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THE GREATEST 7ORCE IN THE WORLD
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb, Len G. Broughton, D. D.
Stenocraphically reported for The Golden Ace.—Copyright applied for
Text —“And this is the boldness which we have
toward him, that, if we ask anything according to
his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he
heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we
have the petitions which we have asked of him/’
1 John 14-15.
OMETIME ago in one of our prayer
meetings I remember using an expres
sion like this, “The greatest unused
force in all the world is prayer.” I
did not think so much of the remark at
the time, but there was one man present
that night who has referred to that re
mark more than once, showing that he
was impressed with the thought, and
S
impressed with it in such away that he has gotten
great help and blessing from it. And so I have
decided that I shall preach to you on “The greatest
force in the world,” and I propose showing you
that this greatest force in the world is the force of
prayer, and though it is the greatest force in the
world, it is, as I said that night, the most neg
lected and unused of all the world’s great forces.
There are great forces at work among men; forces
so great that we have not yet fathomed their depths
and height and length and breadth. There is the
force of steam, we winder that for thousands of
years this great force that we now see propelling
great machinery and transporting great cargoes,
was dormant until Watts, the mighty wizard, evoked
its spirit from the waters and turned it to the work
of moving the machinery of the world. We won
der why that was so long coming. We wonder w’hy
in the providence of God a Watts was not found
earlier.
UNUSED FORCES.
And there is the force of electricity, almost yet
in its infancy. How long the world went without
the knowledge of the laws of electricity, as imper
fect even as we have them now, that bring such
blessing to the world. There was just as much
electricity in the Garden of Eden as today and yet
they did not understand it and for thousands of
years it was not understood. It remained for a
Franklin to penetrate the ether zone and bring
down the lightning and chain it to the earth and
make it pay obeisance to the will of man, and we
wonder sometimes why it was that God, who loves
the race and is so anxious for its development,
waited so long to find a Franklin, an Edison, a
Marconi. Electricity was always a mighty force,
and yet a mighty force about which the world was
ignorant for thousands and thousands of years.
And then there is the law of psychology that we are
just now beginning slightly to appreciate; the law
of mental science, and nobody can now tell what
is to be the outcome of investigation and study
along this line of scientific truth. Already we are
beginning to feel a bit of the force of the laws of
psychology, out of which comes the great fact, I
say fact because I believe it, the great fact of tele
pathy. The time will come in my judgment when
we will talk without the means of wires and in
struments; when we will have so comprehended the
law of nature, the great perfectly arranged tele
graphy of heaven, as that we shall be able to talk
to man in various parts of the earth without the
aid of cables and wires. It may remain for the
millenium to develop that, but I believe it will be
a fact. What would we do today if it were not for
what we have learned of these great forces? Cut
out the force of steam and we are ruined Cut out
the force of electricity and we can not budge. This
civilization could not live ten years without elec
tricity, because we are so keyed up that we must
have the rapidity of the lightning in order to help
us carry on the affairs of the world. But, my
brethren, though these forces are great, the greatest
force among all the forces is the force of prayer;
nor is that a mere eantish statement. Is it a fact?
Do we really believe it? I want to say to you and
say it as candidly as I can say anything, with God
The Golden Age for May 13, 1909.
as my judg’e and witness, I honestly believe that
through the force of prayer we have, yes, I have, a
power that is greater than all the powers of the
earth combined; that through this force or power
1 am able, if I only come into perfect accord with
the prayer law, I am able to bring things to pass
that could not be brought to pass by all the forces
of the world. And on the other hand I am able to
keep from coming to pass any and everything
though all the forces of the world are contrived to
bring it to pass. We say that, but is it true? If it
is true, brethren, we are very neglectful of the
greatest privilege that this world has ever had con
ferred upon it. Let me state again. If it is true
that through prayer, simple prayer, provided this
prayer is in accord with the conditions of prayer,
that through such prayer I am able to bring to pass
in my life things that could not be brought to pass
in any other way under heaven though all the forces
of the world were to try to bring them to pass, and
on the other hand through this prayer I am able to
keep off and prevent that which all the forces may
contrive to bring to pass, how foolish that we do
not avail ourselves of it now.
THE DIVINE DYNAMIC.
The I want to tell you that the way to do the
work of God is through prayer. Let us see if this
is true. We go back and study the history of
prayer in connection with the history of the world.
