A thousand lying religions may sleep peaceably in one bed, but wherever the
Christian religion goes as the truth, it is like fire brand, and it abideth nothing that
is not more substantial than the wood, the hay, and the stubble of carnal error. WWa22

Read the book of God for yourself. “But some men do read it and arrive at one
opinion, and some maintain the opposite, and thus they contradict themselves, and
yet are equally right.” Who told you that? That is impossible. Men cannot be equally
right when they contradict each other. There is a truth and there is a falsehood; if yes
be true, no is false. 758.369

Christ’s gospel has not come into the world to be co-equal with other faiths and share
a divided kingdom with differing creeds. False gods may stand face to face to each
other in one Pantheon, and be at peace, for they are all false together, but when
Christ comes, Dagon must go down, not even the stump of him must stand. Truth is of
necessity intolerant of falsehood, love wars with hate, and justice battles with wrong. 1473.275

I do not believe in the science of comparative religions. No! there is but one true
religion, all the rest are lies. 2416.267

(It is) a wretched plight for a nation to be in when its justices know no justice, and its
judges are devoid of judgment. TD82:5

That kingcraft which delights in cunning, favouritism, and brute force is as opposite
to the divine kingship as darkness to light. The palace of Jehovah is no robber’s
fortress nor despot’s castle, built on dungeons, with stones carved by slaves, and
cemented with the blood of toiling serfs. The annals of most human governments
have been written in the tears of the down-trodden, and the curses of the oppressed:
the chronicles of the Lord’s kingdom are of another sort, truth shines in each line,
goodness in every syllable, and justice in every letter. TD99:4

Too many who aspire to be leaders of the people study policy, craft, and diplomacy,
and think it needful to use language as much for the concealment as for the
declaration of their thoughts; such men watch their words till their very soul seems
withered within them. 1231.243

I long for the day when the precepts of the Christian religion shall be the rule among
all classes of men, in all transactions. I often hear it said, “Do not bring religion into
politics.” This is precisely where it ought to be brought, and set there in the face of all
men as on a candlestick. I would have the Cabinet and the members of Parliament do
the work of the nation as before the Lord, and I would have the nation, either in
making war or peace, consider the matter by the light of righteousness. We are to
deal with other nations about this or that upon the principles of the New Testament.
1594.225

What is the science of diplomacy but the art of deceit? 1644.92

Even in the pursuit of really good matters of policy, do you know any Christian man
who goes into politics who is the better for it? If I find such a man, I will have him
stuffed if I can, for I have never seen such a specimen yet. I will not say, do not
attend to politics; but I do say, do not let them spot you. 2313.295

It is said that an ambassador is a gentleman who is sent abroad to lie for the good of
his country. I suppose that common saying is so nearly true that we need not correct
it; and a politician is often a gentleman who has learned the art of concealing his
thoughts, or who expresses opinions which he trusts will be in accordance with those
of his constituency! 2413.236

What are politics? Another name for every man getting as much as he can out of the
nation. 2907.519

Polygamy needed not to be denounced in so many words in Scripture, because the
specimens given of it are all so thoroughly bad that no one can doubt that the thing
is radically vicious in its mildest form. It worked shockingly in the case of Jacob. 1395.51

The husband found the system a heavy burden, grievous to be borne, for he soon
found out the truth of the wise man’s advice to the Sultan, “First learn to live with
two tigresses, and then expect to live happily with two wives.” 1515.37

The worse the woman the better she could get on with the system of many wives, but
the good woman, the true woman, was sure to smart under it. 1515.37

The fact is that, taken as a whole, they (David’s children) were a bad set. Was it any
wonder that they should be such? David had himself very much to blame for it, for
polygamy can never by any possibility work well. Jacob’s troubles arose out of that,
and no doubt David’s troubles began there, too, and this must have been the sting
about it, to David, that some of his children could quote their father’s example for
their sins. Not but what his life had had in it very many virtues; but children will put
their finger on their eye and not observe those things when it does not suit their
whim to see them; but if there be a fault in the parent, there is none more quick than
the child to spy it, and to make the fall, the mistake of the parent, which was
pardoned, because wept over, to be the one outstanding mark of that parent’s
character, and in that alone to imitate it. 3356.255

