know that "whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause; for the love of Christ constraineth us." (2 Cor. v. 13, 14.) Suffer me then to remind you, how much it depends upon yourselves, whether your own Pastors shall realize such joys or not. It is in your power to fill them either with joy or with sorrow. O, if you walk not "worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called;" (Eph. iv. 1;) if you yield to unwatchfulness, temptation, and sin; if there arise among you "envyings, debates, strifes," disunion; (2 Cor. xii. 20;) if you evince no proper relish for the means of grace; if your conversation and conduct be worldly and unspiritual; if your zeal wax cold, and your efforts to do as well as get good become feeble; if even there be no evidence of growing piety, no fervour of devotion, no delight in communion with God, no affectionate and prayerful fellowship with each other;-if such should become your state as a people, then either your Ministers must become insensible of the importance and responsibility of their work; or, impressed with your guilt and danger, and the dishonour done to Christ and his cause, they would mourn over you in secret places, and grieve for you while you grieved not for yourselves. But if, on the other hand, the reverse of all this be descriptive of your state; if they see you "walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and being multiplied;" (Acts ix. 31;) "growing in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;" (2 Peter iii. 18;) loving each other with pure hearts fervently; "bearing one another's burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ;" (Gal. vi. 2;) striving to "adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things;" (Titus ii. 10;) and to "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven;" (Matt. v. 16;) and labouring to spread the honours of Christ's name, and the blessings of his Gospel among your fellow-men ;-then will they experience that great and sacred joy which we have but feebly now described, and will daily thank God that they "have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain." (Phil. ii. 16.)

"If," then, "there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye our joy." (Phil. ii. 1, 2.) "For God is our record, how greatly we long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ: and this we pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." (Phil. i. 8-11.)

"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy ¿ to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 24, 25.)

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

ON PRAYER.

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him!"-Matt. vii. 11.

THE language of Scripture on this subject is so very clear and distinct, that no doubt can exist in the mind of a true Christian that it is required of God, while his own consciousness of deficiency proves its necessity, as its use, when resorted to, will its value. But there are many who, notwithstanding the clear and distinct directions of Scripture to pray on all occasions when we have a want, imagine the advantage of prayer to be confined to obtaining remission of sins, spiritual strength, and a sort of general blessing on our health and labours; but that it is wrong or presumptuous to ask for particular things: and the principal reasons adduced are such as, that the laws by which God rules the universe are so fixed, that we ought not to expect he will alter the order of anything for us; that we are incapable of rightly judging as to our real wants; that we ought not to show anything like discontent, &c. But I trust to be able to show, that none of these arguments, when rightly applied, can interfere with the fullest confidence in the power of prayer, and the simplicity of truth in God's word regarding it.

Among the mass of mankind the general idea is, that God has so fixed and settled all things by an order of nature, that prayer is altogether useless, and his dispensing, ever-existing, and supporting power is not even supposed requisite; that matter itself has its sustaining power already given. With the unbelief of infidelity I do not here intend to deal, but only strive to convince the weak in faith of their privileges under the Gospel, in which they do believe. I confine myself to the specious, but not less erring, arguments, by which the flesh and the devil keep Christ's disciples from practically applying the truth and promises of their Saviour.

The truth of every opinion and doctrine can only be tested by the word of God, and its reasonableness; and if it can be proved, that, so far from being the will of God men should abstain from prayer for anything, it is his command; that no restraint is put by him, except the careful consideration of, whether it is according to what he can, as a perfectly wise and good Father, sanction; and if also he has given us a sufficient means of informing ourselves on the point; then no professing Christian has an excuse for avoiding prayer; and if he has a want, it must arise from his mind being in such a condition, that God sees the satisfying it would be a greater evil, by removing some requisite restraint, or feeding some inclination to excess which ought to be mortified, or otherwise, from want of faith in the power of prayer, he has it not because he will not ask for it. For God, who works on the human mind by various but always reasonable means, to effect the good of his creatures, has established this mode of acquiring blessings in asking for them, that we, showing thereby our consciousness of dependence (humility) on him, confidence in his love and willingness and power (faith) to grant them, and by our asking in the name of

Christ, our faith in him as the only ground of admission into his presencechamber, and hope for success,-may have the assurance of his existence, truth, and goodness, together with all the articles of our faith, and every right impression more fully stamped on our souls; and any wrong impression on the subject will be a cause of keeping Christians from many blessings, both temporal and spiritual, simply by preventing the asking for them.

