for great usefulness, occasion your eternal ruin. Let nothing hinder you from giving regular and full time. to devotion. The days of health and strength should be given to God, while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure

in them.

Are you AFFLICTED? That is the time for special prayer. Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will hear thee, and thou shalt glorify me. In the absence of the sun, the mild and peaceful radiance of the moon illumines our path. Let devotion spread a cheering light over your darker hours. "The Queen of night," says Bowdler, "unveils its full beauty when the hours of joy and lustre have passed away, pouring as it were a holy light through the damps and darkness of adversity." Thus will constant prayer cheer the darkest season of affliction.

Are you YOUNG? Let that rapid torrent of youthful strength and vivacity, which, if left to itself, would only be wasted and dashed against rocks, from precipice to precipice, be turned into a profitable course. Let this stream be brought into the channel of devotion, and it will move the machine of the Christian life, and communicate innumerable blessings to man. Those that seek me early shall find me. Prov. viii, 17. Nothing is more pleasing, nothing more profitable, than early devotion. Slight not him in your strength, who will be the only protector of your weakness.

Are you in MIDDLE LIFE? In the midst of this world's engagements, how are you encompassed as in a maze of temptation! Let prayer be the secret thread which leads you safely out of this labyrinth. How are you surrounded with duties of the first importance! What a happy influence, then, would devotion have

in making you a general blessing to your family, your neighbourhool, and your country! Like the regulator in the watch, though unseen outwardly, it would keep the spring of your actions in order; it would make all your movements certain and useful. Give the strength of your years to God, and you will leave a good name, better than precious ointment. Eccles. vii, 1. Remember, "the prayer of faith," as Bishop Porteus says, the hand of Him that moveth all things."

"moves

Are you in DECLINING YEARS? and will you not hold converse with Him whom you are soon to meet and see face to face? Why should you enter the eternal world a stranger to the great King who rules there, when you have an opportunity of being adopted into his family, enjoying his presence here, and sharing the splendors of his crown and of his glories hereafter. "What," says one, 66 can be more truly desirable than to attain to a measure of that light and peace, which, in their full measure, belong to a higher condition? and what more excellent than that occupation which connects the service with the enjoyment of God, the duties of this life with the glories of the better?".

.

class of my readers I say,

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING.

HYMNS ON PRAYER.

I.

PRAYER is the soul's sincere desire,
Utter'd or unexpress'd;
The motion of a hidden fire

That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burthen of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,

The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech, That infant lips can try;

Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high.

Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,
The Christian's native air,
His watchword at the gates of death,
He enters heaven with prayer.

Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice,
Returning from his ways;

While angels in their songs rejoice,
And say, "Behold, he prays!"

The saints, in prayer, appear as one,
In word, and deed, and mind,
When, with the Father, and his Son,
Their fellowship they find.

Nor prayer is made on earth alone;
The Holy Spirit pleads;

And Jesus, on th' eternal throne,
For sinners intercedes.

O Thou, by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way,
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod,
Lord, teach us how to pray.

II.

THOUGH "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord!" Seraph to Seraph sings;

And Angel choirs, with one accord,

Worship, with veiling wings;

Though Earth thy footstool, Heaven thy throne,
Thy way and the sea,

Thy path deep floods, thy steps unknown,
Thy counsels mystery:

Yet wilt Thou look on him who lies

A suppliant at thy feet;

And hearken to the feeblest cries,
That reach thy mercy seat.

Between the cherubim, of old,
Thy glory was express'd;
But God, in Christ, we now behold,
In flesh made manifest.

Through Him who all our sickness felt,
Who all our sorrows bare ;
Through him, in whom thy fulness dwelt,
We offer up our prayer.

Touch'd with a feeling of our woes,
Jesus our High Priest stands;

All our infirmities he knows,

Our souls are in his hands.

He bears them up with strength divine,
When at thy feet we fall:

Lord! cause thy face on us to shine;
Hear us; on Thee we call.

III.

LORD! teach us how to pray aright,
With rev'rence and with fear;
Though dust and ashes in thy sight,
We may, we must, draw near.

We perish, if we cease from prayer;
O grant us power to pray :
And when to meet thee we prepare,
Lord, meet us by the way.

Give deep humility; the sense
Of godly sorrow give;

A strong desiring confidence
To hear thy voice, and live;

Faith in the only sacrifice

That can for sin atone;

To cast our hopes, to fix our eyes›
On Christ, on Christ alone.

Patience to watch, and wait, and weep,
Though mercy long delay;

Courage our fainting souls to keep,
And trust thee, though thou slay.

Give these ;-and then thy will be done;
Thus strengthen'd with all might,
We, by thy Spirit, through thy Son,
Shall pray, and pray aright.

IV.

LORD! when we bend before thy throne,

And our confessions pour;
Teach us to feel the sins we own,

And hate what we deplore.

Our broken spirit pitying see;
True penitence impart :

Then let a kindling glance from thee
Beam hope on every heart.

When we disclose our wants in prayer,

May we our wills resign;

And not a thought our bosom share,
That is not wholly thine.

May faith each weak petition fill,
And raise it to the skies,

And teach our heart 'tis Goodness still
That grants it, or denies.

CHAP. XV.

Forms of Prayer.

THE writer's design has been to induce his readers, generally, to pray in private and in the family, without forms. Yet as this work may fall into the hands of many, to whom this, from various causes, would not