Now all the woods are sleeping,
And night and stillness creeping
O’er city, man, and beast;
But thou, my heart, awake thee,
To prayer awhile betake thee,
And praise thy Maker ere thou rest.

My Jesus, stay Thou by me,
And let no foe come nigh me,
Safe sheltered by Thy wing;
But would the foe alarm me,
O let him never harm me,
But still Thine angels round me sing!

My loved ones, rest securely,
From every peril surely
Our God will guard your heads;
And happy slumbers send you,
And bid His hosts attend you,
And golden armed watched o’er your beds.
           Paul Gerhardt,
           translated  by
           Catherine Winkworth


I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.  Psalms 4:8

     Different writers corroborate the following touching story connected with one of Gerhardt's hymns:
     "What a dreadful day was the 14th of September, 1796, for the small Hessian town of Lisberg, built on the wooded heights of the Vosrelberg.  Between nine and ten o'clock at night, five hundred fugitives of the French army, which had just been defeated by the Archduke Charles, fled through the city, breathing vengeance; and after they had destroyed, murdered, and plundered for many hours, they set fire to the town at all points, so that fifty-eight dwellings were burned to the ground.
     "On the slope of the hill stood a cottage, where a mother sat at the bed of her sick child.  From fear of endangering the life of her darling, she would not, in the cold September day, flee with it to the woods, as most of the inhabitants had done.  But now, when the firing and murdering began in the place, and the smoke of the burning houses came down from the hill into the valley, then the poor lone woman was fearful unto death; she bolted the door of the cottage, and threw herself on her knees in prayer beside the cradle of her child.  Thus she remained a long time, trembling as she listened to the shouts of the soldiers and the shrieks of the victims; at last her door was struck by the butt-end of a musket; and it quickly flew open, and a Frenchman rushed in, pointing his bayonet at the horrified woman.  The mother laid her hands over her child, and with a voice of despair she prayed aloud the verse of Gerhardt's hymn:

        'My Jesus, stay thou by me,
        And let no foe come nigh me,
        Safe sheltered by thy wing;
        But should the foe alarm me,
        Oh! let him never harm me,
        But still thine angels round me sing.'

Suddenly the soldier lowered his deadly weapon, stepped to the cradle, and laid his rough hand softly on the child's head, his lips moved as if in prayer, and tear-drops fell over his bearded face.  Then he gave his hand to the mother and went away in silence.  After some time, she arose from her knees, and looked out of the little window, and behold! there stood the Frenchman, his musket on his arm.  He had made himself the sentinel to protect the house and its inmates from all insult or harm.  At last, when the whole troop, laden with booty, marched off, he left his post, with a greater treasure in his heart than his comrades had in their sacks."
                                                                                         from Illustrated History of Hymns and Their                                                                                                         Authors, By Rev. Edwin M. Long 

Plead with the God of love,
Pray, Christian, pray;
Call on the throne above,
Pray, Christian, pray.
Ask, for the need is sore;
Seek for the secret store;
Knock at His mercy’s door,
Pray, Christian, pray.

Prayer is a weapon strong,
Pray, Christian, pray;
Wield it against the wrong,
Pray, Christian, pray.
Mightier deeds are wrought,
Knightlier battles fought
Praying than man e’er tho’t:
Pray, Christian, pray.

Say not the fields are sear;
Pray, Christian, pray;
Deem not the prospect drear,
Pray, Christian, pray.
Faith shall revive with prayer,
Hope shall her harvest bear,
Love never can despair:
Pray, Christian, pray.

Look on the blight and stain,
Pray, Christian, pray;
Think on the toil and pain,
Pray, Christian, pray.
Earth, with her guilty fears,
Her wrongs and bitter tears,
Sighs through the weary years:
Pray, Christian, pray.

Plead every promise old,
Pray, Christian, pray;
O for a faith more bold!
Pray, Christian, pray.
Let naught thy soul appall,
Satan is doomed to fall!
Christ shall be Lord of all:
Pray, Christian, pray.
                      J. H. Sammis


Pray without ceasing.  1 Thes 5:17

     Prayer is the never-failing resort of the Christian in any case, in every plight.  When you cannot use your sword you may take to the weapon of all-prayer.  Your powder may be damp, your bow-string may be relaxed, but the weapon of all-prayer need never be out of order.  Leviathan laughs at the javelin, but he trembles at prayer.  Sword and spear need furbishing, but prayer never rusts, and when we think it most blunt it cuts the best.  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.  We can never be taken by blockade, escalade, mine, or storm, so long as heavenly succors can come down to us by Jacob's ladder to relieve us in the time of our necessities.  Prayer is never out of season; in summer and in winter its merchandise is precious.  Prayer gains audience with heaven in the dead of night, in the midst of business, in the heat of noonday, in the shades of evening.  In every condition, whether of poverty, or sickness, or obscurity, or slander, or doubt, your covenant God will welcome your prayer and answer it from His holy place.  Nor is prayer ever futile.  True prayer is evermore true power.  You may not always get what you ask, but you shall always have your real wants supplied.  When God does not answer His children according to the letter, He does so according to the spirit.  If thou askest for coarse meal, wilt thou be angered because He gives thee the finest flour?  If thou seekest bodily health, shouldst thou complain if instead thereof He makes thy sickness turn to the healing of spiritual maladies?  Is it not better to have the cross sanctified than removed?                                                            
                                                                                                                                     C. H. Spurgeon 

