Perspective on Prayer - Horatius Bonar

"In one single quiet hour of prayer the soul will often make more progress than in days of company with others. It is in the desert that the eye gets the clearest, simplest view of eternal certainties; it is in His presence alone, it is then that the soul gathers in wondrous refreshment and power and energy.And so it is also in this way that we become truly useful to others. It is when coming out fresh from communion with God that we go forth to do His work successfully.In nearness to God we get our vessels so filled with blessing, that, when we come forth, we can not contain it to ourselves but must, as by a blessed necessity, pour it out whithersoever we go. Why so many meetings with ourr fellow-men, yet so few meetings with God? Why so little being alone, so little thirsting of the soul for the calm, sweet hours of unbroken solitude, when God and His child hold fellowship together as if they could never part?It is the want of these solitary hours that not only injures our own growth in grace but makes us such unprofitable members of the church of Christ, and that renders our lives useless. "   (Horatius Bonar)