Prayer

By BH Publishing Group

The Selections from Spurgeon’s Library series celebrates the foundation of faith upon which C. H. Spurgeon stood. As a voracious reader, Spurgeon gleaned wisdom from his predecessors and contemporaries that deeply impacted his preaching, writing, and ministry. B&H Academic, in partnership with the Spurgeon Center at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has culled through more than 6,000 volumes in Spurgeon’s personal library to present a curated collection of essays and sermons on prayer that shaped Spurgeon himself. Addressing such topics as the privilege of prayer, imitating Christ in prayer, and prayer without ceasing, this volume is sure to help readers grow in their faith and experience the true power in prayer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BH Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781535937597

Book preview

18

SERIES INTRODUCTION

B&H Academic

According to some surveys most CEOs read fifty-two books each year. That is a staggering number, but it’s not even close to the number of books C. H. Spurgeon read. According to W. Y. Fullerton in his book C. H. Spurgeon: A Biography , Spurgeon read six books each week. That equals 312 books each year! By the end of his life, Spurgeon had added more than 12,000 volumes to his library, and he read every one of them.

What is even more impressive is that Spurgeon read deeply. The term deep reading appears to have been coined by Sven Birkerts in The Gutenberg Elegies (1994). Deep reading refers to thoughtful and deliberate processes that filter out distractions and include deductive reasoning, reflection, and critical analysis. Most of Spurgeon’s books were weighty Puritan works. Clearly this type of reading was instrumental in the development of his excellent writing skills and greatly influenced his preaching. Perhaps the secret to Spurgeon’s influence and popularity is directly related to the quantity and quality of the books he read.

What if we could add selections from Spurgeon’s personal library to our own? Through a partnership with Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Spurgeon Center, B&H Academic is making this a reality. Using modern technology and a team of editors, we are taking selections from his personal library to create individual volumes that each focus on a specific topic or theme. There are approximately 6,000 volumes in the Spurgeon Center. Selections from these books will introduce you to new authors as well as more familiar names like John Owen, John Newton, and others. This is not light literature. This is rich content you will want to read slowly and reflectively. Remember, this is Spurgeon’s deep reading.

B&H Academic is grateful to Dr. Jason Allen, President of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the talented staff at the Spurgeon Library for granting us access to these volumes. Every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original text including retaining the original footnotes. The editors have added a small number of footnotes for further reading.

We commit this project to our Lord for the sake of his church.

INTRODUCTION

Jason Allen

It is a personal delight to bring this word of commendation and introduction to you about the volume you hold in your hands. When Jim Baird and the B&H Academic team pitched to me the concept of this work, I jumped at the opportunity to partner in bringing Spurgeon, and those who influenced Spurgeon, to bear on the lives of contemporary Christians.

The idea behind this book is sheer genius. Spurgeon is one of the most influential Christians who ever lived, and his ministry and impact are beyond full calculation. In the nineteenth century, Spurgeon was like Billy Graham, with Christian influence that roared through the tentacles of the British Empire and shaped Protestantism like few others.

Yet this project takes us further upstream. Charles Spurgeon, like all of us, was influenced by key Christian thinkers and writers who preceded him. Thus, this project has come about through a careful review of Charles Spurgeon’s personal library, combing through the books that influenced him, and bringing those books forward for contemporary readers.

In particular, this book brings forward the many authors who shaped Charles Spurgeon on prayer. Though Spurgeon is known primarily as the Prince of Preachers, his prayer life is also worthy of emulation.

In fact, on one occasion the great American evangelist D. L. Moody went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle to hear Spurgeon preach. Upon his return to America, a colleague asked Moody if he had heard Spurgeon preach. Moody said, Yes, I heard him preach, but more importantly, I heard him pray.

Why Charles Spurgeon?

