January 8, 2005

Sweet Hour of Prayer

William W. Walford, 1772-1850

      And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18.

No one is poor who can by prayer open the storehouse of God. ~ Louis Paul Lehman

    Through the ages, devout believers in Christ have recognized the necessity of maintaining an intimate relationship with God through His ordained channel of prayer. It has often been said that prayer is as basic to spiritual life as breathing is to our natural lives. It is not merely an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble; prayer is a way of life.
    Nevertheless, we need to set aside a special time for prayer. We need that daily "Sweet Hour of Prayer."
    William Walford was blind, but this did not make him useless. On the contrary, as he sat by the fire in his English home in the mid-nineteenth century, his hands kept busy, whittling out useful objects, such as shoehorns. His mind was active, too.
    Called on to preach from time to time in a rural English church, he composed sermons in his head to deliver on Sundays. He memorized a huge amount of the Bible which he quoted verbatim in his sermons. Some of his folk thought he had memorized the entire Scripture, cover to cover. William also composed lines of verse. And he prayed.
    Thomas Salmon, a New York native, spent some time in Coleshill, Warwickshire, England, where he became acquainted with William. He tells this tale of what happened one day, while he was visiting the blind pastor:

"...He repeated two or three pieces which he had composed, and having no friend at home to commit them to paper, he had laid them up in the storehouse within. "How will this do?" asked he, as he repeated the following lines, with a complacent smile touched with some light lines of fear lest he subject himself to criticism. I rapidly copied the lines with my pencil, as he uttered them, and sent them for insertion in the Observer, if you should think them worthy of preservation."

    The Observer did consider them worth preserving, and they were published on this day, September 13, 1845, becoming a beloved hymn.
    Beyond the fact that he was blind and the few details recorded by Thomas Salmon, we know little of William Walford. But his hymn has touched hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides of the Atlantic, expressing the genuine joy he found in prayer.
    The first two stanzas of today's hymn remind us of the blessings of prayer -- relief for our troubled lives and the assurance of a God who is concerned about our every need. The final stanza anticipates the day when we will no longer need to pray, for we will be at home in heaven with our Lord.
    There is an interesting reference in this verse to a Mount Pisgah -- the place where God instructed Moses in Deuteronomy 3:27 to go and merely view the promised land since, because of disobedience, he would not be permitted to enter it.

    Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my Father's throne make all my wants and wishes known! In seasons of distress and grief my soul has often found relief, and oft escaped the tempter's snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer.
    Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear to Him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless; and since He bids me seek His face, believe His Word and trust His grace, I'll cast on Him my ev'ry care, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer.
    Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, may I thy consolation share, till from Mount Pisgah's lofty height I view my home and take my flight:  This robe of flesh I'll drop, and rise to seize the everlasting prize, and shout, while passing thru the air, "Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer."