condition help them to such kinds of petition, thanksgiving, or resignation as their present state more especially requires. Happy are they who have this business and employment upon their hands! . . .

Lastly, seeing our imaginations have great power over our hearts and can mightily affect us with their representations, it would be of great use to you, if, at the beginning of your devotions, you was to imagine to yourself some such representations as might heat and warm your heart into a temper suitable to those prayers that you are then about to offer unto God. As thus: before you begin your psalm of praise and rejoicing in God, make this use of your imagination. Be still, and imagine to yourself that you saw the heavens open and the glorious choirs of cherubims and seraphims about the throne of God. Imagine that you hear the music of those angelic voices that cease not day and night to sing the glories of Him that is, and was, and is to come. Help your imagination with such passages of Scripture as these: Revelation vii. 9, 'I beheld, and lo, in heaven a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. And they cried with a loud voice, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and strength, be unto our God, for ever and ever. Amen.' Think upon this till your imagination has carried you above the clouds, till it has placed you amongst those heavenly beings, and made you long to bear a part in their eternal music. If you will but use yourself to this method, and let your imagination dwell upon such representations as these, you will soon find it to be an excellent means of raising the spirit of devotion within you. Always, therefore, begin your psalm or song of praise with these

THE SECRET OF

HAPPINESS

imaginations, and at every verse of it imagine yourself amongst
those heavenly companions, that your voice is added to theirs, and
that angels join with you, and you with them, and that you with
a poor and low voice are singing that on earth which they are
singing in heaven. Again, sometimes imagine that you had been
one of those that joined with our Blessed Saviour when He sung
an hymn. Strive to imagine to yourself with what majesty He
looked; fancy that you had stood close by Him surrounded with
His glory. Think how your heart would have been inflamed,
what ecstasies of joy you would have then felt, when singing with
the Son of God. Think again and again with what joy and
devotion you
would then have sung had this been really your
happy state, and what a punishment you should have thought it
to have been then silent; and let this teach you how to be affected
with psalms and hymns of thanksgiving. Again, sometimes
imagine to yourself that you saw holy David with his hands upon
his harp, and his eyes fixed upon heaven, calling in transport upon
all the creation, sun and moon, light and darkness, day and night,
men and angels, to join with his rapturous soul in praising the
Lord of Heaven.-[Serious Call, pp. 243, 251, 285.]

LE

ET me now only add this one word more, that he who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life. Which way soever else we let loose our hearts, they will return unto us again empty and weary. Time will convince the vainest and blindest minds that happiness is no more to be found in the things of this world than it is to be dug out of the earth. But when the motions of our heart are motions of piety tending to God in constant acts of devotion, love, and desire, then we have found rest unto our souls. Then is it that we have conquered the misery of our nature, and neither love nor desire in vain. Then is it that we have found out a good suited to our natures, that is equal to all our wants, that is a constant source of

comfort and refreshment, that will fill us with peace and joyful expectations here and eternal happiness hereafter. For he that lives in the spirit and temper of devotion, whose heart is always full of God, lives at the top of human happiness, and is the farthest removed from all the vanities and vexations which disturb and weary the minds of men that are devoted to the world.— [Christian Perfection, p. 403.]

A DISCOVERY

IN SANCTIFICA

TION

BY

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

Y intercession is meant a praying to God and interceding with Him for our fellow-creatures. Our Blessed Lord hath recommended His love to us as the pattern and example of our love to one another. As, therefore, He is continually making ought we to intercede and pray for one

intercession for us all, so
another.

A frequent intercession with God, earnestly beseeching Him to forgive the sins of all mankind, to bless them with His Spirit, and bring them to everlasting happiness, is the divinest exercise that the heart of man can be engaged in. Be daily therefore on your knees in a solemn deliberate performance of this devotion, praying for others in such forms, with such length, importunity, and earnestness, as you use for yourself, and you will find all little ill-natured passions die away, your heart grow great and generous, delighting in the common happiness of others as you used only to delight in your own. For he that daily prays to God that all men may be happy in heaven, takes the likeliest way to make him wish for and delight in their happiness on earth. And it is hardly possible for you to beseech and entreat God to make any one happy in the highest enjoyments of His glory to all eternity, and yet be troubled to see him enjoy the much smaller gifts of God in this short and low state of human life. For how strange and unnatural would it be to pray to God to grant health and a longer life to a sick man, and at the same time to envy him the poor pleasure of agreeable medicines? Yet this would be no more strange or unnatural than to pray to God that your neighbour may enjoy the

highest degrees of His mercy and favour, and yet at the same time envy him the little credit and figure he hath amongst his fellow-creatures. When, therefore, you have once habituated your heart to a serious performance of this holy intercession, you have done a great deal to render it incapable of spite and envy, and to make it naturally delight in the happiness of all mankind. This is the natural effect of a general intercession for all mankind. But the greatest benefits of it are then received when it descends to such particular instances as our state and condition in life more particularly require of us.

Though we are to treat all mankind as neighbours and brethren as any occasion offers, yet, as we can only live in the actual society of a few, and are by our state and condition more particularly related to some than others, so when our intercession is made an exercise of love and care for those amongst whom our lot is fallen, or who belong to us in a nearer relation, it then becomes the greatest benefit to ourselves and produces its best effects in our own hearts. If, therefore, you should always change and alter your intercessions according as the needs and necessities of your neighbours or acquaintance seem to require, beseeching God to deliver them from such and such particular evils, or to grant them this or that particular gift or blessing, such intercessions, besides the great charity of them, would have a mighty effect upon your own heart, as disposing you to every other good office, and to the exercise of every other virtue towards such persons as have so often a place in your prayers. This would make it pleasant to you to be courteous, civil, and condescending to all about you, and make you unable to say or do a rude or hard thing to those for whom you had used yourself to be so kind and compassionate in your prayers. For there is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him; and when you can once do this sincerely for any man you have fitted your soul for the performance of everything that is kind and civil towards him. This will fill your