Prayer-meeting methods, how to prepare for and conduct Christian endeavor prayer meetings and similar gatherings

Front matter

PRAYER"

Meeting Methods mos f^We!ls

A BOOK OF PLANS

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Taking Part in the Meeting 5

II. The General Work of the Committee . . 20

Chapter I. Taking Part In The Meeting

Have you ever heard any one say, " I cannot express myself "? That is true only of an idiot or a paralytic. Not express yourself ? Why, if you were born dumb, still eyes can speak lovingly, and helpful hands can pronounce beautiful orations. If you are blind and deaf, yet you can point to heaven. If you are helpless and motionless, still they preach noble sermons who only stand and wait.

Self Always Expresses Itself.

But those who say, " I cannot express myself," do not usually mean that they cannot express themselves at all. They mean that they cannot express themselves fully, but only stammeringly and inadequately.

But this also is untrue. Self always expresses itself. If you think you cannot express all of yourself, then you are mistaken in one of two ways. Either you are already expressing more of yourself than you 5 know, or you may think you have a larger self to express than you really have.

Be assured that you cannot 'hide spiritual heat and spiritual light, any more than you can hide physical heat and physical light. If the love of mankind, if the spirit of prayer and of praise, could lurk unobserved in the human heart, then I could believe in an expressionless heaven, where harpstrings vibrate without sound, and the glory of God shines without giving light.

But no. The stammering soul speaks stammeringly, however glib the tongue. The steadfast spirit talks steadfastly, in spite, often, of faltering speech. It would be sad indeed if this were not true.

The Value of Words.

Suppose, however, we merely say, " I cannot express myself in words." What then? Well, this too is false ; and to prove that it is false is my present purpose. I shall try, first, to show the value of verbal expression ; and second, to show how we can win this power.

In the first place, then, why is it that Paul says that "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation "? Are not the issues of life out of the heart? Why is it that Christians always insist on verbal expression of religious feeling? I will mention eight reasons.

Earnestness Means Expression.

First, because, when we are in earnest about anything else, speech is so common and ready. Young

TAKING PART IN THE MEETING. J

people proclaim zealously, " I want to go to that party " ; "I love ice cream " ; " John is helping me level the tennis-court." Why should they stammer and break down when they say, " I want to go to heaven " ; " I love the Saviour " ; " Christ is helping me live a manly life "? The sceptic will have it that this hesitancy argues more love for ice cream than for Christ.

No Mistake About It.

In the second place, verbal expression is valuable because it is so unmistakable. " What !" you cry, M are there none whose professions are only loudvoiced shams ? " Yes ; but whom do these deceive ? Can you not detect their insincerity almost with the first word ?

It is much easier to be deceived by looks than by speech. Yonder pretty girl, with serious eyes religiously downcast, may be thinking only of her ribbons. Let me see her eye light up as she speaks of Christ. Yonder manly boy may be so regular an attendant at church because of godly parents, or even because of the pretty girl. Let me hear his strong young voice lifted in prayer, % and I can soon tell you.

" He has gone back on his — act. 1 ' Did you ever hear that? No. " She has gone back on her — face." Did you ever hear that? No. Why is it that we always say, " He has gone back on his — word," if there is not something about words that is more trustworthy than other modes of expression ? Do you wonder that they are expected of Christians?

Too Selfish to Speak.

The third reason why so much stress is laid upon vocal Christianity is because a lack of it implies selfishness. "I cannot express myself" means often, " I am too selfish to express myself." We hesitate to speak of Christ's glory, because we fear that we can get no glory by our speech. We do not lose ourselves and all thought of ourselves in thought of our theme.

O, of course, selfishness can produce clamor. It can make of us noisy word-mongers, eager to cry out anything that will draw men's attention to us. But from your personal experience tell me : has not selfishness been at the bottom of your ignoble silence more often than of your ignoble speech ?

The Contagion of Dumbness.

In the fourth place, we object to silent Christians because failure in one mode of expression hinders success in all ; vigor in one mode of expression promotes success in all. When your chat with your friend is the gayest, are not your smiles the warmest? When your words have been most fervently spoken for the dear Master, is not your life most fervently lived for him ?

Our only safety, friends, is to be ready for obedience to the Holy Spirit in all modes of expression, so that whether he bid us walk or talk, laugh or weep, work or rest, it is all one blessedness to us. We dare not risk sloth in the tongue, lest it spread to the fingers and feet, the brain and the heart.

