hearing his word, in these, and the various other circumstances of our lives, the heart of the devout Christian will be sending upwards many a secret petition; he will be silently wrestling with God, and gaining that divine blessing on all in which he is engaged, which others lose by carelessness and indifference.

This is the old religion; this is the good way; these are the old paths. Jer. vi. 16. Thus Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and David, walked with God; and those who walk thus now, find rest to their souls. In inviting the reader to this constant intercourse with God, we are inviting him to the highest privilegefriendship with his Creator; and to his richest enjoyment-delighting himself in communion with his

Lord.

Do you ask, how you are to obtain, and how you are to keep alive this spirit of prayer? You must seek it; you must cultivate it. The grace of God is sufficient.

TO

And first, MEN NEED A NEW RELATIONSHIP GOD; being by nature born in sin, and afar off from God, we must first be reconciled to him by Jesus Christ. Can two walk together except they be agreed? Amos iii. 3. Lay hold, then, by faith, of the great salvation provided in Christ for guilty sinners; see its fulness, and its freeness; accept the offered mercy; and then, being justified by faith, you will have peace with God. One, when unacquainted with real religion, was much perplexed as to the meaning of the expression so often occuring in the Scripture, of walking with God. But, having at length embraced free salvation, by a crucified Saviour, his heart was continually ascending in devout aspirations, espe

cially in his walks; and then he said, "Now I know what it is to walk with God."

And they also need THE CONTINUAL AID OF THE HOLY GHOST. Outward devotion may be practised by the natural man. The Mahomedans are perpetually counting their beads, and saying many prayers with their lips; a work of mere self-righteousness, or proceeding from ignorance, pride, or superstition. The Roman Catholics are not without similar superstitious practices. And many Protestants have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. When the Holy Ghost is given, then, and then only, we shall belong to that company of which the Apostle says, we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Phil. iii. 3. The Holy Spirit alone can enable us to pray spiritually and constantly.

Thus reconciled to God by Christ, thus aided by his Spirit, you have the first principles of this habit of prayer, which must be cultivated by continual watchfulness, determined resolution, and patient perseverance.

CHAPTER XI.

ON ANSWERS TO PRAYER.

OUR too general neglect of looking for answers to what we ask, shows how little we are in earnest in our petitions. "None ask in earnest," says Trail, "but they will try how they speed. There is no surer and plainer mark of trifling in prayer, than when men are careless what they get by prayer." A husbandman is not content without the harvest; a marksman will observe whether the ball hits the target; a physician watches the effect of the medicine which he gives; one who writes or applies to another for any temporal good eagerly expects the answer; and shall the Christian be careless about the effect of his labour?

Every prayer of the Christian, made in faith according to the will of God, for that which God hath promised, offered up in the name of Jesus Christ, and under the influence of his Spirit, whether for temporal or for spiritual blessings, is, or will be fully answered, either in the specific thing asked for, or in that which, on the whole, is better for us. God always answers the general design and intention

of his people's prayers, in doing that which, all things considered, is for the best, most for his own glory, and their spiritual and eternal welfare. As we never find that Jesus Christ rejected a single supplicant who came to him for mercy, so we believe that no prayer made in his name will be in vain. "The answer of prayer may be approaching, though we discern not its coming. The seed in winter that lies under ground, is taking root in order to spring and harvest, though it appear not above ground, but seems dead and lost."

Bring every thing before God in prayer. Whatever interests you will interest him, and if you ask for things that are improper, he who is wise and good, will give you what is best for you on the whole.

The time, or the mode of granting the request may vary indeed from our wishes; but yet the prayer made as above stated is heard, the desire so put up is fulfilled.

Bishop Taylor observes, "As for those irregular donations of good things which wicked persons ask for, and have, they are either no mercies, but instruments of cursing and crime; or else they are designs of grace, intended to convince them of their unworthiness, and so, if they become not instruments of their conversion, they are aggravations of their ruin."

In asking for SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS, for repentance, faith, humility, holiness, love, &c. we are sure of having the particular request granted, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification. Yet in these things the way of granting the request may, at first sight, seem like a denial.

Remarkable, sometimes, are the ways in which prayers for spiritual blessings are answered. We pray for an increase of faith, patience, resignation, or other Christian graces; and our trials, instead of being removed, seems greatly aggravated. The clouds grow darker and darker. But the secret supports of the Holy Spirit being afforded, we do not sink under our burden. And in the midst of all these trials, the very things for which we asked are given. There is no exercise for faith when all is smooth: no room for patience and resignation when there is no suffering; the very graces which we sought, need difficulties, sorrows, and trials, in order to be manifested, exercised, and granted. Often the very sentence of death is put upon all our hopes, before they are realized. The extremity of suffering is the point of our deliverance. Let the tried Christian, then, attend to Cowper's exhortation:

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take!
The clouds ye so much dread,

Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

It is the main desire of every Christian, in a proper state of mind, that God only should be glorified, and his will alone be done; and when he asks for TEMPORAL BLESSINGS, he does it with full purpose of heart, not to have his own wishes accomplished, farther than as they concur with the will of God,. which will, he is assured, ever designs his supreme happiness. Delight thyself in the Lord, and he will give thee the desire of thy heart. If you are really delighting in the Lord, the desire of the heart will be mainly for spiritual things; and for temporal