Essentials of prayerBounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Religion
Essentials of prayer
Bounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Prayer -- Christianity
The spirit of devotion puts God in all things. It puts God not merely
in our praying and Church going, but in all the concerns of life.
“Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to
the glory of God.” The spirit of devotion makes the common things
of earth sacred, and the little things great. With this spirit of
devotion, we go to business on Monday directed by the very same
influence, and inspired by the same influences by which we went to
Church on Sunday. The spirit of devotion makes a Sabbath out of
Saturday, and transforms the shop and the office into a temple of God.
The spirit of devotion removes religion from being a thin veneer, and
puts it into the very life and being of our souls. With it religion
ceases to be doing a mere work, and becomes a heart, sending its rich
blood through every artery and beating with the pulsations of vigourous
and radiant life.
The spirit of devotion is not merely the aroma of religion, but the
stalk and stem on which religion grows. It is the salt which penetrates
and makes savoury all religious acts. It is the sugar which sweetens
duty, self-denial and sacrifice. It is the bright colouring which
relieves the dullness of religious performances. It dispels frivolity
and drives away all skin-deep forms of worship, and makes worship a
serious and deep-seated service, impregnating body, soul and spirit
with its heavenly infusion. Let us ask in all seriousness, has this
highest angel of heaven, this heavenly spirit of devotion, this
brightest and best angel of earth, left us? When the angel of devotion
has gone, the angel of prayer has lost its wings, and it becomes a
deformed and loveless thing.
The ardour of devotion is in prayer. In the fourth chapter of
Revelation, verse eight, we read: “And they rest not day nor night,
saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is
to come.” The inspiration and centre of their rapturous devotion is the
holiness of God. That holiness of God claims their attention, inflames
their devotion. There is nothing cold, nothing dull, nothing wearisome
about them or their heavenly worship. “They rest not day nor night.”
What zeal! What unfainting ardour and ceaseless rapture! The ministry
of prayer, if it be anything worthy of the name, is a ministry of
ardour, a ministry of unwearied and intense longing after God and after
His holiness.
The spirit of devotion pervades the saints in heaven and characterizes
the worship of heaven’s angelic intelligences. No devotionless
creatures are in that heavenly world. God is there, and His very
presence begets the spirit of reverence, of awe, and of filial fear. If
we would be partakers with them after death, we must first learn the
spirit of devotion on earth before we get there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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