of all who are here present, and ask, Have you, my Brethren, and you, and you, really sought after God, and spread your wants before him, and implored mercy at his hands, and wrestled with him, as it were, in prayer, for an out-pouring of his Spirit upon you ? Have you done it this week past ? Have you done it this very morning? Can you call God to witness that you have thus opened your mouth wide before him, in the hope that he would fill and satisfy you with the abundance of his grace ? Is there no one amongst you that stands reproved for his neglect of this duty? Yea, rather, are there not some amongst you who have never poured out their souls before God in prayer during their whole life, or, at all events, only under the pressure of some great calamity, which, when it was past, left them in the same careless and obdurate state as before ? Perhaps some of you may have repeated some form which you learned in early life, or may have read some form out of a book : but this is not prayer, if it be unattended with the real desires of the heart : prayer, is not a mere service of the lip and knee, but the effusion of the soul before God in earnest supplication. I lament to think how many there are utter strangers to such holy wrestlings, such sweet communion with their God. Let me, then, remind such persons what sad regret they excite in the bosom of Jehovah ; and what bitter regret they themselves also will one day experience in their own bosoms. God says, " O that my people had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways ! " And will not you also, ere long, adopt a similar language, and say, " O that I had hearkened to the voice of my God, and had walked in the ways to which he called me ! " And if God contemplate with such regret the blessings which he would have bestoweda, with what sad regret will you one day view the blessings you have lost ! Be wise in time ; and now avail yourselves of the opportunity that is afforded you, " seeking the Lord whilst he may be found, and calling upon him whilst he is near."]
2. How lamentable is it that any one should yield to discouragement in prayer !
[What could God say to you, more than he has said; or do for you, more than he has done ? St. Paul says, " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things ? " Only reflect on what he has done, and how impossible it was any fallen creature should dare to ask such things at God's hands, and you need not fear to enlarge your petitions, to the utmost extent of language to express, or of imagination to conceive. You are not straitened in him; be not straitened in yourselves b. Only spread your wants before him freely, and you shall find
a ver. 13—16. b 2 Cor. vi. 12.