Two places are mentioned in the Scriptures where a boy should pray. Those places are the Christian’s arsenal. One is the secret chamber where communion is sweet because undisturbed, the other is the church, where in unity believers call upon God. To the devout boy both are the “Holy of Holies” where God delights to meet him at the “Mercy Seat.” Blessed is the place of public prayer! Never neglect it. But the place of secret prayer is still more blessed. Cyprian would resort to a shady arbor where “no profane listener may hinder my musings, and no domestic clamor drown them.” Robert Murray McCheyne declared, “It is my noblest and most fruitful employment.” Henry Martyn mourned at the close of his saintly life, that he had devoted “too much time to public works and too little to private communion with God.” God said, “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” (Isa. 30:15).
O, the sweetness of one hour at the feet of Jesus. It changes dispositions, purifies character, overcomes obstacles, imparts strength to resist temptations, yes, it makes life worth living.
“We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;
We rise, and all, the distant and the near,
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear;
We kneel, how WEAK! we rise, how full of POWER!”
WHAT PRAYER WILL DO.
More things are wrought by prayer than anything else. It opens heaven’s door, commands God’s ears to hear and hand to bestow, makes darkened clouds withdraw, climbs—
“the ladder Jacob saw,
Gives exercise to faith and love;