(there are many unconscious) between the seen and the unseen worlds. A prayerless life is a godless life-sbnt up, imprisoned in the narrow sphere of" things seen" a.n<l temporal. A prayerful life tr11nscencb these barriers, takes hold on "things unseen" and ctcrnl\l; wo.lks with God; endures as seeing him who is invisible. I. Tm:: GLOnIOlJS CERTAINTY OF TIIE FACT THAT GoD HEARS PRAYER. By hearing prayer is meo.nt in Scripture taking account of our requests and answering them (1 John v. 14, 16). This involves all that is most glorions in God's revealed attributes. His infinite knowledge, which not the most timid or rapid desire, or speechless lifting up of any heart, escapes. His wisdom to discern whether, when, how, to grant our requests. Foreknowledge-for long preparation may have been needful, though the prayer be uttered and granted in a moment. Righteousnes~, to grant no petition, however fervent, which it would not be right to grant. Love-to take fatherly interest in our childish ways, small needs, and often ignorant and impatient desires; and to care for our best welfare. And almighty power-to carry ont all that wisdom, righter,us- ncss, and lovo direct, and to make" all things work together," etc. (Rom, viii. 28). Tho certainty that God hears prayer rests on his faithfulness an,\ the promises which fill the Bible; on the commands which lay on us the duty as well as confer the privilege of prayer; on the e.r;amples, still more abundant in Scripture than these com- mands and promises of prayer answered (including our Saviou,~s own example); on the daily experience of God's Church. If any truth in the scope of hnman knowlerlgJ rests on a firm foundation of experience, it is this. II. THE TJlANSCENDEliT l'RIVILEGE AND BLESSU:G OF PRAYER. It would be a great thing were we permitted (as the Romish creed teaches) to invoke the aid and counsel of angels and glorified saints. But we pass through their shining ranks and come with boldness to the very throne of God (Heh. x. 19; iv. 16). Whatever help angels can render will be given under orders from their Lord and ours (Heh. ii. 14; 1 Pet. iii. 22) . .We measure blessings often by their loss. Let us imagine this privilege of prayer withdrawn or limited. Suppose a day in ea.eh week (a sort of anti-sabbath) on which prayer was forbidden--or but one in a month or year. ,Vho would choose that day for any enterprise? Who would not fear to die on such a day? When its cheerless dawn broke we should say, "Would God it were evening!" and when midnight chimed we should thank God the lips of prayer were again unsealed. Or a region of earth where prayer was forbidden; if men cried to God, they were warned it would be vain. Let it.~ valleys teem with plenty, its hills with precious ore, climate and scenery h& the finest in the world,-would you care-would you dare-to dwell in that accursed 0-pot? Or if there were one human being to whom God's voice bad said, "Ask not; for thou sbalt not receive I" with what horror we should look at this outlaw from Divine mercy I how giddy would be for him heights of prosperity I how cheerless the dnrk days of trouble I how droadful the honr of death-the plunge into an unknown eternity I A11d yet there aro those (perhaps here) for whom every day is a day with- out prayer; from whose home no voice of prayer ascends; self-exiled from God ! III. TnE CORRESPONDING DUTY. "Men ought always to prny" (Luke xviii. 1). "This is the will of God" (1 'l'hcss. v. 17, 18). Prnyer is one of the great laws of God's moral government. Ho has ordained that we should ask in order to receive (Luke xi. 9, 10). '!'his is the reply to all those plausible objections to prayer drawn from God's superior and infinite wisdom, the unchangeableness of his laws, the unreasonableness of thinking thnt our will can bend his, and so forth. Plausible; but nugatory in the face of the fact that God has commanded us to pray. He has given us his only begotten Soo as our Intercessor; his Holy Spirit, to teach us how to pray; bas pledged his word to hear prayer; Bnd daily anJ. hourly answers the prayers of his children. To regBrd prayer only as a duty is fatal to life, freedom, joy in prayer. It would lead to meclmnicl\l formalism. But duty is, after all, the baclcbone of life. You do not feel nt nll times in a right frame of mind for prnyer. If you had no guide but feeling, you would say, "Another timo will be more suitable." Or when presseJ. and hurried, you would say, "I must attend to urgent J.nties; and leave the enjoyment nod re[rcshment of prayer to a time of leisure." But duty stands guard at the door (Matt. vi. 6). And as in othor cases, it brings its own rew:ird. PerhBps :.it the very time when you havo set yourself to pray with n cold henrt, because you know you ought to pray and must, you hBve come from your chamber with bcl\ming countenance, 32 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [rs. 1.xv. 1-13,
r<:-ady to sny with Jacob, G~n. xxviii. 16, 17. This applies to public and eocil\1, 11s weH as private, prayer.