thou art placed in such circumstances as to call thee to it properly, with more than common eagerness and intensity of soul. Without examining the case of Job particularly, it is our purpose here to notice some of those various modes in which men are pre-eminently guilty of restraining prayer before God. I shall make no apology, my friends, for using the utmost plainness of personal application; being desirous upon this occasion to declare faithfully, in this matter, what is the whole counsel of God.

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And first, you observe, he restrains prayer before God who altogether omits prayer. This is an assertion so perfectly plain and palpable, that not a single proof need be urged in elucidation, or in demonstration of it now. Are there indeed any who indulge the habit to such an extent as this; and who contract the guilt in such a vileness and such a blackness as this? Why there are multitudes, not merely in those desolate and abandoned countries where the true God is excluded and unknown, but even in those countries where he has been revealed, and where he is openly professed, with regard to whom there is reason to fear, that their voice never utters the language, and their bosom never feels the spirit, of prayer unto Him from whom alone all blessings flow. In our own country it is notorious, that a vast proportion of our crowded population habitually and entirely neglect the public devotions of the house of God: and many, my brethren, are the families, who dream not of erecting an altar for the morning and the evening sacrifice and many are the chambers tenanted by beings who hallow not their privacy, and who wake and slumber, and rise and retire, as if there was no Creator to adore, no transgressions to grieve over, no blessings to crave, no hell to avoid, no heaven to acquire, and no souls to be redeemed. There are, probably, not a few in the sanctuary of God to-night, whose social hearths, and whose secret chambers, all desolate and all shrineless, attest the awful charge. Prayerless men and prayerless women, I confront and I challenge you; and I exhort you now to ponder, and to repent, and to amend, lest that God whom you have insulted by your neglect, should launch upon you the lightnings of that fiery indignation, from whose stroke no victim can recover. Again, secondly, he restrains prayer before God who engages but seldom in prayer. In the passages which have been quoted in the earlier part of our address, with respect to the obligation of prayer, you cannot but have observed how they involve, at the same time, the duty and the importance of frequency. Men are to " pray always and not to faint ;" they are to "continue instant in prayer;" they are to "pray without ceasing ;"" in every thing to make known their requests by prayer and supplication unto God." And truly, my brethren, if there ought to exist any proportion between the frequent reiteration of prayer, and the frequent recurrence of want, then, as want is constantly recurring, so supplication ought to form the appropriate and the regular habit of the life.

Such frequency you cannot but observe, further, is beautifully exemplified to us in the history of those holy men, who are presented to us as models for our constant imitation. You will remember, for example, the case of him who is called by the title of "the man after God's own heart." It was his resolution, "As for me I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me:" 66 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he shall hear my voice." And upon another occasion, as we find in Psalm cxix. he exclaims, "At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee, because of thy righteous

judgments." Again: "Seven times a day"-not involving the particular and precise number, seven; but using the term as the mystic figure for continuity and frequency" seven times a day do I praise thee." You may refer again to the well-known case of Daniel, with regard to whom we are informed, that his adversaries could find nothing against him, excepting with regard to the law of his God; and knowing his habits of prayer, they caused the passing of an edict, that no man was to offer a prayer for the space of thirty days, except to the king of Persia. "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.".

But without referring you, as we might, at large to the example of prophets and apostles, turn to the history of that Jesus, who became incarnate in human nature, not merely as our sacrifice, but as our example. He was emphatically a man of prayer; and prayer constituted the grand resort and the one chosen refuge of his soul; that by its energy he might be fully prepared for the work that was given him to do.

Assigning, my brethren, to these various considerations their just and legiti. mate weight, it will then be perceived at once, that all persons who engage in the holy employment of supplication but fitfully, and occasionally, and at infrequent and distant intervals of time, are substantially guilty of dishonouring and restraining it before God. The various reasons which are alleged for infrequent exercise in this vocation, are all impertinent, frivolous, and inadmissible. Let them be examined impartially, as they are presented by men in various forms; and it will always be discovered ultimately that they proceed, and that they arise, from the indisposition of the mind to prayer; so that whatever may be alleged in apology, does only seal and aggravate the guilt. In the case, my hearers, of your own personal inattention (and I speak to none who would not plead before God guilty to the charge of inattention), I am persuaded, that strict integrity will compel you to acknowledge the insincerity of any palliating or extenuating plea; and to confess, that your neglect in this matter has arisen because the likings of your passions have been at the time elsewhere than in communion with God and at the throne of grace. I beseech you, my friends, do not strive to deceive yourselves; strive not to deceive your fellow men; strive not, especially, to deceive that God who searcheth the heart, and who declares that he will not be mocked. Remember that his command is paramount; and that, whatever else be overlooked and forgotten, he will have no neglect and no avoidance in prayer.

