The Necessity of Prayer
by Edward M. Bounds
1. Prayer and Faith
2. Prayer and Faith (continued)
3. Prayer and Trust
4. Prayer and Desire
5. Prayer and Fervency
6. Prayer and Importunity
7. Prayer and Importunity
(continued)
8. Prayer, Character and
Conduct
9. Prayer and Obedience
10. Prayer and Obedience
(continued)
11. Prayer and Vigilance
12. Prayer and the Word of God
13. Prayer and the Word of God
(continued)
14. Prayer and the House of God
FOREWORD
EDWARD McKENDREE BOUNDS did not merely pray well that he
might write well about prayer. He prayed because the needs of the world were
upon him. He prayed, for long years, upon subjects which the easy-going
Christian rarely gives a thought, and for objects which men of less thought
and faith are always ready to call impossible. From his solitary
prayer-vigils, year by year, there arose teaching equaled by few men in
modern Christian history. He wrote transcendently about prayer, because he
was himself, transcendent in its practice.
As breathing is a physical reality to us so prayer was a
reality for Bounds. He took the command, "Pray without ceasing" almost as
literally as animate nature takes the law of the reflex nervous system,
which controls our breathing.
Prayer-books -- real text-books, not forms of prayer -- were
the fruit of this daily spiritual exercise. Not brief articles for the
religious press came from his pen -- though he had been experienced in that
field for years -- not pamphlets, but books were the product and result. He
was hindered by poverty, obscurity, loss of prestige, yet his victory was
not wholly reserved until his death.
In 1907, he gave to the world two small editions. One of
these was widely circulated in Great Britain. The years following up to his
death in 1913 were filled with constant labour and he went home to God
leaving a collection of manuscripts. His letters carry the request that the
present editor should publish these products of his gifted pen.
The preservation of the Bounds manuscripts to the present
time has clearly been providential. The work of preparing them for the press
has been a labour of love, consuming years of effort.
These books are unfailing wells for a lifetime of spiritual
water-drawing. They are hidden treasures, wrought in the darkness of the
dawn and the heat of the noon, on the anvil of experience, and beaten into
wondrous form by the mighty stroke of the Divine. They are living voices
whereby he, being dead, yet speaketh. -- C.C.
The above Foreword was written by Claude Chilton, Jr., an
ardent admirer of Dr. Bounds, and to whom we owe many obligations for
suggestions in editing the Bounds Spiritual Life Books. We buried Claude L.
Chilton February 18, 1929. What a meeting of these two great saints of God,
of shining panoply and knightly grace!
HOMER W. HODGE.
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Copyright Statement
To the best of our knowledge these files are public domain.
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