the spirit of prayer, which is not the mere business of this or that hour, but the continual panting and breathing of the heart after God,* at all times. Ardent love to God is, indeed, the true spring of genuine prayer. Where this is, all other graces will follow. Love," says one, "renders prayer delightful to ourselves, and acceptable to our Maker. It makes us willing to ask, and willing to receive." Andrew Gray also observes, "The spirit of prayer consists more in the voice of the affections, than the voice of words." He suggests the following queries to detect the want of the spirit of prayer-Do you know what it is to go to prayer on an internal principle of love, and the grace of Christ constraining you?-Do you know what it is by prayer to attain greater conformity to God, and the mortification of your lusts? Do you know what it is to distinguish between absence and presence? Do you know what it is to sit down and lament over absence from Christ, and think this an insupportable want? I have endeavored, under each kind of prayer, to give such hints as might assist you in attaining this spiritual worship; it may not be useless to sum up these hints in a Few practical rules applicable to prayer in general. Only et the reader again remember, what we are apt perpetualy to forget, but what should both humble, direct, and comort us, that no knowledge of rules is of itself sufficient to nable us to pray; it is the Holy Spirit alone impressing he rule on the heart, that can enable us rightly to worship od. "To maintain a devotional spirit, two things," says Mrs. Hore, "are especially necessary: habitually to cultivate e disposition, and habitually to avoid whatever is unfarable to it." We will first point out some things which nder your attaining the spirit of devotion, and then add me directions which may help you to attain it. SECT. I.-Rules relating to Hindrances to Prayer. 1. Renounce all known sin and sensual indulgence.— e allowed practice of any sin is utterly inconsistent ch devotional feelings. If you live in habitual sin, or in indulgence of evil tempers, or if any "corrupt commu nication to, and us to " ing, be more at by the lib gave the OF cation proceed out of your mouth," you cannot at the me time enjoy communion with God. 1 John i. 6; iii. -23. His Spirit is grieved, and withdraws its influence. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall und in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a re heart."* Any sin indulged, raises those fears, doubts, sorders, and tumults in the mind, which make it averse and incapable of, fervent affectionate prayer. An inunce or two may confirm this remark. St. Paul exhorts to "pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without ath or doubting." I am sure, if you have any Christian perience, you know that it is necessary, that "all bitness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speakg, be put away from you, with all malice," if you would in the spirit of prayer. An unforgiving temper, also, t only hinders the spirit of devotion, but also prevents acceptance of your petitions. Our Lord says, "Go thy y, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and er thy gift." Bishop Taylor, in a beautiful figure, shows evil effects of anger as an impediment to devotion. Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer, ditly contrary to that disposition which makes our prayacceptable to God. Thus the lark, rising from his bed grass, soars upward, singing as he rises, but the poor d is beaten back by the sudden blast of an eastern wind, 1 his motion made irregular and inconstant, descending re at every breath of the tempest, than it can recover the libration of its wings, till the little creature is forced sit down, and pant, and stay till the storm is over, and n it makes a more prosperous flight, and rises still, and gs, as if it had learned music and motion from an angel." ain; immoderate, or unnecessary indulgence of ease, etite, sleep, &c. are serious obstacles to the attaining a otional spirit. The man of self-denial will, like Daniel, i. 12.) be the man of prayer. Chap. vi. 10. "Take d to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overrged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of life," is a solemn admonition of the Lord before he e the charge, "Watch ye, therefore, and pray always." : sins are one great reason why our prayers are not ner heard. "When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when you make many prayers I will not hear; your hands are full of blood." Remember St. John's remark: "If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God; and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." See farther passages-Ps. iv. 3; xxvi. 6; xxxiv. 15, 17; Prov. viii. 32; James v. 16; John ix. 31. Yet remember, the meaning of these passages is not that we must not pray if we have committed actual sin; for then none would pray; but that we are not to go to our prayers with the love of sin, or with a purpose to go on sinning still. See page 25.* 2. Be not conformed to the world.