gifts that they had asked, did not satisfy them. How true to experience and to fact, is the declaration of Paul, we know not what we should pray for as we ought."

We may infer from what has been said of the nature of prayer, that the chief benefit to be regarded as resulting from this exercise, consists in the affections and sentiments which it is adapted to generate and to maintain. It is by the exercise of these, that God is acceptably worshipped; and in their cultivation we should proceed much as we do in the cultivation of other affections and sentiments of a subordinate character. When we would educate a youth to scientific pursuits, we accustom him to the study of books of instruction in the sciences, and place him where he may enjoy the privilege of intercourse with learned men. We do not expect him to become an adept in any branch of knowledge by mere intuition. We endeavor to bring his intellectual powers into action, to enlarge his capacities, to stimulate his mind to effort, and, by every appropriate means, to produce and keep alive within him a thirst for knowledge. We adopt a similar course, when we wish to bring into exercise the benevolent feelings of our nature, the steady and constant action of which is not to be secured by a momentary excitement, but only by keeping the kind affections of the heart continually fixed upon the great subject of humanity and love.

If it is proper that creatures, endued with intelligence, should remember their Creator; if it is right for imperfect beings to acknowledge the glorious perfections of the Deity; if man, in his weakness, imperfection and want, feels his need of the aid and support of the Infinite One; if the soul is touched with a sense of its sinfulness, and groans under the burden of its guilt; it is then proper and reasonable that relief should be humbly sought in prayer. It is accordant with the laws of our nature, that we should repair" to the throne of grace, to find mercy and grace to help us in our times of need." This is the exercise that divine wisdom has appointed, as a means of strengthening our faith, enlivening our hope, increasing our confidence, and quickening to greater activity our moral powers and religious affections.

Before we close this article, we may be expected to say

something of the manner, or form in which prayer should be offered up; and also to present some remarks in reference to an objection to this exercise, founded on a mistaken view of those scriptures which require unceasing prayer. With respect to the first topic, our observations may be brought within a small compass. We have all the evidence which the case requires, that the mere external manner in which a duty is performed, is of but small account in the sight of God. "The Lord looketh on the heart." Vocal prayer may be a useful exercise; we hold it to be so, especially on certain occasions, and in certain circumstances. It is a means of edifying a congregation of worshippers, of directing their thoughts upward to their common Father, and inward upon themselves. It is designed to awaken in their hearts devotional sentiments, pious affections, and holy resolutions, strengthened by a growing confidence in God. But we would not, by any means, restrict prayer to the utterance of words. It has been said that "prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered, or unexpressed;" and this, we consider the true definition. Hence, we believe, that prayer may be acceptably offered, while the lips are silent. The soul may then breathe its desires into the ear of him, "who heareth always," and be refreshed by the living water that flows from the eternal throne.

In regard to the objection against prayer on account of the scriptural injunction to continue this exercise "without ceasing," we would say, in the first place, that no good reason can be given for understanding such terms literally; yet the objection implies this. We know, as well as the objectors, that the attempt to comply with such a requisition, in its literal sense, and in a verbal manner, would be to exclude other exercises and duties, as strongly recommended, or enjoined, as that of prayer. Indeed, the idea is too glaringly absurd, to demand an elaborate course of reasoning to refute it. And we have reason to doubt, whether any person in the exercise of common candor, ever advanced the objection to prayer, on the above ground, under a conviction of the strict literality of the texts alluded to; as this would be to suppose, that pious and inspired men recommended a practice, not only preposterous, but impracticable.

But what interpretation then, shall we put upon such phraseology as, when literally understood, must be supposed to enjoin incessant prayer? We answer, that, as the only exercise of the kind that is acceptable to God and beneficial to man, consists in the proper state of the soul, we may, with perfect reasonableness and consistency, suppose that pious men should enjoin the duty of maintaining that harmony of the will, the affections and desires, with the will of God, which would render the whole life a continual prayer; for this would be no more than to enjoin "the keeping of the heart with all diligence." It would be, virtually, no more than recommending constant virtue, enduring patience, abiding charity. In fact, prayer may justly be considered an exemplification of the Christian virtues and graces, or of the principles, affections and desires, that unite to constitute the Christian character. True prayer is, therefore, the fruit of that cultivation of the moral affections that is so often and so earnestly recommended in the gospel of Christ.

