The Cabinet. EVERY CHRISTIAN TO HIS CLOSET. As prayer is the breathing of the soul toward God, wherever there is spiritual life there must be prayer. But as many Christians are alive, but not lively, it is often necessary to stir them up to "pray without ceasing." Without trials, temptations, and troubles, or the special operations of the Holy Spirit on the soul, prayer will become formal, lifeless, and inefficient. Therefore we are so frequently tried by Divine Providence, spoken to in God's holy Word, and stirred up by the Holy and ever-blessed Spirit. A voice now seems to be calling to the Lord's Church, to every member of that Church, and it says, Every Christian to his closet." That every Christian has some special place for prayer, either in the house or the open air, may be taken for granted; and such spots become in time consecrated places, where we expect to meet with God, and hold fellowship with him. A Christian closeted with God is a sight an angel looks upon with interest; nor can we think of it but with peculiar emotions. Lately all has been bustle in the Church; our public meetings have been held, reports read, speeches made, interest excited, money subscribed, and now every Christian to his closet." This is what is necessary. Every day some time should be set apart for special prayer. For if ever special prayer was necessary, it is now. Let us, then, enter into our closet, shut our door, and pray unto our Father in secret. to hear us. God invites us. He says, "Let me hear thy voice." He loves He waits to listen to us. He is prepared to bless us. It is in his loving heart to do us good. We have not because we ask not, not because God is unprepared, or unwilling to bestow. Jesus is before the throne for us. He has his priestly garments on. The precious incense is in his hands. He sympathizes with us. He loves to introduce us. He ever lives to intercede for us. True, he knows our backwardness to pray, our coldness in prayer, and all the infirmities that compass us about; but he says, "Think not that I will accuse you unto the Father." Oh, no! he will plead for us, but he will never turn our accuser. The Holy Spirit urges us. We often feel his promptings. We often hear his exhortations. He is the Spirit of prayer. He helps our infirmities in prayer. He is VOL. VIL. G often grieved by our prayerlessness. He takes us by the hand in tender love, and says, "Come, and let us return unto the Lord." The Church needs our prayers. Look at her thin congregations. Look at her undisciplined troops. Look at her neglected prayermeetings. Look at her empty exchequer. Look at her vacant pulpits. Look at her wandering tribes. Look-look where you will, from what point you please, a voice will be heard, if you attentively listen, saying, “Every Christian to his closet.” The ministry requires your prayers. The standard-bearers are ready to faint. The labourers sigh in the harvest-field. There is a want of power in the ministry. The word falls like the snow-flake, and makes but little impression. Sinners come and go, and there are but few converted to God. Impressions are made, but they are not deep, abiding, and renovating. The seed falls in the stony places, among the thorns, or on the way-side. We sow much, but we reap but little. There is a want of unction. There is a dryness, a dulness, a deadness about our ministerial communications. word is not like the holy anointing oil of old, which filled the house, and delighted every heart. It does not glide into the soul, softening, sanctifying, and elevating all its powers. Therefore our members are not thorough-going, hard-working, and energetic Christians. From the thousand pulpits of our land, in every section of the one Church of Christ, there is a call to the sacramental host of God's elect, "Every Christian to his closet." The The world demands your prayers. It still lies in the Wicked One. It is still "full of the habitations of cruelty." Darkness still " covers the earth, and gross darkness the people." The field of labour is the world. But in vain we send out our foreign, or employ our home and city missionaries, except the Spirit be poured upon us from on high. Thorns and thistles will it still bring forth unto us. We plough on the rock; we sow on the sand; we labour in vain, and spend our strength for nought, so far as spiritual cultivation is concerned, without the Holy Ghost. Are missionaries to be successful? Is the world to be claimed for Christ? Would we have the prophecies and predictions of Holy Scripture fulfilled? Then every Christian to his closet," and instead of the thorn will come up the fir-tree, instead of the briar will come up the myrtle-tree, and "it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." Our country, our beloved Old England, needs your prayers. Popery is insolent. Puseyism is powerful. Infidelity is rampant. Saints are divided. Politics are poisoning many professors. Look where we will, to the Senate-house or the sanctuary, to the palace or the cottage, to princes or peasants, to professors or profane, all seem to sigh or cry aloud, "Every Christian to his closet." "God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God." The power that guides the vessel of the State, the power that steers the ark of the Church, the power that preserves our liberties, the power that crowns our efforts, the power that curbs our foes, and the power that encourages our friends, alike belongs unto God. If, therefore, we would be loyal subjects, if we would be good soldiers of the cross, if we would be successful servants of God, if we would see the good of God's chosen, rejoice in the gladness of his nation, and glory with his inheritance, let every Christian betake himself to his closet. Let us seek the Spirit of prayer, fix times for prayer, and determine to persevere in prayer. Let us pray frequently. Let us pray fervently. Let us plead earnestly. We not only need more prayer, but a different kind of prayer. Our prayers have been too general, too formal, too common-place. There has not been that point, that directness, that downright earnestness which there ought to be. We do not take hold on God. We do not refuse to take a denial, saying as Jacob did, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” We forget the parable of the widow and the unjust judge (Luke xviii.), and the parable of the friend and the three loaves (Luke xi.), with its application, "I say unto you, ASK, SEEK, KNOCK." Be importunate. Take no denial. "Cry