How many times does the Bible tell us to watch our own hearts! Yet how often do Christians slip and fall for want of diligence in this very basic duty! Not for nothing does the Bible say: ‘He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city’ (Prov. 16:32).

Many men have served their countries as president or prime minister yet have not been able to guard their own hearts and lives from simple lusts and common temptations. Many distinguished leaders have commanded armies on land and fleets at sea but have not been able to resist one or two besetting sins. The fiercest battles are not so much those outside of us but those within. This is the Bible’s view of the matter. For this reason God’s Word tells us: ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence: for out of it are the issues of life’ (Prov. 4:23).

Keeping the heart is not a work for which men will give us much praise or recognition. It is a secret activity of the soul, unnoticed by all but God. It will not confer on us an honorary D.D., nor will it advance us to some position of academic prestige. It is tempting, therefore, to dismiss this secret duty of watching over the soul as a task too mean to engage our attention.

We are apt, especially as young Christians, to gauge the importance of our duties by the measure to which they bring us into public notice. This may not be wholly wrong, but it is an attitude which has its dangers. Satan’s ladders to rapid fame and importance usually have a few rotten rungs in them which men do not notice at first.

We are all very immature when it comes to assessing our spiritual priorities. We may prepare diligently to perform our outward duties but hasten through our secret preparations. Our sermons are ready; but our hearts are unready. Our outward lives are impressive, but our private lives may be in disarray. Sin is preached against orthodoxly enough but not mourned over enough in the secret place. How else can we explain the ministerial falls that shock and horrify us? How else can we account for sudden scandals and tragic apostasies? The hidden man of the heart was forgotten in the hurry and bustle of attending to more public duties.

The Bible corrects this unbalanced approach to spiritual priorities. It teaches us to look to our own souls before we put the whole world right. It commands us to make sure of the root before we concern ourselves with the branch or the bud. If the root is healthy there will be good fruit in due season. But premature fruits may wither and die in a little while where the roots of our souls are neglected. ‘Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away’ (John 15:2).

The soul is the greatest treasure which we possess. To guard and to look to the health of the soul is therefore our highest wisdom. Yet how seldom do men do so! If society reflects men’s secret view of life, how small a place the soul has in our day! Our fathers built churches, but we build supermarkets and sports halls. Our fathers read Bibles and studied theology, but we read – if we read at all – of fantasy, fiction and folly. Our fathers watched over souls – their own and those of their children – but our age thinks only of the body and its appetites. The world outside may be expected to follow its own pagan view of life. But the Christian must never lose his biblical priorities. The soul must come first, if God is to receive his glory from our lives.

The Christian should care for his soul as ‘God’s acre’ within him. After all, the soul is that which distinguishes a man from a beast. It is that part of us which originally bore God’s image. Our souls are immortal, eternal, deathless. Though sin has so tragically marred the image of God within the soul, yet regeneration has, in the true Christian, restored this lost image. If we knew the value of the soul we should keep it like the crown jewels and set every faculty we have on the alert to protect it.

Let one reason for caring for our souls be this: that one slip may erase at a stroke all the good we ever did. Let a man be a faithful preacher or missionary for a score of years. Yet, if he slips and spoils his reputation by some thoughtless fall, all his good deeds done over twenty years will be buried in men’s minds under this one fall, which lasted perhaps but for a day. Such is the precarious nature of the life which we live as spiritual persons. We walk on a moral tight-rope all our way till we get safely to the ‘other side’.

Let a second reason for keeping watch over our souls be this: the stealth of our enemy. Did we but remember it as we should; we have an adversary who will stop at nothing to bring about our fall, if only he can. He well knows our frailty and our love of ease. He can match his bait to our taste.

He can give us, as he gave to Peter, a fire at which to warm ourselves. He can find for us, as for Samson, a Delilah to lure us into fatal sleep. He can still mix his cup with such cunning that the drinker will not wake up till his soul is in the flame of hell. Let him who doubts all this consider Balaam, or Saul, or Judas Iscariot.

If we need a third warning not to neglect our souls let it be the extreme care which our blessed Lord took over his. At the age of twelve, he was more concerned to acquire knowledge of the truth than afraid to upset his parents. This is a lesson on how a perfect man values the means of grace and hungers to do the will of God. Loved ones must, if needs be, suffer a little sorrow, but no hindrance must keep him from being about his ‘Father’s business’ (Luke 2:49). Then watch our Lord in his wilderness temptations as he repulses the enemy at every turn and vanquishes his every assault. Watch Christ too as he puts Simon Peter in his place: ‘Get thee behind me, Satan’ (Matt. 16:23). Friendship is precious, but it must not come between Christ and his mission to go to the Cross.

