HOW TO PRAY 
 
 «Y 
 
 V 
 
 I* JUN241910 
 
 R. A. TORREY ^<i£fi/CAL SEWj 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT OF THE MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE, CHICAGO. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "HOW TO BRING MEN TO CHRIST," 
 
 **WHAT THE BIBLS TEACHES," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literature 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Importance of Prayer • • • 7 
 
 II. Praying unto God 3a 
 
 Obeying and Praying 40 
 
 Praying in the Name of Christ and 
 
 According to the Will of God . , 48 
 
 V. Praying in the Spirit . . . • 58 
 
 Always Praying and Not Fainting . . 63 ^ 
 
 Abiding in Christ . . . • 68 
 
 VIII. Praying with Thanksgiving • , . 74 
 
 IX. Hindrances to Prayer . • • • 78 
 
 X. When to Pray 91 
 
 XI. The Need of a General Revival . . 100 
 XII. The Place of Prayer Before and During 
 
 Revivals IIS 
 
 III. 
 IV. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
HOW TO PRAY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER 
 
 In the 6th chapter of Ephesians in the i8th 
 verse we read words which put the tremendous 
 importance of prayer with startling and over- 
 whelming force : 
 
 "Praying always with all prayer and sup- 
 plication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto 
 with all perseverance and supplication for all 
 saints. ' ' 
 
 When we stop to weigh the meaning of 
 these words, then note the connection in 
 which they are found, the intelligent child of 
 God is driven to say, 
 
 *'I must pray, pray, pray. I must put all 
 my energy and all my heart into prayer. 
 Whatever else I do, I must pray." 
 
 The Revised Version is, if possible, stronger 
 than the Authorized: 
 
 *'With all prayer and supplication praying 
 
8 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching 
 thereunto in all perseverance and supplication 
 for all the saints. ' ' 
 
 Note the alls: *'with all prayer," "at all 
 seasons," "in all perseverance," "for a// the 
 saints." Note the piling up of strong words, 
 "prayer," "supplication," "perseverance." 
 Note once more the strong expression, "watch- 
 ing thereunto," more literally, "being sleep- 
 less thereunto." Paul realized the natural 
 slothfulness of man, and especially his natural 
 slothfulness in prayer. How seldom we pray 
 things through! How often the church and 
 the individual get right up to the verge of a 
 great blessing in prayer and just then let go, 
 get drowsy, quit. I wish that these words 
 "being sleepless unto prayer" might burn 
 into our hearts. I wish the whole verse might 
 burn into our hearts. 
 
 But why is this constant, persistent, sleep- 
 less, overcoming prayer so needful? 
 
 I. First of all, because there is a devil. 
 
 He is cunning, he is mighty, he never rests, 
 he is ever plotting the downfall of the child 
 of God; and if the child of God relaxes in 
 prayer, the devil will succeed in ensnaring 
 him. 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER 9 
 
 This is the thought of the context. The 
 12th verse reads: *'For our wrestling is not 
 against flesh and blood, but against the prin- 
 cipalities, against the powers, against the world 
 rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual 
 hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. " 
 (R. V.) Then comes the 13th verse: "Where- 
 fore take up the whole armor of God, that ye 
 may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, 
 having done all, to stand." (R. V.) Next 
 follows a description of the different parts of 
 the Christian's armor, which we are to put on 
 if we are to stand against the devil and his 
 mighty wiles. Then Paul brings all to a 
 climax in the i8th verse, telling us that to all 
 else we must add prayer — constant, persistent, 
 untiring, sleepless prayer in the Holy Spirit, 
 or all else will go for nothing. 
 
 2. A second reason for this constant, per- 
 sistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer is that 
 prayer is God^s appointed way for obtaining 
 things^ and the great secret of all lack in our 
 experience^ in our life and in our work is neglect 
 of prayer. 
 
 James brings this out very forcibly in the 4th 
 chapter and 2d verse of his epistle: "Ye have 
 not because ye ask not. " These words contain 
 
lO HOW TO PRAY 
 
 the secret of the poverty and powerlessness of 
 the average Christian — neglect of prayer. 
 
 *'Why is it," many a Christian is asking, 
 '*I make so little progress in my Christian 
 life?" 
 
 *' Neglect of prayer," God answers. **You 
 have not because you ask not. * * 
 
 **Why is it," many a minister is asking, *'I 
 see so little fruit from my labors?" 
 
 Again God answers, ** Neglect of prayer. 
 You have not because you ask not." 
 
 **Why is it," many a Sunday-school teacher 
 is asking, "that I see so few converted in my 
 Sunday-school class?" 
 
 Still God answers, ** Neglect of prayer. You 
 have not because you ask not. * ' 
 
 **Why is it," both ministers and churches are 
 asking, **that the church of Christ makes so 
 little headway against unbelief and error and 
 sin and worldliness?"' 
 
 Once more we hear God answering, 
 ** Neglect of prayer. You have not because 
 you ask not. ' ' 
 
 3. The third reason for this constant, per- 
 sistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer is that 
 those men whom God set forth as a pattern of 
 what He expected Christians to be — the apostie^ 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER II 
 
 — regarded prayer as the most important buS' 
 iness of their lives. 
 
 When the multiplying responsibilities of the 
 early church crowded in upon them, they 
 "called the multitude of the disciples unto 
 them, and said, It is not reason that we should 
 leave the Word of God, and serve tables. 
 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among- you 
 seven men of honest report, full of the Holy 
 Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over 
 this business. But we will give ourselves con- 
 tinually to prayer and to the ministry of the 
 Word." It is evident from what Paul wrote 
 to the churches and to individuals about pray- 
 ing for them, that very much of his time and 
 strength and thought was given to prayer. 
 (Rom. 1:9, R. v.; Eph. 1:15, 16; Col. 1:9, R. 
 v.; I Thess. 3:10; 2 Tim. 1:3, R. V.) 
 
 All the mighty men of God outside the Bible ^ 
 have been men of prayer. They have differed 
 from one another in many things, but in this 
 they have been alike. 
 
 4. But there is a still weightier reason for 
 this constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming 
 prayer. It is, prayer occupied a very prominent 
 place and played a very important part in the 
 earthly life of our Lord, 
 
I a HOW TO PRAY 
 
 Turn, for example, to Mark i :35. We read, 
 **And in the morning, rising tip a great while 
 before day, He went out, and departed into a 
 solitary place, and there prayed.** The pre- 
 ceding day had been a very busy and exciting 
 one, but Jesus shortened the hours of needed 
 ' sleep that He might arise early and give Him- 
 self to more sorely needed prayer. 
 
 Turn again to Luke 6:13, where we read, 
 •*And it came to pass in those days that He 
 went out into a mountain to pray, and con- 
 tinued all night in prayer to God." Our 
 Savior found it necessary on occasion to take a 
 whole night for prayer. 
 
 I The words *'pray" and * 'prayer'* are used at 
 least twenty-five times in connection with our 
 Lord in the brief record of His life in the four 
 Gospels, and His praying is mentioned in 
 places where the words are not used. Evi- 
 dently prayer took much of the time and 
 strength of Jesus, and a man or woman who 
 does not spend much time in prayer, can- 
 not properly be called a follower of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 5. There is another reason for constant, per- 
 sistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer that 
 seems if possible even more forcible than this, 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER 
 
 13 
 
 namely, praying is the most important part of { 
 the present ministry of our risen Lord, 
 
 Christ's ministry did not close with His 
 death. His atoning work was finished then, 
 but when He rose and ascended to the right 
 hand of the Father, He entered upon other 
 work for us just as important in its place as 
 His atoning work. It cannot be divorced from 
 His atoning work; it rests upon that as its 
 basis, but it is necessary to our complete 
 salvation. 
 
 What that great present work is, by which 
 He carries our salvation on to completeness, we 
 read in Heb. 7:25, "Wherefore He is able also 
 to save them to the uttermost that come unto 
 God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make 
 intercession for them.'' This verse tells us 
 that Jesus is able to save us unto the utter- 
 most, not merely from the uttermost, but unto 
 the uttermost, unto entire completeness, abso- 
 lute perfection, because He not merely died, 
 but because He also "ever liveth. " The verse 
 also tells us for what purpose He now lives, 
 *7<? make i7iter cession for us," to pray. Pray- 
 ing is the principal thing He is doing in these 
 days. It is by His prayers that He is saving us. 
 
 The same thought is found in Paul's remark- 
 
14 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 able, triumpliant challenge in Rom. 8:34 — 
 *'Who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ 
 Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised 
 from the dead, who is at the right hand of 
 God, who also maketh intercession for us.** 
 (R. V.) 
 
 If we then are to have fellowship with Jesus 
 Christ in His present work, we must spend 
 much time in prayer; we must give ourselves 
 to earnest, constant, persistent, sleepless, over- 
 coming prayer. I know of nothing that has so 
 impressed me with a sense of the importance 
 of praying at all seasons, being much and con- 
 stantly in prayer, as the thought that that is 
 the principal occupation at present of my risen 
 Lord. I want to have fellowship with Him, 
 and to that end I have asked the Father that 
 whatever else He may make me, to make me 
 at all events an intercessor, to make me a man 
 who knows how to pray, and who spends much 
 time in prayer. 
 
 This ministry of intercession is a glorious 
 and a mighty ministry, and we can all have part 
 in it. The man or the woman who is shut 
 away from the public meeting by sickness can 
 have part in it; the busy mother; the woman 
 who has to take in washing for a living can 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER I5 
 
 have part — she can mingle prayers for the 
 saints, and for her pastor, and for the unsaved, 
 and for foreign missionaries, with the soap and 
 water as she bends over the washtub, and not 
 do the washing any more poorly on that 
 account; the hard driven man of business can 
 have part in it, praying as he hurries from duty 
 to duty. But of course we must, if we would 
 maintain this spirit of constant prayer, take 
 time — and take plenty of it — when we shall 
 shut ourselves up in the secret place alone 
 with God for nothing but prayer. 
 
 6. The sixth reason for constant, persistent, 
 sleepless, overcoming prayer is that prayer is 
 the means that God has appointed for our receiv- 
 ing mercy ^ and obtai7iing grace to help in time 
 of need. 
 
 Heb. 4:16 is one of the simplest and sweetest 
 verses in the Bible, — *'Let us therefore come 
 boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may 
 obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of 
 need." These words make it very plain that 
 God has appointed a way by which we shall 
 seek and obtain mercy and grace. That way is 
 prayer; bold, confident, outspoken approach 
 to the throne of grace, the most holy place of 
 God's presence, where our sympathizing High 
 
16 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 Priest, Jesus Christ, has entered in our behalf. 
 (Verses 14, 15.) 
 
 Mercy is what we need, grace is what we 
 must have, or all our life and effort will end in 
 complete failure. Prayer is the way to get 
 them. There is infinite grace at our disposal, 
 and we make it ours experimentally by prayer. 
 Oh, if we only realized the fullness of God's 
 grace that is ours for the asking, its height and 
 depth and length and breadth, I am sure that 
 we would spend more time in prayer. The 
 measure of our appropriation of grace is deter- 
 mined by the measure of our prayers. 
 
 Who is there that does not feel that he needs 
 more grace? Then ask for it. Be constant 
 and persistent in your asking. Be importunate 
 and untiring in your asking. God delights to 
 have us * 'shameless" beggars in this direction; 
 for it shows our faith in Him, and He is 
 mightily pleased with faith. Because of our 
 •*shamelessness" He will rise and give us as 
 much as we need (Luke 11:8). What little 
 streams of mercy and grace most of us know, 
 when we might know rivers overflowing their 
 banks ! 
 
 7. The next reason for constant, persistent, 
 sleepless, overcoming prayer is that prayer tn 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER I7 
 
 the name of Jesus Christ is the way Jesus Christ 
 Himself has appointed for His disciples to obtain 
 fullness of joy. 
 
 He states this simply and beautifully in 
 John 16:24, ** Hitherto have ye asked nothing 
 in My name; ask, and ye shall receive, that 
 your joy may be fulfilled." "Made full" is 
 the way the Revised Version reads. Who is 
 there that does not wish his joy filled full? 
 Well, the way to have it filled full is by pray- 
 ing in the name of Jesus. We all know people 
 whose joy is filled full, indeed, it i's just rimning 
 over, is shining from their eyes, bubbling out 
 of their very lips, and running off their finger 
 tips when they shake hands with you. Coming 
 in contact with them is like coming in contact 
 with an electrical machine charged with glad- 
 ness. Now people of that sort are always 
 people that spend much time in prayer. 
 • Why is it that prayer in the name of Christ 
 brings such fullness of joy? In part, because 
 we get what we ask. But that is not the only 
 reason, nor the greatest. It makes God real. 
 When we ask something definite of God, and 
 He gives it, how real God becomes! He is 
 right there ! It is blessed to have a God who 
 is real, and not merely an idea, I remember 
 
1 8 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 how once I was taken suddenly and seriously 
 sick all alone in my study. I dropped upon 
 my knees and cried to God for help. Instantly 
 all pain left me — I was perfectly well. It 
 seemed as if God stood right there, and had 
 put out His hand and touched me. The joy of 
 the healing was not so great as the joy of 
 meeting God. 
 
 There is no greater joy on earth or in 
 heaven, than communion with God, and 
 prayer in the name of Jesus brings us intc 
 communion with Him. The Psalmist was 
 surely not speaking only of future blessed- 
 ness, but also of present blessedness when he 
 said, *'In Thy presence is fullness of joy." 
 (Ps. i6:ii.) O the unutterable joy of those 
 moments when in our prayers we really press 
 into the presence of God! 
 
 Does some one say, *'I have never known 
 any such joy as that in prayer"? 
 
 Do you take enough leisure for prayer to 
 actually get into God's presence? Do you 
 really give yourself up to prayer in the time 
 which you do take? 
 
 8. The eighth reason for constant, persistent, 
 sleepless, overcoming prayer is that prayer^ in 
 every care and anxiety and need of life^ with 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER I9 
 
 thanksgivings is the means that God has ap- 
 pointed for our obtaining freedom from all 
 anxiety s and the peace of God which passeth all 
 understanding, 
 
 "Be careful for nothing-," says Paul, **but in 
 everything by prayer and supplication with 
 thanksgiving let your requests be made known 
 unto God, and the peace of God which passeth 
 all understanding, shall keep your hearts and 
 minds through Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6, 7.) 
 To many this seems, at the first glance, the 
 picture of a life that is beautiful, but beyond 
 the reach of ordinary mortals; not so at all. 
 The verse tells us how the life is attainable 
 by every child of God: "Be careful for noth- 
 ing," or as the Revised Version reads, "In 
 nothing be anxious." The remainder of the 
 verse tells us how, and it is very simple : "But 
 in everything by prayer and supplication with 
 thanksgiving let your requests be made known 
 unto God." What could be plainer or more 
 simple than that? Just keep in constant touch 
 with God, and when any trouble or vexation, 
 great or small, comes up, speak to Him about 
 it, never forgetting to return thanks for what 
 He has already done. What will the result be? 
 **The peace of God which passeth all under- 
 
a* HOW TO PRAY 
 
 standing shall guard your hearts and your 
 thoughts in Christ Jesus." (R. V.) 
 
 That is glorious, and as simple as it is 
 glorious! Thank God, many are trying it. 
 Don't you know any one who is always serene? 
 Perhaps he is a very stormy man by his natural 
 make-up, but troubles and conflicts and 
 reverses and bereavements may sweep around 
 him, and the peace of God which passeth all 
 understanding guards his heart and his 
 thoughts in Christ Jesus. 
 
 We all know such persons. How do they 
 manage it? 
 
 Just by prayer, that is all. Those persons 
 who know the deep peace of God, the 
 unfathomable peace that passeth all under- 
 standing, are always men and women of 
 much prayer. 
 
 Some of us let the hurry of our lives crowd 
 prayer out, and what a waste of time and 
 energy and nerve force there is by the constant 
 worry! One night of prayer will save us from 
 many nights of insomnia. Time spent in 
 prayer is not wasted, but time invested at big 
 interest. 
 
