PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The reality of prayer
Bounds, Edward M. (Edward McKendree), 1835-1913 · 36,825 words · 57 reading sections
_Edited By Homer W. Hodge_
The Reality of Prayer The Spiritual Life Books By EDWARD M. BOUNDS _The Possibilities of Prayer._ Cloth $1.25 A rich, exceptionally helpful addition to Doctor Bounds’ books, which deal with the place and significance prayer has in the life of the believer. _Heaven_: A Place—A City—A Home. Cloth $1.25 Possessed …
472 wordsSECTION 2Xvi. Prayer And The Holy Ghost Dispensation . . . 148
_Flushing, N. Y._ Contents VI. JESUS CHRIST, THE DIVINE TEACHER OF PRAYER (_Continued_) . . . 56 IX. PRAYER INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF OUR LORD (_Continued_) . . . 87 I PRAYER—A PRIVILEGE, PRINCELY, SACRED _I am the creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God an…
654 wordsSECTION 3Xvi. Prayer And The Holy Ghost Dispensation . . . 148
Paul writes to young Timothy about the first things which God’s people are to do, and first among the first he puts prayer: “I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men” (I Tim. 2:1). In connection with these words Paul declares that the will…
651 wordsSECTION 4Xvi. Prayer And The Holy Ghost Dispensation . . . 148
The space occupied by prayer in the Sermon on the Mount bespeaks its estimate by Christ and the importance it holds in His system. Many important principles are discussed in a verse or two. The Sermon consists of one hundred and eleven verses, and eighteen are about prayer directly, and others indirectly. Prayer was o…
718 wordsSECTION 5Xvi. Prayer And The Holy Ghost Dispensation . . . 148
Prayer is the appointed condition of getting God’s aid. This aid is as manifold and illimitable as God’s ability, and as varied and exhaustless is this aid as man’s need. Prayer is the avenue through which God supplies man’s wants. Prayer is the channel through which all good flows from God to man, and all good from me…
296 wordsSECTION 6—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
We have much fine writing and learned talk about the subjective benefits of prayer; how prayer secures its full measure of results, not by affecting God, but by affecting us, by becoming a training school for those who pray. We are taught by such teachers that the province of prayer is not to get, but to train. Prayer …
755 wordsSECTION 7—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
Prayer is an ardent and believing cry to God for some specific thing. God’s rule is to answer by giving the specific thing asked for. With it may come much of other gifts and graces. Strength, serenity, sweetness, and faith may come as the bearers of the gifts. But even they come because God hears and answers prayer. …
748 wordsSECTION 8—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
It is only those of deep and true vision who can administer prayer. These “Living Creatures,” in Revelation 4:6, are described as “full of eyes before and behind,” “full of eyes within.” Eyes are for seeing. Clearness, intensity, and perfection of sight are in it. Vigilance and profound insight are in it, the faculty o…
715 wordsSECTION 9—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
III PRAYER—THE ALL-IMPORTANT ESSENCE OF EARTHLY WORSHIP _Where the spiritual consciousness is concerned—the department which asks the question and demands the evidence—no evidence is competent or relevant except such as is spiritual. Only that which is above matter and above logic can be heard, because the very qu…
683 wordsSECTION 10—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
“And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. “And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put His hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught. “And he looked up, and said, ‘I see men as trees, walking…
750 wordsSECTION 11—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
IV GOD HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH PRAYER _Christ is all. We are complete in Him. He is the answer to every need, the perfect Savior. He needs no decoration to heighten His beauty, no prop to increase His stability, no girding to perfect His strength. Who can gild refined gold, whiten the snow, perfume the rose or …
666 wordsSECTION 12—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
The possibilities of prayer cover the whole purposes of God through Christ. God conditions all gifts in all dispensations to His Son on prayer: “Ask of me,” saith God the Father to the Son, as that Son was moving earthward on the stupendous enterprise for a world’s salvation, “and I will give thee the heathen for thy i…
667 wordsSECTION 13—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
In the seventy-second Psalm, we have an insight into the mighty potencies of prayer as the force which God moves on the conquest of Christ: “Prayer shall be made for him continually.” In this statement Christ’s movements are put into the hands of prayer. When Christ, with a sad and sympathising heart, looked upon the …
674 wordsSECTION 14—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
