If I do not reply to you, Dear Sir, as soon as you might expect, it is
because I hold myself in reserve, until I have a movement to write, and
not from any want of regard to you. Relative to the distinct,
voluntary acts of resignation, renouncement, it would be difficult, in
my present state, to make such acts, because such acts would seem to
imply something of self-appropriation still remaining; whereas, I have
given to my Sovereign, all that I am; and as far as I know, I have
nothing more to give him. My soul is at rest in his will.
It is the same in regard to prayer, or petitions. The soul having a
very simple method of prayer, all other prayer seems foreign to it.
When it would make a request, and as soon as the soul knows distinctly
what it demands, there is something which goes before to accomplish it,
without the utterance of words. When the soul utters words, or makes
petitions, if the spirit accompanying approves, the prayer is made with
ease. If the spirit do not cooperate, the words are uttered with
difficulty, or not at all. God takes the place of self in the soul,
and there prays for things agreeable to his will. This is a state of
the soul, in which it has no desire to originate prayer, but loves to
be silent in the presence of God. This is an experience more
satisfactory than I am able to express. O, that all the earth knew
what it means to keep silence before the Lord!