E.M. Bounds on Prayer

The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock in heaven by which Christ carries on His great work upon the earth. Great throes and mighty convulsions in the world have come about as a result of these prayers. The earth is changed, revolutionized; angels move on more powerful, more rapid wings; and God’s policy is shaped when the prayers of His people are more numerous and more efficient.

In July 1811, our regiment was ordered for Spain, then the seat of a prolonged and bloody war. My mind was painfully exercised with the thoughts of leaving my dear wife and four helpless children in a strange country, unprotected and unprovided for. Mr. Bramwell felt a lively interest in our situation, and his sympathizing spirit seemed to drink in all the agonized feelings of my tender wife. He supplicated the throne of grace day and night on our behalf.
My wife and I spent the evening previous to our march at a friend’s house, in company with Mr. Bramwell, who sat in a very pensive mood and appeared to be in a spiritual struggle the entire time. After supper, he suddenly took his hand from his chest, laid it on my knee, and said, “Brother Riley, mark what I am about to say! You are not to go to Spain. Remember, I tell you, you are not; for I have been wrestling with God on your behalf, and when my heavenly Father condescends in mercy to bless me with power to lay hold on Himself, I do not easily let Him go; no, not until I am favored with an answer. Therefore, you

confidence as he would address a father or a friend.
“I know,” he would say in his prayers, “You are our Father and our God; and, therefore, I am sure You will bring to naught the persecutors of Your children. For if You fail to do this, Your own cause, being connected with ours, would be endangered. It is entirely Your own concern. We, by Your providence, have been compelled to take a part. You, therefore, will be our defense.”
While I was listening to Luther praying in this manner, at a distance, my soul seemed on fire within me, to hear the man address God so like a friend, yet with so much gravity and reverence; and also to hear him, in the course of his prayer, insisting on the promises contained in the Psalms, as if he were sure his petitions would be granted.
Of William Bramwell, a Methodist preacher from England, noted for his zeal and prayer, the following has been related by a sergeant major: