p. 175 | Secret Prayer by Rev. James Hamilton

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 26, 1864

Secret Prayer.

By Rev. James Hamilton

BESIDES the open return there is a secret reward of secret prayer. There is a peculiar and present joy in communion with God. The deepest pleasures are the purest; and of all pleasures the purest is the peace of God. To feel that he is love—to draw so near to him as to forget the world, so near as to lose the love of sin—is of all pleasures the sweetest, of all blessedness the purest and most profound. And next to this high communion with God—next to this joy of passions lulled, and sin slain, and self forgotten in adoring fellowship with the Father of lights, is their sedater comfort who can pour their griefs into their heavenly Father's bosom, or who feel that they have bespoken help against coming toils and trials at their heavenly Father's hand. To know that God is near—to know that he is trusted, honored, loved, to feel that you are acting toward him as a reverential and affectionate child, and that he is feeling toward you as a gracious and compassionate father—there is in this itself an exquisite satisfaction, a present reward.—Rev. James Hamilton.