Monday, April 27, 2009

articulate utterances to my prayers

I find it greatly helps me in fixing my mind and quickening my devotions to give articulate utterances to my prayers, and hence I am in the habit of going off into the woods, where I can be alone and speak audibly to myself in the prayers I would pour out to my God. I was at first annoyed that I was compelled to keep my eyes open to avoid running against the trees and stumps; but upon investigating the matter I do not find that the Scriptures require us to close our eyes in prayer, and the exercise has proven to me very delightful and profitable.


Stonewall Jackson, They Called Him Stonewall: A Life of Lt. General T.J. Jackson by Burke Davis (New York: Fairfax Press, 1988) p.89 as quoted in One Nation Under God: The History of Prayer in America by James P. Moore, Jr. Doubleday, 2005. p.178

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