Prayer is the breath of God in man. B. Beddome. [Prayer.] This appeared in Robert Hall's posthumous edition of Beddome's Hymns, &c, 1817, No. 405, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "Importance of Prayer." It was added to the 27th edition of Rippon's Selections, 1827, No. 353 (Pt. i.), and from thence has passed into several collections, sometimes dated 1787 (Rippon's 1st ed.) in error, and at other times with the opening line changed to "Prayer is the Spirit of our God." The hymn "When God inclines the heart to pray," in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book, 1866, is composed of st. iv., v. of the original.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)