As rational beings we can only desire those things which seem to us to be good in themselves, and suitable to our circumstances; and we cannot, of course, consistently ask more than these. From the almost infinite variety of objects that excite our desires, a selection must be made of those which are truly valuable and fitted to confer the delight that is worthy of man's exalted nature. In making the selection we shall egregiously err unless we allow ourselves to be guided by the experience of the wise, and by the revelation from heaven.

The

It is, moreover, obvious that we may do right in asking many things which God does right in withholding. It is not demanding too much of any man that he resign himself without reserve to the good and righteous pleasure of his Maker. good-will of God towards the children of men is very great; but it is not the blind affection of a fond and ignorant parent. It is the affection of the living and true God, who, with infinite resources, possesses infinite knowledge. It is the good-will not only of large but also of intelligent love-not only of unmeasured kindness, but also of ever watchful care-all whose manifestations are under the most perfect control of unerring wisdom. The love and good-will of "the blessed and only Potentate" towards us, then, though it be never incapacitated by folly, nor enfeebled by weakness, nor restricted by a sparing parsimony, nor stinted by a penurious economy, is ever regulated and limited in its developments by superior knowledge and unsearchable wisdom.

It seems easy and natural to infer, from the form of expression which it has pleased the Almighty to adopt, that we are permitted and commanded to pray for everything that may seem to us desirable, because the love and kindness of God toward us is really infinite and boundless. The whole tenor of Holy Scripture supports this inference. The word of God would rectify, but never represses, our desires; it invariably stimulates them. God never commands us to contract our wishes, but to purify and enlarge them-never forbids the utterance of the longing of our hearts, but always encourages the most unreserved expression of our wants. And our God does this on the ground now stated-his unlimited desire to favour and bless us. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." We are assured by himself that "he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," Eph. iii. 20.

The invitation from heaven is as universal in its application to individual men as it is unlimited in its offer of blessing. This we may learn from the language of the Saviour himself, "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." What

an amazingly glorious summons! Every sinner invited and commanded to draw near to his offended God through Christ Jesus.

Were

Man did once possess a key-the key of innocence-by means of which he had liberty of access at all times to the presence-chamber of the Deity. But that key he has thoughtlessly lost; nay, rather, wickedly and impiously cast away. Though he search he shall not find it. Were he to give all his possessions, the whole cannot purchase a new one. he to put forth all his skill and energy, he would never succeed in making another. The door of heaven was shut against us -no created being could open it for our admission. It was fastened to secure our exclusion by the law of God-it was sealed with the seal of holiness, which cannot be broken, and guarded by the sword of Justice, which is too sure in its strokes to be evaded, and too sharp in its edge to be resisted. Glory be to God, a new way of access has been prepared; it is a living way. By the blood of Jesus, and by that blood alone, we are permitted, nay, not only permitted, but we have boldness to enter "into the holiest" (Heb. x. 20)—into the immediate presence of "the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God," with an absolute assurance that our feeblest cry shall be heard, and our every petition attentively and kindly considered.

What a wondrous and benignant summons! Each sinful man is authorized and ordered to draw near, through the blood of Emmanuel, to his offended God-to behold the countless riches of his treasury, the innumerable mansions of his palace, the boundless extent of his kingdom; and to ask whatsoever he will, with the assurance that his sincere and humble prayer will be heard, and answered-not perhaps at the very time that he expects the answer, but, if not so, in a fitter and more propitious season-not, probably, in the manner that he had wished, but, if not so, in a superior and kinder way. Here, then, we have an unlimited offer of blessing made universally to all.

Is this true? Is this offer made in good faith by the Almighty and Holy One? It is. For, though a finite feeble man cannot possess all things, his capacity to receive and enjoy being limited, God's kindliness and good-will toward him are not limited. God will not, God cannot, give us literally whatever we may ask. But He is ready to do so if our capacity permitted, or if reason sanctioned, or if benevolence approved the gift. God is perfectly sincere and altogether hearty in assuring us that his love toward us knows no limits. Hence

our every prayer-every prayer that proceeds from the understanding and the heart-is tenderly listened to by our heavenly Father, and our importunity in supplication, paradoxical as the assertion may appear, has power with the unchangeable sovereign of the universe.

An objection may possibly arise in the mind of some at this point. You grant, it will be said, what experience proves, that no man obtains every thing that he asks from God in

prayer; and, consequently, does it not appear that prayer, so far
as certain things which you desire are concerned, is only lost
labour. But what is the amount of such a remark? Is it
not this? Because God has all things in his own sovereign
and impartial hand, and reserves to himself the time and the
method of answering prayer, and refuses to pledge himself to
grant, exactly to the letter, every foolish wish of every weak
and sinful man,-you think it proper to decline to avail your-
self of his large and generous promises to hear your prayers.
Such an opinion is clearly fraught with all the elements of rash-
ness and ungodliness. It at once contradicts the word of Him
who cannot lie, and arraigns the providence of Him who cannot
The God-fearing man, on the contrary, while he devoutly
acknowledges that he does not, and cannot, understand the
character and ways of the Most High,-implicitly believes his
most gracious promises, accepts his kind invitations, and
commits the affairs of his body as well as those of his soul, the
concerns of time as well as those of eternity, by prayer and
supplication, to the supreme power, and matchless wisdom, and
yearning love, of the God of his salvation. He makes all his
desires known to his Father in heaven, because he fully trusts
his love; and because he relies upon the wisdom of his God
more than on his own, the language of his heart is ever
such as this:-
--

err.

