"Disciples should always pray and not give up" (Luke 18:1).
"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer" (1 Timothy 2:8).
Prayer is the most important subject in practical religion. All other
subjects are second to it. Reading the Bible, listening to sermons,
attending public worship, going to the Lord's Table--all these are very
important matters. But none of them are so important as private prayer.
I propose in this paper to offer seven clear reasons why I use such
strong language about prayer. I draw to these reasons the attention of
every thinking man into whose hands this paper may fall. I venture to
assert with confidence that they deserve serious consideration.
I. In the first place, "Prayer is absolutely necessary to a man's
salvation."
I say what is absolutely necessary and I say so with caution. I am not
speaking now of infants and the retarded. I remember that where little
is given, there little will be required. I speak especially of those who
call themselves Christians, in a land like our own. And of such I say no
man or woman can expect to be saved who does not pray.
I hold salvation by grace as strongly as any one. I would gladly offer a
free and full pardon to the greatest sinner that ever lived. I would not
hesitate to stand by his dying bed, and say, "Believe in the Lord Jesus,
and you will be saved." But that a man can have salvation without
"asking" for it, I cannot see in the Bible. That a man will receive
pardon of his sins, who will not so much as lift up his heart inwardly,
and say, "Lord Jesus, give it to me," this I cannot find. I can find
that nobody will be saved by his prayers, but I cannot find that without
prayer anybody will be saved.
It is not absolutely necessary to salvation that a man should "read" the
Bible. A man may have no learning, or be blind, and yet have Christ in
his heart. It is not absolutely necessary that a man should "hear" the
public preaching of the Gospel [though he must receive the Word by some
means]. He may live where the Gospel is not preached publicly, or he may
be bedridden, or deaf. But the same thing cannot be said about prayer.
It is absolutely necessary to salvation that a man should "pray."
There is no royal road either to health or learning. Princes and kings,
poor men and peasants, all alike must attend to the wants of their own
bodies and their own minds. No man can eat, drink, or sleep by proxy.
No man can get the alphabet learned for him by another. All these are
things which everybody must do for himself, or they will not be done at
all.
Just as it is with the mind and body, so it is with the soul. There are
certain things absolutely necessary to the soul's health and well-being.
Each one must attend to these things for himself. Each must repent for
himself. Each must submit to Christ for himself. And for himself each
one must speak to God and pray. You must do it for yourself, for nobody
else can do it for you.
How can we expect to be saved by an "unknown" God? And how can we know
God without prayer? We know nothing of men and women in this world,
unless we speak with them. We cannot know God in Christ, unless we speak
to Him in prayer. If we wish to be with Him in heaven, we must be His
friends on earth. If we wish to be His friends on earth, "we must pray."
There will be many at Christ's right hand in the last day. The saints
gathered from North and South, and East and West, will be "a great
multitude that no one could count" (Revelation 7:9). The song of victory
that will burst from their months, when their redemption is finally
complete, will be a glorious song indeed. It will be far above the
noise of many waters, and of mighty thunders. But there will be no
discord in that song, They that sing, will sing with one heart as well as
one voice. Their experience will be one and the same. All will have
believed. All will have been washed in the blood of Christ. All will
have been born again. All will have prayed. Yes, we must pray on earth,
or we will never praise in heaven. We must go through the school of
prayer, or we will never be fit for the celebration of praise. In short,
to be prayerless is to be without God--without Christ--without grace
--without hope--and without heaven. It is to be on the road to hell.
II. In the second place, "a habit of prayer is one of the surest marks
of a true Christian."
All the children of God on earth are alike in this respect. From the
moment there is any life and reality in their religion, they pray. Just
as the first sign of life in an infant when born into the world, is the
act of breathing, so the first act of men and women when they are born
again, is "praying."
This is one of the common marks of all the elect of God: "They always
pray and do not give up" (Luke 18:1). The Holy Spirit, who makes them
new creatures, works in them the feeling of adoption, and makes them cry,
"Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15). The Lord Jesus, when He saves them, gives
them a voice and a tongue, and says to them, "Be silent no more." God
has no speechless children. It is as much a part of their new nature to
pray, as it is of a child to cry. They see their need of mercy and
grace. They feel their emptiness and weakness. They cannot do otherwise
than they do. They "must" pray.
I have looked carefully over the lives of God's saints in the Bible. I
cannot find one of whose history much is told us, from Genesis to
Revelation, who was not a man of prayer. I find it mentioned as a
characteristic of the godly, that "they call on the Father," that "they
call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." I find it recorded as a
characteristic of the wicked, that "they do not call upon the Lord."
(1 Peter 1:17; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Psalm 14:4).
I have read the lives of many great Christians who have been on earth
since the Bible days. Some of them, I see, were rich, and some poor.
Some were educated, and some uneducated. They came from various
denominations and some were Independents. Some loved a very structured
worship service, and some liked it rather informal. But one thing, I
see, they all had in common. The have all been "men of prayer."
I study the reports of missionaries in our own times. I see with joy
that heathen men and women are receiving the Gospel in various parts of
the globe. There are conversions in Africa, in New Zealand, and in
America. The people converted are naturally unlike one another in every
respect. But one striking thing I observe at all the missionary
stations--the converted people "always pray."
I do not deny that a man may pray without heart, and without sincerity.
I do not for a moment pretend to say, that the mere fact of a person
praying proves everything about his soul. As in every other part of
religion, so also in this, there is plenty of deception and hypocrisy.
But this I do say--that not praying, is a clear proof that a man is not
yet a true Christian. He cannot really feel for his sins. He cannot
love God. He cannot feel himself in debt to God. He cannot long after
holiness. He cannot desire heaven. He has yet to be born again. He has
yet to be made a new creature. He may boast confidently of election,
grace, faith, hope, and knowledge, and deceive ignorant people. But you
may rest assured it is all vain talk "if he does not pray."
