"Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take, And stab my spirit broad awake; Or, Lord, if too obdurate I, Choose Thou, before that spirit die, A piercing pain, a killing sin, And to my dead heart turn them in."

"My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted."

"Speak to Him thou for He hears, and spirit with spirit can meet— Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet."

"More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend?"

"Battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer."

"'Twas then belike," Honorious cried, "When you the public fast defied, Refused to heav'n to raise a prayer, Because you'd no connections there."

"Prayer is The world in tune, A spirit-voyce, And vocall joyes, Whose Eccho is heaven's blisse."

"Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando."

"Audiit, et voti Phœbus succedere partem Mente didit, partem volucres dispersit in auras."

"J'ai toujours fait une prière à Dieu, qui est fort courte. La voici: Mon Dieu, rendez nos ennemis bien ridicules! Dieu m'a exaucé."

"Prayer moves the Hand which moves the world."

"Who is this before whose presence idols tumble to the sod? While he cries out—"Allah Akbar! and there is no god but God!""

"Making their lives a prayer."

"Though smooth be the heartless prayer, no ear in heaven will mind it; And the finest phrase falls dead, if there is no feeling behind it."

"The imperfect offices of prayer and praise."

""What is good for a bootless bene?" With these dark words begins my Tale; And their meaning is, whence can comfort spring When Prayer is of no avail?"

"The bells of Ryleston seemed to say, While she sat listening in the shade, With vocal music, "God us ayde!" And all the hills were glad to bear Their part in this effectual prayer."

"Doubt not but God who sits on high, Thy secret prayers can hear; When a dead wall thus cunningly Conveys soft whispers to the ear."

"A certain joyful, though humble, confidence becomes us when we pray in the Mediator's name. It is due to Him; when we pray in His name it should be without wavering. Remember His merits, and how prevalent they must be. " Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace.""

"The reason why we obtain no more in prayer, is because we expect no more. God usually answers us according to our own hearts."

"Let your prayers be composed of thanksgiving, praise, confession, and petition, without any argument or exhortation addressed to those who are supposed to be praying with you. Adopt no fixed forms of expression, except such as you obtain from Scripture. Express your desire in the briefest, simplest form, without circumlocution. Hallow God's name by avoiding its unnecessary repetition. Adopt the simple devotional phrases of Scripture; but avoid the free use of its figures, and all quaint and doubtful application of its terms to foreign subjects. Pray to God and not to man."

"Like an echo from a ruined castle, prayer is an echo from the ruined human soul of the sweet promise of God."

"In the primitive church were not prayers simple, unpremeditated, united; prayers of the well-taught apostle; prayers of the accomplished scholar; prayers of the rough but fervent peasant; prayers of the new and zealous convert; prayers which importuned and wrestled with an instant and irrepressible urgency; — were they not an essential part of that religion, which holy fire had kindled; and which daily supplications alone could fan?"

"How can He grant you what you do not desire to receive?"

"He that loveth little prayeth little; he that loveth much prayeth much."

"Any heart turned Godward feels more joy In one short hour of prayer, than e'er was raised By all the feasts of earth since its foundation."

"A good man's prayers Will from the deepest dungeon climb to heaven's height, And bring a blessing down."

"Every praying Christian will find that there is no Gethsemane without its angel."

"A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward."

"Prayer is not conquering God's reluctance, but taking hold upon God's willingness."

"The best and sweetest flowers of paradise God gives to His people when they are upon their knees. Prayer is the gate of heaven."

"Cold prayers shall never have any warm answers. God will suit His returns to our requests. Lifeless services shall have lifeless answers. When men are dull, God will be dumb."

""Continuing instant in prayer." The Greek is a metaphor taken from hunting dogs that never give over the game till they have got their prey."

"Private prayer is so far from being a hindrance to a man's business, that it is the way of ways to bring down a blessing from heaven upon it."

"If any prayer be a duty, then secret prayer must be superlatively so, for it prepares and fits the soul for all other supplication."

"God's hearing of our prayers does not depend upon sanctifi- cation, but upon Christ's intercession; not upon what we are in ourselves, but what we are in the Lord Jesus; both our persons and our prayers are accepted in the Beloved."

"Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered. Her feet were firmly planted on the Rock; Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted, Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock. She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer, And cries, "It shall be done," sometime, somewhere. Unanswered yet? Nay, do not say ungranted; Perhaps your part is not yet wholly done. The work began when first your prayer was uttered, And God will finish what He has begun. If you will keep the incense burning there, His glory you shall see sometime, somewhere."

"Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer."

"When Christ went up into a mountain apart to pray, He dismissed the multitude, to teach us that when we address ourselves to God, we must first dismiss the multitude. We must send away the multitude of worldly cares, worldly thoughts, worldly concerns and business, when we would call upon God in duty."

"Let faith each meek petition fill, And waft it to the skies; And teach our heart 'tis goodness still That grants it or denies."

"Let family worship be short, savory, simple, plain, tender, heavenly."

"Consider how august a privilege it is, when angels are present, and archangels throng around, when cherubim and seraphim encircle with their blaze the throne, that a mortal may approach with unrestrained confidence, and converse with heaven's dread Sovereign! O, what honor was ever conferred like this?"

"Be not afraid to pray — to pray is right. Pray if thou canst with hope; but ever pray, Though hope be weak or sick with long delay; Pray in the darkness, if there be no light."

"You are fifty years old and would worship a day old statue!"

"This is the spirit of prayer — sincere, humble, believing, submissive. Other prayer than this the Bible does not require — God will not accept."

"Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you." Keep near to the fountain-head, and "with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."

"Only in the sacredness of inward silence does the soul truly meet the secret, hiding God. The strength of resolve, which afterward shapes life, and mixes itself with action, is the fruit of those sacred, solitary moments. There is a divine depth in silence. We meet God alone."

"That holy, humble, meek, modest, retiring Form, sometimes called the Spirit of Prayer, has been dragged from the closet, and so rudely handled by some of her professed friends, that she has not only lost all her wonted loveliness, but is now stalking the street, in some places, stark mad."

"All who wait upon the Lord shall rise higher and higher upon the mighty pinions of strong devotion, and with the unblinking eye of faith, into the regions of heavenly-mindedness; and shall approach nearer and nearer to God, the Sun of our spiritual day."

"Real inward devotion knows no prayer but that arising from the depths of its own feelings."