of death with almost as little physical suffering as is experienced by those who give themselves up to

"Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep."

But were the last conflict ever so distressing, "'twere useless to die a thousand deaths in dreading one." In a professing Christian, especially, such a feeling is wholly out of character. His faith should be more than a match for death, even in its most horrid forms. The religion of Christ is now just what it used to be. It has lost none of its power. Again "it will stop the mouths of lions,” and again "quench the violence of fire." The God of the martyrs is our God. And especially should we look beyond death to the house not made with hands, and regard the dissolution of our tabernacle as a mere incident in the consummation of our hope. Listening to the songs sung before the throne, and feeling that Christ gives victory over the last enemy, the saint need not hesitate to indulge the aspirations of the poet :

"O when will death, (now stingless,) like a friend,
Admit me of their choir ? O when will death
This mold'ring, old partition-wall throw down,
Give beings one in nature one abode ?

O death divine, that giv'st us to the skies!
That readmitt'st us, through the guardian hands
Of elder brethren, to our Father's throne."

5. Finally, let us not mourn for those who have left an earthly house, and have gone to inhabit the one eternal in the heavens. Their sufferings are ended, their bliss is perfect. The Lamb that is in the midst of the throne now feeds them, and leads them to living fountains of waters. Sorrow, and pain, and care, and temptation, are unknown in the place of their residence. Dwelling in the heavenly temple, they are companions of the wisest and holiest beings. that ever lived. Every wish is gratified-every desire fulfilled. Why, then, mourn for them? Why sorrow that they are taken away from the evil to come? We may be painfully sensible of our own loss, but to grieve on their account would be inconsistent with every just view of the heavenly world. Let us rather prepare to join them in their lofty employment, and "wish ourselves away" to the habitations of the blessed.

SERMON XI.

Prayer-Outline of an Argument for its Institution.

BY REV. ABEL STEVENS, A. M.,

EDITOR OF ZION'S HERALD AND WESLEYAN JOURNAL.

"Thus saith the Lord God: I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them."-Ezek. xxxvi, 37.

If our world had rolled on until this date in its present depravity, and that agony of wo which yet overspreads it; and if it had possessed a less perfect revelation, one which afforded a true knowledge of its lost condition, and the awful character of God, but no notion of access to him by prayer, through the merits of an atonement: if it, at this moment, were in such a state, trembling under the knowledge of God, without daring to look up unto him, groping through a half-illumined darkness, in which the realities of present wretchedness could be seen, but not the hopes of future relief; what would be the effect of a proclamation made convincingly to the whole earth-say by an apparition of angels in the firmament, as once on the plains of Bethlehem, that on a given day God would hear prayer, and that supplication, offered on terms practicable to all, should secure any blessing truly appropriate to man, and should avail for the blessedness of the suppliant, even through everlasting ages? What amazement and exultation would such an event spread through the world! How would the hours which were yet to precede that day be counted! How would the friends of the sick, by the virtue of medicines, and by tender cares, try to preserve the flickering existence, that the dying beloved one might pray before he departed, and the aged and despairing who have longed for the grave, seek to prolong their lives to the auspicious morning! Surely such a proclamation, under such circumstances, would be like the trump of resurrection to the saints; and the emotions of mankind would be like those of the despairing lunatic, when some beautiful dream deludes his sleep, and mingles smiles and tears on his haggard countenance. Would any sleep the last night which

was to precede it? Would not the house-tops, the hills, and the mountain sides, be thronged with the multitudes anxious to see the first rays of that jubilee of the world? And what a sight would the sun of that day witness in his course around the earth, of prostrate, grateful, imploring millions!

Such, it is probable, would be the effect of novelty in a privilege which, now, because it is always at our command, is reluctantly improved by many, and utterly rejected by most. How absurd, as well as guilty, is sin! How valuable, though unvalued, the privileges of the gospel! A lost spirit would give all worlds to be placed in the probationary position of a living sinner for one hour; and if the hope of salvation were to be limited to one day instead of being continued through years; if, in other words, it were certainly known that to-morrow was to be the judgment, the sun of this day would go down amid the tears and prayers of the world.

Yet, independently of such illustrations, and depreciated as the privilege of prayer is by our desultory familiarity with it, to what thoughtful mind does it not present itself as one of the most wonderful and precious institutions of religion! Let us contemplate it this morning.