Well, if the Pope be the head of the church—if he be so—then see what, according to
Scripture, he is. This Pio Nono is this—he is the head of the body, the church, “who is
the beginning.” There he is the head of the body, the church “who is the beginning.”
There was nothing, then, before this aforesaid Pius IX.? “The first-born from the
dead!” does he claim to have risen from the dead? “That in all things he might have
the pre-eminence;” is this also the old Italian’s right? “For it pleased the Father
that in him should all fulness dwell;” blasphemy dares not apply this to the tottering
prince whose exchequer needs replenishing from Peter’s pence. Yet this is the
description of the person who is the Head of the church, and if Pius IX. be not all
that, he is no head of the church. But perhaps he is the second head? Then Christ’s
church is a monstrous being with two heads. 839.621

A man who deludes other people, by degrees comes to delude himself. The deluder
first makes dupes of others and then becomes a dupe to himself. I should not wonder
but what the Pope really believes that he is infallible, and that he ought to be saluted
as “his holiness.” It must have taken him a good time to arrive at that eminence of
self-deception, but he has got to that, I dare say, by now, and every one who kisses
his toe confirms him in his insane idea. 1245.413

Ah, dear friends, God has only to give you what you want, to make you feel the
emptiness of it! If you are his child, the more you have the less you will see in it. 2225.522

We inherit from our fathers much sin and little wisdom; they could only leave us
what they themselves possessed. TD106:7

If we are traitors to the truth of God to-day, what will become of the next
generation, and the next, and the next? 1779.258

Godly poverty is better than unhallowed riches. 1652.188

In his Church, Christ teaches us that, if we have more than others, we simply hold it
in trust for those who have less than we have; and I believe that some of the Lord’s
children are poor in order that there may be an opportunity for their fellow-
Christians to minister to them out of their abundance. 2888.294

There is no crime, and there is no credit in being poor. Everything depends upon the
occasion of the poverty. Some men are poor, and are greatly to be pitied, for their
poverty has come upon them without any fault of their own; God has been pleased to
lay this burden upon them, and therefore they may expect to experience divine help,
and ought to be tenderly considered by their brethren in Christ. Occasionally,
poverty has been the result of integrity or religion, and here the poor man is to be
admired or honoured. At the same time, it will be observed, by all who watch with an
impartial eye, that very much of the poverty about us is the direct result of idleness,
intemperance, improvidence, and sin. There would probably not be one-tenth of the
poverty there now is upon the face of the earth if the drinking shops were less
frequented, if debauchery were less common, if idleness were banished, and
extravagance abandoned. 3040.240

When a person is extremely poor, he may be tempted to steal. If he should be able to
overcome that, he will be tempted to envy, and will be very jealous of those who are
better off than himself. 3375.483

A neighbour near my study persists in practising upon the flute. He bores my ears as
with an auger, and renders it almost an impossibility to think. Up and down his scale
he runs remorselessly, until even the calamity of temporary deafness would almost
be welcome to me. Yet he teaches me that I must practise if I would be perfect; must
exercise myself unto godliness if I would be skilful; must, in fact, make myself
familiar with the word of God, with holy living, and saintly dying. Such practice,
moreover, will be as charming as my neighbour’s flute is intolerable. FA168

Some ministers of this church (of England) know their position to be a doubtful one,
and yet retain it on the plea that their usefulness might be impaired if they left the
church: is this reasoning fit for Christians? Are we to seek a supposititious usefulness
by continuing where our consciences are ill at ease? Surely not. Our rule of conduct is
the divine will, and that only. 1129.490

