Pastoral and Personal Evangelism 35 and at other spiritual gatherings, which is entitled “Prayer List.” On it there are spaces for names, and a blank line for the name of the signer and the date. A small footnote states that a copy of the card may be mailed to the pastor, although it is not required or urged. The list is for the individual Christian, a definite prayer for a definite soul. Many of these cards are handed in to me, and we thus unite in prayer for these souls. I t is a real method of binding pastor and people in prayer for individuals. A prayer list which includes all your friends is a most in spiring and useful method. One whom you see each day will be next in alphabetical order to a missionary in central India or in Japan. Home problems will come sometimes next to far-distant hopes, and the whole world comes to your very room through the power of prayer. As the years go by, so many whose names are there before you give themselves to God, and so many causes for gratitude come. In days past, I tore up a card when the heart yielded to God, but now we leave the card just the same, for one needs prayer surely after conver sion fully as much as before, that growth and grace may abound. Prayer for individuals also makes one alert when opportunities open to speak to them, and directs aright con versation at such times. I t also frees us from mind-wander ing and perplexity in prayer. We grow specific and very definite, and learn to ask for those things which we really want. Friendship and companionship mean more when we realize that we are meeting each other through Christ at the throne of grace, and individuals are conscious of greater power than human speech when they know that you are pray ing for them. Recently, when a man yielded to Christ, he replied, when told by his friend he had long prayed for him: “Well, I knew something was influencing me, for I have felt unhappy and dissatisfied until now, and it was not natural for me to be troubled about myself.”
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