Prayer

(Hannah More, "PRAYER")

Prayer is . . .
  the application of need, to Him who alone can relieve it,
  the confession of sin, to Him who alone can pardon it,
  the urgency of poverty,
  the prostration of humility,
  the fervency of penitence,
  the confidence of trust.

Prayer is . . .
  not eloquence, but earnestness,
  not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it,
  the "Lord, save us — or we perish!" of drowning Peter,
  the cry of faith, to the ear of mercy.

Adoration is the noblest employment of created beings.

Confession is the natural language of guilty creatures.

Gratitude is the spontaneous expression of pardoned sinners.

Prayer is desire — it is . . .
not a mere conception of the mind,
not an effort of the intellect,
not an act of the memory.

Prayer is . . .
  an elevation of the soul towards its Maker,
  a pressing sense of our own ignorance and infirmity,
  a consciousness . . .
      of the perfections of God,
      of His readiness to hear,
      of His power to help,
      of His willingness to save.

Prayer is not an emotion produced in the senses, nor an effect wrought by
the imagination — but a determination of the will, an effusion of the heart.

Sincere prayer gives . . .
  a tone to our conduct,
  a law to our actions,
  a rule to our thoughts,
  a bridle to our speech,
  a restraint to wrong passions,
  a check to ill tempers.

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