49 Sermon Illustrations on Power Of Prayer

God, Creator of all, invites us, mere creatures, to pray, and He assures us He will hear. He is holy, separate from sinners and undefiled, and we are rebellious and sinful, but as a Father, He invites us to ask favors and promises help. "Ask and it shall be given to you...for everyone that asketh receiveth ...If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him" (Matthew 7:7-11). Amazing! Prayer changes things. The Bible says, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16). Prayer for the sick is not a substitute for medicine, prayer for daily bread is not a substitute for work, and prayer for the lost is no substitute for the gospel, but those things are no substitute for prayer either. Because Christians pray, some are well who would still be sick, some alive who would be dead (James 4:15), souls are saved that would be lost (Romans 10:1), doors of opportunity are open that would still be closed (Colossians 4:3), some are wiser than they were (James 1:5). "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." And many more things yet would be wrought by it, if we prayed more: "You have not, because you ask not" (James 4:2). How amazing! God commands us to pray. "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving (Colossians 4:2). "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4:6). The greatest of all privileges is not only allowed, but is even enjoined upon us. To let us pray would be marvelous, but He commands us. Amazing indeed! God urges us to be persistent in prayer. If at first we do not get what we ask for, we are to keep asking. If God, who hears all things, appears deaf to our cries, we are to cry longer. Jesus told a parable about an unjust and uncaring judge, who finally ruled in favor of a poor widow simply because she wore him out with her persistent pleas. He told that parable, He said, to teach us that we "ought always to pray and not give up" (Luke 18:1). God is not unjust and uncaring, like that judge; but we are to be persistent, like that widow. God never wearies of our asking, even when it appears He is not hearing. Astoundingly amazing! We are invited to pray and God has promised to hear. Great things happen because of prayer. We are commanded to pray by the One who loves us, and reminded that we show Him our love by keeping His commandments. We can "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). Yet, believing all of that, many of us pray so little! That is most amazing of all!

The other day I read of a mother who died, leaving her child alone and very poor. She used to pray earnestly for her boy, and left an impression upon his mind that she cared more for his soul than she cared for anything else in the world. He grew up to be a successful man in business, and became very well off. One day not long ago, after his mother had been dead for twenty years, he thought he would remove her remains and put her into his own lot in the cemetery, and put up a little monument to her memory. As he came to remove them and to lay her away the thought came to him, that while his mother was alive she had prayed for him, and he wondered why her prayers were not answered. That very night that man was saved. After his mother had been buried so long a time, the act of removing her body to another resting place, brought up all the recollections of his childhood, and he became a Christian. O, you mothers!

I remember being in the camp and a man came to me and said, "Mr. Moody, when the Mexican war began I wanted to enlist. My mother, seeing I was resolved, said if I became a Christian I might go. She pleaded and prayed that I might become a Christian, but I wouldn't. I said when the war was over I would become a Christian, but not till then. All her pleading was in vain, and at last, when I was going away, she took out a watch and said: 'My son, your father left this to me when he died. Take it, and I want you to remember that every day at 12 o'clock your mother will be praying for you.' Then she gave me her Bible, and marked out passages, and put a few different references in the fly-leaf. I took the watch and the Bible just because my mother gave them. I never intended to read the Bible. I went off to Mexico, and one day while on a long, weary march, I took out my watch, and it was 12 o'clock. I had been gone four months, but I remembered that my mother at that hour was praying for me. Something prompted me to ask the officer to relieve me for a little while, and I stepped behind a tree away out on those plains of Mexico, and cried to the God of my mother to save me." My friends, God saved him, and he went through the Mexican war, "and now," he said, "I have enlisted again to see if I can do any good for my Master's cause."

