ion is made for man.

Such experience shows that God is a merciful being. "He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him; for he knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust."

The efficacy of prayer may be brought home to our constant experience. The Saviour has promised the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. This seems to be a vague, mysterious, indefinite, and, to some, unintelligible promise. But is it not interpreted to us every Lord's day, when we assemble for worship? Those who come here for religious purposes get the spiritual blessing they seek. They go from this place in a different frame of mind from that in which they would have been if they had stayed away, or been engaged in secular pursuits, in worldly literature, or trifling conversation. Their souls have breathed a freer, a more congenial, and a more invigorating atmosphere.

But suppose there were no voice of prayer, or hymn of praise, alternating with the voice of instruction, and the service were to degenerate into a mere theological lecture, or declamatory exhortation, would not the service be bereaved of its unction, - its edifying, consoling, and strengthening power? Would not the most worldly and unspiritual person who comes here go away unsatisfied, defrauded, disappointed? Behold, then, the efficacy of prayer, and consider how true it is, that God always gives the Holy Spirit to them who ask him.

There is another experimental proof, which is exhibited in each passing generation of mankind.

Worship takes place under even more impressive circumstances than in the house of prayer. It is at the domestic altar. There devotion is aided by the sympathies of natural affection, and the alternations of those joys and griefs, which the stranger intermeddleth not with. Those joys and sorrows lay open the heart to good impressions, bring it into the low depths of humiliation where the penitential psalm finds a touching propriety, or elevates it to .that attitude of cheerfulness in which it responds to the joyful summons, " Praise ye the Lord."

It is morally impossible that such religious culture should fail of its object. We should scarcely believe that there was a God, if he failed to pour down his blessings where they are so constantly and so assiduously invoked. His promise never fails; his word that has gone forth shall never return to him void. Nothing is more certain, than that such spiritual sowing shall reap a harvest of an hundred fold. It is thus, by long and patient years of waiting on God, of continual and unwearied supplication, that piety becomes hereditary, and whole families are gathered into the household of Heaven.

Finally, we are directed and encouraged, not only to pray, but to pray to God in the name of Christ. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it unto you." Is not this fanciful or fanatical? Was not God as accessible to prayer before the advent of Christ as he has been since? Would he deny to a sincere prayer a petition not made in the name of Christ, which he would have granted if the request had been made in that name? What has praying in the name of Christ to do with

the efficacy of prayer? Can any such distinction be sustained on philosophical principles ?

This question finds its answer in the considerations already brought forward. I have already said, that those petitions only can be granted, which are in accordance with the moral laws of God's universe. The character, the teaching, and the whole purpose of Christ and his religion, were in exact accordance with the principles of God's administration of the universe. While our petitions are within the scope of Christ's spirit, they will be in coincidence with God's purposes, and will be such as God can consistently grant.

If they are asked in Christ's spirit, then the petitioner is in a proper moral condition to receive them without injury, if they are temporal blessings; and if they are spiritual blessings, they will be received of course; for the very fact that they are strongly desired, and asked for in faith, will bring them in all their abundance into the soul.

It is thus that the prayers of the Christian Church have been availing in all ages, and brought down the blessings of God upon the world. It is thus that the promise of Christ has been realized, "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

DISCOURSE XII.

FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

AND HE AROSE, AND CAME TO HIS FATHER BUT WHEN HE WAS YET A GREAT WAY OFF, HIS FATHER SAW HIM, AND HAD COMPASSION, AND RAN, AND FELL ON HIS NECK, AND KISSED HIM. - Luke xv. 20.

ONE of the first facts with which consciousness makes us acquainted is, that we are free agents living under law. Such is our imperfection, that almost simultaneously with the knowledge of a law, and of our own free agency, we become aware that we have broken that law, and are sinners. That consciousness is the source to us of unhappiness. It diminishes, not only our enjoyment, but our capacity of enjoyment.

That law we do not conceive of as merely an abstraction, towards which we can have no other feeling than simple regret. We instinctively refer the law to a lawgiver, with whom we have a personal relation. We have not only broken a law, but we have offended a person. We feel that we are not only chargeable with folly, but we are guilty in the sight of God. Our feelings towards him are modified by a sense of guilt. We fear his displeasure.

We dread the penalty he may rightfully inflict. The consciousness of sin is universal, and it is the great evil of this world. Of all the causes of unhappiness, this is the greatest. It weighs down the spirits, it destroys the peace, it subdues the courage, it clouds the prospects of mankind.

We are likewise conscious of penitence. We are filled with humiliation and regret. We pray to God to forgive us. But does he forgive us? can he forgive us? When we offend a friend, and repent and ask his forgiveness, we may receive from him personal assurance that we are forgiven. Our minds are relieved; our peace is restored; the record is, as it were, blotted out.

But how shall we receive such an assurance of pardon from God, "whom no man hath seen or can see," let our penitence have been never so sincere? God is not a visible person whom we may approach. To our prayer he makes no audible response. There is no visible smile, assuring us that we are restored. There is no pressure of the hand, conveying to us the persuasion, that there is harmony once more. I do not say too much when I affirm that the assurance`. of the Divine pardon is the deepest want of the human heart. The Christian recites, perhaps, the greatest article of his creed, when he says, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins." The preciousness of the Gospel is centred in this, that it professes to be a message from that God whose form we have never seen, whose voice we have never heard, assuring us that the penitent are forgiven, their sins are blotted out, and their transgressions are remembered no

more.