January 29

Prayer in the morning

“I pray thee, send me good speed this day” (Gen. 24:12).
“I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me” (Prov. 8:17).

No pressure of business or household duties should crowd out prayer. An eminent Christian merchant told me that it was his rule to secure a good quiet half-hour in his chamber on his knees and over his Bible before he met his family; and then he went into his business—as Moses came down from the mount—with his face shining. Doctor Arnold, of Rugby, had a favorite morning hymn, which opens with these stirring lines:

“Come, my soul, thou must be waking;
Now is breaking
O’er the earth another day.
Come to Him Who made this splendor;
See thou render
All thy feeble powers can pay.”
—Theodore Cuyler

The devil is aware that one hour of close fellowship, hearty converse with God in prayer, is able to pull down what he hath been contriving and building many a year.
—Flavel.

He that saveth his time from prayer shall lose it, and he that loseth his time for communion with God shall find it again in added blessing and power and fruitfulness.
—J. H. Stumpf.

A good day begins with God. A wise merchant would no more think of going to the store without communion with Christ, than without coat or hat or shoes. I used to have a very poor watch, and I had to set it every morning in order that I might make from it a guess about the time of day. Our souls are poor timepieces, utterly disordered and every morning we need to set them by the Sun of Righteousness.
—De Witt Talmage.

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