blessings to the body and the soul, is always desirous to receive the devout prayers of such as call upon Him faithfully, that He has told us to ask that we may receive, and has promised that He will hear our cry and will help us. And since without the blessing of the Almighty we can do no good thing, and that blessing may be had by every one of us if we ask for it properly, how great is our sin, how much have we to answer for, if we neglect to pray, as too many do, or pray in an improper manner as too many do likewise.

If we consider how great is the difference between God and ourselves; between God, who is perfect righteousness, holiness, and truth, and men, the very best of whom are but imperfect sinful creatures, it seems to be the greatest honour that we can enjoy, that we are not only permitted but commanded to pour forth in prayer the sorrows of our hearts, and to make known all our wants to our great and mighty Creator; and not only so, but that we should also be assured, as we are from the Bible, that, poor sinners as we are, He pities us and

feels for us much more than we do for one another, or even for ourselves. And yet I fear there is no duty so much neglected or so carelessly performed, as this of saying our prayers; there are many, I fear, who pass days, and weeks, and months, and years, without ever praying to their Heavenly Father; or, if they do, it is only when they are thrown suddenly into affliction and distress, and find that they are utterly unable to help and comfort themselves; and there are others who pray in so careless, so neglectful and slighting a manner, that God must be more offended than pleased with them, and therefore it is no wonder that their prayers afford them little or no comfort.

Now there are three things to be attended to in making our prayers to God, without which we cannot hope that they will be of any benefit to us, and they are these-first, we must pray earnestly and constantly secondly, we must pray for proper things: thirdly, we must pray with a pure heart.

First, then, our prayers must be earnest

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and constant. How shall God hear us, if they are not? If He sees that we pray for His blessings in a careless, irregular, slovenly manner,-if He sees that because our prayers are not granted we are impatient and disappointed, and give them up -if He sees that they come only from our lips and not from our hearts, He will consider them, and justly too, as nothing more than a mere mockery of Him: such prayers He will not receive: to such prayers His blessing will not be given.

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Judge for yourselves. If a man were to chance to meet you in the street, and should say to you, in a careless and indifferent way, Pray give me a piece of bread," and should then walk on, and perhaps in a day or two should meet you again, and should say in the same careless manner, Pray give me a piece of bread," and then walk on, scarcely waiting time enough for you to give him an answer—you would smile at such a man, and you would think to yourself, he cannot want it much. or he would ask a little more earnestly and wait a little longer for my answer. But if

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a poor wretch should come to you with tears in his eyes and sorrow in his cheek, and were to say to you, "for Christ's sake have pity upon me and relieve me; I am starving for food, I am sick and in misery, I have not a friend in the world:" and were to follow you and kneel to you, and still without ceasing pray to you for your charity and relief; you would see at once that he was in earnest, that he was in want, that he felt and knew his own wretchedness, and heartily wished for help, and you would gladly afford him, to the best of your power, the relief which he begged you to bestow.

It is thus with God: to fervent, earnest, hearty prayer, offered in the name of Jesus Christ, He never refuses his attention; but He can and does distinguish between prayer which rises from the heart of man, and that which comes only from the lips. Therefore, if we would have our prayers accepted we must first learn to feel our own unworthiness, our own sinfulness, our own helplessness, without God, and then the prayers that we offer to Him will spring

from our hearts; we must, as St. Paul tells us, pray without ceasing to Him who alone is able to help and defend us: and even though our prayers should not seem to be heard or crowned with that success which we desire, we must still persevere, faithfully trusting to the promise which God has made to us, that in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

The second thing which I mentioned as necessary to be kept in mind is, that we pray for proper things: for if we ask for things which we ought not to ask for, it is clear that we shall do wrong, and that our prayers will not profit us at all.

We are made of a body and a soul: the body is to live, at farthest, in its present state but for a few years: the soul is to live for ever and ever, either in the greatest happiness or in the greatest misery; there cannot, therefore, be a doubt for which of these two our prayers should most be made.

I do not say that it is wrong to pray the Almighty to give us such an allowance of the good things of this world, as may keep