prayer to God ? Ah ! does not conscience condemn the greater part of you ? Have not many of you, as far as prayer is con- cerned, lived rather like brute beasts, than as rational and
immortal beings ? Or, supposing you have kept up a
form of prayer, has it not been a mere form ? You who teach your children to repeat some form of prayer in your presence, know very well that theirs is not prayer : and what is yours better than theirs ? Your heavenly Father, in whose presence you read or repeat your forms, knows how to estimate them, whilst they are offered without any suitable emotions. The way for you to judge of them is this : set before your eyes a person perishing in the sea, and supplicating deliverance from his perils ; and then compare your feelings with his. His feelings you can easily conceive : and if yours have no cor- respondence with them, no such sense of danger, no such desire of help, no such thankfulness for the efforts used in your behalf, you have yet to learn the nature of prayer, and yet to begin that work, without which you must perish in your sins ]
But let me not conclude without adding a few words
of ENCOURAGEMENT —
[It is not improbable that some may be ready to write
bitter things against themselves, because they find not fluency
in prayer. But it is not by our fluency in utterance that God
judges of our prayers, but by the humility of our minds, and
the fervour of our desires. A sigh, or groan, proceeding from
a broken and contrite heart, is of more value in his sight, than
the richest effusions of eloquence that ever proceeded from
the lips of man. Never was there a more acceptable prayer
offered by mortal man than that of the Publican, " God be
merciful to me a sinner!" Take courage then, ye who are
dejected because ye find not such utterance as ye could wish.
" God knoweth the mind of the Spirit:" and it is in sighs and
groans chiefly that " his Spirit maketh intercession in us."
Only let there be a sincerity of heart before him, and your
very breathings shall be heard, and descend in blessings on
your souls ; for " he seeketh such to worship him," and will
fulfil the desire of them that so approach him. If only you
" look to him, you shall be lightened;" and if you hope in
him, you shall assuredly be made partakers of his kingdom
and glory."]