awed by the perfections of a holy and heart-thing? They do not consider him as that insearching God. The heart is dissatisfied with finitely gracious Being, who, while he beholds its own dull and tasteless repetitions which, with at once all that is doing in heaven and in earth, all their imperfections, Infinite Goodness may, is at the same time as attentive to the prayer of perhaps, hear with favour.*-We may not only the poor destitute, as present to the sorrowful be elated with the fluency but even with the sighing of the prisoner, as if each of these forfervency of our prayers. Vanity may grow out lorn creatures were individually the object of of the very act of renouncing it, and we may his undivided attention. begin to feel proud at having humbled ourselves so eloquently.

There is, however, a strain and spirit of prayer equally distinct from that facility and copiousness for which we certainly are never the better in the sight of God, and from that constraint and dryness for which we may be never the worse. There is a simple, solid, pious strain of prayer, in which the supplicant is so filled and occupied with a sense of his own dependence, and of the importance of the things for which he asks, and so persuaded of the power and grace of God through Christ to give him those things, that while he is engaged in it, he does not merely imagine, but feels assured that God is nigh to him as a reconciled Father, so that every burden and doubt are taken off from his mind. He knows,' as St. John expresses it, that he has the petitions he desired of God,' and feels the truth of that promise, while they are yet speaking I will hear. This is the perfection of Prayer.

CHAP. IV.

On the Effects of Prayer.

It is objected by a certain class, and on the specious ground of humility too, though we do not always find the objector himself quite as humble as his plea would be thought, that it is arrogant in such insignificant beings as we are to presume to lay our petty necessities before the Great and Glorious God, who cannot be ex. pected to condescend to the multitude of trifling and even interfering requests which are brought before him by his creatures. These and such like objections arise from mean and unworthy thoughts of the Great Governor of the Universe. It seems as if those who make them considered the Most High as such a one as themselves;' a Being, who can perform a certain given quantity of business, but who would be overpowered with an additional quantity. Or, at best, is it not considering the Almighty in the light, not of an Infinite God, but of a great man, of a minister, or a king, who, while he superin. tends public and national concerns, is obliged to neglect small and individual petitions; because his hands being full, he cannot spare that leisure and attention which suffice for every

Of these sort of repetitions, our admirable Church Liturgy has been accused as a fault; but this defect, if it be one, happily accommodates itself to our infirmities, Where is the favoured being whose attention never wanders, whose heart accompanies his lips in every sen tence? Is there no absence of mind in the petitioner, no wandering of the thoughts, no inconstancy of the heart, which these repetitions are wisely calculated to correct, to rouse the dead attention, to bring back the strayed

affections?

These critics, who are for sparing the Supreme Being the trouble of our prayers, and who, if I may so speak without profaneness, would relieve Omnipotence of part of his burden, by assigning to his care only such a portion as may be more easily managed, seem to have no adequate conception of his attributes.

They forget that infinite wisdom puts him as easily within reach of all knowledge, as infinite power does of all performance; that he is a Being in whose plans complexity makes no difficulty, variety no obstruction, and multiplicity no confusion; that to ubiquity distance does not exist; that to infinity space is annihilated; that past, present, and future, are discerned more accurately at one glance of His eye, to whom a thousand years are as one day, than a single moment of time or a single point of space can be by ours.

Another class continue to bring forward, as pertinaciously as if it had never been answered, the exhausted argument, that seeing God is immutable, no petitions of ours can ever change Him: that events themselves being settled in a fixed and unalterable course, and bound in a fatal necessity, it is folly to think that we can disturb the established laws of the universe, or interrupt the course of Providence by our prayers; and that it is absurd to suppose these firm decrees can be reversed by any requests of ours.

