thoughts, their faith, hope, love, and longings, to the second appearing of Christ. In reference to others -to make up and bring in the number of those for whom the mercy is proposed—to complete the account of the church's sufferers and sufferings-to give others an example of patient and confident waiting upon God-and for the greater dismay and confusion of the adversary."

When your PRAYERS are NOT ANSWERED, let it lead you to self-examination. Perhaps the prayer may have been answered in a way you have not thought of. Perhaps you were desiring something that would only foster ambition or pride, or were merely considering ease and comfort, without regard to spiritual edification. Or look for the cause of it in your neglect of Christ's intercession, or your ingratitude for former answers: question your own faith, the fervency of your desires, the purity of your end, the propriety of the manner in which you have offered up your petitions: 1 yes, any thing rather than God's faithfulness: Let God be true, and every man a liar. Again, God will not be

1 There are two duties connected with the efficacy of prayer, that are, it is to be feared, too little practised or insisted on-Alms and Fasting. The alms of Cornelius ascended with his prayers to God; Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. Acts x. 4. See also Proverbs xxi. 13.

Parr observes, "Religious Fasting is also a notable help to prayer, and is often commended to us in the word of God. It is a voluntary abstaining from dinner or supper, or both, as our bodies will bear, and from all delicacies for one day, or more, undertaken to make us more fit for prayer and repentance. The ends in our fasting are, 1st. A fitting ourselves for prayer, that we may be the more lively and earnest; and 2ndly. That it may be a help and testimony of our sorrow for sin, and of our humiliation before God." Only herein ever take heed to avoid superstition, (Rom. xiv. 17.) and any opinion of merit, (1 Cor. viii. 8.) and to fast from sin. Isaiah lviii. 5, 6;

Jer. xiv. 12.

inquired of by those who have an idol in their hearts. Isaiah xlviii. 5; Ezek. xiv. 3. If you are living in any habitual sin, you cannot expect that your prayers should be heard.

When your PRAYERS are ANSWERED, let it assure you of God's faithfulness and love; let it encourage you to renew your prayers, to abound therein, to seek God more constantly, to depend more simply on his strength, to lay yourself out more entirely for him, and never to fear undertaking any thing in his cause. Let it excite you to abound in thanksgiving and praise. Psalm 1xvi. 13, 20.

May what has been stated encourage you not only to hope, but patiently to wait for, and attentively observe, God's answers to prayer. Keep from such sins as would provoke him to deny your requests, and go on striving and praying, asking, seeking, and knocking, till you are at length safely landed on the heavenly shore; you will then find every prayer fully answered, every wish accomplished, and your souls filled with all the fulness of God.

CHAPTER XII.

ON THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER FOR THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.

AMID all that sin and sorrow which the Christian sees in the world, observes in his family, or feels in his own heart, there is one bright prospect on which his eye can dwell with unmingled satisfaction, and in the anticipation of which his heart can exult with unbounded joy ;--the promised time when truth, and, righteousness, and peace shall universally prevail. That such a time will come, a simple-minded and humble reader of the scriptures can have no doubt. Such passages as the following plainly point out an extension of the gospel which has never yet taken place.

All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. Psalm xxii. 27. All kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him. Psalm 1xxii. 11. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, and shall glorify thy name. Psalm 1xxxvi. 9. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the

sea. Isaiah xi. 9. Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved. Rom. xi. 25, 26. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. Rev. xi. 15.

Observe the fulness of each of these expressions. Surely they foretel the universal spread of Christianity. To deny this, would, as President Edwards has observed, be in effect to say, that it would have been impossible for God, if he had desired it plainly, to have foretold any thing that should absolutely have extended to all the nations of the earth. To suppose that these are merely high-wrought figures, and that events answerable to them are not likely to take place, is little short of supposing an intention to mislead others.

We may, then, rejoice in the delightful prospect which the Bible thus opens before us. But these promises involve a duty, as well as convey a cheering prospect; the duty of exerting ourselves to promote the coming of this kingdom. Among other means of doing so, the duty of prayer is of the first importance. This subject is so little noticed in general, and yet forms so large a part of that prayer which our Lord teaches his disciples daily to use, that though it has already been in some measure anticipated, when stating the subject of Intercession in the chapter on Private Prayer, it justly calls for distinct consideration.

This blessed consummation is in the scriptures connected with the return of our heavenly Lord. No time of universal rest, peace, and holiness is promised in the New Testament to the church of Christ,

before that blessed hope; till then the church is afflicted, the world abounds with wickedness, and the people of Christ are gathering out from the world. The great hope of the church is the resurrection of the saints at our Lord's coming, and then the establishment of his kingdom. 2 Thess. i. 5-10.

But for this we are to be earnestly praying ;—looking for, and hastening unto, the coming of the day of God, and the promised new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, 2 Peter iii. 13. and offering up continually the last general wish of the church expressed in the Bible; Surely I come quickly: Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus. What glorious and animating hopes does this prospect set before us, and what enlarged encouragements for abounding intercessory prayer!

While it is clear from various promises, that the kingdom of Christ shall universally prevail, it is no less manifest that there are DIFFICULTIES WHICH ONLY A DIVINE POWER CAN OVERCOME.

There are many opposing powers of a nature that no arm of flesh can subdue. Man may contend with man with some hope of success; but in contending with principalities and powers, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, and with spiritual wickedness in high places, we want divine aid. We must pray with the prophet, Awake! Awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord! How can Satan be dethroned from his palace, the heart of man, till a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him?

All men's natural inclinations and corrupt opinions also oppose the reception of the gospel. Nothing is more absurd to him who knows not the Bible, and the power of God, than to imagine that the blinded