PRAYER FOR CHRIST:

A SERMON

ON BEHALF OF THE WESLEYAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY,* DELIVERED AT THE CITY ROAD CHAPEL,

LONDON, APRIL 30, 1837.

Prayer also shall be made for him continually. PSALM lxxii. 15.

DAVID, having received certain premonitions of his approaching end, had now resigned the throne of Israel to Solomon his son; the elders and nobles of the land had recognized and had sanctioned the change. Transported with joy at the event, he pours out his soul in prayer for the youthful king and the subject people. But, "behold, a greater than Solomon is here." Wrapt in a divine enthusiasm, the psalmist ascends to a loftier theme, and sings the glory of Messiah, and the magnificence of his future reign.

The text is a prediction, reminding us, in the first place, that the Bible is distinguished from every other book, professedly divine, by the grandeur, and authority, and tone of its promises, and by the multitude and splendour of its predictions. Human philosophy may be said to have had three creeds, which might not improperly be distinguished as the creed of the past, of the present, and of the future. The books of Pagan antiquity sung only of the golden age past-of scenes of pastoral simplicity and happiness never to return,

It may, perhaps, be desirable to inform the reader that on the last sabbath in every successive April, sermons on behalf of Christian Missions are delivered in each of the Wesleyan Methodist chapels in London

while for the future they could say nothing-their burden was despair. Then came the creed of the present. As early antiquity faded from view, man became prepared for the philosophy of Epicurus, for the Optimism, which professes to be satisfied with things as they are, and which, instead of aiming at human improvement, acts on the animal maxim, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." But to this has now generally succeeded the creed of the future, a philosophical belief in the perfectibility of the species, a persuasion that man is at length on the high road to perfection. Now it would be easy to show, that each of these views is only a perversion of some fundamental truth contained in the Bible; but then it will be found, that in the Bible those truths exist in combination, and that every thing, which is there said of the past or of the present, is said expressly for the sake of the future. Thus the contentment with the present, which is inculcated, is not that kind of satisfaction, which hopes and asks for nothing better, but that which springs from a comprehensive view of the divine plans for the renovation of the world, which admires those plans as the wisest and the best, and which thus prepares us to be patient and persevering instruments in the hand of God for their fulfilment. Then again, if the Bible tells of the past, if it sings of a 66 paradise lost," it is only to prepare us to hear of a better "paradise regained." Yes, the Bible is the true and perfect hope; it builds on the future, and the chorus of all its songs is of a glory yet to come.

But if (it may be said) human philosophy is beginning to calculate on the future, it is at length moving in harmony with the word of God. This, alas! is

and its vicinity. These engagements form a portion of the Missionary services, celebrated at that season of the year. Dr. Harris had delivered his sermon called "The Witnessing Church," at Queen Street, on the preceding Friday, and in conformity with the customary arrangement that the preacher at Queen Street, on the Friday, should officiate at the City Road chapel on the following Lord's day morning, he preached there the sermon now under the eye of the reader.-ED.

but very partially true. The church and the world are indeed looking in the same direction, but far different is the result they aim at. And as to the means, on which they chiefly rely, they essentially disagree.

For, secondly, the text reminds us, that one of the means which the church is to employ for the attainment of the desired result, is prayer. Now here we are at issue with a skeptical philosophy at the very outset : for, while that philosophy would object to prayer, as inconsistent with the doctrine of the divine unchangeableness, we not only employ it—but rely on it; we even rely on it, in the order of means, as the first; and according to the text we are to employ it continually, never to allow the instrument to pass out of our hands for a moment. We do not say, that prayer has any inherent efficacy to move God. Like every other means, like the food we eat, it derives its efficacy from the sovereign appointment of God. But we do say, that prayer is a condition, on which it seems good to God to put forth his power. We do say, that we can conceive of certain reasons, which may make it agreeable to perfect wisdom to grant that to prayer, which it may not seem agreeable to grant in the absence of prayer. And beyond this, we would remind the objector, that, clearly as the law of the divine unchangeableness may be revealed in the Bible, (and it is only from the Bible that he can have learnt it,) the law that prayer prevails with God is revealed, if possible, more clearly and convincingly still; so that the question will be, will he wisely embrace both those laws, and confidently leave it to God to reconcile them with his own divine consistency-or, if he adopts only one, which will he take, the less obvious law, that which relates to the unfathomable nature of God, or the more plain and simple law, made in love to man, that which includes the sacred duty and the ennobling privilege of prayer? At all events, while he is engaged in a philosophic endeavour to reconcile prayer with his imperfect views of the divine consistency, he will allow us to be occupied in admiration of that divine condescen

