possess (for that is meant by wisdom) was given him of God. When therefore he pleads his own holiness, as a ground for his acceptance with God, he intends only to urge it as a proof of his having heretofore found favour with him, that he had been enabled to walk uprightly before him, and to possess that principle of holy obedience without which no man can see the Lord. In this point of view, and in no other, can we safely and piously contemplate our own personal holiness as a ground of confidence towards God. Of ourselves we are unable to do a good deed, or to think a holy thought. Yet if God has enabled us, in answer to our honest entreaties for light and aid, to obey his commandments, imperfectly indeed, yet zealously and diligently, this is a result of our faith, and an effect of his grace, which we are permitted to regard with thankful pleasure; and to consider it as furnishing fresh motives to prayer, and fresh grounds of assurance that our prayers will be heard. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me.

Another ground, upon which David urges the acceptance of his prayers, is his trust in God: O thou, my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. It is obvious, that he who does not

trust in God, does not believe that he will hear him when he prays; and that is a frame of mind which is utterly inconsistent with fervour, and earnestness, and importunity in prayer. A want of trust in God, as a hearer of prayer, is the great cause of formality and coldness: and it punishes itself; for the very suspicion, that God will not listen to our prayers, will prevent them from being answered by him. Nothing more decisive can be said, of the indispensableness of an undoubting reliance upon the divine goodness, than that promise of our blessed Lord, All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive: a promise, which indeed related, in the first instance, to those special interferences of divine power, by which the Gospel was to be miraculously propagated through the world; but which places the necessity of faith in a very striking point of view. If faith was requisite, to the obtaining even of those spiritual gifts, without which the Apostles could not have executed their commission; it cannot be less requisite, for obtaining an answer to those prayers which relate to a far less important object.

But here it is necessary to shut the door against enthusiasm. The trust in God, which ought to be felt by every one who approaches him in

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prayer, is surely not a persuasion that he will answer every petition which may be presented to him; or that he will answer any, in the precise way which the petitioner may think proper to point out but a belief that he will forgive the ignorance which prays amiss, and give us those good things which we know not how to ask; while he withholds from us all that may be injurious to our final interests, however earnestly we may pray for it. To expect that God should determine any particular question, in answer to prayer; or that he should supply any particular want, in the mode which we ourselves desire, is to expect that he will interpose a special providence in our behalf, and submit the comprehensiveness of his wisdom to the narrowness of our limited and fallible understanding; at the same time superseding the use of reason, which he has given us for a guide and counsellor, and which he will strengthen and enlighten, but not constrain or nullify, by the influences of his Spirit.

But there is still another ground, upon which David strengthens his prayer, and urges its acceptance with God; the consideration, that it is not a sudden and extraordinary overflowing of a devout spirit, but its habitual expression: Be

merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. Since out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, where the spirit of prayer is, there will be frequency, as well as fervency, in giving utterance to it. It is a spirit which cannot slumber, nor be restrained. It is awakened and invigorated by a sense of sin, of helplessness, of ignorance. It is encouraged and animated by a recollection of God's promises, of his covenanted assurances. Equally inconsistent with a spirit of pride and with a spirit of carelessness, it rests not upon the false security of self-righteousness, nor is benumbed by the lethargy of an engrossing worldly-mindedness: but is ever alert, and looking out towards God. It prevents the night watches with holy meditations and pious vows; measuring the lapse of time by the stated returns of its communings with Him who inhabiteth eternity; keeping its appointments with God; knowing that he waits for it at the times of its refreshing. There can be no question, but that prayer is as necessary to the spiritual sustentation and health of the soul, as food and clothing are to the body; and if no day can safely be suffered to pass, without paying a due attention to what we eat, and drink, and put on, none certainly ought to elapse

3 Matt. xii. 34.

unsanctified and unblessed by prayer. Assuredly it was not without a pregnant signification, that our Lord directed us, in his own simple but comprehensive model of prayer, to acknowledge, by implication, the necessity of a daily recurrence to the giver of all good gifts: give us this day our daily bread. The resurrection of the visible world from the grave of night, and again the departure of the cheerful day, marked by sensible admonitions and invitations to repose, so naturally lead the way to devout thoughts and aspirations, that he, who prays at all, must at least pray then. Unholy is the diligence, and unblessed are the slumbers of those, who rise up early, and sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrows, yet mark not the commencement and the close of their daily intercourse with the creatures, by a solemn act of homage to the Creator. When I cry unto God, he will hear: such is the language of confiding piety: but who dares to use it? He who can add, evening, and morning, and at noon will I pray, and cry and he shall hear my voice."

aloud:

And this reminds us, that another, and an indispensable ground of confidence is, an earnest perseverance in prayer. Earnestness and perse

6. Ps. cxxvii. 2.

7 Ps. lv. 17.