SERMON XIV.

ON PRAYER.

MATTHEW vi. 5.

When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are.

We are sent into this world in order that we may go through such a course of discipline and trial as may fit us for a better; in order that we may learn by practical experience, that it is a happier thing to submit ourselves in all things to God than to have a will of our own; in order that we may be taught that apart from God there is neither light, comfort, nor safety, and that in communion with Him is the soul's chief good to be found. Thus we are gradually prepared to enjoy heaven, a place for which by nature we have no desire, and which, even were we admitted into it such as we are by nature, we should find to be no portion of happiness to us, but a scene of insupportable constraint, wherein we should find nothing which would be in unison with our affections and desires.

Now, prayer being the most effectual method of

bringing our souls into communion with God, Holy Scripture sets before us the duty of prayer in the strongest possible terms, and represents it as that which must occupy the greater portion of a Christian's life. "Watch and pray" is the exhortation of our Lord to His disciples. For them He provided a form of prayer, while his own life was a pattern and example of it. And the holy Apostles were no less urgent in teaching their converts that prayer was to be the business of their existence. "Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving." "Watch unto prayer." "Watch and pray always." "Pray without ceasing." "Continue instant in prayer." These, and a hundred other texts to the same purport, will readily occur to the recollection of all who are in the habit of reading their Bibles.

دو

Accordingly, the Church has, from the times of the Apostles, provided for her children that they should never be without opportunities of public prayer, well knowing that thus she had the best guarantee that private devotion would not be neglected. She has declared universally that, so far as in her lies, the people shall never be without places in which to pray, or without a priesthood to pray for them, and with them. It is, indeed, our shame, and guilt, and misery, here in England, that for the most part, our churches are locked up from week's end to week's

end; and that, except on Sundays, we may look in vain through the courts of the Lord's house for either priests or worshippers; but so long as the Prayer-book exists, we have a witness against us, for there it is enjoined that morning and evening prayer should be read daily in our churches throughout the year; and it seems to me that a clergyman is just as much bound to discharge this duty, when only two or three. will come and join with him, as he is to baptize infants, or bury the dead which are brought to him.

But our sloth and unbelief, how much soever they

may prevent the Church's intentions from being carried out, cannot prevent her from being a witness against us, her unthankful and disobedient children, -any more than they can prevent those who, in times past, amid much of error and superstition, yet had their churches open for prayer and praise night and day, and had their seven-fold course of daily prayer, from rising up in judgment against us, who are open-mouthed in our boastings of superior knowledge, purity, and devotion.

Yet, on the whole, it appears that, however defective we may be in our practice, we none of us make any question as to the duty of constant prayer, and therefore it is unnecessary that I should bring arguments to prove what you are quite prepared to admit; and I may, therefore, proceed at once to a

consideration of the warning contained in the text. The Pharisees, like ourselves, fully admitted the necessity of prayer; and they went further than we do, for they appear to have been very dilligent in the discharge of their duty, only, unhappily, they prayed in such a way as to be guilty of the sin of hypocrisy. Now there are people in the world who profess such a horror of the sin of hypocrisy, that they seem well nigh disposed to recommend the relinquishment of any habit which, by any possibility, might foster it. But was this the language of our blessed Lord?• Far otherwise. He did not forbid His disciples to pray, because the Pharisees turned their prayers into a sin, but taught them how to pray in such a manner as that their prayers should not be turned into sin. "When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward.

But thou, when thou

prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

Now there is this difference between this admonition and one which we considered in a former discourse, that to us at the present day there does

not seem much temptation to fall into it. We are in danger, very many of us, of giving our alms in a public manner, for the purpose of gaining the applause of men, just as was the habit of the Pharisees of old; but time and customs are so far altered, that nobody who did not wish to be thought a madman would, now-a-days, stand praying at the corners of the streets. I am not expressing an opinion whether, abstractedly, there would be any impropriety in praying in such a situation; I am simply stating a fact. Manners and feelings are changed; we are rather ashamed of praying, than proud of it; and were we to choose any public and conspicuous place like the corners of the streets for our devotions, we should not be respected but ridiculed. And therefore, the exact sin of the Pharisees is, perhaps, not to be found among us. Nobody is a hypocrite who has not some end to gain by his hypocrisy, and no advantage would arise to any man, in the present state of society, from making such a public exhibition of himself, as that alluded to by our blessed Lord.

Nevertheless, Satan has not lost his advantage over us. He is ever skilful to adapt his snares to the tempers of the times: and when one form of temptation ceases to be attractive, he is never slow in finding another to supply its place; he is at no loss for expedients, and if he sees that one form of error has