a guide, and destitute of every ray of his pure and holy light.

Those mock apostles, who thus disgrace the worship of the true God by their extravagance, are very fond of appearing to imitate the conduct of our Saviour during his mortal peregrination, but how contrary were his habits to those of these deluded men! Did He teach his disciples to insult the ear of Heaven with noise and clamour? Were His precepts those of fanaticism and passion? Did He inflame the minds of his hearers with vehement and declamatory harangues? Did He pray with all this confidence, this arrogance, this assurance? How different was his conduct! He divested wisdom of all its pomp and parade, in order to suit it to the capacities of the meanest of hearers. He spake to them in the lonely language of parable and similitude, and when he prayed, did He instruct his hearers to answer him with a loud chorus of Amens? Did He, participating as he did in the Godhead, did He assume the tone of sufficiency, and the language of assurance? Far from it! He prayed, and He instructed his disciples to, pray, in lowliness and meekness of spirit; He intructed them to approach the throne of grace with fear and trembling, silently, and with the deepest awe and veneration; and He evinced by his condemnation of the prayer of the self-sufficient Pharisee, opposed to that of the diffident publican, the light in which those were considered in the eyes of the Lord, who, setting the terrors of his Godhead at defiance, and boldly building on their own unworthiness, approached him with confidence and pride.

"Our Saviour uttered no impassioned devotion. There was no heat in his piety, or in the language

in which he expressed it, no vehement or rapturous ejaculations, no urgency in his prayers. The Lord's prayer is a model of calm devotion. His words in the garden are unaffected expressions of a deep, indeed, but sober piety."-Paley.

"God loves prayer, as well as praise. His sovereignty is honoured by humble waiting, as well as his goodness by holy gratitude and joy. If praise be silent, then let prayer be more fervent. The absent Saviour loves to hear the voice of his beloved; the lips of the Church must never be quite silent, though they are not always employed in hallelujahs. The hearts of his saints are instruments of music to the Lord. He has formed their souls for his glory, and tuned their heartstrings to his own praise. Now he loves to see them kept still in tune, though he does not always play his own praises upon them. He neither wants our services nor our songs, for his own perfections are an everlasting harmony to himself without the slender notes that we can sound.". Dr. Watts.

In the practice of this holy privileged approach to the footstool of our heavenly Father, let all parents see their children are brought up, if they wish them to perform one of the duties required of them.

Let no fatigue or employment on either side be an excuse for the omission of morning and evening prayers. Let the manner be serious on either side, nor let the parent employ herself in any thing while the child makes its petitions; for example of reverence is better than precept. Teach the child to bless God every morning (thus inculcating gratitude) for all his mercies during the night. Teach the child every evening

to consider the events of the day, and ask pardon for sin and strength to sin no more. Teach an entire acknowledgement of his power to save, by constantly asking that power, teach the child to pray, not to repeat prayers, as soon as the reason is capable. Pray with the child after fits of naughtiness and seasons of punishment; thus will you do more towards leading your darling to God, and twining its affections round yourself, than you could effect by any other means.

And remember that even constant prayer is not always acceptable prayer, from carelessness, from self-gratulation, from want of sincerity, for

Art. 10.-The condition of man after the fall of Adam, is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith, and calling upon God. Wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God, by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Luke II.-" And it came to pass as he was praying, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, Pray after this manner: Our Father, which art in heaven" (the only God and Ruler of the world, whom no man hath seen, and whom no man can see; so that thou canst not be worshipped under any image or similitude).-Commandments 1 and 2. Observe how beautifully Jesus taught us to come to God, as to a Father, but never to come without reverence, as that Father is in heaven.

"Hallowed be thy name" (and thine alone, may no one mention other names than thine when he presumes to pray, and may he make mention of thy righteousness, and thine only).—Commandment 3, Art. 2.

"Thy kingdom come" (which is to embrace the Gentile as well as the Jewish world, and in which all the nations of the earth will be blessed according to thy word). The time of an eternal Sabbath. The kingdom foretold by Daniel, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of which we should pray, "Come Lord, come quickly." A believer in Jesus knows that time, though accompanied with terror to the wicked, will end in his everlasting hap- ̈ piness. He is therefore desirous, by every means in his power, to promote the decree of the Lord, and send the Gospel to all nations of the earth. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,"

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(where there are none disobedient to parents, no murderers, no covetous persons, who are idolaters and thieves, nothing that defileth and maketh a lie; but all are perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect). Including all the parts of our duty to our neighbour. Thus the three first petitions teach us to ask the strength of God to keep his commandments, regarding them, not as acts of righteousness on our part, but as gifts of grace on God's part to His glory. In these we desire the Lord God, our heavenly Father, who is the giver of all goodness, to send his grace to us, and to all people, that we may worship him, serve him, and obey him as we ought to do.

"Give us this day our daily bread" (food for ourselves and for our families). We will not give our bread to dogs, nor waste the time and strength in idleness and sin which thou shalt give us in answer to this prayer, but having food and raiment we hope to be content, for we brought nothing into the world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Let us, therefore, give all diligence to make our calling and election sure. "And I pray unto God that He will send us all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies." We likewise ask for spiritual food, constant renewals of grace, without which, as in the case of the foolish virgins, our oil will be spent and our lamps extinguished when the voice of the bridegroom shall be heard.

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Forgive us our trespasses (Matt. vi. 12) as we forgive them that trespass against us" (Luke vi. 37). "That God will be merciful unto us and forgive us our sins." How? in proportion as we forgive our debtors. Forget not to offer this