setting himself to prayer as a general means of nourishing Spiritual life.

But we see him, further, on particular occasions seeking special strength by prayer. It was when he was about to consecrate his twelve disciples to the sacred office of Apostles, that he gave the whole previous night to prayer. When he was about to reveal to them his divine glory by his Transfiguration," he took Peter, and James, and John, and went up into a mountain to pray." And when he saw the hour of his agony at hand, he sought for power for the dreadful struggle, and drank in the Spirit by which he might sustain it, in earnest, pleading, prayer. "Then cometh Jesus with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto them, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder;' and being in an agony he prayed the more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

And if then Prayer was thus necessary for the Holy Jesus, how much more is it necessary for his people, who are hourly beset and defiled by Sin! No Christian ever lived without devotion. No man could be a Christian without making a determined business of devotion. Thus it was that the Apostles and the Saints of old maintained their Spiritual life. 66 They all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." "Peter and John went

"We

up to the temple at the hour of prayer." will give ourselves continually to the word of God and prayer." "On the Sabbath day we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made." And hence we have so many exhortations in the Bible to Prayer. "Commune with your own heart, upon your bed, and be still." "Men ought always to pray and not to faint." Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; quench not the Spirit." Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance." "Continue in

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prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving." And hence too we observe in all the lives of holy men in every age that a habit of devotion, and that careful regularity without which such a habit cannot exist, are prominent characteristics. And is there any Christian who has followed these examples, and obeyed those exhortations, who cannot testify from his own experience how essential a part of his existence is devotion, and how blessed are its influences on the Spiritual life? Have you not often gone to seek the face of God, oppressed in spirit and cold in heart, and when, without the purpose of devotion, and the determined execution of that purpose, you would not have experienced one spontaneous aspiration of the mind towards Him, but would have sunk from bad to worse, from luke

warmness to sin, have you not in such a frame been obliged to press upon yourself as a sacred duty what is in fact your highest privilege and yet, nevertheless, through God's most gracious benediction on the effort, have you not returned from his invigorating presence buoyant with recovered energy, your very frame breathing a diviner life, and your countenance, like the countenance of Moses when he came down from the mount, all radiant with the glory of your God? "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, O God, and causest to approach unto thee! He shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple !"

CHAPTER II.

DEVOUT EXERCISES OF MIND.

WHEN we endeavoured to trace the Developement of the Spiritual Life, we found that it approximates to its fullest form in proportion as we realize the idea of God in all the exercises of our moral nature of mind, and heart, and will; - in proportion as His presence is recognized by us-His help is confided in-and His will is made to regulate our own. Devotion, therefore, as the nourishment of this Life, must consist in the habitual use of all those means by which this exercise of our highest faculties may be made most ready and familiar, and ultimately most natural, to the soul.

And of these means of nourishing the Spiritual Life, the first and most important, as preparatory to, and diffusing its influence over, all the rest, is the training of the Mind to constant recognition and enjoyment of the presence of God. Where by speaking of the enjoyment of that presence, it will be perceived that I mean something more by exercises of the Mind than merely intellectual cogitations, and speculative enquiry into divine things. I mean

all those states of the soul which have not in them any of the fluctuations of hope and fear, nor of the gradations of desire and determination, but which nevertheless are full of interest, though a quiet one; of feeling, though a contemplative one. Those conditions of the mind which are termed by some the Sentiments-by others the Tastes - by others the Esthetic feelings - by others the Immediate emotions, and whose distinctive mark is that they are occupied with the present—the either visibly or ideally Present without reference to Past, or Future; and with this Present, as an object not of desire and pursuit, but simply of admiration, and complacency, and love. There is a movement in the mind, but it is not an onward movement. It is dilation without progression. It is as the expanding wavelets of the peaceful lake which is

* As by Dr. Brown, who adds "They differ from the intellectual states of mind, by that peculiar vividness of feeling which every one understands, but which it is impossible to express by any verbal definition, as truly impossible as to define sweetness or bitterness, by any other way than by a statement of the circumstances in which they arise. There is no reason to fear, however, from this impossibility of verbal definiton, hat any one who has tested what is sweet or bitter, or enjoyed the pleasures of melody and fragrance, will be at all in danger of confounding these terms; and as little reason is there to fear that our emotions will be confounded with our intellectual states of mind, by those who have simply remembered and compared, and have also loved or hated."