“Oh, for five hundred Elijahs,” exclaimed Charles Spurgeon, “each one upon his Carmel, crying unto God, and we should soon have the clouds bursting into showers! Oh, for more prayer, more constant, incessant prayer! Then the blessing would rain upon us.”
These words of Spurgeon’s are quoted on page sixty-one of the book, How They Prayed Vol. Two, written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey.
How They Prayed Vol. 2, written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, is written to show how ministers of God’s word have discovered prayer to be the foundation of a work which endures and bears lasting fruit. “Get your sermon preparation well done before the Sabbath,” urges Samuel Chadwick. “Turn into bed in good time on Saturday night, and out of it early on Sunday morning. Get three hours with God before you go to the pulpit; get at Him by reading, believing, and praying over His Book. Talk with Him till He talks with you and says, “Go in this thy strength.”
S. Chadwick, p. 34
Alexander Whyte has further advice for every minister of the Gospel:
“Pray after the sermon. Prayer for ourselves and the people after preaching is much neglected. Do not neglect either.”
“With his closet, and with the key of his closet continually in his hand, no minister need despair, even though he is not a great orator with a great gift of public prayer.”
“Apart! Apart! Every minister―of all men―apart!”
“Our friends! How bad we all are to our friends! How short-sighted, how cruel, how thoughtless, how inconsiderate! We send them gifts. Our children cover their Christmas tree with Christmas presents to our friends. Our friends cost us a great deal of thought and trouble and money, from time to time. We send them sheaves of cards with all manner of affectionate devices and verses. We take time and we write our old friends, at home and abroad, letters full of news and of affection on Christmas Day and on New Year’s Day. But we never pray for them! Or, at best, we pray for them in a great hurry.
“Why do we do everything for our friends, but the best thing? How few of us shut our door during all the leisure of the last two weeks, and deliberately, and particularly, and with discrimination, and with importunity prayed for our dearest and best friends! We discriminate in our purchases for our friends, lest we should slight or offend our friends; but not in our prayers.”
Why should we wonder at the flight
Of any streaking satellite,
When every worshipping heart can share
A gold immensity of prayer
That circles earth and reaches far
Beyond the mightiest gleaming star―
More bright than any galaxy,
More wide than all infinity!
―Grace V. Watkins.
(Used by Permission of Herald of Holiness).
How They Prayed Vol. 2 is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.
When the glory of the Father
Is the goal of every prayer―
When before the Throne in Heaven
Our High Priest presents it there―
When the Spirit prompts the asking,
When the waiting heart believes―
Then we know of each petition
Everyone who asks receives.
This poem is on the back cover of the book, How They Prayed Vol. 2, written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey. This volume particularly emphasizes the need for ministers of the Gospel to be steeped in prayer and quotes from various preachers and pastors of past generations to show how they have stressed and practiced the importance of prayer in their ministry.
The opening chapters stress the importance of early rising as can be seen by the following excerpts:
On the lone mountain side,
Before the morning’s light,
The Man of sorrows wept and cried
And rose refreshed with might:
O hear us, then, for we
Are very weak and frail;
We make the Savior’s name our plea,
And surely must prevail.
―Charles Spurgeon. p. 8
This (early rising) used to be easier than it is now. The whole habit of life of the modern world has been changed, and for the worse spiritually, by two inventions, rapid locomotion and brilliant artificial lights. By the latter, night can be turned into day; the world sits up late and cannot rise early. The evident rule of the Creator for His creatures is disregarded by man, and one inevitable result is that while birds and beasts go on without nervous disorders, the human race gets more and more neurotic and undependable.―From An Ordered Life, by G. H. Lang, by permission of Paternoster Press, Exeter. Quoted in Royal Insignia, p. 14
If you receive what I call ‘the full composure’ in the morning, the mind stayed upon God, the solid rest, this will carry you into all your little concerns with the utmost patience, and the daily cross will be the blessed means of increasing your heaven. And this is a constant heaven; this is your place―to have God your all. William Bramwell. p. 22
“A plain man once said in the presence of the writer, ‘You must get up soon of a morning if you intend to get to windward of the Almighty.’ He spoke the truth.”―Thomas Champness, How They Prayed Vol. 2, p. 33
This is the main thrust of the first two chapters of How They Prayed Vol. 2, written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, a book which focuses on the importance of prayer in the lives of all who would serve God and minister to others. Gerhardt Tersteegen echoes the same thought:
“O brothers; in these silent hours
God’s miracles are wrought;
He giveth His beloved in sleep
A treasure all unsought.
