so frequently and fervently deprecates. This, it is to be feared, may be the case with some, whose language and exterior cause them to be ranked with the religious; these are, at least, the dangers to which they are most exposed. It is, therefore, that our Lord connects, in indissoluble union, watching with prayer.

Perhaps when the conscience is more than usually awakened, you pray with some degree of fervour to be delivered from the guilt and punishment of sin. But if you stop here, your devotion is most imperfect. If you do not also pray to be delivered from its power and dominion over your heart and life, you do not go much farther than the heathens of old. They seem to have had a strong feeling of guilt, by their fond desire of expiating it by

their sacrifices and lustrations.

But such is the love of present ease, and the desire of respite, that you think, perhaps, it is better not to be tormented before the time.' How many now in a state of irrevers ible misery wish they had been tormented sooner, that they might not be tormented forever! But with you it is not yet too late. With you the day of grace, which to them is over, is not yet past. Use it, then, without delay, instead of persisting in laying up fresh regrets for eternity.

But too many deceive themselves, by imagining, that when they have pronounced their prayer the duty is accomplished with the task; the occult medicine being taken, the charm is to work of itself. They consider it as a duty quite distinct and unconnected with any other. They forget that it is to produce in them a principle which is to mix with all the occurrences of the day. Prayer, though not intended as a talisman, is yet proposed as a remedy. The effect of its operation is to be seen in subduing the passions, assisting to govern the temper, in bridling the tongue, in checking not only calumny, but levity; not only impure, but vain conversation.

But we have a wonderful talent at deceiving ourselves. We have not a fault for which we do not find an apology. Our ingenuity on this head is inexhaustible. In matters of religion men complain that they are weak; a complaint they are not forward to urge in worldly matters. They lament that their reluctance to pray arises from being unable to do what God, in his word, expects them to do. But is not this virtual rebellion, only with a smooth face and a soft name? God is too wise not to know exactly what we can do, and too just to expect from us what we cannot.

This pretence of weakness, though it looks like humility, is only a mask for indolence, and a screen for selfishness.

We certainly can refuse to indulge ourselves in what pleases us, when we know it displeases God. We can obey his commandments with the aid of the infused strength which He has promised, and which we can ask. It is not He who is unwilling to give, but we who are averse to pray. The temptations to vice are strengthened by our pas

sions, as our motives to virtue are weakened by them.

Our great spiritual enemy would not be so potent, if we ourselves did not put arms into his hands The world would not be so pow. erful an enchantress, if we did not assist the enchantment, by voluntarily yielding to it; by insensibly forsaking him who is our strength. We make apologies for yielding to both by pleading their power and our own weakness. But the inability to resist is of our own making. Both enemies are indeed powerful, but they are not irresistible. If we assert the contrary, is it not virtually saying, Greater are they that are against us than He that is for us?

But we are traitors to our own cause: we are conquered by our own consent; we surrender, not so much because the conqueror is powerful, as because the conquered is willing.

Without diminishing any thing of His grace and glory to whom every good thought we think, every victory over sin we obtain, is owing, may it not add to our happiness, even in heaven, to look back on every conquest we here obtained by prayer over our grand spiritual enemy, every triumph over the world, every victory over ourselves! Will not the remembrance of one act of resistance then, far surpass every gratification now, which the three confederate enemies of our souls may present to us?

It is not merely by our prayers that we must give glory to God. Our Divine Master has expressly told us wherein His Father is glorified; it is when we bring forth much fruit.' It is by our works we shall be judged, and not by our prayers. And what a final consummation is it that obedience to the will of God, which is our duty here, shall be our nature hereafter! What is now our prayer shall then be our possession; there the obligation to obey shall become a necessity, and that necessity shall be happiness ineffable.

The various evils here enumerated, with many others not touched upon, are so many dead weights on the wings of prayer; they cause it to gravitate to earth, obstruct its ascent, and hinder it from piercing to the throne of God.

