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parents claim part of your prayers to God. Have you not a father and a mother that you are bound to love and obey? would you not pray that God would give them grace, and enable them to instruct you, and bring you up in his nurture and admonition? have you brothers and sisters? pray for them: have you friends and relations? pray for them: your teachers, pray for them. You should pray for ministers too, they catechise and instruct you; and when you hear them preach, you should pray for a blessing on what you hear. They pray for you, and you should pray for them: pray for your school-fellows, and for those poor children who never pray, and who have no parents to pray for them. O, my young friends, say with all your hearts, Lord teach us how to pray, and what to pray for, we cannot remember all these things without thy help.

My dear young friends, after offering up this short petition, a child would ask a fourth ques tion, Who will teach me to pray? Hear the text, or shall I read it. "Lord teach us to pray" by these words you find it is the Lord that will teach you: Yes, my dear young friends, by his Holy Spirit, he will bring all these things to your remembrance, the Holy Spirit will sanctify your hearts and make them holy : by the Spirit, you are taught the evil nature, and awful consequences of sin against God: by the Holy Spirit, you are taught the necessity and importance of prayer: it is the Spirit that

reates in your hearts a desire to pray it is the Spirit, that will teach you what you are to pray or it is the Spirit, that will keep your houghts from wandering when you pray to God; it is he that keeps you from weariness, lullness and carelessness in prayer. True prayer from the heart, comes from God to the heart, and then arises from the heart to God again: see then, y dear young friends, how necessary it to have such a teacher as the Holy Spirit

Again, fituestion that a child would ask is, How, or in what manner, am I to pray to God? Remember when you are going to pray, to whom you are going to speak: it is God, and not man; a boly, just, merciful, and majestic God, one who regards the hearts and thoughts, more than the words or the posture.

"When daily you kneel down to pray,
As you are taught to do,

God does not care for what you say,
Unless you feel it too."

Remember you are praying to God, and not to man; therefore speak as if you were speaking to God alone; a low voice in prayer is proper, it may be so loud that yourself can just hear it, and you will find it of some use, to keep your thoughts from wandering; let your thoughts be composed; the reading of a chapter or a psalm will help to compose your houghts, and fix them on divine things; take

care that you do not mock God with your lips, while your hearts are far from him.

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"What foolish thoughts your hearts beguile;
And when you pray or sing,

You're often thinking all the while,
About some other thing.

"Some idle play or foolish toy,

Can send your thoughts abroad,
Tho' this should be your greatest joy,

To love and serve the Lord."",

Christ; pray

Be sincere in what you say as if you earnestly wished that God would hear you, not as though you did not care whether he heard you or not. Be humble, when you remember that you are dust: It is a great condescention in God, who is infinitely great as infinitely good, to listen to the prayers of sinful children, such as you are; it shows that he is very gracious and kind, to attend to the wants of little children; that he will not only hear, but that he will answer their prayers, and give them every blessing which they need.

"God is so good that he will hear,

Whenever children humbly pray;
He always lends a gracious ear,

To what the youngest child can say."

Pray with submission to the will of Christ: imitate Jesus, and after you have prayed for every blessing you want, say not my will, but thine be done;" not as I please, O Lord, but

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give me what thou knowest to be good and pro per for me: Remember to ask for every blessing and every favor in the name of Jesus Christ, for the sake of what he has done for children.

"Dear children, never never dare

To act the trifler's part;

Nor think that God will hear a prayer
That comes not from the heart."

A sixth question that a child would ask is, How often should I pray? At least every morning and evening: there are some children who only pray to God, or rather say their prayers, in the evening; some say the Lord's prayer and a hymn; some say only a hymn, or part of a hymn, and then they think they have done all that is required of them; their parents are satisfied, the children are satisfied; but God is not satisfied.

"You never can be said to pray,

From what your lips are saying; 'Tis when your lips and heart unite, That God beholds you praying."

Can you lie down to rest at night, before you have thanked God for his care of you during the day? you should likewise endeavour to remember what sins you have committed during the day, and beg of God to pardon them, for Christ's sake; you ought to implore his protection through the night, that you may lay yourselves down in peace and sleep; for remember

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that it is God alone that makes you to dwell in safety When you rise in the morning, can you sit down to your breakfast, or go abroad to school or any where else, before you return your thanks to God for his kindness to you through the night, and entreat his blessing upon yourselves and friends, and what you are about to do in the day? But you may pray oftener than night and morning-Daniel prayed three times a day; David prayed three times a day, morning, noon and night: I knew a young girl, about twelve years of age, who used to go up stairs to pray to Christ by herself, as soon as she came home from school in the morning: I am afraid there are not many who do so.

I; One more question may be asked, and I must answer that before I tell you of any more little girls and boys: Where may I pray? Isaac prayed in the field; Daniel, in the lion's den; Jonah, in the fish's belly; Samuel, in the temple; Christ, on a mountain; Peter on the house top. Children commonly pray in their chambers; I have told you of three little boys who prayed in a saw-pit: I knew a little boy, who used to pray sometimes as he was walking in a lane, or in the street, sometimes in the garden, or in the hay-loft: Remember, that it is not the place, nor the time which God regards; but the heart. He will hear you whenever you pray, and whereever you pray: He is more ready to hear than you are to pray, and more ready to forgive, than you are to ask forgiveness: He

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