To keep watch over our souls, as Christ here shows us, means to keep fierce and jealous guard over our sense of obligation to God. It is to put the will of God first in our every action. It is to prefer the course of duty to the path of pleasure. It is to hate all influences and all suggestions which might weaken our devotion to the will of God, or which might unsettle our resolve as Christians to put the glory of God before every other consideration whatever.

It is so very possible, our hearts being corrupt, to lose our ‘first love’ (Rev. 2:4). Either through bad example, or through self-deception, or merely because of declining resolve, the Christian can learn to lower the standard of his obedience. What began in his life as gold has over the years become silver – then brass, and at last is only iron and rust. He once ‘lived’; now he has only a ‘name to live’ (Rev. 3:1). His silver is now dross, and his wine mixed with water. In the true believer this is never completely the case. But it may to a fearful extent become so. What has gone wrong? He neglected his soul.

When a house suffers from subsidence, it is all affected, from the roof to the foundation. So, when a Christian neglects his soul, all aspects of his spiritual life undergo a visible decline. He once believed in an infallible Bible; now he smiles at this as youthful fancy. He once rose up early enough to pray and to prepare his heart for the day ahead; now he tumbles out of bed with scarcely a minute for prayer or meditation. Once he kept his place in the house of God and was never late; now he drags himself to church and is never on time. What went wrong? He neglected his soul.

As a camp-fire in the jungle dies down, the wild beasts creep closer. Similarly, as a Christian neglects his soul, his indwelling sins stare him in the face with more menace. Old sins return to haunt him. Youthful lusts, formerly felt to be dead, rise up again with new vigour. Strange languor and disabling torpor make it well-nigh impossible for the once-active believer to fight off his spiritual enemies. His witness dies down. His worship cools off. His love for fellowship diminishes. He invents excuses for absenting himself from godly company. He is but a pale shadow of the man he was. What has gone wrong? He has neglected his soul.

The souls of preachers and ministers are as fully open to the kinds of decay here spoken of as are the souls of other Christians. Let no man deceive himself. When the battle to keep up our spiritual lives is lost in the secret place, it will not save men from the downward slide that we are called ‘Reverend’ or that we wear clerical garments. The neglected soul will not long retain its love of pure doctrine or evangelical worship.

The minister who begins by neglecting his soul will end, if he does not repent and recover in time, by secretly (and then openly) denying central doctrines of the faith. The need for a New Birth is now no longer taken seriously by him. Bare assent to some Creed is all that he now asks of his church members. Bit by bit the whole message of the Bible slips from him. The Atonement, the Resurrection, the Virgin Birth, the wrath of God, the Second Coming, the Judgment to come – all these articles of the faith slip from his personal creed, even if he has not yet got the courage, or rather the moral integrity, to say so. How did this preacher change from being evangelical to becoming a sceptic? He neglected his soul.

Strange to say, neglect of soul is all too often a feature of the mature, rather than of the young Christian. It was in his maturity that good Noah was overcome with wine. It was a mature, not a young, David who – sad to relate – looked at Bathsheba with such tragic consequences. It was a mature Solomon who multiplied wives and clouded his good reputation by tolerating their divinities. It was a mature, not a teenage Hezekiah who showed off his treasures to the foreign ambassadors. These things were written for our learning.

There are snares and pitfalls for the old Christian, just as there are for the young. Perhaps it is because he fancies himself to have passed the danger-zone of life that the older believer may relax his concentration. So much is now behind him of the conflict of his pilgrimage. He is almost in sight of the golden shore. But the veteran pilgrim must fight on to a finish. To relax too soon may be to get a stain on his good record and lose a portion of his great reward.

The way back from all neglect of soul is given us, as all good counsels are given us, in the Word of God: ‘Be zealous and repent’ (Rev. 3:19). Appoint a time for prayer and fasting. Afflict your soul. Weep for your past sins. Cry mightily to God for pardon and a fresh sense of his love. Hate the sinful coldness which dampened your first ardour for Christ. Recall the price paid for your soul in his precious blood. Beseech the Almighty for a new baptism of his Spirit to rekindle the altar-flame. Perhaps more of us need this repentance than we have realized.

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There are not wanting here and there the signs that good Christians are suffering from a kind of spiritual metal-fatigue. In our fellowships iron rarely sharpens iron any longer. Much preaching that is orthodox lacks that ring of conviction which is needed to thrust it home into sinners’ consciences. A guilty tameness smothers our zeal. Prayers are hum-drum and predictable. The apostolic fire has died down and looks like dying away. The gospel, even where it is preached at all, is clothed with the impeding garments of excessive politeness and respectability. Our sermons are frequently no more than a gentle homily or a quiet talk about good religious ideas. Slowly and imperceptibly evangelical people are coming to terms, emotionally and intellectually, with the spirit of the age. Though we should not care to say so, we nonetheless betray our inner despair of ever seeing revival, or even a reversal of the present trend downwards.

