I am the Lord thy God, that teach thee profitable things (Isaias 48:17).
I. Consider first, the singular honour God has conferred upon you in choosing to become your teacher in the art of prayer. Therein He keeps you, so to say, at school, and with especial care attends to you, directs you, instructs you, and may with very truth say, “I am the Lord thy God, that teach thee profitable things.” When He speaks to you from the pulpit, doubtless the lesson then imparted comes from Him, but from Him teaching as it were in a public capacity, and ministering to the many; but when He teaches you in prayer He becomes your own private tutor, such as great men usually have in their houses; and therefore how much more signal is the honour which He then confers on you! Are you not confounded by the reflection that a God of so much majesty should deign to stoop so low? And yet how do you relish His school; with how much regularity frequent it? Do you listen diligently to His lessons?
II. Consider secondly, the nature of the lessons which the Lord loves to give you. They are neither curious, nor subtle, nor sublime; they are simply profitable: “I am the Lord thy God, that teach thee profitable things;” lessons directed to the mortification of your disorderly appetites, the uprooting of vices, the practice of virtues, and that more intimate union with your Lord which you ought to attain to. Here, then, is the token whereby you shall ascertain if your prayer be efficacious; not lights, nor tears, nor sweet repose, but the fruit which results from it, as shown in your actions. If after the frequent practice of prayer you find yourself more mortified, more firm of purpose, more fervent, and in closer union with God, then assuredly it is the Lord Who teaches you, although He may not always keep to the same path. But when you derive no profit from your prayers for the better ordering of your life, look on them with grave suspicion; for the school of prayer is one wherein theory should always conduce to practice.
III. Consider thirdly, how the Lord, in order to become a still more profitable master to you, determined to teach you not only by precept but by example, and for this purpose deigned to clothe Himself in human flesh: “I Myself that spoke, behold I am here.” There is therefore no longer any need for wearying yourself in search after the true rule of action, as the philosophers of old did; it is enough to observe how Christ demeaned Himself under any given circumstances, when doubt arises in your mind. You have Him before you: “Lo! He is here.” All other rules are either of themselves, or by you, less easily grasped. This is, of all, the speediest. Fix your eyes on your teacher’s actions: “Thy eyes shall see thy teacher.” No case can possibly occur for which, if you practise yourself in attentively meditating on the life of Christ, you shall not find therein a fitting precedent. Hence it is said that He was “tried through all temptations,” for the very reason that you might know how to guide yourself through all the trials the Lord may send to you, by the way of prosperity, or persecution, or at the hands of the wicked spirits who molest you.
IV. Consider fourthly, that this teacher possesses a prerogative which He shares with none other that ever was, and it is, that He not only places before you the lesson to be learned, but gives you the mental power to understand it: “I will give thee understanding, and I will instruct thee.” Other teachers, it is true, “instruct,” but “they do not give understanding;” this teacher gives you instruction, and with instruction gives you at the same time understanding. See, then, with what alacrity you ought to frequent so good a school as that of prayer is; for every one, no matter how dull, or slow, or wanting in sense he may be, can derive from it the greatest benefit. It is not humility which so often keeps you away from it, it is sloth. Besides, see you not how simple maidens, by the purity of their lives, have arrived in prayer at the knowledge of things altogether unknown to learned men? If still you should hesitate to frequent this school, because you have misgivings as to your being able afterwards to put in practice the lessons you may have learned, know that this same teacher is so richly endowed that He will give you not only, as has been pointed out, capacity to understand, but also strength to execute His teaching: “By his knowledge shall this My just servant justify many.” Now where have you ever met with another teacher, who by his lessons has made you virtuous? Others can show you how to become good, if you choose; but they cannot make you so. Jesus alone can, with the knowledge He imparts, accomplish at the same time your justification; for at the very time of prayer, when He imparts His lessons, He instils into your heart so great a love for those virtues which He then unfolds to view, such compunction, such charity, and so strong a resolution to embrace them all, that He thereby makes you just. And will you not set store by a teacher thus without rival? Philip deemed himself fortunate, because Alexander was born at a time when he could give him Aristotle for a master. How great is the ingratitude of Christians who refuse to know the happiness which has fallen to their lot!