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to God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Eph. v. 17-20.

"We need not be surprised," says Bishop Taylor, "that so few feel the relish, and are enticed with the deliciousness, and refreshed with the comforts, and instructed with the sanctity, and acquainted with the secrets of holy prayer." Their minds, being sullied and corrupted with sensuality, are unfit for spiritual duties. Nor does what is here said affect those only who are given up to the lowest and vilest excesses. Our Lord solemnly warned his own disciples" to take heed, lest at any time their hearts should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life." Those who abhor the filthy haunts of intemperance, may on some occasions yield to self-indulgence; and, in proportion as the body is pampered, the soul is shorn of its strength. It is not without good reason, that we are commanded" to make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." We enjoy the divine presence, only while we use the bounties of Providence with moderation.

2. Irascible passions greatly hinder and disturb a man in prayer.

Anger swelling into rage, or settling in revenge, is subversive of the dispositions and tempers essential to communion with God. A Christian cannot command his own thoughts,

nor employ aright his best faculties, while involved in the storms and tempests which such passions raise. The Apostle will have men to pray every where, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. It is lamentable, when the requisite qualifications for this duty are obviously wanting. To lift up in prayer, hands stained with fraud, rapine, or any kind of vice, or present our solemn addresses to God, while the heart is full of acrimony and enmity towards men, is to insult the majesty of heaven.

As humility and meekness are sister graces, so pride and anger are nearly allied. Those who have high thoughts of their own importance, for the most part, make strong claims upon others, and fire into quick resentments, upon every appearance of opposition and resistance. The half-popish Laud, Bishop of London, said to Mr. Jackson, "I know not what you young divines think, but for my part, I know no other place of residence which God hath on earth, but the high altar." Surely the haughty prelate had forgotten, that Jehovah himself has promised to dwell in the lowly, meek, and contrite heart.

Nothing is more opposite to the spirit of prayer, than an unforgiving temper. How can the unmerciful seek mercy, or the implacable ask pardon of God? The two disciples, who

wanted to call down fire from heaven, because ́they had been slighted, knew not what manner of spirit they were of. In vain did they refer to Elijah, whose peculiar circumstances and motives justified the awful measure. In the two disciples, it was not zeal for God, it was an evil passion which actuated them; it was a spark from the black furnace of Satan, not a fire kindled from above. Many are the sad effects of cherishing resentment, and one of the worst is, the influence which it has in frustrating our supplications.

If our hearts tell us that

we have no disposition to pardon others, to be at peace and agreement; then we do but take God's name in vain, when we ask him to forgive our sins, and still continue in malice. "If (says one) a brother offend through ignorance, overlook it; if through infirmity, forget it; if through ill-will, forgive it: this is the way to keep a free passage always open to heaven for prayer." "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath aught against thee, go thy way, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." God will not hear the prayer, nor accept the praise, presented to him by the malicious and revengeful; as soon might the infernal Furies expect to find God propitious to them. In the interesting and brief outline of prayer, taught by Christ, this

is one petition; "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." The inseparable connexion between these, it is of high importance to bear always in mind. The great Teacher, well knowing how prone we are to lose sight of it, has pressed the same point upon our attention with peculiar solemnity and force in the following verses:-" For if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses."

He who has but learned the very first lessons. in the school of Christ, must know, that it is positively sinful to take offence from slight causes, and then meditate schemes of retaliation; that angry passions, and implacable tempers, are utterly inconsistent with the service of Jehovah. And indeed, if such passions were not displeasing to God, experience has proved them to be both hostile to the exercise of vital piety, and destructive to our personal peace. The language of the Roman satirist, “Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sana,”—Our prayer should be, for a sound mind ina healthy body, as the first requisites to happiness, may be taken in a more comprehensive sense than it is usually supposed to bear. If anger, according to another poet, is a short madness, and settled rancour obstructs the true use of reason; then, to have a sound mind, the irascible feelings must be subdued.

The heat and animosity, which are called forth in religious controversy, are in many. cases, to say the least, very unfavourable to devotion. Keen disputes on points of doctrine and discipline, there always have been, nor is there much ground to hope, that we are drawing near the period of terminating these wordy wars. Those Christians, who mingle not with the combatants, impartially observing the effects produced, can hardly avoid perceiving, that much of what bears the name of zeal for God and truth, may be resolved into the ebullitions of personal and party feeling. And that this is no uncharitable conclusion, may appear from a circumstance which has been often noticed; namely, that the fiercest and most protracted controversies have been about minor matters,the hangings and fringes of the tabernacle, rather than the Shekinah,-the form and appendages of the altar, rather than the sacred fire upon it. "It is," says Dr. Mason, "inconsistent with the nature of our faculties and affections, to pursue great and little things with equal ardour. A candidate for empire, will not fight for toys; he who can fight for toys, is not fit for empire. The man of broad phylacteries, will give himself no trouble about the robe of righteousness. Sectarian light puts out the Christian fire. One year of love,

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