One of the great evils of the time is that of deliberating about a plain command of
Christ, and asking, “What will be the result of it?” What have you to do with results?
“But if I follow Christ in all things, I may lose my position.” What have you to do with
that? When a soldier is bidden to go up to the cannon’s mouth, he is very likely to lose
his “position,” and something else; but he is bound to do it. “Oh, but I might lose my
opportunities of usefulness!” What do you mean? That you are going to do evil that
good may come? That is what it comes to. 2317.340

It is not left to our own option whether we shall praise God or not. ME548
If we complained less, and praised more, we should be happier, and God would be
more glorified. ME673

Here David begins his list of blessings received, which he rehearses as themes and
arguments for praise. He selects a few of the choicest pearls from the casket of divine
love, threads them on the string of memory, and hangs them about the neck of
gratitude. TD103:3

It is your duty to praise him. 205.321

If you cannot magnify God, it is probably because you are magnifying yourself. 1514.26

As soon as a man is cleansed from sin, he is clothed with praise. 1837.238

Prayer is not so heavenly an exercise as praise; prayer is for time, but praise is for
eternity. 1935.687

Would we not do anything and everything to please God? It seems too good to be true
that we can impart any pleasure to the ever-blessed One; yet it is so, for he hath
declared that he is well pleased with the praises and the gifts of his children. 2048.573

You cannot always be speaking his praise, but you can always be living his praise. 2048.567

Praise is the rehearsal of our eternal song. By grace we learn to sing, and in glory we
continue to sing. What will some of you do when you get to heaven, if you go on
grumbling all the way? Do not hope to get to heaven in that style. But now begin to
bless the name of the Lord. 2121.12

The ungodly are not half so restrained in their blasphemy as we are in our praise. 2146.291

We can bless God by praising him, extolling him, desiring all honour for him,
ascribing all good to him, magnifying and lauding his holy name. 2266.350

If you do not feel you can bless him for the present moment, yet forget not to bless
him for the past; and when you once begin to do that, you will soon find that your
praise will overlap the past, and cover the present, if it does not even run into the
future. 2314.302

Remember that, if you do not praise God, it is impossible for you ever to enter
heaven, for that is the chief occupation of heaven; and remember also that praise
from your lips, until those lips are divinely cleansed, would be like a jewel in a swine’s
snout, a thing altogether out of place. 2994.321

Who are we, that we should receive praise where Jesus received spittle? PM187

Oh, believe me, Christians are not so much in danger when they are persecuted as
when they are admired. WC55

It is a sad fault in many Christians that they cannot do anything unless all the
world is told of it. WCo84

If you seek the praise of men you will in all probability fail in the present, and
certainly you will lose it in the future sooner or later. WCo84

We are not very apt to take a large discount off the praises that others offer us; yet,
were we wise, we should press to our bosom those who censure us; and we should
always keep at arm’s length those who praise us, for those who censure us to our face
cannot possibly be making a market of us; but with regard to those who extol us,
rising early, and using loud sentences of praise, we may suspect, and we shall very
seldom be unjust in the suspicion, that there is some other motive in the praise which
they render to us than that which appears on the surface. 994.315

It takes a great deal of grace to be able to bear praise. 1857.471

The man who is driving at a great object has no time for the affectations of
self-adulation. He has no time in which to think of how he appears to others. 1861.525

Do you make an idol of other people’s opinion of you? The poor galley slave, who is
flogged at every stroke of the laborious oar, is free in comparison with the man who
lives upon the breath of popularity, who craves the esteem of his fellow-men, and is
afraid and trembles if they censure him. 2958.512

We cannot all argue, but we can all pray; we cannot all be leaders, but we can all be
pleaders; we cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be prevalent in prayer. AM314

Prayer irrigates the fields of life with the waters which are stored up in the reservoirs
of promise. AP59

Prayer is the thermometer of grace. BA210

On a tradesman’s table I noticed a book labelled WANT BOOK. What a practical
suggestion for a man of prayer! He should put down all his needs on the tablets of his
heart, and then present his want book to his God. If we knew all our need, what a
large want book we should require! How comforting to know that Jesus has a supply
book, which exactly meets our want book! Promises, providences, and divine
visitations, combine to meet the necessities of all the faithful. FA253

Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the
requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. ME4

God keeps a file for our prayers—they are not blown away by the wind, they are
treasured in the King’s archives. ME179

If God gave us favours without constraining us to pray for them we should never
know how poor we are, but a true prayer is an inventory of wants, a catalogue of
necessities, a revelation of hidden poverty. ME570

Prayer plumes the wings of God’s young eaglets, that they may learn to mount above
the clouds. ME570

Prayer is an open door which none can shut. Devils may surround you on all sides,
but the way upward is always open, and as long as that road is unobstructed, you
will not fall into the enemy’s hand. ME617

God has never given an absolutely unconditional promise to hear every prayer that
may be presented to him; but, side by side with the promise, He has put other things
which qualify and explain it. PM34

Election is the guarantee of complete salvation, and an argument for success at the
throne of grace. He who chose us for himself will surely hear our prayers. TD4:3

Prayer may be answered in anger and denied in love. TD106:15

We cannot too often with fixed heart resolve to magnify the Lord; nor need we ever
hesitate to use the same words in drawing near to God, for the Lord who cannot
endure vain repetitions is equally weary of vain variations. Some expressions are so
admirable that they ought to be used again: who would throw away a cup because he
drank from it before? TD108:1

Words are but the habitation of prayer, the living tenant is desire. WA154

Prayer will make you leave off sinning, or sinning will make you leave off praying. 16.122

He can reverse nature, but he cannot reverse his own nature, and he must do this
before he can forebear to hear and answer prayer. 354.51

Many hours are spent with men, how many with your Maker? 1192.509

The law of gravitation I might doubt, but the law that God hears prayer I cannot
doubt. 1221.141

The way to have enquiring sinners is for us to become enquiring saints. 1304.404

Teach us, thy children, to be always talking with thee, so that while we walk on
earth our conversation may be in heaven. 1305.415

The essence of prayer lies in the heart drawing near to God: and it can do that
without words. 1408.214

Coming events cast their shadows before them, and when God is about to bless his
people, his coming favour casts the shadow of prayer over the church. 1532.27

Prayer is not meant for the Lord’s information. The question is not put to you that
you may instruct him, but that he may instruct you. 1605.360

The act of prayer is blessed, the habit of prayer is more blessed, but the spirit of
prayer is the most blessed of all; and it is this that we can continue for months and
years. 1742.532

When the late Dr. Bacchus was ill, and near to die, a surgeon visited him, and as he
went out of the door, he was observed to speak to the servant. The good old divine
begged the attendant to tell him what the surgeon said. After some pause he said,
“Dear sir, he told me not to leave you, for you could not live more than another
half-hour.” “Then,” said the saint, “help me out of bed, let me get upon my knees and
spend my last half hour on earth in praying for the church of God, and for the
salvation of men.” What a blessed way of spending one’s last half-hour; let me rather
say—what a blessed way of spending half-an-hour at any time! Try it this afternoon!
1780.273

Prayer is the autograph of the Holy Ghost upon the renewed heart. 1860.505

Prayer is the natural outgushing of a soul in communion with Jesus. 2002.14

When your heart is like a boiling geyser, let it steam aloft in pillars of prayer. 2053.626

Is there not something very wonderful about this, that we, who are both insignificant
and unworthy, should be able to speak to him who made the stars, and upholds all
things by the word of his power? 2053.627

If you do not pray except when you feel like praying, you will not pray much, nor pray
when you most need it. 2111.583

Prayer is dealing with God. 2193.134

There are two prayers always worth praying, “Lord, show me myself,” and “Lord,
show me thyself.” May both be heard, and you will be well taught of God! 2318.356

How often have I said that prayer is the breathing in of the air of heaven, and praise
is the breathing of it out again. 2599.577

Thou never canst have any worthiness of thine own; therefore, if a sense of
unworthiness would check thy prayer now, it might always hinder thee from praying;
yet the Lord bids thee pray, so it must be right for thee to pray. 2800.483

