Andrew Bonar declared an honesty in his diary that is rare among believers today. Let us read and ponder. Ponder and pray. Pray and believe that the Lord will work all-grace within us. Pilgrim press onward!

Wednesday, 26th [1838] – I see now that once preaching on a Sabbath may work God’s purpose as well as if I preached from morning to night. For, if God speaks from heaven once, and for only a minute, yet that voice should be felt in the parish all the week, yea, for months after. Horace remarked, too, that if few came, the comfort was those were the persons sent to us by God. I purpose (and yet I cannot effect even this unless I get help from the Lord) to go earlier to bed and rise at six; and spend from six to eight in prayer for myself, my parish, and the cause of God through the world. Oh, if I could do this all the days of my life while I have health, for I have never yet succeeded in such resolutions, and never yet have I given much time to prayer daily. Neither cold nor darkness need hinder me. I may just rise and at once begin communion with God, and my soul’s fervour will heat the body. O, Lord, grant me the power. (boldness mine, p71)