This weariness of soul is not difficult to explain. A deep-seated disappointment has paralysed many Christian people in our day. Both preachers and hearers are disheartened. The recovery of the doctrines of purer orthodoxy some thirty years ago has not yet been matched by a recovery of spiritual power or influence in society. The world passes by the doors of many excellent churches with as much unconcern today as it did when the old theological liberalism reigned in them, and before new and biblical ministries began in them. Preachers who deserve to be listened to by a thousand have to be content with less than fifty hearers.

The vision which many had only a few years ago has not been realised. The mirage has not yet become a pool of water. The promises of God are seemingly at variance with his providences. A bewilderment and a confusion has come upon us. There is a widespread feeling that something has gone wrong. Meanwhile we all grow older. There is an unspoken agreement that the fight is too hard for us. When shall we be able to withdraw from the scene of battle with at least some semblance of honour?

Spiritual drowsiness is very catching. The air soon becomes heavy with it. Active life and movement, once so noticeable, gradually dies down as one after another succumbs to the spirit of drowsiness. As the voices of young children in a nursery die down one by one at their rest time, so the once active testimonies of God’s people become gradually silent in a sleepy time. The Bible portrays for us times when the people of God enter into a period of collective sleepiness. The age in which Moses was born was such a time. Israel had settled down in Egypt. Even their hard servitude did not take from them a love of the Egyptian life-style. They were very loath to follow Moses out into the wilderness. They had dreamed too many this-worldly dreams to want to give up the leeks, the onions and the garlick for the uncertain prospect of receiving their ‘Promised land’. Four hundred years in Egypt had sent Israel fast asleep.

The days of the Judges were another period in which the church of God was largely asleep. It is amazing to us as we read the Old Testament to see how flagrantly Israel was disobeying God’s Word at the period of the Judges. They appear to have been blind to the plainest teachings given so recently by God through Moses. Even some of the Judges themselves had serious blemishes in their faith and conduct. ‘Every man did that which was right in his own eyes’. If we require an explanation for the state of life at that time, we must surely put it down to a widespread and almost universal soul-sleep. One might have hoped better of the church in New Testament times. But it was not to be so. For a thousand years, till Luther woke up with a start in Germany, the European church slept soundly while Bible, gospel and grace lay hidden out of popular sight. Only here and there was there a warning cry from some remote Italian valley or passing Lollard preacher. Europe, however, as a whole slept on. Dark night covered the one continent of mankind which ought to have carried the torch of gospel truth to every corner of the globe.

It is solemn, too, to recall the words of Christ which inform us, evidently, that the very last period of world history will again be characterised by widespread spiritual sleepiness: ‘They all slumbered and slept’ (Matt. 25:5). Not only the nominal church, represented by the five foolish virgins, will be asleep when the Bridegroom returns; but also the true church herself, though certainly prepared, will have sunk down with weariness and drowsiness just before the wedding day dawns.

The above instances – not the only ones we could cite – are evidence enough to remind us that a blanket of sleep may fall across large parts of the visible church in some ages. This is a sheer fact of history and one which the Word of God presents to us for our warning. No doubt there are many who sleep in the best ages of the gospel and under the liveliest of preaching. No doubt society is at best little more than half-awake at any time to the moral and spiritual duties of God’s Word. Nevertheless, it would seem to be a clear lesson of Scripture that some ages are marked by a sleep that is well-nigh universal.

Sleep is a remarkable phenomenon. It is a kind of animated death. In sleep we are oblivious to the real world. The thief may be at the door, or the fire already running up the curtains of the bedroom. But when asleep we neither notice, nor know, nor care. On the other hand, in the dreams of sleep we care for what is unreal and delusive. Men flee from savage beasts, or fall from cliffs, or sail to treasure islands. Our attention is taken up with what is fictional and fictitious.

Just so is the sleep which comes upon men’s souls in ages when the gospel is weak. Armies of heresies threaten the church and people of God; but the church’s watchmen are so fast in slumber that they neither realise nor care. When here and there a faithful voice is raised in warning, there is a general outcry and a demand for the maintenance of silence. Or there may happen some scandalous abuse which threatens to mar the church’s reputation and her credibility. But when sleep has laid the faculties of the soul to rest, men resent the unpopular question and seek to smother the healthy spirit of enquiry. Nothing is so unwelcome to a sleepy man as the alarm which summons him from his bed.

When soul-sleepiness is widespread, men are all taken up with childish dreams and empty trifles. They make great sound and bluster about small matters of procedure and right order. But they may as easily overlook the great matters of justice, mercy and truth as those Pharisees who ‘strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel’ (Matt. 23:24). The cry of all – or almost all – is for more sleep, and woe be to him who tries to wake them!

