meeting is the delight of a new-born soul. That which creates delight will be sought again and again. Conscious of the happiness thus afforded, the soul instinctively desires a renewal of the gratification. One who has just been truly converted to God needs no entreaty to engage in the exercise of social devotion. Every opportunity is eagerly embraced.

Recall, fellow-Christian! the days of your own spiritual childhood, With what eagerness was the occasion embraced that gave you an opportunity of such spiritual communion! Were you busily cccupied at the time with the cares of the world? They were felt to be a grievous burden, because they interfered with the gratification of this longing desire to be one of the "two or three." Were you pressingly occupied with household affairs? How were the labors of the evening anticipated and put out of the way, that you might have leisure to meet your brethren and sisters "where prayer is wont to be made !” And, when a kind Providence afforded you the gratification, with what emphasis could you say-" Lord! it is good for us to be here!" How sweet the peace-how pure the delight-how full, even to overflowing, the grateful heart, as you bowed before the Lord, as you sung the praises of your glorified Redeemer ! These are among the most pleasant remembrances of your whole spiritual history. It was a real joy, an unfeigned and satisfying delight. Those were" spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ," for which you could not be too grateful. And, when the short hour of prayer had passed, did you not go away from the much-loved spot with a renewed relish for the service of God, with a livelier gratitude for the grace of regeneration, and with more ardent anticipations of another such season of pure enjoyment? I need not ask. There can be but one answer to these questions.

Let me refer also to those seasons of grace when God pours out his Holy Spirit, and the Church is refreshed with frequent showers of divine grace. Then, if ever, spiritual affections and apprehensions are lively; then the renewed heart longs for, and can be satisfied with nothing short of, a real, rational and rich spiritual feast. Baser pleasures no longer please. Worldly gratifications are no longer desired, but regarded even with disgust. Led by the Spirit, the soul of the Christian seeks those places of resort, where its keen and purified appetite for heavenly joys can be gratified to the full. Under this guidance, and impelled by this desire, mindful of former joys, and conscious of the delight afforded by the very thoughts of such a meeting, the Christian hastes to the place of prayer. From "all the dwellings of Jacob" they come up at the appointed hour and crowd the place. Many, who have long absented themselves, by reason of their lukewarmness or coldness, now with eager haste are seen flocking together, evening after evening, and week after week, as though they could not be satiated with such delights.

"They drink, and drink, and drink again,

And yet they still are dry."

Such, beloved in the Lord! has been your experience again and

again. You can add your testimony, I know, to that of thousands in all parts of the Lord's heritage, that the more you engage in such exercises of devotion, the more you delight in them and desire them. When, in the providence of God, you are separated for a season from the place of prayer, it is felt to be a hardship indeed. If laid on a bed of sickness, or confined to your dwelling by a lingering and debilitating disease, the place and hour of social prayer is not, cannot be forgotten. If you have been called to take up your abode temporarily or permanently at a place remote from such opportunities, how often do you feel constrained to say "Oh that I could once more enjoy those blessed prayer-meetings!" Said one to me a short time since" There is nothing that makes me feel that I have gone from home so much as those prayer-meetings." And this testimony is repeated over and over again. It shows what are the honest convictions of God's dear children, how great has been their sense of enjoyment in such gatherings, and how much they are to be prized as affording the means of greatly increasing one's spiritual gratification.

2. They grow more rapidly and steadily in grace." They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint." If this is true, as every Christian knows, of secret prayer, it is no less true of social worship, as a great "cloud of witnesses" can testify. Too frequently the course of the believer is like the waves of the sea in their undulations, but not in their progress. Now he is all life, and presently he seems scarcely to breathe. Now he advances with a rapid step, and seems as if he would take heaven itself by storm, and then he is borne onward and downward by the current of worldliness.

There are some, however, who evidently, even in times of great degeneracy, are making steady progress in their journey to the New Jerusalem; whose graces are becoming more and more perfectly developed ; whose principles are gaining depth and strength, and who are daily learning more and more of their own hearts and of the riches of grace that are treasured up in Christ Jesus, their Lord. To any of these you may go, and learn how the prayer-meeting is attended. They can tell you, for they are always there, unless an evident providence prevent. Their growth in grace not only prompts them to seek the place of prayer, but is itself in part, and so they feel it to be, a result of frequent attendance there.

Has there ever been a time, my brother! when every week you were accustomed to attend one or more prayer-meetings, and when you endeavored faithfully to improve these means of grace? Are you not convinced that that was a season, not only of high spiritual enjoyment, but of evident and great advance "in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ?" And this because you were then brought under such influences as served to dispel the darkness, dissipate the mist, and give clearness to your spiritual vision, as also to promote the growth

and strength of all the members of the spiritual body. So has it ever been with all who have fairly made this experiment.

