time praying for our brethren. And then there is the ground in reason for this construction of the Model Prayer. When Our Blessed Lord would teach His disciples how words of prayer should become words of power, and take effect in the spiritual world, instead of falling paralysed and impotent to the ground, He dwelt upon two, and only two, great points;-they must be offered in faith; ("Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them;") and they must be offered in love; ("And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.") In other words, the offerer must recognize, while offering them, both his filial relationship to the Father of spirits, and his fraternal relationship to other spirits proceeding from the same Father. In the phenomena of Mesmerism (I am offering no opinion whatever upon their genuineness, but merely referring to them for an illustration), it is said that there must be some secret affinity between the operator and the subject, if the effect is to be produced. The motion of the hands will, in the absence of this affinity, be a mere beating of the air without any visible result. In like manner, the uplifted hands of prayer will not draw down an influence from above-its words, and even cries, will be spoken into the air,-unless first we bring our minds into affinity with the Infinite Mind of God. And this it is impossible to do, first, without faith,

("He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him;") and, secondly, without love. For God's Nature is Love-Love to all created spirits,—and He must necessarily repel those who come to Him in a spirit not His own. And therefore, in building up the structure of His own perfect prayer, Our Lord puts a word of faith first, and a word of love next; "Father of us" (such is the order of the words in the original); " Father," expressive of our relationship to Him; "of us," expressive of our relationship to the brethren. And he (and only he) who realizes these relationships, while he prays, shall pray with power, entering, as it were, into secret affinity with God, and touching the chords of God's heart.

Let me suggest, in conclusion, one method of realizing the latter of these relationships, which may, under God's blessing, prove effectual. Seek to make your prayers for others specific, as far as your knowledge of their character and circumstances allows. Bring before your mind their trials and their needs, and endeavour to place yourself in their point of view, from which point you may be sure the trials and needs will look very different than they do from yours. Remember that to pray for them, without some measure of sympathy with them, would be a mere formality,-the body of intercession without its animating soul. Pray for this sympathy, while you endeavour, by careful consideration of their case, to excite it within yourself;

"Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." Then offer for them the petitions which, if the case were yours, you would offer for yourself. And if the prayer seem as regards them to be ineffectual, yet it shall be accepted on your own behalf as an act of love. The dove which Noah sent forth, when she could find no resting-place outside the ark, came back again fluttering to the window. And similarly our efforts for others, whether of prayer or benevolence, are not lost. If they are not benefited by them, we are in increase of light, and power, and comfort, in whispers of mercy and peace, they return again into our bosom.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE LOVE OF GOD A PRINCIPLE RATHER THAN A

SENTIMENT.

"Ef ye love Me, keep My commandments.”—JOHN xiv. 15.

THE last discourses of Our Lord with His disciples,

THE

from which these words are taken, are full of pathos. The world is shut out; the Everlasting Father and His little children are taking their last farewells one of the other in absolute privacy; the only unfaithful one of the twelve has taken his leave of the supper-room, and gone out upon the execution of his dark design; Our Lord is sure of the sincerity of those who remain, and accordingly He pours out His heart towards them in accents of most touching tenderness. But yet there is a certain element in His conversation, which makes us observe that, while there is pathos in the interview, there is no sentiment (perhaps I should rather say, no sentimentality) in it. Sentiment is an emotion of the heart indulged for its

own sake, because

the indulgence is pleasurable at the moment, and will

be pleasurable in the retrospect; but there is nothing of this kind in the last interview of Christ with His chosen ones. There is here no luxury of grief indulged for a moment, that it may be looked back upon afterwards with a melancholy satisfaction; the pathos flows out of the position, and out of the deep earnestness of the work done in the position. The Good Shepherd, about to leave His little flock, addresses Himself to impress upon their memory those particular topics of consolation, encouragement, and warning, of which He knew they would have most need in His absence. And He strikes in their ears from time to time a certain note, which reminds them that He will repudiate a mere sentimental attachment. He tells them again, in these last moments, what He had told them more publicly in the Sermon on the Mount, that no affection will He acknowledge, but such as takes the practical form of obedience; that the love which He expects from them is a principle, not a sentiment; that it lies in the will and moral choice, rather than in the emotions. Thus in the passage at the head of the chapter; "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." And again in ver. 21, "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me." And again in ver. 23, “If a man love Me, he will keep My words." And again, in chap. xv. "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love." And again, "Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." These are only reiterations to the innermost circle of the dis