Charles Spurgeon is widely recognized as one of the most influential Christians who has ever lived. Providentially raised up by God, Spurgeon pastored the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England, during the Victorian Era. During this time, Great Britain spanned the globe as the world’s leading empire—thus adding to Spurgeon’s global fame and influence. That is why Carl F. H. Henry observed that C. H. Spurgeon is one of evangelical Christianity’s immortals.

Preacher

As a preacher, Spurgeon pastored the largest Protestant church in the world—the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London—where he preached for nearly forty years to a congregation of some 6,000 members. Spurgeon is commonly ranked, along with George Whitefield, as one of the two greatest preachers of the English language. In 1857, he preached to a crowd numbering 23,654 at London’s Crystal Palace, and by the end of his ministry he had preached to more than 10 million people without the aid of modern technologies.

Spurgeon was a gifted pastor, author, apologist, leader, visionary, and school and ministry administrator. Yet he was first and foremost a preacher. All of Spurgeon’s auxiliary ministries flowed from his pulpit, and his weekly sermons were transcribed and dispensed around the world. Arguably, in the history of the church, there is no name more rightly associated with preaching in the English-speaking world than Charles Spurgeon.

Author

As an author, Spurgeon owned an indefatigable pen. Charles wrote a voluminous number of letters, and by the time of his death he had penned approximately 150 books. His sermons, which he edited weekly and were shipped globally, sold more than 56 million copies in his lifetime. In Spurgeon’s day they were translated into more than forty languages, and now total sixty-three hefty volumes. Additionally, Spurgeon wrote for various magazines and journals, including his Sword and Trowel.

Humanitarian

As a humanitarian, Spurgeon hurled himself at the great social ills of his day. He founded two orphanages, a ministry for fallen women, was an ardent abolitionist, started a pastors’ college, and began a book distribution ministry for undersupplied pastors. He launched clothes closets and soup kitchens, all for members and nonmembers of the Metropolitan Tabernacle alike. By the age of fifty, he had started no fewer than sixty-six social ministries, all of which were designed to meet both physical and spiritual needs.

Apologist

As an apologist, Spurgeon ardently defended his Baptist, evangelical, and reformed convictions. He attacked hyper Calvinism and Arminianism; Campbellism and Darwinism. Most especially, Spurgeon defended the person and work of Christ and the comprehensive inspiration and infallibility of Scripture. Spurgeon’s apologetic efforts were most clearly witnessed through the prism of the Downgrade Controversy, where he challenged and ultimately withdrew from his own Baptist Union for their equivocation over these issues.

Evangelist

As an evangelist, Spurgeon relentlessly preached the gospel and consistently won sinners to Christ. He remains an unsurpassed model for balancing the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of humanity in evangelism. In fact, one is hard-pressed to find any sermon Spurgeon ever preached that does not conclude with a presentation of the cross. By the end of his ministry, Spurgeon had baptized 14,692 believers.

Spurgeon’s Mystique

Spurgeon’s ministry still owns a certain mystique. This is in part due to the fact that he was a genius. He devoured books, possessed a photographic memory, and once testified of simultaneously holding eight thoughts in his head. His enormous influence, intriguing life and times, and many physical and emotional travails factor in as well.

Spurgeon’s mystique is also due to his indefatigable ministerial work ethic, which prompted David Livingston to ask of Spurgeon, How do you manage to do two men’s work in a single day? Spurgeon, in reference to the Holy Spirit, replied, You have forgotten there are two of us.

Spurgeon’s Enduring Relevance

Spurgeon was a phenom who preached in the largest Protestant church in the world in the context of the most powerful city in the world, London. Yet his ministry coursed through and beyond the expansive tentacles of the British Empire. He embodied all that is right about biblical Christianity and all that twenty-first-century Christians must emulate: biblical faithfulness, evangelistic fervor, self-sacrificial ministry, power in the pulpit, social awareness, and defense of the faith.

Why Prayer?

It is impossible to know a healthy Christian life without also knowing a vibrant prayer life. Prayer is the oxygen for the soul, the way through which we commune with God, and, via God’s Word, God communes with us.

