Page:Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers.djvu/465

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

Prayer is the breath of a new-born soul, and there can be no Christian life without it. —.

True prayer is only another name for the love of God. Its excellence does not consist in the multitude of our words; for our Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him. The true prayer is that of the heart, and the heart prays only for what it desires. To pray, then, is to desire—but to desire what God would have us desire. —.

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

Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies. —.

Worship is the earthly act by which we most distinctly recognize our personal immortality; men who think that they will be extinct a few years hence do not pray. In worship we spread out our insignificant life, which yet is the work of the Creator's hands, and the purchase of the Redeemer's blood, before the Eternal and All-Merciful, that we may learn the manners of a higher sphere, and fit ourselves for companionship with saints, and angels, and for the everlasting sight of the face of God. —.