 9. The ninth reason for constant, persistent, 
 sleepless, overcoming prayer is that prayer is 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER 21 
 
 the method that God Himself has appointed for 
 our obtaining the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Upon this point the Bible is very plain. 
 Jesus says, "If ye then, being evil, know how 
 to give good gifts unto your children, how 
 much more shall your heavenly Father give the 
 Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" (Luke 
 11:13.) Men are telling us in these days, very 
 good men too, *'You must not pray for the 
 Holy Spirit, ' ' but what are they going to do 
 with the plain statement of Jesus Christ, "How 
 much more will your heavenly Father give the 
 Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?'* 
 
 Some years ago when an address on the 
 baptism with the Holy Spirit was announced, 
 a brother came to me before the address and 
 said with much feeling, 
 
 **Be sure and tell them not to pray for the 
 Holy Spirit." 
 
 *'I will surely not tell them that, for Jesus 
 says, 'How much more shall your heavenly 
 Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
 Him.'" 
 
 **0 yes,'' he replied, "but that was before 
 Pentecost." 
 
 ''How about Acts 4:31? was that before 
 Pentecost, or after?" 
 
2Z HOW TO PRAY 
 
 "After, of course." 
 
 "Read it." 
 
 " 'And when they had prayed^ the place was 
 shaken where they were assembled together; 
 and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost ^ 
 and they spake the word of God with bold- 
 ness.' '• 
 
 **How about Acts 8:15? was that before 
 Pentecost or after?" 
 
 "After." 
 
 "Please read." 
 
 " *Who, when they were come down, prayed 
 for them, that they might receive the Holy 
 Ghost.'" 
 
 He made no answer. What could he answer? 
 It is plain as day in the Word of God that 
 before Pentecost and after, the first baptism 
 and the subsequent fillings with the Holy 
 Spirit were received in answer to definite 
 prayer. Experience also teaches this. 
 
 Doubtless many have received the Holy 
 Spirit the moment of their surrender to God 
 before there was time to pray, but how many 
 there are who know that their first definite 
 baptism with the Holy Spirit came while they 
 were on their knees or faces before God, alone 
 or in company with others, and who again and 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER 23 
 
 again since that have been filled with the Holy 
 Spirit in the place of prayer! 
 
 I know this as definitely as I know that my 
 thirst has been quenched while I was drinking 
 water. Early one morning in the Chicago 
 Avenue Church prayer room, where several 
 hundred people had been assembled a number 
 of hours in prayer, the Holy Spirit fell so 
 manifestly, and the whole place was so filled 
 with His presence, that no one could speak or 
 pray, but sobs of joy filled the place. Men 
 went out of that room to different parts of the 
 country, taking trains that very morning, and 
 reports soon came back of the out-pouring of 
 God's Holy Spirit in answer to prayer. Others 
 went out into the city with the blessing of 
 God upon them. This is only one instance 
 among many that might be cited from personal 
 experience. 
 
 If we would only spend more time in prayer, 
 there would be more fullness of the Spirit's 
 power in our work. Many and many a man 
 who once worked unmistakably in the power of 
 the Holy Spirit is now filling the air with 
 empty shoutings, and beating it with his mean- 
 ingless gesticulations, because he has let prayer 
 be crowded out. We must spend much time 
 
24 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 on our knees before God, if we are to continue 
 in the power of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 lo. The tenth reason for constant, persistent, 
 sleepless, overcoming prayer is that prayer is 
 the means that Christ has appointed whereby our 
 hearts shall not become overcharged with surfeit- 
 ing and drunkenness and cares of this life, and 
 so the day of Christ's return come upon us sud- 
 denly as a snare. 
 
 One of the most interesting and solemn 
 passages upon prayer in the Bible is along 
 this line. (Luke 21:34-36.) "Take heed to 
 yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be 
 overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness 
 and cares of this life, and so that day come 
 upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it 
 come on all them that dwell on the face of the 
 whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray 
 always, that ye may be accounted worthy to 
 escape all these things that shall come to pass, 
 and to stand before the Son of man. " Accord- 
 ing to this passage there is only one way in 
 which we can be prepared for the coming of 
 the Lord when He appears, that is, through 
 much prayer. 
 
 The coming again of Jesus Christ is a sub- 
 ject that is awakening much interest and much 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER 25 
 
 discussion in our day; but it is one thing to be 
 interested in the Lord's leturn, and to talk 
 about it, and quite another thing to be pre- 
 pared for it. We live in an atmosphere that 
 has a constant tendency to unfit us for Christ's 
 coming. The world tends to draw us down by 
 its gratifications and by its cares. There is 
 only one way by which we can rise triumphant 
 above these things — by constant watching unto 
 prayer, that is, by sleeplessness unto prayer. 
 ** Watch" in this passage is the same strong 
 word used in Eph. 6:18, and "always" the 
 same strong phrase ** in every season." The 
 man who spends little time in prayer, who is 
 not steadfast and constant in prayer, will not be 
 ready for the Lord when He comes. But we 
 may be ready. How? Pray! Pray! Pray! 
 
 1 1 There is one more reason for constant, 
 persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer, and 
 it is a mighty one- because of what prayer 
 accomplishes. Much has really been said upon 
 that already, but there is much also that 
 should be added. 
 
 (i) Prayer promotes our spiritual growth as 
 almost nothing else, indeed as nothing else but 
 Bible study; and true prayer and true Bible 
 study go hand in hand. 
 
a6 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 It is through prayer that my sin is brought 
 to light, my most hidden sin. As I kneel 
 before God and pray, *' Search me, O God, 
 and know my heart: try me, and know my 
 thoughts: and see if there be any wicked 
 way in me," (Ps. 139:23, 24), God shoots the 
 penetrating rays of His light into the inner- 
 most recesses of my heart, and the sins I never 
 suspected are brought to view. In answer to 
 prayer, God washes me from mine iniquity 
 and cleanses me from my sin (Ps. 51:2). In 
 answer to prayer my eyes are opened to be- 
 hold wondrous things out of God's Word (Ps. 
 119:18). In answer to prayer I get wisdom to 
 know God's way (J as. 1:5) and strength to 
 walk in it. As I meet God in prayer and gaze 
 into His face, I am changed into His own 
 image from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). 
 Each day of true prayer life finds me liker to 
 my glorious Lord. 
 
 John Welch, son-in-law to John Knox, was 
 one of the most faithful men of prayer this 
 world ever saw. He counted that day ill-spent 
 in which seven or eight hours were not used 
 alone with God in prayer and the study of His 
 Word. An old man speaking of him after his 
 death said, "He was a type of Christ." 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER 27 
 
 How came he to be so like his Master? 
 
 His prayer life explains the mystery. 
 
 (2) Prayer brings power into our work. 
 
 If we wish power for any work to which God 
 calls us, be it preaching, teaching, personal 
 work, or the rearing of our children, we can 
 get it by earnest prayer. 
 
 A woman with a little boy who was perfectly 
 incorrigible, once came to me in desperation 
 and said: 
 
 '*What shall I do with him?" 
 
 I asked, "Have you ever tried prayer?" 
 
 She said that she had prayed for him, she 
 thought. I asked if she had made his con- 
 version and his character a matter of definite, 
 expectant prayer. She replied that she had 
 not been definite in the matter. She began 
 that day, and at once there was a marked 
 change in the child, and he grew up into 
 Christian manhood. 
 
 How many a Sunday-school teacher has 
 taught for months and years, and seen no real 
 fruit from his labors, and then has learned the 
 seciet of intercession, and by earnest pleading 
 with God, has seen his scholars brought one 
 by one to Christ! How many a poor preacher 
 has become a mighty man of God by casting 
 
28 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 away his confidence in his own ability and 
 gifts, and giving himself up to God to wait 
 upon Him for the power that comes from on 
 high! John Livingstone spent a night, with 
 some others likeminded, in prayer to God and 
 religious conversation, and when he preached 
 next day in the Kirk of Shotts five hundred 
 people were converted, or dated some definite 
 uplift in their life to that occasion. Prayer 
 and power are inseparable. 
 
 (3) Prayer avails for the conversion of 
 others. 
 
 There are few converted in this world unless 
 in connection with some one's prayers. I 
 formerly thought that no human being had 
 anything to do with my own conversion, for I 
 was not converted in church or Sunday-school, 
 or in personal conversation with any one. I 
 was awakened in the middle of the night and 
 converted. As far as I can remember I had 
 not the slightest thought of being converted, or 
 of anything of that character, when I went to 
 bed and fell asleep ; but I was awakened in the 
 middle of the night and converted probably 
 inside of five minutes. A few minutes before 
 I was about as near eternal perdition as one 
 gets. I had one foot over the brink and was 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER 29 
 
 trying to get the other one over. I say I 
 thought no human being had anything to do 
 with it, but I had forgotten my mother's pray- 
 ers, and I afterward learned that one of my 
 college classmates had chosen me as one to 
 pray for until I was saved. 
 
 Prayer often avails where everything else 
 fails. How utterly all of Monica's efforts and 
 entreaties failed with her son, but her prayers 
 prevailed with God, and the dissolute youth 
 became St. Augustine, the mighty man of God. 
 By prayer the bitterest enemies of the Gospel 
 ^lave become its most valiant defenders, the 
 greatest scoundrels the truest sons of God, 
 and the vilest women the purest saints. Oh, the 
 power of prayer to reach down, down, down 
 where hope itself seems vain, and lift men 
 and women up, up, up into fellowship with 
 and likeness to God. It is simply wonderful! 
 How little we appreciate this marvelous 
 weapon ! 
 
 (4) Prayer brings blessings to the church. 
 
 The history of the church has always been a 
 history of grave difficulties to overcome. The 
 devil hates the church and seeks in every way 
 to block its progress; now by false doctrine, 
 again by division, again by inward corruption 
 
 y 
 
30 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 of life. But by prayer, a clear way can be 
 made through everything. Prayer will root 
 out heresy, allay misunderstanding, sweep 
 away jealousies and animosities, obliterate 
 immoralities, and bring in the full tide of 
 God's reviving grace. History abundantly 
 proves this. In the hour of darkest portent, 
 when the case of the church, local or universal, 
 has seemed beyond hope, believing men and 
 believmg women have met together and cried 
 to God and the answer has come. 
 
 It was so in the days of Knox, it was so in 
 the days of Wesley and Whitfield, it was so in 
 the days of Edwards and Brainerd, it was so 
 in the days of Finney, it was so in the days of 
 the great revival of 1 85 7 in this country and of 
 1859 in Ireland, and it will be so again in 
 your day and mine. Satan has marshalled his 
 forces. Christian science with its false Christ 
 — a woman — lifts high its head. Others mak- 
 ing great pretentions of apostolic methods, but 
 covering the rankest dishonesty and hypocrisy 
 with these pretentions, speak with loud 
 assurance. Christians equally loyal to the 
 great fundamental truths of the Gospel are 
 glowering at one another with a devil-sent 
 suspicion. The world, the flesh and the devil 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER 31 
 
 are holding high carnival. It is now a dark 
 day, but — now "it is time for Thee, Lord, to 
 work; for they have made void Thy law. " (Ps. 
 119:126.) And He is getting ready to work, 
 and now He is listening for the voice of prayer. 
 Will He hear it? Will He hear it from you? 
 Will He hear it from the church as a bodyr I 
 believe He will. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 PRAYING UNTO GOD 
 
 We have seen something of the tremendous 
 importance and the resistless power of prayer, 
 and now we come diroctly to the question — how 
 to pray with power. 
 
 I. In the 1 2th chapter of the Acts of the 
 Apostles we have the record of a prayer that 
 prevailed with God, and brought to pass great 
 results. In the 5th verse of this chapter, the 
 manner and method of this prayer is described 
 in few words: 
 
 *' Prayer was made without ceasing of the 
 church unto God for him. ' ' 
 
 The first thing to notice in this verse is the 
 brief expression **unto God. " The prayer that 
 has power is the prayer that is offered unto 
 God. 
 
 But some will say, **Is not all prayer unto 
 God?" 
 
 No. Very much of so-called prayer, both 
 
 public and private, is not unto God. In order 
 
 that a prayer should be really unto God, there 
 32 
 
PRAYING UNTO GOD JJ 
 
 must be a definite and conscious approach to 
 God when we pray; we must have a definite 
 and vivid realization that God is bending over 
 us and listening as we pray. In very much of 
 our prayer there is really but little thought of 
 God. Our mind is taken up with the thought 
 of what we need, and is not occupied with the 
 thought of the mighty and loving Father of 
 whom we are seeking it. Oftentimes it is the 
 case that we are occupied neither with the 
 need nor with the One to whom we are pray- 
 ing, but our mind is wandering here and there 
 throughout the world. There is no power in 
 that sort of prayer. But when we really come 
 into God's presence, really meet Him face to 
 face in the place of prayer, really seek the 
 things that we desire from Him^ then there is 
 power. 
 
 If, then, we would pray aright, the first thing 
 that we should do is to see to it that we really 
 get an audience with God, that we really get 
 into His very presence. Before a word of 
 petition is offered, we should have the definite 
 and vivid consciousness that we are talking to 
 God, and should believe that He is listening 
 to our petition and is going to grant the thing 
 that we ask of Him. This is only possible by 
 
34 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 the Holy Spirit's power, so we should look to 
 the Holy Spirit to really lead us into the 
 presence of God, and should not be hasty in 
 words until He has actually brought us there. 
 
 One night a very active Christian man 
 dropped into a little prayer-meeting that I was 
 leading. Before we knelt to pray, I said some- 
 thing like the above, telling all the friends to 
 be sure before they prayed, and while they 
 were praying, that they really were in God's 
 presence, that they had the thought of Him 
 definitely in mind, and to be more taken up 
 with Him than with their petition. A few 
 days after I met this same gentleman, and he 
 said that this simple thought was entirely new 
 to him, that it had made prayer an entirely 
 new experience to him. 
 
 If then we would pray aright, these two little 
 words must sink deep into our hearts, *^unto 
 Godr 
 
 2. The second secret of effective praying is 
 found in the same verse, in the words '* without 
 ceasing.** 
 
 In the Revised Version, "without ceasing" 
 is rendered "earnestly." Neither rendering 
 gives the full force of the Greek. The word 
 means literally "stretched-out-ed-ly." It is a 
 
PRAYING UNTO GOD 35 
 
 pictorial word, and wonderfully expressive. It 
 represents the soul on a stretch of earnest and 
 intense desire. "Intensely" would perhaps 
 come as near translating- it as any English 
 word. It is the word used of our Lord in Luke 
 22:44 where it is said, **He prayed more 
 earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great 
 drops of blood falling down to the ground." 
 We read in Heb. 5 17 that "in the days of His 
 flesh" Christ 'offered up prayers and supplica- 
 tions with strong crying and tears. " In Rom. 
 15:30, Paul beseeches the saints in Rome to 
 strive together with him in their prayers. The 
 word translated "strive" means primarily to 
 contend as in athletic games or in a fight. In 
 other words, the prayer that prevails with God 
 is the prayer into which we put our whole soul, 
 stretching out toward God in intense and 
 agonizing desire. Much of our modern prayer 
 has no power in it because there is no heart in 
 it. We rush into God's presence, run through 
 a string of petitions, jump up and go out. If 
 some one should ask us an hour afterward for 
 what we prayed, oftentimes we could not tell. 
 If we put so little heart into our prayers, we 
 cannot expect God to put much heart into 
 answering them. 
 
 v" 
 
30 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 We hear much in our day of the rest of 
 faith , but there is such a thing as the fight of 
 faith in prayer as well as in effort. Those 
 who would have us think that they have 
 attained to some sublime height of faith and 
 trust because they never know any agony of 
 conflict or of prayer, have surely gotten 
 beyond their Lord, and beyond the mightiest 
 victors for God, both in eifort and prayer, that 
 the ages of Christian history have known. 
 When we learn to come to God with an 
 intensity of desire that wrings the soul, then 
 shall we know a power in prayer that most of 
 us do not know now. 
 
 But how shall we attain to this earnestness 
 in prayer? 
 
 Not by trying to work ourselves up into it. 
 The true method is explained in Rom. 8:26, 
 "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth 
 our infirmity: for we know not how to pray 
 as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh 
 intercession for us with groanings which can- 
 not be uttered." (R. V.) The earnestness 
 that we work up in the energy of the flesh is 
 a repulsive thing. The earnestness wrought in 
 us by the power of the Holy Spirit is pleasing 
 to God. Here again, if we would pray aright, 
 
PRATING UNTO GOD 37 
 
 we must look to the Spirit of God to teach us 
 to pray. 
 
 It is in this connect-ion that fasting comes. 
 In Dan. 9:3 we read that Daniel set his face 
 '*unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and 
 supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and 
 ashes." There are those who think that fast- 
 ing belongs to the old dispensation ; but when 
 we look at Acts 14:23, and Acts 13:2, 3, we 
 find that it was practised by the earnest men 
 of the apostolic day. 
 
