look to Jesus: "Behold, now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation." 4. Finally; one other cause of this urgency remains to be noticed, and that is, the love and tenderness of Christ. Such was his love when on earth that he wept over Jerusalem. His heart is not changed, it is as tender as ever. He upbraids thee not, sinner, for thy sins; but tenderly and earnestly does he entreat you to behold him, and thus put it into his power to be your friend for ever. LXII. AN IMPORTANT PRAYER. PSALM CXIX. 25—“ QUICKEN THOU Me according TO THY WORD." A GOOD man is never satisfied with his religious attainments in the present world. The highest degree of piety realized here is but as childhood compared with what we shall be hereafter. The psalmist was eminent for piety; he had found favour with God, he felt the weight of his obligation to him; and to enable him to express his sense of it, he sought to God by prayer. And all who possess the same spirit will feel the necessity and importance of uniting with him in the beautiful prayer in my text,— "Quicken thou me," &c. Notice, I. The import of this prayer" Quicken thou me," &c. It implies, 1. The lamentable deadness of the mind to spiritual things. By nature it is totally so-" dead in trespasses and in sins." Whatever moral difference there may be in men, they are all spiritually dead. They are destitute of truly spiritual power, and void of spiritual desire. If one soul in such a state is a painful sight, how melancholy a spectacle is it to behold a world of immortals dead to God! Now, with the remains of this awful state the believer has to contend all his days. After he is renewed, it struggles to regain its ascendancy. He often exclaims, Oh! this apathy, this deadness of mind to the things of God! 2. It implies his inability to remove it. Prayer is the language of helplessness. He evidently felt that spiritual life must be maintained by God alone. The means which God has appointed are calculated, but not sufficient to quicken the soul. Prayer, reading the scriptures, Christian society, are of immense importance; but then they are means of grace; means by which we seek it, and God gives it. Ever seek to get through the means to God, who only can quicken the soul. 3. But he had a sense of the misery of such a state. A Christian may be subject to this deadness of mind, but he must lament it. He has no right to conclude himself a Christian who does not lament over his heartlessness. But in this they differ essentially from the worldly man. God is not in all his thoughts, neither does he desire that he should be. 4. It implies his expectation of direct and immediate help from God in answer to prayer. We beg to get something; even mercy to pardon, and grace to subdue our sins. He who clothes the earth with vegetation impels the heavenly bodies which roll above us. He who sustains our being cannot be unconcerned in our well-being, and therefore cannot be deaf to our cries for spiritual aid. The mind of man is not a fountain, but a cistern. It derives its power to think from God every moment. Oh, how easy, therefore, for him to work in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. This God has promised, this has been prayed for, and this obtained again and again. For this we must individually, fervently, constantly pray. II. The object of his prayer. "Quicken thou me, according to thy word." We have the object expressed, and its nature defined. 1. This he would desire in relation to every part of the soul. The understanding, that it may be enlightened and active; apt to understand the nature, and feel the force of divine truths. The will, that it may choose the things that please God; that it may embrace Christ, and steadily fix upon him as the light, life, and comfort, of the soul. The conscience, that it may be tender, prompt to warn us of the least sin, and to apprize us of the approach of danger. The affections, that they may be in vigorous exercise on spiritual and heavenly things. In all these respects he desires quickening grace from God upon the soul itself. 66 2. In relation to every part of religion. For instance, there are precious privileges, such as "acceptance with God," " adoption of sons," complete justification from all sin, "precious promises," unchangeable love. But we are sometimes insensible to their worth and importance. Hence the propriety of the petition before us in relation to them. Quicken thou me;" enliven my heart in pursuit of them; help me to value them above all other things, and to know my interest in them. Religion is an "inward power,” but it is too often at a low ebb. When, therefore, we pray to be quickened, we only ask as Paul did, to be " strengthened by his Spirit's might in an inner man." To be borne along through duties and trials by the force of inward piety. 2. Its nature defined :—" According to thy word." The word of God has a threefold connexion with this work : 1. A connexion of promise. God has engaged to do it. He hath said, "A new heart will I give you." He hath promised to "strengthen us in the Lord," and to give more grace, and thus it is according to his word. But there is, 2. A connexion of instrumentality. He sanctifies by the truth. 