no one would presume to enter upon it without much prayer to God to qualify him for the discharge of it, and to bless his labours to the edification of the people.
But the people themselves also are no less concerned to pray, that God would " send them pastors after his own heart;" for the welfare of their souls essentially depends on the kind of ministry which they attend : if Christ be not exhibited to them in his person and offices ; if they be not encouraged to receive out of his fulness all the blessings of salvation ; if they be not led into discoveries of the evil of their own hearts, and in- structed in the nature of that change which the Holy Spirit will effect within them; if, in short, they have not " the whole counsel of God set before them," they will be left to rest in very low attainments, if not to " perish utterly through lack of knowledge."
This lesson then should be learned by all ; and so learned, as to be reduced to practice.]
III. As a pattern for our imitation —
Prayer is both the duty and the privilege of all —
[Our blessed Lord had doubtless more intimate commu- nion with his Father than we can possibly have ; yet are we also authorized to call God " our Father ;" yea, we are com- manded to do it, and to " open our mouths wide, that he may fill them." It is not, indeed, required of us that we should spend whole nights in prayer to God; for that would probably, unless in some very peculiar circumstances, render us unfit for prosecuting the duties of the ensuing day : but we are required to " continue in prayer, and to watch thereunto with thanks- giving1 :" and the more nearly we can approach to the example of our blessed Lord in the frequency and urgency of our prayersk, the more remarkable will be the answers that we shall receive, and the more abundant the communications of God to our souls. If we wrestled more like Jacob, we should cer- tainly prevail to a much greater extent than in general we do1.]
We should therefore resort to it on every par- ticular emergency —
[Though the particular object of our Lord's continuance in prayer does not occur to us, yet we all have some occasions that call for more than ordinary direction and assistance from God. On these occasions, whatever they may be, whether they relate to the body or the soul, to time or to eternity, we should go and spread our wants before God. His own com- mand to us is, " In every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God."
1 Col. iv. 2. k Ps. xxii. 2. Heb. v. 7. 1 Gen. xxxii. 24— 26'.