his part in Christ ever so loudly, and all that he can gain by it is that he will be considered by Christ, not as His redeemed and loving disciple, but as His murmuring and rebellious slave.

But why should we suppose that Christ's mercies will be rejected, and his service disclaimed? It surely need not and will not be so in every case; there must be some to whom it is a pleasure rather than a terror to hear that they are not their own but Christ's; that their bodies belong to Him, and that in them the Holy Ghost has His temple. It should indeed be a pleasure to hear this, yet is it also an awful pleasure; for it is an evil thing to dishonour Christ's body, and to profane God's temple.

God so declaring His love to us, so claiming us as His own, so dwelling amongst us and in us, surely there is a great encouragement to us to come before Him with our earnest prayers, that what he claims as His own He will for ever keep so, that the body and soul which He has vouchsafed to dwell in once, He will not depart from as He did from Shiloh or from Jerusalem, but will abide in them as His living temple for ever.

And I have good hopes that many in the past week have so prayed, have opened their hearts in some degree to God, have tried to obtain His assistance. If they have not prayed readily it is no wonder; we know not what we should pray for as

we ought; and if the time which we had was short, and the exercise was at all strange to us, we may not have known well what first to put forward, or in what shape to present our hearts towards God. Nay, we may feel our hearts themselves to be a tangled mass which we do not well understand, desiring and not desiring, sincere we hope, yet careless we know too well, and very feeble. If we repeat the prayers of a book, that does not seem to help us in the way we want, yet for our own prayers we find no easy utterance. I can conceive that some when they may have set themselves to pray in private, may have yet been perplexed and unsatisfied, and scarcely have known what to say to God, or whether their words expressed the real wants of their souls or no. It is to such a state of mind I suppose, a state which I can well conceive in the young, or in any whose life and habits have led them but little to reflection; whose eyes and thoughts have been turned outwards ever, and not inwards; it is to such a state I believe that we may apply a passage in the eighth chapter of the Romans, a passage which seems mysterious and vague it may be to some persons, but which I think is full of the deepest comfort for any who are in the condition which I have been describing: "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities," says St. Paul; "for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the

Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." If we are perplexed in our prayers, not knowing what to say, ill able to read our own heart's desire truly; yet if we are really wishing for God's help, if we have thrown ourselves as it were at His feet, then that vague and indistinct desire for help has One who purifies it, and presents it before God; and if we feel beset with the perplexity of our condition, and find no word of utterance, yet the Spirit of God speaks for us in our very silence, and intercedes for us acceptably. Think not that you have presented yourselves before God for nothing, because you could not tell Him clearly all that you wanted; still it was an act of accepted prayer, distinct before God and effectual; God saw in you Christ's redeemed, and heard in you the intercession of His Holy Spirit.

I would not be misunderstood in this matter, nor give to any bold or careless spirit any false encouragement. Yet it happens many times that we ourselves, even in questioning some of you, find that you can ill put out your meaning, that your knowledge is very imperfect, and the power of applying it no less so; we perceive a want of force and clearness in your notions which we cannot at once remedy. Now I am only supposing this to be the case with one whose heart is yet honest, who does wish to come to God, and to turn from

evil. I am supposing that such an one feels the very same difficulties in expressing himself, the same want of clearness in his views, when he comes before God, that he shews when he is questioned by us. It is to such an one who really wishes to be good, and to such an one only, that I am applying St. Paul's words. I would wish him not to be discouraged because of his want of clear understanding and ready utterance. But neither should he be in the slightest degree encouraged if the fault goes deeper than his understanding, if he does not understand only because he does not care. As surely as God is full of mercy to those who are ignorant but wish to serve Him, so does He utterly abhor the prayer which is indistinct because it is insincere, which says little, not because the heart is full, but because it is empty.

But speaking again to those who are in earnest, to those who listen to what I am saying as to a matter which is their real concern; to those, I say, who wish to make their confirmation and communion a real good to them, but are embarrassed by their want of knowledge, and their inexperience; I would say to them, pray to God again, not less often, but even oftener if it may be; and pray for these three things,-for an honest heart, for a thinking and understanding mind, and for a loving and obedient spirit. Your hearts are honest now, you come to God wishing to be good.

Say to Him, then, something of this sort. "Oh Lord, keep my heart true and honest; keep alive in me the real true wish to be good." Well then, if you wish to be good, you will wish to leave off all those things that God condemns. Here you do not need help,-help, I mean, as to telling you what you should say. I am quite sure that if you try you will recollect directly things which you often do wrong in, and in which, if you are not careful, you will surely do wrong again. Remember these things, all or some of them; and above all, take care not to forget any one wilfully. Name them to God in plain words, and say, O Lord, help me in such a thing, naming it, that I may not again sin against thee in it. Such a prayer will show that you are honest, that you really wishı for God's help to save you from your sins.

Then also, you may and should pray for a thinking and understanding mind. Indeed this is a most necessary and a most Christian prayer. The gift of wisdom is almost the subject of one whole book of the Bible, the Proverbs. Saint Paul prays, and bids others pray, for an enlightened understanding, for the fulness of wisdom. St. James says, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him." Without thoughtfulness there can be no goodness, nor any holiness. And for youth especially, whose besetting fault it is to be thoughtless, the prayer for thoughtful