A Sermon, DELIVERED BY THE REV. D. WILSON, A. M. AT ISLINGTON CHURCH, SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 1833. John, xvi. 24.-" Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." and instructing them in the truths concerning his kingdom. He was now about to leave them, to leave them as sheep without a shepherd; to leave them in the midst of a dangerous, and THE life of religion in the soul of man is supported and sustained by prayer. Prayer is that medium of access by which we approach to GOD. It is like the ladder seen by Jacob in vision, by which the heart of the sin-hating, and ensnaring world: and he ner ascends towards heaven. We have every encouragement to this duty and privilege in the Scriptures: we are invited, again and again, to present with holy boldness and confidence, our petitions, to the throne of grace. All those discoveries which we may meet in Scripture, of the need of man, of his corruption, and his necessities, and his iniquities, and his lost and ruined state-all are to lead to prayer, all are to stimulate to prayer; all are to drive and urge us to a throne of grace. Again: the various discoveries which the divine word supplies, of the glories and blessings of Christ's kingdom-those joys which are at GoD's right hand, that inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away-all that future bliss and glory, and joy and happiness which is reserved in heaven-all are to stimulate and invite to prayer; all are to be obtained by prayer; all bring us back to the direction of the text-“Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” These words come with peculiar interest to our minds, as forming a part of our Lord's last directions and farewell to his disciples. He had now been for three years teaching leaves them with an earnest solicitude, that whatever they might require, whatever they might need, whatever they might feel themselves deficient in, either for soul or body, either for this world or the next, either for life or death, they were to ask it in prayer. "Hitherto" says our Lord, "have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.' "I go to prepare a place for you," now; a new and a living way of access to the throne of grace is open; and now GoD sits upon the throne of mercy; now all impediments to prayer are removed; all obstacles and doubts as to the mode of prayer are gone; now you have boldness of access there. Our subject, then, this afternoon, is The nature and the encouragement to prayer. May the presence of God, then, be with us; may we be instructed, may we be stimulated, may we be encouraged, to this important duty, and exalted privilege. In the first place, I will seek to point out to you what is prayer: secondly, what is our encouragement to persevere in this duty; and, then, thirdly, what will be the effect upon our own minds which we may humbly look for in the habitual pursuit that house of prayer may be made a of it. And first, WHAT IS PRAYER? Perhaps there is hardly one truth in Scripture, or one point in Christianity, which is more frequently upon our lips, and yet less fully and rightly comprehended, than this simple question-What is prayer? And in the first place, What is not prayer. Prayer, brethren, is not the mere repetition of a form of words; it is not a mere address to GoD at a certain period, and with a certain form; and, in a certain regular and systematic manner. The Pharisees practised this to a very considerable extent. We have an example of their prayers in the Gospel-" GOD, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are." And yet those prayers were unheard, were unanswered, were not accepted; nay, they were not prayers; they did not ascend to the mercy-seat of GOD: nay, they brought with them a curse, and not a blessing. Our Lord says "They make long prayers; and therefore shall they receive a greater condemnation :" their very prayers, their very petitions, their very addresses to the throne of grace, shall rise against them at the last day. Again, prayer is not the offering to GOD a meritorious service, which will, of itself, entitle them to favour. The Jews in their most corrupt times were earnest and assiduous, and devoted in their prayers, and in their sabbath services; but what says GOD to them?" When ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear." The most corrupt, the most profligate, the most abandoned men, have in this manner engaged in prayer. Nor, lastly, is prayer a mere attendance at the house of prayer. Yea, den of thieves: that house, in which GOD meets his people, for devotion and service, if the heart be absent, if the affections be wandering, if man comes without that praying of the soul, and the real earnest supplication of the heart, that house is unhallowed and unsanctified to him. But, now, What is prayer? Prayer, our text says, is "asking." Ask, and ye shall receive." It