What Wise, what Sane Person, will Continue to Neglect Prayer?

Tip! What is God's will about prayer? First of all, it is God's will that we pray. Jesus Christ "spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint"

It is necessary to know, and to always keep in mind, that prayer is the all-encompassing name that is given to every step in our return to God. True prayer, the richest and the ripest prayer, the most acceptable and the most prevailing prayer, includes many elements: it is made up of many actions in our mind, and many emotions of our heart.

To begin to come to ourselves,--however far off we may then discover ourselves to be,--to begin to think about ourselves, is already to begin to pray. To begin to feel fear, or shame, or remorse, or a desire after better things is to begin to pray. To say within ourselves, "I will arise and go to my Father,"--that is to begin to pray. To see what we are, and to desire to turn from what we are--that also is to pray.

In short, every such thought about ourselves, and about God, and about sin and its wages, and about salvation, its price and its preciousness; every worried thought about death and judgment and heaven and hell; every reflection about the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ; and every wish of our hearts that we were more like Jesus Christ: all our reading of the Word of God (Holy Bible), all our meditation reflection, contemplation, prostration and adoration; all faith, all hope, all love; all that, and all of that same kind,--it all comes, with the most perfect truth and propriety, under the all-embracing name of "prayer"; it all enters into the all-absorbing life of prayer.

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,

Uttered or unexpressed:

The emotion of a hidden fire

That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,

The falling of a tear,

The upward glancing of an eye

When none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech

That infant lips can try:

Prayer the sublimes strains that reach

The Majesty on High.

How noble then is prayer! How incomparably noble! Who would not be a person of prayer? What wise, what sane person, will continue to neglect prayer? "Ask, and it shall be given you; that your joy may be full."