their faith, hope, love, and longing, to the second appearing of Christ."

"In reference to others—to make up and bring in the number of those for whom the mercy is proposed-to complete the account of the church's sufferers and sufferings-to give others an example of patient and confident waiting upon God-and for the greater dismay and confusion of the adversary."

When your PRAYERS are NOT ANSWERED, let it lead you to self-examination. Perhaps the prayer may have been answered in a way you have not thought of. Perhaps you were desiring something that would only foster ambition or pride, or were merely considering ease and comfort without regard to spiritual edification. Or look for the cause of it in your neglect of Christ's intercession, or your ingratitude for former answers: question your own faith, the fervency of your desires, the purity of your end, the propriety of the manner in which you have offered up your petitions ;* yes, any thing rather than God's faithfulness; Let God be true, and every man a liar. Again, God will not be enquired of by those who have an idol in their hearts. Isa. lix, 2. Ezek.

*There are two duties connected with the efficacy of prayer, that are, it is to be feared, too little practised or insisted onAlms and Fasting. The alms of Cornelius ascended with his prayers to God; Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. Acts x, 4. see also Prov, xxi, 13.

Parr observes, "Religious Fasting is also a notable help to prayer, and is often commended to us in the word of God. It is a voluntary abstaining from dinner, or supper, or both, as our bodies will bear, and from all delicacies for one day, or more, undertaken to make us more fit for prayer, and repentance. The ends in our fasting are, 1st. A fitting ourselves to prayer that we may be the more lively and earnest; and 2dly, That it may be a help and testimony of our sorrow for sin, and of our humiliation before God."---Only herein ever take beed to avoid superstition, (Rom. xiv, 17.) and any opinion of merit, (1 Cor. viii, 8.) and to fast from sin, Isa. Iviii, 5, 6. Jer. xiv, 12.

xiv, 13. If you are living in any habitual sin, you cannot expect that your prayers should be heard.

When your PRAYERS are ANSWERED, let it assure you of God's faithfulness and love; let it encourage you to renew your prayers, to abound therein, to seek God more constantly, to depend more simply on his strength, to lay yourself out more entirely for him, and never to fear undertaking any thing in his cause. Let it excite you to abound in thanksgiving and praise. Ps. lxvi, 13–

20.

May what has been stated encourage you not only to hope, but patiently to wait for, and attentively observe God's answers to prayer. Keep from such sins as would provoke him to deny your requests, and go on striving and praying, asking, seeking, and knocking, till you are at length safely landed on the heavenly shore; you will then find every prayer fully answered, every wish accomplished, and your souls filled with all the fulness of God.

SECT. VIII.-The frequency of Private Prayer.

The Scriptures do not give express directions how often we ought to pray, farther than by general intimations and the examples of others. We ought always to be in the spirit of prayer. But we are speaking now of stated seasons for retired prayer: and of this we say, that at the least you ought regularly to pray twice every day. David says, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High; to shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night. Ps. xcii, 1, 2. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." Ps. v, 3. And again, "Let my prayer

be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Ps. cxli, 2. Morning and evening devotions, then, every day, should never be omitted; and, speaking generally, unless you are prevented by circumstances out of your control, they cannot be neglected without much damage to your soul. Prayer has been compared to a key, that in the morning opens the treasury of God's mercies; and in the evening shuts us up under his protection and safeguard.

Our first waking thoughts should be directed towards God: copying David's example, who says, When I awake I am still with thee. Ps. cxxxix, 15. I would advise you to be longest in your morning devotions, when your spirits are lively and vigorous, and undisturbed by the events of the day in the evening, when you are tired and spent with its labours, be shorter, and endeavour to attend to this duty some time before you retire to rest. If your evening devotions are deferred till every thing else is done, there is great danger of their being often imperfectly performed, if not altogether omit

ted.

Simeon says, "It is too generally found that many, instead of transacting their business with God while their faculties are alive, stay till exhausted nature is become incapable of any energetic exertion, and then hurry over some form of prayer, as a school-boy does his task, without feeling one word they utter. Even this is too favourable a representation of the prayers of some others, who stay till they have lien down upon their bed, and then fall asleep in the midst of their devotion. As for praying in the morning, they have no time for that: the concerns of the past or of the present day have preoccupied their minds; and if they offer two or three cold

petitions while they are dressing, or before they leave their room, they think this quite sufficient."

The habit of early rising is of great importance to the due discharge of morning prayer. O how many precious hours do indolent Christians lose; while those who are more self-denying and diligent, are gaining the favour of God and enjoying communion with him!

Regular devotional exercises, twice every day, in secret, are insisted on as a plain duty. More than this is strongly recommended. Christians in general would. find, what many do find in their own practice, a great advantage in obtaining a few leisure moments for retired and stated prayer in the middle of the day. The word of God gives us encouraging examples of those who have done so. "Evening, morning, and at noon-day will I pray, and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice." Ps. lv, 17. Daniel, in a time of great danger, his windows being opened in his chamber, "kneeled upon his knees, three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he aforetime did.” Dan. vi, 10. Here was the secret spring of the eminency of these holy men. They were much in prayer. Besides, men's thoughts and affections, will necessarily be most vigorous and lively about those things in which they are incessantly employed, and they are able to do that best which they do most frequently. This is very evident in the common affairs of life. Indeed, we see this to be the case, as in prayer itself our thoughts so continually run out after our daily and more constant occupations.

Many objections are ever ready to start up in the natural heart, when we are called on to form a determined resolution to attend to any holy duty. But let us say as one said, "If the house were about to fall down, I

must pray" meaning, that the salvation of his immortal soul was a matter of such infinitely superior magnitude to every earthly concern, that, whatever were the consequences, he must attend to that.

Respecting the time to be allotted to prayer, no general rule can be given. Many have the command of their whole time, and from them more is reasonably expected.. Surely an hour or two in twenty-four, is not too much for them. A real love to God, and a due sense of the value of his favour, will make a cheerful and a liberal giver. Others, as servants, who have hardly any time that they can call their own, are yet bound to redeem some for God. Let there be a willing mind, and a way will be found.

"Let those," says Bishop Horne, "who retire in the middle of the day to adorn their persons, take the opportunity of putting on the ornaments of grace, and renewing the spirit of their minds."

In many cases and situations it will be impossible to retire to your private chamber for a mid-day prayer, but in a walk, in your house, or in your business, your heart may statedly retire at a particular season, for a few leisure moments from the world, and hold communion with its God. Only try.

Some of the last words which a dear African youth, now in heaven, told one of those about him was, "I used to pray three times every day, and I now find that it was good-do you mind to do the same."

The importance of this regular and frequent devotion, will be evident from the consideration of the great concerns which we then have to transact with God. "I have," says Baxter, "more and greater business to do with God in one day, than with all the world in all my life. My business with God is so great, that, if I had