Praise

Praise/Prayer Brings Release

“You remember in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” the description of the man shut up in the iron cage. One says to him, “Wilt thou never come out of this cage?” “No, never.” “Art thou condemned for ever?” “Yes, I am.” “Why was this?” “Why I grieved the Spirit, and he is gone; I once thought I loved him, but I have treated him lightly and he has departed. I went from the paths of righteousness, and now I am locked up here, and cannot get out.” Yes, but John Bunyan does not tell you that the man never did get out? There have been some in that iron cage that have come out. There may be one here this morning, who has been for a long while sitting in that

iron cage, rattling the bars, trying to break them, trying to file them through with his own little might and strength. Oh! dear friend, you will never file through the iron bars of that terrible cage; you will never escape by yourself. What must you do? You must begin to sing like the bird in the

cage does; then the kind master will come and let you out. Cry to him to deliver you; and though you cry and shout, and he shutteth out your prayer, he will hear you by-and-bye; and like Jonah you shall exclaim in days to come, “Out of the belly of hell I cried unto the Lord, and he heard

me.”

[Spurgeon, MTP, Vol. 1, p. 690-91]