Dr. Alexander Whyte, a Scottish pastor, writer, and college professor, is probably best known for his character sketches on individuals in the Bible, as well as other noteworthy people throughout history. Considered a great pulpit orator and Bible teacher, Whyte often had five hundred young men stay after the Sunday evening service for a 45 minute class where he would dive into Scripture, Christian writings throughout history, and biographies of Godly men and women. One notable man who was greatly influenced by Whyte was Oswald Chambers. While in Edinburgh Chambers went to Whyte’s church and attended his Sunday night classes. Later Whyte was a guest lecturer at the college Chambers was a part of. Alexander Whyte had a love for great books and would often recommend them to his listeners by holding up a battered copy and declare, “Sell your beds and buy it.”
May this short discourse on prayer by Whyte encourage and convict your soul to spend time in intimacy, oneness, and communication with our precious King Jesus.
Starving Prayer
by Alexander Whyte
“We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you” (Col. 1:3).
I am as certain as I am standing here, that the secret of much mischief to our own souls, and to the souls of others, lies in the way that we stint, and starve, and scamp our prayers, by hurrying over them. Prayer worth calling prayer: prayer that God will call true prayer and will treat as true prayer, takes far more time, by the clock, than one man in a thousand thinks. After all that the Holy Ghost has done to make true prayer independent of times, and of places, and of all kinds of instruments and assistances,–as long as we remain in this unspiritual and undevotional world, we shall not succeed, to be called success, in prayer, without time, and times, and places, and other assistances in prayer. Take good care that you are not spiritual overmuch in the matter of prayer. Take good care lest you take your salvation far too softly, and far too cheaply. If you find your life of prayer to be always so short, and so easy, and so spiritual, as to be without cost and strain and sweat to you, you may depend upon it, you are not yet begun to pray. As sure as you sit there, and I stand here, it is just in this matter of time in prayer that so many of us are making shipwreck of our own souls, and of the souls of others.
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