of prayer; after this lovely character drawn of the Almighty God; after this comparison of him with an earthly parent, this is the result. We are to ask, first and primarily, though not exclusively, for the grace and influences of the Holy Spirit; his power in quickening the heart to spiritual feeling and life his energy in new creating the soul to holiness; his consolation, and strength and support in bearing up the feeble supplicant, and in applying to him all the mighty blessings of the redemption of Christ.

Several remarks may be offered on this most important direction.

1. It teaches us, of course, that we are to pray, in the first place, for spiritual blessings, and not for temporal and external. If we chiefly pray for health, success in our affairs, children, deliverance from calamities, prosperity in a particular undertaking, we pray not aright. These are neither the most important blessings in themselves, nor the most needful for us. They are not absolutely good gifts. They are no where expressly promised. Prayer, to be acceptable, must be offered up for spiritual blessings principally.

2. The particular spiritual blessing here promised is placed by our Lord at the head of his religion, and is therefore to be sought for with the more earnestness. He delivered the direction twice, and in the same solemn terms; once early in his ministry, in the sermon on the Mount; and, again, after an interval of a twelvemonth, in the words of the text. He connected it also with that previous most remarkable invitation to "ask and seek and knock" for spiritual blessings, to which is added the condescending assurance, that "whosoever asked should receive, and whosoever sought should find, and to him that knocked, the door should be opened." After making this commanding promise, our Lord pronounces the appeal of the text. The blessing of the Holy Spirit therefore, in which it all ter

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minates, appears of transcendent moment; it stands at the head of the Christian religion; it is the introductory blessing, which they that first ask for the heavenly road, and seek for everlasting salvation, and knock at mercy's gate, indispensably need; it constitutes the first step necessary to all succeeding ones.

3. This inference is confirmed by the circumstance that the expression good gifts used in the first clause of the text, and which would naturally lead us to look for the repetition of it in the second, is replaced by the words, His Holy Spirit. "If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children”—this is the first branch of the argument, and would seem to require that the second should stand thus, "how much more shall your heavenly Father give good gifts" (or "good things" as, it stands in the parallel passage of St. Matthew) to them that ask him." The reason, then, of the remarkable change of language surely must be, that "good gifts" and "the Holy Spirit" are equivalent blessings to a sinner like man-a most weighty consideration truly, and enhancing the duty of our prayers being chiefly offered for this particular benefit.

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4. The direction is yet further raised in relative importance by considering, that afterwards, when our Lord was leaving his disciples and about to return to his Father, the special blessing promised them was no other than this, as we have seen in a former discourse. The blessing indeed which causes the dispensation of the gospel to bear the name and character of "the dispensation of the Spirit," and for the sake of which our Lord declares, it was expedient for him that he should go away," must indeed be a fundamental, primary, indispensable benefit.

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And so it appears, and is; for the very first thing the awakened soul is conscious of, is the need of some

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help and aid to pray; faith to approach God; holy confidence to enter into the immediate presence of the only Potentate; power to draw near to the great and blessed God. And it is the Holy Spirit who supplies this necessity.

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Our Lord therefore in directing us, as he does in the text, exhorts us to pray in the first instance for that blessing which will enable us to pray in every subsequent moment of our heavenly race. For we are to "pray always;" to "pray without ceasing ;" to "continue in prayer;" to "watch and pray;" to pray always with all prayer and supplication;" to be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication, to make our requests known unto God." And how is this to be done, but by that Holy Spirit, who "helpeth," as the apostle says, our infirmities; for we know not what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered."

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Again, it is the Holy Spirit which assists us in understanding and applying aright to our own hearts and lives, the inspired Scriptures. As prayer is the state of mind which we are ever to cultivate; so the Bible is the sole authoritative guide of our faith and practice, which we are continually to study. The Holy Spirit's effectual influences are as essential to the latter as to the former branch of the Christian life. When our Lord delivered the words of the text, he had advanced far in the course of his public ministry. He was soon about to accomplish his sacrifice. The New Testament was then to be gradually indited by his immediate disciples, "moved by the Holy Ghost." The New Testament, together with the Old, was to be the standing external guide of the Church, the sole primary rule of truth, the main nourishment of the spiritual life in the soul. Next to prayer, the study of God's holy Word was to be the business of Christians in all succeeding ages.

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One reason, then, of our Lord's directing us to pray in the first place for the Holy Spirit, was, that we might understand and use aright the blessed Bible. For the written word of God without the Holy Spirit, can never illuminate or save; "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God" (whether written or spoken); for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." God might indeed, so far as we can judge, have given us a revelation so full of brightness as to need no additional light for our apprehending it aright. Or he might have granted us a Revelation so entirely above the human capacity, except as to some positive duties, as to render all aid useless. But he has done neither. We have a Revelation so obscure to our corrupted powers, that it is only to be apprehended by additional aids; and yet so bright in all its practical discoveries and directions, that with that aid, it is capable of being understood and used by the humblest inquirer. God has therefore been pleased to unite with his Revelation a promise of the Holy Spirit to open our understandings, that we may understand it aright. The infinite importance therefore of praying in the first place for this gracious help need not be pointed out.

And why should I enumerate, if it even were possible, all the subsequent blessings to be sought for from the blessed Author of life and grace, when a spirit of prayer is vouchsafed and divine knowledge of the Scriptures obtained? Why should I say that every doctrine, every mystery, every command, every promise, every invitation, every warning of that holy Book is to be believed, acted upon, received, applied by the aid of the Holy Ghost. Where would be our repentance for sin, where our contrition before God, where our faith in the obedience unto death of the blessed Savior, where our spiritual life, where

our denial of the world, the flesh, and the devil, where our love to God and man, where our victories over the temptations of the great adversary, where our confession of Christ before men, where our strength and consolation in losses and afflictions, where our recovery from declines from God, where our continuance in the narrow path of life and grace, where our support amidst the pains of death, if it were not for the Holy Ghost? Prayer is the grand secret in the soul's salvation, because prayer brings down upon us the grace of the divine agent, by which the Holy Scriptures are first perceived aright, and then taken as the chart over the stormy, dangerous sea of life.

Let these two great topics, then, of the object of prayer and of the chief blessing to be sought for by it, be united in our minds, that we may be enabled to resist the various temptations to despondency which arise in the breast of the sincere Christian. If difficulties present themselves to us in the scheme of Revelation, if objections on the part of infidelity and scepticism harass us, if obscurities on the mysteries of Revelation interpose a thick cloud, as it were, between us and our God, if musings on the entrance of evil, or the secret purposes of the Almighty, or his merciful will as the source of all grace, appear to our petty minds to involve contradictions or if, on the other hand, discouragements spring up from an overwhelming perception of our own unworthiness, from the delays of the Almighty in answering our prayer, from depression and weakness of faith, from our apprehension that we do not pray aright, from our small attainments and advances, or from painful recollection of our declines from God -from which ever class of considerations despondency rushes in, let us oppose to both the two topics of our text; let us grasp firmly the belief that God is a tender, compassionate Father, and believe his assurance that