indications of law have been discovered, and we 88e the dawn of a meteorological science. How, then, can we expect God to change the weather in response to our prayers? 2. The limitations of knowledge. We really do not know what weather is best. What is good for one place is bad for another. The effects of rain and of drought are so far-reaching that it seems vain for us to judge what is best regarding them. But God knows all and is infinitely wise. Why should we not trust to his unerring discretion? 3. The goodness of God. If God is well disposed to hii, creatures, will he not give them what is for their good? Why, then, even if it wore possible for the weather to be affected by our prayer, and if we were wise enough to know what wss best for the world, should it be necessary for us to pray about the. weather, a.s if God needed to be urged to govern the world for our benefit? II. REASONS IN FAVOUR OF PRAYER FOR RAIN. 1. The control of God over the laws of nature. God is not the slave of his own legislation. Without changing his laws, he can act through them, as men who cannot alter the laws of nature can still alter the facts of nature by their use of those laws. Moreover, are there no spiritual laws? Yet, without violating the principles of the constitution of the spiritual universe, we believe that God can answer prayer for spiritual blessings. 2. The conditional character ef prayer. The limitation to our knowledge makes it necessary for us to pray on the condition that God will only answer our requests so far as they agree with his wise and righteous will Prayer for rain, of all prayers, must not be an absolute demand, but a submissive and humble request, accompanied by the desire that not our will but God's be done. We have no right to dictate to God in prayer, and wisdom would not desire such a right. But there need be no limit to the greatn~ss of the objects of prayer when the right condition of trust in God's higher will is observed. 3. The/act that prayer alters our condition before God. It may be wise and right for God to do after our prayer what it would not be well for him to do without it. The very prayer may be a link in a chain of causation. Drought may be sent to us, as it was to Judah, with a Divine purpose concerning our conduct. A change in our conduct will then modify the action of that purpose. Prayer may be the best indication of such a change. We have distinct promises that we may receive, when we seek them in prayer, blessings which are withheld so long as we abstain from asking for them (Matt. vii. 7, 8).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 7, 9.-A prayer for God's people in time of his judgments. 'fbe prophet's words, as he intuitively places himself in the position of those who are about to be affiicted. Not, therefore, to be regarded as an ideal prayer, but a true representation of the spiritual state of those who are conscious of their sin and their need of salvation. They explain the lack of apparent answer to prayer, and truthfully interpret the spiritual condition of the awakened sinner. I. PRAYER IS AN INDEX OF THE SPIRITUAL BT.A.TE. Here we have the oscillation between fear and hope, doubt and faith, vividly portrayed. There is a flitting to and fro of the soul between the extremes of dejection and of confidence. All real prayer ought thus faithfully to represent the mind of the petitioner. It is e. laying bare of secret thoughts and moral convictions ; an unconscious as well as a conscious confession. Whilst it may be said that a man's inner being isrevealed in his prayer, he is not to ho judged by it by his fellow-men. It is only God who can truly understand the indica- tions which it affords, and ouly he who has a right to interpret them. There is a rising, a falling, and a rising again in the course of the prayer. It is the Name of God which serves as a reminder and spiritual confirmation. II. PRAYER IS A SPIIlITUAL EXERCISE AND A MEANS OF GRACE. There is evident in this utterance a wrestling with unbelief. Memories of evil crowd upon the soul and seem to darken the horizon. 'l'be sinful nation confesses that in itself there is no hope, but as that conviction is arrived at, another asserts itself, namely, that God is the Hope of Israel, and that in his name or character there is the promise and potency of restora- tion. It is in spiritual transitions like these that the soul is lost and found again. 'l'c:mptation is auticipated and overcome, sin is cast away, and Goel is throned in the heart. lt is better to make such honest discovery of ourselves to Goel, even in our OH. XIV. 1-22.] 'l'HE BOOK OF nm PROPHE.T JERBMIAH. 3Gl
weakness and lack of faHh, than that we should carry these into the conduct of life. It is in these transitions of despair and hope reaching to and resting in restored faith and settled purpose of righteousness, that the overcoming of the world is already accomplished. 111. 'fHE PRAYER THAT BEEMB TO DE REJECTED NOW MAY YET PROVE A CONDITION OF ACCEPTANCE. Had Israel herself really adopted the words of this her representative mediator, she would have escaped the awful abyss that yawned before her, but she knew not the day of her opportunity. By slow stages of recovery, marked by many relapses, was she to climb to the great truth from which she had fallen, that the Name of God was her salvation and hope. So it is that many a prayer uttered without apparent answer supplies in itself a spiritual condition of ultimate blessing. Its answer is really begun in the change of attitude assumed, and the spiritual truth laid hold of. By-and-by irresolution and uncertainty will give place to faith, and the windows of heaven will be opened.-M.