Here are thirteen inspiring chapters on what the author regards as the most essential aspects of prayer. Few other authors have been able to write about prayer with as much authority as E. M. Bounds. In The Essentials of Prayer, he expounds on prayer as it relates to the whole person, to humility, to devotion, to praise and thanksgiving, to trouble in our lives, to God's work, to consecration, and more. "Prayer has to do with the entire man," says Bounds. "God wants, and must have, all that there is in man in answering his prayers. He must have whole-hearted men through whom to work out His purposes and plans concerning men. God must have men in their entirety. No double-minded man need apply."
One who knew this author personally testified that everything Bounds wrote was for the salvation of his readers. The weight, the gravity, the conviction with which E. M. Bounds speaks on prayer make this and all his books a treasure for those who want to know God as he did. Be sure to take advantage of the other books on prayer by E. M. Bounds available from Olive Tree.
Edward McKendree (E. M.) Bounds (1835-1913) As a young adult, Bounds was ignited by a great revival, and left his legal practice to serve the Lord, becoming an ordained Methodist Episcopal preacher. Shocked by atrocities committed against his countrymen by the invading Union Army during the Civil War, Bounds peacefully refused to sign an oath of allegiance to the Union and was sent to prison, where he continued his ministry among the inmates. Eventually released and sent away, he became a Confederate chaplain on the front lines, praying for his men within sight of them as they fought. After a full year of intense public intercession from Bounds and the surviving men of Franklin, the demoralized town experienced revival. The tireless compassion of this man, who would spend hours each day in intercessory prayer, continued to the end of his life. W. H. Hodge, who was mostly responsible for the publication of E. M. Bounds' books, developed an intimate friendship with the prayer warrior: "At last," he said, "I have found a man that really prays. I shall never let him go. He drew me to him with hooks of steel."