is the asking for those blessings, whether spiritual or temporal, which we feel our need of. In order, then, to constitute prayer, we must feel our need of certain blessings: this is the very first pre-requisite for a praying soul. There must be a sense of want; there must be a sense of need. The wise man says, "The full soul loatheth an honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet." It is the empty that shall be filled; it is the hungry that is to be relieved; it is the man deeply impressed with want, deeply sensible of his own necessities, hungering and thirsting, after righteousness, fully persuaded of his own absolute need, that will come to a throne of grace with that praying of the soul. He will come as a starving beggar to the rich man's door; he will come as a drowning sailor, that clings to the rope for safety; he will come as a shipwrecked mariner, that will climb up the lofty rock, amidst the surrounding billows. That man is engaged in prayer, that man understands prayer, that man is a suppliant at the throne of grace. (To be continued.) THE PREACHER. SERMON BY THE REV. D. WILSON, A. M. SERMON BY THE RT. REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON. No. 135.] THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1833. [Price 3d. (The Rev. D. Wilson, A. M. Sermon concluded.) Again, in order to pray, we must be sensible that Christ, and Christ alone, can supply our wants. While the heart looks not to him, while the affections are fixed on this world, while we are seeking to serve GOD and Mammon, there will be no earnest and hearty prayer. We must be first convinced that earthly pursuits are but empty toys, are but physicians of no value-that Christ, and Christ alone, by his power, by his | grace, by his spirit will supply all our wants and necessities-that he can and will do, exceedingly abund- | ant, above all that we can ask or think. "Ask, and ye shall receive." Prayer, then, is the means of receiving all those blessings, and all those mercies, which as undone, and lost, and ruined sinners we need and require. It is that, indeed, which God has been pleased to appoint for the communication of every mercy, and of every blessing from his throne of grace. Had it pleased infinite wisdom, those blessings might have been communicated through a medium of provi dence, as we receive our life, as we receive our health, as we receive our daily food. Or had it otherwise been agreeable to the infinite wisdom of GOD, they might have been supplied And then, finally, when we pray in a miraculous manner; they might we are to wait in confident expecta- have been supplied independently of tion of receiving. There can be no all means, and all instruments: but acceptable prayer without faith. Our GOD, in his infinite wisdom, has been Lord tells us, "Whatsoever ye shall pleased to appoint that all spiritual ask in prayer, believing, ye shall re-blessings should be communicated in ceive.” Faith is the great requisite | answer to prayer. "Yet for this," for prayer. “ He that cometh to God, | he says, when he promises a blessing, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” And that faith must be kept in exercise: GoD will not invariably and immediately answer prayer. "It is good for a man that he hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of Gon: and, therefore, the Psalmist says, "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." 66 "Yet for this will I be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." There is the promise, there is the blessing in store, there are the heavenly riches reserved for you. now ask for them; now pray for them; now come to my footstool; now approach to my throne of grace, and you shall have them. Just as in nature; the clouds above us are swelling, and full of the riches of refreshBut, secondly, WHAT IS OUR ENCOU-ing showers, which are to descend at RAGEMENT TO PERSEVERE IN PRAYER? the Divine bidding, and water the VOL. V. | A A earth, and make it fruitful, filling our, in man; he will not cast his pearls hearts with joy and gladness: so, the blessings of mercy; so the rich clouds of grace, are laid up, as it were, stored up; received in the heavenly garner above, ready to be rained down, to be bestowed, to be supplied, to be abundantly furnished to the waiting soul, to the praying heart, to him who is earnest and constant in supplicating for them. When the spirit is bestowed, when the spirit of grace and supplication is vouchsafed then does the cloud, as it were, descend in a shower; then do the dews of Divine grace fall, then is the pallid, and parched, and dead heart of man watered and refreshed. But this result does not always immediately follow upon prayer: the blessings are promised, and they are promised in answer to prayer, but they do not necessarily and immediately follow upon that praying and supplication. Man is cold, and