CHAP. VIII.

The Lord's Prayer.

It is not customary for kings to draw up petitions for their subjects to present to themselves; much less do earthly monarchs consider the act of petitioning worthy of reward, nor do they number the petitions so much among the services done them, as among the burdens imposed on them. Whereas it is a singular benefit to our fallen race that the King of kings both dictates our petitions, and has promised to recompense us for making them.

seminal principle of all the petitions of a In the Lord's Prayer may be found the

Christian, both for spiritual and temporal where uses the term he recommends. I things; and however in the fulness of his thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and heart he will necessarily depart from his mo- earth!' And in the 17th of St. John he uses del in his choice of expressions; into what- this tender name no less than seven times. ever laminæ he may expand the pure gold of 'Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth which it is composed; yet he will still find us,' was the ill-understood prayer of the inthe general principle of his own more en- quiring disciples. To us this petition is grantlarged application to GoD substantially con- ed before it is made. Does He not show tained in this brief but finished compendium. himself to all as a Father, in the wonders of Is it not a striking proof of the Divine his creation, in the wonders of our being, condescension, that knowing our propensity preservation, and support? Has He not, in to err, our blessed Lord should Himself have a more especial manner, revealed Himself to dictated our petitions, partly, perhaps, as a us as a Father in the sublime wonders of His corrective of existing superstitions, but cer- word, in the unsearchable riches of Christ, tainly to leave behind him a regulator by and the perpetuated gift of the Holy Spirit? which all future ages should set their devo- Does He not show Himself our Father, if, tions; and we might perhaps establish it as when we have done evil, He withholds His a safe rule for prayer in general, that any chastening hand; if, when we have sinned, petition which cannot in some shape be ac- He still bears with us; if, when we are deal commodated to the spirit of some part of the to his call, He repeats it; if, when we deLord's Prayer, may not be right to be adopt-lay, He waits for us; if, when we repent, He pardons us; if, when we return, He receives us; if, when in danger, He preserves us from falling; and if, when we fall, Ile raises us?

ed.

The distinction between the personal nature of Faith, and the universal character of Charity, as it is exercised in prayer, is specifically exhibited in the two pronouns which We have a beautiful illustration of the stand at the head of the Creed and of the goodness of God as a merciful and tender Lord's Prayer. We cannot exercise faith Father in the deeply affecting parable of the for another, and therefore can only say I be- Prodigal Son. Though the undone spendlieve. But when we offer up our petitions, thrift knew that he had no possible claim on we address them to our Father, implying the goodness he had so notoriously offended, that he is the Author, Governor, and Sup- yet he felt that the endearing name of Father porter, not of ourselves only, but of his whole had an eloquence that might plead for forrational creation. It conveys also a beauti-giveness of his offence, though he feared, not ful idea of that boundless charity which links for restoration to affection and favour. But all mankind in one comprehensive brother- while he only meekly aspired to a place hood. The plural us, continued through the whole paayer, keeps up the sentiment with which it sets out, tends to exclude selfishness, and to excite philanthropy, by recommending to God the temporal as well as spiritual wants of the whole family of mankind.

The nomenclature of the Divinity is expressed in Scripture by every term which can convey ideas of grandeur or of grace, of power or of affection, of sublimity or tenderness, of majesty or benignity; by every name which can excite terror or trust, which can inspire awe or consolation.

among the servants, while he only humbly pleaded for a little of their redundant bread, he was received as a pardoned, reconciled, beloved child.

Our Lord's Introduction, Pray ye therefore after this manner,' neither forbids digression nor amplification. The recollection that His dwelling-place is in heaven, is calculated to remind us of the immeasurable distance between the petitioner and his God, and to encourage us to communicate with the Father of Spirits: with Him who is glo. rious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders;' and which of His wonders is more astonishing than this inconceivably marvellous condescension?

