By: Jason Tsaddiq
Review of The Weapon of Prayer
E. M. Bounds
Moody Press: Chicago, 1980
Nothing is more important to God than prayer in dealing with mankind. . . Failure to pray is failure along the whole line of life. It is failure of duty, service, and spiritual
progress. . .He who does not pray, therefore, robs himself of God’s help and places God where He cannot help man. (page 9).
Author
Well-known for his series of books on prayer, Edward McKendree Bounds did not start out his life planning to write books. Admitted to the bar before his nineteenth birthday, he soon felt called to preach and left the litigation industry at the age of twenty-four.
During his second pastorate, the Civil War broke out and he was arrested for sympathizing with the Confederate. Released after a year and a half, he continued his military service, being made chaplain of several troops. Again, being captured, he eventually was released and continued pastoring as the Lord led him.
His wife Emma gave him three children before she died nine years after their marriage. Her cousin Harriet became his second wife.
The final two decades of his life were filled with simple writing, praying, and reading. When he passed to Glory, he was not famous nor popular; however, he had tapped into a simple yet profound truth: prayer is the connection to God Almighty.
The estimate and place of prayer is the estimate and place of God. To give prayer the secondary place is to make God secondary in life’s affairs. To substitute other forces for prayer retires God and materializes the whole movement. (page 12)
Review
No soldier can move effectively if he is not in communication with his commander. In like manner, a Christian must be in constant communication with his Commander; listening, obeying, reporting of his actions must be an ongoing, constant activity. Mr. Bounds repeats his message of the weapon of prayer throughout this entire book, very seldom giving in to the modern author’s temptation to fill a book with funny little examples and dusty anecdotes that may or may not relate to the main Biblical truth being presented. Occasionally he quoted another man such as this example found on page 103:
Go back! Back to that upper room; back to your knees; back to searching of heart and habit, thought and life; back to pleading, praying, waiting, till the Spirit of the Lord floods the soul with light, and you are endued with power from on high. . . Samuel Chadwick
His vocabulary is fitting for his time period. No modern slang or examples or expressions are used. However, the sentence structure is more formal than what is currently used; therefore, this is not a book for easy reading. It must be read slowly, diligently, and deliberately. Then it must be acted upon immediately before the seed is snatched. Mr. Bounds recognized that prayer itself is slow, diligent, deliberate work:
Study how to pray, O Preacher, but not by studying the forms of prayer, but by attending the school of prayer on your knees before God. Here is where we learn not only to pray before God but learn also how to pray in the presence of men.
This book should be used for any Christian honestly searching to learn about God and His method of communication. One who struggles with reading should not attempt to conquer the whole book in a week. Probably for the average reader, a month of reading 10-15 minutes a day would give a myriad of prayer-truths upon which to meditate and to practice would suffice. Possibly writing down in a journal the important truths about which God convicts would further cement the truths in the heart. However, a time limit can not truly be given for God may stop the reader at any page.
An honest Christian will be changed by obeying the Bible truths presented in this book.
Chapter titles are as follows:
“Prayer Essential to God”;
“Putting God to Work”;
“The Necessity for Praying Men” (very convicting!);
“God’s Need of Men Who Pray”;
“Prayerless Christians”;
“Praying Men at a Premium”;
“The Ministry and Prayer”;
“Prayerlessness in the Pulpit”;
“Prayer-Equipment for Preachers”;
“The Preacher’s Cry – ‘Pray for Us!’”;
“Modern Examples of Prayer” (a chapter which includes women of prayer);
“Modern Examples of Prayer, continued.”
Quotes:
Whatever affects the intensity of our praying affects the value of our work. . . Nothing is done well without prayer for the simple reason that it leaves God out of the account. (page 13)
It is so easy to be seduced by the good to the neglect of the best, until both the good and the best perish. (page 13)
In reality, the denial of prayer is a denial of God Himself, for God and prayer are so inseparable that they can never be divorced. (page 22)
The closet is the garden of faith. (page 41)
Prayer-leadership preserves the spirituality of the Church, just as prayerlessness leaders make for unspiritual conditions. (page 47)
We pray as we live; we live as we pray. Life will never be finer than the quality of the closet. (page 51)
There are certain conditions laid down for authentic praying. Men are to pray “lifting up holy hands”; hands here being the symbol of life. Hands unsoiled by stains of evil doing are the emblem of a life unsoiled by sin. Thus are men to come into the presence of God, thus are they to approach the throne of the Highest, where they can “obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.”
Here, then is one reason why men do not pray. They are too worldly in heart and too secular in life to enter the closet; and even though they enter there, they cannot offer the “fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous man, which availeth much. (page 52)
. . . for secret prayer and holy living are so closely joined that they can never be dissevered. (page 92)
Adoniram Judson speaking of the prevailing power of prayer said, “God loves importunate prayer so much that He will not give us much blessing without it.” (page 157)