When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret" (Matt. 6:6).

"Enter into thy closet"—that is the shut-in-place; and eight times, in that single verse, the second personal pronoun in the singular number is found, teaching us the value of getting absolutely alone with God, looking God in the face, before we start on the duties of the day. This habit of secret prayer, when joined to the other, daily reverent Bible study, puts a helmet on the head and a breastplate on the bosom; in fact, clothes the disciple in the whole armor of God, and makes him proof against the wiles of the devil.

—Selected