Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history, and you will find that scarecely ever did a great mercy come to this world unheralded by supplication.

Grace puts its hand on the boasting mouth, and shuts it once for all.

Sometimes a fog will settle over a vessel's deck and yet leave the topmast clear. Then a sailor goes up aloft and gets a lookout which the helmsman on deck cannot get. So prayer sends the soul aloft; lifts it above the clouds in which our selfishness and egotism befog us, and gives us a chance to see which way to steer.

Defend the Bible? I'd sooner defend a lion. You don't defend the Bible; you open its cage and let it roar.

Prayer must not be our chance work but our daily business, our habit and vocation.

It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no furrows.

If when I get to heaven the Lord shall say to me, Spurgeon, I want you to preach for all eternity, I would reply, Lord, give me a Bible, that is all I need.