
| www.PrayerMeetings.org Supplying resource material for praying believers and their leaders on: Prayer and The Prayer Meeting Other Subjects: The Attributes of God, The Death of Christ. |
| E. M. Bounds |
| Edward McKendree Bounds August 15,1835 - August 24,1913 was a Methodist minister and author of books, chiefly on prayer. Bounds was born in Shelby County, rural Missouri. Although apprenticed as an attorney, and admitted to the bar, Bounds felt called to the ministry in his early twenties. He was ordained by his denomination in 1859, and was named pastor of the Monticello, Missouri Methodist Church. Instead of practicing law however, He became a chaplain in the Confederate States Army (Fifth Missouri Regiment) and was taken prisoner during the first battle of Franklin, Tennessee. Upon his release, he felt compelled to return to war-torn Franklin and help rebuild it spiritually. His primary method was to establish weekly prayer sessions that sometimes lasted several hours. Bounds was regionally celebrated for leading spiritual revival in Franklin and eventually began an itinerant preaching ministry throughout the country. After serving several important churches in St. Louis and other places, south, he became Editor of the St. Louis Christian Advocate for eight years and, later, Associate Editor of The Nashville Christian Advocate for four years. The trial of his faith came to him while in Nashville, and he quietly retired to his home without asking even a pension. His principal work in Washington, Georgia (his home) was rising at 4 A. M. and praying until 7 AM. He filled a few engagements as an evangelist during the eighteen years of his lifework. While on speaking engagements, he would not neglect his early morning time in prayer, and cared nothing for the protests of the other occupants of his room at being awakened so early. "No man could have made more melting appeals for lost souls and backslidden ministers than did Bounds. Tears ran down his face as he pleaded for us all in that room. According to people who were constantly with him, in prayer and preaching, for eight years "Not a foolish word did we ever hear him utter. He was one of the most intense eagles of God that ever penetrated the spiritual ether. He could not brook delay in rising, or being late for dinner. |