A Call to Prayer

J.C. Ryle was well known for his warm, plain-spoken candor, the kind which appeals to all souls regardless of rank or title, and this booklet is no different. Bold, encouraging, and affectionate, "A Call to Prayer" is just as the title says-an earnest invitation for all children of God to come before Him in prayer. Read it, be edified, and have hope: you have access to the Maker of heaven and earth who can do all things. In this short booklet, Ryle charges the reader with the necessity of prayer. He cuts through the excuses and the pretense with the simple question: "Do you pray?" Ryle's style is concise and immanently readable. He argues that prayer or the lack of prayer is the single greatest barometer for a person's status before the Lord. For "to be prayerless is to be without Christ, without God, without grace, without hope, and without heaven." Ryle goes beyond the question to the meat of the issue giving strong arguments for why prayer is so necessary for the spiritual well-being of an individual. Once he has made his point, and made it well, Ryle turns his attention to how a person should pray. This work of prayer, according to Ryle, is so often neglected because it is such an arduous task cutting against the flesh and standing (or kneeing in this case) in direct opposition and defiance of Satan himself. Ryle encourages the Christian to pray with reverence and humility, spiritually, as a regular part of their business of life, with all perseverance, in earnestness, in faith, with boldness, with fullness, on behalf of others, with thankfulness and with watchfulness over one's prayers. He writes this to state his position on the importance of prayer: "Tell me what a man's prayers are, and I will soon tell you the state of his soul. Prayer is the spiritual pulse."