44 Sermon Illustrations on Prayer Life

When I was a boy, we had a neighbor lady who frequently came to the back door of our home. She never wasted any time coming to the point. Her words were always the same: "I just want to borrow (something)." The problem was she never came at any other time. My mother graciously let her have what she wanted, then she would be gone. I know my mother never appreciated her as much as the other neighbors, but she never complained. I often think of this lady when I hear some people pray. Some people never call on God until they want something. God is loving, and He probably gives them what they ask of Him. But would not it be a lot better if they would call on God at other times? We had another neighbor who came frequently, and never asked for anything. She always started her conversation by saying, "Just stopped by for a visit." I think God would like us to do that, "Just stop by for a visit." The next time you pray, why not do it-just for a visit? A Much Needed Prayer Make deaf my ears to slander that is told: Silence my tongue to aught that is unkind; Let only thoughts that bless dwell in my mind. Let me so kindly be, so full of cheer, That all I meet may feel Thy presence here. O clothe me in Thy beauty, this I pray, Let me reveal Thee, Lord, through all the day. The Lord Sent It Years ago an old lady had no money to buy food. She prayed, "Dear Lord, please send me a side of bacon and a sack of corn meal." Over and over again she prayed the same prayer aloud. One of the town's unscrupulous citizens decided to play a trick on her. He dropped a side of bacon and a sack of corn meal down her chimney. It landed in front of her as she knelt in prayer. Jumping to her feet, she exclaimed, "Oh Lord! You have answered my prayer!" Then she went all over town telling everyone the good news. This was too much for the scoundrel who dropped the food down her chimney. He ridiculed her publicly and told her that God did not answer her prayer; he did. The old lady replied, "Well, the devil may have brought it, but it was the Lord who sent it!" God answers prayers in many ways.

"What strange condescension, that he who hath the key of David should knock at the Father's gate, and receive his own heaven by gift and entreaty!" These are Manton's words of surprise at the first sentences of our Lord's prayer in John xvii.: "Father, glorify thy Son." Even to Jesus it is said, "Ask of me." God had one Son without sin, but never a son who did not pray. The cry of "Abba, Father!" is the mark of sonship. True prayer is the sign of a true-born child of God: "Behold, he prayeth" is the token by which each heir of glory is known. What, then, must be the condition of such as never pray? How dwelleth sonship in them? All who call upon the Lord in spirit and in truth may say, "Our Father": it is as "the Father" that God seeketh such to worship him. O my heart, dread above all things a prayerless spirit! Thou hast not the key of David; how, then, canst thou enter into glory without knocking? He who had power to enter of himself yet asked that he might receive. Rouse thee, my soul, to renewed supplication, and may the Father hear thee at this hour, for Jesus' sake.

"By running and breathing yourselves every day, you are the fitter to run in a race; so the oftener you come into God's presence the greater confidence, and freedom, and enlargement it will bring." No doubt by praying we learn to pray, and the more we pray the oftener we can pray, and the better we can pray. He who prays by fits and starts is never likely to attain to that effectual, fervent prayer which availeth much. Prayer is good, the habit of prayer is better, but the spirit of prayer is the best of all. It is in the spirit of prayer that we pray without ceasing, and this can never be acquired by the man who ceases to pray. It is wonderful what distances men can run who have long practised the art, and it is equally marvellous for what a length of time they can maintain a high speed after they have once acquired stamina, and skill in using their muscles. Great power in prayer is within our reach, but we must go to work to obtain it. Let us never imagine that Abraham could have interceded so successfully for Sodom if he had not been all his lifetime in the practice of communion with God. Jacob's all-night at Peniel was not the first occasion upon which he had met his God. We may even look upon our Lord's most choice and wonderful prayer with his disciples before his Passion as the flower and fruit of his many nights of devotion, and of his often rising up a great while before day to pray. A man who becomes a great runner has to put himself in training, and to keep himself in it; and that training consists very much of the exercise of running. Those who have distinguished themselves for speed have not suddenly leaped into eminence, but have long been runners. If a man dreams that he can become mighty in prayer just when he pleases, he labours under a great mistake. The prayer of Elias, which shut up heaven and afterwards opened its floodgates, was one of a long series of mighty prevailings with God. Oh, that Christian men would

remember this! Perseverance in prayer is necessary to prevalence in prayer. Those great intercessors, who are not so often mentioned as they ought to be in connection with confessors and martyrs, were nevertheless the grandest benefactors of the church; but it was only by abiding at the mercy-seat that they attained to be such channels of mercy to men. We must pray to pray, and continue in prayer that our prayers may continue. O thou, by whom we come to God, seeing thou hast thyself trodden the way of prayer, and didst never turn from it, teach me to remain a suppliant as long as I remain a sinner, and to wrestle in prayer so long as I have to wrestle with the powers of evil. Whatever else I may outgrow, may I never dream that I may relax my supplications; for well I know that— Long as they live should Christians pray, For only while they pray they live."