 If we would pray with power, we should 
 pray with fasting. This of course does not 
 mean that we should fast every time we pray; 
 but there are times of emergency or special 
 crisis in work or in our individual lives, when 
 men of downright earnestness will withdraw 
 themselves even from the gratification of 
 natural appetites that would be perfectly 
 proper under other circumstances, that they 
 may give themselves up wholly to prayer. 
 There is a peculiar power in such prayer. 
 Every great crisis in life and work should be 
 met in that way. There is nothing pleasing to 
 God in our giving up in a purely Pharisaic and 
 legal way things which are pleasant, but there 
 is power in that downright earnestness and 
 
38 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 determination to obtain in prayer the things 
 of which we sorely feel our need, that leads us 
 to put away everything, even things in them- 
 selves most right and necessary, that we may 
 set our faces to find God, and obtain blessings 
 from Him. 
 
 3. A third secret of right praying is also 
 found in this same verse, Acts 12:5. It 
 appears in the three words *'^/* the church.** 
 
 There is power in united prayer. Of course 
 there is power in the prayer of an individual, 
 but there is vastly increased power in united 
 prayer. God delights in the unity of His peo- 
 ple, and seeks to emphasize it in every way, 
 and so He pronounces a special blessing upon 
 united prayer. We read in Matt. 18:19, **!£ 
 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. ' ' 
 This unity, however, must be real. The pas- 
 sage just quoted does not say that if two shall 
 agree in asking, but if two shall agree as touch- 
 ing anything they shall ask. Two persons 
 might agree to ask for the same thing, and 
 yet there be no real agreement as touching the 
 thing they asked. One might ask it because he 
 really desired it, the other might ask it simply 
 
PRAYING UNTO GOD 
 
 39 
 
 to please his friend. But where there is real 
 agreement, where the Spirit of God brings two 
 believers into perfect harmony as concerning 
 that which they may ask of God, where the 
 Spirit lays the same burden on two hearts; in 
 all such prayer there is absolutely irresistible 
 power. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 OBEYING AND PRAYING 
 
 I. One of the most significant verses in the 
 Bible on prayer is i John 3:22. John says, 
 **And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, 
 because we keep His commandments, and do 
 those things that are pleasing in His sight." 
 
 What an astounding statement! John says, 
 in so many words, that everything he asked 
 for he got. How many of us can say this: 
 ** Whatsoever I ask I receive"? But John 
 explains why this was so, "Because we keep 
 His commandments, and do those things that 
 are pleasing in His sight." In other words, 
 the one who expects God to do as he asks Him, 
 must on his part do whatever . God bids him. 
 If we give a listening ear to all God's com- 
 mands to us. He will give a listening ear to all 
 our petitions to Him. If, on the other hand, 
 we turn a deaf ear to His precepts. He will be 
 likely to turn a deaf ear to our prayers. Here 
 
 we find the secret of much unanswered prayer, 
 40 
 
OBEYING AND PRAYING 41 
 
 We are not listening to God's Word, and there- 
 fore He is not listening to our petitions. 
 
 I was once speaking to a woman who had 
 been a professed Christian, but had given it all 
 up. I asked her why she was not a Christian 
 still. She replied, because she did not believe 
 the Bible. I asked her why she did not believe 
 the Bible. 
 
 "Because I have tried its promises and found 
 them untrue." 
 
 ** Which promises?" 
 
 **The promises about prayer." 
 
 ** Which promises about prayer?" 
 
 **Does it not say in the Bible, * Whatsoever 
 ye ask believing ye shall receive' ?" 
 
 *'It says something nearly like that." 
 
 **Well, I asked fully expecting to get and did 
 not receive, so the promise failed." 
 
 "Was the promise made to you?" 
 
 "Why, certainly, it is made to all Christians, 
 is it not?" 
 
 "No, God carefully defines who the ^ye's^ 
 are, whose believing prayers He agrees to 
 answer." 
 
 I then turned her to i John 3:22, and read 
 the description of those whose prayers had 
 power w^ith God. 
 
42 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 **Now," I said, *'were you keeping His 
 commandments and doing those things which 
 are pleasing in His sight?" 
 
 She frankly confessed that she was not, and 
 soon came to see that the real difficulty was 
 not with God's promises, but with herself. 
 That is the difficulty with many an unan- 
 swered prayer to-day ; the one who offers it is 
 not obedient. 
 
 If we would have power in prayer, we must 
 be earnest students of His Word to find out 
 what His will regarding us is, and then having 
 found it, do it. One unconfessed act of dis- 
 obedience on our part will shut the ear of God 
 against many petitions. 
 
 2. But this verse goes beyond the mere keep- 
 ing of God's commandments. John tells us 
 that we must do those things that are pleasing 
 in His sight. 
 
 There are many things which it would be 
 pleasing to God for us to do which He has not 
 specifically commanded us. A true child is not 
 content with merely doing those things which 
 his father specifically commands him to do. 
 He studies to know his father's will, and if he 
 thinks that there is any thing that he can 
 do that would please his father, he does it 
 
OBEYING AND PRAYING 43 
 
 gladly, though his father has never given him 
 any specific order to do it. So it is with the 
 true child of God. He does not ask merely 
 whether certain things are commanded or 
 certain things forbidden. He studies to know 
 his Father's will in all things. 
 
 There are many Christians to-day who are 
 doing things that are not pleasing to God, and 
 leaving undone things which would be pleasing 
 to God. When you speak to them about these 
 things they will confront you at once with the 
 question, "Is there any command in the Bible 
 not to do this thing?" And if you cannot show 
 them some yerse in which the matter in ques- 
 tion is plainly forbidden, they think they are 
 under no obligation whatever to give it up; 
 but a true child of God does not demand a 
 specific command. If we make it our study to 
 find out and to do the things which are pleas- 
 ing to God, He will make it His study to do 
 the things which are pleasing to us. Here 
 again we find the explanation of much un- 
 answered prayer: We are not making it the 
 study of our lives to know what^would please 
 our Father, and so our prayers are not 
 answered. 
 
 Take as an illustration of questions that are 
 
44 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 constantly coming up, the matter of theater- 
 going, dancing and the use of tobacco. Many 
 who are indulging in these things will ask you 
 triumphantly if you speak against them, "Does 
 the Bible say, 'Thou shalt not go to the 
 theater'?" "Does the Bible say, 'Thou shalt 
 not dance'?" "Does the Bible say, 'Thou 
 shalt not smoke'?" That is not the question. 
 The question is. Is our heavenly Father well 
 pleased when He sees one of His children in 
 the theater, at the dance, or smoking? That 
 is a question for each to decide for himself, 
 prayerfully, seeking light from the Holy 
 Spirit. "Where is the harm in these things?" 
 many ask. It is aside from our purpose to go 
 into the general question, but beyond a doubt 
 there is this great harm in many a case ; they 
 rob our prayers of power. 
 
 3. Psalm 145:18 throws a great deal of light 
 on the question of how to pray: "The Lord 
 is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all 
 that call upon Him in truth.'* 
 
 That little expression "in truth" is worthy 
 of study. If you will take your concordance 
 and go through the Bible, you will find that 
 this expression means "in reality," "in sin- 
 cerity. ' ' The prayer that God answers is the 
 
OBEYING AND PRAYING 
 
 45 
 
 prayer that is real, the prayer that asks for 
 something that is sincerely desired. 
 
 Much prayer is insincere. People ask for 
 things which they do not wish. Many a woman 
 is praying for the conversion of her husband, 
 who does not really wish her husband to be 
 converted. She thinks that she does, but if 
 she knew what would be involved in the con- 
 version of her husband, how it would neces- 
 sitate an entire revolution in his manner of 
 doing business, and how consequently it would 
 reduce their income and make necessary an 
 entire change in their method of living, the real 
 prayer of her heart would be, if she were to be 
 sincere with God : 
 
 *'0 God, do not convert my husband." 
 
 She does not wish his conversion at so great 
 cost. 
 
 Many a church is praying for a revival that 
 does not really desire a revival. They think 
 they do, for to their minds a reviv^al means an 
 increase of membership, an increase of income, 
 an increase of reputation among the churches; 
 but if they knew what a real revival meant, 
 what a searching of hearts on the part of pro- 
 fessed Christians would be involved, what a 
 ladical transformation of individual, domestic 
 
46 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 and social life would be brought about, and 
 many other things that would come to pass if 
 the Spirit of God was poured out in reality and 
 power; if all this were known, the real cry of 
 the church would be: 
 
 *'0 God, keep us from having a revival." 
 
 Many a minister is praying for the baptism 
 with the Holy Spirit who does not really 
 desire it. He thinks he does, for the baptisni 
 with the Spirit means to him new joy, new 
 power in preaching the Word, a wider reputa^ 
 tion among men, a larger prominence in the 
 church of Christ. But if he understood what 
 a baptism with the Holy Spirit really involved, 
 how for example it would necessarily bring 
 him into antagonism with the world, and with 
 unspiritual Christians, how it would cause his 
 name to be '^cast out as evil," how it might 
 necessitate his leaving a good comfortable 
 living and going down to work in the slums, 
 or even in some foreign land; if he understood 
 all this, his prayer quite likely would be — if he 
 were to express the real wish of his heart, — 
 
 *'0 God, save me from being baptized with 
 the Holy Ghost." 
 
 But when we do come t-^ the place where we 
 really desire the conversion of friends at any 
 
OBEYING AND PRAYING 47 
 
 cost, really desire the outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit whatever it may involve, really desire 
 the baptism with the Holy Ghost come what 
 come may, where we desire anything "in 
 truth" and then call upon God for it "in 
 truth," God is going to hear. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 PRAYING IN THE NAME OF CHRIST AND AC- 
 CORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD 
 
 I. It was a wonderful word about prayer 
 that Jesus spoke to His disciples on the night 
 before His crucifixion, *' 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. ' ' 
 
 Prayer in the name of Christ has power with 
 God. God is well pleased with His Son Jesus 
 Christ. He hears Him always, and He also 
 hears always the prayer that is really in His 
 name. There is a fragrance in the name of 
 Christ that makes acceptable to God every 
 prayer that bears it. 
 
 But what is it to pray in the name of Christ? 
 
 Many explanations have been attempted that 
 
 to ordinary minds do not explain. But there 
 
 is nothing mystical or mysterious about this 
 
 expression. If one will go through the Bible 
 
 and examine all the passages in which the 
 
 expression "in My name" or "in His name'" 
 48 
 
PRAYING IN THE NAME OF CHRIST 49 
 
 or synonymous expressions are used, he will 
 find that it means just about what it does in 
 modern usage. If I go to a bank and hand in 
 a check with my name signed to it, I ask of 
 that bank /;/ my own name. If I have money 
 deposited in that bank, the check will be 
 cashed; if not, it will not be. If, however, I 
 go to a bank with somebody's else name 
 signed to the check, I am asking in his name^ 
 and it does not matter whether I have money 
 in that bank or any other, if the person whose 
 name is signed to the check has money there, 
 the check will be cashed. 
 
 If, for example, I should go to the First 
 National Bank of Chicago, and present a check 
 which I had signed for $50.00, the paying 
 teller would say to me: 
 
 *'Why, Mr. Torrey, we cannot cash that. 
 You have no money in this bank." 
 
 But if I should go to the First National Bank 
 with a check for $5, 000. 00 made payable to me, 
 and signed by one of the large depositors in 
 that bank, they would not ask whether I had 
 money in that bank or in any bank, but would 
 honor the check at once. 
 
 So it is when I go to the bank of heaven, 
 when I go to God in prayer. I have nothing 
 
50 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 deposited there, I have absolutely no credit 
 there, and if I go in my own name I will get 
 absolutely nothing; but Jesus Christ has un- 
 limited credit in heaven, and He has granted 
 to me the privilege of going to the bank with 
 His name on my checks, and when I thus go, 
 my prayers will be honored to any extent. 
 
 To pray then in the name of Christ is to 
 pray on the ground, not of my credit, but 
 His; to renounce the thought that I have any 
 claims on God whatever, and approach Him 
 on the ground of Christ's claims. Praying in 
 the name of Christ is not merely adding the 
 phrase **I ask these things in Jesus* name" 
 to my prayer. I may put that phrase in my 
 prayer and really be resting in my own merit 
 all the time. On the other hand, I may omit 
 that phrase but really be resting in the merit 
 of Christ all the time. But when I really do 
 approach God, not on the ground of my merit, 
 but on the ground of Christ's merit, not on the 
 ground of my goodness, but on the ground of 
 the atoning blood (Heb. 10:19), God will hear 
 me. Very much of our modern prayer is vain 
 because men approach God imagining that 
 they have some claim upon God whereby He is 
 under obligations to answer their prayers. 
 
PRAYING IN THE NAME OF CHRIST 5I 
 
 Years ago when Mr. Moody was young in 
 Christian work, he visited a town in Illinois. 
 A judge in the town was an infidel. This 
 judge's wife besought Mr. Moody to call upon 
 her husband, but Mr. Moody replied: 
 
 •'I cannot talk with your husband. I am 
 only an uneducated young Christian, and your 
 husband is a book infidel." 
 
 But the wife would not take no for an 
 answer, so Mr. Moody made the call. The 
 clerks in the outer»office tittered as the young 
 salesman from Chicago went in to talk with 
 the scholarly judge. 
 
 The conversation was short. Mr. Moody said: 
 
 "Judge, I can't talk with you. You are a 
 book infidel, and I have no learning, but I 
 simply want to say if you are ever converted, 
 I want you to let»me know. ' ' 
 
 The judge replied: "Yes, young man, if I 
 am ever converted I will let you know. Yes, I 
 will let you know. ' ' 
 
 The conversation ended. The clerks tittered 
 still louder when the zealous young Christian 
 left the office, but the judge was converted 
 within a year. Mr. Moody visiting the town 
 again asked the judge to explain how it came 
 about. The judge said: 
 
53 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 **One night, when my wife was at prayer- 
 meeting, I began to grow very uneasy and 
 miserable. I did not know what was the 
 matter with me, but finally retired before my 
 wife came home. I could not sleep all that 
 night. I got up early, told my wife that I 
 would eat no breakfast, and went down to the 
 office. I told the clerks they could take a 
 holiday, and shut myself up in the inner office, 
 I kept growing more and more miserable, and 
 finally I got down and asked God to forgive 
 my sins, but I would not say 'for Jesus' sake,' 
 for I was a Unitarian and I did not believe in 
 the atonement. I kept praying 'God forgive 
 my sins'; but no answer came. At last in 
 desperation I cried, *0 God, for Christ's 
 sake forgive my sins,' and found peace at 
 once." 
 
 The judge had no access to God until he 
 came in the name of Christ, but when he thus 
 came, he was heard and answered at once. 
 
 2. Great light is thrown upon the subject 
 •*How to Pray" by i John 5:14, 15: *'And 
 this is the boldness which we have toward 
 Him, that if we ask anything according to 
 His Will, He heareth us: and if we know that 
 He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know 
 
PRAYING IN THE NAME OF CHRIST 53 
 
 that we have the petitions which we have asked 
 of Him." (R. V.) 
 
 This passage teaches us plainly that if we 
 are to pray aright, we must pray according to 
 God's will, then will we beyond a peradven- 
 ture get the thing we ask of Him. 
 
 But can we know the will of God? Can we 
 know that any specific prayer is according to 
 His will? 
 
 We most surely can. 
 
 How? 
 
 (i) First by the Word. God has revealed 
 His will in His Word. When anything is 
 definitely promised in the Word of God, we 
 know that it is His will to give that things If 
 then when I pray, I can find some definite 
 promise of God's Word and lay that promise 
 before God, I know that He hears me, and if 
 I know that He hears me, I know that I have 
 the petition that I have asked of Him. For 
 example, when I pray for wisdom I know that 
 it is the will of God to give me wisdom, for 
 He says so in James i .-5 : **If any of you lack 
 wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all 
 men liberally, and upbraideth not ; and it shall 
 be given him." So when I ask for wisdom I 
 know that the prayer is heard, and that 
 
54 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 wisdom will be given me. In like manner 
 when I pray for the Holy Spirit I know from 
 Luke 11:13 that it is God's will, that my 
 prayer is heard, and that I have the petition 
 that I have asked of Him: *'If ye then, being 
 evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children, how much more shall your heavenly 
 Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
 Him?" 
 
