ment and illustration; then it kindles the black cloud into a blaze of glory, and the storm bears it rapidly to its destiny. Despair not, then, disappointment will be realized. Mortifying failure may attend this effort and that one; but only be honest and struggle on, and it will all work well.

What though once supposed friends have disclaimed and deserted you-fortune, the jade, deceived youand the stern tyrant, adversity, roughly asserted his despotic power to trample you down? "While there's life there's hope." Has detraction's busy tongue assailed thy peace, and contumely's venomed shaft poisoned thy happiness, by giving reputation its death blow; destroyed thy confidence in friendly promise, and rendered thee suspicious of selfishness in the exhi bition of brotherly kindness; or the tide of public opinion well nigh overwhelmed you 'neath its angry waves? Never despair. Yield not to the influence of sadness, the blighting power of dejection, which sinks you in degrading inaction, or drives you to seek relief in some fatal vice, or to drown recollection in the poisoning bowl. Arouse, and shake the oppressive burden from overpowering thee. Quench the stings of slander in the waters of Lethe; bury despondency in oblivion; fling melancholy to the winds, and with firm bearing and a stout heart push on to the attain ment of a higher goal. The open field for energetic action is large, and the call for vigorous laborers immensely exceed the supply. Much precious time is squandered, valuable labor lost, mental activity stupi fied and deadened by vain regrets, useless repinings,

and unavailing idleness. The appeal for volunteers in the great battle of life, in exterminating ignorance and error, and planting high on an everlasting foundation. the banner of intelligence and right, is directed to you, would you but grant it audience. Let no cloud again darken thy spirit, or weight of sadness oppress thy heart. Arouse ambition's smouldering fires. The laurel may e'en now be wreathed destined to grace thy brow. Burst the trammels that impeed thy progress, and cling to hope. The world frowned darkly upon all who have ever yet won fame's wreath, but on they toiled. Place high thy standard, and with a firm tread and fearless eye press steadily onward. Persevere, and thou wilt surely reach it. Are there those who have watched, unrewarded, through long sorrow. ful years, for the dawning of a brighter morrow, when the weary soul should calmly rest? Hope's bright rays still illume their dark pathways, and cheerfully yet they watch. Never despair! Faint not, though thy task be heavy, and victory is thine. None should despair; God can help them. None should presume; God can cross them.

Prayer.

PRAYER is an action of likeness to the Holy Ghost, the spirit of gentleness and dove-like simplicity; an imitation of the holy Jesus, whose spirit is meek, up

to the greatness of the biggest example; and a conformity to God, whose anger is always just, and marches slowly, and is without transportation, and often hindered, and never hasty, and is full of mercy. Prayer is the peace of our spirit, the stillness of our thoughts, the evenness of recollection, the seat of ineditation, the rest of our cares, and the calm of our tempest; prayer is the issue of a quiet mind, of untroubled thoughts; it is the daughter of charity, and the sister of meekness; and he that prays to God with an angry, that is, with a troubled and discomposed spirit, is like him that retires into a battle to meditate, and sets up his closet in the out-quarters of an army, and chooses a frontier garrison to be wise in. Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer, and therefore is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to God. For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upward. singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and climb above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconstant, descending more at every breath of the tempest than it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings; till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over; and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing as if it had learned music and motion from an angel, as he passed sometimes through the air about his ministries here below: so is the prayer of a good man: when his affairs have required business, and his busi

ness was matter of discipline, and his discipline was to pass upon a sinning person, or had a design of charity, his duty met with the infirmaties of a man, and anger was its instrument, and the instrument became stronger than the prime agent, and raised a tempest, and overruled the man; and then his prayer was broken, and his thoughts were troubled, and his words went up toward a cloud, and his thoughts pulled them back again, and made them without intention, and the good man sighs for his infirmity, but must be content to lose the prayer, and he must recover it when his anger is removed, and his spirit is becalmed, made even as the brow of Jesus, and smooth like the heart of God; and then it ascends to heaven upon the wings of the holy dove, and dwells with God, till it returns, like the useful bee, laden with a blessing and the dew of heaven.

God respecteth not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; nor the rhetoric of our prayers, how neat they are; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they are; nor the music of our prayers, how melodious they are; nor the logic of our prayers, how methodical they are-but the divinity of our prayers, how heart-sprung they are. Not gifts, but graces, prevail in prayer. Perfect prayers, without a spot or blemish, though not one word be spoken, and no phrases known to mankind be tampered with, always pluck the heart out of the earth and move it softly like a censer, to and fro, beneath the face of heaven.

Prayer is a constant source of invigoration to selfdiscipline; not the thoughtless praying, which is a thing

of custom, but that which is sincere, intense, watchful. Let a man ask himself whether he really would have the thing he prays for; let him think, while he is praying for a spirit of forgiveness, whether, even at that moment, he is disposed to give up the luxury of anger. If not, what a horrible mockery it is! Do not say you have no convenient place to pray in. Any man can find a place private enough, if he is disposed. Our Lord prayed on a mountain, Peter on the housetop, Isaac in the field, Nathaniel under the fig-tree, Jonah in the whale's belly. Any place may become a closet, an oratory, and a Bethel, and be to us the presence of God.

To present a petition is one thing; to prosecute a suit is another. Most prayers answer to the former; but successful prayer corresponds to the latter. God's people frequently lodge their petition in the court of heaven, and there they let it lie. They do not press their suit. They do not employ other means of furthering it beyond the presenting of it. The whole of prayer does not consist in taking hold of God. The main matter is holding on. How many are induced by the slightest appearance of repulse to let go, as Jacob did not! We have been struck with the manner in which petitions are usually concluded-"And your petitioners will ever pray." So "men ought always pray (to God) and never faint." Payson says, "The promise of God is not to the act, but to the habit of prayer."

Though prayer should be the key of the day, and the lock of the night, yet we hold it more needful in the