I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o'clock before I begin secret prayer. I feel it is far better to begin with God-to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Andrew Alexander Bonar (1866). “The life and remains, letters, lectures, and poems of [the Rev] Robert Murray McCheyne”, p.140