"Where do you find a place to pray in?" was asked of a pious sailor on board a whaling-ship. "Oh!" he said, "I can always find a quiet spot at the masthead." "Sam, do you find a spot for secret prayer?" asked a minister of a stable-boy. "Oh, yes, sir! that old coach is my closet."

A once popular minister gradually lost his influence and congregation. The blame was laid entirely upon him. Some of his church-officials went to talk with him on the subject. He replied, "I am quite sensible of all you say; for I feel it to be true: and the reason of it is, I have lost my prayer-book." He explained: "Once my preaching was acceptable; many were edified by it; and numbers were added to the church, which was then in a prosperous state. But we were then a praying people. Many joined in prayer that my preaching might be blessed to the conversion of sinners and to the edification of saints. This, by the blessing of God, made us prosper. Prayer was restrained, and the present condition of things followed. Let us return to the same means, and the same results may be expected." They followed the suggestion; and, in a short time, the minister was as popular as he had ever been, and the church was in a flourishing state.

As those who keep clocks wind them up daily, lest the weights should run down, and the clock stop; so we must set apart some portion of every day for meditation and prayer, lest our hearts should so far descend, through the weight of the cares of this world, that our course in godliness should be hindered and stopped.

— Cavebray

It is not the gilded paper and good writing of a petition, that prevails with a king, but the moving sense of it. And to that King who discerns the heart, heart-sense is the sense of all, and that which he only regards. He listens to hear what that speaks, and takes all as nothing where that is silent. All other excellence in prayer is but the outside and fashion of it: this is the life of it.

— Leighton

When thou art wrestling, like Jacob with the angel, and art nearly thrown down, ask the Holy Spirit to nerve thine arm. Consider how the Holy Spirit is the chariot-wheel of prayer. Prayer may be the chariot, the desire may draw it forth; but the Spirit is the very wheel whereby it moveth. Spurgeon.

If many professing Christians should speak out the things which they really feel, instead of the smooth prayers which they do pray, they would say when they go home at night, "O Lord! I met a poor wretch of yours to-day, a miserable, unwashed brat, and I gave him sixpence, and I have been sorry for it ever since;" or, "O Lord! if I had not signed those articles of faith, I might have gone to the theatre this evening. Your religion deprives me of a great deal of enjoyment; but I mean to stick to it. There's no other way of getting into heaven, I suppose." Beecher.

When a pump is frequently used, the water pours out at the first stroke, because it is high; but, if the pump has not been used for a long time, the water gets low, and when you want it you must pump a long while; and the water comes only after great efforts. It is so with prayer. If we are instant in prayer, every little circumstance awakens the disposition to pray, and desire and words are always ready: but, if we neglect prayer, it is difficult for us to pray; for the water in the well gets low. Felix Neff.

"Pa," asked a little boy, "does the Lord know every thing?"—"Yes, my son," replied the father; "but why do you ask that question?"—"Because," replied the boy, "our preacher, when he prays, is so long telling him every thing, I thought he wasn't posted."

How many courtiers go a hundred times a year into the prince's chamber without hope of once speaking with him, but only to be seen of him! So must we come to the exercise of prayer, purely and merely to do our duty, and to testify our fidelity. Sales.

Rev. Philip Henry, after praying for two of his children who were dangerously ill, said, "If the Lord will be pleased to grant me this my request concerning my children, I will not say as the beggars at our door used to do, 'I'll never ask any thing of him again;' but, on the contrary, he shall hear oftener from me than ever; and I will love God the better as long as I live."

When an archer shoots his arrow at a mark, he likes to go and see whether he has hit it, or how near he has come to it. When you have written and sent off a letter to a friend, you expect some day that the postman will be knocking at the door with an answer. When a child asks his father for something, he looks in his face, even before he speaks, to see if he is pleased, and reads acceptance in his eyes. But it is to be greatly feared that many people feel, when their prayers are over, as if they had quite done with them. Their only concern was to get them said. An old heathen poet speaks of Jupiter throwing certain prayers to the winds, — dispersing them "in empty air." It is sad to think that we so often do that for ourselves. What would you think of a man who had written and folded and sealed and addressed a letter, flinging it out into the street, and thinking no more about it? Sailors in foundering ships sometimes commit notes in sealed bottles to the waves, for the chance of their being some day washed on some shore. Sir John Franklin's companions among the snows, and Capt. Allen Gardiner, dying of hunger in his cave, wrote words they could not be sure any one would ever read. But we do not need to think of our prayers as random messages. We should therefore look for reply to them, and watch to get it. Dr. Edmond.

