so we believe that no prayer made in his name will be in vain. "The answer of prayer may be approaching, though we discern not its coming. The seed in winter that lies under ground, is taking root in order to a spring and harvest, though it appear not above ground, but seem dead and lost."

The time, or the mode of granting the request, may vary indeed from our wishes, but yet the prayer made as above stated is heard, the desire so put up is fulfilled.

Bishop Taylor observes, "As for those irregular donations of good things which wicked persons ask for, and have, they are either no mercies, but instruments of cursing and crime; or else they are designs of grace, intended to convince them of their unworthiness, and so, if they become not instruments of their conversion, they are aggravations of their ruin."

In asking for SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS for repentance, faith, humility, holiness, love, &c. we are sure of having the particular request granted, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification. Yet in these things the way of granting the request may, at first sight, seem like a denial.

It is the main desire of every Christian, in a proper state of mind, that the will of God be done; and when he asks for TEMPORAL BLESSINGS, he does it with full purpose of heart, not to have his own wishes accomplished, farther than as they concur with the will of God, which will he is assured ever designs his supreme happiness. "Delight thyself in the Lord, and he will give thee the desire of thy heart." If you are really delighting in the Lord, the desire of your heart will be mainly for spiritual things; and for temporal things it will be with the reservation, thy will be done. This petition, whether expressed, or only understood, may often be a prayer

not

that your previous requests for temporal good may be granted, and thus there may be an opposition in your requests. We lose not by the denial of meaner petitions when God sets them aside to give greater blessings. This appears to be the meaning of the following passages. "He that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints, according to the will of God." Rom. viii, 27. And again, "this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." 1 John, v, 14, 15. No Christian wishes for the answer which the carnal Israelites received, He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. Ps. cvi, 15. If then the Christian be denied the particular request, his real prayers may receive an express answer in the accomplishing of God's holy will; just as a sick man's real desire is accomplished, if he be ultimately made well, even though the medicine or the mode of cure expose him to things which he dislikes.

But perhaps you ask, how may I know whether my prayers have been answered or not? Sometimes the case is so obvious that it cannot be mistaken-Jehosaphat prays, and he is delivered from his enemies; Hezekiah prays, and he is delivered from sickness; Jonah prays, and he is delivered from the belly of the whale. The Church prays, and Peter is delivered from Herod. The following, among many others, are examples of answers to particular requests. Gen. xxv, 21; 1 Chron. v, 20; 2 Chron. xxxiii, 13; Ezra viii, 23.

At other times prayers are answered, rather in the increase of grace to bear the affliction, than in its removal, as in the case of Paul's thorn in the flesh.

"There are,” says Gee, in his Treatise on the answer of prayer," four ways of God's answering prayers.By giving the things prayed for presently, (Dan. ix, 23,) or by suspending the answer for a time, and giving it afterwards, (Luke xviii, 7,) or by with-holding that mercy which you ask from you, and giving you a much better mercy in the room of it; (Deut. iii, 24, compared with Deut. xxxiv, 4, 5.) or lastly, by giving you patience to bear the loss or want of it. 2 Cor. xii, 19."

Remarkable, sometimes, are the ways in which prayers are answered. We pray for an increase of faith, patience, resignation, or other Christian graces: and our trials, instead of being removed, seem greatly aggravated. The clouds grow darker and darker. But the secret supports of the Holy Spirit being afforded, we do not sink under our burden. And in the midst of all these trials, the very things which we asked are given. There is no exercise for faith when all is smash; no room for patience and resignation when there is no suffering; the very graces which we sought, need difficulties, sorrows, and trials, in order to be manifested, exercised, and granted. Often the very sentence of death is put upon all our hopes, before they are realized. The extremity of suffering is the point of our deliverance. Let the tried Christian then attend to Cowper's exhortation:

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread,
Are big with mercy, and shall break,
In blessings on your head.

Many examples in modern times, might be given of answers to prayer, so plain that they cannot be mistaken. Indeed where is there a Christian who cannot, from his own history, bring instances of this? The prayers of

the martyr Latimer and their answer are very observable. There were three principal matters for which he prayed; 1st. That God would give him grace to stand to his doctrine until death. 2d. That God would of his mercy restore his Gospel to England once againrepeating and insisting on the words "once again," as though he had seen God before him, and spoken to him face to face. 3d. That God would preserve Elizabeth ; with many tears desiring God to make her a comfort to this comfortless realm of England. All these requests were most fully and graciously answered.*

The increase of any Christian grace, poverty of spirit, mourning for sin, meekness, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, quietness of mind, perseverance in prayer, is, to the real Christian, of itself, a most delightful answer to prayer. Whatever other things may have been denied, if these are given, the corresponding promises are secured to you, and the greatest blessings have been granted. If we can say with David, "In the day when I cried, thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul," (Ps. cxxxviii, 3.) we may see the prayer answered in the strengthening of the soul, though the particular request be denied.

It was said that our Lord was heard in that he feared; but this was not by the removal of his sufferings, but by his having strength suited to his stupendous wo.

The due USE OF MEANS must be attended to, if we wish for answers to our prayers. There is a species of enthusiasm, not uncommon, and to which young or ignorant professors of religion are exposed, that is, to expect the blessing desired in prayer without any effort or exertion on our parts. But in the Bible you may mark how those who prayed used the most likely means to ef

*See Fox's Life of Latimer,

fect their desires. Though Jacob passes the night in prayer, he still in the morning takes the best means to pacify his brother Esau. Bishop Hall says of Moses, when Israel was about to contend with Amalek, “I do not hear Moses say to his Joshua, Amalek is come up against us, it matters not whether thou go against him, or not, or, if thou go, whether alone or in company, or, if accompanied, whether with many or few, strong or weak, or, if strong men, whether they fight or no; I will pray on the hill; but he says, choose us out men and go fight. Then only can we hope when we have done our best; and though means cannot effect that which we desire, yet God will have us use the likeliest means on our part to effect it. Prayer, without the use of means, is a mockery of God."

The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing. Prov. xiii, 4. Means, being required both in God's word and by the course of his Providence, neglect of them is not faith, but unbelief. The patient who trusts his Physician's skill, will carefully follow his directions. Believing prayer does not render exertion unnecessary, but makes it effectual; giving a divine power and blessing to that which was before a merely weak and human effort. And the right way is neither to use unlawful means, nor lawful ones irregularly, nor to trust either in them, or in our prayers; but humbly and diligently to go on in the path of duty, using those means which seem right and profitable, and trusting only in God our Saviour to bring the thing to pass, and that in his own way. His wisdom, power, and love are infinite. His ways are often dark and mysterious to weak and fallible man; but it will ever be found in the end, Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Ps. ii, 12.