“And yet I was helped, mother,” said Ben, “for I am sure my Father in heaven helped me.”  But that was not what the teacher meant.  After this, Ben never forgot the last part of the Lord’s prayer.  When he needed help he knew where the power was that could help him.

Here was where the apostles got the help they needed in doing the hard work they had to do.  And how much help we might get in doing our work if we only make a right use of this “power which belongeth unto God;” and which he is always ready to use in helping us.

The help they received, is the third thing to remember when we think about the apostles and their work.

The last thing to bear in mind when we think of Jesus choosing his twelve apostles, is—­THE LESSON—­it teaches us.

There are many lessons we might learn from this subject; but there is one so much more important than all the rest that we may very well let them go, and think only of this one.  When St. Luke tells us about Jesus choosing the twelve apostles, he mentions one very important thing, of which St. Matthew, in his account of it says nothing at all.  And it is this thing from which we draw our lesson.  In the twelfth verse of the sixth chapter of his gospel, St. Luke says—­“And it came to pass in those days, that he (Jesus) went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.”  And after this, the first thing he did, in the morning, was to call his disciples to him, and out of them to choose the twelve, who were to be his apostles.  And the lesson we learn from this part of the subject is: 

“The Lesson of Prayer.”  Jesus spent the whole night in prayer to God, before he chose his apostles.  How strange this seems to us!  And yet it is easy enough to see at least two reasons why he did this.  One was because he loved to pray.  We know how pleasant it is for us to meet, and talk with a person whom we love very much.  But prayer is—­talking with God—­telling him what we want, and asking his help.  But Jesus loved his Father in heaven, with a love deeper and stronger than we can understand.  This must have made it the most delightful of all things for him to be engaged in prayer, or in talking with his Father in heaven.  And, if we really love Jesus, prayer will not be a hard duty to us, but a sweet privilege.  We shall love to pray, because, in prayer we are talking to that blessed Saviour, “whom, not having seen, we love.”  And this was one reason why Jesus spent the whole night in prayer, before choosing his twelve apostles.

But there was another reason why Jesus spent so much time in prayer before performing this important work, and that was to set us an example.  It was to teach us the very lesson of which we are now speaking—­the lesson of prayer.  Remember how much power and wisdom Jesus had in himself; and what mighty things he was able to do.  And yet, if He felt that it was right to pray before engaging in any important work, how much more necessary it is for us to do so!