By prayer God’s Name is hallowed. By prayer God’s kingdom comes. By prayer is His kingdom established in power and made to move with conquering force swifter than the light. By prayer God’s will is done till earth rivals Heaven in harmony and beauty. By prayer daily toil is sanctified and enriched, and pardon is secure…
652 wordsSECTION 15—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
In I Tim. 2:13 the apostle Paul does not descend to a low plane, but presses the necessity of prayer by the most forceful facts. Jesus Christ, a man, the God-man, the highest illustration of manhood, is the Mediator between God and man. Jesus Christ, this Divine man, died for all men. His life is but an intercession fo…
347 wordsSECTION 16—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
Jesus Christ was the Divine Teacher of prayer. Its power and nature had been illustrated by many a saint and prophet in olden times, but modern sainthood and modern teachers of prayer had lost their inspiration and life. Religiously dead, teachers and superficial ecclesiastics had forgotten what it was to pray. They di…
739 wordsSECTION 17—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
Whole sections, parables and incidents were used by Christ to enforce the necessity and importance of prayer. His miracles are but parables of prayer. In nearly all of them prayer figures distinctly, and some features of it are illustrated. The Syro-phœnician woman is a pre-eminent illustration of the ability and the s…
748 wordsSECTION 18—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, The Christian’s native air; His watchword at the gates of death; He enters Heaven with prayer. From praying Christ eliminates all self-sufficiency, all pride, and all spiritual values. The poor in spirit are the praying ones. Beggars are God’s princes. They are God’s heirs. C…
661 wordsSECTION 19—A. C. Dixon, D.D.
Doubtless the praying of our Lord had much to do with the revelation made to Peter and the confession he made to Christ, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Prayer mightily affects and molds the circle of our associates. Christ made disciples and kept them disciples by praying. His twelve disciples were m…
700 wordsSECTION 20—A. C. Dixon, D.D.
This Divine Teacher of prayer lays Himself out to make it clear and strong that God answers prayer, assuredly, certainly, inevitably; that it is the duty of the child to ask, and to press, and that the Father is obliged to answer, and to give for the asking. In Christ’s teaching, prayer is no sterile, vain performance,…
655 wordsSECTION 21—A. C. Dixon, D.D.
We have the prayer promise and the prayer ability put in a distinct form in the higher teachings of prayer by our Lord: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Here we have a fixed attitude of life as the condition of prayer. Not simply a fixed attitude…
681 wordsSECTION 22—A. C. Dixon, D.D.
It means far more than sentiment, verbiage, and nomenclature. It means to stand in His stead, to bear His nature, to stand for all for which He stood, for righteousness, truth, holiness and zeal. It means to be one with God as He was, one in spirit, in will and in purpose. It means that our praying is singly and solely…
663 wordsSECTION 23—A. C. Dixon, D.D.
In view of the uncertainty of Christ’s coming to judgment, and the uncertainty of our going out of this world, He says: “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is.” We have the wo…
755 wordsSECTION 24—A. C. Dixon, D.D.
We cannot follow any chronological order in the praying of Jesus Christ. What were His steps of advance and skill in the Divine art of praying we know not. He is in the act of prayer when we find Him at the fords of the Jordan, when the waters of baptism, at the hands of John the Baptist, are upon Him. So passing over …
749 wordsSECTION 25—A. C. Dixon, D.D.
Prayer affects all things. God blesses the person who prays. He who prays goes out on a long voyage for God and is enriched himself while enriching others, and is blessed himself while the world is blessed by his praying. To “live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” is the wealthiest wealth. The p…
827 wordsSECTION 26—A. C. Dixon, D.D.
The profound reverence in this relation of paternity must forever exclude all lightness, frivolity and pertness, as well as all undue familiarity. Solemnity and gravity become the hour of prayer. It has been well said: “The worshipper who invokes God under the name of Father and realises the gracious and beneficent lov…
678 wordsSECTION 27—A. C. Dixon, D.D.
The prayer words of Jesus were sacred words. By them God speaks to God, and by them God is revealed and prayer is illustrated and enforced. Here is prayer in its purest form and in its mightiest potencies. It would seem that earth and heaven would uncover head and open ears most wide to catch the words of His praying w…
254 wordsSECTION 28—John W. Baker.
One of Christ’s most impassioned and sublime pæans of prayer and praise is found recorded by both Matthew and Luke, with small verbal contrasts and with some diversity of detail and environments. He is reviewing the poor results of His ministry and remarking upon the feeble responses of man to God’s vast outlay of love…
701 wordsSECTION 29—John W. Baker.