A Lofty Faculty.

The fifth reason is because we all feel that expression is one of the very best things in man, and we feel that religion should put man at his best. Milton said, in effect, " If you would write an epic, your life must be an epic " ; but I would add that you cannot live an epic without in some way expressing an epic that all may read or hear.

So thought Gray when he wrote about "a mute, inglorious Milton.''' A mute Milton would indeed be inglorious, a living treason to his Creator. Equally treasonable would be a mute, inglorious Christian.

Words Fix Ideas.

In the sixth place, nothing so assures us of spiritual things and fixes them for us, as giving them outward embodiment. A man learns the full charms of his beloved one by recounting them to his mother. He discovers the dear beauty of his mother's life in telling his friend about her. He perceives most clearly God's love for him when he tries to tell it to others. He is weak in duty-doing until he has acknowledged that duty before his fellows. The truth he knows seems only half true until he knows that somebody else knows it. He knows that prayer is answered, but how much more he knows it when he hears you say that prayer is answered!

You are a stronger Christian than I am, if your belief does not go stumbling without the arm of another's belief; and you are a stronger Christian than I am, if you dare feel a thing to be right and

IO PRAYER-MEETING METHODS.

true and required of you without instantly binding your belief to life by spoken profession of it.

The Magnifying Power of Speech.

And not only does expression fix what we have, but, in the seventh place, it adds to what we have. Christ's parable -servant simply expressed his pound, and it grew to ten cities. The foolish servant simply said that he could not express his pound, and from him was taken away what he had. Honest words spring up as life — a larger life than the words call for. And this larger life drops down words — still greater words than the life calls for. And so the blessed circles widen.

I want to say very earnestly that we are indeed clumsy and thriftless about our living if we neglect this powerful aid to growth. Let it not trouble us if our life lags behind our words, so long as it is struggling to catch up with them. Let it not trouble us, either, if our words lag behind our life, so long as they are struggling to catch up with it. A growing soul grows by the very fact of this interchange of goals, expression now leaping ahead of reality, reality now leaping ahead of expression, neither content ignobly with its present place. And so expression is expected of a growing Christian.

Missionary Tongues.

The eighth point and the last is this : speech is missionary power. With the mouth confession is made not only to our own salvation, but to the saving

TAKING PART IN THE MEETING. II

of others. The mere physical effort means something, the mere contraction of such muscles and vibration of so many tons of air, were that all there is of it. But when I am made to feel, as in all sincere speech I am made to feel, that over the flying bridge of your words your own true soul is speeding to me, it moves me as nothing else can.

This flutter of thin air against a stretched membrane backed by a chain of bones and a thimbleful of liquid, — what a trivial affair it is to make such bother over ; and yet it is by just this foolishness of preaching, of your trembling words and mine, that the kingdom of God is to come. It is not ours to tell why there is power in it. It is ours to recognize the fact that the Father has placed great power there, and humbly to take up the tool he hands us.

And now I have given my eight reasons for setting such high value on expression in religious life. Let me repeat them. Ready, speech is common in all other earnest work, and so should not be absent from Christianity. Speech furnishes a quite unmistakable mode of expression of our faith. A lack of it implies that self is too much with us, that we are not fully God's and man's. A failure here means, by the sad contagion of weakness, comparative failure in all other modes of expression. Speech is one of the loftiest of human powers, and should attend the loftiest human experience. Words fix for us the spiritual truth we feel. Words enlarge life, to be in turn enlarged by life. Speech is God's chosen missionary power. There are enough good reasons, surely,- to stir any of us Christians from unchristian silence.

And now for the last topic of this chapter. If the activity of the tongue is so valuable, how may we get it? I have precisely ten rules, which I wish briefly to give you.

The Longing for Power.

First rule for obtaining freedom of expression : want it. I am sometimes tempted to be very impolite when I hear people say, " How I wish I could speak or pray in prayer meeting I "

" Wish ! " I want to exclaim. " Why, you have n't even the desire of a wish ! By their fruits ye shall know them, — wishes, as well as everything else. Do men gather dumbness from longing, or sluggishness from desire? One hearty wish would at least bud into one timid little word."

Let us not cheat ourselves. A desire for the ability of expression means vastly more than envy of some one who has it, or uneasy sense that we are not doing our duty. It means that earnest asking for a thing with the prayer of our whole -being, which Christ said always finds what it seeks. We can never get power of expression until we thus want it.