Christianity, we must repeat, is a practical religion, and in order to use aright the prayer our Lord has given us, we must model our life by it as well as our petitions.

But of all compellations by which the Supreme Being is designated in his holy word there is not one so soothing, so attractive, so interesting, as that of FATHER; it includes the idea of reconcilement, pardon, acceptance, love. It swallows up His grandeur in His beneficence. It involves, If we pray that the name of God may be also, the inheritance belonging to our filial hallowed, yet neglect to hallow it ourselves, relation. It fills the mind with every image by family as well as personal devotion, and that is touching, and the heart with every a conscientious attendance on all the ordifeeling that is affectionate. It inspires fear nances of public worship, we defeat the end softened by love, and exhibits authority of our praying, by falling short of its obligamitigated by tenderness. The most endear- tion. ing image the Psalmist could select from the abundant store-house of his rich conceptions, to convey the kindest sentiment of God's pity towards them that fear Him, was that it resembles the pity of a father for his own children.' In directing us to pray to our Father, our Divine Master does not give the command without the example. He every VOL. II.

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The discrepancies between our prayers and our practice do not end here. How frequently are we solemnly imploring of God, that His kingdom may come,' while we are doing nothing to promote His kingdom of grace here, and consequently His kingdom of glory hereafter.

If we pray that God would give His Son

the heathen for his inheritance,' and yet nation of the several clauses, what in humai make it a matter of indifference, whether a composition the critics call concealed meth vast proportion of the globe should live hea-od. The petitions rise out of each other. thens or die Christians; if we pray that the Every part also is, as it were, fenced round, knowledge of the Lord may cover the earth, the whole meeting in a circle; for the desire as the waters cover the sea, yet act as if we that God's name may be hallowed, His will were indifferent whether Christianity ended be done, and His kingdom come, with which as well as began at home; if we pray that the prayer opens, is referred to, and confirm the sound may go out into all lands, and ed by, the ascription at the close. If the their words unto the ends of the world, and kingdom, the power, and the glory, are His, yet are satisfied to keep the sound within our then His ability to do and to give is declared own hearing, and the words within our own to be infinite. island, is not this a prayer which goeth out of feigned lips? When we pray that His will may be done,' we know that His will is, that all should be saved, that no one should perish. When, therefore, we assist in sending The Lord's Prayer Continued.—1 Thy Will the Gospel to the dark and distant corners of the earth, then, and not till then, may we consistently desire of God in our prayers, that His saving health may be known to all nations.'

CHAP. IX.

be Done.'

THE Holy Scriptures frequently comprise the essence of the Christian temper in some short aphorism, apostrophe, or definition. The essential spirit of the Christian life may be said to be included in this one brief petition of the LORD'S PRAYER, THY WILL BE DONE.'

In praying, therefore, that His kingdom may come, do we not pray that all false religions, all idolatrous worship may be universally abolished, and the kingdom of Messiah be established throughout the world? There is a haughty spirit which, though it If praying for our daily bread' is a peti-will not complain, does not care to submit. tion expressing our dependence, it is also a It arrogates to itself the dignity of enduring, petition of temperance. It teaches us to sub- without any claim to the meekness of yieldordinate our desires after worldly things, and ing. Its silence is stubbornness, its fortitude to ask for them in great moderation. It is is pride; its calmness is apathy without, and worth observing, that requests for temporal discontent within. In such characters it is not blessings and spiritual mercies are so inter- so much the will of God, which is the rule of woven in this perfect form, that in repeating conduct, as the scorn of pusillanimity. Not it, we cannot pray for our daily bread' seldom, indeed, the mind puts in a claim for without imploring forgiveness of our tres- a merit to which the nerves could make out passes.' a better title. Yet the suffering which ariDeliverance from evil' is a petition of in-ses from acute feeling is so far from deductdefinite extent, and is closely connected with ing from the virtue of resignation, that, when that which precedes it. God cannot lead it does not impede the sacrifice, it enhances us into temptation,' but His Providence may the value. True resignation is the hardest lead us into situations which, acting on the lesson in the whole school of Christ. It is corruption of our hearts, may eventually the oftenest taught and the latest learnt. It produce the evil we deprecate. is not a task which, when once got over in some particular instance, leaves us master of the subject. The necessity of following up the lesson we have begun, presents itself almost every day in some new shape, occurs under some fresh modification. The submission of yesterday does not exonerate us from the resignation of to-day. The principle, indeed, once thoroughly wrought into the soul, gradually reconciles us to the frequent deand for its exercise, and renders every successive call more easy.

