J.F. Cowan: A prayer-meeting should be serious always, but never melancholy. A gloomy, depressing meeting is as much a failure as a sad wedding. The prayer-meeting is the wedding supper of the King. Unless it is in a time of some great national or local calamity, a normal prayer-meeting will be cheerful and inspiring. The test of a prayer-meeting, then, is, - does it uplift? Does it give men and women new heart and gladness, or does it sag and drag, and depress? Is it a mistaken diagnosis that four-fifths of the difficulty about attendance on the prayer-meeting is due to the kind of meetings? prosy, hackneyed, vitiated, depressing, carried on in a minor key, with a good deal of lachrymal gland, and sanctimonious tone, and warmed-over experiences - the kind of meeting that saps a man's spiritual forces, instead of electrifying him. Some of the elements that combine to make this so are:
1. A small attendance. If this is chronic, and stands out in contrast with former crowds, it is an element of depression. It tends to make people blue, to make the meeting sag. But there is a sure antidote for this: emphasizing the presence of God. I fear we do not make enough of this. We do not reiterate it as we might, until the Divine presence becomes a reality, so blessed and uplifting as to more than atone for the absence of numbers. May we not learn a lesson from some of the newer religious cults that are making so much of the simple formula: "God is here; He is in this place." Would not that be far better than to call attention, in a dolorous way, to the fact, "man is not here; he is not (numerously) in this place?" Put on the blackboard, where all cannot help seeing it, the promise of Jesus, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst" (Matt. 18:20). It might be well to have that last declaration, "there am I in the midst," printed on a card and put into the hands of every one as he enters, or sits down. Sing a great many hymns that speak of His presence. It rests tired people. It gives new inspiration to discouraged ones. It is the most refreshing, gladdening element that can enter into a prayer-meeting, and the very thing that most of all will attract careworn, nervous, business-driven, and society-ridden people to the house of God - a realization of His life-giving presence. "A small attendance?" What does it matter? God is here! Nothing is small with Him.
2. A low spiritual tide in the church may cast a depressing spell over both the church prayer-meeting, and that of the young people. Perhaps everything in the church is lagging, whereas everything used to move with a great swing. It is hard for those present not to compare the present lethargy, or life-and-death struggle, with the "good old times." Perhaps there is a disposition to harp upon this; to scold the absent ones over the shoulders of the faithful few present. Two or three chronic scolds may spoil the prayer-meeting for scores of people, without meaning to do harm. A meeting with such a drift needs to be turned into a praise meeting. Turn the search-light upon the things for which thanks may be given.
If it is a decadent rural church in the East, praise God for the men it has raised up to serve in other churches. Recently in one of the Boston denominational social organizations, when the question was asked how many of those present had passed their boyhood in the country, a large majority of the two hundred and fifty present arose. It was a striking comment on the depletion of country churches to pour the flower of their manhood into larger communities. Should such a church mourn because it is giving to sustain the cause at the strategic centers? Rather let it rejoice. Once a year, at least, have a praise meeting for God's goodness in so using the seed of the church. Call the roll of the absent ones, and read letters from them, telling of their service where they are.
Emphasize the glad thing, the hopeful thing, and not the apparently discouraging thing. Look at the "silver lining" in the cloud, and if there is none discernible, "turn it inside out" in search of one. Read together David's most jubilant psalms. Arrange with some of the most optimistic church members to tell of the things for which they feel thankful. Why should a mortgage on the church spoil the prayer-meeting? A church with a mortgage for more than half its value was dragging out a precarious existence. A fire destroyed everything but the bell - and the mortgage. Within a few years that discouraged band had a new edifice, better located and costing five times the value of the old one, and the mortgage and all debt on the new church wiped out. And since it has built a parsonage. We croak over a great many things that only seem to be misfortunes.