None who is even half-awake needs to wonder what the explanation is for the state of our modern societies. True religion is banished from the school-room and from the media. The slaughter of aborted infants proceeds like a daily holocaust, Governments meet to legislate away the Sabbath and to decriminalise sodomy. Leprosy is breaking out in every limb of the body politic and there is no physician to heal us. Scarcely a voice is raised in high places to call us to repentance. Such voices as there are are either not heard or else not heeded. Poor nations! Alas, that so great a civilisation as ours should be so deep in spiritual slumber!

It is not surprising that evangelical Christians at this hour should feel numb with battle-fatigue. It is no great miracle if they too, catching the general spirit of drowsiness, are tempted to give in to unresisted slumber at this hour. But this is what we must at all costs refuse to do.

By some means or other Christians must contrive to stay awake and on their feet in these days. If, in order to do so, we must cast out the television set or cut off our right arm, we had better do so. To fall asleep at this hour is treason to Christ and to our own souls. It is to lose our ‘full reward’ (2 John 8), or, worse still, to lose our reward and our soul altogether.

The way to avoid sleeping when poisonous gas fills the room is to run for fresh air and to breathe deeply. We owe it to God and to our salvation to run for fresh oxygen for the soul in this present crisis. What is to stop us all from a radical re-appraisal of our present life-style?

Instead of meeting for merely social purposes, might we not as Christians meet to read good books to one another? The time which we have formerly devoted to easy viewing and listening, might we not devote, in part at least, to secret prayer or family prayer or neighbourhood prayer? The hours which have been spent cruelly criticising the preacher could in future be put to better use in the careful study of the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. Some of the energy formerly spent in excessive recreation and socialising might be more productively spent visiting the widows in their affliction ( James 1:27) and in comforting the downcast.

Above all others, preachers must cry to heaven for grace to stay awake at this hour. Let them plunge their heads in the cold waters of God’s truth till their dreams of worldly ease are thrown aside. Never did the world more urgently need an awakening ministry than now. Never was there a more crucial hour for lifting high and blowing loud on the gospel trumpet. All heaven watches as we strive to keep awake while all others sleep. It will stand to our eternal credit if we keep at our post. Sooner than we think perhaps may come the dawning of a new and better day. The wakeful servant must one day sit in honour at his Master’s table (Luke 12:37).

More editorials from Maurice Roberts are collated in The Thought of God, Great God of Wonders, and The Christian’s High Calling. Rev. Roberts is also the author of Finding Peace with God: Justification Explained and The Great Transformation: The Sanctification and Glorification of the Believer.

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Over the years, the Trust has published several books by Dr R. B. Kuiper. However, there are many readers throughout the world who are more familiar with the titles of Kuiper’s books than with the man himself. It is close on twenty-five years since Kuiper passed away. [Kuiper died on 22 April 1966 – Ed.]. He was a man of high spirituality and impeccable orthodoxy. It is appropriate, therefore, that a brief mention should be made of the outline of his varied, scholarly and fruitful life.

R. B. Kuiper (his real Christian names, being Dutch, were seldom used and ‘R.B.’ was the customary mode of addressing him) was born on January 31, 1886 in the province of Groningen in the North of Holland. He was one of a family of eight children born to the Rev. and Mrs Dominie Klaas Kuiper. The father was a minister of the Reformed Church and a man of staunch orthodoxy. Young Kuiper spent only the first five years of his life in Holland. In 1891 he sailed for New York. Dominie Kuiper, now 50 years old, had served three Christian Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. His future ministry was to be in the United States and young Kuiper grew up in the state of Michigan.

Kuiper took after his father in being gifted with a sharp intellect. He proved an excellent scholar at school and entered the University of Chicago in 1903. In 1908 he entered Theological School in Grand Rapids in order to prepare for the ministry of the Christian Reformed Church, at that time a denomination characterised by strong attachment to classical Calvinism. Here Kuiper proved a student of notable excellence. Intent on pursuing theological study he toyed with the idea of crossing to Scotland in order to study at the Free Church of Scotland College. Here he would have sat under Professors James Orr and James Denney. In the event, however, he opted to go to Princeton Seminary and here he became one of the distinguished students under B. B. Warfield and C. W. Hodge, Jnr. as well as of Geerhardus Vos. Warfield was at a later date to mention Kuiper’s intellectual talents to J. Gresham Machen at a critical time in the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America.

In 1911 he married a lady of Dutch background, Marie Janssen, who proved to be a worthy helpmeet to him in the work of the gospel throughout his long and serviceable ministry. There is a warm human touch in the anecdote which informs us that when a little girl was born to the Kuipers, Dr and Mrs B. B. Warfield sent a gift to the newborn child, and along with it a note which read as follows: ‘Dr and Mrs Warfield present their compliments to little Miss Kuiper, and beg to congratulate her on being born, and to thank her for being born in Princeton. Will she kindly accept these little pins as a souvenir of her birthplace April 9, 1912:

Kuiper was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1912 and was soon recognised by the churches as an outstanding preacher. He served several congregations of the Christian Reformed Church in Michigan. Perhaps a little surprisingly, he left the denomination for a time to become minister of the Reformed Church in America in its congregation at Kalamazoo. That was in the year 1923. However, he returned in 1925 to the Christian Reformed Church. This was the period of the ‘common grace controversy’.

