The Man Who Never Sleeps

“And it came to pass in these days, that he went out into the mountain to pray; and he continued all night in prayer to God.” — Luke 6:12 (ASV)

Somewhere in his middle years, the people of the Punjab gave Hyde a new name: “the man who never sleeps.” It wasn't literally true. He did sleep, though not much, and often in odd places. But at whatever hour of the night people passed his room, there seemed to be a light burning and a man on his knees.

How did it start? Not with a heroic resolution. Once, Hyde was due to give a Bible talk in the morning and hadn't had time to prepare, so he stayed up all night getting it ready. The talk went fine. Afterwards a thought came to him. He had spent a whole night preparing the message. What about preparing himself? “Would not a night of prayer and praise be a good preparation for a real blessing the following day?” So he tried it. He “enjoyed it so much that he repeated it the following night,” and others began to join him.

He never stopped preparing his talks carefully. But from then on he often said that “the preparation of the Messenger was quite as important as the preparation of the message.”

His friends describe a steady daily habit more than a heroic feat. One friend who shared a room with him found Hyde “on his knees long before I was up in the morning, though I was up with the dawn.” He would light the lamp several times in the night to read a passage of Scripture and pray. “His Bible was always in his hand,” that friend wrote, and “when he knelt to pray, the dear old Book was always open before him and his hands rested on it.”

In 1896, after four slow years, Hyde spoke to students at a conference in Lahore. He was honest about his own lack of fruit: “It may be, however, we have wanted results instead of wishing that needy souls might have life … Have we ever wept for souls? Have you? Have I?” That last question, “Have I?”, is a man still learning what he taught.

In the spring of 1904 Hyde was “one of the moving spirits” in a small group that started the Punjab Prayer Union. (Later books call him its founder; the early sources don't.) Members signed five questions. The first asked whether they were praying for new life in their own lives before anyone else's. The last was the practical heart of it:

“Will you set apart one-half hour each day as soon after noon as possible to pray for this awakening, and are you willing to pray till the awakening comes?”

That was it. Half an hour, not all night. A busy teacher could keep it. So could a village pastor. So could you. Its members believed that this ordinary promise, kept every day, was the hidden root of everything that happened next.

Hyde's friends were careful about one thing. He “dreaded lest any one should try to follow his example.” His all-night way of praying was his own, and, as you'll see, it cost him his health. Don't copy the form. But the idea that you need preparing, not just your homework or your performance, is for everyone. And a small promise kept daily can outlast a big resolution made once.

One thing to do this week: choose a fixed time every day this week, fifteen minutes or half an hour, whatever is honest, to pray with your Bible open in front of you. Same time each day. Keep the promise small enough that you can actually keep it.