When we pray, therefore, not to be led into temptation,' we are asking of God to cure those sinful propensities which are like ly to expose us to it, and to preserve us from those circumstances which, by subjecting us to difficulty and danger, may terininate in

sin.

Temptation, in the language of Scripture, frequently implies probation; a trial sent in order to lay open our real character. Thus God, in tempting Abraham, gave occasion to that illustrious exemplification of faith and obedience in this devoted Patriarch. God is also said to try Hezekiah. This trial led him into the vain display of magnificence and wealth before the foreign ambassadors. The Searcher of hearts already knew this infirmity, yet it is said by the sacred historian, that God left him to try him, that He might know all that was in his heart.' Doubtless the public exposure of his pride was calculated to lead Hezekiah to subsequent repentance and humility; for, in spite of this error, he was eminently conspicuous among the awfully few pious kings of Judah.

There is in the Lord's Prayer a concate

We read dissertations on this subject, not only with the most entire concurrence of the judgment, but with the most apparent conviction of the mind. We write essays upon it in the hour of peace and composure, and fancy that what we have discussed with so much ease and self-complacence, in favour of which we offer so many arguments to convince and so many motives to persuade, cannot be very difficult to practise. But to convince the understanding and to correct the will is a very different undertaking; and not less difficult when it comes to our own case than it was in the case of those for whom we have been so coolly and dogmatically pre

scribing. It is not till we practically find | of God, takes in a large sweep of actual duhow slowly our own arguments produce any ties, as well as the whole compass of passive effect on ourselves that we cease to marvel at obedience. It involves doing as well as suftheir inefficacy on others. The sick physi- fering, activity as well as acquiescence, zeal cian tastes with disgust the bitterness of the as well as forbearance. Yet the concise pedraught, to the swallowing of which he won- tition daily slips off the tongue without our dered the patient had felt so much repug- reflecting on the weight of the obligation we Dance; and the reader is sometimes con- are imposing on ourselves. We do not convinced by the arguments which fail of their sider the extent and consequences of the effect on the writer, when he is called, not prayer we are offering, the sacrifices, the to discuss but to act, not to reason but to trials, the privations it may involve, and the suffer. The theory is so just and the duty so large indefinite obedience to all the known obvious, that even bad men assent to it; the and unknown purposes of Infinite Wisdom to exercise so trying that the best men find it which we are pledging ourselves. more easy to commend the rule than to adopt it. But he who has once gotten engraved, not in his memory but in his heart, this divine precept, Tay WILL BE DONE, has made a proficiency which will render all subsequent instruction comparatively easy.

Though sacrifices and oblations were offered to God under the law by His own express appointment, yet he peremptorily rejected them by his prophets, when presented as substitutes instead of signs. Will He, under a more perfect dispensation, accept of any observances which are meant to supersede internal dedication,-of any offerings unaccompanied by complete desire of acquiescence in his will? My son, give me thine heart,' is his brief but imperative command. But, before we can be brought to comply with the spirit of this requisition, God must enlighten our understanding, that our devotion may be rational; He must rectify our will, that it may be voluntary; He must purify our heart, that it may be spiritual.

