4666<\/b> Minimum Of Organization<\/b><\/p>\n
The ancient church had a minium of organization, but it had a maximum of power. The average church today has a maximum of organization but tragically lacks power. <\/p>\n
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan once warned, \u201cOne of Satan\u2019s methods today is to start so many organizations in a church that the members have no time for unhurried communion with God. Many Christians are so busy that they can hear only the clink and clatter of church machinery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Too often we are over-organized and under-agonized. <\/p>\n
\u2014Walter B. Knight<\/p>\n
4667<\/b> Spurgeon\u2019s Heating Apparatus<\/b><\/p>\n
C. H. Spurgeon was showing some visitors over the Tabernacle (London). After taking them to the main part of the building, he said, \u201cCome, and I\u2019ll show you the heating apparatus.\u201d Imagine their surprise, when he took them to a room where four hundred were gathered in a prayer meeting. The church with warmth of spirit must have the warmth-producing prayer meeting. <\/p>\n
\u2014Al Bryant<\/p>\n
4668<\/b> Faraday\u2019s Escape To Prayer Meeting<\/b><\/p>\n
A crowded gathering of distinguished scientists had been listening spellbound to the masterly expositions of Michael Faraday. For an hour he had held his brilliant audience enthralled as he demonstrated the nature and properties of the magnet. He had brought his lecture to a close with an experiment so novel, so bewildering, and so triumphant, that for some time after he resumed his seat, the house rocked with enthusiastic applause. And the Prince of Wales\u2014afterwards King Edward VII\u2014rose to propose a motion of congratulations. The resolution, having been duly seconded, was carried with renewed thunders of applause. <\/p>\n
Suddenly the uproar ceased and a strange silence settled over the audience. The assembly waited for Faraday\u2019s reply. <\/p>\n
But he did not appear. <\/p>\n
Only his most intimate friends knew what had become of him. He was an elder in a little Sandemanian church\u2014a church that never boasted more than twenty members. <\/p>\n
The hour at which Faraday concluded his lecture was the hour of the weeknight prayer meeting. <\/p>\n
\u2014Christus Medicus Magnus<\/i><\/p>\n
4669<\/b> Judge Black\u2019s \u201cPrevious Engagement\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
Judge Black, of Georgia, when he was a young lawyer, was invited to deliver an address of welcome to the Governor of the State on Monday evening. He took great pains to prepare his address, but a telegram came on Monday, saying that the Governor\u2019s visit would be deferred till Wednesday evening. Mr. Black at once wrote the committee that a previous engagement would prevent his being present on Wednesday evening. <\/p>\n
Few persons besides the pastor of his church knew that the previous engagement was the regular weekly prayer-meeting which the young Christian lawyer had set apart as sacredly devoted to the public worship of God; and no service to man or State, though it might be for his own promotion, could make him swerve from his purpose. <\/p>\n
\u2014Current Anecdotes <\/p>\n
4670<\/b> General Gordon\u2019s Value Scheme<\/b><\/p>\n
When the heroic General Gordon went to the Sudan, his parting message to me was written on a card, and referring to a prayer meeting held at his house: \u201cI value more the prayer of that little circle than all the wealth of the Sudan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Selected<\/p>\n
4671<\/b> From Prayer To Praise<\/b><\/p>\n
Charles Spurgeon once called a meeting of his board to consider a pressing financial need of his famous Tabernacle. The members all agreed that the thing to do was to pray until the Lord sent the supply. At this point Mr. Spurgeon interrupted, \u201cWait a minute! Before you begin this prayer meeting there is something I\u2019d like to do.\u201d Taking a sheet of paper, he wrote, \u201cC. H. Spurgeon gives 50 pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next he passed it around that the others might write down how much they would give. When the \u201csubscriptions\u201d were totaled, the prayer meeting turned out to be a \u201cpraise and glory\u201d session, for the need had been fully met! <\/p>\n
\u2014M. R. De Haan<\/p>\n
4672<\/b> Wagon Delivers Answers<\/b><\/p>\n
A family of a certain neighborhood was in dire need. This need was discussed, and it was decided to meet at the church at a certain hour and pray about the matter. Everyone present offered an urgent prayer for the relief of the family and were preparing to leave when a wagon loaded with groceries stopped at the door of the church. A lad shouted, \u201cFolks, here\u2019s my dad\u2019s prayer for that family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Mrs. Paul Evans<\/p>\n
4673<\/b> A Special Place<\/b><\/p>\n
Mohammedans tell us that one prayer offered in Mecca is worth eighty thousand prayers offered anywhere else. The followers of some other religions entertain similar beliefs. Christ clearly taught that there is a place for prayer to which he attaches special importance. <\/p>\n
\u2014D. J. Burrell<\/p>\n
4674<\/b> The Manuscript Slave<\/b><\/p>\n
There was a preacher who was a manuscript slave. He not only wrote his sermons, but he read them, word for word, from the pulpit. One Sunday night the lights went out in the church. The minister thought someone was playing a practical joke on him. \u201cTurn the lights on,\u201d he demanded in a stern voice. He was told that the lights were definitely off. What could he do? He could not speak extemporaneously, even in an emergency. He wisely said, \u201cIf the power is off, it is time to pray!\u201d The service was turned into a prayer meeting, and all went well. <\/p>\n
\u2014Tom M. Olson<\/p>\n
4675<\/b> Meaningless Meetings<\/b><\/p>\n
Finney tells how a lifeless prayer meeting, before his conversion, nearly made him an atheist. He says: \u201cThis inconsistency, the fact that these Christians prayed so much and were not answered, was a sad stumblingblock to me. I knew not what to make of it.\u201d When he was asked if he did not desire their prayers, he said: \u201cNo; I am conscious that I am a sinner, but I do not see that it will do any good for you to pray for me, for you are continually asking, but you do not receive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014J. H. Bomberger<\/p>\n
4676<\/b> Epigram On Prayer Meeting<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022 The popularity of a CHURCH is measured by its Sunday morning attendance and the popularity of the PREACHER by its Sunday evening attendance. However, the popularity of the LORD is measured at the prayer meeting. <\/p>\n
\u2014The Bible Friend<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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