The Power of Prayer by Archdeacon Farrar

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 1, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 13.

The Power of Prayer.

By Archdeacon Farrar

"Praying always." Eph. 6:18. The soul of man is like a kindled brand—so long as the air breathes on it, it will retain to the last its genial warmth and crimson glow; but let the air stagnate around it, and flake on flake the white ashes will gather over it, and the fire will die away within it, and under those ashes it will be left black and charred, a cold and useless log. What the breath of wind is to the glowing brand, prayer is to the soul. Let men and women live a prayerless life, and all the light and the fire and the glow, all the wisdom and generosity and love, will die away from them, because these are the result of spiritual grace from above; and covered with the dead, white embers of their own selfishness and pride, the heart will be cold and dead and hard—a useless thing, half consumed with impenitence and sin.—Archdeacon Farrar.