V ers. 4, 5.-TM «Y11,Stituent parts of acceptable prayer: thanksgiving, intercession, personal petitions. 1. An example of these here, incw.entally given, not purposely, in St. Paul's practice with regard to l'hilemon. He was not familiarly known to the apostle. Perhaps it was with a certain surprise he learned that the great apostle habitually " made mention of him " in his prayers. In like manner, many Christians are being helped, without their own knowledge, by the prayers of others. TM apostle's aampk to be f olwwed. 2. Thanksgiving a necessary part of [Yf'ayer. "I thank my God." If this be omitted, we are ungrateful, and so our devotion will not be acceptable to God. We must thank God for past mercies bestowed upon us and upon others. Our ser"ice is not really devotioo without this, but the reverse. A want of duty towards God therefore. a sin (Ps. ciL 7). 3. Interassion for other,. "Making men- tion of thee always in my prayers." This the duty thrown upon us by our Christian fellowship. In this the "communion of 11aints" is shown forth. It is not to be con- fined to our immediate connections and friends. Philemon was not intimately known to St. Paul, yet he was remembered by him. Prayer witltO'Ut iritercession is selfish, and therefore unacceptable to God. It may be that their too manifest selfishness of tone is the reason that many of our prayers do not obtain from God the answer they crave (Isa. i. 15). It ought always to embrace the whole Church of Christ, not merely that part of it in which we are immediately interested. '!'his would have a reflex: action upon ourselves, and would tend towards eventual union among us; for when the sympathies of the heart are wide, the sympathies of the iutellcct will ha1dly remain narrow. 4. Petitions for our personal needs are never likely to be absent from our prayers. The danger will be that they 8hould form too large a part of them. They need to be restrained e.nd regulated, not indulged. As the Christian grows iu saintliness, his prayers for self will come to be more and more for 1pirit'UQ,l bles11i11gs inHtead of temporal. At length they will be merged in the comprehensive petition that C.-od's will may be done in the petitioner, aud his Name glorified. 5. 'l'o cease analysis, 1-25.J TUE El'ISTJ,~; TO PH[LF,:\Tfl:-,,_ 7
and take a complete view of prayer, we find it to Rllm up in itself all the sentiments which the human aoul should entertalll towards its Divine Creator. "Prayer is the eoul's sincere desire, Uttered or une:i:pressed." Therefore gratitude, confidence, o.ffeotion, hope, anxiety for others or for ourselves, penitence, should all in their degree enter into our prayers. But nO'Tle of these should monopolize them.
Vere. 6, 6.-Man glorifyiflg God. Man la created /or God's glory, and finds the highest end of his being, therefore, in glorifying him. Four ways may be dis- tinguished in which he does this. I. THE WAY OF GOOD DEEDS DONE IN BIB STRENGTH, which cause others to glorify him. " Let your light 80 shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. v. 16). This is the mode reterred to here:" That thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in yolL" The mutual benevolence of Christians was thus to God's glory, and tended to bring others into the fold. II. THE WAY OJ!' WORSHIP-an ancient, universal, and proper way. Acts of worshiF are directed to God. That they may be really to his glory, they must be /or God; that is, he must be, not their o"bj'ect merely, but their end (Manton). As far as secondary motives prevail in our worship, so far it is for those motives, and not purely to God's glory. The aole element to be reckoned in worship is the earnestness, piety, and sincerity of the worshipper. God is no more glorified of necessity by great outward beauty and splendour ; he is no less glorified by the barest simplicity, if the devotion be equal The acceBBOries of worship are for man's help, and to assist man's feeble anC: purblind view of eternal realities j and are not otherwise to God's glory than as they are fit vehicles of man's devotion. III. THE TBIBD WAY OF OBEDIENCE. Man glorifies God when he becomes that which God intended him to be. He realizes by obedience the thought of God when he said, "Let us make man in our image." This was lost through the sin of Adam, and it is in process of restoration through the obedience of Christ, in individual Chri.,;tians as they successively live upon the earth. IV. Go» 18 BEST GLORIFIED, THEREFORE, BY THE OBEDIENCE OF THE SOUL AND LIFE. Hooker says, "Should you erect to him a temple more magnificent than Solomon's, and load hie altars with hecatombs of sacrifices, and make it perpetually 1iag with psalms and resounding choirs of hallelujahs, it would not be comparably so great an honour to him as to convert your own souls into living temples, and make them the habitations of his glory and perfection. For he values no sacrifices like that of an obedient will, delights in no choir like that of pure and heavenly affections, no, bath he in all his creation an ensign of honour so truly worthy of him as that of a Divine and God-like soul, a aoul that reflects hie image, and shines back his own glory upon him.• Vera. 8-10.-The religion of Ohrist a defence of social order, not a disturbing force. There have been religions which have been simply forces of destruction. Moham- medanism, when it was first preached, and even to this day, as far as its power extends, has the Koran in one hand and the scimitar in the other, and offers but the alternatives of conversion, slavery, or death. The actors in the French Revolution of 1,89 strove to spread their new gospel of liberty, equality, and fraternity at the point of the sword. Communism in 1870, and Nihilism since, make war upon all that is old, and desire to destroy all existing social organizations to make room for their own schemes. These are destructive forces in human nature, and nothing rnore. I. 'J'HE RELIGION OF CHRIST IS NOT ITSELF A SEOULAB POLITY OR FORM OF GOVERNMENT. It does not, therefore, seek to uproot the social order which exists in any country. It, indeed, acts upon the individuals which compose the nation, and so in conree of time transforms from within the institutions of the coulltry. But it does not attack them from without; and therefore it is compatible with any form o, goverllment. FI THE F.1'1::iTLE '!'O l'Hll.EMON. [1-21i.