Isai. lxv. 24. It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer ; and while they are yet speaking, J will hear.
THERE is scarcely any thing less justly appre- ciated than the efficacy of prayer. As a Christian community, we acknowledge the duty of prayer ; but we regard it rather as a service to be performed by us, than as a privilege conferred by God. In public worship, we are satisfied with making the responses that are put into our mouths, without ever endeavouring to obtain and exercise a frame of mind suited to them : decency, rather than fervour, is the object of our pursuit ; and when we have gone through the course prescribed by the Church, we think we have performed a service acceptable to God, though in no single petition have we truly poured out our soul before him. In many instances, if God were to take us at our word, and to offer to grant us the peti- tions we have presented to him, we should pray them back again with tenfold greater earnestness than was felt in their first delivery. If any person would read carefully the various petitions in the Litany, and compare them with the habitual desires of his heart, he would gain an insight into the state of his soul before God, even such an insight as at present he has no conception ofa. But prayer is, in reality, an instrument of great power : it can, under any cir- cumstances, bring Omnipotence to our aid : yea, so acceptable is it to Almighty God, that even the dis- position to offer it shall not be overlooked : but " it shall come to pass," provided we are truly sincere, " that before we call, he will answer ; and whilst we are yet speaking, he will hear."
To enter into the full import of this promise, we should consider,
a What worldly man, when uttering these words, " From all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, Good Lord, deliver us," really means what he says ?