The Place of Prayer in the Perennial Revival

This subject is the most important one to appear in the pages of this volume. The very sacredness of the theme of prayer makes one afraid tO’ attempt its presentation; and yet the urgent need of thought and instruction concerning it is so great that one fears still more to be silent regarding it.

It is a topic of which Jesus talked much; and an exercise which he practised more. If one collated the words of Jesus he would find him insisting that prayer is a duty: “ Watch, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” His promise to prayer is most precious: “AH things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” He asserts the need of forgiveness when praying: “When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive your trespasses.” He emphasizes importunity in prayer by reciting that familiar parable of the Judge who “feared not God, neither regarded man,” but who was compelled to answer the widow’s petition because she wearied him, making it an illustration of his statement, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” He taught concerning secret prayer: “Enter into thy closet, and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.” He protested against “vain repetition” in prayer; he formulated the model prayer, known tO’ this day by his name; he expressed the sweeping promises: “Ask, and it shall be given you “;

“If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven”; “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.”

But, as we suggested, his instruction upon this subject was exceeded by his practice. He prayed for Peter that his faith might not fail; he prayed for his disciples that they might be one, as he and his Father were one; he prayed that they might be kept from the evil in the world; he prayed for the descent of the Holy Ghost that his people might be empowered; he prayed for himself in the Garden of Gethsemane, and upon the cross; he prayed for his enemies that they might be forgiven, because they knew not what they were doing; he prayed for the church of all centuries. We read in the Old Testament that Daniel, at his window looking toward Jerusalem, kneeled and prayed morning, noon, and night; but, as F. B. Meyer said concerning Jesus: “Perennially from his lips pours out a stream of tender supplication and entreaty.” When, therefore, we speak to this subject, hoping tO’ admonish self while instructing and inspiring others, may the Spirit show us the intimate relation between prayer and perennial revival!

There is no verse in Scripture which adequately compasses this theme. But the first and second chapters of the book of Acts nobly illustrate it. The first chapter records a great prayer-meeting; the second, a great revival.

The Prayers of the Preacher

In the report of the prayer-meeting In the upper chamber, where the disciples were abiding stedfastly in prayer, Peter is the first mentioned. That fact is significant. Inspired Scripture reveals the mind of the Spirit. The first man mentioned is the one who shall shortly stand forth as God’s spokesman — God’s minister of the gospel of his Son. The prayers of that meeting have a threefold significance for Peter the preacher.

First, in the preparation of self. No one should read the outline of Peter’s sermon as it is recorded in Acts 2: 14-40 without connecting the boldness there evinced with the petitioning recorded in Acts i: 14. It is equally evident also in the further study of this chapter that there were more permanent results from this prayer than could appear even at the time of Pentecost. Some days later, on trial before Annas, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, “Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them,” etc. The baptism of the Spirit for the apostle found expression when “tongues like as of fire” sat upon him; but the secret of its reception dates to the meeting in the upper room. Adamson, the biographer of Joseph Parker, is authority for the statement that people frequently asked the great preacher if he prepared his prayers, to which he replied: “No, I prepare myself, not my prayers, which are the spontaneous utterances of the heart, as these are given by the Holy Ghost. I do not feel as if they were mine, and ofttimes I am refreshed by what passes through my soul and is uttered by my lips.”

It is a significant fact that when Paul was converted he did not first turn to preaching. “The Lord said, Ananias, arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus; for, behold, he prayeth.” Born “of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless “; brought up at the feet of Gamaliel; trained in the forum of legal eloquence, he was yet unfit to preach, even though converted. The essential preparation was lacking until it could be said of him, “ Behold, he prayeth.” All the talk, all the planning, all the appointments, and all the expense in which we may indulge, hoping to effect a perennial revival, will fail unless the preachers of the land become prepared for it through prayer.

