THE CHURCH THERMOMETER by Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 13, 1901

THE CHURCH THERMOMETER.

By Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.

Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.

The true thermometer of a church is its prayer-meeting. Pulpit eloquence may attract crowds to a sanctuary, but crowds do not give spiritual life and force to a church. That life and force comes from direct intercourse with God; and the place where that intercourse is most immediate and effective is the meeting for public prayer. The Sabbath service is, or ought to be, a devotional service, but there one man addresses the throne in supplication. At the social service of the week every disciple may do so. The attraction which draws a thousand people to God's house may be the selfish enjoyment of eloquence or good music or both combined. The only attraction to a prayer-meeting must be the soul's desire to meet and commune with God.

I have therefore observed that a full and fervid prayer-meeting bespeaks a healthy church. But when that thermometer gets “below zero,” the cold wave spreads through the whole congregation. The minister feels its benumbing influence in his pulpit. His sermons lose their propelling power. His arms hang down, and his spirit faints. But let him feel that his whole flock are interceding with God for a blessing, and he is “able to put ten thousand foes to flight.” I have heard of a church whose officers met on every Saturday evening to plead with the Intercessor for a blessing on the next day's work. In that church there was constant unity, vigor, and a perpetual flow of converting power. They did not need a “revival,” because they had not sunk into that cold and comatose condition which requires an awakening. Their prayer-meeting was not an occasional bonfire of excitement; rather was it a steady anthracite glow heated through and through by the love of Christ.

When a church has become frozen up, the true place to thaw it out is the prayer-room. A revival commonly begins there. When the deserted seats begin to fill up, and the empty prayers begin also to fill up with contrition, confession of sin, and appeals for the Spirit's presence, the atmosphere changes at once. Some silent ones begin to articulate. The merchant leaves his ledgers, and the mechanic manages to shut up shop in time to get to meeting. The valetudinarians who are always “catching cold” when they go out-of-doors, bundle up and brave the weather. Everything about the service feels the returning glow. Instead of a few voices pitched to a dull monotone, the whole assembly bursts into a hearty—

“Come, Holy Spirit, come! Let thy bright beams arise.”

No time is lost; and the leader is not driven to the wretched exhortation to “some brother to occupy the time” by a stereotyped homily. Prayer becomes direct, earnest, simple, and full of unction. At such times the largest liberty should be allowed for any one and every one to be heard. If any brother speaks too long, or so often as to deprive others of their rights, a kind word from the pastor should correct an offense which usually arises from lack of judgment.

Simple fervor is not enough to keep a prayer-meeting alive. It ought to be a school for instruction in divine truth and experimental religion. There ought to be frequent use of God's word, in comment and explanation. Personal experiences, when honest, and modestly told, are profitable. They may be thrilling and soul-kindling when they recount “what God has done” by His awakening or comforting power. If any one has a doubtful question of duty that perplexes him, the social meeting is a good place to propound it. If any one has received especial help or light from the last Sabbath's discourse, let him speak of it, for his own good and the pastor's encouragement. A minister who has sense enough to say profitable things will have too much sense to be puffed up by commendation. If any have a burden on their souls, let them ask their fellow Christians to pray for them. Requests for prayer may be as sincere and meaningful as Paul's “Brethren, pray for us,” or they may be careless mummeries. We must expect some tares among the wheat; let them grow till the harvest. It is far better to have freedom and fervor, with all their faults, than the dull decorum of spiritual death.

Good reader, what is the temperature of your prayer-meeting? Is it “below freezing point”? Then do not scold your pastor, or get up and rail at the few who do come to the cheerless room. Go to your knees and your Saviour, for the “baptism of fire,” and you may bring a live coal into the meeting. Others may catch the glow, and very soon the thermometer may rise to “blood heat,” and then may reach the point which made that upper room in Jerusalem a melting furnace of holy affections.