Collection of Education/collectionofeducationcarat1997.iso/RELIGION/BEST4.ZIP/BEST4.TXT

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Reuben Archer Torrey (1856-1928) was both an evangelist and a Bible scholar.
Long associated with D. L. Moody, he became most prominent during world
preaching tours in 1902 and 1921.  His preaching in Wales in 1902 has been
noted as one cause for the Welsh revivals of the early 1900s.  He was the
first superintendent of the Moody Bible Institute and wrote numerous
devotional and theological books.

Spiritual awakening followed R. A. Torrey throughout his career as an
evangelist.  In revivals with the popular gospel singer Charles W. Alexander,
Dr. Torrey filled meeting halls with his magnetic presence, passion, and
earnestness.

To help the reading of this classic work, the original Scripture references
have been replaced by the language of our time--the NIV.  Also, obviously
archaic terminology and passages obscured by expressions not totally familiar
in our day have been revised.  However, neither Torrey's meaning nor intent
have been tampered with.

All Scripture references are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL
VERSION (C) 1978 by the New York Bible Society, used by permission of
Zondervan Bible Publishers.

                                                      Tony Capoccia



                             The Power of Prayer
                                     by
                                R. A. Torrey
                                 (1856-1928)


               "You do not have, because you do not ask God."
                                                  James 4:2

I bring you a message from God contained in ten short words.  Nine of the
words are monosyllables, and the remaining word has but two syllables and is
one of the most familiar and most easily understood words in the English
language.  Yet there is so much in these ten short, simple words that they
have transformed many a life and brought many an inefficient worker into a
place of great power.

I spoke on these ten words some years ago at a Bible conference in Central
New York.  Some months after the conference I received a letter from the man
who had presided at the conference, one of the best known ministers of the
Gospel in America.  He wrote me: "I have been unable to get away from the ten
words upon which you spoke at Lake Keuka; they have been with me day and
night.  They have transformed my ideas, transformed my methods, transformed
my life, and, I think I have a right to add, transformed my ministry."  Since
he wrote those words the man has been the pastor of what is probably the most
widely known of any evangelical church in the world.  I trust that the words
may sink into some of your hearts today as they sank into his on that
occasion, and that some of you will be able to say in future months and
years, "I have been unable to get away from those ten words, they have been
with me day and night.  They have transformed my ideas, transformed my
methods, transformed my life, and transformed my service for God."

You will find these ten words in James 4:2, the ten closing words of the
verse, "You do not have, because you do not ask God."

These ten words contain the secret of the poverty and powerlessness of the
average Christian, of the average minister, and of the average church.  "Why
is it," many a Christian is asking, "that I make such poor progress in my
Christian life?  Why do I have so little victory over sin?  Why do I win so
few souls to Christ?  Why do I grow so slowly into the likeness of my Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ?"  And God answers in the words of our text
--"Neglect of prayer.  You do not have, because you do not ask God."

"Why is it," many a minister is asking, "that I see so little fruit from my
ministry?  Why are there so few conversions?  Why does my church grow so
slowly?  Why are the members of my church so little helped by my ministry,
and built up so little in Christian knowledge and life?"  And again God
replies: "Neglect of prayer.  You do not have, because you do not ask God."

"Why is it," both ministers and churches are asking, "that the Church of
Jesus Christ is making such slow progress in the world today?  Why does it
make so little headway against sin, against unbelief, against error in all
its forms?  Why does it have so little victory over the world, the flesh, and
the devil?  Why is the average church member living on such a low plane of
Christian living?  Why does the Lord Jesus Christ get so little honor from
the state of the Church today?"  And, again, God replies: "Neglect of prayer.
You do not have, because you do not ask God."

When we read the only inspired church history that ever was written, the
history of the Church in the days of the Apostles as it is recorded by Luke
(under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) in the Acts of the Apostles, what
do we find?  We find a story of constant victory, a story of perpetual
progress.  We read, for example, such as this in Acts 2:47, "The Lord added to
their number daily those who were being saved," and such statements as this
in Acts 4:4, "But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men
grew to about five thousand," and such statements as this in Acts 5:14,
"Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were
added to their number."  And such statements as this in Acts 6:7, "So the word
of God spread.  The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a
large number of priests became obedient to the faith."

And so we go on, chapter after chapter, through the twenty-eight chapters of
the book, and in every one of the twenty-seven chapters after the first we
find the same note of victory.  I once went through the Acts of the Apostles
marking the note of victory in every chapter, and without one single
exception the triumphant shout of victory rang out in every chapter.  How
different the history of the Church as here recorded is from the history of
the Church of Jesus Christ today.  Take, for example, that first statement,
"The Lord added to their number daily [that is, every day, or, as the Revised
Version puts it, "day by day"] those who were being saved."  Why, nowadays if
we have a revival once a year with an accession of fifty or sixty members and
spend all the rest of the year slipping back to where we were before, we
think we are doing pretty well.  But in those days there was a revival all
the time and accessions every day of those who not only "made professions"
but" who were [really] being saved."

Why this difference between the Early Church and the Church of Jesus Christ
today?  Someone will answer, "Because there is so much opposition today."
Ah, but there was opposition in those days: most bitter, most determined,
most relentless opposition, opposition in comparison with which that which
you and I meet today is but child's play.  But the Early Church went right on
beating down all opposition, surmounting every obstacle, conquering every
foe, always victorious, right on without a setback from Jerusalem to Rome, in
the face of the most firmly entrenched and most mighty heathenism and
unbelief.  I repeat the question--"Why was it?" If you will turn to the
chapters from which I have already quoted, you will get your answer.

Turn, for example, to the first chapter from which I quoted, Acts 2, and read
the 42nd verse: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."  That is a picture, very
brief but very suggestive, of the Early Church.  It was a praying church.  It
was a church in which they prayed not merely occasionally, but in which they
all "continued steadfastly . . . in the prayers."  They all prayed, not a
select few, but the whole membership of the church; and all prayed
continuously with steadfast determination.  "They gave themselves to prayer,"
as the same Greek word is translated in Acts 6:4.  Now turn to the last
chapter from which I quoted, the sixth chapter, verse 4, a