Second, in the preparation of a sermon. Sermonizing is the essential business of every preacher. Professor Phelps wisely says to all such as choose this profession: “Preach, let other men govern; preach, let other men organize; preach, let other men raise funds and look after denominational affairs; preach, let other men hunt up heresies and do the theological quibbling; preach, let other men ferret out scandal and try clerical delinquents; preach, let other men solve the problem of perpetual motion, of which church history is full. Then make a straight path between your study and pulpit on which the grass shall never grow.” But the man who prepares a sermon worthy to be preached does it only, and always, after prayer. Charles Spurgeon thinks “those sermons which have been prayed over are the most likely to convert people.” He illustrates by adding: “I rode some time ago with a man who professes to work wonderful cures by the acids of a certain wood. After he had told me about his marvelous remedy I asked him, * What is there in that to effect such cures as you have professed to have wrought? ’ * Oh,’ he answered, ’ it is the way I prepare it, much more than the stuff itself, that is the secret of its curative properties. I rub it hard as ever I can for a long while, and I have so much vital electricity in me that I put my very life into it.’ Well, well, he was only a quack, yet we may learn a lesson even from him, for the way to make sermons is to work vitality into them, putting your own life and the very life of God into them by earnest prayers.”

The prayerless man may be an orator, a poet, an artist; his utterances may be popular, and he may attain unto the so-called first pulpit of the land; but he is never a preacher. The more godly of his audience will miss the anointing, and though they may not know how to phrase the lack, they will forever feel it; and the total results of his ministry will more and more make it evident. If men are ever to say truly of any minister of the gospel, “Behold, he preacheth,” God, who watches for bended knees, must first have said, “Behold, he prayeth.”

Third, in the proclamation of Scripture, There is a difference between the preparation of a discourse and its delivery; between making a sermon in the study, and lodging one in the hearts and consciences of auditors. If the change that came to Peter’s character in consequence of that prayer-meeting was unaccountable, if the sermon which he delivered was a surprise to those who had looked upon him as an unlearned and ignorant man, a still greater surprise existed in the manner of his delivery. His words glowed, and godless men were scorched in their consciences as they listened to him. Such a result always bespeaks a secret. The auditors of Peter and John discovered it, for we read that, “Perceiving that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” How the life of Samuel Rutherford illustrates this thought! We are told: “During his ministry at Anwoth it was his custom to spend hours at a time in a little wood near the manse, seeking, and undoubtedly enjoying, a direct communication with Christ. He would pace up and down in the exercise of prayer; he would wrestle and toil until the heavy veil grew thin, and the person of his Lord was manifestly before him. The consequence was that when he appeared in the pulpit on Sundays the people were overawed with the sense of Christ being in the preacher. It was Christ’s face they saw beaming on them in the face of their pastor, and his tones thrilled with the power of the voice which once spoke on earth as ’ never man spake.’” He had learned the secret of preaching. He had been with Jesus in prayer. And in the moment when he stood forth to speak to the people, Jesus had made good the promise, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.”

Some years ago an English paper referred to a great sermon which had been preached by Bishop Simpson in Memorial Hall, London. It seems that for some time the bishop went on in a calm, quiet way; but as he approached the end of his discourse there was an occasion to picture the death of Christ on the cross, as that death related itself to the atonement for the sins of the world. Increasing in fervor to a certain point in the discourse, he suddenly stopped, as if laden with an immeasurable burden, and then, rising to his full height, seemed to throw it from him, suiting to the action the words, “How far? ‘As far as the east is distant from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.’” The effect was overwhelming. The whole assembly was brought suddenly to its feet by the excitement, and it was several moments before, one by one, they sank back into their seats. A professor of elocution present was asked by a friend what he thought of the bishop’s elocution. “Elocution!” he replied; “that man doesn’t want elocution; he has the Holy Ghost!” Doubtless! But God has never yet imparted his Spirit to a prayerless preacher. Ah, brethren of the ministry, when conscious of the great need of self -preparation, let us pray. When in the preparation of a sermon, let us pray. And when we stand forth to proclaim the eternal truths of Scriptare, let us pray. A perennial revival will never come to this country until its preachers have betaken themselves to earnest, believing, importunate, agonizing prayer.

