As much have I of worldly good Beyond the deep Atlantic waves Bread of heaven!-on.thee I feed But if our thoughts are fixed aright Come, escape from the tempests of life Far from the world, O Lord, I flee Flowers, wherefore do you bloom? "He was there alone" when even Here, bliss is short, imperfect, insecure Hope sets the stamp of vanity on all I asked a man of sorrow and of tears I asked an aged man, a man of cares I love to listen when the winds blow high If human kindness meets return It is not that my lot is low Jesus, I my cross have taken Lord of the Sabbath hear our vows Oh, thou who dry'st the mourner's tear Oh thou whose mercy guides my way Our life how short, a groan, a sigh Sweet the moments, rich in blessing That man no guard nor weapon needs 44 There is a world we have not seen Through sorrows' night, and danger's path Through the skies when the thunder is hurl'd To-morrow!-mortal, boast not thou What is the world?-a wildering maze AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON PRAYER, &c. PRAYER is the application of want to Him who alone can relieve it-the confession of sin to Him who alone can pardon it. It is the urgency of poverty, the prostration of humility, the fervency of penitence, the confidence of trust. It is not eloquence, but earnestness: not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it: not figures of speech, but compunction of soul. It is the "Lord, save us, we perish," of drowning Peter-the cry of faith to the ear of mercy. Adoration is the noblest employment of created beings; confession the natural language of guilty creatures; gratitude the spontaneous expression of pardoned sinners. Praver is desire: it is not a mere conception of the mind, not an effort of the intellect, not an act of the memory, but an elevation of the soul towards its Maker; a pressing sense of our own ignorance and infirmity, a consciousness of the perfections of God, of his readiness to hear, of his power to help, of his willingness to save. It is not an emotion produced in the senses, nor an effect wrought by the imagination; but a determination of the will, an effusion of the heart. Prayer is an act both of the understanding and of the heart. The understanding must apply itself to the knowledge of the Divine perfections, or the heart will not be led to the adoration of them. It would not be a reasonable service if the mind were excluded. It must be rational worship, or the human worshipper will not bring to the service the distinguishing faculty of his nature, which is reason. It must be spiritual worship, or it will want the distinctive quality to make it acceptable to Him who is a spirit, and who has declared that he will be worshipped "in spirit and in truth.” If that Man is not only a sinful, but also a helpless, and therefore a dependant, being. This offers new and powerful motives to prayer, and shows the necessity of looking continually to a higher power, to a better strength than our own. Power sustain us not we fall; if He direct us not we wander. His guidance is not only perfect freedom, but perfect safety. Our greatest danger begins from the moment we imagine we are able to go alone. He who does not believe this fundamental truth, "the helplessness of man," on which the other doctrines of the Bible are built-even he who does nominally profess to assent to it as a doctrine of Scripture, yet if he does not experimentally acknowledge it—if he does not feel it in the convictions of his own awakened conscience, in his discovery of the evil workings of his own heart, and the wrong propensities of his own nature, all bearing their testimony to its truth,—such a one will not pray earnestly for its cure,—will not pray with that feeling of his own helplessness, with that sense of dependance on Divine |