Go back into the history of Israel aud take what
we find concerning it. Baek here in the history of
Israel we find that Pharoah has refused to let the
children of Israel depart from the cruel hand of per
secution, and Moses calls the people to prayer. It
is not said how their prayer was framed. It is
simply said that they prayed, and after that prayer
we find God sending a plague on Pharoah, a very
peculiar plague, as the result of which he finally
agrees to let the children of Israel go. However
when he sees the enormity of that crowd that is
about to leave, what a great crowd it is and what a
great loss it is going to be, he retracts and says they
can’t go. Then we see Moses going to the place of
prayer, and following that prayer comes another
plague upon Pharoah. That same thing happened
seven times; first refusal by Pharoah, then prayer
by Moses, then a plague sent by God, after which
followed Pharoah’s consent. But each time after
the plague was removed, his avarice overcame him
and 'he refused to let .them go; until finally,
you remember the plague that caused him to force
them out of the land forever. Moses never laid
his hands on Pharoah or endeavored to do anything
at all. He simply prayed; and then waited
and God sent plague after plague upon
Pharaoh, and this had the effect which
nothing Moses could have done would have had.
There was no way by which Pharoah could have
been made to let those people go except the way it
came about, that is, through prayer.
Go on then in the history of the world as given in
the Bible and we find Elijah in controversy with the
prophets of Baal. It is an interesting and stragetie
point in the history of religion. The prophets of
Baal being under the protection and munificence of
the queen, have gotten proud; they have prospered;
and they challenge Elijah; the challenge is that they
will build an altar and put the sacrifice thereon and
each shall pray their God for fire to descend and
consume the sacrifice and the God which answers is
to be declared the God of the nation. Elijah ac
cepts the challenge. The altar is prepared; the
prophets of Baal start first, confident of impressing
the people by their spectacular display. They
prayed and of course got no answer. They prayed
again and got no answer. Then Elijah came with
the sharpest piece of sarcasm that I have ever
heard and said, “Pray louder; maybe your god is
asleep or has gone off on a visit; pray louder so
that he can hear you.” They prayed as loud as
they could, but only a noise resulted; not a bit of
fire is seen. They gave up and then turned to
Elijah and said, “Well, if our God has gone, let’s
see where yours is.” Elijah knew his God. It is
a great thing to know your God. It is a great thing
to have such intimate relationship with God as that
you know Him. It keeps you from having many a
sleepless night. ;So Elijah prayed. Read that
prayer if you want something that will stimulate
you; and the fire from God is sent down and the
altar is consumed, and yonder are the prophets of
Baal looking on with wonder and amazement a..d
confusion and fear. Could any other fotse have
done that? Could money have done that? Co Id
steam or electricity have done that? Could any
thing have done it but prayer. Could educaiioa
have done it? Could any of the things after w'-ich
men are running wild to-day have done it? T'»ere
is but one thing that could have done it, and
is piayer.
Then came over into the New Testament. Go to
tjie prison where Peter was lodged; the little church
is gathered in the prayer meeting in the humble lit
tle home of a widowed woman. They are praying
for his comfort and for his deliverance for he was
one of them; and in those days, and now in the ideal
church, every member of it was considered a branch
of the whole to the extent that the slightest injury
to one meant injury to all, and so when they were
deprived of Peter’s presence among them,
they said, “We will get together and
pray.” At the time they were praying that angel
came down and unlocked the prison door and led
Peter through the locked and barred gates and up
the gate of the city, and once inside the city
Peter made haste to the place of prayer. Do you
know anything else that could have done that? It
was prayer that did it, the prayer of a few humble,
ignorant fishermen from the shores of
Galilee, that never saw a university or
a college. 1 am not speaking against these things.
No man believes in them more than I. I have gone
my length to help educate people who were not able
to educate themselves, and I have come to the place
where I propose to come out against this deification
of modern education, or anything that is not God.
DELIVERANCE THROUGH PRAYER.
Look at Paul and Silas in jail; the
Roman government has placed such a band of sol
diers around that jail that it would be absolutely
impossible for them to escape by natural means.
In addition to that they were tied in the stocks.
But listen, they begin to pray and to sing. I do
not know what they prayed, nor what they sang.
1 think it was some of the Psalms, there are many
that would have been of comfort under those cir
cumstances. And as the result of that praying a
mighty force was felt. Was it the force of elec
tricity? Was it the force of steam? Was it an
army coming to their relief? As they prayed they
felt a quiver go through the building and then the
house shook until the doors were shaken open; they
said it was an earthquake, and it was an earth
quake; but it was more than an earthquake. God
reached down and took hold of that old prison and
gave it a shake; the doors flew open and the stocks
fell off their feet; it could not have been an ordi
nary earthquake because that would not have loosed
those shackles, and set Paul and Silas free. Do you
know anything else that could have done that?
Paul and 'Silas did not have influence enough to
set them free. All the influence that they had could
not have influenced the government in the slightest.
There they were and there they were to stay if they
had not had hold of the key that unlocks the power
house of God. So, my brethren, in modern times.
It has always been true in the history of the church.
The place of prayer in the history of this world
would be the most interesting study that could pos
sibly be given. Take our own experience. Some of
us can feel as we are now speaking, we can feel to
know that God has through prayer in our own expe
rience, done things that nothing else could have
done. Certainly I might feel it. Take my own ex-