R. B. Kuiper was to be Principal of three colleges during his lifetime. In 1930 he was invited to be President of Calvin College in Grand Rapids. This position he held until 1933. Great changes were taking place, however, at Princeton and in the Presbyterian church in the United States in these momentous years. The outstanding theologian and leader of the period was Dr J. Gresham Machen who, along with other conservative colleagues, left the declining Princeton Seminary in order to set up a thoroughly Reformed institution which would continue the old Princeton tradition. Thus it was that in 1929 Westminster Theological Society came into being in Philadelphia, Pennysylvania. Machen called Kuiper to serve in the Chair of Systematic Theology in the new Westminster Seminary and Kuiper agreed to come for one year. Fifty students enrolled at the Westminster Seminary in the September of 1929. There was a faculty of outstanding scholars attached to the new Seminary from the start: Robert Dick Wilson, Machen himself and O. T. Allis. These men were to be joined soon after by Paul Woolley and John Murray. In 1933 Kuiper returned to Westminster in order to become Professor of Practical Theology.

The sudden and unexpected death of Machen in 1937 came as a great shock to the Reformed world of the day. The loss of Machen was also felt in the numbers of students enrolling in the new institution of Westminster. In 1937 there were 30 men in training. By 1946 the number had gone down to five and in 1949 it reached an all-time low with only three men in training. However, after that year the numbers steadily increased so that by 1984 the number had risen to 109.

As Professor of Practical Theology it fell to Kuiper to instruct the young preachers under his charge. It is typical of his attitude that he could advise the students as follows: ‘Preach so simply that a child can understand you, and then the chances are the older people will understand you too.’ This was no call to superficiality or carelessness but took account of the fatal tendency of young men to preach in an academic style and in a way which is above the heads, of ordinary church members. One piece of advice that R. B. Kuiper was apt to give to students is worth recalling here: ‘a sermon on an Old Testament text must be a New Testament sermon’. The preacher, he believed, must do justice in handling his text to history, doctrine and ethics. Only in this way is he preaching the full gospel. Many a student had to unlearn his previous bad preaching habits and habits of preparation. One student, new to the Seminary practice of careful study of a text beforehand, gave himself away on one occasion with these words, ‘These commentaries sure do help, don’t they?’ Clearly he had not been in the habit of using them in the past.

In 1936 a new church came into being with the name of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The circumstances which gave rise to the formation of this new church are well known. Compromise and liberal thought had greatly weakened the Northern Presbyterian Church. Kuiper’s attitude to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s formation was ‘they had to do it. It was their solemn duty.’ He could see no alternative to the setting up of the new church separate from the now compromised older Presbyterian denomination. Kuiper did not hesitate to join the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. This was the third denomination of which he was to be a minister.

Kuiper remained at Westminster Theological Seminary until 1952 when he left to return to Grand Rapids. Shortly after he left also the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in order to return once again to the Christian Reformed Church in which he had been reared. In that same year he was appointed by the C.R.C. to teach Practical Theology in the Calvin Seminary. He was further honoured by being installed as the President of that institution, a position he held until his retirement in 1956. R. B. Kuiper goes on to record as stating that a seminary professor must be both godly and learned. Both are essential to an efficient professor’s ministry as he prepares younger men for the work of the gospel ministry. It saddened Kuiper in his declining years to see his beloved church, the Christian Reformed Church, increasingly departing from the standards of classical Calvinism through the absorption of modern and more liberal thought.

Kuiper passed to his eternal rest in the early morning hours of April 22,1966. His daughter and son were at his side. He left a legacy of fine Christian books behind him. Some of these have been recently published by the Trust. The Bible Tells Us So was Kuiper’s last literary work and it was not completed, although the portion he did finish before his death is a worthy and helpful contribution. God-centered Evangelism appeared in 1961 and came out in a British edition in 1966. It is regarded as one of the most comprehensive and helpful works on all aspects of evangelism. However, it was Professor John Murray’s belief that Kuiper’s ‘masterpiece’ was his book The Glorious Body of Christ. All who have read that volume will know what a mine of practical thought it represents on all aspects of the Christian Church’s life and witness.

