_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
Andrewes 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.
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 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. 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.
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.”
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. 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!”