29 Chrysostom, quoted by Thomas Watson. 30 “No doubt the angels think themselves as insufficient for the praises of the Lord as we do.”—John Livingstone’s Diary, 14 Dec., 1634 (Wodrow Society). 31 “Think of the guilt of sin, that you may be humbled. Think of the power of sin, that you may seek strength against it. Think not of the matter of sin…lest you be more and more entangled.” John Owen. 32 The biographer of Charles Simeon, of Cambridge, remarks: “Simeon in his private hours was peculiarly broken and prostrate before the Lord.” 33 By Dr. Payson, Lift, p. 79. 34 “In prayer we tempt God if we ask for that which we labor not for; our faithful endeavors must second our devotion.…If we pray for grace and neglect the spring from whence it comes, how can we speed? It was a rule in ancient times, ‘Lay thy hand to the plow, and then pray.’ No man should pray without plowing, nor plow without prayer.”—R. Sibbes, Divine Meditations, p. 174. 35 “Prayer not only obtains mercies; it sweetens and sanctifies them.”—Flavel, Works, v. 351. “God does not delay to hear our prayers, because He has no mind to give; but that, by enlarging our desires, He may give us the more largely.”—Anselm of Canterbury. 36 “We must draw off from prayer, from resting in it, or trusting upon it; a man may preach much, and instead of drawing nigh to God, or enjoying sweet communion with Christ, he may draw nigh to prayer, his thoughts may be more upon his prayer than upon God to whom he prays; and he may live more upon his cushion than upon Christ; but when a man indeed draws nigh to God in prayer, he forgets prayer, and remembers God, and prayer goes for nothing, but Christ is all.”—Isaac Ambrose, Prima Media et Ultima, p. 332. 37 “The brief, childlike letters that were sent to him by them [his sons] were bound up into a paper volume, which he carried about with him during his Mongolian wanderings, and in looking over them he found an unfailing solace and refreshment.” Life of Gilmour of Mongolia, pp. 241, 251. 38 “It was seven years before William Carey baptized his first convert in India; it was seven years before Judson won his first disciple in Burma; Morrison toiled seven years before the first Chinaman was brought to Christ; Moffat declares that he waited seven years to see the first evident moving of the Holy Spirit upon his Bechuanas of Africa; Henry Richards wrought seven years on the Congo before the first convert was gained at Banza Manteka.” A. J. Gordon, The Holy Spirit in Missions, pp. 139, 140. 39 Jeremy Taylor, The Return of Prayers. This applies also on a lower level. George Müller writes, “These last three days I have had very little real communion with God, and have therefore been very weak spiritually, and have several times felt irritability of temper. May God in mercy help me to have more secret prayer.” Autobiography, p. 67.
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