Nothing for Nothing.

Second rule : work for it. Zeal is the mother of expression, but observation is its father. Study those that have this power, to imitate, not their manner, but their method of obtaining their manner. Ask them how they overcame your difficulties. Read widely, especially in the best expressed of all books, the Bible. Think seriously, not scorning the thoughts God gives you. Write constantly ; nothing better drills the tongue than the pen. Talk in private on the themes which will be your public topics. Ask advice, read, think, write, converse ; in all these ways you must work, if you truly want the power of expression.

The Week Before.

Third rule : make preparation. Not merely the general preparation I have outlined, but special preparation for each occasion. " Why," some one objects, " did n't Christ say, * It shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak'?" Yes, but whom was Christ then addressing? His chosen disciples, men who had left all to follow him, men whose every moment was engaged in the most active and effective preparation for public speech.

And that is the only kind of special preparation I would advise you to make. Fill yourselves full of the subject. They spent their lives in that task ; do you spend half an hour daily? If you wish to take part in the next prayer meeting, during that daily half hour for a week think over the subject ; read about it, in the Bible especially ; write on it ; pray over it. At the end of the week you will have too much to say.

Have you ever seen a flower open? A few minutes ago it was hidden modestly in its green wrappings, and now it startles us by its splendid beauty^

Surely God gave it in that hour what it should speak. Surely there was no rehearsing of that opening. No ; but what a life of preparation, from the flower to the bud, back to the stem, the two little tentative leaves, the seed, the rootlets, the soil, the sun, the rain, the geologic aeons ! A Christian should indeed speak ex tempore, out of time, out of such a whole lifetime of preparation.

Step by Step.

Fourth rule : be content with small beginnings. That is, be content with that wherewith God is contented ; only, he has made you so near the angels that it is impossible for you to begin anything with as small beginnings as he himself has had to make in his work of creation.

The parable of parables for the young Christian is that of the mustard seed. He must be content to sow the shortest of all prayers, the briefest of all sentences, the most stammering and awkward expressions, and if he have faith as a grain of mustard seed, his words will take root in good and honest hearts, and when they are grown they will be strong trees.

A Noble Ambition.

But I must immediately set off against this rule my fifth : never be content with less than the best possible at the time. That will prevent your being content with small continuations of small beginnings.

Best runs, while Second-best stands still. We have so few strong Christians, because we have so few weak Christians that are willing to be as strong as they can be. Being perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, —why, that means nothing more than doing our best every time. Take care of your best, and growth will take care of itself.

A Cure for Stage Fright.

Sixth rule : come to understand your physical insignificance and your spiritual significance. When I find myself in danger of stage fright, weak knees, shaky hands, chattering teeth, ideas chaotic, I start my mind off on a trip around this great earth, stretching so far in its vast, rounded bulk that all the swarming millions of men could be packed into a little, unnoticed corner of its surface. My nerves begin to steady a little.

Then I set off on a voyage to the sun. I try to fancy myself walking swiftly day and night for long thousands of years before I reach it, and as I gaze back over the unimagined distance, the whole world with its speck of humanity looks too small to be afraid of.

Once more I start, this time not on foot or with the wings of the wind, but with the wings of light, — "light which can girdle this great earth more than seven times while your watch ticks once. At that speed I fly for three years until I reach the nearest star, and then look back.

I have gone far enough. All my fear of my fellows is lost in a sense of their insignificance and my own. Now, I would as soon be afraid to address a thousand ants, as a thousand men. And as I hasten back from my fancied journey, I need now to spur myself to expression by reminding myself how expression is worth while ; for indeed all things human are in danger of seeming too trivial, swallowed up in the thought of the greatness of God. I must remember how we little men are made in the image of the mighty Father, how sadly we have stained that noble image, how the Father himself came down into our pettiness, and dignified it forever. My bashfulness is all gone now, and awe and zeal have taken its place.

Put Self Behind You.

This, too, has led me to my seventh rule for gaining expression, which is : become unselfish. Do not stop with dwarfing self by thoughts of your physical insignificance, or with exalting self by thought of your spiritual significance, but go on to the forgetting of self's littleness or greatness in remembrance of your brother's need.

Do you know that there is nothing which so hinders expression as the comparative degree? Am I speaking worse, or better, than some one else ? Am I doing more or less excellently than the occasion demands? The comparative degree stamps with comparative failure everything that it touches. No person ever expressed himself well while he was thinking about expressing himself well, or about another's expressing himself well.

