maketh the heart sick; all his paths are mercy and truth, and his ways judgment. But he cannot interrupt the order which he has for wise ends established: if we conform to it we shall reap inestimable benefits; if we neglect or rebel against it, let us not complain of God's unfaithfulness when our prayers are not answered, but of our own inconstancy. Let us rather learn to wait upon him, and be of good courage, that he may strengthen our hearts. Let our eyes be towards the Lord; let us stay ourselves upon our God. Shall we say that our way is hid from the Lord, and our judgment passed over from our God? "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding." Let us " lift up our eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but HIS salvation shall be forever, and his righteousness shall not be abolished." Shall we be stumbled by that delay which forms

a part of God's revealed purposes? Rather let it rouse us from our sluggishness; bring us more earnestly and frequently to his mercy-seat; and establish our faith, by compelling us to resort to his promises, and to enlarge our views of his administration. Thus, even during the time of trial, our strength shall be renewed ; and we shall experience in the end the truth of the divine assurance, they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

The duty of prayer is one binding upon all ; and if we are disinclined to the observance of

it, we are not thereby exempted from its obligation.* It is a most reasonable thing that a dependent creature should seek good from its Creator. His favor is life, his loving-kindness is better than life. If we have not sought that favor with our whole hearts, we have never been alive to our own true interest, nor taken a single step towards blessedness. His wrath abideth on us if we have never stood before him as suppliants for mercy. And the only mercy he bestows is conferred through that Mediator who has finished transgression, and

*Note A.

brought in everlasting righteousness.

He is

the way, the truth, the life. His is the only name given under heaven among men by which they can be saved. All who, with humble and contrite hearts, plead that name are heard. He who, renouncing his own righteousness, rejoices only in this, that God is satisfied in Christ his Son, obtains a hope which shall never be confounded. But if the counsels of divine kindness are despised, a day will come when prayer shall no longer be heard; when men shall" call upon God, but he will not answer; shall seek him early, but shall not find him ;" when they shall "eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices."

DISCOURSE II.

ON PRAYER FOR THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

LUKE XI. 13.

THE address of our Lord to his disciples, of which these words form a part, teaches us that the privilege of prayer should be closely associated in our minds with one particular subject of petition, the gift of God's Holy Spirit. It is an exhortation to the general duty; and its whole scope and application terminate in presenting this blessing to our attention, as the principal object of a believer's desire. And while it bids us desire and ask the blessing, it

affords the most ample encouragement to expect that our requests shall be satisfied abundantly. For as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. As certainly as a human parent is moved by his children's cries, and cannot so far forego his nature as to mock their wants by offering for bread a stone, and for an egg a scorpion,-so surely he who calls himself the father of his redeemed, whose nature is perfection, and whose grace is infinite, will, in the copious communication of this blessing, assure us of his paternal love, and give proof of all its tenderness.

In farther illustrating the subject presented in our text, we shall,

I. In the first place, consider what the gift of the Spirit is.

There is no truth more plainly laid down in Scripture than this, that God is the author of all that is holy or spiritually good in the souls of renewed men. This truth was taught under the earlier dispensation in such declarations as that of Moses to the Israelites, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God, with all