The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-27 00:00:00

UNITED PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUBLIN RECORD.
St. Bride's Liverpool, Dec. 12, 1836.
SlR,—Some few years since I published a small work inti-
tuled " Thoughts on the Importance of Special Prayer for the
general outpouring of the Holy Spirit :" and afterwards tra-
velled through different parts of England, Scotland, and Ire-
land, and the Continent, to promote this object. When in Italy,
I met with a very devout and influential christian, who resides
in the United States of America, but who.; from diffidence,
wishes to remain unknown. From this excellent person I have
lately received a very pressing letter, urging me to prepare a
a paper, inviting " all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sin-
cerity," to unite in a general concert for prayer, for the out-
pouring of the Holy Spirit, on the first Monday of the ensuing
year. I have, in consequence, written The enclosed invitation,
which, if you approve, I should feel much obliged by your in-
serting it in your valuable paper.—l remain, sir, yours very
faithfully and affectionately in the Lord,
JAMES HALDANE STEWART.

INVITATION TO UNITE IN A GENERAL CONCERT OF PRAYER, FOR
THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, ON THE FIRST MON-
DAY OF THE NEW YEAR.

DEA ELY BELOVED IN THE LORD,—About six years since. it
was propoied by some devout christians in Switzerland, that
" all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," should, on
the last Monday of the year, hold a general concert for prayer,
for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This appeal touched a
chord which vibrated across the Atlantic, and several churches
in the United States of America, determined, by the diviue
assistance, to set apart the first Monday in the year, for this im-
portant object. The Lord was graciously pleased so to bless
these devotional meetings, that year after year they have been
continued by increasing numbers, and with increasing power
and earnestness of supplication.
Very lately an invitation has been sent to the Christians in
Great Britain and Ireland to unite in this concert ON THE FIRST
MONDAY IN Tire ENSUING YEAR. It seems to require but lit-
tle argument to induce those who have any faith in the power
of prayer, cordially to accept of this invitation. For if in these
last times there ever has been a year, in which,it was particu-
larly desirable to commence with such a union, such a year
now opens upon us. It may be called a Sabbatical year, for we
commence it as our first parents commenced the first morning
after their creation, on the day which God has sanctified and-
blessed. Whilst each intermediate Sabbath will be as a step-
ping-stone to take us above the miry path of this wilderness-
.world; the last day of the year, also a Sabbath, affords the pri-
vilege of closing the year as every christian desires to close his
pilgrimage, in the enjoyment of the " rest that remains for the
people of God." When invited, therefore, to devote the first
Monday of the New Year to a general concert of prayer, with
" all who in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord, both theirs and ours;" we are invited to assist in a service
with the savour of the Sabbath still fresh upon us, and with the
prospect of uniting with that "general assembly of the church
of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven." An as-
sembly where prayer shall be turned into praise, and where
" the redeemed of every nation, and kindred, and people, and
tongue," shall form one company with the angels, in offering
unceasing hallelujahs to Him that sits upon the throne, and to
the Lamb. How much will it add to toe blessedness of that
day, that many whom we meet there, shall, under God, owe their
happy state to the grace bestowed in answer to the prayers of
this general concert! Oh it is sweet to anticipate the Joy, to
realize the blessedness of that glorious day ! And surely fer-
vent prayer is now especially required, for whichever way we
turn, pressing need for the divine aid presents itself. Regard
our own country at this moment. The heavens are lowering
upon us. In many districts in the north, although the season
of harvest is past, the crop is still in the fields, and the prices
of almost all necessaries of life are rapidly rising. In the
commercial world there is painful apprehension nearly amount-
ing to a panic. Whilst the political horizon is so obscure,
" that men's hearts are failing them for feat," not knowing
what is coming upon them. If we turn our eyes to our sister
island, there, alas! we see a disttacted country—many under
a worse than Egyptian bondage—a bondage whose chains no
one but he who "is mighty to save" can break. If we look at
the Continent we see Spain in open civil war; the same
dreadful scourge threatens Portugal; in other countries a
tumultuous spirit is only restrained by the strong arm of military
force ; and even there it occasionally breaks out in murderous
plots of assassinations. Through the whole of Europe, in almost
every part, either open iniidelity, papal superstition, vain and
powerless neology, or mere formal Protestantism, having a name
to live, but dead at heart, cover the land ; and were it not that
the Lord has still a remnant, his faithful witnesses, who pro-
phesy in sackcloth, Christendom, alas! would only bear the
name, without the faith or the "spirit of disciples of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Sueh is the need of prayer in nominally Christian
states. Do we regard heathen countries? There the light of
the Gospel is just strong enough to, show the thickness of the
surrounding darkness. The converts to Christianity, won by
the operations of our societies, while we bless God for all that
they have accomplished, the infant churches they have planted,
and the schools they have formed, are like flowers in the desert,
which serve more distinctly to mark the surrounding barrenness.