I once knew a little cripple who lay upon her death-bed. She had given herself to God, and was distressed only because she could not labor for Him actively among the lost. Her clergyman visited her, and hearing her complaint, told her that there from her sick-bed she could offer prayers for those whom she wished to see turning to God. He advised her to write the names down, and then to pray earnestly; and then he went away and thought of the subject no more. Soon a feeling of great religious interest sprang up in the village, and the churches were crowded nightly. The little cripple heard of the progress of the revival, and inquired anxiously for the names of the saved. A few weeks later she died, and among a roll of papers that was found under her little pillow, was one bearing the names of fifty-six persons, every one of whom had in the revival been converted. By each name was a little cross, by which the poor crippled saint had checked off the names of the converts as they had been reported to her.

A little child whose father and mother had died, was taken into another family. The first night she asked if she could pray, as she used to do. They said "Oh yes." So she knelt down, and prayed as her mother taught her; and when that was ended she added a little prayer of her own: "Oh God, make these people as kind to me as father and mother were." Then she paused and looked up, as if expecting the answer, and added: "Of course He will." How sweetly simple was that little one's faith; she expected God to "do," and, of course, she got her request.

On board a British ship, there was but one Bible among seven hundred men: that was owned by a pious sailor, who did not forget to let his light shine before men. He read it over to others; and at length, by this means, a little praying circle was formed, numbering thirteen in all. Just before an engagement, they all met, and commended themselves to God in prayer, expecting never again to meet in this world. Their ship was in the thickest of the storm; and all around, their comrades fell, never to rise again. At one gun, where two of the number were stationed, three other soldiers were killed by one ball; but there they stood firm to their posts, clad in an armor invisible to mortal eyes, but more impregnable than steel. When the battle was over, those who were left had agreed to meet, if possible. What was their joy to find the whole thirteen assembled, not one of them even wounded! What a thanksgiving meeting that must have been! Their upright behavior was such throughout the voyage that they won the highest respect and commendation of their superior officers.

A pious woman had one son, who grew up gay and dissipated. She followed him with prayers and entreaties; but all seemed unavailing. He one day said, "Mother, let me have my best clothes: I am going to a ball to-night." She urged him not to go; but all in vain. As he was going, she said, "My son, remember when you are dancing, I shall be praying to the Lord to convert your soul." At the ball, instead of the usual gayety, an unaccountable gloom pervaded the whole assembly. One said, "We never had so dull a meeting in our lives." The young man felt his conscience smitten, and said, "I know what is the matter: my poor old mother is now praying for her ungodly son." He took his hat, and said, "I will never be found in such a place as this again." From that night, he began to pray for mercy. His mother's prayer was heard for his conversion.

MUSIC, Power of According to fable, Orpheus was presented with a lyre by his father, Apollo, who taught him to play it. He attained such skill, that nothing could withstand the charm of his music. Men and wild animals thronged around him entranced; the trees crowded about him; and the rocks softened under the charm of his notes. His wife dying, he followed her into the realm of Pluto, and there sang his woes so pathetically, that the ghosts wept. Tantalus forgot his thirst, the Furies shed tears, and Pluto consented to restore the lost wife. One condition was imposed, which Orpheus failed to keep. Then he went forth, and sang his complaints, accompanied by his lyre, to the rocks and mountains, melting the hearts of tigers, and charming the oaks from their stations. The worshippers of Bacchus determined to destroy him. Every weapon used became harmless as soon as it came within the sound of his lyre. Then the drunken women screamed so loud as to drown the voice of the music; when their missiles reached and slew him.

Prayer has divided seas, rolled up flowing rivers, made flinty rocks gush into fountains, quenched flames of fire, muzzled lions, disarmed vipers and poisons, marshalled the stars against the wicked, stopped the course of the moon, arrested the sun in its rapid race, burst open iron gates, recalled souls from eternity, conquered the strongest devils, commanded legions of angels down from heaven. Prayer has bridled and chained the raging passions of man, and routed and destroyed vast armies of proud, daring, blustering atheists. Prayer has brought one man from the bottom of the sea, and carried another in a chariot of fire to heaven. What has not prayer done? Dr. Ryland.

