Prayer

As I appear to be unusually busy this week - who said that retirement was a dawdle?! - I am cheating a little this evening by posting some quotations, about prayer, from Charles H Spurgeon, the great 19th century Baptist preacher.

The story is told that, when visitors came to the Metropolitan Tabernacle from the pulpit of which he preached for 38 years, he would mention the modern heating system.  He would then ask if they would like to see the power-house.  The answer was always in the affirmative, as people were intrigued by the thought of a boiler-system that could provide heating for such large premises.  Spurgeon would take them to the basement and, opening a particular door, would proclaim, "This is the power-house of the Metropolitan Tabernacle!"  On looking in, the visitor(s) would see people, on their knees, praying passionately.

Spurgeon was a man of prayer himself. Throughout his entire ministry many hearers remarked that they were moved by his preaching, but yet still more affected by his praying. The famous American evangelist D. L. Moody, upon returning home after his first visit to England, was asked: "Did you hear Mr Spurgeon preach?" Moody replied: "Yes, but better still, I heard him pray."

So, a few prayer-linked quotation from one, often referred to as the prince of preachers, but who said that what the church needs, rather, is princes, and princesses, of prayer.   Some things do not change!

"If you want that splendid power in prayer, you must remain in loving, living, lasting, conscious, practical, abiding union with the Lord Jesus Christ."

"A prayerful church is a powerful church..."

"I have not preached this morning half as much as I have prayed.  For every word that I have spoken, I have prayed two words silently to God."

"Until the gate of hell is shut upon a man we must not cease to pray for him. And if we see him hugging the very doorposts of damnation, we must go to the mercy seat and beseech the arm of grace to pluck him from his dangerous position. While there is life there is hope, and although the soul is almost smothered with despair, we must not despair for it, but rather arouse ourselves to awaken the Almighty arm."

"My own soul's conviction is that prayer is the grandest power in the entire universe; that it has a more omnipotent force than electricity, attraction, gravitation, or any other of those secret forces which men have called by a name, but which they do not understand."

Let us pray!