3. They become the most devotional, active and useful Christians.— How could it be otherwise! They who most and best grow in grace are sure, as a matter of course, to be the most devotional. They carry away with them, from the place of prayer, such a love for prayer as sends them again and again to their closet and makes the flames of devotion burn brighter on the household altar. This spirit, moreover, accompanies them in, and gives character, to their daily walk and conversation. So much is this the case, that the contrast between them and other members of the Church is perceived, not only by those whose spiritual senses are highly cultivated, but by the ungodly world, who are constrained to take "knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus."

Animated by this spirit of devotion they become, of course, more active in every duty. They are actuated by a living principle. They cannot be so much and so often with their divine Lord, and not partake of his spirit. From communion with him in the place where he is pledged to be present, they derive a lively zeal for doing good. This zeal shows itself in frequent and earnest exertions to bring others to be partakers of their joy. Their fellow-Christians feel the influence of such an example, and are humbled on account of their own deficiency. The unconverted feel it, and are brought to bow with them as they seek the grace of salvation. Thus their activity is of great use to the Church, and their success in doing good-the secret of which may to some extent be learned at the prayer-meeting-prompts others to go and do

likewise.

4. Hence they become the life and soul, as it were, of the Church.To put this matter to the test, let us suppose, that, by some remarkable providence, those who are accustomed to attend the meeting for social prayer were taken away from us, separated from their brethren by a removal to some distant place or to a better world, and their places left vacant. What, I ask, would become of the Church? There might be five, or even ten or twenty times as many professors remaining, and the public assembly on the Lord's Day but little diminished; the body might still be there, but where would be the soul! where the pastor's stay and comfort? where the upholders of his hands? where the spiritual life and prosperity of the Church? Alas! I tremble to think of the fatal consequences. God spare to us our praying brethren and sisters!— spare that precious band of believers, who, in summer and in winter, in the clear star-light and in the storm, in revivals and in the season of coldness, are seen gathering, true as the magnet to the pole, to the place of social prayer. Let him take away our wealth, our men of learning and distinction in society-let him take what he will, but Oh, that he would spare us, however poor and obscure they may be, our praying circle!

5. I need but add, that to them more than all other human means, we are indebted for showers of divine grace.-They are the representatives of that band of Christians, in answer to whose united prayers, in that "upper chamber" in Jerusalem, the promised Spirit came on the memorable day of Pentecost. And every subsequent revival of religion, it might easily be shown, has, with scarcely an exception, been connected with some such gathering. What pastor, in these days, ever hopes to see his people thus blest, except in connection with such means of grace? Where can the Church be found, on whom God is wont to pour out his Holy Spirit, who know nothing of prayer-meetings? If ever there was a matter placed beyond a doubt, it is that the social prayermeeting is indispensable to the spiritual prosperity of the Church. But for those, then, who love and frequent these meetings, the churches would soon become "like a heath in the desert.

IN CONCLUSION, I cannot forbear asking,

(1.) If there be any truth in the promise of our text, why is it that prayer-meetings are so neglected? Why is it that in many churches not more than one in every eight or ten can be persuaded to become habitual attendants upon this social service? Let every Christian an

swer it to his Saviour.

(2.) What blessings might not be expected, if but one half of every church would statedly and heartily engage in this neglected exercise? What a vast increase of spiritual-mindedness would ensue? what an emancipation of the Church from the bondage of the world? what an increase in the number and power of revivals of religion? what an impulse to every good work?

(3.) Can you bear the immense and fearful responsibility of preventing all this good? Can any of you bear it? If all were to do as you do, what would become of the Church? Will you, from this time, remember that Jesus is to be found in the prayer-meeting, and strive to be there yourself? Or, if you have no desire to be with Christ, will you give up your hope?

SERMON CCCLXX.

BY REV. EDWIN HALL,

NORWALK, CONN.

THE DUTY OF CHRISTIAN JOY.

"Rejoice evermore."-1 Thessalonians v. 16.

HABITUAL. cheerfulness,-a glad and joyful temper, is here inculcated as a Christian duty. We are to be more than contented; we are to REJOICE. We are to do this habitually; "Rejoice evermore." Let us notice

I. THE NATURE OF THAT JOY:

II. THE CONSIDERATIONS WHICH ENFORCE THE DUTY.

1. The nature of that joy.-We are not required to be insensible to evil, nor careless of evil.

Our own follies and sins are a natural cause of distress. It was such a one as Paul, the aged and experienced Christian, who cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

The sins and miseries of others will touch the Christian's heart. He was a holy man who said, "Horror hath taken hold upon me,""Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law." The Saviour wept over Jerusalem, as he beheld the city, and thought of its approaching doom.

The calamities of Zion will, of necessity, fill the child of God with grief."Why should not my countenance be sad," cried the pious Nehemiah," when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire ?" Nor was he the only child of God who has " sat down and wept, and mourned, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven" on account of the calamities of Zion." By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. For they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

Sorrow in the afflictions of others is not forbidden. The Saviour wept at the grave of Lazarus. No precept of religion bids us dry up the fountains of sympathy, which God implanted in the human heart in