A Call to Prayer, by J.C. Ryle.
Channel: Take Up The Cross
Date: 2018-03-18

A Call to Prayer, by J.C. Ryle.

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
~ 1 Timothy 2:1  

I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
~ 1 Timothy 2:8  

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
~ Luke 18:1

Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.
~ 1 Timothy 5:5

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
~ Ephesians 5:20 

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
~ James 5:16

"Needful for salvation - I ask whether you pray, because prayer is absolutely needful to a man’s salvation. I say, absolutely needful, and I say so advisedly. I am not speaking now of infants or idiots. I am not settling the state of the heathen. I know that where little is given, there little will be required. I speak especially of those who call themselves Christians, in a land like our own. And of such I say, no man or woman can expect to be saved who does not pray. I hold salvation by grace as strongly as any one. I would gladly offer a free and full pardon to the greatest sinner that  ever  lived.  I would  not  hesitate  to  stand by his  dying  bed,  and  say,  “Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus Christ  even  now, and you shall be saved.” But that a man can have salvation without asking for it, I cannot see in the Bible. That a man will receive pardon of his sins, who will not so much as lift up his heart inwardly, and say, “Lord Jesus, give it to me,” this I cannot find. I can find that nobody will be saved by his prayers, but I cannot find that without prayer anybody will be saved. 

"It  is  not  absolutely  needful  to  salvation  that  a  man  should  read  the  Bible.  A  man  may  have  no  learning,  or  be blind, and yet have Christ in his heart. It is not absolutely needful that a man should hear public preaching of the gospel. He may live where the gospel is not preached, or he may be bedridden, or deaf. But the same thing cannot be said about prayer. It is absolutely needful to salvation that a man should pray. "

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