Apart! Apart! Every minister―of all men―apart!

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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.

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