Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1831, by LINCOLN & EDMANDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. PREFACE. THE establishing of a monthly prayer meeting throughout christendom constitutes a new era in the Christian church; and the multiplied associations for prayer, in relation to Sabbath schools, colleges, the observance of the Sabbath, and other interesting ob jects, evince that Christians are now more deeply sensible of the importance and the efficacy of prayer, than they have been at former periods. But, however deep a consciousness any one may have possessed, of the obligation of prayer, and of its happy results, probably no one has ever yet been impressed with the subject in a degree corresponding with its magnitude. The language of the Bible, in relation to the efficacy of prayer, is very explicit. "Ask, and ye shall receive. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened. Where two or three of you are agreed on earth, touching any thing that ye shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." |