What is the cause of most backslidings? I believe, as a general rule, one of the chief causes is neglect of private prayer.
You may be very sure men fall in private long before they fall in public. They are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly in the eyes of the world.
~ J.C. Ryle
A Call to Prayer, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2002], 16.