The biography of R. B. Kuiper, written by his son-in-law, Edward Heerema, was published in 1986 under the title R. B.: A Prophet in the Land¹. Kuiper’s life and ministry spans the critical period from orthodoxy at the beginning of this century, through the period of turmoil and theological decline in the ’20s and ’30s and up to the period of the Reformed reconstruction in America in the more recent years of this century. So eminent a servant of Christ must not be forgotten and we trust that the semi-jubilee of his death in April of this year will be suitably remembered by a fresh study of his biography and of his printed writings.

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Behind this lack of real prayer–if the above observations are just–there would appear to lie just one basic explanation: prayer is extraordinarily difficult. At least prayer which involves wrestling is so. There is a common style of praying found in many places today which makes but little demand upon those who offer it up. We do not set ourselves up to be the judges of other men’s spirituality. But if our eyes and ears do not deceive us it would seem that a style of prayer is widespread which consists very much of saying thank you to God for a large number of things, yet never goes on to lay hold of the Almighty or to make massive demands upon his promises.

It is time to ask ourselves whether such praying is worthy of being called scriptural or evangelical. The prayers of the Bible concentrate on the great emergency and crisis of the times. Examples of this abound. The prayers of Ezra, Nehemiah,  and Daniel may be taken as notable examples. They grapple with the main issue of the day, which is that God should pardon his people and restore to them the power of his grace. No doubt these holy men were grateful to God for the mercies of life and thanked him no less than we do today. But their chief energies in prayer were spent, not in reference to the common mercies of life, but on those themes and subjects which most concerned Christ’s kingdom at that hour. So they contain the element of striving with God. They are hot and passionate. They amount to a spiritual wrestling and to a laying hold of God in downright earnest.

If anyone thinks that we go too far in so speaking of prayer in Bible times, let him recall the marvellous earnestness recorded for us concerning the prayers of our Lord in the garden. How deeply did he experience agony! There was immense conflict in his mind and soul. This was registered in his tears and in his sweat which dripped from his brow like clots of blood. Such intensity of prayer may perhaps be unique to our blessed Redeemer. But there are expressions elsewhere in the Bible to show that prayer is hard and demanding to man.

The Psalmist speaks of an experience which must be exceeding rare in our times. His knees were weak through fasting (Ps. 109:24). Intercessory prayer requires us to ‘afflict our souls’ (Lev. 16), to ‘watch’ and not to sleep (Matt. 26:38), to ‘labour fervently’ (Col. 4:12), to persevere (Eph. 6:18) and to engage in an exercise which is intensely spiritual (Rom. 8:26).

When we study the practice of Old Testament saints we find not a little to humble and inspire us. Elijah’s prayers stopped heaven and brought a drought on the land. Again, his prayers opened heaven and poured forth rain on the parched earth. What prayers these biblical men and women offered up and with what effect upon the world! They stormed Zion in their fervour to be heard. They petitioned the throne of heaven and laid siege to its walls. They would scarcely take No for an answer. In so praying they stopped the sun in its course; they called down fire from above; they opened prisons; they overturned the schemes of armies; they raised the dead; they toppled thrones; they wrought mighty deeds of victory.

It cannot escape our attention that such wrestlers with God seem to be few today. We are grateful for those who serve Christ in whatever capacity. We value highly all who walk with God and are true to his Word and sound in their faith. But it would be good for our land and for our churches if there were a larger army of wrestlers, all taking God at his Word and pleading relentlessly the promises which he has made to his people in a dark day. In a word, we need an army of men and women who are so devoted to praying for the Spirit to come down that they give God no rest (Isa. 62:7).

Too many prayers lack steam. Too many prayers are predictable. Too many prayers are marked by sameness and tameness. But prayers which are ordinary are not sufficient to turn the tide of evil in these days. What is called for in such a dark day is for men and women of exceptional dedication to God who will plead for a mighty change in the state of things. Perhaps this is the main reason why there has been a recovery of much truth but little public manifestation of it. We are all guilty in that we have not waited with sufficient seriousness on God to give the church the power of preaching and the unction of spiritual energy.

It is a fault to treat prayer as the Cinderella of our spiritual duties. To read and to preach is essential. But the oil of divine blessing must needs be poured on the means of grace if they are to be effectual. Too many of our services to Christ are performed with little water on the mill. It is the way of God that he will have us beg for our blessings. Little prayer usually means little unction. There are exceptions but we must not take advantage of God’s kindness. At times we get unusual help in our work with but little intercession beforehand. But it is presumptuous of us to take this as our rule of action.

A common reason why we cease to pray effectually or fervently is because we fall into a rut. When this happens we pray more by habit than in the Spirit. We do indeed go through a routine of words and lists but the fire is just not there in the soul. This is one reason why we must be careful not to be dictated to by our prayer-lists. They may have their place but they must never become our masters. At times–perhaps at frequent times–we must leave our prayer-lists aside and turn from our conventional patterns of prayer. There are times when the mould of our intercession is to be discarded entirely and we are to devote our whole minds and souls to the great task of calling on God for nothing less than revival. Let the soul pour itself out to its Maker in anguished groans. Let the heart within us feel free to roam up and down the land in its search for a way to give vent to our burden and to our grief that Christ’s cause is so low.