Thirdly, he is guilty of restraining prayer before God, who excludes from his supplications the matters which are properly the objects of prayer. Surely, my brethren, the exclusion of those matters in the exercise of this holy employment which God has oft-times commanded, must properly come within the range and circuit of the allegation now before us. Whilst the exclusiveness of a spirit of narrowness and contraction are most solemnly and deeply to be deprecated and condemned, permit me just to mention some of those various objects which men are apt to exclude in their professed devotions, and in the exclusion of which we affirm and aver that there is sin

There is, for instance, the exclusion of petitions for those spiritual blessings, which are specially required by our own personal, besetting weaknesses and sins. Now these, in consequence of the want of self-examination, or vanity, or pride, we do not adequately acknowledge. There is the exclusion of petitions for the well-being of our families, our partners, our parents, our children, our brethren, and others, who are bound to us by the associations of kindred and of love. There is again the exclusion of petitions for the interests of those whom we call our friends, and who, though not partakers of our kindred and our blood, are yet bound to us by the ties of voluntary engagement and regard. There is the exclusion of petitions on behalf of the house of God where we are accustomed to assemble and to worship: for its pastor, that he may be rendered, and continue an example to the flock; that he may be enabled to declare faithfully the whole counsel of God, and may be the means of saving many souls; for its saints, that they may adorn the doctrine of their Saviour in all things, and shine as lights in the world; for his unconverted hearers, that they may become pricked in their hearts, and, through the energy of the truth of God, may have their eyes opened, and be turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto himself. There is the exclusion of petitions for the church generally; that they may be united in the spirit of love, and in the spirit of holiness, and in the spirit of light; and that, walking in the fear of the Lord, they may possess the comforts of the Lord, and be greatly multiplied. There is the exclusion of petitions for the unconverted world; that the means which are set in operation by your individual exertions, or public institutions, may be blessed by Him to whom belongs the residue of the Spirit; that great and effectual doors may every where be opened, and that the power of the truth of the gospel may take its flight from realm to realm, and from continent to continent, until the end shall come, when shall be heard the reverberation of the seventh angel's trumpet, and when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of God, and of his Christ, that he may reign for ever and for ever.

Now, my dear hearers, whenever there is the habitual neglect, or the cold and the occasional remembrance of any of the various interests to which we have referred, there is really the guilt of restraining prayer before God. You who are numbered among the professing people of the Lord Jesus Christ, have probably, in not a few instances, to confess your own forgetfulness, your own cold and imperfect remembrance. You have been swallowed up too much in the contemplation of self; you have cherished too little of charity and benevolence for the perishing world in which you live; you have too seldom looked beyond the narrow enclosure of your own families upon the broad and desolate waste which is lying scathed and blasted around you. You are, therefore, called upon, my hearers, to cultivate the high employment by which you may be enabled to correct, and reform; determined to carry all the interests of your families, your ministers, your fellow saints, and the unconverted world, habitually, and regularly, and earnestly, before the throne of the heavenly grace, and to see whether God will not command his blessing out of Zion, even life for ever more.

But, fourthly, it will be observed, he restrains prayer before God, who does not cherish the spirit of importunity in prayer. Importunity, or intense earnestness, is an attribute essentially appertaining to the exercise of suppli