A clergyman, observing a poor man by the road break ng stones with a pickaxe, and kneeling to get at his work better, made the remark, "Ah, John! I wish I could break the stony hearts of my hearers as easily as you are breaking those stones." The man replied, "Perhaps, master, you do not work on your knees."

Colonel Gardiner, in a letter, mentions the pleasure with which he had attended, a preparation sermon the Saturday before the dispensation of the Lord's Supper. He writes, "I took a walk on the mountains over against Ireland; and I persuade myself, that were I capable of giving you a description of what passed there, you would agree that I had much better reason to remember my God from the hills of Port-Patrick, than David from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar. In short, I wrestled some hours with the Angel of the covenant, and made supplications to him with floods of tears and cries, until I had almost expired; but he strengthened me so, that like Jacob, I had power with God and prevailed. You will be more able to judge of this, by what you have felt yourself, upon the like occasions. After such a preparatory work, I need not tell you how blessed the solemn ordinance of the Lord's Supper proved to me; I hope it was so to many."

# NY, EVIL.

of the cotton factories. Here he met with boys of his own age, who were hardened in sin. Through the force of their evil example he lost, by degrees, all his serious impressions; and having thrown off the fear of God, became addicted to intemperance and the commission of petty thefts. His dissolute conduct soon led him into the arriv. The regiment was sent to Spain, where his habit of excessive drinking was confirmed; and not satisfied with the advantages he reaped as the fruits of many victories, he plundered the innocent and peaceful inhabitants. On the close of the war in the peninsula, he returned home with his regiment: and soon after landing on the coast of Hampshire, he, with others of his companions, whose principles he had vitiated, broke into several houses; till at length he was detected, arraigned at the tribunal of justice, and condemned to an ignominious death at the age of twenty-one.

Sir Harbottle Grimstone, master of the rolls, an eminent lawyer, a just judge, and a person of large fortune, who lived in the 17th century, was a very pious and devout man, and spent, every morning and evening, at least an hour in meditation and prayer. And even in winter, when he was obliged to be very early on the bench, he took care to rise soon enough to have the time he usually devoted to these exercises.

An aged burgomaster, traveling to Germany, stopped at an inn on the borders of that country and Holland. He observed that the servant girl who laid the cloth, and made other preparations for his supper, performed these offices neatly and with much alacrity, and he commended her, saying also, "I trust that, while you show yourself so careful in the performance of the common duties of your station, you are not less diligent in observing the duties and privileges of a Christian." The girl, who was quite ignorant of religion, replied by asking what he meant; upon which he entered more particularly into an explanation of his meaning, dwelling especially on the importance of prayer, as he found that she lived in entire neglect of it. Her countenance and manner indicated a strict adherence to truth, and he told her that if, when he again passed through the place, she could assure him that she had knelt down every night and morning, and uttered a short prayer, he would give her a ten-guilder piece, (a gold coin, value 16s. 8d.) After some hesitation the girl agreed, and asked what the prayer was, the repetition of which was to procure her a larger sum than she had ever before possessed at one time. The burgomaster told her, "Lord Jesus, convert my soul." At first, the girl hesitated, and sometimes thought that she might omit the repetition of these words, the full meaning of which she did not understand. A better feeling, however, induced her to continue, and also to inquire the meaning of these words.

About six months afterwards, the old gentleman returned; he went to the same inn; another girl laid his supper cloth; he inquired for her predecessor in vain. He then asked for the landlord, who told him that five months back the girl alluded to had been seized with such a praying fit, that he found she would no longer do for his service, and that she was then living with a private family in the neighborhood. In the morning the old gentleman sought for and found her; and said he was come to fulfil his promise. She immediately recognized him, but decidedly refused his offered money, saying, "I have found a reward much richer than any sum of gold."

A correspondent of the N. Y. Evangelist remarks: While it is a subject of regret, that many professors of religion are so conformed to the world, as exceedingly to limit their usefulness, it is very refreshing to the spirits of holy ones, to meet with here and there a disciple living above the world, and at the same time shedding a holy influence on all around. Of this latter and better sort of Christians, I knew a man who departed this life at the advanced age of 94 years. His whole business, while I knew him, and as I have been told for about 80 of the last years of his life, had been to serve God and enlarge the kingdom of Christ on earth. His conversation was spiritual beyond that of any other man I ever knew. It was exceedingly difficult to interest him in any other subject than that of religion. The cause of his high spiritual attainments consisted in the fact, that he was more than any other person of my knowledge, a man of prayer.

