As the bee is ever on the wing between the flowers and its honey-cells, so should our affections ever be going forth in prayer to God without, and returning to God within. In our mutual intercourse and conversation, amidst all the busiest scenes of our pilgrimage, we may be moving to and fro on the rapid wing of prayer, of mental prayer—that prayer which lays the whole burden of the heart on a single sigh.
A sigh breathed in the spirit, though inaudible to all around us but the Lord Himself, may sanctify every conversation, every event in the history of the day.
We must have fellowship at all times either with the spirit of the world or with the Spirit of God. There is no neutral ground between fleshliness and spirituality of mind. There is the greater need, therefore, of watchfulness and prayer, if we would keep ourselves so that the wicked one toucheth us not.
Prayer will be fatiguing to the flesh and blood, if uttered aloud and sustained long. Oral prayer, and prayer mentally ordered in words, though not uttered aloud, no believer can engage in without ceasing; but there is an undercurrent of prayer that may run continually under the stream of our thoughts, and never weary us.
Such prayer is the silent breathing of the Spirit of God Who dwells in our hearts; it is the temper and habit of the spiritual mind; it is the pulse of "our life which is hid with Christ in God;” it is the consciousness of the divine nature communicated to us.