Another thing implied in true prayer is

Thirdly: An undoubting belief in the susceptibility of God to human appeals. Paul tells us, that he that cometh to God must not only believe that he is, but that he is a REWARDER of all those who diligently seek him. It is manifest that unless a man believe that God attends to prayer, and that he can attain by it what he cannot without, he will never truly pray. The man who regards God as too great to attend to the individual concerns of his creatures, and as having established such a system of laws for the government of the universe as to admit of no such interpositions as are involved in the doctrine of "answers to prayer," can never pray. The Deist, therefore, can no more pray, than

either the Atheist or Pantheist.

Another thing implied in true prayer is

Fourthly: An undoubting consciousness of our dependence upon God. Unless a man feels his need, he can never be in earnest for the necessary supply. A profound and everprevailing sense of our need of divine help must ever lie at the foundation of all true prayer. Dependence upon God, as a doctrine, is common; no one who believes in a God, could question it for a moment; but as a conscious practical feeling, how very rare! And hence true prayer is rare, even where true theology prevails.

But there is one more thing implied in true prayer, and that is

Fifthly: An undoubting faith in the mediation of Christ. Christ is man's medium of approach to God. "No man can come unto the Father," says he, "but by me." Now, we say, that these five things must be deep settled convictions before there can be true prayer. Where they are still the subjects of debate and discussion-mere ideas of the intellect rather than vital impulses in the heart-you cannot have true prayer. Alas! they are generally nothing more than ideas in churches still, and hence we have but little real prayer.

Another thing in this passage concerning true prayer is

II. THAT IT IS THE DIVINE CONDITION OF GOOD THINGS. What does prayer obtain? "Good things." LUKE puts for the "good things," "the holy spirit:" and do not the fertile suggestions, the directing and disciplinary influences, and the safe guardianship of the Holy Spirit comprehend all "good things"? All men agree in desiring good things, but they differ widely in their opinion of what things are good. Some indeed, “call evil good," and strive for it as an end. What then are the good things obtained through prayer?

First: They are things of a spiritual character. Prayer is a means of obtaining a sense of God's favour. On all prayerless spirits there rests, at times, the sense of divine disapprobation. This hangs like a dark thunder-cloud over the soul, shutting out the warm life-giving beams of heavenly light. Prayer sweeps that cloud from the horizon, and brings the spirit into contact with the eternal sun. Prayer is a means of spiritual development. Our perfect well-being requires the full and harmonious unfolding of our spiritual sympathies and powers. The fruits of the celestial paradise grow out of the hidden germs of our being. Prayer is the necessary condition of this development. Physical exercise is necessary to develop our physical powers; intellectual exercise is necessary to develop our intellectual powers; and religious exercise, the exercise of prayer and praise, is necessary to develop our spiritual powers. As the earth can only send out her germs of life into blade, and flower, and fruit, as it turns its face to the sun; so the soul can only send out its spiritual energies into perfection, as it turns itself in prayer to the eternal fountain of life and light. Prayer is the power that raises us above the world. Prayerless souls are the creatures of the world; they are as clay in its plastic hands; they are as feathers amidst its shifting winds- -as straws upon its flowing streams. Prayer lifts them from this degradation; gives them the pinions of an eagle to battle with tempests, penetrate clouds, and bask in calm and sunny scenes above. The spirits of holy martyrs have risen from beneath all the antagonistic forces of the world, and

sung triumphantly as they soared heavenward on the wing of prayer. In prayer, man fills his mind with the idea of God, and in the idea of God all earthly glories pale their light; and the universe itself seems to fade into a shadow. We link ourselves to omnipotence and grow defiant of all other forces in prayer.

Secondly: The good things here spoken of are of a temporal character. The Bible warrants us to pray for temporal blessings; for health and food, and in everything to make known our requests to God. It is true that God does not restore health and give food miraculously, as he did of old; still there is reason to believe that he does it. We do not feel so ready to acknowledge, that God now gives temporal good in answer to prayer, as we are to acknowledge that he gives spiritual. There are, perhaps, two reasons for this : one is, that multitudes enjoy temporal good, who never pray at all; whereas, it is not obvious that any enjoy spiritual good who do not pray; and the other is, that no temporal good seems to come to any man, however devout or prayerful, but through ordinary and established laws.

