The Power of Prayer

Edited by Tony Lambert, Director of OMF China Research

Did you know that in parts of Henan Province, house-church believers have set up a system of 24-hour prayer watches? Each Christian is given a bookmark with a suitable Bible reading and a 15-minute slot each day. Wherever they may be—in the fields, the factory or at home—they then pray for specific needs, knowing that other members of the church will be similarly interceding throughout the day and night.

There is no doubt at all that the remarkable growth of the Chinese church in recent decades has been born out of prayer. A Three-Self pastor from Huangshan in Anhui shares:

“One of the strengths of our congregation is the morning prayer meeting which often has more than 70 participants at a time. People meet from 6 to 7 am for Bible reading, sharing and prayer. They pray for different needs, including church affairs and personal problems. I am particularly moved by the elderly who are truly faithful in their work of intercession. Through their prayers, they provide pastors and other church workers with invaluable spiritual support.”

In a small house church in southern China a girl shared her personal problems and her desire to receive Christ after the service. The members formed a circle around her and prayed powerfully for her release from bondage to the occult in which she had dabbled. They shared the gospel with her and she experienced complete deliverance.

A small group of young women were quiety praying in a corner, oblivious to the general hubbub at the entrance of a crowded Three-Self church in Kunming as people poured out from the Sunday service. They were earnestly praying for a girl kneeling in their midst whom they were counseling. No one had told them to pray—it was entirely spontaneous. Such scenes are not unusual in China. Prayer, to Chinese Christians, is “the Christian’s native air.” Is it to us, too?

The Young Morrison: Preparation of a Pioneer

Robert Morrison arrived in China in September 1807—the first Protestant missionary to do so. In recognition of that, this year we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the beginnings of Protestant mission work in the most populous nation on earth.

But who was Robert Morrison? What was his background and training? How did God prepare a pioneer missionary when China was closed to the gospel? In this article we look at Morrison’s humble beginnings and hope to learn some spiritual lessons which will be relevant for all those planning to serve God in China today.

Robert was born on January 5, 1782 in Northumberland, northern England. His father, James, was a Scottish farm laborer who married an English girl, Hannah Nicholson, in 1768. Robert was the youngest son of a family of eight children (which was common in those days). When he was three, the family moved to Newcastle where his father entered the shoe trade and prospered. England was in the throes of the industrial revolution and the young Robert probably played with George Stephenson who later invented the steam locomotive, as the families were close neighbors. More significantly, John Wesley was still alive and the great Evangelical Awakening was sweeping through England. By the close of the 18th century, while Robert was still in his teens, foreign mission was high on the agenda of committed Christians. This led to the founding of many new mission agencies.

His parents were godly, strict Presbyterians and Robert grew up with the Bible and the Westminster Shorter Catechism as a firm foundation. At the tender age of 12 he recited the entire 119th Psalm from memory in front of his pastor without a single mistake! He was not a brilliant scholar, but applied himself to his studies at school with extraordinary perseverance.

At the age of 14 Robert left school and was apprenticed to his father’s business. For a couple of years he seems to have fallen into bad company and fell occasionally into drunkenness. However, God had his hand upon him. In Robert’s own words:

“It was about five years ago [1798] that I was much awakened to a sense of sin … and I was brought to a serious concern about my soul. I felt the dread of eternal condemnation. The fear of death compassed me about and I was led nightly to cry to God that he would pardon my sin, that he would grant me an interest in the Savior, and that he would renew me in the spirit of my mind. Sin became a burden. It was then that I experienced a change of life, and, I trust, a change of heart, too. I broke off from my former careless company, and gave myself to reading, meditation and prayer. It pleased God to reveal his Son in me, and at that time I experienced much of the “kindness of youth and the love of espousals.” And though the first flash of affection wore off, I trust my love to and knowledge of the Savior have increased.”

Robert often spent time in the garden in quiet meditation and prayer. Even at work, the Bible or some other book such as Matthew Henry’s Commentary was open before him so his heart and mind might be occupied while his hands were busy. He regularly attended church on Sundays, visited the sick, and in his spare time during the week instructed poor children. He witnessed to Christ to another young apprentice and to a sailor, showing a deep concern for the conversion of friends and family.

In 1803 Robert was accepted to study at the Congregational Theological Institute at Hoxton. Just after he started attending, his father fell seriously ill and urged him to return home and resume work there. He wrote a loving, but firm, reply back saying “having set my hand to the plough, I would not look back.” God honored his difficult decision—his father recovered, and he and the rest of the family lived long enough to recognize that Robert had been led by God’s providence in the right path.

He visited the poor and sick and preached in the villages around London. But he did not neglect his studies. A fellow student later wrote of him:

“He was a most exemplary student and always aimed at distinction even in some branches of study for which he appeared very little adapted. But his chief reliance to secure success was not on any effort of his own, but on the divine blessing. Few ever entered more fully into Luther’s great axiom: “To pray well is to study well.” Prayer was the element in which his soul delighted to breathe.”

Already at the age of 17 Robert had been deeply moved by reading about the new missionary movement in The Evangelical Magazine and The Missionary Magazine. But he was deeply attached to his mother and promised he would not go abroad so long as she lived. He kept this promise and was present to care for her in her last illness when he received her blessing.

In May 1804 at age 22, he applied to the newly founded London Missionary Society and was accepted with unusual speed. For 14 months he trained at the Missionary Academy at Gosport (near Portsmouth in southern England). For a while he was torn between Timbuctu in Africa and China as possible fields of service. Again, we see God’s providence in guiding him to China if we backtrack a little …

In 1798, just when the young Robert had been converted, the Rev. William Mosely of Northamptonshire was strongly burdened for the spiritual needs of China. He issued a letter urging “the establishment of a society for translating the Holy Scriptures into the languages of the populous oriental nations.” He providentially came across a manuscript of most of the New Testament translated into Chinese (probably by earlier Jesuit missionaries) which had remained gathering dust in the British Museum. He immediately printed 100 copies of a further tract “on the importance of translating and publishing the Holy Scriptures into the Chinese language.” Copies were sent to all the Church of England bishops and the new mission agencies. Most gave discouraging replies, giving such reasons as the cost and “utter impossibility” of spreading the books inside China.

But a copy reached Dr. Bogue, the head of the Hoxton Academy. He was so moved that he replied to Moseley that if he had been younger he would have “devoted the rest of my days to the propagation of the gospel in China”! Not surprisingly, Dr. Bogue promised to look out for suitable missionary candidates for China. His choice fell on Morrison who soon after turned his attention away from Africa and focused entirely on China. Robert wrote to a friend urging him to become his colleague in this momentous new work:

“I wish I could persuade you to accompany me. Take into account the 350 million souls in China who have not the means of knowing Jesus Christ as Savior…

“The undertaking is arduous and I seriously entreat you to count the cost. Many among the Chinese are highly refined and well informed. They will not be beneath us but superior. These difficulties, laying aside the one of learning the language, seem to me very great. If we go we must have the sentence of death in ourselves, not to trust in ourselves but in the living God.”

The die was cast. God through the sovereign working of his providence now had his man for the great task ahead. (to be continued)

Copyright 2007 OMF International