WE PROPOSE TO SHOW THE EXCELLENCY OF PRAYER AS AN INSTITUTION OF OUR HOLY RELIGION.

I. Prayer is a "reasonable service." This can be best shown by examining those speculative objections which have been preferred by skeptics against it. Let us consider some of them.

One is, That prayer is inconsistent with the divine omniscience. "If God knows your wants, and your disposition to have them supplied, why inform and importune him in prayer?" The objection proceeds from a misapprehension of the design of prayer. Its ostensible design is indeed the attainment of the blessing for which we pray; but there is an ulterior and higher object for which it was appointed, namely, the spiritual influence, the disciplinary effect of the habit. The objection would apply equally to the other departments of God's economy. He could make bread grow spontaneously, or drop manna from heaven, but he requires man to toil for his sustenance, and this necessity of labor is no curse, but a blessing; it is a source

of health, and vigor, and cheerfulness. Excessive toil, the "sweat of the face," was the curse pronounced at the fall, but the first man was appointed to "dress" and "keep" the "garden of Eden." God could have constituted the human mind, so that its improvement might be natural, not the result of protracted study; but he has not, and why? Because he saw it would be good for man to co-operate with himself in procuring improvement and happiness. The analogy applies equally to religion, to prayer. Our text is an example; after predicting to Israel certain mercies, God still declares, "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." He knew their need of these mercies, he compassionated their necessity, he had power to confer them all unconditionally, yet yearning over his chosen people with the solicitude of a father, he still refused them the promised mercy, unless "inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." And why? Solely because he saw the condition would be salutary to them; it would remind them of their dependence upon him, it would bring them into direct communion with himself, and thus the moral effect would be a greater blessing than the particular mercies presented as the objects of their prayers. Hence it is that prayer is made the condition of our spiritual mercies-it is that our heavenly Father may doubly bless us-bless us with the mercies sought, and in the process of seeking them.

Man's measures contemplate usually but a specific object, God's contemplate many at once. The apparent design of the sun is to illuminate the world, "to rule the day;" but, on closer examination, this is found to be only one among many of its agencies-while it enlightens, it also beautifies nature with coloring; it is essential to vegetation; it varies the seasons; it sustains in harmonious motion the machinery of our whole system. So in God's moral economy, manifold results, ostensible and ulterior, are accomplished. Thus it is with prayer. The objection, I repeat, is founded in a short-sighted view of the design of the institution-a view which stops short of its ulterior purpose.

2. Another objection alledges that prayer is inconsistent with God's immutability. "Why entreat and importune him? You cannot change his immutable nature."

This

objection is founded in a misapprehension of the divinė immutability. In what consists the immutability of God? I answer, God is immutable in the principles of his administration, but not in his acts. There was a period when he did not create, one when he did create, and another when "he rested from all his work which he had made :" he changed in act, but not in nature. He is probably still putting forth his mighty power throughout the universe, creating and dissolving worlds, but he is the same God, "yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Our adventitious circumstances may lead to various manifestations of the divine attributes, but their nature never varies. In heaven our God "is the light thereof;" on earth he is the Saviour of the world; in hell he is a consuming fire; yet in heaven, earth, and hell, he is the same God from eternity to eternity. The laws protect you to-day because you conform to them, to-morrow they may put you to death for transgressing them; not because they change-the change is in yourself. So the sinner is heard if he truly prays, but lost if he prays not; yet God does not change, it is his ordained economy that it should be so. And this economy is founded in his immutable wisdom.

3. It is objected again that the universe is governed by secondary causes; and, in order that prayer should bring about results different from what would take place without it, there must be an interference with a suspension of→→ those fixed causes; but there is no such interference. I have three remarks to make on this objection. The first is, that it applies to prayer only so far as physical blessings are concerned, for these alone are affected by physical causes. All the spiritual objects of prayer belong to that moral economy of which prayer itself is a component part, and which, by its relation to the voluntary agency of both God and man, is not subject to the fixed laws that are necessary to a physical mechanism, like the natural world. Still it is admitted that physical blessings are legitimate objects of prayer. Our "daily bread" is enumerated by our Lord among them. The rains, the harvest, the restoration of the sick, the safety of the wayfarer on the sea or on the land, are subjects of its blessed efficacy. I remark, secondly, that the objector is incompetent to the assumption, that there is no divine interference with fixed causes