And furthermore, I say, that of all the evidences of the real work of the
Spirit, a habit of hearty private prayer is one of the most satisfactory
that can be named. A man may preach from false motives. A man may write
books, and make fine speeches, and seem diligent in good works, and yet
be a Judas Iscariot. But a man seldom goes into his closet, and pours
out his soul before God in secret, unless he is serious. The Lord
Himself has set His stamp on prayer as the best proof of true conversion.
When He sent Ananias to Saul in Damascus, He gave him no other evidence
of his change of heart than this, "he is praying" (Acts 9:11)
I know that much may go on in a man's mind before he is brought to pray.
He may have many convictions, desires, wishes, feelings, intentions,
resolutions, hopes, and fears. But all these things are very uncertain
proofs. They are to be found in ungodly people, and often come to
nothing. In many cases they are not more lasting than "the morning mist,
and the early dew that disappears" (Hosea 6:4). A real hearty prayer,
flowing from a broken and repentant spirit, is worth all these things put
together.
I know that the elect of God are chosen to salvation from all eternity.
I do not forget that the Holy Spirit, who calls them in due time, in many
instances leads them by very slow degrees to an awareness of Christ. But
the eye of man can only judge by what it sees. I cannot call any one
justified until he believes. I dare not say that any one believes until
he prays. I cannot understand a silent and speechless faith. The first
act of faith will be to speak to God. Faith is to the soul what life is
to the body. Prayer is to faith what breath is to life. How can a man
live and not breathe is past my comprehension, and how a man can believe
and not pray is past my comprehension too.
Let no one be surprised if he hears ministers of the Gospel dwelling a
lot on the importance of prayer. This is the point we want to bring you
to--we want to know that you pray. Your views of doctrine may be
correct. Your love of evangelical religion may be warm and unmistakable.
But still this may be nothing more than head knowledge and party spirit.
The great point is this--whether you can speak "to" God as well as speak
"about" God.
III. In the third place, "there is no part of religion so neglected as
private prayer."
We live in days abounding in religious profession. There are more places
of public worship now than there ever were before. There are more
persons attending them than there ever have been since we became a
nation. And yet in spite of all this public religion, I believe there is
a vast neglect of private prayer.
I would not have said that a few years ago. I once thought, in my
ignorance, that most people said their prayers, and many people prayed.
I have lived to think differently. I have come to the conclusion that
the great majority of professing Christians do not pray at all.
I know that this sounds very shocking and will startle many. But I am
convinced that prayer is just one of those things which is thought to be
"a private matter," and like many "private matters" it is shamefully
neglected. It is "everybody's duty;" and, as it often happens in such
cases, it is a business carried on by very few. It is one of those
private transactions between God and our souls which no eye sees, and
therefore one which there is every temptation to pass over and leave
undone.
I believe that thousands "never say a word of prayer at all." They eat;
they drink; they sleep; they rise; they go forward to their work; they
return to their homes; they breathe God's air; they see God's sun; they
walk on God's earth; they enjoy God's mercies; they have dying bodies;
they have judgment and eternity before them. But they "never speak to
God!" They live like the animals that perish; they behave like creatures
without souls; they have no words to say to Him in whose hand is their
life, and breath, and all things, and from whose mouth they must one day
receive their everlasting sentence. How dreadful this seems! But if the
secrets of men were only known, how common!
I believe that there are tens of thousands "whose prayers are nothing but
a mere form--a set of words repeated by rote, without a thought about
their meaning." Some say over a few hasty sentences picked up in the
nursery when they were children. Many, even of those who use good forms,
mutter their prayers over after they have got into bed, or scramble over
them while they wash or dress in the morning. Men may think what they
please, but they can count on the fact that in the sight of God "this is
not praying." Words said without heart are as utterly useless to our
souls as the drum-beating of the poor heathen before their idols. Where
there is no heart, the lips may move and the tongue wag, but there is
nothing that God listens to--there is "no prayer." Saul, I have no
doubt, said many a long prayer before the Lord met him on the way to
Damascus. But it was not till his heart was broken that the Lord said,
"He is praying."
Does this surprise any reader? Listen to me and I will show you that I
am not speaking as I do without reason. Do you think that my assertions
are extravagant and unwarranted? Give me your attention, and I will soon
show you that I am only telling you the truth.
Have you forgotten that it is "not natural" to any one to pray? The
carnal mind has a hatred towards God. The desire of man's heart is to
get far away from God, and to have nothing to do with Him. His feeling
toward Him is not love but fear. Why then should a man pray when he has
no real sense of sin, no real feeling of spiritual needs--no thorough
belief in unseen things--no desire after holiness and heaven? Of all
these things the vast majority of men know and feel nothing. The
multitude are traveling on the wide road. I cannot forget this.
Therefore I say boldly, I believe that few people pray.
Have you forgotten that it is "not fashionable" to pray? It is just one
of the things that many would be rather ashamed to admit is their
practice. There are hundreds who would sooner storm a beach in battle
than confess publicly that they make it a habit to pray. There are
thousands who, if obligated by chance to sleep in the same room with a
stranger, would lie down in bed without a prayer. To ride a horse well,
to shoot well, to dress well, to go to balls and concerts, and theaters,
to be thought clever and congenial--all this is fashionable, but not to
pray. I cannot forget this. I cannot think a habit is common which so
many seem ashamed to admit. I believe that few pray.
Have you forgotten "the lives that many live?" Can we really suppose that
people are praying, against sin night and day, when we see them plunging
right into it? Can we suppose they pray against the world, when they
are entirely absorbed and taken up with its pursuits? Can we think they