The father of a perverse son prayed the Lord to save him in any way. The son fell seriously sick, and, when nearly past the power of speech, sprang up, exclaiming in agony of spirit, "My father's prayers, like mountains, surround me." He was healed and converted, and thereafter led a new life.

Archimedes, having discovered the lever, said, that, if he could but have a fulcrum, it would raise the very foundations of the whole earth. Such an instrument is prayer, which, if it be set upon God, and fixed in heaven, it will fetch earth up to heaven, change earthly thoughts into heavenly conceptions, turn flesh into spirit, metamorphose nature into grace, and earth into heaven. Spencer.

John Livingston of Scotland once spent a whole night with a company of his brethren in prayer for God's blessing, all of them together besieging the throne; and the next day, under his sermon, five hundred souls were converted. All the world has heard how the audience of the elder Pres. Edwards was moved by his terrible sermon on "Sinners in the hands of an Angry God;" some of them even grasping hold of the pillars of the sanctuary, from feeling that their feet were actually sliding into the pit. But the secret of that sermon's power is known to but very few. Some Christians in that vicinity (Enfield, Mass.) had become alarmed, lest, while God was blessing other places, he should in anger pass them by; and so they met on the evening preceding the preaching of that sermon, and spent the whole of the night in agonizing prayer.

— Dr. H. C. Fish

A negro-boy who had been captured from a slave-ship was landed at Sierra Leone, and placed under the care of a teacher named Thompson. He asked the Lord Jesus to do the same for his parents; and would go every day, and watch by the shore for them. At last, one day, little Tom dragged the teacher to the beach, saying in exclamations of delight, "Prayer answered: father and mother come."

Look at Baxter! he stained his study-walls with praying breath, and, after he got anointed with the unction of the Holy Ghost, sent a river of living water over Kidderminster, and converted hundreds. Luther and his coadjutors were men of such mighty pleading with God, that they broke the spell of ages, and laid nations subdued at the foot of the cross. John Knox grasped in his strong arms of faith all Scotland: his prayers terrified tyrants. Whitefield, after much holy, faithful closet pleading, went to the Devil's fair, and took more than a thousand souls out of the paw of the lion in one day. See a praying Wesley turn more than ten thousand souls to the Lord! Look at the praying Finney, whose prayers, faith, sermons, and writings have shaken the half of America, and sent a wave through the British churches!

— C. D. Foss

A drunkard who had run through his property, says Dr. Schnebly, returned one night to his unfurnished home. He entered its empty hall; anguish was gnawing at his heart-strings, and language is inadequate to express his agony as he entered his wife's apartment, and there beheld the victims of his appetite, his lovely wife and darling child. Morose and sullen, he seated himself without a word; he could not speak, he could not look upon them. The mother said to the little angel by her side, "Come, my child, it is time to go to bed;" and that little babe, as was her wont, knelt by her mother's lap, and gazing wistfully into the face of her suffering parent, like a piece of chiseled statuary, repeated her nightly orison; and when she had finished, the child, (but four years of age,) said to her mother, "Dear ma, may I not offer up one more prayer?" "Yes, yes, my sweet pet, pray;" and she lifted up her tiny hands, closed her eyes, and prayed, "O God! spare, oh, spare my dear papa!" That prayer was wafted with electric rapidity to the throne of God. It was heard on high—'twas heard on earth. The responsive "Amen" burst from that father's lips, and his heart of stone became a heart of flesh. Wife and child were both clasped to his bosom, and in penitence he said, "My child, you have saved your father from the grave of a drunkard. I'll sign the pledge!"

