7.
Much
Time
Should
Be
Given
to Prayer
The great masters and teachers in Christian doctrine have always
found in prayer their highest source of illumination. Not to go beyond
the limits of the English Church, it is recorded of Bishop Andrews
that he spent five hours daily on his knees. The greatest practical
resolves that have enriched and beautified human life in Christian
times have been arrived at in prayer.
-Canon Liddon
Much time spent with God is the secret of all successful praying.
While many private prayers, in the nature of things, must be short;
while public prayers, as a rule, ought to be short and condensed; while
there is ample room for and value put on ejaculatory prayer -- yet in
our private communions with God time is a feature essential to its
value. Much time spent with God is the secret of all successful praying.
Prayer which is felt as a mighty force is the mediate or immediate
product of much time spent with God. Our short prayers owe their point
and efficiency to the long ones that have preceded them.
The short
prevailing prayer cannot be prayed by one who has not prevailed with God
in a mightier struggle of long continuance. Jacob's victory of faith
could not have been gained without that all-night wrestling. God's
acquaintance is not made by pop calls. God does not bestow his gifts on
the casual or hasty comers and goers. Much time with God alone is the secret
of knowing him and of influence with him. He yields to the persistency
of a faith that knows him. He bestows his richest gifts upon those who
declare their desire for and appreciation of those gifts by the
constancy as well as earnestness of their importunity.
...our purpose is to impress on our minds the
necessity of being much alone with God...
Christ, who in
this as well as other things is our Example, spent many whole nights in
prayer. His custom was to pray much. He had his habitual place to pray.
Many long seasons of praying make up his history and character. Paul
prayed day and night. It took time from very important interests for
Daniel to pray three times a day. David's morning, noon, and night
praying were doubtless on many occasions very protracted. While we have
no specific account of the time these Bible saints spent in prayer, yet
the indications are that they consumed much time in prayer, and on some
occasions long seasons of praying was their custom.
We would not have any think that the value of their prayers is to be
measured by the clock, but our purpose is to impress on our minds the
necessity of being much alone with God; and that if this feature has not
been produced by our faith, then our faith is of a feeble and surface
type.
Luther said: "If I fail to spend two hours in
prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have
so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in
prayer."
The men who have most fully illustrated Christ in their character,
and have most powerfully affected the world for him, have been men who
spent so much time with God as to make it a notable feature of their
lives. Charles Simeon devoted the hours from four till eight in the
morning to God. Mr. Wesley spent two hours daily in prayer. He began at
four in the morning. Of him, one who knew him well wrote: "He
thought prayer to be more his business than anything else, and I have
seen him come out of his closet with a serenity of face next to
shining."
John Fletcher stained the walls of his room by the breath
of his prayers. Sometimes he would pray all night; always, frequently,
and with great earnestness. His whole life was a life of prayer. "I
would not rise from my seat," he said, "without lifting my
heart to God." His greeting to a friend was always: "Do I meet
you praying?" Luther said: "If I fail to spend two hours in
prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have
so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in
prayer." He had a motto: "He that has prayed well has studied
well."
"I ought to spend the best hours in communion with God. It is
my noblest and most fruitful employment..." -Robert
McCheyne.
Archbishop Leighton was so much alone with God that he seemed to be
in a perpetual meditation. "Prayer and praise were his business and
his pleasure," says his biographer. Bishop Ken was so much with God
that his soul was said to be God-enamored. He was with God before the
clock struck three every morning. Bishop Asbury said: "I propose to
rise at four o'clock as often as I can and spend two hours in prayer and
meditation." Samuel Rutherford, the fragrance of whose piety is
still rich, rose at three in the morning to meet God in prayer. Joseph
Alleine arose at four o'clock for his business of praying till eight. If
he heard other tradesmen plying their business before he was up, he
would exclaim: "O how this shames me! Doth not my Master deserve
more than theirs?" He who has learned this trade well draws at
will, on sight, and with acceptance of heaven's unfailing bank.
One of the holiest and among the most gifted of Scotch preachers
says: "I ought to spend the best hours in communion with God. It is
my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is not to be thrust into a
corner. The morning hours, from six to eight, are the most uninterrupted
and should be thus employed. After tea is my best hour, and that should
be solemnly dedicated to God.
The memorable Methodist band in their praying
shame us. "From four to five in the morning, private prayer; from
five to six in the evening, private prayer."
I ought not to give up the good old habit
of prayer before going to bed; but guard must be kept against sleep.
When I awake in the night, I ought to rise and pray. A little time after
breakfast might be given to intercession." This was the praying
plan of Robert McCheyne. The memorable Methodist band in their praying
shame us. "From four to five in the morning, private prayer; from
five to six in the evening, private prayer."
John Welch, the holy and wonderful Scotch preacher, thought the day
ill spent if he did not spend eight or ten hours in prayer.
He kept a
plaid that he might wrap himself when he arose to pray at night. His
wife would complain when she found him lying on the ground weeping. He
would reply: "O woman, I have the souls of three thousand to answer
for, and I know not how it is with many of them!"
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