A true prayer is the echo of the eternal purpose. 2800.487

When you stand before men, ask little, and expect less; but when you stand before
God, ask much, and expect more, and believe that he is able to do for you exceeding
abundantly above all that you ask or think. 2879.191

It is well to have regular hours for devotion, and to resort to the same place for
prayer as far as possible; still, the spirit of prayer is better even than the habit of
prayer. 3186.98

One drop of Christ’s blood upon a prayer must make it prosper. 3186.105

I am persuaded more and more the larger I observe my own self, and certainly the
longer I observe others, that when we grow weak on our knees it is a sign of
weakness throughout the entire man. 3339.58

It may be said, “We can pray at all times.” I know we can; but I fear that those who
do not pray at stated hours seldom pray at all. 3381.556

May we not draw some comfort from the thought that our prayers never are
intrusions? 3537.529

Faith is the telegraphic wire which links earth and heaven—on which God’s
messages of love fly so fast, that before we call He answers, and while we are yet
speaking He hears us. ME158

Peninnah had many children, but they came as common blessings unsought in
prayer: Hannah’s one heaven-given child was dearer far, because he was the fruit of
earnest pleadings. ME527

Our God not only hears prayer but also loves to hear it. ME616

Indeed, brethren and sisters in Christ, in one sense, all your prayers—that is, your
prayers that ought to be answered,—are already answered; for, whatsoever there
may be that you may rightly ask of God, you really have it, since, in giving us Christ,
he has already given us all things. 2864.1

In God’s word we are over and over again commanded to pray. God’s institutions are
not folly. Can I believe that the infinitely wise God has ordained for me an exercise
which is ineffectual, and is no more than child’s play? 1091.26

Unbelieving prayers! Shall I call them prayers? Prayers without faith! They are
birds without wings, and ships without sails, and beasts without legs. Prayers that
have no faith in Christ in them are prayers without the blood on them: they are
deeds without the signature, without the seal, without the stamp—they are
impotent, illegal documents. 3344.118

I know that the words of my father with me alone, when he prayed for me, and bade
me pray for myself,—not to use any form of prayer, but to pray just as I felt, and to
ask from God what I felt that I really wanted,—left an impression upon my mind
that will never be erased. 3041.263

I am sure we cannot expect our children to grow up a godly seed if there is no family
prayer. 3484.526

We must get rid of the icicles that hang about our lips. We must ask the Lord to thaw
the ice-caves of our soul and to make our hearts like a furnace of fire heated seven
times hotter. If our hearts do not burn within us we may well question whether Jesus
is with us. Those who are neither cold nor hot he has threatened to spew out of his
mouth: how can we expect his favour if we fall into a condition so obnoxious to him?
734.80

He who prays without fervency does not pray at all. We cannot commune with God,
who is a consuming fire, if there is no fire in our prayers. Many prayers fail of their
errand because there is no faith in them. Prayers which are filled with doubt, are
requests for refusal. 1683.547

It is not true that if we gather together and pray for a sick man he will always be
restored. No believer would die if that were the case, for every Christian man would
find some friends in Christ to pray for his recovery. If, therefore, God had divested
himself of his omnipotence, and put it upon us, we should keep our dear friends here
as long as Methuselah, and no one would die. It would be a kind of semi-murder to
allow our brother or sister to depart: it would be destroying life by omission to pray,
and that would be murder in a degree. I thank God that he has not endowed us with
any such power, for it would be a very dangerous privilege for any of us to carry
about us. 1825.107

You never heard that a man began to backslide, or that a sober man became a
drunkard, through praying too much. Did you ever hear of a person becoming unkind
to his wife, ungenerous to the poor, negligent of public worship, or guilty of grievous
sin, through being too much in prayer? No; the case is the reverse. 2053.634

We may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in His Word, He
intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If He has said much about prayer, it is
because He knows we have much need of it. ME4

Did not our Saviour say that “men ought always to pray, and not to faint;” and did he
not imply, by that form of expression, that, if they did not pray, they would be sure to
faint? 2812.5

