Behold, He Prayeth

Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. JAMES 5:17

Bounds liked to teach by example. Power Through Prayer is crowded with the names of praying men and women from church history, and Prayer and Praying Men, published in 1921, is almost entirely a gallery of portraits: Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Hezekiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Samuel, Daniel and, at length, Paul. It is the easiest of his books to read straight through. This chapter walks through that gallery and asks what Bounds wanted us to learn from it.

Men of like passions

Bounds’s favourite text about the saints was James’s remark that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. Elijah seems larger than life — a prophet who shut the heavens and called down fire. But James insists he was ordinary flesh and blood, with the same fears and moods as anyone. Bounds took that as an invitation. The point of the praying saints is not that they were a different species, but that they show us what God does through ordinary people who pray.

And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. JAMES 5:18

He noticed how Elijah’s prayer on Carmel was brief, simple and bold, and how his prayer for rain was persistent, sending his servant seven times to look for a cloud. He noted too that Elijah’s prayers were not only public. Before he ever stood before Ahab, he had learned to pray in secret.

The gallery of Scripture

Each of Bounds’s biblical portraits draws out one aspect of prayer.

Abraham, he said, built an altar wherever he pitched his tent, and was among the first to gather his household for prayer. His intercession for Sodom showed the boldness and humility of a friend of God.

And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes: GENESIS 18:27

Moses was the mighty intercessor, who stood between God and a rebellious people and would not let go. Bounds was struck by the thought that Moses’ face shone most brightly not after receiving the law, but after his forty days of pleading for Israel. Intercession changes the intercessor.

Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. EXODUS 32:32

Samuel was the child of his mother’s prayers and became a man of prayer himself, who counted it a sin to stop praying for his people. Hezekiah turned every crisis of his reign — the Assyrian army, his own mortal illness — into an occasion for prayer. Ezra wept and prayed over the sins of the returned exiles, and Nehemiah fasted and prayed over the ruined walls of Jerusalem before he set about rebuilding them. Daniel prayed three times a day with his window open towards Jerusalem, as he did aforetime, and would not stop even when it meant the lions’ den.

Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: 1 SAMUEL 12:23

Paul, the teacher of prayer

Bounds gave five chapters to Paul, more than to anyone else. He loved the moment when the Lord told the frightened Ananias to go to Saul of Tarsus, and gave as His reason three words: Behold, he prayeth. That, Bounds said, was the sign of Paul’s conversion and the key to his whole life.

And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, ACTS 9:11

He traced Paul’s praying through his letters: his constant thanksgiving, his prayers for the churches to grow in knowledge, love and holiness, and above all his repeated requests that the churches pray for him. Paul was not ashamed to ask for help, and he treated the prayers of ordinary believers as essential to his work.

Praying men of history

In Power Through Prayer Bounds widened the gallery to the whole history of the Church. He quoted David Brainerd, the young missionary to the Native Americans of the colonial frontier, who wrote: “I love to be alone in my cottage, where I can spend much time in prayer.” He told how Edward Payson’s knees had worn grooves into the hardwood floor where he knelt. He wrote of John Welch in Scotland, who thought a day ill spent if he did not give many hours to prayer; of John Fletcher, whose walls were said to be stained by the breath of his prayers; of Adoniram Judson in Burma, whose counsel was to withdraw from business and company seven times a day to pray. He quoted Luther, Wesley and McCheyne, Bishop Andrewes and Henry Martyn.

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. HEBREWS 13:7

His purpose was not to make heroes but to hold up a mirror. These men, he said, prayed not because they watched the clock, but because prayer was so important to them that they could hardly stop. And he drew the moral sharply: we build their tombs and write their epitaphs, but are careful not to follow their examples.

Where this must be read with care

Galleries of heroes can inspire, but they can also mislead.

First, many of Bounds’s historical examples are drawn from admiring biographies written in an age that liked its saints spotless, and some of the details — stained walls, grooved floorboards, hours counted exactly — have the character of pious tradition. They are worth reading for their spirit rather than as precise records.

Second, the gallery is almost entirely male. Bounds gave Hannah a warm place, and elsewhere he praised praying mothers, but a reader today should know that the history of prayer is full of women — from Anna in the temple to Susanna Wesley, from praying grandmothers to women missionaries — whose stories are largely missing from his pages.

Third, the lives of great intercessors can make ordinary believers feel small. Bounds meant the opposite. James chose Elijah precisely because he was a man of like passions. The saints of the Bible included Jacob the schemer, Moses who once refused God’s call, and Peter who denied his Lord. God did not wait for them to be impressive before He heard them. He will not wait for you.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Choose one of the biblical figures Bounds wrote about — Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Daniel, Nehemiah — and read their story this week, watching for their prayers.

2. Read Paul’s prayers in Ephesians 1:15–23 and 3:14–21, and pray them for someone you love.

3. Think of a person, living or dead, whose example of prayer has helped you. Give thanks for them, and consider what you can learn from them.

4. Ask whether anyone could say of you what the Lord said of Paul: Behold, he prayeth. What would need to change?

5. If the saints make you feel small, read James 5:17 again and take courage: they were people of like passions with you.

A PRAYER

Lord God, You heard Abraham and Moses, Samuel and Daniel, Elijah and Paul. They were men of like passions with me, and You heard them because they prayed.

Thank You for the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before, men and women who prayed and were answered. Let their faith stir mine.

Keep me from admiring them without imitating them, and from building their tombs while neglecting their example.

Make my life such that it might be said of me also, in heaven if not on earth: Behold, she prays; behold, he prays. Amen.