The Secret Key to Heaven

Thomas Brooks’ Secret Key to Heaven is a manifesto for private prayer. Brooks outlines its necessity, benefits, common objections and distractions which hinder our progress in it, and encouragement and guidance for it. In a treatmeant of private prayer, Brooks enables us to see the essential character of the Christian life itself: God-centred, God-dependent, focused, and fruitful.

‘The power of religion and godliness lives, thrives, or dies, as closet prayer lives, thrives, or dies.’ This was the deeply held conviction of Thomas Brooks. As a pastor who knew his people well, he feared that many Christians did not understand the ‘necessity, excellency, and usefulness’ of private prayer, and that many lived in ‘too great a neglect of this indispensable duty.’

Focusing on our Lord’s words about ‘closet prayer’ in Matthew 6:6, Brooks supplies us with a masterful treatment of a vitally important aspect of the Christian’s life. His aim is intensely practical: ‘to preserve and keep up the power of religion and godliness both in men’s houses, hearts, and lives.’