 Some years ago a minister came to me at 
 the close of an address on prayer at a Y. M. C. 
 A. Bible school, and said, 
 
 *'You have produced upon those young men 
 the impression that they can ask for definite 
 things and get the very things that they ask." 
 
 I replied that I did not know whether that 
 was the impression that I produced or not, 
 but that was certainly the impression that I 
 desired to produce. 
 
 **But," he replied, ''that is not right. We 
 cannot be sure, for we don't know God's will." 
 
 I turned him at once to James 1:5, read it 
 and said to him, **Is it not God's will to give 
 us wisdom, and if you ask for wisdom do you 
 not know that you are going to get it?" 
 
 ••Ah!" he said, 'Ve don't know what 
 wisdom is.** 
 
PRAYING tN THE NAME OF CHRIST 55 
 
 I said, *'No, if we did, we would not need 
 to ask; but whatever wisdom may be, don't 
 you know that you will get it?" 
 
 Certainly it is our privilege to know. When 
 we have a specific promise in the Word of God, 
 if we doubt that it is God's will, or if we 
 doubt that God will do the thing that we ask, 
 we make God a liar. 
 
 Here is one of the greatest secrets of prev 
 vailing prayer: To study the Word to find 
 what God's will is as revealed there in the 
 promises, and then simply take these promises 
 and spread them out before God in prayer with 
 the absolutely unwavering expectation that He 
 will do what He has promised in His Word. 
 
 (2) But there is still another way in which 
 we may know the will of God, that is, by the 
 teaching of His Holy Spirit. There are many 
 things that we need from God which are not 
 covered by any specific promise, but we are 
 not left in ignorance of the will of God even 
 then. In Rom. 8:26, 27 we are told, "And in 
 like manner the Spirit also helpeth our 
 infirmity: for we know not how to pray as 
 we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh 
 intercession for us with groanings which can- 
 not be uttered; and He that searcheth the 
 
56 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, 
 because He maketh intercession for the saints 
 according to the will of God.'' (R. V.) Here 
 we are distinctly told that the Spirit of God 
 prays in us, draws out our prayer, in the line 
 of God's will. When we are thus led out by 
 the Holy Spirit in any direction, to pray for any 
 given object, we may do it in all confidence 
 that it is God's will, and that we are to get the 
 very thing we ask of Him, even though there 
 is no specific promise to cover the case. Often 
 God by His Spirit lays upon us a heavy burden 
 of prayer for some given individual. We can- 
 not rest, we pray for him with groanings 
 which cannot be uttered. Perhaps the man is 
 entirely beyond our reach, but God hears the 
 prayer, and in many a case it is not long before 
 we hear of his definite conversion. 
 
 The passage i John 5:14, 15 is one of the 
 most abused passages in the Bible: *'Thisis 
 the confidence that we have in Him, that, if 
 we ask anything according to His will, He 
 heareth us; and if we know that He hear us, 
 whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the 
 petitions that we desired of Him." The Holy 
 Spirit beyond a doubt put it into the Bible to 
 encourage our faith. It begins with "This is 
 
PRAYING IN THE NAME OF CHRIST 57 
 
 the confidence that we have in Him," and 
 closes with ''''We know that we have the 
 petitions that we desired of Him" ; but one of 
 the most frequent usages of this passage, which 
 was so manifestly given to beget confidence, is 
 to introduce an element of uncertainty into our 
 prayers. Oftentimes when one waxes con- 
 fident in prayer, some cautious brother will 
 come and say: 
 
 "Now, don't be too confident. If it is God's 
 will He will do it. You should put in, *If it 
 be Thy will.' " 
 
 Doubtless there are many times when we do 
 not know the will of God, and in all prayer 
 submission to the excellent will of God should 
 underlie it; but when we know God's will, 
 there need be no "ifs"; and this passage was 
 not put into the Bible in order that we might 
 introduce "ifs" into all our prayers, but in 
 order that we might throw our "ifs" to the 
 wind, and have ''''confidence'' and '"''know that 
 we have the petitions which we have asked of 
 Him." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT 
 
 I. Over and over again in what has already 
 been said, we have seen our dependence upon 
 the Holy Spirit in prayer. This comes out 
 very definitely in Eph. 6:i8, "Praying always 
 with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit^** 
 and in Jude 20, "Praying in the Holy Ghost.'* 
 Indeed the whole secret of prayer is found in 
 these three words, "in the Spirit/* It is the 
 prayer that God the Holy Spirit inspires that 
 God the Father answers. 
 
 The disciples did not know how to pray as 
 
 they ought, so they came to Jesus and said, 
 
 "Lord teach us to pray." We know not how 
 
 to pray as we ought, but we have another 
 
 Teacher and Guide right at hand to help 
 
 us (John 14:16, 17), "The Spirit helpeth our 
 
 infirmity" (Rom. 8:26, R. V.). He teaches us 
 
 how to pray. True prayer is prayer in the 
 
 Spirit; that is, the prayer the Spirit inspires 
 
 and directs. When we come into God*s 
 
 presence we should recognize "our infirmity," 
 
 our ignorance of what we should pray for or 
 
 how we should pray for it, and in the con- 
 58 
 
PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT '59 
 
 sciousness of our utter inability to pray aright 
 we should look up to the Holy Spirit, casting 
 ourselves utterly upon Him to diredt our 
 prayers, to lead out our desires and to guide 
 our utterance of them. 
 
 Nothing can be more foolish in prayer than 
 to rush heedlessly into God's presence, and ask 
 the first thing that comes into our mind, or 
 that some thoughtless friend has asked us to 
 pray for. When we first come into God's 
 presence we should be silent before Him. We 
 should look up to Him to send His Holy Spirit 
 to teach us how to pray. We must wait for 
 the Holy Spirit, and surrender ourselves to 
 the Spirit, then we shall pray aright. 
 
 Oftentimes when we come to God in prayer, 
 we do not feel like praying. What shall one 
 do in such a case? cease praying until he does 
 feel like it? Not at all. When we feel least 
 like praying is the time when we most need to 
 pray. We should wait quietly before God and 
 tell Him how cold and prayerless our hearts 
 are, and look up to Him and trust Him and 
 expect Him to send the Holy Spirit to warm 
 our hearts and draw them out in prayer. It 
 will not be long before the glow of the Spirit's 
 presence will fill our hearts, and we will begin 
 
60 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 to pray with freedom, directness, earnestness 
 and power. Many of the most blessed seasons 
 of prayer I have ever known have begun with 
 a feeling of utter deadness and prayerlessness; 
 but in my helplessness and coldness I have 
 cast myself upon God, and looked to Him to 
 send His Holy Spirit to teach me to pray, and 
 He has done it. 
 
 When we pray in the Spirit, we will pray for 
 the right things and in the right way. There 
 will be joy and power in our prayer. 
 
 2. If we are to pray v/ith power we must 
 pray with faith. In Mark 11:24 Jesus says, 
 *' Therefore I say unto you, What things so- 
 ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye 
 receive them, and ye shall have them." No 
 matter how positive any promise of God's 
 Word may be, we will not enjoy it in actual 
 experience unless we confidently expect its 
 fulfillment in answer to our prayer. *'If any 
 of you lack wisdom," says James, **let him ask 
 of God that giveth to all men liberally, and 
 upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." 
 Now that promise is as positive as a promise 
 can be, but the next verse adds, "But let him 
 ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that 
 doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by 
 
PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT 6l 
 
 the wind and tossed. For let not that man 
 think that he shall receive anything of the 
 Lord." (R. V.) There must then be confident 
 unwavering expectation. But there is a faith 
 that goes beyond expectation, that believes 
 that the prayer is heard and the promise 
 granted. This comes out in the Revised 
 Version of Mark 11:24, **Therefore I say unto 
 you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask 
 for, believe that ye have received them, and 
 ye shall have them." 
 
 But how can one get this faith? 
 
 Let us say with all emphasis, it cannot be 
 pumped up. Many a one reads this promise 
 about the prayer of faith, and then asks for 
 things that he desires and tries to make him- 
 self believe that God has heard the prayer. 
 This ends only in disappointment, for it is not 
 real faith and the thing is not granted. It is 
 at this point that many people make a collapse 
 of faith altogether by trying to work up faith 
 by an effort of their will, and as the thing they 
 made themselves believe they expected to get 
 is not given, the very foundation of faith is 
 oftentimes undermined. 
 
 But how does real faith come? 
 
 Rom. 10:17 answers the question: "So then 
 
6a HOW TO PRAY 
 
 faith Cometh by hearing, and hearing by the 
 Word of God.'' If we are to have real faith, 
 we must study the Word of God and find out 
 what is promised, then simply believe the 
 promises of God. Faith must have a warrant. 
 Trying to believe something that you want to 
 believe is not faith. Believing what God says 
 in His Word is faith. If I am to have faith, 
 when I pray, I must find some promise in the 
 Word of God on which to rest my faith. Faith 
 furthermore comes through the Spirit. The 
 Spirit knows the will of God, and if I pray in 
 the Spirit, and look to the Spirit to teach me 
 God's will, He will lead me out in prayer 
 along the line of that will, and give me faith 
 that the prayer is to be answered ; but in no 
 case does real faith come by simply determin- 
 ing that you are going to get the thing that 
 you want to get. If there is no promise in 
 the Word of God, and no clear leading of the 
 Spirit, there can be no real faith, and there 
 should be no upbraiding of self for lack of 
 faith in such a case. But if the thing desired 
 is promised in the Word of God, we may well 
 upbraid ourselves for lack of faith if we doubt ; 
 for we are making God a liar by doubting 
 His Word. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ALWAYS PRAYING AND NOT FAINTING 
 
 In two parables in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus 
 teaches with great emphasis the lesson that 
 men ought always to pray and not to faint. 
 The first parable is found in Luke 11:5-8, and 
 the other in Luke 18:1-8. 
 
 *'And He said unto them, Which of you 
 shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at 
 midnight, and say unto him: * Friend, lend me 
 three loaves ; for a friend of mine in his journey- 
 is come to me, and I have nothing to set before 
 him? And he from within shall answer and 
 say: 'Trouble me not: the door is now shut, 
 and my children are with me in bed. I cannot 
 rise and give thee. ' I say unto you. Though 
 he will not rise and give him because he is his 
 friend, yet because of his importunity he will 
 rise and give him as many as he needeth. " 
 (Luke II :5-8.) 
 
 **And He spake a parable unto them to this 
 end, that men always ought to pray and not to 
 faint, saying: There was in a city a judge 
 63 
 
64 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 which feared not God, neither regarded man; 
 and there was a widow in that city; and she 
 came to him, saying: 
 
 " 'Avenge me of mine adversary/ 
 
 **And he would not for a while; but after- 
 ward he said within himself: 'Though I fear 
 not God, nor regard man, yet because this 
 widow troubleth me I will avenge her, lest by 
 her continual coming she weary me.' 
 
 "And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust 
 judge saith. And shall not God avenge His 
 own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, 
 though He bear long with them? I tell you 
 that He will avenge them speedily. Never- 
 theless when the Son of man cometh, shall He 
 find faith on the earth?" (Luke i8:i-8.) 
 
 In the former of these two parables Jesus 
 sets forth the necessity of importunity in 
 prayer in a startling way. The word rendered 
 •'importunity" means literally "shameless- 
 ness," as if Jesus would have us understand 
 that God would have us draw nigh to Him 
 with a determination to obtain the things we 
 seek that will not be put to shame by any 
 seeming refusal or delay on God's part. God 
 delights in the holy boldness that will not take 
 "no" for an answer. It is an expression of 
 
ALWAYS PRAYING AND NOT FAINTING 65 
 
 great faith, and nothing pleases God more 
 than faith. 
 
 Jesus seemed to put the Syro- Phoenician 
 woman away almost with rudeness, but she 
 would not be put away, and Jesus looked upon 
 her shameless importunity with pleasure, and 
 said, "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto 
 thee even as thou wilt." (Matt. 15:28.) God 
 does not always let us get things at our first 
 effort. He would train us and make us strong 
 men by compelling us to work hard for the 
 best things. So also He does not always give 
 us what we ask in answer to the first prayer; 
 He would train us and make us strong men of 
 prayer by compelling us to pray hard for the 
 best things. He makes us pray through. 
 
 I am glad that this is so. There is no more 
 blessed training in prayer than that that comes 
 through being compelled to ask again and 
 again and again even through a long period of 
 years before one obtains that which he seeks 
 from God. Many people call it submission to 
 the will of God when God does not grant them 
 their requests at the first or second asking, and 
 they say: 
 
 **Well, perhaps it is not God's will." 
 
 As a rule this is not submission, but spiritual 
 
66 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 laziness. We do not call it submission to the 
 will of God when we give up after one or two 
 efforts to obtain things by action; we call it 
 lack of strength of character. When the strong 
 man of action starts out to accomplish a thing, 
 if he does not accomplish it the first, or second 
 or one hundredth time, he keeps hammering 
 away until he does accomplish it; and the 
 strong man of prayer when he starts to pray 
 for a thing keeps on praying until he prays it 
 through, and obtains what he seeks. We 
 should be careful about what we ask from God, 
 but when we do begin to pray for a thing we 
 should never give up praying for it until we 
 get it, or until God makes it very clear and 
 very definite to us that it is not His will to 
 give it. 
 
 Some would have us believe that it shows 
 unbelief to pray twice for the same thing, that 
 we ought to *' take it" the first time that we ask. 
 Doubtless there are times when we are able 
 through faith in the Word or the leading of the 
 Holy Spirit to clahn the first time that which 
 we have asked of God; but beyond question 
 there are other times when we must pray again 
 and again and again for the same thing before 
 we get our answer. Those who have gotten 
 
ALWAYS PRAYING AND NOT FAINTING 67 
 
 beyond praying twice for the same thing have 
 gotten beyond their Master, (Matt. 26:44). 
 George Muller prayed for two men daily for 
 upwards of sixty years. One of these men was 
 converted shortly before his death, I think at 
 the last service that George Muller held, the 
 other was converted within a year after his 
 death. One of the great needs of the present 
 day is men and women who will not only start 
 out to pray for things, but pray on and on and 
 on until they obtain that which they seek from 
 the Lord, 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 ABIDING IN CHRIST 
 
 "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in 
 you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be 
 done unto you." (John 15 1'j.) The whole secret 
 of prayer is found in these words of our Lord. 
 Here is prayer that has unbounded power: 
 **Ask w/iat ye will, and it shall be done unto 
 you." 
 
 There is a way then of asking and getting 
 precisely what we ask and getting all we ask. 
 Christ gives two conditions of this all-prevail- 
 ing prayer: 
 
 I. The first condition is, *'If ye abide in Me. "' 
 
 What is it to abide in Christ? 
 
 Some explanations that have been given of 
 this are so mystical or so profound that to 
 many simple-minded children of God they 
 mean practically nothing at all; but what Jesus 
 meant was really very simple. 
 
 He had been comparing Himself to a vine, 
 
 His disciples to the branches in the vine. 
 
 Some branches continued in the vine, that is, 
 63 
 
ABIDING IN CHRIST 69 
 
 remained in living union with the vine, so 
 that the sap or life of the vine constantly flowed 
 into these branches. They had no independ- 
 ent life of their own. Everything in them 
 was simply the outcome of the life of the vine 
 flowing into them. Their buds, their leaves, 
 their blossoms, their fruit, were really not 
 theirs, but the buds, leaves, blossoms and 
 fruit of the vine. Other branches were com- 
 pletely severed from the vine, or else the flow 
 of the sap or life of the vine into them was in 
 some way hindered. Now for us to abide in 
 Christ is for us to bear the same relation to 
 Him that the first sort of branches bear to the 
 vine; that is to say, to abide in Christ is to 
 renounce any independent life of our own, to 
 give up trying to think our thoughts, or form 
 our resolutions, or cultivate our feelings, and 
 simply and constantly look to Christ to think 
 His thoughts in us, to form His purposes in 
 us, to feel His emotions and affections in us. 
 It is to renounce all life independent of Christ, 
 and constantly to look to Him for the inflow 
 of His life into us, and the outworking of His 
 life through us. When we do this, and in so 
 far as we do this, our prayers will obtain that 
 which we seek from God. 
 
70 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 This must necessarily be so, for our desires 
 will not be our own desires, but Christ's, and 
 our prayers will not in reality be our own 
 prayers, but Christ praying in us. Such 
 prayers will always be in harmony with God's 
 will, and the Father heareth Him always. 
 When our prayers fail it is because they are 
 indeed our prayers. We have conceived the 
 desire and framed the petition of ourselves, 
 instead of looking to Christ to pray through us. 
 