sion, which has made it both natural for man to pray, and certain that scriptural prayers shall be crowned with success.

Yes, we would remind him, that, disordered and ruined as our nature is, there are clear indications still, that man was originally made to pray. For even they, who have practically renounced religion, who have lived in the entire neglect of all the various modes by which man approaches and addresses his Maker, even they in the moment of danger or suffering, are generally found to call involuntarily on God for help. The voice of nature at such times will speak out, will not allow itself to be smothered and silenced any longer, will cause itself to be heard. Overpowering those prejudices and that irreligion, which had hitherto repressed it, it will lift itself up, assert the promises, the power and the goodness of God, and earnestly invoke his favourable interposition.

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And we would remind him also, that the prayer of faith invariably succeeds. If his philosophy be sound, he will surely yield to the power of facts; and if facts can convince him, the Bible abounds with undeniable examples of success in prayer. 'Every one that asketh receiveth," said Christ, as if he had said, prayer has all the certainty and universality of a lawa law, which can never know an exception-" Every one that asketh receiveth." My brethren, in the whole compass of divinely-appointed means, prayer occupies the highest place, and possesses the mightiest efficacy. And why? It passes by all secondary means, and makes its way straight to God; it puts aside every human hand and goes at once to the arm of God, enters the presence of the eternal, and makes its appearance at his throne. There it enables the suppliant to take hold of the strength of God, and in a sense identifies him with Almighty power. Nor is the efficacy of prayer confined to the suppliant himself. It places him in a new relation to all around him. Prayer is an invisible chain, by which he can draw them towards heaven. It invests him with an

indefinite power over the destiny and happiness of the world at large.

We repeat, then, that while the world is at length looking in the same direction as the church, far different are the objects they aim at, and the principal means which they employ; for while prayer is the last instrument which a skeptical philosophy would employ, we not only employ it but rely on it. And believing what we do of its power with God, we should be inconsistent and guilty, if we did not place it, in the order of means, as first and best. And believing what we do too, of the utter inefficiency of mere human means to renovate the world, and of the power of prayer to secure the omnipotent aid of God, we.. cannot help thinking that the time has come when the charge of indulging romantic views concerning the future improvement of men should be removed from the church, where it has been so long and so unjustly laid, and be transferred to the world; for while the world is indulging a visionary hope of changing the face of society by mere human instrumentality, the church of God, without abating a jot in its laborious practical efforts, invites the Almighty aid of God, as the only and the all-sufficient source of success.

But not only does the text predict a change, and represent prayer as the means of realizing that change; it describes that prayer, thirdly, as partaking of a specific character-prayer for Christ. "Prayer also shall be made for him continually." But what are the claims of Christ on the prayers of those, who are seeking the happiness of the world? The propriety of praying for the success of another depends entirely on the nature of his undertaking. Now the nature of the Saviour's undertaking is simply this; the world was perishing in ignorance-guilt-and pollution; to recover the knowledge of God, which it had lost, a teacher from heaven was necessary; to expiate its guilt, an adequate atonement must be made; to cleanse it from pollution, a fountain must be "opened for sin and for uncleanness;" to provide either of these requisites the