Now, I think it would be easy to show, would space permit, that the fact, that temporal good comes, invariably, through the ordinary constitution of things; is no valid objection to the fact, that it comes, sometimes, as the effect of prayer. This we could show, not by the very imaginary hypothesis of Dr. Chalmers, namely, that there may be a mighty chain of causes extending from our immediate sphere of observation up to the throne of the eternal, and that the Almighty may strike any one of the links which are beyond our view, and thereby work out his purpose through all the succeeding links downward; and thus 'the result come to us, apparently, in the ordinary course of nature. This, however beautiful and plausible, is but a conjecture, and, therefore, will not have much weight with a philosophic objector. But we would show the worthlessness of the objection we have stated, by three undoubted FACTS:

(1). That man's temporal good, as a law, depends upon his

physical conduct. (2). That his physical conduct is determined by the state of his mind, and (3). that the state of his mind is influenced by prayer.

God could change your temporal condition to-morrow without any show of miracle, by imparting to your mind to day some new idea, or impulse. He could change the temporal condition of England, aye, and of the world, by changing the ideas and impulses of a few men. Your child is ill, he is to all appearance about to end his days; what is to be done? You approach your Maker in earnest prayer, and you entreat him to restore the health and prolong the life of the dear one; but your physician says, restoration is impossible, and would involve a miracle; and, perhaps, as is too often the case, ridicules the idea of praying for such an end. But still, that prayer may succeed, and yet there be no miracle. How?

An idea of a certain medicine may come to your mind or to the mind of your physician, the application of which stays the disease, in perfect keeping with all the laws of his constitution. Or, a pestilence rages around you, hundreds are dying on the right hand and on the left; you approach your Maker in earnest prayer, you entreat him to stay the plague and "in wrath to remember mercy;" but you are ridiculed by the scientific materialists, and you are told, perhaps, as the Home Secretary intimated to the devout men of Scotland the other day, that God governs the universe by certain laws, and that one of those laws is, that certain gases floating in the atmosphere, destroy life, and that it is no use to pray, until you remove the causes of this poison. Still, plausible as all this is, your prayer for the staying of the plague may be answered. Through it, God may give to you or others, a correct idea of what that pestilential poison is and how it may be destroyed, and also an impulse to apply the adapted means. And thus, by your prayer, you may terminate pestilence without the show of a miracle.

The other thing contained in these words concerning true prayer is

Vol. IV.

D

III. THAT IT IS EVER EFFECTIVE IN ITS AIM. "Or what man is there of you whom, if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone, or if he ask a fish will he give him a serpent?" "If ye then, being evil," &c., 9-11. All expositors agree in regarding the avopamos-man, here, as emphatical. What man is there, to whatever country he may belong, whatever the colour of his skin, the nature of his creed, the measure of his civilization, if he possess the common attributes of our nature, will he, "if his son ask bread, give him a stone?" &c. The argument for the effectiveness of true prayer is most simple and telling; it is a minori ad majus, ascending from the affection of an imperfect earthly father towards his imploring child-to the love of the Heavenly Father towards his praying children. The position implied in these words is, that there is far greater reason to expect that God will answer the prayer of the true suppliant, than that an earthly father will attend to the earnest entreaties of his child. Let us seek, by two or three remarks, to illustrate this argument.

First: That there is no comparison between the amount of affection and ability of an earthly father, and that of the 'Heavenly" one. The affection possessed by a human father towards his indigent and suppliant offspring, however strong, is limited, and liable to extinction. Children often wear it out. And then, the ability to help is very measured. Some parents, alas! have not the power to help their children, even to bread. But, neither the affection nor the ability of the Heavenly Father, admits of any degrees; both are infinite. Redemption proves the infinitude of his love, and nature the infinitude both of his love and his power.

Secondly: That this little affection and ability of the earthly father, are both derived from the Heavenly one. Whence came the love that glows in our hearts for our children? It is but a spark emitted from that infinite flame, which lights up the universe. All the love in all creature hearts, is but a little stream rising from the immeasurable depths of divine affection. Whence too came the power to help? "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof."