PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.

WE have no need to come to thee, O our Father, to tell thee what we are, or what we need. Thou knowest what things we have need of before we ask thee; and from thine abundant store we are provided with thy gifts perpetually. We need not search; for thy paths drop fatness; and we walk therein and find thee there. If at tinies they be hard, and straight, and narrow, yet at other times they are flower-clad and full, on either side, of bounties and mercies. But our life is not in our sense, nor in our outward experience, but in our soul. Our best joys are those which are deepest, and our affections need more than these bodies. The life is more than meat.

We rejoice, then, that thou hast made thy gifts such as they are, and that thou hast held them in such wise that if they are to be enjoyed in their full we must needs come to thee. Their fragrance is of thy love and of thy kindheartedness in giving; and we draw near to thee with supplication, but yet more with thanksgiving; with petitions, but yet more with a recognition of mercies in over-measure.

We draw near to thee, knowing that thou hast first drawn near to us. It is not the bird that calls the sun, but the sun that wakens the bird to sing; and it is not our voice that calls thee near to us: it is thy coming near that draws us to thee, and fills our hearts with strange joy.

We thank thee for thyself, and for as much of the revelation of thyself as we can understand; but how much lies beyond! How can selfishness interpret boundless beneficence? How can they who ingurgitate everything, and would draw the very seas into a whirlpool of selfishness, understand Him who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many? We are withstood by our passions, which cannot represent thee, through which thou canst not pierce to show us the image of thyself; and how dead, how feeble in blossom, and how fruitless are those affections in us which represent the divine nature! Our condition brings us to thee, and we approach thee with multiplied petitions, that we may be delivered from our lower self, that we may be born out of the flesh into the spirit, and that by holy dispositions and sweet affections we may have in us those elements which can interpret thee.

We pray that thou wilt make thyself known to us by all those trials which are needful; by all that discipline which shall cleanse; by that pressure to escape from which we must needs fly up and find exaltation.

We pray that thou wilt so inform us by thy spirit inwardly that we may see that God who is invisible, and dwell as seeing him.

We pray that thou wilt grant to us, this morning, a sense of thy great goodness, and of the glory of that goodness, and a sense of the universality of thy kingdom. We come from our small ways and narrow affairs, pressed in, hedged about, beaten, buffeted, racketed hither and thither, in this noisy world where men are as stones.

Grant, O Lord, our God, that we may have some conception of the kingdom of God that shall deliver us from the poorness and the barrenness of this lower sphere. Thou that didst come to open the

prison doors and to set free the captive, deliver us from the confinement of the flesh, from the limitations of our narrow ways; and grant us some sense of that kingdom of God which is within us, and which is to go on enlarging and brightening, and becoming more and more summer-like in the production of all the fruits of righteousness. Grant that we may rise somewhat into that sphere where thou dwellest habitually. It is easy for thee to think infinite things; and grant, though we may not follow thee, nor run in the line of thy thought by our poor limping way, that we may still have such encouragement as that which comes from the fact that the Sun of Righteousness hath arisen with healing in his beams and be held up above the storm, where silence dwells that is full of untroubled peace. So may we have a sense of the largeness of our lives, and of the glory of the upper sphere. May we be able to enter into it, and find the realization of thy promises. Be to us as the door into which we may run in the day of battle. Be to us as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, full of grateful coolness. Be to us as a fountain in the desert where we may slake our thirst and yet live. Be to us as brooding wings underneath which we may trust. O Lord our God, fulfill all those images of peace and protection with which thou hast tempted our thoughts.

And we pray that in thee we may find rest, inspiration, hope, joy, life. Thou art all in all. Give to us, then, something of everything to-day; for all our nature waits for that which we ask, that we may have a cleansing sense of uplift, of patience and of sweet submission to thy will, as with a full knowledge of its goodness. Grant that we may have a sense of the beauty of things present by the light that is shining on them from things absent and far away. Grant that this life, with all its duties, may become precious to us by reason of the relation of those duties to our immortal blessedness. We pray, above all, that we may have that strong center of love which is refreshed and invigorated from thine heart. May our heart, in love, stand triumphant, sovereign over every other influence. And we pray that thou wilt sanctify to all thy dear servants thy dealings with them; and if any are bowed down as the rush before the wind, Lord, lift them up. Thou wilt not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking wick until thou bringest forth judgment unto victory.

Give the victory of sorrow to those who are in affliction. Give the victory of knowledge and trust to those who are in doubt and perplexity. Give to all who are weary that victory which comes from rest in God.

Grant, we pray thee, that all those who are perplexed with multiplied cares, and who are so harnessed to human things that they are perpetually drawn downward toward the earth, may renew their strength. Grant that as their day is so their strength may be also. Grant that they may be conscious that God pours upon them the balm and refreshment of his own everlasting strength.

We pray that those who are under responsibilities that gird them. that those who are in captivity, being under the dominion of their tormenting consciences, may be able to break away from their jailor and know that they are not prisoners any more, but Christ's free men in the commonwealth of love. May they be able to stand up, and

defy, and put underneath their feet, that conscience which torments them. Let them ever be under the dominion of love in the realm of grace. Oh, teach us what is the liberty of the soul. Give us to understand what is that gift which thou didst come to bring to this world. Pour out thy love on hearts which are as a wilderness, that they may spring up and bud and blossom as the rose.

