What is the cause of most backslidings? I believe, as a general rule, one of the chief causes is neglect of private prayer. Of course, the secret, full history of spiritual falls will not be known until the judgment seat of Christ. I can only give my opinion as a minister of Christ, and a student of the heart. That opinion is, I repeat distinctly, that backsliding generally first begins with neglect of private prayer.

Bibles read without prayer, sermons heard without prayer, marriages contracted without prayer, residences chosen without prayer, friendships formed without prayer, the daily act of private prayer itself hurried over, or gone through without heart—these are the kind of downward steps by which many a Christian descends to a condition of spiritual palsy, or reaches the point where God allows him to have a tremendous fall. This is the process which forms the lingering Lots, the unstable Samsons, the wife-idolizing Solomons, the inconsistent Asas, the pliable Jehoshaphats,—of whom so many are to be found in the body of Christ. Often the simple history of such cases is this—they became careless about private prayer.

You may be very sure men fall in private, long before they fall in public. They are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly in the eyes of the world. Like Peter, they first disregard the Lord's warning to watch and pray. Then, like Peter, their strength is gone, and in the hour of temptation they deny their Lord.

If you are a Christian, I trust you will never be a backslider. If you do not wish to be a backsliding Christian, remember to never neglect private prayer.

—Help and Food, Vol. 22.