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PRAYING MADE EASY.

"call the attention of parents and teachers, and, by com"paring them with the answers in that Catechism, which are referred to by the figures, they will find that the “words remain in nearly the same order as in the Cate"chism."

The prayer

itself runs thus:

“O Lord (1) thou who didst at first make all things of "nothing, (3) hast made me also, that I might serve thee "always. But, I confess" (not from the heart, but from "the catechism)" that (7) I sin against thee, and break "thy laws every day, and (8) because of sin, I deserve "hell and thine anger for ever. (10) I am dead in sin, "and cannot save myself. (11) Sorrow for sin will not "satisfy thy justice, and therefore cannot save me; and "(12) my best works are mixed with sin, and deserve 66 punishment," &c. &c.

Who should have thought, that such means for teaching little children to pray to their Father in heaven, would ever be wanted, or could ever be devised, by the disciples of him, who spake thus ?—

"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the "heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for "their much speaking. Be not ye, therefore, like unto "them for your Father knoweth, what things ye have "need of, before ye ask him. After this manner, there"fore, pray ye: "Our Father which art in heaven. Hal"lowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be "done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our "daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but "deliver us from evil: for thine is the Kingdom, and the "Power, and the Glory, for ever. Amen."

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"After this manner pray ye," saith the Lord our God. Leanness of soul, a wounded conscience, and a doubting mind will befall you, says Mr. Gall, and, with him, the religious world, if ye pray after this manner merely. After that other manner, therefore, pray ye, which we have devised

COMPLETE DOCTRINAL PRAYERS.

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for you. "The First Initiatory Catechism,' amongst its "other useful properties for children, embraces this one "also, that almost every answer, which a child repeats, "may, by a slight alteration of the language, be made a part of prayer; and the whole indeed, taken consecu"tively, forms what might be called A COMPLETE DOC

"TRINAL PRAYER."

Doth your Father which is in heaven not know, what doctrines you hold, before ye tell him? O ye hypocrites! A COMPLETE DOCTRINAL PRAYER!! This is the climax of modern Pharisaism. Be ye not lowly in heart, no, be ye dogmatical in your prayers! Whose commandment is this? The Lord's? If not his, whose then? And who, but He, dare give commandments concerning prayer? But by the traditions of the elders, they have made the word of the Lord Jesus Christ of none effect! The prayers that are offered in these days, are no longer the prayers of humble hearts and contrite spirits; they are the prayers of a high-minded and presumptuous generation.

In the times of old, "the Pharisee stood and prayed "thus with himself: God, I thank thee, that I am not as "other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even "as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes "of all that I possess."

In our days, a "respectable" evening party of Pharisees kneel together, and pray thus among themselves: "God, we thank thee, that we believe not as other men do, Infidels, Deists, Catholics, or even as these Socinians. We adhere to the orthodox faith, and sit consistently under our respective ministers; and whenever we meet, we pour out our doctrinal petitions before thee."

This is, in fact, the scope of those heathenish prayers; to establish the self-righteousness of those that offer them, by the orthodoxy of their creed. And happy still, if these prayers were but confined to private meetings; but the Christian is offended by them in the temples of the Lord, in places of public worship. So great is the power of

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CONTRITION AND DOGMATISM.

public opinion, and, in many instances, the consideration of interest, over the ministers of the gospel, in our days, that they are enslaved by a practice of long doctrinal praying, of the vanity and profaneness of which it is impossible they should have no suspicion. For what can be plainer than the words of our Lord: "Be not ye therefore like unto them?" These long and doctrinal prayers will be the means of clearing the places of public worship more and more of true and spiritual Christians; and converting them thus into dens of mere nominal professors, the "thieves" of the word. I can perfectly well endure to listen to a sermon, which throughout falls short of, or even is opposed to, what I have been taught by the spirit of God, to be his truth; but, when I am called upon to join in a prayer, made up of the same crude, erroneous, or limited notions, being a confession of faith, rather than a humbling of the soul before God, then " the offence" begins. I may, in my own mind, contradict every word of what the preacher states to be his view of the subject; but when I am to pray, I cannot pray in contradiction to what is publicly offered up as prayer; I cannot join in the prayer, and I do not wish to affect prayer, when my heart knows nothing of it. This is a situation, in which no Christian minister ought to place his hearers; nor will he ever be in danger of so doing, if he forget all dogmatism, as he naturally will, if his own heart be humbled, and pray after the manner enjoined by our divine Lord and Master.