For a few thouiands who'bear the name of Christ, there are
still, alas! many millions who" sit in darkness and the shadow
of death." Whoever contemplates these facts—and they are
not exaggerated statements, butplain and simple truths con-
firmed by undoubted testimony—and at the same time consi-
ders the inadequacy of all human power to give effectual relief,
cannot but desire that all who believe in the efficacy of prayer
would unite in that one petition—" Oh, that thou wouldst rend
the heayens and come down, that the mountains might flow
down at thy presence ; that thou wouldest make bare thme arm;
revive thy work in the midst of the years; dtterly abolislithe
idols; return, to Jerusalem with mercies, and fulfil thy promise
to give thy Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the utter-
most parts of the earth for his possession." For who are they
who are now dishonouring God, either by papal superstition,
Mahometan imposture, Heathen idolatry, Philosophic pride,
and vain' scepticism, open Infidelity, or Jewish unbelief? They
are, alas ! our fellow sinners—men like ourselves—the children
of the same common parents—like us involved in the same
curse which man's transgression has brought upon his guilty
race; but yet, through the grace of God, the merits of his Son,
and the power of the Holy Spirit, capable of being made child-
ren of God and heirs of the kingdom, who can help, mourning
over them? The harder their hearts, the more confirmed their
unbelief, the more inveterate their errors, the more pitiable do
they appear. When we think of the shortness of the time for
which the voice of mercy sounds, and the unutterable anguish
Which follows death without mercy. When we hear the great
Jehovah say, " Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe,
come, get you down, for the press is full, the fats overflow, for
their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley
of decision." Who that hears these awful words, when invited
by the inhabitants of one city going to another, and saying—
let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord,
will not immediately answer, "I will go also," I will unite with
all who fear God in entreating of Him to say, " Come from the
four winds, 0 breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they
may live." Surely, there is not one Christian who loves his
Saviour, or has any compassion for his fellow sinners, but will
make this response—" I will go also." They who regard the
signs of the times will be still more powerfully impressed with
these feelings. For when these signs are observed, not with a
vain and superficial glance, but as noted "in the Scriptures of
truth," they cannot but see a resemblance to the closing days of
"the times of the Gentiles," or to that solemn period "when
the four angels are holding the four winds of the earth, to seal
the servants of God in their .foreheads," before the entire
pouring out of those vials of wrath, which will be followed
"by a time of trouble, such as never was since the time there
was a nation, even to that same time."
For after the lapse of nearly 18(X) years since the destruction
of Jerusalem; and after the conclusion of a war, which §hook
every throne from the Tagus to the Volga, tbey see these signs,
"many running to and fro, and knowledge increasing," the
ministers of the Lord going forth into almost all the. world,
preaching the Gospel, "the Euphrates drying up," or the
l'urkish empire wasting away, the servants of God " taking
pleasure in the stones of Zion, and favouting the dust thereof,
‘ "
a shaking of the dry bones," so that whilst a greater number
of Jews have been baptised within the last twenty years than
in any age since the Pentecostal gift of the Holy 'Spirit, very
many of the remnant of Judah are anxiously. searching the
Scriptures," enquiring the way to Zion with their faces thither-
ward." They see also perilous times, " scoffers walking after
their own lusts, saying, where is the promise of his coming ?
