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business of the day. This he therefore recommended as the best rule which he could give.

4. Private prayer is an engine of greater power than all human means put together. The greatest of earthly monarchs, neglecting prayer, has not that power to glorify God, benefit man, and secure his own happiness, which the humble and praying Christian has. The prayer of a poor, destitute, and afflicted Christian, in the name of Christ, may turn the hearts of kings and princes, save his country, raise up pious ministers, secure a blessing to their labors, send the gospel to the heathen, and advance the kingdom of Christ in

the world.

5. It makes us fruitful in every good work. "I reckon it,' says Bennett, 'matter of common experience among good men, that they find themselves more or less disposed, and fit for their respective duties and service, according as their diligence, constancy, and seriousness in secret prayer is more or less." Christians, if you wish to prosper, if you long to bring forth all the fruit of the Spirit, strike your roots deep and wide in private prayer.

Mr. Scott says, "Depend upon it, every thing will prosper in the event, in a very near proportion to our earnestness and perseverance in prayer: but negligence here will be followed by a declension, perhaps almost unperceived in other respecst, and will make way for temptations, falls, correcions, darkness, and inward distresses. If like Jacob, we wrestle with God and prevail, we shall eventually prevail in all our other conflicts."

6. It will be rewarded openly.—Our Lord does

not in these words promise the very thing which you request; but your Father will reward you; he will give you a free, a full return, a gracious retribution, evidently, though not perhaps identically. Every tear of godly sorrow, shed in secret, will then be a brilliant gem in the crown of glory surrounding the brow of the Christian. The Christian's reward comes from a Father of infinite power, riches, wisdom and love; and therefore cannot be a small reward, or an unsatisfying portion. May every reader then be encouraged to begin, or more constantly to practice, and perзevere in this sacred duty.

SECTION VI.

ON PUBLIC WCRSHIP.

MANY are the advantages, and great is the necessity of private prayer; but public worship is also a duty plain and important.

1. The assembling of ourselves together is required in the scriptures of all Christians. The apostle exhorts us to it as a great means of strengthening our love to God and man; "Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is." The invitation runs, "O come, let us worship and bow

:

down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." "Come into his courts; O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."

2. Public worship is a suitable and proper expression of homage to our Creator. "In him we

live move and have our being ;" and it is just and right that we should publicly and unitedly "give unto the Lord the glory due to his name." We all depend on him, and it is right that we should join in acknowledging this, and praying to him. We have in common sinned against him, and right it is that we should in common confess our sins before him.

3.

It is also a public testimony and profession of our religion. We hereby show "whose we are, and whom we serve." The religion of a nation is known by its worship. "All people walk every one in the name of his God; and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever."

4. Public worship is attended with some peculiar advantages. The constant return of the weekly Sabbath, and its worship, keeps alive those impressions of religion which the cares, and business, and distractions of this world would wear away. Our Saviour makes a special promise applicable to it, saying, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." "I will praise the Lord with my whole heart," says David, "in the congregation of the faithful."-Earth affords not a more impressive, affecting, and solemn sight, than that of a whole congregation uniting in acts of prayer and praise to the great Lord of all. In such a scene, also, the Christian peculiarly enjoys the privilege of the communion of saints.

5. But public worship is a privilege as well as a duty.-To the Christian it is not a burdensome task, but a delightful employment, under the influences of the Holy Spirit, to join his fellow

Christians in prayer and praise. Observe how David speaks-" One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts; my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." Hence the Sabbath is to the Christian a happy day. He looks forward to it with pleasure. He regrets its departure.

SECTION VII.

FAMILY WORSHIP.

THERE are some very important means of grace, and outward observances which are plainly implied in the word of God, for the performance of which we have few, if any, positive, plain and express precepts. We are left to gather them from the examples of holy men, and from various incidental circumstances. Such, in some degree, is the duty of family worship.

It will not, however, be difficult to prove the obligation to family worship in various ways.

1. We are taught this duty by scriptural examples. Consider the example of Abraham, the father of the faithful and the friend of God. His family piety is that for which he is blessed by Jehovah himself; "I know Abraham, that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do

justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” Consider the holy determination of Joshua, who declared to all Israel, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve; as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."

When David had brought the ark of God into Jerusalem with gladness, sacrifices, and thanksgivings, after discharging all his public duties, and blessing the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, "he returned to bless his household."

Observe the praise given to Cornelius; he was "a devout man, and one that feared God, with all his house; which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always." The early Christians practiced this duty. St. Paul greets the church in the house of Priscilla and Aquilla, when they were at Rome, and sends the salutation of the Church that was in their house when they were in Asia.

2. Threatenings are pronounced against those who disregard this duty. Those who neglect the worhip of God in their families, lie, (awful thought!) under the dipleasure of the Almighty, under the frown of the most High. Observe what is said, "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not upon thy name."

3. Family prayer has also some peculiar advantages. It is a most important means of propagating piety to posterity. Children are creatures of imitation. They love to copy all that they see in others. The characters of unborn gene

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