Prayer - David McIntyre's classic

Prayer is an area of my life that requires a great deal of growth. This growth, I assume, is only going to happen by the grace of God and the grease of my elbows. That being said, one title that has been recommended is The Hidden Life of Prayer by David McIntyre.



Wikipedia's bio on McIntyre begins with this:

David Martin McIntyre (1859 – 8 March 1938) was a Scottish preacher and Principal of the Bible Training Institute, Glasgow from 1913 to 1938.

David McIntyre was the son of Rev Malcolm McIntyre, (16 January 1819 – 10 October 1903) and his wife Mary Ann (Miller), (6 September 1829 – 31 July 1862). David's father Malcolm was Free Church of Scotland minister of Monikie, Angus from July 1849 to his death. David had an elder sister Margaret Grace and an elder brother Miller Malcolm, both of whom died in their childhood (1863 and 1874 respectively). David's mother was the daughter of the previous minister of Monikie, James Miller, who came out of the Church of Scotland at the Disruption.

The book, really more of a booklet, can be read online here. The following is an excerpt from the opening chapter:

Our Lord takes it for granted that His people will pray. And indeed in Scripture generally the outward obligation of prayer is implied rather than asserted. Moved by a divinely-implanted instinct, our natures cry out for God, for the living God. And however this instinct may be crushed by sin, it awakes to power in the consciousness of redemption. Theologians of all schools, and Christians of every type, agree in their recognition of this principle of the new life. Chrysostom has said, "The just man does not desist from praying until he ceases to be just;" and Augustine, "He that loveth little prayeth little, and he that loveth much prayeth much;" and Richard Hooker, "Prayer is the first thing wherewith a righteous life beginneth, and the last wherewith it doth end;" and Père la Combe, "He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray, and he who will be constant in prayer shall know what it is to have a pure heart;" and Bunyan, "If thou art not a praying person, thou art not a Christian;" and Richard Baxter, "Prayer is the breath of the new creature;" and George Herbert, "Prayer...the soul's blood."