The Saviour has taught us, both by his precepts and his life, what the disposition of our hearts should be when we engage in religious exercises. "When ye stand praying, if ye have aught against any, forgive." We may not expect an answer of peace, if we suffer the temple of the living God to be desecrated by the presence of pride, hatred, or malice. If we could employ the language of "the burning seraphim," in such cases, it would be but a solemn mockery, "an abomination in the sight of the Lord." We cannot pray as we ought, unless our souls are in harmony with truth and love, and the spirit which is promised to the faithful, "maketh intercession with our spirits, according to the will of God."

E. T.

ART. XII.

Universalily of Christianity.

Christ the desire of all Nations, or the Unconscious Prophecies of Heathendom: being the Hulsean Lectures for the Year 1846. By Richard Chenevix Trench, M. A. London: John W. Parker. 1846. The Religions of the World. And their Relations to Christianity, considered in Eight Lectures, founded by the Hon. Robert Boyle. By Frederick Denison Maurice, M. A. London: John W. Parker. 1848.

It is the aim of both these books to show the Universality of the Gospel, and each author surveys the field which that subject opens, from a peculiar point, and treats the question in his own way. As the title of his volume indicates, Mr. Trench proposed to himself in his Lectures to point out the yearnings of the nations, before Christ's coming, for a Redeemer, and from the unconscious prophecies inwoven in the structure of anterior religions and modes of thought, to prove the reality and naturalness of the Christian system of faith. In one respect the plan is novel and bold. We know that many skeptics have elaborately argued against the validity of the records of Christ's mission for the redemption of man, by trying to show that those records are really only a new form of a delusion which the race had long been in the habit of practising upon itself. The world,-they say,-has always believed in, or dreamed of, Redeemers and supernatural visitants to the earth; there are parallels to the office and experience of Jesus in the religious traditions of almost every ancient nation; and since every body believes the old convictions to be unfounded, it is most likely that the new version in Christianity is as destitute of reality, and sprang from the same tendency to enrobe dreams and superstitions in the dress of fable.

But Mr. Trench maintains that weapons of this class which skeptics use, belong to the armory of Christianity itself, and that all the learning with which such arguments are seemingly supported, is a gratuitous and welcome contribution, from doubters themselves, to the evidences of

the gospel. Those kindred symbols which heathenism contained are really "unconscious prophecies" of Christianity. We find parallels to the Christian scheme of redemption in all former systems of mythology, because the supernatural facts and principles of Christianity are so nicely fitted to the natural need and hunger of humanity, that whenever men, under the pressure of their longings, have tried to construct answers from their own resources of fancy and speculation, they could hardly fail to anticipate in lower types many of the elements of the gospel, and to indicate what its ground-plan would be. In this way Mr. Trench thinks to strike down the lances of learned infidelity, to save Christianity from an antagonistic attitude towards other forms of the religious sentiment, and to show how we may joyfully accept, as presentiments of truth, those anterior symbols in heathenism, which many Christian thinkers have not known how to treat. religion of the New Testament, says he, " is not the cold denial and contradiction of all that men have been dreaming of through different ages of the world, but rather the sweet reconciliation and exquisite harmony of all past thoughts, anticipations, and revelations."

The

It is hardly necessary to say that, while such a thesis is striking and pleasant, it is one which, from the nature of the field it opens, must prove very difficult to manage and maintain. Of course, it is worth little as an argument to skeptics, whatsoever value it may have to a Christian mind as a defence against their reasoning. For, until the historical certainty of the Christian records is established, until the ministry of Christ is shown to be an actual focal point, and a solid reality, there is no fulcruin for the argument; no ground is gained from which to see that former mythologies are convergent lines which tend to such a union, no opportunity to say that they were prophetic dreams. Mr. Trench's doctrine, therefore, never can be any thing more than the pleasant belief of a Christian,his catholic and generous criticism of religious history, when convinced of the reality of the Gospel. It may prove the buttress against a skeptical assault, but cannot be used as a weapon against a historical unbeliever.

The power or weakness of such an argument depends on judgement and impartiality in selecting the facts which