The Necessity of Prayer and other books by E.M. Bounds are 
unfailing wells for a lifetime of spiritual water-drawing. His 
wise counsel on prayer are words that originated on the anvil of 
experience.

His thoughts are inspiring, dynamic, and forthright. Probably no 
one has ever written more convincingly on the subject of prayer 
than E.M. Bounds. The Necessity of Prayer will help today's 
earnest Christians to discover the mystery and the majesty of 
prayer.

FOREWORD

EDWARD McKENDREE BOUNDS did not merely pray well that he might 
write well about prayer. He prayed because the needs of the world 
were upon him. He prayed, for long years, upon subjects which the 
easy-going Christian rarely gives a thought, and for objects which 
men of less thought and faith are always ready to call impossible. 
From his solitary prayer-vigils, year by year, there arose 
teaching equaled by few men in modern Christian history. He wrote 
transcendently about prayer, because he was himself, transcendent 
in its practice.
     As breathing is a physical reality to us so prayer was a 
reality for Bounds. He took the command, "Pray without ceasing" 
almost as literally as animate nature takes the law of the reflex 
nervous system, which controls our breathing.
     Prayer-books -- real text-books, not forms of prayer -- were 
the fruit of this daily spiritual exercise. Not brief articles for 
the religious press came from his pen -- though he had been 
experienced in that field for years -- not pamphlets, but books 
were the product and result. He was hindered by poverty, 
obscurity, loss of prestige, yet his victory was not wholly 
reserved until his death.
     In 1907, he gave to the world two small editions. One of 
these was widely circulated in Great Britain. The years following 
up to his death in 1913 were filled with constant labour and he 
went home to God leaving a collection of manuscripts. His letters 
carry the request that the present editor should publish these 
products of his gifted pen.
     The preservation of the Bounds manuscripts to the present 
time has clearly been providential. The work of preparing them for 
the press has been a labour of love, consuming years of effort.
     These books are unfailing wells for a lifetime of spiritual 
water-drawing. They are hidden treasures, wrought in the darkness 
of the dawn and the heat of the noon, on the anvil of experience, 
and beaten into wondrous form by the mighty stroke of the Divine. 
They are living voices whereby he, being dead, yet speaketh.
                                          -- C.C.

     The above Foreword was written by Claude Chilton, Jr., an 
ardent admirer of Dr. Bounds, and to whom we owe many obligations 
for suggestions in editing the Bounds Spiritual Life Books. We 
buried Claude L. Chilton February 18, 1929. What a meeting of 
these two great saints of God, of shining panoply and knightly 
grace!
                                          Homer W. Hodge.
                                          Wilkes-Barre, Pa.