PRAYER-MEETING REFORM

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1180, 15 July 1911, Page 9

PRAYER-MEETING REFORM

A BAPTIST DISCUSSION., A plea that prayer-meetings should bo conducted on new lines was made by tho l?ev. P. T. Thompson, of Leicester, at.tho East Midland Baptist Association's meeting at Burton-on-Trent. His - personal confession .was that ho,.never got . 'the slightest benefit fvonl tho ordinary prayormeotintr. It might or' might not be his, fault, he said, but, nevertheless, lie could never appreciate tho ordinary meeting, where all sorts and descriptions of grounds were covered in the prayers of various brethren. He pleaded for an alteration from the old style of prayermoating, and advocated that these meetings should be conductcd on more advanced lines. Let each of them join in paying attention to tho sequence of ideas, and he was convinced that if there was concentration on one subject at one meeting greater good would bo .done and Iho interest would lie.maintained. Tho Rev. A. M. Roberts (West Bridgford), expressed his regret that Mr. Thomson had taken the line he had. "Our great liono is in the old-fashioned prayer-meeting," ho exclaimed, "and our fathers found, the greatest help and joy in the house of prayer. Were our forefathers fools that they did not know tho best?" A speech like'M'r. Thomson's was n regrettable sign of the times. Ho believed tho fault lay, not in. the old-fashioned prayermeetings, but ill those who attended them. A Lincoln delegate thanked Mr. Thomson for his audacity in attacking the old-fashioned style of prayer-meeting, and said the spirit of prayer was , what mattered. A Peterborough delegato advised ministers not to encourage prayers by old men as they only discouraged young men. ■*