Submission is a duty of such high and holy import that it can only be learnt of the Great Teacher. Ifit could have been acquired by mere moral institution, the wise sayings of the ancient philosophers would have taught it. But their most elevated standard was low their strongest motives were the brevity of life, the instability of fortune, the dignity of suffering virtue, things within their narrow sphere of judging; things true, indeed, as far as they go, but a substratum by no means equal to the superstructure to be built on it It wanted depth, and strength, and solidity, for the purposes of support. It wanted the only true basis, the assurance that God orders all things according to the purposes of his will for our final good; it wanted that only sure ground of faith by which the genuine Christian cheerfully submits in entire dependence on the promises of the Gospel.

Nor let us fancy that we are to be languid and inactive recipients of the Divine dispensations. Our own souls must be enlarged, our own views must be ennobled, our own spirit must be dilated. An inoperative acquiescence is not all that is required of us ;and, if we must not slacken our zeal in doing good, so we must not be remiss in opposing evil, on the flimsy ground that God has per mitted evil to infest the world. If it be his will to permit sin, it is an opposition to his will when we do not lahour to counteract it. 'This surrender, therefore, of our will to that

There is no case in which we more shelter ourselves in generalities. Verbal sacrifices cost little, cost nothing. The familiar habit of repeating the petition almost tempts us to fancy that the duty is as easy as the request is short. We are ready to think that a prayer rounded off in four monosyllables can scarcely involve duties co-extensive with our whole course of being; that, in uttering them, we renounce all right in ourselves; that we acknowledge the universal indefeasible title of the blessed and only Potentale; that we make over to Him the right to do in us, and with us, and by us, whatever he sees good for ourselves, whatever will promote His glory, though by means sometimes as incomprehensible to our understanding, as unacceptable to our will, because we neither know the motive, nor perceive the end. These simple words, THY WILL BE DONE, express an act of faith the most sublime, an act of allegiance the most unqualified; and, while they make a declaration of entire submission to a sovereign the most absolute, they are at the same time, a recognition of love to a Father the most beneficent.

We must remember, that in offering this prayer, we may, by our own request, be offering to resign what we most dread to lose, to give up what is dear to us as our own soul; we may be calling on our heavenly Father to withhold what we are most anxiously labouring to attain, and to withdraw what we are most sedulously endeavouring to keep. We are solemnly renouncing our property in ourselves, we are distinctly making ourselves over again to Him whose we already are. We specifically entreat Him to do with us what He pleases, to mould us to a conformity to His image, without which we shall never be resigued to his will; in short, to dispose of us as His infinite wisdom sees best, however contrary to the scheme which our blindness has laid down as the path to unquestionable happiness.

To render this trying petition easy to us, is one great reason why God, by such a variety of providences, afflicts and brings us low. He knows that we want incentives to humility, even more than incitements to virtuous actions. He shows us in many ways, that self-sufficiency and happiness are incompatible; that pride and peace are irreconcilable; that, following our own way, and doing our own will, which we conceive to be the very essence of felicity, is in direct opposition to it.

Under the pressure of any affliction, Thy and security to be attained by a complete will be done, as it is the patient Christian's subjugation to Him who is emphatically calunceasing prayer, so it is the ground of his led the God of order.

