The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power - Review

I've finally received the book "The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power" by R.A. Torrey and am a little over halfway through it. So far it has been a very good book on practical Christian life and prayer.

In flipping through to find one of the many passages I found so terrific, so as to give you an excerpt, this is the one I found:

"Suppose some Englishman were summoned to Buckingham Palace to meet King George. He answers the summons and is waiting in the anteroom to be ushered into the presence of the King. What do you think that man would say to himself as he waited to be brought into the presence of the King? Do you think he would say, 'I wonder how much time I must spend with the King?' No, Indeed; he would rather think, 'I wonder how much time the king will give me.' But prayer is having an audience with the King of kings, that eternal, omnipotent King in comparison with whom all earthly kings are as nothing; and would any intelligent person that realizes that fact ever ask himself, 'How much time must I spend in prayer?' No, our thought will be, 'How much time may I spend in prayer, how much time will the King give me?'" - p77, The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power.

Of course, after reading this I began thinking how excited I would be if I was granted a private audience with the President of the United States. A chance to pick his brain and talk to him and get to know him, even if for only 10 or 15 minutes. Yet I feel nothing of that same excitement when I consider prayer. In fact, I look at it as a duty, and sometimes a tedious one at that.

One thing I love so much about this book is the large number of anecdotes/stories the author uses to illustrate his points. Most importantly, though, is that he uses scriptures. One thing I don't like about this book is that he uses less scriptures than he should. You will perhaps read one scripture about prayer and then read 5 pages of exposition about that one verse. The serious Bible student knows that we need many scriptures to nail down a Biblical truth.

I would recommend this book to any Christian, although there are a few doctrinal errors, such as an eternal hell, which are mentioned in passing but not taught or dwelt upon. But these shouldn't bother anyone grounded in the Word of God. It was published in 1924 by the president of the Moody Bible Institute. He was D.L. Moody's protege.