cation. The spirit of importunity is the spirit of prayer; and where the one is not, the other never can exist. What beautiful examples do we find in the Scriptures of the necessity of importunity, and to its success. Listen to the narrative which is presented as an example to the end of time, in the history of Jacob, the father of the tribes of Israel, as recorded in that splendid passage which occurs in Genesis, xxxii. In a season, as he believed, of difficulty and extremity he was left in the shadows of the evening alone by the side of the brook; and there wrestled a man—a mysterious being, whom we have reason to believe was a pre-existent exhibition of the Lord Jesus Christ-there wrestled a man with him unto the breaking of the day: and when he, the visitor, saw that he prevailed not against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh, as if for the purpose of interposing a new difficulty to the continued struggle, which was a type or representation of prayer-he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him; and he said, as if he had obtained his advantage, "Let me go, for the day breaketh :" and the patriarch said, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with man, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And"- -as if the explanation were to be satisfactory-" he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." It is interesting to observe, that that example of importunity and its success, was presented at a distant period, by the prophet Hosea, for the purpose of exciting the importunity of the repenting people of God; for in Hosea, xii. 3, it is narrated, that Jacob "by his strength had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept"-the type of his importunity" and made supplication unto him: he found him in Beth-el, and there he spake with us; even the Lord God of Hosts; the Lord is his memorial," of the effect of importunity in prayer.

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Without detaining you, my friends, as we might, by continued quotations on this most important subject, we may refer you to one copied in the shape of a narrative, presented by Him whom we call our Master and our Lord. The disciples besought him, as we find in Luke, xi., "Lord teach us to pray." He rendered them a model for supplication, and then he proceeded to shew the importance of importunity, as follows: "And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves: for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth: And I say unto you, Ask"-that is importunately" and it shall be given you; seek"-that is importunately"and ye shall find; knock"-importunately-" and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh so receiveth; and he that seeketh so findeth ; and to him that knocketh so, it shall be opened."

My brethren, from these important testimonies from the general volume of Revelation, and from the reasonings which may be deduced from the moral states of moral relationship, and the moral prospects of the human soul, we come at once to the solemn conclusion, in which, doubtless, you have anticipated me, that he who does not cherish the spirit of importunity, is indeed guilty of restraining prayer before God.

My brethren, upon the churches of our native land there wants a new unction of this spirit. This spirit of importunity in prayer is slumbering amongst us; we know scarcely any thing by experience of what it is that has power with God and with man, and prevails. A coldness and a formality exist in the social exile, and in the assemblies of the great congregations of our people. Our own guilt is most grievous. We ought to aspire to tread in the steps of our nation's daughter; with regard to whom we are informed, that when it pleases the Almighty to visit them, as occasionally he has done, with pentecostal times of refreshing from his presence, such is the estimate of prayer, and such the spirit of prayer, that, if it be announced in one sanctuary that the most popular orator of the age would deliver a sermon, and that in another there would be an assembly for the purpose of humble prayer and supplication, the former would be well nigh deserted, while the latter would be completely crowded. Yes, my Christian brethren, it becomes us to aspire after imitating that high example: let us shake off, the lethargy which has oppressed and degraded us; let us go with the whole heart to the contemplation of those various reflections, by which our fire may be kindled to a brighter and more lustrous flame. Let us think of the claims of God; let us think of the guilt of sin; let us think of the glories of heaven; let us think of the agonies of hell; let us think of the worth of the soul; let us think of the crowds, the countless crowds, of human spirits, that are yet travelling away from the glories of that heaven, and down to the miseries of that hell; and then say whether we should be satisfied, but as we become absolutely absorbed and consumed by the spirit of importunity in prayer. Thus possessing a new and unknown power, that shall compel the omnipotence of Jehovah itself to open wide the windows of heaven, and pour down his largest and most delightful blessings upon the whole expanse of this apostate and long disordered world-thus, my brethren, above all things we must aspire, never to restrain prayer before God.

It becomes us now, having examined in these remarks particularly the habit, he indulgence of which is charged, to notice as we proposed, thirdly, THE EVILS, THE INFLICTION OF WHICH IS THREATENED.

If you examine at your leisure, the subsequent part of the chapter, you will find it to be the basis of implication, that, as long as the patriarch indulged the habit of casting off fear, and restraining prayer before God, so long he would remain exposed to the infliction of almost overwhelming evils. Without examining the justice of the application that was made in the original text, we deem the principle to be plainly and absolutely established, that when men, in any of the modes to which we have referred, are guilty of restraining prayer before God, they expose themselves to the infliction of evils, against which the soul of man should most earnestly and most diligently guard.

Observe, brethren, here, that the habit of restraining prayer prevents the