The condition of receiving God’s revelation and of holding God’s truth is one of the heart, not one of the head. The ability to receive and search out is like that of the child, the babe, the synonym of docility, innocence and simplicity. These are the conditions on which God reveals Himself to men. The world by wisdom…
718 wordsSECTION 30—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
And so the Holy Spirit comes upon _us_ in fullness of measure and power only in answer to ardent and intense praying. The heavens were opened to Christ, and access and communion established and enlarged by prayer. Freedom and fullness of access and closeness of communion are secured to us as the heritage of prayer. The…
868 wordsSECTION 31—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
Holy hands and holy praying have much to do with guarding and training young lives and to form young characters for righteousness and Heaven. What benignity, simplicity, kindness, unworldliness and condescension and meekness, linked with prayerfulness, are in this act of this Divine Teacher! It was as Jesus was prayin…
698 wordsSECTION 32—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
Present in all great praying, making and marking it, is the man. It is impossible to separate the praying from the man. The constituent elements of the man are the constituents of his praying. The man flows through his praying. Only the fiery Elijah could do Elijah’s fiery praying. We can get holy praying only from a h…
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How fully does His prayer on the cross for His enemies synchronise with all He taught about love to our enemies, and with mercy and forgiveness to those who have trespassed against us! “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Apologising for His murderers and praying for them, while they…
652 wordsSECTION 34—Alexander Whyte, D.D.
Prayer engages the highest interest and secures the highest glory of God. God’s name, God’s kingdom and God’s will are all in it. Without prayer His name is profaned, His kingdom fails, and His will is decried and opposed. God’s will can be done on earth as it is done in Heaven. God’s will done on earth makes earth lik…
644 wordsSECTION 35—Edward Bounds.
We come now to consider our Lord’s Sacerdotal Prayer, as found recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel. Obedience to the Father and abiding in the Father, these belong to the Son, and these belong to us, as partners with Christ in His Divine work of intercession. How tenderly and with what pathos and how …
652 wordsSECTION 36—Edward Bounds.
“I pray for them; I pray not for the world; but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. “And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.” He prays also for keeping for these disciples. Not only were they to be chosen, elected and possessed, but were to be kept by the Father’s …
691 wordsSECTION 37—Edward Bounds.
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” He puts Himself before us clear cut as the full portraiture of an unworldly Chr…
719 wordsSECTION 38—Edward Bounds.
We can only meet our full responsibilities and fulfill our high mission when we go forth sanctified as Christ our Lord was sanctified. He sends us into the world just as His Father sent Him into the world. He expects us to be as He was, to do as He did, and to glorify the Father just as He glorified the Father. What l…
692 wordsSECTION 39—Edward Bounds.
He cannot abide the presence of His chosen friends. They cannot enter into the depths and demands of this fearful hour. His trusted and set watchers were asleep. His Father’s face is hid. His Father’s approving voice is silent. The Holy Spirit, who had been with Him in all the trying hours of His life, seems to have wi…
663 wordsSECTION 40—Edward Bounds.
Jesus Christ prayed always with this one exception in conformity with the will of God. He was one with God’s plan, and one with God’s will. To pray in conformity with God’s will was the life and law of Christ. The same was law of His praying. Conformity, to live one with God, is a far higher and diviner life than to li…
712 wordsSECTION 41—Edward Bounds.
If our hearts are true to God, we may plead with Him about His way, and seek relief from His painful processes. But the fierce fire of the crucible and the agonising victim with His agonising and submissive prayer, is not the normal and highest form of majestic and all-commanding prayer. We can cry out in the crucible,…
742 wordsSECTION 42—Edward Bounds.
The Gospel without the Holy Spirit would be vain and nugatory. The gift of the Holy Spirit was vital to the work of Jesus Christ in the atonement. As Jesus did not begin His work on earth till He was anointed by the Holy Spirit, so the same Holy Spirit is necessary to carry forward and make effective the atoning work o…
682 wordsSECTION 43—Edward Bounds.
We urge the seeking of the Holy Spirit. We need Him, and we need to stir ourselves up to seek Him. The measure we receive of Him will be gauged by the fervour of faith and prayer with which we seek Him. Our ability to work for God, and to pray to God, and live for God, and affect others for God, will be dependent on th…
692 wordsSECTION 44—Edward Bounds.
