PRAYER.

PART I.

"And when ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven," &c. &c.-ST. LUKE xi. 2.

I AM now to offer you a few thoughts explan

atory of one of our most certain duties and most ennobling privileges ;—the duty and privilege of Prayer. This is not the place to argue with those who think prayer to God to be inconsistent with His government by fixed laws. But let no one suppose that the universe is a mere machine constructed by God, the perfection of which consists in its working on from age to age without, as we say, any mending, any interference, and which may be let alone with perfect safety. It is quite true that this would be the perfection of any machine made by man. And who takes care of it? The Laws of Nature.

It is made in accord

ance with those laws, and just as we obey these by our skill and power, will they protect our works by their skill and power. But then, what keeps the Laws of Nature right? To whose care, or to what care, will you hand them over? Your machine would become useless if the Laws of Nature were to stop acting for a single moment; but what would become of the laws themselves if the Living God were to stop acting? Blessed be his Name, He never does! His constant laws but express His constant wisdom and good will. His highest law is Love, and a constant expression of that law on which we may rely, is this: "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find."

WHAT IS PRAYER?

Prayer is communion with God. There need surely be no difficulty in apprehending what this means. Every one knows very well what is meant by a child speaking to, or holding communion with, a parent. We understand what is meant by a child expressing his love for father or mother by word or look; and from the reality of his love confessing his faults

with sincere repentance, or interceding in behalf of a brother or sister. This is prayer. Nor do we think it strange that a loving parent should be pleased with a child thus acting towards him, or that he should, as far as possible, comply with his requests.

Again, we have no difficulty in understanding what is meant by persons praying to Jesus Christ while He dwelt on earth. We learn from the Gospel history of his life how crowds came to Him wherever He went-how the blind cried to Him to open their eyes that they might see, and the deaf to open their ears that they might hear ; how lepers begged Him to heal their loathsome disease; how parents interceded with Him for their children, friends for the suffering members of their family, and masters for their servants. Every day of his ministerial life was thus spent amidst countless prayers from suffering men and women, ending in ceaseless thanksgivings of praise for his inexhaustible patience and love in hearing all, and answering all. The last words ever addressed to Him were a prayer by a dying thief, and his last act was to answer it. We understand all this kind of intercourse, this asking and receiving,

this affectionate communion as it existed between Jesus Christ and other people then. Well, prayer is the same kind of intercourse subsisting between Him and all who seek Him now-for Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and He is with us always unto the end of the world! He is as well acquainted with every village on earth as He was with Bethany, with every family as He was with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, and now, as then, is nigh to all who call on Him.

And again. We understand what is meant by Jesus as the Son of Man praying to God his Father. Such was his constant habit. He prayed without ceasing. He prayed in every place, at all times, and in every variety of circumstance. He prayed among the calm retreats of the mountains, at the tomb of a friend, in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the upper chamber of Jerusalem, and upon the cross. When He rejoiced in spirit, He said, "I thank Thee, O Father!" Being in agony, He prayed the more earnestly." In prayer He parted from his disciples on the last evening of his life: "He lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come!" In prayer He parted from the world on the cross: "Father,

forgive them, they know not what they do." "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!"

Jesus has thus taught us the nature of prayer and the spirit of prayer. He has fully revealed to us the character of God as a Father, to whom we are to pray; and He has also revealed in his own person and life how to respond to the Fatherly love of God by the true spirit of Sonship. For just as He the Elder Brother, who perfectly knew and loved his Father, poured out his heart before Him in all the holy confidence of prayer, so would he have all the members of his family share the same mind towards his God and their God, and like Himself, and with Himself, pray, saying, "Our Father which art in

heaven!"

THE DUTY OF PRAYER.

As there never existed a nation which did not believe in some God, so there never existed a nation without some kind of worship. Temples are the oldest and grandest buildings in the world. They have survived almost every other monument of man's handiwork. But if men thus bow down to idols, the work of their own hands,

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