“I sit an infant at His feet,
Where moments teach me more
Than all the toil and all the books
Of all the ages hoar.”
―Tersteegen. p. 23
“Though I am apt to be unsettled and quickly set off the hinges,” writes Joseph Alleine, “yet methinks I am like a bird out of the nest; I am never quiet till I am in my old way of communion with God, like the needle in the compass that is restless till it be turned toward the pole. I can say, through grace, with the Church, ‘with my soul have I desired thee in the night, and with my spirit within me have I sought thee early.’ My heart is early and late with God; ’tis the business of my life and the delight of my life to seek Him.” p. 25
Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should
Dawn with the day: these are set awful hours
’Twixt Heaven and us: the manna was not good
After sun-rising; for day sullies flowers:
Rise to prevent the sun; sleep doth sins glut,
And Heaven’s gates open when the world’s is shut.
―J Henry Vaughan p. 23
How They Prayed Vol. Two is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.
Who among us relishes being told his or her faults? Self-justification is generally our spontaneous reaction. Yet Pascal advises otherwise: “When people detect in us what are actually imperfections and faults, it is clear that they do us no wrong, since it is not they who caused them; and it is clear, too, that they do us a service, inasmuch as they help us to free ourselves from an evil, namely, the ignorance of these defects. We should not be angry because they know them and despise us; for it is right that they should know us for what we are, and that they should despise us if we are despicable.”
Pascal. p. 179
“Ah, Lord, since in Thy hands the most feeble things gain power and strength, and a reed placed within them becomes a scepter, take Thou my heart; it is but a reed, flexible and versatile, turning with every wind; a hollow reed, empty of charity, of devotion, empty of all good. But from the moment it is placed in Thy hands, it will be filled with the strength of Thy divine Spirit, and will become a generous heart, a firm heart, an ardent and fervent heart, ready to surmount all difficulties, and to make all obstacles give way before its indefatigable perseverance.” Ibid, p. 188
I asked of God that He should give success
To the high task I sought for Him to do;
I asked that every hindrance might grow less
And that my hours of weakness might be few;
I asked that far and lofty heights be scaled;
And now I humbly thank Him that I failed.
For with the pain and sorrow came to me
A dower of tenderness in act and thought;
And with the failure came a sympathy,
An insight which success had never brought.
Father, I had been foolish and unblest
If Thou hadst granted me my blind request.
—J. Stuart Holden. P. 146
“I could not do without Thee!
I cannot stand alone:
I have no strength or goodness,
No wisdom of my own.
But Thou, beloved Savior,
Art all in all to me;
And weakness will be power,
If leaning hard on Thee.”
—Frances Ridley Havergal, Royal Insignia, p. 178
Without humility religious progress is impossible. The true growth of the soul is not to be measured by our attempting many extraordinary duties but by our power of doing simple duties well. And humility, when it reigns in the soul, carries this principle into practice. It bids us hallow our work, especially whatever may be to us hard or distasteful work.—H. P. Liddon, Ibid, p. 146
Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.
Most of us find that we are being urged in a thousand ways to step up, make something of ourselves often at the cost of others, and realize our full potential. While in Christ, we certainly can become the full-orbed person we were created to be, the way to achieve this is often the reverse of what the world would advise. In the book Royal Insignia, we are reminded of our Master’s example and urged to follow in His steps. On page 194, we read Campbell Morgan’s comments on Christ’s washing His disciples’ feet in the thirteenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel:
What condescension,
Bringing us redemption . . .
God, gracious, tender,
Laid aside His splendor,
Stooping to woo, to win, to save my soul.
—W. E. Booth-Clibborn. Royal Insignia, p. 196
O blessed name of SERVANT! comprehending
Man’s highest honor in his humblest name;
For Thou, God’s Christ, that office recommending,
The throne of mighty power didst truly claim;
He who would rise like Thee, like Thee must owe
His glory only to his stooping low.
—Bethune. Ibid, p. 194
Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.
Royal Insignia is the title given to a compilation on the subject of humility, written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, and it makes us ask the question, “What indeed is the sign that we are true followers of Jesus Christ? Watchman Nee puts this exact question to us in the following quotation from the above-mentioned book:
“Circumcision was a sign that marked out the Jew from the rest of mankind. What is the corresponding mark of our Christian life before men? Is it charity? Wisdom? Sincerity? Zeal? Other men have these. None of them is peculiar to the people of God, but there is one that is. It is a seemly absence of self-confidence! What distinguishes God’s own is that their confidence in the flesh is destroyed and they are cast back upon Him.