The common excuse for not asking for particular blessings is submission to the will of God; yet it is far more likely to be unbelief in the word of God, meaning all it says in simplicity; such as, "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." (John xiv. 14.) It certainly shows great ignorance; because, of what use can the permission be, if never to be used? or because the thing being good, according to God's own estimate, is understood in the promise, are we to suppose we are, after all, left so incapable of judging, (however liable to error by nature,) that it becomes a mere piece of mockery?

Men are not so ready to give up their wishes to the will of God, when they know them wrong, or are not called on to depend upon such evidence of faith for obtaining them: and if such a promise was made by an earthly parent, he would expect it to be believed. Prayer is the address or petition of one being to another for things not in the power of the petitioner; and its efficacy depends only on the will and power of the being addressed to hear and answer it, which may depend on its nature and mode; and although the promise from one we confide in that he will grant it must be a source of faith and love in him, yet the fact of his having kept his promise would be sure to increase both these and all other relative affections in such a being as man towards his benefactor, while the mysterious nature of the means of communication with God must inspire at the same time that child-like awe and reverence requisite as a check to the abuse of his goodness. Now, no man would believe that a friend or fellow-man would refuse a reasonable request in his power, to grant which would not even inconvenience him, particularly if he had already promised it; so no Christian can have a rational doubt of God's willingness to answer his petitions, unless he asks for what will not benefit, but injure, him; then, even a man, if he had the knowledge of it, would refuse his child, but in love, and without being at all the less willing to hear him at a future period, when the request was good; and the impressions produced on the child by having his prayer granted would be those God has declared he and every other father also desires to see increased,-awe, reverence, love, faith, patience, hope, and content, and stamp on the soul full confidence in all the other promises regarding the future, so as to make them that sustaining power God intends them to be.

The requisites, then, which are demanded, are, to know our real wants, and bring our minds to seek them, and asking for them according to one fixed and unalterable condition, expressed or understood, because the only means of reconciliation for past offences is through the blood, and in the name, of Christ, who is our intercessor at God's right hand for us, and by whom the promises are made. I shall now refer briefly to those important objects of prayer which are invariably acknowledged by Christians to be a duty, and then go on to my main object, the value of prayer for some immediate good or present want; for it is on these last subjects, reducing prayer to practice, as a request or petition between father and child, according to the command, "Be careful for nothing, and in everything, by

prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God,"-that Christians are, I believe, less ready to acknowledge his truth and love.

Forgiveness for sin is the first and most important blessing the Christian has to request, because without this assurance there can be no peace of conscience, no well-grounded hope in the future; and without this all other requests, if granted, would not be felt as blessings. The necessity of repentance, and of that humility and sorrow for sin, with a desire to avoid it in future, which lead the offending child to his Father's feet, in such a state of soul that he can grant the request, are too fully known and declared in Scripture to require my giving proof; and as they are demanded in his word, none who believe in Christ being the Son of God will doubt so solemn a part of his truth: but as repentance would never give boldness to come into the offended presence of the Divine Majesty, there must be faith in Christ, as the Propitiation and Mediator, ready to intercede; and the fact of the heavenly Father having given him up for us, ought to leave no doubt that his intercession is effectual; and the soul, thus freed from fear for past offences, and assured that he has still the same Intercessor to plead in future weakness, has peace and hope, with assurance to make request for minor things.

