A self-satisfied ventilation of fervent sentiments never makes a Christian.

God is not influenced by man.

The "divine ear" is not an auditorial nerve.

It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom each want of man is always known, and by whom it will be supplied.
The danger from audible prayer is, that it may lead us into temptation.
By it we may become involuntary hypocrites, uttering desires which are not real, and consoling ourselves in the midst of sin, with the recollection that we have prayed over it--or mean to ask forgiveness at some later day.

Hypocrisy is fatal to religion.
A wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of self-justification, though it makes the sinner a hypocrite.