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If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Power Through Prayer - -Author: Edward Bounds - -Release Date: April 19, 2021 [eBook #65115] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Brian Wilson, Chris Pinfield and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The Internet - Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POWER THROUGH PRAYER *** -Transcriber's Note: - -Obvious printer errors have been corrected. Hyphenation has been -rationalised. - -Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals. Italics are -indicated by _underscores_. - -The quotations that precede each chapter have been moved to follow the -relevant chapter number. - - - - - POWER THROUGH - PRAYER - - BY - E. M. BOUNDS - - WITH FOREWORDS BY REV. A. C. DIXON, D.D., - AND MR. ALBERT A. HEAD. - - _TWELFTH EDITION_ - - MARSHALL BROTHERS, LTD. - _Publishers_, - LONDON, EDINBURGH & NEW YORK. - - HUNT, BARNARD & CO., LTD. - PRINTERS, - LONDON & AYLESBURY. - - -FOREWORDS - - - I - BY REV. A. C. DIXON, D.D. - -This little book was given me by a friend. I glanced through it and laid -it aside, thinking that I would read it at some convenient time, though -I had never heard of the author. But it was forgotten till Christmas, -when I received another copy as a present from another friend. "Well," -thought I, "there must be something worth while in the little book, or -it would not have been selected as a present by two such intelligent -people." So I read at once the first page till I came to the words: "Man -is God's method. The church is looking for better methods; God is -looking for better men." That was enough to whet the appetite for more, -and I greedily read chapter after chapter with delight and blessing. -When the last sentence was finished I felt that I knew more about prayer -than when I began to read, and, better than that, I felt more like -praying. Every page pulsates with the heart and mind of a man who knows -how to pray; knows the men who have known how to pray, and is very -earnest in desiring that others should know how to pray. - -His desire has been realized to some extent, in the case of at least -one, who would like to have others share the blessing with him. - -The author has kindly consented to a reprint in Great Britain. - -A. C. DIXON. - - - II - BY MR. ALBERT A. HEAD. - -If there is one need felt beyond another by the members of the Church of -Christ to-day, it is power _in_ prayer—desire _for_ prayer—time to be -devoted _to_ prayer. What a number of unions for prayer exist already, -and yet how few members continue "instant in prayer" or "pray without -ceasing." The author of this book makes a clear diagnosis of the case -when he writes as follows:—"Never did the cause of God need perfect -illustrations of the possibilities of prayer more than in this age. To -pray is the greatest thing we can do. We must learn anew the work of -prayer, enter anew the school of prayer." - -The contents of this message upon prayer should be read alike by -preacher and teacher, evangelist and intercessor. Its pages contain an -appeal to every "worker together with Christ," and stimulate the desire -for prayer in the varied relationships of Christian life. The appeal -deserves a wide circulation amongst members of Prayer Circles and Prayer -Unions, and, indeed, amongst all who are looking for a revival of true -religion in our land, and an exodus of ambassadors for Christ to heathen -and Moslem populations. - -I most heartily commend the reading of it, feeling persuaded that God -has given the author a trumpet call to the Church of Christ to "arise -and pray." - -ALBERT A. HEAD. - - - - -I - - _Recreation to a minister must be as whetting is with the mower—that - is, to be used only so far as is necessary for his work. May a - physician in plague-time take any more relaxation or recreation than is - necessary for his life, when so many are expecting his help in a case - of life and death? Will you stand by and see sinners gasping under the - pangs of death, and say: "God doth not require me to make myself a - drudge to save them?" Is this the voice of ministerial or Christian - compassion or rather of sensual laziness and diabolical - cruelty?_—RICHARD BAXTER. - - _Misemployment of time is injurious to the mind. In illness I have - looked back with self-reproach on days spent in my study: I was wading - through history and poetry and monthly journals, but I was in my study! - Another man's trifling is notorious to all observers, but what am I - doing? Nothing, perhaps, that has a reference to the spiritual good of - my congregation. Be much in retirement and prayer. Study the honour and - glory of your Master._—RICHARD CECIL. - - _Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on - this, for your sermons last but an hour or two; your life preaches all - the week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, - of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry. Give yourself - to prayer, and get your texts, your thoughts, your words from God. - Luther spent his best three hours in prayer._—ROBERT MURRAY MCCHEYNE. - - -We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new -methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure -enlargement and efficiency for the Gospel. This trend of the day has a -tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or -organization. God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him -than of anything else. Men are God's method. The Church is looking for -better methods; God is looking for better men. "There was a man sent -from God whose name was John." The dispensation that heralded and -prepared the way for Christ was bound up in that man John. "Unto us a -Child is born, unto us a Son is given." The world's salvation comes out -of that cradled Son. When Paul appeals to the personal character of the -men who rooted the gospel in the world, he solves the mystery of their -success. The glory and efficiency of the Gospel is staked on the men who -proclaim it. When God declares that "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro -throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them -whose heart is perfect toward Him," He declares the necessity of men and -his dependence on them as a channel through which to exert His power -upon the world. This vital, urgent truth is one that this age of -machinery is apt to forget. The forgetting of it is as baneful on the -work of God as would be the striking of the sun from his sphere. -Darkness, confusion, and death would ensue. - -What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new -organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can -use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow -through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on -men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer. - -An eminent historian has said that the accidents of personal character -have more to do with the revolutions of nations than either philosophic -historians or democratic politicians will allow. This truth has its -application in full to the gospel of Christ, the character and conduct -of the followers of Christ—Christianize the world, transfigure nations -and individuals. Of the preachers of the gospel it is eminently true. - -The character as well as the fortunes of the gospel are committed to the -preacher. He makes or mars the message from God to man. The preacher is -the golden pipe through which the divine oil flows. The pipe must not -only be golden, but open and flawless, that the oil may have a full, -unhindered, unwasted flow. - -The man makes the preacher. God must make the man. The messenger is, if -possible, more than the message. The preacher is more than the sermon. -The preacher makes the sermon. As the life-giving milk from the mother's -bosom is but the mother's life, so all the preacher says is tinctured, -impregnated by what the preacher is. The treasure is in earthen vessels, -and the taste of the vessel impregnates and may discolour. The man, the -whole man, lies behind the sermon. Preaching is not the performance of -an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes twenty years to make a -sermon, because it takes twenty years to make the man. The true sermon -is a thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon -is forceful because the man is forceful. The sermon is holy because the -man is holy. The sermon is full of the divine unction because the man is -full of the divine unction. - -Paul termed it "My gospel;" not that he had degraded it by his personal -eccentricities or diverted it by selfish appropriation, but the gospel -was put into the heart and lifeblood of the man Paul, as a personal -trust to be executed by his Pauline traits, to be set aflame and -empowered by the fiery energy of his fiery soul. Paul's sermons—what -were they? Where are they? Skeletons, scattered fragments, afloat on the -sea of inspiration! But the man Paul, greater than his sermons, lives -forever, in full form, feature, and stature, with his moulding hand on -the Church. The preaching is but a voice. The voice in silence dies, the -text is forgotten, the sermon fades from memory; the preacher lives. - -The sermon cannot rise in its life-giving forces above the man. Dead men -give out dead sermons, and dead sermons kill. Everything depends on the -spiritual character of the preacher. Under the Jewish dispensation the -high priest had inscribed in jewelled letters on a golden frontlet: -"Holiness to the Lord." So every preacher in Christ's ministry must be -moulded into and mastered by this same holy motto. It is a crying shame -for the Christian ministry to fall lower in holiness of character and -holiness of aim than the Jewish priesthood. Jonathan Edwards said: "I -went on with my eager pursuit after more holiness and conformity to -Christ. The heaven I desired was a heaven of holiness." The gospel of -Christ does not move by popular waves. It has no self-propagating power. -It moves as the men who have charge of it move. The preacher must -impersonate the gospel. Its divine, most distinctive features must be -embodied in him. The constraining power of love must be in the preacher -as a projecting, eccentric, an all-commanding, self-oblivious force. The -energy of self-denial must be his being, his heart and blood and bones. -He must go forth as a man among men, clothed with humility, abiding in -meekness, wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove; the bonds of a servant -with the spirit of a king, a king in high, royal, independent bearing, -with the simplicity and sweetness of a child. The preacher must throw -himself, with all the abandon of a perfect, self-emptying faith and a -self-consuming zeal, into his work for the salvation of men. Hearty, -heroic, compassionate, fearless martyrs must the men be who take hold of -and shape a generation for God. If they be timid timeservers, place -seekers, if they be men pleasers or men fearers, if their faith has a -weak hold on God or His Word, if their denial be broken by any phase of -self or the world, they cannot take hold of the Church nor the world for -God. - -The preacher's sharpest and strongest preaching should be to himself. -His most difficult, delicate, laborious, and thorough work must be with -himself. The training of the twelve was the great, difficult, and -enduring work of Christ. Preachers are not sermon makers, but men makers -and saint makers, and he only is well-trained for this business who has -made himself a man and a saint. It is not great talents or great -learning or great preachers that God needs, but men great in holiness, -great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God—men -always preaching by holy sermons in the pulpit, by holy lives out of it. -These can mould a generation for God. - -After this order, the early Christians were formed. Men they were of -solid mould, preachers after the heavenly type—heroic, stalwart, soldierly, -saintly. Preaching with them meant self-denying, self-crucifying, -serious, toilsome, martyr business. They applied themselves to it in a -way that told on their generation, and formed in its womb a generation -yet unborn for God. The preaching man is to be the praying man. Prayer -is the preacher's mightiest weapon. An almighty force in itself, it -gives life and force to all. - -The real sermon is made in the closet. The man—God's man—is made in the -closet. His life and his profoundest convictions were born in his secret -communion with God. The burdened and tearful agony of his spirit, his -weightiest and sweetest messages were got when alone with God. Prayer -makes the man; prayer makes the preacher; prayer makes the pastor. - -The pulpit of this day is weak in praying. The pride of learning is -against the dependent humility of prayer. Prayer is with the pulpit too -often only official—a performance for the routine of service. Prayer is -not to the modern pulpit the mighty force it was in Paul's life or -Paul's ministry. Every preacher who does not make prayer a mighty factor -in his own life and ministry is weak as a factor in God's work and is -powerless to advance God's cause in this world. - - - - -II - - _But above all he excelled in prayer. The inwardness and weight of his - spirit, the reverence and solemnity of his address and behaviour, and - the fewness and fullness of his words have often struck even strangers - with admiration as they used to reach others with consolation. The most - awful, living, reverend frame I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was - his prayer. And truly it was a testimony. He knew and lived nearer to - the Lord than other men, for they that know Him most will see most - reason to approach Him with reverence and fear._—WILLIAM PENN OF - GEORGE FOX. - - -The sweetest graces by a slight perversion may bear the bitterest fruit. -The sun gives life, but sunstrokes are death. Preaching is to give life; -it may kill. The preacher holds the keys; he may lock as well as unlock. -Preaching is God's great institution for the planting and maturing of -spiritual life. When properly executed, its benefits are untold; when -wrongly executed, no evil can exceed its damaging results. It is an easy -matter to destroy the flock if the shepherd be unwary or the pasture be -destroyed, easy to capture the citadel if the watchmen be asleep or the -food and water be poisoned. Invested with such gracious prerogatives, -exposed to so great evils, involving so many grave responsibilities, it -would be a parody on the shrewdness of the devil and a libel on his -character and reputation if he did not bring his master influences to -adulterate the preacher and the preaching. In face of all this, the -exclamatory interrogatory of Paul, "Who is sufficient for these things?" -is never out of order. - -Paul says: "Our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able -ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: -for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." The true ministry -is God-touched, God-enabled, and God-made. The Spirit of God is on the -preacher in anointing power, the fruit of the Spirit is in his heart, -the Spirit of God has vitalized the man and the word; his preaching -gives life, gives life as the spring gives life; gives life as the -resurrection gives life; gives ardent life as the summer gives ardent -life; gives fruitful life as the autumn gives fruitful life. The -life-giving preacher is a man of God, whose heart is ever athirst for -God, whose soul is ever following hard