hear prayer in the church, or at solemnities, or at the table supplied for our use, and we are ashamed so much as to clasp the hands before God; we act the part of absent men, and pity those weak persons, who are not yet able to break loose from the antiquated custom. We educate our children in all knowledge worth acquiring-the art of praying we hold unnecessary for them, and a generation grows up, to whom the first thing, which used formerly to be entrusted to the young soul to keep, remains unknown; and it is no exaggeration when I assert, that hundreds of adult Christians do not know nor understand even the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples. Thus we giddily proceed through life without God, and when at length his hand lies heavy upon us, and calamity reminds us of his existence and his power, then we have forgotten how to draw near to him; we are become strangers in our Father's house, love and faith and trust have departed from us, and we are alone with our pain, and without comfort, on the day of affliction. Friends, if this is to be the fruit of our superior information, O'then let us wish back again the times of pious simplicity and an unsophisticated fear of God; the world was then happier, and richer in nobleness of mind than in the enjoyments of life. The wisdom in which we pride ourselves does not replace that peace-inspiring belief in a higher Being, who is a Father to us, and the independence of which we boast, does not render us so happy as the feeling that we belong to the Lord of Spirits, who accepts and guides with love those who come to him with love and a clean heart. O, ye know not what delights ye rob yourselves of, when ye shun acquaintance with the holy and gracious One, who ought to be all things to you! In the stillness of solitude the mind collects itself to more serious thoughts and to holy feelings; it is then nearer to that Being who fills all in all, and is blest in this proximity. Then is the soul elevated to God, the restless turmoil of earth and its low occupations disappear before the Eternal, and man looks on himself as a citizen of a higher world. Then faith and love and hope bear him on the wings of devotion to God above, and a heaven opens to the enraptured sight. Then confidence gives utterance to our wishes, and heavy distress is poured out before the Father in meek lamentation, and the heart beats with more ease and tranquillity. Then composure and consolation flow into sorrowing souls, and we collect fortitude from these hours to bear the anxieties of life, and God's strength proves mighty in the weak. Then we learn worthily to wage the hot conflict of life, and remain conquerors even in death. In every thing we triumph, for "Faith is the victory which overcometh the world.” a 1 John v. 4. O, all ye pious souls, to whom prayer is not yet foolishness nor a subject of ridicule, declare aloud to your brethren what enjoyment ye owe to conversation with God, and that ye have known no brighter and more delightful hour than that in which ye have lived to him and to yourselves alone. Tell them aloud, "one day in his courts is better than a thousand" spent elsewhere; and teach them that man, whether in prosperity or adversity, cannot do without his God. If in the storms of life and in severe trials ye have been indebted to a belief in his wisdom and love, and to the effusions of the oppressed heart before him, for rest and strength and comfort and serenity, proclaim it loudly, that faith and prayer were the firm supports which prevented you from sinking, and that there is no joy to be compared with that of holding fast by God. May this pious temper again return to an erring generation; may the Holy One, who taught us to pray in spirit and in truth, find us obedient disciples! Ah! we stand in need of this temper in times of disturbance, of care, and endless confusion; and when the mind does not learn to seek refuge in God, it loses itself in the stormy tumult of life, and its fairest hopes and joys perish. Let us pray, in order to be acquainted with the God to whom we belong, and to whom we go; let us pray in the time of prosperity that he may hear us when we are in trouble. Let us pray in the stillness of soli tude and in the assembly of our brethren, where congregational devotion more strongly affects the mind, and excites feelings which disclose a heaven to us. Let us pray even in this hour, as Jesus taught us to pray. O, this hour is sacred to me, which has gratified the fondest wish of my heart, once again to pray with you, with you, whom no distance has estranged from the heart that loves: with you and for you, and for the welfare of this country and mankind. That the kingdom of God may come to us; that truth may spread abroad, and virtue predominate; that piety and the obedience of childhood may rest upon us all, and godliness be productive of a happy life; that our native country may prosper, and its revered prince enjoy a calmer evening; that his good disposition may descend upon all the sons and daughters of the country, and the fear of God dwell in the land; that we may be delivered from every trial of life, and that a better home may one day receive us into more perfect happiness;-this we beg in the name of Jesus, and with devout faith in a God of wisdom and love. To him, the Glorious and Eternal, be honour and thanksgiving and adoration, now and for evermore. Amen. |