in the use of forms; and the power of religion will be lost.

Or, in the last place, if you have been bred up with an universal hatred to all forms of prayer, yet know not how to pray without them, you will first grow inconstant in the discharge of this duty; every little hindrance will put you by; and at last, perhaps, you will leave it off entirely; and your house and your closet too, in time, will be without prayer.

Christians, which of these three evils will ye choose? Can you be satisfied to drudge on to your life's end among improprieties and indecencies, and thus expose prayer to contempt? Or will your minds be easy to be confined forever, to a form or two or slothful devotion? Or shall prayer be banished out of your houses, and all appearance of religion be lost among you?

Parents, which of these evils do ye choose for your children? You charge them to pray; daily you tell them the sin and danger of dwelling all upon prayer books, and yet you scarce ever give them any regular instructions how to perform this duty. How can ye expect they should maintain religion honorably in their families, and avoid the things you forbid? But whatsoever ill consequences attend them hereafter, consider what share of the guilt will lie at the door of those who never took any pains to show them to pray!

While I am persuading Christians with so much earnestness to seek the gift of prayer, surely none will be so weak as to imagine the grace and Spirit of prayer may be neglected. Without

some degrees of common influence from the blessed Spirit, the gift is not to be attained: and without the exercise of grace in this duty, the prayer will never reach heaven, nor prevail with God. He is not taken with the brightest forms of worship, if the heart be not there. Be the thoughts ever so divine, the expressions ever so sprightly, and delivered with all the sweet and moving accents of speech, it is all in his esteem but a fair carcase without a soul. It is a mere picture of prayer, a dead picture, which cannot charm; a lifeless offering, which the living God will never accept; nor will our great High Priest ever present it to the Father.

But these things do not fall directly under my present design. I would therefore recommend my readers to those treatises, that enforce the necessity of spiritual worship, and describe the glory of inward devotion above the best outward performances. Then shall they learn the perfection of beauty in this part of worship, when the gift and grace of prayer are happily joined, in the secret pleasure and success of it, and appear before men in its full loveliness and attractive power. Then shall religion look like itself, divine and heavenly, and shine in all the lustre it is capable of here upon earth.

ON PRAYER.

PRAYER IS the soul's sincere desire
Uttered or unexpressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,

The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech, That infant lips can try;

Prayer the sublimest strains that reach The Majesty on high.

Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, The Christian's native air,

His watchword at the gates of death,
He enters heaven with prayer.

Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice
Returning from his ways;
While angels in their songs rejoice,
And say, "Behold, he prays!

The saints in prayer, appear as one
In word, in deed, and mind,
When, with the Father and the Son,
Their fellowship they find.

Nor prayer is made by saints alone;
The Holy Spirit pleads;

And Jesus, on the eternal throne,
For sinners intercedes.

O Thou, by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way,
The path of Prayer Thyself hast trod,
Lord, teach us how to pray.

PART III.

DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES.

SELECTED.

ALL instructions and forms, in aid of devotion, are to be viewed, as has been previously suggested, as hints for improvement, and not as specific examples to copy and adopt in practice. The object to be attained is, to lead every pious mind to express itself with freedom and ease without forms. The purest

prayer is above form and method. It is the expression of a full heart, pouring out the inmost desires of the soul before God, in the most natural and obvious words." But as a person, who has become familiarly acquainted with the principles of a language, will generally express himself correctly without thinking of the rules; so a Christian, who has acquired enlarged and correct information, and attained a holy skill in the gift of prayer, will exhibit a general regard to method, propriety, and edification, without particularly adverting to rules, or feeling himself limited to forms.

In private and family prayer, especially, an awakened interest is excited by individual and local circumstances, which the changing scenes of every day present, and which each occasion, therefore, demands to be particularly noticed.

Mr. Henry, in his Method of Prayer, has arranged numerous passages of scripture under distinct heads, in correspondence with the different parts of praver, a perusal of which is well calculated to lead the pious worshipper to adopt scripture language in his addresses to God, which always gives sacredness and delight to the service. A selection of these passages is here presented, which may both assist in illustrating the several parts or divisions of prayer, and in acquiring a copiousness of expression. Several forms of prayer are also added from Bickersteth's treatise, an inspection of which may lead to more definite ideas of the nature and method of prayer, and aid Christians in profitably discharging the duty, and enjoying the privilege.

May every reader be inclined, and by the Spirit of God en abled, to enter on a full and enlarged practice of prayer. A continual spirit of devotion is the highest attainment of man; it is the root which draws up the sap and life of the tree of righteousness, and thus causes it to bring forth all that frui which glorifies God and benefits man.

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