January 2

When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. - Matthew 6:6.

OUR blessed Saviour was the example as well as the enjoiner of private devotion. We read of his “rising a great while before day,” and of his “going up into a mountain apart to pray,” and of his “continuing all night in prayer” to his Divine Father. Some complain of not having time. Daniel was prime minister of one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, and daily and frequent private devotion was his constant practice. David had to give audiences to ambassadors, and orders to generals and magistrates, and yet he says, “Morning and evening and at noon will I pray.” A real Christian will not live a stranger to devotional retirement; he will feel continually that he has much to do with God alone. There are three advantages pertaining to private prayer. The first results from, frequency; we can retire much oftener than we can go to the public sanctuary. We can easily seize a moment of leisure when journeying or engaged in our occupations, as Nehemiah did, who was the king’s cupbearer, who, while attending on his royal master, said, “I prayed to the God of Heaven.”

The second is freedom; for alone we can make confessions which it would not be proper to make in the hearing of a fellow-creature. We can pour into the bosom of God things we do not feel at liberty to divulge to the dearest relation and friend upon earth. Friendship always deals in secrecy, and so does the friendship subsisting between God and the soul.

The third arises from sincerity. Private devotion is a much better evidence of sincerity than public worship. Many things in the public assembly are calculated to excite and attract; but when a man retires God must be the principal excitement and attraction. His language is, “Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee.” We must not judge of ourselves by what we feel in large assemblies.

Let us retire to be alone with God, and then we shall say, “It is good for me to draw near to God.”