We shall probably seldom if ever pray in the manner of the saints of the Bible if we are not full of the knowledge of the Scriptures. This is clear from a perusal of the great prayers of the Bible itself. The Bible-characters whom we referred to as great in prayer were themselves men who were full of Scripture. Their prayers are often a tissue of biblical language. They quote not only the ideas of the Bible but also its very text. Of course there is a danger even in this. It is possible to use the Bible as mere padding in our prayers. It is sometimes the case that men who have little to say in prayer fill out their prayers by reciting texts of Scripture which may be only partially what they are trying to say. We have all been guilty, no doubt. This is an abuse. Real prayer shoots upwards, being impelled by the inward fire and animation of the soul. No one needs to be told when we have offered up a real prayer. It is something which all feel who have any spiritual life in them.

However it is to be feared that many cannot pray with fervour because they are simply ignorant of the Word of God. It is not simply a matter of which version we use. The point in hand is that whatever version men use they should know it through and through. We are to be full of the knowledge of God’s Word and we are to use it in prayer, not as a way of filling out and decorating our thoughts, but as a way of pleading with God in terms of what he himself has said and thus of arguing before him the unchangeableness of his own holy promises in the light of our present needs.

It appears to be the case that, generally speaking, we are only as good in our public prayers as we are in our private devotions. The measure of the one will be the measure of the other. If anything, private prayer is more difficult. The reason for this is probably that there is more excitement of the soul where there is a gathering of God’s people together. It is less exhilarating to pray on one’s own. Moreover there is a special promise from Christ to those who gather in prayer: ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’ (Matt. 18:20). This is surely one part of the explanation as to why public prayer is easier. For this reason alone it is essential that the Christian, especially the Christian minister, should give attention to secret prayer. Here he will grow in holy boldness. Here he will learn the art of drawing near to God, an art which will make him robust in prayer when he has to stand in the assembly of the people.

But how is a man to begin in this work of learning to pray with passion? We are not wrong to think that this is something which we are to learn. For though it is true that all our powers of soul come as a gift from God, yet they are powers which we are to cultivate and to grow in. Some have a special gift in prayer. But all of us are to stir up ourselves to improve in this grace. ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness’ (1 Tim. 4:7). As the professional sportsman must train daily so must the man or woman of God train in spiritual gifts, and exercise the soul in holy duties. It is the royal way to excellence. And excellence in prayer is what our churches so much need in this time, surely.

The thing which we must start with if we are to begin to develop the soul in this wrestling type of prayer is time. It is impossible to pray in the way we are suggesting if we do not set apart time for this exercise. Some days we are so busy with legitimate calls on our time that we cannot pray in this specially urgent manner. But from time to time we must set aside the special hour for this sacred work. The believer must in that hour be away from the distractions of the telephone and of the other numerous interruptions which on other occasions we must be prepared for.

When this time is secured we need next to have our hearts brought to a glow of expectation. Emotion is one of the secrets of lively prayer. Whatever will fire the affections with heat and ardour is to be desired. In other words, we shall not pray as we ought at these times of special urgency until we have prepared ourselves. There is a preparation needed for the highest type of prayer. It consists of a rousing of our faith. It becomes a factor of our consciousness. It consists of a yearning desire to move God to bless us with help.

There are undoubtedly times when the Spirit creates a yearning desire for prayer when there has been no conscious preparation on our part. On such occasions we should yield to this impulse. Other duties can wait. When once the heart has become fired with a passion to hold communion with God, other things should be laid aside for the moment and the impulse to pray yielded to. This is so because this urge to pray is in itself so scarce in this world and so precious a gift from God that it should take precedence over other things. The result will normally be that we shall enjoy a time of ecstatic nearness with God. This is a taste of heaven on earth and is probably better for the soul than anything else whatever. There is no spiritual joy comparable to pouring out the heart in burdened intercession. Those who are acquainted with this exercise will know that it is a taste of glory. However, usually we need to prepare ourselves for prayer by meditation, singing, or reading.

We need not be in a hurry in our special time of prayer. It is not necessary to rush at the main point to be prayed. Let the soul begin calmly. Let there be no attempt at generating false fire. All our desire at this early point is to have our hearts moistened. What should happen is that as we spend time in the presence of God the world falls away from our mind and we grow into the attitude of looking up in expectation. It is often, not always, a help to pray out loud to God. This is a good way of improving our concentration. We wish him to visit us with a shower of grace. Our yearning is that he should manifest himself to us not as to the world (John 17:6). This early part of prayer is certainly the hardest. Many give up at this early stage and stop their prayer before they have, as it were, begun.

