Who Was E. M. Bounds? Lawyer, Pastor, Chaplain and Man of Prayer

Prayer Biography

E. M. Bounds was an American Methodist minister who lived from 1835 to 1913. His full name was Edward McKendree Bounds. He practiced law as a young man, became a preacher, served as a chaplain in the Civil War, pastored churches across the South, edited Methodist papers, and spent his last years in Washington, Georgia, praying and writing. He's known today for his books on prayer, above all Power Through Prayer.

Here's a fuller look at his life, and at why a man most readers in his own day had never heard of became one of the most read writers on prayer.

Early years in Missouri

Bounds was born in August 1835 in Shelby County, Missouri. His father died when he was a boy. As a teenager he went west with relatives to try the California gold fields, and after a few years without much success they came home.

Back in Missouri he studied law and was practicing while still very young. Sources often say he was about nineteen, among the youngest lawyers in the state. Then, in his early twenties, he was converted under revival preaching. He closed his law office, went to a Methodist school to prepare for the ministry, and was ordained in 1859. His first pastorate was a small church in Missouri.

The Civil War

The war broke over Missouri early. Bounds belonged to the southern branch of American Methodism, and Union authorities in Missouri required many of its ministers to take a loyalty oath and post a bond. He refused. He was arrested in 1861 and held as a prisoner for many months, then released in an exchange.

After that he served as a chaplain with a Missouri infantry regiment in the Confederate army. At the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, in late 1864, he was wounded and taken prisoner again. He was released after the war ended in 1865. Accounts of his war years differ on some details, such as which regiment he served, but they agree on the main lines: imprisonment, chaplaincy, a wound at Franklin and capture.

Pastor, revival preacher and editor

When the war was over, Bounds went back to Franklin, the town where he'd been wounded, to pastor a congregation there. The town had been badly torn by the battle. His method was prayer. He's remembered for weekly prayer meetings that sometimes ran for hours, and for revivals that followed.

Over the next years he served churches in St. Louis and other southern cities. He also worked as an editor. He edited the St. Louis Christian Advocate for a number of years and later served as an associate editor of the Methodist Christian Advocate in Nashville. Editing gave him a wide circle of readers among Methodist ministers, though he wasn't yet known for books.

In 1876 he married Emmie Barnett of Washington, Georgia. She died about ten years later. He then married her cousin, Hattie Barnett, and the couple raised a large family.

The writing years in Georgia

In his later years Bounds settled at the family home in Washington, Georgia. He still preached at times as an evangelist, but his main work was prayer and writing. Those who knew him said he rose very early, around four o'clock by most accounts, and spent the first hours of the day in prayer, and that he kept the habit even when he traveled.

That habit matches what he wrote. In chapter 9 of Power Through Prayer he says:

The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees.
Power Through Prayer, Chapter IX

Bounds died in Washington, Georgia, in August 1913.

How his books came to be published

Only a few of Bounds' books appeared while he was alive. The first version of Power Through Prayer was published in 1907 under the title Preacher and Prayer. It was later printed as Power Through Prayer, and British editions spread it widely. The edition in TheWay Library is a later printing from London. In its foreword, the preacher A. C. Dixon admits he "had never heard of the author" until two friends gave him the book. He adds that the author had agreed to a reprint in Great Britain.

After Bounds' death, friends who admired his work prepared his remaining manuscripts for print. Among them was Homer W. Hodge, who edited several of the prayer books in the years after 1913. That's why most of Bounds' books carry dates after he died.

His other books in TheWay Library

Most of Bounds' writing is about prayer, and you can read these free:

He also wrote on other subjects:

All of them are listed on his author page.

What Bounds believed about prayer

Bounds didn't treat prayer as one Christian duty among many. He treated it as the work that gives every other work its power. His best-known line, from chapter 1, puts the whole of his thinking in two sentences:

Men are God's method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.
Power Through Prayer, Chapter I

He believed the Holy Spirit works through people, not programs, and that a minister's character and prayer life matter more than his gifts. (We explain this teaching in Men Are God's Method.) He also believed prayer takes time, and lots of it. He filled his books with examples of men like David Brainerd, John Wesley and Adoniram Judson who gave hours each day to it.

He was hard on prayerless ministers, and on himself. But his books aren't gloomy. He wrote with real hope that God would answer a praying church:

That which has been done in spiritual matters can be done again, and be better done.
Power Through Prayer, Chapter XX

Why he's still read

Bounds lived through war, prison, grief and long years of quiet work. He wasn't famous. What he left behind was a record of what he'd learned on his knees, written in short, forceful sentences that pastors and ordinary Christians still copy into notebooks.

If you're new to him, start with Power Through Prayer. It's short, and it's the book that made his name. Our chapter-by-chapter summary gives you a map, our collection of Power Through Prayer quotes gathers its best lines, and the study guide helps a group read it together. Or simply start reading the book now.