“Men ought always to pray.” — Luke 18:1

If men ought always to pray and not to faint, much more Christian men. Jesus has sent His church into the world on the same errand upon which He Himself came, and this mission includes intercession. What if I say that the church is the world’s priest? Creation is dumb, but the church is to find a mouth for it. It is the church’s high privilege to pray with acceptance. The door of grace is always open for her petitions, and they never return empty-handed. The veil was rent for her, the blood was sprinkled upon the altar for her, God constantly invites her to ask what she wills. Will she refuse the privilege which angels might envy her? Is she not the bride of Christ? May she not go in unto her King at every hour? Shall she allow the precious privilege to be unused? The church always has…

need for prayer. There are always some in her midst who are declining, or
falling into open sin. There are lambs to be prayed for, that they may be
carried in Christ’s bosom? the strong, lest they grow presumptuous; and
the weak, lest they become despairing. If we kept up prayer-meetings
four-and-twenty hours in the day, all the days in the year, we might never
be without a special subject for supplication. Are we ever without the sick
and the poor, the afflicted and the wavering? Are we ever without those
who seek the conversion of relatives, the reclaiming of back-sliders, or the
salvation of the depraved? Nay, with congregations constantly gathering,
with ministers always preaching, with millions of sinners lying dead in
trespasses and sins; in a country over which the darkness of Romanism is
certainly descending; in a world full of idols, cruelties, devilries, if the
church doth not pray, how shall she excuse her base neglect of the
commission of her loving Lord? Let the church be constant in supplication,
let every private believer cast his mite of prayer into the treasury.

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Producer: Todd Adkins
Voice Artist: Ian Cullen