see;

or ignorantly worship an unknown God, shall we not worship the only living and true God our Father in heaven? If not, well may the language of the prophet spoken thousands of years ago to the Jews, be applied with greater condemnation to us:- "For pass over the isles of Chittim, and and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing: Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."

Depend upon it, a prayerless spirit is a godless one. Ignorant of prayer, we are as yet ignorant of God. Without it, we are as yet practically "without God in the world."

We need no other argument for prayer than the being and character of God-what He is, and what He is to us. If God be indeed our Father, -if the only living and true God is that God

whom Jesus knew, and loved, and revealed to us —that God who has been known and loved by the Church and people of God since the world began the duty and privilege of prayer are as certain as his existence and our own. All objections to prayer, all difficulties which would hinder prayer, vanish before this one fact revealed in Christ, that God is our Father, and before this one blessed command of his eternal Son our Brother, "When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven!"

For consider it carefully - God being our Father, He cannot be ignorant of his children, of the least, the weakest, the most unworthy or unknown. Accordingly, if there is one Divine feature more fully revealed in Scripture than another, it is this minute knowledge possessed by God of everything He has made, and of every person. He is never represented, as some men would have Him be, as One so great, so occupied in governing mighty worlds, or so absorbed with the inconceivable and infinite majesty of his own being, as to be ignorant of or indifferent to the so-called trifles, or insignificant works of his hand. No; his greatness, as revealed in Scripture, is of a

nature more worthy of the Perfect One. It is a greatness indeed of knowledge which has no limit, of wisdom which frames the smallest insect as well as the greatest world; but at the same time of a love which considers the wants of the widow and orphan. Hear what the Psalmist says of God's greatness:"Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God; which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners. The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down the Lord loveth the righteous: the Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down."

And this:" He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their Great is our Lord, and of great power:

names.

his understanding is infinite."

The prophet Isaiah speaks in the same spirit of God's greatness, and appeals to the revelation

of his majesty and power seen in the starry sky, not as an argument or proof that the Creator is too great to know us, but that being so great He cannot but know us:- "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by name by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ? there is no searching of his understanding. giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." This is surely the God revealed in Jesus, and of whom Jesus spoke, when He said, "Your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of." "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows."

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If the God we believed in were such a God that He did not know us personally, nor hear us or help us when we called upon Him; or if He had no love, and did not care for us, then verily such a God would not be worth knowing; to love Him, and therefore to pray to Him, would be impossible. But this is not our God-the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He is great indeed as the Almighty maker and upholder of the heavens and the earth; but he is greater far as a Father who pitieth his chil dren. His name-that by which He is known— is not "Power," but "Love." Love guides His omnipotent power, employs his unerring wisdom, *regulates his perfect justice, and itself constitutes his majesty. This is the greatness of God-the greatness of his love, which is so finite, yet so infinite; which a little child can take into his heart and feel, but which an archangel cannot take into his mind and comprehend. It is this greatness of love which is revealed in every page of Scripture, and in all its glory in Jesus Christ, and which is known in the experience of every friend of God.

God thus being our Father, He not only knows