PRAYING FOR A NEW HEART.

GOD declares, that the human heart is 'deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.' The strongest language that could be employed to describe the inveteracy of its sinfulness God has used. He sees it to be so completely depraved, polluted, and abandoned, that he not only declares it to be hard and obdurate, but absolutely petrified-he affirms it to be a heart of stone. No figure could more terribly express its defection than this. Yet this is the deliberate verdict of Jehovah. It is certain, therefore, that we cannot form too low an estimate of its depravity. Perhaps, dear reader, you feel, in some measure, the truth of God's verdict, and are ready to exclaim with one of old, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God! and renew a right spirit within me.'

With this feeling, then, we suppose you to be seeking a new heart-a heart of flesh-a heart that will receive and reciprocate the love of God, approve what he approves, and hate what he abhors. But how is such a heart to be got? How is such a transformation as the renewing of your hard and stony heart into a feeling, sympathising, grateful, rejoicing, sanctified heart of flesh to be accomplished? God, we say, must do it. To this you assent, and therefore you say that you are praying to him for it. But here let us ask-is it by the sinner's prayer that God creates within him a new and purified heart? Where is it said so? Nowhere in the word of God. It is by faith, not prayer, dear reader, that God re-creates the sinner's heart. It is by faith, therefore, that you must seek a new heart. It was by faith that God renewed the hearts of sinners in apostolic times; and his ways are unchangeable. Listen to Acts xv. 7-9: 'Peter rose up and said, Men and brethren, ye know how that, a good while ago, God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God who knoweth the hearts bare them witness, giving them the holy Ghost even as he did unto us; and put no difference between

us and them, purifying—or having purified—their hearts by faith.

Here, then, it is most plainly intimated that it is by faith in the word of the gospel-and not by prayer-that God purifies the polluted heart of man. The apostle manifestly refers here to the great and fundamental change of which we have been speaking. He does not refer to a merely superficial or partial reformation in the persons spoken of, but of their true conversion from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. He says, that God who knows the heart bare them witness-gave them the holy Spirit, and put no difference between them and those previously renewed in heart. It is indisputable, therefore, that the change in the hearts of those persons was radical and complete. Mark, then, that it was produced, not by their prayers, but by the belief of the word of the gospel.

If, then, dear reader, you are in earnest for a new heart, take God's way of getting it. Forthwith direct your thoughts to the gospel. There God reveals to you his heart of love. There he commends it to you in the gift of his dear Son. There he calls upon you to look at it, and to let it glow upon your cold, icy, hardened heart. 0, then, sinner, behold by faith the suffering, dying Jesusbehold him dying under the load of your transgressionsbehold him as the manifestation of the love of God to you -behold him thus by faith, and your stony heart will give way beneath the power of the divine compassion, and its hitherto dormant affections will burst forth into living and holy gratitude to that God whose heart is a heart full of love to you.

PLEADING THE PROMISES.

Do you understand, dear reader, what you are about when you say that you are pleading the promises? Have you any distinct idea in your mind in doing this? What

do you understand by the promises, and what do you mean by pleading them? What promises do you refer to? Is there any promise that God has given you, that he has not fulfilled? If there be any such promise, what is it? And if you do not know of any such unfulfilled promise, why are you pleading that it be fulfilled? We put these questions to you, not because it is wrong to plead God's promises, but because it is not unlikely that you may be pleading for what God has not promised, or for what he has not promised to any in your present position; or for what he has already given. You can easily suppose the following that you may be thinking that certain things are promises that are not promises-that you may be asking for things which God never promised, nor intended to give, to persons in your circumstances-that you may be asking for what, if given you in your present position, would not meet your necessities-that you may be asking for things which God, in his infinite wisdom, knows would not be good for you—that you may be asking for things which, in your present state you could not receive-and above all, that you may be asking for what God has already given, and what is really the thing you need. So that by forgetting this you are keeping yourself in needless and painful suspense, and away from the blessing that you are in search of. This we apprehend, dear reader, is your very case. Let us see if it be not. Let us enquire if God has not already given just what you need and want.

What is it, dear reader, that you are pleading for? What is it that you want? You want something that can quiet your conscience, troubled as it is in view of your sins-you want something to remove them from between you and your Maker and Judge-you want something that can give you peace with God-you want something to inspire you with confidence in prospect of death, judgment, and eternity-you want something to save you, now and for ever. This, we know, is what you need. Say, is it not the very thing you are pleading for? It is. Now, then, the question for you is-has God given this? We rejoice, dear reader, to be able to say--he has. In the gift of Jesus, he has given all this. Let us, then, prove it.

H

From the first hour of man's sin, God promised a Saviour. And in regard to Jesus as the promised Redeemer, what says the Apostle in Acts xiii. 32, 33? We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled.' And what says he to the Ephesian disciples ii. 12-14? At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise; having no hope, and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ; for he is our peace.'

Here, then, it is manifest, that the very things you are pleading for are already given-given in Jesus. You are, therefore, not to plead for them, but to take them. It is yours, not to pray that they may be given, but to believe that they are given. This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life.' O, then, anxious sinner, now accept God's gift in Jesus. Consider that it is only by so doing that you can inherit the promises. Gal. iii. 29 tells you that if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and an heir according to the promise. 2 Cor. i. 20 tells you that all the promises of God in Christ are yea, and in him, Amen. Ephes. iii. 6 tells you that it is by the gospel that you become a partaker of God's promise in Christ. Why, then, not accept the promised blessing in the promised Saviour at once? Why stand aloof, pleading for what is given? O, sinner, be wise by forthwith accepting Jesus, in whom all the promises are yours.

PRAYING GOD TO BE RECONCILED.

IF, dear reader, you are praying God to be reconciled, you are committing a great mistake. You are committing a heavy wrong on the divine character; and you are over

looking one of the most delightful truths of the gospel. Do you not know that God does not require to be entreated to be reconciled? Do you not know that God is praying you to be reconciled? Do you not know that this is the very object of that gospel to which you have been privileged so long to listen? What is the gospel, but an entreaty from God for you to cease your enmity and strife, and forthwith to enter into his favour and fellowship? What do you ima gine the gospel to be, dear reader, if you do not see that it is an exhibition of God's infinite desire for your reconciliation-if it does not lay before you the plan of reconciliation-if it does not press upon you the terms of reconciliation—if it is not God's prayer to you to be reconciled? If it is not all this, what is it? What have you supposed it to be? Where has it taught you that you must pray God to be reconciled? There is no such doctrine to be found in it. No, dear reader, no. The gospel comes to you as the combined entreaty of Father, Son, and holy Spirit, for you to be reconciled to God.

But that you may see that this is the doctrine of the Bible, hear 2 Cor. v. 18-21. 'God,' says the apostle, 'hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' Observe, now, the various facts here stated, and you cannot fail to see, that instead of you having to pray God to be reconciled to you, he is actually at this moment praying you to be reconciled to him. Notice, then, first, that God reconciled the apostles to himself by Jesus Christ; second, Having done so, he gave to them the ministry, or service of reconciliation; third, That this ministry consisted in the exhibition of the fact, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, by not imputing to men their trespasses; fourth, That the apostles were, therefore, ambassadors for