8.
Examples of
Praying
Men
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. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"To his ardent and persevering prayers must no doubt be
ascribed in a great measure his distinguished and almost uninterrupted
success."
Bishop Wilson says: "In H. Martyn's journal the spirit of prayer, the
time he devoted to the duty, and his fervor 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."
Brainerd said: "I love to be alone in my cottage, where I can
spend much time in prayer."
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."
He went over his circuits like a flame of fire. The fire was
kindled by the time he spent in prayer.
William Bramwell is famous in Methodist annals for personal holiness
and for his wonderful success in preaching and for the marvelous 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.
If the encampment was struck at 6 A.M., he would rise at four.
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.
"Consider that thy time is short, and that business and company must
not be allowed to rob thee of thy God."
Dr. Judson's success in prayer 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. Endeavor 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!
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.
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.
"Let those who have really
prayed give the answer."
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.
...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.
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."
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Topic E.
M. Bounds Index
E.
M.
Bounds:
Power
Through
Prayer