HOLDER CONVERTED.—A slave-holder in the South, extremely irascible and severe, found at length a slave as bad-tempered as himself. No severity of punishment could subdue or bow his stern, indomitable spirit; and, even when smarting under the lash, and reeking with blood from head to foot, he would still defy that master to his face, and pour upon him a torrent of bold, fierce, withering imprecations. It was Turk meeting Turk. But the gospel came ere long to that negro's heart; it tamed the tiger into a lamb; and then did that very slave, once so full only of wrath and revenge, make it the burden of his daily prayers, that God would have mercy on his cruel, relentless oppressor. His infidel master, doubting his sincerity, and an utter stranger to his present spirit, treated him with greater severity than ever, and fiercely swore "he'd whip the devil out of the villain," but the poor slave, even while smarting and writhing, and bleeding under the lash, would fall on his knees, and pray so much the more, "God bless massa! God bless my massa!" This was too much even for depravity like his to bear long; and that very master, under the blessing of God upon such an exhibition of the Christian spirit, good returned for evil, love for hatred, prayers for bloody stripes, at length came himself to pray, and weep, and rejoice in Christ with his much abused, yet still affectionate and devoted, solely because regenerated slave. And when the time came for a public profession of their faith in their common Savior, you might have seen that master and his slave going hand in hand down into the water, there to seal the consecration of themselves to Him whose matchless love it is, rather than his almighty wrath, that subdues rebellious hearts to his sceptre.

A clergyman, at a public religious meeting, related the following anecdote, illustrative of the power of practical maternal faith: He was at the time the seamen's chaplain, at a southern port. In the course of duty, he was called to the sick bed of a sailor, apparently at the gates of death, from the effects of his licentiousness. He addressed him affectionately upon the state of his soul. With an oath, the sick man bid him begone, and not harass his dying bed. The chaplain, however, told him plainly he would speak, and he must hear, for his soul was in danger of eternal death. The man, however, remained sullen and silent, and even pretended to sleep, during his faithful address and prayer. Again and again the visit was repeated with similar ill success. One day, however, the sick man made use of an expression, by which the chaplain suspected he was a Scotchman. To ascertain the fact, the chaplain repeated a verse of that version of the Psalms, still in use among the churches in Scotland:

"Such pity as a father hath Unto his children dear, Like pity shows the Lord to such As worship him in fear."

The chords of his heart vibrated to the well known language. Tears came into his eyes. The chaplain improved his advantage. Knowing the universality of religious instruction among the Scotch, he ventured an allusion to his mother. The poor prodigal burst into tears. He admitted himself to be the child of a praying mother, who had often commended him to God. He had left her long before, to become a wanderer on the face of the great deep. No longer he repelled the kind attentions of the chaplain; and after his recovery, his instructor had the satisfaction of seeing him give evidence that he was a humble, penitent child of God.

A young man, on whose mind the doctrines of religion had been early impressed by his pious mother's instructions, at length went to sea, and became an abandoned and miserable creature. He was thrown into prisons and workhouses, and into dens of wretchedness and vice; but into all these places his faithful mother followed him with her prayers and tears, till she died, leaving him in prison, convicted of crime. Here he was an object of so much dread, that not one of the keepers ventured to approach him alone. In about six months, however, the tiger began to grow tame, and his inquiry was, "What shall I do to be saved?" Mr. Bradford questioned him about his feelings, and he informed him, that for two months he had paced his room, with sleepless nights, in agony and remorse, save when exhausted nature would sometimes overcome his horrible convictions. Mr. B. inquired what particular cause had led him to his present feelings. He replied, "My mother's prayers and counsels! Her last words to me were, 'William, there is no other name given under heaven among men,

# MURD!

288. Misery, Detection and Punishment of.

A curious case occurred in one of the towns in the western part of the state of New-York. There was a revival there. A certain clergyman came to visit the place, and heard a great deal said about the prayer of faith. He was staggered at what they said, for he had never regarded the subject in the light they did. He inquired about it of the minister who was laboring there. The minister requested him, in a kind spirit, to go home and take his | exposed to cold, and all the inclemencies of the weather, in small wooden carts made without springs, and which are always used to convey criminals to their place of exile. Menzikoff and one of his daughters lived to reach Berezof, but to end their days in that place of solitude.

