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aware how greatly they are dependent upon God; how little of real good this world has to give, and how much its transitory nature deducts from the value of that it is able to offer to its votaries. The first of these I would exhort not to entertain such unworthy ideas of God, as to suppose that he afflicts them unnecessarily or wantonly, and assure them that, if it is not their own fault, they will one day rejoice that they are now sorrowful. To the others I would say, that it will be good for them if they be afflicted; if the brightness of this world be sullied in the chase after things heavenly. If judgment comes from God to arouse them, may they bow submissive. to the stroke, and thankfully recognize the hand of a Merciful Father.

This is not a subject in which we have no interest. It is of paramount, of vital importance to us all, that we should so bear our inevitable sorrows here, as that they may give birth to spiritual blessings, and that after we have suffered awhile, after we have endured our burdens here some few short years, and the agony and the toil are past, we may be made perfect by

the grace of God, stablished on the rock of our salvation, strengthened in the purified and sanctified spirit, and settled in heavenly rest. Thus let us entreat God to deal with us, and thank him with exceeding hope, that in Christ Jesus, He has given us a Saviour who is able to bring strength out of weakness, joy out of sorrow, and out of the night and darkness of time, the light and glory of eternity.

LECTURE VII.

COMMUNICATION WITH GOD IN PRAYER.

CHRIST PRAYETH.

PSALM LXV. 2.

O Thou that hearest prayer.

WHEN the penitent is on his knees before. his infallible Lord and Judge, entreating pardon and acceptance in that great name through which alone he trusts salvation may be gained: when the child of sorrow is prostrate before the throne of his Everlasting Father, pouring out the anguish of his soul into His ears, who he believes listens with compassion to the mournful voice of his calling, and is ready to shed abroad upon his heart the consolations of a comforting, reviving, renewing spirit: when

the creature prefers his supplication to his Creator, that He will provide for his daily wants, and defend him from daily harm; what reason has any one of them for confidence, that the great Self-Existent God, whom he neither sees nor hears, will distinguish his feeble cry ainong the ten thousand thousand voices which, in this peopled world, are lifted up on every side? That there must be some ground of confidence we may well believe, for why should so many useless tears be shed, so many sighs be uttered in vain, so many petitions unavailingly preferred? If prayer were hopeless, surely it would soon be silent. If prayer were hopeless, the temples of the Lord would soon be voiceless as He himself is viewless. The fury of His wrath must be borne, not deprecated; the fountains of sorrow must be choked up, not suffered to flow at his feet; and the earth-born must be taught dependence on himself, not on the spiritual arm which he may no longer deem stretched out to protect him.

But to save us from so deep despair we have, in the first place, as men, the records of by-gone ages, the history of the world.

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itself, to attest that there is in the heart an indwelling consciousness, the development of which it is scarcely possible that circumstances should repress; which, with the existence of a Deity, teaches also that He is a being who interests himself in the prayers of men. Wherever God has been known, there he has been worshipped. Wherever he has been worshipped, he has been believed to listen to his worshipper. The page of history, the ruins of temples, the remnants of altars, the groves of idolatry,. the pomps and extravagances of heathenism, unite in declaring the unanimous conviction of the heart and understanding, that God, however creeds may vary as to His nature and attributes, is a God that heareth prayer.

And if, in the second place, we advert to the more interesting memorials of revelation, both the Jew and the Christian will find in them abundant assurance of the same important truth. Each will find there records, not only of prayer preferred, but also of prayer answered.

Under the first and less perfect dispensation, full directions are given how to

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