after God, whose eye is single to -God, and in whom by the power of God's Spirit the flesh and the world -have been crucified and his ministry is like the generous flood of a -life-giving river. - -The preaching that kills is non-spiritual preaching. The ability of the -preaching is not from God. Lower sources than God have given to it -energy and stimulus. The Spirit is not evident in the preacher nor his -preaching. Many kinds of forces may be projected and stimulated by -preaching that kills, but they are not spiritual forces. They may -resemble spiritual forces, but are only the shadow, the counterfeit; -life they may seem to have, but the life is magnetized. The preaching -that kills is the letter; shapely and orderly it may be, but it is the -letter still, the dry, husky letter, the empty, bald shell. The letter -may have the germ of life in it, but it has no breath of spring to evoke -it; winter seeds they are, as hard as the winter's soil, as icy as the -winter's air, no thawing nor germinating by them. This letter-preaching -has the truth. But even divine truth has no life-giving energy alone; it -must be energized by the Spirit, with all God's forces at its back. -Truth unquickened by God's Spirit deadens as much as, or more than, -error. It may be the truth without admixture; but without the Spirit its -shade and touch are deadly, its truth error, its light darkness. The -letter-preaching is unctionless, neither mellowed nor oiled by the -Spirit. There may be tears, but tears cannot run God's machinery; tears -may be but summer's breath on a snow-covered iceberg, nothing but -surface slush. Feelings and earnestness there may be, but it is the -emotion of the actor and the earnestness of the attorney. The preacher -may feel from the kindling of his own sparks, be eloquent over his own -exegesis, earnest in delivering the product of his own brain; the -professor may usurp the place and imitate the fire of the apostle; -brains and nerves may serve the place and feign the work of God's -Spirit, and by these forces the letter may glow and sparkle like an -illumined text, but the glow and sparkle will be as barren of life as -the field sown with pearls. The death-dealing element lies behind the -words, behind the sermon, behind the occasion, behind the manner, behind -the action. The great hindrance is in the preacher himself. He has not -in himself the mighty life-creating forces. There may be no discount on -his orthodoxy, honesty, cleanness, or earnestness; but somehow the man, -the inner man, in its secret places has never broken down and -surrendered to God, his inner life is not a great highway for the -transmission of God's message, God's power. Somehow self and not God -rules in the holy of holies. Somewhere, all unconscious to himself, some -spiritual non-conductor has touched his inner being, and the divine -current has been arrested. His inner being has never felt its thorough -spiritual bankruptcy, its utter powerlessness; he has never learned to -cry out with an ineffable cry of self-despair and self-helplessness till -God's power and God's fire come in and fill, purify and empower. -Self-esteem, self-ability in some pernicious shape has defamed and -violated the temple which should be held sacred for God. Life-giving -preaching costs the preacher much—death to self, crucifixion to the -world, the travail of his own soul. Crucified preaching only can give -life. Crucified preaching can come only from a crucified man. - - - - -III - - _During this affliction I was brought to examine my life in relation to - eternity closer than I had done when in the enjoyment of health. In - this examination relative to the discharge of my duties toward my - fellow-creatures as a man, a Christian minister, and an officer of the - Church, I stood approved by my own conscience; but in relation to my - Redeemer and Saviour the result was different. My returns of gratitude - and loving obedience bear no proportion to my obligations for - redeeming, preserving, and supporting me through the vicissitudes of - life from infancy to old age. The coldness of my love to Him who first - loved me and has done so much for me overwhelmed and confused me; and - to complete my unworthy character, I had not only neglected to improve - the grace given to the extent of my duty and privilege, but for want of - that improvement had, while abounding in perplexing care and labour, - declined from first zeal and love. I was confounded, humbled myself, - implored mercy, and renewed my covenant to strive and devote myself - unreservedly to the Lord._—BISHOP MCKENDREE. - - -The preaching that kills may be, and often is, orthodox—dogmatically, -inviolably orthodox. We love orthodoxy. It is good. It is the best. It -is the clean, clear-cut teaching of God's Word, the trophies won by -truth in its conflict with error, the levees which faith has raised -against the desolating floods of honest or reckless misbelief or -unbelief; but orthodoxy, clear and hard as crystal, suspicious and -militant, may be but the letter well-shaped, well-named, and -well-learned, the letter which kills. Nothing is so dead as a dead -orthodoxy, too dead to speculate, too dead to think, to study, or to -pray. - -The preaching that kills may have insight and grasp of principles, may -be scholarly and critical in taste, may have all the minutiæ of the -derivation and grammar of the letter, may be able to trim the letter -into its perfect pattern, and illumine it as Plato and Cicero may be -illumined, may study it as a lawyer studies his text-books to form his -brief or to defend his case, and yet be like a frost, a killing frost. -Letter-preaching may be eloquent, enamelled with poetry and rhetoric, -sprinkled with prayer, spiced with sensation, illumined by genius, and -yet these be but the massive or chaste, costly mountings, the rare and -beautiful flowers which coffin the corpse. The preaching which kills may -be without scholarship, unmarked by any freshness of thought or feeling, -clothed in tasteless generalities or vapid specialities, with style -irregular, slovenly, savouring neither of closet nor of study, graced -neither by thought, expression, or prayer. Under such preaching how wide -and utter the desolation! how profound the spiritual death! - -This letter-preaching deals with the surface and shadow of things, and -not the things themselves. It does not penetrate the inner part. It has -no deep insight into, no strong grasp of, the hidden life of God's Word. -It is true to the outside, but the outside is the hull which must be -broken and penetrated for the kernel. The letter may be dressed so as to -attract and be fashionable, but the attraction is not toward God nor is -the fashion for heaven. The failure is in the preacher. God has not made -him. He has never been in the hands of God like clay in the hands of the -potter. He has been busy about the sermon, its thought and finish, its -drawing and impressive forces, but the deep things of God have never -been sought, studied, fathomed, experienced by him. He has never stood -before "the throne high and lifted up," never heard the seraphim song, -never seen the vision nor felt the rush of that awful holiness, and -cried out in utter abandon and despair under the sense of weakness and -guilt, and had his life renewed, his heart touched, purged, inflamed by -the live coal from God's altar. His ministry may draw people to him, to -the Church, to the form and ceremony; but no true drawings to God, no -sweet, holy, divine communion induced. The Church has been frescoed but -not edified, pleased but not sanctified. Life is suppressed; a chill is -on the summer air; the soil is baked. The city of our God becomes the -city of the dead; the Church a graveyard, not an embattled army. Praise -and prayer are stifled; worship is dead. The preacher and the preaching -have helped sin, not holiness; peopled hell, not heaven. - -Preaching which kills is prayerless preaching. Without prayer the -preacher creates death, and not life. The preacher who is feeble in -prayer is feeble in life-giving forces. The preacher who has retired -from prayer as a conspicuous and largely prevailing element in his own -character has shorn his preaching of its distinctive life-giving power. -Professional praying there is and will be, but professional praying -helps the preaching to its deadly work. Professional praying chills and -kills both preaching and praying. Much of the lax devotion and lazy, -irreverent attitudes in congregational praying are attributable to -professional praying in the pulpit. Long, discursive, dry, and inane are -the prayers in many pulpits. Without unction or heart, they fall like a -killing frost on all the graces of worship. Death-dealing prayers they -are. Every vestige of devotion has perished under their breath. The more -dead they are the longer they grow. A plea for short praying, live -praying, real heart praying, praying by the Holy Spirit—direct, -specific, ardent, simple, unctuous in the pulpit—is in order. A school -to teach preachers how to pray, as God counts praying, would be more -beneficial to true piety, true worship, and true preaching than all -theological schools. - -Stop! Pause! Consider! Where are we? What are we doing? Preaching to -kill? Praying to kill? Praying to God! the great God, the Maker of all -worlds, the Judge of all men! What reverence! what simplicity! what -sincerity! what truth in the inward parts is demanded! How real we must -be! How hearty! Prayer to God the noblest exercise, the loftiest effort -of man, the most real thing! Shall we not discard forever accursed -preaching that kills and prayer that kills, and do the real thing, the -mightiest thing—prayerful praying, life-creating preaching bring the -mightiest force to bear on heaven and earth and draw on God's -exhaustless and open treasure for the need and beggary of man? - - - - -IV - - _Let us often look at Brainerd in the woods of America pouring out his - very soul before God for the perishing heathen without whose salvation - nothing could make him happy. Prayer—secret, fervent, believing - prayer—lies at the root of all personal godliness. A competent - knowledge of the language where a missionary lives, a mild and winning - temper, a heart given up to God in closet religion—these, these are the - attainments which, more than all knowledge, or all other gifts, will - fit us to become the instruments of God in the great work of human - redemption._—CAREY'S BROTHERHOOD, SERAMPORE. - - -There are two extreme tendencies in the ministry. The one is to shut -itself out from intercourse with the people. The monk, the hermit were -illustrations of this; they shut themselves out from men to be more with -God. They failed, of course. Our being with God is of use only as we -expend its priceless benefits on men. This age, neither with preacher -nor with people, is much intent on God. Our hankering is not that way. -We shut ourselves to our study, we become students, bookworms, Bible -worms, sermon makers, noted for literature, thought, and sermons; but -the people and God, where are they? Out of heart, out of mind. Preachers -who are great thinkers, great students must be the greatest of prayers, -or else they will be the greatest of backsliders, heartless professionals, -rationalistic, less than the least of preachers in God's estimate. - -The other tendency is to thoroughly popularize the ministry. He is no -longer God's man, but a man of affairs, of the people. He prays not, -because his mission is to the people. If he can move the people, create -an interest, a sensation in favour of religion, an interest in Church -work—he is satisfied. His personal relation to God is no factor in his -work. Prayer has little or no place in his plans. The disaster and ruin -of such a ministry cannot be computed by earthly arithmetic. What the -preacher is in prayer to God, for himself, for his people, so is his -power for real good to men, so is his true fruitfulness, his true -fidelity to God, to man, for time and for eternity. - -It is impossible for the preacher to keep his spirit in harmony with the -divine nature of his high calling without much prayer. That the preacher -by dint of duty and laborious fidelity to the work and routine of the -ministry can keep himself in trim and fitness is a serious mistake. Even -sermon-making, incessant and taxing as an art, as a duty, as a work, or -as a pleasure, will engross and harden, will estrange the heart, by -neglect of prayer, from God. The scientist loses God in nature. The -preacher may lose God in his sermon. - -Prayer freshens the heart of the preacher, keeps it in tune with God and -in sympathy with the people, lifts his ministry out of the chilly air of -a profession, fructifies routine and moves every wheel with the facility -and power of a divine unction. - -Mr. Spurgeon says: "Of course the preacher is above all others -distinguished as a man of prayer. He prays as an ordinary Christian, -else he were a hypocrite. He prays more than ordinary Christians, else -he were disqualified for the office he has undertaken. If you as -ministers are not very prayerful, you are to be pitied. If you become -lax in sacred devotion, not only will you need to be pitied but your -people also, and the day cometh in which you shall be ashamed and -confounded. All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness compared -with our closets. Our seasons of fasting and prayer at the Tabernacle -have been high days indeed; never has heaven's gate stood wider; never -have our hearts been nearer the central Glory." - -The praying which makes a prayerful ministry is not a little praying put -in as we put flavour to give it a pleasant smack, but the praying must -be in the body, and form the blood and bones. Prayer is no petty duty, -put into a corner; no piecemeal performance made out of the fragments of -time which have been snatched from business and other engagements of -life; but it means that the best of our time, the heart of our time and -strength must be given. It does not mean the closet absorbed in the -study or swallowed up in the activities of ministerial duties; but it -means the closet first, the study and activities second, both study and -activities freshened and made efficient by the closet. Prayer that -affects one's ministry must give tone to one's life. The praying which -gives colour and bent to character is no pleasant hurried pastime. It -must enter as strongly into the heart and life as Christ's "strong -crying and tears" did; must draw out the soul into an agony of desire as -Paul's did; must be an inwrought fire and force like the "effectual, -fervent prayer" of James; must be of that quality which when put into -the golden censer and incensed before God, works mighty spiritual throes -and revolutions. - -Prayer is not a little habit pinned on to us while we were tied to our -mother's apron strings; neither is it a little decent quarter of a -minute's grace said over an hour's dinner, but it is a most serious work -of our most serious years. It engages more of time and appetite than our -longest dinings or richest feasts. The prayer that makes much of our -preaching must be made much of. The character of our praying will -determine the character of our preaching. Light praying will make light -preaching. Prayer makes preaching strong, gives it unction, and makes it -stick. In every ministry weighty for good, prayer has always been a -serious business. - -The preacher must be pre-eminently a man of prayer. His heart must -graduate in the school of prayer. In the school of prayer