When Menzikoff found his death approaching, he called his children to his bedside, and thus addressed them: "My children, I draw near to my last hour; death, the thoughts of which have been familiar to me since I have been here, would have nothing terrible in it, if I had only to account to the Supreme Judge for the time I have passed in misfortune. Hitherto your hearts have been free from corruption. You will preserve your innocence better in these deserts than at court: but should you return to it, recollect only the examples which your father has given you here."

On the accession of the Empress Anne to the throne, Menzikoff's younger daughter, and his son, returned to Russia; and the Dolgoroukis felt, in their turn, all the horrors they had contributed to inflict on the Menzikoffs; with this aggravation, that the same person who conducted them to Berezof, carried with him the recall of Menzikoff and his family.

# YER.

Testament, look out the passages that refer to prayer, and go round to his most praying people, and ask them how they understood those passages. He said he would do it, for though these views were new to him, he was willing to learn. He did it, and went to his praying men and women, and read the passages without note or comment, and asked them what they thought. He found their plain common sense had led them to understand these passages, and to believe that they mean just as they say. This affected him, and then the fact of his going round and presenting the promises before their minds, awakened a spirit of prayer in them, and a revival followed. 320-322

PRAYER

About the time when the Gospel was beginning to make its way in Raiatea, a canoe, with four men in it, was upset at sea, and the men were thrown into the water, where, though nearly amphibious, they must have been drowned, the waves drifting them to and fro, unless speedily carried to shore, or taken up by some vessel. Two of the men having embraced Christianity, immediately cried out, "Let us pray to Jehovah; for he can save us." "Why did you not pray to him sooner?" replied their pagan comrades: "here we are in the water, and it is useless to pray now." The Christians, however, did cry mightily unto their God, while all four were clinging for life to their broken canoe. In this situation, a shark suddenly rushed towards them, and seized one of the men. His companions held him as fast and as long as they could; but the monster prevailed, and hurried the unfortunate victim into the abyss, marking the track with his blood. He was one of the two who were idolaters. After some time, the tide bore the surviving three to the reef, when, just as they were cast upon it, a second shark snatched the other idolater with his jaws, and carried off his prey, shrieking in vain for assistance, which the two Christians, themselves struggling with the breakers, could not afford him. This circumstance very naturally made a great impression upon the minds of their countrymen, and powerfully recommended to them the "God that heareth prayer."

A writer in the N. Y. Evangelist says:

Whilst a meeting of much interest was going on in a certain country town in Virginia, Mr. K., a pious young man, selected a young lawyer who was a noted scorner, and made him the subject of special prayer. About two days afterwards, the young lawyer came to the house where the pastor was. I myself was in the same house at this time, but being particularly engaged I requested the pastor to speak to him. "O," says he, "he is not serious." Yes, I replied, he must be, or he would not come here. "I know him better than you do," said the pastor, "he is a scorner. There is no hope of him." The young lawyer was permitted to depart, I believe without a single religious remark having been made to him. My conjectures were true. He was then under awakening influences, and a few days afterwards he professed conversion!

Perhaps two weeks after that, this young lawyer was riding along the road on his way to a protracted meeting, about to be held in an adjacent county. Before he reached the place he fell in with another young man, Mr. P., going to the same meeting. Religious conversation was introduced, and the hopefully converted sinner spoke freely of the change of views and feelings which he had experienced, and ascribed them, under God, to the prayers of his friend, Mr. K., who selected him as the subject of special prayer. "Ah," said Mr. P., "I had friends once who used to pray for me; but I have been so careless, so wicked, they don't think it worth while to pray for me now. They have all given me up. There is not one, I suppose, on earth, who remembers me in prayer." "O, yes," replied the young lawyer, "there is one I know." "Who is it?" quickly asked Mr. P. "The very same who prayed for me, has made you the subject of special prayer." "Is it possible?" said Mr. P.; and throwing himself back, he had well nigh fallen from the horse upon which he was riding. From that moment he waked up to the claims of his undying soul. A few days after, with great joy, he was telling to all around, what a dear Savior he had found!—Blessed be God, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