On the day of his burial, when many friends were assembled to commit his remains to the tomb, the subject of his spirituality and holy living, became a topic of conversation. Said one, who was more intimately acquainted with the deceased than the rest, if you will take a short walk, I will let you into the great secret of our departed friend's holy life, and triumphant death. To this proposition a number of the relatives conceded. They were conducted along a narrow beaten footpath into a grove some fifty rods from the house. This grove was the chosen place for many years of this holy man for prayer and meditation. Soon after entering the grove, they came to the devoted spot, the sanctuary where the holy man had carried on his intercourse with the upper world. The very impress of his knees, as he bowed before the Mighty One of Israel, was distinctly visible. He supported himself in this attitude by two saplings, one on either side, which, by long and frequent use were worn smooth like polished steel. The place was often afterwards visited by the curious, and was ever regarded as one of the best mementoes of the worth of this departed saint. This footpath and the prints of the knees and hands were visible for some two or three years after the good man entered his rest; but are now overgrown and forgotten.

Mr. Abbott states, in his "MOTHER AT HOME," that a gentleman from England brought a letter of introduction to a gentleman in America. The stranger was of accomplished mind and manners, but an infidel. The gentleman to whom he had brought letters of introduction, and his lady, were active Christian philanthropists. They invited the stranger to make their house his home, and treated him with every possible attention. Upon the evening of his arrival, just before the usual hour for retiring, the gentleman, knowing the peculiarity of his friend's sentiments, observed to him, that the hour had arrived in which they usually attended family prayers; that he should be happy to have him remain and unite with them, or, if he preferred, he could retire. The gentleman intimated that it would give him pleasure to remain. A chapter of the Bible was read, and the family all knelt in prayer, the stranger with the rest. In a few days the stranger left this hospitable dwelling, and embarked on board a ship for a foreign land. In the course of three foreign lands. In the course of three or four years, however, the providence of God again led that stranger to the same dwelling. But oh, how changed! He came the happy Christian, the humble man of piety and prayer. In the course of the evening's conversation he remarked, that when he, on the first evening of his previous visit, knelt with them in family prayer, it was the first time for many years that he had bowed the knee to his Maker. This act brought to his mind such a crowd of recollections, it so vividly reminded him of a parent's prayers, which he had heard at home, that he was entirely bewildered. His emotion was so great, that he did not hear one syllable of the prayer which was uttered, from its commencement to its close. But God made this the instrument of leading him from the dreary wilds of infidelity to the peace and the joy of piety. His parents had long before gone home to their eternal rest; but the prayers they had offered for and with their son, had left an influence which could not die. They might have prayed ever so fervently for him, but if they had not prayed with him, if they had not knelt by his side, and caused his listening ear to hear their earnest supplications, their child might have continued through life an infidel.

Mr. John Kilpin, father of the Rev. Samuel Kilpin, of Exeter, having from some cause displeased a member of the church; at a prayer meeting, his offended brother used most unbecoming expressions respecting him in prayer. On his family's offering their sympathy and expressing resentment, he said, with a mind unruffled, "I was not the least hurt on my own account: such talking never goes any higher than the ceiling; the God of love never admits it as prayer."

In the town of—, in Connecticut, there lived Mr. S—, an elderly man of undoubted piety, and one whose catholic and Christian spirit led him to associate with the people of God of all denominations. He circulated to some extent, among Congregationalists, Baptists and Methodists; attended many of their prayer meetings, and was frequently invited to conduct them. Every Christian loved Father S—. One evening he was to conduct a meeting for prayer, and had opened it with reading a portion of Scripture, after which he proposed to lead in prayer. He had nearly finished his chapter, when elder L—, a Baptist minister of high-toned Calvinistic sentiments, entered and took his seat near him. The thought crossed his mind, "Now I am rather moderate in some of my views, and I must try to chape my prayer so as not to give offence to good brother L—." With this thought in his mind, he kneeled and commenced with a few words of address to the Deity—became confused, and stopped. A second and third attempt were made with similar results. No one except the Baptist brother could conjecture what it was that occasioned the embarrassment of father S—. At length he exclaimed, "I don't know what ails me, I can't pray a bit!" "I know what ails you," said Mr. L—, "you are trying to pray to me; pray to God and you will get along well enough." "I believe you are right," said the old gentleman, "I will try once more." He did so, and succeeded to the edification of all present.