Does the preacher open to you the offices and operations of the Holy Spirit? Be reminded how much you need his guidance, succour, and sanctifying grace. "Let every day, then, witness your cries for the Spirit of God; and let every night hear you wrestling with God in the agony of prayer. Is there a man on all the earth who can say, ' for these twenty years I have been incessantly thirsting for the Spirit of God, and imploring his grace, but in vain; for God has not seen it meet to grant my request?' No; since the hour that the Holy Ghost was poured out on the day of Pentecost, not a son or daughter of Adam has been able to carry this complaint to the tribunal of Jehovah. Ask, then, in hope that you shall obtain. I know not one thing you can ask, with greater prospect of succeeding in your suit. And O the unspeakable felicity of success! To have the mind full of spiritual light, admiring the glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ; to have divine grace mortifying every depraved affection, and drawing forth into the liveliest exercise, faith, and love, and purity, and peace, and joy, and filling the whole soul with zeal for God, and benevolence to men. Grant me this, Lord, as the first blessing; and withhold whatever else thou pleasest!"* Does the minister mark out your

* Dr. Bogue on the Millennium.

1

duties, or describe the temptations which may beset, or the trials which may await you? Pray for strength to perform those duties, for courage to withstand those temptations, for patience to endure those trials. In a word, let every part of the discourse, which you hear be turned into prayer. Thus the doctrines, as they fall warm from the teacher's tongue, will find a place in your mind, and put all its feelings and affections in tune for devotion.

3. When you have heard the Gospel, beware lest the things of the world rush in like a tide, and rob you of the benefit it might yield.

You go to the House of the Lord for spiritual food; but, unless it is duly digested, no nourishment will be ministered, or vigour imparted to the soul. You lay fresh fuel to the sacred fire, kindled on the altar of the heart; but this will avail nothing, if you suffer the world to smother it with heaps of earth and rubbish. In trying to recollect sermons, let those things which are calculated to aid devotion, claim your first attention. Be not content to secure a bare outline, or a mere skeleton of heads and particulars. Be more solicitous for the matter than the form; but most of all for the essence, the spirit, the animating soul, which pervades the Gospel, and ought to fill every summary of its doctrines, and every portion of its truths delivered from the pulpit. There are persons, of whom it is said by Christ, that he and the

Father will come unto them, and make their abode with them: let it, however, be remembered, that this promise belongs not to those who hear and approve, but to those exclusively who hear and keep his sayings. They who have the form of godliness, without the power, may sit under the sound of the Gospel, and, as soon as the service closes, throw off the constraint, which a sense of decency imposed, and eagerly mix in the company, and plunge into the concerns of the world. To them the best part of a sermon is the conclusion, because it is the signal of release from confinement: they leave the threshold of the House of God, and their religion together, and return to their own element they exchange things which they just endure, for things which they love, relish, and constantly pursue. But those who are renewed in the spirit of their minds, ought to shew it by a different conduct. It should be their concern, after hearing the word, to preserve it engraven on the tablet of memory, and transfer it thence, as occasion requires, to regulate the devout affections of the heart. And where this is actually the case, the Christian's prayers, in the closet and in the family, will possess a richness and copiousness, a freedom and confidence, derived from the ministrations of the word, and the services of the Sabbath.

:

SECTION II.

ON READING, AS A MEANS OF PROMOTING PRAYER.

As Prayer is one of the most noble and interesting, so it is one of the most arduous and difficult duties we are called to perform. I have, in the former Section, shewed how the hearing of the word is calculated to promote it; and now I shall proceed to notice Reading, as another means conducive to the same purpose. Nor let any one suppose, that this matter is of too little importance, to require a separate and distinct treatment. I am disposed to think, it would often be better to limit ourselves to examine, with due seriousness and attention, a single point, than hastily to glance over a vast system. We are too apt to be fascinated with brilliant but barren generalities; experience however proves, that a train of ideas and reflections is seldom profitable, unless followed out in all its practical bearings. A countryman, being questioned and exhorted with benevolent solicitude by his religious teacher, said, "What need is there of so much reading, and catechising, and prayers,

But

when the whole of religion is contained in three words, to think well, to speak well, and to do well?" "True," replied his instructor; "and a man, who wants to erect a large building, may easily say, all that is wanting, is a sufficient quantity of timber, brick, and mortar, with labour, and the work will be done." such a summary account will but go a very little way towards accomplishing the object desired. It will not fetch the materials, nor lay the foundation, much less carry up the superstructure, and complete the design, without the requisite skill, industry and perse

verance.

I. That reading may promote prayer, there must be a judicious and careful selection of books, fitted for the purpose.

We live at a time, when the world is almost deluged and overwhelmed with publications of all kinds, from the portable tract of four pages, to the splendid quarto, and massy folio. Solomon complained, that of making many books there was no end; but since the invention of printing, the sentence of that wise king has become more emphatically applicable. This abundance produces indifference, satiety, and disgust; or, if such effects are not seen, variety, as in almost every other case, distracts atten