Power Through Prayer

POWER THROUGH PRAYER

BY E. M. BOUNDS

WITH FOREWORDS BY REV. A. C. DIXON, D.D., AND MR. ALBERT A. HEAD.

TWELFTH EDITION

MARSHALL BROTHERS, LTD.
Publishers,
LONDON, EDINBURGH & NEW YORK.

HUNT, BARNARD & CO., LTD.
PRINTERS,
LONDON & AYLESBURY.

This little book was given me by a friend. I glanced through it and laid it aside, thinking that I would read it at some convenient time, though I had never heard of the author. But it was forgotten till Christmas, when I received another copy as a present from another friend. "Well," thought I, "there must be something worth while in the little book, or it would not have been selected as a present by two such intelligent people." So I read at once the first page till I came to the words: "Man is God's method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men." That was enough to whet the appetite for more, and I greedily read chapter after chapter with delight and blessing. When the last sentence was finished I felt that I knew more about prayer than when I began to read, and, better than that, I felt more like praying. Every page pulsates with the heart and mind of a man who knows how to pray; knows the men who have known how to pray, and is very earnest in desiring that others should know how to pray.

His desire has been realized to some extent, in the case of at least one, who would like to have others share the blessing with him.

The author has kindly consented to a reprint in Great Britain.

A. C. DIXON.

If there is one need felt beyond another by the members of the Church of Christ to-day, it is power in prayer—desire for prayer—time to be devoted to prayer. What a number of unions for prayer exist already, and yet how few members continue "instant in prayer" or "pray without ceasing." The author of this book makes a clear diagnosis of the case when he writes as follows:—"Never did the cause of God need perfect illustrations of the possibilities of prayer more than in this age. To pray is the greatest thing we can do. We must learn anew the work of prayer, enter anew the school of prayer."

The contents of this message upon prayer should be read alike by preacher and teacher, evangelist and intercessor. Its pages contain an appeal to every "worker together with Christ," and stimulate the desire for prayer in the varied relationships of Christian life. The appeal deserves a wide circulation amongst members of Prayer Circles and Prayer Unions, and, indeed, amongst all who are looking for a revival of true religion in our land, and an exodus of ambassadors for Christ to heathen and Moslem populations.

I most heartily commend the reading of it, feeling persuaded that God has given the author a trumpet call to the Church of Christ to "arise and pray."

ALBERT A. HEAD.

Recreation to a minister must be as whetting is with the mower—that is, to be used only so far as is necessary for his work. May a physician in plague-time take any more relaxation or recreation than is necessary for his life, when so many are expecting his help in a case of life and death? Will you stand by and see sinners gasping under the pangs of death, and say: "God doth not require me to make myself a drudge to save them?" Is this the voice of ministerial or Christian compassion or rather of sensual laziness and diabolical cruelty?—RICHARD BAXTER.

Misemployment of time is injurious to the mind. In illness I have looked back with self-reproach on days spent in my study: I was wading through history and poetry and monthly journals, but I was in my study! Another man's trifling is notorious to all observers, but what am I doing? Nothing, perhaps, that has a reference to the spiritual good of my congregation. Be much in retirement and prayer. Study the honour and glory of your Master.—RICHARD CECIL.

Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two; your life preaches all the week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry. Give yourself to prayer, and get your texts, your thoughts, your words from God. Luther spent his best three hours in prayer.—ROBERT MURRAY MCCHEYNE.

We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the Gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God's method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. "There was a man sent from God whose name was John." The dispensation that heralded and prepared the way for Christ was bound up in that man John. "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given." The world's salvation comes out of that cradled Son. When Paul appeals to the personal character of the men who rooted the gospel in the world, he solves the mystery of their success. The glory and efficiency of the Gospel is staked on the men who proclaim it. When God declares that "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him," He declares the necessity of men and his dependence on them as a channel through which to exert His power upon the world. This vital, urgent truth is one that this age of machinery is apt to forget. The forgetting of it is as baneful on the work of God as would be the striking of the sun from his sphere. Darkness, confusion, and death would ensue.

What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.

An eminent historian has said that the accidents of personal character have more to do with the revolutions of nations than either philosophic historians or democratic politicians will allow. This truth has its application in full to the gospel of Christ, the character and conduct of the followers of Christ—Christianize the world, transfigure nations and individuals. Of the preachers of the gospel it is eminently true.

The character as well as the fortunes of the gospel are committed to the preacher. He makes or mars the message from God to man. The preacher is the golden pipe through which the divine oil flows. The pipe must not only be golden, but open and flawless, that the oil may have a full, unhindered, unwasted flow.

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