law. We may rest assured, that God as a moral ruler will never act upon our race otherwise than as upon beings endowed with the capacity of choosing and acting for themselves.

The purposes of God are so far from interfering with the freedom of intelligent intercourse between him and his creatures, that they include in their very nature the confirmation of freedom in moral acts. As a consequence, they must also include all the appropriate contingencies of efforts and results, belonging to those acts.

By this process, we come to the great point at issue, viz: that among such contingencies, PRAYER holds a pre-eminent distinction. God, then, having firmly decreed that some of his creatures shall be and remain forever endowed with the power of asking, and the promise of receiving, it must be with an ill grace that we bring up the purposes of God, as an objection to the utility of prayer.

CHAPTER IV.

Manner of Approaching God in Prayer.

It being once decided on general principles,

that prayer is suited to our condition, as the rational creatures of God, and that by this and other acts of worship we ought to approach him, the manner of this approach becomes a theme of immense magnitude. We have, as fixed principles, that everything is depending on the blessing of God, and that this blessing is to be obtained by prayer; and in view of these principles, we instinctively feel that a more momentous theme can scarcely be presented to our minds, than the manner of our approach. Everything is depending on the blessing of God, that blessing is to be obtained by prayer, and with all solicitude we ask, "How shall we pray, so that our prayers shall be favorably answered? How shall the largest, richest blessing, be obtained? How shall we best please God, in drawing near to him?

To answer these enquiries, and gain these ends, is the design of the present essay, in so far as seasons of special social prayer are concerned.

As in every other undertaking, so in this, a first requisite is to fix definitely in the mind the object aimed at.

We never ought to appoint or to attend a prayer-meeting, without having before us some desired and expected result, which can be conceived of in thought, and expressed in words.

Otherwise, any good that may be gained can be nothing more than what is called a "lucky accident;" a thing of rare occurrence, and never to be trusted. The more general and undefined idea of worshipping God, or gaining some nameless good, to our bodies or souls, is not enough. This is to act without an object. That a meeting for worship may be profitable, we must understand what worship we mean to pay, and what blessing we expect to receive. Mere reasoning about what may be right and proper to say to God is not enough. We should come, not with the product of pert reasonings, but with the deep feelings of a burdened soul; with the pouring out of the heart, rather than the dry cogitations of the head.

The work of preparation is evidently of great account, and in this, it will be profitable to give a very large place to those thoughts which seem spontaneously to press and fasten on the mind.

A recurrence to our own experience will inform us, that there are from time to time, themes that hover around us, and court our attention, which quicken into action our memories, which excite our hopes and our fears. These are things which the more tenaciously cling to us, the more we strive to expel them.

These are for the time being, the actings and speakings of the heart. They are, while they last, the wants and desires and offerings of the soul. They are in fact the heart, which we should pour out before God. These we should by all means take with us to the social meeting. Vastly better are they than the dry and dusty creations of mere thinking, forced into life, or rather into motion, as the means of making a speech, or gathering expressions for a prayer. Let spontaniety of feeling flow in its own selfsought channel, and we shall not go empty to God.

Before we go to the prayer-meeting we shall know why we are going, while we are there, we shall know why we have come, and in the review, we can tell where we have been.

Nor let it be once imagined that this using the thoughts we have, rather than trying to engender those we have not, is to neglect keeping the heart with dilligence.

Instead of neglecting the heart, this is the very means of training it to speak out fully and freely, in its own native dialect.

Those feelings which lie uppermost in our minds when we think of appearing before God are likely to be the best, as the burden of our first approach to him in prayer; and the thoughts which arise in view of meeting our

brethren, are likely to be the very things which we ought to talk about with them, for mutual edification. Do we go to the prayer-meeting pressed with a sense of guilt, and delinquency in duty, then should that feeling be wrought into humble confession, with penitential supplication for forgiveness. Then should we offer the sacrifice of a broken heart. But if a sense of the goodness of God in special mercies received fill the mind, then should we be prepared to approach the Throne with songs and thanksgivings. Do darkness and gloom and despondency afflict us? then surely we should pray, "Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." "Is any among you af flicted? let him pray;" is the simple and expressive Bible direction. And again are we told, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed."

Thus, in all states and circumstances of life, the thing which for the time the mind feels, is the proper theme for its devotions, whether that feeling be personal or social.

And if, as will sometimes be the case, the mind be barren and desolate, seemingly bereft of all thought, and all feeling, and all desire, then let so much of the man as is left to sigh and groan and lament over this dreadful bar