of his malignity operative in the affairs of men and the whole world. By divine permission he works on a colossal scale and in minute detail. He creates havoc, harm, and foretastes of hell everywhere that he can. Destruction and death are his heinous achievements. But to dwell on the evil one overmuch, his person and fiendish exploits, is almost akin to a perverse form of tribute to him. The scoundrel is a bitter and defeated rival of the Lord Jesus Christ, envying the sovereignty and homage that is rightly that of the Son. At the climax of the coming of the kingdom the Lord will finally beat down Satan under our feet. How effectively the Litany guides and braces our prayer life and informs it with solid theology.

The Rev. Roger Salter is an ordained Church of England minister where he had parishes in the dioceses of Bristol and Portsmouth before coming to Birmingham, Alabama to serve as Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Church.