 To say that one should be abiding in Christ 
 in all his prayers, looking to Christ to pray 
 through Him rather than praying himself, is 
 simply saying in another way that one should 
 pray *'in the Spirit." When we thus abide in 
 Christ, our thoughts are not our own thoughts, 
 but His, our joys are not our own joys, but 
 His, our fruit is not our own fruit, but His ; just 
 as the buds, leaves, blossoms and fruit of the 
 branch that abides in the vine are not the 
 buds, leaves, blossoms and fruit of the branch, 
 but of the vine itself whose life is flowing into 
 the branch and manifests itself in these buds, 
 leaves, blossoms and fruit. 
 
 To abide in Christ, one must of course 
 already be in Christ through the acceptance of 
 Christ as an atoning Savior from the guilt of 
 
ABIDING IN CHRIST 7I 
 
 sin, a risen Savior from the power of sin, and 
 a Lord and Master over all his life. Being in 
 Christ, all that we have to do to abide (or con- 
 tinue) in Christ is simply to renounce our self- 
 life — utterly renouncing every thought, every 
 purpose, every desire, every affection of our 
 own, and just looking day by day and hour by 
 hour for Jesus Christ to form His thoughts, 
 His purposes, His affections, His desires in us. 
 Abiding in Christ is really a very simple 
 matter, though it is a wonderful life of 
 privilege and of power. 
 
 2. But there is another condition stated in 
 this verse, though it is really involved in the 
 first: **And My words abide in you." 
 
 If we are to obtain from God all that we ask 
 from Him, Christ's words must abide or con- 
 tinue in us. We must study His words, fairly 
 devour His words, let them sink into our 
 thought and into our heart, keep them in our 
 memory, obey them constantly in our life, let 
 them shape and mold our daily life and our 
 every act. 
 
 This is really the method of abiding in 
 Christ. It is through His words that Jesus 
 imparts Himself to us. The words He speaks 
 unto us, they are spirit and they are life (John 
 
72 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 6:63.) It IS vain to expect power in prayer 
 unless we meditate much upon the words of 
 Christ, and let them sink deep and find a 
 permanent abode in our hearts. There are 
 many who wonder why they are so powerless 
 in prayer, but the very simple explanation of 
 it all is found in their neglect of the words of 
 Christ. They have not hidden His words in 
 their hearts; His words do not abide in 
 them. It is not by seasons of mystical medita- 
 tion and rapturous experiences that we learn 
 to abide in Christ ; it is by feeding upon His 
 word, His written word as found in the Bible, 
 and looking to the Holy Spirit to implant 
 these words in our hearts and to make them a 
 living thing in our hearts. If we thus let the 
 words of Christ abide in us, they will stir us 
 up to prayer. They will be the mold in which 
 our praj^ers are shaped, and our prayers will 
 be necessarily along the line of God's will, and 
 will prevail with Him. Prevailing prayer is 
 almost an impossibility where there is neglect 
 of the study of the Word of God. 
 
 Mere intellectual study of the Word of God is 
 not enough ; there must be meditation upon it. 
 The Word of God must be revolved over and 
 over and over in the mmd, with a constant 
 
ABIDING IN CHRIST 73 
 
 looking to God by His Spirit to make that 
 Word a living thing in the heart. The prayer 
 that is born of meditation upon the Word of 
 God is the prayer that soars upward most easily 
 to God's listening ear. 
 
 George Miiller, one of the mightiest men of 
 prayer of the present generation, when the 
 hour for prayer came would begin by reading 
 and meditating upon God's Word until out of 
 the study of the Word a prayer began to form 
 itself in his heart. Thus God Himself was the 
 real author of the prayer, and God answered 
 the prayers which He Himself had inspired. 
 
 The Word of God is the instrument through 
 which the Holy Spirit works, it is the sword of 
 the Spirit in more senses than one; and the 
 one who would know the work of the Holy 
 Spirit in any direction must feed upon the 
 Word. The one who would pray in the Spirit 
 must meditate much upon the Word, that the 
 Holy Spirit may have something through which 
 He can work. The Holy Spirit works His 
 prayers in us through the Word, and neglect 
 of the Word makes praying in the Holy Spirit 
 an impossibility. If we would feed the fire of 
 our prayers with the fuel of God's Word, all 
 our difficulties in prayer would disappear. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PRAYING WITH THANKSGIVING 
 
 There are two words often overlooked in the 
 lesson about prayer which Paul gives us in 
 Phil. 4:6, 7, **In nothing be anxious; but in 
 everything by prayer and supplication with 
 thanksgiving let your requests be made known 
 unto God. And the peace of God, which 
 passeth all understanding, shall guard your 
 hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." (R. 
 V.) The two important words often over- 
 looked are, '"'with thanksgiving.'* 
 
 In approaching God to ask for new blessings, 
 we should never forget to return thanks for 
 blessings already granted. If any one of us 
 would stop and think how many of the pray- 
 ers which we have offered to God have been 
 answered, and how seldom we have gone back 
 to God to return thanks for the answers thus 
 given, I am sure we would be overwhelmed 
 with confusion. We should be just as definite 
 in returning thanks as we are in prayer. We 
 come to God with most specific petitions, but 
 74 
 
PRAYING WITH THANKSGIVING 75 
 
 when we return thanks to Him, our thanks- 
 giving is indefinite and general. 
 
 Doubtless one reason why so many of our 
 prayers lack power is because we have neglected 
 to return thanks for blessings already received. 
 If any one were to constantly come to us ask- 
 ing help from us, and should never say 
 "Thank you" for the help thus given, we would 
 soon tire of helping one so ungrateful. Indeed, 
 regard for the one we were helping would hold 
 us back from encouraging such rank ingrati- 
 tude. Doubtless our heavenly Father out of a 
 wise regard for our highest welfare oftentimes 
 refuses to answer petitions that we send up to 
 Him in order that we may be brought to a sense 
 of our ingratitude and taught to be thankful. 
 
 God is deeply grieved by the thanklessness 
 and ingratitude of which so many of us are 
 guilty. When Jesus healed the ten lepers and 
 only one came back to give Him thanks, in 
 wonderment and pain He exclaimed, 
 
 "Were not the ten cleansed? but where are 
 the nine?" (Luke 17:17, R. V.) 
 
 How often must He look down upon us in 
 sadness at our forgetfulness of His repeated 
 blessings, and His frequent answer to our 
 prayers. 
 
76 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 ^Returning thanks for blessings already 
 received increases our faith and enables us to 
 approach God with new boldness and new 
 assurance. Doubtless the reason so many have 
 so little faith when they pray, is because they 
 take so little time to meditate upon and thank 
 God for blessings already received. As one 
 meditates upon the answers to prayers already 
 granted, faith waxes bolder and bolder, and we 
 come to feel in the very depths of our souls that 
 there is nothing too hard for the Lord. As we 
 reflect upon the wondrous goodness of God 
 toward us on the one hand, and upon the other 
 hand upon the little thought and strength and 
 time that we ever put into thanksgiving, we 
 may well humble ourselves before God and 
 confess our sin. 
 
 The mighty men of prayer in the Bible, and 
 the mighty men of prayer throughout the ages 
 of the church's history have been men who 
 were much given to thanksgiving and praise. 
 David was a mighty man of prayer, and how 
 his Psalms abound with thanksgiving and 
 praise. The apostles were mighty men of 
 prayer; of them we read that "they were con- 
 tinually in the temple, praising and blessing 
 God. ' ' Paul was a mighty man of prayer, and 
 
PRAYING WITH THANKSGIVING 77 
 
 how often in his epistles he bursts out in 
 definite thanksgiving to God for definite bless- 
 ings and definite answers to prayers. Jesus is 
 our model in prayer as in everything else. We 
 find in the study of His life that His manner 
 of returning thanks at the simplest meal was 
 so noticeable that two of His disciples recog- 
 nized Him by this after His resurrection. 
 
 Thanksgiving is one of the inevitable results 
 of being filled with the Holy Spirit and one 
 who does not learn "in everything to give 
 thanks" cannot continue to pray in the Spirit. 
 If we would learn to ptay with power w^e would 
 do well to let these two words sink deep into 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 HINDRANCES TO PRAYER 
 
 We have gone very carefully into the posi- 
 tive conditions of prevailing prayer; but there 
 are some things which hinder prayer. These 
 God has made very plain in His Word. 
 
 I. The first hindrance to prayer we will find 
 in James 4:3, "Ye ask and receive not because 
 ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleas^ 
 ures." (R. V.) 
 
 A selfish purpose in prayer robs prayer of 
 power. Very many prayers are selfish. These 
 may be prayers for things for which it is per- 
 fectly proper to ask, for things which it is the 
 will of God to give, but the motive of the 
 prayer is entirely wrong, and so the prayer 
 falls powerless to the ground. The true pur- 
 pose in prayer is that God may be glorified in 
 thfi antiwar If we ask any petition merely 
 that we may receive something to use in our 
 pleasures or in our own gratification in one 
 way or another, we "ask amiss" and need not 
 expect to receive what we ask. This explains 
 
 why many prayers remain unanswered. 
 78 
 
HINDRANCES TO PRAYER 79 
 
 For example, many a woman is praying for 
 the conversion of her husband. That cer- 
 tainly is a most proper thing to ask ; but many 
 a woman's motive in asking for the conversion 
 of her husband is entirely improper, it is 
 selfish. She desires that her husband may be 
 converted because it would be so much more 
 pleasant for her to have a husband who sym- 
 pathized with her; or it is so painful to think 
 that her husband might die and be lost forever. 
 For some such selfish reason as this she desires 
 to have her husband converted. The prayer 
 is purely selfish. Why should a woman desire 
 the conversion of her husband? First of all 
 and above all, that God may be glorified; 
 because she cannot bear the thought that God 
 the Father should be dishonored b)^ her hus- 
 band trampling under foot the Son of God. 
 
 Many pray for a revival. That certainly is 
 a prayer that is pleasing to God, it is along the 
 line of His will ; but many prayers for revivals 
 are purely selfish. The churches desire revivals 
 in order that the membership may be increased, 
 in order that the church may have a position 
 of more power and influence in the community, 
 in order that the church treasury may be filled, 
 in order that a good report may be made at 
 
80 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 the presbytery or conference or association. 
 For such low purposes as these, churches and 
 ministers oftentimes are praying for a revival, 
 and oftentimes too God does not answer the 
 prayer. Why should we pray for a revival? 
 For the glory of God, because we cannot 
 endure it that God should continue to be dis- 
 honored by the worldliness of the church, by 
 the sins of unbelievers, by the proud unbelief 
 of the day; because God's Word is being made 
 void; in order that God may be glorified by 
 the outpouring of His Spirit on the Church of 
 Christ. For these reasons first of all and above 
 all, we should pray for a revival. 
 
 Many a prayer for the Holy Spirit is a purely 
 selfish prayer. It certainly is God's will to 
 give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him — 
 He has told us so plainly in His Word (Luke 
 11:13), but many a prayer for the Holy Spirit 
 is hindered by the selfishness of the motive 
 that lies back of the prayer. Men and women 
 pray for the Holy Spirit in order that they 
 may be happy, or in order that they may be 
 saved from the wretchedness of defeat in their 
 lives, or in order that they may have power as 
 Christian workers, or for some other purely 
 selfish motive. Why should we pray for the 
 
HINDRANCES TO PRAYER 8l 
 
 Spirit? In order that God may no longer be 
 dishonored by the low level of our Christian 
 lives and by our ineffectiveness in service, in 
 order that God may be glorified in the new 
 beauty that comes into our lives and the new 
 power that comes into our service. 
 
 2. The second hindrance to prayer we find 
 in Is. 59:1, 2: "Behold, the Lord's hand is not 
 shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear 
 heavy, that it cannot hear. But j'our viiqtiities 
 have separated between you and your God, and 
 your sins have hid His face from you^ iJiat He 
 will 7tot hear.** 
 
 Sin hinders prayer. Many a man prays and 
 prays and prays, and gets absolutely no 
 answer to his prayer. Perhaps he is tempted 
 to think that it is not the will of God to 
 answer, or he may think that the days when 
 God answered prayer, if He ever did, are over. 
 So the Israelites seem to have thought. They 
 thought that the Lord's hand was shortened, 
 that it could not save, and that His ear had 
 become heavy that it could no longer hear. 
 
 "Not so," said Isaiah, "God's ear is just as 
 open to hear as ever. His hand just as mighty 
 to save ; but there is a hindrance. That hin- 
 drance is your own sins. Your iniquities have 
 
82 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 separated between you and your God, and 
 your sins have hid His face from you that He 
 will not hear." 
 
 It is so to-day. Many and many a man is 
 crying to God in vain, simply because of sin 
 in his life. It may be some sin in the past that 
 has been unconfessed and unjudged, it may be 
 some sin in the present that is cherished, very 
 likely is not even looked upon as sin, but there 
 the sin is, hidden away somewhere in the heart 
 or in the life, and God "will not hear." 
 
 Any one who finds his prayers ineffective 
 should not conclude that the thing which he 
 asks of God is not according to His will, but 
 should go alone with God with the Psalmist's 
 prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my 
 heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and 
 see if there be any wicked way in me" (Ps. 
 139:23, 24), and wait before Him until He puts 
 His finger upon the thing that is displeasing 
 in His sight. Then this sin should be con- 
 fessed and put away. 
 
 I well remember a time in my life when I 
 was praying for two definite things that it 
 seemed that I must have, or God would be 
 dishonored ; but the answer did not come. I 
 awoke in the middle of the night in great 
 
HINDRANCES TO PRAYER 83 
 
 physical suffering- and great distress of soul. 
 I cried to God for these things, reasoned with 
 Him as to how necessary it was that I get 
 them, and get them at once; but no answer 
 came. I asked God to show me if there was 
 anything wrong in my own life. Something 
 came to my mind that had often come to it 
 before, something definite but which I was 
 unwilling to confess as sin. I said to God, "If 
 this is wrong I will give it up"; but still no 
 answer came. In my innermost heart, though 
 I had never admitted it, I knew it was wrong. 
 
 At last I said: 
 
 **This is wrong. I have sinned. I will give 
 it up." 
 
 I found peace. In a few moments I was 
 sleeping like a child. In the morning I woke 
 well in body, and the money that was so much 
 needed for the honor of God's name came. 
 
 Sin is an awful thing, and one of the most 
 awful things about it is the way it hinders 
 prayer, the way it severs the connection 
 between us and the source of all grace and 
 power and blessing. Any one who would have 
 power in prayer must be merciless in dealing 
 with his own sins. *'If I regard iniquity in my 
 heart, the Lord will not hear me." (Ps. 66:18.) 
 
84 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 So long as we hold on to sin or have any con- 
 troversy with God, we cannot expect Him to 
 heed our prayers. If there is anything that is 
 constantly coming up in your moments of close 
 communion with God, that is the thing that 
 hinders prayer: put it away. 
 
 3. The third hindrance to prayer is found in 
 Ez. 14:3, "Son of man, these men have taken 
 their idols into their heart, and put the stum- 
 bling block of their iniquity before their face: 
 should I be inquired of at all by them?" (R. 
 V.) Idols in the heart cause God to refuse to 
 listen to our prayers. 
 
 What is an idol? An idol is anything that 
 takes the place of God, anything that is the 
 supreme object of our affection. God alone 
 has the right to the supreme place in our 
 hearts. Everything and everyone else must 
 be subordinate to Him. 
 
 Many a man makes an idol of his wife. Not 
 that a man can love his wife any too much, 
 but he can put her in the wrong place, he can 
 put her before God; and when a man regards 
 his wife's pleasure before God's pleasure, when 
 he gives her the first place and God the second 
 place, his wife is an idol, and God cannot hear 
 his prayers. 
 
HINDRANCES TO PRAYER 85 
 
 Many a woman makes an idol of her children. 
 Not that we can love our children too much. 
 The more dearly we love Christ, the more dearly 
 we love our children; but we can put our chil- 
 dren in the wrong place, we can put them before 
 God, and their interests before God's interests. 
 When we do this our children are our idols. 
 
 Many a man makes an idol of his reputation 
 or his business. Reputation or business is put 
 before God. God cannot hear the prayers of 
 such a man. 
 
 One great question for us to decide, if we 
 would have power in prayer is. Is God 
 absolutely first? Is He before wife, before 
 children, before reputation, before business, 
 before our own lives? If not, prevailing 
 prayer is impossible. 
 
