5.
Prayer, the Great
Essential
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
"...rising up a great while before
day, went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there
prayed."
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-coloring 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.
We are stressing true praying, which engages
and sets on fire every high element of the preacher's being...
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 are stressing 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.
... the
regions of the spirit where the fearful war between God and Satan,
heaven and hell, is being waged...
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 past.
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 short-lived 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.
Praying is spiritual work; and human
nature does not like taxing, spiritual work.
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 favoring 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.
The little estimate we put on prayer is evident from the little time
we give to it.
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 salvo 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!
To men
who think praying their main business...does God commit the keys of his
kingdom, and by them does he work his spiritual wonders in this world.
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 labors.
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-honoring, soul-saving uses.
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Topic E.
M.
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E.
M.
Bounds:
Power
Through
Prayer
