Purpose in PrayerBounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Religion
Purpose in Prayer
Bounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree)
Prayer -- Christianity
Put the saints everywhere to praying, is the burden of the apostolic
effort and the key note of apostolic success. Jesus Christ had striven
to do this in the days of His personal ministry. 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
sleeping 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 to them to this end,
that _men ought_ always to pray.
Only glimpses of this great importance of prayer could the apostles get
before Pentecost. But the Spirit coming and filling on 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 Christlike leaders who can teach the modern saints how to
pray and put them at it? Do our leaders 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 that 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 will not help our praying, but hinder if
we are not careful. Nothing but a specific effort from a praying
leadership will avail. 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 a generation of non-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 branch? The greatest will he be of reformers and apostles,
who can set the Church to praying.
Holy men have, in the past, changed the whole force of affairs,
revolutionised character and country by prayer. And such achievements
are still possible to us. The power is only wanting to be used. Prayer
is but the expression of faith.
Time would fail to tell of the mighty things wrought by prayer, for by
it holy ones have “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed
valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, women
received their dead raised to life again.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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