Paul’s praying was God’s proof to Ananias that Paul was in a state which conditioned him to receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not only our Teacher, our Inspirer and our Revealer, in prayer, but the power of our praying in measure and force is measured by the Spirit’s power working in us, as the will and work…
734 wordsSECTION 45—Edward Bounds.
How complex, confusing and involved is many a human direction about obtaining the gift of the Holy Spirit as the abiding Comforter, our Sanctifier and the one who empowers us! How simple and direct is our Lord’s direction—ASK! This is plain and direct. Ask with urgency, ask without fainting. Ask, seek, knock, till He c…
675 wordsSECTION 46—Edward Bounds.
The Revised Version reads: “At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.” This sets forth that great truth not generally known, or if known, ignored, that Jesus Christ was generally led by the Holy Spirit, and that His joy and His praying, as well as His working, and His life, were under the inspiration, law an…
672 wordsSECTION 47—Edward Bounds.
“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually disc…
673 wordsSECTION 48—Edward Bounds.
We can and do pray by many inspirations and in many ways which are not of God. Many prayers are stereotyped in manner and in matter, in part, if not as a whole. Many prayers are hearty and vehement, but it is natural heartiness and a fleshly vehemence. Much praying is done by dint of habit and through form. Habit is a …
691 wordsSECTION 49—Edward Bounds.
We always pray according to the will of God when the Holy Spirit helps our praying. He prays through us only “according to the will of God.” If our prayers are not according to the will of God they die in the presence of the Holy Spirit. He gives such prayers no countenance, no help. Discountenanced and unhelped by Him…
703 wordsSECTION 50—Edward Bounds.
If the intercession of Moses so wondrously preserved the being and safety of Israel throughout its marvelous history and destiny, what may we not secure through our Intercessor, who is so much greater than Moses? All that God has lies open to Christ through prayer. All that Christ has lies open to us through prayer. I…
664 wordsSECTION 51—Edward Bounds.
The dispensation of the Holy Ghost was ushered in by prayer. Read these words from Acts 1:13—“And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room where abode both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas, the brother…
834 wordsSECTION 52—Edward Bounds.
In that wonderful prayer for those Christians, Paul laid himself out to pray to God, and by prayer he sought to fathom the fathomless depths and to measure the illimitable purposes and benefits of God’s plan of salvation for immortal souls by the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. Only importunate and invincible pra…
705 wordsSECTION 53_Edward M. Bounds_
“The things unknown to feeble sense, Unseen by reason’s glimmering ray, With strong, commanding confidence, Their heavenly origin display.” Two things may be said just here in concluding this part of our study upon this subject: First, this sort of Bible religion, hereinbefore described, comes directly through the …
253 wordsSECTION 54_Samuel Henry Kellogg, D.D., Ll.D._
_Translated by Rev. and Mrs. Arthur Parker._ At the Master’s Feet Boards. . . . 75c. Simple but impressive chapters on God’s Presence, Sin, Prayer, Service, The Cross, Heaven and Hell by a man who has proved himself to be a faithful Christian evangelist. They take the form of a colloquy between the Master and the Di…
370 wordsSECTION 55_Frederic C. Spurr_
_Pastor, Center Street Baptist Church, Jamaica Plains, Mass._ The Kingdom of God Or, The Reign of Heaven Among Men. . . . $1.50. Mr. Wight brings all Biblical teaching of both the Old and the New Testament into complete harmony, enabling, an earnest, truth-seeking student to understand the purpose and nature of the…
251 wordsSECTION 56_Sidney M. Berry, M.A._
_Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Binghamton, N. Y._ The Christian Credentials An Appeal of Faith to Doubt. Introduction by S. Parkes Cadman, D.D. . . . $1.50. Commencing with a review of the present theological situation, Dr. Lawrence depicts the character of the Divine Founder of Christianity, discusses the div…
354 wordsSECTION 57*** End Of The Project Gutenberg Ebook The Reality Of Prayer ***
_Late Bishop of Michigan._ The Gospel of Fellowship The Cole Lectures, 1923. . . . $1.50. The choice of Bishop Williams as Cole Lecturer was a notable one, and the subject chosen by him is one eminently characteristic. Death, however, claimed the Bishop, and his lecture-course, which he left completed, was delivered…
270 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.