Child of Theos

The Place of Prayer in Evangelism

By Rev. R.A. Torrey, D.D.

(Abridged and emended by James H. Christian, Th.D)

            The most important human factor in effective evangelism is prayer. There have been great awakenings without much preaching, and there have been great awakenings with absolutely no organization, but there has never been a true awakening without much prayer.

            The first great ingathering in human history had it origin, on the human side, in a ten days' prayer meeting. We read of the small company of early disciples: "These all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer" (Acts 1:14). The Result of that ten days' prayer meeting is recorded in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles: "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (2:4), and "there were added unto them in that day about 3,000  souls" (2:41). That awakening proved real and permanent; those ho were gathered in on that greatest day in all Christian history, "continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers" (2:42). "And the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved" (2:47).

            Every great awakening from that day to this has had its earthly origin in prayer. "The Great Awakening" in the eighteenth century, in which Jonathan Edwards was one of the central figures, began with his famous "Call to Prayer." The work of David Brainerd among the North American Indians, one of the most marvelous works in all history, had its origin in the days and nights that Brainerd spent before God in prayer for an enduement of power from on high for his work. In 1830 there was a revival in Rochester, New York, in which Charles H. Finney was the outstanding human agent. This revival spread throughout that region of the state and 100,000 persons were reported as having connected themselves with the churches as the result of this work. Mr. Finney himself attributed his success to the spirit of prayer which prevailed. He says in his autobiography:

            "When I was on my way to Rochester, as we passed through a village some thirty miles east of Rochester, a brother minister whom I knew, seeing me on the canal boat, jumped aboard to have a little conversation with me… The Lord gave him a powerful spirit of prayer, and his heart was broken. As he and I prayed together, I was struck with his faith in regard to what the Lord was going to do there. I recollect he would say, 'Lord, I do not know how it is; but I seem to know that Thou art going to do a great work in this city.' The spirit of prayer was poured out powerfully, so much so, that some persons stayed away from the public services to pray, being unable to restrain their feelings under preaching.

                "And here I must introduce the name of a man, whom I shall have occasion to mention frequently, Mr. Abel Clary…. He had been licensed to preach; but his spirit of prayer was such- he was so burdened with the souls of men- that he was not able to preach much, his whole time and strength being given to prayer. The burden of his soul would frequently be so great that he was unable to stand, and he would writhe and groan in agony… This Mr. Clary continued in Rochester as long as I did, and did not leave until after I had left. He never, that I could learn, appeared in public, but gave himself wholly to prayer."

            Perhaps the most remarkable awakening ever known in the United States was the great revival of 1857. As far as its human origin can be traced, it began in the prayers of a humble city missionary in New York named Landfear. He not only prayed himself but organized a noon meeting for prayer. At first the attendance was very small; at one meeting there were only three present, at another two, and at one meeting he alone was present. But he and his associates persisted in prayer until a fire was kindled that spread throughout the whole city, until prayer meetings were being held every hour of the day and night, not only in church but in theaters. When this had gone on for some time, Dr. Gardner Spring, one of the most eminent Presbyterian ministers in America, said to a company of ministers, "It is evident that a revival has broken out among us, and we must preach." One of the ministers replied, "Well, if there is to be preaching, you must preach the first sermon," and Dr. Gardner Spring consented to preach. But no more people came out to hear him preach than had had come out for prayer. So the dependence was put upon prayer and not preaching; the fire spread to Philadelphia, and then all over the land until it is said that there was no part of the country where prayer meetings were not going on, and the whole nation was moved, and there were conversions and accessions to the church everywhere by the hundreds and thousands.

            This awakening in America was followed by a similar awakening, though in some respects even more remarkable, in Ireland, Scotland and England, in 1859 and 1860. The most important human factors in the origin of the wonderful work seem to have been four young men who began to meet together in the old schoolhouse in the neighborhood of Kells in the north of Ireland. Here night after night they wrestled with God in prayer. About the spring of 1858 a work of power began to manifest itself. It spread from town to town and from country to country; congregations became too large for any building, meetings were held in open air, oftentimes attended by many thousands of people. Hundreds of persons were frequently convicted of sin in a single meeting; men were smitten down with conviction of sin while working in the field. In some places the criminal courts and jails were closed because there were no cases to try and no criminals to be incarcerated. The fruits of that wonderful work abide to this day. Many of the leading persons even in the churches of America were converted at the time in the north of Ireland. While men like Dr. Grattan Guinness and Brownlow North were greatly used at that time, the revival spread not so much through preachers as through prayer. The wonderful work of Mr. Moody followed, beyond a question had its origin on the manward side in prayer. His going to England at all was in answer to the importunate prayers of a bed-ridden saint. The first demonstration of God's power through his preaching was in a church in the north of London a year before he went to England for this work. In this meeting 500 people definitely accepted Christ in a single night. This was the direct and immediate outcome of the prayers of this same bed-ridden saint. While the spirit of prayer continued, Mr. Moody went on with prayer, but as is always the case, in the course of time less and less was made of prayer and his work fell off perceptibly in power.

            The great Welsh revival in 1904 and 1905 was unquestionably the outcome of prayer. A year before the writer began his work in Cardiff, it was announced that he was going to Cardiff, and for a year prayer went up from thousands of devoted Christians that were there would be not only a revival in Cardiff but throughout Wales. When we reached Cardiff we found that early morning prayer meetings had been held in Penarth, one of the suburbs of Cardiff, for months. Yet at first the work went very slowly. There were great crowds, most enthusiastic singing, but little manifestation of real convicting and regenerating power. A day of fasting and prayer was appointed. This was observed not only in Cardiff but in different parts of Wales. There came an immediate turn of the tide; the power of God fell. For a whole year after our meetings closed in Cardiff, the work went on in that city, meetings every night with a very large number of conversions. All over Wales the work of God continued, largely without human instruments except in the way of prayer with 100,000 conversions reported in a year. It was one of the most remarkable works of God in modern times, and from Wales there went forth a fire from God to the uttermost parts of the earth, and only eternity will reveal the glorious results of that work.

