“Good prayers,” says an old English divine, “never come weeping home. I am sure I shall receive either what I ask or what I should ask.”
– Austen Phelps –
from The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer, 1859
Austen Phelps
What Keeps You From the Peacefulness of Devotion? – Austen Phelps
Even a doubtful principle of life, harbored in the heart, is perilous to the peacefulness of devotion. May not many of us find the cause of our joylessness in prayer, in the fact that we are living upon some unsettled principles of conduct?
– Austen Phelps –
from The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer, 1859
Need Time Alone With God – Austen Phelps
It has been said, that no great work in literature or in science was ever wrought by a man who did not love solitude. We may lay it down as an elemental principle of religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained, by one who did not take time to be often, and long, alone with God.
– Austen Phelps –
from The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer, 1859
A Means of Power – Austen Phelps
Christians often have little faith in prayer as a power in real life. They do not embrace cordially, in feeling as well as in theory, the truth which underlies the entire scriptural conception and illustration of prayer, that it is literally, actually, positively, effectually, a means of power.
– Austen Phelps –
From The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer, 1859
Prayer Has a Direct Course on Human Life – Austen Phelps
Prayer has, and God has determined that it should have, a positive and an appreciable influence in directing the course of a human life.
– Austen Phelps –
from his book The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer, 1859
Prayer is a Connection – Austen Phelps
Prayer is, and God has purposed that it should be, a link of connection between human mind and Divine mind, by which, through His infinite condescension, we may actually move His will.
– Austen Phelps –
from his book The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer, 1859
Expect Prayer to Achieve Something – Austen Phelps
Prayer is, and God has decreed that it should be, a power in the universe, as distinct, as real, as natural, and as uniform, as the power of gravitation, or of light, or of electricity. A man may use it, as trustingly and as soberly as he would use either of these. It is as truly the dictate of good sense, that a man should expect to achieve something by praying, as it is that he should expect to achieve something by a telescope, or the mariner’s compass, or the electric telegraph.
– Austen Phelps –
from his book The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer, 1859