One word more concerning Mr. Gall's method. We have seen how little it is calculated to bring the realities of religion home to the child's feeling and understanding; and it seems obvious, that the remembering of the words of the catechism, even if they were understood, and the turning of them into the prayer form, cannot be the way of kindling in children the spirit of prayer.' "A slight alteration of the language” may change the form of the words; but, for all this, the heart and the mind remain unaltered. Nothing can be more

GALL VERSUS GALL.

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applicable to this proposed mode of initiating children in the communion with the Lord on High, than Mr. Gall's own words, which I have before quoted:-" Prayer is, "and must be, purely an intellectual and spiritual exercise," -therefore not a mechanical altering and stifling together of sentences learnt by rote-" an expression of desire”—not of doctrine-" and if that be wanting, an expression of "regret and humility for the want of desire; and every sub"stitute for this mental and spiritual approach to God in the "matter of prayer"-and as much as any other substitute, an inverted catechism—" is but a name, a delusion, an "insult to the great Searcher of Hearts, to whom we thus "draw nigh with the lips, while the heart and the mind "have been wholly," "—or, as the transmutation of the sentence from the form of assertion into that of request, might, by some, be called a mental operation-almost wholly "un"concerned. But when we begin to investigate the matter,

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as appearing in practice, what do we find? Children are "taught to approach the awful Majesty of Heaven and “Earth,”—without one thought or one feeling that had its birth within their own bosoms,-" from the beginning to the end of these mechanical compilations from the catechism, which" are most unwisely and untruly called their prayers.” They connect the dead doctrines which they have learnt with much facility, and perhaps with much seeming intelligence; "but they know not," and much less do they feel, "what they say. The mind, the rational and "immortal part of the child, has no share in the exer"cise," as an act of adoration, though the compilation be its work. Mr. Gall and his followers might know this, though they seem not to know it; and they might know likewise, that the child can, when taught after their manner, never perceive what prayer is; because they tell their little ones that a compilation from the catechism “is prayer." Nay THEY "have even carried the absurdity, " and the profanation to its utmost limit," as I have been credibly informed by a Sunday School Teacher, who has

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EDUCATE IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH.

actually seen children, on their knees repeating," by order, and in presence of Mr. Gall, compilations of the catechism, as an exhibition of these their doctrinal prayers, before the assembled public, at an examination of a Sunday School conducted on his plan. "How low "must the opinion of the spirituality or omniscience "of God soon become, even to a child, when he is thus "taught, that his worship consists in external form "and sound, without the mind or the heart taking any part in it!" And how can reverence for the Divine Being be cherished in his bosom, when he is thus taught to make that, which ought ever to remain sacred between God and his creatures, the object of a public exhibition! "It is indeed a contrast," and in some respects a parallel, 66 even to the prayers of the heathen," to which our Lord himself has assimilated such prayers.

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Christian parents! Christian friends of the rising generation! I have, fearless of the obloquy, which I shall bring upon me, exposed before you that system of Pharisaism and hypocrisy, in which these little ones, whom we have in trust from the Lord Jesus Christ, are in danger of being ensnared. Consider it in your own hearts!

"God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship him in Spirit and in Truth." Your children will not be able to worship him in Spirit and in Truth, unless you make him known unto them as a living Spirit, whose tabernacles are the hearts of men; unless you communicate to them his revelation, according to the truth, free from the additions and private interpretations of men, and in a perfect faith and reliance upon the living light of Truth, shining in the darkness of the child's heart; which, if it be apprehended and submitted to by him, will be a source of every grace from above, to the leading of his mind "into all Truth." There have been long and dull times, when every man taught "his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: know the Lord." These times are drawing to a close; the time is approaching, when “all