Address —
1. To those who ask without receiving — [Think not that God has violated his promise. The reason of your not receiving is, that " you ask amiss*." Your petitions
« Ps. xxx. 8—11. and xl. 1—3. x 2 Cor. iv. 6.
y 1 John i. 3. z Gen. xxviii. 17. a Jam. iv. 3.
are cold, formal, hypocritical; and you have not a due respect to the name of Jesus in presenting them to God. Perform your duty as you ought, and you shall never complain of a want of acceptance in it.]
2. To those who have received answers to prayer —
[Let not your communion with God puff you up with pride, but rather abase you in the dust. If once you grow vain and secure, you will provoke God to hide his face from you, and to withhold the communications of his grace. Re- joice in the glorious privileges you possess ; but " rejoice with trembling."]
John xvi. 27. The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
THE atonement and intercession of Christ are doubtless the grounds of a Christian's hope, and the richest source of his comforts : but much consolation also may be derived from the consideration of the Father's love ; nor do we understand the Gospel aright, till we see that Christ himself was the gift of the Father's love, and that every blessing which we receive through Christ was prepared for us in the eternal counsels of the Father. Our Lord, solicitous to comfort his Disciples previous to his departure from them, directed their views unto the Father, assuring them, that, while they prayed to the Father in his name, they should find acceptance and support; and this too, not merely in consequence of his inter- cession, but also in consequence of the love which the Father himself bore towards them. In discoursing upon his words, we shall speak of,
I. The objects of the Father's love —
The description which our Lord gives of his own Disciples will characterize all his faithful followers to the end of time —
They love the Lord Jesus Christ —
[There is not a real Christian in the universe who does not esteem the Lord Jesus above every other being, desire him more than thousands of silver and gold, and delight in him as