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churches, which they had established, for this return: "Ye also helping together by prayer for us." "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified." The connection between prayer and the glories of the Deity is explicitly asserted: "O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come." "Prayer shall be made for Him continually.” Do we not perceive and understand" that, by this instrument, we come even to His seat,"-touch the centre of all power, and, by means the most evidently direct, secure the end? And many reasons might be suggested why we should "abound in this grace?" Our Missions necessitate much earthly care and management, but this spiritualises afresh our aims and motives. The purposes we meditate are pure and enduring as the immortal soul,-this preserves them in delicacy and steadiness. Our successes are manifestly beyond the reach of mortal arm, this hangs all the weight of glory upon that of Omnipotence. We should most wickedly offend, did we yield to any temper of boast, this checks and conquers it. It is, therefore, ordered that "for all these things God shall be enquired of to do them for us." Nothing can be more just. Prayer is an act of dependence. It is self-renouncement. It seeks the All-sufficience. It is His acknowledgment. Though the greatest influence which man can wield,-for it lays hold of God's strength, it is granted to the poorest and most unknown of the Church. The widow, having cast her mites into the treasury, retains this vast resource:

"She continueth in supplications and prayers night and day." Here is an availing strength which vibrates through heaven and earth. Oh how mean does wealth appear when brought into comparison with it! How vile is the homage which is paid to it! Our money perishes with us. "The rich man shall fade away in his ways." But prayer is "for a memorial before God"! How pleasing is that "record on high," to Him who has said: "Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me." “Put me in remembrance." "Prove me now herewith."

"I have set

watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."

The themes for these devotional aspirations will vary. The constant succession "of faithful men able to teach others also," men of spirit and understanding, men "whose hearts God hath touched;" -the purity of Missionary character, its taintless chastity of honour and holiness; the vitality of personal and domestic religion in the churches confederated for this high concern ; - the stability of our distant proselytes;-the unsuspected character of our agents;-the melting down of the bigotry and avarice which have so long enslaved the Christian profession--the transformation of national mind and temper; the yielding of the hearts of kings and senators; the demolition of the proud foundations

of ignorance and iniquity;— all are matters for petition which circumstances may lead us to dictate more or less expressly. But he is not a Christian who "seeks his own, and not the things of Jesus Christ." If we "walk worthy of that vocation," nothing lies so near our hearts as His cause in the earth. "None of us liveth to himself." "To live is Christ." If on the first establishing of the Gospel, all were commanded to pray, often as for their "daily bread,"—" Our Father which art in heaven, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven :”— now that that "kingdom" is erected, and now that that "will" is made known, our prayer should be still more frequent and engrossed. Daily as we commune with our Father, let this be our importunate suit it will not only be a filial cry, but will prove that we care for all His children.

To "the God of the spirits of all flesh," let us pour out our "fervent effectual prayer which availeth much." May the Church take her place no longer between the porch and the altar, but between the living and the dead! May she lift up her prayer for the remnant that is left! May she cause her voice to pierce the Ear which is not heavy that it should not hear! Let her pray always and not faint. Has not such importunate intercession almost to begin? Where are the praying people? "And there is none that calleth upon Thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee." "But thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of Me, O Israel." Too just, and most overwhelming,

rebuke! We have even done much to frustrate and postpone the fulfilment of petitions which others have offered to Him. From the time when men begun to call upon the name of the Lord, the devotion of every age, the orison of every dispensation, has ascended to Him in earnest beseechings that he would fill the earth with his glory. O the illustrious, sainted, millions who have joined their voices in it! With this their prayers have ended! Out of the depths have they cried for this! Yet are their prayers, laid up as a vast treasure-store, not hitherto accomplished. They await their answer, and that answer depends on us! God is not "unfaithful," He is not "forgetful," He is not "slack." Every tear of their earnest piety has He put into his bottle, and they are beaded there! The golden vials have attracted into them the ever-breathing odours of their supplication, and seem now to overflow! All the entreaties that ever rose-Adam's for his race, Abraham's for the Hebrew, Paul's for the Gentile, Christ's for the World, - are delayed their fullest influence, until we complete them; they, without us, cannot be made perfect! Let us but "strive together in our prayers,”—and suddenly shall break forth the full utterance of prayer, in a moment, each silent desire vocal, each solitary moan articulate, each stammered word rehearsed, until they swell into one acclaim, like the sound of many waters, round about the Throne, and have their "POWER WITH GOD"!

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MISSIONS,

PRODUCTIVE OF INVALUABLE ADVANTAGES TO THOSE WHO UNDERTAKE THEM.

THE harmony of duty with privilege, in the whole system of the Gospel, cannot fail to arrest the attention of all who examine it. In the language of Paul to Philemon, it is "bold in Christ to enjoin that which is convenient."

Upon the duty in general of spreading the Christian truth among the unenlightened nations, the question seems too clear for discussion. Any argument that would establish the duty of charity to relieve earthly indigence and bodily misery, would confirm this higher order of obligations in the proportion of the infinite to the finite. With an immediate decision the first disciples met the wants of man. Did they hear the plaint: "Come over and help us"? They deliberated not on the nature of the implored aid. They thought not of plague, famine, war, or of their antidotes. They knew but one succour for him "that hath no helper." "They assuredly gathered that the Lord had called them for to preach the Gospel unto them."

But a retro-active benefit has been experienced by churches which have most spiritedly and devotedly