JC Ryle was a 19th-century pastor in England. He authored several works, many of which are still read today. One of these pieces is a short tract on prayer, A Call to Prayer. Below are quotes from this work to encourage your soul in prayer.

I can find that nobody will be saved by his prayers, but I cannot find that without prayer anybody will be saved. (pg. 4)

The first act of faith will be to speak to God. Faith is to the soul what life is to the body. Prayer is to faith what breath is to life. (pg 7)

How a man can live and not breathe is past my comprehension, and how a man can believe and not prayer is past my comprehension, too. (pg. 7)

Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer. (pg. 9)

The name of Jesus is a never-failing passport for our prayer. (pg. 10)

[Jesus Christ] mingles our prayers with the incense of his own almighty intercession. So mingled, they go up as a sweet savour before the throne of God. (pg. 11)

I believe those who are not eminently holy pray little, and those who are eminently holy pray much. (pg 14)

You may be very sure men fall in private long before they fall in public. (pg. 17)Prayer can lighten crosses for us, however heavy. It can bring down to our side One who will help us to bear them. (pg. 19)

Prayer can lighten crosses for us, however heavy. It can bring down to our side One who will help us to bear them. (pg. 19)

I believe we are very poor judges of the goodness of our prayers, and that the prayer which pleases us least, often pleases God most. (pg. 24)

Faith is to prayer what the feather is to the arrow; without it prayer will not hit the mark. (pg. 27)

[W]e should cultivate the habit of expecting answers to our prayers. We should do like the merchant who sends his ship to the sea. We should not be satisfied, unless we see some return. (pg. 28)

Tell me what a man’s prayers are, and I will soon tell you the state of his soul. Prayer is the spiritual pulse. (pg. 32)Prayer is the spiritual weatherglass. By

Prayer is the spiritual weatherglass. By this we may know whether it is fair or foul with our hearts. (pg. 32)