your sisters, your school-fellows and playmates. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. My dear children, you should not only pray to God to keep you from sin, but you should try and keep yourselves from it, by watching against the very appearance of evil, by forsaking your evil ways and wicked companions, for they will lead you not only into evil and sorrow, but misery without end. Thine is the kingdom; and may all these children be subjects of the kingdom of God: Thine is the power; O Lord exert thy power at this time, let thy work appear to thy servant, and thy glory unto these children, Amen: If but one soul be taught to seek the Lord, if but one child be brought to pray to God, for he will hear the prayers of a little child, to him shall be all the glory and all the praise.

Thus the prayer is concluded: Now, my young friends, attend to the lecture, and I hope you will go away wiser than you came, and know more of the nature, importance and necessity of prayer. The first question a child should naturally ask me, is this, To whom should I pray? You say it is my duty, tell me the name, nature and attributes of that Being to whom my petitions are to be offered. His name is God. In his nature he is spiritual and eternal; those who worship or pray to him, must worship him in spirit and in truth. He made you, therefore it is your duty to pray to him he expects that you should love and

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serve him, and how can you pretend to love and serve him, if you never pray to him? Could you but see God only once, you would think him the most lovely and most excellent of all beings. Are you not very young? a few years ago, you had no being at all? twenty years ago, you were not born; you cannot preserve your own lives; he that made you, can destroy you; besides, you are sinful creatures; you have provoked that God who made you, to be angry with you, and to take away all your comforts. Are you willing to continue under the anger of Christ forever? God is very gracious, he has not only encouraged you to pray to him, but promised to hear your prayers. Do you know how terrible the anger of God is? he can make you miserable in this world, and in that which is

to come.

"To Christ who reigns above the sky,

Your Father and your Friend,
To him let all your vows be paid,
And all your prayers ascend.

"With all the love a Father feels,
He pities and forgives;
And tho' our earthly parents dic,
Our heavenly Father lives."

The second question a child would ask is, What should I say when I pray to God? Before I answer this, let me ask you a question, and I should like to hear one of you answer it, What is prayer? answer, Prayer is an offering

up of our desires to God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ. Prayer is the desire of the heart. If you are hangry, you will ask for food: if you are thirsty, you will ask for drink: if you are lost, you will ask for the right way you will not ask for what you do not want. Do you know what your

wants are? Attend.

1. To wants of your bodies; I mean, the things you want in this world; they are called temporal wants: you stand in daily need of food and raiment, that you may not suffer hunger or cold; you want the continuance of your health and strength, or you would pine away in sickness and pain. Can you preserve your own lives, or can any of your friends save you from dying? do you not know that Christ is the author of all your comforts? It is on him that you depend for daily food, and clothing, for health and strength, for recovery from sickness, for preservation from danger and death: It is certainly from God that you must seek all these things, by prayer: you never heard a beggar complain for want of words to express his wants, or that he did not know how to beg, or what to say are you not exposed to dangers every day and every night? do you not want the care of God to keep you, to preserve you from mischief, from fires, from violent and cruel men, and from all evils of every kind? you cannot walk, without his help; you cannot

learn without his assistance, therefore you should pray for a retentive memory.

2. Spiritual wants: You are guilty creatures, and need the pardon of your sins; you have hearts, but they are not holy, therefore must be renewed; and since you cannot atone for your sins, or change your hearts, how earnestly should you pray that God would forgive your sins, and change you hearts, for the sake of his well beloved Son Jesus Christ. Remember, how sinful you all are by nature; are you not ready to commit new sins every day? are you not apt to be angry without a cause? to strike others too soon, and call them names, for which, afterwards, you are very sorry? do you not fret and grow uneasy if other children have things better than you? are you not apt to disobey your parents, or your teacher, when their commands are not pleasing to you? are you not sometimes inclined to hide your faults by telling a lie? do you not find yourselves too ready to learn that which is evil? and to be indifferent or careless about that which is good? are you not ready, sometimes, to do a thing pri vately, which is not allowed you, or which is forbidden? O, my dear young friends, do you not find that there are a great number of things that you want? and when you pray, you need not be at a loss for words, or for a blessing to ask of God; see how much you ought to pray for the grace of God to keep you from sin daily.

"What is there Lord a child can do,
That feels with sin oppress'd :
There's evil which I never knew
Before, within my breast.

"My thoughts are vain, my heart is hard,
My temper apt to rise;
And when I seem upon my guard,

It takes me by surprise."

3. There are eternal blessings of which you stand in need; for these you ought to pray to God. You cannot always live in this world ́ ; your body must die, and be buried, and turn to dust in the grave; but your soul or spirit cannot die, it must then go into another world; you have been told, that Jesus, who was once on earth, and died for sinners, is now gone to Heaven to prepare a place for all that serve God, and love him; do you think he will prepare a place for you? can you bear to go like a stranger into another world, and not know where you are going? You must stand before the Judge of all-are you prepared? There is a Heaven for the righteous, who love Christ and pray to him; and a hell for the wicked, who -neither pray to him nor love him:can you even hope that God will save you from hell, and receive you to dwell with him and the holy angels, if y you never pray to him for blessings? Now I have told you what you should say to God when you pray to him.

A third question that a child should ask is, Who should I pray for besides myself? Your