3. But there is a connexion of nature. When he prays to be quickened according to God's word, he supplicates for the spirit, power, and influence of the scriptures. Let my religion take its impress from the Bible. Let it not be a legal, mercenary, or slavish religion; but the religion of the Bible, the religion of love. Let not mine be the religion of a mere system, or of a sect; but the religion of the Bible. III. Let us recommend the adoption of this prayer— "Quicken thou me, according to thy word." 1. If you would realize the delightful influence of the gospel on your soul, you must make this prayer your own. The theory and the form of religion you may easily gain; the spirit and the power you cannot acquire and keep but by importunate prayer. Would you have a high tone of godliness? Do you desire to feel the influence of Christ's authority, and to have a sense of your obligation to him resting on your hearts? Do you desire to do and suffer his will with Christian fortitude? Do you desire to take your religion with you into all places, and at all times? and would you have your religion sit gracefully upon you? Then adopt, and perseveringly employ, the prayer of my text, and you shall find, and in your own experience prove, the power of prayer. 2. Consider how much the divine glory is involved in the success of such a prayer. Is the simple existence of man well pleasing to God? It is. But his spiritual well-being must be more so. Surely it must be more pleasing to God to conform a soul to himself, than simply to create that soul. If he loves his own image, he must love its reflection upon others. The sanctification of the soul is every way worthy of him-his glory is involved in it. 3. The character of God, the work of Christ, and the hope of heaven, should combine to induce us to make this prayer our own. He is a Father, and will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him. "Because we are sons," he gives us his Holy Spirit. And will not this encourage you to go to him? Besides, he was found of you when you sought him not; will he be slow to answer you now you desire him? And is not the cross of Christ a prevalent plea? You have not to go in your own name. He presents our prayers to God with the much incense of his merit, and when he pleads he must prevail. And are you not bound for heaven? But the way to heaven is the way of holiness and devotion. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. Paul hoped to obtain heaven, but then it was through "a supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." Heaven is an inheritance of saints. Let the hope of that blessed place induce you to cry with David, "Quicken thou me according to thy word.” 66 LXIII. REFLECTIONS UPON ISAIAH, LVII. 15. THE HIGH AND LOFTY ONE THAT INHABITETH ETERNITY, WHOSE NAME IS HOLY." Low thoughts of God our Maker are greatly injurious. They are so many proofs of the fall of man, and that our nature is depraved. Inadequate and mean conceptions of the Deity are always attended with fatal effects. The true knowledge of God is to us of infinite conse quence as to our conduct in this life, and our felicity in that which is to come. Jesus Christ has said, “This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ," &c. Hence I conclude, that God in the person of his Son, God in the perfection of his nature, and God in the promises he has given, should be the frequent and leading subjects of our meditations. Wilful ignorance of God is the destruction of the soul; it is withholding its immortal and necessary food. Learn to know God: his immortal grandeur is held out to us in these words" Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." What a majesty is there in these words! See an eastern monarch, seated on his ivory throne, rich with gold, and sparkling with diamonds! But ah! what is such grandeur compared with the heavens and He who made them? The footstool of an emperor may be embossed with gold, and glitter on the eye; but what is such a footstool compared with the extent of our globe, the footstool of God. I beseech you to contemplate, at the feet of Jesus Christ, the being of the great I Am, Jehovah, the Creator and Lord of the universe "The God whose universal sway Creates the darkness and controls the day.” His perfections may dazzle thy weak sight; but, shielded by a Mediator, they will not overwhelm thee. 1. Reflect on the existence of God. All the works of creation and providence declare this one truth: there is a God -a Supreme Being. The complicated machinery, the amazing skill, and the evident design, which appears in every living being, and in every particle of matter, when curiously analyzed, shews a mind beyond our conception. If there had been no God, there would have been no world, no angel, no man, no sun, no moon. Man, with all his superior powers of intellect, cannot so much as create a rose, or make a tulip, or hush the wind. Is there, or is there not, a God, a Supreme Being? Let a man but examine into his own make, the construction of his body, the circulation of his blood, the system of his nerves, the nature of his brain, the formation of the ear, the construction of the eye and the organs of speech. Let him add to these all the wonderful powers of his mind, and he must confess that he ought to adore a Supreme Being. 2. Reflect a moment on the three persons in the unity of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This is |