-We hope that the happy day is coming on when "all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him;" but, at present, who can go much into the world, unless his duties call him there, without suffering from it? For a Christian to enter into worldly company and join in vain amusements, is, as if a man were to put a burning torch into water: the flame of devotion will be, must be, extinguished. Those who go into a large manufactory, filled with people and machines, find it difficult, when in the midst of such a scene, to converse with each other; but those who go much into the bustle of company, find it still more difficult to hold converse with God. It is only when compelled to De there in the way of duty, and not otherwise, that they may expect, that, as his special grace preserved Daniel in he spirit of prayer, even in Babylon, so it will preserve hem. Being immoderately engaged in worldly business, s another hindrance, filling a man with the cares of this *Sir Matthew Hale, in his Treatise on the Knowledge of God, ell remarks-"A frequent, solemn, and serious use of the duty of ayer, interrupts a custom of sin, by degrees weakens the old man, d will in time make a strangeness between our lusts and our souls. nd let a man be sure of these two truths: that as he that comes on his knees with a secret purpose to hold confederacy with any , he shall be the worse, the more hardened, and the more neg-ted by that God which searches the heart; so whosoever he be t comes to his Maker in the integrity of his heart, though sin ad-es as close to that heart of his, as his skin does to his flock d that employment will make life. H worldly terly un says, 66 every th let your me, it i conscie without ing lion great en ject in d prayer. gest that and vain putting o some othe some lett which he itself, but which wo season, w been ans ridicule, temptatio you." Th ing." * member, I and diffic great diff the most cess, or munion w faithful p condemne the thing from en fe. He whose whole time is incessantly occupied in worldly affairs, finds his heart entirely distracted, and uterly unfitted for holy and retired duties. The Apostle ys, "Be careful for nothing;" and then adds, "but in very thing, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, et your requests be made known unto God." O believe e, it is far better to have a small income, with a quiet onscience and a devout heart, than the largest income ithout God's blessing. 3. Resist the temptations of Satan.-There is a power1 spiritual adversary of man, "who goeth about as a roarg lion, seeking whom he may devour." Here is your eat enemy. Other things are but his engines. His obect in other things is to keep you from, or hinder you in ayer. "Be not ignorant of his devices." He will sugest that prayer is a dull and gloomy service, or useless d vain. If these do not succeed, he will suggest the atting off the duty to another opportunity, on account of me other employment: some favorite book to be read, me letter perhaps to be written, or some other business hich he will propose to your mind, important perhaps in self, but "not good for this time." Consider every thing hich would tempt you to neglect prayer, in its appointed ason, whether it be any of those objections which have en answered already, (see p. 22, &c.) or the fear of man's licule, or love of ease, or any other cause, as a mere mptation, and "resist the devil, and he will flee from u." This evil spirit will be "cast out by prayer and fastDoes he present to you various difficulties? Reember, that nothing excellent is obtained without effort d difficulty. Remember, men pursue human schemes of eat difficulty, amidst every opposition; they go through e most arduous enterprises, without any certainty of sucss, or any promise of Divine help. In seeking comunion with God, you are sure to succeed, and have his thful promise that he will help you. Will you not be ndemned by the conduct of men in general, respecting e things of this world, if difficulties should deter you m endeavoring to obtain a good which, as a Christian, u must acknowledge to be the greatest and most profitable at can be gained in the present life? Difficulties give *Matt. xvii. 21. A TREATISE ON PRAYER. way to real efforts. "Prayer is in its nature a kind of wrestling and striving for a victory, which presupposes an opposition." The opposition of Satan will be vanquished by a steady resistance in the strength of your Savior. 4. Beware of a self-righteous spirit, or any thing like fancying, because you have said your prayers, and especially, if you have prayed with more than ordinary freedom and affection, that therefore you deserve any thing from God, or are holy and righteous in his sight. Such a view of yourself, provokes God to withdraw his Spirit, and leaves ou to your own natural barrenness and dryness. Nay, if -ou trust in your prayers, and put them in the place of our Savior, they will as much ruin your immortal soul, as he grossest sins. This is a very common temptation, of which we are all in danger. Even the excellent Milner escribes himself as naturally always setting up for himolf, always aiming at independence, and that it was with he utmost difficulty he was brought to feel what a poor, nful creature he was by nature. This spirit of self-rightesness manifests itself in complacency and self-satisfaction hen any thing right has been done, and in overwhelming spondency and depression after our sins. But we should arn to rejoice in Christ alone when most lively in the ay of duty, and to trust in him alone when most low. thing is more natural to us, than, when we have been eatly assisted, and our heart softened, and our mind enged in prayer, to flatter ourselves, and trust in our permance. But as in the flood, neither the tallest tree, nor = highest mountain saved any of the ungodly world who re shut out of the ark, the only refuge; so Jesus Christ ne can save us. The directions of the pious Anselm he sick man, are in point here. aim, "while life remains in thee, that thou repose thy "See, then," he says fidence only in the death of Christ, trust in nothing ; commit thyself wholly to his death-cover thyself this alone. And if the Lord will judge thee, say, rd, I cast the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between elf and thy judgment, otherwise I will not engage in gment with thee.' And if he shall say unto thee, 'Thou a sinner!' say, 'I place the death of our Lord Jesus st between me and my sin.' And if he shall say, 'Thou deserved damnation!' say, 'Lord, I cast the death of Lord Jesus Christ betwee and I offe had, and you pray. |
