fore, in all our difficulties, we must look up to Him for help and guidance. How astonished must the Ephesians have been, to see Paul, whom they looked upon as a holy man, an apostle of God, at one time condemned to fight with wild beasts, like a common criminal, according to the barbarous custom of the times, (see 1 Cor. xv. 32,) and at another, nearly torn to pieces by the enraged multitude, because he spoke against the worship of their false goddess. (See Acts xix. 29, 30.) Would it not shake their faith, and make them afraid to profess a religion which exposed its followers to so many dangers? St. Paul knew that they would reason thus, until the eyes of their understanding were enlightened; and therefore he wrote these words, "I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you;" that is, the tribulations I suffered when labouring for your conversion; for all these sufferings were borne by Paul while he preached at Ephesus. He bids them not be discouraged by any thing that had happened to him, since it was designed for their good, inasmuch as the glorious example of patience and fortitude which he had set them, would at last, as he hoped and prayed, make them willing to show the like constancy whenever they should be required to undergo the same trials, and finally prepare them to share with him the reward promised to those who come out of much tribulation.

But St. Paul also knew that his advice and his exhortation alone would not produce this happy effect, therefore he added, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." In other words, I earnestly pray that you may have strength given you, by the Spirit, to suffer all that God sees fit to inflict, and that you may be comforted under your sufferings, by feeling that Christ is with you, that He dwelleth in you; which He has promised to do in the hearts of all that truly love and believe in Him. (See John xiv. 23.) When your hearts are filled with love to Jesus, when you are rooted and built up in Him, then will you be able to understand His love to you, which

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passeth man's knowledge, and then shall you be filled with all the fulness of God, with the riches of His grace, which will enable you to walk in this world in the ways that please Him; and you will hereafter be admitted to share in the glory that shall be revealed.

Here we see that St. Paul trusted not to his instructions or his example, but earnestly prayed for his flock; thus teaching them to pray for themselves also.

We are apt to neglect this important means of graceprayer, to think that because we read the Scriptures regularly and attentively, we must derive profit therefrom, and to omit the equally important duty of praying for a blessing on our study of God's Word. Further, this passage teaches us for what we are to pray when we read the Scriptures, viz. the spirit of understanding and of a sound mind, that we may not be discouraged by any difficulties from persevering in the profession of our faith. But this is not its only use: it teaches us also how to pray. There is no plan we can devise so likely to be profitable to us, as that of making use of the very words of Scripture in our prayers. Its advantages are twofold:

First. We are sure, that, when we pray in the words inspired by God Himself, we must be praying according to the will of God; and we are told, that if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us. 1 John v. 14.

Secondly. We are secured from asking what may be hurtful to us. Our own wishes and supposed wants may be widely different from what God sees best for us; but we are safe in praying for those graces and good dispositions which holy men, moved by the Spirit, so fervently begged for their brethren or for themselves.

Let those then who find it difficult to form prayers for themselves, and who fail to derive profit from the Scriptures from the neglect of prayer, search through the Epistles for those prayers which the writers made use of, and they will find an ample variety of petitions suited to all their wants. For example, 2 Cor. ix. 10, contains a short but comprehensive prayer, including both our bodily and spiritual wants; in using which, as in all the passages quoted below, the words must be slightly altered, to make

them our own: thus-"O thou that ministerest seed to the sower, be pleased to minister bread for our food, and to multiply our seed sown, and to increase our fruits of righteousness.'

See also Ephes. i. 17 to 20; and Ephes. iii. 14 to 21; Phil. i. 9, 10, 11; Col. i. 9 to 14.

These examples will suffice to show that the Holy Scriptures contain not only precepts for our conduct and actions, but forms of prayer to guide us in offering up our supplications to God for those good things which for our unworthiness we should not dare, and for our blindness we could not ask, unless thus divinely taught and encouraged.

It may be confidently promised to those who thus pray with and from the Scriptures, that those things which they thus faithfully ask, according to His will, will effectually be obtained, to the relief of their necessities, and the setting forth of His glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. L. S. R.

