The Fundamentals - Torrey - LXXXI - Chapter 16 (Divine efficacy of prayer)

Required reading
The Fundamentals edited by R. A. Torrey (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 16 (Divine efficacy of prayer).

My summary
This week Pierson teaches about prayer.

Firstly he tells us some of the results of prayer, including:
(i) praying souls become prevailing saints;
(ii) prayer makes eternal realities both prominent and dominant;
(iii) praying feeds missions at home and abroad;
(iv) a praying heart is the one thing that the devil cannot easily counterfeit;
(v) the pivot of piety is prayer;
(vi) prayer puts men in touch with God;
(vii) all practical power over sin and over men depends on maintaining prayer;
(viii) prayer imparts God's power.

Then Pierson makes some comments about intercession and true prayer.

What grabbed me
A bit of a disjointed chapter, but had some great statements about prayer.

I particularly enjoyed Pierson's link between prayer and preaching: 'Those who yearn for revivals naturally lay much stress on preaching. But what is preaching without praying ! Sermons are but pulpit performances, learned essays, rhetorical orations, popular lectures, or it may be political harangues, until God gives, in answer to earnest prayer, the preparation of the heart, and the answer of the tongue. It is only he who prays that can truly preach. Many a sermon that has shown no intellectual genius and has violated all homiletic rules and standards has had dynamic spiritual force. Somehow it has moved men, melted them, moulded them. The man whose lips are touched by God's living coal from off the altar may even stammer, but his hearers soon find out that he is on fire with one consuming passion to save souls.'

Prayer is vital to effective preaching.

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 17 (The proof of the living God).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.