The Prayers of the Personal Worker

This second chapter of Acts contains a single verse in illustration of the value of personal work: “How hear we every man in our language, wherein we were born?” When Parthians, Medes, Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, in Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, heard every man in his own tongue the mighty works of God, the church reached the zenith of her personal endeavor; and the world witnessed such personal work as it has seldom or never since seen. One feels led, therefore, to study the record sharply that he may discover the mystery of making an evangelist of every evangelical. To do that would be to realize the wish of Moses, “Would God that the Lord’s people were prophets every one,” and bring in, instantly, a perennial revival. It may not be possible to name all the elements that entered into this acme of private ministry. But, remembering the prayer-meeting which preceded it, is it not fairly certain that some things were asked for and received in that upper room?

The first request would be for enduement. In the moment preceding his ascension Jesus had said: “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” How natural that they should pray for the fulfilment of that promise! Power is the *’ worldlian’s “lust; it ought to be the Christian’s cupidity also. But as certainly as the man of flesh lusts for physical, social, intellectual, and political power, so should the child of God covet spiritual supremacy and seek it through prayer. Petition seems to sustain much the same relation to man on the one side, and the Holy Ghost on the other, that the trolley-pole sustains to the car-wheel on the one side, and the mighty current of electricity flowing through the line on the other. It connects helpless need with infinite energy. Dr. Arthur T. Pierson is scripturally warranted in saying: “Prayer not only puts us in touch with God, but imparts to us his power. It is the touch which brings virtue out of him... We see men of prayer quietly achieving results of the most surprising character.” What is the explanation? Why is it that one’s neighbor without greater talents and sometimes with little more apparent consecration seldom goes after one of his fellows, but, like Andrew of old, he brings him to Jesus, until the saved, set to his credit, are scores; while another professed follower of Jesus pleads his cause in vain? Is it not because the first has learned how to claim the promise of the Father, and tarry for it until endued with power from on high?

One morning not long since an organist was in his place betimes; the organ was there in its splendid proportions and appearance; the pedals were intact, and the stops worked; but when the time came for the prelude the fingers were on the keys and the pipes were silent. Investigation proved that the motor was out of order. In vain shall we attempt the service of God except he breathe into us his own Spirit. Therein is the source of power.

They -doubtless prayed for direction. The ten days preceding Pentecost was a period which prompted such a prayer. They were no longer in doubt as to the deity of Jesus, for he was risen from the dead, and before their own eyes had ascended into heaven. They were no longer tempted to apostasy. But without his presence how sore their need to have the Holy Spirit come and direct the”r endeavors! Was he not to be their Guide, their Teacher r Was he not to tell them what they should say and what they should do? The marvel of his administration appears when the forces of this small company are so disposed as to reach every man of the multitude visiting their vicinity. Unquestionably the same Holy Ghost is today just as good a Guide, and of his leadership the personal worker is in just as sore need. To ask his leadership, and then yield oneself unreservedly to the same, is to see souls come to God.

Some years ago we read the statement of a man who, as he walked down the streets of a certain city in Illinois on Sunday afternoon, suddenly stopped, and said to the Methodist minister at his side: ‘T think I ought to go and see Mr. — —, for I have had him in mind all of today and the most of last night. But, then,” he added, “I don’t know why I should go. The man seldom comes to church and seems perfectly indifferent.” A block more, and he said again: “Somehow I cannot get that man’s face out of my mind. What would you do about it?” The minister wisely answered, “When God says, ‘Go,’ it is dangerous to delay or neglect.” Turning about, he was soon at the man’s door, and entering his house he found him in tears, and heard from his lips: “Oh, I am so glad you have come. Tell me how I may be saved.” It was the work of only a few minutes, as with Philip teaching the eunuch, and the man was ready for baptism in the name of the Lord. Prayer for the Holy Spirit’s direction will aid every personal worker’s contribution to a perennial revival.

