Prayer is a divine worship wherein we speak to God in faith, humility, sincerity, and fervency of spirit, through the mediation of Christ, begging those good things that we and others want, deprecating that we and others fear, and giving thanks for that we and others have received. Prayer is a speaking to God face to face; it is Jacob’s ladder by which the soul climbs up to heaven; it is Noah’s dove that goes and returns not till it brings assurance of peace.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 490.