enounced in other passages of Scripture as one which we should labor diligently to attain. His meaning in this place, I take it, is that in approaching God in prayer, we should repose undoubting reliance upon the death and intercessions of the Lord Jesus as sufficient grounds for our petitions, a childlike and unquestioning confidence in the willingness of our great High Priest to present and of our Heavenly Father to accept our prayers, and a firm belief in the promises of God to answer us favorably so far as may be for His glory and our highest good. Doubt upon these points is a hinderance to the proper performance of this great duty. The limitations which God may see fit to impose upon the fulfilment of His promises have already, in a previous discourse, been fully suggested. He best knows what is consistent with His glory and the welfare of His people, and He reserves to Himself the sovereign prerogative to answer prayer in accordance with His righteous will. But even in view of these limitations-in full recognition of the divine sovereignty, and in profound submission to the divine will, it is alike our duty and our privilege, in all cases in which we are convinced that we offer petitions which are not inconsistent with the revealed will of God, to pray in full assurance of faith. This duty is frequently inculcated by the Savior. "All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." The Apostle James, in directing us to pray for wisdom, bids us ask in faith, nothing wavering; and declares that doubt is fatal to success. "For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive

anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." It is obvious that a general rule is here delivered which, although applied by the apostle to a special case, is capable of universal application. My brethren, we are conscious of infinite guiltiness, infinite shortcomings, and infinite worthlessness. Satan infuses doubts into our minds and our own hearts tempt us to skepticism. Let us believe. In the blood of Jesus and the intercession of Jesus we have sufficient grounds for approaching God. Let us rely upon them. Our great High Priest and righteous advocate is willing to receive our prayers and present them before the throne. Let us trust Him. Our reconciled God and Father in Christ Jesus is ready to accept our petitions. Let us confide in Him. To doubt is to do injustice to a Savior's work and the dispositions of a Father's heart. Come, let us draw near to God in full assurance of faith.

IV. In the fourth and last place, the apostle encourages us to come to God in prayer, "having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.".

There are two cases in which the heart is so influenced by an evil conscience as to be hindered in endeavoring to offer acceptable prayer. The first is that in which the conscience convicts us of guilt, accuses us of it, and reflecting the sentence of the broken law, condemns us for its existence. This necessarily produces a timid and slavish condition of the soul, which is utterly inconsistent with the enjoyment of that filial confidence without which it is impossible to draw near to God with liberty and boldness. The blood of Jesus sprinkled, through faith, upon the conscience, satisfies its demands, silences its accusations, and annuls its

no

condemning sentence. We are, in consequence, longer ashamed or afraid to come unto God. The blood of Jesus, as the apostle says in another passage, purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. The soul is no longer slain under the curse of a violated and unsatisfied law. The blood of atonement applied by the grace of the Spirit has rendered it a living soul. Its works are consequently living works and suited to be presented to a living God. In coming to God by prayer, therefore, we should labor so to apprehend the atoning merits of Christ as to be delivered from an enslaving bondage to an accusing and condemning conscience.

The second case in which liberty in prayer is impeded by an evil conscience is that in which, through the special pleadings of a perverted understanding and a corrupt heart, the conscience is deceived and induced to tolerate the soul in the secret indulgence of sin. So long as this condition lasts, no access to God in prayer can be enjoyed. The heart regards iniquity, and God will not, consequently, hear our prayers. The blood of Jesus sprinkling the conscience purges it of its blindness, clears up its perceptions of the real facts in the case and leads it to continue its rebukes of the sin until it is repented of and forsaken. The defiled condition of the heart is thus removed, and liberty in prayer is the result. We should draw near to God, therefore, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Jesus.

To this the apostle adds the necessity of having our bodies washed with pure water. Dr. Owen is of opinion that the allusion in these words is not to the purification which is symbolized by the washing of

baptism. It may be that it is included in the idea presented by the apostle; but I am inclined to think that that was not its chief significance, and to agree with the great theologian just mentioned in supposing that Paul's meaning is that in coming to God in prayer, we should be cleansed, not only from the guilt of those secret sins by which the heart is defiled, but also from that of those more open and grosser sins which the body is instrumental in committing. The blood of Christ applied by the grace of the Holy Ghost washes us from the pollution communicated by these sins. And as it is necessary that in praying acceptably we should not secretly regard iniquity in our hearts, it is equally incumbent upon us, if we would pray aright, to resist the solicitations of those sins of the flesh from which we have been purified by the blood of Jesus and the washing of the Holy Ghost. It is plain that allowed indulgence in such sins bars the way of access to God. Let us, therefore, draw near to God, having our bodies washed with pure water.

THE GROUNDS OF PRAYER

Hebrews, x: 19-22. "Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a high priest over the house of God; let us draw near."

In a previous discourse the question of the nature of prayer was considered. I endeavored to show that true prayer consists, in the first place, in the offering unto God of our real desires grounded in the felt conviction of our wants; in the second place, in the offering of our desires for such things as are agreeable to the will of God, as are conformable to that will as expressly revealed in the written Word, or entertained in profound submission to it, as it is a secret, decretive and sovereign will; in the third place, in a believing reliance upon the atoning merits and the priestly advocacy of Christ; and in the fourth place, in an humble dependence upon the gracious assistance of the Holy Spirit, who helpeth our infirmities, teaches us what things to pray for as we ought, and maketh intercessions for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.

Your attention on this occasion, my friends, will be directed to the question, What are the grounds of prayer? What is the foundation on which it rests, and what the reasons which lead us to hope that our petitions will meet a favorable reception and result in such blessings as God sees it for His glory and our welfare to bestow? I may here mention, by way of explanation, that in treating the question of the nature of prayer,