Let This Methodist Preacher Lead You to Revival

Let this Methodist Preacher Lead You to Revival

By Jeff Patterson

I will be forever grateful that I read Preacher and Prayer by Edward McKendree Bounds (1835-1913) early in my ministry. Though named after a prominent American Methodist Bishop, he is known to history as E.M. Bounds. He was a Methodist preacher, born in Missouri, served as the associate editor of the Nashville Christian Advocate, and died in Georgia. He was a chaplain during the Civil War. Preacher and Prayer was a short book published by the Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1907. I try to re-read this short book regularly. I can never read it too often. It has often been my antidote to burn-out. I am glad that early in my ministry I encountered these words, “The sermon cannot rise in its life-giving forces above the man. Dead men give out dead sermons, and dead sermons kill…The preaching man is to be the praying man…The real sermon is made in the closet. The man – God’s man – is made in the closet…A prepared heart is much better than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon” (Preacher and Prayer). A sermon is God’s truth coming through human personality. God must fashion the personality of the preacher. This is holiness of heart and life for the preacher. Working for God is never a substitute for spending time with God. The preacher must have a prayer closet, know how to enter the secret place underneath the wings of the Almighty, spend time alone with God.

If you are interested in seeking the enduring power and manifest presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, Preacher and Prayer might be exactly what you need. It is still in print. E.M. Bounds will make sure that the preacher spends time before the Throne of Grace before the preacher spends time in the pulpit. If you want to experience spiritual awakening, revival, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, run to the life-giving fountain provided by E.M. Bounds. Run, do not walk.

I am grateful that E.M. Bounds’s thoughts on prayer were also packaged for a broader audience in his book Power Through Prayer. He knew that a praying preacher would produce praying pews and Spirit-filled Christians would crave a more prayerful life. For many people, quotations from Power Through Prayer continue to awaken and inspire:

“God’s acquaintance is not made hurriedly.”

“The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees.”

“The first and last stages of holy living are crowned with praying.”

“The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men…men of prayer.”

“A holy life does not live in the closet, but it cannot live without the closet.”

“God shapes the world by prayer.”

“Prayer breaks all bars, dissolves all chains, opens all prisons, and widens all straits by which God’s saints have been held.”

When I read the work of this great Methodist, I suspect that he was aware that John Wesley wrote that “God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” These two men believed in the power of prayer to do the work of God in this world.

Do not be hindered by the language of another era. Do not reject his work because he made the mistake of living before we became sensitive about using inclusive language for the genders. Do not let the powerful, flowery rhetoric of this old-fashioned preacher keep you from living with the text. I am sure that he had the commanding voice that often adorned the preachers of past eras. Do not let modern bias prevent you from drinking from this fountain of spiritual life. Be gracious in judging E.M. Bounds because he served as a Confederate Chaplain during the Civil War. (I cannot imagine how hard it would have been for him to have fought against his family and friends by joining the Union’s cause.) Like all of us, he was captivated to some degree by the age in which he lived. He was an imperfect vessel who sought to carry the “God-touched, God-enabled, and God-made” life to his generation (Preacher and Prayer). He was a Methodist preacher who wanted to be obedient to the Holy Spirit by leading others into a prayer-saturated, holy life.

Whether we pray using liturgical, set forms of prayer with substantial period of listening to God or spontaneous, extemporaneous prayer with substantial periods of listening to God, our lives must include copious amounts of seeking the presence of God through prayer. Prayer brings heaven to earth and sets the earth ablaze with the power of the Holy Spirit. E.M. Bounds will draw you into this type of life. It is time for us to return to the “old paths” (Jeremiah 6:16). Let this Methodist preacher lead you to revival.