Prayer has become as essential to me as the heaving of my lungs, and the beating of
my pulse. 2851.476

Jesus has sent His church into the world on the same errand upon which He Himself
came, and this mission includes intercession. What if I say that the church is the
world’s priest? ME637

What, do you say you have nothing to pray for? What! no children unconverted, no
friends unsaved, no neighbours who are still in darkness? What! Live in London and
not pray for sinners! Where do you live! Is it in some vast wilderness, amidst “some
boundless contiguity of shade,” where rumour of sin and of ignorance has never
reached your ear? 719.623

Prayer for ourselves, good as it is, has just a touch of selfishness about it: prayer for
others is delivered from that ingredient. 1262.622

“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” If we are not tempted
ourselves at this moment, others are: let us remember them in our prayers; for in due
time our turn will come, and we shall be put into the crucible. 1704.73

Our brother said in his prayer, “Lord, help us who cannot preach, to pray for the man
who does!” Have you, dear friend, who cannot preach, made a point of praying for the
pastor of the church to which you belong? 2261.291

Remember how it is written of Job, “The Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he
prayed for his friends.” While he prayed for himself, he remained a captive; but when
he prayed for those unfriendly friends of his, then the Lord smiled upon him, and
loosed his captivity. 2312.279

Not length but strength is desirable. A sense of need is a mighty teacher of brevity. If
our prayers had less of the tail feathers of pride and more wing they would be all the
better. Verbiage is to devotion as chaff to the wheat. ME29

A brother would fix himself against the table-pew, and pray for twenty minutes or
half-an-hour, and then conclude by asking forgiveness for his short-comings,—a
petition which was hardly sanctioned by those who had undergone the penance of
endeavouring to join in his long-winded discourse. A good cure for this evil is for the
minister judiciously to admonish the brother to study brevity; and if this avail not, to
jog his elbow when the people are getting weary. PM23

I hear of people praying for an hour together. I am very pleased that they can; but
it is seldom that I can do so, and I see no need for it. It is like a person going into a
bank with a cheque, and stopping an hour. The clerks would wonder. The common-
sense way is to go to the counter and show your cheque, and take your money, and go
about your business. There is a style of prayer which is of this fine practical
character. You so believe in God that you present the promise, obtain the blessing,
and go about your Master’s business. Sometimes a flood of words only means
excusing unbelief. The prayers of the Bible are nearly all short ones: they are short
and strong. 2053.632

The great matter is not how long you pray, but how earnestly you pray. Consider the
life of the prayer rather than the length of the prayer. If your prayer reaches to
heaven it is long enough. 1216.81

Believe me, if a church does not pray, it is dead. GF43

If we kept up prayer-meetings four-and-twenty hours in the day, all the days in the
year, we might never be without a special subject for supplication. ME637

When week-night services are badly attended, farewell to the life of godliness. 761.408

I pray the Lord to send you a horse-whip in the shape of trouble in your conscience
till you do come, for it very much weakens us all in our prayers when our numbers
decline; and whenever people come to despise week-night services, be sure of it,
farewell to the vital power of godliness, for week-night services are very, very much
the stamp of the man. Any hypocrite will come on a Sunday, but a man does need to
take some interest in religious services to be found mingling with the people of God
in prayer. 790.35

Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell. WC8

That patience which does not pray is obstinacy. A soul silent to God is apt to be sullen
rather than submissive. 1674.448

You are no Christian if you do not pray. A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. 3091.221

It is not a matter of time so much as a matter of heart; if you have the heart to pray,
you will find the time. 3186.100

Some mercies are not given to us except in answer to importunate prayer. There are
blessings which, like ripe fruit, drop into your hand the moment you touch the bough;
but there are others which require you to shake the tree again and again, until you
make it rock with the vehemence of your exercise, for then only will the fruit fall
down. 1247.437

