"that the only time he saved, or employed to the best purpose, he spent in piety and prayer, and in doing good." I answer your plea of business, by the experience of a devout man who said, "when I have hastened over the duties of God's worship, out of a too eager desire to follow my worldly business, I did many times meet with some secret cross in my affairs; whereas when I took my ordinary time, God did make my other business to succeed the better, or else my mind was brought to a quiet submission to the divine will." No business in the world brings such unspeakable gain as private prayer does. He that prays well will do all well besides.* What are you laboring for? the good things of this life? Remember, then, that devotion "procures," as Barrow observes, "wealth, inestimably precious, pleasure infinitely satisfactory, honor incomparably noble above all that this world can afford." Look at David, Daniel, and St. Paul, men the most constant in devotion, and yet incessantly engaged, and manifestly blessed, in their several stations. Another man will tell us, I find no benefit from prayer. -I have prayed, and seem no better for it; nay, rather worse. If you feel more of your guilt and sinfulness, that of itself is an advantage, and should bring you more to the Savior. This is a vain excuse. Shall the minister give up preaching because his congregation seem to receive no immediate benefit? Shall the husbandman, because the seed just sown in one part of the field has not directly sprung up, not sow the remainder of the field? Let this objection lead you not to neglect your prayers, but to examine their character. We know that true prayer is attended with the greatest benefits. One devout person would sometimes say to her friends, "I would not be hired out of my closet for a thousand worlds." Some venture to say, "I am too wicked to pray.-The *Fenelon, quoted by Sheppard, remarks, "We must reserve the needful hours for communing with God in prayer. Persons who are in considerable offices, have so many indispensable duties to fulfil, that scarcely any time remains to them for communion with God, except they strictly apply themselves to its regulation. It is necessary then to be firm in adopting and observing a rule. Our rigor in this may seem excessive: but without it all falls into confusion; we are dissipated and relaxed: we lose our strongth crifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord." There are others who seem to think that all exhortations * D--L prayer er, is a be, wha none of Christ. none of ing by of him Is th son of all my rather be? It his tho ledge." come b you ma judgme not soug This is a gen trust in it, on th is, as it multitu commor in begg under in the law they sou the law." though I the way in the wi to give a are to pr or deserv God has as it is the your own seek, and prayer is a part of our salvation. Living in neglect of prayer, is a plain proof, whatever men's notions or fancies may be, whatever their doctrinal sentiments are, that they have none of the spirit of adoption, and so do not belong to Christ. Nay, a disregard of prayer shows that you have none of the real feelings of evangelical truth, which, working by love, ever influences the soul to seek the presence of him we love. Is there not at the bottom of all these objections, a reason of this kind, I dislike prayer-It puts a restraint upon all my ways-It compels me to think of that which I had rather forget?-But what are you thus owning yourself to be? It is the character of the wicked, "God is not in all his thoughts;" they dislike to "retain God in their knowledge." Ah! remember, at one time or other, all flesh must come before God; he now sits on a throne of grace, where you may obtain mercy; he will hereafter sit on a throne of judgment, where he will for ever condemn those who have not sought and found "grace to help in time of need." This neglect of prayer is the fault of many; but "there is a generation who are righteous in their own eyes," who trust in their prayers.-They reason, little as they think it, on the supposition that for every prayer they make, God is, as it were, so much in debt to them, and thus that by the multitude of their prayers they deserve heaven. This is a common but a strange mistake. What merit can there be in begging and seeking that, which if we obtain, lays us under increased obligations? Israel of old "followed after the law of righteousness," but did not attain it, "because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law." Is this not too much your case? Be not mistaken; though prayer is good in its proper place, it is not good in the way of meriting any thing from God. It is not good in the way even of disposing God to give. He is ever ready to give abundantly unto us, "more ready to hear than we are to pray, and wont to give more than either we desire or deserve." But it is good, as it is pursuing the plan which God has appointed for obtaining his blessings;-it is good, as it is the way in which he bestows them. Renounce, then, your own righteousness; and thus humbly and believingly seek, and you shall find. snesses are as filthy rags," as a rejected garment. would enter into the feelings of the excellent Bishop veridge, who declares,* "I know not how it is with ers, but for my own part I do not remember, neither do elieve, that I ever prayed in my lifetime with that revnce, or heard with that attention, or did any other work, h that pure and single eye, as I ought to have done." as he says in another place, "I do not only betray the red venom of my heart, by poisoning my common acs, but even my most religious performances also with I cannot pray but I sin; I cannot hear or preach a ser1, but I sin; I cannot give an alms, or receive the sacrat, but I sin. Nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, my very confessions are still aggravations of them; my entance needs to be repented of; my tears want wash and the very washing of my tears needs still to be hed over again with the blood of my Redeemer. Thus only the worst of my sins, but even the best of my duspeak me a child of Adam. Insomuch that whenever I ect on my past actions, methinks I cannot but look on whole life, from the time of my conception to this very nent, to be but as one continued act of sin." With these feelings, you would be sensible at once, that is Christ is the only and complete Savior of sinners, that it is only "by his obedience many are made right." Instead of trusting in your prayers, you would rn over their imperfections, and be led to trust simply, lly, and entirely in Christ and him crucified. An old er, Scudder, observes, "God uses, when he is overe by prayer," (alluding to Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 28.) "to k in them that do overcome, some sense of weakness, et them know that they prevail with him.in prayer, not ny strength of their own, not by any worthiness of r prayers, when they have prayed best, but from the Iness of God's free grace, from the worthiness of Christ's rcession, by whom they offer up their prayers, and the truth of his promise made unto them that pray. were not thus, many, when they have their heart's dein prayer, would ascribe all to the goodness of their ee Beveridge's Private Thoughts, a most useful practical Book le young Christian. prayers, a proud of t I have ilege of duty, as t THE A it, then, horizon, fill, the foams, a Thus breeze fr course. soul seer and long his way, receiving perhaps, he is ent Spirit is breeze, a every fac rapidly in sired hav prayers, and not to the free grace of God; and would be proud of their own strength, which is in truth none at all." I have thus endeavored to show you the nature and privilege of prayer; may you be so convinced that it is your duty, as to be desirous of farther instruction on this subject. THE ASSISTANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER. SUPPOSE the case of a calm at sea. The ship in the midst of the ocean is sometimes arrested in its progress by a dead calm. Every sail is spread to catch the dying breeze, but all in vain. The vessel continues almost motionless on the vast expanse, or only rocked to and fro by the swell of the sea. The mariners look out day after day, with longing eyes, for a favorable gale to carry them onward; and perhaps when they almost despair of attaining it, then, in this hour of need, the sea manifests in the distance a darker hue, some clouds are seen rising in the horizon, a ripple appears upon the water, the sails begin to fill, the wished-for breeze springs up, the sea parts and foams, and the ship darts along to its destined port. Thus it is sometimes with the Christian. He needs the breeze from above, and could not without it advance in his course. Sometimes, after using every means of grace, his soul seems motionless in the voyage, and his heart sighs and longs for better days. His sails are spread, he is on his way, longing and waiting for, and yet not immediately receiving, the favorable breath of heaven. It is delayed, perhaps, to show him his own inability and weakness, that he is entirely dependent on divine grace, and that the Holy Spirit is the free gift of God. But he is waiting for the breeze, and at length the wind blows, every sail is filled, every faculty, affection, and power is engaged; he proceeds rapidly in his course, and is wafted along towards the desired haven. "Without me," says Christ, "ye can do nothing." The words are full and average nothing nothing pleasing to |