we possess, arising from our principles in relation both to Christian doctrine and discipline, should be employed with quenchless eagerness in the diffusion of elements which alone can avert what is ominous in the struggle, and secure the issue on the side of rectitude, benevolence, and peace. Such being our conviction, we urge you, becoming as you are our companions, and destined, probably, to be our successors in the field, to commence and continue in a manner worthy of your age and of your cause. Cast away whatever would contract, retard, affright, and enfeeble-appropriate whatever will enlarge, impel, embolden, and invigorate; and doubt not that you will be instrumental in advancing the result we confidently anticipate, when victory shall be bound to the banners of Jehovah, and when the nations, rising from their prostration and shaking off their manacles, shall stand emancipated and erect in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free.

Accept my prayer, in common, doubtless, with that of your fathers and brethren around you, that the one Divine source of all that is excellent may now fill you with zeal; that he may attend you with constant communications of his influence throughout your future course, rendering that course holy, and happy, and useful; that he may impart to you light amid the darkness, and peace amid the pangs of dissolution; and then may introduce you to the world of recompense, where you shall be greeted by your Master and your glorified predecessors, and where, like them, you too shall "shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever!" "The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen."

ON PRIVATE DEVOTION, AND PARTICULARLY PRAYER.

THE propriety and advantages of private devotion have generally been acknowledged. Accordingly, holy men in all ages have been accustomed to occupy much time in its varied and interesting exercises. Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide. Jacob sent away his servant, his children, and even his wife, that he might be alone in his wrestlings with God. Nathaniel retired beneath the shade of the fig-tree, and took with him no companion. Jesus dismissed the multitudes, left his disciples, and went up into the mountain apart to pray.

But it is not from the practice only of those who are set as our examples, that we learn this duty; our Lord has expressly enjoined it; and has clearly taught us, that, whilst it is an obligation that rests on individuals, it is to be regarded as a strictly private exercise. "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father who is in secret."

The reason of this duty obviously lies in our personal relation, our

individual obligations and responsibilities to God. In common with our fellow-men, we go up to the house of the Lord to acknowledge his universal dominion, and mingle our vows with those of the great congregation. But it is in the closet that the individual serves him; it is there that the man, apart from his fellow-men, adores for himself his Creator and Preserver; it is there that the Christian, as distinguished from the patriot, the citizen, the member of the church or of the family, avows his obligations, acknowledges his allegiance, confesses his sins, and pleads for mercy; makes the vows, signs the covenant, and presents himself on the altar of consecration, and in the name of Christ, a living sacrifice to God.

And as our relation to God requires us to use private prayer, so does much of the business which we all have to transact with him. It is of a strictly secret and personal nature. With our most important and urgent affairs there, men have nothing to do. It would be vain to tell them, if we could, much that we must say to God. It is against him only that the greater part of our sins have been committed. They do not know the plague of our heart-that which constitutes our peculiar and individual character; they cannot know it: were we to attempt to describe it, they would not fully apprehend us, to sympathize with us. No man living is fully known to his fellow. The combinations, the workings, the inveteracy, the deceitfulness of the lusts and carnal affections of the heart, are beyond even our own knowledge. Yet this is one of the chief reasons of secret prayer, and renders it necessary for every individual to go to God; whilst many of the wants and desires of the renewed mind are equally private, and impose the same obligation. And it is only in solitude that the mind possesses the freedom and confidence which are necessary to the full and suitable discharge of our devotional duties. One of the evils which sin has entailed consists in the jealousy and mistrust that exist between man and man, so that there can be little communion on earth, even between plighted friends, without some reserve. The disclosures which we have to make to our God and Judge relate to the inmost thoughts, and feelings, and desires, and are often of the most humiliating nature; we should feel that we were acting a rash and imprudent part, in making them to frail and sinful creatures like ourselves. We are unwilling to trust our fellow, either with the knowledge of our naked character, or with the power which it would put into his hands; and in his presence, therefore, our lips are sealed, both by fear and shame. But we have no difficulty when we come to God alone. Before him we can use a freedom which we cannot use to any created being; and though, as we bare our bosom, shame and confusion of face may cover us, yet are we free from any of those painful suspicions and mortified feelings, which would attend similar disclosures to our fellow-men. True, he knows perfectly all that is within us, and hates our sins with perfect hatred; but even

this, though it may humble, does not discourage us, for he is our reconciled father in Christ Jesus; and we feel that he is infinitely removed from those partialities and prejudices, by which their minds are posssesed. We may have been base and guilty; but if, when we approach him, we regard not iniquity in our hearts, there is no danger that he will treat us coldly or unkindly; whilst that which, if known, might alienate from us our best friend, and destroy the confidence even of a wife or child, he will hear us penitentially confess, with feelings of parental compassion, and, instead of betraying us, will pardon our iniquity and restore our soul.