I do not know what professors of elocution and oratory would say, but I think that all helpful expression is conditioned on self-forgetfulness.

Expect ! Expect !

My eighth rule is : speak in the attitude of expectation. Expect to win people's attention, and you will win it. Expect to touch men's hearts, and you will move them. Expect to stir them to action; your words will reap a harvest in no other way.

Too much of our talk is in what a blundering scholar of mine, stumbling pardonably among Greek roots, once called the past-present tense. Much more of our talk should be in the future-present tense, should look with present, vivid confidence to definite outcomes. Expression of what has been is easy and natural for the old, and the young sometimes think it their duty to imitate them. But the natural attitude for youthful expression is the forward-looking one, which anticipates.

- Act Out Your Speech.

Ninth rule : remember that, as I have hinted, the best seed of a word is a deed, just as the best seed of a deed is a word. If you want to learn to talk eloquently on the advantages of church membership, try to get some one to join the church. If you want to speak beautifully on the uses of sorrow, try to comfort some one who is mourning. If you want to become strong in combating scepticism and in expressing faith, try to strengthen some particular doubting Thomas. To every form and subject of expression there are appropriate deeds, which will create it wise and beautiful.

Our Example and Power.

Tenth rule, and last: let Christ be your example of expression, and the Holy Spirit your power. No man ever spoke as Christ did, but we may reflect his image, growing from glory to glory in our words as well as in our faces and our lives.

I think I see in those that are the closest students of the blessed Book, a. constant approach to Christ's directness and divine simplicity, to his skill of dramatic portrayal, and the power of his language over the heart. With Christ as our example, we shall speak, not to please men, not with cunning craftiness, but as the Father directs who dwells within us. Let me tell you a parable.

In a Figure.

A marble block lay roughly hewn out from the quarry. The Poet passed by and said, " Statue, goddess, form of beauty hidden in this marble, — I can see your lovely curves, I can see your glorious smile, though no one else perceives you."

And as he passed, the block was filled with delight and satisfaction. " I have no need, then,'' it thought, "of the torture of hammer and chisel. Inner being is enough, without outward seeming."

But the next day the Moralist came near, and seeing the marble block he said, " Alas, here is this marble, pure for a statue of Mary, strong for a statue of Paul, yet all ugly and misshapen ! How futile is inner reality without outward form ! *

Then, as he went on his way, the block fell into great unrest. " Come, rain and sun, 1 ' it cried, " and wear away the imprisoning crust. Come, wind, and dash it off, and show the world my hidden beauty ! "

Then the sun and rain came, and weathered the marble in great, unsightly holes. Then the wind came and tossed it about, cleaving off great slabs here and there. The block was uglier than before, so that the quarrymen passed it now with a shrug of their shoulders.

But one day the Artist visited the quarry, seeking a block for his statue. "Take me, Q take me," moaned our battered marble. " Do with me what you will; torture me with hammer and graver; for you alone can free my beauty from its ugly shell/'

And the artist did choose it, and after many sorrows and long toil it shone one of the world's most marvelous statues.

Would that thus we too, crude human souls seeking the expression of the divine within us, learning of a surety that outer seeming must attend inner being, may learn also to disavow the elements of this world, and trust for the expression of ourselves to the great Artist alone.

O Lord, open thou our lips, and our mouths shall show forth thy praise.

Chapter II. The General Work Of The Committee

Organize Your Committees. — It is not enough for the prayer-meeting committee to have a chairman ; it is also well for it to appoint a vice-chairman, to assist the chairman, and take charge of the committee if the chairman is necessarily absent. The committee should also have a secretary, who should keep the minutes of the committee meetings, and, possibly, prepare the report, though the report should always be submitted to the other members of the committee for suggestions, and the chairman of the committee may probably consider it his own privilege to write it. The committee meeting should be carried on after the manner of the business meeting of the society.

A Committeeman to a Meeting. — Though of course the chairman of the prayer-meeting committee has general charge of all the prayer meetings, yet it is productive of good results to assign each meeting to the^special oversight of one of the committee. The committeeman in charge for the night should help the leader by talking over the topic with him, lending him a Christian Endeavor paper and other helps, assisting him to find suitable hymns, and suggesting methods of leading. It" for any reason the leader fails to appear, the prayer-meeting helper for that night should be prepared to lead, and should take the chair immediately.

