Prayer, the soul’s sincere desire

PRAYER is the soul’s sincere desire,

Utter’d or unexpress’d;

The motion of a hidden fire,

That trembles in the breast.

² Prayer is the burden of a sigh,

The falling of a tear;

The upward glancing of an eye,

When none but God is near.

³ Prayer is the simplest form of speech

That infant lips can try;

Prayer the sublimest strains that reach

The Majesty on high.

⁴ Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,

The Christian’s native air;

His watchword at the gates of death:

He enters heaven with prayer.

⁵ Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice,

Returning from his ways;

While angels in their songs rejoice,

And cry, “Behold he prays!”

⁶ The saints in prayer appear as one,

In word, and deed, and mind;

While with the Father and the Son

Sweet fellowship they find.

⁷ Nor prayer is made on earth alone;

The Holy Spirit pleads;

And Jesus, on the eternal throne,

For mourners intercedes.

⁸ O Thou, by whom we come to God,

The life, the truth, the way!

The path of prayer Thyself hast trod:

Lord! teach us how to pray.

James Montgomery, 1819.^[1]