.....Christ is the way, the truth, and the life; "No one cometh to the Father, but through him;" "He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;" and none ever were, or ever will be received up into glory, but by an experimental application of his merits to their hearts.  We might as well think to rebuild the tower of Babel or reach heaven with our hands, as to imagine we could enter therein by any other door, than that of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.....
                                                                                                                            George Whitefield

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.....Our blessed Lord, though he was the eternal God, yet as man, he made the scriptures his constant rule and guide.  And therefore, when he was asked by the lawyer, which was the great commandment of the law, he referred him to his Bible for an answer, "What readest thou?"  And thus, when led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil, he repelled all his assaults, with "it is written." 
     A sufficient confutation this, of their opinion, who say, "the Spirit only, and not the Spirit by the Word, is to be our rule of action."  If so, our Saviour, who had the Spirit without measure, needed not always have referred to the written word.
     But how few copy after the example of Christ?  How many are there who do not regard the word of God at all, but throw the sacred oracles aside, as an antiquated book, fit only for illiterate men?
     Such do greatly err, not knowing what the scriptures are, or for what they are designed.....
                                                                                                                                   George Whitefield   

Reader, let me ask you just to pause and put this solemn question to your conscience, "Whether am I devoting whatever of skill or energy I possess to the interests of the Church which is God's dwelling place, or to beautify an ungodly, Christless world?"  Say not, in thine heart, "I am not divinely called or divinely qualified for the work of the ministry."  Remember that though all Israel were not Bezaleels or Aholiabs, yet all could serve the interests of the sanctuary.  There was an open door for all to communicate.  Thus it is now.  Each one has a place to occupy, a ministry to fulfil, a responsibility to discharge; and you and I are, at this moment, either promoting the interests of the house of God—the body of Christ—the Church, or helping on the godless schemes of a world, yet stained with the blood of Christ and the blood of all His martyred saints.  Oh! let us deeply ponder this, as in the presence of the great Searcher of hearts, whom none can deceive—to whom all are known.
                                                                                                                                     C. H. Mackintosh

One might say, I would gladly believe if an angel from heaven were to preach to me.  But whoever does not receive the Word for its own sake will never receive it for the sake of the preacher, even if all the angels preached it to him.  He who receives it because of the preacher does not believe in the Word, neither in God through the Word, but he believes the preacher and in the preacher.  Hence the faith of such persons does not last long.  But whoever believes the Word, does not care who the person is that speaks the Word, and neither will he honor the Word for the sake of the person; but on the contrary, he honors the person because of the Word, and always subordinates the person to the Word.  If the preacher perishes, or even falls from the faith and preaches differently, he will forsake the person of the preacher rather than the Word of God.
                                                                                                                                          Martin Luther

From a Letter by John Newton dated November 23, 1774 to a Mr. B

My Dear Sir,
.....My body, as I said, is, through mercy, free from considerable ailments, but I have a soul that requires surgeon's work continually;—there is some tumour to be discussed or laid open, some dislocation to be reduced, some fracture to be healed, almost daily.  It is my great mercy, that one who is infallible in skill, who exercises incessant care and boundless compassion towards all his patients, has undertaken my case; and, complicated as it is, I dare not doubt his making a perfect cure.  Yet, alas! I too often discover such impatience, distrust, and complaining when under his hand—am so apt to find fault with the instruments he is pleased to make use of—so ready to think the salutary wounds he makes unnecessary, or too large; in a word, I show such a promptness to control, were I able, or to direct his operations, that, were not his patience beyond expression, he would, before now, have given me up.  I am persuaded, no money would induce Mr.--to attend upon a patient who should act towards him as I have towards my best Physician.  Sometimes I indulge a hope that I am growing wiser, and think surely, after such innumerable proofs as I have had that he does all things well, I shall now be satisfied to leave myself quietly and without reserve to his disposal.  A thousand such surrenders I have made, and a thousand times I have interpretatively retracted them.  Yet still he is gracious.  O, how shall I praise him at last!.....   
                                                                                                                                              John Newton

From a Letter by John Newton dated April 20, 1774

My Lord,
.....Methinks the poets can have but cold comfort, when they invoke a fabled muse; but we have a warrant, a right to look up for the influence of the Holy Spirit, who ordains strength for us, and has promised to work in us.  What a comfort, what an honour is this, that worms have liberty to look up to God! and that he, the high and holy One who inhabiteth eternity, is pleased to look down upon us, to maintain our peace, to supply our wants, to guide us with his eye, and to inspire us with wisdom and grace suitable to our occasions!  They who profess to know something of this intercourse, and to depend upon it, are by the world accounted enthusiasts, who know not what they mean, or perhaps hypocrites, who pretend to what they have not, in order to cover some base designs.  But we have reason to bear their reproaches with patience.....Well, then, may the believer say, Let them laugh, let them rage, let them, if they please, point at me for a fool as I walk the streets; if I do but take up the Bible, or run over in my mind the inventory of the blessings with which the Lord has enriched me, I have sufficient amends.  Jesus is mine; in him I have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,—an interest in all the promises and in all the perfections of God; he will guide me by his counsel, support me by his power, comfort me with his presence, while I am here; and afterwards, when flesh and heart fail, he will receive me to his glory.
     Let them say what they will, they shall not dispute or laugh us out of our spiritual senses.  If all the blindmen in the kingdom should endeavour to bear me down, that the sun is not bright, or that the rainbow has no colours, I would still believe my own eyes.  I have seen them both, they have not.  I cannot prove to their satisfaction what I assert, because they are destitute of sight, the necessary medium; yet their exceptions produce no uncertainty in my mind; they would not, they could not, hesitate a moment, if they were not blind.....             
                                                                                                                                            John Newton