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It is not the perseverance but the fervency of this prayer which is really in the mind of the writer. The margin of the Authorised Version, and the text of the Revised, concur in substituting for "without ceasing," earnestly; and that is the true idea of the expression.

I. Now, the first thought that suggests itself to me is based on the first word of our text, that eloquent BUT. It brings into prominence the all-powerful weapon of the unarmed. Peter was kept in prison, and we know all the elaborate precautions that were taken in order to secure him. But he was lying quietly asleep. There were some people awake; the Church was awake, and God was awake. Peter was kept in prison; but what vanity and folly it all was to surround him with soldiers and gates and bars when this was going on. "Prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God for him." On the one side was the whole embodied power of the world, moved by the malignity of the devil; and on the other side there were a handful of people in Mary's house, with their hearts half broken, wrestling with God in prayer; and these beat the others. So they always do, but not always in the same fashion. No doubt there were plenty of prayers offered for James, but he was killed off in a parenthesis. Let us remember, too, that this is the only weapon which it is legitimate for Christian people to use in their conflicts with an antagonistic world. To stand still unresisting, and with no weapon in my hand but prayer to God, is a strong impregnable position which, if Christ's disciple takes up, in regard of his individual life, and of the Church's difficulties and enemies, no power on earth or hell can really overcome him. The faith that keeps itself within the limits of its Master's way of overcoming evil is more than conqueror in the midst of defeat, and that life is safe, though all the Herods that ever were eaten of worms should intend to slay.

II. Further, notice THE TEMPER OF THE PRAYER THAT PREVAILS. I have already said that the true idea of the word of my text is earnestness, and not of perseverance or persistence. The author of the Book of the Acts, as you know, is the evangelist Luke; and he uses the same words as descriptive of another prayer: "Being in an agony He prayed the more earnestly," he says about the Master in Gethsemane. The disciples, when they prayed for their brother, were fervent in supplication. Ah! if we take that scene beneath the olives as explaining to us the kind of prayer that finds acceptance in God's ears, we shall not wonder that so much of what we call prayer seems to come back unanswered upon our heads. Air will only rise when it is rarefied; and it is only rarefied when it is warmed. And when our breath is icy cold as it comes out of our lips, and we can see it as a smoke as it passes from us, no wonder it never gets beyond the ceiling of the room in which it is poured out in vain. I dare say — for they were but average people after all — they prayed a deal more fervently to get Peter back amongst them because they did not know what they were to do without him than they prayed for the spiritual blessings which were waiting to be given them. But still they prayed earnestly; and if you and I did the same we should get our answers. And then, remember that, of course, this earnestness of petition is of such a kind that it keeps on till it gets what it wants. Although the word does not mean "without ceasing," it implies "without ceasing," because it means "earnestly." A man that does not much care for a thing asks languidly for it and is soon tired. And this is how many people pray: they ask for the thing and then go away, and do not know whether God ever gave it them or not. But others, who really want the blessing, plead till it comes. These good people were praying the night before the execution; no doubt all day long they had been at it, and nothing came of it. The night fell, they continued, nothing came of it. But, according to the story, the answer came so late that Peter had barely time to get to the Christian home that was nearest before daybreak. And so at the very last possible moment to which it was safe to defer Peter's deliverance, and not a tick of the clock sooner, did God send the answer. He does in like fashion with us many a time: and the great lesson is, Wait patiently on Him. Rest in the Lord, nor faint when the answer is long in coming.

III. And now the last point that I would suggest does not lie so much in my text itself, as in its relation to the whole incident. And it is this — THAT FERVENT PRAYER HAS OFTEN A STRANGE ALLOY OF UNBELIEF MIXED WITH IT. You remember the end of the story, so life-like and natural; how Rhoda in her excitement leaves Peter standing at the door in peril, whilst she rushes into the house to tell everybody what had happened. Then, while they are arguing inside, as to whether it is Peter or his angel, see how Peter keeps on hammering at the door. "Peter continued knocking." There we see the whole nature of the man in that graphic phrase. How true to nature is what was going on inside! The people that had been so fervently praying for the answer could not believe it when they got it. The answer stood, waiting outside, to be admitted, and they could do nothing but discuss whether it was Peter's angel or his ghost. And through all our lives there will be more or less, in varying proportions, of this strange alloy of fervour with coldness, and of faith with wavering unbelief, and in our most believing prayers a dash of unpreparedness for the answer when it comes. There is another thing that may be suggested, and that is that we should, if I may so say, expect to get more than we expect, and believe that however large may be our anticipations of what God will do for us if we trust ourselves to Him, the answer when it comes will be astonishing even to our widest faith. "He is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think."

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

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KJV: Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

WEB: Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him.