For what parent, who has a disobedient child, does not expect acknowledgment of the offences, and that humble state of mind which is produced by sincere contrition, before he grants forgiveness; or what hope would there be of the child being more obedient in future, if too obstinate to confess its sin? And this is also required by the Most High, with faith in the Gospel or means of peace; (Luke xiii. 3; Acts iii. 19; Mark i. 15 ;) and then he has promised full forgiveness. For the whole of this doctrine, I have but to quote 1 John i. 9: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Assurance of this great object being attained, (and where can there be ground of doubt, God having given up Christ as an earnest of his will to grant it?) the believer (in the consciousness that he is still liable to be tempted, and drawn away from his duty by the force of his own lusts, requires this daily cleansing, with power to avoid giving way to temptation, and being drawn again into bondage) must continue instant in prayer, as the means of overcoming sin and the world. This, together with wisdom to learn his own nature, and the various wiles of his spiritual enemies, by knowing what God in Christ was, as an example, and what he taught, is the second great object of prayer.

To men this has been perhaps the greatest mystery of all, how the operations of prayer, or the simple act of praying, is a means by which the Christian acquires strength against the force of a natural desire over which he has no natural power: but as no man can pray in sincerity and truth without that faith which believes in God's presence, and therefore having all that awful consciousness of it, and the certain detection and punishment of hypocrisy,-the influence of the act will be to increase the power of every attribute of the soul which God has implanted in us to check sin. The child who has a due reverence and awe of his parent, will have, by bringing the idea of that presence to his mind as a fact, the same influence produced there which he would, if he actually saw him bodily, according as his idea or faith in that presence is more or less felt; and this shows at once, that while prayer must be a mighty source of good to the Christian,

to one who believes not in God it must be perfectly useless. And as the fact of God's presence is the same at all times, so prayer being a means of supporting and increasing the faith, and all other spiritual advantages arising from it, the Christian should seek to keep in a continual condition of prayer, even when making no particular appeal, as he will be thereby prepared to meet every temptation as it arises; if also, by being well instructed in the truth, his eyes are open to detect it, his conscience will be aroused and tender, and, instead of being shackled under the dominion of his passions, he will be enabled, through the exercise of prayer, not only to have fellowship with the Father, but to have power with God: the knowledge he will acquire of the advantages of prayer, and walking with God, and the evil he has felt ever to arise from sin, will always be increasing, through experience; and thus, according to that wise system which God has instituted in man, every good desire and faculty of the soul will strengthen with its exercise, and the power of evil diminish; or, as it is expressed in Scripture, "For he that hath, to him shall be given; and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath." (Mark iv. 25.) And, again, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you;" (James iv. 7 ;) for we always find any desires we give way to always increase in force over us; and the same consequences arise from praying or desiring (for without a real desire prayer is misnamed) to follow the will of God, and grow in grace; and prayer itself becomes a delight by the blessed peace and value found to arise from it.

This power in prayer to purify the heart has been acknowledged by infidel philosophers; the force of facts, as revealed in Christians, compelling them to do so. O, if their hearts could be brought to offer but one sincere prayer for the truth, what happy results might flow! what glorious rewards hereafter, if their often splendid talents were devoted to the service of their Maker!

The next objects of prayer are, so to use our various opportunities of doing good, that we may walk with God by the acquisition of knowledge as to the right application of our time and talents, and also in obtaining such things as, according to the conditions in which God has placed us, are requisite to our happiness. Now, the operation of prayer in producing sincerity, by the consciousness of God's presence, has already been alluded to; and its effects will always be beneficial, whatever our aim may be, in detecting and removing any lurking evil which pride, selfishness, prejudice, or other working of the flesh, may obtrude, to close the conscience against the truth, if our prayer be for knowledge: but to suppose that the full meaning of the promise of God to answer our prayer ends in that, would be unworthy of a Christian, contrary to example in Scripture, and make God anything but a Being whose name is Love. There may be cases where a father will say to his child, "Think carefully, and you will see it yourself." But are there not many times when the child will want further assistance, and many objects which require help on the father's part, otherwise his child will be left deficient of many sources of happiness and progress in virtue and truth?

The first requisite, then, of course, is faith. No one will ask if he has no idea of its being useful; but none can have faith, except on some foundation or evidence. I mean sufficient faith to induce him to ask, (Matt. xvii. 20,) and to expect to receive, grounded on the atoning sacrifice and prevalent intercession of Jesus Christ.

Now, in the Christian, the evidence required is to see that God has given

VOL. III.-FOURTH SERIES.

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