_The act of praying is the very highest energy of which the human mind
is capable; praying, that is, with the total concentration of the
faculties. The great mass of worldly men and of learned men are
absolutely incapable of prayer._—COLERIDGE.
Bishop Wilson says: "In H. Martyn's journal the spirit of prayer, the
time he devoted to the duty, and his fervour in it are the first things
which strike me."
Payson wore the hard-wood boards into grooves where his knees pressed so
often and so long. His biographer says: "His continuing instant in
prayer, be his circumstances what they might, is the most noticeable
fact in his history, and points out the duty of all who would rival his
eminency. To his ardent and persevering prayers must no doubt be
ascribed in a great measure his distinguished and almost uninterrupted
success."
The Marquis DeRenty, to whom Christ was most precious, ordered his
servant to call him from his devotions at the end of half an hour. The
servant at the time saw his face through an aperture. It was marked with
such holiness that he hated to arouse him. His lips were moving, but he
was perfectly silent. He waited until three half hours had passed; then
he called to him, when he arose from his knees, saying that the half
hour was so short when he was communing with Christ.
Brainerd said: "I love to be alone in my cottage, where I can spend much
time in prayer."
William Bramwell is famous in Methodist annals for personal holiness and
for his wonderful success in preaching and for the marvellous answers to
his prayers. For hours at a time he would pray. He almost lived on his
knees. He went over his circuits like a flame of fire. The fire was
kindled by the time he spent in prayer. He often spent as much as four
hours in a single season of prayer in retirement.
Bishop Andrewes spent the greatest part of five hours every day in
prayer and devotion.
Sir Henry Havelock always spent the first two hours of each day alone
with God. If the encampment was struck at 6 a.m., he would rise at four.
Earl Cairns rose daily at six o'clock to secure an hour and a half for
the study of the Bible and for prayer, before conducting family worship
at a quarter to eight.
Dr. Judson's success in God's work is attributable to the fact that he
gave much time to prayer. He says on this point: "Arrange thy affairs,
if possible, so that thou canst leisurely devote two or three hours
every day not merely to devotional exercises but to the very act of
secret prayer and communion with God. Endeavour seven times a day to
withdraw from business and company and lift up thy soul to God in
private retirement. Begin the day by rising after midnight and devoting
some time amid the silence and darkness of the night to this sacred
work. Let the hour of opening dawn find thee at the same work. Let the
hours of nine, twelve, three, six, and nine at night witness the same.
Be resolute in His cause. Make all practicable sacrifices to maintain
it. Consider that thy time is short, and that business and company must
not be allowed to rob thee of thy God." Impossible, say we, fanatical
directions! Dr. Judson impressed an empire for Christ and laid the
foundations of God's kingdom with imperishable granite in the heart of
Burmah. He was successful, one of the few men who mightily impressed the
world for Christ. Many men of greater gifts and genius and learning than
he have made no such impression; their religious work is like footsteps
in the sands, but he has engraven his work on the adamant. The secret of
its profundity and endurance is found in the fact that he gave time to
prayer. He kept the iron red-hot with prayer, and God's skill fashioned
it with enduring power. No man can do a great and enduring work for God
who is not a man of prayer, and no man can be a man of prayer who does
not give much time to praying.
Is it true that prayer is simply the compliance with habit, dull and
mechanical? A petty performance into which we are trained till tameness,
shortness, superficiality are its chief elements? "Is it true that
prayer is, as is assumed, little else than the half-passive play of
sentiment which flows languidly on through the minutes or hours of easy
reverie?" Canon Liddon continues: "Let those who have really prayed give
the answer. They sometimes describe prayer with the patriarch Jacob as a
wrestling together with an Unseen Power which may last, not unfrequently
in an earnest life, late into the night hours, or even to the break of
day. Sometimes they refer to common intercession with St. Paul as a
concerted struggle. They have, when praying, their eyes fixed on the
Great Intercessor in Gethsemane, upon the drops of blood which fall to
the ground in that agony of resignation and sacrifice. Importunity is of
the essence of successful prayer. Importunity means not dreaminess but
sustained work. It is through prayer especially that the kingdom of
heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. It was a
saying of the late Bishop Hamilton that "No man is likely to do much
good in prayer who does not begin by looking upon it in the light of a
work to be prepared for and persevered in with all the earnestness which
we bring to bear upon subjects which are in our opinion at once most
interesting and most necessary."