THERE are three classes of persons that occur to us with reference to the prayer-meeting:—
The first consists of those who are only occasionally there. If they happen "to feel like it," if the weather be very inviting, if they "can go just as well as not," why then they are there. But as these favorable circumstances occur only occasionally, they are seldom found at the church prayer-meeting. They feel little interest in its services; they do not know its value; and they derive little benefit from it.
The second class is composed of those who are never there. Judging from the number usually found at the prayer meeting, the class of those who are never there must be a very large one. The pastor looks in vain for them. His heart is never cheered by their presence and their prayers. Their fellow-Christians who are there are saddened by the remembrance of so many others whose faces are never seen in that praying circle.
The third class of persons is composed of those who are always at the prayer meeting. They are always there, unless an absolute necessity compel their absence. Their pastor soon learns who they are. He knows that he can depend upon them. The very seat they occupy he knows well. He expects to see it filled with their well known persons, just as much as he expects to be in his own seat. When those seats are vacant, he knows that something has occurred. He misses their presence as something almost essential to his own comfort there. These are the pastor's joy. These are the minister's helpers. Many a blessing does he breathe on them. With them he holds sweet communion. They bear him in their hearts, and he cherishes them as his warmest, truest friends.
Where does the pastor look in his hours of deepest anxiety for the prosperity of his work? When his own heart is oppressed and sad, and he longs to see men converted to God, where does he turn his anxious gaze for sympathy and for helpers? Always, always to the praying-circle. If that disappoint him not, he is ready for any toil.
They who are always at the prayer-meeting are the persons to receive the blessing of God's Spirit and presence whenever it comes. They lose no such sweet manifestation as that which Thomas lost.56
Happy is that pastor and that church where there are many who are always at the prayer-meeting. May such churches be increased a thousand fold!—Evangelist.