These things they behold, and without positicely deciding that
they are the predicted signs " of the coming of the day of God,"
the thought that they may be, fills their souls with anprehenSion
for their fellow-sinners, that whilst the angel of the 'Revelations
seems to be flyinglthrough the heavens, "having the everlasting
Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, to every na-
tion, and kindred, and tongue, and people," that the Lord may
so accompany the word by His Holy Spirit, that a great multi-
tude whom no man can number, may " fear God, and give glory
to Him," do this by obeying the Gospel of His Son, and thus
escape the judgments of " the great day of the wrath of Almighty

God:"
Whilst compassion for our fellow-men should lead us to join
in this concert of prayer, such an object especially glorifies God:
for it is by united prayer that his people are seen in their proper
attitude—humble suppliants before the throne of grace—ac-
knowledgine• the almighty power, the omnipotence, the over-
intrig providence, the paternal cure, and tender compassion of
the leavenly Father. They stand out in the midst of a fallen
World, declaring before all his creatures that Jehovah is 'the
God, the universal King, "doing according to Il is will in the
armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth.'!
The limits of this paper prevent partien;arising them, but no
one who recollects the previous state of the Church before such
unions, and her preSent attitude, hut will have an und,4iteil
proof of the fulfilment of the proMise "ask and ye shall find,
knock and it shallhe opened unto you." The goodness the
Lord has manifested may assure us, that if we take hiln at his
word, and obey his precept, he would fulfil his promise—" Bring
ve all the tithes unto the store house, that there may be meat iu
mine house, and prote me now herewith, saith the Lord 'of
Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour
you out a blessing, that there shall nut be room enough to re-
ceive it."
It should be borne in mind also that by such a concert they
rise to an atmosphere where strife and contention are unknown.
For having but one object—the advancement of the" kingdom of
their Lord—there is no place for difference. " God is love,
and he that dwelleth in lore dwelleth in God and God in him."
Oh, how refreshing it is, ainidst the interminable jarring of
sects and parties, to enter within the veil; to behold a throne
of grace sprinkled with the blood of the Lambi our heavenly
Father waiting to be gracious; his well-beloved Son our Advo-
cate; the Holy Spirit helping our infirmities; the triune
Jehovah saying, " open thy mouth wide aniLl Will fill it; ask
what thou wilt and it shall be done unto thee." It is to this
harmonious concert that all that love the Saviour are invited.
We wool(' say to you, as was said to Abraham's servant—
" Come in thou servant of the Lord, wherefore standest thou
without?" 'l'he Lord 'Jesus Christ has "by his own blood
made a new and living Way" into the holiest of the holies.
" Let us, then draw near, with a true heart, in full assurance of
faith: and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and
to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves to-
gether, as the manner of some is, but'exhorting one another,
and so much the more as we see the day approaching." The
following hints are,respectfully offered fur assisting those who
put pose to unite harthis general concert for prayer. '
let.—Let christians follow the example of our blessed Lord,
(Mark i. 31,) who, the morning after the Sabbath, rose up a
great while before day for secret prayer. Let them thus se-
cure the blessing of him who says, " Pray to thy Father which
is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in Secret shall reward
thee openly."
2d.—Let them call upon the Lord in their families, for his
Spirit to be poured upon themselves and their household, their
neighbours, their country, the ministers of the Lord, the
churches of Christ, the remnant of Judah, and outcast Israel,
and upon the Gentile world.
3d.—Let the Lord's servants afterwards privately meet with
those of their own communion, in earnest prayer for themselves,
their flocks, the whole body of Christ and the world at large;
-and then specially consult together upon the most effectual
means for hastening the cuitilng of the Lord's kingdom; and
particularly for the continuance of such a general conceit for
prayer, that the year may proceed aCcurding to this devout coin-
inencernent.'
• 4111--X.4 Mie whole congregation meet in the evening for
publicworshija
worship, and let an appropriate discourse be preached.