E.M.Bounds Quotes

Praying which does not result in pure conduct is a delusion. We have missed the whole office and virtue of praying if it does not rectify conduct. It is in the very nature of things that we must quit praying or quit bad conduct.

We can never know God as it is our privilege to know Him by brief repetitions that are requests for personal favors and nothing more.

Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still. He will never talk well and with real success to men for God who has not learned well how to talk to God for men.

The possibilities of prayer are found in its allying itself with the purposes of God for God's purposes and man's praying are the combination of all potent and omnipotent forces.

We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. It surmounts or removes all obstacles overcomes every resisting force and gains its ends in the face of invincible hindrances.

To say prayers in a decent delicate way is not heavy work. But to pray really to pray till hell feels the ponderous stroke to pray till the iron gates of difficulty are opened till the mountains of obstacles are removed till the mists are exhaled and the clouds are lifted and the sunshine of a cloudless day brightens-this is hard work but it is God's work and man's best labor.

Faith and hope and patience and all the strong beautiful vital forces of piety are withered and dead in a prayerless life. The life of the individual believer his personal salvation and personal Christian graces have their being bloom and fruitage in prayer.

What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use -- men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men -- men of prayer.

The goal of prayer is the ear of God a goal that can only be reached by patient and continued and continuous waiting upon Him pouring out our heart to Him and permitting Him to speak to us. Only by so doing can we expect to know Him and as we come to know Him better we shall spend more time in His presence and find that presence a constant and ever-increasing delight.

Prayer is of transcendent importance. Prayer is the mightiest agent to advance God's work. Praying hearts and hands only can do God's work. Prayer succeeds when all else fails.

The praying which makes a prayerful ministry is not a little praying put in as we put flavor to give it a pleasant smack, but the praying must be in the body, and form the blood and bones. Prayer is no petty duty, put into a corner; no piecemeal performance made out of the fragments of time which have been snatched from business and other engagements of life; but it means that the best of our time, the heart of our time and strength must be given.

The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be the mightier the forces against evil everywhere.