when you have met together since to thank Him for this, and all the other benefits He has done unto you, of putting your holy resolutions into practice; and what commencement of a new year can be more appropriate in the judgment of Christians than the performance of an act of charity, or what more likely to draw down a blessing on all the subsequent portion of it? Yes, my brethren, believe me, if on Christian principles you strive to abound in the work of the Lord, this and every succeeding year, which may be allotted for your earthly pilgrimage, will render you more happy in yourselves, and more fitted for admission to those regions of everlasting glory, where the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, King of kings, and Lord of lords.

SERMON XI.

PRAYER.

1 THESS. V. 17.

Pray without ceasing.

NOT only in the case of Scripture language, but in that which is adopted in the common conversation of life, it is usual, and indeed necessary, to interpret expressions not so much by the particular force of every single word they contain, as by the joint effect and tendency of the whole phrase; and in estimating that effect, we are to be guided by reason, and especially by the general purpose of the writer or the speaker. The words of the text will afford one instance where a literal meaning must be excluded from these and similar considerations; the apostle never meant that we should be engaged at all times in prayer, for this would be quite incompatible with a due attention

to the claims of other duties which this same apostle exhorts us to be diligent in performing. His intention in the precept before us is to assert that we are always to retain the habit of prayer and the disposition for it, but he lays down no general rule as to the frequency of the act itself, which must necessarily vary in different situations of life. St. Paul's principal object, then, is to enforce the obligation of prayer: this is a very interesting and a very important subject; let us enter into it more fully by offering some remarks on

First, the duty of prayer.-Secondly, its efficacy. Thirdly, the dispositions in the petitioner, and the manner of performing this service, which are necessary to render it successful.

First: the duty arises immediately out of the attributes of God, and the relation in which He stands to us. If God is our Creator and we are His creatures, He is justly entitled to every mark of homage and adoration which we can pay Him, as well by the words of our lips and the meditations of our hearts, as by the actions of our lives. If, again, He is all-wise, and we ignorant and blind,—if He is all-powerful, and we feeble and helpless, it is necessary, as we value our own interests, that we should lay our wants before Him, and solicit Him to relieve them; and, as we see His goodness and mercy wherever we cast our eyes, we have strong ground of encourage

ment to hope that we shall not ask in vain. Moreover, it is natural to suppose that God expects we should prefer our petitions to Him in the same manner as we do to our fellow creatures, that is, by language expressive of our desires, since this is the course we almost instinctively pursue when we are deeply interested in obtaining a favour of any one. These reasons tend to show the strong obligations we are under of addressing ourselves in prayer to God, from a consideration and comparison of His nature and our own; and so obvious are they to the common sense of mankind, that among all nations, (with the exception perhaps of one or two, whose inhabitants appear in other respects as well as this more brutal than human,) whether those nations were barbarous or civilized, ignorant or enlightened, prayer has prevailed in some mode or other, and has been offered up to false gods where the True One was unknown.

Nor is it any objection to the reasonableness of this duty that God is well acquainted with all our wants, and that His goodness would naturally incline Him to supply them. It is true we cannot inform Him of any thing which He does not know by His own omniscience, but it is perfectly consistent with His character to withhold from us many blessings, which He might grant if we asked for them, for the very act of petitioning proves the

petitioner's desire of obtaining the blessings and favours he prays for; and surely a man, who has this disposition, is a fitter object of the Divine beneficence than one who is careless and indifferent about it.

In the Scriptures there is no duty more frequently mentioned, more strongly recommended, or more strikingly exemplified than that of prayer. Thus in the text the apostle exhorts us to pray without ceasing, and in another place he says, "I will that men pray every where." St. Luke informs us that our Saviour spake a parable "to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint." And what our Lord so strenuously urged upon others He constantly practised Himself; in public and private, in the temple and among His disciples, by day and by night, for His friends and for His enemies, we find Him pouring forth His heart in prayer to His heavenly Father. In this particular, too, He was imitated by His holy apostles, and so He must be by His disciples in every age, if they would wish to deserve that title, and to have their right to it acknowledged at the great day of retribution.

But it is treating the matter much too coldly to regard prayer as a duty merely; it is a superlative favour, privilege, and blessing. Does the God of heaven and earth, the Father of spirits, and the Lord of all things, condescend to permit and invite