only can the -heart learn to preach. No learning can make up for the failure to pray. -No earnestness, no diligence, no study, no gifts will supply its lack. - -Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is -greater still. He will never talk well and with real success to men for -God who has not learned well how to talk to God for men. More than this, -prayerless words in the pulpit and out of it are deadening words. - - - -V - - _You know the value of prayer: it is precious beyond all price. Never, - never neglect it._—SIR THOMAS BUXTON. - - _Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary - to a minister. Pray, then, my dear brother; pray, pray, - pray._—EDWARD PAYSON. - - -Prayer, in the preacher's life, in the preacher's study, in the -preacher's pulpit, must be a conspicuous and an all-impregnating force -and an all-colouring ingredient. It must play no secondary part, be no -mere coating. To him it is given to be with his Lord "all night in -prayer." The preacher, to train himself in self-denying prayer, is -charged to look to his Master, who, "rising up a great while before day, -went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." The -preacher's study ought to be a closet, a Bethel, an altar, a vision, and -a ladder, that every thought might ascend heavenward ere it went -manward; that every part of the sermon might be scented by the air of -heaven and made serious, because God was in the study. - -As the engine never moves until the fire is kindled, so preaching, with -all its machinery, perfection, and polish, is at a dead standstill, as -far as spiritual results are concerned, till prayer has kindled and -created the steam. The texture, fineness, and strength of the sermon is -as so much rubbish unless the mighty impulse of prayer is in it, through -it, and behind it. The preacher must, by prayer, put God in the sermon. -The preacher must, by prayer, move God toward the people before he can -move the people to God by his words. The preacher must have had audience -and ready access to God before he can have access to the people. An open -way to God for the preacher is the surest pledge of an open way to the -people. - -It is necessary to iterate and reiterate that prayer, as a mere habit, -as a performance gone through by routine or in a professional way, is a -dead and rotten thing. Such praying has no connection with the praying -for which we plead. We lay stress on true praying, which engages and -sets on fire every high element of the preacher's being—prayer which is -born of vital oneness with Christ and the fullness of the Holy Ghost, -which springs from the deep, overflowing fountains of tender compassion, -deathless solicitude for man's eternal good; a consuming zeal for the -glory of God; a thorough conviction of the preacher's difficult and -delicate work and of the imperative need of God's mightiest help. -Praying grounded on these solemn and profound convictions is the only -true praying. Preaching backed by such praying is the only preaching -which sows the seeds of eternal life in human hearts and builds men up -for heaven. - -It is true that there may be popular preaching, pleasant preaching, -taking preaching, preaching of much intellectual, literary, and brainy -force, with its measure and form of good, with little or no praying; but -the preaching which secures God's end in preaching must be born of -prayer from text to exordium, delivered with the energy and spirit of -prayer, followed and made to germinate, and kept in vital force in the -hearts of the hearers by the preacher's prayers, long after the occasion -has passed. - -We may excuse the spiritual poverty of our preaching in many ways, but -the true secret will be found in the lack of urgent prayer for God's -presence in the power of the Holy Spirit. There are preachers -innumerable who can deliver masterful sermons after their order; but the -effects are shortlived and do not enter as a factor at all into the -regions of the spirit where the fearful war between God and Satan, -heaven and hell, is being waged because they are not made powerfully -militant and spiritually victorious by prayer. - -The preachers who gain mighty results for God are the men who have -prevailed in their pleadings with God ere venturing to plead with men. -The preachers who are the mightiest in their closets with God are the -mightiest in their pulpits with men. - -Preachers are human folks, and are exposed to and often caught by the -strong driftings of human currents. Praying is spiritual work; and human -nature does not like taxing, spiritual work. Human nature wants to sail -to heaven under a favouring breeze, a full, smooth sea. Prayer is -humbling work. It abases intellect and pride, crucifies vainglory, and -signs our spiritual bankruptcy, and all these are hard for flesh and -blood to bear. It is easier not to pray than to bear them. So we come to -one of the crying evils of these times, maybe of all times—little or no -praying. Of these two evils, perhaps little praying is worse than no -praying. Little praying is a kind of make-believe, a salve for the -conscience, a farce and a delusion. - -The little estimate we put on prayer is evident from the little time we -give to it. The time given to prayer by the average preacher scarcely -counts in the sum of the daily aggregate. Not infrequently the -preacher's only praying is by his bedside in his nightdress, ready for -bed and soon in it, with, perchance, the addition of a few hasty -snatches of prayer ere he is dressed in the morning. How feeble, vain, -and little is such praying compared with the time and energy devoted to -praying by holy men in and out of the Bible! How poor and mean our -petty, childish praying is beside the habits of the true men of God in -all ages! To men who think praying their main business and devote time -to it according to this high estimate of its importance does God commit -the keys of His kingdom, and by them does He work His spiritual wonders -in this world. Great praying is the sign and seal of God's great leaders -and the earnest of the conquering forces with which God will crown their -labours. - -The preacher is commissioned to pray as well as to preach. His mission -is incomplete if he does not do both well. The preacher may speak with -all the eloquence of men and of angels; but unless he can pray with a -faith which draws all heaven to his aid, his preaching will be "as -sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal" for permanent God-honouring, -soul-saving uses. - - - - -VI - - _The principal cause of my leanness and unfruitfulness is owing to an - unaccountable backwardness to pray. I can write or read or converse or - hear with a ready heart; but prayer is more spiritual and inward than - any of these, and the more spiritual any duty is the more my carnal - heart is apt to start from it. Prayer and patience and faith are never - disappointed. I have long since learned that if ever I was to be a - minister, faith and prayer must make me one. When I can find my heart - in frame and liberty for prayer, everything else is comparatively - easy._—RICHARD NEWTON. - - -It may be put down as a spiritual axiom that in every truly successful -ministry prayer is an evident and controlling force—evident and -controlling in the life of the preacher, evident and controlling in the -deep spirituality of his work. A ministry may be a very thoughtful -ministry without prayer; the preacher may secure fame and popularity -without prayer; the whole machinery of the preacher's life and work may -be run without the oil of prayer or with scarcely enough to grease one -cog; but no ministry can be a spiritual one, securing holiness in the -preacher and in his people, without prayer being made an evident and -controlling force. - -The preacher that prays indeed puts God into the work. God does not come -into the preacher's work as a matter of course or on general principles, -but He comes by prayer and special urgency. That God will be found of us -in the day that we seek Him with the whole heart is as true of the -preacher as of the penitent. A prayerful ministry is the only ministry -that brings the preacher into sympathy with the people. Prayer as -essentially unites to the human as it does to the divine. A prayerful -ministry is the only ministry qualified for the high offices and -responsibilities of the preacher. Colleges, learning, books, theology, -preaching cannot make a preacher, but praying does. The apostles' -commission to preach was a blank till filled up by the Pentecost which -praying brought. A prayerful minister has passed beyond the regions of -the popular, beyond the man of mere affairs, of secularities, of pulpit -attractiveness; passed beyond the ecclesiastical organizer or general -into a sublimer and mightier region, the region of the spiritual. -Holiness is the product of his work; transfigured hearts and lives -emblazon the reality of his work, its trueness and substantial nature. -God is with him. His ministry is not projected on worldly or surface -principles. He is deeply stored with and deeply schooled in the things -of God. His long, deep communings with God about his people and the -agony of his wrestling spirit have crowned him as a prince in the things -of God. The iciness of the mere professional has long since melted under -the intensity of his praying. - -The superficial results of many a ministry, the deadness of others, are -to be found in the lack of praying. No ministry can succeed without -much praying, and this praying must be fundamental, ever-abiding, -ever-increasing. The text, the sermon, should be the result of prayer. -The study should be bathed in prayer, all its duties impregnated with -prayer, its whole spirit the spirit of prayer. "I am sorry that I have -prayed so little," was the deathbed regret of one of God's chosen ones, -a sad and remorseful regret for a preacher. "I want a life of greater, -deeper, truer prayer," said the late Archbishop Tait. So may we all say, -and this may we all secure. - -God's true preachers have been distinguished by one great feature: they -were men of prayer. Differing often in many things, they have always had -a common centre. They may have started from different points, and -travelled by different roads, but they converged to one point: they were -one in prayer. God to them was the centre of attraction, and prayer was -the path that led to God. These men prayed not occasionally, not a -little at regular or at odd times; but they so prayed that their prayers -entered into and shaped their characters; they so prayed as to affect -their own lives and the lives of others; they so prayed as to make the -history of the Church and influence the current of the times. They spent -much time in prayer, not because they marked the shadow on the dial or -the hands on the clock, but because it was to them so momentous and -engaging a business that they could scarcely give over. - -Prayer was to them what it was to Paul, a striving with earnest effort -of soul; what it was to Jacob, a wrestling and prevailing; what it was -to Christ, "strong crying and tears." They "prayed always with all -prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all -perseverance." "The effectual, fervent prayer" has been the mightiest -weapon of God's mightiest soldiers. The statement in regard to -Elijah—that he "was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he -prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth -by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the -heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit"—comprehends all -prophets and preachers who have moved their generation for God, and -shows the instrument by which they worked their wonders. - - - - -VII - - _The great masters and teachers in Christian doctrine have always found - in prayer their highest source of illumination. Not to go beyond the - limits of the English Church, it is recorded of Bishop Andrewes that he - spent five hours daily on his knees. The greatest practical resolves - that have enriched and beautified human life in Christian times have - been arrived at in prayer._—CANON LIDDON. - - -While many private prayers, in the nature of things, must be short; -while public prayers, as a rule, ought to be short and condensed; while -there is ample room for and value put on ejaculatory prayer—yet in our -private communions with God time is a feature essential to its value. -Much time spent with God is the secret of all successful praying. Prayer -which is felt as a mighty force is the mediate or immediate product of -much time spent with God. Our short prayers owe their point and -efficiency to the long ones that have preceded them. The short -prevailing prayer cannot be prayed by one who has not prevailed with God -in a mightier struggle of long continuance. Jacob's victory of faith -could not have been gained without that all-night wrestling. God's -acquaintance is not made hurriedly. He does not bestow His gifts on the -casual or hasty comer and goer. To be much alone with God is the secret -of knowing Him and of influence with Him. He yields to the persistency -of a faith that knows Him. He bestows His richest gifts upon those who -declare their desire for and appreciation of those gifts by the -constancy as well as earnestness of their importunity. Christ, who in -this as well as other things is our Example, spent many whole nights in -prayer. His custom was to pray much. He had His habitual place to pray. -Many long seasons of praying make up His history and character. Paul -prayed day and night. It took time from very important interests for -Daniel to pray three times a day. David's morning, noon, and night -praying were doubtless on many occasions very protracted. While we have -no specific account of the time these Bible saints spent in prayer, yet -the indications are that they consumed much time in prayer, and on some -occasions long seasons of praying was their custom. - -We would not have any think that the value of their prayers is to be -measured by the clock, but our purpose is to impress on our minds the -necessity of being much alone with God; and that if this feature has not -been produced by our faith, then our faith is of a feeble and surface -type. - -The men who have most fully illustrated Christ in their character, and -have most powerfully affected the world for Him, have been men who spent -so much time with God as to make it a notable feature of their lives. -Charles Simeon devoted the hours from four till eight in the morning to -God. Mr. Wesley spent two hours daily in prayer. He began at four in the -morning. Of him, one who knew him well wrote: "He thought prayer to be -more his business than anything else, and I have seen him come out of -his closet with a serenity of face next to shining." John Fletcher -stained the walls of his room by the breath of his prayers. Sometimes he -would pray all night; always, frequently, and with great earnestness. -His whole life was a life of prayer. "I would not rise from my seat," he -said, "without lifting my heart to God." His greeting to a friend was -always: "Do I meet you praying?" Luther said: "If I fail to spend two -hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the -day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three -hours daily in prayer." He had a motto: "He that has prayed well has -studied well." - -Archbishop Leighton was so much alone with God that he seemed to be in a -perpetual meditation. "Prayer and praise were his business and his -pleasure," says his biographer. Bishop Ken was