            And not only has it been demonstrated over and over again in a large way that widespread revivals are the certain outcome of intelligent and prevailing prayer, but in smaller circles the power of prayer has been demonstrated over and over again. In a very obscure village in the state of Maine, where apparently nothing was being accomplished by the churches, a few earnest Christian men got together and organized a prayer band. They selected apparently the most helpless case in all the village and centered their prayers upon him, importuning God for his conversion. The was a drunkard and a wreck. In a short time the man was thoroughly converted. Then the praying band centered its prayers upon another man, the second hardest case in the village, and he was converted; and so the work went on until about two hundred were converted in a single year.

            In a little village in the state of Michigan, way off from the railroad, a Presbyterian and a Methodist minister united in an effort to win the unsaved to Christ. They were backed by a faithful praying band. While the Presbyterian preached and the Methodist exhorted, this praying band were in the back room crying to God for his blessing on the work. They would select individuals in the community to pray for. In some instances these men would come into the meeting the very night they were being prayed for and converted. The work grew to be so remarkable that ministers and multitudes of the people would drive for miles to witness the wonderful work.

            Illustrations of this character could easily be multiplied. The history of the church demonstrates beyond a question that the most important human factor in the evangelism of the world is prayer. The great need of the present hour is prayer. In our work at home and abroad we are placing more and more dependence upon men, machinery, and methods, and less and less upon God. Evangelism at home is becoming more and more revolting to all spiritually minded people; while evangelism abroad is becoming more and more merely educational and sociological. What is needed above everything else today is prayer, true prayer, prayer in the power of the Holy Ghost, and prayer that meets the conditions of prevailing prayer so plainly laid down in the Word of God.

            All that is said thus far is more or less general, but if anything practical is to be accomplished we must be specific. In what directions should we put forth prayer, if we would see that effective evangelism for which so many are longing?

            First of all, we should pray for individuals. Under God's guidance we should select individuals upon whom we should center our prayers. Every minister and every Christian should have a prayer list, i.e., he should write at the top of a sheet of paper the following words (or words to the same effect): "God helping me, I will pray earnestly and work persistently for the conversion of the following persons." Then he should kneel before God and ask God definitely and in the most thoughtful earnestness and sincerity, to show him to put different persons on that prayer list, he should write their names down. Then each day he should go to God in very definite prayer with that prayer list and cry to God in the earnestness of the Holy Spirit for the conversion of these individuals and never cease to pray for them until they are definitely converted. If there were space we could record most marvelous instances of conversion in many lands as the outcome of such prayer lists.

            Second, we should pray for the individual church and community. Pray definitely for a spiritual awakening, pray that the members of the church be brought onto a higher plane of Christian living, that the church be purged from its present compromise with the world, that the members of the church be clothed with power from on high and filled with a passion for the salvation of the lost. We should pray that through the church and its membership, many may be converted and that there be a genuine awakening in the church and community. Any church or community that is willing to pay the price can have a true revival. That price is not building a tabernacle and calling some widely known evangelist ant putting large sums of money into advertising and following other modern methods. The price of revival is honest, earnest prayer in the Holy Spirit, prayer that will not take no for an answer. Let a few people in any church or community get thoroughly right with God themselves, then let them band themselves together and cry to God for a revival until the revival comes, with a determination through, no matter how long it takes. Then let them put themselves at God's disposal for him to use them in personal work, testimony, or anything else, and a genuine revival of God's work in the power of the Holy Ghost is bound to result. The writer has said substantially this around the world; time and again, the advice has been followed, and the result has always been the same, a real, effective thoroughgoing work of God.

            Third, we should pray for the work in foreign lands. The history of foreign missions proves that the most important factor in effective missionary work is prayer. Men, women, and money are needed for foreign missions, but what is needed most of all is prayer. We should pray very definitely for God's guidance upon the secretaries and other officers of our foreign missionary boards. We should pray for definite fields and for the and the definite thrusting forth of laborers into those fields. We should pray very specifically for the men and women who have gone into the field. One who feels when gets to the foreign field as if the very atmosphere was taken possession of by "the prince of the power of the air." We should pray at all seasons in the Spirit, and watch thereunto in all perseverance, that God would give to those men and women victory in their personal conflict, and power in their efforts to win men from the delusions of the false religions that eternally destroy, to the truth of the Gospel that eternally saves. We should pray too very definitely for the converts on the foreign fields, for their deliverance from error, delusion, and sin, and that they may become intelligent, well-balanced, strong, and useful members of the body of Christ. We should pray for the churches that are formed as the outcome of missionary effort in foreign lands.

            Finally, we should pray for the evangelization of the world in the present generation. God has been calling the church as never before to the evangelization of the world, but the church as a whole has slept on and not responded to the call, and it almost seems as if the door was at last being closed and that our Lord was saying to as he said to the disciples who slept in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Sleep on now, the opportunity I gave you and that you despised is now gone." Let us pray that if he tarry, God will give us one more opportunity and that he will lead his church to improve that opportunity as it is given.

(This article was taken from The Fundamentals by R.A. Torrey; Kregel Publications Grand Rapids, Michigan [pages 487-493])