 God often calls our attention to the fact that 
 we have an idol, by not answering our prayers, 
 and thus leading us to inquire as to why our 
 prayers are not answered, and so we discover the 
 idol, put it away, and God hears our prayers. 
 
 4. The fourth hindrance to prayer is found 
 in Prov. 21:13, " W/ioso stoppeth his ears at the 
 cry of the poor^ he also shall cry himself, but 
 shall not be heard. " 
 
 There is perhaps no greater hindrance to 
 
86 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 prayer than stinginess, the lack of liberality 
 toward the poor and toward God's work. It is 
 the one who gives generously to others who 
 receives generously from God. "Give, and it 
 shall be given unto you ; good measure, pressed 
 down, shaken together, running over, shall 
 they give into your bosom. For with what 
 measure ye mete it shall be measured to you 
 again." (Luke 6:38, R. V.) The generous 
 man is the mighty man of prayer. The stingy 
 man is the powerless man of prayer. 
 
 One of the most wonderful statements about 
 prevailing prayer (already referred to) i John 
 3:22, "Whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, 
 because we keep His commandments, and do 
 those things that are pleasing in His sight," is 
 made in direct connection with generosity 
 toward the needy. In the context we are told 
 that it is when we love, not in word or in 
 tongue, but in deed and in truth, when we 
 open our hearts toward the brother in need, 
 it is then and only then we have confidence 
 toward God in prayer. 
 
 Many a man and woman who is seeking to 
 find the secret of their powerlessness in prayer 
 need not seek far ; it is nothing more nor less 
 than downright stinginess. George Miiller, to 
 
HINDRANCES TO PRAYER 87 
 
 whom reference has already been made, was a 
 mighty man of prayer because he was a mighty 
 giver. What he received from God never stuck 
 to his fingers ; he immediately passed it on to 
 others. He was constantly receiving because 
 he was constantly giving. When one thinks of 
 the selfishness of the professing church to-day, 
 how the orthodox churches of this land do not 
 average $1.00 per year per member for foreign 
 missions, it is no wonder that the church has 
 so little power in prayer. If we would get 
 from God, we must give to others. Perhaps 
 the most wonderful promise in the Bible in 
 regard to God's supplying our need is Phil. 
 4:19, "And my God shall fulfill every need of 
 yours according to His riches in glory in Christ 
 Jesus." (R. V.) This glorious promise was 
 made to the Philippian church, and made in 
 immediate connection with their generosity. 
 
 5. The fifth hindrance to prayer is found in 
 Mark 11:25, "And when ye stand praying, 
 forgive^ if ye have ought against any; that 
 your Father also which is in heaven may for- 
 give you your trespasses." 
 
 An unforgiving spirit is one of the com- 
 monest hindrances to prayer. Prayer is 
 answered on the basis that our sins are for- 
 
88 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 given; but God cannot deal with ns on the 
 basis of forgiveness while we are harboring 
 ill-will against those who have wronged us. 
 Any one who is nursing a grudge against 
 another has fast closed the ear of God against 
 his own petition. How many there are crying 
 to God for the conversion of husband, children, 
 friends, and wondering why it is that their 
 prayer is not answered, when the whole secret 
 is some grudge that they have in their hearts 
 against some one who has injured them, or who 
 they fancy has injured them. Many and many 
 a mother and father are allowing their children 
 to go down to eternity unsaved, for the miser- 
 able gratification of hating somebody. 
 
 6. The sixth hindrance to prayer is found in 
 I Peter 3:7, **Ye husbands, in like manner, 
 dwell with your wives according to knowledge, 
 giving honor unto the woman, as unto the 
 weaker vessel as being also joint-heirs of the 
 grace of life ; to the end that your prayers be 
 not hindered," (R. V.) Here v/e are plainly 
 told that a wrong relation between husbayid and 
 wife is a hindrance to prayer. 
 
 In many and many a case the prayers of hus- 
 bands are hindered because of their failure of 
 duty tov/ard their wives. On the other hand, it 
 
HINDRANCES TO PRAYER 89 
 
 is also doubtless true that the prayers of wives 
 are hindered because of their failure in duty 
 toward their husbands. If husbands and wives 
 should seek diligently to find the cause of 
 their unanswered prayers, they would often 
 find it in their relations to one another. 
 
 Many a man who makes great pretentions 
 to piety, and is very active in Christian work, 
 shows but little consideration in his treatment 
 of his wife, and is oftentimes unkind, if not 
 brutal; then he wonders why it is that his 
 prayers are not answered. The verse that we 
 have just quoted explains the seeming mystery. 
 On the other hand, many a woman who is very 
 devoted to the church, and very faithful in 
 attendance upon all services, treats her hus- 
 band with the most unpardonable neglect, is 
 cross and peevish toward him, wounds him by 
 the sharpness of her speech, and by her 
 ungovernable temper; then wonders why it is 
 that she has no power in prayer. 
 
 There are other things in the relations of 
 husbands and wives which cannot be spoken 
 of publicly, but which doubtless are oftentimes 
 a hindrance in approaching God in prayer. 
 There is much of sin covered up under the 
 holy name of marriage that is a cause of 
 
90 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 Spiritual deadness, and of powerlessness in 
 prayer. Any man or woman whose prayers 
 seem to bring no answer should spread their 
 whole married life out before God, and ask 
 Him to put His finger upon anything in it that 
 is displeasing in His sight. 
 
 7. The seventh hindrance to prayer is found 
 in James 1:5-7, **But if any of you lacketh 
 wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all 
 liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be 
 given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing 
 doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge 
 of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For 
 let not that man think that he shall receive 
 anything of the Lord." (R. V.) 
 
 Prayers are hindered by unbelief. God 
 demands that we shall believe His Word 
 absolutely. To question it is to make Him a 
 liar. Many of us do that when we plead His 
 promises, and is it any wonder that our prayers 
 are not answered? How many prayers are 
 hindered by our wretched unbelief! We go 
 to God and ask Him for something that is 
 positively promised in His Word, and then we 
 do not more than half expect to get it. "Let 
 not that man think that he shall receive any- 
 thing of the Lord." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 WHEN TO PRAY 
 
 If we would know the fullness of blessing 
 that there is in the prayer life, it is important 
 not only that we pray in the right way, but 
 also that we pray at the right time. Christ's 
 own example is full of suggestiveness as to the 
 right time for prayer. 
 
 I. In the ist chapter of Mark, the 35th verse, 
 we read, **And in the mornings rising up a 
 ^reat while before day. He went out, and de- 
 parted into a solitary place, and there prayed." 
 
 Jesus chose the early morning hour for prayer. 
 Many of the mightiest men of God have fol- 
 lowed the Lord's example in this. In the 
 morning hour the mind is fresh and at its 
 very best. It is free from distraction, and 
 that absolute concentration upon God which is 
 essential to the most effective prayer is most 
 easily possible in the early morning hours. 
 Furthermore, when the early hours are spent 
 in prayer, the whole day is sanctified, and 
 power is obtained for overcoming its tempta- 
 
 91 
 
92 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 tions, and for performing its duties. More can 
 be accomplished in prayer in the first hours of 
 the day than at any other time during the day. 
 Every child of God who would make the most 
 out of his life for Christ, should set apart the 
 first part of the day to meeting God in the 
 study of His Word and in prayer. The first 
 thing we do each day should be to go alone 
 with God and face the duties, the temptations, 
 and the service of that day, and get strength 
 from God for all. We should get victory 
 before the hour of trial, temptation or service 
 comes. The secret place of prayer is the 
 place to fight our battles and gain our 
 victories. 
 
 2. In the 6th chapter of Luke in the 12th 
 verse, we get further light upon the right time 
 to pray. We read, "And it came to pass in 
 those days, that He went out into a mountain 
 to pray, and continued all night in prayer to 
 God.'' 
 
 Here we see Jesus praying in the night, 
 spending the entire night in prayer. Of 
 course we have no reason to suppose that 
 this was the constant practice of our Lord, nor 
 do we even know how common this practice 
 was, but there were certainly times when the 
 
WHEN TO PRAY 
 
 93 
 
 whole night was given up to prayer. Here 
 too we do well to follow in the footsteps of the 
 Master, 
 
 Of course there is a way of setting apart 
 nights for prayer in which there is no profit; 
 it is pure legalism. But the abuse of this 
 practice is no reason for neglecting it alto- 
 gether. One ought not to say, "I am going to 
 spend a whole night in prayer," with the 
 thought that there is any merit that will win 
 God's favor in such an exercise; that is 
 legalism. But we oftentimes do well to say, 
 "I am going to set apart this night for meeting 
 God, and obtaining His blessing and power; 
 and if necessary, and if He so leads me, I will 
 give the whole night to prayer. ' ' Oftentimes 
 we will have prayed things through long 
 before the night has passed, and we can retire 
 and find more refreshing and invigorating 
 sleep than if we had not spent the time in 
 prayer. At other times God doubtless will 
 keep us in communion with Himself away 
 into the morning, and w^hen He does this in 
 His infinite grace, blessed indeed are these 
 hours of night prayer! 
 
 Nights of prayer to God are followed by 
 days of power with men. In the night hours 
 
94 
 
 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 the world is hushed in slumber, and we can 
 easily be alone with God and have undisturbed 
 communion with Him. If we set apart the 
 whole night for prayer, there will be no hurry, 
 there will be time for our own hearts to 
 become quiet before God, there will be time 
 for the whole mind to be brought under the 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit, there will be 
 plenty of time to pray things through. A 
 night of prayer should be put entirely under 
 God's control. We should lay down no rules 
 as to how long we will pray, or as to what we 
 shall pray about, but be ready to wait upon 
 God for a short time or a long time as He may 
 lead, and to be led out in one direction or 
 another as He may see fit. 
 
 3. Jesus Christ prayed before all the great 
 crises in His earthly life. 
 
 He prayed before choosing the twelve disci- 
 ples ; before the sermon on the mount ; before 
 starting out on an evangelistic tour; before 
 His anointing with the Holy Spirit and His 
 entrance upon His public ministry; before 
 announcing to the twelve His approaching 
 death ; before the great consummation of His 
 life at the cross. (Luke 6:12, 13; Luke 9:18, 
 31, 23; Luke 3:21, 22; Mark 1:35-38; Luke 
 
WHEN TO PRAY 
 
 95 
 
 22:39-46.) He prepared for every important 
 crisis by a protracted season of prayer. So 
 ought wc to do also. Whenever any crisis of 
 life is seen to be approaching, we should pre? 
 pare for it by a season of very definite prayer 
 to God. We should take plenty of time for 
 this prayer. 
 
 4. Christ prayed not only before the great 
 events and victories of His life, but He also 
 prayed after its great achievements and impor- 
 tafit crises. 
 
 When He had fed the five thousand with the 
 five loaves and two fishes, and the multitude 
 desired to take Him and make Him king, 
 having sent them away He went up into the 
 mountain apart to pray, and spent hours there 
 alone in prayer to God (Matt. 14:23; Jno. 
 6:15). So He went on from victory to victory. 
 
 It is more common for most of us to pray 
 before the great events of life than it is to pray 
 after them, but the latter is as important as 
 the former. If we would pray after the great 
 achievements of life, we might go on to still 
 greater; as it is we are often either puffed up 
 or exhausted by the things that we do in the 
 name of the Lord, and so we advance no 
 further. Many and many a man in answer to 
 
96 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 prayer has been endued with power and thus 
 has wrought great things in the name of the 
 Lord, and when these great things were 
 accomplished, instead of going alone with God 
 and humbling himself before Him, and giving 
 Him all the glory for what was achieved, he 
 has congratulated himself upon what has been 
 accomplished, has become puffed up, and God 
 has been obliged to lay him aside. The great 
 things done were not followed by humiliation 
 of self, and prayer to God, and so pride has 
 come in and the mighty man has been shorn 
 of his power. 
 
 5. Jesus Christ gave a special time to prayer 
 when life was unusually busy. He would with- 
 draw at such a time from the multitudes that 
 thronged about Him, and go into the wilder- 
 ness and pray. For example, we read in 
 Luke 5:15, 16, "But so mtich the more went 
 abroad the report concerning Him: and great 
 multitudes came together to hear, and to be 
 healed of their infirmities. But He withdrew 
 Himself in the deserts and prayed." (R. V.) 
 
 Some men are so busy that they find no time 
 for prayer. Apparently the busier Christ's 
 life was, the more He prayed. Sometimes He 
 had no time to eat (Marl: 3:20), sometimes He 
 
WHEN TO PRAY 97 
 
 had no time for needed rest and sleep (Mark 
 6:31, 33, 46), but He always took time to pray; 
 and the more t»he work crowded the more He 
 prayed. 
 
 Many a mighty man of God has learned this 
 secret from Christ, and when the work has 
 crowded more than usual they have set an 
 unusual amount of time apart for prayer. 
 Other men of God, once mighty, have lost their 
 power because they did not learn this secret, and 
 allowed increasing work to crowd out prayer. 
 
 Years ago it was the writer's privilege, with 
 other theological students, to ask questions of 
 one of the most useful Christian men of the 
 day. The writer was led to ask, 
 
 *'Will you tell us something of your prayer 
 life?" 
 
 The man was silent a moment, and then, 
 turning his eyes earnestly upon me, replied: 
 
 "Well, I must admit that I have been so 
 crowded with work of late that I have not 
 given the time I should to prayer." 
 
 Is it any wonder that that man lost power, 
 and the great work that he was doing was cur- 
 tailed in a very marked degree? Let us never 
 forget that the more the work presses on us, 
 the more time must we spend in prayer. 
 
98 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 6. Jesus Christ prayed before the great temP' 
 tations of His life. 
 
 As He drew nearer and nearer to the cross, 
 and realized that upon it was to come the great 
 final test of His life, Jesus went out into the 
 garden to pray. He came **unto a place called 
 Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit 
 ye here while I go and pray yonder.*' (Matt. 
 26:36.) The victory of Calvary was won that 
 night in the garden of Gethsemane. The calm 
 majesty of His bearing in meeting the awful 
 onslaughts of Pilate's Judgment Hall and of 
 Calvary, was the outcome of the struggle, 
 agony and victory of Gethsemane. While 
 Jesus prayed the disciples slept, so He stood 
 fast while they fell ignominiously. 
 
 Many temptations come upon us unawares 
 and unannounced, and all that we can do is to 
 lift a cry to God for help then and there ; but 
 many of the temptations of life we can see 
 approaching from the distance, and in such 
 cases the victory should be won before the 
 temptation really reaches us. 
 
 7. In I Thess. 5:17 we read, *'Pray with- 
 out ceasing,*' and in Eph. 6:18, R. V., '* pray- 
 ing at all seasons, ' ' 
 
 Our whole life should be a life of prayer. 
 
WHEN TO PRAY 99 
 
 We should walk in constant communion with 
 God. There should be a constant upward 
 looking of the soul to God. We should walk 
 so habitually in His presence that even when 
 we awake in the night it would be the most 
 natural thing in the world for us to speak to 
 Him in thanksgiving or in petition. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE NEED OF A GENERAL REVIVAL 
 
 If we are to pray aright in such a time as 
 this, much of our prayer should be for a 
 general revival. If there was ever a time in 
 which there was need to cry unto God in the 
 words of the Psalmist, *'Wilt Thou not revive 
 us again, that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?'' 
 (Ps. 85 :6) it is this day in which we live. It 
 is surely time for the Lord to work, for men 
 have made void His law (Ps. 119:126). The 
 voice of the Lord given in the written Word 
 is set at naught both by the world and the 
 church. Such a time is not a time for dis- 
 couragement — the man who believes in God 
 and believes in the Bible can never be dis- 
 couraged ; but it is a time for Jehovah Himself 
 to step in and work. The intelligent Christian, 
 the wide-awake watchman on the walls of Zion, 
 may well cry with the Psalmist of old, **It is 
 time for Jehovah to work, for they have made 
 void Thy law." (Ps. 119:126, Am. R. V,) 
 
 The great need of the day is a general 
 
 revival. 
 
 too 
 
THE NEED OF A GENERAL REVIVAL 101 
 
 Let us consider first of all what a general 
 revival is. 
 
 A revival is a time of quickening or imparta- 
 tion of life. As God alone can give life, a 
 revival is a time when God visits His people 
 and by the power of His Spirit imparts new 
 life to them, and through them imparts life 
 to sinners dead in trespasses and sins. We 
 have religious excitements gotten up by the 
 cunning methods and hypnotic influence of the 
 mere professional evangelist; but these are not 
 revivals and are not needed. They are the 
 devil's imitations of a revival. New life from 
 God — that is a revival. A general revival is 
 a time when this new life from God is not con- 
 fined to scattered localities, but is general 
 throughout Christendom and the earth. 
 
