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But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Matt. 6:6)
T.D. Witherspoon has a brief piece in The Homiletic Review for June 1898 about what it means to completely, rather than partially, close the door to the prayer closet.
Shutting the Closet Door
There is a class amongst us who may be denominated “Open-Closet Christians.” We can not doubt that they obey the first part of the Savior’s injunction as to prayer. They “enter into their closets.” The devoutness of spirit and consecration of life which they exhibit manifest the reality of their communion with God. But the trouble with these good brethren is that they do not close the door behind them. They not only leave it a little ajar, but in a great many instances they, unconsciously perhaps, throw it wide open and invite us to look in and see them at their devotions. A brother is called to account by his brethren for holding and teaching views which they consider inconsistent with his ordination vows, and immediately he begins to tell you how he has carried the whole matter into his closet to the Master, and what he said to the Master and what the Master said to him. He has swung the door wide open. A brother begins to write a book, and his first words are something like these: “On my knees, with the Word of God open before me, and invoking the aid of the Holy Spirit, I write these first lines, etc.” It was all right for him to take his proposed book into the closet. I honor him for doing so; but he should have closed the door behind him, if he would comply fully with the Master’s will.
What makes this the more unfortunate is that there is a class of so-called perfectionists whose stock in trade is largely a detailing for the public ear of the secrets of their closet life. They not only swing open the door, but they turn the closet inside out. The most inner and sacred experiences of the soul in communion with Christ are wantonly exposed to the gaze of men. And the worst of it all is that under the influence of a most suitable form of self-righteousness, of which they are scarcely conscious, but which their bearing toward others clearly reveals, they have persuaded themselves that the men who keep the closet door shut, as our Savior enjoined, have no closet life at all.
It may be well for these good brethren to be reminded in a very gentle way, and without intending any offense, of certain old adages, long current, such as: “Still waters run deep”; “He loves most who talks least of his love”; “It is the empty wagon that makes the most noise,” etc.
