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 his highest privilege-friendship 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.

And first, MEN NEED A NEW RELATIONSHIP TO 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, 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 occurring 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, especially 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.

CHAP. X.

On the Spirit of Prayer for the Enlargement of the Kingdom of Christ.

AMID all that sin and sorrow which the Christian sees in the world, observes in his family, or feels in his own heart, there is one bright prospect on which his eye can dwell with unmingled satisfaction, in the anticipation of which his heart can exult with unbounded joy ; -the promised time when truth and righteousness, and peace shall universally prevail.

That such a time will come, a simple-minded and humble reader of the Scriptures can have no doubt. Such passages as the following plainly point out an extension of the gospel which has never yet taken place,

Ps. xxii, 27. All the ends of the earth shall remember,

and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

Ps. lxxii, 11. All kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

Ps. lxxxvi, 9. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, and shall glorify thy name. Is. xi, 9. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

Rom. xi, 25, 26. Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved.

Rev. xi, 15. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our God, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever.

Observe the fulness of each of these expressions. Surely they foretel the universal spread of Christianity. To deny this, would, as Edwards has observed, be in effect to say, that it would have been impossible for God, if he had desired it, plainly to have foretold any thing that should absolutely have extended to all the nations of the earth. To suppose that these are merely highwrought figures, and that events answerable to them are not likely to take place, is little short of supposing au intention to mislead others.

We may, then, rejoice in the delightful prospect which the Bible thus opens before us.

But these promises involve a duty, as well as convey a cheering prospect; the duty of exerting ourselves to promote the coming of this kingdom.

Among other means of doing so, the duty of prayer is of the first importance.

This subject is so little noticed in general, and yet forms so large a part of that prayer which our Lord

teaches his disciples daily to use, that, though it has already been in some measure anticipated, when stating the subject of Intercession in the chapter on Private Prayer, it justly calls for distinct consideration.

While it is clear from various promises, that the kingdom of Christ shall universally prevail, it is no less manifest that there are DIFFICULTIES WHICH ONLY A DIVINE POWER CAN OVERCOME.

There are many oppressing powers of a nature that no arm of flesh can subdue. Man may contend with man, with some hope of success; but in contending with principalities and powers, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, and with spiritual wickedness in high places, we want divine aid. We must pray with the prophet, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. How can Satan be dethroned from his palace, the heart of man, till a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him?

All men's natural inclinations and corrupt opinions also oppose the reception of the gospel. Nothing is more absurd to him who knows not the Bible, and the power of God, than to imagine that the blinded Hindoo, enchained in his caste; the acute and licentious Mahomedan, reverencing his false prophet; the savage and degraded African, and the barbarous New Zealander, should give up their various notions, and embrace the pure, holy, and humbling truths of the gospel of Christ.

The means also by which this change is to be effected appear to man utterly inefficient. The preaching of the cross of Christ is still, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; and it is evident, to make these means effectual, we must look for the

power of God, and the wisdom of God. No arm of flesh can help us here: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.

MANY OF THE great PROMISES of Scripture, relative to that happy period of which we have been speaking, seem to CALL FOR THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER.

Observe the determination of the Saviour and his Church---For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: (Isa. Ixii, 1, 2.) and then notice how this determined zeal in seeking to promote the light and glory of the church is approved and requited; Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence; and give him no rest till he esta· blish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Ver. 6, 7.

THE INTERCESSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IN HEAVEN is much on this subject. It is one part of his prayer, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John xvii, 21. And he so earnestly desires. the salvation of man, that it is called the travail of his soul. In the 2d Psalm, the Father is described as addressing the Son thus: Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Ps. ii, 8. Doubtless the Son has fulfilled this, as he has fulfilled every other part of his blessed office as an Intercessor. Hence we have more encouragement from his intercession to pray for the conversion of the heathen, than for almost any other object. We are sure that the Son of God intercedes for us in this particular thing, and offers up our prayers.