When the American evangelist D. L. Moody spoke in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in October 1892, he recalled an earlier visit twenty-five years previously. He had come four thousand miles, he said, to hear C. H. Spurgeon, but what impressed him most was not the sermon, nor the singing of the great congregation, but Spurgeon’s prayer. Such was his access to God that he seemed to be able to bring down power from heaven. This was the great secret, Moody believed, of Spurgeon’s influence and success.
Spurgeon came into the presence of God with deep reverence, yet with unquestioning child-like confidence, to plead God's promises in Scripture and to revel in the nearness to God into which Christ has brought all who believe.
Following is just one of Spurgeon's prayers (from the book referenced at the close of this post). I would highly recommend the book to everyone; but, especially to Pastors.
“Oh, to love the Saviour with a passion that can never cool; Oh, to believe in God with a confidence that can never stagger! Oh, to hope with an expectation that can never be dim! Oh, to delight in God with a holy over-flowing rejoicing that can never be stopped, so that we might live to glorify God at the highest bent of our powers, living with enthusiasm, burning, blazing, being consumed with the indwelling God who worketh all things in us according to His will!
Thus, Lord, would we praise and pray at the same time, confess and acknowledge our responsibilities, but also bless the free, the sovereign grace that makes us what we are. Oh God of the eternal choice, O God of the ransom purchased on the tree, O God of the effectual call, Father, Son and Spirit, our adoration rises to heaven like the smoke from the altar of incense. Glory and honour and majesty and power and dominion and might be unto the one only God, for ever and ever, and all the redeemed by the blood will say, Amen.”
Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Personal Touch” in The Pastor in Prayer: A Collection of the Sunday Morning Prayers of C.H. Spurgeon (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2004), 4
Spurgeon came into the presence of God with deep reverence, yet with unquestioning child-like confidence, to plead God's promises in Scripture and to revel in the nearness to God into which Christ has brought all who believe.
Following is just one of Spurgeon's prayers (from the book referenced at the close of this post). I would highly recommend the book to everyone; but, especially to Pastors.
“Oh, to love the Saviour with a passion that can never cool; Oh, to believe in God with a confidence that can never stagger! Oh, to hope with an expectation that can never be dim! Oh, to delight in God with a holy over-flowing rejoicing that can never be stopped, so that we might live to glorify God at the highest bent of our powers, living with enthusiasm, burning, blazing, being consumed with the indwelling God who worketh all things in us according to His will!
Thus, Lord, would we praise and pray at the same time, confess and acknowledge our responsibilities, but also bless the free, the sovereign grace that makes us what we are. Oh God of the eternal choice, O God of the ransom purchased on the tree, O God of the effectual call, Father, Son and Spirit, our adoration rises to heaven like the smoke from the altar of incense. Glory and honour and majesty and power and dominion and might be unto the one only God, for ever and ever, and all the redeemed by the blood will say, Amen.”
Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Personal Touch” in The Pastor in Prayer: A Collection of the Sunday Morning Prayers of C.H. Spurgeon (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2004), 4
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