I was recently challenged to take up Matthew Henry’s book, A Method For Prayer, which has been graciously reworked by Ligon Duncan, and republished by Christian Focus Publications. This book sat on my shelf for a couple of years. It had been given to me as a gift at a conference I attended. I gave it a glance or two, thought it looked helpful and intriguing and then promptly cataloged it, shelved it and ignored it (intentionally? I don’t think so, but sometimes neglect of such things can arise out of our subconscious efforts to stave off that which we need the most).
Observation: Henry must have been saturated with Scripture. Scarcely a sentence goes by without a reference to a phrase, line or entire verse of the Bible. My pride is pricked, and duly do, for the times I can call to mind a verse or two, here and there, and then strain muscles and ligaments seeking to pat myself on the back about how well I know the Scriptures. There must have been many a distraction in Henry’s day, of that I have no doubt. Yet I wonder if they were a bit easier to turn out, put off, and ignore than our constant clamoring today. Times are when I long for such long stretches of quietude to simply read the Word, meditate and pray upon it. Nevertheless, the hum of the computer, the buzz of the vibrating cell phone, the call of the agendas, the beckoning of duties seems to be never ending. The discipline to inject oneself with Scripture in this manner must be steady, constant and fierce in order to fend off all the rest.
Spurgeon once said of John Bunyan:
Oh, that you and I might get into the very heart of the Word of God, and get that Word into ourselves! As I have seen the silkworm eat into the leaf, and consume it, so ought we to do with the Word of the Lord—not crawl over its surface, but eat right into it till we have taken it into our inmost parts. It is idle merely to let the eye glance over the words, or to recollect the poetical expressions, or the historic facts; but it is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your very style is fashioned upon Scripture models, and, what is better still, your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord.
I would quote John Bunyan as an instance of what I mean. Read anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like the reading the Bible itself. He had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim’s Progress—that sweetest of all prose poems — without continually making us feel and say, “Why, this man is a living Bible!” Prick him anywhere—his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God. I commend his example to you, beloved.
—”Mr. Spurgeon as a Literary Man,” in 
The Autobiography of Charles H. Spurgeon, Compiled from His Letters, Diaries, and Records by His Wife and Private Secretary, vol. 4, 1878-1892 (Curtis & Jennings, 1900), p. 268.
I think the same could be said of Matthew Henry. Here is a short sample, from Chapter 3 (Petition and Supplication) of A Method For Prayer:
And now, Lord, what wait we for? Truly our hope is even in thee; deliver us from all our transgressions, that we may no more be the reproach of the foolish. (Psalm 39.7–8 referenced.)
Lord, all our desire is before thee, and our groaning is not hid from thee (Psalm 38.9); even the groanings which cannot be uttered: for he that searcheth the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit (Romans 8.26–27).
We do not think that we shall be heard for our much speaking; for our Father knows what things we have need of (Matthew 6.7–8), before we ask him; but our Master hath told us, that whatsoever we ask the Father in his name, he will give it us. And he hath said, Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full (John 16.23–25).
And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us; And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we desired of him (1 John 5.14–15).
The Scripture references are located in an index at the end of each chapter. I think perhaps that Ligon Duncan did this in order to facilitate ease of finding all the passages Henry uses in his text. I do not know if they are included in Henry’s original.
I’m greatly looking forward to plumbing the depths of this book. My pray is that Scripture would soon start to ooze out of my very prayers, and perhaps, even, should God be so gracious, to find my conversations becoming littered with them.