“Meekness,” states Oswald Chambers, “is a state of flexibility in the hand of God and a condition of inflexibility to evil. It is a domestic word used of a disciplined animal. Meekness is self-control and like the mighty engine can polish a needle or cut a bar of iron. It is man’s spirit under the control of God’s Spirit.
—Oswald Chambers. Royal Insignia, p. 168
Live Christ—and though thy road may be
The strait way of humility;
He Who first trod that way of God
Will clothe thee with His dignity.
—John Oxenham. Royal Insignia, p.176
Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.
I think it is safe to assume that nearly everyone wishes to be credited for what he or she has accomplished and is often irked when the praise due to them is accorded to someone else.
Edwin and Lillian Harvey, co-authors of the compilation Royal Insignia, have devoted several readings in their book to this subject. The following are quotations from these readings:
“One day a friend of mine, when passing down a Glasgow street, saw a crowd at a shop door, and had the curiosity to look in. There he saw an auctioneer holding up a grand picture so that all could see it. When he got it into position, he remained behind it and said to the crowd, “Now, look at this part of the picture . . . and now at this other part,” and so on, describing each detail of it. Said my friend, “The whole time I was there, I never saw the speaker, but only the picture he was showing.” That is the way to work for Christ.
“It is when we forget ourselves that we do things that are remembered.
—Eugene P. Bertin.” p. 170
“It is our truest happiness to live entirely for the glory of Christ—to separate between ‘I’ and ‘the glory of Christ.’ We are always saying, ‘What have I done? Was it my preaching, my sermon, my influence?’ Whereas we should be asking, ‘What hath God wrought?’”
–Robert Murray McCheyne, p. 173
Henry Venn relates how, in his associations with Mr. Fletcher, he noted how unfeigned was his humility and how spontaneous his hatred of personal gratification. He says: “When I thanked him for two sermons he had one day preached to my people at Huddersfield, he answered as no man ever did to me. With eyes and hands uplifted, he exclaimed, ‘Pardon, pardon, pardon, O my God.’ The words went to my very soul. Great grace was upon this blessed servant of Christ.” p. 154
“One man insists on seeing his fruit, and God gives way to him and lets him have what he seeks; he sees his work prospering in his hands, but, unhappily, it does not endure; there is in the end the bitterness of disappointment. Another asks but one thing—that he may please to the uttermost Him Who has called him to be His servant. He is willing to wait in apparent sterility until God shall give the increase. He knows that God is the Author of all true fruit and has the absolute control of all resources, and can accomplish by the wave of His hand the renovation of the world. Accordingly he puts his seed into the hand of God, sure that, in the best of times, he will see the best of harvests. Let us abide in Christ, bury ourselves in Him, be found in Him. ‘Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.’
—George Bowen p. 156
Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.
Childhood often holds a truth with its feeble finger, which the grasp of manhood cannot retain, which it is the pride of utmost age to recover,” says John Ruskin.
“Spiritual childhood is better than natural childhood,” writes Alfred Cookman in the same vein, “for it combines all that is good in a child’s heart with what is valuable in that same heart when matured. The trust may be stronger and more perfect, and purity purer, something much more than the innocence of ignorance.”
Both these quotations on the importance of becoming as little children if we would discover the secret of spiritual fulfillment, are taken from the compilation on humility, Royal Insignia, page 159 The following page contains some stanzas from the poem by Trudy Harvey Tait on the same subject:
The nature of a little child,
I simply could not see
How such a nature ever could
Become a part of me.
The pride of years would never let
My Savior on the Throne,
But crowned me King and kept me where
I reigned, just I alone
This pride, oh, what a horrid thing,
Kept me from bending low,
So through the kingdom’s door, you see,
I simply could not go. . . .
Then, oh the wonder of that day,
I saw what I should do;
I said, “Lord Jesus, I step down
And give the throne to You.”
And so when I by faith obeyed,
A miracle of grace
Within this haughty heart of mine,
That moment did take place. . . .
Now would I, dare I, could I try
Once more the Kingdom’s door?
I longed to, yet it looked so low,
So near unto the floor.
But beckoned by the pierced Hand
Which had removed my sin,
Upon my knees, now weak and small,
A child, I entered in. . . .
And so, diminished as I am,
Stripped of all else but grace,
I live, a trusting little child.
And look upon His face. . . .
—Trudy Tait.
Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.