unvarying practice. In this brief petition A vital faith manifests itself in vital acts.— he finds his whole duty comprised and ex-Thy will be done,' is eminently a practical pressed. It is the unprompted request of his petition. The first indication of the gaoler's lips, it is the motto inscribed on his heart, it change of heart was a practical indication. is the principle which regulates his life, it is He did not ask, · Are there few that be sathe voice which says to the stormy passions, ved?' but, What shall I do to be saved?'— Peace! be still! Let others expostulate, The first symptom St. Paul gave of his conhe submits Nay, even submission does not version was a practical symptom: Lord, adequately express his feelings. We fre- what wilt thou have me to do?' He entered quently submit, not so much from duty as on his new course with a total renunciation from necessity; we submit, because we can- of his own will. It seemed to this great not help ourselves. Resignation sometimes Apostle to be the turning point between infimay be mere acquiescence in the sovereign- delity and piety, whether he should follow his ty, rather than conviction of the wisdom and own will or the will of God. He did not goodness of God; while the patient Chris- amuse his curiosity with speculative questian not only yields to the dispensation, but tions. His own immediate and grand conadores the dispenser. He not only submits cern engrossed his whole soul. Nor was his to the blow, but vindicates the hand which question a mere hasty effusion, an interroginflicts it: The Lord is righteous in all his ative springing out of that mixed feeling of ways.' He refers to the chastisement as a awe and wonder which accompanied his first proof of the affection of the chastiser. I overwhelming convictions. It became the know that in very faithfulness thou hast abiding principle which governed his future caused me to be afflicted. He recurs to the life, which made him in labours more abunthoughtlessness of his former prosperity. dant. Every successive act of duty, every Before I was afflicted I went astray,' and future sacrifice of ease, sprung from it, was alludes to the trial less as a punishment than influenced by it. His own will, his ardent, a paternal correction. If he prays for a re-impetuous, fiery will, was not merely subdumoval of the present suffering, he prays also that it may not be removed from him, till it has been sanctified to him. He will not even part from the trial till he has laid hold on the benefit.

ed, it was extinguished. His powerful mind indeed lost none of its energy, but his proud heart relinquished all its independence.

We allow and adopt the term devotion as an indispensable part of religion, because it 'Christianity,' says Bishop Horsley, in- is supposed to be limited to the act; but devolves many paradoxes, but no contradic- votedness, from which it is derived, does not tions. To be able to say with entire sur-meet with such ready acceptation, because render of the heart, Thy will be done,' is this is a habit, and a habit involves more the true liberty of the children of God, that than an act; it pledges us to consistency, it liberty with which Christ has made us free. implies fixedness of character, a general It is a liberty, not which delivers us from re-confirmed state of mind, a giving up what straint, but which, freeing us from our sub-we are, and have, and do, to God. Devojection to the senses, makes us find no plea- tedness does not consist in the length of our sure but in order, no safety but in the obedi- prayers, nor in the number of our good ence of an intelligent being to his rightful works, for, though these are the surest eviLord. In delivering us from the heavy bondences of piety, they are not its essence.— dage of sin, it transfers us to the easy yoke Devotedness consists in doing and suffering, of Christ,' from the galling slavery of the bearing and forbearing, in the way which world to the light burden' of him who over- God prescribes. The most inconsiderable came it. duty performed with alacrity, if it opposes our own inclination; the most ordinary trial, met with a right spirit, is more acceptable to Him than a greater effort of our own devising. We do not commend a servant for his activity, if ever so fervently exercised, in doing whatever gratifies his own fancy; we do not consider his performance as obedience, unless his activity has been exercised It is, therefore, no less our interest than in doing what we required of him. Now, our duty, to keep the mind in an habitual how can we insist on his doing what contraposture of submission. Adam,' says Dr.dicts his own humour, while we allow ourHammond, after his expulsion, was a great-selves to feel repugnance in serving our er slave in the wilderness than he had been heavenly Master, when His commands do in the inclosure.' If the barbarian ambas- not exactly fall in with our own inclination? sador came expressly to the Romans to negotiate from his country for permission to be their servants, declaring, that a voluntary submission, even to a foreign power, was preferable to a wild and disorderly freedom, well may the Christian triumph in the peace

This liberty, in giving a true direction to the affections, gives them amplitude as well as elevation. The more unconstrained the will becomes, the more it fixes on one object; once fixed on the highest, it does not use its liberty for versatility, but for constancy; not for change but fidelity; not for wavering, but adherence.

Nothing short, then, of this sincere devotedness to God can enable us to maintain an equality of mind under unequal circumstances. We murmur that we have not the things we ask amiss, not knowing that they are withheld by the same mercy by which