Necessity of Prayer

E. M. Bounds wrote this brief but intense treatise on prayer during his final years of ministry, drawing from decades of pastoral experience in the Methodist tradition and his service as a Confederate chaplain during the Civil War. Published posthumously in 1913, the work emerged from Bounds' conviction that the American church had grown spiritually anemic through prayerlessness, substituting programs and methods for the fundamental discipline that sustains all authentic Christian life.

Bounds argues that prayer is not merely one spiritual discipline among others but the essential foundation upon which all Christian ministry and personal holiness must rest. He contends that God has chosen to work in the world primarily through the prayers of his people, making intercession not just beneficial but absolutely necessary for the advancement of God's kingdom. The book moves systematically through prayer's role in personal sanctification, its power in evangelism and missions, and its centrality to effective pastoral ministry. Bounds insists that spiritual leaders who neglect prayer inevitably produce dead churches, regardless of their intellectual gifts or organizational skills. He calls for a return to the early morning hours of intercession that characterized the great saints and successful ministers throughout church history.

The work has remained influential in evangelical and Pentecostal circles for over a century, reprinted countless times and cited by generations of pastors and prayer warriors. Its uncompromising message continues to challenge churches that have embraced sophisticated programs while neglecting the prayer closet. This book is essential reading for pastors, ministry leaders, and serious Christians who sense that their spiritual life lacks power and want to understand prayer's foundational role in authentic discipleship. It is not for those seeking nuanced theology or contemporary insights into prayer, but rather for readers willing to be confronted with the stark necessity of sustained, disciplined intercession.