Given to Prayer
Joseph Cook. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing. "During his seclusion at Enderley," writes one of the biographers of Robert Hall, "almost entirely without society, he spent much of his time in private devotion, and not infrequently set apart whole days for prayer and fasting — a practice which he continued to the end of life, deeming it essential to the revival and preservation of personal religion. When able to walk, he wandered in the fields and sought the shady grove, which often echoed with the voice of prayer and witnessed the agony of his supplications. He was frequently so absorbed in these sacred exercises as to be unaware of the approach of persons passing by, many of whom recollected with deep emotion the fervour and importunity of his addresses at the mercy seat, and the groanings which could not be uttered. His whole soul appears, indeed, to have been in a state of constant communion with God; his lonely walks amid the woodland scenery were rendered subservient to that end, and all his paths were bedewed with the tears of penitential prayer. Few men have spent more time in private devotion, or resorted to it with more relish, or had a deeper practical conviction of its benefits and its pleasures, as well as of its obligation as a duty binding upon all." (Joseph Cook.) Parallel Verses KJV: Pray without ceasing. WEB: Pray without ceasing.