 The reason why a general revival is needed 
 is that spiritual dearth and desolation and 
 death is general. It is not confined to any 
 one country, though it may be more manifest 
 in some countries than in others. It is found 
 in foreign mission fields as well as in home 
 fields. We have had local revivals. The life- 
 giving Spirit of God has breathed upon this 
 minister and that, this church and that, this 
 community and that; but we need, we sorely 
 
lOa HOW TO PRAY 
 
 need, a revival that shall be widespread and 
 general. 
 
 Let us look for a few moments at the results, 
 of a revival. These results are apparent in 
 ministers, in the church and in the unsaved. 
 
 I. The results of a revival in a minister 
 are: 
 
 (i) The minister has a new love for souls. 
 We ministers as a rule have no such love for 
 souls as we ought to have, no such love for 
 souls as Jesus had, no such love for souls as 
 Paul had. But when God visits His people 
 the hearts of ministers are greatly burdened 
 for the unsaved. They go out in great long- 
 ing for the salvation of their fellow men. 
 They forget their ambition to preach great 
 sermons and for fame, and simply long to see 
 men brought to Christ. 
 
 (2) When true revivals come, ministers get a 
 new love for God's Word and a new faith in 
 God's Word. They fling to the winds their 
 doubts and criticisms of the Bible and of the 
 creeds, and go to preaching the Bible and es- 
 pecially Christ crucified. Revivals make min- 
 isters who are loose in their doctrines orthodox. 
 A genuine wide-sweeping revival would do 
 more to turn things upside down and thus get 
 
THE NEED OF A GENERAL REVIVAL IO3 
 
 them right side up than all the heresy trials 
 ever instituted. 
 
 (3) Revivals bring to ministers new liberty 
 and power in preaching. It is no week-long 
 grind to prepare a sermon, and no nerve- 
 consuming effort to preach it after it has been 
 prepared. Preaching is a joy and a refresh- 
 ment, and there is power in it in times of 
 revival. 
 
 2. The results of a revival on Christians 
 generally are as marked as its results upon the 
 ministry. 
 
 (i) In times of revival Christians come out 
 from the world and live separated lives. 
 Christians who have been dallying with the 
 world, who have been playing cards and 
 dancing and going to the theater and indulging 
 in similar follies, give them up. These things 
 are found to be incompatible with increasing 
 life and light. 
 
 {2) In times of revival Christians get a new 
 spirit of prayer. Prayer-meetings are no 
 longer a duty, but become the necessity of a 
 hungry, importunate heart. Private prayer is 
 followed with new zest. The voice of earnest 
 prayer to God is heard day and night. People 
 no longer ask, "Does God answer prayer?" 
 
104 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 They know He does, and besiege the throne 
 of grace day and night. 
 
 (3) In times of revival Christians go to work 
 for lost souls. They do not go to meeting 
 simply to enjoy themselves and get blessed. 
 They go to meeting to watch for souls and to 
 bring them to Christ. They talk to men on 
 the street and in the stores and in their homes. 
 The cross of Christ, salvation, heaven and hell 
 become the subjects of constant conversation. 
 Politics and the weather and new bonnets and 
 the latest novels are forgotten. 
 
 (4) In times of revival Christians have new 
 joy in Christ. Life is joy, and new life is 
 new joy. Revival days are glad days, days of 
 heaven on earth. 
 
 (5) In times of revival Christians get a new 
 love for the Word of God. They want to study 
 it day and night. Revivals are bad for saloons 
 and theaters, but they are good for bookstores 
 and Bible agencies. 
 
 3. But revivals also have a decided influence 
 on the unsaved world. 
 
 (i) First of all, they bring deep conviction 
 of sin. Jesus said that when the Spirit was 
 come He would convince the world of sin (Jno. 
 16:7, 8). Now we have seen that a revival is 
 
THE NEED OF A GENERAL REVIVAL IQt; 
 
 a coming of the Holy Spirit, and therefore 
 there must be new conviction of sin, and there 
 always is. If you see something men call a 
 revival, and there is no conviction of sin, you 
 may know at once that it is bogus. It is a 
 sure mark. 
 
 (2) Revivals bring also conversion and 
 regeneration. When God refreshes His peo- 
 ple. He always converts sinners also. The 
 first result of Pentecost was new life and power 
 to the one hundred and twenty disciples in the 
 upper room; the second result was three 
 thousand conversions in a single day. It is 
 always so. I am constantly reading of revivals 
 here and there, where Christians were greatly 
 helped but there were no conversions. I have 
 my doubts about that kind. If Christians are 
 truly refreshed, they will get after the unsaved 
 by prayer and testimony and persuasion, and 
 there will be conversions. 
 
 WHY A GENERAL REVIVAL IS NEEDED 
 
 We see what a general revival is, and what 
 it does ; let us now face the question why it is 
 needed at the present time. 
 
 I think that the mere description of what it 
 is and what it does shows that it is needed, 
 
I06 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 sorely needed, but let us look at some specific 
 conditions that exist to-day that show the need 
 of it. In showing these conditions one is likely 
 to be called a pessimist. If facing the facts is 
 to be called a pessimist, I am willing to be 
 called a pessimist. If in order to be an 
 optimist one must shut his eyes and call black 
 white, and error truth, and sin righteousness, 
 and death life, I don't want to be called an 
 optimist. But I am an optimist all the same. 
 Pointing out the real condition will lead to a 
 better condition. 
 
 I. Look first at the ministry. 
 
 (i) Many of us who are professedly orthodox 
 ministers are practically infidels. That is 
 plain speech, but it is also indisputable fact. 
 There is no essential difference between the 
 teachings of Tom Paine and Bob Ingersoll and 
 the teachings of some of our theological pro- 
 fessors. The latter are not so blunt and 
 honest about it ; they phrase it in more elegant 
 and studied sentences; but it means the same. 
 Much of the so-called new learning and higher 
 criticism is simply Tom Paine infidelity sugar- 
 coated. Prof. Howard Osgood, who is a real 
 scholar and not a mere echo of German 
 infidelity, once read a statement of some posi- 
 
THE NEED OF A GENERAL REVIVAL IO7 
 
 tions, and asked if they did not fairly represent 
 the scholarly criticism of to-day, and when it 
 was agreed that they did, he startled his 
 audience by saying: 
 
 **I am reading from Tom Paine *s *Age of 
 Reason.* ** 
 
 There is little new in the higher criticism. 
 Our future ministers oftentimes are being 
 educated under infidel professors, and being 
 immature boys when they enter the college or 
 seminary, they naturally come out infidels in 
 many cases, and then go forth to poison the 
 church. 
 
 (2) Even when our ministers are orthodox — 
 as thank God so very many are! — they are 
 oftentimes not men of prayer. How many 
 modern ministers know what it is to wrestle in 
 prayer, to spend a good share of a night in 
 prayer? I do not know how many, but I do 
 know that many do not. 
 
 (3) Many of us who are ministers have no 
 love for souls. How many preach because they 
 must preach, because they feel that men every 
 where are perishing, and by preaching they 
 hope to save some? And how many follow up 
 their preaching as Paul did, by beseeching 
 men everywhere to be reconciled to God? 
 
I08 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 Perhaps enough has been said about us 
 ministers; but it is evident that a revival is 
 needed for our sake, or some of us will have to 
 stand before God overwhelmed with confusion 
 in an awful day of reckoning that is surely 
 coming. 
 
 2. Look now at the church: 
 
 (i) Look at the doctrinal state of the church. 
 It is bad enough. Many do not believe in the 
 whole Bible. The book of Genesis is a myth, 
 Jonah is an allegory, and even the miracles of 
 the Son of God are questioned. The doctrine 
 of prayer is old-fashioned, and the work of the 
 Holy Spirit is sneered at. Conversion is 
 unnecessary, and hell is no longer believed in. 
 Then look at the fads and errors that have 
 sprung up out of this loss of faith, Christian 
 Science, Unitarianism, Spiritualism, Univer- 
 salism, Babism, Metaphysical Healing, etc., etc., 
 a perfect pandemonium of doctrines of devils. 
 
 (2) Look at the spiritual state of the church. 
 Worldliness is rampant among church mem- 
 bers. Many church members are just as eager 
 as any in the rush to get rich. They use the 
 methods of the world in the accumulation of 
 wealth, and they hold just as fast to it as any 
 when they have gotten it. 
 
THE NEED OF A GENERAL REVIVAL 109 
 
 Prayerlessness abounds among church mem- 
 bers on every hand. Some one has said that 
 Christians on the average do not spend more 
 than five minutes a day in prayer. 
 
 Neglect of the Word of God goes hand in 
 hand with neglect of prayer to God. Very 
 many Christians spend twice as much time 
 every day wallowing through the mire of the 
 daily papers as they do bathing in the cleans- 
 ing laver of God's Holy Word. How many 
 Christians average an hour a day spent in Bible 
 study? 
 
 Along with neglect of prayer and neglect of 
 the Word of God goes a lack of generosity. 
 The churches are rapidly increasing in wealth, 
 but the treasuries of the missionary societies 
 are empty. Christians do not average a dollar 
 a year for foreign missions. It is simply 
 appalling. 
 
 Then there is the increasing disregard for 
 the Lord's Day. It is fast becoming a day of 
 worldly pleasure, instead of a day of holy 
 service. The Sunday newspaper with its inane 
 twaddle and filthy scandal takes the place of 
 the Bible; and visiting and golf and bicycle, 
 the place of the Sunday-school and church 
 service. 
 
no HOW TO PRAY 
 
 Christians mingle with the world in all forms 
 of questionable amusements. The young man 
 and young woman who does not believe in 
 dancing with its rank immodesties, the card 
 table with its drift toward gambling, and the 
 theater with its ever-increasing appeal to lewd- 
 ness, is counted an old fogy. 
 
 Then how small a proportion of our mem- 
 bership has really entered into fellowship with 
 Jesus Christ in His burden for souls! Enough 
 has been said of the spiritual state of the 
 church. 
 
 3. Now look at the state of the world, 
 
 (i) Note how few conversions there are. 
 The Methodist church, which has led the way 
 in aggressive work has actually lost more mem- 
 bers than it has gained the last year. Here 
 and there a church has a large number of 
 accessions upon confession of faith, but these 
 churches are rare exceptions; and where there 
 are such accessions, in how few cases are the 
 conversions deep, thorough and satisfactory. 
 
 (2) There is lack of conviction of sin. Sel- 
 dom are men overwhelmed with a sense of 
 their awful guilt in trampling under foot the 
 Son of God. Sin is regarded as a ** misfor- 
 tune" or as "infirmity," or even as "good in 
 
THE NEED OF A GENERAL REVIVAL III 
 
 the making"; seldom as enormous wrong 
 against a holy God. 
 
 (3) Unbelief is rampant. Many regard it as 
 a mark of intellectual superiority to reject the 
 Bible, and even faith in God and immortality. 
 It is about the only mark of intellectual supe- 
 riority many possess, and perhaps that is the 
 reason they cling- to it so tenaciously. 
 
 (4) Hand in hand with this widespread infi- 
 delity goes gross immorality, as has always 
 been the case. Infidelity and immorality are 
 Siamese twins. They always exist and always 
 grow and always fatten together. This pre- 
 vailing immorality is found everywhere. 
 
 > Look at the legalized adultery that we call 
 divorce. Men marry one wife after another, 
 and are still admitted into good society; and 
 women do likewise. There are thousands of 
 supposedly respectable men in America living 
 with other men's wives, and thousands of sup- 
 posedly respectable women living with other 
 women's husbands. 
 
 This immorality is found in the theater. The 
 theater at its best is bad enough, but now the 
 "Sapphos," and the "Degenerates," and all 
 the unspeakable vile accessories of the stage 
 rule the day> and the women who debauch 
 
112 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 themselves by appearing in such plays are 
 defended in the newspapers and welcomed by 
 supposedly respectable people. 
 
 Much of our literature is rotten, but decent 
 people will read books as bad as "Trilby" 
 because it is the rage. Art is oftentimes 
 a mere covering for shameless indecency. 
 Women are induced to cast modesty to the 
 winds that the artist may perfect his art and 
 defile his morals. 
 
 Greed for money has become a mania with 
 rich and poor. The multi - millionaire will 
 often sell his soul and trample the rights of his 
 fellow men under foot in the mad hope of 
 becoming a billionaire, and the laboring man 
 will often commit murder to increase the 
 power of the union and keep up wages. Wars 
 are waged and men shot down like dogs to 
 improve commerce, and to gain political pres- 
 tige for unprincipled politicians who parade as 
 statesmen. 
 
 The licentiousness of the day lifts its serpent 
 head everywhere. You see it in the news- 
 papers, you see it on the bill-boards, you see 
 it on the advertisements of cigars, shoes, bicy- 
 cles, patent medicines, corsets and everything 
 else. You see it on the streets at night. You 
 
THE NEED OF A GENERAL REVIVAL II3 
 
 see it just outside the church door. You find 
 it not only in the awful cesspools set apart for 
 it in the great cities, but it is crowding further 
 and further up our business streets and into 
 the residence portions of our cities. Alas! now 
 and then you find it, if you look sharp, in sup- 
 posedly respectable homes; indeed it will be 
 borne to your ears by the confessions of broken- 
 hearted men and women. The moral condi- 
 tion of the world in our day is disgusting, sick- 
 ening, appalling. 
 
 We need a revival, deep, widespread, gen- 
 eral, in the power of the Holy Ghost. It is 
 either a general revival or the dissolution of 
 the church, of the home, of the state. A 
 revival, new life from God, is the cure, and 
 the only cure. That will stem the awful tide 
 of immorality and unbelief. Mere argument 
 will not do it; but a wind from heaven, a new 
 outpouring of the Holy Ghost, a true God-sent 
 revival will. Infidelity, higher criticism. Chris- 
 tian Science, Spiritualism, Universalism, all 
 will go down before the outpouring of the 
 Spirit of God. It was not discussion but the 
 breath of God that relegated Tom Paine, Vol- 
 taire, Volney and other of the old infidels to 
 the limbo of forgetfulness ; and we need a new 
 
114 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 breath from God to send the Wellhausens and 
 the Kuenens and the Grafs and the parrots 
 they have trained to occupy chairs and pulpits 
 in England and America to keep them com- 
 pany. I believe that breath from God is 
 coming. 
 
 The great need of to-day is a general revival. 
 The need is clear. It admits of no honest 
 difference of opinion. What then shall we do? 
 Pray. Take up the Psalmist's prayer, "Revive 
 us again, that Thy people may rejoice in 
 Thee." Take up Ezekiel's prayer, "Come 
 from the four winds, O breath (breath of God), 
 and breathe upon these slain that they may 
 live." Hark, I hear a noise! Behold a shak- 
 ing! I can almost feel the breeze upon my 
 cheek. I can almost see the great living army 
 rising to their feet. Shall we not pray and 
 pray and pray and pray, till the Spirit comes, 
 and God revives His people? 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE PLACE OF PRAYER BEFORE AND DURING 
 REVIVALS 
 
 No treatment of the subject How to Pray 
 would be at all complete if it did not consider 
 the place of prayer in revivals. 
 
 The first great revival of Christian history 
 had its origin on the human side in a ten* days' 
 prayer-meeting. We read of that handful of 
 disciples, *' These all with one accord continued 
 steadfastly in prayer.'* (Acts 1:14, R. V.) 
 The result of that prayer-meeting we read of 
 in the 2d chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, 
 *'They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and 
 began to speak with other tongues, as the 
 Spirit gave them utterance." (v. 4.) Further 
 on in the chapter we read that "th^re were 
 added unto them in that day about three thou- 
 sand souls." (v. 41, R. V.) This revival proved 
 genuine and permanent. The converts *' con- 
 tinued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and 
 fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the 
 prayers." (v. 42, R. V.) "And the Lord added 
 115 
 
Il6 HOW TO FRAY 
 
 to them day by day those that were being 
 saved." (v. 47. R- V.) 
 
 Every true revival from that day to this has 
 had its earthly origin in prayer. The great 
 revival under Jonathan Edwards in the i8th 
 century began with his famous call to prayer. 
 The marvelous work of grace among the 
 Indians under Brainerd had its origin in the 
 days and nights that Brainerd spent before 
 God in prayer for an enduement of power from 
 on high for this work. 
 