Without entering into the wide and trackless field of fate and free will, we would only observe, that these objections apply equally to all human actions as well as to prayer. It may therefore with the same propriety be urged, that seeing God is immutable and his decrees unalterable, therefore our actions can produce no change in Him or in our own state. Weak as well as impious reasoning! It may be questioned whether even the modern French and German philosophers might not be prevailed upon to acknowledge the existence of God, if they might make such a use of his attributes.

results from a humble Christian spirit! Such a How much more wisdom as well as happiness plain practical text as 'Draw near unto God, and he will draw near unto you,' carries more consolation, more true knowledge of his wants and their remedy to the heart of a penitent sinner, than all the tomes of casuistry, which have puzzled the world ever since the question was first set afloat by its original propounders.

And as the plain man only got up and walked, to prove there was such a thing as motion, in answer to the philosopher who, in an elaborate theory, denied it; so the plain Christian, when he is borne down with the assurance that there is no efficacy in prayer, requires no better argument to repel the assertion than the good he finds in prayer itself. A Christian knows, because he feels, that prayer is, though in a way to him inscrutable, the medium of con

nexion between God and his rational creatures,, the method appointed by Him to draw down his blessings upon us. The Christian knows that prayer is the appointed means of uniting two ideas, one of the highest magnificence, the other of the most profound lowliness, within the compass of the imagination; namely, that it is the link of communication between the High and Lofty One who inhabiteth eternity,' and that heart of the contrite in which he delights to dwell.' He knows that this inexplicable union between beings so unspeakably, so essentially different, can only be maintained by prayer; that this is the strong but secret chain which unites time with eternity, earth with heaven, man with God.

enough for him to be convinced experimentally by that internal evidence which is perhaps paramount to all other evidence, the comfort he him self has received from prayer, when all other comforts have failed and, above all, to end with the same motive with which we began, the only motive indeed which he requires for the performance of any duty; it is motive enough for him,-that Thus saith the Lord.

Others there are, who, perhaps not controverting any of these premises, yet neglect to build practical consequences on the admission of them; who neither denying the duty nor the efficacy of prayer, yet go on to live either in the irregular observance or the total neglect of it, as appetite, or pleasure, or business, or humour, may happen to predominate; and who by living almost without prayer, may be said, 'to live almost without God in the world.' To such we can only say, that they little know what they lose. The time is hastening on when they will look upon those blessings as invaluable, which now they think not worth asking for; when they will bitterly regret the absence of those means and opportunities which now they either neglect or despise. O that they were wise! that they understood this! that they would con

The plain Christian, as was before observ. ed, cannot explain why it is so; but while he feels the efficacy, he is contented to let the learned define it; and he will no more postpone prayer till he can produce a chain of reasoning on the manner in which he derives benefit from it, than he will postpone eating till he can give a scientific lecture on the nature of digestion: he is contented with knowing that his meat has nourished him and he leaves to the philosopher, who may choose to defer his meal till he has elaborated his treatise, to starve in the in-sider their latter end!' terim.-The Christian feels better than he is able to explain, that the functions of his spiritual life can no more be carried on without habitual prayer, than those of his natural life with. out frequent bodily nourishment. He feels renovation and strength grow out of the use of the appointed means, as necessarily in the one case as in the other. He feels that the health of his soul can no more be sustained, and its powers kept in continual vigour by the prayers of a distant day, than his body by the aliment of a distant day.

There are again, others, who it is to be feared, having once lived in the habit of prayer, yet not having been well grounded in those principles of faith and repentance on which genuine prayer is built, have by degrees totally discontinued it. They do not find,' say they, that their affairs prosper the better or are the worse; or perhaps they were unsuccessful in their affairs even before they dropt the practice, and so had no encouragement to go on.' They do not know that they had no encouragement; they do not know how much worse their affairs might have gone But there is one motive to the duty in ques-on, had they discontinued it sooner, or how their tion, far more constraining to the true believer than all others that can be named; more imperative than any argument on its utility, than any conviction of its efficacy, even than any experience of its consolations. Prayer is the command of God; the plain, positive, repeated injunction of the Most High, who declares, 'He will be inquired of.' This is enough to secure the obedience of the Christian, even though a promise were not, as it always is, attached to the command. But in this case, to our unspeakable comfort, the promise is as clear as the precept: Ask, and ye shall receive.' This is encouragement enough for the plain Christian. As to the manner in which prayer is made to coincide with the general scheme of God's plan in the government of human affairs; how God has left himself at liberty to reconcile our prayer with his own predetermined will, the Christian does not very critically examine, his precise and immediate duty being to pray, and not to examine.

