You do not really care for God's mercy or His comfort either, so long as you live in any sin. And it is well that you do not; for you can have neither. Your peace will be like a river, when you put away your sin; but not one word of true peace, not one drop of true comfort, can you have till then.

Grace, then, is grace,--that is to say, it is sovereign, it is free, it is sure, it is unconditional, and it is everlasting.

If you find your life of prayer to be always so short, and so easy, and so spiritual, as to be without cost and strain and sweat to you, you may depend upon it, you have not yet begun to pray.

Prayer is a rising up and a drawing near to God in mind and in heart, and in spirit.

But grace has only one direction that it can take. Grace always flows down.

Every kind of prayer, not intercessory prayer only, which is the highest kind of prayer, but all prayer, from the lowest kind to the highest, is impossible in a life of known and allowed sin.

Prayer is the only way to amend your life: and without prayer, it will never be mended.