"No weapon formed against thee shall prosper;" for "he that toucheth thee, toucheth the apple of an eye." Believe the broad and unembarrassed record, and pursue thy way, strong in the Lord and the power of his might."

2. But the character of Christ is an encouragement to prayer, as well as his priesthood.

as man.

He is touched with a feeling of our infirmities." "He was tempted like as we are, yet without sin." He knows the nature of pain and grief and weakness; not simply by his omniscience as God, but by his actual experience He was familiar with all kinds of suffering. He endured poverty, and scorn, and fatigue, and torture. He struggled under infirmity, and passed whole nights in solitary prayer. But perhaps no single expression so completely identifies his capacity for sympathy, as that appellation which long stood recorded on the prophetic page,--" The man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."

All this experience of evil he retains in hist remembrance. When he passed into the heavens as the High Priest over the house of God, he carried with him all the sympathies by which his heart had been expanded on earth. He is the same kind, gentle, condescending, generous, faithful friend now, as he was then. Christian! contemplate then once more thy

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encouragement to prayer. Art thou oppressed; art thou discouraged, wearied, unworthy, defiled, inconstant, ungrateful, worldly, doubtful? Art thou low and vile in thine own esteem, and to this self-reproach, do the sorrows of life bring the sad accession of their penalties and privations? Still remember Jesus! His blood has flowed for thy sin; and his righteousness is thy claim to honour and glory! Meantime, let his compassionate nature give encouragement to thy struggles and thy prayers. His love cannot change, nor can his knowledge of thy case be at any time obscure. He knows all; he feels all; he will succour all. Never canst thou know his inexhaustible kindness. No human conception can grasp the mighty mystery of his covenant love! But depend, confide, petition, pray: Be ever a suppliant at the throne of grace. Thou art as much the object of his tender care, as if thou wert his lone child in the universe of nature! Cast then thy burden upon him, and say, with "a joy unspeakable and full of glory," "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."

THE END.

Ibotson and Palmer, Printers, Savoy Street, Strand.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

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