ieved that if they could see our Lord he would help m, they then desired his presence with peculiar earn ness. When Lazarus is dying, then his sisters send a cial message to their Lord. When the disciples are in storm, they awaken him, saying, "Carest thou not that perish?" When the people are sick, they break through roof of a dwelling to come to him; or press through the wd to touch the hem of his garment. It is the nature of prayer, that it gives to needy and sinmen, in the limited time of this life, every day, yes, ery hour, this great privilege of access to the King of ngs and Lord of Lords, to the Most High and the Most oly, and this with the utmost freedom and confidence; e access not merely of a servant to a master; or a subject a king: but of a child to a tender parent. Prayer is, then, a holy intercourse with God.-"It is," the martyr Bradford expresses it, "a simple, unfeigned, mble, and ardent offering of the heart before God, herein we either ask things needful, or give thanks for nefits received." Acceptable prayer is the desire of the art offered up to God through the influence of his Spirit, the name of his Son Jesus Christ, for things according to swill, and in confidence that he hears us, and will aner us. There is no prayer without the exercise of holy d suitable dispositions and affections. "The true worippers," says our Lord, "shall worship the Father in rit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship n."* Prayer is not the mere posture of the body.-A man ay kneel till he wear out the stones; like the Mahomans, he may put himself into every variety of posture, row himself on the earth and lie in the dust; like Ahab, may put on sackcloth and ashes; or, like the monks of odern times, kneel till his knees become horny, and yet ver pray at all. It is not the mere expression of the mouth.-A man y repeat a hundred times in a day that comprehensive d affecting prayer which our Lord has taught us to use; he may say, "My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longafter thee," and yet not offer up one prayer unto God. It is not the mere invention of the mind.—Many have a * John. iv. 23. pecul fluent both t the he for the Nor to say t and his s Mrs. M involving St. Paul fections; c sations, an and spiriti and of ou our faith in the confes sins; the I pardon of blessing on duct, and tl "Prayer t to Him who only can relieve it; the voice of sin to who only can pardon it. It is the urgency of poverty, prostration of humility, the fervency of penitence, the dence of truth. It is not eloquence, but earnestness; he definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not es of speech, but compunction of soul. It is the Lord us, we perish,' of drowning Peter; the cry of faith to ear of mercy."* his is acceptable prayer. But how often are our devo; a mere form to satisfy our conscience! We know it ir duty to pray; we know that none go to heaven but of prayer; we have been taught to pray in our youth, therefore we go through the outward form; but is it too often without the inward motion and desire of the t towards God? Let us remember, that the mere form ot only unprofitable to the soul, but brings guilt upon and when trusted in, is a dangerous delusion. It may us a religious name in the world; it may pacify an med conscience for the moment; but it gains nothing God. Our Lord says, "This people draweth nigh me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their but their heart is far from me;" and what follows?— vain do they worship me."+ rom this description of the nature of prayer, it must be Dus, that with the gift of " the spirit of grace and suptions," two things are essentially necessary to enable eally to pray. The knowledge of our wants.-As the needy only stoop to ask for alms, so a real, deep, and abiding e of our indigence, is the first spring of a true and est desire to obtain help from God. The prodigal son ght not of returning to his father, till reduced to chedness and misery. When David says, "I am poor needy," he then earnestly prays, "Make haste unto O God, thou art my help and my deliverer." While hink we can help ourselves, and get through our diffies by our own means, we are little disposed to pray to The Laodicean church could not be much in the t of real prayer, however it might abound in the outform, when our Lord had to say of it, "Thou sayest, I am nothin and po grace your fu ual po feeling 2. F igal th return that he gently ledge of ter, wil faith, th Bible of goodnes of access near to h us, and. W ful than 1 ate, and viction th us nothin The n perience gun to b affected w I had nev wardly re God enable in the nam really to d mally expr Many a prayer; b Prayer is ings. The pression of gency and c 6. It is na I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Come to the throne of grace to get, and not to give. Bring your wants, and not your fullness. And if you have no feeling of your spiritual poverty and necessity, let your first prayer be for this feeling. 2. Faith in the being and goodness of God.-The prodigal thought of his father's riches and bounty, and then returned to him. "He that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him."* He who has not a scriptural knowledge of God, or who thinks him a hard and austere master, will never feel disposed rightly to approach him. It is faith, the gift of God, realizing the views given us in the Bible of the immensity, power, wisdom, all-sufficiency and goodness of God, of his being ever present, and of the way of access by Jesus Christ, which excites the heart to draw near to him in full confidence that he hears us, and loves us, and will help us. And what duty can be more delightful than thus to come to God as an almighty, compassionate, and reconciled Father in Christ Jesus, in the full conviction that he loves us, and, because he loves us, will deny us nothing that is for our good? The nature of prayer is, however, better known by experience than by any description. One who had just begun to be in earnest about religion said, "I was most affected with the difference which I found in my prayers. I had never thought of doing any thing more than out wardly repeating a form; but I was surprised to find how God enabled me, in my private devotions, earnestly to ask, in the name of his Son, those mercies which I needed, and really to desire those things which I had before only formally expressed." Many arguments might be urged to show the duty of prayer; but we will confine ourselves to some plain ones. Prayer is a natural and reasonable act for human beings. The first feeling of the mind, and the natural expression of that feeling in any sudden and alarming emergency and distress, is an act of prayer to God. Jonah i. 5, 6. It is natural and reasonable, for man is not an inde dent being; he is created by another, and he is alto- God has expressly commanded us to pray to him. Our up holy hands." Testimonies to this effect might be ltiplied. The great God, then, that made heaven and th, and before whom you will stand in judgment, plainly quires you to worship him. The relations by which God has revealed himself to us ow this duty. He is a Father, and gives us "the spirit adoption, to cry, Abba, Father." Children should thus to their father to ask of him a supply of their wants, d to tell him all that they feel and enjoy. Jesus Christ the way of access to God, a Mediator to interpose in r behalf, and a High Priest and Intercessor to offer up supplications: the Holy Spirit also assists our prayers, Matt. vii. 7. + Luke xviii. 1. +1 Tim. ii. 8. D-L -:10. DL:1 :„ £. Dom vii 19. Col iv 2. Matt vyvi |