Faith & Spirit Quote by Frederick William Robertson

Robertson’s line is a quietly radical redefinition of what prayer is for. It refuses the modern, vending-machine model of spirituality - insert desire, receive outcome - and treats prayer as a discipline that alters the person doing it. The verb choice matters: “Pray till” frames prayer as endurance, almost training. The goal isn’t answered petitions but a changed interior landscape where the original “wish” loses its grip.

The psychological subtext is bracing. “Forget your own wish” doesn’t mean repressing need; it means loosening the ego’s monopoly on what counts as good. Robertson is describing a kind of spiritual decentering, where the self stops treating God as an instrument for private plans. Then he offers two options: “leave it” or “merge it.” Leaving suggests surrender without bitterness; merging suggests integration, as if desire can be purified rather than simply denied. Either way, the outcome is the same: the worshipper’s will becomes negotiable.

Context sharpens the edge. Mid-19th-century Anglican preaching was wrestling with doubt, industrial upheaval, and a growing appetite for moral certainty in an uncertain world. Robertson, known for emotionally intelligent sermons, speaks to people who want faith to be practical without turning it into mere self-help. The line also preempts the crisis of unanswered prayer: if prayer’s purpose is transformation, silence from heaven isn’t failure; it’s part of the work. He’s offering a theology that protects God from being reduced to a wish-granter and protects the believer from being trapped inside their own appetites.