so much with God that his -soul was said to be God-enamoured. He was with God before the clock -struck three every morning. Bishop Asbury said: "I propose to rise at -four o'clock as often as I can and spend two hours in prayer and -meditation." Samuel Rutherford, the fragrance of whose piety is still -rich, rose at three in the morning to meet God in prayer. Joseph Alleine -arose at four o'clock for his business of praying till eight. If he -heard other tradesmen plying their business before he was up, he would -exclaim: "O how this shames me! Doth not my Master deserve more than -theirs?" He who has learned this trade well draws at will, on sight, and -with the acceptance of heaven's unfailing bank. - -One of the holiest and most gifted of Scottish preachers says: "I ought -to spend the best hours in communion with God. It is my noblest and most -fruitful employment, and is not to be thrust into a corner. The morning -hours, from six to eight, are the most uninterrupted and should be thus -employed. After tea is my best hour, and that should be solemnly -dedicated to God. I ought not to give up the good old habit of prayer -before going to bed; but guard must be kept against sleep. When I awake -in the night, I ought to rise and pray. A little time after breakfast -might be given to intercession." This was the praying plan of Robert -McCheyne. The memorable Methodist band in their praying shame us. "From -four or five in the morning, private prayer; from five to six in the -evening, private prayer." - -John Welch, the holy and wonderful Scotch preacher, thought the day ill -spent if he did not spend eight or ten hours in prayer. He kept a plaid -that he might wrap himself when he arose to pray at night. His wife -would complain when she found him lying on the ground weeping. He would -reply: "O woman I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, and I -know not how it is with many of them!" - - - - -VIII - - _The act of praying is the very highest energy of which the human mind - is capable; praying, that is, with the total concentration of the - faculties. The great mass of worldly men and of learned men are - absolutely incapable of prayer._—COLERIDGE. - - -Bishop Wilson says: "In H. Martyn's journal the spirit of prayer, the -time he devoted to the duty, and his fervour in it are the first things -which strike me." - -Payson wore the hard-wood boards into grooves where his knees pressed so -often and so long. His biographer says: "His continuing instant in -prayer, be his circumstances what they might, is the most noticeable -fact in his history, and points out the duty of all who would rival his -eminency. To his ardent and persevering prayers must no doubt be -ascribed in a great measure his distinguished and almost uninterrupted -success." - -The Marquis DeRenty, to whom Christ was most precious, ordered his -servant to call him from his devotions at the end of half an hour. The -servant at the time saw his face through an aperture. It was marked with -such holiness that he hated to arouse him. His lips were moving, but he -was perfectly silent. He waited until three half hours had passed; then -he called to him, when he arose from his knees, saying that the half -hour was so short when he was communing with Christ. - -Brainerd said: "I love to be alone in my cottage, where I can spend much -time in prayer." - -William Bramwell is famous in Methodist annals for personal holiness and -for his wonderful success in preaching and for the marvellous answers to -his prayers. For hours at a time he would pray. He almost lived on his -knees. He went over his circuits like a flame of fire. The fire was -kindled by the time he spent in prayer. He often spent as much as four -hours in a single season of prayer in retirement. - -Bishop Andrewes spent the greatest part of five hours every day in -prayer and devotion. - -Sir Henry Havelock always spent the first two hours of each day alone -with God. If the encampment was struck at 6 a.m., he would rise at four. - -Earl Cairns rose daily at six o'clock to secure an hour and a half for -the study of the Bible and for prayer, before conducting family worship -at a quarter to eight. - -Dr. Judson's success in God's work is attributable to the fact that he -gave much time to prayer. He says on this point: "Arrange thy affairs, -if possible, so that thou canst leisurely devote two or three hours -every day not merely to devotional exercises but to the very act of -secret prayer and communion with God. Endeavour seven times a day to -withdraw from business and company and lift up thy soul to God in -private retirement. Begin the day by rising after midnight and devoting -some time amid the silence and darkness of the night to this sacred -work. Let the hour of opening dawn find thee at the same work. Let the -hours of nine, twelve, three, six, and nine at night witness the same. -Be resolute in His cause. Make all practicable sacrifices to maintain -it. Consider that thy time is short, and that business and company must -not be allowed to rob thee of thy God." Impossible, say we, fanatical -directions! Dr. Judson impressed an empire for Christ and laid the -foundations of God's kingdom with imperishable granite in the heart of -Burmah. He was successful, one of the few men who mightily impressed the -world for Christ. Many men of greater gifts and genius and learning than -he have made no such impression; their religious work is like footsteps -in the sands, but he has engraven his work on the adamant. The secret of -its profundity and endurance is found in the fact that he gave time to -prayer. He kept the iron red-hot with prayer, and God's skill fashioned -it with enduring power. No man can do a great and enduring work for God -who is not a man of prayer, and no man can be a man of prayer who does -not give much time to praying. - -Is it true that prayer is simply the compliance with habit, dull and -mechanical? A petty performance into which we are trained till tameness, -shortness, superficiality are its chief elements? "Is it true that -prayer is, as is assumed, little else than the half-passive play of -sentiment which flows languidly on through the minutes or hours of easy -reverie?" Canon Liddon continues: "Let those who have really prayed give -the answer. They sometimes describe prayer with the patriarch Jacob as a -wrestling together with an Unseen Power which may last, not unfrequently -in an earnest life, late into the night hours, or even to the break of -day. Sometimes they refer to common intercession with St. Paul as a -concerted struggle. They have, when praying, their eyes fixed on the -Great Intercessor in Gethsemane, upon the drops of blood which fall to -the ground in that agony of resignation and sacrifice. Importunity is of -the essence of successful prayer. Importunity means not dreaminess but -sustained work. It is through prayer especially that the kingdom of -heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. It was a -saying of the late Bishop Hamilton that "No man is likely to do much -good in prayer who does not begin by looking upon it in the light of a -work to be prepared for and persevered in with all the earnestness which -we bring to bear upon subjects which are in our opinion at once most -interesting and most necessary." - - - - -IX - - _I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I sleep long, or - meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o'clock before I begin - secret prayer. This is a wretched system. It is unscriptural. Christ - arose before day and went into a solitary place. David says: "Early - will I seek Thee;" "Thou shalt early hear my voice." Family prayer - loses much of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those - who come to seek from me. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, - the lamp not trimmed. Then when in secret prayer the soul is often out - of tune. I feel it is far better to begin with God—to see His face - first, to get my soul near Him before it is near - another._—ROBERT MURRAY MCCHEYNE. - - -The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on -their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and -freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway -seeking Him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and -efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of -the day. - -Behind this early rising and early praying is the ardent desire which -presses us into this pursuit after God. Morning listlessness is the -index to a listless heart. The heart which is behindhand in seeking God -in the morning has lost its relish for God. David's heart was ardent -after God. He hungered and thirsted after God, and so he sought God -early, before daylight. The bed and sleep could not chain his soul in -its eagerness after God. Christ longed for communion with God; and so, -rising a great while before day, He would go out into the mountain to -pray. The disciples, when fully awake and ashamed of their indulgence, -would know where to find Him. We might go through the list of men who -have mightily impressed the world for God, and we would find them early -after God. - -A desire for God which cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing -and will do but little good for God after it has indulged itself fully. -The desire for God that keeps so far behind the devil and the world at -the beginning of the day will never catch up. - -It is not simply the getting up that puts men to the front and makes -them captain generals in God's hosts, but it is the ardent desire which -stirs and breaks all self-indulgent chains. But the getting up gives -vent, increase, and strength to the desire. If they had lain in bed and -indulged themselves, the desire would have been quenched. The desire -aroused them and put them on the stretch for God, and this heeding and -acting on the call gave their faith its grasp on God and gave to their -hearts the sweetest and fullest revelation of God, and this strength of -faith and fulness of revelation made them saints by eminence, and the -halo of their sainthood has come down to us, and we have entered on the -enjoyment of their conquests. But we take our fill in enjoyment, and not -in productions. We build their tombs and write their epitaphs, but are -careful not to follow their examples. - -We need a generation of preachers who seek God and seek Him early, who -give the freshness and dew of effort to God, and secure in return the -freshness and fulness of His power that He may be as the dew to them, -full of gladness and strength, through all the heat and labour of the -day. Our laziness after God is our crying sin. The children of this -world are far wiser than we. They are at it early and late. We do not -seek God with ardour and diligence. No man gets God who does not follow -hard after Him, and no soul follows hard after God who is not after Him -in early morn. - - - - -X - - _There is a manifest want of spiritual influence on the ministry of the - present day. I feel it in my own case and I see it in that of others. I - am afraid there is too much of a low, managing, contriving, manœuvering - temper of mind among us. We are laying ourselves out more than is - expedient to meet one man's taste and another man's prejudices. The - ministry is a grand and holy affair, and it should find in us a simple - habit of spirit and a holy but humble indifference to all consequences. - The leading defect in Christian ministers is want of a devotional - habit._—RICHARD CECIL. - - -Never was there greater need for saintly men and women; more imperative -still is the call for saintly, God-devoted preachers. The world moves -with gigantic strides. Satan has his hold and rule on the world, and -labours to make all its movements subserve his ends. Religion must do -its best work, present its most attractive and perfect models. By every -means, modern sainthood must be inspired by the loftiest ideals and by -the largest possibilities through the Spirit. Paul lived on his knees, -that the Ephesian Church might measure the heights, breadths, and depths -of an unmeasurable saintliness, and "be filled with all the fulness of -God." Epaphras laid himself out with the exhaustive toil and strenuous -conflict of fervent prayer that the Colossian Church might "stand -perfect and complete in all the will of God." Everywhere, everything in -apostolic times was on the stretch that the people of God might each and -"all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of -God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness -of Christ." No premium was given to dwarfs; no encouragement to an old -babyhood. The babies were to grow; the old, instead of feebleness and -infirmities, were to bear fruit in old age, and be fat and flourishing. -The divinest thing in religion is holy men and holy women. - -No amount of money, genius, or culture can move things for God. Holiness -energizing the soul, the whole man aflame with love, with desire for -more faith, more prayer, more zeal, more consecration—this is the secret -of power. These we need and must have, and men must be the incarnation -of this God-inflamed devotedness. God's advance has been stayed, His -cause crippled, His name dishonoured for their lack. Genius (though the -loftiest and most gifted), education (though the most learned and -refined), position, dignity, place, honoured names, high ecclesiastics -cannot move this chariot of our God. It is a fiery one, and fiery forces -only can move it. The genius of a Milton fails. The imperial strength of -a Leo fails. Brainerd's spirit can move it. Brainerd's spirit was on -fire for God, on fire for souls. Nothing earthly, worldly, selfish came -in to abate in the least the intensity of this all-impelling and -all-consuming force and flame. - -Prayer is the creator as well as the channel of devotion. The spirit of -devotion is the spirit of prayer. Prayer and devotion are united as soul -and body are united, as life and heart are united. There is no real -prayer without devotion, no devotion without prayer. The preacher must -be surrendered to God in the holiest devotion. He is not a professional -man, his ministry is not a profession; it is a divine institution, a -divine devotion. He is devoted to God. His aim, aspirations, ambition -are for God and to God, and to such prayer is as essential as food is to -life. - -The preacher, above everything else, must be devoted to God. The -preacher's relations to God are the insignia and credentials of his -ministry. These must be clear, conclusive, unmistakable. No common, -surface type of piety must be his. If he does not excel in grace, he -does not excel at all. If he does not preach by life, character, -conduct, he does not preach at all. If his piety be light, his preaching -may be as soft and as sweet as music, as gifted as Apollo, yet its -weight will be a feather's weight, visionary, fleeting as the morning -cloud or the early dew. Devotion to God—there is no substitute for this -in the preacher's character and conduct. Devotion to a Church, to -opinions, to an organization, to orthodoxy—these are paltry, misleading, -and vain when they become the source of inspiration, the animus of a -call. God must be the mainspring of the preacher's effort, the fountain -and crown of all his toil. The name and honour of Jesus Christ, the -advance of His cause, must be all in all. The preacher must have no -inspiration but the name of Jesus Christ, no ambition but to have Him -glorified, no toil but for Him. Then prayer will be a source of his -illuminations, the means of