PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Essentials of prayer
Bounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree), 1835-1913 · 33,497 words · 50 reading sections
Fleming H. Revell Company
The Essentials of Prayer +――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――+ | _EDITED BY HOMER W. HODGE_ | | | | The Spiritual Life Books | | | | By EDWARD M. BOUNDS | +――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――+ | | | _The Reality of Prayer._ Cloth $1.25 | | | | Dr. A. …
424 wordsSECTION 2Prayer Takes In The Whole Man
_Flushing, N. Y._ Contents VI. PRAYER AND TROUBLE (_Continued_) 61 “Henry Clay Trumbull spoke forth the Infinite in the terms of our world, and the Eternal in the forms of our human life. Some years ago, on a ferry-boat, I met a gentleman who knew him, and I told him that when I had last seen Dr. Trumbull, a for…
688 wordsSECTION 3Prayer Takes In The Whole Man
The entire man must pray. The whole man, life, heart, temper, mind, are in it. Each and all join in the prayer exercise. Doubt, double-mindedness, division of the affections, are all foreign to the closet. Character and conduct, undefiled, made whiter than snow, are mighty potencies, and are the most seemly beauties fo…
654 wordsSECTION 4Prayer Takes In The Whole Man
The answer of Jesus to the scribe as to what was the first and greatest commandment was as follows: “The Lord our God is one Lord; And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” In one word, the entire man without reservation must l…
664 wordsSECTION 5Prayer Takes In The Whole Man
Paul was acquainted with this kind of praying. In writing to the Roman Christians, he urges them to pray with him after this fashion: “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” The words, “strive tog…
470 wordsSECTION 6Prayer And Humility
“If two angels were to receive at the same moment a commission from God, one to go down and rule earth’s grandest empire, the other to go and sweep the streets of its meanest village, it would be a matter of entire indifference to each which service fell to his lot, the post of ruler or the post of scavenger; for …
779 wordsSECTION 7Prayer And Humility
The parable of the Pharisee and publican stands out in such bold relief that we must again refer to it. The Pharisee seemed to be inured to prayer. Certainly he should have known by that time how to pray, but alas! like many others, he seemed never to have learned this invaluable lesson. He leaves business and business…
713 wordsSECTION 8Prayer And Humility
Somewhat after this order of description is that definable grace of humility, so perfectly drawn in the publican’s prayer, and so entirely absent from the prayer of the Pharisee. It takes many sittings to make a good picture of it. Humility holds in its keeping the very life of prayer. Neither pride nor vanity can pra…
591 wordsSECTION 9Prayer And Devotion
“Once as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly had been to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God. As near as I can judge, this continued about an hour; …
780 wordsSECTION 10Prayer And Devotion
Religion has to do with everything but our hearts. It engages our hands and feet, it takes hold of our voices, it lays its hands on our money, it affects even the postures of our bodies, but it does not take hold of our affections, our desires, our zeal, and make us serious, desperately in earnest, and cause us to be q…
739 wordsSECTION 11Prayer And Devotion
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 th…
650 wordsSECTION 12――D. M. Mcintyre.
There may be much of activity induced by drill, created by enthusiasm, the product of the weakness of the flesh, the inspiration of volatile, short-lived forces. Activity is often at the expense of more solid, useful elements, and generally to the total neglect of prayer. To be too busy with God’s work to commune with …
660 wordsSECTION 13――D. M. Mcintyre.
“I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Consideration of God’s mercies not only begets gratitude, but induces a large consecration to God of all we have and are. So that prayer, thanksgiv…
725 wordsSECTION 14――D. M. Mcintyre.
Praise is so distinctly and definitely wedded to prayer, so inseparably joined, that they cannot be divorced. Praise is dependent on prayer for its full volume and its sweetest melody. Singing is one method of praise, not the highest it is true, but it is the ordinary and usual form. The singing service in our churche…
761 wordsSECTION 15――D. M. Mcintyre.
