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There was never a conflict of so illustrious a nature and of so strange a result between powers so dissimilar and extreme. And if to demonstrate His own divine power, and at the same time make the victory of human weakness over infinite might more memorable and obvious, the incarnate God touches the wrestling patriarch, and he is a cripple! Then Omnipotence retires as if vanquished from the field, and yields the palm of victory to the disabled but prevailing prince at the moment of his greatest weakness, when taught the lesson of his own insufficiency that flesh might not glory in the divine presence. Why all this? To teach us the amazing power of prayer that the feeblest believer may have when alone with Jesus. No point of Christian duty and privilege set before you in this book will plead more earnestly and tenderly for your solemn consideration, dear reader, than this. It concerns the very essence of your spiritual being. The lamp of your Christian testimony feeds off the oil that flows through this channel. Dimly will that lamp burn, and faint will be your spiritual light, if you are not habitually and often alone with Jesus. Every feeling of the soul and every part of your Christian walk will be noticeably affected by this woeful neglect. He who is seldom with Jesus in private will only exhibit, in all that he does

for Jesus publicly, the fitful movements of a mind urged on by a feverish and unnatural excitement. It is only in much secret and confiding prayer that the heart is kept in its right position with its affections properly governed and its movements correctly regulated. Are there not times when you find it necessary to leave the fellowship of the most spiritual friends - sweet as is the communion of saints - to be alone with Jesus? He Himself set the example. Accustomed to withdraw from His disciples sometimes, He was known to spend whole nights in the mountains' solitude, alone with His Father. Oh, the sacredness and solemnity of such times! Alone with God; alone with Jesus! No eye sees and no ear hears, except His; the dearest earthly friend is excluded, and no one is present except Jesus, the best, the dearest of all! In the sweetest and most unreserved confidence, the believer unveils his soul and reveals all to the Lord. Conscience is read, motives are studied, principles are sorted out, actions are examined, the heart is searched, sin is confessed, and iniquity is acknowledged, as can only be done alone in the presence of Jesus. Among all the privileges of a child of God, is there one with a costliness and preciousness that surpasses this?
-Octavius Winslow