Essentials of prayerBounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Religion
Essentials of prayer
Bounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Prayer -- Christianity
The work of God in the world is the implantation, the growth and
the perfection of holiness in His people. Keep this ever in mind.
But we might ask just now, Is this work advancing in the Church? Are
men and women being made holy? Is the present-day Church engaged in
the business of making holy men and women? This is not a vain and
speculative question. It is practical, pertinent and all important.
The present-day Church has vast machinery. Her activities are great,
and her material prosperity is unparalleled. The name of religion is
widely-spread and well-known. Much money comes into the Lord’s treasury
and is paid out. But here is the question: Does the work of holiness
keep pace with all this? Is the burden of the prayers of Church people
to be made holy? Are our preachers really holy men? Or to go back a
little further, are they hungering and thirsting after righteousness,
desiring the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby? Are
they really seeking to be holy men? Of course men of intelligence are
greatly needed in the pulpit, but prior to that, and primary to it, is
the fact that we need holy men to stand before dying men and proclaim
the salvation of God to them.
Ministers, like laymen, and no more so than laymen, must be holy men
in life, in conversation and in temper. They must be examples to the
flock of God in all things. By their lives they are to preach as well
as to speak. Men in the pulpit are needed who are spotless in life,
circumspect in behaviour, “without rebuke and blameless in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom they are to shine in the
world.” Are our preachers of this type of men? We are simply asking
the question. Let the reader make up his own judgment. Is the work of
holiness making progress among our preachers?
Again let us ask: Are our leading laymen examples of holiness? Are they
seeking holiness of heart and life? Are they praying men, ever praying
that God would fashion them according to His pattern of holiness? Are
their business ways without stain of sin, and their gains free from the
taint of wrong-doing? Have they the foundation of solid honesty, and
does uprightness bring them into elevation and influence? Does business
integrity and probity run parallel with religious activity, and with
churchly observance?
Then, while we are pursuing our investigation, seeking light as to
whether the work of God among His people is making progress, let us ask
further as to our women. Are the leading women of our churches dead to
the fashions of this world, separated from the world, not conformed
to the world’s maxims and customs? Are they in behaviour as becometh
holiness, teaching the young women by word and life the lessons of
soberness, obedience, and home-keeping? Are our women noted for their
praying habits? Are they patterns of prayer?
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