What Others Have Said About Prayer

Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.

[J. A. Wallace]

True prayer is an earnest soul’s direct converse with its God.

[T. L. Cuyler]

Prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward.

[Phillips Brooks]

The life of prayer is a life whose litanies are ever fresh acts of self-devoting love.

[F. W. Robertson]

Prayer is the pulse of the renewed soul; and the constancy of its beat is the test and measure of the spiritual life.

[Octavius Winslow]

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

[Thomas Brooks]

Expect an answer. If no answer is expected, why pray? True prayer has in it a strong element of expectancy.

[R. M. Afford]

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

[Richard Alleine]

Trouble and perplexity drive one to prayer, and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble.

[Melanchthofl]

There is no such thing in the long history of God’s kingdom as an unanswered prayer. Every true desire from a child’s heart finds some true answer in the heart of God.

[Norman Macleod]

When we pray for any virtue, we should cultivate the virtue as well as pray for it. The form of your prayers should be the rule of your life; every petition to God is a precept to man.

[Jeremy Taylor]

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Whatever we are directed to pray for we are also exhorted to work for. We are not permitted to mock Jehovah, asking that of Him which we deem not worth our pains to acquire.

[E. L. Magoon]

Prayer is the instrument for obtaining all the graces which stream down upon us from that divine fount of goodness and love. By prayer thou wilt put a sword into the hand of God, that He might fight and conquer for thee.

[Lorenzo Scupoli]

Without a strong desire arising out of a conscious necessity there can be nothing more than the form of prayer which differs from real prayer as a lifeless body does from a real man.

[C. A. Van Anda]

Who is there that does not feel that he needs more grace? Then ask for it. Be constant and persistent in your asking. Be importunate and untiring in your asking. God delights to have us shameless beggars in this direction.

[R. A. Torrey]

Whoever knew an eminently holy man, who did not spend much of his time in prayer? Did ever a man exhibit much of the spirit of prayer who did not devote much of his time to his closet? No great degree of holiness was ever gained by one who did not take time to be often and long alone with God.

[Austin Phelps]

Cease not to pray;
On Jesus as your all rely.
Would you live happy, happy die—
Take time to pray.

[Joanna Bailie]

The holiest people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean the people who talk about prayer, nor those who say they believe in prayer, nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time and pray.

[Gordon]

Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but compunction of soul.

[Hannah Moore]

There is nothing about which a young Christian should be more anxious than maintaining the spirit, the love, and the practice of private prayer; and nothing which should more seriously alarm him than any disposition to neglect it.

[John Angel James]

Not every hour, nor every day perhaps, can generous wishes ripen into kind action; but there is not a moment that cannot be freighted with prayer.

[William Mountford]

How can we expect to enjoy a sense of the friendship never linger in the twilight to thoughts of of a present Savior, if we never linger in the twilight to freshen and intensify our thoughts of him?

[Austin Phelps]

The day we do not seek and obtain God’s leading will be a day of failure to us. The day we go forth without prayer for divine blessing, when we do not lay our hand in Christ’s as we go out into the great world, is a day of uncertainty to us.

[J. R. Miller]

I find in my own case the principal cause of my leanness and unfruitfulness is owing to an unaccountable backwardness to pray. I can write or read or converse or hear with a ready will; but prayer is more spiritual and inward than any of these, and the more spiritual any duty is, the greater the cost and labor to perform it.

[John Newton]

Religiously a man is what his heart is before the mercy-seat. If love to God and faith in Christ draw him there, and hold him there, he is a child of the Highest, an heir of heaven. If seldom or never there, or if, when he is there his heart is somewhere else, has he a right to regard himself as anything but an alien? Piety without prayer is a paradox; prayer without faith is impious.

[A. C. Thompson]

Be of good cheer;
The Lord is near,
And thou art dear.

He dwells on high
And yet so nigh;
On Him rely.

Never any more wonder that men pray so seldom. For there are very few that feel the relish, and are enticed with the deliciousness, and refreshed with the comforts, and acquainted with the secrets of a holy prayer.

[The Still Hour]

The Christian on the whole will do more praying in private than in public. If it be not more secret than public, more hidden than open, he ought to doubt whether he does not pray to be seen of men rather than heard of God. Secret prayer is the fountain of all other prayer. Where there is no habit of private communion with God, there will be no earnestness and power in public prayer. There may be noise, but noise is not power.

[Clarke]

Prayer should be just what one feels, just what one thinks, just what one needs; and it should stop the moment it ceases to be the real expression of the need, the thought, and the feeling.

[Beecher]

To lift our hearts to God in prayer
Promotes an inward work of grace;
It sets us free from earthly care
And brings us to behold His face.

Unceasing prayer brings us so near
To God in sweetest love,
Transfers our minds from things of earth
To brighter things above.

And he who would advance in grace,
Who would Christ’s image wear,
Must oft behold His smiling face
In humble, pleading prayer.

He who is in the state of continual prayer continually lives and acts for God. The state of continual prayer is a fixed state, a disposition. It is the affections going out to God and attached to Him, in consequence of faith being at the bottom of it, by a permanent law; it is the heart which is man’s moral center, praying wholly and praying always. Such a prayer therefore necessarily commands the outward life, it is impossible to separate them. With a heart that is continually praying there is and must be a life continually acting; the one corresponding to the other.

[Upham]

Prayer opens to us, as it were, the portals of the spirit-world, in which we also have some right of citizenship. We draw nearer to Deity and feel that we belong to Him. We rise on the wings of prayer, above all that is worthless and perishable, and become greater, yea, more divine as we do so. The conviction becomes ever mightier within us, that we can never cease to exist. We distinguish more clearly between what is everlasting and what is perishable; between what is real and what is mere appearance. We see the whole universe in a new light. And happy presentments thrill through us. Heavenly joy pervades all nature. This is the power, this is the effect, of drawing nigh unto God.