The Verse-Reader's Class. — That is indeed a happy society that contains no verse-reader's class, or no class of those that I must consider quite as bad, if not worse, — the members that always take part in the meeting by reading brief quotations from well-known writers, making no comment upon them whatever, nor saying in any way that the quotations represent their personal experiences, or are presented as their testimonies.

One way to break up this habit of reading Bible verses or quotations from secular writers, and taking part in no other way, is to talk frankly to the members about the weakness of the practice. You must recognize the fact that often, very often indeed, there is no better way to take part than by repeating Bible verses ; but this is not true when those who take part in that way do it on account of sloth, or baseless timidity, or carelessness.

When an Endeavorer repeats a Bible verse because of his love for that passage, because he is filled with gratitude for the comfort and strength it has brought into his life, because he wants others to share with him in this joy, and says something of all this, though only in a trembling ^sentence, — that is one thing ; but when an Endeavorer repeats a Bible verse, or reads it from a hastily written slip of paper, hurrying over the words, and. mumbling them so that they can scarcely be distinguished, his whole thought evi* dently to fulfill the letter of the pledge without caring for the spirit of it, — that is quite another thing. Often a frank talk along these lines, especially if it come from one of your most earnest members, or from the pastor, and if it be followed by a straightforward call for promises to forsake the habit, and add at least a brief comment to the verse that is quoted, will produce the very best of results, and win nearly the whole of the society from the versereader's class.

The first step will usually be to get the members to commit to memory the verses they make their testimony. Let this become the rule in your society. Appoint one of the prayer-meeting committee to observe the infractions of this rule, and to report the number of them at each society meeting, praising the society for whatever progress they may make in this line. Next get these verse-readers (or verserepeaters, as they will become) to add just one sentence to the verse; such as, "I have come during the past week to see helpfulness in this verse " ; or, " These words of Christ have become very precious to me"; or, "I want to take for my testimony this sentence from Paul."

The use of sentence prayers, and the frequent urging of all the members to take part in these chain prayers, will do much to draw Endeavorers from the verse-reading, class. Personal work is needed here. Often you can get three or four of the timid members to promise to take part in sentence prayers, if all the others will do so. Sometimes the members of the prayer-meeting committee may pair themselves off with the timid members, each asking one of them to add one sentence to the prayer the committee member himself will offer when a chain prayer is called for.

It will be hard to win the Endeavorers from the verse-readers 1 class unless the better workers in the society themselves occasionally take part by merely repeating Bible verses, adding to them a very brief testimony. This will show the beginners in the work how to do it. Sometimes, too, it is a w T ise step to have a meeting that may be called a " Bible verse meeting," during which all will participate merely by repeating Bible verses bearing on the topic, adding sentence commentaries, or commentaries rigidly confined to two or three sentences. In the same way, quotation meetings may be held, the members being permitted to take part only by repeating from memory quotations from standard Christian writers regarding the topic of the evening, adding in each case a sentence or two of their own.

How to Obtain Promptness. — I have summarized in the following sentences some of the reasons for tardiness in attendance on Christian Endeavor meetings. If your society lacks promptness, it might be a good plan to have these reasons printed on a little dodger which could be distributed among the members : —

WHY YOU WERE LATE.

Because you did not plan to be early.

Because you did not notice other Endeavorers going to the meeting.

Because you do not own a consecrated watch.

Because you care more for your own ease than God's cause.

Because others are late and you are willing to train with them.

Because you have never thought about it.

Because the nice adjustment of your clothes is more on your mind than the success of the meeting.

Because you put off preparation till the last minute.

Because tardiness has become a habit with you.

Because you do not realize the power of example.

Because promptness is not expressly mentioned in the pledge, and you are a letter-Christian, not a spirit- Christian.

Because you have forgotten how you felt when you were leader, and your opening exercises were spoiled by late-comers.

Because you are a passive member, and not an active one.

u Take my feet, and let them be Consecrated, Lord, to thee."

One of the best ways of curing this lack of promptness is to begin the meeting always on time. Let the prayer-meeting committee begin it themselves, if no leader is present, and even though a very few of the members are there. It is not best always to open with the singing of five or six hymns. These introductory song services are very pleasant, but if the society is inclined to dilatoriness, the opening song service will encourage it. The members do not feel that they are late if they arrive while it is in progress. Sometimes hold no song service at the opening, but begin with a service of prayer, or let the leader at once give his introduction.