punish him; and he should come to me, with a great stick in his hand, swinging it at me, as if to say, ' touch me if you dare,' and at the same time beg me to forgive him. How should I naturally feel, in regard to his prayer ?"

"It would make him appear a great deal worse: I am sure it would be abomination to you.'

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Well, that would be just like the prayers of impenitent sinners. They want God to forgive their sins, while they are fighting against him. Yet, a great many people think they merit God's favour, by such prayers.'

Then, mother, must I wait till my heart is changed, before I try to pray?"

"No, my dear; if you do, I am afraid you will never pray. It is your duty to pray Now, with a penitent, believing heart; and you ought at once to go to God, and give him your heart, and then your prayers

will be acceptable to him. But, until you do this, every thing you do is sin, because you are living in opposition to God. The prophet Isaiah says, 'your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.' And the Lord Jesus says to his disciples, ‘If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.'

"I do not know what it is to abide in Christ, mother."

"To be in Christ, is to take him as our Saviour; and in order to do this, we must repent and forsake our sins. To abide in Christ, is to continue in a penitent, obedient, and loving frame of mind, to have a sense of his presence with us, and to enjoy constant communion with him. And this is necessary, in order to give us a right to this promise. And the same thing is declared by the apostle

'And

John, in his first epistle. whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.''

CHAPTER VII.

WE MUST PRAY WITH

WATCHFULNESS AND PERSE

VERANCE, EARNESTNESS, AND IMPORTUNITY.

MOTHER, is there any thing necessary in prayer, besides what you have told me?"

"Yes, my dear; I have several things more to tell you, which you must observe, if you would ask aright. And the first is, that you must

WATCH.

"What is it, to watch, mother?"

"Do you remember, my dear, when we were at Mr. Smith's, in the country, what the little boys were doing?"

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Yes, mother; Mr. Smith was ga thering his wheat into the barn; and the little boys were set at the gate, to keep the cattle out of the field."

"Well, they were watching. The cattle wanted to get into the field, and eat up the wheat; and the boys had to watch to keep them out. So Satan wants to come into your heart, and rule there, by putting evil thoughts into your mind, and persuading you to embrace principles contrary to God's word. But, you must watch against him. Keep such a look-out, that, whenever any evil thought or bad feeling comes into your heart, you will be ready to put it away in an instant. You will need to watch continually against bad feelings and thoughts; and also, lest you should lose the spirit of prayer, which you ought always to carry with you. When Jesus was in the garden, with his disciples, on the night in which he was betrayed, he said to

his disciples 'watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.' And, in another place, he says, 'What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.' The apostle Paul says, 'continue in prayer, and watch in the same, with thanksgiving.'

"How can we watch in prayer, mother? Can we watch at the same time that we are praying?"

Yes, my dear; we must watch against wandering thoughts. If we do not, before we think of it, we shall find our thoughts running upon other things; and you must know it is very displeasing to God, for us to pretend to be praying to him, while we are thinking about something else. But the apostle Peter says, we must 'watch unto prayer.' We must watch before we pray, that all wandering thoughts may be shut out of our hearts so that we may go before God, in a right frame of mind; we must watch in prayer, to keep our hearts from