[Zschokke]

The oldest and wisest of us may be as little children in our communion with a prayer-hearing God. No errand to that mercy-seat is too trivial to lead our footsteps thither. We may connect all the issues of life with the control of that overruling will. We may put our hand in that paternal Hand, no matter how narrow the chasm, how gentle the activity, and look truthfully and hopefully for that availing guidance. Ah! if we could learn this lesson of filial trust at every step of our way along our earthly pilgrimage, no matter how steep or rough or obscure the path, it would guide us safely and surely home to our Father’s house.

[A. L. Stone]

God liveth still!
Trust, my soul, and fear no ill;
God is good; from His compassion
Earthly help and comfort flow;
Strong in His right hand to fashion
All things well for men below.
Trials oft the most distressing
In the end has proved a blessing;
Wherefore then, my soul, despair?
God lives who heareth prayer.

[German of Zihn]

Prayer is so mighty an instrument that no one ever thoroughly mastered all its keys. They sweep along the infinite scale of man’s wants and God’s goodness.

[Hugh Miller]

He that loveth little prayeth little, but he that loveth much prayeth much.

[Augustine]

The definitions of prayer which follow are by Christian brethren and sisters with whom the author is acquainted.

Prayer is the breath of the soul.

[J. W. Phelps]

Prayer brings together God and man. It is the means through which the soul has recourse to, and communion with, its Creator.

[Elsie Egermeier]

There is in a prayer a power that reaches the very heart of God and causes the gentle showers of His rich grace to fall upon the waiting soul.

[E. Faith Stewart]

Prayer is the wings of the soul with which it takes its flight to the throne of grace. It is the sweet incense that ascends to the God of all creation.

[D. Meyer]

Prayer mingled with faith brings salvation to the sinner, healing to the sick, joy to the sorrowful, and hope to the discouraged. It causes the enemy to flee, unlocks the great treasure-house of the Lord, opens the windows of heaven, and brings down showers of blessings upon the humble Christian.

[E. E. Byrum]

Prayer is a devotional expression of the heart, and, like the rising of incense, ascends to the throne of grace, imploring mercy, seeking help, or giving vent to the soul in praise and thanksgiving. It may be spoken in audible tones, or it may be a whisper, a gentle breathing of the desire of the heart, or a fervent thought sending a petition to Him that is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.”

[E. E. Byrum]

Pluck a lily, and because of its no longer receiving nourishment from the plant, it loses its fragrance and soon withers and dies. Prayer is the means by which we receive nourishment to our souls. Cease praying, and the result will be a loss of spiritual fragrance, decay, and death.

[Blanche Milihorn]

Prayer is, in general, an address to the Deity; but specifically, practically, and essentially it is that communion of the soul with God in which the former is confident of the divine love.

[Andrew L. Byers]

Prayer has been likened to a key. Such, indeed, it is—a key to God’s great storehouse; a key to the unsearchable riches of Christ. With it we can obtain all that we need for soul or body. Let us freely use this wonderful key.

[J. W. Lowder]

Prayer is face to face communion with God; the outpouring of the sincere desire of the heart. It is also one of the channels through which God makes known His will to us and through which we express our gratitude to Him.

[Eva Johnson]

My Father is rich in houses and lands,
He holdeth the wealth of this world in His hands!
Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,
His coffers are full; He has riches untold.*

[Harriet E. Buell]

Prayer is the key that unlocks God’s “coffers” and gives us access to His “riches untold.”

[Nellie R. Robinson]

Prayer is the substance of spiritual life; the breathing of the immortal soul. It is a child’s sweet, simple, trustful conversation with its heavenly Father. It sweetens the most bitter cup of human life, and causes the light of heaven to burst through the darkest cloud.

[Nellie R. Robinson]

A prayer from a humble, earnest, believing, obedient soul is never unavailing, it reaches God. Just as sure as God exists, so sure will He respect such a prayer. His word says so, and it can never fail.

[J. W. Lowder]

Through the avenue of prayer God and man communicate with each other. This communication is not one-sided; man speaks to God, and God speaks to man.

[Hazel D. Soules]

Prayer is the path that leads us home to God. It develops the immortal part of our being. Through it we can know God better and can grow to be more like Him. By it we are better fitted for His presence and for enjoyment with Him eternally. Prayer expands the inner spirit-being of man and brings him into contact with the widest possible range of heavenly things. O child of God, push forth to the utmost every tentacle of thy heart to embrace the things of God, so that you may be wiser, stronger, and deeper experienced in the kingdom of grace, and thus bear in your life more of the power and beauty and fragrance of the glory-world. Through prayer the vision of the soul becomes clearer and keener, and beholds new scenes, new glories, and new perfections in heaven. As it beholds these it receives the radiance of these heavenly glories and is transformed more into the image of things in the world of light. Thus prayer leads us Godward and prepares us for the eternal home.

The day dies slowly in the western sky;
The sunset splendor fades, and wan and cold
The far peaks wait the sunrise; cheerily
The goatherd calls his wanderers to their fold.
My weary soul, that fain would cease to roam,
Take comfort; prayer will lead thee safely home.

Homeward the swift-winged sea-gull takes its flight;
The ebbing tide breaks softly on the sand;
The sunlight boats draw shoreward for the night;
The shadows deepen over sea and land.
Be still, my soul; thine hour shall also come,
When along the path of prayer thou wilt reach thy home.