Draw near, we beseech of thee, to all who are in perplexing relations, and enable them to maintain manliness in the Christian life. Help them. They need succor and daily support. Minister it unto them.

We pray for those who are beginning to live with new thought of life, with higher intelligence, and with better purposes. Grant that they may not be discouraged nor become weary. May they, in this life that is full of imperfections, every time they fall, be lifted up again; and may they go on from strength to strength, knowing that if they persevere they shall yet stand in Zion and before God.

We pray that thou wilt grant power to all those who are weak. Send light to all who are in darkness. Let the whispering of thy spirit come to those who seem solitary in desolate places.

Grant, we pray thee, to all who are seeking thy presence and comfort, the anointment of holy oil within. Visit those who are bereaved, not to stay their tears, but to sanctify them; not to take away their sorrow, but to make that sorrow a ministering angel to them. We pray that those that are may be as though they were not; that those that are in families may be as though they were desolate. May we hold all things as in a shadow. May we more and more perceive that the things which are seen are not; and more and more may we believe that the things which are invisible are. May we understand that our strength and life are beyond and above, in the great realm of the coming life; and may we prepare for it, and look at all things here as they stand related to that more glorious disclosure which shall be made to us when God shall come, and we shall be brought with him into his kingdom, and stand before the hosts of angels and rejoicing saints in heaven.

We thank thee that the thought of heaven grows clearer and clearer, and that in our imagination the realm above is growing more and more populous, and that there are so many there who know us. that there are so many going continually who shall know us, and that we are not to be strangers in a strange land, but that heaven is becoming more and more a home to us.

Thus may our conceptions, sanctified, lift us up, and bring us very near to the gate from whose joy, before we enter it, shall roll forth some song; and grant that, peradventure, some leaves of the tree of life may fall, and that we may catch them for the healing of our

sorrow.

We pray that the word of truth, which gives us strength and light. may go forth to those who sit in darkness. May there be a Sabbath to those who seek no rest to-day. May there be a gospel to those who care not for truth. May they who are engaged in teaching those that are out of the way not be weary in well-doing. May they sow abundantly, and be strong in the faith that they shall reap an hundredfold.

Bless thy ministers of every name. Clothe them to-day with the power of God, that they may make known the counsel of God for the welfare of men. We pray that thou wilt take away divisions between churches. Remove all separating walls. Unite thy people by tne affinities of a Christlike love. May the power of the gospel go forth with godliness of life, with kindliness of disposition, and with righteousness, throughout the length and breadth of this land. Grant that there may be justice and liberty everywhere. Therefore, grant intelligence, that ignorance may flee away, and superstition, and its weakness. May the power of man to oppress his fellow man be destroyed by the strength of human life in its sacredness. We pray that the kingdoms of this world may speedily become the kingdoms of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. May he take his power and reign a thousand years.

And to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit shall be praises everlasting. Amen.

PRAYER AFTER THE SERMON.

OUR Father, we pray that thou wilt illumine our darkness, and give us, though we may not know what it means, that guidance which shall bring us surely to thee. What does the poor needle know, that points steadily northward? And though we do not know, grant that there may be that in us which shall turn our affections steadfastly toward thee.

We thank thee for the revelation which thou hast made of Jesus Christ. We accept that conception of divine love and power and activity and suffering and helpfulness which he gave to the world. We rejoice in it. It is just what we need. We want, O b.essed Saviour, something that shall have compassion on us. We have enough to condemn us, we condemn ourselves enough, we are enough discouraged and enough in the dark; we have struggles and battles enough with ourselves and with the world around about us; and since our father is gone and our mother is gone we need something that shall be more to us than they were. And thou, O blessed Saviour of love and sympathy and patience toward those who are out of the way, we come to thee for the forgiveness of our sins. We come to thee for encouragement. We come to thee that thou mayest be to us as a bridge on which we may pass over that great gulf which separates us from the realm above. We come to thee for the certitude of our faith. We come to thee that thou mayest be the Bread of life to our hunger, and the Water of life to our thirst. We come to thee that thou mayest be all in all to us.

So may we live with our life hidden with Christ in God until thou dost appear; and then may we appear with thee, and rejoice with a joy which no man can take away from us.

And to thy name shall be the praise, Father, and Son, and Spirit. Amen.

HINDERING CHRISTIANITY.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gen leness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another."-GAL. V., 22-26.

From this passage I mean to ask and to answer the question, this morning, why it is that Christianity has made comparatively so little progress in this world. It is a question worthy of our consideration.

What was the power that Jesus himself manifested? And first, what was the secret of it? He belonged to the Jews, the most abhorred nation of antiquity. He never separated himself from the manners and customs of his people. He worshiped in their synagogues and in their temple just as they did. He never wrote a line nor a word, of theology or philosophy. He never was ordained. He never took upon himself any official relation to mankind, any more than to his own people. There is not a single thing in all his speech, as recorded by his disciples, that looks like organizing men. There is not in the thought or conception of man anything so absurd as the contrast between the teaching of Christ in respect to Christian life, and the enormous and pompous organization of Christian churches which pretend to have derived their authority and their forms from him. The question, therefore, is one of very profound importance: What is the secret of the power of this Personage, who ap

SUNDAY MORNING, April 19, 1874. LESSON: Rom. rt. HYMNS (Plymouth Collection): Nos. 365, 668. 660.