ON HEARING SERMONS.

OUR Lord says, "Take heed how ye hear;" thus showing that the benefit to be obtained from hearing His word will depend greatly upon the disposition with which it is heard. An apostle1 also tells us to "receive with meekness the engrafted word." The directions, then, both of our Lord and His Apostle, show us the need of coming to the hearing of the word with a teachable spirit, not disposed to cavil and object to what we hear, but humbling ourselves in God's presence, and meekly desiring to be taught of Him.

Some persons approach the house of God with a disposition entirely unsuited to all the great purposes of devotion. A true worshipper in meekness and humility seeks God's pardon, and help, and all the blessings of His grace; and in that state, his prayers will be offered in sincerity, and God's blessing may be expected, in answer to those prayers. And the same disposition which is suited to prayer is also needful for the profitable hearing

1 St. James, i. 21.

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of God's word. But alas, too many hear the word with a captious and contentious spirit! Such hearers leave the house of God without receiving any spiritual good,—often indeed, even to their own great injury; for that which was intended as food for the soul, has been turned into poison by their corrupt minds; and that which God gave as "a savour of life unto life," they have made " a savour of death unto death."

A minister has perhaps been preaching on the great mercy of Christ, and the great benefits which that mercy has wrought for man. He has spoken of the freeness and the fulness of God's mercy, the acceptance of the believer through Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and all the benefits of a Saviour's sufferings offered, through mercy alone, to man. A hearer, who receives this aright, will be filled with gratitude, on thinking of such love shown to sinful man-he will say, I know that I have sinned, and I know that I have no means, in myself, of blotting out my past offences, and they must stand written down in God's book against me, for the judgment of the great day of the Lord. But what glad tidings I have this day heard! "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." What I could not do for myself, has been done for me: Christ my Saviour has paid the penalty for me; and a free offer of complete forgiveness of my past sins has been made to

me.

What gratitude is due from me to Him who has shown such great mercy to me? "What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits that He hath done unto me?" I must serve so gracious a Master. Thus a meek hearer of the word will turn all he hears to good. Instead of neglecting his duty to God, he will seek, by all the means in his power, to show his sense of all that has been done for him, by living in holy obedience to God's will, and thus becoming fitted for an entrance into heaven, and the full enjoyment of that kingdom where Christ is gone before to prepare a place for all his faithful followers. On the other hand, a captious hearer will say, "We have nothing to-day but about faith, and the minister teaches us that if we only believe, we need not care what we do;" when, in truth, the declaration of

God's mercy in Christ was given in the very terms of Scripture, for the sake of leading sinners to repentance, and has been only turned from its right purpose by the perverted mind of the hearer.

At another time, the minister tells the flock, that they shall hereafter be judged "according to their works;" that "they that have done good shall rise to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation." A meek and faithful hearer of these declarations will say, "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day 1." But I know also that I must be prepared for heaven before I can be admitted there; and the word of God teaches me that a course of holy obedience is that preparation; and I have the comfort of knowing that the gracious help of God's Spirit will be given to those who earnestly seek that help, and I will pray for that Spirit, and I will seek so to use that help, that I may live in a constant state of holy preparation for that kingdom which my Saviour has purchased for me.

A captious hearer, on the other hand, will say, that he has heard no "Gospel" to-day, that it was all about "works," all "legal," and that there is no use in going to hear such sermons as these.

No; if a person goes to hear a sermon in a cavilling and captious spirit, he is not likely to profit by it. Let us hear the word with meekness, and then, through God's grace, we may hope to profit by it. We would not, however, be misunderstood in what we have said; we do not mean that it is of little consequence what sermons we hear or read, and whether they contain the great doctrines of the Gospel, and the right application of them, or whether they pass by one or the other of these as if they were of trifling consequence: we think quite differently; but still, however faithful and right the preacher's doctrine and instruction may be, it will be of no profit if it be not received in a meek and teachable spirit.

1 2 Tim. i. 12.

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