alienated from God, and flies from all communion with him.

IN PUBLIC AND FAMILY DEVOTION these infirmities tend to prevent that fixed and holy address of the soul to God which alone constitutes prayer. The words of the minister, or the parent, or master, may be highly spiritual and appropriate (and in our Liturgical services this is eminently the case); and yet our thoughts may wander, our affections be cold, our hearts remain barren and worldly. In the confession of sin, how difficult is it to conform in spirit to the words of humiliation as they are uttered, and to prostrate our souls before God in deep self-abasement! In the offering of praise, how rarely is the heart elevated with the church or the family, to a due tone of humble and sincere gratitude for the divine mercies of which we are so entirely unworthy! In presenting our supplications for future blessings, how seldom do we accompany the language of the minister or head of the household, with correspondent fervour of affection! What Christian is not sen<sible of coldness, languor, inertness, and infirmity in the duties of every sabbath, and in his attendance on family worship! How often may he detect himself wandering in thought from the subject by which he ought to be occupied! And at the close of the performance, what occasion has he to bewail that malady of his soul

which has depressed him so much in all his ef forts to rise towards God and attain communion with him.

But it is to SECRET PRAYER that we must more particularly direct our remarks, because it is here that our infirmities are most apparent, and because what may be said with respect to it, will apply for the most part to public and family devotion. Our failings, then, in private supplications regard either the MATTER or the MANNER of them. We know not what to pray for, and we know not how to pray as we ought.

So far as the MATTER of our supplications is concerned, we know not what to pray for. Such is our ignorance of ourselves and of the things which are really good for us, that we need the illumination of the Holy Spirit to show us what we should implore of God. By nature we are utterly blind as to religion; and even when we are converted, and pardoned, and devoted to the service of Christ, our infirmities are so many, that we require the unremitting aid of divine grace. Can Jacob, though so pious a servant of God, be supposed to have known what to pray for, when he exclaimed of some of the merciful appointments of God, All these things are against me? Did Rebekah know what to ask for, when she said, Give me children, or else I die? Did Job, when he cursed his day? Did Moses, when he spake unadvisedly with his

lips? Did David, when he almost envied the prosperity of the wicked: or Elijah, when he fled from Jezebel, and requested for himself that he might die? Or the Israelites, when they murmured in their tents? Or Jonah, when he fled from the presence of the Lord? What, again, did the mother of Zebedee's children know of the right object of prayer, when she besought our Lord that they might sit, the one on his right hand and the other on his left, in his kingdom? How ignorant was Peter, when he would have dissuaded our Saviour. from suffering! And the disciples, when they would have called down fire from heaven to consume the city of the Samaritans!

And how exactly do our infirmities resemble theirs! We know not what blessings even in PROVIDENCE we should ask of God. The divine promises and commands ought to be the guide of our supplications; but our own will is too often suffered to take their place. Our eternal good should be our chief concern, even in prayers for temporal mercies; but how rarely and faintly is this object pursued! Every thing around us, as well as the express declarations of Holy Scripture, instruct us that all below is vanity and vexation of spirit; and yet we eagerly crave and continually supplicate earthly prosperity. Afflictions are perpetually exhibited in the Bible as necessary chastisements inflicted by

our heavenly Father; but we pray passionately and unreservedly against them. The remote tendency of events is utterly unknown to us; and yet we implore particular results of some favourite object of pursuit, as though no doubt hung over them. We are taught to live by faith, but we pray according to the impressions of sense and passion. And after all our past disappointments, we are sure, if we trust to ourselves, to pray amiss the next emergency which arises.

And if we thus err in seeking the gifts of Providence, how much more are we likely to err in seeking those of GRACE! Spiritual religion is altogether strange to us, except as the mercy of God has enlightened and taught us; and our weaknesses and mistakes in prayer will be proportioned to this ignorance. We know, indeed, generally by the instruction of the Scriptures, that we ought to pray for repentance, for the pardon of sin, for peace of conscience, for consolation, for all things needful for growth in holiness of heart and life, for victory over sin and temptation, and for the continued influences of the blessed Spirit of God. But such is our depravity and hardness of heart, that we frequently seem as if we were ignorant of all these subjects. Our perceptions are blinded, our minds a blank; our thoughts distracted. We forget all particulars. We have no apprehen

sion of the number of our wants. We find few petitions to offer; and a cursory and hurried devotion satisfies us.

And yet the materials and topics for prayer to be derived from Holy Scripture and the observation of our own several cases and circumstances, are inexhaustible. The extension of the work of grace, the increase of our spiritual attainments, the more exact fulfilment of our duties, the love of our adorable Master, growth in every Christian temper, the improvement of our talents, the instruction to be derived from the dispensations of God, are all subjects which might present us with copious topics of fervent supplication. The eminent examples of the patriarchs and other servants of God, as recorded in Holy Writ, might also furnish us with large materials of prayer. The more complete knowledge of ourselves would, again, open an exuberant source of holy desires. Meditation also on the character, and offices, and love of Christ; on the person and work of the Spirit; on the state of our families and neighbourhood, of the church of God, of our country, and of the world; on the great scheme of salvation, the love of God, the mysteries of his will, the covenant of grace, the witness of the Holy Ghost, and the order and design of the different parts of revealed religion; and on the unnumbered injunctions, promises, threatenings, cautions, and