The bruised reed.

can ever hesitate to come back at once after he has wandered, with an assurrance that God will forgive.

He will not break the bruised reed. How beautiful and striking an illustration of our Redeemer's kindness to those who have sinned. A planter walks out into his grounds, and among the reeds growing there, there is one-young, green and slender—which a rude blast has broken. Its verdant top is drenched in the waters which bathe its root; and perhaps he hesitates for a moment whether to tear it from the spot and throw it away. But no; he raises it to its place, carefully adjusts its bruised stem, and sustains it by a support, till it once more acquires its former strength and beauty. Now Jesus Christ is this planter. Every backsliding humbled Christian is a bruised reed; and O how many are now thriving and vigorous, that in the hour of humiliation have been saved by his tenderness and care.

Come then to this Friend, all of you. Bring all your interests and hopes and fears to him; he will sympathize in them all. And whenever you have wandered, never hesitate a moment to return.

The absent son.

Prayer.

CHAPTER III.

PRAYER.

"Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will do it."

As I have on this subject many separate points to discuss, I shall arrange what I have to say under several distinct heads, that the view presented may be the better understood and remembered.

I. The power of prayer. trated by describing a case.

This subject may be best illus

A kind and affectionate father, whose son had arrived at an age which rendered it necessary for him to prepare for the business of life, concluded to send him from home. Their mutual attachment was strong, and though each knew it was for the best, each looked upon the approaching separation with regret. The father felt solicitous for the future character and happiness of his boy, as he was now to go forth into new temptations and dangers; and the son was reluctant to leave the quiet and the happiness of his father's fireside for the bustle of business and the rough exposures of the crowded city, where he was for the future to find a home. The hour of separation, however, at last arrived, and the father says to him at parting,

'My son, be faithful, do your duty, and you will be happy. Remember your parents-the efforts which they have made, and the affection that they now feel for you. Watch against temptation, and shun it. I will supply all your

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The father's promises.

wants.

When you wish for any thing, write to me and you shall have it. And may God bless you, and keep you safe and happy."

My reader will observe that this language, which is not fiction, but fact, for it has in substance been addressed in a thousand instances under the circumstances above described, contains a promise to send the son whatever he shall ask for. But the meaning of it is not—and no boy would understand it to be that every possible request which he might make. would be certainly granted. Although the promise is made in the few simple words, "whenever you want any thing, write to me and you shall have it," yet the meaning expressed fully would be, whenever you wish for any thing, which as far as you can see is proper for you, if you will let me know it I will send it, unless I see that it is better for you not to have it, or unless there are other special reasons which prevent my complying with your request."

Now a boy may in such a case make a great many requests which the father might refuse without being considered by any one as breaking his promise.

1. He may ask something which the father knows would, in the end, injure him. Suppose he should request his father to supply him with double his usual quantity of pocket money, and the father should see clearly that the effect of granting the request would be to cultivate in him careless and extravagant habits of expenditure, and to divert his attention from his business. In such a case the father would undoubtedly refuse, and no one would imagine that he was breaking his promise. The boy, if he had acted right, would not have asked such a favor.

2. He may ask something which, if granted, would interfere with the rights or happiness of others. There was a watch, we will imagine, hanging up in his father's house, used by all the family,-the only time-piece accessible to

Requests in an improper manner.

The letter.

them. Now suppose that the boy, growing selfish and vain, and thinking that his importance among his comrades would be increased by his wearing a watch, should write to ask his father to send this family watch to him. Who would think that his father would be bound to comply on account of his parting promise to his son to supply all his wants? Christians very often make such selfish requests, and wonder why their prayers are not heard. A farmer who has one field which needs watering, will pray for rain with great earnestness, forgetting that there are ten thousand fields all around his own, and that they perhaps need the sun. A mother who has a boy at sea, will pray for prosperous winds for him, forgetting that the ocean is whitened with sails all under God's care, and that the breeze which bears one onward, must retard another. But more on this subject presently.

3. He may ask in an improper manner. Suppose the father should take from the post-office a letter in his son's handwriting, and on breaking the seal, should read as follows:

"DEAR FATHER,—

"You must let me come home next week to Christmas. I wanted to come last year, but you would not let me, and now I must come. I wish you to write me immediately, and send the letter by the return post, saying that I may come "I am your dutiful son,

Who would think that a father ought to grant a request made in such a way as this? It is to be feared that Christians sometimes bring demands, instead of requests, to God.

I have mentioned now three cases in which the father might, without breaking his promise, refuse the requests of his boy; where it would be injurious to him, unjust to

Our Savior's promise.

Prayers denied.

others, or where the request is made in an improper manner. All promises of such a sort as this are universally considered as liable to these exceptions.

Our Savior says to us, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father, in my name, he will do it." This is common language, such as men address to men, and is to be understood exactly in the same way-in just such a sense, and with just such exceptions. The language means, if it is honestly used, that requests on our part will, in ordinary cases, have a real influence with the Creator in regard to things entirely beyond our control. It must mean, that, generally, all our proper requests will be granted. At the same time it must be liable to the exceptions above stated, for such exceptions apply in all similar cases. God must reserve the right to deny our requests when they are made in an improper spirit, and when they ask what would injure us, or interfere with the general good.

If any of you have, in accordance with the views presented in the two preceding chapters, confessed your past sins and chosen Jesus Christ for your friend, you will take great pleasure in bringing your requests to God. And you may, in doing this, sometimes pray for success in some enterprise, when God sees that it is on the whole best you should fail. A man may ask that God will place him in some important station of influence or usefulness, when the eye that can see the whole, discovers that the general good will be promoted by another arrangement. Thus in many similar ways your prayers may sometimes come within the excepted cases, and then God will not grant them. These cases, however, it may be hoped, you will generally avoid, and thus in a vast majority of instances your prayers will be heard.

There is even among Christians a great deal of distrust of the power of prayer. Some think that prayer exerts a good influence upon their own hearts, and thus they continue