Spirit of God leaveth him, and his spiritual strength faileth him, and he liveth no more unto the Lord, and the light of the Sun of Righteousness shineth upon him no more.

Great are the benefits of sincerity in religion; but then he that thinks himself to be sincere, must be careful to prove himself to be so; and he that would prove himself sincere must be careful to do the things which belong unto sincerity. Now of sincerity in prayer there is no surer or less suspicious testimony than an earnest desire to know the things we ought to pray for, and a constant endeavour to learn the form, the manner, and the substance in which we ought to pray. He that truly and indeed wishes to offer up his petitions to Almighty God in an acceptable way, will apply to every one whom he considers able to teach him what to ask, and authorized to tell him how to ask it. For it is no easy task to suit our prayers to our wants, and wishes, and feelings, and thoughts, or to express them in language which may become our situation and affect our heart. The blessings we ask, and the manner of our asking, should vary with our varying circum stances and conditions; and the anguish of the penitent, or the trembling hope of the returning sinner, would flow but ill and unseemly from the lips of the persevering saint, rejoicing in his holi

ness and confiding in his God. The voice of joy and thankfulness in the midst of mercies received, is very different from the plaintive tones of the mourner humbled in his affliction; and he who sorrowfully seeks a consolation from heaven for what he has lost, could never utter, with force or with feeling, the glowing words of gratitude and praise which animate and expand the heart when it confesses that it has been comforted. Each state and each vicissitude of life-weakness and power-riches and poverty, have all their proper subjects and manner of addressing the Almighty God. The sounds of sadness, which are so affecting and instructive when we go to the house of mourning, would perhaps neither affect nor instruct us at all when we meet in gladness in the house of feasting. And even the dispensation and religion under which we live-the terrors of the Law of Moses, and the mercies of the Gospel of Jesus, require different forms and methods, and degrees of worship; because there is a difference also in the views, and the hopes, and the fears which they inspire. The Israelite and Christian often cannot and ought not to pray the same prayers, or in the same manner, because the circumstances of a human being, and the thoughts and feelings, and desires of the human mind, are not and cannot be the same in both covenants.

Under the influence of sentiments like these, sincere but ignorant, feeling their wants, and conscious of their weakness, the followers of Jesus came to their Master, and said unto him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." The ears of Jesus were ever open to the reasonable requests of those who questioned, without tempt ing him. He was touched with a feeling of their infirmities, " and he said unto them," and in them to all who bear or shall bear the holy name of Christians, even to the latest generations of the world; and in them to us hath he said, "When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in Heaven."

"When ye pray." No matter when-whe ther in the morning or in the evening, or at noonday, whether with the lisping innocence of infancy, the uncorrupted thoughts of youth, the understanding mind of manhood, or the decaying powers and faculties of age; no matter at what period of the day or of life we offer up the devotion of the heart to God-one form of utterance is commanded for all. No matter either what be the condition or circumstances of our being; whether in pain, in penury, or penitence; whether weak, or wise, or wealthy, or wretched; in the smiles of a marriage or in the tears of a death; rejoicing with those who are, or mourning for those that are not; in the gloom or in the glory of our

days; loved or hated, high or low, honoured or despised; be it in hope or disappointment, in gladness or in grief, in our living energies, or in our dying agonies, still the words of Jesus sound the same. Still he saith to all who acknowledge

themselves to be "his disciples," " when ye

pray, say, Our Father which art in Heaven."

Blessed and comprehensive form of words! Almighty Father of all, Father of all that was, and is, and is to come; Father of every thing that hath, and of every thing that hath not within it the breath of life; Creator of the heavens and of the earth; Creator of the Spirits that people the air, and that dwell unnumbered about thine own everlasting throne; Creator of all creatures that live and move and have their being upon the face of this habitable globe; Creator of the fowls of the air, and of the fishes of the sea, and of the beasts of the field and of creeping things innumerable; Creator of man; Father of our souls and of our bodies; Great Source of all we are, and have, and hope for; to thee, thee only, the Eternal Parent of the Universe, we lift our earth-born thoughts in the humility of prayer, when we bid our tongues obey the commands of our Master, and address thee as "Our Father which art in Heaven." Our Father thou art, because thou hast formed us out of the dust of the ground.

Our Father thou art, because thou hast adopted us into the children of thine inheritance. Our Father, because thou hast spiritually begotten us, that we might be called the Sons of God. Our Father, because we are the brethren and thou art the very Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. In all these glorious attributes, under all these varied forms of creation, we look up to thee when we call upon thee as our Father. Our Father too which art in Heaven, and therefore as heavenly, and not upon the earth, and therefore not as earthly, do we call thee. To none upon the earth do we call, for they being earthly, could neither hear nor help us according to our wants. But God dwelleth above all, in the height and in the holiness of the spiritual firmament of Heaven. A Spirit, therefore, he is, and so the discerner of our spirits; holy, and so a lover and rewarder of the holy; high and above all, and therefore able to look into the very innermost chambers of the heart, and wont to perceive our necessities before we ask, and to give more than either we desire or deserve.

To this great object of worship, then, it is, that our Saviour hath taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father which art in heaven," and whilst in these endearing words we acknowledge ourselves to be by nature and by grace the sons and