In the mean time it is enough for the humble believer to be assured, that the Judge of all the earth is doing right; it is enough for him to be assured in that word of God' which cannot lie,' of numberless actual instances of the efficacy of prayer in obtaining blessings and averting calaamities, both national and individual; it is

prayers helped to retard their ruin. Or they do not know that perhaps they asked amiss,' or that, if they had obtained what they asked, they might have been far more unhappy. For a true believer never restrains prayer,' because he is not certain that he obtains every individual request; for he is persuaded that God, in compassion to our ignorance, sometimes in great mercy withholds what we desire, and often disappoints his most favoured children by giving them not what they ask, but what he knows is really good for them. The froward child, as a pious prelate* observes, cries for the shining blade, which the tender parent withholds, knowing it would cut his fingers.

Thus to persevere when we have not the encouragement of visible success, is an evidence of tried faith. Of this holy perseverance Job was a noble instance. Defeat and disappoint ment rather stimulated than stopped his prayers Though in a vehement strain of passionate elo quence he exclaims, I cry out of wrong, but 1 am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment:' yet so persuaded was he notwith standing of the duty of continuing this holy im portunity, that he persisted against all human hope, till he attained to that exalted pitch of

་

* Bishop Hall

More or fewer words, however, so little constitute the true value of prayer, that there is no doubt but one of the most affecting specimens on record is the short petition of the Publican, full fraught as it is with that spirit of contrition and self-abasement which is the very principle and soul of prayer. And this specimen, perhaps, is the best model for that sudden lifting up of the heart which we call ejaculation. But we Even the sincerely pious have in prayer doubt, in general, whether the few hasty words, grievous wanderings to lament, from which to which these frugal petitioners would stint the others mistakingly suppose the advanced Chrisscanty devotions of others and themselves, will tian to be exempt. Such wanderings that, as an be always found ample enough to satisfy the old divine has observed, it would exceedingly humble penitent, who, being a sinner, has much humble a good man, could he, after he had prayto confess; who, hoping he is a pardoned sin-ed, be made to see his prayers written down, ner, has much to acknowledge. Such a one, perhaps, cannot always pour out the fulness of his soul within the prescribed abridgments.

help my unbelief,' if the supplicant be in so happy a frame, and the prayer be darted up with such strong faith, that his very soul mounts with the petition, may suffice to draw down a blessing which may be withheld from the more prolix petitioner: yet if by prayer we do not mean a mere form of words, whether it be long or short; but that secret communion between God and the soul which is the very breath and being of religion; then is the Scripture so far from suggesting that short measure of which it is accused, that it expressly says, 'Pray without ceasing; Pray evermore;'-'I will that men pray every where ;'-'Continue instant in prayer.'

All habits gain by exercise; of course the Christian graces gain force and vigour by being called out, and, as it were, mustered in prayer. Love, faith, and trust in the Divine promises, if they were not kept alive by this stated inter-it. course with God, would wither and die.

is more incumbent to solicit support against the No: he uses the solemn admonition to stir us up temptations which may be about to assail him; to moral goodness-therefore, 'be sober'-he none to whom the petition for an enlightened does more, he uses it to excite us to religious conscience, an upright intention, a sound pro- vigilance, and watch unto prayer.' bity, and an undeviating sincerity, is of more importance.

What is so likely as prayer to enable him to stand prepared to meet the accidental fluctuations in his affairs, to receive without inebriation, a sudden flow of prosperous fortune, or to sustain any adverse circumstances with resignation ?

Even persons in more retired situations, even those who have made considerable advances in religion cannot but acknowledge how much the ordinary and necessary cares of daily life, especially, how much any unexpected accession to them, are likely to cause absence and distraction in their devotions:-how much then ought they, whose whole life is business, to be on their guard against these dangers, to double their vigilance against them, and to implore direction under

them.

