Do you maintain the habit of Secret Prayer?
By Gen. Evan
PRESIDENT Edwards in one of his discourses on prayer, gives the following solemn advice: "I would exhort those who have entertained a hope of their being true converts, and yet since their supposed conversion have left off the duty of secret prayer, and do ordinarily allow themselves in the omission of it, to throw away their hope. If you have left off calling upon God, it is time for you to leave off hoping and flattering yourselves with an imagination that you are the children of God. Probably it will be a very difficult thing for you to do this. It is hard for a man to let go a hope of Heaven, on which he hath once allowed himself to lay hold, and which he hath retained for a considerable time. Those things in men which, if known to others, would be sufficient to convince others that they are hypocrites, will not convince themselves." Here are truths which cannot be gainsayed, and how many professors are there in our churches who probably do not maintain the regular habit of secret prayer? In another place the same writer says: "He that prays only when he prays with others, would not pray at all, were it not that the eyes of other men were upon him." Christian, ponder these words, and ask yourself whether they hold true in your own case.—Gen. Evan.