renew our souls. Humility, penitence, sincerity, and fervour, are essential ingredients to acceptable prayer. Languid and heartless prayers will never ascend into the regions above: our prayers must be fervent, in order to become effectual: they must flow from the heart, and not merely from the lips.

q

Faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is another thing essentially requisite to acceptable prayer. All our requests and supplications to the throne of grace must be presented in the name of our great High Priest. He said to his disciples, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." " Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."" "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened." " He ever liveth" in the glory of the Father "to make intercession for us, and will save all them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." He, as our advocate in the heavenly courts, will order our cause, will plead in our behalf, and through his prevailing intercession will make our prayers effectual, to the relief of our necessities, and to the comfort and support of our souls, during our pilgrimage on earth.

r

» John xvi. 23, 24. 4 Matt. vii. 7. Heb. vii. 25.

to pray.

III. We will now consider, When we ought The Apostle says, Pray without ceasing. This implies that we must pray always, incessantly. But is it possible, some persons may inquire, to be always engaged in prayer? Are there not other Christian duties equally important, which must be entirely neglected, if we strictly adhere to this Apostolical injunction? Undoubtedly this command must be explained with some limitation. The devout Apostle himself was not always so engaged in prayer, as to omit the more active duties of preaching the Gospel, and of visiting the Churches. We must conceive, therefore, that in this place he is recommending the habit of prayer rather than any particular act of prayer. The heart of the Christian ought always to be in a disposition to pray: he will pray without ceasing, by being ready on every emergency, under any trial or difficulty, to lift up his soul unto God in fervent supplication. He will not be satisfied with praying at certain times only, or on some particular occasions ; he will pray incessantly: his heart will often pray, by offering up pious ejaculations, even while his hands are employed in his daily labours. In the midst of worldly business, or in the society of his fellow creatures, he can present a short petition to his heavenly Father

for wisdom and grace; and his ear will always be attentive to the cries of his children. In the most dreary regions, in the darkest prisons, in the lowest state of affliction and misery, even when surrounded with violent waves and storms, the children of God can pray unto him without ceasing, and then they are comforted. "Deep calleth unto deep," saith David, "at the noise of the water-spouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."

If we would observe this command, to pray without ceasing, we must regularly and conscientiously attend on public prayer. Unless we are prevented by sickness, or some unavoidable hinderance, we shall gladly present ourselves in the house of God, "at the hour of prayer,' " that we may join with his worshipping servants in offering up our supplications and thanksgivings before the throne of grace. Being conscious of our own weakness, our ignorance, and our depravity, we shall rejoice in the opportunity of waiting on our Lord in "his house of prayer," that we may renew our • Psal. xlii. 7, 8.

*Acts iii. 1.

strength, and increase in knowledge, and grow in grace, remembering his divine promise, that, "where two or three are gathered together in his name, he will be there in the midst of them."" In this manner, the first Christians often met together to make known their requests before the Lord, and to offer up their supplications in behalf of their brethren. On one of these occasions, "when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together: "and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness." And when Peter was cast into prison by Herod, prayer was made without ceasing unto God for him :" instant and earnest prayer was made in his behalf, and their prayers were heard; for the angel of the Lord was sent to deliver him out of prison, and his cruel persecutor was soon after arrested by the hand of God, and was brought to an awful end.

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We have, indeed, in the Scriptures, many striking proofs of the efficacy of social prayer, when several pious persons united together in presenting the same prayers unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the Apostle James writes to his brethren, "Is any

1 Matt. xviii. 20. * Acts iv. 31. y Acts xii. 5.

Is any

one among you afflicted? let him pray. merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."**

We may also include family prayer in this injunction of the Apostle. We ought to pray incessantly, or daily, with our children and servants. The young are not so well qualified to pray for themselves, and must gradually be trained to prayer by their parents and masters, that they may have a proper sense of their

• James v. 13-16.

"The prayers of men have saved cities and kingdoms "from ruin: prayer hath raised dead men to life, hath stopped "the violence of fire, shut the mouths of wild beasts, hath "altered the course of nature, caused rain in Egypt, and drought in the sea; it made the sun to go from west to east, and the moon to stand still, and rocks and mountains to walk; and "it cures diseases without physic, and makes physic to do the "work of nature, and nature to do the work of grace, and

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grace to do the work of God, and it does miracles of accident "and event; and yet prayer that does all this, is of itself "nothing but an ascent of the mind to God, a desiring of things "fit to be desired, and an expression of this desire to God as we can, and as Lecomes us.' Bp. Taylor. Holy Living.