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advantage, leading us by them into a constant intercourse with God, and keeping us in a spiritual and heavenly state of mind.

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BY PRAYER WE OBTAIN TRUE PEACE OF MIND, that peace to which those who never pray are utter strangers. This peace is a calm and entire resting upon God for the supply of every necessity, of body and soul, for time and for eternity. It is a casting all our burden, whatever it be, upon a kind, compassionate, Almighty friend, who willingly sustains it, and relieves and comforts us. Casting all your care on him, for he careth for you. Let the Christian follow the Apostle's direction, Be careful for nothing, but in every thing, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and he may fully expect the effect which that Apostle describes; and the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus. How calm and composed may he be, amid all the storms and distractions of this world, who has daily and hourly communion with the Creator, Ruler, and Preserver of all things! The Christian falls below his true happiness in this life, if he does not enjoy constant peace of mind. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Isa. xxvi, 3.

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Prayer is especially ADVANTAGEOUS IN THE OF TROUBLE. Even those who neglect God altogether at other times, are often then compelled to apply to him, and even in such a case he has heard and accepted them. Isaiah xxvi, 16; 1 Kings xxi, 29. But with a peculiarly filial confidence may those approach unto him, when they are in trouble, whose habit of mind, whose continual practice, whose whole life, is a draw

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ing near to God. The command and the promise belong to them; Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Psalms 1, 15. Indeed, what Christian has not found in his own experience, the truth of the declaration, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Ps. lxvi, 1. When no other ear could hear but his, no other arm save, no other power relieve or help; when we were destitute and almost in despair, then his ear heard, and through his mercy we were delivered. Prayer, like the precious metal, comes most pure from the heated furnace. you depressed under your guilt, your weakness, your ignorance, or your ingratitude? You may spread your distress, as Hezekiah did his letter, before God, and you need not fear but that God will help you; and what a comfort it is that we can never come unseasonably to him. A great man or a friend may be so circumstanced that we cannot interrupt him, or he will soon be wearied by repeated application, or he may be so far off that we cannot get at him; but our God is ever nigh unto us he is always with us; a very present help in trouble. Other friends, if willing, may not be able to help us but he has both the will and the power to give the greatest blessings. Even our guilt, when confessed, becomes a plea for relief, (1 John i, 9.) and the worst condition that can be, the strongest reason to pray; all that is given, being given, not for our merits, but for Christ's sake.' The following affecting anecdote is told us of a poor negro woman. She was a poor slave in the West Indies, and was forbidden by her master to attend public worship, and threatened with severe punishment if she did go: the only reply she made, was, "I must tell the Lord that;" a reply that so affected

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her owner, that he no longer refused her liberty to go. What a view does this give us of the blessedness of prayer, that a poor and friendless outcast may thereby obtain the aid of the great Governor of the universe?

In prayer WE ENJOY THE PRESENCE OF GOD. Draw nigh to God, says St. James, and he will draw nigh to you. The devout soul, having found in the 'solitude of the closet, the presence of God, is glad to withdraw itself from the distraction of the world, and retire to bold converse with him in secret. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. When shall I come and appear before God. Ps. xlii, 1, 2. The Saviour assured his disciples, he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. John xiv, 21. There is an experience, therefore, of this presence, into which only those who love Christ can enter. Jeremiah seems to feel the loss of it, when, in so affecting a way, he exclaims O thou hope of Israel, thou Saviour thereof in the time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Jer. xiv, 8.

Prayer PREPARES US FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD HEREAFTER. He who has had this heavenly intercourse on earth, and has here been able to say, truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, is prepared to enter into the blissful society above. God is not a stranger to him; he has long known him; his Saviour is his tried and constant friend. And just as a man who has been continually experiencing the bounty and goodness of a friend whom he has never seen will rejoice in beholding his face, so will it be to the devout believer. He will enter

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heaven with the conviction, In thy presence is fulness of joy.

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The devout believer then is the only TRULY HAPPY What a delightful life does he live, whose prayers afford him constant communion with God! No fears and anxieties about future things need distract him, nor present difficulties and burdens weigh him down. He may calmly, steadily, and cheerfully pass through all the varieties of this life, living in the most exalted and yet endearing friendship with his Maker, having a constant support and a hidden but solid joy from intercourse with him, possessing an ample resource in every circumstance here below, and an assured expectation of everlasting felicity with him at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Let the happiness of the life of devotion induce you diligently to seek divine grace, to enable you to say with David, I give myself unto prayer.

These, and many other things which might be mentioned, are the advantages of prayer. But men err in two ways concerning this privilege: some wholly neglect their prayers, and some trust in them.

Some neglect prayer, and this on various grounds.— They say, GOD KNOWS WHAT I WANT WITHOUT MY ASKING, and he is too wise and too good to need my information in order to relieve me. This should be an argument to raise your faith and hope, and not to hinder your prayers.. Matthew vi, 8, 9. God is indeed wise, infinitely wise; and being so wise, he has in his word directed you to make known your wants unto him by prayer. His knowledge is one reason why you should pray to him, and his goodness another, why you may confidently apply to him. Will you pretend to be wiser than he is! Whatever his design may

be in it, your duty is clear--to obey his will.He knows when you will die, and might support you without food, and yet you daily eat. Remember that "it may be agreeable to perfect wisdom, to grant that to our prayers which it would not have been agreeable to the same wisdom to have given us without praying for." What if prayer be his plan for making you humble, dependent, devout, believing, and thankful.In short, for impressing you with a sense and feeling of your wants, and for bringing you to a proper state of mind to receive his blessing? But whatever his design may be, it is your highest wisdom and interest to follow his directions.

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A similar objection is, that GOD IS ABLE, AND PRAYER WILL NOT ALTER NOR REVERSE HIS PURPOSES. We do not say that prayer really. changes the purpose of God, though it may be sometimes so expressed in condescension to our infirmi-` ties but we say his course of dealing is quite different with those who pray and those who do not. We may think, indeed, that we are drawing God. nearer to us, when we in truth draw nearer to him, as a person with a boat-hook which he fixes to the shore is ready to think when he draws the boat, that he is moving the land towards him, when in fact he himself is coming nearer the land. But you quite mistake the true design of this perfection of God, if you think it should keep you from praying. The unchangeableness of God, so far from being an argument against prayer, is the reason why you should pray, and secure to yourself the fulfilment of his promises. What are the purposes of God? are they known, or secret? If KNOWN, as if he has threatened judgment, prayer may avert it. Look, at

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