Seven Times More Prayer. A Call from the Conference
In the reports of the World Missionary Conference very great stress is laid on the supreme importance of prayer. I begin with some extracts. Vol. I., “Prayer is the method which links the irresistible might of God to the missionary enterprise. That God has conditioned so largely the extension and the fruitfulness of His Kingdom upon the faithfulness and loyalty of His children in prayer, is at the same time one of the deepest mysteries, and one of the most wonderful realities.” Read that again.
“How to multiply the number of Christians, who with clear and unshakable faith in the character and ability of God will wield this force for the transformation of man — that is the supreme question of Foreign Missions. Every other consideration is secondary to that of wielding the forces of prayer. May the call go forth from this Conference to the Christian Churches throughout the world, to give themselves as never before to intercession.”
In Vol. VI., “The Home Base of Foreign Missions,” the first chapter, pp. 6 — 16, is devoted to prayer, and especially the need of education in prayer. “It is our conviction that none can pray their best, few can pray with any fulness of effect, who have not received some careful training in the practice of prayer, and have not acquired as well the grace of holy perseverance in it.”
“We must emphasise the fact that the encouragement and direction of the prayer of the Christian people is one of the highest forms of Christian service.”
“That those who love this work, and bear it upon their heart, will follow the Scripture injunction to pray unceasingly for its triumph, we take for granted. To such all times and seasons will witness an attitude of intercession that refuses to let God go until He crowns His workers with victory.”
“Prayer is the putting forth of vital energy. It is the highest effort of which the human spirit is capable. Efficiency and power in prayer cannot be obtained without patient continuance and much practice. The primary need is not the multiplication of prayer meetings, but that individual Christians should learn to pray.”
“The secret and art of prayer can only be learned from the teaching of the Master Himself, and by patient study of the best books on the subject.” In a note it is said,” Special reference may be made to Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer (Nisbet, is.); M’Clure, A Mighty Means of Usefulness (Revel Co., 50 c.);
Austin Phelps, The Still Hour (Gardner, Paisley); Moule, Secret Prayer”
“Sometimes it has seemed as if faith in the power of the Spirit and in His willingness to aid, had been almost lost, and that we were now attempting to substitute human devices for spiritual power. Back to Divine wisdom, to the living power of Jesus Christ, back through prayer to the source of all power, must be our watchword. All plans for deepening interest in mission work must be devised and executed in devout prayer and solemn waiting upon the Lord, and every endeavour made to propagate the spirit and habit of prayer among all Christian workers. We must make men understand that it is only their lack of faith and half-hearted consecration that hinders the rapid advance of the work, only their own coldness that keeps back His redemption from a lost world. We must ever bear in mind that God is eager and able to save the world already redeemed by Him if only we, His professed followers on earth, were willing that He should.”
These are indeed unspeakably solemn words. They lead us into the depth of the sanctuary. They open up to us the Divine meaning and mystery of prayer as very few apprehend it. They call us to beseech God by His Holy Spirit to open our eyes that we may know what prayer is in its spiritual reality.
Most Christians are content if they have some blessed experience of what prayer can do in bringing down blessings for their own needs, and in some cases on behalf of others. But how seldom it is realised that prayer covers the whole Divine mystery of man’s being partner with the three-one God in working out the counsel of His will and grace. All that God wants to do for the world, He does through men whom He has taken up into His counsels, who have yielded themselves fully to His will, of whom His Spirit has taken possession, so that they can pray with power in the name of Jesus. Such have the high honour that God at their bidding will regulate the working of His Holy Spirit, and send Him to go where and to do what they have asked.
This is indeed the mystery of prayer, that a worm of the dust can become one of God’s Privy Council. The Holy One listens to such and becomes the executor of their plans and wishes. As Infinite and Omnipotent as God is, is prayer too. Such honour have His saints. No wonder that the chapter we have been quoting from, concludes with the words: — “If the Conference in Edinburgh should lead some resolutely and irrevocably to enter into the school of prayer, the spiritual power of the Church for the accom plishment of its great task would be immeasurably increased.”
And what is now the bearing of all these extracts on the subject of our book, The State of the Church? First of all, to deepen the painful conviction of how little the Church knows how to pray, and how unfit the larger part of it is to pray effectually. We need time to come under the full impression of what the Christian life means to most people, even those who are counted earnest. They have been taught to come to Christ for their salvation. They have found it, and now seek to live in the world, looking to God for grace enough to enable them to live what they think Christian lives. They have no conception of what claim Christ has to an entire consecration of their whole being. They have no idea that it is definitely their great calling to live to make Christ king throughout the earth. The thought is entirely foreign to them that they are every day of their lives to pray, to labour in prayer, that God’s Kingdom may come, and that God’s Spirit may use them for His service.
It is as compared with this, the true scriptural idea, that the charge is brought home that the Church is feeble and utterly impotent to strive in prayer for the conversion of the world. I do beseech my readers to look back to all the extracts as to what ought to be, and what is not found to be, until the prayerlessness of the Church become a burden too heavy to be borne.
Next to this must come the surrender of the true Christian at once and wholly to yield Himself to become an intercessor. On the first day of the Conference, when introducing the report of the first Commission, and speaking of all it would imply even if the work marked out were only to be begun, the late Dr. Robson used the expression “We shall need three times more men, four times more money, seven times more prayer.” That is, instead of 20,000 now 60,000 men; instead of five millions of pounds, now twenty millions; and seven times more prayer than is now being offered. If a congregation had at present three labourers in the field, it would not be impossible, if the right spirit prevailed, to increase that number to nine. If there were a Christian man whose income was one thousand pounds, and he had given fifty pounds per annum to Foreign Missions, it would surely not be too much, if a right sense of the claim of Christ came upon Him, to give four times that amount — two hundred pounds. And shall it then be thought impossible to believe that when God’s Spirit even now begins to work in the hearts of the children that they shall be drawn out into seven times more prayer? It is not only that we want the number of those who pray increased, but still more that those who do already pray, should accept the call for their part in the sevenfold. Quality is more than quantity. Sevenfold is the sign of that quiet perseverance of Elijah, which would not rest until the cloud had been seen. Sevenfold is the sign of the burning furnace seven times heated. It is in the new intensity of the prayer of those who already pray that our hope lies. Christ offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying. But He first offered Himself. Offer yourself to God, and a new power will come to offer up prayer without ceasing. Begin at once, and with each chapter of this little book turn it into prayer; take up the great subjects and speak out your heart in intercourse with God. And again, I say, go back to the quotations we have given; make them food for prayer, until the heart begins to understand what it is to give God no rest till He pour down His blessing.
But there is a third point on which the extracts bear still more especially. Their first reference is to prayer for Foreign Missions. But this little book has to do with a subject on which Foreign Missions are absolutely dependent — the spiritual life of the Church. And what the extracts have been specially gathered for is to rouse the hearts of Christians to pray without ceasing for that revival without which the Church can never respond to the call of her Lord. Whether we pray for the whole Church, or the Church to which we belong, or for the district or circle with which we are more closely linked, let our missionary prayer hold up to God as our first and chief desire that His believing children, who have known what prayer is, may be stirred to a new intensity. That will lead them to ask that His feebler children may take courage and confidently expect from Him that to them, too, the Spirit of supplication will be given. And then will follow the prayer, that His erring children, who profess to trust in Christ, but have never thought of what it is to live for His service, may by the mighty movement of His grace be brought to take their part in the great army, who in the ministry of intercession cry to Him day and night, until He avenge His people of their adversary.
Sevenfold more prayer. May God find His
people ready for it.