The music of praise, for there is real music of soul in praise, is too hopeful and happy to be denied. All these are in the “giving of thanks.” In Philippians, prayer is called “requests.” “Let your requests be made known unto God,” which describes prayer as an asking for a gift, giving prominence to the thing asked fo…
316 wordsSECTION 16Prayer And Trouble
“‘He will.’ It may not be today, That God Himself shall wipe our tears away, Nor, hope deferred, may it be yet tomorrow He’ll take away our cup of earthly sorrow; But, precious promise, He has said He _will_, If we but trust Him fully――and be still. “We, too, as He, may fall, and die unknown; And e’en the place …
721 wordsSECTION 17Prayer And Trouble
Even the evils brought about by the forces of nature are His servants, carrying out His will and fulfilling His designs. God even claims the locusts, the cankerworm, the caterpillar are His servants, “My great army,” used by Him to correct His people and discipline them. Trouble belongs to the disciplinary part of the…
703 wordsSECTION 18Prayer And Trouble
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.” There is a distinct note of comfort in the Gospel for the praying saints of the Lord, and He is a wise scribe in Divine things who knows how to mini…
651 wordsSECTION 19Prayer And Trouble
Trouble has wise ends for the praying ones, and these find it so. Happy is he who, like the Psalmist, finds that his troubles have been blessings in disguise. “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast …
664 wordsSECTION 20Prayer And Trouble
But when we survey all the sources from which trouble comes, it all resolves itself into two invaluable truths: First, that our troubles at last are of the Lord. They come with His consent. He is in all of them, and is interested in us when they press and bruise us. And secondly, that our troubles, no matter what the c…
693 wordsSECTION 21Vi
PRAYER AND TROUBLE (_Continued_) “My first message for heavenly relief went singing over millions of miles of space in 1869, and brought relief to my troubled heart. But, thanks be to Him, I have received many delightful and helpful answers during the last fifty years. I would think the commerce of the skies had g…
667 wordsSECTION 22Vi
To the same effect are the words of Peter in his First Epistle, in his strong prayer for those Christians to whom he writes; thus showing that suffering and the highest state of grace are closely connected; and intimating that it is through suffering we are to be brought to those higher regions of Christian experience:…
671 wordsSECTION 23Vi
Just as prayer is wide in its range, taking in everything, so trouble is infinitely varied in its uses and designs. It takes trouble sometimes to arrest attention, to stop men in the busy rush of life, and to awaken them to a sense of their helplessness and their need and sinfulness. Not till King Manasseh was bound wi…
434 wordsSECTION 24Prayer And God’S Work
“If Jacob’s desire had been given him in time for him to get a good night’s sleep he might never have become the prince of prayers we know today. If Hannah’s prayer for a son had been answered at the time she set for herself, the nation might never have known the mighty man of God it found in Samuel. Hannah wanted…
730 wordsSECTION 25Prayer And God’S Work
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 an…
933 wordsSECTION 26Prayer And God’S Work
But the cause of this sad state of things may be traced further back. It is largely due to the decay of prayer. For with the decline of the work of holiness there has come the decline of the business of praying. As praying and holiness go together, so the decline of one, means the decay of the other. Excuse it if we ma…
702 wordsSECTION 27Prayer And God’S Work
One statement of Wesley needs to be repeated with emphasis. The littleness of grace, rather than the smallness of gifts,――this is largely the case with the preachers. It may be stated as an axiom: That the work of God fails as a general rule, more for the lack of grace, than for the want of gifts. It is more than this.…
664 wordsSECTION 28Prayer And Consecration
“O may I still from sin depart; A wise and understanding heart, Jesus, to me to be given; And let me through thy Spirit know To glorify my God below, And find my way to heaven.” “Eudamidas, a citizen of Corinth, died in poverty; but having two wealthy friends, Arctæus and Carixenus, left the following testament…
689 wordsSECTION 29Prayer And Consecration
The consecration which meets God’s demands and which He accepts is to be full, complete, with no mental reservation, with nothing withheld. It cannot be partial, any more than a whole burnt offering in Old Testament times could have been partial. The whole animal had to be offered in sacrifice. To reserve any part of t…
720 wordsSECTION 30Prayer And Consecration
As prayer is the condition of full consecration, so prayer is the habit, the rule, of him who has dedicated himself wholly to God. Prayer is becoming in the consecrated life. Prayer is no strange thing in such a life. There is a peculiar affinity between prayer and consecration, for both recognise God, both submit to G…
672 wordsSECTION 31Prayer And Consecration
Consecration aims at the right sort of service――the Scriptural kind. It seeks to serve God, but in entirely a different sphere than that which is in the minds of present-day Church leaders and workers. The very first sort of service mentioned by Zachariah, father of John the Baptist, in his wonderful prophecy and state…
672 wordsSECTION 32Ix
The spirit of consecration is the spirit of prayer. The law of consecration is the law of prayer. Both laws work in perfect harmony without the slightest jar or discord. Consecration is the practical expression of true prayer. People who are consecrated are known by their praying habits. Consecration thus expresses its…
727 wordsSECTION 33Ix
The Scriptures alone make the standard of life and experience. When we make our own standard, there is delusion and falsity for our desires, convenience and pleasure form the rule, and that is always a fleshly and a low rule. From it, all the fundamental principles of a Christly religion are left out. Whatever standard…
