Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven; with all the distinctive characters that separate such a one from a world that lieth in wickedness, the children of the wicked one; because you desire, renouncing the pomps and vanities of the world, and the sinful lusts of the flesh, to put on the wedding garment prepared for you; to put on the Lord Jesus Christ-the robe of righteousness, the garment of salvation. We do not tell you first. "to make your calling and election sure." You are called now-Jesus has sent for you-the church has fetched you-" the Spirit and the bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst come." say to you "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." If there be in you but a considerate choice, an honest desire, it came from God; it is his own good seed; when you present it to him He will know his own, and for his own sake will accept both it and you. We MEDITATIONS AND PRAYERS. MEDITATIONS ON THE LORD'S PRAYER PRE PARATORY TO THE COMMUNION. AFTER THIS MANNER PRAY YE."-Matt. vi. 9. PRAYER has been called the breath of spiritual life; by its free and healthful exercise the vigour of the soul is both sustained and manifested and by its cessation, that life would be at the least suspended and become insensible. To Him who penetrates beyond the words, if He needed such a disclosure, the tone of our prayers would exactly make known the condition of our hearts; and needless, to Him, they may be most useful to disclose it to ourselves. The church therefore has required, that before we be admitted to the communion, we be able to repeat the Lord's Prayer: a very small and simple requisition, as before men, who can but hear the words; but in its full bearing before Him who searches the heart and taught us so to express ourselves, it contains the full realization of the gospel faith and verily and indeed repeated, with an understanding mind, a consenting will, and a beseeching heart, it contains all that is necessary to test our fitness for the holy communion of the body and blood of Christ. The question then comes home to me: am I able to repeat the Lord's prayer? "After this manner pray ye." The words are so very few, and so very simple, it would seem no very difficult thing, after this example, to frame acceptable prayer. It might be thought to discountenance the efforts that are made for long continuance of attention, and great fervency of expression in the out-pouring of our souls to God; but certainly presents no discouragement to the slow of heart and slow of speech, whose brief, and broken, and almost wordless prayers are their frequent grief and disquietude. The Lord's Prayer is a perfect contrast to all that we call fluency, the excited feeling, the exuberant vehemence, and mul tiplied invocations which usually characterize all human compositions; yet, besides that, it is, |