Every Christian should reflect the sentiment of the disciples, who asked Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray. Prayer indeed is a mystery. How our prayers intersect with the divine will and sovereign prerogative of God remains unclear this side of eternity.

However, what is unmistakable is that God uses the prayers of his people in accord with his own divine will in a way that brings much good to his children and much glory to his own name.

This is why so much attention is given in Scripture to prayer. Our Lord modeled for us how to pray in Matthew chapter six, and in perhaps the greatest prayer ever prayed in John chapter 17. Moreover, we glean from other authors, like the apostle Paul, in places such as Colossians 1:9–14, Philippians 1:9–11, and Ephesians 3:14–21, how to pray.

Thus, the content of this book is absolutely essential to your growing in your faith, and to your prayers being strengthened. Alongside your Bible, read it carefully and apply your gleanings to your prayer life.

The Contributors

In order for you to get the most out of this project, allow me briefly to familiarize you with its contributors.

As mentioned, the contributors to this volume powerfully shaped the life and ministry of Charles Spurgeon. In fact, Midwestern Seminary is pleased to partner with the B&H Academic team in scouring the Spurgeon Library and pulling these resources from his personal collection. Many of these works have been heavily annotated by Spurgeon himself, and presented straight from his library to yours. Thus, let me introduce you to these immortal Christians and their timeless work.

Isaac Barrow (1630–1677) is commonly recognized for his work on mathematics, particularly for his role in the development of infinitesimal calculus. While holding the Lucasian chair at Cambridge, he published two prominent mathematical works, the first on geometry and the second on optics. In 1669, he resigned his chair to one of his pupils, Isaac Newton. For the rest of his life, Barrow would give himself to the study of divinity. Some of his noteworthy books include Expositions of the Creed, Decalogue, Sacraments, and The Lord’s Prayer.

Thomas Boston (1676–1732) was a Scottish clergyman educated at Edinburgh. He was licensed by the presbytery of Chirnside in 1697. While pastoring in the little parish of Simprin, he came across a book by Edward Fisher called the Marrow of Modern Divinity. The book was primarily concerned with the free offer of the Gospel, and it countered the theology of many of the high Calvinists in Boston’s day. What developed is known as the Marrow Controversy. Boston and the other Marrow men defended the free offer of the gospel though they maintained the belief in particular redemption. Boston wrote many books including Body of Divinity, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State, Miscellanies, The Crook in the Lot, and The Art of Man-Fishing.

James Hamilton (1814–1867) was a Scottish minister and author. He studied at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. He became the pastor of the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, London, in 1841, and he would pastor there until his death in 1867. While pastoring, he was a prolific author and wrote numerous religious tracts. His best-known works include Life in Earnest, Our Christian Classics, The Royal Preacher, and The Mount of Olives.

Robert Hawker (1753–1827) was an Anglican priest who spent most of his life as the curate to Charles Church in Plymouth, England. He was nicknamed the Star of the West because of his well-liked biblical preaching. He modeled an extemporaneous preaching model and was said to hold people’s attention for seventy to eighty minutes. He was not only a good preacher though, he was also known for his care for his congregation and the poor. He was an advocate too for the start of a Sunday school. He wrote extensively, but he is most remembered for a couple of his works, namely, a book on the divinity of Christ and Poor Man’s Morning and Evening Portions which have been used even to this day.

William Jay (1769–1853) was a nonconformist Englishman who spent most of his ministry at Argyle Chapel in Bath where he preached for sixty years. While in Bath, he was known for his revivalist preaching, in that, he was indiscriminate when it came to people’s denomination or social status. He was frequently praised for his oratory ability.

William Paley (1743–1805) was an apologist, English clergyman, and philosopher. He is, perhaps, on a popular level best known for his work on the teleological argument in which he coined the watchmaker analogy. Paley was a staunch advocate for the abolition of the slave trade. He attacked the slave trade in his well-known book The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy. His most famous book was Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. In this work, he argued that God’s design in creation could be noticed in the well-being and order of both the physical and social world.

