Post by Satyajit Roy on Jan 24, 2008 6:22:40 GMT -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
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.
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.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 passed.
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 andspiritually victorious by prayer.
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. 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 isworse than no praying. Little praying is a kind of
make-believe, a salve 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! 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.
BEGIN THE DAY WITH PRAYER
I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I
sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or
twelve o’clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a
wretched system. It is unscriptural. Christ arose before
day and went into a solitary place. David says: “Early
will I seek thee”; “Thou shalt early hear my voice.”
Family prayer loses much of its power and sweetness, and I
near another.
—Robert Murray McCheyne
The men who have done the most for God in this world
have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the
early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other
pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking
him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our
thoughts and efforts in the morning, he will be in the last
place the remainder of the day.
Behind this early rising and early praying is the
ardent desire which presses us into this pursuit after God.
Morning listlessness is the index to a listless heart. The
heart which is behindhand in seeking God in the morning has
lost its relish for God. David’s heart was ardent after
God. He hungered and thirsted after God, and so he sought
God early, before daylight. The bed and sleep could not
can do no good to those who come to seek from me. The
conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not
trimmed. Then when in secret prayer the soul is often out
of tune. I feel it is far better to begin with God - to
see his face first, to get my soul near him before it ischain his soul in its eagerness after God. Christ longed
for communion with God; and so, rising a great while before
day, he would go out into the mountain to pray. The
disciples, when fully awake and ashamed of their
indulgence, would know where to find him. We might go
through the list of men who have mightily impressed the
world for God, and we would find them early after God.
A desire for God which cannot break the chains of
sleep is a weak thing and will do but little good for God
after it has indulged itself fully. The desire for God
that keeps so far behind the devil and the world at the
beginning of the day will never catch up.
It is not simply the getting up that puts men to the
front and makes them captain generals in God’s hosts, but
it is the ardent desire which stirs and breaks all
self-indulgent chains. But the getting up gives vent,
increase, and strength to the desire. If they had lain inbed and indulged themselves, the desire would have been
quenched. The desire aroused them and put them on the
stretch for God, and this heeding and acting on the call
gave their faith its grasp on God and gave to their hearts
the sweetest and fullest revelation of God, and this
strength of faith and fullness of revelation made them
saints by eminence, and the halo of their sainthood has
come down to us, and we have entered on the enjoyment of
their conquests. But we take our fill in enjoyment, and
not in productions. We build their tombs and write their
epitaphs, but are careful not to follow their examples.
We need a generation of preachers who seek God and
seek him early, who give the freshness and dew of effort to
God, and secure in return the freshness and fullness of his
power that he may be as the dew to them, full of gladness
and strength, through all the heat and labor of the day.
Our laziness after God is our crying sin. the children of
this world are far wiser than we. They are at it early andlate. We do not seek God with ardor and diligence. No man
gets God who does not follow hard after him, and no soul
follows hard after God who is not after him in early morn.
JOY GURU
OM TAT SAT
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
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.
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.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 passed.
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 andspiritually victorious by prayer.
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. 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 isworse than no praying. Little praying is a kind of
make-believe, a salve 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! 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.
BEGIN THE DAY WITH PRAYER
I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I
sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or
twelve o’clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a
wretched system. It is unscriptural. Christ arose before
day and went into a solitary place. David says: “Early
will I seek thee”; “Thou shalt early hear my voice.”
Family prayer loses much of its power and sweetness, and I
near another.
—Robert Murray McCheyne
The men who have done the most for God in this world
have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the
early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other
pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking
him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our
thoughts and efforts in the morning, he will be in the last
place the remainder of the day.
Behind this early rising and early praying is the
ardent desire which presses us into this pursuit after God.
Morning listlessness is the index to a listless heart. The
heart which is behindhand in seeking God in the morning has
lost its relish for God. David’s heart was ardent after
God. He hungered and thirsted after God, and so he sought
God early, before daylight. The bed and sleep could not
can do no good to those who come to seek from me. The
conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not
trimmed. Then when in secret prayer the soul is often out
of tune. I feel it is far better to begin with God - to
see his face first, to get my soul near him before it ischain his soul in its eagerness after God. Christ longed
for communion with God; and so, rising a great while before
day, he would go out into the mountain to pray. The
disciples, when fully awake and ashamed of their
indulgence, would know where to find him. We might go
through the list of men who have mightily impressed the
world for God, and we would find them early after God.
A desire for God which cannot break the chains of
sleep is a weak thing and will do but little good for God
after it has indulged itself fully. The desire for God
that keeps so far behind the devil and the world at the
beginning of the day will never catch up.
It is not simply the getting up that puts men to the
front and makes them captain generals in God’s hosts, but
it is the ardent desire which stirs and breaks all
self-indulgent chains. But the getting up gives vent,
increase, and strength to the desire. If they had lain inbed and indulged themselves, the desire would have been
quenched. The desire aroused them and put them on the
stretch for God, and this heeding and acting on the call
gave their faith its grasp on God and gave to their hearts
the sweetest and fullest revelation of God, and this
strength of faith and fullness of revelation made them
saints by eminence, and the halo of their sainthood has
come down to us, and we have entered on the enjoyment of
their conquests. But we take our fill in enjoyment, and
not in productions. We build their tombs and write their
epitaphs, but are careful not to follow their examples.
We need a generation of preachers who seek God and
seek him early, who give the freshness and dew of effort to
God, and secure in return the freshness and fullness of his
power that he may be as the dew to them, full of gladness
and strength, through all the heat and labor of the day.
Our laziness after God is our crying sin. the children of
this world are far wiser than we. They are at it early andlate. We do not seek God with ardor and diligence. No man
gets God who does not follow hard after him, and no soul
follows hard after God who is not after him in early morn.
JOY GURU
OM TAT SAT