knowledge of his God, more instructions in righteousness, more guidance of his affections, and more consolation of his spirit, than from all other means which have been devised in the world to make him wise and virtuous. We cannot fully estimate the effects of the Sabbath, unless we were once deprived of it. Imagination cannot picture the depravity which would gradually ensue if time were thrown into one promiscuous field without those heaven-directed beacons to rest, and direct, the passing pilgrim. Man would then plod through a wilderness of being, and one of the avenues which now admits the light that will illuminate his path would be perpetually closed."-Bp. Dehon.

"Sunday is to the rest of the week in spirituals, what summer is to the rest of the year in temporals. It is the chief time for gathering knowledge to last you through the following week, just as summer is the chief season for gathering food to last through the following twelvemonth. Do you make the most of this weekly summer? Do you, like wise sons, gather instruction by listening to the reader and the preacher? Do you gather fresh stores of strength by diligent and humble attendance on the ordinances of God? Or do you not?"-A. W. Hare.

"Meetness is deemed requisite in candidates for every state, either of service or enjoyment. To produce that meetness which Christ demands in those who aspire to a place in His kingdom, previous habits of preparation are indispensably necessary. And what expedient can better answer so important a design, than the religious employment of such an interval of time as the periodical return of this sacred day affords? If social worship or solitary meditation have any efficacy, as means, in illumining the mind, purifying the heart, and exalting the affections, they must possess this efficacy in a very high proportion at these solemn

festivals, when their course is not embarrassed by intervening cares, nor their offices incumbered by wordly speculations. The mind is then most open to religious conviction, and the heart most accessible to devotional impressions, when the objects of daily engagement are fairly laid aside, and a veil is thrown over all the attractions and the follies of the world. How sweet is the Christian's intercourse, how profitable are his meditations, while prosecuting the various duties of this holy day! He finds throughout it, a nearer approach to God, and closer communion with the Father of his spirit, than ordinary days and opportunities afford him. Standing, as he does, aloof from the snares and temptations by which he is most commonly beset, he feels his faith strengthened, his hopes encouraged, his joys increased, and all the graces of his character proportionably improved. The infirmities which had gained upon him in the current week, become sensibly reduced. The law of the Spirit of life within him. revives, and the law of sin proportionably declines. The errors which were corrupting his faith, are corrected; and the doubts which had begun to shake his confidence, are removed. New and brighter views of the love of God in Christ, and of his own peculiar interest in that regard, take possession of his soul and the exercises which employ, and the pleasures which exhilarate him, fit him for returning to the affairs of the world; with less danger of being won over by its blandishments, or subdued by its terrors."-Rev. J. Owen.

"Every real Christian has the love of the Sabbath so engraven on the tablet of the inner man that, if you had a window to his bosom, you would there see the fourth commandment filling up as large a space of that epistle, which is written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, as it does on the decalogue of Moses; that this is not the peculiarity of some accidental Christians, meeting our ob

servation on some random walk over the face of Christian society; that it is the constant and universal attribute of all Christians; that in every age of the Church the love of the Sabbath, and an honest delight in all its pious and profitable observances, have ever stood out among the lineaments of the new creature in Jesus Christ our Lord; that the great Spirit, whose office it is to inscribe the law of God on the hearts of those whose sins are forgiven them, and whom He has admitted into the privileges of his new and his better covenant, has never omitted, in a single instance, to make the remembrance of the Sabbath one of the most conspicuous and one of the most indelible articles of that inscription."-Chalmers.

153

PRAYER.

"When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple:" JONAH II, 7.

"PRAYER hath a twofold pre-eminence above all other duties whatsoever, in regard of the universality of its influence, and opportunity for its performance. The universality of its influence :-As every sacrifice was to be seasoned with salt, so every undertaking and every affliction of the creature must be sanctified with prayer; nay, as it sheweth the excellency of gold that it is laid upon silver itself, so it speaketh the excellency of prayer, that not only natural and civil, but even religious and spiritual actions are overlaid with prayer. We pray not only before we eat or drink our bodily nourishment, but also before we feed on the bread of the Word and the bread in the sacrament. Prayer is requisite to make every providence and every ordinance blessed to us; prayer is needful to make our particular callings successful. Prayer is the guard to secure the fort-royal of the heart; prayer is the porter to keep the door of the lips; prayer is the strong hilt which defendeth the hands; prayer perfumes every relation; prayer helps us to profit by every condition; prayer is the chemist that turns all into gold; prayer is the master workman; if that be out of the way the whole trade stands still, or goeth backward. What the

key is to the watch, that prayer is to religion; it winds it up, and sets it a-going. It is before other duties in regard of opportunity for its performance. A Christian cannot

always hear, or always read, or always communicate, but he may pray continually. No place, no company can deprive him of this privilege. If he be on the top of a house with Peter, he may pray; if he be in the bottom of the ocean with Jonah, he may pray; if he be walking in the field with Isaac, he may pray when no eye seeth him; if he be waiting at table with Nehemiah, he may pray when no ear heareth him. If he be in the mountains with our Saviour, he may pray; if he be in the prison with Paul, he may pray; whereever he is, prayer will help to find God out. Every saint is God's temple; and he that carrieth his temple about him,' saith Austin, may go to prayer when he pleaseth.' Indeed, to a Christian every house is a house of prayer, every closet a chamber of presence, and every place he comes to an altar whereon he may offer the sacrifice of prayer."-Swinnock.

"Prayer is the breath of the new creature, and the sign of a spiritual life. Christians, let your prayers be secret, sincere, fervent, and constant. The way to heaven,' said a good man, is through the closet, and they that have been eminent in piety have been excellent in prayer.' Holy David would not let a morning pass without prayer; yea, three times a day he was at this blessed duty. It was his element and constant employment. Your prayer must be fervent, if it be effectual. Prayer without fervency, is a bullet without powder, or as a bird without wings, that cannot mount up into the air. Holy fire must be put to the daily sacrifice. God answers by fire. He that looks upon the heart, regards the manner of your prayers more than the number of your prayers. Cold, slight mumbling over a few petitions, either out of custom, or to stop the voice of conscience, will not avail. Christians, the time that you spend with God in