dead, and formal, and heartless in his petitions; there is a backwardness in prayer; there is an unwillingness to pray; there is a disinclination to pray; there is a sluggishness and heartlessness, and indifference to the duty; and therefore do we wonder that prayer is not answered? Do we wonder that the refreshing shower of Divine grace is withheld? No-"You have not, because you ask not; you have not, because you ask amiss." Man goes to his closet for prayer, and he carries the world with him there; and he carries his business with him to the throne of grace; and he carries family, and domestic, and social affections and engagements to the footstool of mercy and prayer is obstructed, prayer is restrained, and no answer is granted. But the fault is not above, the deficiency is not in Jehovah; he has an abundant supply; he can do more for us than we are worthy to ask or to think. With GOD there is no restraint, and no unrighteousness; the fault is before swine; he will not give to those who will not value the boon; he will not bestow his blessings upon those who will not receive them. But let the soul be quickened in prayer, and those blessings must and shall be granted; for "He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, shall he not with him freely give us all things?" We come, then, in the third and THIS IMPORTANT DUTY Our text tells us,—“ Ask, and ye "filled with give nor take away. Whence then then did this arise? Whence did this joy proceed? From the very same source that joy comes to the praying and seeking heart in every age. Prayer fills the Christian with joy: it fills him with joy, because he is thus holding the holiest intercourse | with the best of friends. There is nothing, as to this world, which produces a more pure and sincere joy, than the social intercourses of life. Man meets with a congenial spirit, and he feels a joy and a happiness, and a pleasure in that individual's society, which nothing in this world can be compared with. And, in like manner, do the Christian, whose soul has been raised, who has been brought into union and contact with his GOD. What so joyful, what so happy, what so pleasant as those seasons spent in intercourse with his GOD? Christ meets him at the throne of grace; bis Saviour joins him at the footstool of mercy; and there he holds intercourse with his Lord and Saviour; and there he tells out his wants, and his difficulties and sorrows, and receives out of his fulness, grace for grace. Christ communicates himself to the praying soul; he says to him"I am thy salvation:" he makes all his goodness to pass before him; he fills him with joy and peace in believing. Thus the Psalmist of old; his soul, he said, "followeth hard after GOD;" one day in his courts was better than a thousand; because there he had been taught of GOD, there he met him, whom not having seen he loved. Again, prayer produces joy, because the Christian there lays his burden at the footstool of his God. He goes to the throne of grace oppressed, overwhelmed, discouraged; filled, perhaps, with grief and fear, and doubt, and despondency; and there he carries his burden, and there he rolls off that burden upon him who careth for him: and there he approaches, and tells out his wants, and makes known his sorrows, and unburdens his heart; and lays open his wants; wants that he could not tell to the dearest friend; difficulties that he was afraid to communicate to the very wife of his bosom: but there he carries them all; there he lays them out before his GOD. And is this not a joy? Christian brethren did you never feel it? Did you never know it? Did you never experience it? Did you never carry your sorrowing and burdened heart to a throne of grace, and were you not privileged, were you not relieved? were you not sustained? and were you not filled with joy in that season? And then lastly, it is a means of joy; because prayer is a foretaste of the Saviour's presence above. That is, the most near and intimate connection with that Saviour whose presence we long to behold; but which at present we behold only in faith. It gives him some foretaste, some anticipation of that season, when he shall behold him face to face; when he shall no more need prayer, no more need supplication; no more be required to approach the footstool of grace, but shall "see Him as he is," shall "know Him as He is known." The Lamb in the midst of the fold shall keep him and lead him unto living fountains of water. Are there any here present that are living without prayer?—without, I mean, spiritual and heartfelt prayer: are there any here who have not presented one petition to the throne of grace, which proceeded from the bottom of their hearts? Alas, brethren, what is your religion worth without prayer? Can there be life, can there be any spiritual feeling without prayer? No; as well might this body be supposed to exist without |