benefit may be blessed with success. You who are being educated, whether children or adults, pray that God's Holy Spirit may enlighten your understandings. Parents, pray for strength to bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Schoolmasters, pray that God may give you the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of knowledge and of true godliness, may impart efficiency to your instructions, that your pupils may be a blessing to you, that you may obtain the approbation of your own consciences, the respect of your fellow-creatures, and, above all, the favour of your Father who is in Heaven. Be ever mindful of the importance of the trust reposed in you. Think how much you have to answer for if you neglect it; and lastly, remember what a privilege it is to instruct Christians, when we are promised that "they that be wise (or more correctly they that be teachers) shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

997

7 Dan. xii. 3.

THE END.

LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET.

AN

ADDRESS TO SOLDIERS.

BY THE

REV. R. W. BROWNE, M.A.

CHAPLAIN TO THE FORCES IN LONDON.

SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,

GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,

4, ROYAL EXCHANGE, AND 16, HANOVER STREET, HANOVER SQUARE; AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

PRAYER:

AN ADDRESS TO SOLDIERS.

CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS,

I PURPOSE saying a few words to you on a subject of the greatest importance to your present happiness, and the eternal welfare of your souls; I mean, PRAYER.

Even the heathen, who believe in false gods, think it their duty to worship and pray to them; how much more then are Christians, to whom has been given a knowledge of the true God, and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, bound to devote some part of their time to prayer and thanksgiving! Let the words of the Apostle St. Paul be deeply engraven upon your memories: "In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God 1."

If we judged rightly, and like Christian men, of our condition, and our dependence upon God,

1 Phil. iv. 6.

we should consider these words of the inspired Apostle rather as a gracious permission than as a command. We should not be content with acknowledging that it is our bounden duty to address our prayers to our heavenly Father for protection from evil, and for the blessings which He alone can bestow, and to pour forth, in the sincerity of our hearts, our grateful thanksgivings for the numberless mercies which we have already received; but we should esteem it a high and invaluable privilege to be thus permitted to hold communion with our God and Saviour. For what is the condition of man in relation to his Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier? We may indeed ask with the Psalmist, "Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him! and the son of man, that thou so regardest him 2?" I do not mean to speak here. of man's insignificance amidst the marvellous works of God's hand; for we know that the meanest of God's creatures is of value in his sight, and is the object of his paternal care, and that without his will not even a sparrow falleth to the ground. No! I speak of the immeasurable distance which man, by his own fault, has placed between himself and his Maker: the wide, and apparently impassable gulf which sin has made between the sinner and that Holy One who is "of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." Sin alone is capable of making a separation between God and man, and dividing us from his love;

25 Ps. cxliv. 3.

and yet who can say that he is not, day by day, adding to this fearful barrier, and widening the chasm which, though it may, by our repentance, and God's gracious forgiveness, be bridged over in this life, still, can never, if we die without repentance, be passed in the world to come?

If we examine our own hearts, the result must be, that not a day can be found in which we do not in some way break the Divine commandments in thought, word, or action; and thus add to that accumulation of debt which it is totally out of our power to pay. And yet, notwithstanding all this, the long-suffering of God is not wearied: He invites us to open our hearts to Him, to lay before Him our sorrows, our wants, our necessities; to pray for forgiveness for the past, and for grace to assist us for the future; to hide nothing from Him, either of our desires or our infirmities; to hold communion with Him, either in confession, or in prayer, or in thanksgiving. Surely, then, when One so high condescends to hearken to the petitions of beings so much beneath Him, and who have done so much to estrange his affection from them, it is not enough to talk of the duty of prayer, and supplication, and thanksgiving. No! We ought to be thankful that He has not shut his ears to our prayers, and refused to listen to our petitions; we ought to hail such invitations, as that to which I have called your attention, as announcements of a glorious privilege, belonging to our inheritance as Chris