from him, he will never reject our supplications.

Now, I would ask you, what farther motive can you desire, to induce you to pray to God? You have wants which you cannot supply for yourselves: yet, if they go unsupplied, destruction and misery, both temporal and eternal, must be your portion. God is both able and willing to supply them. He promises, that if you ask him in his appointed way, through Christ Jesus, he will afford you every needful good. What farther motive or encouragement can you want, to induce you continually to come to God, and to call upon him to supply your necessities? Surely you have every thing to lead you to do this-every thing to induce you to come continually and "boldly to the throne "of grace," for all that can promote your present comfort, or tend to your eternal advantage. And yet, I ask, is it not the case, that there are among us many who know not what it is to pray to God?-who can rise in the morning, and go forth to their daily occupations, without petitioning for the blessing and protection of the Almighty, or for his grace to enable them to serve him through the day?—who can lie down to rest at night, without offering one supplication for the pardon of what has been amiss, or for the guardian care of

Him, who alone can deliver them from all evil: who can go on in this ungodly, prayerless state, from day to day, and from year to year? And even where the form and semblance of prayer are not entirely neglected, how many are there, whose petitions, instead of being the language of hearts full and overflowing with ardent anxious desires after spiritual blessings, are a dull lifeless form, a repetition of good words, but uttered without any feeling of the soul! Such were the devotions of those, of whom, in ancient days, the Lord said, "this "people draw near me with their mouth, and "with their lips do honour me, but have " removed their heart far from me."1

yet

My brethren, think, I pray you, how provoking to God, must be the conduct of that man, who, while infinite blessings are graciously offered to him, refuses to ask for them! Think how guilty he is, who pretends to approach God in prayer, and is indifferent to the blessings for which he asks with his lips! Think too, how the prayerless man, or he who is only formal or careless in prayer, wrongs his own soul, while he neglects the appointed means of obtaining the offered good. And, if conscience tells you, that you have hitherto

' Isa. xxix, 13.

lived in this guilty manner, now at least begin to consult your own true interest. No longer let it be said of you, "ye have not, because ye ask "not." The forbearance of God still continues you in the land of prayer, of hope, and of mercy. Still God waiteth to be gracious to you. Still he says, ask, and ye shall receive all spiritual good. But remember, how soon and how suddenly death may cut you off from all farther opportunity of prayer: and while time is granted to you, go to God, in humble fervent supplication. Beg him for the Saviour's sake to forgive you all your sins past, to grant you the grace of his Holy Spirit, to cleanse the thoughts of your hearts-to incline and enable you to walk in his ways, and to conduct you in that path, which alone can lead you to everlasting life.

And, if by the grace of God, we have been enabled, in any measure, to live in the habit and practice of prayer, then let us strive to form more just conceptions of the value of the blessings for which we ask, and the encouragements which we have in asking for them. Let us approach God with more simplicity of dependance with more nestness of mind, and with more enlarged expectations from his abounding goodness. Let us look upon every past favour, as an

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encouragement to expect still farther blessings from his hand; and let us "ask, that we may receive, and that our joy may be full. " And thus let us go on our way to that blessed world, where no sin, no want, no danger, shall ever more assail us; but where the prayer of faith shall be fully answered, and infinitely exceeded; yea, changed into songs of unmingled thanksgiving to Him, whose " mercy "endureth for ever."

SERMON XIX.

THE CHRISTIAN'S REASONS FOR REJOICING IN THE LORD.

PHILIPPIANS iv, 4.

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, rejoice. WHEN we read the narrative of the labours and sufferings of the apostles and first preachers of christianity, and consider the various persecutions and distresses which the primitive professors of it endured; we can hardly avoid the impression, that they must be a gloomy and unhappy company of people, and destitute of any real satisfaction. And, such indeed they would have been, had they possessed no resources for obtaining happiness, but such as this world afforded them. If," says the Apostle, "in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”1

1 1 Cor. xv, 19.