The Still Hour; or, Communion with God

In Charles Spurgeon's book "The Power of Prayer in A Believer's Life" (another one of the best books on prayers I have read), he mentions the excellence of this book, "The Still Hour". I figured that if it inspired Spurgeon it must be good and promptly ordered it. I was not disappointed. I believe this is the BEST book that I have ever read on prayer. I always appreciate a few excerpts in reviews, but I am not sure how to pull just small parts out of this book. Here are just a few short quotes: ------------------------- -"We know not what we should pray for as we ought. We make prayer itself one of the standard subjects of prayer; yet, on what theme do our devotions more frequently degenerate into routine than this? Have we a sense of indigence when we ask for the indwelling of God in our souls? Have we such a sense of need of it, as we have of the need of air when we are gasping with faintness?" -"A holy prayer is the Spirit of God speaking through the infirmities of a human soul; We scarcely utter hyperbole in saying that prayer is the Divine mind communing with itself, through finite wants, through the woes of helplessness, through the clinging instincts of weakness. On this side of the judgement, no other conception of the presence of God is so profound, as that which is realized in our souls every time we offer a genuine prayer. God is then not only with us, but within us." -"We are never more like Christ than in prayers of intercession. In the most lofty devotion we become unconscious of self" --------------------------------- Two more minor notes that I should make. While I hate to point out my own ignorance, I admit that I DID need a dictionary by my side while I read this as it was written around 1850 and I fear I might be a product of the "dumbing down of society" :) I'm working on it. :) Also, the print of this book is, well, not very good. I am just grateful for the resource though and it was still readable with the exception of one or two words.

This is probably the best book in prayer that I've ever read. I often struggle to connect with God in prayer, and the author accurately diagnosed the areas of my prayer life that I need to work on in order to achieve deeper communion with God. The language of the book is flowery, and I frequently had to reference a dictionary due to changes in vocabulary over time, but it was well worth the read.

For anyone saying that this is hard to read, I would very much disagree. Written in a way that is not used today, however if you are capable of using a dictionary or google for that matter you will be fine. Currently halfway through the book, and this book is very invasive on a personal level and will definitely bring to the surface conviction and insight on how to strengthen your pray life and intimacy with the Holy Spirit.

So much to ponder and review. We all need A Still Hour and time to draw near to our God

A bit difficult to read, but worth it. Full of deep reflection on one's own prayer life. May need to read again.

This short book changed the way I pray. If you want to really know the truth in this subject and how you can know God hears you like you've never heard it before preached, this little book is the real pearl. I read the whole book in one sitting - that's how much it grasped me. I heard about this book from a sermon from Charles Spurgeon, one of my favorite old-time preachers. What time we waste, what hour that passes us by, what better more intimate communion we can have with the only One who is worth our time...our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

He touches on so many things that I couldn't put into words. I highly suggest this read for the Christian.

This book probably deserves more than three stars but I just could not understand it. As another reviewer noted the language is very outdated. When I thought I was understanding what he was talking about in the very next sentence it seemed as though he was talking about the opposite. I got so confused I quit reading it as I couldn’t tell if the things he mentioned applied to my prayer life or not. If you can understand the language I am sure this would be a wonderful book.

I learnt about this book from a mention of it made by C H Spurgeon in one of his sermons and he commented that he had found it very helpful. Other editions of this book are either facsimile with copies of covers and irrelevant pages. Alternatively they are OCR scanned copies where very little care has been taken to tidy up the formatting or correct the text, (I do wish those who did this would not bother, if they cannot do a good job of this). In contrast, this edition has been very carefully reset, and Mark Riedel is to be congratulated for his efforts in making this book thus more easy to read, in modern type as well as a much more meaningful cover than the others. One aspect of this book that could make it more difficult in some ways might be in the dated Victorian ways of expression. However I have not found this too much of a problem, although I dare say an updated language version might be helpful if someone can undertake the work. I have only just purchased a copy of this, but from my initial browse I can see that it is very practical about the ways of prayer, including, what amounts to the most important aspect of all, in practising the presence of God, which is the purest form of prayer. I am not an expert on C H Spurgeon, but I am sure that as he found this book helpful, it was also helpful towards some of his own preaching. I am sure that this book will bear similar good fruit in the future.

Brilliant I enjoyed the book - thought provoking!!!

really good and just what I was looking for, am enjoying reading it and finding lots of new thoughts about prayer

Some gems on Prayer life, hidden amongst the sometimes archaic language. The chapters are short, but I found I had to read slowly and in single short chapters at a time in order to process and get the full benefit of the wisdom held wothin

Nice book