J.F. Cowan: There is an impression in some circles that only one with an absolutely flawless character should lead a prayer-meeting. There would be few prayer-meetings. Some imperfect mortals must lead meetings, and must lead them successfully, for most of us are imperfect, and there are successful prayer-meetings. The self-righteousness of the Pharisee is a worse element of weakness than the blundering impulsiveness of a Peter. The best that any of us can do is, like "Lovey Mary," to promise ourselves, "I must be what they think I am. I must keep working and trying until I am that."
The very fact of having assumed responsibility in the matter of lay leadership ought to make us do what the electrician does with his wires when he has some unusually important test to make. He looks over them carefully to see that none are corroded or oily, so as to interfere with taking the full current. And if he finds their conductivity weakened he scrapes the ends with his knife until the copper looks bright and new. Then he tightens the screws of the binding-posts, and when he brings a positive and a negative end together he expects to see the sparks fly. There are sparks that inevitably fly from consecration of ourselves to some given task; to doing that task according to the very best that is in us, whether it be leading a prayer-meeting, or what not. The heavier the sense of responsibility, the more likely we are to affect other lives. Those sometimes spoken of as being "naturally qualified" are not nearly so effective as those having a deep sense of disqualification, but willingness to seek to overcome it. There is much that is better than fluency of speech, in a leader; that may easily be a disqualification.
1. Consistency of life leads a meeting, when the lips are stammering and "speech unto edification" seems impossible. The very confidence that people have in your Christian character makes your standing in the place of a leader helpful to them as you cannot be ordinarily. I am not at all saying that the immaculate life leads - it does - but that evident sincerity of intentions is an element of leadership, even when one blunders, sometimes, and miserably fails in carrying all his good intentions into effect. I think there is more sympathy between an average audience and the leader who is human in blundering and erring, than there is between the average prayer-meeting audience and the leader who is a perfect paragon of propriety. Human nature is very human, in the prayer-meeting as elsewhere, and you can touch more people with your finger-tips, standing on a common level with them, than you can touch with a ten-foot pole, perched on a pedestal of immaculate goodness away above them. Don't forget, then, the opportunity that is yours to help others, you who hesitate to lead the prayer-meeting when the minister asks you, because you think yourself unworthy.
2. Experience leads. I mean experience in the Christian life. There are those who have been in the Christian Way but a short time. They look up to you as one having much more experience than they. They know that you must have encountered and overcome the very difficulties that now confront them. You have sailed your bark past the rocks, and around the shoals, and through the dangerous channels that terrify them. They wonder how you have managed; how things look to you now. You may not be gifted in speech. They know that. They do not desire to hear an oration from you, but the inexperienced always value the outlook of the experienced. You may have no other qualification, but you have an experience that qualifies you to lead the devotions of others. God has given you that experience. He has a right to expect you to use it to help your fellow-travellers. If you are asked to lead a prayer-meeting, say, "My voice may tremble, and my sentences may not be as felicitously framed as the minister's, but if there is anything in my Christian experience that would encourage younger Christians, I will try to use my experience for Him."
3. Earnestness leads. Sometimes one who lacks all other qualifications for leading, but who is "dead in earnest," on fire with conviction of the truth, may lead others helpfully just by his earnestness. I do not mean to commend religious hysteria. But healthful enthusiasm is contagious, and one who has the power of so impressing others with his profound conviction concerning truth - that the truth has utterly possessed his being and is swaying his actions - is a valuable leader though devoid of other gifts.
One may utter glittering generalities in the conventional manner in which a train-announcer in a railway station calls out the trains, the tone may bear marks of culture and the accent be in good form; but how different one utters a truth in which he is personally, intensely interested! Listen to the young girl announcing her engagement to her best friend, or the young man communicating to his relatives the fact that his salary has been increased $500 a year. The formal announcement causes your tympanum to vibrate; the enthusiastic utterance thrills your heartstrings. This earnestness, or enthusiasm for Christ, is a wonderful thing in the lead of a meeting. Enthusiasm without erudition is better than erudition without enthusiasm. Often they go together, but enthusiasm alone is a splendid element of leadership, and the very fact that we have positive convictions regarding God's truth, that we feel our souls burning within us for righteousness, is proof that God wants us to set others on fire.
4. Spirituality leads. A spiritually-minded person is not a morbid, gloomy, impossible kind of a person. A great many think that they cannot be very spiritual because they are so cheerful and happy. They fancy that spirituality means being lofty and stern. Perhaps as good a definition of spirituality as any is found in Frances Willard's fine saying, "I used to think that I was a body, and had a soul to take care of; but I came to know later in life that I am a soul and have a body to care for." Paul said, "The fruit of the Spirit is joy." If a tree is known by its fruits, are not the sunny, sweet-tempered, sympathetic, cheerful people the spiritual people? One need not be a mystic to be spiritual. Every cheap optimist is not spiritual. An everlasting "holy" smirk on the face is not a credential of spirituality. But if I were picking prayer-meeting leaders for effectiveness, I should try to get the sunny, optimistic, winsome Christians to lead as often as possible, for cheerful spirituality is the only kind the world believes in.
These are four of the most conspicuous qualities that do lead, whether or no they are harnessed to the prayer-meeting. More than any other four things, they give men and women influence and ability to mould the lives of others. If they lead outside the prayer-meeting, why not let them lead so much more effectively in it? I am making a plea for more lay men and women as leaders in our prayer-meetings, and I am trying to show that it does not require so large an endowment as many fancy it does to fit one to lead helpfully - any one of these four, in a moderate degree, with hard work, is fitness enough.
By John F. Cowan, New York, 1906
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By John F. Cowan, New York, 1906
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