is one petition; "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." The inseparable connexion between these, it is of high importance to bear always in mind. The great Teacher, well knowing how prone we are to lose sight of it, has pressed the same point upon our attention with peculiar solemnity and force in the following verses:-" For if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses."

He who has but learned the very first lessons. in the school of Christ, must know, that it is positively sinful to take offence from slight causes, and then meditate schemes of retaliation; that angry passions, and implacable tempers, are utterly inconsistent with the service of Jehovah. And indeed, if such passions were not displeasing to God, experience has proved them to be both hostile to the exercise of vital piety, and destructive to our personal peace. The language of the Roman satirist, “Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sana,”—Our prayer should be, for a sound mind ina healthy body, as the first requisites to happiness, may be taken in a more comprehensive sense than it is usually supposed to bear. If anger, according to another poet, is a short madness, and settled rancour obstructs the true use of reason; then, to have a sound mind, the irascible feelings must be subdued.

The heat and animosity, which are called forth in religious controversy, are in many. cases, to say the least, very unfavourable to devotion. Keen disputes on points of doctrine and discipline, there always have been, nor is there much ground to hope, that we are drawing near the period of terminating these wordy wars. Those Christians, who mingle not with the combatants, impartially observing the effects produced, can hardly avoid perceiving, that much of what bears the name of zeal for God and truth, may be resolved into the ebullitions of personal and party feeling. And that this is no uncharitable conclusion, may appear from a circumstance which has been often noticed; namely, that the fiercest and most protracted controversies have been about minor matters,the hangings and fringes of the tabernacle, rather than the Shekinah,-the form and appendages of the altar, rather than the sacred fire upon it. "It is," says Dr. Mason, "inconsistent with the nature of our faculties and affections, to pursue great and little things with equal ardour. A candidate for empire, will not fight for toys; he who can fight for toys, is not fit for empire. The man of broad phylacteries, will give himself no trouble about the robe of righteousness. Sectarian light puts out the Christian fire. One year of love,

would do more towards setting us mutually right, where we are wrong, than a millennium of wrangling."

3. Covetous passions greatly hinder and disturb a man in prayer.

The love of money is combined with a multitude of other evil passions, which derive their strength from it. Hence unhallowed ambition, corroding envy, and pining discontent, with all their selfish brood and sordid train. Covetousness is a canker that not only encrusts and deforms the surface, but eats its way to the very centre of the soul. And what can be expected, where this is the shell and shew of religion?

case, but the mere "And they come

unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. (Ezek. xxxiii. 31.) He that says to gold, Thou art my trust, and to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; he that seeks his portion in this life, and follows the wages of unrighteousness, may prophesy like a Balaam, and preach like an Apostle, but can never really pray as a saint does. Well then, did Christ warn his disciples, saying, "Take heed and beware of covetousness!" If you value the holy light, liberty,

and joy of heaven, shun every path which leads to the gloomy den of Pluto, the horrid cave of Mammon.

In the primitive times of Christianity, we are told, a devout man, whose prayers had recovered many from sickness, was sent for by Cromatius, a rich heathen, when he found his life in imminent danger." Let all your idols be destroyed," said the Christian. "There, take my keys," replied the dying man, " and destroy them if that be necessary." This being done, the Christian said, "All are not demolished." "True," answered Cromatius; "there is one left, but it is all of beaten gold, and cost me a vast sum, and therefore I would fain save it.”—“ Bring it forth," said his faithful reprover and fervent intercessor; "bring it forth, without delay; for if that be saved, thou wilt be lost."-Let this story instruct us. Every idol must be abandoned, that prayer may prevail. He that, like Enoch, would walk with God, must not, like Judas, set his heart on the world, and enter into compact with the agents of the devil.

II. Those evil passions, which hinder and disturb us in prayer, ought certainly to be subdued.

The principles which the Gospel inculcates,

and the prospects which it opens before us, require the subjugation of sensual propensities. To indulge them at the expense of degrading our higher powers, or injuring our future interests, is to forget the great design, and oppose the whole authority of Christ in his word. The false prophet of Arabia taught his followers, that paradise affords its inhabitants so many pleasures and delights, that man would sink under them, did not God give unto every person the strength of an hundred, for the enjoyment of them. Hence, as Mr. Gibbon observes, "instead of inspiring the blessed inhabitants of paradise with a liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and friendship; Mahomet idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the whole train of sensual and costly luxury."

The Christian has nobler objects set before him, and purer principles planted within him. "He is to set his affections on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; to mortify his members which are on earth, and to follow after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Do you ask, how is all this to be done? I will answer in the words of an inspired writer, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.”