Saturday, March 22, 2008

Hannah More on Prayer

An Excerpt from The Spirit of Prayer, by Hannah More. New York: Swords, Stanford, and Co., 1883.

from Chapter XI, Of Perseverance in Prayer and Praise, page 153.

"Prayer draws all the Christian graces into its focus. It draws Charity, followed by her lovely train, her forbearance with faults, her forgiveness of injuries, her pity for errors, her compassion for want. It draws Repentance, with her holy sorrows, her pious resolutions, her self-distrust. It attracts Faith, with her elevated eye,-- Hope, with her grasped anchor,-- Beneficence, with her open hand,-- Zeal, looking far and wide to serve,-- Humility, with introverted eye, looking at home. Prayer, by quickening these graces in the heart, warms them into life, fits them for service, and dismisses each to its appropriate practice. Prayer is mental virtue; virtue is spiritual action. The mould into which genuine prayer casts the soul is not effaced by the suspension of the act, but retains some touches of the impression till the act is repeated. "

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