In a certain place, where there had for a long time been no revival, there was to be a splendid ball. There were three very pious and devoted Christians in the village who mourned over the excessive dissipation and folly of the rising generation, and especially over the coming ball. They naturally feared it would do much to deepen the disrelish of the youth for sacred things, and to entrench them more securely in the charmed circle of worldlines and vanity. They knew no means to prevent the ball, and they determined on the evening of the dance, to meet together and carry the case to God, and beseech Him to confound this artful scheme of Satan to delude and ruin the young. They prayed with earnestness, and with faith, wrestling as Jacob did with the angel of God. Ere long they arose from their knees, believing their supplications had found audience in heaven. How was it? Soon after the ball commenced, a young lady was led out on the floor to dance, and being struck with an awful sense of her guilt and madness, she fell down on her knees, and in the utmost agony and horror of conscience, began to cry to God to have mercy on her soul. Confusion, sadness, and dismay spread like fire through all the circle, music and mirth suddenly ceased, and all returned to their homes. Was not this the finger of God? Was not this the work of the Holy Spirit? Was not His promise verified to the two or three, who were agreed as touching one thing?

A lady in one of our large cities had been in the habit of attending religious meetings in the evening. When she had no one to accompany her, she would go alone, although frequently admonished of her danger. On her return one evening from the place of worship, in crossing a public walk which lay in her way home, she was met by two ruffians, who stopped before her, and presenting a pistol to her breast, demanded her watch and money. Although alone as they supposed, there was one present in whom she trusted, that the wretches did not see, and at whose approach others like them once "went backward and fell to the ground." As she had no arm of flesh to protect her, she instantly fell upon her knees before them, and with uplifted hands cried out, "Now, LORD JESUS, help!" The affrighted assassins fled.

A man, who was once a decided infidel, said he desired to bless God for Sunday schools. They had been, he observed, the means of saving his soul. His brother-in-law and sister had, with much entreaty, persuaded him to send his little boy to the Sunday school. The child had often heard the superintendents enforce the duty and importance of prayer, to which he had listened attentively. One Sunday morning, while his mother was dressing his little brother, this boy was missing, and on inquiring of him where he had been, he replied, he had been saying his prayers: and added, "Mother, does my father ever pray?" She informed his father what the child had said. The father, having lived in the neglect of prayer, felt condemned; conviction seized his mind: he sought the Lord, and found him, to the joy of his soul.

TRESS.—A girl, who belonged to a Sunday school in Birmingham, obtained a situation as nurse, maid in a respectable family. One Sunday evening her mistress was informed that Mary had been to the chapel, and she immediately gave the girl warning to quit her service in a month, saying that she would have no chapel-going servants in her house. In the course of the ensuing week, one of the servants told her mistress that Mary used to pray every night before she went to sleep. The mistress inquired whose prayer-book Mary took to bed with her. She was told that she prayed without a book. The mistress replied, "That cannot be, for no one can pray without a book." The servant asked her mistress to come up stairs and listen, after they were gone to bed, that she might hear Mary pray in the dark without a book. The mistress accordingly went up that night, and heard Mary praying aloud for her master and mistress, and particularly for the little child whom she used to nurse. The mistress was much affected, and informed her husband of it. He went up the next night, and heard Mary's fervent prayer, at which he was so greatly affected that he afterwards told his wife, with tears, that she must not part with Mary. They ascertained that the girl had learned to pray by attending the Sunday school; and on the next Sunday evening the master, the mistress, and Mary, all went to chapel together. Thus Mary was confirmed in her situation, and became the means of bringing her master and mistress to attend a place of worship, which they afterwards did regularly, and became subscribers to the Sunday school.

# 397. Religious Benefits.