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The Need of Prayer

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 28, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 39.

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The Need of Prayer

By Chas. E. Sturdevant

CHAS. E. STURDEVANT
“And another angel came and stood it at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.”
A comment by Mrs. E. G. White on this text is as follows:—
“Let the individual Christians, the families, and the churches bear in mind that they are closely allied to heaven. The Lord has a special interest in his church militant here below. The angels who offer the smoke of the fragrant incense are ministering for the praying saints. Then let the evening prayers in every family rise steadily to heaven in the sunset hour, while these divine ministers are speaking before God, in our behalf, of the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour. The blood alone is efficacious. It alone can make propitiation for our sins. It is the blood of the only begotten Son of God that is of value to us, enabling us to draw nigh unto God; his blood alone that taketh away the sins of the world. Morning and evening the heavenly universe beholds every household that prays; and the angel with the incense, representing the blood of the atonement, finds access to God.”—“Week of Prayer Readings,” Dec. 23, 1897, page 5.
How precious are these thoughts! O for grace to profit by them! Let us follow them carefully, and not be of those spoken of in Jer. 10:25:—
“Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.”
The neglect of such daily religion as is in keeping with the above quotation and text is one of the chief causes of our worldly state and unfruitfulness.
Onarga, Ill.