My prayer is that these men, though dead, will still speak into your Christian life. And, as they do, you’ll find your prayer life strengthened and your Christian life and witness emboldened. Enjoy!

1

Selections from James Hamilton

The Privilege of Prayer

Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing.

—1 THESS. V. 16, 17.

The Athenians spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing;" and whatever may have become of the Attic elegance and the Attic genius, modern society is not deficient in the Athenian curiosity. Nor do we blame it. The desire of novelty is not in itself blameworthy; but there is one form of it which we would like to see more frequent. To freshen old truths is nearly as important as to discover new ones: and instead of telling or hearing some new thing,

Reviews for Prayer

[jfe16 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

“Prayer” is a story told from the viewpoint of FBI agent Gil Martins, who is assigned to the domestic terrorism task force in Houston, Texas. As the story opens, Martins is suffering a crisis of faith brought on by his involvement in sending an innocent man to death row. His unsympathetic wife cannot understand this lapse and, in short order, she tosses him out of the house. As the story progresses, Martins, still seeking a resolution to his personal dilemma, becomes involved in the bureau’s hunt for a serial killer.Despite the author’s undeniable skill in weaving words into a wonderful tapestry, the story itself fails to become compelling. In a tale populated with characters that are more caricature than true-to-life, ridicule and derision seem to be the order of the day. Even Philip Kerr fans are likely to be disappointed; the story is cynical and filled with a dark pessimism. Overly-long and drawn out, readers who plod through to the final pages are likely to be insulted or to feel cheated by its preposterous ending. Skip this one and wait for the next Bernie Gunther outing.

[johnwbeha · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

It is interesting that just a quick flick through the reviews of this book identified the key points I want to make. The book starts well, but deteriorates (like so many novels which involve world shattering secrets) once it gets to the "big issue". The central problem is one of credibility, which is totally absent from the second half of the book. I love the Bernie Gunther books, but I now remember why I did not enjoy many of Kerr's other stuff.

[prettytarantula · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was a little hesitant before I started reading this book. The FBI angle, murder mystery and unexplained events are definitely my cup of tea. On the other hand, the religious aspects of the novel can either be a hit or a miss for me. I don't like the one-sided, preachy, or the agenda driven viewpoint in my books. I'm also able to read a book, knowing that it's fiction, and can separate out my own religious convictions at the same time. Having said this.....When I first started this book I was really enjoying it. Philip Kerr's writing is amazing and it flows perfectly. Even when I thought some of the more technical FBI terms were going over my head, he was able to explain things in a clear way where I felt like I wasn't missing anything. I admired the main character, Gil, and the very human struggles he was having in his marriage, with his faith, and at his job. Even though he was highly flawed (as were all the characters in this book) he was extremely likeable. The storyline was very different and unique from any book I have read. Religion played a huge part in the story, from Catholics to Christians and even atheists (if they can be grouped as a religion.) All of these groups were portrayed as being flawed and hypocritical. God was even portrayed in a vastly different light too. The only drawback I had about the story was that I felt that the ending was rushed and somewhat confusing since the reader wasn't privy to some of the actions of the main character, even though we were faithfully following his steps, and I felt cheated. Other than that, it was an enjoyable read and I will definitely read more of Kerr's novels in the future.I received this book for free from LibraryThing.

[drneutron_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Gil Martins is an FBI agent working in domestic counter-terrorism. He's also a former Catholic, former evangelical Christian, current atheist, to the disappointment of his wife. But it's hard to let go of those older beliefs, and when he finds skimpy evidence of a series of suspicious deaths of prominent anti-religion folks, he prays that God would prove His existence - if there's really a God there. And that simple thing sets off a seriously mind-bending story. Prayer is one of those books that pushes the reader into that territory where we're not sure whether we're reading a suspense story or a story of a serious mental breakdown. That twistyness is the fun of a book like this. And Kerr delivers in the end - once the reader gets through a bit of a lag in the middle section, the book's only flaw.

