"I Hate Prayers"

Someone said these words, these sad, awful words, “I hate prayers,” but dear soldier or sailor or whoever you are, reading the “Message from God,” whether you are in England of in France, in Italy or the North Sea, I hope and entreat each one of you never to say or feel those three sad words, “I hate prayers,” for if you do now, the time may come when you may want to pray and cannot. Have you ever read those awful words of God in Proverbs 1:2424Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; (Proverbs 1:24) to 31, when the Almighty declares, “Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer,” “for they hated knowledge and did not choose: the fear of the Lord.” Oh! dear friends, choose the fear of the Lord, now―today; if you never have before, begin to pray now, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” He will hear and at once forgive the past. He delights in mercy. He says in Psalms 32, “Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Your sin covered? What with? Covered by “the Blood of Jesus, Which cleanseth us from all sin.”
Dear friends, do believe my testimony. There is nothing so wonderful as the Power of Prayer.
Get in love with prayer, make prayer your delight; constantly look up, with a prayer, if only a word or two; as Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:10,10And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested. (1 Chronicles 4:10) “Oh that Thou would’st bless me indeed.” “God granted him that which he requested.” When you have learned to love prayer, see what you can do for others! by praying for them. Fancy, you may be the means of saving your comrade’s soul or saving one of your own dear family. I heard of a wonderful answer to prayer to — day that the late Bishop Bickersteth told my friend, showing the power of prayer. In a certain parish, now many years ago, a clergyman was appointed who held very high Ritualistic views not in accordance with the views, of the parishioners, so one man said “I shall leave the church and go somewhere else, or not go at all.” His friend replied, “No, do not do that, but come to my house every Monday evening and let us pray for him.” They did and continued in prayer, and the Lord hearkened and, heard it, and soon the clergyman came right, round and preached Christ crucified plainly and simply, so that souls were saved and learned to love the Saviour and the power of prayer.
Emily P. Leakey