defend us from all our enemies, spiritual and temporal. Therefore, let us put our trust and confidence in Him; let us not despair of His help, seeing He is so loving, kind, and gentle towards us; and then, so mighty, that He hath all things in His hands. This affection and love towards us passeth all motherly affections.-Latimer.

FERVENT prayers stretch forth a strong, wide, extended wing, and while the birds of night hover beneath, they mount aloft, and point out, as it were, the proper seats to which we should aspire. For certainly there is nothing that cuts the air so swiftly, nothing that takes so sublime, so happy, so auspicious a flight as prayer, which bears the soul on its pinions, and leaves far behind all the dangers and even the delights of this low world of ours.-Leighton.

UPON what account is it that prayer becomes prevalent with God, so as to procure us the good things we pray for? I answer upon this; that it is the fulfilling of that condition, upon which God has freely promised to convey His blessings to men. God, of His own absolute unaccountable good-will and pleasure, has thought fit to appoint and fix upon this, as the means by which He will supply and answer the wants of mankind.—South.

It is written, Ask, and ye shall receive; Seek, and ye shall find; Knock, and it shall be opened unto you: but no expositor ever understood thereby that we should receive indiscriminately whatever we please to ask for. The wisest among us may sometimes ask for things that would be mischievous to them if granted. .

We are taught to understand by the promise, that God will give the devout worshipper, what He knows in His wisdom will be good for him.

It has pleased God to make the right exercise of our free-will, one among the causes of procuring the good that shall befal us, and to render the good He gives us effectual or not, according to the disposition and temper wherewith we receive it; therefore, prayer, having a natural efficacy to mend the state and disposition of the heart, will enable us to reap the benefit of those good things He has procured for us, and put into our power. So it is truly said, Ask, and ye shall receive; for though we cannot move God to do any single thing He would not have done without our prayer, we may move ourselves thereby, till we come within the stream of His blessings.-Tucker.

THY will, O God, as it is always holy, so in what Thou hast decreed to do with us, is secret, and in what Thou wouldst have us to do with Thee, is revealed. It is Thy revealed will that must regulate both our actions and our prayers It may be that I may lawfully sue to Thee

for what Thou hast decreed not to grant. O God, give me the grace to follow Thy revealed will, and to submit myself to Thy secret. What Thou hast commanded I know I may do; what thou hast promised I know I may trust to. What Thou hast in a generality promised to do, may, in some particular cases, by the just decree of Thy secret counsel be otherwise determined. If I ask what Thou hast decreed to do, I know I cannot but obtain. If I ask what Thou hast warranted, (notwithstanding the particular exception of Thy secret will) though I receive it not, yet I receive not pardon only, but acceptation. O God, give me grace to steer myself and my prayers by Thy revealed will, and humbly to stoop to what the event shows to have been Thy secret will-Bishop Hall.

NEVER pretend that thou hast a heart to pray, while thou hast no heart to give, since he that serves Mammon with his estate, cannot possibly serve God with his heart. For, as in the heathen worship of God, a sacrifice without a heart was accounted ominous; so, in the Christian worship of Him, a heart without a sacrifice is worthless and impertinent.-South.

SEASONS OF PRAYER.

If you bethink yourself of any crime,
Unreconcil'd as yet to heav'n and grace,
Solicit for it straight.-SHAKSPEARE.

On the breath of the morning air,
Send upward the incense of grateful prayer;

Then kneel, while the watching stars are bright,

And give your last thoughts to the Guardian of night.-WARE.

Bray without reasing.

Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer auto the God of my life.

Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.

Be went aut into the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer witly Gnd.

If we do not depute vacant seasons, and fix periodical returns for devotions, engaging ourselves by firm resolution, and inuring our minds by constant usage to the strict observance of them, secluding from them, as from sacred enclosures, all other businesses, we shall often be dangerously tempted to neglect it, we shall be commonly listless to it, prone to defer it, easily seduced from it by the encroachment of other affairs, or enticement of other pleasures. It is requisite that our souls also (no less than our bodies), should have their meals, settled at such intervals as the maintenance of their life,

their health, their strength and vigour do require; that they may not perish or languish for want of timely repasts; that a good appetite may duly spring up, prompting and instigating them, that a sound temper and robust constitution of soul may be preserved by them.-Barrow.

EVERY time that is not seized upon by some other duty, is seasonable enough for prayer; but let it be performed as a solemn duty, morning and evening, that God may begin and end all our business; that the out-going of the morning and evening may praise Him; for so we bless God, and God blesses us. And yet, fail not to find or make opportunities to worship God at some other times of the day; at least, by ejaculations and short addresses, more or less, longer or shorter, solemnly or without solemnity, privately or publicly, as you can, or are permitted; always remembering, that as every sin is a degree of danger and unsafety, so every pious prayer and well-employed opportunity is a degree of return to life and pardon.-Jeremy Taylor.

WERE We acquainted with the way of intermixing holy thoughts, ejaculatory eyeings of God in our ordinary ways, it would keep the heart in a sweet temper all day long, and have an excellent influence in all our ordinary actions and holy performances, at those times when we