[billpilgrim_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've read a couple of Kerr's Bernie Gunther books and enjoyed those, so I thought I would like this one. But, I didn't. I found it so annoying, the way the people in the book were behaving in the major end section where it got the most thrillery. It was so totally unbelievable to me that they would have acted that way, in light of what we had learned about them earlier in the book. I almost stopped reading, but plowed through.

[michaelmclane · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Having enjoyed Philip Kerr's previous work in the Gunther series, I was intrigued by this change of pace. However, I found myself wandering throughout the story. The FBI investigative angle and the main character's struggle with his faith was an interesting construct, but the meandering into the inner mind of the FBI agent became uninteresting and lost me Looking forward to more Bernie Gunther!

[teritree001971 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

PRAYER tells the story of FBI agent Gil Martins as he loses his faith in God and then how he finally finds it once more. He is not a perfect man, nor is he what one would call one of God's heroes. The story begins with Martin finally losing his faith after finding out he helped send an innocent man to death row. As he admits to himself and the world that he has lost his faith, he finally loses his wife who purports to believe in God. She takes his son and moves back with her parents, while telling him to please vacate the premises. When his friend Coogan calls him with a potential new case, he also finds a new place to live in the Galveston area. As he lives here, he finds his faith, finds the killer as well as his chosen profession. In the end, Martin determines that God is not the God we see every day in the media, nor is He the God we hear of in most church sermons. PRAYER is not only a thriller, but serves to remind us that God is real and to be careful for what we ask, as we most often will not like the answer we receive.

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A real page turner! An FBI agent grapples with his faith while he investigates a series of strange deaths. Along the way, he has to decide - is God the fire and brimstone Old Testament God, or the New Testament fatherly love God - or both? And can he survive the answer? As it is written in Hebrews 10:31, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Boy is it!

[draak_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The beginning of the book started out good but by the middle I found myself not really caring what happens next. I guess it was too much religion. I did skip to the end and found I didn't really miss out on anything. I received this from LibraryThing Early Reviewer for an honest review. I really didn't care for it.

[adpaton · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Former Catholic Scottish ex-pat Gil Martins lives in Houston, Texas, works for the FBI, and together with his wife is a member of an Evangelical mega-church. When he starts to have doubts, she kicks him out and his old friend the Catholic Bishop comes to the rescue, offering a place to live in the ghost town of Galveston.Meanwhile, prominent do-gooders and Atheists are being murdered, and the bishop suspects the Angel of Death. Yes, the actual Angel of Death, invoked by an evil cult of murderous happy-clappy Christian fundamentalists. Gil visits the church, meets the suave and charismatic minister - soon revealed as a malevolent fanatic - and, soon becomes a target of the deadly prayer circle himself. The supernatural is not something one expects to find in a Kerr book and, fan though I am, I must admit he is not very good at it. His depiction of God as being an uncaring, capricious and cruel being, an Old Testament homicidal psychopath, is also a tad disturbing. Prayer is interesting but not one of Kerr's better efforts.

[iansales_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This novel reads like an idea Kerr pitched to a US network, but was turned down. There’s some solid work in it, but it’s a thin piece stretched out to novel-length. Gil Martin is a FBI agent in Houston, involved in investigating domestic terrorism. When he admits to his wife that he no longer believes in God, she leaves him and takes their young son. Meanwhile Martin is investigating a series of strange deaths of prominent atheists – all four seem like freak accidents or bizarre medical catastrophes. But the fact they’re hated by the religious right makes their deaths suspicious. Martin eventually discovers that a charismatic preacher has discovered “directed prayer” actually works, because God exists, and he’s the Old Testament God who demands unquestioning obedience, not Jesus’s wishy-washy God of love. And this preacher’s secret prayer group has been sending the fallen angel Azrael to kill their opponents. It’s all a bit flimsy, and the plot isn’t exactly twisty-turny. Kerr generally writes clever thrillers, but some of them are propped up by well-handled research rather than clever plotting, and Prayer falls into that category.