Again, they must have pleaded for the individual. No man can read the first chapter of John, and, remembering that the same men who wrought there were at work in the second chapter of Acts, doubt that they had friends and relatives for whom they prayed in that upper room. And what Christian can call into question the efficacy of prayer in inclining men to come to Christ? How often you have gone to see a man without having prayed for him! How seldom you have had any success with such an one! How seldom have you gone to see a man after having prayed for him earnestly and long, to find your visit in vain! Cortland Myers, in his booklet, “The New Evangelism,” relates having visited a Brooklyn physician in the name of Jesus, to be met by the kindly expression: “I am glad you have come, because I have been waiting for you or some man like you to lead me into the light. I have been honestly searching for the truth, and was never so anxious to find it as at this moment. I have been skeptical, but I am changing, and I want some one to show me the way to Christ and salvation.” Mr. Myers says: “I never saw such an open heart nor such an honest seeker. He found peace and pardon, and with his own son, whom I afterward led to Christ, he wished to be baptized into the membership of the church. He had heard me preach occasionally for years, but I was too far away. Alone in that private office was the place of power.”

But we insist that Myers was mistaken. The place of power was where Myers bent the knee, and lifted the heart to God, in his home, or study, ere he started to this physician’s office. All power belongeth unto Him; let us pray!

The Prayers of the People

We employ “the people” here as synonymous with “the church.” It is our custom to speak of the “pulpit” and of “the people,” meaning by the latter the organized body of baptized believers. The record in Acts 2: 5-13 is of work wrought without organization. The disciples had not yet been “added together”; while the report of work in Acts 2: 41-47 belongs to the credit of the church. Three thousand souls, including disciples who had sat at the feet of Jesus and those who had accepted him in answer to Pentecostal preaching, federated their forces and began their corporate work. It is intensely interesting to study the results thereof, and see what many people who “continue stedfastly in prayer” can accomplish by their united endeavor.

Think first of the effect upon Christian character. The record shows this company to have been men and women knowing the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom; their apostles working wonders; their whole assembly evincing an utter abandon in benevolence; holding daily meetings in the temple, receiving even their very food with gladness and singleness of heart, and having favor with all the people. Oh, for a season of earnest, anxious prayer on the part of God’s people concerning the subject of Christian character! The average church can enjoy no revival because her membership is of such a motley character. The mixed multitude are in it, men and women who, by practice at least, repudiate the doctrine of being born from above, and who, with the Johannine disciples at Ephesus, would be compelled to say, “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” When the organizers of progressive euchreclubs, the chief patrons of the dance, the devotees of the theater, the breakers of the Sabbath, are in the church in any considerable numbers, a perennial revival is impossible. And when men and women, whose sins may not so much as be mentioned in better assemblies, cloak their conduct under the same membership, what prospect? To expect a revival in an assembly made up of saints and sinners is to ask God’s approval upon iniquitous practices, and the prayer is in vain.

David Brainerd, that godly apostle to the Indians, had many occasions of mourning the work of his wards. At the Forks of the Delaware he writes: “I was greatly oppressed with guilt and shame this morning... About nine o’clock I withdrew to the woods for prayer, but had not much comfort. Toward night my burden, respecting my work among the Indians, began to increase much and was aggravated by hearing sundry things that looked very discouraging; in particular, that they intended to meet together next day for an idolatrous feast and dance. Then I began to be in anguish. I thought I must, in conscience, go and endeavor to break them up... However, I withdrew for prayer, hoping for strength from above... I was in such anguish and pleaded with sO’ much earnestness and importunity that when I rose from my knees I felt extremely weak and overcome. I could scarcely walk straight. My joints were loosened. The sweat ran down my face and body, and nature seemed as if it would dissolve. So far as I could judge I was wholly free from selfish ends in my fervent supplications for the poor Indians. I knew they were met together to worship devils and not God. And this made me cry earnestly that God would now appear and help me in my attempts to break up this idolatrous meeting.” That is the prayer for God’s people to make now. These Indians have their successors in every assembly — men and women who walk disorderly, who work iniquity, who are to the church as Achan was to the camp. Their regeneration, or reform, is essential to the coming of a revival.

