John R. Rice

In the United States there are about 800 different secret societies and nearly half of the adult men and women of the United States are affiliated with them according to Rev. James Putt, Th.M., in the scholarly pamphlet Masonry. He quotes the Grand Lodge Bulletin of Iowa that for 1936 there were 2,665,511 Masons. Masonry is the oldest secret order, the largest, and the parent of the others. The lodges claim to be centers of morality, claim to subdue the passions of men, claim to give great light on spiritual things, and by many are claimed to be great aids to Christianity. The lodges themselves often profess to show the way to Heaven. They speak much about God, have Bibles as lodge furniture, have priests, chaplains, worshipful masters; their buildings are often called temples. And now we are to examine the lodges in the light of the Bible, the Word of God. And we ask the question, "Is it a sin for a Christian to have membership in secret orders?" For a child of God to be a member of a lodge, a secret order, is a sin. - Pages 11-12.

This is a book of Bible teaching on prayer. It is not a book of philosophy nor reasoning about what is or is not possible or probable about prayer. The book is written on the simple basis that there is a God who has revealed His will in the Bible, an infallible book. The Bible teaches that God delights to answer prayer. The Bible gives us many great and exceedingly precious promises about what God will do for those who come to Him in prayer, and the Bible clearly gives the conditions for getting things from God. To this author prayer is a very simple and blessed matter of going to God daily for what one needs and desires, and getting it, and living in the fullness of joy of answered prayer which Jesus promised in John 16:24. "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." - Author's preface.