Yes, Christian, the closet affords to us one of our choicest privileges, and there must some of the most solemn and important of all our affairs be transacted. There are joys and sorrows of which none but God may, or can, be witness. There are confessions to be made which we dare not breathe in human ear; there are wrestlings and fightings to which we cannot admit any spectator; there are cries and supplications, which we cannot utter but to our father, God. The backslider could not make his humiliating acknowledgments unless alone! The holiest of the human family could not rehearse his silent faults, his youthful sins, his presumptuous transgressions, were he not alone! Whilst there are raptures and faith, communings of the soul with the unseen world, visions of love, and transports of delight, to which we could not rise except alone! There, the parent can weep, and groan, and pray; there, the wife can plead for her loved, but unregenerate husband; and the husband for his wife: there, the pastor can make his complaint, utter his cries, and offer his praises. The sound of a footstep would disturb the composure of the spirit. The presence the dearest friend would forbid the tear to flow, and the heart to feel; and deprive the closet of its sanctity and its charm. But if we know that God alone is there, we trust and are not afraid; we feel no restraint; his infinite greatness and goodness combine to invite the most unreserved communications. He forgiveth all iniquity, therefore I can tell him mine. If I weep, he will put my tears in his bottle. He restoreth my soul; and, though it is full of maladies and woes, I feel no temptation to conceal from him its state; he will not mock my sorrows; he is "the healer of the broken-hearted."

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And solitude is favourable to the production of that calm and serious state of mind, which is necessary to intimate communion with God. We know that the world may be carried even to the closet, and that evil passions may reign and riot in the heart, though we repair to the cloister, or make our perpetual abode in the solitary mountain cave; still, retirement tends to induce a devout frame of mind. It is when alone that our thoughts are turned in upon ourselves; it is then, if ever, that the charms of earth are dissolved, the fascinations of wealth disappear, and the voice of human applause dies away; that we see the

vanity, both of the smile and frowns of man, and are compelled to reflect on ourselves, our character, our motives, our actions, our stewardship, our final account, our everlasting state.

If, indeed, a man goes to his place of secret devotions without reflection, and because he has been accustomed to go,-if he makes no effort to bring his mind into contact with God, and under the influence of religious truth, he may waste his hour, and come forth even injured, rather than benefited, by the exercise. But there is everything in the circumstances of such privacy, calculated to prevent such an evil. If he thinks as he ought to think of the Being he has retired to meet, of the business which has brought him there-its intrinsic importanceits urgency to himself-of the advantages he may derive from the intercourse and of the solemn account he must render when he meets, face to face, that God who condescends to hold fellowship with him there, surely every foolish thought will be suppressed, all turbulent passions hushed, and the mind prepared to pursue, in calm and solemn awe, the varied exercises of devotion.

The seriousness, too, induced by habits of private worship, is liar in its nature; it has a sacredness, a sweetness, and a power of its own. The devout emotions stirred up in the sanctuary may be more lively; but here they are deeper and purer. It is the confidence and joy of a personal and individual faith that we experience, as we say, "My Father and my God."

"In secret silence of the mind,

My God, and there my heaven, I find.”

Has it never, Christian reader, been experienced by you? Think of that season, when, walking alone in the fields for the purpose of communion with God, the scenes of loveliness and beauty on which you gazed brought fresh to your mind those exquisite verses you learnt in your childhood:

"Creatures, as numerous as they be,

Are subject to thy care;

There's not a place where we can flee

But God is present there.

In Heaven he shines with beams of love,
With wrath in hell beneath;

"Tis on his earth I stand or move,

And 'tis his air I breathe.

His hand is my perpetual guard,

He keeps me with his eye;

Why should I then forget the Lord,

Who is for ever nigh?"

Think of that night, when, standing on the sea-shore alone, you stretched your eye across the waters of the great deep, and then turned them upwards to gaze on the pale moon as she walked through the

sky, and on the stars as they glittered in the firmament; and in that moment, when, overwhelmed by the power and greatness of Him that created and upholds them, you realised that God as your God for ever and for ever; or think of those several occasions in your history, when, under the pressure of deep mental distress, or domestic trouble, you entered your closet and shut to the door, for the purpose of meditation and of prayer. Perhaps you opened your Bible, and read that wonderful passage, "If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another; and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin ;”—or that not less interesting admonition, "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me," &c. Can you describe the charm of that solitude? Did it not induce a holy serenity, and sweet and tranquillizing influence, such as could not have existed in other circumstances? Was it not good to be there?

And the exercises of secret religion are favourable to the discovery of the evils of the heart; to the detection of all hypocrisy and selfdeception; and to the cultivation of sincerity and uprightness towards God. The convictions produced, and the impressions made in the sanctuary, there can be no doubt, owe their existence partly to excitement. The speaker is moved, and we are affected; our fellow-worshipper weeps, and we drop the tear; the great congregation is stirred up to lofty praise, and our heart exults. This power of sympathy is one of the best gifts of God. Its effects are most powerful, most salutary: still, they are not necessarily holy. The feelings thus awakened require, at least, to be scrutinised; the vows thus constrained, to be reviewed; the sorrow, the penitence, the hope, the faith thus excited, to be examined and proved. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? There is often concealed iniquity where there is seeming devotion; a man may cherish almost every evil in his heart, and yet in the society of the wise and good, or in the very house of God, yield to trains of reflection, and to orders of feeling, which, though spurious, he may for the moment mistake for those of genuine devotion. Perhaps there is scarcely a person living, whatever the eminence of his piety, who is quite free from hypocrisy and insincerity in God's service. Most of us would fain be thought by others better than we are; and though we may not, like those reproved by our divine Master, for a pretence, make long prayers, yet who is not conscious of sometimes using the language and putting on the aspect of piety, when the state of the heart is not in harmony with those words and looks? It is absolutely necessary, then, that our heart and character, our best thoughts and emotions, be brought to the tribunal of conscience; and whilst they are sifted and scrutinised by ourselves, be submitted to the inspection of God. The closet is the place for conducting the process, and thither the good man goes with the prayer of the Psalmist on his lips, "Search me, O God, and know