There is a twofold use of prayer: the one is to obtain strength and blessing for our own life; the other is intercession - the higher, true glory of prayer for which Christ has taken us into His fellowship and teaching. This is where prayer is the royal power of a child of God who exercises in heaven on behalf of others and even of the kingdom.

If once believers were to awake to the glory of the work of intercession, and to see that in it, and the definite pleading for definite gifts on definite spheres and persons, lie our highest fellowship with our glorified Lord, and our only real power to bless men, it would be seen that there can be no truer fellowship with God than these definite petitions and their answers, by which we become the channel of His grace and life to men.

Here on earth the influence of one who asks a favor for others depends entirely on his character, and the relationship he bears to him with whom he is interceding.

He wants His children to link the world to the throne of God through intercession.

We know why: He who prays is our Head and our Life. All He has is ours and is given to us when we give ourselves all to Him. By His blood, He leads us into the immediate presence of God. The inner sanctuary is our home where we dwell. And He that lives near God and knows that He has been brought near to bless those who are far away cannot but pray.

The attempt to pray constantly for ourselves must be a failure; it is in intercession for others that our faith and love and perseverance will be aroused, and that power of the Spirit be found which can fit us for saving men.

A real king is the one who recognizes that, in governing his kingdom, he is a true minister of God. Conversely whoever does not reign with a view to serving God's glory acts not as a ruler but as a robber.

Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them.

God reigns, and the Government at Washington still lives!

Their mockery is something like we hear today. "Germany prays to God; America prays to God; England prays to God: On whose side is God?" The implication being that God must necessarily be a geographical Deity restricted to one people, one race, and one nation. The answer to that taunt is, of course, that if we prayed as we should, we would all be on the same side because the perfect prayer is: "Thy will be done."

Publicly leading a church in prayer deserves thoughtful preparation.

Either we should not pray at all, or thus absolutely and freely; and not every one for himself in particular alone.