It is such a means of doing good, that I wonder our benevolence does not lead us to pray more. We are commanded, "as we have opportunity," to do good unto all men. Now prayer affords us the opportunity of being universal benefactors. Through God we can reach all men. We can make ourselves felt by all the world, by moving the hand that moves it. In no other way can we reach all. Prayer makes us, in a sense, omnipresent and omnipotent. It prevails with Him who is both.

The world needs your intercessions. It lies in wickedness. Zion needs them. She languishes because few pray for her peace; few come to her solemn assemblies. Whose family needs not the prayers of its every member? Who has not kindred that are out of Christ? With such a call upon us for prayer so urgent, and from so many quarters, I wonder we pray no more.

I must pray more, for then I shall do more-more for God, and more for myself; for I find that when I pray most, I accomplish more in the briefer intervals between my devotions, than when I give all my tim to labor or study. I am convinced there is nothing lost by prayer. I am sure nothing helps a student like prayer. His most felicitous hours-his hours of most successful application to study, are those which immediately follow his seasons of most fervent devotion. And no wonder. Shall the collision of created minds with each other produce in them a

salutary excitement, and shall not the communion of those minds with the infinite Intelligence much more excite them, and make them capable of wider thought and loftier conceptions?

I must pray more, because other Christians, whose biography I have read, have prayed more than I do.

God is disposed to hear more prayers from me than I offer; and Jesus, the Mediator, stands ready to present more for me.

If I pray more, I shall sin less. I will pray more. resolution.

The Lord help to fulfill this

4. I must Pray differently.

Some time ago I felt strongly the necessity of praying more, and I expressed that impression in an article entitled, "I must pray more." Now I feel that I must not only pray more, but differently; and that my praying more will not answer any good purpose, unless I also pray differently. I find that quality is to be considered in praying as well as quantity, and, indeed, the former more than the latter. We learn from Isaiah, chapter 1, that it is possible to make many prayers, or to multiply prayer, as it is in the margin, and yet not be heard. The Scribes

and Pharisees made long prayers; but their much praying availed them nothing, while the single short petition of the publican was effectual to change his entire prospects for eternity. It was because it was prayer of the right kind. It is a great error to suppose that we shall be heard for our much speaking. Let me, however, say, that while length is not by itself any recommendation of prayer, yet we have the highest and best authority for continuing a long time in prayer. We know who it was that," rising up a great while before day," departed into a solitary place, and there prayed; and of whom it is recorded in another place, that he "continued all night in prayer to God." Certainly they should spend a great deal of time in prayer, who are instructed to "pray without ceasing." It is in the social and public worship of God that long prayers are out of place.

But to return from this digression. I must pray differently; and I will tell you one thing which has led me to think so. I find that I do not pray effectually. It may be the experience of others, as well as of myself. I do not obtain what I ask; and that though I ask for the right sort of things. If I asked for temporal good, and did not receive it, I should know how to account for it. I should conclude that I was denied in mercy; and that my prayer, though not answered in kind, was answered in better kind. But I pray for spiritual blessing-for what is inherently and under all circumstances good, and do not Pr. Thoughts.

obtain it. How is this? There is no fault in the hearer of prayer-no unfaithfulness in God. The fault must be in the offerer. I do not pray right. And since there is no use in asking without obtaining, the conclusion is th I must pray differently.

I find, moreover, that I do not pray as they did in old time, whose prayers were so signally answered. When I compare my prayers with those of the Patriarchs, especially with that of Jacob-and with the prayers of the prophets, those, for instance, of Elijah and Daniel; when I compare my manner of making suit to the Savior, with the appeals made to him by the blind men, and by the woman of Canaan ; and above all, when I lay my prayers along side of His, who "offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears," I perceive such a dissimilarity, that I thence conclude I must pray differently.

I find also that I do not urge my suits to God as I do those which I have sometimes occasion to make to men. I am wiser as a child of this world, than I am as one of the children of light. When I want to carry a point with a human power, I find that I take more pains, and am more intent upon it, and use greater vigilance and effort, than when I want to gain something of God. It is clear, then, that I must alter and reform my prayers. I must pray differently. But in what respects? How differently?

1. I must not speak to God at a distance. I must draw near to him. Nor that alone. I must stir my

self up to take hold of him. Isaiah, 64: 7. Yea, I must take hold of his strength, that I may make peace with him. Isaiah, 27: 5. I have been satisfied with approaching God. I must, as it were, apprehend him.

2. I must not only take hold of God in prayer, but I must hold fast to him, and not let him go, except he bless me. So Jacob did. There were two important ingredients in his prayer-faith and perseverance. By the one he took hold of God; by the other he held fast to him till the blessing was obtained.

'wept

3. I must be more affected by the subjects about which I pray. I must join tears to my prayers. Prayers and tears used to go together much more than they do now. Hosea says that Jacob " and made supplication." Hannah wept while she prayed. So did Nehemiah, and David, and Hezekiah; and God, in granting the request of the last mentioned, uses this language: "I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears." But a greater than all these is here. Jesus offered up prayers" with strong crying and tears." Some think it unmanly to weep. I do not know how that may be; but I know it is not unchristian. It is thought by some, that men must have been more addicted to tears then than they are now; but it is my opinion that they felt more, and that is the reason they wept more. Now I must feel so as to weep; not by constraint,