[totsgram · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Just like having a list of favorite movies I can watch more than once, I also have a growing list of books I can read over and over. Prayer is on my list! There is so much to the story, I'm sure there's more to be found a second or third time. Daring to blend a personal Christian struggle into true to life tragedy and mystery opens up mixed reviews. Philip Kerr did it perfectly in my opinion. Look at mixed bag of beliefs we have in our world. What Mr. Kerr writes such a non-fiction possibility to it. I found this novel scary in its realism. I've not read any of his works before but after reading Prayer, I look forward to adding more of Philip Kerr's works to our library.

[marcush_42 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is basically a murder mystery with a religious theme tied in. I always worry that fiction with a religious theme will come across as preachy. It's not exactly preachy, but for a book with a fairly fast pace it really fell short. The ending feels drawn out to a point that I found myself wishing it was over. That's never a good thing. There's definitely better murder mysteries to dive into out there.

[toades_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm afraid I could not finish this novel. The premise did not keep my interest and I felt as though the author rambled on quite a bit. I don't like to say I don't care for a book, but that is what this is all about. Perhaps it's just not my type of story line. I got to uninvolved in the religious aspects of the story line.

[mugsynoir · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"Prayer" is a departure book for Philip Kerr, being quite removed from anything he's written before. Gil Martins is a Houston FBI agent working in Domestic Terrorism. Always a little doubtful in his religious faith, changing from Catholic to evangelical Christian, his faith is shaken even further. A wiretap on a violent biker gang reveals that they were responsible for the murders of two young women years earlier. As it happens, Martins helped arrest and convict a man for the crime and he was executed just weeks earlier. Martins believes a righteous God would never have allowed that to happen.The loss of faith precipitates Martins breakup with his wife, who can't bear the thought of living with a faithless husband.Meanwhile two different serial killer cases force Martins to further question the existence of God, and if there is one,whether He is a beneficent being, or a vengeful one. In the one case, someone is murdering people who have dedicated their lives to good deeds. While in the other, renowned atheists are dying in bizarre and frightening ways. As he delves into the string of murders, the suicide of a witness forces Martins down a path where he ends up not only questioning his faith, but his sanity too."Prayer" is a psychological thriller that invites the reader to share in the hysteria, where whatever your own beliefs, you may find the seeds of doubt difficult to dispel. For all the build up, though, the ending seemed somewhat trite and contrived and could have come a few dozen pages sooner.

[lupoman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) through the LibraryThing Early Review Program.I liked this book a lot. I never read this author before, but I saw his books in bookstores, so this is my first time reading this author. I thought the book was slow at the start, but when the character Gaynor Allitt entered the story, it had gotten better, and I was mesmerized from there until the end of the book. It is to me, a page-turner and a must-read. 4 stars

[btuckertx · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Prayer", by Philip Kerr is definitely a surprise read. With no other frame of reference to Kerr's work than his Bernie Gunther hard-case detective novels, I suppose I expected something similar, so it took a few pages to get into the story.But once it got going, it was one heckuva fun ride, with more twists and turns and surprises than a roller coaster.The main protagonist is Gil Martins, an FBI Domestic Terrorism agent in Houston. His belief in a Catholic God is badly shaken when he finds out a recently executed man - whom he'd played a significant role in sending to death row - turns out to be innocent. With his faith almost shattered, his relationship with his wife and son craters.When high-profile secular celebrities start dying mysteriously, apparently at the hands of a serial killer, Martins begins to wonder about the existence of God - and if He does exist, whether His nature is Old Testament vengeful God, or New Testament mankind-loving God. We're about to find out.I really enjoyed this book, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a thoughtful, yet fast-paced thriller.