He that is much in prayer shall grow rich in grace. He shall thrive and increase most that is busiest in this, which is our very traffic with heaven, and fetches the most precious commodities thence.-Leighton.

Desire is the soul of prayer.-Young.

It is good for us to keep some account of our prayers, that we may not unsay in our practices anything that we said in our prayers.-Henry.

Let prayer be the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.-Henry.

If I acquiesce in the act of prayer without desiring to get what I ask for, I never pray.-Adam.

Bring thy gift to the altar, and not thy worthiness; thou canst beg, though thou canst not buy, it.—Anon.

Prayer is a haven to the shipwrecked mariner, an anchor to them that are sinking in the waves, a staff to the limbs that totter, a mine of jewels to the poor, a security to the rich, a healer of diseases, and a guardian of health. Prayer at once secures the continuance of our blessings, and dissipates the cloud of our calamities. Chrysostom.

Stated and regular seasons are indispensable to the regular performance of all business. Method, proverbially

styled "the soul of business," cannot exist without such seasons. Irregularity, which is the preventative or ruim of all valuable efforts, grows of course out of irregular distribution of time. That which is done at accidental occasions only, is ultimately not done at all. No business demands regularity and method more than prayer: there is in all men naturally a strong indisposition to pray. Stated seasons, therefore, returning at regular periods, are peculiarly necessary to preserve this duty in its full vigour. He who prays at such seasons will always remember the duty. He who prays at accidental seasons only, will first neglect, then hate, and finally desist from, duty.-Dwight.

The body of our prayer is the sum of our duty; and as we must ask of God whatsoever we need, we must labour for all that we ask.-Jeremy Taylor.

God hears and answers only the prayers of the penitent. When a man resolves, I will have no more to do with sin, then, not till then, do his prayers find way to God. Impenitency clogs the wing of devotion and stops its passage into heaven. The person must be accepted before the petition. Christ Jesus is the priest that offers and the altar which sanctifies our services (1 Pet. ii. 5; Isa. lvi. 7); and Christ will not be their advocate in heaven who refuse to have Him their king on earth. The Scripture is in no point more express than this: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" (Psa. lxvi. 18). Prayer

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is a pouring out of the heart; if iniquity be harboured there, prayer is obstructed: and if it do break out, it will have the scent and savour of that iniquity upon it. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord (Prov. xx. 8), both because it is impure in itself, and because it has no altar to sanctify it. "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination" (Prov. xxviii. 9). Great reason that God should refuse to hear him who refuses to hear God; that he who will not let God beseech him (as He does in His word, 2 Cor. v. 20), should not be allowed to beseech God (Prov. i. 24, 28; Isa. i. 15). His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, but iniquity separates between us and Him, and hides His face that He will not hear (Ezek. viii. 18). God heareth not sinners (John ix. 31). The prevalency of prayer is this, that it is the prayer of a righteous man (Jas. v. 16).—Bishop Reynolds.

PREPARATION FOR DEATH.

"Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh."-St. Matthew.

W

more.

HEN you lie down at night, compose your spirits as if you were not to awake till the heavens be no And when you awake in the morning, consider that new day as your last, and live accordingly. Surely that night cometh, of which you will never see the morning, or that morning of which you will never see the night; but which of your mornings or nights will be such you know not.-Boston.

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PRESUMPTION.

We shall not die an hour the sooner, but abundantly the better, for our timely setting of our heart and house in order. Henry.

Those whose conversation in the world is truly holy, shall find their removal out of it truly happy.-Henry.

The hour is coming, and it is a fearful and solemn hour even to the wisest and the best; the hour is coming, when we must bid adieu to the scenes which please us, to the families we love, to the friends we esteem. Whether we think, or whether we think not, that body which is now warm and active with life shall be cold and motionless in death, the countenance must be pale, the eye must be closed, the voice must be silenced, the senses must be destroyed, the whole appearance must be changed by the remorseless hand of our last enemy. We may banish the remembrance of the weakness of our human nature, we may tremble at the prospect of dissolution; but our reluctance to reflect upon it, and our attempts to drive it from our recollection, are in vain. We know that we are sentenced to die, and though we sometimes succeed in casting off for a season the conviction of this unwelcome truth, we never can entirely remove it.

PRESUMPTION.

"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”St. Paul.

TO sin on quietly, because you do not intend to sin always, is to live on a reversion which will probably never be yours.-H. More.

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."-Solomon.

VERY man has just as much vanity as he wants understanding.-Anon.

Affectation in any part of our carriage is lighting up a candle to our defects, and never fails to make us be taken notice of, either as wanting sense or wanting sincerity. -Locke.

That which first overcame man is the last thing he overcomes.-Augustine.

Our pride, as delicate as it is, can be content to feed upon that stench and corruption which a little humility makes us nauseate.-Adam.

As thou desirest the love of God and man, beware of pride. It is a tumour in the mind, that breaks and poisons all thy actions; it is a worm in thy treasure,