Here is a little book that will probably become a daily companion to those who obtain a copy. It contains a number of Puritan prayers and devotions that have been compiled by a Canon of the Church of England. He dedicated the book to the staff and students of All Nations Bible College in Hertfordshire, England. Those chosen are from the works of about fourteen men from both sides of the Atlantic stretching from the sixteenth century right through to Charles Haddon Spurgeon in the nineteenth and the Arthur Bennett has put them into poetic form. The book therefore can act as a daily devotional supplement to the reading of the scriptures. The prayers are nothing short of amazing, rich in devotion, the out-pouring of hearts that love God and only seek to please Him. There is strength, tenderness, humility, repentance, brokenness, joy and much more in these prayers. They are broken up into ten sections that move from prayers concerning the Godhead through to prayers concerning service and ministry and those concerning heaven and covenant. Many of the ministers whose prayers are used in this book encouraged their people to vocalize their prayers and put them on paper. They followed their own counsel and the result was a large corpus of prayers from which could be drawn these that so challenge and encourage the heart of those who are seeking God. This book is not meant to be a prayer manual but to inspire our own prayerfulness to God. They are so evidently God centered and although the backgrounds of the various ministers varied greatly from the non-conformists to the Anglican evangelical it is not possible to distinguish the one from the other as they pour their hearts out to Him. I recommend this book very much and it is a wonderful gift to give to a loved one. It can be obtained in both a paper back form and a very attractive slim leather bound edition. It may be that the reader might linger for a week or two considering just one of the prayers before moving on to the next and so the book would gradually become a lifetime companion. For those seeking fellowship with the godly of past generations and longing for expression of the deepest longings of their hearts to God, this book is a must.