687 wordsSECTION 34Ix
The Scriptures ever set before us the one standard of full consecration to God. This is the Divine rule. This is the human side of this standard. The sacrifice acceptable to God must be a complete one, entire, a whole burnt offering. This is the measure laid down in God’s Word. Nothing less than this can be pleasing to…
781 wordsSECTION 35Prayer Born Of Compassion
“Open your New Testament, take it with you to your knees, and set Jesus Christ out of it before you. Are you like David in the sixty-third Psalm? Is your soul thirsting for God, and is your flesh longing for God in a dry and thirsty land where no water is? Then set Jesus at the well of Samaria before the eyes of y…
739 wordsSECTION 36Prayer Born Of Compassion
“Father of mercies, send Thy grace All powerful from above, To form in our obedient souls The image of Thy love. “O may our sympathising breasts That generous pleasure know; Kindly to share in others’ joy, And weep for others’ woe.” But compassion has not alone to do with the body and its disabilities and needs…
671 wordsSECTION 37Prayer Born Of Compassion
Here is the urgency of prayer enforced by the compassions of our Lord. It is prayer born of compassion for perishing humanity. Prayer is pressed on the Church for labourers to be sent into the harvest of the Lord. The harvest will go to waste and perish without the labourers, while the labourers must be God-chosen, God…
774 wordsSECTION 38Concerted Prayer
All this but fitted our Lord to be a compassionate Saviour. It is no sin to feel the pain and realise the darkness on the path into which God leads. It is only human to cry out against the pain, the terror, and desolation of that hour. It is Divine to cry out to God in that hour, even while shrinking and sinking down, …
705 wordsSECTION 39Concerted Prayer
Let it be noted with emphasis that a Church which is careless of discipline will be careless in praying. A Church which tolerates evil doers in its communion, will cease to pray, will cease to pray with agreement, and will cease to be a Church gathered together in prayer in Christ’s name. This matter of Church discipl…
827 wordsSECTION 40Concerted Prayer
Prayer and Church discipline are not new revelations of the Christian dispensation. These two things had a high place in the Jewish Church. Instances are too numerous to mention all of them. Ezra is a case in point. When he returned from the captivity, he found a sad and distressing condition of things among the Lord’s…
664 wordsSECTION 41Concerted Prayer
“Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea.” Here is unity in prayer, prayer by agreement, and prayer which drives directly at deliveranc…
403 wordsSECTION 42The Universality Of Prayer
“It takes more of the power of the Spirit to make the farm, the home, the office, the store, the shop holy than it does to make the Church holy. It takes more of the power of the Spirit to make Saturday holy than to make Sunday holy. It takes much more of the power of the Spirit to make money for God than it does …
665 wordsSECTION 43The Universality Of Prayer
But men may pray everywhere, since God is accessible in every clime and under all circumstances. “I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” No locality is too distant from God on earth to reach heaven. No place is so remote that God cannot see and hear one who looks…
670 wordsSECTION 44The Universality Of Prayer
Christian lips are to breathe prayers for the cruel and infamous rulers in state as well as for the righteous and the benign governors and princes. Prayer is to be as far-reaching as the race, “for all men.” Humanity is to burden our hearts as we pray, and all men are to engage our thoughts in approaching a throne of g…
547 wordsSECTION 45Prayer And Missions
“One day, about this time, I heard an unusual bleating amongst my few remaining goats, as if they were being killed or tortured. I rushed to the goat-house and found myself instantly surrounded by a band of armed men. The snare had caught me, their weapons were raised, and I expected the next moment to die. But Go…
663 wordsSECTION 46Prayer And Missions
The craftiest wile of Satan, if he cannot prevent a great movement for God, is to debauch the movement. If he can put the movement first, and the spirit of the movement in the background, he has materialised and thoroughly debauched the movement. Mighty prayer only will save the movement from being materialised, and ke…
859 wordsSECTION 47Prayer And Missions
It is truly wonderful how great a part money plays in the modern religious movements, and how little prayer plays in them. In striking contrast with that statement, it is marvellous how little part money played in primitive Christianity as a factor in spreading the Gospel, and how wonderful part prayer played in it. T…
718 wordsSECTION 48Prayer And Missions
It is praying missionaries who are needed for the work, and it is a praying church who sends them out, which are prophecies of the success which is promised. The sort of religion to be exported by missionaries is of the praying sort. The religion to which the heathen world is to be converted is a religion of prayer, an…
659 wordsSECTION 49Prayer And Missions
“The nations call! from sea to sea Extends the thrilling cry, ‘Come over, Christians, if there be, And help us, ere we die.’ “Our hearts, O Lord, the summons feel; Let hand with heart combine, And answer to the world’s appeal, By giving ‘that is thine.’” Our Lord’s plan for securing workers in the foreign missi…
693 wordsSECTION 50*** End Of The Project Gutenberg Ebook Essentials Of Prayer ***
The one great need in the modern missionary movement is intercessors. They were scarce in the days of Isaiah. This was his complaint: “And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor.” So today there is great need of intercessors, first, for the needy harvest-fields of earth, born of a C…
289 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.