perpetual advance, the gauge of his success. -The perpetual aim, the only ambition, the preacher can cherish is to -have God with him. - -Never did the cause of God need perfect illustrations of the possibilities -of prayer more than in this age. No age, no person, will be ensamples of -the gospel power except the ages or persons of deep and earnest prayer. -A prayerless age will have but scant models of divine power. Prayerless -hearts will never rise to these Alpine heights. The age may be a better -age than the past, but there is an infinite distance between the -betterment of an age by the force of an advancing civilization and its -betterment by the increase of holiness and Christ-likeness by the energy -of prayer. The Jews were much better when Christ came than in the ages -before. It was the golden age of their Pharisaic religion. Their golden -religious age crucified Christ. Never more praying, never less praying; -never more sacrifices, never less sacrifice; never less idolatry, never -more idolatry; never more of temple worship, never less of God worship; -never more of lip service, never less of heart service (God worshiped by -lips whose hearts and hands crucified God's Son!); never more of -church-goers, never less of saints. - -It is a prayer-force which makes saints. Holy characters are formed by -the power of real praying. The more of true saints, the more of praying; -the more of praying, the more of true saints. - - - - -XI - - _I urge upon you communion with Christ, a growing communion. There are - curtains to be drawn aside in Christ that we never saw, and new - foldings of love in Him. I despair that I shall ever win to the far end - of that love, there are so many plies in it. Therefore dig deep, and - sweat and labour and take pains for Him, and set by as much time in the - day for Him as you can. He will be won in the labour._—RUTHERFORD. - - -God has now, and has had, many of these devoted, prayerful preachers—men -in whose lives prayer has been a mighty, controlling, conspicuous force. -The world has felt their power, God has felt and honoured their power, -God's cause has moved mightily and swiftly by their prayers, holiness -has shone out in their characters with a divine effulgence. - -God found one of the men he was looking for in David Brainerd, whose -work and name have gone into history. He was no ordinary man, but was -capable of shining in any company, the peer of the wise and gifted ones, -eminently suited to fill the most attractive pulpits and to labour among -the most refined and the cultured, who were so anxious to secure him for -their pastor. President Edwards bears testimony that he was "a young man -of distinguished talents, had extraordinary knowledge of men and things, -had rare conversational powers, excelled in his knowledge of theology, -and was truly, for one so young, an extraordinary divine, and especially -in all matters relating to experimental religion. I never knew his equal -of his age and standing for clear and accurate notions of the nature and -essence of true religion. His manner in prayer was almost inimitable, -such as I have very rarely known equalled. His learning was very -considerable, and he had extraordinary gifts for the pulpit." - -No sublimer story has been recorded in earthly annals than that of David -Brainerd; no miracle attests with diviner force the truth of Christianity -than the life and work of such a man. Alone in the savage wilds of -America, struggling day and night with a mortal disease, unschooled in -the care of souls, having access to the Indians for a large portion of -time only through the bungling medium of a pagan interpreter, with the -Word of God in his heart and in his hand, his soul fired with the divine -flame, a place and time to pour out his soul to God in prayer, he fully -established the worship of God and secured all its gracious results. The -Indians were changed with a great change from the lowest besotments of -an ignorant and debased heathenism, to pure, devout, intelligent -Christians; all vice reformed, the external duties of Christianity at -once embraced and acted on; family prayer set up; the Sabbath instituted -and religiously observed; the internal graces of religion exhibited with -growing sweetness and strength. The solution of these results is found -in David Brainerd himself, not in the conditions or accidents but in the -man Brainerd. He was God's man, for God first and last and all the time. -God could flow unhindered through him. The omnipotence of grace was -neither arrested nor straitened by the conditions of his heart; the -whole channel was broadened and cleaned out for God's fullest and most -powerful passage, so that God with all His mighty forces could come down -on the hopeless, savage wilderness, and transform it into His blooming -and fruitful garden; for nothing is too hard for God to do if He can get -the right kind of a man to do it with. - -Brainerd lived the life of holiness and prayer. His diary is full and -monotonous with the record of his seasons of fasting, meditation, and -retirement. The time he spent in private prayer amounted to many hours -daily. "When I return home," he said, "and give myself to meditation, -prayer, and fasting, my soul longs for mortification, self-denial, -humility and divorcement from all things of the world." "I have nothing -to do," he said, "with earth, but only to labour in it honestly for God. -I do not desire to live one minute for anything which earth can afford." -After this high order did he pray: "Feeling somewhat of the sweetness of -communion with God and the constraining force of His love, and how -admirably it captivates the soul and makes all the desires and -affections to centre in God, I set apart this day for secret fasting and -prayer, to entreat God to direct and bless me with regard to the great -work which I have in view of preaching the gospel and that the Lord -would return to me and show me the light of His countenance. I had -little life and power in the forenoon. Near the middle of the afternoon -God enabled me to wrestle ardently in intercession for my absent -friends, but just at night the Lord visited me marvellously in prayer. I -think my soul was never in such agony before. I felt no restraint, for -the treasures of divine grace were opened to me. I wrestled for absent -friends, for the ingathering of souls, for multitudes of poor souls, and -for many that I thought were the children of God, personally, in many -distant places. I was in such agony from sun half an hour high till near -dark that I was all over wet with sweat, but yet it seemed to me I had -done nothing. O, my dear Saviour did sweat blood for poor souls! I -longed for more compassion toward them. I felt still in a sweet frame, -under a sense of divine love and grace, and went to bed in such a frame, -with my heart set on God." It was prayer which gave to his life and -ministry their marvellous power. - -The men of mighty prayer are men of spiritual might. Prayers never die. -Brainerd's whole life was a life of prayer. By day and by night he -prayed. Before preaching and after preaching he prayed. Riding through -the interminable solitudes of the forests he prayed. On his bed of straw -he prayed. Retiring to the dense and lonely forests he prayed. Hour by -hour, day after day, early morn and late at night, he was praying and -fasting, pouring out his soul, interceding, communing with God. He was -with God mightily in prayer, and God was with him mightily, and by it he -being dead yet speaketh and worketh, and will speak and work till the -end comes, and among the glorious ones of that glorious day he will be -with the first. - -Jonathan Edwards says of him: "His life shows the right way to success -in the works of the ministry. He sought it as the soldier seeks victory -in a siege or battle; or as a man that runs a race for a great prize. -Animated with love to Christ and souls, how did he labour? Always -fervently. Not only in word and doctrine, in public and in private, but -in prayers by day and night, wrestling with God in secret and travailing -in birth with unutterable groans, and agonies, until Christ was formed -in the hearts of the people to whom he was sent. Like a true son of -Jacob, he persevered in wrestling through all the darkness of the night, -until the breaking of the day!" - - - - -XII - - _For nothing reaches the heart but what is from the heart, or pierces - the conscience but what comes from a living conscience._—WILLIAM PENN. - - _In the morning was more engaged in preparing the head than the heart. - This has been frequently my error, and I have always felt the evil of - it, especially in prayer. Reform it, then, O Lord! Enlarge my heart, - and I shall preach._—ROBERT MURRAY MCCHEYNE. - - _A sermon that has more head infused into it than heart will not come - home with efficacy to the hearers._—RICHARD CECIL. - - -Prayer, with its manifold and many-sided forces, helps the mouth to -utter the truth in its fulness and freedom. The preacher is to be prayed -for, the preacher is made by prayer. The preacher's mouth is to be -prayed for; his mouth is to be opened and filled by prayer. A holy mouth -is made by praying, by much praying; a brave mouth is made by praying, -by much praying. The Church and the world, God and heaven, owe much to -Paul's mouth; Paul's mouth owed its power to prayer. - -How manifold, illimitable, valuable, and helpful prayer is to the -preacher in so many ways, at so many points, in every way! One great -value is, it helps his heart. - -Praying makes the preacher a heart preacher. Prayer puts the preacher's -heart into the preacher's sermon; prayer puts the preacher's sermon into -the preacher's heart. - -The heart makes the preacher. Men of great hearts are great preachers. -Men of bad hearts may do a measure of good, but this is rare. The -hireling and the stranger may help the sheep at some points but it is -the good shepherd with the good shepherd's heart who will bless the -sheep and answer the full measure of the shepherd's place. - -We have emphasized sermon-preparation until we have lost sight of the -important thing to be prepared—the heart. A prepared heart is much -better than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared -sermon. - -Volumes have been written laying down the mechanics and taste of -sermon-making, until we have become possessed with the idea that this -scaffolding is the building. The young preacher has been taught to lay -out all his strength on the form, taste, and beauty of his sermon as a -mechanical and intellectual product. We have thereby cultivated a -vicious taste among the people and raise the clamour for talent instead -of grace, eloquence instead of piety, rhetoric instead of revelation, -reputation and brilliancy instead of holiness. By it we have lost the -true idea of preaching, lost preaching power, lost pungent conviction -for sin, lost the rich experience and elevated Christian character, lost -the authority over consciences and lives which always result from -genuine preaching. - -It would not do to say that preachers study too much. Some of them do -not study at all; others do not study enough. Numbers do not study the -right way to show themselves workmen approved of God. But our great lack -is not in head culture, but in heart culture; not lack of knowledge but -lack of holiness is our sad and telling defect—not that we know too -much, but that we do not meditate on God and His word and watch and fast -and pray enough. The heart is the great hindrance to our preaching. -Words pregnant with divine truth find in our hearts non-conductors; -arrested, they fall flat and powerless. - -Can ambition, that lusts after praise and place, preach the gospel of -Him who made Himself of no reputation and took on Him the form of a -servant? Can the proud, the vain, the egotistical preach the gospel of -Him who was meek and lowly? Can the bad-tempered, passionate, selfish, -hard, worldly man preach the system which teems with long-suffering, -self-denial, tenderness, which imperatively demands separation from -enmity and crucifixion to the world? Can the hireling official, -heartless, perfunctory, preach the gospel which demands that the -Shepherd give His life for the sheep? Can the covetous man, who counts -salary and money, preach the gospel till he has gleaned his heart and -can say in the Spirit of Christ and Paul in the words of Wesley: "I -count it dung and dross; I trample it under my feet; I (yet not I, but -the grace of God in me) esteem it just as the mire of the streets, I -desire it not, I seek it not?" God's revelation does not need the light -of human genius, the polish and strength of human culture, the -brilliancy of human thought, the force of human brains to adorn or -enforce it; but it does demand the simplicity, the docility, humility, -and faith of a child's heart. - -It was this surrender and subordination of intellect and genius to the -divine and spiritual forces which made Paul peerless among the apostles. -It was this which gave Wesley his power and radicated his labours in the -history of humanity. - -Our great need is heart-preparation. Luther held it as an axiom: "He who -has prayed well has studied well." We do not say that men are not to -think and use their intellects; but he will use his intellect best who -cultivates his heart most. We do not say that preachers should not be -students; but we do say that their great study should be the Bible, and -he studies the Bible best who has kept his heart with diligence. We do -not say that the preacher should not know men, but he will be the -greater adept in human nature who has fathomed the depths and -intricacies of his own heart. We do say that while the channel of -preaching is the mind, its fountain is the heart; you may broaden and -deepen the channel, but if you do not look well to the purity and depth -of the fountain, you will have a dry or polluted channel. We do say that -almost any man of common intelligence has sense enough to preach the -gospel, but very few have grace enough to do so. We do say that he who -has struggled with his own heart and conquered it; who has taught it -humility, faith, love, truth, mercy, sympathy, courage; who can pour the -rich treasures of the heart thus trained, through a manly intellect, all -surcharged with the power of the gospel on the consciences of his -hearers—such an one will be the truest, most successful preacher in the -esteem of his Lord. - - - - -XIII - - _Study not to be a fine preacher. Jerichos are blown down with rams' - horns. Look simply unto Jesus for preaching food; and what is wanted - will be given, and what is given will be blessed, whether it be a - barley grain or a wheaten loaf, a crust or a crumb. Your mouth will be - a flowing stream or a fountain sealed, according as your heart is. - Avoid all controversy in preaching, talking, or writing; preach nothing - down but the devil, and nothing up but Jesus Christ._—BERRIDGE. - - -The heart is the saviour of the world. Heads do not save. Genius, -brains, brilliancy, strength, natural gifts do not save. The gospel -flows through hearts. All the mightiest forces are heart forces. All the -sweetest and loveliest graces are heart graces. Great hearts make great -characters; great hearts make divine characters. God is love. There is -nothing greater than love, nothing greater than God. Hearts make heaven; -heaven is love. There is nothing higher, nothing sweeter, than heaven. -It is the heart and not the head which makes God's great preachers. The -heart counts much every way in religion. The