Somehow or other the situation in the churches of our section has evinced enough of this to teach some of the saints of God the meaning of Paul’s words: “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Ghost, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake.”

But this agony must increase with thoe who feel it, and extend to multitudes who as yet, have not given it sufficient consideration, before God’s answer can come and the character of church-membership be so transformed as to clear the way for a perennial revival.

Think again of the effect in making converts to Christ, That is a glorious report: “And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.” The churches desire the return of such a revival. Then, as the people thereof, we must pray. The conditions of an open heaven have not changed much in many centuries. When Solomon had uttered his prayer at the dedication of the temple, the Lord appeared by night, and said unto him: “I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Charles Spurgeon affirmed the fact that soul-winning in his great Tabernacle was easy, because there was an earnest spirit of prayer among the people, and because so many of them were on the watch for souls. He only declared that which is known to be true in every temple where men turn to God in considerable numbers. Dr. Elmore Harris assigned the success in soul-winning which characterized his pastorate in Walmer Road to a church whose members were priests unto God. A. C. Dixon, a man mightily blessed of God in soul-winning, at Winona Lake Assembly, related the story of having gone to a country schoolhouse on a rainy afternoon to speak to seven men. At the close of the service two of them earnestly sought salvation. He consented to preach at night. The meetings were continued three or four weeks, and about seventy-five were saved. It seemed to Dixon, at first, a case of Eternal Sovereignty, in which the Lord had just come and done the work without requiring petition. But he shortly learned that a school-teacher, residing sixty miles away on the coast, had dismissed her school a half-hour earlier that she might have more time to spend, upon her knees, in pleading for this very neighborhood. Given many such petitioners in a church, and who could count the converts? Given many such petitioners in a church, and who does not know that a perennial revival will result?

Finally, think again of the effect of such prayers on church extension. Trace the men and women of that “upper room” meeting! They went everywhere preaching the word and witnessing salvation. Travel the country over, and you will find that every church, knowing how to pray so’ as to enjoy a perennial revival, adopts the watchword of the Student Volunteer movement, “The evangelization of the world in this generation.” These churches may not all work along the same lines. When Clarendon Street, under Gordon, kept the waters of its pool busy with baptisms, it poured its men and money into India, China, Japan, Africa, and the isles. The Chicago Avenue, or Moody, Church has not played so conspicuous a part in foreign missions, but has been more successful in the whole cause of church extension. By multiplied meetings, by the training of young men and women for successful Christian service, by the establishment of a Bible school, by emphasis upon evangelism, this institution has sent its waves of influence to the Atlantic and to the Pacific seaboards, through Canada and Mexico; and by its direct agents has taken to the Old World both of its peerless revivals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the former under Moody, and the latter under Torrey. There are people who seem to get a surfeit of pleasure out of the statistics which show that, since Carey baptized his first convert, the march of missions has been unimpeded, until now the converts from heathenism approach two million church-members. And there are those who, in order tO’ encourage themselves still further, compare the growth of the churches in a specific country with the increase of population, showing a percentage in favor of Christ and his cause. But after all juggling with figures is finished, it remains a fact that on the basis of past progress the whole world could never be brought to Christ.

Fellow workmen! Are not God’s promises big with a better prospect? Let us gO’ upon our knees and claim them by the prayer of faith, and offer ourselves to the Son of God for such service as would mean “the evangelization of the world in this generation,” and the bringing back of the KING.