He who rushes into the Presence of God, to hasten through a few formal petitions, and then hastens back to outside cares and pursuits, does not tarry long enough to lose the impression of what is without, and get the impress of what is within the secret chamber. He does not take time to fix his mind's gaze on the unseen and eternal. Many a so-called "praying man" has never once really met and seen God in the closet. The soul, disturbed and perturbed, tossed up and down and driven to and fro by worldly thoughts and care, can no more become a mirror to reflect God, than a ruffled lake can become the mirror of the starry heights that arch above it. He who would look downward into his own heart-depths, and see God reflected there, must stay long enough for the stormy soul to get becalmed. Only when He first gives peace is the nature placid enough to become the mirror of heavenly things.
But when such communion becomes real, prayer ceases to be mere duty and becomes delight. All sense of obligation is lost in privilege. Love seeks the company of its object, simply for the sake of being in the presence of the beloved one; as one little fellow explained his, quietly coming into his father's study by the hunger for his presence- "just to be with you, papa." Have any of us not known what it is to cultivate companionship for its own sake, mutely sitting in the presence of another whom we devotedly love? And do we not love God enough to make it an object to shut ourselves in with Him at times just to enjoy Him? Is there no taint of selfishness in prayer which knows no there motive than to ask for some favor? Jude counsels us to "pray in the Holy Ghost" as a means whereby we keep ourselves in the love of God, He who know the very ecstasies of the secret chamber, there learns to keep himself in the love of God, finding therein the Sunbeam whose light illumines, whose love warms, whose life quickens. God's Presence becomes the atmosphere he breathes and without which his spiritual life cannot survive. Such a habit of abiding in the Presence of God, and dwelling upon His glorious perfection develops a holy and enamoring love, which can only say with Zinzendorf and Tholuck, "I have but one passion: and it is He and He alone!
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Arthur Tappan Pierson was an American Presbyterian pastor, early fundamentalist leader, and writer who preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over fifty books, and gave Bible lectures as part of a transatlantic preaching ministry that made him famous in Scotland and England.
He was a consulting editor for the original "Scofield Reference Bible" (1909) for his friend, C. I. Scofield and was also a friend of D. L. Moody, George Mueller (whose biography 'George Muller of Bristol' he wrote), Adoniram Judson Gordon, and C. H. Spurgeon, whom he succeeded in the pulpit of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, from 1891 to 1893. Throughout his career, Pierson filled several pulpit positions around the world as an urban pastor who cared passionately for the poor.
Pierson was also a pioneer advocate of faith missions who was determined to see the world evangelized in his generation. Prior to 1870, there had been only about 2000 missionaries from the United States in full-time service, roughly ten percent of whom had engaged in work among Native Americans.
A great movement of foreign missions began in the 1880s and accelerated into the twentieth century, in some measure due to the work of Pierson. He acted as the elder statesman of the student missionary movement and was the leading evangelical advocate of foreign missions in the late 1800s.
Arthur T. Pierson preached over 13,000 sermons, wrote over fifty books, and his Bible lectures made him widely known in America. He was a consulting editor for his friend, C. I. Scofield, with the original Scofield Reference Bible (1909), and was the author of the classic biography, 'George Muller of Bristol'... A. T. Pierson's association with D. L. Moody and his Northfield Conferences were the breeding ground for Pierson's determination to see the world evangelized in his generation.
This deepening of the Christian life in Pierson saw him author one of his most spiritually significant books, 'In Christ Jesus' 1898.
Pierson attended Hamilton College and Union Theological Seminary. In 1860, he married Sarah Frances Benedict; they had seven children, all of whom were converted before the age of 15 and grew up to serve as missionaries, pastors, or lay leaders. He pastored in Binghamton and Waterford, New York; Detroit, Michigan; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
After retiring, he continued to preach at churches and conferences at home and abroad. He was a contemporary and friend of many Christian leaders, including Dwight Moody, Adoniram Gordon, George Mueller, and Charles Spurgeon. During Spurgeon's last illness, Pierson filled the pulpit of Metropolitan Tabernacle for several months.