heart must speak from the -pulpit. The heart must hear in the pew. In fact, we serve God with our -hearts. Head homage does not pass current in heaven. - -We believe that one of the serious and most popular errors of the modern -pulpit is the putting of more thought than prayer, of more head than of -heart in its sermons. Big hearts make big preachers; good hearts make -good preachers. A theological school to enlarge and cultivate the heart -is the golden desideratum of the gospel. The pastor binds his people to -him and rules his people by his heart. They may admire his gifts, they -may be proud of his ability, they may be affected for the time by his -sermons; but the stronghold of his power is his heart. His sceptre is -love. The throne of his power is his heart. - -The good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. Heads never make -martyrs. It is the heart which surrenders the life to love and fidelity. -It takes great courage to be a faithful pastor, but the heart alone can -supply this courage. Gifts and genius may be brave, but it is the gifts -and genius of the heart and not of the head. - -It is easier to fill the head than it is to prepare the heart. It is -easier to make a brain sermon than a heart sermon. It was heart that -drew the Son of God from heaven. It is heart that will draw men to -heaven. Men of heart is what the world needs to sympathize with its woe, -to kiss away its sorrows, to compassionate its misery, and to alleviate -its pain. Christ was eminently the man of sorrows, because He was -pre-eminently the man of heart. - -"Give Me thy heart," is God's requisition of men. "Give me thy heart!" -is man's demand of man. - -A professional ministry is a heartless ministry. When salary plays a -great part in the ministry, the heart plays little part. We may make -preaching our business, and not put our hearts in the business. He who -puts self to the front in his preaching puts heart to the rear. He who -does not sow with his heart in his study will never reap a harvest for -God. The closet is the heart's study. We will learn more about how to -preach and what to preach there than we can learn in our libraries. -"Jesus wept" is the shortest and biggest verse in the Bible. It is he -who goes forth _weeping_ (not preaching great sermons), bearing precious -seed, who shall come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. - -Praying gives sense, brings wisdom, broadens and strengthens the mind. -The closet is a perfect school-teacher and school-house for the -preacher. Thought is not only brightened and clarified in prayer, but -thought is born in prayer. We can learn more in an hour praying, when -praying indeed, than from many hours in the study. Books are in the -closet which can be found and read nowhere else. Revelations are made in -the closet which are made nowhere else. - - - - -XIV - - _One bright benison which private prayer brings down upon the ministry - is an indescribable and inimitable something—an unction from the Holy - One.... If the anointing which we bear come not from the Lord of hosts, - we are deceivers, since only in prayer can we obtain it. Let us - continue instant, constant, fervent in supplication. Let your fleece - lie on the thrashing-floor of supplication till it is wet with the dew - of heaven._—SPURGEON. - - -Alexander Knox, a Christian philosopher of the days of Wesley, not an -adherent but a strong personal friend of Wesley, and with much spiritual -sympathy with the Wesleyan movement, writes: "It is strange and -lamentable, but I verily believe the fact to be that except among -Methodists and Methodistical clergymen, there is not much interesting -preaching in England. The clergy, too generally, have absolutely lost -the art. There is, I conceive, in the great laws of the moral world a -kind of secret understanding like the affinities in chemistry, between -rightly promulgated religious truth and the deepest feelings of the -human mind. Where the one is duly exhibited, the other will respond. -"Did not our hearts burn within us"?—but this devout feeling is -indispensable in the speaker. Now, I am obliged to state from my own -observation that this _onction_, as the French not unfitly term it, is -beyond all comparison more likely to be found in England in a Methodist -conventicle than in a parish Church. This, and this alone, seems really -to be that which fills the Methodist houses and thins the Churches. I -am, I verily think, no enthusiast; I am a most sincere and cordial -Churchman, a humble disciple of the School of Hale and Boyle, of Burnet -and Leighton. Now I must aver that when I was in this country, two years -ago, I did not hear a single preacher who taught me like my own great -masters but such as are deemed Methodistical. And I now despair of -getting an atom of heart-instruction from any other quarter. The -Methodist preachers (however I may not always approve of all their -expressions) do most assuredly diffuse this true religion and undefiled. -I felt real pleasure last Sunday. I can bear witness that the preacher -did at once speak the words of truth and soberness. There was no -eloquence—the honest man never dreamed of such a thing—but there was far -better: a cordial communication of vitalized truth. I say vitalized -because what he declared to others it was impossible not to feel he -lived on himself." - -This unction is the art of preaching. The preacher who never had this -unction never had the art of preaching. The preacher who has lost this -unction has lost the art of preaching. Whatever other arts he may have -and retain—the art of sermon-making, the art of eloquence, the art of -great, clear thinking, the art of pleasing an audience—he has lost the -divine art of preaching. This unction makes God's truth powerful and -interesting, draws and attracts, edifies, convicts, saves. - -This unction vitalizes God's revealed truth, makes it living and -life-giving. Even God's truth spoken without this unction is light, -dead, and deadening. Though abounding in truth, though weighty with -thought, though sparkling with rhetoric, though pointed by logic, though -powerful by earnestness, without this divine unction it issues in death -and not in life. Mr. Spurgeon says: "I wonder how long we might beat our -brains before we could plainly put into word what is meant by preaching -with unction. Yet he who preaches knows its presence, and he who hears -soon detects its absence. Samaria, in famine, typifies a discourse -without it. Jerusalem, with her feast of fat things, full of marrow, may -represent a sermon enriched with it. Every one knows what the freshness -of the morning is when orient pearls abound on every blade of grass, but -who can describe it, much less produce it of itself? Such is the mystery -of spiritual anointing. We know, but we cannot tell to others what it -is. It is as easy as it is foolish, to counterfeit it. Unction is a -thing which you cannot manufacture, and its counterfeits are worse than -worthless. Yet it is, in itself, priceless, and beyond measure needful -if you would edify believers and bring sinners to Christ." - - - - -XV - - _Speak for eternity. Above all things, cultivate your own spirit. A - word spoken by you when your conscience is clear and your heart full of - God's Spirit is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin. - Remember that God, and not man, must have the glory. If the veil of the - world's machinery were lifted off, how much we would find is done in - answer to the prayers of God's children._—ROBERT MURRAY MCCHEYNE. - - -Unction is that indefinable, indescribable something which an old, -renowned Scotch preacher describes thus: "There is sometimes somewhat in -preaching that cannot be described either to matter or expression, and -cannot be described what it is, or from whence it cometh, but with a -sweet violence it pierceth into the heart and affections and comes -immediately from the Lord; but if there be any way to obtain such a -thing it is by the heavenly disposition of the speaker." - -We call it unction. It is this unction which makes the Word of God -"quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even -to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and -marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." It is -this unction which gives the words of the preacher such point, -sharpness, and power, and which creates such friction and stir in many a -dead congregation. The same truths have been told in the strictness of -the letter, smooth as human oil could make them; but no signs of life, -not a pulse throb; all as peaceful as the grave and as dead. The same -preacher in the meanwhile receives a baptism of this unction, the divine -inflatus is on him, the letter of the Word has been embellished and -fired by this mysterious power, and the throbbings of life begin—life -which receives or life which resists. The unction pervades and convicts -the conscience and breaks the heart. - -This divine unction is the feature which separates and distinguishes -true gospel preaching from all other methods of presenting the truth, -and which creates a wide spiritual chasm between the preacher who has it -and the one who has it not. It supports and impregnates revealed truth -with all the energy of God. Unction is simply putting God in His own -Word and on His own preacher. By mighty and great prayerfulness and by -continual prayerfulness, it is all potential and personal to the -preacher; it inspires and clarifies his intellect, gives insight and -grasp and projecting power; it gives to the preacher heart power, which -is greater than head power; and tenderness, purity, force flow from the -heart by it. Enlargement, freedom, fulness of thought, directness and -simplicity of utterance are the fruits of this unction. - -Often earnestness is mistaken for this unction. He who has the divine -unction will be earnest in the very spiritual nature of things, but -there may be a vast deal of earnestness without the least mixture of -unction. - -Earnestness and unction look alike from some points of view. Earnestness -may be readily and without detection substituted or mistaken for -unction. It requires a spiritual eye and a spiritual taste to -discriminate. - -Earnestness may be sincere, serious, ardent, and persevering. It goes at -a thing with a good will, pursues it with perseverance, and urges it -with ardour; puts force in it. But all these forces do not rise higher -than the mere human. The _man_ is in it—the whole man, with all that he -has of will and heart, of brain and genius, of planning and working and -talking. He has set himself to some purpose which has mastered him, and -he pursues to master it. There may be none of God in it. There may be -little of God in it, because there is so much of the man in it. He may -present pleas in advocacy of his earnest purpose which please or touch -and move or overwhelm with conviction of their importance; and in all -this earnestness may move along earthly ways, being propelled by human -forces only, its altar made by earthly hands and its fire kindled by -earthly flames. It is said of a rather famous preacher of gifts, whose -construction of Scripture was to his fancy or purpose, that he "grew -very eloquent over his own exegesis." So men grow exceeding earnest over -their own plans or movements. Earnestness may be selfishness simulated. - -What of unction? It is the indefinable in preaching which makes it -preaching. It is that which distinguishes and separates preaching from -all mere human addresses. It is the divine in preaching. It makes the -preaching sharp to those who need sharpness. It distils as the dew to -those who need to be refreshed. It is well described as: - - "... a two-edged sword - Of heavenly temper keen, - And double were the wounds it made - Where'er it glanced between. - 'Twas death to sin; 'twas life - To all who mourned for sin. - It kindled and it silenced strife, - Made war and peace within." - -This unction comes to the preacher not in the study but in the closet. -It is heaven's distillation in answer to prayer. It is the sweetest -exhalation of the Holy Spirit. It impregnates, suffuses, softens, -percolates, cuts, and soothes. It carries the Word like dynamite, like -salt, like sugar; makes the Word a soother, an arraigner, a revealer, a -searcher; makes the hearer a culprit or a saint, makes him weep like a -child and live like a giant; opens his heart and his purse as gently, -yet as strongly as the spring opens the leaves. This unction is not the -gift of genius. It is not found in the halls of learning. No eloquence -can woo it. No industry can win it. No prelatical hands can confer it. -It is the gift of God—the signet set to His own messengers. It is -heaven's knighthood given to the chosen true and brave ones who have -sought this anointed honour through many an hour of tearful, wrestling -prayer. - -Earnestness is good and impressive; genius is gifted and great. Thought -kindles and inspires, but it takes a diviner endowment, a more powerful -energy than earnestness or genius or thought to break the chains of sin, -to win estranged and depraved hearts to God, to repair the breaches and -restore the Church to her old ways of purity and power. Nothing but this -holy unction can do this. - - - - -XVI - - _All the minister's efforts will be vanity or worse than vanity if he - have not unction. Unction must come down from heaven and spread a - savour and feeling and relish over his ministry; and among the other - means of qualifying himself for his office, the Bible must hold the - first place, and the last also must be given to the Word of God and - prayer._—RICHARD CECIL. - - -In the Christian system unction is the anointing of the Holy Ghost, -separating unto God's work and qualifying for it. This unction is the -one divine enablement by which the preacher accomplishes the peculiar -and saving ends of preaching. Without this unction there are no true -spiritual results accomplished; the results and forces in preaching do -not rise above the results of unsanctified speech. Without unction the -latter is as potent as the pulpit. - -This divine unction on the preacher generates through the Word of God -the spiritual results that flow from the gospel; and without this -unction, these results are not secured. Many pleasant impressions may be -made, but these all fall far below the ends of gospel preaching. This -unction may be simulated. There are many things that look like it, there -are many results that resemble its effects; but they are foreign to its -results and to its nature. The fervour or softness excited by a pathetic -or emotional sermon may look like the movements of the divine unction, -but they have no pungent, penetrating, heart-breaking force. No -heart-healing balm is there in these surface, sympathetic, emotional -movements; they are not radical, neither sin-searching nor sin-curing. - -This divine unction is the one distinguishing feature that separates -true gospel preaching from all other methods of presenting truth. It -backs and interpenetrates the revealed truth with all the force of God. -It illumines the Word and broadens and enrichens the intellect and -empowers it to grasp and apprehend the Word. It qualifies the preacher's -heart, and brings it to that condition of tenderness, of purity, of -force and light that are necessary to secure the highest results. This -unction gives to the preacher liberty and enlargement of thought and -soul—a freedom, fulness, and directness of utterance that can be secured -by no other process. - -Without this unction on the