Behind the Shut Door
"Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray." -- Matt. 6:6
If we would keep our faith clear and strong, we must pray. Prayer gives tone and balance to our minds, and enables us rightly to discern spiritual truths, thus providing a sure anchorage for faith.
The time in which we live has often been spoken of as an "age of doubt," and unquestionably it is such. To-day men are whispering many doubtful things in our ears. But there is one place where the whispers of doubt become inaudible; and that is in the place of prayer, where the soul is illuminated by the pure white light that streams from the Shekinah of His secret presence. It is there we gain that spiritual perception and cloudless vision that enable us to look beyond the fogs of
earth into the realm of eternal realities.
Not only is this an age of doubt. It is an age of materialism, and breathes an atmosphere that is a formidable foe to a vital faith in spiritual things. Faith in the unseen and purely spiritual cannot live and grow in the presence of a materialized civilization without continual intercourse with Him who is the Invisible Spirit. For clear vision and sure understanding faith needs the closet with the "shut door." There is the value of the prayer room. It enables us to get the glare of the street out of our eyes and the noises of earth out of our ears, so that we can see the fine realities of the spiritual and hear Him who waits to speak to us in the still small voice.