What we wish to do is to bring before God the cause which he loves more than we do. We expostulate with him that he stands so aloof from his own church, that he gives so little evidence of his presence in the services of his house, that he allows his enemies such authority to damage the work of Christ, that he leaves us with such dry eyes and dull hearts in our gatherings. Real intercession is the result of these two things: the promise and the providence of God in seeming conflict. When the soul feels ground between the upper millstone of God’s promise and the nether millstone of his providence, then it prays as it ought. The Psalms bear record to this fact. Take such examples as Psalm 44 or Psalm 74 or Psalm 89. In these instances what we have is the tension begotten in the believer’s soul through the apparent inconsistency between what the Lord has promised to do for us and what he is at present doing for us. This tension creates in the longing heart the frequent cry, ‘Lord, how long?’

It much glorifies God when his people call out to him to fulfil his promises in this way. It is for men who will pray like this that he looks. If he finds none, he is displeased and dishonoured. Could more terrible words be found anywhere in the Bible than these: ‘The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor’ (Isa. 59:15–16). Or again: ‘and I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none’ (Ezek. 22:30).

What do such challenging words teach but that the Lord takes special delight in hearing the persistent supplications of those who will hold his own promises before his eyes and who will give him no rest till he makes his work a praise in the earth? (Isa. 62:7). Such are the effect of God’s desertions upon prayerful people. Loud and fervent cries spring out of a soul which is indignant at the blasphemy done to God’s Name by sin.

Faith becomes visible in the way it views the glory and honour of God. To small souls only our own personal matters are important. But to the Great-Hearts of this world the supreme issue is the glory and the honour of God himself. It is this motive that marks the intercessions of a Moses or a David or a Samuel. It is this that we see in the prayers of a Paul, or a Luther, or a Calvin. They burn because of the boldness of the enemy. Their emotions are choked at the dishonour done to God when his truth and law, when his gospel and salvation are hidden behind a forest of lies. This is what makes a man or a woman a pleader with God. And let it not be forgotten that some of the noblest of all Bible pleaders with God were women. Let Hannah be called to mind, or Esther, or Anna in the New Testament. This last spent her whole life in pleading for the coming of the kingdom of God. A lifetime of intercession must go by before she sees her heart’s desire: the birth of the long-promised Messiah. She specialised in this one thing: wrestling with the Almighty. Nor did she wrestle in vain. Though the promise tarried, yet in due time it came and her heart’s desire was granted to her.

O that God would raise up among our nations men and women who would specialise in this gracious work of pleading the promises! O that the Lord would touch the hearts of many and give to them a vision of what might be done in these days if only his power and presence were again granted to us! Truth we have again in a wonderful measure. But the world passes by our doors as though this were some private interest of ours and had no relevance to the eternal destiny of men and nations.

The world will not pass us by in the hour when God rises up and puts the trumpet to his mouth once again. At this hour he sleeps and gives men over to their love of vanity. He suffers men to go on their way heedless of his Word and heedless of the claims of his Son upon their lives. This is not completely so, of course. But it is largely so. Society sees no need of God or of gospel. Sin feels right. Sin tastes delicious. Sin appeals to every faculty. But once let God arise from his long sleep and things will change in a moment, as they have done so often in the past. Our special times of intercession are with this one thing supremely in view: that he would appear again in glory (Psa. 102:16). It is for this we ought to give ourselves as far as we can to special intercession: that the Lord would end his long sleep and shout like a giant refreshed by wine (Psa. 78:65). With this in mind should we in these dark days cry out with peculiar earnestness: that he would lift up the fallen standard and give a banner to the church that may be displayed because of the truth (Psa. 60:4).

In his love to his own people God has given promises in a form wonderfully calculated to raise our faith and to lead us to expect great things from God. Such a promise is that of Isaiah: ‘When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him’ (Isa. 59:19).

Are there any who are devoting themselves to such a ministry of prayer as we have here presented? Are there some who will see this as their great and noble life’s work? Are there those who will become addicted to the ministering to the saints in this task of special pleading with God?

Never perhaps was the need for excellence in prayer among Christians greater than it is at this hour. We see daily that sin creeps, indeed that it marches, into the citadels of modern life while weak men give in to it on every hand. Sin and pride, defiance and disobedience to God’s laws have a stranglehold on our modern world.

We owe it to this generation and to generations unborn to cry out to God against this wave of sin till he is pleased to stand up in his majesty once more and to command: ‘Thus far shalt thou come but no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed’.

This article was first published in the August-September 1995 edition of the Banner of Truth Magazine. It also features as a chapter in The Christian’s High Calling.

The featured image (visible when the article is shared online) is a detail from ‘Nehemiah Views the Ruins of Jerusalem’s Walls‘, Gustave Doré – Doré’s English Bible, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10717116

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