preacher the gospel has no more power to -propagate itself than any other system of truth. This is the seal of its -divinity. Unction in the preacher puts God in the gospel. Without the -unction, God is absent, and the gospel is left to the low and -unsatisfactory forces that the ingenuity, interest, or talents of men -can devise to enforce and project its doctrines. - -It is in this element that the pulpit oftener fails than in any other -element. Just at this all-important point it lapses. Learning it may -have, brilliancy and eloquence may delight and charm, sensation or less -offensive methods may bring the populace in crowds, mental power may -impress and enforce truth with all its resources; but without this -unction, each and all these will be but as the fretful assault of the -waters on a Gibraltar. Spray and foam may cover and spangle; but the -rocks are there still, unimpressed and unimpressible. The human heart -can no more be swept of its hardness and sin by these human forces than -these rocks can be swept away by the ocean's ceaseless flow. - -This unction is the consecration force, and its presence the continuous -test of that consecration. It is this divine anointing on the preacher -that secures his consecration to God and his work. Other forces and -motives may call him to the work, but this only is consecration. A -separation to God's work by the power of the Holy Spirit is the only -consecration recognized by God as legitimate. - -The unction, the divine unction, this heavenly anointing, is what the -pulpit needs and must have. This divine and heavenly oil put on it by -the imposition of God's hand must soften and lubricate the whole -man—heart, head, spirit—until it separates him with a mighty separation -from all earthly, secular, worldly, selfish motives and aims, separating -him to everything that is pure and Godlike. - -It is the presence of this unction on the preacher that creates the stir -and friction in many a congregation. The same truths have been told in -the strictness of the letter, but no ruffle has been seen, no pain or -pulsation felt. All is quiet as a graveyard. Another preacher comes, and -this mysterious influence is on him; the letter of the Word has been -fired by the Spirit, the throes of a mighty movement are felt, it is the -unction that pervades and stirs the conscience and breaks the heart. -Unctionless preaching makes everything hard, dry, acrid, dead. - -This unction is not a memory or an era of the past only; it is a -present, realized, conscious fact. It belongs to the experience of the -man as well as to his preaching. It is that which transforms him into -the image of his divine Master, as well as that by which he declares the -truths of Christ with power. It is so much the power in the ministry as -to make all else seem feeble and vain without it, and by its presence to -atone for the absence of all other and feebler forces. - -This unction is not an inalienable gift. It is a conditional gift, and -its presence is perpetuated and increased by the same process by which -it was at first secured; by unceasing prayer to God, by impassioned -desires after God, by estimating it, by seeking it with tireless ardour, -by deeming all else loss and failure without it. - -How and whence comes this unction? Direct from God in answer to prayer. -Praying hearts only are the hearts filled with this holy oil; praying -lips only are anointed with this divine unction. - -Prayer, much prayer, is the price of preaching unction; prayer, much -prayer, is the one, sole condition of keeping this unction. Without -unceasing prayer the unction never comes to the preacher. Without -perseverance in prayer, the unction, like the manna overkept, breeds -worms. - - - - -XVII - - _Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire - nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or - laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom - of heaven on earth. God does nothing but in answer to - prayer_.—JOHN WESLEY. - - -The apostles knew the necessity and worth of prayer to their ministry. -They knew that their high commission as apostles, instead of relieving -them from the necessity of prayer, committed them to it by a more urgent -need; so that they were exceedingly jealous else some other important -work should exhaust their time and prevent their praying as they ought; -so they appointed laymen to look after the delicate and engrossing -duties of ministering to the poor, that they (the apostles) might, -unhindered, "give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry -of the word." Prayer is put first, and their relation to prayer is put -most strongly—"give themselves to it," making a business of it, -surrendering themselves to praying, putting fervour, urgency, -perseverance, and time in it. - -How holy, apostolic men devoted themselves to this divine work of -prayer! "Night and day praying exceedingly," says Paul. "We will give -ourselves continually to prayer" is the consensus of apostolic -devotement. How these New Testament preachers laid themselves out in -prayer for God's people! How they put God in full force into their -Churches by their praying! These holy apostles did not vainly fancy that -they had met their high and solemn duties by delivering faithfully God's -Word, but their preaching was made to stick and tell by the ardour and -insistence of their praying. Apostolic praying was as taxing, toilsome, -and imperative as apostolic preaching. They prayed mightily day and -night to bring their people to the highest regions of faith and -holiness. They prayed mightier still to hold them to this high spiritual -altitude. The preacher who has never learned in the School of Christ the -high and divine art of intercession for his people will never learn the -art of preaching, though homiletics be poured into him by the ton, and -though he be the most gifted genius in sermon-making and sermon-delivery. - -The prayers of apostolic, saintly leaders do much in making saints of -those who are not apostles. If the Church leaders in after years had -been as particular and fervent in praying for their people as the -apostles were, the sad, dark times of worldliness and apostasy had not -marred the history and eclipsed the glory and arrested the advance of -the Church. Apostolic praying makes apostolic saints and keeps apostolic -times of purity and power in the Church. - -What loftiness of soul, what purity and elevation of motive, what -unselfishness, what self-sacrifice, what exhaustive toil, what ardour of -spirit, what divine tact are requisite to be an intercessor for men! - -The preacher is to lay himself out in prayer for his people; not that -they might be saved, simply, but that they be mightily saved. The -apostles laid themselves out in prayer that their saints might be -perfect; not that they should have a little relish for the things of -God, but that they "might be filled with all the fulness of God." Paul -did not rely on his apostolic preaching to secure this end, but "for -this cause he bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." -Paul's praying carried Paul's converts farther along the highway of -sainthood than Paul's preaching did. Epaphras did as much or more by -prayer for the Colossian saints than by his preaching. He laboured -fervently always in prayer for them that "they might stand perfect and -complete in all the Will of God." - -Preachers are pre-eminently God's leaders. They are primarily -responsible for the condition of the Church. They shape its character, -give tone and direction to its life. - -Much every way depends on these leaders. They shape the times and the -institutions. The Church is divine, the treasure it incases is heavenly, -but it bears the imprint of the human. The treasure is in earthen -vessels, and it smacks of the vessel. The Church of God makes, or is -made by, its leaders. Whether it makes them or is made by them, it will -be what its leaders are; spiritual if they are so, secular if they are, -conglomerate if its leaders are. Israel's kings gave character to -Israel's piety. A Church rarely revolts against or rises above the -religion of its leaders. Strongly spiritual leaders; men of holy might, -at the lead, are tokens of God's favour; disaster and weakness follow -the wake of feeble or worldly leaders. Israel had fallen low when God -gave children to be their princes and babes to rule over them. No happy -state is predicted by the prophets when children oppress God's Israel -and women rule over them. Times of spiritual leadership are times of -great spiritual prosperity to the Church. - -Prayer is one of the eminent characteristics of strong spiritual -leadership. Men of mighty prayer are men of might and mould things. -Their power with God has the conquering tread. - -How can a man preach who does not get his message fresh from God in the -closet? How can he preach without having his faith quickened, his vision -cleared, and his heart warmed by his closeting with God? Alas, for the -pulpit lips which are untouched by this closet flame. Dry and -unctionless they will ever be, and truths divine will never come with -power from such lips. As far as the real interests of religion are -concerned, a pulpit without a closet will always be a barren thing. - -A preacher may preach in an official, entertaining, or learned way -without prayer, but between this kind of preaching and sowing God's -precious seed with holy hands and prayerful, weeping hearts there is an -immeasurable distance. - -A prayerless ministry is the undertaker for all God's truth and for -God's Church. He may have the most costly casket and the most beautiful -flowers, but it is a funeral, notwithstanding the charmful array. A -prayerless Christian will never learn God's truth; a prayerless ministry -will never be able to teach God's truth. Ages of millennial glory have -been lost by a prayerless Church. The coming of our Lord has been -postponed indefinitely by a prayerless Church. Hell has enlarged herself -and filled her dire caves in the presence of the dead service of a -prayerless Church. - -The best, the greatest offering is an offering of prayer. If the -preachers of the twentieth century will learn well the lesson of prayer, -and use fully the power of prayer, the millennium will come to its noon -ere the century closes. "Prayer without ceasing" is the trumpet call to -the preachers of the twentieth century. If the twentieth century will -get their texts, their thoughts, their words, their sermons in their -closets, the next century will find a new heaven and a new earth. The -old sin-stained and sin-eclipsed heaven and earth will pass away under -the power of a praying ministry. - - - - -XVIII - - _If some Christians that have been complaining of their ministers had - said and acted less before men and had applied themselves with all - their might to cry to God for their ministers—had, as it were, risen - and stormed heaven with their humble, fervent, and incessant prayers - for them—they would have been much more in the way of - success._—JONATHAN EDWARDS. - - -Somehow the practice of praying in particular for the preacher has -fallen into disuse or become discounted. Occasionally have we heard the -practice arraigned as a disparagement of the ministry, being a public -declaration by those who do it of the inefficiency of the ministry. It -offends the pride of learning and self-sufficiency, perhaps, and these -ought to be offended and rebuked in a ministry that is so derelict as to -allow them to exist. - -Prayer, to the preacher, is not simply the duty of his profession, a -privilege, but it is a necessity. Air is not more necessary to the lungs -than prayer is to the preacher. It is absolutely necessary for the -preacher to pray. It is an absolute necessity that the preacher be -prayed for. These two propositions are wedded into a union which ought -never to know any divorce: _the preacher must pray; the preacher must be -prayed for_. It will take all the praying he can do, and all the praying -he can get done, to meet the fearful responsibilities and gain the -largest, truest success in his great work. The true preacher, next to -the cultivation of the spirit and fact of prayer in himself, in their -intensest form, covets with a great covetousness the prayers of God's -people. - -The holier a man is, the more does he estimate prayer; the clearer does -he see that God gives Himself to the praying ones, and that the measure -of God's revelation to the soul is the measure of the soul's longing, -importunate prayer for God. Salvation never finds its way to a -prayerless heart. The Holy Spirit never abides in a prayerless spirit. -Preaching never edifies a prayerless soul. Christ knows nothing of -prayerless Christians. The gospel cannot be extended by a prayerless -preacher. Gifts, talents, education, eloquence, God's call, cannot abate -the demand of prayer, but only intensify the necessity for the preacher -to pray and to be prayed for. The more the preacher's eyes are opened to -the nature, responsibility, and difficulties in his work, the more will -he see, and if he be a true preacher the more will he feel, the -necessity of prayer; not only the increasing demand to pray himself, but -to call on others to help him by their prayers. - -Paul is an illustration of this. If any man could extend or advance the -gospel by dint of personal force, by brain power, by culture, by -personal grace, by God's apostolic commission, God's extraordinary call, -that man was Paul. That the preacher must be a man given to prayer, Paul -is an eminent example. That the true apostolic preacher must have the -prayers of other good people to give to his ministry its full quota of -success, Paul is a pre-eminent example. He asks, he covets, he pleads in -an impassioned way for the help of all God's saints. He knew that in the -spiritual realm, as elsewhere, in union there is strength; that the -concentration and aggregation of faith, desire, and prayer increased the -volume of spiritual force until it became overwhelming and irresistible -in its power. Units of prayer combined, like drops of water, make an -ocean which defies resistance. So Paul, with his clear and full -apprehension of spiritual dynamics, determined to make his ministry as -impressive, as eternal, as irresistible as the ocean, by gathering all -the scattered units of prayer and precipitating them on his ministry. -May not the solution of Paul's pre-eminence in labours and results, and -impress on the Church and the world, be found in this fact that he was -able to centre on himself and his ministry more of prayer than others? -To his brethren at Rome he wrote: "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the -Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive -together with me in prayers to God for me." To the Ephesians he says: -"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and -watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all -saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open -my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel." To the -Colossians he emphasizes: "Withal praying also for us, that God would -open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for -which I am also in bonds: that I may make it manifest as I ought to -speak." To the Thessalonians he says sharply, strongly: "Brethren, pray -for us." Paul calls on the Corinthian Church to help him: "Ye also -helping together by prayer for us." This was to be part of their work. -They were to lay to the helping hand of prayer. He in an additional and -closing charge