Spurgeon on Prayer

inking times are praying times with the Lord's servants. Peter neglected prayer at starting upon his venturous journey, but, when he began to sink, his danger made him a suppplicant, and his cry, though late, was not too late. In our hours of bodily pain and mental anquish, we find ourselves as naturally driven to prayer as the wreck is driven upon the shore by the waves. The fox hurries to its hole for protection; the bird flies to the wood for shelter; and evn so the tried believer hastens to the mercy seat for safety. Heaven's great harbor of refuge is All-prayer; thousands of weather-beaten vessels have found a haven there, and the moement a storm comes on, it is wise for us to make for it with full sail.

Short prayers are long enough. There were only three words in the petition which Peter gasped out, but they were sufficient for his purpose. 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. Precious things lie in small compass, and all that is real prayer in many long addresses could be uttered in a petition as short as Peter's.