Prayer (part 3) by John Bunyan

"Christ tells us that men ought always to pray, and not to faint (Luke 18:1). And again he tells us, that this is one definition of a hypocrite, that either he will not continue in prayer, or else if he do it, it will not be in the power, that is, in the spirit of prayer, but in the form, for a pretence only (Job 27:10; Matt. 23:14). It is the easiest thing of a hundred to fall from the power to the form, but it the hardest thing of many to keep in life, spirit, and power of any one duty, especially prayer; that is such a work, that a man without the help of the Spirit cannot so much as pray once, much less continue, without it, in a sweet praying frame, and in praying, so to pray as to have his prayers ascend into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." (ibid. pg. 34)