earth to heaven, and behold in the works of creation the manifestations of the Creator's power, and wisdom, and love; if you can so far comprehend the state of earthly things as to perceive that the providence of God watcheth over and protecteth all; if you are sensible that your own frame is the work of the same Being, your powers his gift, your preservation his act, your pleasures and advantages the communications of his love; express this sense to him, your admiration of his works, and your thankfulness for the numerous favors which, not your own merit, but his infinite beneficence, brings to you. Praise him for his glorious deeds: adore him because he refresheth your soul with his mercies.

Have you no earthly friends to whom you owe both duty and affection? You are not in this state of absolute abandonment. You have relatives and friends who cherish you with watchful care, and are anxious to see you at once good and happy. Such friends have strong claims upon your love to them your obedience is due. Why not ask of heaven such strength and determination as will enable you to make a just and grateful return for all that they have done and are doing for you? Why not pray, with a thankful heart, that they may be as happy as they endeavour to make you? that their life may be long spared to you and others, and that as they approach the decline, and you the maturity of life, you may be the honored instruments of comfort to them, sooth their feebleness and pain, support their tottering steps, and receive their dying blessing.

Are you aware that you have a part to perform in the

world, and that life is not designed to be a scene of vanity, thoughtlessness, and folly? Have you not heard of goodness and virtue, and that it becomes the rational offspring of God to be good and virtuous? Have you neither been told, nor made the discovery, that there are temptations in the world which it is difficult to resist; that there are misfortunes which try the spirit of man, and afflictions so touching as to prove with a mighty force the piety that desires ever to trust in God? The moral and religious instruction you have received, has made you acquainted with these things, and being aware of them, you must be disposed to pray unto your beneficient Parent for wisdom to act aright, and fortitude to bear every earthly change. How must you desire to ask him to guide you in the path of his commandments, to assist you in endeavouring to do honor to his will, to instruct you when you are conscious of your own ignorance, to increase your courage when the enemies of your virtue assail you, and so to encourage all your dutiful endeavours to employ the moments of your life and the talents he has committed to your trust, that you may succeed in maintaining a good profession, and come to the end of your days in peace, and sink to sleep in the hope that brighter scenes shall greet your waking eyes, and holier employments await your immortal spirits! If you think it of the least importance whether you lead a good or a wicked life, or attach any value to the assistance which the divine goodness may be pleased to impart to you, nothing can be more natural than that you should pray to be delivered from the evil that is in the world, and seek

every blessing of the kind in thankful and trustful communion with God.

It is no slight recommendation of habitual prayer, that it brings us so frequently into communion with God, as to form our mind to a truly pious temper. We cannot seek him, from day to day, without feeling the effects of that sacred intercourse which he permits us to hold with him.— Our feelings are purified, and our mind is elevated, by the holy converse; goodness appears more lovely in our eyes, and piety of increased value; and the purity and holiness of God seem to spread themselves over our soul, to protect it from the evil and contamination of sin. And let not the youthful imagine that the God who heareth prayer, is not favorably disposed towards them, nor inclined to listen to their prayers. Of what importance in his eye are all the varieties of human condition? And if the monarch and the peasant stand in an equal relation to him, can the mere circumstance of age increase or diminish his condescension and love? No: When the youngest of his children lisps his praise and asks, in artless words, his blessing, he listens with as much condescension and kindness as when an aged Christian adores him in fuller and loftier strains; and far more valuable, in his view, are the simplest expressions of piety springing from the heart— though breathed with the lips of a child-than the elaborate prayers of misplaced eloquence.

And does not habitual prayer aid us in obtaining the most desirable good which can be sought by mortal beings? Is there any one so weak and thoughtless as, whilst he

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continually prays to be protected against all disobedience and sinfulness, to make no effort to escape them? We hope and trust that such efforts accompany such prayers: that few or none expose themselves to the displeasure of God by frequent supplications for moral strength, which they attempt in no other way to gain. And we may appeal to the experience of many who have derived, from communion with their heavenly Parent, additions of fortitude and resolution to act as became their religious profession. His grace has proved sufficient for them: and, in all cases, it will be found that our endeavours after good and excellent things, acquire fresh zeal from our pious offices; whilst these, on the other hand, quicken our perceptions of what is good and excellent, and increase our love of it.

But whatever may be the efficacy of prayer, we find it continually recommended in the holy Scriptures, and enjoined upon us as a duty, which we cannot neglect without great injury to ourselves. And it is encouraging to read the kind assurances which God gives of his readiness to hear the supplications of the grateful, the humble, and the contrite heart. Whilst he tells his children of men that he expects to receive from them that sacred homage which is due to the Creator and Governor of the the world-not, indeed, because it is important to himself, but that it may conduce to their improvement and spiritual comfort-he graciously encourages them to approach his throne, to pour out their hearts before him, and to repose their hope in his infinite wisdom and boundless benevolence. And many are the

pious men whom the Scriptures place before us, engaged in this most sacred and edifying of duties. We see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, rapt in holy communion with the Father of their spirits, and making a sabbath for their hearts whilst they worship him. And there are Moses with his prayers and triumphal odes; Deborah and Barak with their eloquent song of thanksgiving; and Hannah supplicating the Lord in the bitterness of her soul, and then adoring him in its thankfulness. What a treasury of devotion opens itself in the Psalms of David! The strains of the royal poet are touched with the fire of devotion; and he guides us in distress, or rejoicing, to the throne of Jehovah. As we read on, we seem to listen to the prayer of his son Solomon, at the dedication of the temple; to Isaiah, to Daniel in the land of captivity, and to all the mighty men on whom God was pleased to bestow the prophetic spirit. We behold our Saviour on the mountain's top and in the retirement of Gethsemane, seeking the presence of his Father, and asking for wisdom and power, or in the sadness of his spirit, resigning himself to the divine will; and his Apostles solemnly devoting themselves to the cause of their Master, and ardently supplicating on their brethren the richest blessings of his kingdom. If we select one example from all these, it shall be that of Jesus. And who will presume to say that prayer is nothing to him, when he sees the Messiah of God withdrawing from the converse of men, and the scenes of his public duty, to the mountain side and other secret places, for the sake of being alone with the Being who graciously sent him forth, and