As suppliants must we come; joyful, but not presumptuous; familiar as children
before a father, yet reverential as creatures before their maker. Posture is not
everything, yet it is something; prayer is heard when knees cannot bend, but it is
seemly that an adoring heart should show its awe by prostrating the body, and
bending the knee. TD95:6

Holiness is essential to power in prayer: the life must knock while the lips ask and
the heart seeks. 1723.302

It matters little what other power you possess; if you have no power with God, you
are powerless. 2800.492

The less prayer is observed on earth, the more it is observed in heaven. 1769.136

The same God that ordains to give a certain blessing has also ordained that we shall
pray for it. We do not expect to change the will of God, but we believe our prayer to
be a part of his will. 2069.74

A sigh, a sob, is the most you can get out. But a mother would sooner hear her own
child sob than another child sing. There is a music about that dear child’s voice
that moves her heart and touches her spirit. And so the inward moanings of a
broken heart are music in the ears of the Infinite Jehovah, and he accepteth the
sincere prayers of his people, let them be as broken as they may. 3429.512

How often we should prevail with God when we could hold him to his word, and say,
“Fulfil this word unto thy servant, whereon thou hast caused me to hope.” Oh! it is
grand praying when our mouth is full of God’s word, for there is no word that can
prevail with him like his own. 3484.519

Prayer is one of the necessary wheels of the machinery of providence. AM12

Prayer is an essential part of the providence of God, so essential, that you will always
find that when God delivers His people, His people have been praying for that
deliverance. They tell us that prayer does not affect the Most High, and cannot alter
His purposes. We never thought it did; but prayer is a part of the purpose and plan,
and a most effective wheel in the machinery of providence. GS98

Now, whenever we come to God and ask for anything which we consider to be a real
good, we have a right to plead earnestly, but we err when we go beyond the bounds
of earnestness, and come to impudent demand. It is ours to ask for a blessing, but not
to define what the blessing shall be. It is ours to place our head beneath the mighty
hands of divine benediction, but it is not ours to uplift the hands as Joseph did those
of Jacob, and say, “Not so, my father.” 272.378

Beggars must not be choosers, and especially they must not be choosers when they
have to deal with infinite wisdom and sovereignty. 272.379

Predestination embraceth the great and the little, and reacheth unto all things; the
question is, wherefore pray? Might it not as logically be asked wherefore breathe, eat,
move, or do anything? We have an answer which satisfies us, namely, that our
prayers are in the predestination, and that God has as much ordained his people’s
prayers as anything else, and when we pray we are producing links in the chain of
ordained facts. 1091.28

Prayer does move the arm that moves the world, though nothing is put out of gear by
our praying. The God who ordained the effects that are to follow prayer ordained the
prayer itself; it is a part of the grand machinery by which the world swings upon its
hinges. 2437.524

God blesses us by his temporary delays, as well as by his prompt replies. We are not
to doubt the Lord because his time has not yet come: that would be to act like
petulant children, who must have a thing at the instant, or else they think they shall
never have it. AP116

God knows that delay will quicken and increase desire, and that if He keeps thee
waiting thou wilt see thy necessity more clearly, and wilt seek more earnestly; and
that thou wilt prize the mercy all the more for its long tarrying. ME688

Some apparent good may be withheld, but no real good, no, not one. TD84:11

Brethren, we must not take delays in prayer for denial: God’s long-dated bills will be
punctually honoured; we must not suffer Satan to shake our confidence in the God of
truth by pointing to our unanswered prayers. We are dealing with a being whose
years are without end, to whom one day is as a thousand years: far be it from us to
count him slack, by measuring his doings by the standard of our little hour.
Unanswered petitions are not unheard. 734.74

God will not give you what you cannot receive or put to healthy use. 1221.140

What is the reason why the man who is a slave of his lusts obtains not his desire,
even when he takes to asking? The reason is because his asking is a mere matter of
form, his heart is not in his worship. He buys a book containing what are called forms
of prayer, and he repeats these, for repeating is easier than praying, and demands no
thought. 1682.544

Our cup is small, and we blame the fountain. 1221.136