Lady Maxwell was contemporary with John Wesley, and a fruit of
Methodism in its earlier phases. She was a woman of refinement, of
culture and of deep piety. Separating herself entirely from the world,
she sought and found the deepest religious experience, and was a woman
fully set apart to God. Her life was one of prayer, of complete
consecration to God, living to bless others. She was noted for her
systematic habits of life, which entered into and controlled her
religion. Her time was economized and ordered for God. She arose at
four o'clock in the morning, and attended preaching at five o'clock.
After breakfast she held a family service. Then, from eleven to twelve
o'clock she observed a season of intercessory prayer. The rest of the
day was given to reading, visiting and acts of benevolence.
Her evenings were spent in reading. At night, before retiring,
religious services were held for the family and sometimes in praising
God for His mercies.
Rarely has God been served with more intelligence, or out of a richer
experience, a nobler ardour, a richer nobility of soul. Strongly,
spiritually and ardently attached to Wesley's doctrine of entire
dedication, she sought it with persistency, and a never flagging zeal.
She obtained it by faith and prayer, and illustrated it in a life as
holy and as perfect as is given mortals to reach. If this great feature
of Wesley's teaching had, today, models and teachers possessed of the
profound spiritual understanding and experience as had Fletcher of
Madeley and Lady Maxwell of Edinburgh, it would not have been so
misunderstood, but would have commended itself to the good and pure
everywhere by holy lives, if not by its verbiage.
Lady Maxwell's diary yields some rich counsel for secret prayer, holy
experience, and consecrated living. One of the entries runs as follows:
"Of late I feel painfully convinced that I do not pray enough. Lord,
give me the spirit of prayer and of supplication. Oh, what a cause of
thankfulness is it that we have a gracious God to whom to go on all
occasions! Use and enjoy this privilege and you can never be miserable.
Who gives thanks for this royal privilege? It puts God in everything,
His wisdom, power, control and safety. Oh, what an unspeakable
privilege is prayer! Let us give thanks for it, I do not prove all the
power of prayer that I wish."
Thus we see that the remedy for non-praying is praying. The cure for
little praying is more praying. Praying can procure all things
necessary for our good.
With this excellent woman praying embraced all things and included
everything. To one of her most intimate friends she writes:
"I wish I could provide you with a proper maid, but it is a difficult
matter. You have my prayers for it, and if I hear of one I will let you
know."
So small a matter as the want of a housemaid for a friend was with her
an event not too small to take to God in prayer.
In the same letter, she tells her friend that she wants "more faith.
Cry mightily for it, and stir up the gift of God that is in you."
Whether the need was a small secular thing as a servant, or a great
spiritual grace, prayer was the means to attain that end and supply
that want. "There is nothing," she writes to a dear correspondent, "so
hurtful to the nervous system as anxiety. It preys upon the vitals and
weakens the whole frame, and what is more than all, it grieves the Holy
Spirit." Her remedy, again, for a common evil, was prayer.
How prayer disburdens us of care by bringing God in to relieve and
possess and hold?
"Be careful for nothing," says the Apostle, "but in everything by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests he made
known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
The figure is that of a beleagured and distressed garrison, unable to
protect the fort from the enemies which assault it, into which strong
reinforcements are poured. Into the heart oppressed, distracted and
discouraged, true prayer brings God, who holds it in perfect peace and
in perfect safety. This Lady Maxwell fully understood theoretically,
but which was better, experimentally.
Christ Jesus is the only cure for undue care and over anxiety of soul,
and we secure God, His presence and His peace by prayer. Care is so
natural and so strong, that none but God can eject it. It takes God,
the presence and personality of God Himself, to oust the care and to
enthrone quietness and peace. When Christ comes in with His peace, all
tormenting fears are gone, trepidation and harrowing anxieties
capitulate to the reign of peace, and all disturbing elements depart.
Anxious thought and care assault the soul, and feebleness, faintness
and cowardice are within. Prayer reinforces with God's peace, and the
heart is kept by Him. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind
is stayed on Thee." All now is safety, quietness and assurance. "The
work of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever."
But to ensure this great peace, prayer must pass into strenuous,
insistent, personal supplication, and thanksgiving must bloom into full
flower. Our exposed condition of heart must be brought to the knowledge
of God, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. The peace of God
will keep the heart and thoughts, fixed and fearless. Peace, deep,
exhaustless, wide, flowing like a river, will come in.
Referring again to Lady Maxwell, we hear her saying:
"God is daily teaching me more simplicity of spirit, and makes me
willing to receive all as His unmerited gift, and to call on Him for
everything I need, as I need it, and He supplies my wants according to
existing needs. But I have certainly felt more of it this last eighteen
months than in former periods. I wish to pray without ceasing. I see
the necessity of praying always, and not fainting."
Again we hear her declaring: "I wish to be much in prayer. I greatly
need it. The prayer of faith shuts or opens heaven. Come, Lord, and
turn my captivity." If we felt the need of prayer as this saintly woman
did, we could bear her company in her saintly ascension. Prayer truly
"shuts or opens heaven." Oh, for a quality of faith that would test to
the uttermost the power of prayer!
Lady Maxwell utters a great truth when she says:
"When God is at work either among a people, or in the heart of an
individual, the adversary of souls is peculiarly at work also. A belief
of the former should prevent discouragement, and a fear of the latter
should stir us up to much prayer. Oh, the power of faithful prayer! I
live by prayer! May you prove its sovereign efficacy in every difficult
case."
We find a record among Lady Maxwell's writings which shows us that in
prayer and meditation she obtained enlarged views of the full salvation
of God, and what is thus discovered, faith goes out after, and
according to its strength are its returns.
"I daily feel the need of the precious blood of sprinkling," she says,
"and dwell continually under its influence, and most sensibly feel its
sovereign efficacy. It is by momentary faith in this blood alone that I
am saved from sin. Prayer is my chief employ."
If this last statement "prayer, the chief employ" had ever been true of
God's people, this world would have been by this time quite another
world, and God's glory, instead of being dim, and shadowy, and only in
spots, would now shine with universal and unrivaled effulgence and
power.
Here is another record of her ardent and faithful praying: "Lately, I
have been favoured with a more ardent spirit of praying than almost
ever formerly."
We need to study these words--"favoured with a more ardent spirit of
praying"--for they are pregnant words. The spirit of prayer, the ardent
spirit of prayer and its increase, and the more ardent spirit of
prayer--all these are of God. They are given in answer to prayer. The
spirit of prayer and the more ardent spirit are the result of ardent,
importunate secret prayer.
From The Weapons of Prayer by Edward M. Bounds
The life of Darcy, lady Maxwell, compiled from her diary and correspondence
https://archive.org/details/lifedarcyladyma00maxwgoog
