once speaking with him, but only to be seen of him, So must we, my dear Philothea, come to the exercise of Prayer purely and merely to do our duty, and to testify our fidelity. If it please His Divine Majesty to speak, and discourse with us by His holy inspirations and interior consolations, it will be doubtless an inestimable honor to us, and a pleasure above all pleasures; but if it please Him not to do us this favour, leaving us without so much as speaking to us, as if He saw us not, or as if we were not in His Presence, we must not for all that go our way, but continue with decent and devout behaviour in the Presence of His Sovereign Goodness; and then infallibly our patience will be acceptable to Him, and He will take notice of our diligence and perseverance; so that another time, when we shall come before him, He will favour us, and pass His time with us in heavenly consolations, and make us see the beauty of holy Prayer 1."

We have been exhibiting Prayer under its aspect of homage,—the aspect in which it has reference to God's glory rather than man's wants. We are confident that by many excellent and devout people this aspect of it is altogether dropped out of sight. And we are sure also that this defective view leads frequently to a degenerate style of prayer. Robbed of its character of homage, prayer soon becomes an entirely selfish thing; and the petitioner, when engaged in it, soon comes to regard every thing as beside the mark, which has no reference to his own immediate necessities. It is very desirable to redeem prayer from this exclusively selfish character; to give it a wider scope and a grander bearing; and the keeping in mind what has been said of it as an act

'S. François de Sales, Introduction à la Vie dévote.

of homage and priestly service will perhaps help us in achieving this desirable end. But definite practical rules may be given, which will not be long acted upon, without giving a better tone to our devotions. There are parts of Prayer which cannot be selfish, which directly seek either the interests of others, or the glory of God, -see that these parts be not absent from your prayers.

First; intercede for others, and acquire the habit of interceding. Consider their wants, trials, and difficulties, and bear them upon your heart, as you bear your own, before the Throne of Grace. Intercession is a priestly service. Christ, the great High Priest, intercedes for us all above. And we, if we would prove ourselves members of God's Royal Priesthood upon earth, and perform with fidelity those spiritual sacrifices which we were consecrated in Baptism to present, must intercede for others. It is truly lamentable to think how defective in this point of view are the devotions of the best Christians,-how thoroughly well content they are that the half-hour daily spent in intercourse with God, should be devoted entirely to their own struggles, their own trials, their own wants. So little proficient are they in Charity, and so little-so very little -can they realize the constant "our" and "us" of the Lord's Prayer, whereby Christ teaches us, in a way more emphatic than many sermons, that we should pray as members of a family,--with the wants, sins, temptations, burdens of the whole family continually upon our hearts. Until we can in some measure do this, we do not pray after the Lord's model.

Secondly; let Praise-I say not merely thanksgiving, but Praise-always form an ingredient of thy prayers. We thank God for what He is to us; for the benefits which He confers, and the blessings with which He

visits us. But we praise Him for what He is in Him self, for His glorious excellences and perfections, independently of their bearing on the welfare of the In Praise the thought of self vanishes from, and is extinguished in, the mind; and therefore to be large and fervent in Praise counteracts the natural tendency to selfishness which is found in mere Prayer.

creature.

Think not, O man, whosoever thou art, that God will dispense with this tribute of Praise from thee! Remember that, merely as a man, thou art the High Priest of all creation, a little miniature of the Universe in thyself, representing the Angels in virtue of thy immortal spirit, the lower creatures in virtue of thy sensations and appetites, and matter in virtue of thy body. Thus, when thou singest praise, all Creation (in a manner) sings in thee and with thee.

And it shall often happen that when thy heart is numb and torpid, and yields not to the action of Prayer, it shall begin to thaw, and at last burst, like streams under the breath of spring, from its icy prison, with the warm and genial exercise of Praise. The deadness, the distractions thou deplorest, shall flee away as the harp is taken down from the willow, and strung to celebrate the Divine perfections. For how much is there to kindle the heart in the very thought of Praise! Praise is the religious exercisee-the on religious exercise-of Heaven. Angels are offering it ceaselessly, resting not night or day. Saints are offering it ceaselessly in Paradise. Nature in her every district is offering it ceaselessly. From the Heavens, which declare the glory of God, and the firmament, which showeth His handiwork, down to the dewdrop which sparkles with the colours of the rainbow, and the lark, who tunes her cheerful carol as she salutes

the rising sun, the whole Creation sends up one grand chorus of Praise to the Throne of God. Thou shalt feel that thou art not alone in offering it, that every act of true praise is social, and, as it were, choral, though offered in solitude. "All saints far on earth, and in Paradise, feel without knowing it the impulse of each other's adoration, and join in with it, like strings that vibrate to the same tone, without touching each other." And the sense of sympathy in the exercise shall kindle life in thee, and the soul shall recover its benumbed energies, and Prayer shall be no more a painful wrestling with thy own mind, but a solace, and a strength, and a light, and a healing.

CHAPTER III.

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IN PRAYER.

"And in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea: and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith."-Mark xi. 20—23.

It is very observable that the remarks which Our Blessed Lord makes on the incidents presented to Him, and His comments on the sayings which were dropped

2 Rev. Charles Marriott, Thoughts on Private Devotion.

in His presence, do not at all meet our natural anticipations of what the occasion required. Merely human comments on what is said or done in society are almost always obvious; and they are so because they are shallow, caught up rapidly from the surface of the subject, and flung abroad at random upon the apprehension of the hearers. But infinite wisdom-and our Lord is the Infinite Wisdom personified-explores the depths of every subject which is brought before it, and dives into the heart of every speaker, and answers not according to the superficial bearing of the subject, not according to the literal expression of the lips, but according to the hidden harmony, which it requires thought and prayer to bring to light, and according to the intent of the heart.

As an illustration of this, take the words which stand at the head of this Chapter, with the circumstances which gave rise to them. Our Lord on finding a fig-tree barren, which had made a great show of leaves, had pronounced on it a solemn curse. In consequence of the curse the fig-tree had withered. The disciples seeing it dried up from the roots, call the attention of their Master to the fact. And He replies, "Have faith in God," and so forth.

Now, the question is, What remark would a mere wise man,—one wiser than his fellows, if you will, but still a mere man,-have made under such circumstances? Supposing we ourselves were great teachers of moral truth;-what comment would have risen to our lips on having our attention called to the sere and blighted tree? Possibly we might have drawn from the circumstances its obvious moral-thus: "That figtree is the Jewish nation. Its show of leaves is the profession which they make of godliness-'We are