Were the Christian militant accustomed never to engage in the moral battle of daily life, without putting on this panoply, the shafts of temptation would strike with a feeble and erring blow; they would not so deeply pierce the guarded heart. And were fervent humble daily prayer once conscientiously adopted, its effects would reach beyond the week-day engagements. It would gradually extend its benign influence to the postponing of settling accounts, the festive dinner, and the not absolutely necessary journey, to one of those six days in which we are enjoined to labour. It would lead him to the habit of doing no manner of work' on that day, in which the doing of it was prohibited by the great Lawgiver in his own person.

We have more than once alluded to the diversities of character, occasional events, differ. ence in the state of mind as well as of circum. stances, which may not only render the prayer which is suitable to one man unsuitable to another, but unsuitable to the same man under every alteration of circumstances.

But among the proper topics for prayer, there is one which, being of universal interest ought not to be omitted. For by whatever dissimilarity of character, capacity, profession, station, or temper, the condition of man, and, of course, the nature of prayer, is diversified-there is one grand point of union, one circumstance, one condition, in which they must all meet; one state, of which every man is equally certain; one event which happeneth to all,-it is appointed unto every man once to die.' The rugged road of sorrow, the flowery path of pleasure, as well as

Prayer against the fear of death, by keeping up in us a constant remembrance of our mortality, will help to wean us from a too intimate attachment to the things we are so soon to quit. By this habitual preparation to meet our Judge, we shall be brought to pray more earnestly for an interest in the great Intercessor; and to strive more effectually against every offence which may aggravate the awfulness of that meeting.

Fervent prayer, that divine grace may prepare us for death, will, if cordially adopted, answer many great moral purposes. It will remind every individual of every class that the time is short-that there is no repentance in the grave.'

་

·

Perhaps even the worldly and thoughtless man, under an occasional fit of dejection, or an accidental disappointment, may be brought to say, When I am in heaviness, I will think upon God.'-Oh, think upon Him, call upon Him, now,-now, when you are in prosperity; now, when your fortunes are flourishing; now, when your hill is so strong that you think it shall never be removed: think upon Him, call upon Him, when the scene is the brightest, when the world courts, flatteries invite, and pleasures betray you; think on Him, while you are able to think at all, while you possess the capacity of thinking. The time may come, when He may turn his face from you, and you will be troubled.' Think of God, when the alluring images of pleasure and of profit would seduce you from Him. Prosperity is the season of peculiar pe. ril. It is the bright day that brings forth the adder.' Think of God when the tempting world says, All this I will give thee.' Trust not the insolvent world, it has cheated every creditor that ever trusted it. It will cheat you.

་

To the man of opulence, who heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them, prayer will be a constant memento: it will remind him that he walketh in a vain shadow, and disquiet. eth himself in vain; it will remind him of laying up treasures where thieves cannot enter, nor rust corrode.

The habit of praying against the fear of death, would check the pride of youthful beauty, by reminding her how soon it must say to the worm, Thou art my father, and to corruption, Thou art my mother and sister.

The man of genius, he who thought that of making many books there would be no end; who, in his zeal to write, had neglected to pray; who thought little of any immortality but that which was to be conferred by the applause of dying creatures like himself; who, in the vanity of possessing talents, had forgotten that he must one day account for the application of them; if happily he should be brought to see the evil of his own heart, to feel the wants of his own soul, how intense will be his repentance, how deep his remorse, that he had loved the 'The end of all things is at hand.' To what praise of men more than the praise of God! how purpose does the apostle convert this awful pro-fervently will he pray that his mercies may not clamation? Does he use it to encourage gloomy aggravate the account of his sins; that his tatempers, to invite to unprofitable melancholy? lents may not become the instrument of his

The paths of glory, lead but to the grave.' In praying, therefore, against the fear of death, we do not pray against a contingent but a certain evil; we pray to be delivered from the overwhelming dread of that house which is appointed for all living-we are put in mind that all who are born must die!