Original title: Preacher and Prayer. New, updated and annotated edition.Original title: Preacher and Prayer. New, updated and annotated edition.
"What the church needs today is not more and better machinery, not new organizations or more innovative methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use – men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not show up on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men – men of prayer."
– E. M. Bounds
List of Chapters
Ch. 1: The Need for Preachers Who Pray
Ch. 2: Depending Solely on God
Ch. 3: Preaching that Kills
Ch. 4: Pastoral Tendencies to Be Avoided
Ch. 5: The Preacher's Main Business is Prayer
Ch. 6: What Prayer Can Do for Your Ministry
Ch. 7: Make Time for Prayer
Ch. 8: Examples of Praying Men
Ch. 9: Early Morning Prayer
Ch. 10: Devoted Prayer
Ch. 11: An Example of Devotion
Ch. 12: Preparation of the Heart
Ch. 13: Working from the Heart
Ch. 14: The Necessity of Anointing
Ch. 15: Anointed Preaching
Ch. 16: Genuine Anointing
Ch. 17: Spiritual Leaders Pray
Ch. 18: Prayer for the Preacher
Ch. 19: Giving Yourself to Prayer
Ch. 20: A Praying Pulpit Begets a Praying PewList of Chapters
Ch. 1: The Need for Preachers Who Pray
Ch. 2: Depending Solely on God
Ch. 3: Preaching that Kills
Ch. 4: Pastoral Tendencies to Be Avoided
Ch. 5: The Preacher's Main Business is Prayer
Ch. 6: What Prayer Can Do for Your Ministry
Ch. 7: Make Time for Prayer
Ch. 8: Examples of Praying Men
Ch. 9: Early Morning Prayer
Ch. 10: Devoted Prayer
Ch. 11: An Example of Devotion
Ch. 12: Preparation of the Heart
Ch. 13: Working from the Heart
Ch. 14: The Necessity of Anointing
Ch. 15: Anointed Preaching
Ch. 16: Genuine Anointing
Ch. 17: Spiritual Leaders Pray
Ch. 18: Prayer for the Preacher
Ch. 19: Giving Yourself to Prayer
Ch. 20: A Praying Pulpit Begets a Praying Pew
About the AuthorAbout the Author
Edward McKendree Bounds was born in Shelby County, Missouri, on August 15, 1835, and died on August 24, 1913, in Washington, Georgia. He was admitted to the bar in 1854 at the age of nineteen, but left the profession five years later when he answered the call of God to the ministry. Beginning in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, he became the chaplain of the Fifth Missouri Regiment of the Confederacy.
Bounds married Miss Emmie Barnett of Eufaula, Alabama, in 1876. By this union, he became the father of two daughters, Celeste and Corneille, and a son, Edward, who died at the age of six. His wife Emmie died in 1886, and later Bounds married Miss Hattie Barnett, Emmie’s cousin. Together they had six children: Samuel, Charles, Osborne, Elizabeth, Mary, and Emmie. However, Charles died at the age of one, so in the end, the family consisted of seven children.
After serving several important churches in St. Louis and other places to the south, Bounds became editor of the St. Louis Christian AdvocateSt. Louis Christian Advocate for eight years and, later, associate editor of The Nashville Christian AdvocateThe Nashville Christian Advocate for four years. The trial of his faith came while he was in Nashville, and he quietly retired to his home without even asking for a pension. His principal work in Washington, Georgia (his home), was rising at four o’clock in the morning and praying until seven o’clock. He filled a few engagements as an evangelist during the eighteen years of his life work in Washington, Georgia.
E.M. Bounds (1835 - 1913)
Methodist minister and devotional writer, was born in Shelby County, Missouri. He spent the last 17 years of his life with his family in Washington, Georgia, writing his Spiritual Life Books. His burden was the neglect of prayer in the church and especially by ministers therefore his first book published was power through prayer which was originally published with the title: "The Pastor and Prayer."Practiced law for three years until he was called to preach the gospel. While serving as chaplain during the Civil War, he was captured and held prisoner in Nashville, Tennessee. After his release, he held several pastorates. His books on prayer have been continual best-sellers for over fifty years. Possibilities of Prayer.
Edward McKendree Bounds was a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and author of eleven books, nine of which focused on the subject of prayer.
Although apprenticed as an attorney, Bounds felt called to Christian ministry in his early twenties during the Third Great Awakening. Following a brush arbor revival meeting led by Evangelist Smith Thomas, he closed his law office and moved to Palmyra, Missouri to enroll in the Centenary Seminary. Two years later, in 1859 at the age of 24, he was ordained by his denomination and was named pastor of the nearby Monticello, Missouri Methodist Church.
He became a chaplain in the Confederate States Army (3rd Missouri Infantry CSA) During the First Battle of Franklin, Bounds suffered a severe forehead injury from a Union saber, and he was taken prisoner. On June 28, 1865, Bounds was among Confederate prisoners who were released upon the taking of an oath of loyalty to the United States.
According to people who were constantly with him, in prayer and preaching, for eight years "Not a foolish word did we ever hear him utter. He was one of the most intense eagles of God that ever penetrated the spiritual ether."
"As breathing is a physical reality to us, so prayer was a reality for Bounds. He took the command, 'Pray without ceasing' (1 Thess. 5:17) almost as literally as nature takes the law that controls our breathing. He did not merely pray well that he might write well about prayer. He prayed because the needs of the world were upon him. He prayed for long years, upon subjects that the easy going Christian rarely gives a thought, and for objects that men of less thought and faith are always ready to call impossible. From his solitary prayer vigils, year by year, there arose teaching equaled to few men in modern Christian history. He wrote transcendently about prayer, because he was himself transcendent in its practice." - Reverend Claude L. Chilton, minister and friend.
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