 A most remarkable and widespread display 
 of God's reviving power was that which broke 
 out at Rochester, New York, in 1830, under 
 the labors of Charles G. Finney. It not only 
 spread throughout the State but ultimately to 
 Great Britain as well. Mr. Finney himself 
 attributed the power of this work to the spirit 
 of prayer that prevailed. He describes it in 
 his autobiography in the following words: 
 
 **When I was on my way to Rochester, as 
 we passed through a village, some thirty miles 
 east of Rochester, a brother minister whom I 
 knew, seeing me on the canal-boat, jumped 
 aboard to have a little conversation with me, 
 intending to ride but a little way and return. 
 He, however, became interested in con versa- 
 
THE PLACE OF PRAYER II7 
 
 tion, and upon finding where I was going, he 
 made up his mind to keep on and go with me 
 to Rochester. We had been there but a few 
 days when this minister became so convicted 
 that he could not help weeping aloud at one 
 time as we passed along the street. The Lord 
 gave him a powerful spirit of prayer, and his 
 heart was broken. As he and I prayed 
 together, I was struck with his faith in regard 
 to what the Lord was going to do there. I 
 recollect he would say, 'Lord, I do not know 
 how it is ; but I seem to know that Thou art 
 going to do a greaf work in this city. ' The 
 spirit of prayer was poured out powerfully, so 
 much so that some persons stayed away from 
 the public services to pray, being unable to 
 restrain their feelings under preaching. 
 ^**And here I must introduce the name of a 
 man, whom I shall have occasion to mention 
 frequently, Mr. Abel Clary. He was the son 
 of a very excellent man, and an elder of the 
 church where I was converted. He was con- 
 verted in the same revival in which I was. He 
 had been licensed to preach ; but his spirit of 
 prayer was such, he was so burdened with the 
 souls of men, that he was not able to preach 
 much, his whole time and strength being given 
 
Il8 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 to prayer. The burden of his soul would fre- 
 quently be so great that he was unable to 
 stand, and he would writhe and groan in 
 agony. I was well acquainted with him, and 
 knew something of the wonderful spirit of 
 prayer that was upon him. He was a very 
 silent man, as almost all are who have that 
 powerful spirit of prayer. 
 
 "The first I knew of his being in Rochester, 
 a gentleman who lived about a mile west of 
 the city, called on me one day and asked me if 
 I knew a Mr. Abel Clary, a minister. I told 
 him that I knew him well. 'Well,' he said, 
 *he is at my house, and has been there for 
 some time, and I don't know what to think of 
 him.' I said, *I have not seen him at any of 
 our meetings.' 'No,' he replied, 'he cannot 
 go to meeting, he says. He prays nearly all 
 the time, day and night, and in such agony of 
 mind that I do not know what to make of it. 
 Sometimes he cannot even stand on his knees, 
 but will lie prostrate on the floor, and groan 
 and pray in a manner that quite astonishes 
 me.' I said to the brother, 'I understand it: 
 please keep stiil. It will all come out right; 
 he will surely prevail. ' 
 
 *'I knew at the time a considerable number 
 
THE PLACE OF PRAYER II9 
 
 of men who were exercised in the same way. 
 
 A Deacon P , of Camden, Oneida county; 
 
 a Deacon T , of Rodman, Jefferson county; 
 
 a Deacon B , of Adams, in the same county; 
 
 this Mr. Clary and many others among the men, 
 and a large number of women partook of the 
 same spirit, and spent a great part of their time 
 in prayer. Father Nash, as we called him, who 
 in several of my fields of labor came to me and 
 aided me, was another of those men that had 
 such a powerful spirit of prevailing prayer. 
 This Mr. Clary continued in Rochester as long 
 as I did, and did not leave it until after I had 
 left. He never, that I could learn, appeared 
 in public, but gave himself wholly to prayer. 
 "I think it was the second Sabbath that I 
 was at Auburn at this time, I observed in the 
 congregation the solemn face of Mr. Clary. 
 He looked as if he was borne down with an 
 agony of prayer. Being well acquainted with 
 him, and knowing the great gift of God that 
 was upon him, the spirit of prayer, I was very 
 glad to see him there. He sat in the pew with 
 his brother, the doctor, who was also a pro- 
 fessor of religion, but who had nothing by 
 experience, I should think, of his brother 
 Abel's great power with God. 
 
I20 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 **At intermission, as soon as I came down 
 from the pulpit, Mr. Clary, with his brother, 
 met me at the pulpit stairs, and the doctor 
 invited me to go home with him and spend the 
 intermission and get some refreshments. I 
 did so. 
 
 *' After arriving at his house we were soon 
 summoned to the dinner table. We gathered 
 about the table, and Dr. Clary turned to his 
 brother and said, 'Brother Abel, will you ask 
 the blessing?' Brother Abel bowed his head 
 and began, audibly, to ask a blessing. He had 
 uttered but a sentence or two when he broke 
 instantly down, moved suddenly back from the 
 table, and fled to his chamber. The doctor 
 supposed he had been taken suddenly ill, and 
 rose up and followed him. In a few moments 
 he came down and said, *Mr. Finney, brother 
 Abel wants to see you.* Said I, 'What ails 
 him?' Said he, 'I do not know but he says; 
 you know. He appears in great distress, but 
 I think it is the state of his mind. * I under- 
 stood it in a moment, and went to his room. 
 He lay groaning upon the bed, the Spirit mak- 
 ing intercession for him, and in him, with 
 groanings that could not be uttered. I had 
 barely entered the room, when he made out 
 
THE PLACE OF PRAYER 121 
 
 to say, *Pray, brother Finney.' I knelt down 
 and helped him in prayer, by leading his soul 
 out for the conversion of sinners. I continued 
 to pray until his distress passed away, and then 
 I returned to the dinner table. 
 
 **I understood that this was the voice of God. 
 I saw the spirit of prayer was upon him, and 
 I felt his influence upon myself, and took it for 
 granted that the work would move on power- 
 fully. It did so. The pastor told me after- 
 ward that he found that in the six weeks that 
 I was there, five hundred souls had been con- 
 Verted.** 
 
 Mr. Finney in his lectures on revivals tells 
 of other remarkable awakenings in answer to 
 the prayers of God's people. He says in one 
 
 place, **A clergyman in W n told me of a 
 
 revival among his people, which commenced 
 with a zealous and devoted woman in the 
 church. She became anxious about sinners, 
 and went to praying for them ; she prayed, and 
 her distress increased; and she finally came to 
 her minister, and talked with him, and asked 
 him to appoint an anxious meeting, for she felt 
 that one was needed. The minister put her 
 off, for he felt nothing of it. The next week 
 she came again, and besought him to appoint 
 
122 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 an anxious meeting ; she knew there would be 
 somebody to come, for she felt as if God was 
 going to pour out His Spirit, He put her oft 
 again. And finally she said to him, *If you 
 do not appoint an anxious meeting I shall die, 
 for there is certainly going to be a revival.' 
 The next Sabbath he appointed a meeting, 
 and said that if there were any who wished 
 to converse with him about the salvation of 
 their souls, he would meet them on such 
 an evening. He did not know of one, but 
 when he went to the place, to his astonish 
 ment he found a large number of anxious 
 inquirers. ' ' 
 
 In still another place he says, **The first ray 
 of light that broke in upon the midnight which 
 rested on the churches in Oneida county, in 
 the fall of 1825, was from a woman in feeble 
 health, who, I believe, had never been in a 
 powerful revival. Her soul was exercised 
 about sinners. She was in agony for the 
 land. She did not know what ailed her, but 
 she kept praying more and more, till it seemed 
 as if her agony would destroy her body. At 
 length she became full of joy and exclaimed, 
 *God has come! God has come! There is no 
 mistake about it, the work is begun, and is 
 
THE PLACE OF PRAYER I 23 
 
 going over all the region!' And sure enough, 
 the work began, and her family were almost 
 all converted, and the work spread all over 
 that part of the country." 
 
 The great revival of 1857 in the United 
 States began in prayer and was carried on by 
 prayer more than by anything else. Dr. Cuy- 
 ler in an article in a religious newspaper some 
 years ago said, "Most revivals have humble 
 beginnings, and the fire starts in a few warm 
 hearts. Never despise the day of small things. 
 During all my own long ministry, nearly every 
 work of grace had a similar beginning. One 
 commenced in a meeting gathered at a few 
 hours' notice in a private house. Another 
 commenced in a group gathered for Bible study 
 by Mr. Moody in our mission chapel. Still 
 another — the most powerful of all — was kindled 
 on a bitter January evening at a meeting of 
 young Christians under my roof. Dr. Spen- 
 cer, in his 'Pastor's Sketches', (the most sug- 
 gestive book of its kind I have ever read), tells 
 us that a remarkable revival in his church 
 sprang from the fervent prayers of a godly old 
 man who was confined to his room by lame- 
 ness. That profound Christian, Dr. Thomas 
 H. Skinner, of the Union Theological Semi- 
 
124 "OW TO PRAY 
 
 nary, once gave me an account of a remarkable 
 coming together of three earnest men in his 
 study when he was the pastor of the Arch 
 Street Church in Philadelphia. They literally 
 wrestled in prayer. They made a clean breast 
 in confession of sin, and humbled themselves 
 before God. One and another church officer 
 came in and joined them. The heaven-kindled 
 flame soon spread through the whole congre- 
 gation in one of the most powerful revivals 
 ever known in that city." 
 3 In the early part of the sixteenth century 
 there was a great religious awakening in 
 Ulster, Ireland. The lands of the rebel chiefs 
 which had been forfeited to the British crown, 
 were settled up by a class of colonists who for 
 the most part were governed by a spirit of 
 wild adventure. Real piety was rare. Seven 
 ministers, five from Scotland and two from 
 England, settled in that country, the earliest 
 arrivals being in 1613. Of one of these minis- 
 ters named Blair it is recorded by a contempo- 
 rary, **He spent many days and nights in 
 prayer, alone and with others, and was vouch- 
 safed great intimacy with God." Mr. James 
 Glendenning, a man of very meager natural 
 gifts, was a man similarly minded as regards 
 
THE PLACE OF PRAYER 125 
 
 prayer. The work began under this man Glen- 
 denning. The historian of the time says, *'He 
 was a man who never would have been chosen 
 by a wise assembly of ministers, nor sent to 
 begin a reformation in this land. Yet this was 
 the Lord's choice to begin with him the admir- 
 able work of God which I mention on purpose 
 that all may see how the glory is only the 
 Lord's in making a holy nation in this profane 
 land, and that it was *not by might, nor by 
 power, nor by man's wisdom, but by My Spirit, 
 saith the Lord. ' " In his preaching at Oldstone 
 multitudes of hearers felt in great anxiety and 
 terror of conscience. They looked on them- 
 selves as altogether lost and damned, and cried 
 out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do to 
 be saved?" They were stricken into a swoon 
 by the power of His Word. A dozen in one 
 day were carried out of doors as dead. These 
 were not women, but some of the boldest 
 spirits of the neighborhood; "some who had 
 formerly feared not with their swords to 
 put a whole market town into a fray." Con- 
 cerning one of them, the historian writes, 
 "I have heard one of them, then a mighty 
 strong man, now a mighty Christian, say 
 that his end in coming into church was to 
 
I2& HOW TO PRAY 
 
 consult with his companions how to work 
 some mischief." 
 
 This work spread throughout the whole 
 country. By the year 1626 a monthly concert 
 of prayer was held in Antrim. The work 
 spread beyond the bounds of Dov/n and Antrim 
 to the churches of the neighboring counties. 
 So great became the religious interest that 
 Christians would come thirty or forty miles to 
 the communions, and continue from the time 
 they came until they returned without weary- 
 ing or making use of sleep. Many of them 
 neither ate nor drank, and yet some of them 
 professed that they "went away most fresh 
 and vigorous, their souls so filled with the 
 sense of God." 
 
 This revival changed the whole character of 
 northern Ireland. 
 
 Another great awakening in Ireland in 1859 
 had a somewhat similar origin. By many who 
 did not know, it was thought that this marvel- 
 ous work came without warning and prepara- 
 tion, but Rev. William Gibson, the moderator 
 of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church in Ireland in i860, in his very interest- 
 ing and valuable history of the work tells how 
 there had been preparation for two years. 
 
THE PLACE OF PRAYER I 27 
 
 There had been constant discussion in the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of the low estate of religion, 
 and of the need of a revival. There had been 
 special sessions for prayer. Finally four young 
 men, who became leaders in the origin of the 
 great work, began to meet together in an old 
 schoolhouse in the neighborhood of Kells. 
 About the spring of 1858 a work of power 
 began to manifest itself. It spread from town 
 to town, and from county to county. The 
 congregations became too large for the build- 
 ings, and the ^meetings were held in the open 
 air, oftentimes attended by many thousands of 
 people. Many hundreds of persons were fre- 
 quently convicted of sin in a single meeting. 
 In some places the criminal courts and jails 
 were closed for lack of occupation. There 
 were manifestations of the Holy Spirit's power 
 of a most remarkable character, clearly prov- 
 ing that the Holy Spirit is as ready to work 
 to-day as in apostolic days, when ministers and 
 Christians really believe in Him and begin to 
 prepare the way by prayer. 
 
 Mr. Moody's wonderful work in England and 
 Scotland and Ireland that afterwards spread 
 to America had its origin on the manward 
 side in prayer. Mr. Moody made little im- 
 
138 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 pression until men and women began to cry to 
 God. Indeed his going to England at all was 
 in answer to the importunate cries to God of 
 a bed-ridden saint. While the spirit of prayer 
 continued the revival abode in strength, but in 
 the course of time less and less was made of 
 prayer and the work fell off very perceptibly 
 in power. Doubtless one of the great secrets 
 of the unsatisfactoriness and superficiality and 
 unreality of many of our modern so-called 
 revivals, is that more dependence is put upon 
 man*s machinery than upon God's power, 
 sought and obtained by earnest, persistent, 
 believing prayer. We live in a day character- 
 ized by the multiplication of man's machinery 
 and the diminution of God's power. The great 
 cry of our day is work, work, work, new organ- 
 izations, new methods, new machinery; the 
 great need of our day is prayer. It was a mas- 
 ter stroke of the devil when he got the church 
 so generally to lay aside this mighty weapon of 
 prayer. The devil is perfectly willing that the 
 church should multiply its organizations, and 
 deftly contrive machinery for the conquest of 
 the v/orld for Christ if it will only give up 
 praying. He laughs as he looks at the church 
 to-day and says to himself: 
 
THE PLACE OF PRAYER 1^9 
 
 •*You can have your Sunday-schools and 
 your Young People's Societies, your Young 
 Men's Christian Associations and your 
 Women's Christian Temperance Unions, your 
 Institutional Churches and your Industrial 
 Schools, and your Boys' Brigades, your grand 
 choirs and your fine organs, your brilliant 
 preachers and your revival efforts too, if you 
 don't bring the power of Almighty God into 
 them by earnest, persistent, believing, mighty 
 prayer." 
 
 Prayer could v^ork as marvelous results to- 
 day as it ever could, if the church would only 
 betake itself to it. 
 
 There seems to be increasing signs that the 
 church is awaking to this fact. Here and 
 there God is laying upon individual ministers 
 and churches a burden of prayer that they 
 have never known before. Less dependence 
 is being put upon machinery and more depend- 
 ence upon God. Ministers are crying to God 
 day and night for power. Churches and por- 
 tions of churches are meeting together in the 
 early morning hours and the late night hours 
 crying to God for the latter rain. There is 
 every indication of the coming of a mighty 
 and widespread revival. There is every rea- 
 
130 HOW TO PRAY 
 
 son why, if a revival should come hi any 
 country at this time, it should be more wide- 
 spread in its extent than any revival of 
 history. There is the closest and swiftest 
 communication by travel, by letter, and by 
 cable between all parts of the world. A true 
 fire of God kindled in America would soon 
 spread to the uttermost parts of the earth. 
 The only thing needed to bring this fire is 
 prayer. 
 
 It is not necessary that the whole church get 
 to praying to begin with. Great revivals 
 always begin first in the hearts of a few men 
 and women whom God arouses by His Spirit 
 to believe in Him as a living God, as a God 
 who answers prayer, and upon whose heart He 
 lays a burden from which no rest can be found 
 except in importunate crying unto God. 
 
 May God use this book to arouse many others 
 to pray that the greatly-needed revival may 
 come, and come speedily. 
 
 LIT US PRAT. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
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