"Not what I wish, but what I want,

Let mercy still supply;

The good, unasked, let mercy grant;
The ill, though ask'd, deny."

Let us endeavour, for one moment, to realize more perfectly the position in which this Divine promise, or summons, places the sinful man who reads, or hears it. Before it reaches him he has nothing; all the privileges of his birth-right he has forfeited; having left his Father's house, and despised his Father's love, he is wandering, a wretched outcast, in the wilderness, every moment exposed to the thunderbolt of Divine wrath. His patrimony, which was holiness, he has squandered in the extravagance of iniquity. Righteousness, his beautiful

THE ENGLISH MONTHLY TRACT SOCIETY, 27, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON

garment, he has worn out and cast away. He is hungry, but has not wherewithal to allay the cravings of appetite. He has companions, but their fellowship only increases his delusion and his misery. He has nothing but guilt in his conscience, fear in his heart, the curse of his Maker on his forehead, and the anger of Jehovah burning around him.

Each sinful man, while in these circumstances, is addressed by the Lord of Heaven, in the language quoted above from the gospel by Matthew. He is invited to go, in thought, to Mount Calvary-to place himself at the foot of the cross-to believe in Emmanuel crucified for him on that accursed treeand then, to look all around and above, to contemplate all the beauties and joys and wealth of earth-to lift his heart to all the glories and holiness and bliss of heaven-to scan the works of creation and the ways of Providence in all their magnificent grandeur and mysterious complexity. And while thus employed he hears the voice of God addressing him, " Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find."

Perishing, yet invited sinner! How great, how immeasurably great, is this your present privilege! The King of kings is sitting "upon his royal throne in the royal house," and he is inviting you to come near, to approach closely to his footstool -to his throne. You are allowed to go. You are urged by every argument to go. You are commanded by all authority to go. You are invited by every pledge and promise of love to go. In all your poverty-in all your nakedness-in all your filthiness-in all your wretchedness-go. Wait not till you are washed, or clothed, or blessed. Draw near, just as you are, even though you be the chief of sinners. The first moment that the King of kings, the Omniscient One, notices your trembling, halting, humble approach, he will hold out to you "the golden sceptre that is in his hand;" and when you have touched the top of it, sprinkled as it is with priceless blood, you may look around you from the presence of the Most High, and survey with enraptured eye all the grandeur of the universe, whether in heaven above or on the earth beneath, and whilst engaged with this thrilling prospect you will hear a voice, even from the throne itself, addressing you.

And what is the language of that Divine voice? Is it this? "What wilt thou, O sinner, and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom." No. This is the promise, the most generous promise, of an earthly king; but it is poor and common, compared with the promise of the Lord of Hosts who giveth not as man giveth. God's offer is a better and a larger offer.

What, then, is the language of the voice addressed by God himself to every penitent and believing sinner of the family of man ? "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive," Matt. xxi. 22. "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it," John xiv. 13, 14. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you," John xv. 7. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you," John xvi. 23. These promises are given to the twelve, but not in virtue of their apostleship, we apprehend, but in virtue of their discipleship.

Hence we have the most abundant reason for concluding that the good-will of the Lord God Almighty and All-wise, which he is manifesting towards us, is not small, nor stinted, nor circumscribed, as we are all too constantly prone to imagine; but it is large, free, overflowing, immeasurable. It is obviously in the full belief of this most cheering truth that we should go to the throne of grace." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins," 1 John iv. 10. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ?" Rom. viii. 32.

Believing in God's unfettered, unrestricted, glowing love to us, we ought to cultivate pure, but enlarged desires; holy, but expanded hopes; unselfish, but extensive purposes; and then pour out our bursting hearts before him.

"Thou art coming to a king,

Large petitions with thee bring;
For his love and power are such,

Thou canst never ask too much."

Is it so? Is it a truth written with the finger of God, and sealed with the blood of Emmanuel, and proclaimed by the heralds of heaven, "Ask, and it shall be given you?" Why, then, is it that devotion so often becomes irksome to men; that their petitions are so poor; the favours which they seek so few; their seasons of supplication so short; their fervour so feeble; that importunity in prayer is rashly confounded with presumption; that, with base ingratitude and injurious folly, prayer is restrained before God; that limits are set, with obvious impiety, to the Holy One of Israel? Because men will not realize, and believe, and confide in a truth which is firmer than earth's foundations, and clearer than the noon-day sun-namely, that God's love towards us is free and boundless.