Herald of Holiness Volume 55 Number 13 (1966) W

Olivet Nazarene University Digital Commons @ Olivet Herald of Holiness/Holiness Today Church of the Nazarene 5-18-1966 Herald of Holiness Volume 55 Number 13 (1966) W. T. Purkiser (Editor) Nazarene Publishing House Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_hoh Part of the Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, History of Christianity Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Purkiser, W. T. (Editor), "Herald of Holiness Volume 55 Number 13 (1966)" (1966). Herald of Holiness/Holiness Today. 438. https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_hoh/438 This Journal Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Church of the Nazarene at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in Herald of Holiness/Holiness Today by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact [email protected]. May 18, 1966 Church of the Nazarene A Song in the Night General Superintendent Powers And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, song at midnight. Only faith and grace can and sang praises unto God (Acts 16:25). join hands and sing under such circumstances. How attractive it is, that song in the night! We are told that at the funeral of a well- At this season of the year when everyone is known atheist the press reported, “There was more or less weary of winter, how attractive no music.” Infidelity, agnosticism, and unbe it would be if the fragrance and beauty of lief of all kinds have no song in life’s dark spring could suddenly be made to appear in hours. the midst of the frigid atmosphere of winter! How different was a young wife and mother This of course is impossible. But the flowers whose husband suddenly passed away leav of God’s grace do frequently appear in the ing her with five young children! After the most unlikely places. Environment is impor service she and the children found their place tant but it is not omnipotent. God’s grace is in the funeral car and then, without an sufficient for victorious living in the midst nouncement or prompting, with a radiant face of most depressing spiritual climates. The she began to sing, as the children joined in, faith and prayers of a godly parent kept alive “But until then my heart will go on the confidence of Moses in his mother’s God, singing, so that when he came to make a personal Until then with joy I’ll carry on. choice he chose Jehovah, in spite of the pagan ism of the royal court in which he had been Until the day my eyes behold the city, educated. Until the day God calls me home.”* Paul and Silas, two faithful itinerant As I observed this with humbled heart, I preachers, had not won a popularity contest, thought, How real, how majestic, how beau but rather found themselves in prison in what tiful, how inspiring is the song God gives His would naturally have been a most discourag children in the night! ing situation. But in spite of this, they had a •Copyright Voss Music Co., Los Angeles, Cal. Wlrat Prayei? Worth By WENDELL WELLMAN J RECENTLY READ this in could it have su b jective value for story of the “importunate widow” teresting statement: “Our prayer the person who doubts its o b je c emphasizes the same truth. and God’s mercy are like two tive worth? Can one find strength buckets in a well. As the one as and power and poise through say BUT HERE is our problem: We believe that prayer is valid. We cends the other descends.” ing prayers while all the time he is This assertion would be widely saying to himself, in effect, I’m believe God hears. We believe He challenged today, even in the only kidding myself. I’m supposed answers. But we reluctantly admit Church! There are many who hold to be talking to God, but He doesn’t that we are not too successful in that prayer is profitable, but insist really hear me. And if He does, our praying. Seldom do we really that its value is su bjective only. It He’s far too occupied with other pray through. We can’t point to is a good thing to pray, say these. concerns to waste time with me? very much that has been accom plished as a result of our prayers. Prayer will calm your nerves, en Intelligent people cannot suc We thrill to the stories about Pray able you to face life with greater cessfully practice this kind of self- ing Hyde and George Muller, but poise and confidence, even sleep deception. If prayer is to be mean we’re troubled by our own inef better! Prayer then, according to ingful, we must believe that God fectiveness in prayer. this view, is at best a kind of does indeed hear us, and that He What can we do about it? Can psychological tranquilizer, barbitu will indeed answer our prayers. we become more effective in our rate, or pep pill, depending on We must believe, as did our fore praying? Can we learn to pray one’s need at a given moment. It bears, that it is possible to pray through with greater frequency? has no objective value. through, to receive an assurance But there is another view. It is that our prayer is heard, and that I believe we can. Confessing my well expressed in the words of the it will be answered. own need, I venture to suggest cer familiar motto, “Prayer Changes tain disciplines that I believe would Jesus taught us to pray until we Things.” Prayer has objective val be of benefit: receive an answer. The story of ue. God hears. God answers. the man asking bread from his 1. Make a thorough study of the ACTUALLY, PRAYER has both neighbor at night was designed to model prayer Jesus gave His dis- subjective and objective value. But teach this important lesson. The M AY 18, 1966 • (247) 3 for the man who would become an effective pray-er. 2. Study the scriptural teaching that relates to prayer. Find out what things hinder our prayers. Become a serious student of the subject of prayer. Talk to some successful pray-ers. • B y C. EDWIN MURPHEY 3. Establish definite prayer times. Daniel prayed three times a CLOVIS CHAPPELL TELLS the story of “Uncle Joe,” day. It was a fixed pattern in his an avowed atheist. On Sundays, Uncle Joe would watch the life. We read of Peter and John worshipers pass his house on their way to church, but he that they went up to the Temple never would join them. Then one day the church caught on “. at the hour of prayer.” We fire, and he took his place in the ranks of the hastily or will never become effective in our ganized “bucket brigade.” When the fire was finally put out, the pastor of the church said to the old man, “Uncle Joe, prayer life if we pray only when I am amazed. This is the first time I have ever seen you at the rare impulse strikes us. the church. How do you explain it?” The old man replied, THE LACK OF POWER in our “This is the first time your church has ever been on fire.” Holy fire is also attractive. It is, of course, not to be lives and the lack of the Divine related to wildfire or fanaticism. It does not call for some Presence in our churches are di prescribed outward demonstration. Holy fire is that which rectly traceable to our ineffective warms hearts, giving one compassion for the lost. It gives one prayer life. This weakness can be the capacity to bear burdens and shed tears of concern for corrected. We can become men and the wayward. It expresses itself in demonstrations of sacri women who pray “the effectual ficial love. It makes one unwilling to keep silence concerning fervent prayer” that “availeth the Saviour when a whole world of men needs to be saved. much.” Let this be our goal! HOLY FIRE DRIVES coldness and complacency from services of worship. It gives liberty and freedom in the Spirit. It makes real the presence of an unseen Guest. It makes obe dience to the biblical admonition, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” (Psalms 107:2)—not burden but blessing, not uncertain but inevitable, both in the sanctuary and in the street. Holy fire is the love of God shed abroad in the About the Cover . human heart by the Holy Spirit. A revitalized Pittsburgh, re On the other hand, coldness or lack of holy fire attracts flected through new buildings no one either to God or to the church. Coldness is both the and a maze of traffic arteries, result of, and contributing factor to, further spiritual dead winks through a murky evening. ness. It is practical rebellion against Paul’s admonition, “Be One of the nation’s leading cities is rushing home to sit down to . fervent in spirit.” It is that atmosphere which tends to dinner and relax awhile before destroy any existent spiritual life and makes impossible the putting itself to bed. Seven inception or nurturing of other such life. Coldness results Nazarene churches serve the from the absence or lack of awareness of the real presence metropolis. of God. The Pittsburgh District of the Church of the Nazarene is AN ARTICLE FROM the daily newspaper entitled “Fire among the larger districts with man Stumped” might provide a clue to the church’s failure 6,814 members in 97 churches.

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