Health,
Healing, _and_ Faith
Effect of Environment
How a Church Was Built by Prayer
Healing the Sick
Prayer for the Home
Prayer and the Bible
_By_
RUSSELL H. CONWELL
VOLUME 8
NATIONAL
EXTENSION UNIVERSITY
597 Fifth Avenue, New York
EFFECTIVE PRAYER
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Copyright, 1921, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
FOREWORD
That prayers are answered nearly all the human race believe. But the
subject has been beclouded and often made ridiculous by inconsistent
superstitions.
This book is a modest attempt to clear up some of the errors. Its record
is as accurate as impartial observation can make it. God is not bribed.
Laziness cannot bargain with him. But the prayers of the righteous and
of repentant sinners availeth much.
Desired ends are gained by prayer which cannot be gained by any other
method. The daily experiences of devout persons establish that fact
conclusively. The reasons and the methods which produce the results seem
hidden, and they often bewilder the investigator. God's thoughts are far
above our thoughts. But we can trust our daily experience far enough to
retain our confidence in the potency of prayer. It is, therefore, a
profitable and comforting study.
RUSSELL H. CONWELL.
EFFECTIVE PRAYER
Chapter I
Effect of Environment
The fascinating history of events connected with the Baptist Temple,
Philadelphia, through thirty-nine years must be recorded carefully to
obtain the credence of those readers who live out of the locality. It
may or may not be that the unusual demonstrations of power, seemingly
divine, were not incited or influenced by the special environment. Yet
the critical reader may reasonably inquire where these things occurred
in order to determine the power of association on the form and effect of
prayer.
The Baptist Temple is a somewhat imposing building on the corner of
North Broad and Berks streets in Philadelphia. It is located almost at
the geographical center of Philadelphia, and eighteen squares north of
the City Hall. The Temple is architecturally very plain, and the
beautiful stained-glass windows are about the only ornaments in the
great hall save, of course, the pipes of the great organ. The church is
one hundred and seven feet front, and is one hundred and fifty feet in
length. There is a deep gallery occupying three sides, with a chorus
gallery, back of the pulpit, seating one hundred and fifty singers.
There are three thousand and thirty-four opera chairs arranged in a
semicircle, and every person in the congregation can see clearly the
platform and chorus, and each normal worshiper can be heard from the
pulpit.
The building itself is a testimonial to the effectiveness of sincere
prayer. The Temple and the halls in the lower story, as it now stands,
are far beyond the dreams of that little company of earnest worshipers
who, in 1880, hesitatingly and embarrassed, began to build the small
church at the corner of Berks and Mervine streets. They had no wealthy
or influential friends. They had but little money or property; they
could pray, and that they did do unceasingly. Any man who tries to
describe or explain fully how it came about that the Temple was built
becomes bewildered in the complications, unless he covers the whole
question by saying, "The Lord did it." In six years after the small
church was completed the Temple was begun on Broad Street.
For seven or eight years after its construction the Temple was a
Christian Mecca to which pilgrims seemed to come from all parts of the
earth to kneel there in prayer. One Good Friday night, which was
observed quite generally as a season of fasting and prayer, the writer
entered by the side door the Temple at two o'clock in the morning, and
in the dim light of two small gas jets, always left burning, he saw
scores of people scattered through the church. Why that church had such
a fascination for or preference with earnest seekers for the
prayer-answering God none may explain. All were kneeling separately in
silent prayer. As they passed in and out there were in the line, going
and coming, Chinamen, Europeans, Orientals, and Americans from distant
states. Different denominations, Protestant, Catholic, Jew, colored and
white, were often represented among the individual worshipers. They also
came any night in the week at any hour and prayed silently for a while
and then went silently out. The church was not locked, night or day, for
fifteen years. People sought the place when they sought to find a
locality which was especially near to the Lord. It may be that any place
is as near to God as any other; and many think it only a sentiment,
superstitious and foolish, to esteem one place above another in matters
of effective prayer. But there does stand out the fact that, for some
good reason, our Saviour did choose to pray in special localities, and
his devout followers do now feel more deeply the soul's communion with
God in certain favorable places. Why the Baptist Temple had such
worship as a sentimental matter brings forward the facts that the graves
of the loved, the home of childhood, the trysting places, the old
fireplace, or the churches where sainted parents worshiped are
influential because of the suggestions which come with sacred memories.
That fact is a strong agency in the awakening of tender and sacred
emotions. But the Baptist Temple was new and could lay claim to none of
those associations. Men and women with no religious habits, and some
seemingly without devout inclinations, testified decidedly that whenever
they visited the building they felt that they had entered into an
atmosphere of special spiritual and sacred power. One soldier of the
English army wrote an interesting letter in 1897, saying: "I do not
recall any such impression before. I went into the church alone out of
curiosity to look at its architectural design. But the moment I entered
the side aisle I felt an indescribable pressure which made me desire to
pray. I hurried out to the street to escape the solemn impression. But
twice since then I have been in the auditorium and each time some power
seemed pressing me down to my knees." Whether that influence was the act
of the Holy Ghost or not cannot be proven by any known formula of human
reasoning, and hence it remains, as most of such questions do, a matter
of faith. Some believe it was a divine presence which made itself felt
there, and other good men do not believe the conditions were in any way
unusual or unnatural. So many persons with uncontrolled imaginations,
and others with their mental faculties weakened or distorted, often
reported the most improbable visions and absurd revelations. Such
characters, half insane or wholly deranged, testified in favor of Jesus
to his face, and such have ever been present since in every genuinely
spiritual movement. They would do less harm, of course, if they should
declaim against him. So it was, and is, at the Baptist Temple. Those
inconsistent, deranged advocates of religion did often drive away
permanently into the ranks of unbelievers the most sincere
investigators. But a calm review of the testimonies concerning the
occurrences which followed so clearly the petitions they offered in the
Temple seems overwhelmingly to establish the claim, now held by so many
thousand people, that the results of the prayers were but a cause and
natural effect, as the prayers and results were infallibly related.
It is not claimed here, however, that the place had more influence with
man or Christ than other places have had, or that any church or
cathedral may be as sacred as Gethsemane or as the Mount of
Transfiguration. The plain facts are recorded here with great caution
and with a determination to keep conservatively within the truth and
draw no unreasonable conclusions. It is a true statement, known to all
the community, that many thousands of people have sought to pray in the
Temple, believing that the boon their hearts desired would be more sure
to be sent if they asked for it within the Temple walls. Many persons
have attended the church services on the Sabbath who have been so deep
in prayer that they were unconscious of the music or the preaching. We
must reassert that this fact is not recorded here to sustain any idea
that the Temple is a sacred place above many other churches, cathedrals,
and holy places, but to sustain the opinion that there are places more
sacred than others to certain people, and that burdened hearts and minds
would act wisely if they sought some such place when the answer to their
prayer seems especially vital.