day and night." "Give him no rest." Pray as if you meant every word you say-as if you wanted every blessing you ask for-as if you did not intend to give over you had succeeded. These are the kind of prayers which God approves of, which the Church needs, which the times require, which we most affectionately request our brethren to present. Such prayers would rouse the enmity of Satan, stir the drowsy Church to its very depths, shake the wide world, and bring down the power of God upon us all. Such prayers would carry our hearts up to heaven, bring the fulness of the Spirit into our souls; and, as grace makes us more than men, such prayers would make us more than common Christians. Let us endeavour to pray in faith, believing that God is love, that he delights in mercy, that he rejoices over us to do us good, that he is more ready to hear than we are to pray, that he means every word in his exceeding great and precious promises, that he is now in the same mind as when he made them, as when his until Apostles pleaded them, and the Holy Spirit came down and proved them true; believing that real prayer goes direct to the heart of God, stirs up his tenderest sympathies, and brings him down to work for our welfare. When Israel in Egypt sighed, cried, and groaned before God, he could not rest on his throne, but came down into the bush, brought Moses to his foot, and as one full of the tenderest sympathy, said, "I have heard, I have heard the groanings of my people which are in Egypt, and am come down to deliver them. Come, I will send thee unto them." Let us pray in hope, that is, expecting what we pray for, and expecting it because it is needed, because it is good, because God has promised it, because Jesus is worthy, in whose name we ask it, and because God can glorify himself in bestowing it. Beloved! would you please God? Would you honour Jesus? Would you sow to the Spirit? Would you disappoint Satan? Would you rise above the world? Would you be an honour to the Church? Would you be useful in your day and generation? Would you be happy and holy in life? Would you be peaceful and victorious in death? In a word, would you possess, enjoy, and manifest the real power of true religion? Then, to your closet! Be much with God; obtain much from God; communicate everything to God. This is the way to act for God wisely, to give to God liberally, to walk with God comfortably, to fight for God victoriously, to work for God successfully, and to be conformed more and more to the moral image of God daily. We must have more prayer. We must have a different kind of prayer. The times call for it. Eternity calls for it. The Church calls for it. The world calls for it. Our religious societies call for it. Our discouraged pastors and preachers call for it. From the east, from the west, from the north, and from the south; from the rolling ocean, from the flowing river, from the lofty mountains, from the lowly vales, from the populous cities, from the scattered hamlets, from the mansions of the great, from the cottages of the poor, from the Slave States of America, and from this blest land of the free, the voice comes rolling in tones of thunder, or floats on the gentle breeze, in almost inaudible accents, it cries, it calls, it whispers, "EVERY CHRISTIAN TO HIS CLOSET." Shall the voice be heard? Shall the cry be regarded? Shall the admonition be received? Shall the closet be visited as it never has been heretofore? Shall the private, powerful, persevering prayers of the saints bring down upon us the Spirit from on high, that the wilderness may become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest? God! will you assist? Men of Israel! will you help? Servants of Will you? And will you BEGIN TO-DAY? MAN CONSIDERED IN HIS RELATIONS TO IMMORTALITY, INTELLECT, SIN, DEATH, AND JUDGMENT. By R. W. Vanderkiste, City Missionary. THE knowledge of ourselves is a most important subject for our continual consideration, in a world where so many live in any other way than they in reason ought to live, as beings of the character they profess to believe themselves, and in a world where so many temptations are continually drawing our thoughts from the contemplation and pursuit of our best interests. Thus situate, we need to remove our attention from objects around us, to ourselves; to consider ourselves in our true character; to examine the real nature of our appointed existence; to meditate on the powers with which our Maker has endowed us, and so meditate on these things, as to be led to a solemn dedication of all our powers, and all our ways, of body, soul, and spirit, to the service of our blessed Lord. Let me, therefore, direct your attention, dear friends, first, to: The knowledge of ourselves as immortal beings. What a marvellous sound has this word immortal!-what a marvellous matter is immortality! Our fathers have declared unto us, that the blessed sun which lights us by day, and gladdens all nature with his beams, bringing to perfection the herbs, the flowers, and the fruits of the earth, has so shone on gloriously for six thousand years; we have marvelled that he should yet shine, with unsullied brightness and glory. We have surveyed with wonder the stately oak, a memorial of past generations, and have marvelled at the length of "the days of a tree." Rocks of historical association, that sheltered our forefathers from the blast of persecution, in the troublous times of old, and preserved them unscathed from the arm of the destroyer, are pointed to us; we venerate them and marvel at their age. Monuments and pyramids of former ages still exist: "See," said Napoleon to his army, on the plains of Egypt, pointing to the stupendous pyramids, the mausoleums of the Pharaohs, "three thousand years are gazing on our actions." We marvel at their But these, all these They must mingle long existence. must pass away! with the dust of ages, or surviving still, must perish in the fires which even now smoulder beneath our feet, and circulate in the air around us, and which shall one day, the word of God assures us, lighten this whole world into one universal blaze, 2 Pet. iii. And when all these have vanished, we shall still exist, our souls die not. We must live for ever. And how shall we then live, and where shall we then live, ah! where? Terrible thought, more terrible reality, the wicked shall inherit the damnation of hell. Blessed thought, more blessed reality, the righteous shall be with God, Matt. xxv. The inheritance of the righteous is |