to the Thessalonian Church about the importance and -necessity of their prayers says: "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that -the Word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it -is with you: and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked -men." He impresses the Philippians that all his trials and opposition -can be made subservient to the spread of the gospel by the efficiency of -their prayers for him. Philemon was to prepare a lodging for him, for -through Philemon's prayer Paul was to be his guest. - -Paul's attitude on this question illustrates his humility and his deep -insight into the spiritual forces which project the gospel. More than -this, it teaches a lesson for all times, that if Paul was so dependent -on the prayers of God's saints to give his ministry success, how much -greater the necessity that the prayers of God's saints be centred on the -ministry of to-day! - -Paul did not feel that this urgent plea for prayer was to lower his -dignity, lessen his influence, or depreciate his piety. What if it did? -Let dignity go, let influence be destroyed, let his reputation be -marred—he must have their prayers. Called, commissioned, chief of the -Apostles as he was, all his equipment was imperfect without the prayers -of his people. He wrote letters everywhere, urging them to pray for him. -Do you pray for your preacher? Do you pray for him in secret? Public -prayers are of little worth unless they are founded on or followed up by -private praying. The praying ones are to the preacher as Aaron and Hur -were to Moses. They hold up his hands and decide the issue that is so -fiercely raging around them. - -The plea and purpose of the apostles were to put the Church to praying. -They did not ignore the grace of cheerful giving. They were not ignorant -of the place which religious activity and work occupied in the spiritual -life; but not one or all of these, in apostolic estimate or urgency, -could at all compare in necessity and importance with prayer. The most -sacred and urgent pleas were used, the most fervid exhortations, the -most comprehensive and arousing words were uttered to enforce the -all-important obligation and necessity of prayer. - -"Put the saints everywhere to praying" is the burden of the apostolic -effort and the keynote of apostolic success. Jesus Christ had striven to -do this in the days of His personal ministry. As He was moved by -infinite compassion at the ripened fields of earth perishing for lack of -labourers—and pausing in His own praying—He tries to awaken the stupid -sensibilities of His disciples to the duty of prayer as He charges them, -"Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth labourers into -His harvest." "And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men -ought always to pray and not to faint." - - - - -XIX - - _This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not - in body. More solitude and earlier hours! I suspect I have been - allotting habitually too little time to religious exercises, as private - devotion and religious meditation, Scripture-reading, etc. Hence I am - lean and cold and hard. I had better allot two hours or an hour and a - half daily. I have been keeping too late hours, and hence have had but - a hurried half hour in a morning to myself. Surely the experience of - all good men confirms the proposition that without a due measure of - private devotions the soul will grow lean. But all may be done through - prayer—almighty prayer I am ready to say—and why not? For that it is - almighty is only through the gracious ordination of the God of love and - truth. O then, pray, pray, pray!_—WILLIAM WILBERFORCE. - - -Our devotions are not measured by the clock, but time is of their -essence. The ability to wait and stay and press belongs essentially to -our intercourse with God. Hurry, everywhere unseeming and damaging, is -so to an alarming extent in the great business of communion with God. -Short devotions are the bane of deep piety. Calmness, grasp, strength, -are never the companions of hurry. Short devotions deplete spiritual -vigour, arrest spiritual progress, sap spiritual foundations, blight the -root and bloom of spiritual life. They are the prolific source of -backsliding, the sure indication of a superficial piety; they deceive, -blight, rot the seed, and impoverish the soil. - -It is true that Bible prayers in word and print are short, but the -praying men of the Bible were with God through many a sweet and holy -wrestling hour. They won by few words but long waiting. The prayers -Moses records may be short, but Moses prayed to God with fastings and -mighty cryings forty days and nights. - -The statement of Elijah's praying may be condensed to a few brief -paragraphs but doubtless Elijah, who when "praying he prayed," spent -many hours of fiery struggle and lofty intercourse with God before he -could, with assured boldness, say to Ahab, "There shall not be dew nor -rain these years, but according to my word." The Bible record of Paul's -prayers is short, but Paul "prayed night and day exceedingly." The -"Lord's Prayer" is a divine epitome for infant lips, but the man Christ -Jesus prayed many an all-night ere His work was done; and His all-night -and long-sustained devotions gave to His work its finish and perfection, -and to His character the fulness and glory of its divinity. - -Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true -praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh -and blood do not relish. Few persons are made of such strong fibre that -they will make a costly outlay when surface work will pass as well in -the market. We can habituate ourselves to our beggarly praying until it -looks well to us, at least it keeps up a decent form and quiets -conscience—the deadliest of opiates! We can curtail our praying, and not -realize the peril till the foundations are gone. Hurried devotions make -weak faith, feeble convictions, questionable piety. To be little with -God is to be little for God. To cut short the praying makes the whole -religious character short, scrimp, niggardly, and slovenly. - -It takes good time for the full flow of God into the spirit. Short -devotions cut the pipe of God's full flow. It takes time in the secret -places to get the full revelation of God. Little time and hurry mar the -picture. - -Henry Martyn laments that "want of private devotional reading and -shortness of prayer through incessant sermon-making had produced much -strangeness between God and his soul." He judged that he had dedicated -too much time to _public_ ministrations and too little to _private_ -communion with God. He was much impressed with the need of setting apart -times for fasting and to devote times for solemn prayer. Resulting from -this he records: "Was assisted this morning to pray for two hours." Said -William Wilberforce the peer of kings: "I must secure more time for -private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The -shortening of private devotions starves the soul; it grows lean and -faint. I have been keeping too late hours." Of a failure in Parliament -he says: "Let me record my grief and shame, and all, probably, from -private devotions having been contracted, and so God let me stumble." -More solitude and earlier hours were his remedy. - -More time and early hours for prayer would act like magic to revive and -invigorate many a decayed spiritual life. More time and early hours for -prayer would be manifest in holy living. A holy life would not be so -rare or so difficult a thing if our devotions were not so short and -hurried. A Christly temper in its sweet and passionless fragrance would -not be so alien and hopeless a heritage if our closet stay were -lengthened and intensified. We live shabbily because we pray meanly. -Plenty of time to feast in our closets will bring marrow and fatness to -our lives. Our ability to stay with God in our closet measures our -ability to stay with God out of the closet. Hasty closet visits are -deceptive, defaulting. We are not only deluded by them, but we are -losers by them in many ways and in many rich legacies. Tarrying in the -closet instructs and wins. We are taught by it, and the greatest -victories are often the results of great waiting—waiting till words and -plans are exhausted, and silent and patient waiting gains the crown. -Jesus Christ asks with an affronted emphasis, "Shall not God avenge His -own elect which cry day and night unto Him?" - -To pray is the greatest thing we can do: and to do it well there must be -calmness, time, and deliberation; otherwise it is degraded into the -smallest and meanest of things. True praying has the largest results for -good; and poor praying, the least. We cannot do too much of real -praying; we cannot do too little of the sham. We must learn anew the -worth of prayer, enter anew the school of prayer. There is nothing which -it takes more time to learn. And if we would learn the wondrous art we -must not give a fragment here and there—"A little talk with Jesus," as -the tiny saintlets sing—but we must demand and hold with iron grasp the -best hours of the day for God and prayer, or there will be no praying -worth the name. - -This, however, is not a day of prayer. Few men there are who pray. -Prayer is defamed by preacher and priest. In these days of hurry and -bustle, of electricity and steam, men will not take time to pray. -Preachers there are who "say prayers" as a part of their programme, on -regular or state occasions; but who "stirs himself up to take hold upon -God?" Who prays as Jacob prayed—till he is crowned as a prevailing -princely intercessor? Who prays as Elijah prayed—till all the locked-up -forces of nature were unsealed and a famine-stricken land bloomed as the -garden of God? Who prayed as Jesus Christ prayed as out upon the -mountain he "continued all night in prayer to God?" The apostles "gave -themselves to prayer"—the most difficult thing to get men or even the -preachers to do. Laymen there are who will give their money—some of them -in rich abundance—but they will not "give themselves" to prayer, without -which their money is but a curse. There are plenty of preachers who will -preach and deliver great and eloquent addresses on the need of revival -and the spread of the kingdom of God, but not many there are who will do -that without which all preaching and organizing are worse than -vain—pray. It is out of date, almost a lost art, and the greatest -benefactor this age could have is the man who will bring the preachers -and the church back to prayer. - - - - -XX - - _I judge that my prayer is more than the devil himself; if it were - otherwise, Luther would have fared differently long before this. Yet - men will not see and acknowledge the great wonders or miracles God - works in my behalf. If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I - should lose a great deal of the fire of faith._—MARTIN LUTHER. - - -Only glimpses of the great importance of prayer could the apostles get -before Pentecost. But the Spirit coming and filling at Pentecost -elevated prayer to its vital and all commanding position in the gospel -of Christ. The call now of prayer to every saint is the Spirit's loudest -and most exigent call. Sainthood's piety is made, refined, perfected, by -prayer. The gospel moves with slow and timid pace when the saints are -not at their prayers early and late and long. - -Where are the Christly leaders who can teach the modern saints how to -pray and put them at it? Do we know we are raising up a prayerless set -of saints? Where are the apostolic leaders who can put God's people to -praying? Let them come to the front and do the work, and it will be the -greatest work which can be done. An increase of educational facilities -and a great increase of money force will be the direst curse to religion -if they are not sanctified by more and better praying than we are doing. -More praying will not come as a matter of course. The campaign for the -twentieth or thirtieth century fund will not help our praying but hinder -if we are not careful. Nothing but a specific effort from a praying -leadership will avail. The chief ones must lead in the apostolic effort -to radicate the vital importance and _fact_ of prayer in the heart and -life of the Church. None but praying leaders can have praying followers. -Praying apostles will beget praying saints. A praying pulpit will beget -praying pews. We do greatly need somebody who can set the saints to this -business of praying. We are not a generation of praying saints. -Non-praying saints are a beggarly gang of saints who have neither the -ardour nor the beauty nor the power of saints. Who will restore this -breach? The greatest will he be of reformers and apostles, who can set -the Church to praying. - -We put it as our most sober judgment that the great need of the Church -in this and all ages is men of such commanding faith, of such unsullied -holiness, of such marked spiritual vigour and consuming zeal, that their -prayers, faith, lives, and ministry will be of such a radical and -aggressive form as to work spiritual revolutions which will form eras in -individual and Church life. - -We do not mean men who get up sensational stirs by novel devices, nor -those who attract by a pleasing entertainment; but men who can stir -things, and work revolutions by the preaching of God's Word and by the -power of the Holy Ghost, revolutions which change the whole current of -things. - -Natural ability and educational advantages do not figure as factors in -this matter; but capacity for faith, the ability to pray, the power of -thorough consecration, the ability of self-littleness, an absolute -losing of one's self in God's glory and an ever-present and insatiable -yearning and seeking after all the fulness of God—men who can set the -Church ablaze for God; not in a noisy, showy way, but with an intense -and quiet heat that melts and moves everything for God. - -God can work wonders if He can get a suitable man. Men can work wonders -if they can get God to lead them. The full endowment of the spirit that -turned the world upside down would be eminently useful in these latter -days. Men who can stir things mightily for God, whose spiritual -revolutions change the whole aspect of things, are the universal need of -the Church. - -The Church has never been without these men; they adorn its history; -they are the standing miracles of the divinity of the Church; their -example and history are an unfailing inspiration and blessing. An -increase in their number and power should be our prayer. - -That which has been done in spiritual matters can be done again, and be -better done. This was Christ's view. He said: "Verily, verily, I say -unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; -and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father." -The past has not exhausted the possibilities nor the demands for doing -great things for God. The Church that is dependent on its past history -for its miracles of power and grace is a fallen Church. - -God wants elect men—men out of whom self and the world have gone by a -severe crucifixion, by a bankruptcy which has so totally ruined self and -the world that there is neither hope nor desire of recovery; men who by -this insolvency and crucifixion have turned toward God perfect hearts. - -Let us pray ardently that God's promise to prayer may be more than -realized. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POWER THROUGH PRAYER *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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