Another good way to divert attention from local ills is to dwell on denominational prosperity. Praise God for the success of your foreign missions - they belong to you: your local work is only a small department of the whole church life. Praise Him for the wide-spread evangelistic successes. Praise Him for the growing spirit of Christian unity. Praise Him for the advancement made towards international peace and arbitration. Praise Him for victories anywhere. It will take the poison of discouragement out of your blood, and prepare the way for new local successes. A discouraged man and a croaking church need a blood rejuvenator, before they can ever be used for aggressive work. The best spiritual tonic is a broad outlook, and a heart full of praise for God's marvelous works.
Depend upon it, we shall never attract to our prayer-meetings the men and women we want - the most virile, the most aggressive, the leaders in business, and society and politics, as long as the tone of the meeting is depressing; as long as we whine over past defeats or present difficulties. Let us look our prayer-meeting over carefully, and ask ourselves candidly, "What have we to offer, on prayer-meeting night, to men and women who are out of touch with our Christ, but who need to be impressed that there is a real joy, a jubilant victory over lower and baser things, in coming into His presence?"
4. Another way to keep the blue devils out of the prayer-meeting is to avoid singing doleful hymns, or singing cheerful hymns in a feeble or dispirited way. There are enough hymns that have the ring of victory in them, "A wonderful Saviour, is Jesus, my Lord," "Crown Him Lord of all," and "Ring it out with a shout, Halleluia". Mawkish, lackadaisical hymns do not appeal to strong men. Your bait must be suited to your fish.
5. To sound the triumphant note in our meetings, is to sum it all up, so far as the thought in this chapter is concerned. Nothing else so touches the prayer-meeting nerve, as getting the hopeful, the optimistic, the jubilant strain into our meetings. Too many of them are dyspeptic. They are feeble, not to say old-womanish. They need more of the things that appeal to active men - in the leader more of the straightforward, manly incisiveness of the business world; more of the smiling-faced courage and optimism of the man of achievement; more of the sturdy, forward-march that the very men who are in the prayer-meeting are accustomed to put into the things they do in the world, and which, if they put it into the prayer-meeting in equal proportions, would raise it immeasurably in respect and usefulness. For, do we not see, that what is the matter with the prayer-meeting is not so much that it is decadent, as that we think it is decadent; it is our attitude towards it that is hurting it worse.
This hopeful, confident, joyous tone, that we need to get into the prayer-meeting in every way possible, is just the tonic that the world wants. It is the most attractive element in our religion. If we have any influence for good over others, it will never come from being austere and straightlaced, or from scolding and denouncing, or from any kind of soft, effeminate sanctity, but from the cheerful, triumphant nature of our lives.
We can never attract people to travel our way by telling them of our defeats and failures. A "trials-and-tribulation" church member is no better as an advertisement for his cause than a farmer, whose most conspicuous crop is weeds and thistles, is to attract men to the farm.
The young people's prayer-meeting, naturally, has this characteristic of joyousness more abundantly than the congregational prayer-meeting. Nothing has done more to recommend the young people's movement to the world than the impression it has made that Christianity is cheerful. It has given the spectacle of bright-faced, happy, singing disciples. We do not make this comparison to the disparagement of the adult membership of the church, for we can have youth with its vivacity but once. But there ought to come into the older prayer-meeting a reflex of this youthful joyousness. It is one of the things for which we can praise God and be glad. How can a congregational prayer-meeting be in the doleful dumps, whatever else the discouragements, if there is a body of young people in the church serving God with gladness of heart and moving forward hopefully? It would be like a man mourning because he had little money in one pocket, while the other was full of gold. The one meeting may borrow from the other, not in methods (for the older members of the church might as well borrow the clothes of the young people as to borrow their ways) but borrow hope, and confidence, and joy.
When the prayer-meeting sags it not only repels men and women who need it, but it drives Christ away. He cannot stay where His children are repining [discontented]. If we turn His wedding-supper into a funeral, the Bridegroom will not be there.
By John F. Cowan, New York, 1906
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