secret chamber, with the conviction that at all times and in every place a Divine Influence is indispensable to real prayer ; with a consciousness that we cannot command it, yet with an expectation that we shall receive it. It is for us to arrange the wood upon the altar; the fire must be kindled, as the victim has been provided, from on high. It is for us to mould the clay into shape and form; it must be inspired and animated by the creative Power of God. The threefold interposition of Deity is needed, that a sinner may be enabled to pray, but being needed, it has only to be asked, and it will not be withheld; for "if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how shall not your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Men ought therefore ALWAYS to pray, and not to faint."

XX.

Prayer.

PART II. ITS OBJECTS.

RAYER is the action of the life of the soul. It is an essential, an integral part of

the existence of the Christian. It is a thing of all times, of all places, of all societies, and of all circumstances; its range is so ample as to be almost unlimited. There is none, however distant, with whom we may not thus hold communion; none, however inaccessible, whom we cannot thus approach; the heart may be the centre, but the universe itself alone is the circumference of prayer. For it has already been shewn that, in the case of every

true believer, supplication or prayer for ourselves is combined with intercession or prayer for others; and when we have contemplated the objects of either kind of prayer, it will appear wherefore such peculiar stress was laid upon this duty by Him who most desired and most advanced the well-being of man in either state of existence, when He spake a parable expressly to this end, that "men ought always to pray, and not to faint."

The OBJECTS of supplication are manifold; but among those which are primarily important may be enumerated the pardon of sin, the bestowment or advancement of a justifying faith, sanctification through the Spirit, guidance through the paths of life by God's counsel, and admission after the pains of death to God's glory.

The first object of prayer is, the pardon of sin. And were this its sole object, Prayer would be universal; for not only in many things do we offend all, but where is he that can "tell how oft he

offendeth;" where is he who needeth not continually to iterate the petition of the Psalmist, "Cleanse Thou me from secret faults." And it is manifest that the depth and intensity of this supplication is increased in proportion to the knowledge of ourselves. It is the language of all who assemble in the courts of the Lord's House, that they have “erred and strayed from God's ways like lost sheep, and there is no health in them." It is the entreaty of all that God would have mercy on them as "miserable sinners :" but the humiliation is yet more abject and prostrate, the deprecation of Divine anger yet more vehement and earnest, on the part of those who, being alone in full communion with the Church, are alone her real, lively, and complete members; and who, as oft as they "draw near in faith, and take this Holy Sacrament to their comfort," embody their conviction of its supreme and urgent necessity, as a means of reconciliation and of concession for themselves,

when they declare that the remembrance of their sin is grievous unto them, and the burthen of it intolerable. Such do indeed appropriate the petition of the Psalmist, "Pardon mine iniquity, O Lord, for it is great!" Such do indeed fully accord with the self-abasing estimate of the Apostle, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." For they know that "all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do;" that "He hath set even our secret sins in the light of His countenance;" and that they have much to abase them which no eye of man hath seen, and no heart of man would suspect; much which is confined to the bosom within which it is generated, having been prevented by grace, if not from springing up, yet from coming to maturity: advancing just far enough to indicate the rankness of the soil from which it proceeds, and to manifest the need alike of perpetual vigilance, and of profound humility. But, whatever these