to the whole spiritual life. Thus shall I be more real in prayer, and less tempted to self-complacent and self-righteous thoughts, which turn in upon myself, and destroy prayer. The child who comes to his Father for a blessing regards the blessing he desires and his Father's promise, not his own thoughts or words.

That our Blessed Lord is an example to us of constancy and earnestness in prayer during his earthly life, I need not point out; but it is well that we should meditate on this in connection with the work which the Father gave Him to fulfil on earth. Judging from the notices in the Gospels of the prayers of our Saviour, we cannot but conclude, speaking with all reverence and reserve- for we are speaking here of the communion of the Son of God in our nature with the eternal Father- that the prayers of Christ had special reference to His work on earth. We should consider, as instances of this, Mark i. 35-38; Luke vi. 1213, X. 21, xx. 32; John xi. 41-42, xii. 27-28, xiv. 16, and above all John xvii.

Of all the disciples of our Lord, no one is so fully exhibited to us as an instance of prayer being itself a very part of his work as the Apostle Paul. It will be remembered how frequently he desires the prayers of others for himself and his work, and expresses his confidence in the value of those prayers. As regards his own prayers for those amongst whom he was a witness for the Gospel of Christ, of these he speaks (Col. ii. 1) as a severe and anxious conflict, using the very word by which he elsewhere describes the whole work of contending for God's truth. But that which is most remarkable in these prayers, so far as he gives an account of them in his epistles, is, next to their constancy, their definiteness and fulness of detail as to all the numerous churches and persons who came within the sphere of his labours. It was not merely that he remembered them all without ceasing, but he remembered all that each specially required, and the special claims of each. We cannot, of course, trace with any certainty the reason for the particular prayer in

each case being such as it is, but it cannot be supposed that such a man would use words merely as conventional phrases, as we too often use them, without some meaning and force of their own.

With St. Paul, his prayers were themselves quite as much a part of his work for God as his preaching the Gospel or his suffering for the truth's sake. And, though in this as well in every other part of his work, he-or, as he says, "not I, but the grace of God that was in me "laboured more abundantly than all who either went before him or have followed him in the work of witnessing for Christ,—yet this at least is certain, that I can only follow his example in his work for God in proportion as I follow it in regard to prayer. It is very profitable to consider how much preparatory thought the apostle must have given to his work before praying; how he must have considered the various circumstances in regard to which the assistance and direction of God were needed for it; the special aid that he and others re

quired; the special dangers and temptations and difficulties to which it was liable. Thus I shall realise better how truly prayer is itself work not only for God, but with God, and in God. And if I need a general rule for my continual direction in "my work for God," let me remember that the most general and the most practical of all is that which St. Paul has given us, and exemplified in his own life: "Continue stedfastly in prayer, watching therein with thanksgiving."

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